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"The Simple Things"

Why is it that some of the most entertaining games are the most simple games?

Tetris. Drop different shape blocks to fill lines so they disappear. Highly addictive.

Bomberman. Walk drop bomb, hide round the corner. Simple enough, but somehow fast and frantic in multiplayer.

So what's next?

Super Monker Ball!

I mean this game you can play one handed, as you don't need to press any buttons to play it! It's just a case of directing the monkey, in his ball, to the bananas.

And yet I imagine it will be one of the most fun games in arcades in the near future, and amongst the most fun multiplayer GAMECUBE titles at launch.

So why is it that these simple ideas are so effective? Is it the pick up and play factor, so you can immediately get into it? Is it the steep, yet invisible learning curve, that keeps you improving at the game, without ever putting you in a position in which you are frustrated because you can't do it?

I was reading about a game earlier, Qix, I believe it was called. The idea of the game is simply to draw boxes, before the 'Qix' touches them. I read about this game, and wanted to play on it more than I want to play some of todays games, with their multiple weapons, and special skills.

I find that in Banjo Tooie you learn so many different abilities, that you forget what you can do! I did. I was a bit stuck, until I remembered what holding 'Z' and 'C-left' together did! It's a fun game, but sometimes I just don't feel like playing it, because it doesn't have that pick-up and play quality.

But Rare being Rare, they've included a number of mini-games, 18 I believe, that are all so wonderfully playable, and so very simple. Shoot at baloons, jump through hoops, collect glowing things on bumber cars, Ah delightfully simple!

Then there's my favourite game I've played this year, Mario Party. Mini-games so simple anyone can pick up and play, yet so very addictive that you'll never get bored of them. Again there's a wide range, from simple button bashers, to counting games, a tank battle, to skateboarding. Simple fun. Bashing buttons, jumping ropes. There's no shoot enemy, switch to print scanner, kill more enemies, chase woman, get stuck in room with poison gas, use grappling hook to escape. I'm not saying that that isn't fun, it isn't always appealing, thats all!

That's why one of the games I looking forward to hearing about on the GAMECUBE is Mario Party 4. Yes I'll get Eternal Darkess, and hopefully I'll love it, but I'm sure it won't have the same pick up & play pleasure that a simple game has. I appreciate the more complex games, and the adrenaline rush they can give you, the excitement of being chased, hiding from enemies, and the thrill of victory, but sometimes I just want an easy life!

Bah, I want my hoverboard.

I can see what you're saying, and that post was meant in a jokey manner. I mean come on, "We're all supposed to be wearing shiny clothes", but the feeling was sincere.

I'm reading about people with Spectrum emulators and the like.
Why? Nostalgia is fun, but why waste the potential of the machines we have, why play old games that just remind you of when you played them as a kid?

You can't go back to that feeling, you're a different person now. I love Barbarian because I havent played it in years. It would maybe suck if I tried it again, which is why I want a remake, not to play it on the original system.

When we played Atari, we liked it. But we were kids, we liked splashing about in mud and watching Play School. We didnt know any better.
But we do now, we have the PS2, Dreamcast, Gamecube, PC (I'm saying ALL platforms have benefits here).
We have the technology, but we also have this notion that "the old games were best"
They were, for the time.
Not any more.

I'm aware that this thread is about simplicity of gameplay, not old games are better but I've got this under my bonnet now and it's bugging me.
Check back for a topic entitled "Nostalgia"

Goatboy wrote:

Luddites. Each and every one of you.

But no, we're stuck with people saying
> "Ooo, the Atari console was cool!".
No it wasn't, I
> thought it sucked when I was 7 and it's even worse now.

No, the Atari didn't suck when it was new. Looking back it was rather simple, but it was fun at the time. Besides, I'm not saying go play Atari, I'm saying that sometimes simple ideas can be highly effective. You don't have to have a complex story and thousands of different weapons. Sometimes 1 man, with bombs, dropping them to blow stuff up is more fun.

Come on
> people, let go of these things, move forward and emerge into the
> 21st century rubbing your eyes and blinking confused as you clutch
> your BBC model B and Donkey Kong LCD games in retro-heaven, whilst I
> zoom about on hoverboards, eat my food in pill form and enjoy the
> latest technology and fads.

And again, not retro games. Super Monkey Ball. Roll the monkey around the maze, collect the bananas, get a high score. Simple idea, yet I bet it's highly addictive, and fun to play.

This simple games can give you an instant dose of fun, that games such as Age of Empires do not. I enjoy playing Age of Empires, coming up with battle plans with which to take out the enemy (usually attacking everything with a swarm of low cost plebs, yes they'll all die, but they'll get the job done eventually, without wasting any of my precious gold). But it's a different type of gaming experience.

Personally I like to have all sorts of games in my collection, from those I can pick up and play for five minutes, to those that demand more time be spent with them, from tactical battles, to simple button bashes.

It's the same with Banjo-Tooie. Once you think you've got the hang of all these controls, the game dumps another one onto you - pretty soon, you get annoyed, sell the game and get £20 for it.

I am also getting annoyed with all these complicated controls and no pick up and play factor, DK64 is one of the worst, Z and left C Z this and Z that, Jesus I might as well have the manual stitched to my hands because a have to look at it every 5 seconds. Goldeneye is simple so is PD, so why cant other games made by rare be as simple as these? I did enjoy DK64 but if you don’t play it for a long while its like trying to learn to ride your bike all over again. Mario Kart 64 is another good example, A to go and B to brake Z fires weapons and the shoulder buttons make you power slide. This is so simple even my mum could play that. (and now she’s better than me. ;p ) Footy sims are quite hard but when you get into them they are great fun. What you also have to consider is that the earlier consoles e.g. NES and the SNES didn’t have as many buttons as the N64 control. Snes had 6 fire buttons and the Nes had only 2, but the N64 has 9! So game developers have to use up the buttons for something or it would be silly. Imagine playing PD with 2 buttons, fire and change weapon. The game would be so unplayable you would throw it into your draw and Cuss at it. :-)

So it isnt always the developers falt but they don’t have to over do it.

I wish that Rare had been thinking "Keep it simple" when they made DK64.

I didn't want assorted moves, weapons, instruments and power ups.

All I wanted want a platformer where you jumped on enemies/platforms. Donkey Kong should only have had access to a couple of jumps and the roll move.

DK64 was a great game but not what I wanted from the Donkey Kong franchise.

Slaveunit wrote:
> I must say I am truely addicted to snake on my mobile
> phone!

Also, does anyone remember an amiga PD game, Bally?

>I think snake is really sad but thats probly coz i can only get about 500 apparently my m8 says if u get 2000 it finishes. I reckon the best amiga game ever ever was magic pockets it was so original who else could have thought about a trendy little dude walkin around throwing mini tornados out of his pocket at giant wasps and monsters and stuff.pretty cool i have just got it for my pc but i cant find out what the codes for the levels are if anyone could help id be grateful .Denzal1

This just goes to prove that graphics aren't everything. Even if a game was brought out on the Ps2, wuth naff graphics, but as addictive as space invaders, people will still flock to buy it!

Meka_Dragon wrote:
That's why one of the games I
> looking forward to hearing about on the GAMECUBE is Mario Party 4.

But what about Super Smash Bros Melee, that looks gorgeous.

Goatboy wrote:
> Ay, and when I were a lad, t'were all but fields round 'ere.


Thats very nice for you.... erm...

Ay, and when I were a lad, t'were all but fields round 'ere.