Of all of the games that I’ve played, the one that has had the most impact to me when I was younger was Tagpro.
Mechanics
It’s a 4v4 capture the flag team-based game, where players are blue/red balls that seek to grab the enemy flag and bring it back to their own flag. Controls are WASD or arrow keys to control movement in cardinal directions. There are boost tiles (launch you forward in whatever direction you are in), bombs (collision blasts you back exponentially proportional to proximity), spikes (death/popped on touch), gates (button that makes a set of grid tiles into functionally spikes), power-ups (PUPs, with various abilities).
The mechanics of the game are very, very simple. Yet it is so engaging, because of the high skill ceiling in being able to juke other balls. Sniping involves being very accurate with boosts/bombs to pop enemy flag carrier.
Dynamics
The game is quite simple: defend your flag and bring the enemy flag to yours. Otherwise, tag an enemy flag carrier to return your flag. Teams split into two offense and two defense. When flags are in base (the enemy has yet to take possession), two defend the ball by pushing back against enemy offense. If flags are taken by the enemy, the two defenders chase the enemy flag carrier, while the other enemy offense sits at the base to retake your flag if the flag carrier is popped.
Aesthetics
The game, despite having only around 100-300 active players, hosts competitions.
The game, while small and simple, has the most intimate community centered around a game. Voice chats, competitions, scrimmages, and extraneous online games are built around a capture the flag ball game on a browser. People have met up in real life, been to each others’ weddings, etc.
