Lola’s Ramblings: My Five Favorite Game Genres

Posted October 13, 2016 by Lola in Lola's Ramblings / 12 Comments

LolaRamblings

Lola’s Ramblings is a feature on my blog Lola’s Reviews where I ramble on about a book related or a non-book related topic. These are discussion type of posts where I talk about a topic and readers can weigh in on the topic in the comments. Usually these posts are everything that doesn’t fall under any standard header, like tours, cover reveals, memes, challenges, recaps or reviews. Lola’s Ramblings posts are discussions of a certain topic and my point of view on them. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Designs.

A while ago I got interviewed on Daniela Ark her blog and mentioned I was a gamer, a few people said they would be interested in reading some gaming related posts by me, so this is the thrid game related post on my blog. You can read the previous two here: Ten games that make me feel nostalgic and Five Games I am Really Looking Forward to. Today I am talking about my favorite game genres. Some are really specific and others are broad categories,

My favorite game genres

  • Tower Defense. Tower Defense is easily one of my favorite game genres. I vaguely remember the first tower defense game I played that was a free online game and I was hooked. I love the concept of tower defense games and the strategy involved. Usually there is a location of some sort you have to protect from enemies that are walking towards it and you have to kill them before they reach said location. There are slight variations, but that’s the global idea. Usually you can place towers and different weapons on them and upgrade them. There is some strategy involved about which tower to place where and how to build your maze. For example some towers do a lot of damage, but have a short radius, so you should place those on a location as many enemies go past or as long as possible. I can’t fully explain my love for this genre, but something about it just works for me. It’s too bad it doesn’t seem to be as a popular of a genre.
    Some games I played in this genre: Sanctum, Sanctum 2, Super Sanctum TD, Pixeljunk Monsters, Defender’s Quest, Defense Grid, Kingdom Rush and Unholy Heights
  • Simulation Games/ City Building Simulation games can be so much fun, they can be everything from growing crops on your farm, running a restaurant, ruling a city to watering plants. You get a bit of a feel for a job or something you might not do in real life and there’s usually some planning involved and seeing things change or develop. I like a good simulation game if the topic catches my interest. Something about the simulation aspect and seeing things evolve and change and being able to have some influence on what happens works for me.
    Some games I played in this genre: Viridi, Tropico 4, Stardew Valley, Mini Metro, Cook Serve Delicious, Age of Empires 2, Banished and Unholy Heights
  • Puzzle. Puzzles games can be as fun as they can be frustrating. But when I am in the mood for them I can really enjoy a good puzzle game.
    Some games I played in this genre: Home Sheep Home, ibb & obb, Rush and Toki Tori
  • Collect a ton. Collect a tons are another one of such genres that don’t seem to be too popular anymore, but I have a particular fondness for. I blame Banjo Kazooie, a game I loved to play as a kid and gave me many fond memories of this genre. Yes they can be frustrating as well, but there’s also something so satisfying about collecting things and figuring out where all the items you need to collect are. I probably should’ve picked a broader genre for this heading like platformer or something, But I decided to go for more specific as I love games like this and wish there were more of them. some games have a bit of collecting elements, but with collect a tons there is usually more focus on this aspect and more different things to collect. And it’s why two collect a tons made my Five Games I am Really Looking Forward to list.
    Some games I played in this genre: Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Ratchet and Clank and Spyro
  • RPG. RPG’s usually involve interesting characters in a fantasy world. Action, adventure, battles and story. There is a wide variety of rpg’s out there and not all of them work for me, but I still would consider it one of my favorite genres as some of my favorite games are part of this genre. My favorite RPG’s are those with a good story and interesting characters. I like being able to immerse myself in a new world and develop it and have characters I get to know while playing. I also like games with some action as well, it can be soothing to beat enemies in a game.
    Some games I played in this genre: Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2, Final Fantasy X, Final fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy 12, Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy 13-2, Skyrim and Secrets of Grindea

What are your favorite game genres?

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12 responses to “Lola’s Ramblings: My Five Favorite Game Genres

    • I mostly game on my computer nowadays, although I did played mainly on consoles when I was younger and still have a playstation 2 and 3 standing around and a nintendo ds that hardly works anymore.

  1. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a tower defense game per se, but I’ve played games where you had to build towers strategically to slow down or kill hostile forces. And yeah it’s kinda fun. 🙂 I like sim games too (some Age of Empires, a TON of Civ games, a few others) and they are so immersive. I love building a city or kingdom it’s fun to see it grow…

    RPG’s might be my favorite though, again immersive and just as blast (and a total time sink). Bioware has great games and Skyrim is one I really want to try.
    Greg recently posted…Liebster Award X2My Profile

    • It’s probably a tower defense game if you had to place towers to slow down and kill hostile forces. And sim games are a lot of fun too, they are immersive indeed and I like how they can focus on something you often don’t get to experience in real life. And seeing a city/ kingdom grow is always fun, I like seeing the changes and developments. I think I own Skyrim or one of the other games in that series, I always confuse the titles.

  2. You already know I don’t play video games, but if I did, I’d like the puzzle games. I love puzzles, things that involve thinking and figuring out. And I like those because they’re not stressful in the way other games are when things are attacking you or coming at you or you have to do everything exactly right with the righting timing. I’ve been thinking of making a post with my favorite puzzle/word game apps, which is not the same as a video game obviously lol, but even on my phone/kindle that’s all I play!
    Kristen @ Metaphors and Moonlight recently posted…Book Review: The Fray Theory: Resonance (The Fray Theory Book 1) by Nelou KeramatiMy Profile

    • There are quite a lot of other game genres where there aren’t things coming at you. the collect a tons can have a bit of the having to do everything right at the exact right moment part sometimes, which can be frustrating, but also fun when you get it right. I like a good puzzle game, although it can be frustrating when you can’t solve the puzzle.

      That’s a good idea to make a post about your favorite puzzle/ word game apps, and those are games as well in a sense of the word. I would be interested to hear what kind of apps you play :). I don’t have a smartphone sadly, so I probably can’t play most of those. I do have an ipad, but it’s so old it can’t do most of the apps anymore, but it’s great for reading.

  3. Love gaming, RPG is and always will be my favorite. I also like the simulation games, at the moment playing Disney Kingdoms, I can build my own Disney park. It’s so much fun. Gaming really relaxes me. I also like Hidden Object games, I usually go on a website called Big Fish Games for that. Haven’t played on in a while but I think I might since you know make me want to play lol Also need to get back to Stardew Valley 🙂

    Great post!
    Michelle @Because Reading recently posted…Werewolf with Lola at @LolasReviews ~ Monster and Book Guest PostMy Profile

    • RPG’s are great, they used to be my favorite genre and almost the only genre I played although now I play more different genres now.
      That Disney Kingdoms game sounds fun. I like the simulation games. I’ve recently been playing Unholy Heights which is a tower defense/ simulation game where you are the devil and you run an apartment complex and monsters can rent rooms and heroes come and fight them.

      I also need to go back to Stardew valley, they had a big update lately and you can pick different types of farms now.

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