Many of the best loved games in the world have a long history behind them. This is typically because they have an enduring appeal and compelling gameplay that persists through time and across both cultural and language barriers. Yet this is not to assume that these games do not evolve with the times. In truth, all games steadily evolve as they encounter new environments and contexts, giving rise to novel variants and rule-sets.
In our modern era, the latest frontier that games are grappling with is the internet. Many novel new game-types have emerged over the past 20 years, incorporating the unique characteristics of online gaming into their core features. Below we’re going to be taking a look at 4 traditional titles that have taken on a new life exclusive to their online versions.
Battle Chess 3D
You may remember in the 2001 film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, a captivating scene where our protagonists must play chess using life-sized, magically-animated statues. This variant of the long running game of chess, named Battle Chess 3D, draws on this famous scene for its inspiration. In Battle Chess 3D, as in the movie and book, players must compete against one another on a virtual chess board, using animated characters to strike one-another’s pieces out of contention with each successful move.
The core rule-set of this game is virtually identical to classic chess, meaning anyone familiar with the traditional game can pick this up quickly and dive headlong into battle. By incorporating a novel graphical flair, Battle Chess 3D builds on standard chess in a way only possible with the assistance of programming and technical wizardry.
21+3 Blackjack
Blackjack is arguably the most popular casino game played in the world today, and this holds true for both brick-and-mortar and online venues. The latter has given rise to some wholly new takes on this classic card game over the past couple of decades, with one of the most unique and memorable incorporating something known as the 21+3 side bet into its format.
Simply put, this variant, called 21+3 blackjack, combines classic blackjack gameplay with the hand-ranking system from poker. This not only increases the rate of play, but massively ups the frequency and potential yield of winning bets, making it a more dynamic and engaging prospect for those over-familiar with the classic game.
Among Us
One could reasonably question what game Among Us, a cartoonish multiplayer game set in outer-space, is an online variant of? In truth it’s an amalgamation of several popular party games, such as Clue and hide-and-seek. Among Us sky-rocketed to global popularity during the disruptions of 2020, where it emerged as a uniquely entertaining party game for online players.
One player is randomly selected to be the “imposter”, a player tasked with surreptitiously murdering the others while avoiding detection and evading getting voted off in the successive rounds of meetings held over the course of a game. At its peak in popularity, Among Us drew in 60 million daily active players, and it still retains a strong player-base today in 2022 making it more than worth your time if you’re in the mood for some deceptive gaming antics.
8 Ball Pool
To the cue-game purist, 8 Ball Pool may appear like an insufficient adaptation of this family of table games. Yet 8 Ball Pool isn’t trying to win any awards for accurately simulating its core inspiration. Instead, Miniclips’ immensely popular online pool game aims to capture the essence of what makes its physical counterpart so entertaining–accurately lining up shots into pockets–and translate this into a simple top-down format.
8 Ball Pool is among the most popular video games played in the world today, with a record 18 million active players recorded in a single day in 2021. This means you’ll never have any trouble finding someone to play with. Tight integration with Facebook’s Instant Games services also opens up the ability to challenge anybody on your friends-list to a bout, even right from within a Messenger chat.