The Making Of: Nerf Blast Arena
Not all first-person shooters have to be violent. Nerf Arena Blast demonstrated that in 1999. We take a look back at David Walls’ lighthearted take on the arena shooter, and see how it’s still relevant to today
Jennifer Allen quizzes David Walls about his interesting take on the first-person shooter
Afamily-friendly version of Quake III: Arena hardly sounds like a feasible accomplishment and yet that’s exactly what Nerf Arena Blast offered upon release in 1999. It traded rocket launchers and chain guns in exchange for Nerf Blasters, with the arenas more like a kid’s soft play area than the dingy dark corridors that Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament favoured.
”What Mario Kart was to racing, I wanted
Nerf Arena Blast to be to first-person shooters,” explains David Walls, creative director at Hasbro Interactive at the time and responsible for the concept and design of the game. Back in 1999, Hasbro Interactive was keen to experiment and play around with brands that had recently become part of its domain. It was an era when Rollercoaster Tycoon, numerous games conversions of Monopoly and a reimagining of Frogger formed the basis for the firm. With fun at the forefront of the company’s plans, and David’s love of the Nerf brand, it made perfect sense to combine the two.
“It was around the time where bots were just starting to happen,” says David. “Previously, with Doom and Quake, it was head-to-head battles... but both ID and Epic were starting to play around with bots.” David saw an opportunity for younger
players to get in on the action. Via bots, “a middle schooler doesn’t have to go online, doesn’t have to get to a LAN, and can have that feeling of playing in this sort of event”, David explains.
That idea led to Nerf Arena Blast. Utilising the Unreal Engine, it’s remarkably similar in structure to Unreal Tournament although it was released just before Epic’s hit. Its vibrant attitude makes it seem more lighthearted, however. As David says, Nerf Arena Blast was a merging of Unreal, the Nerf brand, and a “Nintendo sensibility”.
“Quake and Unreal were super dark, and were appealing to a slightly older kid demographic,” points out David. Nerf Arena Blast was far
removed from this idea. There was no blood or guts to be seen here because players were shooting Nerf darts at each other via some highpowered-looking weaponry. Real Nerf Blasters were used in the game, as well as a few that could only ever work within the confines of a computer game. It was the perfect opportunity for kids who couldn’t afford to purchase all the Nerf Blasters they wanted to still experience the joys of shooting their mate with a foam dart.
The game included 21 maps with three different game modes so there was plenty to sink your teeth in. Each map had its own distinct thematic look, such as an Aztec-style world, or a more futuristic arena full of launch pads.
There were secret areas, too, much like you’d see in id’s classics. These typically offered up the best weapons in the game like the Hyperstrike, an overpowered sniper rifle-esque weapon. Gameplay was suitably frantic as you roamed these tightly designed arenas, shooting at mostly anything that moved. There was no need for camping a spot or taking your time. Success somehow felt less vital than it does now in Fortnite. It was all a little more innocent.
While the aggression of competitive play was still there, Nerf Arena Blast maintained a lighter air than most. In part due to its colourful nature and lack of gore, but also because it was far from challenging. AI bots were typically a little dimwitted and liable to run aimlessly when fired upon. It’s particularly jarring by modern standards but was still pretty noticeable back then. However, it made sense given the younger age group that the game was aimed at. It was suitably good-natured like that. Enjoyment was always the priority here, rather than challenge.
“At that point, I think the game industry was growing up so much, they were forgetting about the middle school audience,” David explains.
“That sort of arcade-like fun… everybody sort of forgot about it until Minecraft came along and built this huge business industry on top of that audience,” he notes. Understandably, he wishes the idea could have kept going. “I think we definitely had something back then,” David muses.
Nerf Arena Blast didn’t stand that chance. Released not long after Columbine, the attitude towards first-person shooters of any kind was understandably negative. Also, in 2001, Hasbro Interactive was sold to Infogrames and so with it went the chance for another Nerf Arena Blast. At that point, David left the firm and moved onto his own projects and development studio. He now runs Funkitron, a casual games studio specialising in mobile games for young players.
There’s still an active modding community today, hanging on admirably for a nearly 20-year-old game. One of the game’s then-rookie designers, Ryan Meinerding, also went on to become head of Marvel’s visual development, working extensively to design the look and feel of the Marvel movies – an impressive pedigree from a title that eschewed the predictable path that other arena shooters took and made its mark in an unusually nonviolent way.