Flash games are one of the greatest creations known to man. They top the wheel, fire…even the iPod. Don’t believe me? Think about this: you’re sitting at home, bored out of your tree because all your friends have left for the summer and your family is too poor to go to anywhere so you rot in your dim basement desperately seeking salvation. What will get you through the boredom?…Playing flash games perhaps?
Ok, ok, maybe instead you are a full grown man, grinding out a boring 9-5, wondering why you volunteered to come in on a Saturday when you could be doing literally anything else. You sit at the computer and something in the cosmos tells you its going to be a very long and boring day. Good thing you have flash games to keep you amused.
Whether you're convinced of man’s greatest creation or not, no one can deny the sheer amusement that comes from playing a great flash game, especially when you find a gem amongst all the mountains of horribly made and pointless games created by some guy in his basement. There are just certain creators who come up with an idea so smart and useful that tons of like minded creators pump out a bunch of games to follow in the wake of his creation. So, without further a due (oh fancy), I give you 5 of the Most Influential Ideas in Flash Gaming.
Create a Path
Now while I have an educated guess where this idea came from, I honestly just can’t be sure but whoever the very first person to create this was, he/she created one hell of a following in his/her wake. Free Rider was the first game I ever saw to use the idea of drawing basically the entire game. The main objective was to draw the road for your character to follow; changing the path as you please to create jumps for your rider and have other players test out your track. There were also stars that awarded points that could be placed anywhere to add more of a challenge to other players testing the track. Basically, a really smart person could spend hours building the perfect course that could actually be enjoyable for others to test out, while I could spend about thirty minutes and give up. Either way, there are very few gamers who have never seen this idea used in a flash game. Those who haven’t…probably live under a rock.
The Launch
I first really got into flash games back six or seven years ago in high school and there are certain games that just stick in my memory. Maybe it’s because they were real quality games but more likely was simply the fact that they were the first games I played online. There was one in particular that I could play for long periods of time called Kitten Cannon which was basically, in my mind, the result of some future serial killer’s inner fantasies come to life. The game was just shooting an innocent kitten out of a cannon and seeing how much distance you could get, while hoping to hit explosives to shoot the cat even further and avoid things such as spikes that would impale the cat, stopping it instantly. Now I doubt it was the very first game to come up with the idea but it was to me. The game itself is incredibly boring compared to the many games of the same style that followed. The idea of launching something in an attempt to reach crazy distances has become an entire category of games in its own and seems to be getting more popular as time goes on.
From Console to Flash
It was only a matter of time, what with technology advancing at the rate it does, that we’d see the games of our childhood available in a flash game. It started with the old 80’s arcade games like Pac Man and Q-bert being released as flash games online and later were followed by recreations of some of the most popular games from classic consoles such as Nintendo and SEGA Genesis. Many of the older Super Mario games have been done incredibly well and have since been followed by more modern games such as Super Smash Bros., and Portal to name a few. It just shows the talent of the teams who put months and sometimes years into creating these ever-expanding flash games for us, who sit at work with nothing better to do. Thanks guys.
Tower Defense
Tower Defense is nothing short of an old idea but it is one of the biggest sensations in flash gaming. The simple idea of having something you must defend from enemies has shown such incredible potential and addictiveness; the higher quality TD games bring days of enjoyment as you try to desperately reach the end of the game, while strategically upgrading aspects of your defenders then going back over previous levels to obtain a perfect score. There are more TD flash games then you can count and they keep showing up online, week after week. No complaints from me.
Angry Bird Syndrome
Basically one day, somebody thought, “Hey, maybe we could have something big and breakable that we throw objects into to destroy!” That idea became a flurry of games, none more popular than the birth of Angry Birds as an App for the iPhone and Android. This game became easily the most popular app on the market and everyone and their cousin had heard about it from somewhere. It was hard not to when it was such a huge overnight success. Many flash games came from this idea and, while it’s not quite as huge as the tower defense category of games, it definitely holds it’s own in the flash gaming world…and I applaud it for that.
Honorable Mention
I have to give an honorable mention to a series that has become so incredibly popular in recent years: Bloons. While I haven’t really seen many popular games come from the idea that Bloons based their games off of, the series itself has produced title after titles that have all had amazing success. I know I can count ten off the top of my head and for that; I say celebratory drinks all ‘round!
