<html>

<head>
<title>loonygames presents: Pad Happy - Sega, Playstation, Nintendo Ranting</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css">
a { text-decoration: none; }
a:hover { color:000000;  text-decoration: underline; }


</style>
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFF4D0" link="#3333FF" vlink="#000000" alink="#000000">
<center>
</center>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="58">
  <tr> 
    <td height="69" width="29%" align="left" valign="top"> 
      <div align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><i><img src="../../images/logo_new.jpg" width="182" height="63" border="0" usemap="#logoa"> 
        </i></b></font></div>
    </td>
    <td height="69" width="29%" align="center" valign="top"> <center>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2373963192914918";
/* 468x60 */
google_ad_slot = "3417104156";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</center>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../about.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><font size="2">about</font></b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../feedback.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>feedback</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../archives/index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>archives</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <b><a href="../../../submissions/index.html"><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">submissions</font></a></b></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<div align="center"> <br>
</div>
<table width="100%" border="0">
  <tr> 
    <td width="72%"> 
      <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>://1, 
        <a href="index2.php"><font color="#7C420E">2</font></a></font></b></h5>
    </td>
    <td align="right" valign="middle" width="28%"> 
      <div align="right"> 
        <h5><a href="../../cgi/printme.pl?url=%252F2.5%252Fph%252F"><img src="../../images/icons/print01.gif" width="27" height="27" align="baseline" border="0" alt="switch to printer-friendly version"></a></h5>
      </div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<br>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr> 
    <td align="center" valign="top" width="25%"> 
      <table border="0" width="99%" bgcolor="#D7B582" align="center" bordercolor="#E0E0E0">
        <tr> 
          <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 
             </font> <p><webdog><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#693A0C">What's 
           new today:</font></b></font> 
          
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../../index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">New!!!</font></b></a><br></b>
  The archives have been cleaned up, dead links fixed, and the printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments on the main page!</font></p>

 
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Livin' 
  With The Sims</font></b></a><br></b>
  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Pixel 
  Obscura </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Josh Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../rl/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Real 
  Life </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Check out our newest comic strip, <b>Real Life</b>! Updated daily!</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../uf.1" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">User 
  Friendly</font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Updated daily!</font></p>
<p></webdog> </p>
 
            <p></p>
            <p> </p>
            <p></p>
             
            </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <br>
      <table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#D7B582">
        <tr bgcolor="#D7B582"> 
          <td> 
            <div align="center"> 
              <p align="left"><font size="-1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#00025E">Random 
                Feature:</font></b></font> </font> </p>
              <p>
<p align="CENTER"><img src="../../images/thumbs/bgnbn.jpg" width="98" height="120" align="MIDDLE" border="0"></p><p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.2/bgnbn/index.html">The Bargain Bin</a>: Reviews of games you can actually afford to buy.</font></p>


<i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> 
                </font> </i></p>
            </div>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <br>
      <table width="99%" border="0" bgcolor="#D7B582">
        <tr> 
          <td> 
            <div align="center"> 
              <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" name="">
                <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Search 
                the Archives!</font></b></font> 
               
                 <INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=12 maxlength=255 value="">
 <INPUT type=submit name=sa VALUE="Google Search">
 <INPUT type=hidden name=cof 
VALUE="LW:216;L:http:/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/content/images/logo1.jpg;LH:55;AH:center;S:http://www.loonygames.com;AWFID:13a298c7abe84fd0;">
<input type=hidden name=domains value="loonygames.com"> 
<input type=hidden name=sitesearch value="loonygames.com">               
</div>
              </form>

              <p align="left"><i> </i></p>
            </div>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
    <td width="75%" align="center" valign="top"> 
      <table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
        <tr> 
          <td width="50%" valign="top"> 
            <div align="center"> 
              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><img src="../../images/icons/ph_final.jpg" width="193" height="237" align="left"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 5<br>
                December 9, 1999<br>
                </font></b></h5>
              <h5 align="right"><font color="#00025E"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                </font></b></font></h5>
              <div align="center">
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Pad 
                  Happy:</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="6"> 
                  Size Matters</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">by 
                  <a href="mailto:nickf@saqnet.co.uk">Nick Ferguson</a></font></p>
              </div>
              <script language="JavaScript">

<!--
       function gotoSite(obj)
          {
          var s;
          s=obj.options[obj.selectedIndex].value
                         location.href=s;
          }
// -->

