Short

[cutmymilk]

I personally love a nice, short game. Games like BG&E got a bit of flack for being short but that was an advantage to me. If a game is great, AND short then it suits me because of my restricted gaming time and stacks of games.

So, for every Zelda: Twilight Princess I play through, theres 10 games like Excite Truck, Outrun 2, BG&E, Prince of Persia, King Kong etc. Either arcade titles or nice, shortish (under, say 12 hours) adventure games.

So, with that in mind - which games take under the magic 12 hour mark to complete? Arcade titles are a given, really - but what about other genres?

Hopefully, this list will be of use to all of us who are no longer students playing games for 8 hours a day and watching Neighbours / drinking the rest of the time!

[Big N Veiny]

I like short games too. With most games I tend to lose interest if they go on very long, so I never finish them and move on to other games (I think Zelda is the only game over 30 hours I've finished ever.). So even though it sounds counter intuitive I feel like I get better value out of a short but focused game.
Also I wish reviews gave a rough estimate of playtime (where possible) so I knew what I was getting myself in for.

[Dezm0nd]

I think the God Of War series is an intense 12 hours approx burst and quite possibly the finest new IP to grace the PS2/Xbox/GC era

[hudson]

I reckon Crackdown is a good one that can be played in shortish bursts. An achievement a day lets you work, rest and play.

[Miguel007]

Pikmin 1 & 2, Luigi's Mansion, Shadow Of The Collossus & Kororinpa are some of my short but sweet favourites.

[jimmbob]

I'm in the shorter games camp. I just don't have time for RPGs, and 70 hour marathon games!
Shorties, but goodies, obv Half Life2 and the eps, Hitman Blood Money, Resident Evil 4, MGS3 Subsistence.
They're all recentish games I've loved, and they're playable in nice short chunks, with obvious chapters where you can stop playing and pick it up at a later date still knowing what the story is and where you're up to.

[MarioMark]

I like short games. I'd rather look at my games on the shelf and wish they were all finished, than look at my shelf and think damn, they are all half finished.

Depends which game it is, if Mario Galaxy ended up being a 10 hour game I'd be gutted!

[Rick]

I don't mind long games as long as you can save where you like.

It really annoys me with console RPGS the lack on quicksave style saving.

I like the GTA / Saints Row missions as well, they are nice and short but still long enough to feel worthwhile.

[Concept]

It's context dependent. I wouldn't want a game like ICO to be a 50 hour epic, and neither would I want Oblivion to be a 5-6 next-gen 'special'.

To be honest, length is beginning to worry me in games these days. The excuses given are generally twofold. One is obviously that the hours and amount of art and tech work have increased due to the available technology. Two, is that multiplayer modes are starting to gradually overtake single-player as the dominant form of play.

It really annoys me when you get the American press (and it generally is the IGNs of this world) continually referring to single-player modes as the 'snack' for multiplayer.

No.

If designers treat their own single-player components like that due to being egged on from the press to forget them we really are just going to end up with watered down content.

I'm sure this won't be popular with many people on forums, because let's face it, the audience for gaming is becoming more social and focused on competitive or co-op multi-play.

That's why in principle, I'm against shortened games of 5-8 hours which companies are forcing us to be the norm.

Do I want MGS4 or Halo 3 to run in at 6 hours long? Nope.
Do I want GTAIV to run it at 20 hours in single-player so long as it offers a multiplayer component people will grow tired of and eventually move on from?

Meh.

[sj33]

I do like my 'weekend games' i.e games I can clear over the weekend. Lost Planet, Halo, Gears etc.

[egparadigm]

I have to say I generally agree that shorter = better. However it does depend. If I really like a particular style of game I don't want it to be over too quickly, but if it's a game I struggle to understand or I'm not very good at it, then it's a blessing when it comes to an end.

The most time I've ever spent with a game is around 80 hours on KotOR. That's 40 hours for each ending (lightside/darkside). I had never really played an RPG before, but it blew away my preconceptions. Above all, I wasn't forced to trudge through hours of random battles simply in order to level up. What made it worth investing the time, was the storyline. In fact, if it had been shorter, the twist would have felt much less important to you - you needed to have time to invest in the characters.

Another excellent long game is Okami - although that had some pacing problems, which made it feel a little stretched.

I do like my 'weekend games' i.e games I can clear over the weekend. Lost Planet, Halo, Gears etc.

You surely didn't finish Halo on legendary in a single weekend!?

[sj33]

You surely didn't finish Halo on legendary in a single weekend!?

Well fair enough, I never really bother with higher difficulties.

[egparadigm]

Sorry to go OT, but you really should play Halo on Legendary - it's a completely different game, and solely responsible for the game's revolutionary status.

[eastyy]

i have grown impatient in games now

fed up with over long tutorials

and annoyed with games taking ages before it starts to kick in

the actual size of the game though does not bother me if its short then it must have incentives to repeat play

i dont think i have ever played a game and complained its to long though

[cutmymilk]

Yeah, going back on my main point a bit, I do think the 'big' games of this world (as mentioned, Zelda, Mario Galaxy, Halo 3, GTA 4) need to be epic in length. But this can't be true of any old decent game.

I would play one of the above future classics through with no worries, for 50 hours. However, secondary games need to be shorter for me as there are only so many hours in the day. Of course, then you have the fans of the 'secondary' games that would want those long, and not Mario.