#IDARB

During the NES era, you didn't need to be a fantasy football fanatic or know the names of every player on the New York Knicks to enjoy a sports game. Many games eschewed major league licensing in favor of creating fun competitive experiences that either copied traditional sports and added a unique twist (Base Wars) or wrote rules to a new competition altogether (Road Rash). In the years since, the pool of alternative sports games shrank to the point where they became almost non-existent as major licensed games took over the mindshare. But now, several indie developers are diving headfirst into the competitive e-sports arena with clever new competitive concepts. It Draws A Red Box is one of those bold new ideas.

When it came time to design a new game, developer Other Ocean decided to take a left turn and ask the Twitterverse for intriguing game ideas giving them only a red box to begin with. The result of this messy collaboration is It Draws A Red Box, or #IDARB. The concept of the game is simple, two teams of up to four people compete to score more points than the other team by taking possession of the ball in a Towerfall like platform based arena and scoring the most points through four rounds. You score points by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal, but like basketball you can score more points the further away you are from the goal.

Playing defense is about disrupting the movement of the other team by using an attack tied to the right trigger. If you successfully knock the ball out of an opponent's possession, a mad scramble for the ball ensues. You could employ a zone defense or go with a man-to-man approach, but stay out of your own goal. If you try to thwart attacks by camping in your goal you will be hit with a 10 second penalty, during which your team will be shorthanded like in a hockey game.

On offense you can try to lone wolf it to the net, but the better teams coordinate passing to create opportunity. Players also have a special move that they can activate by wildly swinging the right analog stick back and forth, which allows them to fly around the environment taking out certain platforms and knocking the ball across the arena if they come into contact with it.

Navigating the platforms can be tricky. You can jump and pass through some platforms, but others prevent movement, making you carefully chart out your traversal path.

I only experienced a handful of rounds in one arena, but I can already understand the potential. Even when you lose, the game is fun and you want to jump into another round and turn around your fortunes. Games that can strike that chord are often the most successful in a genre where balance is everything and players will walk away if they feel like the game systems are preventing them from competing well or subject to exploits.

Customization also gives the game an injection of personality. Players can create their own pixel art heroes and name their own teams. Other Oceans had fun with the teams in the demo; options included Bronies, princesses, Double Fine characters, and even Team Breakfast featuring playable bacon and eggs. The developer also plans to let users design their own arenas. Though it's still in its infancy stages, eventually the game will provide tournament structures as well.

Not many people own more than a couple console controllers, but if it can build off the solid core of It Draws A Red Box's early proof of concept, Other Oceans may state a case for adding to your collection. Look for the Xbox One/PC game later in 2014.