Big System, Little Games
If you have a Playstation 2, you're in for some serious gaming fun. Your fave game store has stacks of games to play. But some of these games are a rip! Playstation 2 games have a bad habit of ending too soon. If you drop all your cash on a game that only lasts for a couple of hours, you'll be done by dinner and left wanting more.
Zone of the Enders is a real dog when it comes to game duration. You can blast through the whole thing in just one day and be left with nuthin' to do except count bumps on the wall. The game is fast, fun and pretty, but it's barely longer than a movie and it's 20 times the price!
ICO is another game with this problem. It's absolutely gorgeous and almost flawless, but it's really short. You can find your way out of the castle with the girl in less than a day if you put your mind to it. You'll end up with a really cute digital girl and no more game to play.
What's the deal with making games that are so short? If a team of brainiac game designers can't come up with a game that lasts at least a week, they should go soak their heads. There are a ton of ways to make a game last - hidden power-ups, secret levels, plot twists and even mini-games. Game designers should figure it out and add extras if their game is coming up short.
Making a PS2 game that doesn't last more than a day or two is like sticking an itty-bitty candy in a huge box. The console can do a ton of cool stuff, why waste it by making games that don't last? Give us a couple more solid titles, like Dark Cloud, that'll keep us up to our eyeballs in gaming action for at least a week.
