GoldenEye Legend Couldn't Play Flower

Martin Hollis, creator of N64 classic GoldenEye 007, had to stop playing PS3-exclusive Flower because he found the experience too emotional.

Hollis, founder of Cambridge developer Zoonami, tried to play thatgamecompany's experimental downloadable title but had to put the controller down after experiencing an "upwelling".

"One of the interesting things about Flower was I couldn't play it because it was so emotionally provoking," Hollis told Eurogamer at the Nottingham GameCity festival last week.

[Cloudberry]

.
looking forward to Journey too.

[JsonHenry]

I must have a heart of stone or something because I had no reaction to it at all. :/

[FACTUAL evidence]

Man. I had TOO MANY moments on flower. Everytime I would play I imagined I was a spirit of a lost boy restoring nature as I try to find my family. IDK but the music and scenery made me think like that.

[murcielago4]

@JsonHenry

is someone hiding their emotions?

[hesido]

I wasn't moved by it either. Didn't finish the game. I liked the calm parts, tho.

[redsquad]

I know what he means - Even the opening, with the image of a small, 'broken' flower against a monochrome setting is upsetting on a level that's dificult to explain. The mind boggles at what the FLOWER team could accomplish with a full sized, 'proper' game.

[49erguy]

I got emotional too, but damn. Its really the only game I can call beautiful. The music coupled with the lovely scenery really left me in awe. The only time I would ever cry playing it is if I played it RIGHT after a loved one died.

The game was FAR too short, but what was there makes me want a sequel just as bad as I want Dead Nation.

I would never call an emotional gamer a pussy, (I almost cried at the end of MGS3) but MAN UP AND EXPERIENCE FLOWER. He'll really be missing out if he doesn't.

[Neckbear]

I played it, and I didn't felt any kind of emotion. It's just a damn set of petals flying over the screen with the wind.

This is exactly like those hipsters who look too much into everything- to the point a simplistic and stupidly retarded thing is "deep" and a "masterpiece".

[Cenobia]

Did you play the whole game though?

Like, you know...to the end?

There is a message in the game that is much more than petals floating in the wind.

[rezzah]

You expect too much out of everything to be qualified as "deep". You should look to simpler things and seek the dept in meaning behind those objects or images.

[TheGameFoxJTV]

I bet he thinks CoD, and Halo games are deep. lol

[Joni-Ice]

I have over 200 PS3 game and Flower is one of my favorites. I also went out and got the soundtrack which is amazing. My father past away in September and that soundtrack helped me through. GREAT GAME!

[theonlylolking]

How the crap can you be overwhelmed with emotion from flowers? I own the game and its very nice and good. I just dont see how peeps can get so much emotion out of flowers.

[supersonicsaga]

Music ,symbolism and motion controls. Some people like to analyze games as well as play them.

[Triella]

I was overwhelmed by emotion at the end when you start to overcome the "grey world" and destroy one by one those ugly masts.

[Shadow Flare]

I'm afraid I'm another who fails to see what is so emotional about flower. It's a good game, but emotional? I felt nothing. And I have had games that made me emotional in the past, but it's usually because there's something in the game that built upon me to make me feel that way. In shadow of the colossus you spend the whole game with agro your horse, he sticks with you and fights with you and you can't help but grow attached to agro. In final fantasy 7, there are 2 parts which get to me. (Spoiler alert just in case). The part where aeris dies and the part where red xiii finds out the truth of his father. Through the powerful story telling and the relationship you build while journeying with these characters, I can't help but feel emotional in those situations. In metal gear solid 3, it took me a good 2 minutes to finally hit the square button on the Boss when she's lying there in the flower field. Because of the powerful story telling. Flower, you're just opening other flowers. There's very little story, there's no attachment, there's nothing for me apart from the gameplay. There's no substance to it, whatever emotional experience you get with flower, it's because it's something you've created yourself in your head. It's not built up for you like the other games I mentioned were. Everyones different I suppose and it just didn't effect me like other games did.

