Obviously not a game that would be sold by itself, but maybe part of a pack of games. Pong is very basic so I was thinking of ways to spice it up, esp for DS.
Instead of a side-to-side motion of the ball, we'll make it up and down. This is obviously because its on the DS and not for any other important reason. You play always on the bottom screen, with your opponent on the top (CPU or wifi player).
There is no paddle. Instead, you draw one with a limited amount of "ink". The limit is to keep players from just drawing a line all the way across the screen and never losing. As soon as the ball bounces off your "paddle", your ink gets refilled.
Drawing with the ink instead of moving the standard paddle means you can do fun things like angle the bounce by drawing your lines at an angle, adding some strategy to the mix.
So spice things up even more, the less ink you use for your paddle, the harder you "hit" the ball. Meaning the "pros" of the game can make just a tiny paddle to hit the ball and send it flying.
I thought for scoring instead of regular tennis-like score system, you have a score pot. Each time you send the ball back to your opponent the score goes up. IT goes up even more depending on how you do it (tiny paddle at the last second = big score?). So each round would start with players trying to get the pot high enough, then a furious war of each player trying to win the pot. Do you play it safe with a larger paddle making it easier to return (and easier for your opponent to hit it back) or try for the tiny paddle and slam it across at your enemy (but risk missing and losing the pot entirely)?
You could also alter the score based on timing, of when you place your paddle. Theres two thoughts on this. The earlier you place it should get a score bonus. If you place a paddle right after you return the ball, and still hit the ball when its returned...thats pretty amazing. Also, waiting for the last second at the edge of the screen to place it should be worth something as well, that last second save could also give a bonus. That would be tricky to figure out a system that would make sense to players, though.
So yeah...Ultra Pong DS.
