“Ready Player One” Music Video Goes on a Nostalgic 16-Bit Easter Egg Hunt
It won’t be long until Steven Spielberg brings us the adaptation of Ready Player One, a science-fiction novel written by Ernie Cline, to the big screen, hitting theaters on March 29th. However, GUNSHIP, a synthwave band, has one upped him by releasing their latest video single called “Art3mis & Parzival.” If you’re a fan of the book, this little tidbit should hold you over until the nostalgic eighties pop-culture movie is released.
The British band’s new music video features the characters “Art3mis & Parzival” from the movie, following them on their journey as they fall in love, both inside the virtual world of The Oasis and outside in the real the world. The video opens with a quick explanation of what the world is now like. The year is 2044 and their has been a drastic decline of society. There is only one escape for the youth of the world, The Oasis, which is a virtual reality (VR) world.
Control is being fought over through a contest on The Oasis. 101, a nasty Corporate Power, wants the power for itself, exploiting its reach in order to secure the win and effectively seizing humanity’s last hope of existence in the VR world. Art3mis and Parzival, although separated by thousands of miles, end up being the only worthy challengers against 101. The two play in The Oasis while searching for clues in the massive Easter egg hunt. In addition, they have to fight off 101 minions who just want to watch the world burn and even more so, want to control the virtual world.
The video is a shortened version of the book, which is peppered with a wide range of references from eighties pop culture, such as to movies such as Jaws and TRON and toys like He-Man and Transformers. In addition, the movie cycles through early video game console graphics, bringing VR versions of the graphics to life as Art3mis and Parzival battle it out against the corrupt corporation’s players in 16-bit animation, fighting old arcade style while side-scrolling. Even Cline was impressed with how the eighties synth sound of GUNSHIP corresponds well with the animation style and story line.
Art3mis and Parzival meet while playing a game in The Oasis “Halladay’s Egg Hunt” searching for keys which unlock the next gate by playing obscure gaming consoles such as Sega and Nintendo. The video is full of Easter eggs, such as posters of Duran Duran, Jaws, and Wonder Woman, an X-men comic book, Alien, Toad, He-Man, and Transformer figurines, as well as references to the two playing old games such as Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, and that’s all just within the first thirty seconds. References to other popular eighties culture are peppered throughout the video and the music just makes the whole thing feel nostalgic, taking you back in time.
Even though GUNSHIP’s video doesn’t have anything to do with the movie, it most definitely plays tribute to it. After all, the timing couldn’t just be mere coincidence. The video is a close adaptation of the book, although somewhat shortened; the storyline is still there. It’s really too bad that the song doesn’t have anything to do with the movie, because the synth track sounds right at home with the video. We’ll all just have to wait and see if the movie offers up the same type of music when it hits theaters this March.
