As has been established throughout my column over the past few years, I am old. Maybe not physically old, but my personality has shuffled into “grumpy old man who yells at clouds” territory. I bring up this fact because I was playing Star Wars: Rebel Assault 2 on the PlayStation 5. I played that when it first released for the original PlayStation in 1993 and loved it. One thing that set it apart was it was almost a movie-like experience where actors stood in front of a green screen to film, unlike everything being computer generated today.

That got me kind of nostalgic for the FMV games of the distant past. For those too young to remember, FMV stands for full motion video. They were usually puzzle or strategy titles that would have actors delivering dialogue using a recorded video. One of the most famous examples, which also is one of the most popular memes, is a scene from Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 where Tim Curry shouts about how he was going to conquer space.

Of course, I try to be a little clear headed with my nostalgia. For example, I remember there was an FMV title with Hulk Hogan called Thunder in Paradise that was just… cringe. Granted, it was on the doomed Phillips CD-i (compact disc-interactive) that would also give us the most nauseating Legend of Zelda in history. Awkward examples aside, this genre had a uniqueness that I sometimes miss.

Do I think they could be done successfully and profitably on a large scale even today? No. We have seen its spiritual successors in Far Cry 6 where the main villain pretty much is Giancarlo Esposito playing some warped version of himself. Titles like The Dark Picture Anthologies also come to mind. Even calling Dark Anthology or any of David Cage’s games FMV successors is kind of stretching it. FMV was just something that gets to live in the 1980s and 1990s, like saying “tubular” and wearing geometric shapes on your tie.

I imagine cost probably also plays a factor into why we don’t see FMV anymore, as some celebrities’ salaries would likely drive a game’s price through the roof. Despite these challenges, I think some would enjoy seeing an occasional FMV try to work its way into the modern release catalog.

For a great example of how they could be good, I remember growing up and watching the X-Files. Then, my dad would let me on his computer to play the X-Files game where there were video clips of Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) talking with you. It was incredibly immersive.

If you haven’t played Rebel Assault 2 and you have a PlayStation Plus account that lets you access classics, give it a play. It is old, and sometimes the controls are not ideal, but it will take you back. Playing it took me back to the era of getting a free demo disk when ordering from Pizza Hut and holding my breath while my PlayStation was booting up to see if it worked. It’s amazing how much classic titles can transport you back to a distant time.

As much as this flashback has been fun, I have mostly been playing a horror game and EA Sports College Football 25 (both have reviews coming soon). But classic titles are sometimes a nice palette cleanser for me. College Football 25 is also helping in kind of the same way as I played a lot of NCAA football growing up.

My final thoughts are this, gaming has a unique history, and I encourage younger players to experience some of the weirdness of its past through classics. They help to show how the industry got to where it is today, and who knows, you just might enjoy them.