How do I cite dialogue spoken by a character in a video game?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

To cite dialogue spoken by a character in a video game, transcribe the words you hear or copy the quote from the text box displaying it and enclose the words in double quotation marks. Since there are no markers indicating where in the video the dialogue appears, it can be helpful to give a general sense of where the dialogue appears:  

At the start of Snake Pass, Doodle wakes Noodle up and tells him what’s happened: “The gate . . . the gate is broken! If we don’t fix it, we’ll be stuck here forever!” 

Work Cited

Snake Pass. PlayStation 4 version, Sumo Digital, 2017.

In the example above, since you have introduced the title of the video game in the sentence and since there are no page numbers or other divisions to give, you do not need to include a parenthetical citation. 

If you do not include the title of the video game in the sentence, include the title in a parenthetical citation: 

Toadsworth gives Mario a task: “Master Mario, if you would, cross over to that shore and find some assistance” (Super Mario Sunshine).

Work Cited

Super Mario Sunshine. Nintendo, 2002.

To learn more about creating works-cited-list entries for video games, see our previous post.