Nyx
On a whim, I downloaded a demo (free!) for a WiiWare title called Nyx - it’s a basic platformer starring a winged goddess from a world out of Greek mythology. You fly with her by pushing the jump button repeatedly (to a limit of 5 jumps), and use the “hand of Zeus” (the Wiimote pointer) to drag objects around to solve puzzles. I played it for a bit - the graphics were pretty, and the music was evocative and beautiful (if not especially memorable, tuneful, or energetic) and then became overwhelmed with boredom. I remember having felt this way with another WiiWare title whose name I can’t remember - a platformer where you had to use the Wiimote pointer to generate wind to blow your character around and solve puzzles.
The game is clearly high quality, but it wasn’t… any fun. I’m trying to figure out why. After all, I still enjoy side scrolling platform games from the NES, even games I haven’t played before - so the “seen it before” aspect isn’t really at fault. There was a bit of a “storyline” introduction at the beginning of the game, but it wasn’t as bad as, say, Okami or Paper Mario. You got to the game itself pretty quickly. It introduced itself and its mechanics gradually, bit by bit - it felt rather like a neverending tutorial, but it didn’t say “tutorial,” so I had no expectation that I was about to get to the “real game.”
I think the real problem is the fact that your character, Nyx, has no weapon, and there are only a few little bad guys every so often - and the only thing you can do about them is to avoid them. I’m beginning to think that’s why the game was no fun. Mario, Mega Man, Simon Belmont, and Link all have ways of exerting power over their environment in a crisp and immediate fashion. Gracefully flying and laboriously dragging blocks around with your Wiimote are not crisp exertions of power. Tearing through limitless alien soldiers with an endless stream of bullets (Contra) is a crisp exertion of power - and therefore fun.
Now, perhaps this is a male thing - I couldn’t say. But the more I think about it, the more I think that a game has to have a real understanding of what its appeal is and make that available from the get-go. They say that a musical has to establish all its themes, its tone, and the fact that its a musical within 10 minutes or the audience zones out or gets confused. I think video games ought to be treated the same way. If the appeal of a game is exploration, then you better give the player freedom to explore within minutes of sticking that game in the machine and pushing Start. If the appeal of a game involves exerting power over enemies or objects, then give the player that power as quickly as you possibly can and get out of the way. If the appeal is solving puzzles, then don’t wait 10 levels in to add challenge and the need for thought - make the first puzzle interesting. Make it require as much thought as you can get away with, and don’t hold the player’s hand. If the appeal is the ability to collect things or customize a world, then give them that capability early without forcing them to go through a lengthy “tutorial land” or what not. Let your RPG hero buy whatever weapons or armor he/she wants in the very first town, at the very first available time - and give the player a choice. Figure out why people would ever want to play your game, and then focus on that.