The Simplicity Of Games

                  Article by James Judge

I don't normally have a moan about games but now I'm near bursting
point.

Over the past half a year I have increased my collection of games
by quite a lot due to being a member of Special Reserve and, not
having piles of money to spend on games, I make sure I shop
carefully.  (I don't buy games until I've read at least two
reviews of it and they have scored extremely high on all the
reviews (above 85%)).

So I am extremely disappointed at the amount of games I have
bought and completed within a short period of time. For instance:

      Crystals of Arborea - completed first time I played it.
      Dragons Breath - nearly competed after two days.
      Another World - finished in three and a half hours.
      Bonanza Brothers - completed after three days playing.
      Kid Gloves 2 - completed after five or six days.
      Magicland Dizzy - finished same day I bought it.
      Parasol Stars - completed after about three weeks.
      Bloodwych - completed after about six days continuous play.

As you can see all of these games cost quite a lot and, all in
all, I got just over a month's enjoyment out of eight games which
cost me well over one hundred pounds.

You may think "Ah, but you can't of given much consideration
whether they are worth it or not." But I can assure you that it is
not just the reviews that influence me; I also take into
consideration friends' opinions and (as in Parasol Stars case)
their predecessors and whether I liked them or not.

I feel game manufacturers should give careful consideration to how
difficult they make games because in my experience I find that
some manufacturers just try and dish out as many games as possible
to the unsuspecting public whether they're good or not just as
long as they look and sound good.

Not all producers are like this though - Electronic Arts, Bullfrog
and Mindscape (which I think has now stopped producing games for
the ST) have produced many games that I have found of just the
right difficulty and if I pick up one of their games I know there
is a good chance I will get more than my money's worth.

I find it very strange that I have never come across a game that
has had me stumped and confounded for more than a few hours and
searching frantically for the solution or cheats.

But still this is just my opinion on the state of games and I know
I can't have everything, but I would be interested to know whether
other people have found that games they have bought turn out to be
really simple to complete and if so, whether a certain company is
responsible or not?

@~Any comments? If so, please send them in for next issue. Or do
@~you have a 'groan' of your own you'd like to air?