FMV Games (90's)

[telekill]

One of my favorite retro systems is the Genesis and by extension, the Sega CD. When you look at the Sega CD's library of games, there's a rather large percentage which are FMV (full motion video) movie games. Some of my favorites are Corpse Killer, Sewer Shark, Jurassic Park, and Dragon's Lair.

Those were the fun ones. Then there were others that I hoped were good, but the controls were so poor that I couldn't even get 5 minutes into the story.... games like Supreme Warrior and Night Trap. FMV games or movie games generally had to have spot on to the millisecond timing on button presses and it made playing these unbearable. Dragon's Lair was almost on this list.

If you look above at the FMV games I listed as good vs not good, you'll notice that developers had already figured out that the FMVs should probably not be during gameplay. Sewer Shark was able to get around it via giving the player a grace period to react. Later games that had FMVs had removed them from gameplay all together and instead put them in as side videos to watch as informational or to expand on the story. The first couple Need for Speed games did a great job doing action shoots on the super cars and giving information.

I guess this topic came to mind as I just bought the PS4's 25th Anniversary edition of Corpse Killer on PSN. It was on sale for under $7... which is what I feel the game is probably worth. Great nostalgia. Horrible gameplay where it should basically be a light gun game but fun to revisit none-the-less. I would buy a remastered Sewer Shark for $7 as well.

What are your feelings on FMV games of the 90's? Did you have any favorites?

[oldgamerz]

Heavy Gear for PC WIN/95/98 was one of vary first PC video games I ever played that had real full motion video. But many people criticize the real life Amateur actors and actresses. In the story. But I've always enjoyed watching the many full motion videos of the story mode. The video clips ran directly off a game CD, similar to how a few PlayStation 1 games were at the time.


Heavy Gear

My detailed review of Heavy Gear 1 on the PC in

Heavy Gear 1 is an underrated video game in my own opinion, it has 4 modes of gameplay 1: Story mode in which consistent of a 30 or more mission campaign. Tour Of Duty Campaign, and Multiplayer and Training to learn how to play.

Heavy Gear 1 was a futuristic war simulator, (with mechs) it was also a 1st and 3rd person camera angle kind of game. The tour of duty modes could take you months and maybe even years to beat I once completed over 1500 missions and never beat the tour of duty mode. in my entire lifetime Probably because I used the in-game option cheats in which warn that they will hamper your progress, and it took me a long time to figure out what that meant. It means you will never fully progress in the game if you have invincibility and/or Unlimited ammo turned on. but even with the cheat options off. I still completed over 1000 missions without reaching the end, It still remains unclear to me this day, if the Tour of Duty mode ever ends, But after I did some searching on the CD-ROM disc of heavy gear I saw 2 extra cutscenes that were not included in the story mode so I guess that eventually if you don't cheat you can either lose or win the war in the Tour Of Duty Mode.

Story mode is just a fixed Lienor single player Campaign.

and Tour of Duty is a mode where you start off  choosing either the good guy's or the bad guy's army, as a low ranking military officer and then, as you win missions your can unlock equipment and weapons to take further into the war with of you.. Also you can join and unlock other military units to join, some units will hamper you progress. As well. Meaning you need to choose a strategy in order to help win your side of the war. In tour of duty mode it's like being in the real military (sort of,) you pick the missions based on some kind of hidden strategy I never figured out, and if you succeed in your mission you get rewarded and sometimes promoted to a higher ranking officer, or punished for losing or dyeing in your chosen missions. If you die you don't lose the game but you are forced into a defense mission on your vary next mission, you can command other soldiers on the battlefield but if THEY die in the mission. and IF you Don't replay the mission they stay dead forever  you get to move onto your next mission regardless. But if you don't replay the mission you won't ever have that soldier to help you in the war ever again. they stay dead.

I never played another game like this one, you can also build your own mech from scratch, but they look nothing like Mech Warriors does, most of the Mechs in Heavy Gear are called Gears instead this game is really a meaty video game and it came out in 1997 originally for Windows 95/98/ME. This is NOT a normal game, it is as if the game was a real war taking place and your in it to survive and win and work you war up the military's chain of command.

