Filed under: Entertainment, Games, Photos, Asylum Exclusive
The biggest difference between classic video games and contemporary ones isn't the photo-realistic graphics, the depth of plot and character or the sophisticated gameplay. It's the fact that, nowadays, you can enjoy a game while sitting down. The Fantastic Arcade portion of Austin's Fantastic Fest genre-film festival seeks to restore the thrill of standing around a tall cabinet, pushing buttons while awed onlookers envy your talents. To that end, the independent games portion of the festival involved converting the featured titles into full cabinet arcade games.
Asylum checked out the arcade and took some pictures of some of our favorites -- most of which you can play from your desktop for free (but sitting down).
"Every Day the Same Dream"
One of the goals of the Fantastic Arcade was to challenge the notion that games have to be fun. "Every Day the Same Dream" is just a dude waking up and going to work, over and over again. There's a roof you can jump off of and a homeless guy you can get drugs from, but not much else. Most of us don't need an arcade to play that game.
Keep reading for more from the Fantastic Arcade.
"Ulitsa Dimitrova"In "Ulitsa Dimitrova," players experience life as Piotr, a 7-year-old homeless Russian boy who chain smokes his way through thoroughly depressing streets, stealing hood ornaments and vodka to support his habit.
There's no way to win, and choosing not to play, as "War Games" might suggest, doesn't get you out either. If you abandon Piotr, he freezes to death in the harsh Russian winter. Sounds fun, right?
"Enviro-Bear 2000"The age-old question, "Bear is driving -- how can that be?" finally receives an answer with this game, in which the player, as a bear, has to drive a car through a virtual landscape.
It seemed pretty fun, but the arcade console had a fur liner and the controls kept getting sticky thanks to the trapped fur. Still, as long as the player put something heavy on the car's gas pedal, the bear could indeed drive the car.
"Machinarium"While a lot of games at Fantastic Arcade focus on artistic exploration and quirkiness over playability, "Machinarium" shoots for the trifecta, as a fun, weirdly imaginative and beautifully rendered point-and-click robot adventure.
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"Monaco"A thus-far-unreleased heist game, "Monaco" combines lo-fi, Atari-style characters with rich, colorful backgrounds to offer up some really fun multiplayer action. Players steal stuff, like in a French heist movie.
"Feist"The one type of game that never really worked in the arcade format was the 2-D, side-scrolling adventure, but that's cool. "Feist" will most likely be coming to PC and home consoles when it's done with its beta test run, and that's good news.
The game kind of reminds us of the Xbox Live hit of the summer, "Limbo," with that same soft-focus thing going on, with lush colors and a melancholy feel to the adventure.