A strange little side quest
The rules may be simple on screen, but the backstory around Island Defense is anything but tiny. Modern chess traces back to the Indian game chaturanga, recorded around the sixth century and built around pieces representing parts of an army. The timeline takes another interesting turn: Street Fighter II, released in 1991, turned head-to-head arcade fighting into a worldwide phenomenon and helped define the modern fighting-game genre. It is a good reminder that simple game mechanics can carry a surprising amount of history.
