Category: Blog

Today we’re going to be talking about everyone’s favorite JRPG. The one that was surprisingly dark and had an eco-friendly message that was way ahead of its time. That’s right! It’s Final Fantasy 7 Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on the Gamecube! 

The year was 2004, and Nintendo had briefly lost their minds. How else to explain why they published a game starring Mario that features a noose in the opening hub area.

This is in Rogueport, the seedy underbelly of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the opening of one of the funniest games ever made. One level has you solving an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery on a train, after someone assumes Mario is a detective because they mistake him for Luigi (who also isn’t a detective?). Even that’s not as delightfully strange as the level where Mario becomes a pro-wrestler, or becomes a pirate, or visits the moon, or when you play as Bowser, desperately trying to find a way to be relevant to the main plot:

At one point Mario learns to fly by folding himself into a paper plane, an idea so silly-yet-brilliant that it should be ripped off in every game ever. It’s a wonderful anything-goes adventure with a cast of characters so winning that I don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand that they suddenly exist in real life and all hang out with me. Please. I am very cool.

But what’s this got to do with Climate Replay or sustainability? Who cares, go play it! Oh, wait a second. We care. And delightfully, so does the game…

On your adventure, Mario takes a trip to Twilight Town. Now I know that name sounds a little sinister, but this is still a family-friendly Mario adventure so I’m sure it’s not that bad and that everything has a smiley face drawn on it. Let’s take a look!

Okaaaaaaaaaaaay, so Twilight Town does look like the kind of place a resident of Silent Hill would think twice about visiting. But I’m sure it’s not that bad once you get used to it. It’s not like there’s a terrible curse upon the town wherein whenever a bell tolls, one of its residents gets turned into a pig…

Everyone calm down. This is still a Mario game and we all know how this works. Obviously he tracks down the villain, hops on his head a few times, saves the day, the end. It’s not like the villain actually possesses Mario, steals his identity, and traps him as a shadow doomed to wander the Earth, friendless and alone for the rest of his da… you can see where I’m going with this can’t you?

To defeat this monster and get his body back, Mario needs to learn the villain’s true name, Rumplestiltskin-style. Er, obviously. To do this, you have to take advantage of your new shadowy existence to spy on the local villagers. Actually, that would almost make sense, which is not this game’s style. So you have to spy on the local crows. Whatever you say, game!

This is where the sustainability stuff comes in. All the crow conversations are hilarious, but one of them also reveals what crows are really worried about (it’s at 0:34 in the video below),  the depletion of fossil fuels:

The first crow mentions it’s making them depressed, and their crow companions agree. But then they immediately start talking solutions! Hydroelectric and solar energy both get shout outs. In a Nintendo game. In 2004.

It’s a funny moment in a game overstuffed with them, but also one that feels weirdly radical today. In a time where Ubisoft endlessly claims all their games are ‘non-political’ (including The Division 2, a game where your main base of operations is the white house), it’s pretty incredible to see fossil fuels categorically shouted out as a problem. The context might be ridiculous but the seriousness of why renewable energy is vital isn’t the punchline. More games should be doing this! 

It’s not a perfect moment, mind. The problems we face today aren’t so much caused by the depletion of fossil fuels, but the fact we need to stop using the ones we have because of their devastating effects on the planet. Perhaps Mario Odyssey 2 could make up for this by having you butt-stomp all the world’s oil back into the ground? Perhaps it’s ideas like that which explain why Nintendo never called me about a job interview? I guess we’ll just never know.

Here at Climate Replay, this game got us stroking our chins and wondering what other games talk about climate change? It could be a large part of the game, or even a bizarre, throwaway moment like this one. Do you know any? Then tell us! We’re working on an upcoming post about the history of climate change in video games and would love you to get involved. You can share climate change moments you’ve spotted in in games on our Discord server or drop us an email at [email protected] with the subject line #hangmario. I mean CLIMATE GAME.

Shall we end on a screenshot of the Twilight Town’s mayor’s incredible oinking after he was turned into a pig? I think we all know the answer to that:

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to let us know what climate change stuff you’ve spotted in your games!

