I played my first online games last night. I lost the first one by 100 points, but I won the second game, which happened to be a rematch initiated by the game one winner, 164-163. While my scores were not really noteworthy, much less impressive, the online experience was fun for two reasons. First, I earned a trophy, and it looks fairly straight forward to unlock some more trophy whore goodness. Hooray for trophies! Second, since I was using Berry, and my opponent was using Berry, I learned how to better utilize Berry. I know that sounds crazy, but back in the more civilized golden age of gaming friends would come over to kick your ass in Lock ‘n Chase and you would learn from your beating. Playing HVB online was sort of the same experience.
I always have a good time researching a game at metacritic, and in the case of High Velocity Bowling (HVB) the scores are rather revealing. The review sites give the game a subpar 68% (based on 13 reviews), but the users give HVB a 9.0 (based on 12 votes). The users have spoken; HVB is the bees knees.
You know, these PSN arcade games are basically the analog of most simple iPhone games.
I haven’t bought a single PSN or iPhone game. Just downloaded some demos and free lite versions.
But it’s various gaming podcasts which proclaim them a big deal, for killing time at various points in one’s day.
Oh and forgot to add, a lot of Wii games, like the Wii Sports and Wii Resort Sports stuff are basically mini-games, with one or two basic game mechanics, minimal depth.
Lot of formerly serious gamers seem to enjoy them.
Maybe that’s where gaming is heading.
wco81 – Good points, and sort of a nice counter to my previous rants about why the PSP platform is different than the iPhone. I have paid for a few PSN games – HVB, Super Start Dust HD, 1942, and PixelJunk Monsters and Eden. Also have Calling All Cars (got that for free with Qore subscription).
Most of these are pick up and play type games and they may work OK on a portable platform or Wii, but to some degree I also think they are deeper than what you get on the Wii or iPhone.
Cheap iPhone games have proven that there is a market for quick pick-up-and-play games, but I think there will always be a market for deeper experiences.