Video games, it can be argued, are the medium of the 21st century – the first new medium of expression to come of age since television. The medium is, then, still in its infancy. Our understanding of how games make meaning and how they function as art objects and cultural artifacts is vague and unformed. It seems only natural that critical methodologies applied to other media would be applied to games as well. This is especially true when videogames clearly share some essential characteristics with existing media like movies and television. The auteur theory, genre criticism and industrial analysis have proved useful in those media – in this talk, we will discuss whether they have value in helping us understand videogames. In addition, we will discuss the utility of some unique critical approaches developed and used to enhance our understanding of videogames.