In a part I cut out of the revised ANESthetized, I wondered about why there were so many games in which the hero was attacked by animals. There were many of these games, but a few really stand out:
The guy who posted this video did me a favor by numbering the attacking eagles in Ninja Gaiden. There are also attacking jaguars here as well.
If I understand correctly, everything that attacks in Metroid other than the bosses is an animal. I likewise commented about this in a part I cut out of the Metroid section of the revised ANESthetized. Were these animals supposed to be the pirates? If not, why were they attacking? Nintendo fixed this in Super Metroid and other sequels by adding actually humanoid pirates, but it remains the one (and only) thing I dislike about this game. Now that I think of it, you could probably add Zelda here as well. You could almost add Super Mario Bros. here, but I had the distinct impression that all the attackers in that game were minions of King Koopa.
Rambo. This was the first time I noticed the animal attacking phenomenon. Jump to 2:22 to see it in all its “glory”.
Predator. Jump to 1:04 to see the scorpions attack.
And there are many more beyond these. And while I really hate to nitpick the NES games that gave me so much joy, I had to admit that this is something I just can’t understand. Yeah, you need a constant stream of things for the video game hero to kill. But are these really worthy adversaries for Rambo, Dutch, Ryu, and Samus? Isn’t it a tragedy when these great warriors are brought down by vermin? I think so.
