A few years ago, I went to see The Artist is Present at the Museum of Modern Art. Marina Abramović sat in a chair for nearly three months, and as part of her performance piece, museum guests sat in the chair directly across from the artist in search of an emotional connection. The line to sit with Abramović remained ever present and as it turns out, my patience was not. I got another chance to experience the exhibit, however, when I played The Artists is Present video game. Dr. Pippin Barr from IT University in Copenhagen created the video game to portray the experience of contemporary art. Barr’s game sent me to the museum virtually—through  the ticket line, through a few galleries complete with an 8-bit Van Gogh and Matisse, and then back into another line to wait for Abramović. Just as with the actual exhibit, my patience lasted less than 15 minutes. I attempted to cut the line and was reminded that this seemed “like it would be rude.” Proper etiquette is a must in this game.

I am enchanted by fashion in classic film noir and I admire the cynical and gritty style of the genre. As soon as Rockstar Games released LA Noire I had to give it a try. When it comes to detective work, I am more like Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau than Sam Spade. However, this did not detract from the game’s story and aesthetics, which resemble those prevalent in classic noir scenes (crime, moral ambiguity, femme fatales, and the like). Last year, Rockstar Games recognized the appeal of the game’s juicy plots. The company partnered with Mulholland Books to publish a collection of stories that would explore the lives of the characters. Fiction writers Joyce Carol Oates and Jonathan Santlofer, among others, agreed that the characters proved thrilling enough to spin further tales. Santofer said his story was inspired by the killer. “I wanted to give him a pathology that would be terrifying and also a little bit, if I dare use the word sympathetic.” Some might consider this a cross-promotions marketing scheme, but I think it reminds people that innovation stems from many resources and reading, writing, and video games are all forms of creative play.

Every Wednesday, Daniella Zelli dishes up a snack inspired by a classic or new video game. On her blog Gourmet Gaming, she recently wrote, “I love to play video games and I love to eat….what’s even better is eating the food from the game I’m playing.” Perhaps you’re interested in a slice of Portal Cake or a Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door’s Zess Freppe. Zelli posts these recipes and more on her blog and often provides tidbits about her inspiration. For example, in the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Yeto cooked a healing soup for his ailing wife. Each time he added an ingredient to the soup, the healing powers doubled. In Zelli’s interpretation of Yeto soup, she used the key ingredients from the three healing stages: reekfish (used smoked and white fish), pumpkin, and goat cheese. She wrote “Yeto was definitely on to something with this soup….I can feel my hearts restoring as I type.” With games like Cooking Mama and Food Fight, Zelli has countless resources for recipe innovation.

I am not a chef. When I play The Sims, my avatars eat microwave Ramen Noodles (when I remember to zap them for long enough). I am not a hard-boiled detective. And it’s pretty clear I do not embody Abramović’s patience. But I am curious about the ways that video games and other creative outlets influence one another, and perhaps one day while I am playing an arcade game in the National Museum of Play’s eGame Revolution at The Strong, cataloging a cartridge for ICHEG’s collections, or reading a game designer’s notebook, I will discover my own muse.

SW:TOR puts the player in the center of conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire as they battle one another for preeminence in the galaxy. Aside from the epic battle, I most enjoy the variety of options for character creation. Players choose between the Republic and Sith factions, each containing four mirror classes: Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior, Jedi Consular/Sith Inquisitor, Trooper/Imperial Agent and Smuggler/Bounty Hunter. Players then select from among nine species, though some are restricted to certain factions and classes. Physical customization includes such intimate details as tattoos and scars.

The character customization that interested me the most involves light and dark side points, which are not restricted to one’s faction. In the films, a Sith represents the dark side, but in the game, a Sith may choose to follow the light. Likewise, a Jedi may turn to the dark side. Choices made during story conversations earn the player light and dark side points, which affect in-game items such as weapons. Instead of portraying a specific film or story character, these selections allow a player to experience Star Wars as his own stylized character.

