Given how much everybody loved Mirror’s Edge, and how much publishers like competitive multiplayer games with the potential for customisable skins, maybe it’s time for a professional tag spin-off.
A video from the World Chase Tag championships has been doing the round online. If you haven’t seen it, it’s kind of what it sounds like: the world championships for people to literally fly around a tiny course, seeing who can catch or dodge the other for 20 seconds.
The course is filled with little nooks, crannies, platforms and things that look like they were designed by a parkour master. When the sound rings, the chaser will quite literally leap at their opponent, usually bouncing at them in as straight a line as they can manage.
When they get closer, their opponent usually dodges once they’ve committed to a particular direction. In some cases, that’s not a viable option, so there’s some ducking and weaving as the runner’s balance shifts back and forth to change direction.
I promise, watch the video below. It’s wild.
Professional Tag is next level ????????
Holy crap @worldchasetag pic.twitter.com/u2YcyiH2tT
— Erin Ashley Simon (@erinasimon) June 7, 2021
The last World Chase Tag finals was in 2019, although everyone’s strategy of waiting at the start didn’t make for particularly enticing watching. A better highlights stream is courtesy of the Best Chase Competition, which is basically the classic catches equivalent of professional tag.
A huge amount of the energy comes from the physical movement, the shifting of weight, maintaining balance and the ducking and weaving. I don’t know exactly how you’d translate that to the language of a video game controller or modern controls. But if you’re a developer looking for a challenge, tag could be a neat idea. And hey, it doesn’t have to be entirely modelled on actual professional tag. Maybe it’s dragons or aliens or some kind of Blood Bowl type situation?
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