You know the drill: if you've landed here first, you'll likely want to read Part I (at least), Part II, and Part III. We're continuing our analysis of spatial vectors in opening screens of NES videogames with four more titles dated between 1987 and 1990. The first is the 'sequel' to Super Mario Bros. Title: Super Mario Bros. ...
If you haven't already, please see Part I and Part II of this series. Now that we've established a formal vocabulary, let's take a look at a series of Famicom/NES games that present interesting variations of the patterns seen in Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong. I've arranged these chronologically by their Japanese release date to show how quickly conventions changed between 1985 and 1990. ...
In Part I, I introduced the concept of spatial vectors as they apply to the opening screen of Super Mario Bros. (If you haven't done so, read that article first, or little of the following will make sense.) Before reviewing other NES examples, let's take a look at the original inspiration for the vector concept. The image above is from Joystick, an innovative but short-lived magazine that, as far as I can tell, ...
Poring over NES and Famicom games for the past year and a half has led to a lot of thinking about game design structures, especially those that cue players about how to move through two-dimensional spaces. I was the kid in the 1980s who read through the manual prior to play, but anecdotally I think I was an outlier. Most of my friends wanted to dive in immediately. Boxes were tossed away, manuals lost. Designers had no assurance that their ...
an informal genre survey Pen-and-paper roleplaying games are a fascinating genre, hovering somewhere between storytelling, board games, gambling, genre fiction, and statistics. And thanks to their topsy-turvy status in mainstream culture, they are a genre that must continually revise and redefine themselves. A game played largely through conversation, with few visual aids beyond a character sheet and (maybe) a map and figurines, pales in comparison to the virtual vistas, decorative customization, and orgiastic statistical management of World of Warcraft, despite the ...
For those of you clamoring for links to every Legend of Zelda cold run session in a single post, get ready for satisfaction:
Level-9 is the culmination of all prior level designs—the meta-dungeon, if you will. (The game cues you to its special status audibly; Level-9 is the only dungeon to get a unique soundtrack.) It took me over an hour to complete, so in lieu of turn-by-turn directions, I'll recap the design highlights. There are fifty-four mapped rooms, by my count, plus a few more hidden rooms and subterranean passageways. That's nearly half the size of the entire overworld. Miyamoto and team were ...
I admit that I cheated. The whole purpose of the Cold Run Experiment (TM) is to play Zelda 'cold,' i.e., with no assistance from FAQs, walkthroughs, online guides, etc. I've adhered to this rule as best as possible—years of videogame study have sullied many of the game's secrets—but Level-6 BROKE ME, people. I was dying so consistently that I decided to consult a guide to make sure I hadn't missed a crucial item. But take heart! Though I broke my self-imposed rule, ...
Last time, I picked up the blue ring, but I still don't feel ready to face the Wizzrobes again. With bait in hand, I decide to skip ahead to Level-7. The green dungeon proves far simpler than Level-6. The rooms are filled primarily with boomerang folk and sword-toting skeletons. Along the way, I recover the red candle, which apparently is the 'unlimited' upgrade of the blue candle. Instead of a single illuminating discharge per room, Link can now wield the ...
I have reached an impasse. Level-6 continues to be a bastard. Even with full health, a magic shield, and an upgraded sword, the long string of rooms with spitting gargoyles and blue/orange wizards proves difficult. The one time I make it past the trickiest room (filled with wizards, shield-stealing Like Likes, and sword-stealing bubble-whatevers), I run into mid-level boss Gleeok. The balance breaks down at this point. The wizards are too powerful for Link's current level and Zelda's combat is ...