Can you believe I playedThe Oregon TrailPC game for the first time this week? I know it’s supposed to be a fundamental “nineties child” memory, but I don’t remember playing at all. However, I remember other millennials' jokes regarding the game, so I knew what the game was.
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My interest in the series wasn’t piqued until I played the official Oregon Trail board game with my family. After rolling dice to stave off typhoid three games in a row, I knew I had to check out the original PC title.Now that I completed my first playthrough (I made it to Willamette, BTW), I think this series has potential. Of course, I’m talking about anOTU (Oregon Trail Universe)! Here are some Oregon Trail spin-off games for your consideration.
4Oregon Trail: Fort Shop Simulator
Business simulators are all the rage these days. Look at games like Farming Simulator, Lawn Mowing Simulator, and the Two Point series. Gamers want to live out the experience of running a small business without going through the real-life trauma of filing for bankruptcy. So, if the Oregon Trail brand wishes to branch out, the next obvious step is aFort Shop Simulator.
In this title, you’ll experience the thrill of waking up at four in the morning, feeding oxen without getting your hand bitten off, and stocking the store, all before opening at 7:00 AM.
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Then, you’ll haggle with quirky customers, such as:
Finally, before you close up shop for theday, you may listen to the town gossip about each other and use it to highball your prices later. For example, “I heard you pushed Beth off the raft fording the Kansas River crossing. But I’ll believe she tripped and fell for an extra $100.”
And it’s all in 4K with DualSense support, because why not!?
3Oregon Trail: Manifest Destiny Dance Party!
Picture Dance Dance Revolution, but with royalty-free country music, some odd horse peripheral controller, and more cholera. Sure. Whatever. I just wanted to Photoshop this ludicrous picture of pioneers in a dance club.
2Oregon Trail: FordRunner
In my first and only playthrough of the original Oregon Trail, I made it through my travels with $600 to my name and only one or two party members down. However, in the final stretch, I had to choose between traveling across a tolled road or rafting down a river. Guess what my dumb ass did?
The Columbia River minigame is one hell of a ride. Your wagon, corked and placed on a giant wooden raft, meanders down a river at full speed while you attempt to steer away from rocks and boulders. If you so much asgrazea rock, your daughter will drown, and you’ll lose half the crap you paid hundreds of dollars for at the last fort.
By the time I reached Willamette Valley, I was the only member of my party left. And I lost points for missing the Willamette Valley docking area. (Because, of course, two squiggly lines in sand totally suggest, “hey, land here!")
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On the one hand, the millennial in me scoffed and thought, “well, that’s rubbish game design.” But on the other hand, I pondered, “no dude, you need to git gud at river rafting, my guy.”
That’s when I realized this is not poor design. This is peak golden-age-arcade-hard-as-balls gameplay mechanics in action. This could have been the next PAC-MAN!
So, I presentOregon Trail: FordRunner, a full-sized competitive experience based on this single Columbia River minigame. I’m thinking the same pixel graphics and controls, but with more rivers, competitive online multiplayer, and a roster of characters with quirky catchphrases (Geoff the Farmer’s win quote is “Yowza! I made it down the river. Now who can cure my syphilis?").
1I Was Beth: An Oregon Trail Story
Have you ever asked yourself what happens to your party members after they die? Is there a golden prairie waiting for them in the great beyond? Or do they constantly relive their final moments drowning in the Columbia River becausesomeonedidn’t press the left key fast enough (you massive disappointment)? InI Was Beth: An Oregon Trail Story, you’ll learn all those details and more!
I Was Beth is a visual novel/adventure game similar to titles like Detroit or Beyond: Two Souls, where you play the ghost of Beth, a young girl who died of dysentery while taking the treacherous trip to Oregon with her family. This heightened narrative experience shifts between events from Beth’s past life and her new supernatural struggles as she guides and protects her kin through the rest of the trail.
Wait. Am I pitching a game or a Yellowstone spin-off?
