Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby
| Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | The Walt Disney Company |
| Publisher(s) | The Walt Disney Company |
| Series | Winnie the Pooh |
| Platform(s) | Browser |
| Release | 2008 |
| Genre(s) | Sports game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby[a] is a 2008 Flash baseball video game published at the Walt Disney Company website. The player controls Pooh in order to compete in a home run derby contest, facing off against many other characters in the series as pitchers. The game won cult following in early 2013 and became a viral hit due to its extreme difficulty, especially for a children's game.
Gameplay
The game plays as a typical home run derby, where most aspects of baseball are stripped away in favor of the simple aspect of being pitched baseballs with the goal of hitting home runs.[1] The player controls Winnie the Pooh, using the computer mouse to position him and his baseball bat, and clicking to swing the bat.[1] The game contains eight stages, each with a different Winnie the Pooh series character pitching the ball, each with different type of ways to throw the ball and increasing difficulty.[2][3][4] The goal of the game is to hit the target number of homeruns in each round.[1] Points are earned for performance, and may be used to purchase upgrades for their speed (Which allows the player to move towards the ball more quickly), contact (Which makes it easier and more forgiving for the player to hit the ball) and strength (Which sends the ball further when hit) as they earn points throughout the stages.[5]
Reception
While the game was initially quietly released in 2008,[6][2] in 2013, the game went viral, with many publications noting the game's extreme difficulty level, especially considering the game's primary demographic being for children.[3][4] with the game even receiving coverage from the NBC Sports website.[7][5][8][1] Multiple publications compared it to the game QWOP due to its similar premise of being simple in concept, but extremely difficult in practice.[4][1][9] Eurogamer was more positive about the game, concluding that it "isn't particularly deep, but it is moderately addictive and watching Piglet and company tear Pooh Bear a new one isn't without its charms."[4] Other outlets were less positive, with PCGamesN claiming that the game "reject[s] the laws of physics and fair play" and "would require a child for who is able to bend time and space to their will" to play the game successfully.[8] Kotaku referred to the game's difficulty as "game that's so difficult, you just might smash your monitor...instead of the nice woodland creatures you know and love, they've been replaced with rocket-armed ür-beasts that would eat Randy Johnson with a side of honey."[3] Complex named it one of the ten most difficult browser games of all time, calling the game "just about the most challenging thing you can ever imagine."[10] Many people also felt that the game's difficulty led them into intense anger against the various characters depicted in the game, in contrast to the anthropomorphic animals' popularity as harmless children's characters.[5][3][9]
References
- ^ a b c d e Alfonso III, Fernando (2013-01-03). "Forget QWOP: 4chan discovers the most frustrating kids' game ever". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ^ a b Zamora, Alonso (8 Sep 2015). "Un juego de Winnie The Pooh más difícil que Dark Souls". LEVELUP.com. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ^ a b c d "This Winnie The Pooh Game Is Way Too Difficult For Kids". Kotaku. January 4, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ a b c d Matulef, Jeffrey (5 January 2013). "Disney Japan's Winnie the Pooh browser game is too hard for children, everyone else". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ^ a b c Stifler (January 3, 2013). "Winnie The Pooh's Home Run Derby Might Drive You Crazy". K94.5. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ^ "Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby!". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ^ "Reddit users are hilariously unnerved by a flash game called Winnie The Pooh Home Run Derby". Off the Bench. 2013-01-04.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Benson, Julian (January 6, 2013). "Winnie the Pooh: Home Run Derby is not suitable for children". PCGamesN. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ^ a b Burns, Ashley (Jan 4, 2013). "The Game That's Causing An Internet War: 'Winnie The Pooh Home Run Derby'". UPROXX. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ^ Amirkhani, Justin (Mar 14, 2013). "The 10 Hardest Web Browser Video Games Ever Made". Complex. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