It’s no surprise that gamers appreciate SW: TOR, because for the last 30 years players have reveled in the Star Wars franchise’s more than 100 video games. Parker Brothers developed the first Star Wars game in 1982 for the Atari 2600. The company based their game on the second movie, The Empire Strikes Back, and players delighted in flying snowspeeders and attacking Imperial AT-AT walkers in the Battle of Hoth. A year later, Atari published Star Wars the arcade game. This vector-based game simulated the Death Star battle of A New Hope and featured digitized speech from the movie. A sequel arcade game, The Empire Strikes Back, simulated the Millennium Falcon’s asteroid chase and the Battle of Hoth.

Game companies continue to release popular Star Wars games of all genres—some that reflect the movies and others that incorporate the expanded universe. One of the most enduring, the Star Wars: X-Wing series first developed in 1993 by Totally Games, includes four games of space combat simulation as both X-Wing and TIE Fighter pilots. Nearly a decade later, the game Jedi Outcast gave players their first chance to battle with a lightsaber, a technique that continued and evolved in the 2006 game The Force Unleashed. Star Wars: Battlefront games, first released by Pandemic Studios and LucasArts in 2004, maintain a legacy of the most popular Star Wars shooting games, as players face off against enemies in both the prequel and original series eras.

Bioware, which developed SW:TOR, is no stranger to Star Wars games, either. In 2003, they released their highly engaging RPG Knights of the Old Republic, which takes place four centuries before the rise of the Galactic Empire and features a battle between a Sith army and the Republic. The company released a sequel, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lord, which takes place five years later when the Jedi have been all but destroyed by the Sith. My favorite holiday gift picks up the story after 300 years, as new conflicts arise across the galaxy.

Whether you’ve played all the Star Wars games ever produced or if this would be your first one, I highly recommend SW:TOR as a wonderful edition to this franchise. And while you’re playing, be on the lookout for a Mirialan Jedi Consular wielding a green double-bladed lightsaber. That just might be me.

Good luck, and may the Force be with you!

Recently, news reports cited as wasteful spending a $113,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games to preserve video games. We disagree. We believe video games not only are the most dynamic, exciting, and innovative form of media today but also an important form of play and a driver of cultural change.

Games sharpen people’s ability to solve problems and overcome challenges. Games teach people to cooperate and to collaborate in new ways, whether that’s in the same room or across the Internet. It’s no wonder that schools, businesses, medicine, and the military are using video games to train tomorrow’s leaders.

Game designers are also creating great art. Games charm, captivate, and amaze us, from the awe-inspiring wonder of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, to the whimsical fun of Angry Birds, to the subtlety of The Sims. Video games are influencing society just as much as novels did 200 years ago or movies did 100 years ago.

And yet, if we do not act now, many of the early electronic games and the record of their influence on society will be lost. Video games are stored in digital formats that don’t last forever. The lifespan of tapes, disks, cartridges, and CDs is measured in decades, not centuries, and the software and hardware running these games are becoming obsolete.

At the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, we are working to preserve video games and a record of their impact on our society. We have assembled a collection of more than 36,000 video games and related artifacts; we are creating exhibits to tell their history; and we are preserving records of the people and businesses who create these games and the players who love them. In addition to that all that, the IMLS grant is allowing us to establish standards for preserving video games, to ensure we have the hardware and software to access these games now and in the future, and to record video of each of these games to capture their play.

This is important work. As the IMLS’s Mamie Bittner noted, “Future innovation springs from the hard work and inspiration of the past. Technology changes quickly, and with changes, the work of entrepreneurs can be locked away and inaccessible. Can we imagine how researchers in the 22nd century will view the earliest groundbreaking interactive video? Without the work of institutions like The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games the vitality and imagination of early gaming would be lost to future generations.”We don’t think this should happen. So despite this recent criticism, we pledge to continue, and even to increase, our preservation efforts in the future. Like great novels, movies, music, and paintings of the past, video games are too important to lose.

