Retro Game Review - Hopefully Hopefully Final!

Retro Game Review

I am going to be doing a retro game review on Zaxxon, this was originally released as an Arcade game in 1982 by Sega. It was hugely popular on release as it was one of the first games to try and create a 3d look rather than a top down 2d approach. Zaxxon is both single and multiplayer, Players could take it in turns to play and the person with the highest score at the end of their turn would be the winner.

The purpose of reviewing a retro game is they are fairly basic which will allow me to examine the core mechanics of the game without getting carried away with the complex Aesthetics’ which are more predominant in current games.

To start with I think it will be a good idea to explain the basic concept of the game, The player controls a spaceship and must navigate their way through an isometric castle world, whilst doing this the player must defeat numerous enemies, dodge attacks from turrets and shoot fuel canisters to replenish their fuel level, on top of all this the player must adjust their height so they don’t fly into any obstacles, there is a small break in between the 2 different sections where the player would be put into a space shoot out and must struggle to stay alive against hordes of enemy ships. The game is over when a player has lost all their lives (by dying, for example being shot, running out of fuel, crashing into a wall) or they have beaten the giant robot at the end of the second section.

Intention

“Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options.” (Doug Church, 1999, Page 4)

My understanding of what Doug Church has written is that a player must have everything presented to them, so they know what they are and aren’t capable of within the game world, Zaxxon does this fairly well, upon first playing it is obvious that you continually move forward on your own and that you must control your height and your movement left to right. The player will either realise this when they see the height level metre on the left hand side of the screen, or when they crash into the first wall and die. I believe the first part of the game was created like this so that the player learns quickly what options they have open to them and so they can therefore advance through the game.

I believe that the mechanic of the ship moves forward on its own is good since it is 1 less thing for the player to focus on as adding too much may make the game too difficult, however it would be interesting to see how much the game experience changes if the player was able to control their forwards and backwards movement.  

Perceivable Consequence

“A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player.” (Doug Church, 1999, Page 4)

I like what Doug Church has written and I think it is one of the most interesting points in his article, a player must understand when they do something correctly that it was correct, also they must understand that when they do something wrong that it was wrong and it has a negative effect on their ability to play the game. Some things in Zaxxon are very clear on effects they have to the game play, a player will quickly find out that when they get hit by an enemy that they will die and lose a life, this is obviously a negative effect that the game is presenting to the player as if to say “don’t let that happen”

However I have another view on what Doug Church has written, I agree that a game having Perceivable Consequence is a good thing however, in some cases I believe it can add to the player’s experience if the game doesn’t clearly state that what they did was wrong, I believe that if a player figures out that something was wrong or a bad decision on their own then they get a higher sense of accomplishment.

Story

"The narrative thread, whether design-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward towards completion of the game" (Doug Church, 1999, Page 5)

Placing Story into something like Zaxxon is slightly difficult however thanks to Doug Church’s description of Story I believe I can explain it, there isn’t a Story in the sense that character’s say dialogue and the game plays out because of this, that would be Design-driven story, it would be built into the game, however Zaxxon has a more player-driven story, the decisions the player makes alter how the rest of the game will play out, so the story in Zaxxon is how and why the enemies are killed, the path that the player takes and the way the game unfolds because of the actions of the player.

I think that the fact Zaxxon doesn’t have a design-driven story is a bit negative, Zaxxon doesn’t explain anything to do with the ship or the environment, In my opinion it would be better to have a small amount of narrative, not necessarily spoken but something explaining a little bit about the ship, the character flying it or the world which you are in.

Challenge

“challenge is created by things like time pressure and opponent play” (Robin Hunicke, 2004, Page 3)

My understanding of what Hunicke has written is that a game doesn’t have challenge, it has elements and mechanics which add challenge to a game, for example in Zaxxon challenge arises from controlling your fuel level, killing your enemies and getting the maximum amount of points that you can. To remove something such as the mechanic of fuel level would remove a lot of the challenge of the game, the player wouldn’t have to decide whether they should go for this fuel canister and miss out on killing the enemy or they could opt for skipping the next fuel canister in order to kill X amount of enemies and get more points.

Zaxxon is basically spot on with the difficulty of the game (the amount of challenge) if Zaxxon was too difficult it would be frustrating, however if the difficulty level was made a lot lower (providing an easier game) then the game would be seen as too simple and boring. In this respect I think Zaxxon has done it just right.

