As a child, my gaming purchases focused entirely on which games could absorb as much of my bored life as possible. I, like many child gamers, had two times during the year to procure new games, and my birthday and Christmas are very close together. The eleven months and three weeks between the two composed a long stretch that any new games for the year would have to fill. I remember researching a purchase in a video game store once, my coffers replete with proceeds from birthday cards. I did what any intelligent eight year old would do -- compared numbers on the back of the box. Twenty hours of gameplay for this one, thirty for that; this one promises 200 levels, but this one promises four hundred. This technique did not yield appreciable results, as I ended up with Acclaim’s classic Batman Forever.

Seeing this again gave me heartburn.

Becoming an adult has predictably inverted my condition, as I now have money enough to purchase games but not time to play them. Understanding the needs of both gamer types helps me approach game criticism. The financially bereft elementary school gamers of the world want tons of content, metered out at such a pace to maximize the entertainment derived from a single title. For the hot shot young professionals such as myself, this content should be optional and clearly defined so we can finish the game quickly and finally take out the garbage that’s piling up god damnit. Seriously, that stuff has a funk that nothing indoors should ever have.

I’ve recently played two games that feature additional content that extends game play, but these two titles approach the release of said content in very different ways. Deadly Creatures, an action/adventure game for the Wii, sports a direct and explicit method. Patapon 2, on the other hand, relies on obscuring information -- requiring player exploration to release game content. Both have advantages and drawbacks.