Shooter’s Haven

Here’s an important observation about gaming, despite it being completely obvious: Most games are growing increasingly complex, with more and more things you have to worry about to do X, Y, or Z on a single game.

However, it wasn’t always this way.

One game in particular has stood out to me as exemplary in this case (at least as far as games I’ve very recently played is concerned): Star Fox 64.

This game manages to create a fairly simple system for a rail shooter: you move, you can shoot or bomb, hold the shot button down for a charge shot, and boost, brake, and somersault/U-turn (which are specialized enough that you generally don’t need to worry about them). For the most part, you move and shoot. To play through the game, you just have to shoot everything, maybe using a bomb on large enemy mobs or what have you. But…the game manages to hide much more within its charge shot system–if you kill more than one enemy simultaneously with a charge shot, you get a point bonus. If you delve deeper, you’ll note that if you get a certain amount of points on a level, you can earn a medal. However, the game isn’t done there–get all the medals and you get an expert mode to extend the game’s life. However, even with that conquered, the charge shot system still taunts you. You KNOW you can get an extra few points from this location here, or what have you. The scoring draws you back in for repeated plays–yet the game hides enough things that you have to study the levels to figure out the best routes, the best strategies for high scoring play.

These games are sorely missed by yours truly in the modern gaming world, as many companies instead opt for games with ridiculous amounts of unlockables, and fail to make a game that’s not only fun to play in its own right, but also gives you something to shoot for.

Once Lead Curtain comes out, expect me to put forth my best efforts at making a game that’s easy enough to grasp at the surface, but horrendously difficult to truly MASTER and play PERFECTLY. In other words, the Aristieluan War, my pet shooter project for the kit will be both accessible and maddeningly good at drawing your latent obsessive-compulsiveness, at least regarding scoring tendencies. At the very least, that’s my aim, one I intend to fulfill.

After all…these days a skill contest is almost novel in its own right.

Just some food for thought.

~EI