Stop! Bombertime.
Last week, I asked:
Board and card games are the traditional ancestors of the videogame. Many of them have lasted through the ages, unchanged since their conception. There's no need for Chess VIII: Bishop's Last Stand. With the goldfish-like attention span of gamers, could any videogame ever claim such timelessness? Retro compilations do sell, but is there anything that's consistently played, both by old masters and by new generations?
I think the closest we have to a timeless game is Bomberman. It has a simple set of rules, a basic initial set-up, and a countless number of possible endgames. I have been playing versions of it since the Megadrive version in the early 90s (and there are earlier versions still), up to the DS version last year. Each version usually has some sort of pointless single player game, but ultimately, it comes down to the same multiplayer gameplay. It is utterly unique; a genre to itself. It takes seconds to learn how to play, but has enthralled my friends and me for more hours than any other game. And still we keep discovering new tactics, more complex ways to bestow fiery death upon each other, and usually end up unable to breathe from laughter every few rounds.
Posts coming soon:
-Battlefield Vietnam, and the gamer as a virtual psychopath.
-The Pink Assassin.
-Royale Roguelike.
Board and card games are the traditional ancestors of the videogame. Many of them have lasted through the ages, unchanged since their conception. There's no need for Chess VIII: Bishop's Last Stand. With the goldfish-like attention span of gamers, could any videogame ever claim such timelessness? Retro compilations do sell, but is there anything that's consistently played, both by old masters and by new generations?
I think the closest we have to a timeless game is Bomberman. It has a simple set of rules, a basic initial set-up, and a countless number of possible endgames. I have been playing versions of it since the Megadrive version in the early 90s (and there are earlier versions still), up to the DS version last year. Each version usually has some sort of pointless single player game, but ultimately, it comes down to the same multiplayer gameplay. It is utterly unique; a genre to itself. It takes seconds to learn how to play, but has enthralled my friends and me for more hours than any other game. And still we keep discovering new tactics, more complex ways to bestow fiery death upon each other, and usually end up unable to breathe from laughter every few rounds.
Posts coming soon:
-Battlefield Vietnam, and the gamer as a virtual psychopath.
-The Pink Assassin.
-Royale Roguelike.