I don't know exactly what a game hook is. I guess just a clever idea that makes you think tactically in a game - something that makes you assess the potential risks and rewards of whatever you're about to do.
Not a definitive list of my faves, just the first few that popped into my mind when I started the thread.
Smart Bomb (First seen: Defender, 1980). Blowing up stuff is good. The best thing about the smart bomb is that you're always given a limited amount, and that it's always pretty hard to get extras. Just having a limit on the amount of bombs you have makes you think about when best to use them - to get you out of a tight spot or to wait until the screen is flooded with enemies for optimum carnage. In Defender it was cool that you had little guys to save that weren't hurt by the blast. Now that's a smart bomb. The ultimate form of the smart bomb appeared in BangaiO.
Power Pellet (Pac Man). Pac Man is completely helpless. He's just a yellow blob with a mouth. He is at the mercy of the ghosts, who kill him if they so much as touch him. But when he collects a power pellet, they're scared ****less of him. They run away on their little ghost legs. That's because when he's powered up, he can eat ghosts for a limited amount of time. EAT GHOSTS. No wonder they're afraid. When Pac Man eats a ghost he gets points. When he eats a second ghost, he gets even more points than he got for the first ghost. I like power pellets because they're all about Pac Man regaining his dignity and sticking it to the ghostly opressors. And it's conclusive proof that sometimes winners do use drugs, and that sometimes drug use is even essential for victory.
Egg Pool (Yoshi's Island, 1995). This isn't so much one hook as it is a whole bunch of interconnected hooks. This is a good one because I get to talk about Yoshi's Island, and that rocks. In Yoshi's Island you eat baddies and they turn into eggs. You can throw the eggs at different angles via a cursor that goes up and down when you press the 'throw' button. Wherever the cursor is in relation to Yoshi is the direction the annoying dinosaur throws the egg. You throw eggs to kills baddies/hit switches/whatever. The trick is that if you angle the throw right, you can bounce the eggs off solid objects. Whenever an egg hits a wall, it changes colour. If you angle an egg so it rebounds off a wall, changes colour to yellow, and hits a guy - the egg explodes into two coins. Coins you collect to get extra lives - like any Mario game. If you angle it so it bounces twice before hitting a guy, it changes colour to red and explodes into two stars. You collect stars to increase the amount of seconds Yoshi can survive without having Baby Mario on his back. Because Yoshi doesn't die right away when he gets hit by a baddie - Mario just falls off and floats around in a bubble while a timer ticks down. You have to get him back before it gets to zero.
None of this makes the slightest bit of sense, and that's why Yoshi's Island is awesome.
I'll list more when I feel like it. Please feel free to add your own.
Not a definitive list of my faves, just the first few that popped into my mind when I started the thread.
Smart Bomb (First seen: Defender, 1980). Blowing up stuff is good. The best thing about the smart bomb is that you're always given a limited amount, and that it's always pretty hard to get extras. Just having a limit on the amount of bombs you have makes you think about when best to use them - to get you out of a tight spot or to wait until the screen is flooded with enemies for optimum carnage. In Defender it was cool that you had little guys to save that weren't hurt by the blast. Now that's a smart bomb. The ultimate form of the smart bomb appeared in BangaiO.
Power Pellet (Pac Man). Pac Man is completely helpless. He's just a yellow blob with a mouth. He is at the mercy of the ghosts, who kill him if they so much as touch him. But when he collects a power pellet, they're scared ****less of him. They run away on their little ghost legs. That's because when he's powered up, he can eat ghosts for a limited amount of time. EAT GHOSTS. No wonder they're afraid. When Pac Man eats a ghost he gets points. When he eats a second ghost, he gets even more points than he got for the first ghost. I like power pellets because they're all about Pac Man regaining his dignity and sticking it to the ghostly opressors. And it's conclusive proof that sometimes winners do use drugs, and that sometimes drug use is even essential for victory.
Egg Pool (Yoshi's Island, 1995). This isn't so much one hook as it is a whole bunch of interconnected hooks. This is a good one because I get to talk about Yoshi's Island, and that rocks. In Yoshi's Island you eat baddies and they turn into eggs. You can throw the eggs at different angles via a cursor that goes up and down when you press the 'throw' button. Wherever the cursor is in relation to Yoshi is the direction the annoying dinosaur throws the egg. You throw eggs to kills baddies/hit switches/whatever. The trick is that if you angle the throw right, you can bounce the eggs off solid objects. Whenever an egg hits a wall, it changes colour. If you angle an egg so it rebounds off a wall, changes colour to yellow, and hits a guy - the egg explodes into two coins. Coins you collect to get extra lives - like any Mario game. If you angle it so it bounces twice before hitting a guy, it changes colour to red and explodes into two stars. You collect stars to increase the amount of seconds Yoshi can survive without having Baby Mario on his back. Because Yoshi doesn't die right away when he gets hit by a baddie - Mario just falls off and floats around in a bubble while a timer ticks down. You have to get him back before it gets to zero.
None of this makes the slightest bit of sense, and that's why Yoshi's Island is awesome.
I'll list more when I feel like it. Please feel free to add your own.
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