I remember when Cinematronics debuted Dragon’s Lair in 1983; the game’s lavish animation and high-quality audio stood out in an arcade sea of pixilated screens and synthesized sounds. In the role of the noble knight Dirk the Daring, a player dodged traps, leaped pits, and slew monsters on his quest to rescue princess Daphne. That was the idea at least. In reality, players died early and often because the game contained a laser disc that rewarded timing rather than tactics, and move-memorization rather than strategic thinking. At 50 cents a pop the game was a coin-hog, sucking away players’ quarters. After a few tries, I realized that I lacked the skill—and the cash, to get far into the game. So I contented myself with watching accomplished players fight and jump their way deep into the recesses of the castle, while I saved my quarters for my own longer bouts of Galaga or Moon Patrol.But even if the game humbled me, it still mesmerized me. Dragon’s Lair’s creators Rick Dyer and Don Bluth pushed the limits of technology by incorporating a laser disc player that made possible its cinematic graphics, superior audio, and compelling storyline. Today’s console titles like Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Red Dead Redemption benefit from the stimulus that Dragon’s Lair gave to games. Over the past three decades, the huge increases in processing power that have taken place—the natural outgrowth of Moore’s Law—provide an opportunity for today’s computers to fully realize the possibilities of the game play that Dragon’s Lair suggested.

I’ve been fortunate to find a moment here and there to play Dragon’s Lair in the ICHEG lab. And although I’m still terrible at timing my jumps and sword swipes, each time I try it, I am reminded anew of what a revolutionary, compelling game it was.

Some attribute the first use of a self-contained LPC speech synthesizer (one of the most powerful and accurate artificial productions of speech) to Texas Instruments in the late 1970s. Larry Brantingham, Paul S. Breedlove, Richard H. Wiggins, and Gene A. Frant designed the TMC0280/TMS5100 for Texas Instruments to use in “Speak and Spell.” ICHEG has numerous examples of this toy and TI’s continued use of more advanced renditions of the chip for other products. In the early 1980s Atari began to use the TMS5220 for arcade games such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. ICHEG acquired both of these, and I can’t help but to chuckle when I hear the mechanical-sounding voice advise, “use the force Luke.”

Today, video game makers can do far more with audio, but they also face new production challenges. In the film industry, actors receive a script that clarifies a character’s motive and often provides a linear plot. Video games involve players in the fate of most characters. In Mass Effect 3, for example, a gamer first selects to play as either FemShep or BroShep. As she plays, she encounters an array of summaries, “I’m honored” or “This is unexpected.” Whichever summary she chooses determines how FemShep speaks and often how gameplay proceeds. Jennifer Hale, the voiceover actor for FemShep, told New Yorker reporter Tom Bissell that “it all has to be in my head. Environment, ambient noise, history with this person, what I need from this person—all these decisions have to be made on the fly.” She makes wise choices for the thousands of lines she reads. Kirk Hamilton, games editor at Paste Magazine, raves about FemShep, “Hale’s performance improves the experience….each pause and inflection accumulates over time until you can’t help but care for the character.” A successful voice actor evolves a character by creating a voice and verbal cues that emotionally impact the player.

Aside from dialogue, think about all of the sounds you encounter—your breath, ice clinking against a glass, nails on a chalkboard. Audio specialists need to capture noises to make game play realistic. In 1982, Williams’ sit-down arcade cabinet Sinistar created the illusion of directionality and audible perspective through the first use of stereo sound in a game.  Some might consider Sinistar’s audio melodramatic, but I still get a shiver when I head up to ICHEG’s lab to play it and I hear a voice boom out from the arcade, “Run coward…I hunger.” Like voiceover, sound effects have evolved. At the Audio Engineering Society conference last month, Chris Jahnkow, senior sound designer at Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Scott Selfon, senior audio specialist at Microsoft, discussed various aspects of video game audio. In film, audio specialists create sound for a sedentary audience, but current video games need to accommodate a player using motion for game control. A player that carries a sword in his right hand and slashes at the enemy sounds different than a player that bears a sword in his left hand and jabs at his victim. Some players rely solely on these sounds to defeat the game. College student Terry Garrett lost his eyesight at age 10. That same year his brother bought Odd World: Abe’s Oddysee. Garrett listened as his brother played the game. He explained to Wired Magazine’s Jason Schreier that he’s honed his hearing and memorized the footsteps, voices, and music of games. By listening to these sounds, Garrett played and beat Odd World.Like the sound of voices, environmental cues also impact the player emotionally. When Gamasutra’s Jeriaska Jeriaska asked sound designer Robin Arnott about his priorities for the upcoming first-person puzzle game Antichamber, he said bringing “an emotional context to the mental experience of the game.” Arnott said he had researched “how certain ambient soundscapes make people feel” and focused “on beautiful, naturalistic sound.” He and his team do not want a player to feel hurried. If she stops to think about the next move, Arnott said, she’ll hear rain splashing on leaves. The team has not announced a release date for the game, but mixing play with meditation sounds pleasant to me.

