As I’m sure you’re well aware by now, Pikmin 3 was released
recently and I've spent a significant amount of time playing it. Actually I
finished it in three days, and this brings up a number of points about what
makes the ideal length of a video game.
The first point to take away from my short lived Pikmin
adventure is that although it only took me three days to complete, it was three
days in the Summer Holidays, where I was able to spend pretty much all
afternoon of each of those days playing it, and that’s why I finished it so
quickly.
At the same time note that the total play time was around 15
hours, which is a pretty decent length for an adventure/puzzle game like Pikmin
3, it probably only felt shorter because I played it so much in such a short
space of time, doing myself no favours as this made me feel disappointed with
how long the game took me to finish and left me wanting more. This poses the
question, had I been going to school for those days and been forced to take
longer breaks from the game, would I have still felt this way? Probably not.
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| This is a list of everything in the Piklopedia from Pikmin 2. note how there's a lightning bolt through many of them, none of these appeared in Pikmin 3 and the one that is circled I would have said was one of the most important Pikmin bosses along with the others that actually appeared in the game in one form or another, now just bear in mind that a number of the ones left uncovered are plants which only rustle as you pass through them. |
I can also assume another factor to be the influence of
previous games, specifically Pikmin 2, which felt huge in comparison if you ask
me. Pikmin 2 had a total of 201 treasures to collect, whereas only 66 were
available in Pikmin 3. Pikmin 3 was still a great game, but looking at those
numbers it pales in comparison doesn't it? And despite the new enemies, how
many old ones were there? Not many. Maybe 10 or so out of the 101 from Pikmin
2, not quite up to snuff Nintendo.
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| New Bosses? Wooo! Number of new bosses? 6. Booo... |
Obviously though, the points to take away from this post are
that the length of a game should really be more tailored to its target audience
and of course, its genre. Making a JRPG? Between 40 and 70 hours is probably
good. At Platformer? Not sure many people could endure much more than 5 hours
of constantly increasing in difficulty jumping puzzles. If it’s directed at
adults, maybe make it shorter because you can assume they’ll often be busy with
work in and around the house and won’t have time to finish the game. Target it
at younger people and feel free to add the hours up, they’re probably not doing
their homework to play the game so might as well let them play it for longer.
Studies show that only 10% of people who start a video game ever finish them,
and consequently the average gamer, young or old will probably only finish 10%
of the games they play. Maybe games companies should take these factors into
account more when making a game, so we can finish our favourites and still be
satisfied with them, rather than be sad because we don’t have the time to
finish a game we love.
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| Persona 4, a JRPG I have finally come close to completing after nearly 70 hours of gameplay. Maybe a little too long but I'm certainly satisfied, this game also holds some of the best boss fights in a game, including a pole dancer and this bonkers hippie thing. |