Concept: Middle aged Italian plumber decides to set out on a journey to battle dragons, save the princess, and eat a whole lot of vegetables. Though Mario has had a number of different games, most of his big adventures have centered around saving Princess Peach (something that can be dated all the way back to the days of Donkey Kong).

In the Present Day: The damsel in distress is a plot point whose time has come. From the early days of the silent movies to comic book heroines constantly in jeopardy, the helpless woman was just a fact of life for much of the 20th century. But these days you are seeing much few weak female rolls, a whole generation of rough and tumble women have broken the media stereotype, and made men fantasize about a completely different damsel.

Even games seem to be shying away from the timid, obedient woman. Not since before Lara Croft have we seen a woman who is really completely helpless, like the early days of Super Mario Bros. These days the woman finds a way of getting out and discovering a much more sinister plan. These days a game like Dead or Alive 3 can feature half a roster of women, whereas only a dozen years ago Street Fighter 2 could only provide one. We are living in a much more sophisticated time, a time where men AND women play games ? so why go out of your way to look like a 1970s newsroom?

Relevant? When you boil it down to the simple damsel in distress plot, Super Mario Bros. doesn't feel very relevant. In this day and age we see plenty of women coming to the aid of the big, strong man. Concept: Specialized soldiers become trapped in large, seemingly abandoned mansion in the middle of nowhere. As the night unfolds the soldiers begin to realize that the house is infested with zombies, giant spiders, and even sharks. Jill, the master of unlocking, will need to keep her wits if she's going to survive a house dead set on killing her. Many point to Resident Evil as the genesis of the survival horror genre.

In the Present Day: Tragedies happen every single day, people die from violent crimes and freak accidents; death sucks. But most horror films (and games, which are guilty by association more than anything) only seem to trivialize the real life terror people face all the time. Imagine being stuck out in the middle of the ocean with no chance of being rescued or fighting to get off of mountain after you've broken your leg. These are real horror stories, ones that don't require Freddy or Jason to jump out and scare us at the worst times.

The only people that know the true horror found in Resident Evil are those who suffer from agoraphobia. This is a game that seems to revel in its claustrophobic atmosphere, the kind of horror that nobody experiences in real life. Sure it's effective, but at the end of the day there is no moral to the story (unless you're one of those people who finds an interesting conspiracy theory with the whole Umbrella Corporation). Like almost every horror film before it, Resident Evil is a great guilty pleasure, but you'd never confuse it with your real world.

Relevant? Absolutely not, the real world can be a lot scarier than zombies or that nasty T-Virus!