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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.5</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">pad happy</font></a>://<a href="index.php"><font color="#7C420E">1</font></a>, 
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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="2">Pad 
                        Happy: </font><font color="#904C10" size="4"><br>
                        Size Matters</font></i></font></b><br>
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 
                        <a href="mailto:nickf@saqnet.co.uk">Nick Ferguson</a></font></div>
                    </div>
                  </td>
                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 5&nbsp; <br>
                      December 9, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
                  </td>
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              <h5 align="right">&nbsp; </h5>
              <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="3"><loonystart></font></div>
              <h5 align="right">&nbsp;</h5>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So maybe 
                we don&#146;t want longer games after all. Maybe what we want 
                is a higher ideas-to-length ratio (now there&#146;s a scientific 
                measurement). Alas, matters aren&#146;t helped by those whiners 
                on the newsgroups who start complaining as soon as they finish 
                a highly anticipated game. Worst of all was the release of <b><a href="../../1.19/mouth/index.html">N64 
                Zelda</a></b> last year, when people came online a few days after 
                it came out complaining that they had already completely finished 
                it! What&#146;s wrong with these people? How can you finish <b>Zelda</b> 
                that quickly without the aid of a FAQ? More importantly, how enjoyable 
                is it to play through a game that fast? Surely you just spend 
                your time sitting there, thinking with a steely determination 
                &#147;Must... finish... the... game...&#148;. Sounds like a punishment 
                rather than recreation to me. Fact is, if you finished <b>Zelda</b> 
                in two days, you never took the time to just wander and find things 
                yourself &#150; you raced through largely (or completely) neglecting 
                the little touches that made the game so special. To all those 
                &#147;true gamerz&#148; out there who pride themselves on whipping 
                through the latest game, trusty FAQ in hand, I can only say: &#147;Loser. 
                If you don&#146;t give yourself the time to get stuck, to find 
                new things yourself, to revel in the puzzles, then you might as 
                well be watching a video or playing a barely-interactive FMV-fest 
                like Voyeur&#148;. Eugh.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of course, 
                as soon as Rare&#146;s <b>Jet Force Gemini</b> came out people 
                were moaning about it being too long: looks like there&#146;s 
                no pleasing some people! In something approaching a conclusion, 
                let me quickly summarise by listing a few games that I think are 
                either &#147;too long&#148; or, alternately, about right in their 
                ideas-to-length ratio...</font></p>
              <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Games 
                that are too long:</font></p>
            </DIV>
            <ul>
              <li> 
                <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Soul 
                  Reaver</b></font></div>
              </li>
              <li> 
                <div align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Final 
                  Fantasy VIII</font></b></div>
              </li>
              <li> 
                <div align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Body 
                  Harvest</font></b></div>
              </li>
              <li> 
                <div align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                  Turok 2</font></b></div>
              </li>
              <li> 
                <div align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                  Driver</font></b></div>
              </li>
            </ul>
            <div align="center"> 
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Games 
                that are &#147;about right&#148;</font></p>
            </DIV>
            <ul>
              <li> 
                <div align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                  Metal Gear Solid</font></b></div>
              </li>
              <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../../1.23/mouth/index.html"><b>Mario 
                64</b></a></font></li>
              <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="../../1.2/pixel/index.html"><b>Resident 
                Evil 2</b></a></font></li>
              <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Silent Hill</b></font></li>
              <li><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a href="../../2.4/shelf/index.html">System 
                Shock 2</a></b></font></li>
            </ul>
            <div align="center">
<p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I was 
                trying to think of &#147;Games that are too short&#148;, but I 
                couldn&#146;t come up with many. I was tempted to put down <b>Zelda: 
                A Link to the Past</b> (on SNES) but only because it&#146;s perfection 
                (and I can always do with more gaming perfection, thanks). Another 
                candidate would be <b>Terminator 2</b> on the original Gameboy 
                (which was ridiculously short - less than 5 minutes if you knew 
                what you were doing), but seeing as the end came as a welcome 
                relief rather than a bitter disappointment it probably doesn&#146;t 
                count either. There&#146;s also a fair few games where the concept 
                of &#147;length&#148; doesn&#146;t really figure &#150; <b>Tetris</b> 
                and other puzzlers come to mind, as well as a number of deathmatch 
                titles.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Maybe 
                I&#146;m just crap at games. Or maybe I&#146;m coming from the 

                point of view of someone who has always played a lot of games 
                and has less time to play them (damn full-time job etc). There 
                is cetainly a small part of me that always wants to get through 
                the latest hot title and move onto the next one, but thankfully 
                I&#146;m able to stop it from taking over me and ruining the game 
                experience. A certain amount of wanderlust is, after all, perfectly 
                natural in the gaming world &#150; it fuels our demand for (bigger, 
                faster, stronger) consoles that run, er, beat-em ups with ever-increasing 
                polygon counts and racers with increasingly pretty screenshots 
                (<b>GT 2000</b> &#150; mmmm). But while I think that we see a 
                large number of interesting new games arrive every week, I&#146;m 
                also finding it increasingly difficult to give most titles the 
                time they deserve &#150; or at least, the time they think they 
                deserve. Anyone want to buy a (barely) used copy of <b>Final Fantasy 
                VIII</b>?</font></p>
              <p align="right"></p>
              <p align="right"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">- 
                Nick Ferguson uses &#147;I&#148; more times per column inch than 
                any other loonygames correspondant</font></i></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></loonystart></font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="index.php"><font color="#7C420E"><b><font size="+1">&lt;&lt;Prev</font></b></font></a></font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Pad Happy is &copy; 1999 Niick Ferguson. All other content 
  is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  so watch it - we know kung fu, gaijin.</font></i></p>
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