"You don't need high technology for a fun game" –David Crane Co-Founder of Activision and creator of Pitfall
I've always really believed this about video games. Since day one when I knew my love of video games with Super Mario Brothers 3, that it was about the game experience. Why is it that I can pick up Joust from the Atari 2600 and play it for hours with no goal, no real ending, it is graphically terrible even by the gaming standards on early palm pilots, and honestly there was no reward except for the fact I got to a higher level than last time. With all of that aside, I LOVE playing that game I can just burn hours and hours playing it in all its pixilated glory. Also speaking of games on early portable cell phones or PDA's, was the game Snake. I mean really it was a moving line that you controlled to move toward a box and it became slightly longer, but everyone seemed to play it on their early Nokia. There wasn't even color; Joust seemed like a technological advancement. I still burned precious study hall time playing Snake though, along with just about all my friends who didn't get caught with their cell phone in ****
I think David is 100% correct, great technology isn't required for a great game. Look no further than our current generation with the Wii. It is by far being overpowered by the PS3. Also, let me be also 100% clear that I'm not advocating that the PS3 or Xbox360 are not awesome machines. What I'm getting at is, that because the Wii is so successful is because of casual gamers. The Wii is simple and easy to navigate, therefore it's super popular. I believe that because of Wii Sports many consumers went out to buy this console solely based on Wii Sports. Why is Wii Sports so fun? Because Wii Sports is simple, easy, and anybody can do it. Also, look at Rock Band and Guitar Hero, what could be simpler than hitting or strumming when a circle or square hits a line at the edge of the screen. Those franchises are huge!
I'll end with just think of all the hugely popular games that anybody can name off, Super Mario Brothers, Pac-Man, Tetris, Space Invaders, and Pong. They require 10x less technological muscle than what I have in my cell phone but they are super fun, yet today.