Interactive Entertainment

““game”: an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.”(Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 24)

The above statement made by Greg Costikyan is (in my opinion) brilliant however it doesn’t make much sense unless I can relate each point to the game Zaxxon, relating the statement on its own would be too difficult so I am going to break it down into the key words and points.

-Structure

“the interaction of the game’s rules, components, software, etc. create a structure within which people play.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 17)

The structure of Zaxxon is a collection of some of the points I explained earlier (but not limited to what I have said) some of the different components are; the different enemies, the fuel canisters, etc. There are the rules of Zaxxon (what the player is allowed and not allowed to do) the rule of maintaining your fuel level, the rule that if you crash or get shot you lose a life.

-Endogenous Meaning

“A game’s structure creates its own meanings. The meaning grows out of the structure; it is caused by the structure; it is endogenous to the structure.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 22)

Costikyan makes an interesting point and to my understanding he means that something that is vital, has value or meaning in a game doesn’t mean anything outside of the game. For example the fuel canisters in Zaxxon are vital to the game and the player, they need them to progress, but when taken out of the game they don’t mean anything. In the real world the fuel canisters in Zaxxon don’t mean anything so they rely on the game to give them meaning.

-Struggle

“Competition is one way of make a game a struggle.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 15)

Zaxxon includes struggle by having competition, the competition is the enemies, the navigation of the world, etc without these there would be no competition, and therefore no struggle, this would make Zaxxon an interactive story, but not a very interesting one.

Competition is also added because of the 2 player aspect (1 player sets a high score, the next player has to attempt to beat it)

“there can be no game without struggle. A game requires players to struggle interactively toward a goal.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 17)

I believe this quote backs up what I have already said about Struggle, however I need to explain one final point for this to fully make sense.

-Goal

“The basic transaction we make with games is to agree to behave as if achieving victory is important, to let the objective guide our behaviour in the game. There’s little point, after all, in playing a game without making

that basic commitment.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 12)

My understanding of what Costikyan has said is that when we play a game our decisions and actions should be made with the intent of reaching the goal, with Zaxxon there is 1 main obvious goal which is to beat the robot at the end and finish the game. However I think there is another goal which can also change how the game is played, A player may decide that they wise to break a high score or gain a certain amount of points, the obvious way to do this is to kill as many enemies as possible and to use every available mechanic to gain points, since you gain a large amount of points from killing the robot at the end and thus ending the game, you could say that this is part of the main goal of the game. I however wanted to raise it as a separate point as I think it has a dramatic result on how the player experiences the game.

To finish I would like to repeat myself and Greg Costikyan from earlier in this review;

““game”: an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 24)

Now I can hopefully explain that;

Zaxxon is a game where you control your spaceship through different sections of a space landscape, the key elements which are important to the game are; maintaining your fuel level, killing enemies, advancing through the landscape without crashing, killing the final robot and maybe even getting the highest high score.

Bibliography

Author: Robin Hunicke

Article Name: MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
Year of Publication:  2004

Author: Doug Church

Article Name: Formal Abstract Design Tools
Year of Publication:  1999

Author: Greg Costikyan

Article Name: I have no words, I must design

Year of Publication: 2004

Retro Game Review - Hopefully Final!

Here is what will hopefully be my final version of my Retro Game Review, this will be edited depending on feedback
Thanks
Luke

Retro Game Review

I am going to be doing a retro game review on Zaxxon, this was originally released as an Arcade game in 1982 by Sega. It was hugely popular on release as it was one of the first games to try and create a 3d look rather than a top down 2d approach. Zaxxon is both single and multiplayer, Players could take it in turns to play and the person with the highest score at the end of their turn would be the winner.

The purpose of reviewing a retro game is they are fairly basic which will allow me to examine the core mechanics of the game without getting carried away with the complex Aesthetics’ which are more predominant in current games.

To start with I think it will be a good idea to explain the basic concept of the game, The player controls a spaceship and must navigate their way through an isometric castle world, whilst doing this the player must defeat numerous enemies, dodge attacks from turrets and shoot fuel canisters to replenish their fuel level, on top of all this the player must adjust their height so they don’t fly into any obstacles, there is a small break in between the 2 different sections where the player would be put into a space shoot out and must struggle to stay alive against hordes of enemy ships. The game is over when a player has lost all their lives (by dying, for example being shot, running out of fuel, crashing into a wall) or they have beaten the giant robot at the end of the second section.