I have an auditory processing disorder and therefore my strengths do not include keeping rhythm, distinguishing between certain sounds, or winning an old-fashioned game of telephone. However, I appreciate the painstaking efforts that go into producing video game audio. I know my game play experience would include less of an emotional investment without the twang of a bug’s wings in Limbo or the alarm in Silent Hill.

First on this council’s list is Batman: Arkham City, the highly anticipated sequel to Arkham Asylum, which I consider one of the best superhero video games of all time. This action-adventure title puts players back in the role of the Dark Knight and combines challenging detective puzzles with traditional beat ‘em up fight scenes. A star-studded cast of villains, including the Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Harley Quinn, and Two-Face, stand in Batman’s way. Arkham Asylum left huge boots to fill, but players almost universally acknowledge that Arkham City lived up to their expectations.

On Batman’s heels is Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, another action-adventure game that incorporates the third-person shooter genre. Players often refer to Uncharted’s protagonist, treasure hunter Nathan Drake, as the unofficial mascot of the PlayStation 3. Players enjoy the character for his realism and believable personality, which often includes Nate commenting on the absurdity of his predicaments. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, won “Game of the Year” in 2009, and now Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, with even better gameplay and a strong multiplayer element, has a good chance of taking home the same honor this year.

Portal 2, the sequel to the revolutionary 2007 first-person puzzle game Portal, is the most unique challenger for “Game of the Year.” The story begins when the player awakens from stasis as the silent protagonist Chell in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. She proceeds to accidentally awaken GLaDOS, the dryly sarcastic computer from the first game, and chaos once again ensues. Players praise the game for its highly challenging puzzles through use of its famous Portal Gun, and for its addictive co-op mode. 

Also among this council’s top five is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the 16th game in the historic Zelda series. One of Nintendo’s top franchises, Zelda games have sold more than 62 million copies since their inception in 1986. The original Legend of Zelda ranks as the fourth best selling NES game of all time. Skyward Sword tells the history of the iconic Link and Zelda’s earliest incarnations. The game also contains advanced sword fights that require players to use the WiiMotion Plus peripheral. The game’s unique challenges are bound to become legendary.

The fifth game nominated, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is an action RPG with a massive world that promises more than 60 hours of continuous gameplay. Universally praised for its epic scope, highly realistic visuals, and extremely customizable character creation, Skyrim immerses gamers in a world of fantasy and adventure. While players might opt to follow the main quest, Skyrim’s greatest strength lies in its open world, which allows gamers to explore at will, obtain peripheral missions, and engage in extensive character development.

I’m excited about this year’s line-up, though a few titles I admire didn’t quite make the cut, including the innovative and unique puzzle game Catherine, the iconic Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and the highly anticipated first-person shooter Gears of War 3. What are your predictions for the 2011 “Game of the Year?” Was your favorite nominated?

In the early 1980s, composer Koichi Sugiyama wrote down his impressions of Enix’s Morita Shogi. Unbeknownst to him, Sugiyama’s family mailed his comments to the company. Impressed by Sugiyama’s response, Enix soon invited him to compose a score for their 1986 game Dragon Quest. Some say that Sugiyama wrote an orchestral piece for the game first and then he toned down these arrangements to fit the limitations of the console. Dragon Quest I’s graphics seem archaic by today’s standards, but as the first composer to later record his video game music with a live orchestra, Sugiyama’s classical score proved revolutionary. Until then video games typically consisted of monophonic, looped tracks. For the Dragon Quest series, Sugiyama incorporated repeated motifs and each game included an upbeat theme titled “Overture” and a casual tune titled “Intermezzo.” I’m no aficionado of classical music, but Sugiyama would make Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel proud.

