Ah, playing outdoors. Sorta sad how foreign of a concept that has become. I was a little amazed to see the Katamari game listed above. It reminds me a lot of game called "Sticky Tag" we used to play growing up. Same basic rules and all. Perhaps the handful of kids on my street were ahead of their time.
But yes, I don't think any childhood years back was complete without trying to make up your own games, most of them failures due to confusing rules or rules that changed as the game went along. Now I am going to sit all day and pine for the times that a stick could be a sword and a box could entertain you for hours.
@Nslick: Those days aren't completely gone, my roomies and I still find it difficult to simply throw away a perfectly good cardboard tube or large box. Inevitably someone gets thwapped by the Cardboard Tube Samurai, or followed by Solid Snake.
These are pretty great! Thanks Brian! Just another reason why Kotaku is so awesome.
My little brother in-laws did something similar to this after hanging out and playing Mario Kart Wii one afternoon at my house. They always get so upset when they have to leave, to the point of major tears and tantrums. I told them it makes me think they didn't have fun when they act like that and if they want to come over again and play they needed to act a little more grown up and show us they had fun by acting like it.
Well, that evening they ended up getting their chalk out and drawing a Mario Kart track on their side walk, complete with banana peals, question blocks, turtle shells, and lanes. It was pretty cool.
They didn't really have any rules, but they had fun riding up and down the side walk pretending to be Mario, Diddy Kong, and Toad.
When I was young I was always trying to come up with new games to play, and one thing I learned is that nobody likes too many rules.
These games are too complicated. Simple rules create the most fun games. The rules must be intuitive and straightfoward. Imagine children trying to explain mario or space invaders to someone that doesn't know the rules.
And some of the rules beg to be broken, like in the metal gear one, and stuff like that always ends up in arguments.
I have some optional modifications to your Metal Gear game.
Each player must memorize a lengthy passage from their game of choice, and every ten minutes, all the action stops and players take turns reciting their passage.
If one of Snake's friends shows up late, this player takes the role of the ninja. The ninja can slaughter two guard players, but if he does, he and the Snake player must engage in a fist fight.
Any guard who catches Snake 2 times gets promoted to Revolver Ocelot and may steal the secret document before Snake gets to it. In the event that this occurs, Snake must sneak up behind the Ocelot player and choke him out. (If the ninja is in play, Ocelot may only use one hand.)
If some a-hole player shows up in roller blades, he is promoted to Fat Man. This player cannot catch Snake, but instead places bricks on the ground that indicate C4. In order to cross their path, Snake must crawl over them.
Awesome list of games Brian. I remember converting TV tag to video game tag. You had to shout out the name of a game within a time limit to unfreeze. Mine was always, "BATTLE TOADS!" It was just fun to shout.
Next on the summer fun list, how about some arts and crafts?
Some Shadow of the Colossus paper mache? Or how about World of Goo with pipe cleaners? Or maybe some Dig Dug balloon animals?
step 3 on the metal gear hide and sneak game is inspired 'designate the path each of the guards wil walk to protect the document and tell snake.' puts the whole genere in perspective, really.
I'm glad to see there isn't a Grand Theft Hot Wheels where one player, designated the bully, goes around stealing other children's hot wheels. The fun part about that game is that the other children have no idea they're playing!
One of my friends in a particular clique I was in had a pool complete with diving board. With this group of friends, we used to be crazy about the fatal fury, samurai showdown & King of Fighter series. One night we attempted to imitate a lot of the fighting moves off of the diving board, and video tape it. It was alot of fun and very tiring. The character we did the most, was Terry Bogard, and we even yelled the move. "TRAP SHOOT!" "BARE KNUCKLE" or better yet in engrish "BARE KNUCKOO!"
07/23/09
But yes, I don't think any childhood years back was complete without trying to make up your own games, most of them failures due to confusing rules or rules that changed as the game went along. Now I am going to sit all day and pine for the times that a stick could be a sword and a box could entertain you for hours.
07/27/09
07/20/09
My little brother in-laws did something similar to this after hanging out and playing Mario Kart Wii one afternoon at my house. They always get so upset when they have to leave, to the point of major tears and tantrums. I told them it makes me think they didn't have fun when they act like that and if they want to come over again and play they needed to act a little more grown up and show us they had fun by acting like it.
Well, that evening they ended up getting their chalk out and drawing a Mario Kart track on their side walk, complete with banana peals, question blocks, turtle shells, and lanes. It was pretty cool.
They didn't really have any rules, but they had fun riding up and down the side walk pretending to be Mario, Diddy Kong, and Toad.
07/20/09
These games are too complicated. Simple rules create the most fun games. The rules must be intuitive and straightfoward. Imagine children trying to explain mario or space invaders to someone that doesn't know the rules.
And some of the rules beg to be broken, like in the metal gear one, and stuff like that always ends up in arguments.
07/20/09
07/20/09
story at eleven
07/20/09
07/20/09
Each player must memorize a lengthy passage from their game of choice, and every ten minutes, all the action stops and players take turns reciting their passage.
If one of Snake's friends shows up late, this player takes the role of the ninja. The ninja can slaughter two guard players, but if he does, he and the Snake player must engage in a fist fight.
Any guard who catches Snake 2 times gets promoted to Revolver Ocelot and may steal the secret document before Snake gets to it. In the event that this occurs, Snake must sneak up behind the Ocelot player and choke him out. (If the ninja is in play, Ocelot may only use one hand.)
If some a-hole player shows up in roller blades, he is promoted to Fat Man. This player cannot catch Snake, but instead places bricks on the ground that indicate C4. In order to cross their path, Snake must crawl over them.
07/20/09
Next on the summer fun list, how about some arts and crafts?
Some Shadow of the Colossus paper mache? Or how about World of Goo with pipe cleaners? Or maybe some Dig Dug balloon animals?
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
If so, I love this story even more.
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
"NA...NANANANANANANANANANA"
"wakawakawakawakawakawaka"
"Todays tom sawyer, He gets high on you..."
Sounds like a blast
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
07/20/09
But I can has vroom vroom?
07/20/09
i had c00ki33s fj0r a11 of j00
but i eated it
hewes j00 hawt wheeh back
{hands you all back your hot wheels
...after I just spent the last hour spinning them upside down on their roofs}
07/20/09
i sad, they mint conditions nao
07/20/09
This was around '98.
07/20/09
Besides, being in my dark room playing Call of Duty WaW on Live beats outside any day.
07/20/09
i'm seriously going to try to convince them!