A game is rarely entertaining if its core gameplay mechanics are lackluster. Core gameplay mechanics refer to a game’s main ways that the player engages the game. For Mario games, this involves jumping; while with Halo games, this involves shooting. Although supporting features can help bolster the player’s experience, the player is left bored without satisfaction behind the game’s main features. This idea is perfectly illustrated through Paper Mario: Color Splash. Its dialogue, visual design, humor, scenery, progression, and world variety are wonderfully well executed; however, its core battle mechanic is boring, trite, and annoying. Because it failed to create an inherently satisfying core gameplay mechanic, the game suffers to a point that even its peripheral features cannot salvage its poor state. Core gameplay carries games, and the successful aspects of such gameplay deserve appreciation from their strong contributions to the player’s enjoyment.
Inherently satisfying
Some games’ core gameplay is so intrinsically enjoyable that it easily garners fun in the player. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s battle mechanic of racking up damage to more easily smash an opponent offscreen has been riveting gamers for over twenty years. Unlike some fighting games, every battle in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate feels unique from the plethora of gameplay variety available. Items, stages, choices of team or free for all battles, choice of stock or time battles, stage morph, spirits, custom colors, and the large number of fighters from which to choose results in a highly dynamic, highly distinct battle. This freshness helps keep the player coming back round after round because core gameplay is not just lively, but is continually lively.
Ubisoft’s Starlink: Battle for Atlus should not be a good game. Its cutscenes are silly, its plot is trite, and its characters are poorly developed. Despite these inferior elements, its core gameplay of progression is unbelievably fulfilling. The player is tasked to take galactic control back from the evil Grax. To accomplish this goal, the player defeats enemy units. Annihilating stronger units, such as Extractors, liberate more of each planet than destroying weaker units, such as imp hives. This progression system’s positive cycle is common in Ubisoft games, with similar approaches appearing in the Far Cry and Assassin's Creed franchises. Starlink: Battle for Atlas would not be worth playing were it not for the innately satisfying gameplay of retaking control from the antagonist and seeing the liberation bar slowly raise. The distinction between Starlink and the aforementioned Paper Mario: Color Splash lies in what falls short: core gameplay or supporting features. Starlink: Battle for Atlas’s core gameplay satisfies the player, and carries the game despite its poor supporting features; alternatively, Paper Mario: Color Splash’s core gameplay bores the player, and its supporting features cannot justify the game’s main failure. A game can often be great despite poor supporting features, but a game is rarely great with poor central game mechanics because such mechangs constitute the game’s main substance.
Core gameplay has weight
One method to elevate core gameplay’s fun is to heighten its value. Stated differently, central gameplay can be enjoyable because it serves a palpable function. The indie game 60 Seconds is part fanatic collectathon and part tactical survivalist. In its first sixty seconds, warning sirens blare, and the player must run around a house to collect supplies for nuclear fallout. This is a tense moment because the player only has sixty seconds (hence the game’s title) to collect as many supplies as necessary. In addition the inherent stress of limited time ticking down, this protagonist’s purposefully difficult movement controls tax the player with precision coordination; heavy inertia and momentum make gathering supplies difficult. On a more cognitive level, the player is likely to fully engage these sixty seconds due to the intense mental calculations necessary for this portion of the game. Quick estimations guide the player’s gameplay: “should I grab more water, or a medical kit? Should I grab another family member, or leave them because they also consume limited resources? Do I have time to grab more, or should I end now?” So many quick decisions must be made in these first sixty seconds, thereby commanding the player’s attention. The core gameplay of preparation, then, is more deeply enjoyed because it has significance. After all, if the player does not gather properly gather resources during these 60 seconds, he/she suffers during the survival portion of the game because they he/she has less resources on which to live. Thus, the player takes 60 Seconds’s core gameplay mechanic of collecting supplies seriously, resulting in a more intimately felt playing experience.
Game elements are linked
To synthesize a strong core gameplay mechanic, games occasionally blend their other aspects. Super Mario Odyssey’s core gameplay mechanic of platforming, for instance, merges Mario’s new capture mechanic with his visual design to synthesize a central and enjoyable method to move. In this wacky, new adventure, Mario can throw his iconic hat to capture other game elements, such as an unsuspecting goomba, a gentle paratroopa, or a delicious steak. The swath of things able to be captured helps keep the adventure fresh because each new capture offers a unique approach to movement. Bullet Bills quickly zoom in the sky, Tyrannosaurus Rexes destructively dash forward, and Cheep Cheeps adeptly navigate underwater worlds. Instead of just incorporating this already robust capture mechanic, the game adds context to its inclusion by illustrating how Mario’s hat - a familiar aesthetical element in Mario games - enables this capture mechanic. Thus, Mario Odyssey’s visual familiarity guides and propels the player into a new core gameplay mechanic.
Although Mario Odyssey blends core gameplay with visual design, Horizon Zero Dawn takes this concept of merging game elements a step further by integrating two prominent gameplay mechanics. Throughout Horizon Zero Dawn’s beautiful world, the player frequently finds collectibles in the form of healing berries, sturdy twigs, and metal shards. Some of these items, such as the berries, come in handy during a tense battle from their instant health recovery. Other items, such as twigs and shards, can be synthesized to quickly craft arrows for battle. Thus, peaceful scavenging gameplay merges with intense combat in a well balanced manner. The key of this union, however, lies in timing. Health can be quickly recovered and arrows can be speedily constructed mid-fight. Because of this design choice, the player often finds him/herself balancing dangers of combat while manipulating scavenged materials. This union elevates the game’s combat by diversifying its gameplay. Many games often segment their gameplay, such as in the previously described 60 Seconds. By pairing its two core gameplay mechanics of scavenging and fighting, however, Horizon Zero Dawn generates a more dynamic, relevant experience in which the player’s gameplay is perceived as more important because it yields more widespread applications. Scavenging aids combat and combat is often necessary to scavenge, resulting in a satisfying sense of utility behind these central gameplay mechanics.
Conclusion
Core gameplay mechanics matter because they not only substantiate a large portion of a game’s playtime, but also because they help mark a game’s uniqueness. In the plethora of lookalike games in the strategy RPG genre, for instance, Bravely Default’s crafty brave/default core battle mechanic functionally differentiates itself from Darkest Dungeon’s core insanity meter mechanic. As a whole, these pivotal gameplay elements help structure a game for success. Upon inspired execution, they help create a continually satisfying player experience that can even transcend from one game to become a staple in a game’s series. Upon articulating their work’s most important actions, game designers can transform their work into functional art that satisfies the player for hours to come.
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