No laughing matter

After our recent foray into comedy gaming with Robo Rally, I started to think about games with a deliberately funny aspect and how little I enjoy them in the long run. It’s like a joke may be funny the first time you hear it, but after a while it starts to grate.

Robo Rally is supposed to be comedy slapstick, as cruel fate forces your robot into ever more dangerous situations, but instead it just comes across as awkward and needlessly unhelpful. I do remember once finding it funny when I got a hand of useless cards and had to spend a go merely rotating on the spot, but now instead of chuckling at my dizzy robot, I grimly tolerate my lack of progress for another turn.

Smallworld, too, is a game that I can happily never play again. Far from being a cross between Lord of the Rings and The Ramones, the entertainment relies solely on the funny names of the races involved. And while I have happy memories of Kill Dr Lucky, I strongly suspect that playing it again would be a painful experience.

This makes me worry about games that I find funny now. I wonder if in a couple of years, I’m going to look at Galaxy Trucker in the same way. Although you can look at the cards in advance, there’s still an element of the unknown to be faced. So far, it’s still funny when half my ship falls off, and it is satisfying to limp across the finish line, whatever shape your ship is in, but one day I may not be so tolerant of the game’s random elements.

And what of The Adventurers? This game relies on the player pushing his luck in order to get more treasure. But that’s slightly different, since there’s always the option to play safe so if you do fall down a pit or get crushed by a boulder, you always know you had the chance to get out. I don’t find the odds against the player too unreasonable.

As for Colosseum, I doubt this will fall to the same problem because the game itself is played completely straight: the mechanics are good and a poor round isn’t the end of the game for a player. The jokes come from trading gladiators for flowerpots, having the best horse or describing failed attempts at putting on shows rather than anything the game does to you.

As Colosseum demonstrates, it should be the situation that’s silly, but the game’s mechanics should be as solid as any other game. In my opinion, using random elements to create amusing situations is not really workable. Luck makes a terrible dungeon master.