Sit down, children. Let me tell you a story. It's a story about a man in red dungarees with a big black moustache and a fetching red cap. No, it's not a story about Duncan, the creepy school caretaker that always stared at you during PE lessons; it's a story about Mario- perhaps the greatest story ever told in videogaming. Mario and his brother Luigi are nothing more than simple plumbers, one day tasked with rescuing Princess Peach of the legendary Mushroom Kingdom from the evil clutches of Bowser, scourge of all that is good and right! On the way they will meet many colourful characters �some are enemies, others are friends yet to be made and others are giant mushrooms walking around in waistcoats. At the end there will be a mighty showdown between the forces of good and evil, and if you are skilled enough, Mario will prevail and the Princess will be saved! Huzzah! What a story!

Which is actually pretty much the same damned story in every Mario game. Oh alright, there are some subtle tweaks and a lot of humour, but essentially, the basic plot is the same: Girl gets kidnapped, beat a path to the door of the kidnapper, beat him, get the girl. The end. Elegant in its simplicity, it has sustained a franchise for more than 20 years. But is it a good story? What is a good story for a game? Heck, does a game even need a story?

There are those among the uneducated who view games as nothing more than interactive movies; and those who have only played Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy can be excused for thinking this. However, there is some, if limited truth to this statement: when stripped down to the bare bones, most games are nothing more than a trek from A to B with minor detours via D, G and sometimes the bottom of the C. The aforementioned Metal Gear Solids, Final Fantasies and Resident Evils of the gaming world are very much in the vein of movies that have you interacting via properly-timed button presses in between cut-scenes, movies and pre-staged events. And while this is perfectly fine in terms of advancing the story, the lack of interaction makes it difficult to really get involved with or feel at the heart of the action.

The reason I play is to feel at the very heart of the story; to be an integral character in an engrossing and epic journey with many twists and turns throughout that throw off my preconceived notions of friend and foe �it's why I don't go to the movies that often. I cannot help but feel that I would be better placed to fight off the hordes of rampaging robots, that my involvement in the story would be of greater benefit to the whole. That is why games are the perfect form of entertainment: within reasonable boundaries, I can make my own story; I do not want to be told too overtly what my next path should be. It is better to be steered gently, rather than be forced into a particular course of action.

This is something that the German critic Wolfgang Iser wrote about extensively. Iser stated that for a story in literature to work, the hand of the author in guiding the reader should be a subtle one. If the author is too direct and forces the reader to draw conclusions through an overt influence, then the plot development is unsatisfactorily rigid: too little involvement and the reader wanders through the landscape of the work totally at a loose end, unsure of what path, if any to take. The reader must be free within the bounds of the plot to invent the looks of the characters, and free to fill the landscapes with colour and imagine the reasons why they do as they do. This is why game to film and book to film translations are normally criticised by the fans of the games/books these movies are based on. We are forced to see everything through the guiding eyes of the director, and the pictures that they paint may not be the same as we have created for ourselves. It's not all just Uwe Boll's fault- but he is a convenient scapegoat.

The same is true of games. Too much story, too much influence from the development team leads to an an over-dominating plot, however imaginative, that does not involve the player in the truly interactive medium that the game is supposed to provide. But without the supportive trunk of the storyline running through the centre, the player has no guiding line or base from which to create their own branches. It is a fine line that many wobble over. In some cases, it is absolutely necessary to have massively graphical and lengthy cut scenes to advance the plot. Again, Resident Evil springs to mind. Without the aggressive banter between Krauser and Leon, Resident Evil 4 would be without one of its most interesting plot points- and it is all pretty much played out for you with only a minimum of quick button presses to retaliate, defend and counter. Final Fantasy, for all the accusations of hand-holding that I level against it can feature extremely important and poignant moments rendered beautifully in CGI.
When these take over from actually playing the game, however, then there is a serious issue.

Next time: Iun talks about how to make a good story, whether some games even need a storyline and how any game featuring weasels is deserving of a perfect score.