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The best games hold something back

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  • The best games hold something back

    Super Crate Box remains the best antidote to thinking that I know about. It is almost impossible to think about anything when you're playing it. This knotty little arena shooter ties all of its pieces together so tightly that there's barely room for cognition to factor in. Enemies swarm from the top of the screen and loop back round when they drop off the bottom. Crates spawn new weapons, but if you fancy sticking with a favourite, you're out of luck, because collecting crates are also the only means of scoring. I have spent mindless hours here, dashing between gantries of a game whose average playtime, I am ashamed to say, is still measured in seconds. As a getaway from real life, it is nearly perfect.
    Nearly. Almost. Because thought intrudes even here, if you give it long enough. It's part of the longform work of playing video games, I think. Even without knowing it, you are likely to be unconsciously chewing over the rules, turning the design over in your head, trying to get a working understanding of it. Maybe some part of your brain is looking for potential strategies. Maybe you're after exploits. Maybe, as is the case with Super Crate Box, you want to know how such a beautiful, near-perfect thing has come to be.
    Over time, my thoughts about Super Crate Box have settled into some familiar spots. I have been wondering: wondering about things that seem to be random, things that I'm pretty sure are random, but still feel worth thinking about. Crates spawn all over the map as you collect one and then collect another. Their placement feels strangely careful at times, the loop they encourage from one to another almost designed to take you on an exciting journey. I am sure this is just luck combining with the brilliantly efficient design of the maps, but still, I wonder. And I wonder about the weapons, too. How they cycle. Do they cycle? Or is it a holy jumble down in the arsenal? Or is it something else. I wonder...
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