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| Source // Apple |
The 1001 list isn't afraid to put time-wasters in the limelight, but many of them so far - if they've really not had anything else to offer gamers - have been artsy enough to get by without too many problems.
Noby Noby Boy, for example, is a 'game' about stretching until you're bored of stretching, then contributing your score to a collective goal. That's all, really, but its presentation is just as much of a talking point as its 'gameplay'.
But One-Dot Enemies is something else. It's Noby Noby Boy to the extreme, and it goes a little something like this...
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| Source // Apple |
Frustrations
I promise you, that's a finger.
One-Dot Enemies is a game about squashing bugs, but these bugs are, as the name suggests, just one dot big. Literally.
It's an iOS game that I can't play, and let's be real here, I think we can all get some idea of what happens when you play it. One blank white screen (no doubt draining your battery). One teeny tiny dot scampering around. One finger looming over the touchscreen to squash it. One point scored.
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| Source // Apple |
I imagine there aren't any screenshots of living dots in this game for the simple reason of someone not wanting to take the piss, and so these are the results of your efforts - a coloured skull of satisfaction at having done the thing.
I don't think you'll appreciate how small a pixel is until you try hunting for one in One-Dot Enemies. Hopefully, your screen isn't cracked.
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| Source // Apple |
If you think that's crap, One-Dot Enemies is one step ahead of you. When you've had your fill of fun (assuming it was fun), you can hover over a toilet (again, that's definitely what that is a picture of) and flush away all of the bugs you've squashed this session.
Why would you want to do that? To see how many dots have been destroyed across the world, duh.
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| Source // Apple |
Final Word
So that's One-Dot Enemies, a game you don't need to play to know how it plays. Well, to be fair, I can't quite be that conclusive. It might be harder for those with smaller fingers, and it will be more difficult for those with a visual impairment.
Not very inclusive then, is it? I bet the developers absolutely did not care on their quest to make something to meet the absolute bare-bones definition of a game. And to be fair once more, I can't find a whole lot about One-Dot Enemies online to know much about its origins at all. Was it an art piece? A parody? Commentary on the state of gaming in 2009? I've absolutely no idea.
If you really, really, want to check it out, sure, why not? I bet you can get by without playing it at all, though.
Fun Facts
This game comes from the mind of Kenji Eno, who is described as a 'maverick', so this is right up his wheelhouse, I suppose.
One-Dot Enemies, developed by Studio Kura, first released in 2009.
Version watched: iOS, 2009 (m1ndgam3z)