Shortly after the release of Dragon Quest, pianist Yoko Shimomura started work on video game soundtracks for Capcom. Shimomura’s own influences included Beethoven and Ravel, and in 1993, she jumped on the opportunity to join Square and create classical style music for fantasy role-playing games. Her soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts became her own personal favorite. In the first Kingdom Hearts game, the main character Sora loses his friends during an invasion by the Heartless, a group of creatures devoid of hearts and corrupted by darkness. In an attempt to reunite with his friends, Sora encounters both Disney and Final Fantasy characters. Shimomura admits she felt enormous pressure when arranging pieces like Disney’s “Into the Sea” and Danny Elfman’s “This is Halloween.” But she meticulously maintained the style of the original compositions. She also created smooth transitions between setting and battle themes occurring in real-time combat. She’s now composed more than 35 different video game soundtracks, and it’s clear that while classical music remains a muse, rock, jazz, electronic, and pop also hover in the foreground. Rock on.

Jim Dooley, composer, arranger, and orchestrator earned rock star status in my book for his score for the 2010 action-adventure game Epic Mickey. In the game, Mickey accidentally turns the pen and paper world of Yen Sid (Fantasia sorcerer who also appears in Kingdom Hearts) into a wasteland. Disney gave Dooley access to the company’s archives, where he studied original scores from films like Mary Poppins, Pinocchio, and Peter Pan. In an episode of NPR’s All Things Considered, Dooley explained to Guy Raz that developers wanted the score to match the actions and moods of Mickey. If Mickey performs a heroic feat, “you start hearing a lot more brightness, a lot more woodwinds,” and if Mickey misbehaves, “you’ll hear a lot of bass clarinets, bassoons, essentially like the wrong notes,” Dooley noted. It seems fitting that the company and American icon that first used click tracks to synchronize sound and produce better quality during a recording session for an animated film continues to inspire scores of epic proportions.

I imagine that when video game composers create classical scores, they envision a set much like the one I saw during the Voodoo Lounge tour—a three-dimensional piece of interactive art that, with the aid of music, evokes a range of emotions. CHEGhead Jon-Paul Dyson has raved to me more than once about how that occurs during ICHEG advisor Tommy Tallarico’s Video Games Live concerts. I unavoidably missed their show in Western New York a couple of summers ago, but perhaps when I check out the London Philharmonic’s forthcoming album “The Greatest Video Game Music,” I’ll feel the same way I did when I first discovered rock n’ roll.

The word “avatar” derives from the Sanskrit word “avatāra,” and translates to “descent.” The term originally referred to the mortal forms assumed by Hindu gods when they descended to Earth. “Avatar” first appeared in relation to video games in 1985, with the release of the role playing game Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. In this game, the main character becomes known as the Avatar after following a path of virtues and obtaining a codex of wisdom. Today, avatar is a general term for an in-game persona.

In Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators, Robbie Cooper provides side-by-side comparisons of gamers and their avatars, highlighting both the differences and similarities between creator and creation.

Jason, from Alter Ego

With the aid of virtual pixels, Jason Rowe leaves behind his physical restrictions and becomes an agile warrior. In Alter Ego, Rowe says, “The computer screen is my window to the world. Online it doesn’t matter what you look like.” Judged solely by his personality and gaming skills, he feels like he’s on equal footing with everyone else.

Kim, from Alter Ego

Sometimes a player prefers to create an avatar that resembles herself as much as possible. Depending on the game’s customization options, she not only makes her avatar physically similar, she also re-creates her favorite clothes and jewelry. Unlike players who use their avatars to escape real world restrictions, software developer Kimberly Rufer-Bach explained in Alter Egos that she wanted a virtual extension of herself.

Thierry, from Alter Ego

Another common aspect in avatar creation is gender-swapping, where male gamers create female characters, or vice versa. Thierry Te Dunne said that Noemi, his avatar, is his “digital spirit, perfectly realized in her striking image. She was not created in a rush or borrowed from someone else, but thought over, polished, cherished.” I’ve met several female gamers who only play as male avatars. They claim that other players seem more apt to follow a male’s advice. Other female gamers say they often feel that male players focus more on creating their characters’ skimpy wardrobes than on developing their gaming skills. Some male gamers I know think that female characters receive more free help and more free gear.

Me

People like me fall somewhere in the middle of all these customizations. This is my character from Final Fantasy XI, a Blue Mage. She’s a standard human female, and I created her on the shorter end of the scale, just like me. However, I did give her black hair and dark eyes, and I made sure to choose a job class that would allow me to both cast magic and wield swords, two things I obviously don’t get to do in real life. Plus, I’ll be honest—I love her wardrobe!

