Classic Arcade Games

Golden Axe

Golden Axe was a classic side scrolling beat'em up from 1988. The game is set in a fantasy genre when the player can play as a dwarf, a barbarian or an amazon warrior. It was fairly standard stuff for its time game play wise, but achieved huge success for its unique setting and style. Myself and a friend loaded this classic up and played some two player games. Most of the fun was laughing at the antiquity of the game. It hasnt aged that badly but by modern standards it simply cannot compare in terms of immersion or variety (basically its the same thing over and over again). Narrative was of the "Go to X and save Y" variety that was typical of this style of game but any kind of narrative would have been largely superfluous.

Pac Man

Even when I was a kid playing ports of Pac Man on the C64 I did not have a great love for this game. The game is so simple that I find it unengaging and cannot hold my interest for more than a few minutes. Immersion and Narrative are completely absent (and would not make sense if they were present) so the only reason to keep playing is to attain a higher score. For its time Pac Man was a great game (though there was not a lot of competition) but I think it became redundant once the home gaming market took off.

Ghosts N Goblins

This is an arcade game for 1985 which I really enjoyed when I was young. Even though the game is only slightly more complex then the likes of Pac Man, its still enjoyable and challanging (I couldnt get anywhere near as I could as a kid). The story is similar to that of Golden Axe and many other games or the era, ie Rescue X from Y (see Mario, Zelda, Streets of Rage, Kung Fu etc etc), and again is irrelevant to the game. The gameplay it self is a blend of side scrolling platform games and shoot'em ups, which was quite original at the time. The player plays as a nameless hero Knight and must battle through zombies and demons to the castle and rescue the missus. Standard stuff, but still quite enjoyable (for short periods at least, this is one hard game).