15 Video Game Firsts We Take For Granted
4. Hearts Are Health
Health meters in gaming are something everyone will recognise.
The concept of health points (often abbreviated to HP) is used in thousands of different titles. Whether you're ducking down behind chest-high walls to recover your health, finding useful health packs around the environment to top yourself up or casting Curaga on your characters, gaming and health are synonymous with each other.
There have been many examples of presenting health in gaming like the ones outlined above. However, it's the concept of health being represented by hearts that has become one of the most well-known tropes in gaming.
There's a reason for that - we've been conditioned by the very first game to employ health hearts as a means of measuring our remaining life.
Can you guess what it is? Think a very famous property which uses health hearts. A long running property, with countless games in the series. Stars a little chap in a green outfit. Yes, step forward The Legend of Zelda!
However, Zelda is not actually the first game to use a health meter itself, but rather is the first to use hearts to represent it. Health points come from classic tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons, and were first used in video games based on the D&D property.
The concept of hearts being health has been used in countless games since, including Super Mario Bros 2, Pikmin, Grand Theft Auto, Binding of Isaac and Bioshock Infinite.