Putting It Together

Even though many of the examples in this chapter have used "classic" action games for examples ”some of them being nearly twenty years old ”this is one genre of game in which the core "gameplay" has remained essentially unchanged since the outset. The lessons that can be learned from an old game such as Pac-Man or Gauntlet are the same as can be learned from a more recent action game example such as Quake III . Sure, the rules have changed a bit, the gameplay has become slightly more complex, and the structure of the game has shifted more from "eternal play" as in Robotron (where the player is assailed by wave upon wave of enemies) to a more story-oriented approach, such as the Mario series (where there is a well-defined beginning, middle, and end). Even with these developments, the core essence of the action game remains unchanged.

In fact, the biggest change in action games during their lifespan so far has been their graphical complexity. Of course, only those designers that have understood the fundamental nature of action games have made the transition successfully, and they have done this in spite of ”not because of ”the more sophisticated graphical capabilities of the newer platforms.