Do handheld games feel less ... significant?

[Gentlegamer | 174]

I'll take OP's premise and reverse it: console games are overwrought.

Handheld games are usually pure game, as it should be.

Currently playing Days Gone (PS4) - you putter around scrounging for gas to feed your motorcycle, drive up to a cut scene that triggers, listen to your character mutter and talk to himself while playing a mediocre cover shooter. Presentation looks nice, but the game itself is mediocre.

 

In contrast, also playing Puzzle Quest - Challenge of the Warlords on both DS and PSP: short description Bejewel x RPG = pure game, it's amazing! Never would have thought a match three game would be so engrossing, but I am much more satisfied with my play sessions in Puzzle Quest than Days Gone, and it's certainly more "significant" as a game.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

@Gentlegamer Wow, nice job, and you know what, that's 100% truth for so many of the modern games these days.  And it's kind of an issue really in the last decade, not 3D games in particular either.  You really do need to at the minimum dedicate 30min, perhaps more like an hour these days to make an actual worthwhile dent in so many titles because of their design.  So many want to be this experience, or having you do so much garbage around the main story to move that story along it's like a dedicated job of sorts.  You really can not just pick up a lot of games anymore and get pretty good satisfaction in 5-30min of time like you can on handhelds, and obvious mobile phone stuff too but that's its own beast.

It's strange because quite a few modern games, even big world yet stage based stuff like your Mario Odyssey style things you can nail down some progress in a stage in 15min so it feels rewarding, moved along, etc as much as you could 25 years ago in the same-y style Mario 64 and all those then early 3D platformers too.  When games started feeling to do this dumb thing over many genres, even FPS which is a joke, started driving this wannabe experience movie style plot threads going on that's where it got overwrought and weighed down in the environment over the game play.

[bronzeshield | 293]

3 hours ago, Gentlegamer said:

I'll take OP's premise and reverse it: console games are overwrought.

Handheld games are usually pure game, as it should be.

Even with earlier (i.e. late 1980s into 1990s) games there's a lot of truth to this. I've been on a Game Boy kick lately simply because the games are usually quick to pick up and start with, and are geared toward shorter play sessions.

I don't mind a learning curve, but I don't want to commit to lengthy sessions, overarching plotlines, or game design that expects you to discover lots of "secrets" or collect lots of items to get a decent ending.

I've often said that I'd rather have a 15-minute game that's tough as balls -- but plays fair and is consequently satisfying to beat -- than a 4-hour game that may be much more player-friendly and has better presentation, but also has gameplay that feels like filing paperwork: no real risk, no real reward, just a question of grinding away at it.