Welcome to Play Games, Save the Planet! A new series where we rave about great games that support good causes, depict the climate fight in interesting ways, or have a fantastic message. Or in the case of today’s game, do all three! Yes, we’re kicking things off with a game so delightful it made me smile, and I’m British. They throw people out of my country for far less. It’s Alba: A Wildlife Adventure!

We’ll take a look at some of the terrific organisations developer ustwo games have gotten involved in. But first, let me introduce you to a game so pretty that my eyes officially aren’t worthy of looking at it…

Out now on Apple Arcade and Steam (and coming to lots of other platforms this year), Alba is the best childhood summer holiday you’ll ever take. Young Alba visits her grandparents on a sun-soaked Mediterranean island. Wait, did I just spell ‘Mediterranean’ right on the first try? Whoa, suddenly my crippling Creative Writing college debts were all worth it! Even if playing this game is the closest I’ll ever come to affording a vacation….

Anyway, Alba soon learns that this picturesque island has a lot of problems. Its decrepit Nature Reserve has clearly seen better days. But instead of fixing it, Mayor Toni has plans to convert it into a luxury hotel. WHAT?!!?!??!?!?!??! >:O

Alba and her friend Inés aren’t going to stand for that rubbish. They found the brilliantly-awkward acronym AIWRL (Alba Inés Wildlife Rescue League) and start petitioning island residents for signatures to prove they don’t want no stupid hotel. You also prove the island is home to all sorts of fantastic indigenous life in need of protection by taking photos and cataloging the animals with a nifty app on Alba’s phone.

Fair warning: getting snaps of all the animals gets addictive. Really addictive. It’s easy to forget what you were meant to be doing because you’re too busy scampering across the island trying to track down that elusive owl you need for your collection. It’s even educational. Thanks to this game I now know that the latin for squirrel is inamabilis sciurus, and therefore I finally feel complete inside. About time!

If you’re playing on iOS, you even move Alba’s phone around to position her camera by moving your phone/iPad. This is, and I’m not interested in any counter-arguments here, clearly powered by magic. I’ve burnt people at the stake for less.

Excellent touch screen controls on iOS make exploring a breeze, and who wouldn’t want to take thousands of photos on an island this pretty? It’s a gorgeous place to explore, all accompanied by the various barks, tweets, and baas of the animals, and a wonderful soundtrack by Lorena Alvarez that’s officially the best thing to happen involving sound since the invention of the ear. 

Having said that, some of the animal design is a little unrealistic. I mean, what the heck is this animal supposed to be?

UGH. Irredeemable JERKS have coated the whole island in garbage! I’d be throwing up right now, if that wouldn’t just make the problem worse. Luckily, the game won’t stand for this. You’re encouraged to pick up the trash whenever you come across it. 

We raised an eyebrow at putting the garbage in bins instead of recycling it, but then Alba’s grandma gave us a recycling bag and we put that eyebrow safely back down. Encouraging recycling is a great moral for a game, especially considering the moral of too many other games is ‘guns solve everything’. Which is… yeah. Not great.

It’s got a witty script, great characters, is super-relaxing to play without being dull (an incredibly tricky balancing act to get right) and anyone who thinks God of War’s Kratos is the most intimidating hero in video games has clearly never crossed the wrath of little Inés:

Who knew recycling, community organizing, helping animals, and rebuilding nature could be so fulfilling? And that writing isn’t fulfilling at all in comparison? Lesson learnt for my next life, I guess. In the meantime, at least I get to enjoy such a warm-hearted adventure. One that my stone heart, covered in a thick layer of lockdown ice, desperately needed. Thanks Alba!

But it’s not just a fun game with some great things to say. The developers also support some fantastic organisations that you can find on their official website. I’m gonna research them now then continue writing this article! Oh no what if they all turn out to be evil 🙁

UPDATE: They didn’t turn out to be evil. Phew!

First off, Alba developer ustwo games have partnered with Ecologi, a tree-planting organization. This isn’t because ustwo games have lost their minds and have started trying to get their game to run on actual trees, like I initially assumed, because I’m an idiot. They’re actually trying to help Ecologi plant 1 million trees!

