Monday

Super Street Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo

(btw no pictures when i'm home in malaysia because i don't have hello installed)

Finally got my hands on a copy of this game.

This game got critical acclaim from gamers and game designers around the world because it is still one of the few games with a reversed slippery slope.

The slippery slope concept in games is the idea that any mistake you make makes you slip down the slope and makes it harder and harder to "come back" and win.

For example in Chess : making a blunder and losing a knight puts you at a further disadvantage - you are less able to defend your remaining pieces, and less able to attack the stronger enemy formations, making it even more likely that you will lose another piece, and it becomes a self reinforcing downward spiral.

Even games like Tennis or Ping Pong have a slippery slope : a player trailing in points is less able to make risky moves and is forced into more conservative play, and in competetive games you have to take risks sometimes to win points.

Still, games with a very slippery slope are flawed in this way : the first person to make a mistake is likelier to lose. While playing flawlessly is no doubt a good characterisitc it makes for a more boring game where comebacks for underdogs are rare, and where the games become a forgone conclusion in the first half of the match.

Games with a reversed slippery slope seem to make no sense at first glance. In trying to win the game you are putting yourself in a losing position? Or by deliberately "losing" in the beginning you are actually setting yourself up to win in the long run?

Super Street Puzzle Fighter is this oddity. If you want to find out how it works I suggest you try to get a copy of it.

4 comments:

Shuuji said...

Betul pun teori slippery slope ini.

Memang sial when I play with Eu Sheng.....can be "winning" and then he suddenly pwnz me at the last second...omg....

This game is teh boggling

Karcy R. said...

This is like, the best advertisement copy ever.

I read the whole thing expecting to hear about the game. It didn't turn up.

Anonymous said...

I.Love.This.Game.It's.Not.Funny!!!!

Mary

Kahani said...

gah, I'll never learn to play it, nevah! *sobs*