Blockchain Games Are Finally Real, and They're Actually Good

With the recent “bull run” either on hold or cut short with prices below 2021 highs, the mounting crypto-speculative mania of the past decade seems to have settled down. That puts a premium on products that deliver, instead of just making big promises.

Crypto as a whole is, I think, at something of an inflection point. With the recent “bull run” either on hold or cut short with prices below 2021 highs, the mounting crypto-speculative mania of the past decade seems to have settled down. That puts a premium on products that deliver, instead of just making big promises.

That includes blockchain-backed gaming, which has been on the horizon since the announcement of Ethereum, and which I’m happy to report is actually becoming a Real Thing. In the past, “blockchain games” have often been hasty cash-ins designed to entice speculators rather than players. But, as an embarrassingly experienced gamer who spent my childhood loading Doom from a DOS command line, I’m happy to report that blockchain games are now emerging fully-cooked: that is, many are at least as enjoyable as games that have nothing to do with crypto.

What follows is a lightning-round of quick reviews of a selection of blockchain games. Each game is judged on standard metrics of gameplay and graphics. But unlike more conventional games, blockchain games should also be evaluated for their onboarding experience and tokenomics.

Onboarding is significant because games are great ways to attract people without crypto experience, and hitting them with a laundry list of complicated tasks before they can play is a great way to lose their interest immediately. And tokenomics matter because they’re hard to get right, and the temptation for developers to be shortsighted and self-interested is strong.

Also worth noting: The reviews below are mostly based on fairly short play time (and few if any of these games are deep enough to demand more.) The reviews are also based on the current state of these games: Roadmaps and projections are all well and good, given the financial stakes, this is a “verify, don’t trust” situation.

Note: I had also planned on reviewing Nifty Island and My Pet Hooligan. But Nifty Island was offline for maintenance when I tried to log in. While My Pet Hooligan (which is in Early Access) looks and feels great offline, it’s a PVP shooter, and the game’s few servers weren’t cooperating when I tried to play.

Hamster Kombat (Mobile/Telegram)

Onboarding: A

Gameplay: D

Graphics: A

Tokenomics: D

It’s new, it’s hot, it’s incredibly effective at what it was designed for – but Hamster Kombat isn’t really “a game.” At present, the only ‘gameplay’ proper is clicking one object for points, then spending those points to earn more points. If there’s any actual “Kombat,” it’s completely opaque to me as a new player. Instead, Hamster Kombat, where you play the role of a growth-minded CEO of a crypto exchange, gamifies social engagement, offering in-game “gold” for things like following and promoting the game’s X/Twitter account, or recruiting friends.

The scammy vibes of this pyramid-built-on-nothing element are impossible to ignore, but one thing can’t be denied – it’s working, driving the “game” to huge popularity (see Jeff Wilser’s recent feature on the growth of Hamster Kombat and other TON-based games. The tiny bit of gameplay is impressively addictive (I’m clicking right now …). And, in most other respects, Hamster Kombat is top-tier, with a flawlessly smooth interface and, most impressive of all, a truly effortless onboarding experience that’s integrated directly into Telegram. That both mutes the impression of scamminess, and leads one to believe promises that a real game will emerge from beneath this perpetual self-promotion machine.

Unfortunately, though, gameplay evolution seems to be a low priority for the devs for the moment. The Hamster Kombat roadmap includes gameplay upgrades like “Squad Kombat,” but by far the most focus is on an upcoming airdrop, with a token that is promised to be integrated into gameplay. It seems iffy to release your token before anything resembling an actual game, so between that and the fact that the financial tease is probably leading to a lot of people wasting their lives clicking on a phone, the hamsters get a “D” on tokenomics.

Pixels (Web Browser)

Onboarding: C

Gameplay: A

Graphics: A+

Tokenomics: A

Proof that low-hanging fruit can be delicious. Pixels is a resource-gathering and building game, a bit like Farmville, but with a lot more style. Even the writing is good, in its cutesy way, which is really notable. There are also promised and plausible extensions into more active forms of gameplay, such as dungeons, but the simple harvest-cooking-sale loop is already satisfying in itself. There are definitely periods of downtime in the early game, but that’s what you’re signing up for – this is a game you can run in the background and check in on every once in a while