Recently in World of Warcraft, I managed to complete the quest and get my level 70 druid Sacora to the Ogri’la faction area. (I know; I’m slow. Leave me alone.) One of the daily quests in this area is named “The Relic’s Emanation.” To complete it, you must kill a guard or two, then feed a crystal into a machine and play a mini-game. Once you’ve reached level 7 of the mini-game, you gain the Apexis Emanation and the quest is complete.
The mini-game is Simon.
That’s right; you have four colored tiles that are triggered in sequence and you must repeat back the sequence. They are Red, Blue, Yellow and Green and each one plays a unique musical tone. Simon. The loveable game everyone had in the 80s:
So I put down WOW and pick up a new game I just bought: Bioshock. Working through the tutorial level, I get to the part about hacking turrets, security robots, and cameras. To successfully hack a machine, you must complete a mini-game. Guess which one?
That’s right. The quintessential pipe-clearing game I played in 1990 on my green-screened Gameboy, that’s the mini-game you have to complete. Pipe Dream:
What’s the deal? Has the world run out of games? Or is Blizzard and 2K not very creative? And did they really think that people wouldn’t remember Simon or Pipe Dream?
Zak Jensen | 21-Oct-07 at 1:20 pm | Permalink
I can’t comment on Simon in WoW, but I thought the pipe dream clone in BioShock was the perfect choice for a hacking minigame, particularly given the environment. I think it comes down to “why reinvent the wheel?” E.g. If pipe dream fits and is fun, the developers shouldn’t waste time finding something else that may end up sucking.
Scott | 05-Nov-07 at 3:32 pm | Permalink
I loved pipe dream for my pc when I had it, but I like ratchet and clank’s hacking mini-game more.
casey | 17-Nov-07 at 1:32 pm | Permalink
I played through the BioShock demo on Xbox 360. All the sites were trumpeting it as THE NEW GAME THAT EVERYONE MUST PLAY etc. I found it to be entirely linear and somewhat boring. The pipe dream part was actually one of the better things, IMO.