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Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
Tiny Diggers Delivers Learning With Construction Trucks For Kids on the …

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Ten Years Since The Newest Genre

Submitted by on January 12, 2007 – 7:55 am4 Comments

videolamer_17_rounded.pngStefan at VideoLamer laments that there hasn’t been a new genre created in gaming in ten years. In the process he lists where each genre got started, and it might surprise you how far back he digs to show the origins of each. I’ve read a bit about gaming history, and I hadn’t heard of most of these ancient creaking beasts. The last genre he says was added was the rhythm game exemplified by Parappa the Rapper in 1996.

It’s an interesting read, and after landing on Digg earlier in the week it got a big influx of comments from people throwing additional games at him that don’t seem to fit all of the genres he has listed. Katamari Damacy seems to stick out on the list.

Do you see new genres he has missed?

  • Cruds

    Not sure here but what category does Pikmin or Rez falls in. Rez for example, you could argue that it’s a schump but it has little in common with his cousins, visual it’s different, controls are different. And that’s the danger with trying to categorize everything, there can be huge difference in a genre, although that’s most often not the case.I rather have developers trying to be innovative than worrying about creating new genres. than new genres will pop up automatically.

  • http://www.farbot.com/ Paul

    Rez is pretty clearly a shooter on rails.

    Pikmin is mechanically very similar to an RTS, from what I’ve seen of it. Pretty charming game, I have to say.

  • John H.

    I disagree about Pikmin, it’s not really RTS-like at all. To excel requires a lot of multitasking, but it’s not about holding objectives or defending anything, and to attack you have to handle it in a very hands-on way, as in, hands-on in an action game way.

    There are new kinds of games released often, in fact. What the hell prior genre is Katamari Damacy? I’ve been playing Elebits in the past couple of days and it’s really quite awesome, but it’s not a whole lot like anything else (the thing it’s closest to, in fact, is Katamari Damacy, but it’s more inspired by that game than copying it).

  • Stephen

    I disagree about Pikmin, it’s definitely a RTS. Just because the goal and combat are not exactly like a Warcraft or Starcraft does not make it any less “real time strategy”. You need to carefully plan your path, collecting specific objects, using specific units for specific tasks, engage in strategic combat or lose far too many units.

    You are defending Olimar (and the other characters in the sequel), and you need to conquer areas and hold them against enemies, particularly in Pikmin 2, even moreso in Pikmin 2′s multiplayer mode. I don’t really think the way combat is carried out is any more action-oriented than any other RTS, if you take a step back and think about it. If you know exactly how to attack each enemy, you can come out nearly unscathed. That’s strategy.