Zhang’s father immediately shook his head. “Games? I’m not interested.”
Zhang’s mother agreed, “Why play games this late? Let’s just watch some TV. The series I’ve been watching is about to reach its finale.”
Zhang Yan quickly said, “We can play for a bit before watching TV. It won’t take long.”
“Besides, although these are brain games, they really test your wisdom and skills. Dad, I think Mom would definitely be better at this than you.”
Zhang’s father immediately objected, “Better than me? You’re joking! Your mother has never beaten me at anything that requires brainpower!”
Zhang’s mother wasn’t pleased either. “Old man, you just love to make things up. Did you hear? It requires skill too. Remember the last time I took you square dancing, and you gave up after less than five minutes?”
Seeing that neither would back down, Zhang Yan sensed her opportunity. She quickly opened the exclusive game that came with the gaming router.
“Alright, alright, stop arguing. Who’s better? Just play for five minutes and we’ll find out!”
Having successfully stirred up both sides, Zhang Yan got her wish and promptly started the game.
…
After entering the game, there was first an opening cutscene.
It showed what appeared to be an apartment building from twenty or thirty years ago. A couple and their young son were eating breakfast at the dining table.
“Dad and Mom have to work overtime this weekend. Take care of yourself at home, understand?”
“Remember to finish your homework—we’ll check it when we return. And don’t secretly play video games!”
The parents repeatedly instructed, and the child nodded earnestly.
Soon, breakfast was finished. The mother quickly cleared the dishes and put them in the sink, then looked at her watch and realized she was about to be late. She left the dishes for the child to wash and hurriedly left with the father.
The child spread his weekend homework on the coffee table and began studying diligently on the sofa.
The wall clock ticked away, and after more than two hours, the child finally stretched and completed his day’s homework.
He immediately stood up, moved a stool to his parents’ bedroom, and secretly retrieved the game console from the top of a tall cabinet, connecting it to the television.
It was an old-style game console that could only play relatively simple games, but for a child at that time, it was still a novel toy full of infinite temptation and charm.
However, after connecting to the TV this time, the familiar game screen didn’t appear. Instead, a line of text appeared.
“Do you want to experience truly fun games? Do you want to feel happiness like never before?”
The child instinctively pressed the button, and in the next second, a massive vortex appeared, sucking him into the television.
The clock ticked on, soon reaching six in the evening.
The parents finally returned home from work. While changing their shoes, they called for their child a couple of times but received no response.
The two instantly panicked and began searching everywhere.
Just then, the mother noticed the game console in front of the TV and picked up the controller from the floor with suspicion.
On the TV screen, the game scene seemed to be moving by itself, with a small character striving to overcome obstacles and fighting against evil forces in the game!
The mother looked carefully at the TV screen and suddenly felt that this small character resembled her child.
Just as she was about to say something, another massive vortex appeared on the TV, sucking both parents in.
With screams, they fell from the sky and hit the ground.
But to their surprise, they found themselves unharmed.
They had transformed into cartoon characters in the game, and their surroundings had become a game world they had never seen before!
…
Zhang Yan secretly observed her parents and found they weren’t showing much resistance.
Perhaps they gained some emotional involvement in rescuing their child from the clutches of the game.
Zhang’s father asked with some confusion, “Are the graphics of the free games that come with routers this good nowadays?”
Though they didn’t play games, they could distinguish between good and bad graphics.
Their impression of games was still stuck several years in the past, when game graphics were full of pixelation, the entire image composed of small blocks pieced together. Now, however, the graphics had reached the standard of animated films.
The fact that a free brain game bundled with a router could achieve such graphical quality was indeed surprising.
Zhang Yan hurriedly explained, “Yes, scientific technology is developing so rapidly now. Haven’t you seen how my driving game looks so realistic it could fool people? That represents the highest level.”
“Games with this cartoon style actually don’t require much processing power, so even small devices can run them. You can even play this game on a phone, see for yourself.”
