Friday, August 10, 2012

Lollipop Chainsaw, and gaming in moderation



One of the biggest disadvantages any video game reviewer has is time. There's never enough of it when you need to play through the game enough to write an honest opinion of a gamer's experience. But in truth, hardly any gamer will sit down for 20 hours straight and feverishly play a game to its end credits. The time spent in appreciating a game, taking it in a couple hours at a time…that's when a gamer can truly give a more honest review. Now, take this thought process and apply it to a game - let's say Lollipop Chainsaw.

Alright, the header to this game review is very deep, and the game, frankly, is not. Let's ignore that for a moment and apply what I just talked about. If you give a reviewer this game and have them plow through it in one sitting, I'm sure one of their (many) marks of failure is that the game is short, and I would not dispute it. However, the game is a beat-em-up - something that's generally known for not being too lengthy. It's almost like faulting an RPG game for being too long.

Now, if you tell a gamer to divide the gameplay to smaller, time-portioned playtimes separated by short time periods, the game takes on a new flavor. The easiest thing to do is portion out the separate stages in each play period. Doing this makes the game feel more episodic, and less rushed. Doing this not only keeps the game fresh, it keeps the game more tolerable and consumable in smaller quantities.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, Lollipop Chainsaw is good in small doses; eat it all at once, and you'll get a tummy ache.

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