Intention

“Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options.” (Doug Church, 1999, Page 4)

My understanding of what Doug Church has written is that a player must have everything presented to them, so they know what they are and aren’t capable of within the game world, Zaxxon does this fairly well, upon first playing it is obvious that you continually move forward on your own and that you must control your height and your movement left to right. The player will either realise this when they see the height level metre on the left hand side of the screen, or when they crash into the first wall and die. I believe the first part of the game was created like this so that the player learns quickly what options they have open to them and so they can therefore advance through the game.

Perceivable Consequence

“A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player.” (Doug Church, 1999, Page 4)

I like what Doug Church has written and I think it is one of the most interesting points in his article, a player must understand when they do something correctly that it was correct, also they must understand that when they do something wrong that it was wrong and it has a negative effect on their ability to play the game. Some things in Zaxxon are very clear on effects they have to the game play, a player will quickly find out that when they get hit by an enemy that they will die and lose a life, this is obviously a negative effect that the game is presenting to the player as if to say “don’t let that happen”

Story

"The narrative thread, whether design-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward towards completion of the game" (Doug Church, 1999, Page 5)

Placing Story into something like Zaxxon is slightly difficult however thanks to Doug Church’s description of Story I believe I can explain it, there isn’t a Story in the sense that character’s say dialogue and the game plays out because of this, that would be Design-driven story, it would be built into the game, however Zaxxon has a more player-driven story, the decisions the player makes alter how the rest of the game will play out, so the story in Zaxxon is how and why the enemies are killed, the path that the player takes and the way the game unfolds because of the actions of the player.

Challenge

“challenge is created by things like time pressure and opponent play” (Robin Hunicke, 2004, Page 3)

My understanding of what Hunicke has written is that a game doesn’t have challenge, it has elements and mechanics which add challenge to a game, for example in Zaxxon challenge arises from controlling your fuel level, killing your enemies and getting the maximum amount of points that you can. To remove something such as the mechanic of fuel level would remove a lot of the challenge of the game, the player wouldn’t have to decide whether they should go for this fuel canister and miss out on killing the enemy or they could opt for skipping the next fuel canister in order to kill X amount of enemies and get more points.

Interactive Entertainment

““game”: an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.”(Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 24)

The above statement made by Greg Costikyan is (in my opinion) brilliant however it doesn’t make much sense unless I can relate each point to the game Zaxxon, relating the statement on its own would be too difficult so I am going to break it down into the key words and points.

-Structure

“the interaction of the game’s rules, components, software, etc. create a structure within which people play.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 17)

The structure of Zaxxon is a collection of some of the points I explained earlier (but not limited to what I have said) some of the different components are; the different enemies, the fuel canisters, etc. There are the rules of Zaxxon (what the player is allowed and not allowed to do) the rule of maintaining your fuel level, the rule that if you crash or get shot you lose a life.

-Endogenous Meaning

“A game’s structure creates its own meanings. The meaning grows out of the structure; it is caused by the structure; it is endogenous to the structure.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 22)

Costikyan makes an interesting point and to my understanding he means that something that is vital, has value or meaning in a game doesn’t mean anything outside of the game. For example the fuel canisters in Zaxxon are vital to the game and the player, they need them to progress, but when taken out of the game they don’t mean anything. In the real world the fuel canisters in Zaxxon don’t mean anything so they rely on the game to give them meaning.

-Struggle

“Competition is one way of make a game a struggle.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 15)

Zaxxon includes struggle by having competition, the competition is the enemies, the navigation of the world, etc without these there would be no competition, and therefore no struggle, this would make Zaxxon an interactive story, but not a very interesting one.

Competition is also added because of the 2 player aspect (1 player sets a high score, the next player has to attempt to beat it)

“there can be no game without struggle. A game requires players to struggle interactively toward a goal.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 17)

I believe this quote backs up what I have already said about Struggle, however I need to explain one final point for this to fully make sense.

-Goal

“The basic transaction we make with games is to agree to behave as if achieving victory is important, to let the objective guide our behaviour in the game. There’s little point, after all, in playing a game without making

that basic commitment.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 12)

My understanding of what Costikyan has said is that when we play a game our decisions and actions should be made with the intent of reaching the goal, with Zaxxon there is 1 main obvious goal which is to beat the robot at the end and finish the game. However I think there is another goal which can also change how the game is played, A player may decide that they wise to break a high score or gain a certain amount of points, the obvious way to do this is to kill as many enemies as possible and to use every available mechanic to gain points, since you gain a large amount of points from killing the robot at the end and thus ending the game, you could say that this is part of the main goal of the game. I however wanted to raise it as a separate point as I think it has a dramatic result on how the player experiences the game.

