Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 333)

Trigger Happy
335
functionally they remain the same sort of animal as the
large blobs in Pac-Man: they are second-order signs
effecting changes in the possible symbolic relationships
of the game. The ocarina works in this way by
expanding the player’s symbolic language. Another
Zelda 64 gadget, for instance, the hookshot (a sort of
retractable grappling hook), enables the player to reach
previously inaccessible areas by swinging up.
Now in general one wants to say, “The more
gadgets the better.” The more ways in which a player is
required to learn how to use a new gadget and thus
expand her semiotic conversation with the game, the
longer the game will be refreshing and surprising,
delivering a sense of childlike discovery. The brilliant
yet underrated Ape Escape (see fig. 19) is furnished
with many such exceptionally imaginative gadgets: a
monkey radar, which when waved in the direction of a
rogue simian flashes and hoots, enabling the player to
examine his prey close-up; a hula hoop, which when
spun round the waist enables the player’s character to
run extremely fast; a rotor, which when spun enables
you to float up to previously inaccessible areas. But
Ape Escape’s crowning achievement is the
radiocontrolled car, which—bizarrely at first—offers
exactly the same experience as working a real radio-