Playing With Power: Great Ideas That Have Changed Gaming Forever from 1UP.com

by Jess Ragan 06.15.2006

More Best of 1UP 2006

ideo games are built on ideas, or "play mechanics," if you will. A game's play mechanics determine both its structure and its rules: how you win, how you lose, and what you can do to stay alive in the face of overwhelming odds. As good as these ideas may sound on paper, they don't always work in execution. Sometimes they don't even make sense. But every once in a while, a game designer comes up with a fantastic concept that engages the player -- and influences the work of other designers.

Innovative play mechanics are the foundation on which great games are built, and they come in three different flavors. First are the Basics: fundamental concepts that have become a part of many of today's games. Handy Features are ideas that may not be absolutely essential to the design of modern games, but which unquestionably enhance the experience. The House of Style is where you'll find play mechanics that add an exciting touch of artistic flair to games. And last of all is Side by Side -- mechanics that allow other players or even computer-controlled characters to enrich the gaming experience.

The following twenty innovations certainly aren't the only great ideas you'll find in games... but they're some of the most important.

LIFE BAR / HIT POINTS

Castlevania was hard enough with life meters... imagine the game with one-hit deaths.

Premiere:
Ozma Wars
Tron: Deadly Discs

Later In:
the vast majority of today's games

The saying "life is fleeting" has never been more true than it is in classic arcade games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, or Defender. In games like these, one mistake is one too many. While the first computer RPGS were more forgiving, granting players a limited supply of hit points, it was a while before action games caught up.

Rather than offering players lives, SNK's Ozma Wars provided them with a supply of energy which depleted after collisions with enemy ships. Similarly, Tron: Deadly Discs on the Intellivision let your computer-generated gladiator get hit a few times, but at a cost to his manueverability. And action gaming was forever changed.

Life bars would become a staple of games on more advanced home systems like the NES. Konami's Castlevania and Capcom's Mega Man gave players a lengthy health meter which let them endure even the most vicious attacks. It's a feature so appreciated by gamers that it continues to be used to this day. Hundreds of titles for the latest systems using life bars to keep players glued to their controllers (rather than throwing them around the room in frustration).

POWER UPS

Without power up mushrooms, he'd just be ordinary Mario.

Premiere:
Pac-Man

Later In:
Under Defeat
Mario Kart: Double Dash

Risk-and-reward is the foundation of any great video game. Is the player willing to put his life on the line for a few hundred extra points, or to impress his friends with a stylish victory? And no risk is more rewarding than a valuable item floating just out of your reach.

Part deadly weapon, part priceless treasure, the power up made its debut in Namco's Pac-Man. The energizers tucked away in the corners of the screen were Pac-Man's only defense against the monsters patrolling the maze. When energized, Pac-Man could eat the monsters, but only for a limited time. This left gamers with a quandary: should they use the flashing pills in self-defense, or was it better to be aggressive and go after all four monsters for a huge point bonus? It's a dilemma that would find its way in countless other videogames, where grabbing a power-up could help you out of a tight jam... or put you in an even more dangerous situation than before.

MAGIC SPELLS

What's a warrior without a wizard to keep him company?

Premiere:
Akalabeth

Later In:
Final Fantasy XII

Casting spells has been a part of gaming even before Atari shipped the first home Pong unit to stores -- it was an important component of Gary Gygax's tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons. Chances were, if you didn't have a wizard in your party to tend to the wounds of the injured and to lay waste to monsters, you weren't going to get far.

It was only logical that when role-playing games made the transition to home computers, magic would come along for the ride. Richard Garriot was the first to cast a spell on the video game industry with Akalabeth. This primitive but ambitious adventure would lay the foundation for his Ultima series, and Ultima would in turn inspire hundreds of role-playing games by Japanese developers like Square and Enix (or rather, Square Enix).

In the beginning, magic was there strictly for strategic purposes. As technology has improved, spellcasting is also a chance to show off a developer's technical wizardry, too. Even a basic spell is often depicted through raging flames that engulf your opponents and sparkling auras that restore your fellow warriors to full health.

BOSSES

Its immense size and wildly flailing tail made R-Type's Doppleganger one of the most feared bosses in video game history.

Premiere:
Gorf

Later In:
God of War
Metroid Prime

Is there anything more exciting in a video game than a fight to the finish with an adversary five times your size? These massive foes, generally referred to as bosses, debuted in the Midway arcade game Gorf. They were the sole original feature in a science-fiction shooter that borrowed liberally from its competitors: the flagship battle at the end was a spectacular pay-off for players determined to claw their way to the end of the game, and redeemed Gorf even when its cavalcade of copyright infringement was ported to home game systems with a stage missing.

Years later, bosses would later become a video game standard, appearing in nearly every action title and side-scrolling shooter of the latter '80s. Time hasn't eroded the appeal of these towering, nearly invincible threats, and developers are constantly introducing new twists to keep the concept fresh. For instance, God of War forces the player to use diabolical traps to put an end to massive mythological beasts like the hydra.

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