A nod… Or is that a turd? Anyway, when I originally clicked this CVG article, I had Halo 2 on my mind, so I wasn’t at all surprised to find it there amongst the other sad sack endings for titles like Fable. But Super Mario Bros.? I guess I never really associated grandiose endings with first generation NES titles, but CVG makes a good point. After slogging it out through eight worlds over a few hours, that hapless princess tells you to start all over again! Women.
But as I sat typing this and watching the New England Patriots manhandle the Jets, I got to thinking about endings. One of my favorite NES games, Life Force, gives you a three second exploding planet scene before it throws you back into the mix all over again. With the success of Wii Sports, and the mass salivation that has started thanks to the approaching Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, are endings going to feature into the really good Wii games? The focus now, it would seem, is entirely upon getting the control scheme to pop. As developer costs skyrocket for the other systems, I can easily see endings being sacrificed due to budget constraints in those mediums as well.
Could some Infendo readers weigh in on the endings for Wii’s current slate of titles? I’m not talking spoilers at all, I assure you, but was there, you know, an ending in every sense of the word? When you guys were playing away from Nov. 19 to the present, did you find yourselves more focused on the game play, ending be damned?
I’m a sucker for a great ending when I’m playing RPGs, but I get the distinct feeling that the epic endings of old might just stay that way, in the past.