There is also Multiplayer but I never did that

[kamikazekeeg]

I don't think there was any FMV games I liked growing up.  Dragon's Lair is definitely one of the more well known ones, but I never liked it as far as being an actual game.

[shawndude82]

There's a pretty good X-Files FMV game released for the PlayStation.  They got the entire cast to do it, and it was pretty much treated as an episode of the show, though you don't get to play as Mulder or Scully.  The controls weren't the best, especially during the shooting parts, but the story was interesting.

[Cartagia]

There's a pretty good X-Files FMV game released for the PlayStation.  They got the entire cast to do it, and it was pretty much treated as an episode of the show, though you don't get to play as Mulder or Scully.  The controls weren't the best, especially during the shooting parts, but the story was interesting.

I played it about 5-6 years ago.  I thought it was generally a good time, but I agree about the controls, and had a little bit of trouble seeing some of the point and click targets thanks to the pixelation.  I think it was on PC at some point as well.

[bunnybear]

I’ve never played a single FMV that I’ve liked. In fact, I was *so* turned off at all that crap on Sega CD (rented, my friend had a Genesis) that it made me so weary for the next gen of gaming I didn’t get a PlayStation until 1998, when my fears about FMV being “the future” were allayed.

[telekill]

I’ve never played a single FMV that I’ve liked. In fact, I was *so* turned off at all that crap on Sega CD (rented, my friend had a Genesis) that it made me so weary for the next gen of gaming I didn’t get a PlayStation until 1998, when my fears about FMV being “the future” were allayed.

You're actually not the first I've heard this from. There were quite a few of my friends that voiced similar concerns and waited, blaming the switch to CD media for gaming. In fact, it's one of the reasons many of my friends bought an N64 instead as it remained cartridge based.

I think the way FMVs eventually played out was the right path and I was pretty happy to see those awesome videos of the super cars in the first couple Need for Speed games. There was also a notable hidden FMV in The Lost World: Jurassic Park for PS1 and Saturn where Jeff Goldblum talks to the player telling him to get outside and get a date after having the stink blown off of them. Pretty funny.

[oldgamerz]

Does a point and click adventure game classify as a full motion video game? I've played a few of those too. but the only game I played and completed multiple times was another PC game called
"Lost Eden" now that was a good game in my opinion, It was actually the only FMV/point and click adventure game I liked.


other FMV video games I've played that were point and click. was Police Quest 5: SWAT and Star Trek Borg, now Star Trek Borg I never even got past the first cutscene and all I ever did was start a new game then get a game over lol.

I didn't know what to do, I tried mashing all the mouse buttons everywhere but still as soon as the game began. I tried to play it but I kept failing the mission over and over again at the first cutscene believe it or not

[Cartagia]

Does a point and click adventure game classify as a full motion video game? I've played a few of those too. but the only game I played and completed multiple times was another PC game called

There are loads of point and click games that use FMV from the 90s.  Star Trek: Borg is a prime example.

[mrkonasoni]

I don't recall playing a FMV game at all, but I always remember Night Trap because the controversy and because sincerely I have learned to like it, if Konami's classic "Lethal Enforces" is considered a FMV game, that's one game I have always loved.

Lastly, I remember classics like Phantasmagoria and Harvester, the last one I gifted it to a friend because I know he hates that sort of controversial game, so I thought it was perfect for him.


Heh... heh...

[sworddude]

Some FMV clips in older games are golden

If where talking dedicated FMV games. Cheesy and fun in small doses but I'd rather stick with the old movies for that old cheese.

[betelgeuse]

I played through Fox Hunt and Braindead 13 back in the day. The disc swapping gets old fast.
The games were playable though. Had some good laughs.

[turf]

I really liked Mad Dog McCree back in the day.  I never had a computer that would run it when it was new. 
When I got older, I realized that it kinda sucked. The western setting was pretty cool though.  It's got it's charm for sure.

[tpugmire]

The Philips CD-I has quite a few FMV games, none are very good. I still like that weird kind of crap though

[dharmajones93]

The only FMV-centric games I think I enjoyed were the Sherlock Holmes Consulting detective games, and even then it's really only because I like the detective aspects of it. I think the point-and-click genre has this covered and the FMVs were just sort of gravy.