Pong Review [PC]
It's the big one. The one everybody has heard about. This Oscar-winning game released for the savior of the game industry, the Dreamcast, in 1985 by Sony (hot on the heels of its Mario success) is often considered the “last true videogame”. Today, games get you wrapped up in story, cheesy dialogue, and good graphics, and it was also a trend becoming increasingly common before the timely release of Pong for the Genesis. This was a game that wanted to challenge our preconceptions in a time when that had never happened. Gone were the graphics of yesteryear, and in their place was the arthouse minimalism of this classic.
The story at first seems simple. Two bars are battling it out to not let the ball pass by them, and should one let it pass, the other person gains a point. This was the simple, revolutionary storytelling that the game became known for. Mario, released ten years earlier and often considered the only decent game so far before Pong debuted on the Commodore 64, looked like a pandering mess of overcomplicated storytelling, so caught up in its own affairs that its multiple plotholes shown through within the first level. This story was a refreshing round of simplicity that let you catch your breath before you became enthralled in the intrinsic story hiding beneath its many layers.
The graphics, however, were awful. They were rife with clutter and just entirely unnecessary. Perhaps compensating for something, the bar on either side were multiple pixels wide, when a single, understated line of 1 pixel would have clearly sufficed. The pong ball and the scoring were much too round, trying to show off the fancy new graphics that came along with the console it premiered on, the Neo Geo.
The gameplay, is where this game really earned its Oscar from. It was two players, a revolution in a time when Mario was a simple one player endeavor that always had you mysteriously changing color, and they were put in fierce head to head combat of hitting the puck. Truly, playing this game was a riveting experience only matched by some of gaming's other greatest achievements that had been released years prior, such as The Last of Us or Bioshock Infinite.
While not perfect all around, this is a 1985 classic that defined the landscape of videogames as we know it and almost saved us from the horrors of gaming's past with it's debut on Wii U.
Gameplay......................8
Graphics.......................-5
Compatibility.............10
Sound.............................5
Story.............................10
Overall..........................23
Pick it up on Steam-- if you dare...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/206145/
The story at first seems simple. Two bars are battling it out to not let the ball pass by them, and should one let it pass, the other person gains a point. This was the simple, revolutionary storytelling that the game became known for. Mario, released ten years earlier and often considered the only decent game so far before Pong debuted on the Commodore 64, looked like a pandering mess of overcomplicated storytelling, so caught up in its own affairs that its multiple plotholes shown through within the first level. This story was a refreshing round of simplicity that let you catch your breath before you became enthralled in the intrinsic story hiding beneath its many layers.
The graphics, however, were awful. They were rife with clutter and just entirely unnecessary. Perhaps compensating for something, the bar on either side were multiple pixels wide, when a single, understated line of 1 pixel would have clearly sufficed. The pong ball and the scoring were much too round, trying to show off the fancy new graphics that came along with the console it premiered on, the Neo Geo.
The gameplay, is where this game really earned its Oscar from. It was two players, a revolution in a time when Mario was a simple one player endeavor that always had you mysteriously changing color, and they were put in fierce head to head combat of hitting the puck. Truly, playing this game was a riveting experience only matched by some of gaming's other greatest achievements that had been released years prior, such as The Last of Us or Bioshock Infinite.
While not perfect all around, this is a 1985 classic that defined the landscape of videogames as we know it and almost saved us from the horrors of gaming's past with it's debut on Wii U.
Gameplay......................8
Graphics.......................-5
Compatibility.............10
Sound.............................5
Story.............................10
Overall..........................23
Pick it up on Steam-- if you dare...
http://store.steampowered.com/app/206145/
Reviewed by DetentionPRick