In video games, the ship is more than a vehicle, it is a cocoon between two missions

In their Fraternal epicwhich releases Thursday, November 9 on Switch, Mario and Luigi sail on a ship-shaped island. This floating place, which also constitutes their base camp, is gradually acquiring a crew. New faces emerge, sheds in which to trade are set up and even a fishing spot appears. With time and back and forth, this mobile HQ to which we return after each exploration seems more and more useful, more and more familiar, more and more welcoming. The serenity and security of a home, but which accompanies us to the threshold of the next adventure. If this is a first in a Mario & Luigiit is actually a common but effective video game motif: that of the ship.

The term is among the first to enter the video game vocabulary. But since Spacewar ! (1962), which summarizes it with a few green lines on a black background, the ship has become more complex, both in its representation and in its role. A powerful structural element, it nourishes the narrative imagination as much as the game mechanics. Because unlike the village or the campfire, immovable places essential to allow the player to breathe, including mentally, the vessel, just as protective, we follows even in the most hostile environments. Whether spatial or maritime, it represents not only a comma in history, but also, thanks to its mobility, a true link.

In Assassin’s Creed IV : Black Flag (2013) for example, you need to know the ocean to be able to plunder it. Between two infiltration missions, traditional in the series, the player maneuvers the Jackdawa building that will follow us until the end of the adventure. And the navigation sequences are not an accessory. They are even long and it is better to plan your routes on the map before cutting through the waves to the rhythm of the songs of our faithful crew. THE Jackdaw thus becomes a real extension of the protagonist, from whom he almost steals the spotlight. Like any playable character, he must be improved to make him more formidable during the numerous naval battles that punctuate this journey.

The Normandyit does not protect the player from maritime expanses as far as the eye can see but rather from the vacuum of space. The iconic ship of the trilogy Mass Effect (2007, 2010, 2012) can be surveyed lengthwise and crosswise between two field excursions. However, it is not a simple glorified mission selection menu, but rather a place for sociability: by featuring our colorful teammates, the sequences in the ship allow us to discover the stories of the people who stand by your side during skirmishes. THE Normandy thus transforms these secondary roles into brothers and sisters in arms.

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