It is French! Created in 1994 per Michel Ancel, Rayman is a world success, with more than 6 million sold plays. The creator of this funny of small catch to the look of cartoon deliberately insufflated human values to him: friendship, respect of nature, non-violence, harmony, as well as a quite French humour! Even in a universe of magic, it has especially recourse to its “natural” resources to conclude its missions. The children adore it because they need heroes who use less the force than the trick. That compensates for their complex of inferiority due to their small size. One finds this frame of mind in the tales since the paddle of times. Houpasiya, for example, a hero hittite, terrace a dragon by the trick in a tale which goes back to 3.500 years!

Hero emblematic of Sega, this blue hedgehog was born in 1991. He engages in incredible sets of tracks and must solve tens of enigmas to reach at the higher levels. Sonic, whose “turbo” shoes enable him to run very quickly, is the Cat boot of modern times… Like the majority of the heroes of video games, it must accumulate a considerable number of magic objects. Not what to be astonished: the use of magic tools (invaluable stones, swords, mirrors, sticks, etc) by the heroes is a constant of all the legends. For the children, it is the training of the significance of the symbols and their value.

Juno, the brother, and Calved, the sister, are twin. One can say that they incarnate the animus typically and animated it, the shares male and female that, according to Jung, each one carries in oneself. With their mascot, the Lupus dog, it is the team of Jet Forces Gemini, charged to defend the Earth of a terrible extraterrestrial invader. Originality? To arrive at the goal, it is necessary to control a team, and either a single character. The children are impassioned by the complex and interminable combat of this play Manichean. The fight between the good and the evil, base of the majority of the legends, is a factor of structuring of the personality, and makes it possible the child to find his own reference marks.

Caution! The first cousins of Pokémon unload. Appeared in Japan and the United States one year ago, Digimon (“DIGITAL Monsters”) have the same characteristics and gain same success as their predecessors. Certain parents wonder about the strange language used in these plays, with sentences like “Tokomon digivolve in Patamon. ” But, since always, the children like to create their own universe by inventing an incomprehensible language with the adults. Like Pokémon, Digimon change while growing, which returns the child to his physical evolution. Common point with many tales where characters change aspect, for example Scandinavian legends where princes and princesses are changed into swan. Because the imaginary one lends to all appearances, therefore with all the metamorphoses.

In spite of its renfrogné air and its worthy age (it has more than 20 years!), Donkey Kong the gorilla is a truth nounours. Its originators equipped it with humour, altruism and team spirit. The children see in him an ideal playmate, an alive cuddly toy which can solve all the problems. In the world of the video games, it is at the origin of the appearance of more or less strange animals, but always sympathetic nerves, like Fox, Yoshi, Gift or Gex. All are objects of projection, because they make it possible the child to test, virtually, the facets of its personality without endangering itself in the real-world, like its manual and intellectual capacities (attention, logic, etc) without fearing the judgement of the adults.

Another sure value of our cultural heritage, which is far from disappearing: the legend arthurienne. Main character of this play: Bradwen, which must overcome many tests to become a knight of the Roundtable. In addition to the historical concern, the play presents an originality: at the beginning, the player must choose if Bradwen is a Celtic or Christian knight. Celt, it will enter the world of the fairies and the magic; Christian, it will follow a more rational way. This decision accentuates the implication of the player in his character. Rather intended for the teenagers, Bradwen represents the prototype of the warlike hero who, in the epic legends, must carry out an initiatory search to discover his true personality, his human values and spiritual, and his place in the world.

No matter what one says some, the appearance of strange creatures resulting from another planets does not make die the heroes of our childhood. In success testifies to the video game Tarzan, the largest sale of Disney Interactive to date, and that of the cartoon, of which more than 1 million cassettes was sold in two months. Of course, this character was re-examined and corrected by Disney. Impetuous, sympathetic nerve, spontaneous and close to nature, it concretizes the tendency natural of the little boys to be climbed with the trees, and represents
the virile force and the human values in which they like to be recognized… for better defending them.

Since 1987, Zelda is the most popular roleplay. Its hero, Link, must achieve perilous missions for the beautiful eyes of the Zelda princess. It is the character to which are identified more the 8-13 years. Initially because it resembles Peter Pan, the child who did not want to grow. Don’t many young boys secretly want to remain children? Then because, in a universe largely inspired of the novels of Tolkien, Link must save its planet of darkness, recurrent theme in many video games and of mythical epopees. This role makes it possible the child to be found, the time of an adventure, in the center of the world. It is the first stage of the process of individuation which, according to Jung, allows, through an initiatory course, to start to leave childhood to reach the statute of adult.

Mario inaugurated, twenty years ago, the plays of “platform” and action, in which a character must traverse labyrinths by collecting magic tools. But how this Italian plumber man with a moustache and fatty, prototype of the anti-hero, did become a star world? With a brother-in-law (Luigi), a beloved (the Pauline princess) and a twin malefic (Warrio), it incarnates the family spirit. He is also the “natural” father of all the characters of plays of action. The children are not identified with him, but rather see it like an accessory grandpa. In addition, it evolves/moves in the typical universe of the tales, like “Alice with the country of the wonders”: to pass from a world (a level of play) to the other, Mario must sometimes cross a mirror. Of universe where all is allowed the children like particularly this kind.

Pikachu is the first and preferred of the 151 Pokémon (there will be of them 100 of more in April 2001!). The children must collect them and educate them by developing their “capacities”. Why such a success at the small ones? Initially because Pikachu is a transitional object. According to the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, the baby, taken of anguish when his/her mother goes away, an object (fabric, nonours, etc) clutches which enables him to overcome the traumatism of separation. Then, because, between 7 and 12 years, appear the first desires of collection. They correspond to the need for the child to classify the elements of the outside world to take possession, a means intellectually of it of measuring itself in the world of the adults.

Nintendo, on GameBoy and Nintendo 64.

SACHA (Pokémon):
The mirror of the personality

The saga of Pokémon rests on a character: Sacha, prototype of the overflowing little boy of energy and curiosity, who incarnates the child himself. As in the majority of the video games, Sacha does not speak, which facilitates projection in the character. The more so as, progressively, this one is equipped with qualities of the player.
The goal is to become the largest trainer of Pokémon of the world. Divided into four categories equivalent to the four elements (water, air, fire, ground), Pokémon must deliver engagements. The winner is not inevitably most powerful, but most astute. The confrontation of the natural elements is an universal principle which one finds in the majority of the legends (“the Queen of snows”, of Andersen). Lastly, to become “Pokémon Master” is developing for the children who are the best neither classifies some nor in sport…

Nintendo, on GameBoy and Nintendo 64.