To finish I would like to repeat myself and Greg Costikyan from earlier in this review;

““game”: an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle toward a goal.” (Greg Costikyan, 2004, Page 24)

Now I can hopefully explain that;

Zaxxon is a game where you control your spaceship through different sections of a space landscape, the key elements which are important to the game are; maintaining your fuel level, killing enemies, advancing through the landscape without crashing, killing the final robot and maybe even getting the highest high score.

Bibliography

Author: Robin Hunicke

Article Name: MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
Year of Publication:  2004

Author: Doug Church

Article Name: Formal Abstract Design Tools
Year of Publication:  1999

Author: Greg Costikyan

Article Name: I have no words, I must design

Year of Publication: 2004

Retro Game Review - Attempt 1

Here is my work in progress Game Review

Enjoy!






Retro Game Review

I am going to be doing a retro game review on Zaxxon, this was originally released as an Arcade game in 1982 by Sega. It was hugely popular on release as it was one of the first games to try and create a 3d look rather than a top down 2d approach.

The purpose of reviewing a retro game is they are fairly basic which will allow me to examine the core mechanics of the game without getting carried away with the complex Aesthetics’ which are more predominant in current games.

To start with I think it will be a good idea to explain the basic concept of the game, The player controls a spaceship and must navigate their way through an isometric castle world, whilst doing this the player must defeat numerous enemies, dodge attacks from turrets and shoot fuel canisters to replenish their fuel level, on top of all this the player must adjust their height so they don’t fly into any obstacles, there are small breaks in between different sections where the player would be put into a space shoot out and must struggle to stay alive against hordes of enemy ships. The game is over when a player has lost all their lives (by dying, for example being shot, running out of fuel, crashing into a wall)

Intention

“Making an implementable plan of one's own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and one's understanding of the game play options.” (Doug Church, 1999, Page 4)

My understanding of what Doug Church has written is that a player must have everything presented to them, so they know what they are and aren’t capable of within the game world, Zaxxon does this fairly well, upon first playing it is obvious that you continually move forward on your own and that you must control your height and your movement left to right. The player will either realise this when they see the height level metre on the left hand side of the screen, or when they crash into the first wall and die. I believe the first part of the game was created like this so that the player learns quickly what options they have open to them and so they can therefore advance through the game.

Perceivable Consequence

“A clear reaction from the game world to the action of the player.” (Doug Church, 1999, Page 4)

I like what Doug Church has written and I think it is one of the most interesting points in his article, a player must understand when they do something correctly that it was correct, also they must understand that when they do something wrong that it was wrong and it has a negative effect on their ability to play the game. Some things in Zaxxon are very clear on effects they have to the game play, a player will quickly find out that when they get hit by an enemy that they will die and lose a life, this is obviously a negative effect that the game is presenting to the player as if to say “don’t let that happen”

Story

"The narrative thread, whether design-driven or player-driven, that binds events together and drives the player forward towards completion of the game"(Doug Church, 1999, Page 5)

Placing Story into something like Zaxxon is slightly difficult however thanks to Doug Church’s description of Story I believe I can explain it, there isn’t a Story in the sense that character’s say dialogue and the game plays out because of this, that would be Design-driven story, it would be built into the game, however Zaxxon has a more player-driven story, the decisions the player makes alter how the rest of the game will play out, so the story in Zaxxon is the enemy that are killed, the path that the player takes and the way the game unfolds because of the actions of the player.



Challenge

“challenge is created by things like time pressure and opponent play” (Robin Hunicke, 2004, Page 3)

My understanding of what Hunicke has written is that a game doesn’t have challenge, it has elements and mechanics which add challenge to a game, for example in Zaxxon challenge arises from controlling your fuel level, killing your enemies and getting the maximum amount of points that you can. To remove something such as the mechanic of fuel level would remove a lot of the challenge of the game, the player wouldn’t have to decide whether they should go for this fuel canister and miss out on killing the enemy or they could opt for skipping the next fuel canister in order to kill X amount of enemies and get more points.

Bibliography

Author: Robin Hunicke

Article Name: MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research
Year of Publication:  2004

Author: Doug Church

Article Name: Formal Abstract Design Tools
Year of Publication:  1999