When they land, one remains standing – the other falls to the ground. The two of them leap their blades meet in mid-air. Or sometimes no dialogue at all! The greatest, most iconic cutscene of the game is its very first one, an entirely wordless scene depicting two ninjas clashing in a moonlit field. But serving as a slower-paced buffer between those fast-action levels were calm, thoughtful cutscenes containing simple exchanges of dialogue between characters. Its action scenes are fast and frenetic, featuring ninja hero Ryu Hayabusa leaping around the screen, clinging to walls and slashing enemies apart with his katana. Though early arcade games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong had small story sequences accenting their play experiences, the true pioneer of the cutscene as we know it was Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden.
Though some games have expertly woven their narratives into their gameplay, there are times when a movie-like storytelling experience can only be achieved by making games temporarily behave like movies do – removing all control from you and just having you watch some scene play out on the screen for a while. Cutscenes have become common in video games out of necessity.
