Upcoming 'Brick People' is Frantic Arcade-Style Fun

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Upcoming 'Brick People' is Frantic Arcade-Style Fun

When I first saw the banner for Brick People, one of three upcoming titles that Sega was demoing yesterday in San Francisco, it seemed somewhat familiar but I couldn’t quite place why. It wasn’t until they showed a video of people playing the arcade version that I remembered, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that crazy thing before!”

In the arcade version of Brick People, there were actual physical bricks that you used to play the game. They were similar to oversized Legos that you could stack onto a small ledge that jutted out at the base of the game screen. The tiny characters in Brick People would then be able to jump onto the bricks that you had built to reach fruit floating in the sky.

Brick People in the arcades was definitely kind of odd, but also a pretty clever idea. Now, Sega is bringing the game to iOS, though obviously without the physical bricks of the original. That’s probably for the best, actually, since lugging around a tote bag full of oversized foam bricks really hampers the portability of iOS devices.

The virtual brick approach actually works quite well, especially on the large screen of the iPad. Brick People is a dead simple game at its core, but contains a ton of underlying strategy and challenge. It’s probably best explained by one of Sega’s reps in this brief hands-on video:

One interesting aspect to the iOS version of Brick People will be the multiplayer modes. You can connect locally over Bluetooth or WiFi to compete with a friend to see who can complete a level faster. On the iPad, there will be a same-device multiplayer mode as well, and this was the mode I was able to check out at yesterday’s event to compete with some of my fellow game journalists.

I use the word “compete” extremely loosely, as I lost 6 times in a row and never won even a single game. The important takeaway from that, though, was that the frantic gameplay style of Brick People was still extremely fun face to face with another live person even when on the losing end. Also, I need lots of practice.

I came away really impressed with just how much fun Brick People is, even without real physical bricks to play with. The simple, fast-paced gameplay is perfectly suited for mobile, and there should be plenty of content to play through when the game ships this Fall. By that time, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to win at least one multiplayer match. Time will tell.

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Anonymous

Wait, why is it "obviously without the physical bricks of the original"? They could easily sell a little package of an iPad stand (it would tilt backwards a little and have a ledge at the bottom) and 11 Lego-sized conductive blocks and a code to download the game. Then you could play it like in the arcade. Having a more limited number of blocks to use simultaneously might even add some neat gameplay elements.

Why not think outside the box a little?

SMP

If theres one thing thats been evident in the history of games, its that game specific peripherals are a bad idea, which would be required here. So no.

Anonymous

You mean like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, Taiko Drum Master, Donkey Konga, Samba de Amigo, the Dreamcast fishing rods, light guns, Wii Fit, etc?

In fact, I'm having a much harder time thinking of times where what you said held true. Even the Dreamcast keyboard had Typing of the Dead.

I guess that Tony Hawk skateboard game didn't do very well? Good enough for a sequel, it seems.

http://twitter.com/JaredTA Jared Nelson

I thought you were being sarcastic at first, but you seem pretty passionate about this.

So yeah, I'm sure it's possible. The problem is that the technology for the game to see the bricks isn't there, it's built into the arcade cabinet. The only solution I could think of would be to have capacitative touch nubs on the blocks themselves so they could register as being on the screen. This presents a ton of problems though, like having to make sure the blocks register a touch on the screen in the middle of a fast-paced game like this and also the cost of producing blocks with that technology in them, since it isn't cheap.

That's not even bringing up the fact that the blocks would have to be extremely small for them to work on the iPhone. I don't even want to think about it.

The logistics are just so horribly against this idea that I don't think it's a stretch to say that "obviously the iOS version of this game won't have the physical blocks."

Anonymous

The video shows the game on an iPad. I'm not so sure even this touch version would work well on an iPhone (the blocks would be extremely small whether they're real or virtual), so I wasn't talking about making an iPhone version.

Making blocks out of a conductive material, or with a conductive nub, isn't really that overblown a proposition. There are plenty of companies making tiny blocks for pennies that you could partner with. I also don't think the touch-sensitivity in a fast-paced game is a concern here, as it isn't for any other game...or the touch-based version of the game above? I'm not sure why you brought that up.

Box it up with a cheap little stand and sell it for $20-30 if you want. It's cheaper than a DS game. If everyone's supposed to think of the iPad as a console, I'm sure they could be convinced to buy stuff for it. Down the road you could even make a spin-off platformer or something.

Mainly, though, I guess my point is that while I'm not surprised that we're seeing another touch-based adaptation of a physical game, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask why they didn't want to include the (very important in this case) physical element. I didn't see the need to be so dismissive and/or accept it as impossible.
http://twitter.com/JaredTA Jared Nelson

I certainly didn't say it's impossible, but it's overwhelmingly unrealistic. First of all, good luck trying to sell a $20-$30 package so that people can play a mobile game that will likely cost less than $5. How much would shipping be on that btw?

The point about the capacitive touch nubs is that those are the most expensive parts of this proposed idea. That is why the Fling controllers cost so much. Making cheap little blocks wouldn't be the problem.

What I mean about the touch sensitivity is that what happens if in the midst of a heated VS battle you realize that your little blocks aren't completely making contact with the screen? Throws off the whole game. You could try to make an iPad stand that leans back a bit to make sure the blocks are always touching the screen, but that is going to make it awfully hard to actually stack and connect the blocks themselves.

It just seems like way too much of a hassle for something that adds very little to the game. The virtual blocks work perfectly in the iOS port, and the gameplay is still there. It's a neat idea in theory, but if they were to come up with some sort of block peripheral add-on for this game I think it would be much better suited to the home consoles.

SMP

Ive never heard of this game before, I youtubed it, and found a hilarious video of a bunch of kids who completely ignored what was on screen and just kept stacking blocks. This game definitely has my attention.

Gartliao

where's the link?!

Adams Immersive

That physical arcade game looks awesome! Probably a theft target, though, knowing how people are. They take all the balls out of the mice sitting out at stores and libraries! (We can probably thank them for the development of optical mice!)

http://twitter.com/JaredTA Jared Nelson

I'd imagine that's why it's a Japan only game. People are nice there. You don't even have to lock up your bicycle. In America, those blocks would be gone in a heartbeat, unfortunately.

http://www.facebook.com/madebymadison Madison Fotografie

Ive had Brick People from the Japanese store for a while and it does not even start p on my iPad 2 so I hope Sega fixed that. They were 'working in it' (for months: puh-lease!)