Go Right, Young Hero, and Face Your Destiny

[John Funk]

Go Right, Young Hero, and Face Your Destiny

​

This mashup of videogame heroes' animations as they move forever to the right is way more touching than it should rightfully be.

In videogames since the dawn of time, the hero has moved from the left to the right. Mario ventured rightwards through the Mushroom Kingdom; Mega Man fought his way to the right through Dr. Wily's hordes; even the little dude from Pitfall was leaping to the right over those damn pits. This video takes all of our protagonists' rightward journeys over the decades and splices them together to create a single story.

As you might expect, it's kind of fun to just watch the various characters and animations to see how many games you can name (and there are a lot of games here that need naming). It's also entertaining to see how the games we play have changed over the years and yet have utterly remained the same in other respects.

What isn't entirely expected is how poignant this video manages to make the hero's journey. What begins as a determined march to the right - to destiny - encounters difficulty and falters, only to regain its fire anew. It's oddly touching, in a way.

Go right, hero. Go right, and onwards towards adventure!

(Via @KyleOrl [http://twitter.com/#!/KyleOrl/statuses/195878999816282113] on Twitter)

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[Lunar Templar]

These are the true Elder scrolls

LOL.

and i've played almost all of them.

with extra props going for the use of Metal Storm and Shatter Hand, no one ever seems to bring those up and they where really good :/

 

[BanZeus]

When you go right, you can't go wrong.

 

[Tiamat666]

Anyone know the game starting at 0:17? It has this pixely, yet awesome character animation.

 

[John Funk]

Anyone know the game starting at 0:17? It has this pixely, yet awesome character animation.

That would be the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Which does indeed have some of the best-animated sprites of all time.

 

[Tiamat666]

Anyone know the game starting at 0:17? It has this pixely, yet awesome character animation.

That would be the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Which does indeed have some of the best-animated sprites of all time.

Cool, thanks!

 

[forsaac]

always to the right hun never really noticed before

 

[ThaBenMan]

That was... *sniff*..beautiful!

You go right, man, and don't ever let them make you go left!

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Which does indeed have some of the best-animated sprites of all time.

Good to see you around again. Although I may have to disagree, if only because SNK has always had a way with sprites which I've yet to see rivaled. In particular, the Metal Slug and King of Fighter titles. Even their work on Capcom characters for the crossover titles have been excellent.

Also, that is a wonderful video. Makes me want to go retry a few platformers from my childhood.

 

[Zer0Saber]

Holy crap, that was moving. Sigh, I miss the good times. I don't get the same feelings I used to have from playing video games. Megaman X, final stage. Been beaten by Sigma many times, but now I know his moves, I've found his weakness. Boom, he's dead, but wait. No, what's this monster? Dead. A few more tries and deaths. I get to the final form again, my hands sweat, my heart beats like crazy, every time I take damage more anxiety. The final blow, I stand up, throw up my arms and my skeleton feels like it wants to jump out of my skin. YES! This video reminded me how I used to feel playing games as a kid. I don't get that anymore, and now I can beat Megaman X like nothing. Sigh.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

*tear* That was beautiful...

These, my friends, are the true Elder scrolls

Ah ha, I see what you did there.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

This video really puts things into perspective, and just makes me realise that the gaming society arguing amongst itself really isn't worth it, not when we have a legacy as awesome as that. We should be working on making sure that the next generation of games are as awesome and epic as that video was.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

That was cool. And it's also an example of just how deeply ingrained the trope that sidescrollers = scrolling to the right is. I can only think of one (non-metroidvania) game that requires you to scroll to the left (Jekyll and Hyde on the NES) and it's regarded as one of the worst games of all time because so few people realized that all the unavoidable deaths you get for going right are a hint to go left instead. I certainly wouldn't have realized it if I hadn't been told.

Edit: W00t, this is my 5,000th post. Hello, Mr. Neo.

 

[FloodOne]

Holy crap, that was moving. Sigh, I miss the good times. I don't get the same feelings I used to have from playing video games. Megaman X, final stage. Been beaten by Sigma many times, but now I know his moves, I've found his weakness. Boom, he's dead, but wait. No, what's this monster? Dead. A few more tries and deaths. I get to the final form again, my hands sweat, my heart beats like crazy, every time I take damage more anxiety. The final blow, I stand up, throw up my arms and my skeleton feels like it wants to jump out of my skin. YES! This video reminded me how I used to feel playing games as a kid. I don't get that anymore, and now I can beat Megaman X like nothing. Sigh.

Go play Dark Souls. Now.

 

[Shemming]

What was the game at 27-29 seconds? I remember playing it years ago round a freinds, and now its bugging me.

 

[RustlessPotato]

Aaah, I love nostalgic videogames video . Made me think of this

 

[weirdee]

wait, people actually managed to play through arcade's revenge? that game was pretty much the most brutal game of my childhood