However Kimi deserves to ... I mean Erik Aston deserves to win .

Sqrl, it isn't always about the amount of content, though.

A classic example is Super Mario 64 to Donkey Kong 64. DK64 had much more content. The levels were WAY bigger, there were tons of characters with a huge variety of moves, and there was way more to collect, with most of this collection involved exploring new areas.

But which one do people probably get more play time out of? And which one feels more tedious?

In SM64, you want to keep replaying old levels. Most of the stars can be gotten by slow, careful play, but with the feeling of perfect control over Mario, and the ability to string his jumps together in different ways, it's fun to keep playing, finding short cuts and different routes, training your reflexes, running through platforming sections full-tilt, etc. I've spent hours in that game doing things as silly as finding places I can lose all my health while running off a cliff, so that I get kicked back to the castle hub and die there, and get kicked back to the bridge outside. Stupid, ridiculous fun.

In DK64, there isn't that feeling of perfect control, and there aren't all these different paths through the environment you can find by stringing moves together in different ways. The vast variety of moves eventually feel like 40 ways to hit a switch and open a door, and knowing that every challenge inevitably leads to another banana makes no challenge feel particularly worth your time. The game is paced and designed well enough that there's motivation to beat King K. Rool, but I've never felt an urge to collect every banana afterwards.

Why do you think the 3D Mario platformers haven't each upped the ante for how many stars there are to collect? It isn't ABOUT more content, it's about making the player WANT to play.

Now we have confirmation from a reliable source!

I have lost faith in the Wii and its future

RolStoppable said:

"I also lost faith in Nintendo as a developer of top notch first party software after the disapointments their combo of big games (Zelda, Metroid, Mario) has been. Zelda had tacked on controls, Metroid was a streamlined 5 hour game (if you want to see a picture for proof, let's exchange Wii numbers) and not the deep experience I was used to from the Gamecube games, Mario seems to be a totally easy game now (thanks to the casual gamers who can't handle hard games) which can be finished in about 7 hours. I feel betrayed by Nintendo and I am sure that I am not alone, many other longtime Nintendo fans probably feel the same way. Easy games suited for casual gamers is not the way this industry should heading to, I want to play my deep singleplayer games like they used to be. Instead of making games for me, Nintendo develops Wii Fit and other crap which aren't even real games."

lol

12-Hit-Combo FTW!

@Erik,

It isn't all about more content I agree, but the fact remains that within a given game going back to collect stuff in old environments is less desired by players than entirely new levels.

In order for lots of content to be worthwhile the gameplay most certainly has to be able to hold up to lots of repetitions and still be fun. But I would go further and say that this is even more true of a game where collection is the extra content. If the gameplay has become boring to the player they are probably going to stop if they are out of places to explore and new things to do, but if there is new stuff to explore still then some will still stop but some will keep playing. This is something most people should implicitly understand and it illustrates why one is more valuable than the other within the context of a given game.

With that said in this specific instance indications are that SMG's gameplay is very fun and holds up very well to repetitions and thus more content is most likely going to be perceived as a very good thing.

@sinha,

To clarify for those who might miss it, that was a joke post by Rol =)

Oh shit!!

That was funny!

This thread ran it's course a long time ago. I'm locking it, as there is really no point in continuing this discussion or piling on attacks at Legend.