FFVII and FFTactics to appear in Smithsonian Art of Video Games exhibit

From now through September 30, you can see Final Fantasy VII and its PS-era cousin Final Fantasy Tactics on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Featured in what’s being called “one of the first exhibitions to explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium,” these and 78 other titles (expect a lot of “Zelda” games) from consoles spanning as far back as the Atari VCS will serve to offer the public a vision of gaming’s roots and its future.

In addition to screenshots and video footage of the games presented, galleries will include video interviews with 20 developers and artists, as well as five playable games selected to demonstrate the evolution of visual capabilities and interactivity. The five selected playable games will be “Pac-Man,” “Super Mario Bros.,” “The Secret of Monkey Island,” “Myst” and “Flower.”

Other than FFVII and FFTactics, other games near and dear to my heart to be featured in the exhibit include “Shadow of the Colossus” and “flOw.” The latter, by the way, is from the same developers as the aforementioned “Flower” and the newly released “Journey” — which, if you haven’t played yet, you need to be playing before you do anything else with your life, including eat, sleep or go to work. Seriously, if “Journey” had been released prior to the selection process for the titles to be featured in the exhibit, it would not only be one of the 80, it would have the spot “Flower” received in the hands-on portion.

Anyway, for a complete list of the selected games, visit this page; and for more details about the exhibit itself (including when and where you can catch it in other cities over the upcoming four years), go here.

Finally, you can check out the Smithsonian’s official trailer for the exhibition on YouTube: