AP RedMr. Do and my wasted childhood
October 3rd 2008 18:27
I was at the mall last night to buy a shirt or two and I passed by the arcade. The arcade was rather bright with more kiddie type activities.
A mini skee ball game, basketball and the like litter the room. There wasn't one pinball game at all. And about half of the actual video games were racing based or shooting based.
It just has me thinking, is that kind of stuff fun for little kids?
I just start thinking back to the 3rd grade when I got a little more leeway on the time to get back home. That's when the arcade started getting to be part of the routine. And rather than spend time playing wall ball or on the balance beam knocking other people off, I was playing High Speed (pinball) on a mini-ladder or Punch-Out.
But the game I remember the most was Mr. Do. At first glance, the game looked like a Dig-Dug ripoff. And maybe it was. But it seemed to me to play so much faster than Dig-Dug. You had a little ball to kill your enemy, which seemed more "logical" to me than sticking a hose in them and over inflating them. And something about squishing your enemies with fruit that added appeal to me. And setting up the enemy with the path you carved out to squish them with the fruit seemed to be emphasized more in Mr. Do.
I wasted a good 30 minutes a day (usually on one quarter after I got good) on Mr. Do. It never really seemed to get old to me and the only reason I stopped playing was because they replaced it with Street Fighter II. My mom still says that game cost me straight A's. I contend that the teachers I got weren't going to give me straight A's anyway for other reasons. Oh, and for any kids that stumble into this post.....your grades in school don't matter until you get to high school. And you don't even have to do that well if you score high on your SATs. But I digress.
Is there something in the arcade that is any fun to kids anymore? If the console has all the kiddie game development, why don't arcades put classic arcade games in them that might appeal to kids?
Games like Mr.Do and Bubble Bobble seem like they would at least distract the kiddie set for a couple of minutes while mommy and daddy go shopping. Or maybe I'm completely out of touch with that age demo. Oh well.
Next post on Monday
Later
A mini skee ball game, basketball and the like litter the room. There wasn't one pinball game at all. And about half of the actual video games were racing based or shooting based.
It just has me thinking, is that kind of stuff fun for little kids?
I just start thinking back to the 3rd grade when I got a little more leeway on the time to get back home. That's when the arcade started getting to be part of the routine. And rather than spend time playing wall ball or on the balance beam knocking other people off, I was playing High Speed (pinball) on a mini-ladder or Punch-Out.
But the game I remember the most was Mr. Do. At first glance, the game looked like a Dig-Dug ripoff. And maybe it was. But it seemed to me to play so much faster than Dig-Dug. You had a little ball to kill your enemy, which seemed more "logical" to me than sticking a hose in them and over inflating them. And something about squishing your enemies with fruit that added appeal to me. And setting up the enemy with the path you carved out to squish them with the fruit seemed to be emphasized more in Mr. Do.
I wasted a good 30 minutes a day (usually on one quarter after I got good) on Mr. Do. It never really seemed to get old to me and the only reason I stopped playing was because they replaced it with Street Fighter II. My mom still says that game cost me straight A's. I contend that the teachers I got weren't going to give me straight A's anyway for other reasons. Oh, and for any kids that stumble into this post.....your grades in school don't matter until you get to high school. And you don't even have to do that well if you score high on your SATs. But I digress.
Is there something in the arcade that is any fun to kids anymore? If the console has all the kiddie game development, why don't arcades put classic arcade games in them that might appeal to kids?
Games like Mr.Do and Bubble Bobble seem like they would at least distract the kiddie set for a couple of minutes while mommy and daddy go shopping. Or maybe I'm completely out of touch with that age demo. Oh well.
Next post on Monday
Later
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