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36 Clever Tips and Geeky Facts to Spice Up Your Favorite Video and Board Games

Games are so boring without instructions and minutiae

36 Clever Tips and Geeky Facts to Spice Up Your Favorite Video and Board Games

January 21, 2024

Sure, video games and board games are sexy and foster healthy interactions between friends and strangers alike. The only downside is that they’re boring! Thankfully, we’ve collected an assortment of tips and factoids that will finally make these hobbies fun.

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36

LEGEND OF ZELDA Zelda originally had you defeat an enemy by + screaming at it. EEK! Originally the Japanese NES had a microphone, and the way to defeat a Legend of Zelda monster called Pols Voice was to scream into the mic. CRACKED.COM — Source

35

SUPER MARIO (ETC.) Mario's mushrooms look like hallucinatory Amanita + Muscaria mushrooms. Developers needed a way to make Mario fit into the game environment properly, so they picked mushrooms. They claim the resemblance to the psychedelic shrooms is coincidental. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

METAL GEAR Metal Gear is a stealth game because it started + out on a slow system. It was originally designed to run on a computer called an MSX2, which could only support a few characters (and bullets) at a time without crashing. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

LEGEND OF ZELDA The beta version of Zelda let you choose either a sword or a boomerang. IT'S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS. The game was also originally meant to be set both in the past and the future. Link got his name because he was meant to be the connection between the two. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

MONKEY ISLAND Monkey Island was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, and vice versa. In 2000, ILM began conceptualizing a movie based on The Curse of Monkey Island, which was inspired by the Disneyland ride. The movie never got made, but writer Ted Elliott went on to write Curse of the Black Pearl. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

MARVEL SUPERHEROES vs. STREET FIGHTER There's a pervert in the Japanese version of Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter. He's an older man named Norimaro who dresses like a schoolboy. Не spends his time trying to take Chun-Li's picture. If you beat the game with him, he steals her panties. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

SILENT HILL The creepy fog in Silent Hill is there to hide the + game's slow load time. It sets a creepy atmosphere, and prevents players from seeing monsters until the last second, but it's actually there to conceal the fact that the scenes take a while to render. + CRACKED.COM — Source

29

GRADIUS The Konami code was left in the game + by accident. в A START Gradius was so hard that Kazuhisa Hashimoto couldn't play to test it. Не eventually added a simple set of button presses to give himself a full set of power-ups. Не forgot to delete the code before the game was released. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

TOMB RAIDER Lara Croft has a big chest because of a mistake. Artist Toby Gard, one of the people in charge of designing + Lara's character, was editing her dimensions. When he decided to increase her bust size by 50%, he mistyped 150%, and an icon was born. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

SPACE INVADERS Space Invaders' increasing speed is because of a + hardware problem. Even after a year working on the hardware, the invaders moved really slowly. They only sped up when there were fewer of them on the screen, because they'd been shot. Hence the slowly accelerating pace. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

MARIO Everything about Mario was created to + conserve pixels. Mario's creator Shigeru Miyamoto added: A hat, so he wouldn't have to draw hair, a nose and mustache, so Mario's face wouldn't just be a blob, and overalls, to give Mario's arms definition. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

FINAL FANTASY Final Fantasy got its name because its creator + figured he was done. Square was out of money after a + string of unsuccessful games. Hironobu Sakaguchi chose the name Final Fantasy because he thought it would be his last game. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

FARMVILLE Farmville F is a shameless ripoff of a game called + Farm Town. Farmer Farm LEARNING DE ROPES Farm Town Farmville HAMP Farm Town debuted just months before Farmville spammed its way into Facebook history. The gameplay and visuals are virtually identical. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

GRAND THEFT AUTO Grand Theft Auto was inspired by a bug in + another game. Race'n'Chase Game Design Version 1.05 March 22. 1995 с 1995 DMA Design Ltd Rockstar released a driving game called Race'n'Chase, and early testers panned it until they found a glitch. It + was a bug that caused the police to try to run players off the road. So instead of running missions, players screwed around while the police tried to run them off the road. And GTA was born. CRACKED.COM — Source

