So I’ve been playing bits of After Burner Climax and loving it. Curiosity made me go check out some of the reviews to see what other people thought about the game. Generally people are knocking it because they said it’s too short. Those people are right in saying that the game is short. Too short though? I think that depends on who’s playing it. Lemme explain.

My gaming style is very particular. I put a high emphasis on time. Not in a sense that I look for naturally long games, rather I look for games that are more fun to play in the same amount of time or less than other games. Put simply, I like arcade games. My rule of thumb is that I look for games that get to the point in 30 seconds or less. That’s what After Burner Climax does and it does it very well.

People have also said that the amount of content doesn’t justify the $10 price tag. That’s also subjective and it ties into my previous point. I am more willing to pay for a shorter game if it successfully crams concentrated chunks of fun into a shorter time span. I am less willing to pay for a game that requires a hefty time investment in order to get a return (fun) on said investment.

My point is, everyone has their own unique style of gaming. To say a game is lackluster because of lack of length or lack of depth can only apply if other similarly designed games out-do it in those categories. For those of you that enjoy longer games, these (length and content) may be valid critiques. For those of you that like shorter games, gameplay becomes a much more powerful metric for measuring the game’s value.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

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