The witty gamers at NeoGAF want to know.
I don’t know if anyone can relate, but while I enjoy the downloadable services, I noticed that I rarely complete these games. I usually get me money’s worth in time played and enjoyment but I just don’t get have a sense of urgency with finishing them. Maybe because they’re much cheaper than the usual 60 buck retail release, there is no big incentive to complete them.
I don’t know if anyone can relate, but while I enjoy video games, I notice that I rarely complete any, regardless of how they were distributed. With kids and whatnot, it must be 5-10 %, if that. Anyone else?
Roddy
Yes, being married and having a 4-year-old does hinder one’s gaming time. That being said, I do try to finish whatever games I have. Just this June I managed to finish WWE SvR 2009 and Ghostbusters, which I had started when I got them around this time last year. Next is Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, which my wife got me for Christmas.
But I did finish most WiiWare games I got, like World of Goo and LostWind. I still gotta finish Max and the Magic Marker (and get LostWinds 2).
The tricky thing is to find time to play the games I want, because if my son sees me turning the Wii on, he wants me to help him beat HIS games. 🙂
David
I was thinking about something else along these lines, and this question confirms my idea.
A new WiiWare game will come out and I’ll get excited, buy it, and play it for a few hours. Since I started saving all new DLC directly to my SD card, I really only have the default Nintendo channels on my Wii; my WiiWare games are all “hidden” in the SD menu. In a phrase, they’re “out of sight, out of mind” and easily forgotten about. I’d be much more likely to hop in and play Tomena Sanner or Cave Story or Muscle March or Bit.Trip Runner if they were all part of my main Wii channel menu. I know I could be more proactive about moving things in and out of the “fridge”, but it would be very nice if Nintendo could seamlessly blend the two menus together.
To answer Blake’s question: No, other than World of Goo, I don’t finish them. (It was saved on my main Wii menu!)
Andy
I finished megaman 10 and a few vc games
Cory
I never thought of that; but I have to agree, with the few dozen WiiWare/XBLA games I’ve downloaded, I’ve completed probably only Castle Crashers. Oh and Gunstar Heroes.
Rich T.
Of the downloadable games I’ve bought that have an actual ending…No, I haven’t finished any of them. I play until I get my money’s worth, or until they stop being fun.
With retail releases, I’ve reached the age where I no longer want to spend 80 hours of my life on an rpg just to see the end. Once the fun stops, I youtube the closing cinema. I loved Mario Galaxy 2, and played it long enough to see the easy ending and half the bonus world, but that was enough. A recent good example of a perfect game for my household is Lego Harry Potter: Fun, easy to jump in and out of, a satisfying story mode that takes a few hours, and tons of replayability/unlockables. We’re looking for quick, fun and replayable these days…The perfect Wii customers! That said, I plan to play Epic Mickey all the way through…if it’s as good as it looks.
Josh
Tell me about it, it’s a huge waste of money and I’ve stopped buying so many games.
BlueRocks
I finish the downloadable games that I like.
Both FFCC:My Life as a King and FFCC:My Life as a Dark Lord are done.
Tetris Party, TV Show King 2, Pokemon Ranch, Defend Your Castle, Dig Dug, etc. don’t have an ‘end’.
The ones that I don’t like don’t get played much after the initial try period.
Games like World of Goo.
EdEN
I have 60 PSN, Wiiware and DSiware games that have been downloaded and have yet to start. Currently playing Turtles in Time and Critter Crunch on PSN, Animal Color Cross and X-Scape on DSiware and Adventure Island: The Beggining and Space Invaders Get Even on Wiiware.
Still since they’re digital games most are 2-6 hours long so all it would take is a very good weekend to make that list get shorter.
Noveli
I have played through most of the wiiware titles I have, but I really don’t play through many of my VC games because I’ve already beaten them before. (Ecco the Dolphin LOZ and super mario world)
CZsWorld
If I get a game, I finish it, no matter how bad.
gamecollector44
Well, I’ve completed most of the games that I used to have on the original system, (Does that count?) But I’ve only truely completed the SBCG4AP series and Pokemon Rumble… I need to get back on there and finish up Metroid.
Parker Dickenson
I definitely think this is true. I agree with what David said about downloadable games being “out of sight, out of mind”. This is no the case, however, with my downloaded iPod Touch games, since my app pages are the only places I see when I am using it. When you are going through your drawers and you see the case for a game, you might think, “hey, that’d be fun to play this weekend!”, but that rarely can happen with a downloadable game.
InvisibleMan
I’m the wrong person to comment, since I probably have only finished a little over a dozen games in my whole gaming career…
But, in addition to that, I have never finished a single downloadable game, and I have downloaded quite a few! This despite the fact that downloadable games are far shorter than most disc- and catridge-based games… I wonder why this is the case??
Skotski
I barely beat any of my downloadables, but I don’t think it’s the “out of sight, out of mind”-thing for me…. as I check my SD card games constantly to see if I want to play any of those games.
Honestly, I think it’s how the downloaded games FEEL.
They don’t feel magical like a full-retail game, mostly because they were often made to be short games that have replay-value or tiny adventures that mimic big-budget games. They’re not quite the same.
In fact, the only few games I HAVE beaten were games that actually had the magic of a full-game (My Life As A… games have that feeling) or games with tons of replay value (Artstyle games have that). So yeah. Nothing against downloadable games, you just get what you pay for (a tiny fun game).
Stuffed
I actually find it the opposite sometimes. I can’t say for certain what the last full retail game that I’ve played all the way through but I’ve gotten to the end of most of my WiiWare (Lost Winds, StrongBad, My Life as A King, working through BitTripRunner now). I think the main thing is the length of the game. Like I know the WiiWare game isn’t going to be that long so I can usually finish it in 2-3 sittings versus the weeks it takes for most other games. The goal is so close that it feels easier to plow through.