I think flower is a bit like a waterfall or something. You can get some people who will gaze at a waterfall and feel really emotional about it and think about what it symbolises and stuff. But at the end of the day, it's a waterfall, its not meant to be emotional. It's only emotional to some people because that's what theyve made it become in their head. And to me flowers the same. It's a beautiful game that people read further into it and they feel emotional about it. Sorry, I just couldn't get what others could. It's flowers making a crap city pretty. Ok. Where's agro?

[bananlol]

Youve hit the nail on the head with that one. Completely agree. That said we need more games like flower, games that dont follow some standard set by past games.

[mac_sparrow]

I used to teach both film production and film studies. We used to take our students to art house cinemas and play their work to critics. The brief of the work was that it had to be based on colour. The results were great when I threw in one of my own that was full of pretentious drivel, and coupled with a production diary that was bordering on the absurd.

I agree with you shadow, some things have meaning, others don't and people look too hard.
That said I still think Flower was a brilliantly realised piece of entertainment.

Oh, and my gf made me shoot the boss for her on her playthrough. ;)

[Shadow Flare]

We do need more games like flower, I agree

This video basically sums up what I was trying to say and it's kinda what I'm seeing when people here say flower is emotional:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[mac_sparrow]

haha, I love that double rainbow video. Saw it last week and it cracked me up.

[radphil]

I have no idea why, but this situation kinda brought up in my mind a skit from Family Guy, how Peter felt like his heart could explode from the sheer vision of a trash bag flowing in the wind. :p

[smashman98]

And to further elaborate on the matter I imagined this dude after being harassed for the longest time by his fellow developers... finally giving in to their demands stating he must play this game. they say "Bro... this game, it'll change ya man" he finally listens makes the purchase and downloads it. Minutes later he starts up the game and almost instantly begins to tear up saying "It's so... beautiful" and must turn it off because he's never had these feelings before. And its almost scary to him

Lol just a bit of insight to what i saw

[Cenobia]

That is actually a parody of a scene from "American Beauty"

[radphil]

Yea that much I knew of. I just found the Family Guy skit more relevant to the situation at hand. :)

[Capdastaro]

Tampons are in the top draw...

It was a great game but not emotional in the slightest

[chaos-lockheart]

Sometime something means noting to someone doesn't mean it wont mean something to others, like if someones dad died, will some other person cry? nope, unless they feel a connection.

[redsquad]

Yes it WAS emotional... YOU just didn't feel it.

[Tommykrem]

My third or second favourite game of last year. Just great. As emotional as it is, I mostly play it to relax. flOw just made me tired, but lower really lets you have a few moments free from the real world. I wish I was a flower... No, that's ridicolous, but it's good to be flower leaf sometimes.

[mac_sparrow]

I actually fell asleep playing flow once, and not because I find it boring. That Game Company make brilliant chill out games.

A friend and I once played FlOw from beginning to end for all lifeforms once when drinking lots of beer. Was good as we kept attacking each other by mistake in our inebriated state.

[Matthew94]

great game but a bit short

much better than flow

[OhMyGandhi]

"How the crap can you be overwhelmed with emotion from flowers?"
I cracked up on that one.
supersonic said it perfectly: symbolism, inner meaning. take what you know about a given subject and apply it while playing, you'd be surprise how much more fun a game/movie/song can be.

[skowhegan]

Awesome stuff.

[perfectCarbonara]

It only does Making Grown Men Cry

[DirtyLary]

Someone needs to put this guy on somw testosterone pills.

[Corrwin]

It was just magical.

[soundslike]

Heavily inflated prices, disgusting public services, and egotistical pricks aren't the only things in life.

[jack_burt0n]

the second half of the game was brutal, was an interesting direction to take it but i ended up wanting to play more levels like the first :) deserved its GOTY accolades TGC FTW!

[rezzah]

I do not get as emtional as some of these poeple, but what I felt was a feeling of happiness. A sort of uplifting feeling.

Spoiler?

I dont like the part in the level where you first see the darkness, I think it ruined the beauty of the flowers and colours. Of course that doesnt mean I dont understand the meaning behind it. The sunniest levels are my favorites.