Playing different video game genres is so important for everyone – Reader’s Feature

A reader looks back at the video games he’s played recently, and all the different things he’s done in them, and recommends variety above all in gaming.

Some games have it all. Story, character, art, style, innovation, user experience, graphics, world building, online support, and last but not least you can pet the dog.

Producing this smorgasbord of content, in this modern era, is an undertaking of epic proportions. A juggling act involving a unicycle on a tight rope, a bowling ball, some sort of live reptile, and a firing squad aimed directly at your Steam recommendations page.

Deliver and risk scrutiny on every choice you made. Under deliver and become bombarded with ‘DLC/co-op/patch when?’ questions. Over-deliver and suddenly your game is bloated and overly complicated.

There’s not much incentive to test new waters when every choice seems like a bad one.

Gamers tend to have more varied and eclectic tastes when it comes to genres than any other medium.

In music you generally only know pop and you are unlikely to listen to much, if any, jazz.

In film, horror fans might not really care what’s new in the romcom listings this month.

Gamers on the other hand demand variety.

This year alone I’ve managed a trading card emporium, a tiny bookmobile, a retro video rental, a late night convenience store, and a cafe for anthropomorphic gatekeepers with a taste for umami.

I’ve been to space and the bowels of the earth for both business and pleasure. I’ve saved a whole world a dozen times and the universe itself at least twice.

I’ve jetwashed/cleaned/decorated/built/exorcised hundreds of houses, as well as shooting thousands of bullets/balls/spells/arrows/decks of cards indiscriminately at any other beings in range.

I’ve reached peak efficiency in my world-spanning factories but also spent hours snoozing in class.

I’ve weirdly been to so many different incarnations of Tokyo this year I’ve lost count.

In sports I’ve won a (legally distinct) summer international cup, taken my League Two side to the Champions League finals, raced around the world in every type of car you can imagine, and hit a hole in one at the Masters.

If my gaming recommendations were a Spotify playlist it would just be called ‘500 years of vaguely similar noises in no particular order.’

All this to say that pretty much any gamer can (and will) pick up any game and have some level of valid opinion on the content. For better or worse.

More importantly, should my opinion matter to you in the slightest? No. No it shouldn’t. If I leave a glowing five star review on a game will it be the greatest game you’ve ever played? Probably not. If anything, it’ll probably give you a worse experience for hyping it up too much or simply because I have a soft spot for that particular genre of game.

This brings me in a very roundabout way to Mixtape by indie devs Beethoven and Dinosaur.

I haven’t even played the game and (based on the reviews) feel like it’s already a foregone conclusion that it’ll be a masterpiece or the biggest four hour pile of slop I’ve ever sat through.

I’d be quite content to just say it’s not for me and move on but… I really, really enjoyed The Artful Escape.

Beethoven and Dinosaur’s space-themed, rock opera synth… experience from 2021, in my unprofessional and biased opinion, was a good game. You hold right to walk right (and occasionally play an electric guitar) and watch a pretty light show for three hours. That was pretty much the whole kit and caboodle. Artful Escape even got remarkably good reviews across critics and the gaming community.

There were, of course, those that didn’t appreciate the vision. It was ‘dull’ or ‘underwhelming’, a school art project that has no business being a game.

The negativity wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) hold back the musically rooted Aussie studio from doubling down on their vibe ‘em-up aesthetic with Mixtape. A sublime 80s pop soundtrack with an angst-ridden teen moving left to right in the background, like a jumping dinosaur because your internet is down.

I’ll give Mixtape a go this weekend and I’m fairly certain I’ll be able to say, ‘It was good if you like that sort of thing’ or ‘It wasn’t for me but I get why others would enjoy it’.

Realistically what else could I say? I could say that about every game/film/album I’ve ever encountered.

Will I feel the need to leave a scathing/glowing review telling everyone else how their opinion is wrong by dumping on them from a very great height? Probably not.

Will I get upset because the main character is a specific gender/race or drinks a brand of cola different to me? No of course not, I’m an adult.

Will I continue to play any genre of game that vaguely appeals to me because it’s my time and my money. Yes. You’re damn right I will.

By reader Jay

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot.

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