Video Games The Rise of Hunting Games

Hunting is a rather important and famous pastime no matter what country you happen to be from. In the beginning it was a necessity; groups of hunters would make their way from villages and camps to conquer the wild and hopefully bring home a sampling of food to their families. Fast forward to twenty-first century, and hunting is now a sport enjoyed by many. We still hunt for the purpose of food, but there are many other aspects now. Sometimes it is to thin the population, and in other cases it is simply to see who can collect the most trophies. These days however the world is fast paced, and incredibly busy. That being the case, many simply do not have time to venture into the wilderness. Virtual hunting is becoming more and more popular, but where did hunting games get their start?

Believe it or not, hunting games became popular during the 80’s when The Oregon Trail was released on Apple II. The game centered around a group of settlers attempting to cross from the East coast to Oregon in a covered wagon train. Though the game was mostly text based, there was a certain area in which you would be charged with hunting buffalo. Unfortunately, you could only carry a certain amount back to the wagons with you, so filling the field with corpses was not exactly the most efficient thing in the world.

After the Oregon Trail, the 90’s produced a game called Deer Hunter. In this game you were not able to move about. Instead you were situated either in a tree stand or in a fixed location in the field. You could choose between a few different rifles and one bow. The ‘hunter’ would sit in a single area and wait for a deer to appear. Once this occurred they could choose to either take their shot, or they could simply open their map to choose the next location -- the location in which the deer was heading. Though it was a very simple game, it garnered quite a bit of interest, and there are very few people who can claim they did not play it.

While the Deer Hunter franchise spawned many sequels and even branched off into the ‘deer avenger’ franchise, these days, the most popular deer hunting games happen to be flash based. Why exactly? The main reason is portability. You will be able to play these games on your tablet, computer, or any operating system that you choose. Flash can be played on any operating system that supports it without the need to connect to a DirectX service. That being the case, Flash based hunting games are truly cross platform. You can can feel free to unleash your inner hunter at home, on the go, or even at work. You might be in the mood for a serious hunting game, or you might just be looking for one of the light hearted parodies. Either way, you have options, and they are all online!