Recently I finished playing both NINJA GAIDEN 2 Black Remake and Evil West. Both games are relatively short, for a casual playthrough, clocking in around 10 hours to roll credits. Both games have a heavy focus on gameplay and do not delve too deep into story or world building. And let me tell you, I loved that. These two games sparked an idea: We need more gamey games.
Fun Game or No Game
I hadn’t realized why I’ve been feeling so burnt out on gaming these days, as I truly love the hobby. But these two games made me realize there is a gap in especially the Triple A market for shorter, more gamified games. These games are ones that prioritize gameplay first and simply use their story and worlds to set up new and interesting gameplay ideas. They aren’t concerned with overly immersive worlds and most of their levels consist of areas to fight new enemies or new challenges to overcome. Growing up, I had to save up for months just to buy a used game that had come out earlier that year. Only one time was I able to buy a new game (shoutout Sonic Unleashed) so I was almost always playing older titles or games that had gone on sale. Funnily enough, most of those games were very short, running at most 20 hours for a normal playthrough. But the developers of these games did something very smart: they focused on gameplay, replayability, and most importantly FUN.
Evil West Game Cover via Playstation.com
A focus on gameplay allowed short play sessions to feel rewarding. It was easy enough to hop on for 15 to 30 minutes and feel like you made progress or accomplished something. This short timeframe allowed you to fully engage with the game, beat a level, or maybe even beat a boss. Developers could stuff their games with mechanics and get super creative to reward players for engaging with the gameplay, regardless of the world you were in. Along the same lines, replayability was huge in older games. Although games were short to finish, players could spend huge amounts of time replaying the game and getting even more out of it. Think challenge maps in the Arkham games, going for SS rankings in Devil May Cry, or New Game Plus in Dark Souls. Even games like Super Mario Galaxy, the original Spider-Man 2, or older Halo games had so many different ways to engage with the game outside of their main stories.
When fun is key, games are built differently. Deep characters, an incredibly detailed map, or strong story motivations matter much less. They can be icing on an already delicious cake but I feel like we have lost the core tenet of fun in pursuit of creating incredible art. Don’t get me wrong, I love games like Cyberpunk 2077! But there is something to be said for how much fun we had growing up playing the one game we could afford for months on end. Oftentimes these games weren’t even that good compared to modern standards and we love them anyway.
Sonic Unleashed Wii Cover via Amazon.com
Sometimes to Move Forward You Need to Move Back
So finally, my call to action. I hope we get more of these hyper gameplay focused games moving forward. I don’t need every game to be an open-world experience with super deep RPG progression and more NPCs than I can count. I want fun levels that I can replay over and over again because I want to experience them again and master each piece of content the game has to offer. Selfishly this will allow me to play more games but I think it also has the potential to impact the entire gaming industry. Maybe if we return to the roots of game making and refocus on what matters then we can help bring down the astronomical costs of modern Triple A development and help keep studios from shutting down after one failed game. Maybe we can see more super creative games with fantastically innovative ideas. And maybe more than anything we can get more games that feel like games again.
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