Germs, Fevers and Video Games

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By Ravenhawk | October 19, 2006

Alas, a week into my blog and already I’m making a post late. I do, however, have an excuse; Over the weekend I came down with a bit of a cold. I had a fever, sore throat, etc. etc. But it did give me a rather interesting insight that I thought I’d share. My post I had planned for tuesday will be bumped to saturday.

Generally its figured that if you’re sick, video games are a good way to spend your time. There really are certain types of games that are greatly preferable to others, though.
Games that require good strategic skills are out the window. I attempted to play puzzle pirates during my fever high. Due to my inability to plan out good combos, my swordfighting dropped two levels from Ultimate..
I tried DDR, but that was just stupid.
All in all, I would say that older games seem better suited to the restful, sick-person, game play than newer ones. This comparison being made between my Playstation 2 and my snes.

Take a nice platformer example. Classic lazy gameplay, right? Mario is wonderful game to play when you want something easy. So was most of Donkey Kong. (The end of the game kicked my ass.)
Jack and Daxter? Ratchet and Clank? Not so much. They threw all kinds of Puzzles in. Which when the brain is healthy and functioning is just dandy. Adds a bit more depth to the game.

For the sake of not rambling, I shall wrap things up. Basically this post is my excusing myself for failing to post yesterday. But I am mostly recovered now, naught but a few sniffles, a very red nose, and a low fever remaining.

Coming up saturday: Game Making and the Importance of the Design Document