Game designer Hideki Kamiya has created a bit of controversy on Twitter after announcing that his latest game, the Nintendo Wii U exclusive The Wonderful 101, might not take gamers more than a day to beat.
"If u hate to finish a game the next day u buy it, u better not play TW101. I focus on how it is fun, not how long it lasts till the ending."
The statement caused a lot of strongly worded replies from fans. Platinum Games' Director Atushi Inaba was forced to step in on Twitter and clarified what Kamiya had meant, all but confirming The Wonderful 101's short length.
"So it looks like @PG_Kamiya has caused another bit of controversy. What he is saying is his basic approach to how he creates an action game. The idea is rooted in that you shouldn't pad your game with content users won't enjoy in order to control play time to the end of the game. It isn't something he wants to do, or thinks you should do."
And I wholeheartedly agree with the two of them. How often do you find yourself playing a AAA video game and just feel you've had enough? You want this experience to end, but the walkthrough says you have five more hours to go. Dragging out a game is a bad habit we've lost ourselves in, and we need someone who knows what they are doing to save us from it.
Thinking back, Hideki Kamiya has shown an erratic pattern in regard to the length of his games, but every game has been able to justify its play time. Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and Viewtiful Joe can all be beaten in a single afternoon and are often considered some of the finest action games ever made.
On the flip side, Okami is a huge, sprawling game and is also considered one of the finest adventure games ever made.
The man knows how to pace a video game. Listen to what he has to say. There is a reason The Wonderful 101 is one of the most exciting video games coming to the Wii U.
How about it? Is he right in assuming video games should not be judged by their length? Do you enjoy replaying short games or playing through longer games once?
One of my favorite video games, Parasite Eve, was derided for being too short when it was released in 1998, but time has proven the critics wrong as the game is loved much more through retrospect.
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