Can Games Be Educative?

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2 min read

BENGALURU:  found an old CD which said ‘882 games!’  Very excitedly, I blew the dust off the CD, sneezed uncontrollably for 20 minutes and then installed a bunch of games. I was determined to play as many as possible, when I started doubting the efficacy of ‘too much’. Correlating this to the Flash game ‘mosquito’, you can either be one filling yourself on different people, or just one person at a go, thoroughly. Here’s proving through my memorable experience on why the former isn’t amusing. Time spent within brackets.

El Emigrante (15s)

“The rules are very simple - you have to avoid police for as long as possible”. With a speedy Gonzales look alike, I had to ride on a unicycle to avoid 10 chasing police cars.

Barbie game (30s)

I thought this would be a child’s make up/dress up game, but it turned out to be a caricatured looking Barbie standing in the middle of the screen. The aim was to avoid a rain of dung from hitting her head.

1945vs2000 (5s)

The title is way too literal, as in the game you fly a 1945 fighter plane to shoot several “modern” looking jets which shoot back missiles.

Velt (40s)

Snakes in the form of spirals are flying in the sky towards you - point the mouse towards them and fire!

Whipsaw Fighter (30s)

A wannabe RPG, you plan your fight moves in advance of the fight - through luck or crook your character may win.

Wrath 2 (20s)

I don’t know what the first game was, but this involves keeping a square called ‘Harvey’ from hitting the constantly moving walls around him.

Full time killer (3m)

A thoroughly enjoyable sniping game where the prerequisite skills include ‘quick mouse clicking’. Creepily though, on successful completion of Mission One (after several failed attempts), I was deemed worthy of joining this spy organisation which asked me for my contact details - to be then sent over the internet.

I realised, at the end of my fruitless pursuit, that a single of these stories if developed to its fullest potential could be worthy of a 10/10 IGN. Imagine if Barbie game enabled shooting back at the poop with machine guns; and if in level 2 - the dung morphs into some synthesized ultramicrobacteria to be destroyed by Barbie’s new chemical gun. Wouldn’t that be good entertainment and yet educational?

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