Now, this having been said (four times over!) I'll note that Metroid Prime 3 has had me on the edge of my seat 'cause the FPS elements are perfectly balanced with the non-FPS stuff and the (admittedly way too simple) puzzle stuff and the wonderfully matured plot. It's amazing what happens when you have to try to tie a whole established mythos together at once, and seven other games have established one hell of a sprawling mythos.
Then again, if they'd made it a side-scroller, I'd probably not only be just as excited, but more likely to replay it. I grok 2D games more. I don't get lost as much, and I spend less time map-checking and more time just exploring and taking it all in. I've played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night well over a dozen times. Metroid Prime 2 got one and a half plays.
As a note, I think the 'gazillion hours to beat' thing is a bit weird. Many of the old-school games that we spent months on... well, they took months when you totaled up the time spent mapping for oneself, the frustration of fiercely limited controls, the confusion from poorly-translated text if it was there, and the fact that they were much more likely to use the same elements over a hundred times in slightly different ways and today's audience won't stand for it. If every area doesn't have a wholly divergent set of graphics, then they don't even consider it finished. Times have changed and so have gamers.
Also (and forgive me for rambling!) we were much likely to dig out all the quirks and nooks and crannies of a game when it was the only one we had, or one of only a small handful. Purchasing power now means we can buy every interesting game as it hits. Back then? Hell, I never actually owned Super Mario 2. I rented it for one weekend (beat it, too — mad gamer!)
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Date: 2007-09-04 08:07 pm (UTC)Now, this having been said (four times over!) I'll note that Metroid Prime 3 has had me on the edge of my seat 'cause the FPS elements are perfectly balanced with the non-FPS stuff and the (admittedly way too simple) puzzle stuff and the wonderfully matured plot. It's amazing what happens when you have to try to tie a whole established mythos together at once, and seven other games have established one hell of a sprawling mythos.
Then again, if they'd made it a side-scroller, I'd probably not only be just as excited, but more likely to replay it. I grok 2D games more. I don't get lost as much, and I spend less time map-checking and more time just exploring and taking it all in. I've played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night well over a dozen times. Metroid Prime 2 got one and a half plays.
As a note, I think the 'gazillion hours to beat' thing is a bit weird. Many of the old-school games that we spent months on... well, they took months when you totaled up the time spent mapping for oneself, the frustration of fiercely limited controls, the confusion from poorly-translated text if it was there, and the fact that they were much more likely to use the same elements over a hundred times in slightly different ways and today's audience won't stand for it. If every area doesn't have a wholly divergent set of graphics, then they don't even consider it finished. Times have changed and so have gamers.
Also (and forgive me for rambling!) we were much likely to dig out all the quirks and nooks and crannies of a game when it was the only one we had, or one of only a small handful. Purchasing power now means we can buy every interesting game as it hits. Back then? Hell, I never actually owned Super Mario 2. I rented it for one weekend (beat it, too — mad gamer!)