Welcome back to my weekly attempts at being a decent writer, where I’m trying to get some beginner games-analysis under my belt, one idea at a time, when I nab the time. I haven't been posting for a few weeks due to midterms/work/life, but I'm back and searching for the reason behind the lasting power of TRON.
Those of you that read my last blog entry know that, for the past few weeks and for the remainder of the semester (if things go according to plan), I am and will be working with some other students on a remaster of the original TRON Arcade cabinet, now tentatively renamed TRON: Championship Edition. What has gone on since the project’s start has, to be honest, inundated me in all things TRON: re-watching TRON: Legacy (2010); watching the original movie for the first time; listening to both’s soundtracks; and wondering to myself just why a B-side Disney franchise still has its cult following, as well as quick pass over the only TRON game I’ve actually played yet...critical darling TRON: Evolution.
Movie Time
On the persistence of the franchise as a whole, though, I figured it best to try and find some analogs to TRON in other films, primarily, and while I know I’m missing something, TRON seems unique. Not unique for the “state-of-the-art graphics” that were primarily cited when complimenting the original (and sequel)- plenty of movies have broken technical boundaries, and CGI accomplishments probably aren’t even pertinent here. Secondly, a movie simply taking place on The Grid doesn’t really warrant decades-long fandom, either. So looking at TRON I have to find comparisons, other movies that deal with physical representations of computing, or just computing seen in a cinematic sense, really, and those comparisons brought me some answers.
The first comparison that came to mind actually ended up being influencer as well as influenced. I’m talking about The Matrix (1999), which had as much say as the first TRON film did in the aesthetic design of TRON: Legacy. Others that came to mind include WarGames (1983), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), The Terminator (1984), etc. There is a tonal distance TRON sets from a lot of modern movies when it comes to representations of computers and code that is critical to what makes TRON different. The Matrix is a place of distortion and uncertainty, that dwarfs those who reside in it; the world is a place seemingly beyond our control, in the hands of “hackers” as Die Hard 4 sees it, and both Terminator’s and WarGames’ story of computer’s seizing power from Us, manipulating the world in dangerously high degrees. The canvas of impressions towards computer science for as long as the science has existed has been one of lost understanding- code is an apocryphal art to people that don’t live it, and if you understand it, you live it, too.
Hell, there’s an entire cliché built around the unapproachable nature of the machine: our hero is the good one, the one with feelings, the one we’re supposed to root for, but to navigate the modern world he probably has a cold, mildly-greasy friend that translates the Net for him/her. The entire vibe I get is that all these flicks are made by people that don’t enjoy the possibilities offered by computers for people who don’t want to understand computers. The difference is that I don’t get that vibe with TRON. The technobabble- the Users, Programs, I/O towers, corrupted data- there’s always a visual equivalent to break down the language barrier (even if the metaphor isn’t necessarily accurate). Programs are essentially people on the Grid. I/O Towers are how you communicate with the Grid. Corrupted or unreadable data is the wasteland around and defining the size of the Grid. Our heroes are programs doing recognizable things, with feelings, and inside the computer is a literal world of imagination. TRON makes one of the most compelling arguments for pseudoscience in media because the point of the computer operating essentially like magic isn’t to help you learn computer systems- it’s to help you understand others’ fascination with those systems and with the Grid representing them.
Game Time
Alrighty, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the TRON cabinet and TRON: Evolution...but mostly Evolution. As I stated above, I haven’t played the original game, and I would LOVE to hear from you guys in the comments about it- how it played, what you considered the best parts, or the most enjoyable ones- but I can’t very well discuss what I haven’t tried, can I? So what did I think of Evolution? It’s alright.
If you meander over to the Steam review page, scrolling past the (totally valid) complaints of a shitty PC port, you’ll learn something similar to my experiences: the campaign is poorly paced and a little uninspired, but the combat and visual effects mostly get the job done. Seems like they did a good job of faithfully representing TRON: Legacy, then. The real gem in the rough is Evolution’s multiplayer, which, when not a barren wasteland, is an exhilarating snapshot of what TRON can be in a modern game. The multiplayer is a match-based arena fighter with the typical DM, TDM, etc. modes, but allows for interaction between players on foot, on light-cycles (which can be summoned like a mount in an MMO), and in tanks. The worst crime of Evolution’s multiplayer, really, is a feeling a bit like Dan’s conflict over the latest Paper Mario, because while so much of Evolution is drab and uninteresting, there are minutes where everything comes together, where I leap onto a still-generating cycle and rocket out of danger, feeling the same kind of giddy feeling I got when first watching The Avengers (2012)- someone’s realizing what I imagined.
TLDR
I’m still discovering what makes a Tron game tick, in game feel and tone (there have been a surprising number of debates over the formatting of the title screen). While I do that, though, I want to know why you like TRON. Or hate it.
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