Large Design

Game Design, In Depth

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The SNES port of Gradius III reinvented the classic Konami code as a special code that would give your ship all power-ups, but would also destroy your ship when you unpause, making the code useless. This was worked into the game due to complaints from developers conducting playtests noticing that most players would use the Konami code to easily beat the game, and that the players testing the game had no real skills.

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The Cape Feather was added to Super Mario World after many complaints about the Super Leaf in Super Mario Bros. 3 were received by Nintendo, mostly about how children were eating leaves and that Superman can fly a lot better than Mario.

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Fall damage was added to Xenobalde Chronicles to make the game more realistic, because in a game with future-seeing swords, dinosaurs, flying killer robots, and landmasses made of giant dead gods, I demand more realism.

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King & Balloon had a extra Zilog Z80 microprocessor to allow the titular king to have speech, like “Bye-Bye!” and “Thank You!”. This was added to let the king say words of encouragement, in hopes of getting players to keep trying and put more quarters into the machine.

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Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes is one of many tag-team fighting games to include an extra red layer in the health bar which can be restored by switching out characters. This is meant to make fights last longer, which is what I want. I bought the home console port of this game, and I know all of the moves, so I want these fights to last as long as possible since I know I’m going to beat this sorry kid that just thinks he can button-mash his way to victory.

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The DS version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney implemented a feature allowing the player to present evidence using the built-in microphone, making the player more immersed in the game and also having the player verbally advertise the game to others within earshot.

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The ability to jump was added to Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz because honestly, I’m really sick of those later levels in Super Monkey Ball 2. Maybe, just maybe, if I can jump, I can get past these damn levels made for the most hardcore players and not game design gurus like myself.

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You worked on U.N. Squadron a while ago. Honestly, you really ought to pick up your paycheck sometime soon.

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Adventure encourages the idea of having no idea what to do as a metaphor for life. At least that’s what they say. It doesn’t really matter, you already coughed up $25 for this game.

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The Stage 7 boss in Sparkster sucks.

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The Elf character in The King of Dragons is the worst in this game due to his lack of any defensive equipment and weak attacks. He was put into the game so that the feature of switching characters in-between continues would be used. When the Elf is selected by someone, others playing with that person will encourage them to die, spend another quarter, and pick a better character.

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Minecraft does not have an obvious goal (besides surviving), which allows a lot to be filled in by the player, including how they discover and shape the in-game world.

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The Wiimote and Nunchuk controller was designed to be used in a more physical way, unlike most other controllers. When someone gets frustrated with a video game, they usually throw their controller at whoever they are playing with. The way the Wiimote and Nunchuk are held allows you to physically pummel the person you are playing with, while still having a good grip on your controller.

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A time limit was added in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior which added more points to your score the quicker you finish a match. This encouraged players to try to finish matches quicker, getting them to later stages faster than usual, where the game’s more difficult AI would easily beat the player and get the machine’s owner more quarters.

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Team Rocket’s main purpose in Pokemon Red and Blue is to 1) be a large, unjoinable faction, and 2) to remind the player that being the good guy actually sucks, and the rewards for always doing the right thing and striving to be good are much lesser than the rewards received for doing evil deeds and holding yourself above the law.

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Mike Haggar, the mayor of Metro City (the setting of the game Final Fight) was made a playable character in addition to Cody and Guy in hopes of inspiring real-life politicians to go out and stop crime with their bare hands.