At time of writing, they’ve already managed 652, 923 trees. Every time someone purchases or downloads Alba, they’ll plant another. So even if you end up hating the game, you soulless monster, why not download it anyway?

Not content with merely helping plant hundreds of thousands of climate-helping trees, ustwo games are also a founding partner in Count Us In. They’re trying to inspire 1 billion citizens to reduce their carbon pollution and deliver global change. Well, as long as all 1 billion readers of this article (I round up) are inspired, that shouldn’t be a problem.

But even that’s not all. Because ustwo games, who, frankly, are just showing off at this point, are also part of the Playing for the Planet alliance, a UN initiative (you can find out more about them by clicking this sentence instead of reading it. Though I concede you could click on it and read it, I suppose).

Finally, ustwo games is a B Corp. That’s not just me trying to insult them and not being able to think of anything good (“haha you’re not an A Corp! Oh God I’m so lonely”). To quote directly from Alba’s website, ‘B Corps are for-profit businesses that meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Through Alba, and these amazing initiatives, we hope to create a measurable positive impact in the world.’

Sounds good to us! What do you think, Inés?

…I was actually more fishing for a compliment on my article. But what the heck, I agree!

You can find out more about Alba, and purchase it, by clicking this sentence and heading to their official website.

Climate Replay is not affiliated with ustwo games. This is just a passionate, borderline-creepy fanpost!

Happy 51st Earth Day! What lovely gift did you get our planet this year to show how much you love it? Nothing? Nothing at all? Hey, same here! Well, we found some flowers left in a dumpster. Earth can have those. Our treat.

Actually, that’s appalling. How about we chuck in a brief history of Earth Day too? That should hopefully be enough for Earth to resist dumping us for another year…

The very first Earth Day took place in the United States in 1970 and not a moment too soon. Because in the decades leading up to it, Americans were breathing in more air pollution from inefficient automobiles and unregulated industrial factories – not to mention that you could advertise cigarettes like this. Basically, if you lived in America in 1956 it was probably healthier to just not bother breathing at all. Remind us to get a doctor to fact check this article later. If there’s time.

So to explain the origins of Earth Day, we’ll have to travel back to 1969! A time before any good video games had been invented. Isn’t that going to be tough, considering Climate Replay is all about using video games to talk about the Climate Crisis? 

…

…No. Not at all.

In 1969, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson managed to tear himself away from Lunar Lander for a few minutes so he could propose the very first Earth Day, a collaboration between government and citizens. This was in the aftermath of a massive oil spill in January of that year in Santa Barbara, California. Literally the only good thing about the tragic Santa Barbara spill is that Mark Whalberg didn’t make a movie about that one. So it’s easy to see why US citizens in 1969 would find a day dedicated to not drowning our planet in toxic gunk so appealing. 

Senator Nelson was inspired by the student anti-war movement. He wanted to combine that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution. And since the kind of energy he’s on about here was completely green, Climate Replay approves! Good work, Senator!

Senator Nelson announced an idea for a teach-in on college campuses to the national media. He persuaded Pete McCloskey, a Republican interested in conservation, to serve as his co-chair and recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist, to organize teach-ins. 

They chose April 22, a weekday that fell between Spring Break and Final Exams. Good idea! That’s also two days after my birthday! What’s that? How is that relevant? Well… it’s not, I guess. Fine. Jeez. We’ll move on.

Denis Hayes recognised that this movement could involve more than just students. Therefore, he built a national staff of 85 people to promote events across America! The name was also changed to ‘Earth Day’, a name that caught on with the national media. Because it’s a good name! Imagine if they’d gone with ‘Soil Day’ or ‘An Earthy Evening with Gaylord, Pete and Denis’. We’d have probably banned them from Earth entirely, and rightly so.

In 1970, the first official Earth Day kicked off! 20 million Americans, 10% of America’s entire population at the time, took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to protest the impacts of 150 years of unchecked industrial development without any consideration of the human and society impacts. Air pollution being bad is a great thing to shout about, because if you start coughing and can’t finish your sentence… perfect! That proves your point! 

