Ohh flock it (Mortlach's game review)

Two weeks ago, I saw this trailer for an upcoming game called “Flock” and the first thing I thought was: I know this game already! After some digging in the old archives, I came up with Sheep, a game from the year 2000. So at the start of the new millenium, I was herding sheep through lethal obstacle courses, and in 2009, I’m still herding sheep past probably just as lethal obstacle courses – only with better graphics.

It did start me thinking about other games that have recently been recycled. Prince of Persia for PS3 was released in 2008; its predecessor, the Sands of Time saw the light of day in ’03 and of course it’s all directly related to the classic Prince of Persia from ’89. So three generations of Princes in 19 years; that does average out to about 9 years.

Looking back to further prove my point I found the game of GoldenAxe (X360 in 2008 and original in 1990) which, like some hereditary diseases, blessedly seems to have skipped a generation.

Some games are on a faster cycle. Sim City got released in 1989, then in 1993, 1998, 2003 and finally in 2007, by which time it had mutated into an unrecognizable and uncrontrolable freak.

Researching this did make me look back on the games I played when I was young – currently 30, so back in the day of the original Prince of Persia and SimCity, I was 11. Oh, the wondrous days of 1-colour screens (mine was orange, not green), floppy discs, bleeps and whistles for the internal PC-speaker and clock speeds that went up as far as a whopping 15 MegaHertz.

I even found a site with so-called “abandonware”. That’s software of which the copyright has been voided, so it’s free ánd legal to download. I’m not much for nostalgia, but playing Sierra’s adventure game Goldrush from 1988 – using a DOS-emulator and extremely reigned in computer - did take me back when life was simple. “Look around” You see a photo album on the table! “Open album”, “Take photo”, “Exit”

According to the theory of a 9-year generation cycle, Gold Rush3 should be released any moment now, but I’m afraid the entire branch of adventure games went extint somewhere in the 1990’s and all that’s left are the fossil remains, treasured by the people who were there when the adventure game ruled supreme.

Back to Flock. If it’s half as good as it’s precursor Sheep was, you’ll still have a ton of fun. And if it isn’t any good, well, you’ll probably will be able to find the original Sheep at the bottom of the toy store’s bargain-bin.

Next week: not sure yet!