Electroplankton

071003

I love Electroplankton on the Nintendo DS, it’s great for whiling away the insomniac hours (also, is you say ‘Adam’ into it, and play it backwards; it sounds like ‘murder’). Is it a game though?

Electroplankton has been described as a ‘toy’ rather than a game because there is no conflict, no time limit and no particular goal. I suppose it depends on how you define ‘game’. It’s dictionary time:

Game: A pursuit or activity with rules performed either alone or with others, for the purpose of entertainment.

By that definition, which sounds reasonable to me, I would say that Electroplankton is a game. It definitely counts as an activity, it certainly has rules / constraints and it is entertaining. Personally, my definition of a game is something you play for fun.