22

ADVENTURE The first Easter egg was created by a disgruntled + Atari employee. ADVENTURE معر VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM GAME PROGRAM 3 GAMES VIDEO THREE SKOD LEVELS ONE PLAYER SALE created Warren Robinett, the programmer on Adventure, knew he wouldn't get credit for his work. So he created a secret room with his name written on the floor. By the time it was discovered, the games had hit the shelves. Atari decided to tell people it was a hidden feature, and coined the term Easter egg. CRACKED.COM — Source

21

KIRBY Kirby was a placeholder for a to-be-designed + character. Game designer Masahiro Sakurai dropped a circle into his game as he was designing it, figuring he'd flesh out the character later. Eventually he decided he liked the little sphere as-is, and added a few little details to give it personality. CRACKED.COM — Source

20

SUPER MARIO The Chain Chomp monsters in Mario games + are based on a dog. When Shigeru Miyamoto was a child, his neighbor had a chained dog who constantly barked. + CRACKED.COM — Source

19

DONKEY KONG Donkey Kong was supposed to be the hero, + not the villain. M DK The game manual explains that Donkey Kong was Mario's pet, and he escaped because Mario mistreated him. CRACKED.COM — Source

18

CENTIPEDE Think you're a space ship shooting lasers, in Centipede? You're not. You're an elf named Oliver who lives in a magical forest. You usually get along fine with the centipedes, but a wizard enchanted them to attack you. Now you're fighting them off with your wand. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

ASTEROIDS Spacewar is just like Asteroids, only better- + and it came first. Spacewar was a two-player game where you could shoot the other player, there was a black hole in the middle of the screen, and the star field was based on actual star fields. Asteroids: 1979. Spacewar: 1962. CRACKED.COM — Source

16

For quick and Build or adapt a big house easy macabre and move in a spooky fun when playing character. Immediately The ASIMS throw a party, and KILL ALL THE GUESTS. Now your neighborhood has a badass haunted house with-an-enormous- cemetary in the backyard. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

If you want to prove you re the best that ever was at PoKéMoN CRACKED COM give the Nuzlocke Challenge a try. There are jus t two rules: +If a Pokémon faints, you release it. +You can only catch the first Pokémon you encounter on a route. — Source

14

CRACKED.COM ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM® Nintendo Already mastered playing through The Legend of ZELDA and ready for a new The 1060 challenge? TRY A NO-SWORD RUN! LEVEL-5 152 в -LIFE- It's hard, but an expert player can get as far as fighting Ganon using only secondary weapons. — Source

13

WHEN PLAYING LATER D&D EDITIONS (3.5 ONWARD), CAP YOUR PLAYERS' LEVELS AT SIX. After that, every time they would level up, let them choose a feat instead. At that level, every class is still balanced. This will eventually lead to strong, competent warriors instead of superpowered gods. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Hearthstone gameplay is starting to get stale? BA FREES THE DES Get a friend, give each other some time to create a suicide deck, and compete to see who kills themselves faster. You'd be surprised by the level of creativity required to create an efficient self-defeating deck. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Before you start a Monopoly game, DOS brainstorm random things players can be fined $50 for. Such as: Dropping the dice Bumping the board aod SCIA PRZEZ Complaining ПИАН WAZDOWSKE A E Rolling a five PODATKOWY etc. DOMAR DO DYHY2 Put all the collected DO fees on the Jail ? square. Anyone who lands in jail collects the pile 300mL a of cash. E CRACKED.COM - — Source

