Breaking the 'fourth wall'

[Rob Sharona]

The fourth wall is a term describing the invisible wall at the front of a stage through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. An audience will suspend their disbelief so that they can separate the fiction they are watching from reality so that they can enjoy it better.

What is interesting is when this wall is broken and a character shows awareness of the crowd. This happens a lot in TV, film and theatre (simple examples include Malcolm In The Middle, Blazing Saddles, British pantos, etc.)

In games this happens a lot. When any character says 'press B' there is obviously no B button in the game universe, but this communication with the gamer is vital. It happens most commonly with tutorials. Also when you leave a character dormant they will often try to get your attention.

What I like is when games go that extra mile to be creative with the breaking of this wall. In Super Paper Mario, when the character is instructed on basic actions such as jumping, he asks what the "A Button" is, and the instructor replies, "The beings controlling us will know what that means." Metal Gear Solid has great examples. I remember being thrilled to discover the way to progress was lying on the back of my game cover all along.

Obviously Metal Gear Solid is king for this kind of thing, but can you think of any other instances where the fourth wall is broken? Include Metal Gear ones if you like but try to think outside the box!

 

[Zombie_King]

In Jak and Daxter sometimes. Daxter curses you out if you do something wrong, and in one particular scene in Jak 3, they have to race to stop something, and Jak and Daxter start joking. Then some girl says: "You think this is funny? You think this is a game?" Then Jak and Daxter turn to the camera and look straight at you.

 

[Eagle Est1986]

Metal Gear Solid is the only series of games that I appreciate it in, it just annoys me in other games.
There was a great example in MGS4, Otacon contacts Snake and begins to tell him that he needs to change disc before he corrects himself saying that they're now on Playstation 3 and using Blu-Ray discs, so there is no need for a disc change.

 

[Stammer]

This was one thing I really enjoyed about Super Paper Mario. Whenever you get like a new powerup, it'll say something like "Jump and then press the B button" or something. Mario will look at the person who said it and be like "wtf", and then the person will say, "You might not understand it, but the mysterious ultimate power does."

Hell yeah, I'm a mysterious ultimate power!

 

[poleboy]

Metal Gear Solid has great examples. I remember being thrilled to discover the way to progress was lying on the back of my game cover all along.

Actually, I think that felt more like a throwback to the days of code wheels and strange questions that needed answering before you were allowed to play the game.
I agree that the MGS games do a great job of knocking down the fourth wall at times, I just don't think this is a particular good example, since it does not interact with the game world in any meaningful way.

On a more general note: I don't think you can compare the fourth wall of videogames to the fourth wall of other media. Traditionally, when the fourth wall is broken it is surprising, because you are interacting with something you did not think was aware of you. That is not the case in videogames, nothing usually happens there unless it is on your initiative. The fourth wall of videogames is more like a wall between the real world and the game world, and you as the player is balancing somewhere in between these two worlds.
When the wall is broken in games, it is usually because the game is trying to confuse you about which world is real (as seen in Portal and MGS2) and not because the game suddenly becomes "aware" of you.

EDIT: Let me clarify a bit. The wall remains more or less the same, it is your position as an onlooker that is different in video games.

 

[the_tramp]

I remember on the Lion King in order to play you had to enter a random word from the instruction manual to play

 

[Lanczos]

Uhm what about narrators like in Final Fantasy X?
It's too long ago that I had "drama and lyrics" in school, so I'm not so sure if a narrator that directly addresses the audience counts in this case.

 

[poleboy]

A narrator is something different, I believe. The fourth wall is not broken unless it is unexpected, and narration is usually not thrown in for shock value.

 

[Rob Sharona]

there are lots of games that address the player more or less directly. Some point and click adventures had the hero basically call the player a moron if he tries too many stupid things. Other games do a very similar thing, and FPS in general are basically a "removal" of the fourth wall, as you're supposed to "be" the main character, not only control him. At least that's the idea, I guess. Characters in FPSs constantly address the audience directly.

 

[HuCast]

Well...I think "Eternal darkness" did a great job breaking the 4th wall (messages on the screen told you your controller was broken/not plugged in although there was everything ok with it, then the game told you your savefile was broken although it wasnt, there was a phone ringing in the background makin you believe it might be your own and sometimes the game created the illusion of a bug/fly crawling over your tv screen).

 

[StevieC]

4 words: ETERNAL DARKNESS: Sanity's Requiem

That game's insanity effects were utter GENIUS simply for messing with your mind. The "Controller has been unplugged" bit caught me off guard TWICE. When I thought I had lost my last life, I let my guard down only to find I hadn't and then an enemy hit me when I returned from the in-game hallucination and that time I _really_ lost my last life. GRRRRRRRRRR!

 

[Hey Joe]

Bully: "Role playing is the height of human achievement!" cue lingering look from Jimmy

 

[Rob Sharona]

Other games do a very similar thing, and FPS in general are basically a "removal" of the fourth wall, as you're supposed to "be" the main character, not only control him.

But then more and more developers put back this fourth wall by putting in the illusion of lens flare and dirt on the camera!

I would include Final Fantasy games. They're always at it. Like in Final Fantasy V, remember "Hey! You out there in front of the TV! You too!"

 

[cleverlymadeup]

4 words: ETERNAL DARKNESS: Sanity's Requiem

That game's insanity effects were utter GENIUS simply for messing with your mind. The "Controller has been unplugged" bit caught me off guard TWICE. When I thought I had lost my last life, I let my guard down only to find I hadn't and then an enemy hit me when I returned from the in-game hallucination and that time I _really_ lost my last life. GRRRRRRRRRR!

yeah that was just brilliant in the game, i would leave my sanity around zero just to have some of them pop up

i got REALLY pissed at the "thank you for playing sanity's requiem demo the full game will be out soon" one. i almost hopped in my car and drove to st catherines to kick the guys at silicon knights in the nuts for that

the formatting your memory card one was annoying too, sadly it only worked once cause the next time it happened you knew, tho the one where it looks like you died worked more often

the simpsons game broke the fourth wall but that's them. i think ratchet and clank have done it too. those two do it more for comedic effect tho

 

[Silver]

I can't believe no one has mentioned The bards tale. It has the most obvious fourth wall breaking ever.

For example, when entering the first forest and killing the first wolf the narrator tells you that "The Bard, having slain the wolf discovered that it had not only swallowed the contents of a small treasury, but also several household goods...Wait, am I reading this correctly?"

The bard answers with a yes, and tells him it's great for income. The narrator then tells the bard he will skip those passages in the future.

I'm guessing that puts you behind the fifth wall though, but that one is also broken sometimes.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I seem to recall a game that literally broke the fourth wall, I think it was Monkey Island which I have not had the good fortune to play (Yet) so I'm going from screen-capture goodness.

In a scene set in a pub with a game of darts in progress, it's possible to get a character to throw a dart that hits the screen which "cracks" it. The broken glass decal stays onscreen, overlaying everything else, for the rest of the game.

Personally, I love the idea.

-- Steve

 

[DeMaCa14]

Didn't you just love it in Metal Gear Solid where Psycho Mantis made the controller vibrate and told you that you liked Castlevania

 

[Mstrswrd]

In "No More Heroes," the whole intro scene shatters the 4th wall, and at the end of the game, they do it again.

 

[infernovolver]

I am now a lot more interested in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem all of the sudden.

 

[The Bandit]

In "No More Heroes," the whole intro scene shatters the 4th wall, and at the end of the game, they do it again.

I loved the opening monologue for No More Heroes... The ending, not so much.