Value Gaming

When Heavenly Sword was released in 2007 it received a lot of criticism for its short campaign length, clocking in at around six hours, as it had broken the unwritten rule that a full price game had to contain at least ten hours of gameplay to make the expenditure worth while.

If you look into my playtime for Wii games the top two games are Monster Hunter Tri and Super Smash Brothers Brawl, both with over 100 hours of playtime. However, if you were to ask me what game gave me the best 'value for money' the answer would be Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I picked up a copy cheap (about 1/5th recommended retail) from a department store that was clearing out their video game stock and then after playing single player for about an hour decided it was the kind of game that you needed friends around to play. So I invited half a dozen friends over and over the course of a weekend we played through the regular game, and about half of the 'hard mode' campaign, with people subbing in as others had to go to work or sport.

Does this make Marvel Ultimate Alliance the best game on Wii? Well no, not by a long shot. While the weekend was fun I haven't played the game since and there were plenty of design flaws, it was the social aspect that made the weekend enjoyable. As a general rule I think the 'games must be X long to justify price' thinking is wrong. If the game has a good story and is fun it doesn't matter if it is only half a dozen hours long because I am likely to replay it. Also, playing through filler and fluff feels like you are playing through filler and fluff.

Games like Call of Duty and Battlefield now have short campaigns as standard with the 'value' coming from online play. Although complaints are starting to be levelled at these games, not for being to short but rather for not having enough new content. Zack and Wiki, in my opinion, is one of the best games on Wii, even if no one else bought a copy, and it takes less than ten hours to finish, although you can extend your playtime by replaying levels to get a better score. I do understand the feeling of 'if I can only afford a few games then they had better last me', but ultimately there are enough ways to get a game for less than full retail (sales, rentals, second hand, or borrow from a friend) that for me I would rather have a quality experience than a long one; after all it take eight hours of uninterrupted play to get just a single point in Desert Bus.