Post by Bytor on Jan 17, 2011 9:25:34 GMT -5
MVG: Maze Video Games are games in which the player controls the action by having to navigate through various mazes. You may be forced to beat a set time limit, actually outrun or escape an enemy or even simply get through the maze while adhering to set rules defined by gameplay. There are basically three different sub-genres which are basically similar in gameplay within the given parameters but are defined by essentially differences in viewpoint. The three types are "Top Down" , in which the player is provided with an overview of the maze, "First Person" in which the viewpoint is as if the player were directly seeing what is in front of them and "Maze Chase" in which the player is being chased while maneuvering through the maze. The term Maze Game was first used in the early 80's although the genre has been around since at least the early 70's with the release of Gotcha (released by Atari for arcades in 1973). The genre exploded in the early 80's with the release of Pac-Man (released by Namco and marketed by Midway in 1980). The 80's continued to be strong for the genre with the advent of the home gaming console. In 1980 Berzerk (released in 1980 for the Atari 2600), Maze Death Race (released in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum) and Wizard of War (released in 1980 for the Commodore). Continuing into the early/mid 80's the genre remained strong and vibrant with many, many releases especially the various Pac-Man versions (Ms. Pac-Man in 81, Baby Pac-Man in 82, and an almost uncountable number of clones and flat out copies). The genre proved to be the basis for many puzzles and gameplay options in more modern games covering many, many other genres although with the advent of true 3-D graphics in the 90's as well as more developed gameplay the genre has suffered recently (although various releases of Pac-Man continue to do well, as evidenced by the 2010 release of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX). However the genre still has a certain appeal both to retro gamers as well as gamers looking to simply play a game not so involved and time consuming and yet still have some fun.
