Well pause in video games is actually kinda complicated. By the jak period I had a pause mask (64 bits) that could pause all sorts of independant parts of the g

Well pause in video games is actually kinda complicated. By the jak period I had a pause mask (64 bits) that could pause all sorts of independant parts of the game separately. Particles, Camera movement, texture cycling, light changes, enemies, etc. Sometimes you just want to free the characters in place (and usually enemies and the like) but don't want the whole screen going motionless. For example in Crash, when Aku came out, I wouldn't want to pause the fruit from flying to the score. That would look odd. The Aku pause is to give the player a breather, not just to pause. Also, the real pause brings up the pause menu, which you certainly don't want with Aku.