Strategy Challenges Collection - TV Tropes

A pair of Edutainment Games published by Edmark in the mid-1990s.

Strategy Challenges Collection 1 was released in 1995, originally under the title Strategy Games of the World. It features three traditional strategy games, each presented with a theme relating to its historic background. These consist of Nine Men's Morris with a Viking theme, Gomoku with a traditional Japanese theme, and Mancala with a tribal African theme. Each of these games comes with a slideshow that explains its history.

Strategy Challenges Collection 2 followed in 1997. This time, the three featured games are Tablut, Jungle Chess, and Surakarta. Although these too are traditional games, Collection 2 doesn't go into their history and instead focuses on a loose animal theme. It also includes a set of six colorful opponent characters, three who play defensively and three who play offensively.

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These games provides examples of:

• Abstract Strategy Game: Every game showcased in this series is a real-life example. They even have "strategy" right there in the title. Collection 2 gives the games some animal theming, but they're still essentially abstract, and for Surakarta, they don't even bother with the animal theming.
• Artistic License – History: In the Nine Men's Morris slideshow, Ancient Egyptian workers are portrayed wearing Arabian clothing, which came to Egypt much later.
• Comeback Mechanic: Some variations of Nine Men's Morris allow a player with only three pieces left to jump to any spot on the board. Here, that rule can be turned on or off in the options menu.
• Elephants Are Scared of Mice: In Jungle Chess, the Rat can capture the Elephant even though the Rat is the weakest piece and the Elephant is the strongest. However, in this version, the Elephant can also capture the Rat, so both pieces are vulnerable to each other.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The six opponents in Collection 2 include three males (Eugene, George, and Clonis) and three females (Vanessa, Roxanne, and Grandma Rose).
• Giant Board Game: The Nine Men's Morris slideshow mentions that English kings used to play human-sized Nine Men's Morris.
• Insufferable Genius: Eugene in Collection 2. When you're playing well, one of the things he'll say is, "You must have learned that move from watching me."
• Live-Action Cutscene:
  • In Collection 1, the "real-world strategies" videos consist of various real-life people giving advice on strategies you might want to consider.
  • Collection 2 features live-action animal footage, with a narrator explaining the strategies that animals use to survive in the wild.
• Nameless Narrative: In Collection 1, no characters are given names, whether they're your guides or your opponents. Averted in Collection 2, in which all the opponents have names.
• Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: In Collection 2, stereotypical nerd Eugene will sometimes declare, "This is more fun than a chemistry test!"
• Prehensile Hair: On the highest Nine Men's Morris level, your opponent is a disembodied Viking head who gestures with his mustache.
• Retronym: Collection 1 was originally released under the title Strategy Games of the World. Following the release of the sequel, it was retitled Strategy Challenges Collection 1.
• Talking Animal: In Collection 1, the first two levels for each game have a talking animal as your Exposition Fairy. It's a seagull for Nine Men's Morris, a monkey for Gomoku, and a hyena for Mancala.
• Title 1: As noted above, the original game was retroactively retitled as Collection 1.
• Title Confusion: The retitling of the first game was just the beginning of the trouble, as both games have inconsistent subtitles. In its retitled form, the first game was marketed as Strategy Challenges Collection 1: Around the World, but the actual onscreen title is Strategy Challenges Collection 1: Games of the World. Likewise, the second game was marketed as Strategy Challenges Collection 2: In the Wild, but the onscreen title is Strategy Challenges Collection 2: Games of the Wild.
• Token Robot: While the other Collection 2 opponents are all humans, Clonis is a robot from outer space.
• Updated Re Release: In later releases of the first game, the main screen is changed to reflect its new (onscreen) title, Strategy Challenges Collection 1: Games of the World. However, in the segment explaining the rules of Mancala, the narrator still refers to the program by its original title, Strategy Games of the World.