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Editorials   Fad Me Up
- By Mike Schneider [Editor In Chief]

For every industry in existence, there seems to be various fads that run their course and disappear. Anyone remember pogs? Or how about zoobas? There are always little things that give off a quick aroma of coolness, then eventually die away as every person – hip or unhip – delves into the fad.

The same idea is true in the videogame industry, without a doubt. It’s usually one of the mega-elites [relating to above, the “hip”] that do something new and earth shattering. Then, with time, all of the others, regardless of actual developmental abilities [once again relating to above, the “unhip”] join the bandwagon to try to cash in on its appeal.

Today, the flavor of the week is cel-shading.

When Sega created Jet Set Radio for the Dreamcast, I wonder whether or not they had any idea they were beginning a trend that would reach the same level of replication as the 3D adventure/platformer of the post-Mario 64 era? Shiggy certainly knew his game would spurn dozens of clones and carbon copies. And it was also a given that the fad – 3D platformer – would die out (which it largely has) as developers beat the same tired formulaic gameplay into the ground and gamers eventually got sick of it. For the sake of clarity, we will call this a type-1 fad.

Shiggy also knew what he was starting with his inclusion of the now-popular “z-targeting” in Ocarina of Time. However, the difference with this instance, and the first situation, is that z-targeting is an easily recreateable enhancement. I doubt that we will ever see this controlling idea die. For the sake of clarity, we will call this a type-2 fad.

So now, back to cel-shading. Is it a type-1, or a type-2 fad?

The answer to this question isn’t brain surgery… it should be fairly obvious. When one considers whether cel-shaded graphics actually add anything to gameplay, one may easily discover that the style is something that will come and go much like zoobas. So that would make cel-shading a type-1.

You can think of Cel Damage for GameCube. It’s a vehicular combat game. It’s cel-shaded. It’s EA’s attempt to turn what many consider a stale genre (car combat) into something new and fresh. The same principal holds true for Ubi Soft’s upcoming XIII, which offers first person shooting in a cel-shaded universe.

I’m certainly open to a change in graphical style – but ultimately, it’s really nothing more than that. After the wave of cel-shaded games, both gamers and developers will realize that other than the cosmetics of it, there’s really nothing special that makes the zoobas any better than jeans or khakis or any other pants.

Finally, it stands true that Zelda will play some role in this entire life cycle… The clear prediction is that Zelda will mark the climax of the cel-shading cycle, in which, by a year after Zelda’s release, cel-shaded games will join the graveyard along with many other tired fads – only occasionally popping up from time to time in some unorthodox cases.