Going through a lot of the games that are being made available for the iPhone, many of them appear to be ports or remakes of classic games. On the weekend I spent quite a bit of time enjoying a fairly good reproduction of the classic Space Invaders dubbed Space Invasion. Apparently all you need to do to make a new game is change of few letters. The port of the game is really quite accurate and faithful to the original and is well worth the dollar or two it cost me.
More importantly though, it got me thinking about the sort of games that you would want to take with you if you were going to be stranded on a desert island (not as good as the dessert island which comes with cake and ice-cream). If you had to pick one (reasonably retro) game from each genre and you were to have a permanently charged portable/mobile device – what would you take?
Personally, this is my list:
- Arcade: Space Invaders (made before I was born and still not boring?)
- Puzzle: Tetris (Good ol’ Russian goodness)
- Board Game: Monopoly (not really a computer classic, but a board game classic)
- FPS: Doom II (or Quake 1 – hard to say here…)
- RPG: Pokemon (Cos you will have a long time to catch them all, apparently…)
I would love to hear what your lists would be in the comments below.
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I would also want to chuck in a gambling game, like poker.
And a trivia game such as trivia pursuit, coz I like to expand my knowledge while playing.
Trivia would be cool!
I also vote for Bejewelled, Hexic, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Insaniquarium…. All from MSN Games, back when I had the time to play them
Also miniature golf, pool and online chess would be cool…
Hmm…
Arcade: … I can never get the last one in Space Invaders. Hmm. Missile Command, if the device is touch-screen.
Puzzle: Lemmings. Actually, I downloaded this onto my phone yesterday. Works well.
Board Game: Chess. Actually, no, scrub that: Stratego.
FPS: I never really liked Doom that much. How old is retro? Jedi Knight 1?
RPG: Okay, I’ll agree with Pokemon, preferably Leaf Green or Fire Red (they’re GBA remakes of the original games)
Hmmm, how about the original Duke Nukem, and possibly Heroes of Might and Magic. Actually, scrap that last one – make it Moria or more likely Angband.
I was actually just thinking that… Moria is endlessly entertaining… I have, at various points in my life (usually but not exclusively during holidays) played that game for days….
Good point… but if that’s the RPG, it means losing pokemon…
I don’t actually feel too bad about that as it is random, and in many ways, more varied…
Hmm yeah, good point. I guess then I’d probably choose something else instead of Lemmings, but I don’t know what. The problem with puzzle games is I find them either painfully repetitive (Tetris bores me quickly), or have a definite end…
If you want a /really good/ remake of Space Invaders, Square Enix (who owns Taito) recently released “Space Invaders Extreme” for PSP and DS. Either is US$20, which is incredibly reasonable. The game still has the great Space Invaders gameplay you’re used to, but there are power ups and Invaders that work differently, etc. It’s phenomenal.
Arcade: Guwange. You can’t know how awesome it is until you play it. I would also go with Gauntlet Legends or a fighting game…
Puzzle: Tetris DS, easy.
Board Game:
FPS: Wolfenstein 3D.. I’m sure there are things I’ve yet to find in that game. Perhaps it’s sequel: ‘Spear of Destiny’ as well.
RPG: Since Xenogears isn’t on a portable device just yet, I’ll go with Chrono Trigger (a Super Nintendo remake coming out in November for DS). Maybe one of the Final Fantasy Tactics games… or Shiren… argh, too many choices.