There is no stopping the video game industry when it comes to the consistent innovation that accompanies each new generation of gaming. It’s remarkable to look at how different modern video games are in comparison to cutting edge titles from even a decade ago. Video games need to fearlessly explore new forms of technology and take risks. A popular trend in video games during the 1990s was the advent of full-motion video titles, more casually known as FMV games.
These titles function like interactive movies where real footage is combined with basic video game concepts to create a strangely immersive experience. FMV games are largely considered a retro relic of the past, but there are still new titles that experiment with this type of storytelling. FMV games can often seem hokey, but they’re not all lost causes.
10 Enemy Zero Combines FMV Immersion With A Claustrophobic Shooter
The late Kenji Eno was a video game auteur who produced some highly unconventional titles during his too-short career. Enemy Zero is one of the more extreme examples and it’s a bizarre combination of an FMV adventure with a first-person shooter horror experience.
Enemy Zero is a Sega Saturn game that’s one of the few releases to be four discs long. Enemy Zero is the successor to Eno’s D, another FMV title that’s set within a disturbing mansion. Enemy Zero adopts more of an Alien aesthetic in a sterile space station. It effectively leans into the FMV genre and avoids many of its awkward misgivings.
9 Phantasmagoria Is A Retro Horror Classic That Helped Put FMV Games On The Map
This 1995 PC release comes from Roberta Williams, an incredibly influential voice during the ’80s and ’90s in the point-and-click adventure genre who co-created the pioneering King’s Quest series. Phantasmagoria looks at a curious writer who begins to encounter a myriad of suspicious and threatening events after she moves into her new mansion.
Phantasmagoria made its mark because of the game’s intense violence, which often seems at odds with the schlocky horror movie performances from the real actors in the FMV sequences. Strangely, Phantasmagoria thrives on this peculiar energy and it amplifies the experience. Its sequel, while entertaining, ultimately loses some of the original’s charm.
8 Night Trap Gives Players The Power To Protect A House Full Of “Final Girls”
Night Trap is another FMV game that lovingly embraces the horror genre, which in this case means that a house of teenage girls are hunted by some very unusual vampires. Night Trap is full of heightened performances and exaggerated deaths, but it centers around a clever premise.
The player alternates between surveillance footage and is responsible for properly neutralizing the invading vampires. Night Trap is absolutely absurd, but the fact that a fancy 25th anniversary special edition came out a few years ago speaks to the level of fandom and appreciation that continues to surround this FMV game.
7 The 7th Guest Helped Popularize FMV Games With Its Twisted Mystery
The 7th Guest, which is a sequel to 11th Hour, follows a typical structure for FMV adventures. The player, who is plagued as an amnesiac, must work their way through a mansion and solve puzzles that help them better learn who they are as well as the situation that they’re stuck in.
The 7th Guest came out in 1993, ahead of the curve for most FMV titles, which made it a revolutionary release that showed off the power of interactive storytelling. There have even been murmurs over the past decade that a third entry in this FMV series could happen.
6 Her Story Crafts An Addictive Mystery That Uses FMV Mechanics To Blur Reality
Initially, FMV technology was used to innovate the video game industry, but it’s been fascinating to see modern games use the format as a way to engage with a more classical style of storytelling and creatively play with nostalgia. Her Story is a 2015 release that throws the player back to 1994 with a desktop computer that’s filled with police interviews from a perplexing crime.
Her Story is a masterpiece in non-linear storytelling and the audience can engage in these interviews however they see fit in order to better solve this case and figure out where the truth lies.
5 The X-Files Game Showcases The Sci-Fi Series’ Cast & Feels Like A Real Episode
Two trademarks of the 1990s were FMV video games and The X-Files, so it’s only natural that they’d intermingle. There are a handful of X-Files games that have been released, to comparable success, but 1998’s The X-Files Game stands out for the fact that it almost functions as a “lost episode.”
Players control a rookie FBI agent who needs to locate a missing Mulder and Scully, but the experience is full of the show’s cast and features a story and script from the series’ creative staff. The X-Files Game feels as authentic as an X-Files video game should be.
4 Contradiction: Spot The Liar! Is A Modern Throwback That Hinges On Deception
Contradiction: Spot the Liar! is a Kickstarter-funded 2015 FMV release that’s a testament to how the genre isn’t entirely dead and that there’s still innovative ways to play around with this seemingly antiquated form of storytelling. Contradiction puts the player in control of Detective Inspector Frederick Jenks as he visits a foreboding hamlet over the alleged suicide of one of its residents.
Contradiction focuses around finding evidence and interviewing the people in the community, with an emphasis on deductive reasoning. Contradiction embraces the charm of FMV games, but crafts a deep mystery that that player will be determined to solve.
3 The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery Tells A Bloody Werewolf Story Through FMV
Sierra’s Gabriel Knight point-and-click adventure series are notorious for containing insanely obtuse puzzles, but there’s still a lot of love for them. This is especially true for the second entry in the series, The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, which also transforms the adventure into a sprawling FMV mystery.
The Beast Within‘s focus is a murderous werewolf that’s on the loose in Germany, which both heightens the stakes and uses its real actors to fantastic effect. There’s definitely elements that come across as rushed, but they add to the B-horror environment instead of breaking the illusion.
2 Jessika Uses FMV Mechanics To Investigate A Victim’s Final Days
Jessika is the most recent FMV game featured on this list and it only came out back in 2020, to much acclaim and excitement. Jessika riffs on the interactive detective format as the player delves through the deceased title character’s laptop to learn more about her and the circumstances surrounding her death.
Jessika’s death is ruled a suicide, but the game tasks the player to learn if this is the case or if there’s something more sinister afoot. Jessika’s real strengths lie in the strong performances from its actors and the surprisingly emotional nature of its central mystery.
1 Double Switch Is A Nostalgic Trip That Celebrates The ’90s
Many different video game consoles experimented with FMV technology, but it was one of the defining features of the Sega CD. Double Switch is one of the crowning achievements of the Sega CD and the game’s reputation has led to anniversary releases on modern consoles like the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4.
Double Switch comes from the makers of Night Trap and there’s definitely a lot in common between the two titles. Double Switch also relies on a security camera setup as the player attempts to protect the oblivious live-action actors, which in this case even includes Corey Haim.
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