By Angela Dimaano, Features Editor
With Coronavirus keeping us all cooped up at home, video games have found themselves to be the go-to entertainment for many. Countless games have been released in the past six months, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and NBA 2K21, but true popularity explosions have come from four immersive games: Minecraft, Among Us, Valorant, and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout.
Minecraft (MC) was first released more than ten years ago—May 17th, 2009 to be exact. As an open sandbox world game, players were able to fight, build, and mine their way to the game’s initially set conclusion of defeating the Ender Dragon. In the game’s current state, players have taken Minecraft’s simple premise and expanded far from the original gameplay. From Modifications made through coding to Minigames on multiplayer servers, Minecraft has truly stood the test of time and regained its popularity. In such an uncertain time, Minecraft brings a sense of comfort and nostalgia to many players, especially Gen Z who grew up on playing the game. Minecraft content creators on platforms such as Youtube, have fallen and risen with the popularity of the game. Recently, Youtubers such as Dream have gained millions of subscribers through their Minecraft game plays and continue to ]dominate gaming videos. If the calmer nature of Minecraft doesn’t suit you, perhaps the intensity of our next game will grasp your attention.
Our next game that has very recently burst into the spotlight is a mafia style game called Among Us. Initially released on June 15, 2018, Among us was not too popular due to the lack of media attention on the game. Allegedly beginning with streamer Sodapoppin, countless content creators have hopped onto the Among Us bandwagon and skyrocketed the game to its peak popularity. The premise may be simple, as players do their tasks and deduce who the Imposters (killers) are, but there is a whole psychological manipulation aspect to the game that makes it enjoyable time and time again. Among Us has helped friends keep in touch while simultaneously “destroying” friendships in the process. Close friends throw away all their loyalties to each other and accuse people of being the Imposter for just walking “weirdly” or not hanging around groups. Deception only gets worse as everyone becomes better at the game and trust issues develop from mis accusations. As of late, the developers announced that the sequel Among Us 2 would be cancelled and instead improvements would be made to the original game. As with Minecraft, Among Us has helped push Offline TV’s Disguised Toast, 5up, and other youtubers to new heights of popularity, while feeding our seemingly everlasting boredom. After an intense game of Among Us, what a (not so) perfect way to calm down than with an equally, if not more intense game of Valorant!
Valorant is an online, multiplayer five versus five match that utilizes guns to defeat the other team. What makes Valorant different from other 5v5 games, such as Counter Strike Global Offensive, is that it incorporates character abilities into the game, comparable to Overwatch. The character Jett, for example, has a dash ability that is unique to her character. Valorant, first released as a beta on April 7th, 2020, officially dropped on June 2nd and dozens of players flocked to begin playing. A beta release is when the game may still have some bugs, but allows a select amount of people to play the game to discover those bugs. In contrast to Minecraft and Among Us, Valorant’s release has led to the signing of professional Valorant players on Esports teams such as Team SoloMid (TSM). These professionals tend to stream on the platform Twitch and compete in competitions for monetary prizes. To wind down after a long day of grinding wins on Valorant, our final featured game is sure to give you a boost of Serotonin.
The most recently released game on this list is Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Playing as a colorful blob looking character, players make their way through party style minigames, such as an obstacle course run or soccer match. The end goal is to be the sole winner at the end of all the rounds. Fall Guys was released on August 4th of 2020 and has been gaining traction since then. The simple, yet fun premise of Fall Guys draws all kinds of players. A unique feature of the game is the seemingly “broken” physics of the characters. With a horde of players rushing towards the end of the course, your character is constantly jumping and falling over to get the advantage over others. From those who make everything a competition to those that play to have a good time, Fall Guys has something for everyone. Similar to the others, Fall Guys has attracted Twitch streamers, such as XQC, who have racked up hundreds of wins in their countless hours of playing the game.
Even if you don’t really like to play video games, these four games give a great range of entertainment to enjoy. From the light hearted nature of Fall Guys to the intensity of Among us, we sure will have many games to keep us company going forward. With all these fantabulous releases, excitement and anticipation builds for the next hit games.