The time a player spends creating his avatar guarantees a deep bond. Some gamers take an extra step and bring their avatar into the physical world. The company FigurePrints, owned by former Microsoft publishing vice president Ed Fries, creates three-dimensional models of World of WarCraft avatars.

What kinds of avatars do you prefer to design? Are your characters direct representations of yourself, or do you take the opportunity to become someone completely different? Share your stories and your pictures with us!

Recently, Ashton’s drawings reflect some of his favorite video games, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Rather than drawing individual pictures depicting Mario or the other characters, his illustrations focus on level design and gameplay features. To depict this side-scrolling adventure, many of Ashton’s pictures incorporate three or four sheets of paper taped together horizontally—an example of his building his spatial/visual intelligence. These highly detailed pen-and-paper representations of the game show the relative location of obstacles, enemies, flagpoles, and, of course, the valuable Star Coins.

As fascinating as these recreated levels are, I particularly like those Ashton designs himself. When I asked what level a certain drawing represented, he said, “Those aren’t from the game, they’re the levels that I made up.” He then gladly walked me through his boards and provided a tutorial of the best tactics for using power-up items to reach the flagpole. I would love to show you a few of his brilliant new levels, but Ashton is currently talking with Nintendo to see if its designers want to use them in the next iteration of Mario (that’s code for “those drawing are too special to let Dad take them to work”). You know how secretive game designers can be.

I’m captivated by what’s on his sketch table every night. It wouldn’t surprise me if additional video game levels and gameplay inspire Ashton to create more sophisticated and more intricate drawings as he gets older.

Count Dracula, a vampire, sorcerer, and Transylvanian nobleman, radiates confidence that even Napoleon would covet. In his 1897 novel, Bram Stoker created a charming vampire that would kiss “with a red light of triumph in his eyes.” Unlike the vampires in early folklore, Stoker’s Count Dracula’s charisma veiled his evil (attention bar flies, watch out for mates like this). More than 200 films, 1,000 novels, and an abundance of cartoons, comics, and TV programs feature Dracula. One of my favorites the NES game, Castlevania, reached North America in 1987 just one year after its release in Japan. The player controls Simon Belmont who is on a mission to defeat Dracula. Although Castlevania hails from the 8-bit era and requires strict linear game play, the opportunity to fight each boss, including Medusa, a pair of mummies, a giant bat, Frankenstein’s Monster and Igor, and the Grim Reaper provides timeless entertainment.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is another classic. I’ll admit, I’ve never read the novel, but I’m nuts for Mel Brooks’ spoof Young Frankenstein. I also enjoy the multiple platform game, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which designers modeled after the 1994 film of the same name. Frankenstein does not exude any of Dracula’s charms, but instead trudges through the streets of Ingolstadt, Bavaria, seeking revenge against his manufacturer, Victor. Ignorant of modern science, villagers believe that Frankenstein’s a monster and they attempt to kill him. The player controls Frankenstein as he walks loudly and carries a big stick to keep enemies at bay. The game incorporates simple puzzles with switches and pulleys. Take some advice from Young Frankenstein’s Igor and be sure to “walk this way” through the eerie town.

Accolade’s Elvira Mistress of the Dark is a first-person perspective combination role-playing and point-and-click adventure game based on the 1988 comedy horror film of the same title. The game play begins with events similar to those in the movie—Elvira, a sassy TV horror hostess quits her job and moves to a small town where she has inherited her great-aunt’s dilapidated home, peculiar poodle, and spell book. In the game, Elvira inadvertently resurrects her sorceress ancestor Queen Emelda the Evil, along with her several monstrous devotees.  Emelda’s minions capture the player, and then Elvira saves him. Elvira proceeds to ask him a favor—can he help her regain power? She must send Emelda back to the place she came from. Elvira’s charms nearly put Dracula to shame and with cheesy lines that only 80s popular culture could produce like “revenge is better than Christmas” a player’s guaranteed to fall under her spell.

Over the weekend, I ordered the iPhone 4S and I’ve marked its arrival date to check-out Freeverse’s action game Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on my new screen.