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Mechanics That Changed Gameplay Forever

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the gotta-love-bosses dept.

grammar fascist writes "A feature at 1up.com explores the various gameplay devices that revolutionized videogaming, and you might not believe how simple they are: life bars, power-ups, bosses, and combos make the list. From the article: 'As good as these ideas may sound on paper, they don't always work in execution. Sometimes they don't even make sense. But every once in a while, a game designer comes up with a fantastic concept that engages the player -- and influences the work of other designers.'"

5 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Saving beats all of that.... by happyemoticon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Generally speaking I'm in favor of saving, and when not available, emulator state saving and loading. Of course, I do feel like kind of a hack when arbitrary saving and loading allows me to essentially have infinite lives and ammo, since I can ensure, with scientific accuracy, that each encounter goes perfectly.

    It sort of makes me wonder when the innovation of multiplying the actual length of the game by several times came about. You know, like when you get to the end of one of those really hard, old-school platformers and it tells you, "Actually, you need to play the whole game again - except now you have to finish the whole thing without getting hit once, and in this certain amount of time." This is frequently in those games on the other end of the spectrum - you know, the ones with no saving at all. I prefer a middle-ground myself. I mean, sure, I love RPGs and those rare platform-style games that allow you to save your progress, but back when I was younger, I was really freaking good at Mario.

    These days I actually crave a hard game. When I get my new apartment, I'm planning on buying an Xbox specifically for Ninja Gaiden.

  2. Re:They missed a biggie by Hannah+E.+Davis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The concept of a static image of boobs (particularly fake boobs) as a marketing tool is not limited to gaming, so I don't know if it would qualify as a gameplay mechanic. Boob physics, however... that's an interesting one. It took a long time for the game industry to come up with character models that jiggled in the right places, and I'm actually surprised that they didn't do it earlier. It's not quite as surprising how many... uhm... packages it moved when it was finally implemented, though.

  3. spread shot by fearanddread · · Score: 4, Interesting
    In fact, the only shooters where you're not likely to find the spread shot are those of the first-person variety, like Halo and Quake. Alas, this weapon of mass destruction would simply be too much of an advantage in multiplayer matches.
    I disagree. The rocket launcher in Unreal Tournament had spread-shot capability that was devastating but in no way an unbalancing factor.
  4. Rhythm games...? by AdamTrace · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The earliest I'm familiar with was Parappa the Rapper, but given the whole DDR/Guitar Hero trend, I think rhythm games are a whole genre that shouldn't be overlooked.

    Adman

  5. Balance by owlman17 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Finding the right balance while keeping it interesting is hard. Starcraft is a very balanced game. And its probably why it ranks as one of the best all-time games out there despite its age. Of course, Warcraft and the original C&C also had balance in the sense that they had practically identical units, but Starcraft really makes this interesting. Its almost like playing a 3-way chess with the races. Heck, this could be the chess of the future. And yeah, the best games I ever played were always about gameplay, not graphics, though that helps.