Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things they’ve been chewing on. Today Nathan goes pixel mapping…
What is your biggest pet peeve in video games? The one thing that, when present, ruins your experience, no matter how good the game otherwise is? It’s a bad map in the game for me.
Take the original Metroid for example. I don’t like that game. I never did. And it’s not a product of my first playthrough decades after the first release. No, I was there in 1986 and still have my original copy. I loved its gameplay (four-way scrolling!?) and theme, but I couldn’t deal with its labyrinthine design for one simple reason: it didn’t have a map.
I have always loved cards. And not only in the virtual world. I studied geography at university. I goal was to become an expert in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) – a map maker.
Even now, cards—real and video games—play a prominent role in my daily life. Map posters are plastered on the walls of my home office and playroom, and the background of my work computer cycles through images from VGMaps. It’s fun to see a co-worker’s face light up when they recognize a map while sharing my screen in a Teams meeting. Such is the power of a recognizable, useful map. Takes you to a place you’ve visited once.
What is a map? Poor little bunch of secrets?
At the risk of being pedantic, what exactly is a ticket?
It is a representation of the world. Display. It can be plain text (like from the dungeon master), a 2D visual (top view) or a 3D model (like that globe in grandma’s house). Regardless of the format, a map is only useful if it provides value to its readers. It must convey information, and above all, it must be accurate. As they say, the map should match the terrain.
Yoshi’s Horror Story
I learned this lesson while working on the Nintendo Power magazine staff in the late 90s. One of my primary tasks was to ensure that the printed maps were accurate, with particular emphasis on the placement of callouts for power-ups and items.
The most challenging assignment I had was the Yoshi’s Story player guide. For those who haven’t played it, Yoshi’s Story is a 2.5D platformer where the goal in each stage is not to find the exit, but to find and eat 30 fruits. The game has 24 stages, and within each stage there are 60 fruits, a total of 1440 fruits. Keep that number in mind.
During the creation of the guide, Nintendo’s Japanese headquarters would often send out a new version of the game that was still in development. There were occasional builds with drastic changes, but more often than not, the only changes were a handful of fruits that were moved around within the stage. Of course, I was never told what to look for. Instead, I had to play the entire game and confirm or correct the location of each of those fourteen hundred and forty melons, watermelons, apples, bananas, and grapes.
Two solid months of finding fruit cured me of wanting a career in map making. However, Yoshi’s Fruits taught me a deep appreciation for the value of a well-made card.
Metroid: A Quick Case Study
Back to Metroid, navigating the planet Zebes absolutely requires a map.
In fact, the entire Metroid series is a case study in the utility of cards in a game. The first Metroid (and to a lesser extent its sequel) have been hailed as pioneers in their genre, but the lack of a map is perhaps their most common criticism. The third entry in the franchise, Super Metroid, is quite the opposite. His in-game map arguably set the standard for the genre, and perhaps the entire medium.
Beyond simply existing (which is great), Super Metroid’s pause screen map provides layers of value:
- Communicates progress by filling in as you explore
- Encourages exploration by filling only those grid squares you’ve actually touched, instead of full rooms you’ve visited (looking at you Hollow Knight)
- Rewards exploration and discovery by omitting hidden areas, even if you choose to visit optional map rooms and
- It helps you, the player, identify areas for further exploration
With just a grid, two colors, and a handful of symbols, the Super Metroid map provides one of the most important features of the first game.
A few more examples
If we can venture outside of Samus’ orbit, here are a few other maps of the game that I find interesting.
Hub world map
The first game I remember with an interactive overworld was Bionic Commando for the NES. The overworld in Super Mario Bros. 3 may be better known, but Super Joe’s game arrived in the West a full two years earlier.
Bionic Commando’s central world allowed players to see and explore (by flying a damn helicopter!) branching paths between stages and optional areas. The map showcased the interconnectedness of the game world, while also providing an interactivity not previously seen in game maps.
In the game, the card in the game
Is there anything more definitively “video game” than the pause button? They say “time stops for no one”, so you know you’re in a virtual world when you can literally stop time with the push of a button.
Yoshi’s Fruits taught me a deep appreciation for the value of a well-made card.
Most of the in-game maps can only be accessed from the pause screen, meaning you can look at the map or explore the world. You can’t do both. Final Fantasy VI (aka Final Fantasy 3 in the West) broke that paradigm by allowing you to display the world map as an overlay. This drove me crazy at the time. I could explore both worlds and map – at the same time! In fact, I could navigate the world by looking solely at that little map. Please don’t do this while driving your car, but I highly recommend it when you fly the airship to Narshe.
and yes, Far Cry 2 and Minecraft took this concept further by showing your in-game avatar holding a map. It’s a full map immersion for you.
Perfect use of the dual screen
Chrono Trigger first appeared in 1995 on the SNES, but the DS port is the definitive version for me. And not only because of the added content and FMV scenes. No, that’s because your map is always present on the second screen. It’s a map in a game, brought to its logical conclusion on the perfect console for map lovers. Axiom Verge on the Wii U is another example of a game whose best version is trapped on an outdated two-screen platform.
Waypoints and symbols
Let’s look at one more. Like Super Metroid, the map in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is arguably the biggest feature of the game.
Not only does it include all the elements mentioned so far (tracking progress, encouraging exploration, communicating the rules of the game world, and constant availability), but it also ups the ante with incredible interactivity. You can mark the map with waypoints, using symbols or colors to add personalized meaning. Furthermore, the line between the map and the game world is blurred allowing Link to simply look at a point on the ground and drop a pin. Hyrule is not simply represented by a map; it’s a map.
From Metroid to Breath of the Wild and beyond, I continue to be fascinated by video game maps. They shape our research and convey a thousand words in one picture, especially when we are allowed to draw on the canvas ourselves.
Smithsonian curator Lucy Fellowes once said, “Every map is someone’s way of making you see the world in his or her own way.” I’m not a map maker — Yoshi’s story took care of that — but I hope I’ve drawn a picture of how I see the world — as a pixelated little pile of secrets.
What are you looking for on the in-game map? Do you have a favorite? Let us know in the comments.
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