10

CRACKED.COM ADD a CUSS JAR ВО NINTA CATAN 360 ASSASSINS CREEDII CARD GAME CATAN HD ENTER LO3 ODST I CATAN المركة OSHOCK2 I I CARD GAME . FINAL FANTASY. XIII A Carvassonne T MODERN WARFARE 21 SS EFFECT2 MASS COPECY I HEY! THAT'S MY FIS RAGON AGE ORIGINS PA I RDERLANDS 24 Hero TICKET TO LL-DUTY WORLD AT WAR - BELL Rand theftauto R Fallout 3 ARANAM ASTEVM 10 SETTLERS Orange Box CAMINS CATAN F LE-DUTY4 HODERN WARRANK RED FACTION Aquarett ALO31 BOX HALD ? 1960: THEMAKINGOF THEPRESIDENT Z-MAN recogn BOX 300 D GEARS-WAR SAED Owen II NFC CRACKDOWN for you accomplal AROS — Source

9

DUNGEON MASTERS: STOP AWARDING YOUR TABLETOP RPG PLAYERS EXPERIENCE POINTS AFTER COMBAT, AND INSTEAD INCREASE THEIR CHARACTERS' LEVELS AT PREDETERMINED POINTS IN THE STORY. YOUR PARTY WILL HAVE MORE ROLEPLAYING OPTIONS WHEN THEY'RE NOT TRYING TO SOLVE EVERY SITUATION WITH VIOLENCE JUST TO GET THE EXPERIENCE POINTS NEEDED TO LEVEL UP. CRACKED COM — Source

8

Board Game Olympics Have a list of board games and a list of players. Each player puts money into the pot and then you play each of the board games and whoever has the most wins keeps all the money. Every single game will be hugely exciting and competitive. obclone - CASTLE KEEP abolone adidas Blokus SENTRO Shippity Othello - بعد E jamaica - Qwirkle Mix Match Score and Wom II LYIT SORP - - - I 550 محمد CATAN + Four C 2163 JUNIOR - DELUXE ME SSIC PASS THE PIGS H Her Cherry BATTLESH MES COMBIT SOCIAL GAME — Source

7

Have any Jenga pieces that have been gathering layers of dust for a while now? Jump as high ME you can Recite 9 nursery Phyme HAS the drunk and ets de the chicken dog yoga pase dance say hello m skip news the YON Spanish are back laugh like shake your booty Santa Claus bunny hop actos the room e back twirl like a ballerina Spice things up by writing silly and daring tasks on the Jenga blocks with your friends and doing what the blocks say when you pull them out while playing the game. It's also a lot more — Source

6

About to play Twister? Twist Have each player stuff his/her shirt with a pillow before the game starts. This way, the game is more challenging and even more silly. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

- ... - a - with DOCTOR CARDS CLASSIC AILIVENTS I PRESS MY NOSEI OPERATION MANS VIR BETTER OR GET THE BUZZER! I Becker adidas Have an episode of Grey's Anatomy playing in the background during your game of Operation. Really raises the stakes. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Wait until the sun goes down to play your horror games. AM CLEAR 100 9ла Playing in a dark room at night makes everything more frightening and suspenseful. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

If you're a gamer of legal drinking age, turn Mario Kart into Beerio Kart. The two core rules are simple: 1) No drinking and driving. 2) You must finish your beer before you cross the finish line. CRACKED COM — Source

2

some TIPS TO make uno moRe FUN AND PROLONGED GLOBAL CONTEST If a player forgets to say Uno on WINNING RULE INSIDE! the last card, he has to perform shuffle a dare or drink a shot. The player who gets a blank wild card can ask any other player to UNO reveal two random cards from his pile. WILD CARDS! NOW WITH CUSTOMIZABLE When playing with multiple decks -after every 4 rounds, the player P 4 3 with the most cards gets to use a special card on the player of WILD his choice. 2-10 7+ CRACKED COM — Source

1

No piggybacking in Scrabble. The added letters have to form a word with a different meaning. BLE think LOTTER DOUBLE LETTER DOUBLE GOUBLE LETTER LETTER DOUBLE LETTER TRIP LET. TRINCE S с LETTER R r 1 3 R A В В 3 L 1 DOU LE WORD m 3 DOUBLE WORD E DOUBLE 1 WORD TRIPLE LETTER DOUBLE LETTER TRIPLE For example, you can't simply add an s WORD to make lump plural, but putting it in RABBLE the front is okay: slump. GRAGKED.COM — Source

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