Everyone who knows me knows that I love cheesy action movies more than a bloodthirsty mouse. Whether it be Arnie flinging doors from the side of cars, Jackie Chan running over villains in a hovercraft or Van Damme holding a be-rollerbladed foot in someone’s face, I will be there cheering them on. I know they can’t hear me. Deep in my heart though, I wish they could.
However, the 80′s action movie hasn’t had as much of an effect on the gaming scene as it should have. We could have had wildly over-the-top shooters complete with cheesy one-liners and hilariously low-production-value set-pieces instead of staid man-shoots, with po-faced military professionals firing at a series of foreign targets. Somewhere between the need for antagonists with sentimental back-stories and the rush to be the most inwardly sceptical about the violence proffered, games forgot that action should be fun. We need less Red Dawn, more Last Action Hero.
