Food in Games

On this week's episode of PBS's "GameShow," Jamin explored how food is used in games.  This seems like a really odd topic, but most games do have some sort of food in them or could be strictly food based.  Here's the episode:

Some of my favorite game food comes from Fallout and Skyrim.  Eating in both those games isn't mandatory, but can help players restore some health.  I like the way that Bethesda maintained the jokey quality present in the early Fallout series.  Nuka-Cola with it's slightly radioactive qualities or Sugar Bombs, a friendly jab at sugar laden breakfast cereal.  One strange aspect that was added into Fallout 3 was the ability to drink from any source of water--including toilets.  Hey, it's the apocalypse...who cares where your water comes from, right?

In Skyrim the food is more appetizing.  A delicious apple or cherry pie or a scrumptious sweet roll seem like great ways to boost your health.  Unfortunately I never got into cooking that much.  Why would I want to lug around a bunch of cooking ingredients when I'm trying to carry five hundred pounds of weapons?  Hmmm...Lydia!  Carry my cabbage, slave!

If it comes to games that are actually about food then I'm going to go with Cook, Serve, Delicious.  All the food in that game looks appetizing...even if it's a pain to prepare (I'm talking to you soup and shish kebabs!).  The game is designed to start you off with low-brow foods like corn dogs and pretzels but allows you to work up to lobster and bananas foster.  I've played Cooking Mama on the Wii and found the food in that game to be a little weird.  Something always looked a little off and that food always seemed like it would be disgusting.

I think the characters in the newest Gauntlet game eat the best food.  Whole turkey legs and mouth-watering hams.  Gauntlet is a game where health and food go directly hand-in-hand and you will be prompted that "elf needs food badly!"

It's natural for games to use food as a reference to health.  To be healthy people need to eat so it only makes sense that characters in a game would also eat to stay healthy.  Or unhealthy as is the case in Grand Theft Auto:  San Andreas.  Food is a central part of the gaming experience and will continue to evolve as games do.