Earth Day achieved a political alignment between Republicans and Democrats, and also between urban and more rural populations. And between socioeconomic classes. Awww, look at our species getting along for literally the first time ever! This is something we’re absolutely aiming to achieve with Climate Replay by the way. We don’t care about your income or your background or even if you’re not really a fan of Lunar Lander. This climate fight needs everyone.

Earth Day had a massive impact. By the end of 1970, the Nixon administration had established the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the Clean Air Act. Imagine trying to oppose something called the ‘Clean Air Act’. How would you even make that argument? “I think filthy air is tastier?” “Farting is the only time I feel truly alive?” OK, buddy. You do you.

We’re going to skip forward to 1990 now, and not just because I can’t bring myself to use another 1970s video game screenshot in this article:

In 1990, environmental leaders and Denis Hayes organized for a global Earth Day. Yeah, come to think of it, having a non-global Earth Day does slightly miss the point. They mobilized 200 million people across 141 countries, providing a global stage for environmental issues. Expecting another pithy one-liner? Well TOUGH because we think that’s brilliant!

So that’s Earth Day! It’s widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action and advocacy for better global, national, and local policies for our planet. Why not click here to head to its official website to learn more? Tell ‘em Climate Replay sent ya! Don’t tell them about our dysentery jokes.

Today marks the 51st Earth Day. Let’s try and make sure Earth’s still around for a few more, eh?

Thanks to Frances Withrow for researching this piece.

Dedicated to Mary, who tragically broke an arm in the making of this article.

Hi! My name’s Cory and I’m beyond excited today to kick off the Climate Replay blog by telling you all about… well, Climate Replay! We’re a group of gamers working together to build a sustainable tomorrow, and we’d love for you to be involved.

We have lots of exciting plans ahead, some of which we’re ready to talk about today, and more that’ll be announced in the coming months (what better excuse to sign up to our email newsletter?). First, let me share a bit about us.

Not only is climate change the biggest crisis and most concrete threat to humanity, it’s also the most immediate. According to the IPCC, we have less than 10 years to halve our global greenhouse gas emissions to have a chance at success in mitigating the worst potential outcomes. Scary as this is, it is something achievable. But trying to do it alone would be about as smart as taking on Ornstein and Smough with no batteries in your controller. Which is why we’re organizing gamers through Climate Replay!

Most people want to help fight climate change, but it can be intimidating to figure out what information to trust or which organisations are most effective and worth your support. That’s why we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you, researching and vetting the organisations we’re planning to work with and raise funds for!

The climate movement has had incredible momentum in recent years. We have seen changes in attitude at every level, and actions that are being taken not only make way for initiatives like Climate Replay, but show why organizing together makes a difference. Plus, solar is now the cheapest electricity in history! In fact, our website, provided by game server hosting company Creeperhost, is running 100% on locally generated solar power. Nice! Amazing things are happening, and we want to build on that.

We see an opportunity to use the gaming community as a unifying force in the battle for the health of our planet. Everything we’re doing with that community is built around our three guiding principles: Fun, Inclusivity, and Education.

Fun? Yes, fun! We legitimately want to make it entertaining and engaging to learn about climate change. That’s why we’re putting together articles, videos, and interviews with climate scientists that make the essential climate change facts as fun, informative, and easy to understand as possible. But without being patronizing or sugarcoating the crisis our planet faces.

Don’t want to learn anything but still want to help? Sure… why not! We’re planning to raise funds and awareness for great organizations by putting together fantastic charity livestream events with your favorite content creators. We also have plans for game and art jams that raise funds while also inspiring and enabling climate-positive creativity!

We’re also actively looking for ways to promote sustainability within the gaming industry. 

Do you have more ideas how we can use video games to fight climate change? Want to join a positive, inclusive group of like-minded gamers and get access to the most adorable emojis ever? 

Then come say hi over on our Discord server! Unlike these cute ducks, we don’t bite.

Change needs to be made in all industries, and the gaming industry is no exception. We believe there’s a role for everyone in Climate Replay to help us create that change. Join our community and help us help the planet!