I love when an old game gets a facelift….er….. earlift.
This weekend was the Come Out and Play Festival in New York City, hosted by Eyebeam. A weeklong session of big games — sometimes these games can get as big as the city itself. The most famous example of a big game is PacManhattan and it’s often how I explain to people what a big game is.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to check it out myself (I hate deadlines), but I did get word from one of the creators Tikva Morowati, who I have met once before at another Big Game trial.
Sonic Body Pong is inspired by the ancient Atari game pong. But you don’t play on a screen or use a cursor. Instead you have to listen for the echoes of the ball and position your body like a paddle to bounce it back in the other direction. As the players get better, the ball speeds up. It plays just like pong and the first to five wins.
I remember playing pong on my fathers computer. Even then children had a natural aptitude for video games that adults didn’t. There was always that speed threshold, however, where you just couldn’t compete with the computer no matter how much of a pinball wizard you were.
Big games seem to be proliferating and spreading. Rightfully so,
because they are just plane fun. Think of them as modern capture the
flag, enhanced by using mobile technology, GPS devices etc., and
inspired in part by modern video games.
My personal favorite big game was the Mario Amusement Park, but what caught my eye this weekend was a little-big game called "Sonic Body Pong."
Sonic Pong seems like a great idea in physical gaming. The whole idea is to find a way to take the games that we love on the screen and adapt them to our physical reality and keep them difficult but not too exhaustive — we aren’t trying to become jocks here. The use of sound is innovative and also posses a real challenge for anybody that isn’t used to relying on their sense of hearing for direction.
I once did a story on blind gamers, and I’m sure they would love to play this game. They would probably also be better than most.
Good luck to Sonic Body Pong. If only because I want to see more pictures like the one above.