</script>
              <form>
  <div align="RIGHT">
    <select name="SiteSelector" size="1" language="JavaScript" onchange="gotoSite(this)">
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.13/ph/">Jump to an Archived Column!</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.13/ph/">Issue 2.13 (Choose Your Format)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.11/ph/">Issue 2.11 (The Bookshelf Edition)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.9/ph/">Issue 2.9 (Death of a Console?)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.7/ph/">Issue 2.7 (...About Game Testing)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.5/ph/">Issue 2.5 (Size Matters)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.3/ph/">Issue 2.3 (All I Want for Christmas is...)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.1/ph/">Issue 2.1 (Sega's Sonic Boom)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.39/ph/">-----Volume 1-----</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.39/ph/">Issue 1.39 (Gameboy for President)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.38/ph/">Issue 1.38 (Consoles Strike Back)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.35/ph/">Issue 1.35 (Play it Again, Sam)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.33/ph/">Issue 1.33 (Do you like scary movies?)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.31/ph/">Issue 1.31 (What's the Score?)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.29/ph/">Issue 1.29 (Out of Control)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.27/ph/">Issue 1.27 (No PAL of Mine)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.25/ph/">Issue 1.25 (Licensed to Thrill?)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.23/ph/">Issue 1.23 (Mirror, Signal, Maneuver)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.21/ph/">Issue 1.21 (Hardware Wars)</option>
<option value="http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.19/ph/">Issue 1.19 (Solid Gameplay)</option>

    </select>
  </div>
</form>              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <div align="LEFT"></div>
              <div align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><i>Who 
                wants to spend 100 hours on a single game? Not Nick F, anyway...</i></font></div>
              <br>
              <p align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/a.jpg" width="22" height="39" align="left">&nbsp; 
                month ago I finally bought <b>Final Fantasy VIII</b>. I&#146;ve 
                played it for a good few hours but in the last week or so I really 
                haven&#146;t been able to bring myself to place the disc in my 
                Playstation. The problem is, the game&#146;s just too damn long! 
                Ye gads - I can remember a time when no game was long enough, 
                but now it seems that most new releases stretch for miles and 
                miles. Call me an attention-span-stunted gamer (of the console 
                breed, natch) but I see no joy whatsoever in these 100 hour treks. 
                Its got to the point now where a potential purchase won&#146;t 
                make the cut because it&#146;s going to take too long to beat; 
                for instance, <b>Tomb Raider 4</b> looks like a remarkable return 
                to form for Ms. Croft, but I&#146;m having second thoughts about 
                buying it because I&#146;m still mentally scarred from the ridiculous 
                length of the previous <b>TR</b> game (which was just incredibly 
                boring to play, so I stopped). Roll on <b><a href="../../2.4/pixel/index.html">Resident 
                Evil Nemesis</a></b>, I say.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I suspect 
                that a lot of developers feel under pressure to make their games 
                as long as possible, under the (likely publisher-led) delusion 
                that a long, long game represents better value for money. There 
                are certainly people out there who would heavily advocate that 
                one game being longer than another makes it &#147;better&#148;, 
                but the truth is it just makes that game longer. The reason the 
                other game is &#147;better&#148; is more than likely because it 
                has more ideas in it. Ultimately, a game contains only a finite 
                number of ideas and if you try and stretch a game by limiting 
                the frequency with which a player encounters your cool ideas , 
                you&#146;ll find that it&#146;s not interesting enough to play. 
                Think about the best games you&#146;ve played recently and you&#146;ll 
                find that in a lot of cases something pretty interesting happens 
                every five to ten minutes of gameplay. Conversely, think about 
                the number of games you&#146;ve played where all the best stuff 
                happens in the first hour of play and from then on it seem like 
                developers were looking to fill up space because they used all 
                their cool ideas way too early (and then you didn&#146;t bother 
                finishing the game).</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The real 
                problem is that it takes a lot of talent to create a game entertaining 
                enough to merit a play length of over ten hours, both in terms 
                of game design and (if appropriate) the plot. I played about halfway 
                through <a href="../../1.4/topshelf/index.html"><b>Final 
                Fantasy VII</b></a> before giving up (partially through boredom, 
                mainly because someone managed to erase my save game) but the 
                plot was already flagging &#150; and don&#146;t even talk to me 
                about the tedious, repetitive battles. <b>Final Fantasy VIII</b> 
                seems more gripping from the start, but word seems to be that 
                the story isn&#146;t quite as good as its prequel and the characters 
                aren&#146;t as engaging (uh oh). And those bloody Guardian Force 
                animations go on for sooooo long &#150; is there honestly no way 
                to skip them? Life really is too short - how much &#147;play time&#148; 
                in total do you think gratuitous battle animations add to the<b> 
                FF </b>series, anyway?</font></p>
              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></loonystart></font></p>

              <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="index2.php"><font color="#7C420E"><b><font size="+1">Next 
                &gt;&gt;</font></b></font> </a></font></p>
              
            </DIV>
            </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<br>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../about.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>about</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../feedback.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>feedback</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../archives/index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>archives</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <b><a href="../../../submissions/index.html"><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">submissions</font></a></b></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="35%"><a href="../../../index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><i>loonygames</i></b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="65%"> 
      <div align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF">  </font></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<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>
 <map name="logoa">
  <area shape="rect" coords="52,47,112,59" href="http://www.bluesnews.com">
  <area shape="rect" coords="3,3,179,46" href="../../../index.html">
</map>
</body>
</html>
