The Mammon Philosophy

If there’s one problem with today’s games, it’s that the number of large-scale treks greatly outweigh the simpler start-to-finish titles. It seems as if all but the most casual of titles are now packaged with “adventure” or “storyline” modes, sending players on journeys that deliver an overload of information as a balance to the time spent actually playing the game. And woe unto you if you get a game that was designed from the ground up as an adventure: every dungeon (palace, temple, abandoned nuclear missile complex…) has a story, a secret, and a four-minute cutscene detailing its connection to the NPC who oh-so-gently goaded you into visiting it with a series of yes/no questions where the answer was always yes.

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I’m a little embarrassed, because I went on at length about how badly I was waiting for Ys, and now it’s been out for a week and I only got around to playing it last night — right before downloading Super Mario RPG, which I’m enjoying properly on a TV screen for the first time in six years or so, and right after getting my bubble-sliding on with Clu Clu Land. I don’t know if there’s something in the ventilation at Big N HQ, but I hope it causes permanent effects if this is what it means for the Wii faithful.

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