As she spoke, Zhang Yan made some adjustments on her phone app, connected to the gaming router’s network, and then streamed the game from the router to her phone.
The elderly couple saw that the game indeed ran smoothly on the phone, finally believing what Zhang Yan had said.
“Technology nowadays is truly advancing by leaps and bounds!” The couple turned their attention back to the game, temporarily ignoring this minor interruption.
Next came the character selection phase—one playing the father, one playing the mother.
More players could join, with two or three people controlling a single character, supporting multiplayer gameplay.
For example, “Game Developer” had been transformed into an action platformer where players continuously climb and jump to trigger various mechanisms in a large sandbox, which would affect the game developer’s path.
During this process, both characters would gain special superpowers. If three players controlled one character, one could handle movement and jumping, while the other two could control two different superpowers, essentially splitting what would normally be operated by one person into operations for three.
This way, each person only needed to focus on their part of the operation, turning a two-player game into a four or even six-player experience.
Although splitting a character’s controls would decrease the game’s difficulty and somewhat diminish the fun, this design allowed more players to participate, proving extremely useful during multiplayer gatherings.
Moreover, considering that many people weren’t dedicated gamers and couldn’t smoothly operate using the left stick for movement and right stick for camera adjustment, splitting one person’s controls among three people who cooperate with each other could both lower the difficulty and create a unique cooperative experience.
Beyond this, multiplayer games had different gameplay in different modules. For example, in “Mission Decision,” each player could control their own fighter jet.
However, with only three people present, and Zhang Yan needing to provide guidance during the game without taking sides, they opted for the classic two-player mode.
It was evident that Zhang Yan’s parents were complete beginners who had never touched game controllers before, so their operation wasn’t very proficient. Whenever button prompts appeared on screen, they had to look down at the controller and search for a long time before finding the right button. They couldn’t form muscle memory like experienced players.
They also seemed somewhat flustered when controlling the camera view.
However, “Dimensional Game Adventure” had clearly considered these issues during its design.
On one hand, the system would help adjust the camera angle as much as possible, assisting in orienting the view appropriately during movement, minimizing the need for new players to push the right stick.
On the other hand, it unlocked button functions in phases. Initially, players only needed to press 2-3 buttons to complete tasks. Once similar operations became familiar and muscle memory formed, more buttons and new abilities would gradually unlock.
The game’s plot was simple: after entering the game world, the parents discovered traces of their child, who had already cleared these games and advanced deeper into the game world.
To find their child, the parents had to cooperate to overcome various challenges, progressing step by step to ultimately find him.
In different levels, they encountered various difficulties and problems, requiring them to use their intelligence and cooperate closely to achieve their final goal.
Zhang Yan’s parents competed with each other, asking Zhang Yan about operational issues while demonstrating their intelligence to solve the game’s puzzles eagerly.
Undeniably, the game’s cartoon style was suitable for all ages, and this simple yet interesting puzzle-solving gameplay allowed people to quickly immerse themselves, avoiding the player selectivity seen in other game genres.
Zhang Yan could sense that her parents were genuinely enjoying the game.
If it were other games involving shooting, driving, or AAA action games, her parents probably wouldn’t have started playing at all.
Even if they had begun, they likely would have quit within two or three minutes, as those games tended to be selective about their players. People in her parents’ age group would find it difficult to enjoy them.
But “Dimensional Game Adventure” was completely different. Although this game included many game types, these games had basically been transformed into independent game units, retaining only the simplest and purest fun of gaming.
This was similar to why some foreign companies’ games, seemingly childish, could occupy living rooms worldwide—because both content and gameplay could maximally satisfy different types of players’ needs, maximally activating players’ childlike wonder and reminding them of the initial joy of gaming.
And Tenda’s gaming router’s exclusive launch title, “Dimensional Game Adventure,” was clearly striving in this direction.