#4: ASTEROIDS
Asteroids is one of those games which gets exponentially better the better you get at it. I know this for a fact because it is one of only three games I can think of (including the next game on this list) which I ever considered myself really, genuinely good at.
For a while, it was inconceivable to me that anyone could possibly think that Asteroids was not, by far, the greatest coin-operated arcade game that has ever been. Then I got a chance to see some people play it, and what I saw was a lot of spinning around in the center of the screen, firing almost blindly out into the sea of angular vector shapes, stopping only to hit the “hyperspace” button whenever a rock got too close to the ship.
I can see how, when played in this fashion, the game would seem to be something less than incredible. However, every true Asteroids enthusiast can remember the first time they ventured over to try out that “thrust” button, then did his first “dodge-spin-fire” move. The game changes completely once you break this barrier, and the pure beauty and brilliance of its seemingly simple design begin to be uncovered.
It is still one of the few games in game history which offer the player complete freedom of movement, and the playfield is remarkably big in comparison to your ship, so there’s a lot of that freedom. As much as could be expected from an early video game, for all intents and purposes, you do feel cast out into a huge, uncaring universe to fend for yourself against harsh natural elements (and an occasional alien), and there’s nothing there to save you except for your own wits, techniques and strategies.
Asteroids is still used as training and practice for air traffic controllers, and for good reason. After you play for a while and gain some level of skill, your field and acuity of vision really begin to increase, to the point where while you cannot list one-by-one every rock on the screen, you realize that you instinctively still know where they all are, where they’re going, and what patterns they will take a half-second, a second, two seconds from now. You begin to see the entire screen all at once. Once you attain that level of what can only be called “enlightenment”, you begin to react instinctively. The game experience becomes fluid, as if you are in a never-ending dance with the rocks, and while you realize you are expending no energy thinking about what to do, still your fingers know where to move. The game begins to play you.
It is an exhilirating experience, and one which I believe is unique, definitely in arcade gaming, and possibly in video gaming in a larger sense.
And it still only costs a quarter.
Ice Cream Jonsey