The Wonderful 101 director warns haters of short games

The Wonderful 101 director warned players who "hate to finish a game the next day" after buying it that they shouldn't play his game. This set off some controversy that the executive producer tried to temper.

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The Wonderful 101 is probably going to be on the short side, judging by a comment from director Hideki Kamiya. But, responding to the flare-up of controversy caused by that comment, executive director Atsushi Inaba attempted to clarify.

It started with a tweet from Kamiya (via Siliconera). "If u hate to finish a game the next day u buy it, u better not play TW101," he said. "I focus on how it is fun, not how long it lasts till the ending."

That sounds like an admission that the game will be short, but Inaba responded with a long series of tweets. "What he is saying is his basic approach to how he creates an action game. The idea is rooted in that you shouldn't pad your game with content users won't enjoy in order to control play time to the end of the game. It isn't something he wants to do, or thinks you should do."

He says that Kamiya actually tends to put a lot of content into his games, and that in his past experience he's never worried about game length. In fact, he says, as executive producer it tends to be his job to order cuts when a game is too long.

"Of course, even though @pg_kamiya didn't intend for people to jump to their own conclusions, they did," Inaba said. "In this case, that conclusion was 'So TW101 is going to be short then?!' Let me make my own conclusion: TW101 will be so much fun you are going to wear out your Wii U GamePad. Actually, the Wii U GamePad is pretty sturdy, so you probably won't wear it out."

It's notable that he didn't make any direct statements about the game's length, and chose instead to focus on his past experience with Kamiya. He said announcements are forthcoming, and with E3 just around the corner, it's a safe bet that we'll have a new look at the game then.

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    April 30, 2013 7:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, The Wonderful 101 director warns haters of short games.

    The Wonderful 101 director warned players who "hate to finish a game the next day" after buying it that they shouldn't play his game. This set off some controversy that the executive producer tried to temper.

    • reply
      April 30, 2013 7:36 AM

      Meh, beat the next day could mean 8-10 hours, or it could mean 5 hours, either way some of the best games ever could be beaten in less than half that so as long as the whole time it's awesome I'm good.

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      April 30, 2013 7:58 AM

      I trust Platinum, and I am looking forward to The Wonderful 101 based on what ive seen. Looks like a lot of fun. If the game IS fun and I can replay it maybe on a NG+ mode then I would have gotten my monies worth. Fun outshines anything else in my experience as a gaming hobbyist.

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        April 30, 2013 7:59 AM

        I would love something similar to Viewtiful Joe's new game plus stuff, albeit that probably won't happen.

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          April 30, 2013 8:01 AM

          Vietiful Joe was great. That may still happen. Lots of older games are coming around the bend again. Ill keep my fingers crossed.

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      April 30, 2013 9:58 AM

      There are very few games that would not be better if they were shorter. (12-year-old me can't believe I just said that.)

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      April 30, 2013 10:06 AM

      I have no problem with this. just dont charge $69 for it, or anything even remotely near that amount

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        April 30, 2013 10:08 AM

        Probably going to be $59, which just means the content we do have must be held to a higher quality than the average content in longer games (IMO, though it's also kind of stupid that it works that way).

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      April 30, 2013 10:12 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      April 30, 2013 10:27 AM

      [deleted]

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