Fighting Games:

Fighting games came to prominence in the early 1990’s with the release of Street Fighter II. This game was so successful and popular, that over the next several years many copycat versions of fighting games with every imaginable context was created. These games were popular both on consoles and in the arcades.

These games were all action and controls included a lot of button mashing and mastering combinations of buttons to perform advanced moves. The goal is to defeat your opponents in best two out of three matches and advance through either a story mode or tournament mode in certain games.

Some of these fighting games, like Mortal Kombat series, can be somewhat violent and graphic. For this quest, I chose to play Clayfighter for the Super Nintendo. Clayfighter had fun characters made out of clay and cool backgrounds and you got the similar experience as a player. I played as Bad Frosty and won a couple rounds before losing to the muscle guy.

First Person Shooter (FPS) Games:

FPS games are video games typically centered around gunplay or war type games that are in the perspective of the first-person, meaning you are experiencing the game through the eyes of the protagonist (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-person_shooter).

I played around with a couple of the earlier games in this genre, Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, both of which were released on the Super Nintendo around 1992. The games involved you moving throughout a maze, collecting some items and opening doors along the way while facing enemies. The controls were pretty basic, although the rotating and shooting on the keyboard while an enemy is coming at you takes some getting used to. These types of games have evolved over the years and grown in popularity as well as online play is a major component. Modern games in this genre include the Call of Duty and Far Cry series.

These games are not my cup of tea but immensley popular so lots of gamers do like playing them. The first person perspective is different but I enjoy games when you can see more of the background of what is going on around you. Also with the incredible graphics in today’s games the shooter aspect becomes a bit too lifelike and violent I would imagine (we’ve come a long way from playing Contra in the 80’s where you are shooting aliens with 8 bit sprite characters). I might be interested in checking out a World War II or similar type game for the historical perspective, as a simulation. I do not see the educational value of these types of games, especially at the K-12 level.

Racing Games:

Racing games are a type of action game in which the player is participating in a racing competition by controlling a vehicle, common ones being a car, boat or space vehicle. The games involve the player racing against other vehicles, controlled by other players or cpu, and sometimes racing against the clock to finish by a certain time. As these types of games evolved, more obstacles were added in your way and more options for multiplayer became available.

These games can be challenging as you have to combine your speed with making turns and trying to not fall off the track which usually slows you down or you could crash into an obstacle. For this quest, I played Rad Racer for the NES and R.C. Pro Am for the NES. Rad Racer the biggest element working against me was the clock. There are checkpoints along the way in which you can earn more time towards finishing the course. There are trees and signs all along the shoulder of the track so if you veer off course you may hit one and flip your car over which affects your time as you get reset. In RC, you are controlling a 4×4 truck against 4 others and there are power-ups along the way as well as slick spots. The driving controls were much more challenging with the keyboard than they might be with a game controller and the turns were very difficult.

The success of these games as they have grown I think is in the controlability of the driving and the multiplayer aspect. I have really enjoyed playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch with friends and family members as it is just a fun game to play and various components to choose a driver and types of karts to drive. Classroom aspect I can see if there was a game in this context that you added elements like solving math problems or vocabulary/spelling exercises that gave you boosts during the race.

Rhythm Games:

Rhythm games are games that require players to make quick inputs to make things happen and are typically musically themed. This type of game is unique in while a controller or keyboard can be used for the inputs, this genre has seen more creative types of input devices such as a dance mat or guitar. The games require concentration and quick reflexes to be successful.

Just Dance and Guitar Hero are popular commercial games in the genre. For this quest, I went a different direction and explored a couple of games you might find in the classroom as the focus is using the keyboard for letter inputs and locating keys on the keyboard.

Cup Stack Keyboarding is a Rhythm game where you play the game Cup Stacking within the context of typing the correct keys on the keyboard to stack the cups and then unstack them. It takes place in the setting of a picnic with bird chirping sounds when you get one right. There are 4 levels and this game is re-playable with the goal of topping your previous high score.

Typing Rocket is a similar but more challenging game where the goal is to type the letters on the rockets as they appear to make them explode. As you progress the game gets more challenging as more rockets appear more frequently. The rockets do make different sounds and you get a different sound when making a mistake, so a side quest could be strategically choosing the order of the letters you type to make some music as you play. This all happens very fast though so that component is for a more advanced typer. There is a time limit so replay value to beat your previous score applies here too.