Popular pleasures: Sharpening the tools for a popular aesthetic in video game criticism

Abstract

What is the purpose of popular aesthetics in video game criticism? This overarching question will serve as a starting point in this article, which is an attempt to bring the focus of game studies back to popular aesthetics in general and the aesthetic category of ‘cuteness’ in particular. As popular media pose problems for established aesthetic theories, I want to explore the most classical of all aesthetic theories, Immanuel Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment, in order to point towards the possibility of a popular aesthetic. The aesthetic judgement of cuteness, more concretely Yoshi’s Crafted World’s cuteness, guides us through this reflection. Cuteness finds its place as ‘impure’ beauty, characterized by a specific constellation between the agreeable, useful and beautiful. By interrogating the strengths and weaknesses of Kant’s aesthetics, I identify three points to carve out a popular video game criticism in the future: (1) the role of the body for sensory cognition, (2) the question of aesthetic form and (3) the emphasis on popular pleasures.