15 Video Game Firsts We Take For Granted

15. First-Ever Animated Cutscene

Video game cutscenes are part of pretty much every single game ever created in the last 40 or so years.

You know what these are - you're playing away, and then the control is taken from you and you're presented with a lovely cinematic bit of story exposition. They've become a gaming essential, particularly as games have got more and more cinematic.

But do you know the first-ever game to actually include an animated cutscene which the player had no direct control over?

Well, it's a game you're more than likely familiar with: Pac-Man. First released in 1980, Pac-Man included a selection of very brief, comical animated cutscenes which would show Pac-Man and Blinky the ghost chasing each other.

Space Invaders Part II, which was released the same year, also used a similar technique for cutscenes. It was just pipped at the post by that pesky portly pill-gobbler.

It's quite far from the massive, big-budget, motion-captured cutscenes we get nowadays, isn't it?