The impending Mother’s Day got me thinking about games and mothers. Now, we all know

"Her death has a dramatic impact on Bambi and us as viewers"

that mothers and games generally go together like Jordan and Germaine Greer. I think it’s fair to say that not many mothers play games and who can blame them, when they’re burdened with the responsibility of bringing up the next generation. But what really concerns me is the lack of mothers in games. You don’t have to dig very deep to see that the role of ‘giver of life’ has been completely sidelined in the world of games.

Mothers have been celebrated since the beginning of humanity. We only need to look at art and literature to see our appreciation of the maternal ones. Of course the most celebrated mother is Madonna – that’s mother of Jesus Christ as opposed to ‘Like a Virgin’ pop idol. Shakespeare’s Hamlet gave us one of the greatest mothers in literature and where would we be without the Greek tragedy, ‘Oedipus’ and the eponymous hero’s ill-fated affair with his own mother?

Of course the game industry’s favourite source of inspiration is Hollywood, but we’ve even left this fertile ground untouched, despite it giving us some of best mothers ever. The first movie mother most of us encounter is in ‘Bambi’. As we all know, she doesn’t last long, however her death has a dramatic impact on Bambi and us as viewers, bringing us face to face with life’s one great certainty for the first time. Thankfully, ‘Dumbo’ makes things better, with the gentle, caring mother who lasts throughout the movie.

Films such as ‘Hideous Kinky’ and ‘Panic Room’ present the strong, defiant mother, with Kate Winslet and Jodi Foster stepping capably into these roles time and again. Similarly, Angelica Houston plays the long-suffering mother of ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ with aplomb.

While being maternal and caring is all well and good, some of the most memorable mothers in films are those that would probably have their kids taken away by social services. We only need to look at Hitchcock for the creepiest mum ever in ‘Psycho’. We don’t see her, but feel the all powerful essence of mother and we’ve all felt that, although it’s never driven us to become a serial killer at a motel.

Now don’t go thinking that mothers are restricted to melodrama, family films and the odd bit of

"Sarah Connor is the next don’t mess mom on the list"

horror. Far from it. The less than subtle sub-text of ‘Aliens’ provides us with one of the best mother on mother battles, complete with kick- ass guns and that killer line “get away from her, you bitch”. The movie is one big battle to the death to protect their young and shows how the role of mother can make the leap from ‘made for TV’ drama.

Sarah Connor is the next don’t mess mom on the list and although I don’t expect she’d be very good at making you a pirate outfit for that Halloween party at Ralph’s, she’d sure as hell make sure you could strip an AK-47 by your 14th birthday. Ultimately, everything Sarah Connor does is out of love for and the drive to protect her son. Even Jonny Rambo had a paternal moment, so why is this most potent of human motivations completely overlooked by games?

Take a brief look through games past and present and you will see a complete absence of mother figures. Sure, you may come across the odd incidental mother in a ‘Final Fantasy’ style RPG, but nothing of note. Surely a mother’s drive to protect her child is one of the most fundamental instincts we know and could be the motivation of a slew of gaming heroines.

Maybe we need to take more queues from the likes of ‘Bambi’ and ‘Lolita’ in examining the role mothers play in shaping us as human beings, thus bringing real depth and emotion to the stories games tell. After all, if games really are art, this is one part of the human condition we can’t continue to overlook.