Arcade Games in Simulation Genres

One of my favorite kinds of games are ones that take a genre I have little interest in, buried deep in simulationist convention, and proves there is potential for pure arcade-y mechanical excellence. Stripping away components that only serve to emulate reality, interrogating what purpose they each have for the game's dynamics, and coming out the other end with something that feels like it comes from a completely different time or place. It's similar to the pursuit of minimalism, but more-so the removal of maximalism than trying to minimize the things that actually work into their most basic forms.

Note that the examples of genres/games I don't like may not be super accurate because I haven't played them much. I've got some blind spots like RTS that I'd like to work on but if things go according to plan I will never touch FIFA again, so feel free to correct any mischaracterization.

Super Monkey Ball vs racing games

Racing games are like speedrunning a really easy platformer. You're asked to route levels and optimize movement, before being familiar with either, and with no real challenge besides the timer to drive you. A good platformer will teach you its movement and challenge you to overcome obstacles using it, after which you can route known layouts and further push the mechanics to be as fast as possible. Ori and the Will of the Wisps integrates sections of speedrunning within traditional platforming, but Super Monkey Ball as a whole is a sliding scale from one to the other.

You start out needing to learn the movement and level layouts to simply survive and progress. Replaying levels to get back to where you lost leads you to find better strategies and optimizing movement to be more efficient (for time and/or safety), and then once you've beat the whole set of levels you're going towards the other side where victory is more of a given and it's about getting a higher score (which relies almost exclusively on time taken). You don't simply go all the way to the other end of the scale chasing a theoretical best score however, rather as you play you'll need and be able to perform more difficult tricks and skips making for a gradual transformation. Like with speedrunning, until you get to competing for a world record in a super optimized category, you're trying to find and execute the safest strategy that will get you one more step ahead, and before you know it the super risky method that wasn't worth it at all in runs past is no big deal.

It certainly helps that there's no real obscure tricks or awkward physics, the worst it gets is that diagonal movement accelerates a bit faster. Learning a speedrun with a bunch of tech that isn't part of normally playing the game is daunting, and having really simple fundamental movement bypasses that. When it comes to single player (competitive racing or speedrunning works well once past the learning phase) there's also a lot of reliance on janky AI and set pieces, ruining campaigns even like that of F-Zero GX with its best in class car movement.

NAM-1975 vs shooting galleries

Enemies mostly relying on hitscan (undodgeable instant hits) has had severe effects for shooters in general, and I think the story-focused structure, limited level design and graphics of modern military shooters are far less important to the renewed interest in "boomer shooters" than this shift in enemy design and resource management. For shooting galleries and rail shooters alike, things like recoil, ammo and enemy fire that can only be avoided with cover or a quicker offense are standard fare. Enter NAM-1975, where despite a modern setting the bullets move in slow motion across the screen letting you walk, run or dodge roll to avoid them (playing like a more 2-dimensional Sin and Punishment).

To complement that, aiming and moving use the same controls and shooting slows the reticule while stopping movement (so if you want to aim right but not move right, you have to do so slowly; if you want to aim fast you'll displace your position and be unable to shoot in between), meaning there's always multiple factors to inform whether and where you shoot. The dodge roll is a full commitment to defense that lets you get out of near any situation but costs you time that you could use to shoot enemies and build up score, so you always want to push your luck with just barely sidestepping bullets. It's a remarkably harmonious set of mechanics for an arcade title rarely brought up.

Pyre vs sport games

Sports games (in this case specifically team sports, but it goes for most of the space) dwarf rpgs in the prevalence of vague, unexplained, convoluted systems and statistics that determine so much of what happens. Your guy runs into the enemy guy in FIFA - what happens? Well, it depends on the dribbling, agility and tackle scores; current stamina level; whether the defender is protecting or carrying the ball; who is in the lead and how late in the game it is, and a bunch more, some of which is just unknown RNG. What doesn't matter is any kind of physics simulation for the ball or anything's position.

What happens in Pyre? Well, going into someone's aura kills you so whoever's aura is smaller dies. If you're carrying the ball you have no aura so once you get close enough to the enemy you die. All about nuanced movement and controlling space. Rocket League is another example that just reduces it down to the interesting positioning and tactics without the mountain of simulation bullshit to smother it (I haven't even touched on how the AI controls most of what happens in a game because they're trying to force an 11v11 game to be 1v1).

Desert Golfing vs golf games

As a sub-genre of sports games, it has its own set of baggage, this one actually bothering to simulate the physics for the ball, though not for any better a result. Wind direction, shot strength, spin, ball area hit, types of clubs, terrain, gravity, etc. None of these are intuitive or clear from the outset in exactly how they affect your shot, requiring vaguely feeling your way through the dark and guesstimating your way to victory (obviously gravity is not a dealbreaker, but it provides an already unclear basis to stack more similar dynamics on top).

At its most simple you can get a feel pretty quickly and have fun engaging with the more dynamic obstacles, routing your way to the goal, predicting how it will reflect off angled walls - Golfing With Your Friends is a good example with very simple terrain and no wind or different clubs. Then there's Desert Golfing, devoid even of obstacles, a UI, or a third dimension. It reduces it all down to the basics of angles and momentum, doing math by eye, risking the hole in one or plotting out a safer series of shots - only to adjust when things go slightly differently than planned.

Obra Dinn vs detective games

Detective games tend to define themselves by their mystery plots and point-and-click(-esque) interaction. You may ask the player questions to make sure they're following the story, but any more is near unheard of. E.g. Heavy Rain, Connor's parts of Detroit, The Wolf Among Us, Danganronpa, Phoenix Wright. If a hidden object game had a Sherlock Holmes story attached, we'd call it a detective game. You can have cool mystery stories, you can even make them a bit more open and non-linear (in how it's approached like Outer Wilds or Her Story, or in how it ends up like with traditional dialogue choices), requiring the players to connect some dots themselves and encourage speculation. But as a detective game, Obra Dinn also uses mechanics to test the player's deductive and observational skills. By navigating the ship, interacting with crime scenes, and thinking (imagine that!), players form ideas proofed by the journal without any central narrative giving away the answers.

Star Fox 64 vs 3D flight shooters

This one's a bit different since the genre started arcade-y with fewer dimensions and mechanics, and moved into realism over time. But is is also a good example of a genre that quickly got to be so steeped in simulation that Ace Combat is considered on the arcadey end. I wrote about these games in more detail already.