Last summer, many new game announcements were made during Sony's PlayStation 5 showcase event, promising players that great things were on the way. There were plenty of standouts, from Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales to the reveal trailer for Horizon: Forbidden West, however one incredibly unique game captured both the eyes and hearts in a matter of moments.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a dazzling new adventure title from Ember Lab, that looks to harken back to the platforming genre popular in the early 2000's while also capturing the spirit of what it would be like to live in the world of an animated feature film. Developers and audiences have been touting how the visuals in some games throughout history have resembled that of a Pixar movie that the player can actually control, it seems that Kena: Bridge of Spirits now has access to the technology to finally place some credible weight to that claim.
One Step at a Time
There have been attempts to capture the experience of controlling a video game that looked like a Pixar movie. While many of these efforts were admirable for the time, it was still night and day comparing the visuals of both mediums side-by-side. Sucker Punch first tried this cartoonish aesthetic way back on the limited technology of the N64 with Rocket Robot on Wheels, and then continued with the Sly Cooper series on PlayStation 2. While both technically achieved that charming look of these animated movies, these games graphical capabilities still trailed behind animated movies released at the same time in early 2000's.
Methods to more closely resemble the look and feel of feature films on the silver screen improved as years went on, with cel-shading technology being a commonly used tactic to deliver charming, colorful worlds and characters. Titles like Okami, inspired by ancient Asian mythology, and Viewtiful Joe drawing inspiration from Japanese anime, both used cel-shading graphics to create stunning animated landscapes. Nintendo even adopted the technique for the GameCube's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
While impressive improvements were certainly being made to the graphical and artistic fidelity of gaming, one need only compare the visuals of a game and movie in a respective year to see the massive difference between them (such as Jak 3 and The Incredibles in 2004). The technology for films seemed to be far ahead of gaming until Insomniac made one of the most impressive leaps yet with its Ratchet and Clank game on the PlayStation 4. Ratchet & Clank was perhaps the most excellent effort to date but still not quite on the same level as even the film it was based on, released that same year.
Capturing the Pixar Magic
These small steps made with each gaming generation all reached its peak with the aforementioned reveal of Kena: Bridge of Spirits during Sony's PS5 event. The game was instantly applauded for its stunning visuals, with the title being compared to a cross between The Legend of Zelda and Pikmin, in terms of its genre. Considering the power within the PlayStation 5 and modern PC's, it feels like now is the time for a video game to finally be able to match the visual splendor of big budget animated movies. This goal, years in the making with multiple developers, takes a step closer to this achievement.
It almost feels fitting that the studio to finally deliver on this promise of controlling a Pixar movie would be Ember Lab, a developer that didn't even begin in video game development, but rather to specialize in CG animation for commercials and films such as the incredible 2016 short "Majora's Mask - Terrible Fate". There is still some concern over how engaging the gameplay will actually be, considering it is the studio's first game, but its a foregone conclusion that Kena: Bridge of Spirits will look insanely good regardless of how well it plays.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is scheduled to be released on August 24, 2021 for the PC, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.