[Posted this in the comments, then realized it was pretty long, especially for the first thing I've ever posted to dtoid. Apparently there are blogs, too? Thought this might be more appropriate here.]

I just read every single comment of this thread twelve hours after it was posted, and only a couple of commenters have even approached answering the question you asked at the end of the post. Most seem to have misinterpreted the question in favor of the usual "I love/didn't love that game! Oh, man, [insert brief uninteresting anecdote]." Usually that doesn't bother me, but for some reason this question hooked me. Let me see if I can get into it.

"Deep, compact play" is the mechanic being discussed, not the specific mechanic of a limited number of days in which to complete everything. No, that specific gameplay mechanic hasn't shown up in other Nintendo games, because that's not what Iwata meant. (I think. I'm going to read the Iwata Asks column in a bit, because they're always fascinating. So perhaps I haven't got the full context yet.) The main point is that they didn't have to build an enormous open world-style game to give it plenty of meat. There's a limited amount of space, a limited amount of time (though, as has been mentioned repeatedly, the game does not ACTUALLY end in three game days), but an intimidating amount to see, learn, and accomplish within that framework.

Well, no, first -- almost that exact model has been used in other games. Animal Crossing, right? A small town with time-sensitive activities, characters with routines, etc. The World Ends With You also has a time-based narrative, in a limited world, and it's engrossing. These games are strong because the player comes to know and care about the environment and recurring characters. The closer you look, the more detail is revealed, and the more weight each element carries.



For years, Nintendo has specialized in what I think of as "Nuggets of Joy." That's what I think Iwata is really referring to. Mario Kart, Mario Party WarioWare, Smash Bros., and any of the Wii Sports, Wii Fit, or brain-training games; all of these feature small units of gameplay which can be replayed and developed for as long as a player is interested. That's a broad swath of games, but the common thread is obvious: you can pick up the controller, play for 3 minutes, and have a blast, especially when more than one player is involved. Mario Kart's tracks are small, the differences between the characters are minimal, there are a limited number of game verbs, and each dose is fast and furious -- and in that way, it feels accessible to everyone, it doesn't take hours and hours of commitment, and there's very little down time.

The Wii Sports/Fit games are the finest distillation of this so far, I think. (Not the purest incarnation; that would be WarioWare. But WarioWare -- while entertaining -- is, in my opinion, a forerunner or offshoot.) Especially Resort and Fit. There's a larger framework or context, within which there are nuggets of gameplay that take little or no time to understand -- often a simple movement that roughly emulates a real-world action, like flicking the wrist to throw a Frisbee™ or flailing erratically to lose to your brother in table tennis (hyper-realism comes to games at last!). The small game segments are designed so that the action continues for as long as you like, but doesn't overwhelm.

Very telling of this philosophy is that the DS can be shut during any game, and it will go to sleep without qualms. That system -- and most of its games -- is designed around the Nugget of Joy philosophy, so that wherever you are, however much time you have, you can pop it open and play, have a good time, and then put it away instantly.

It's interesting that many people had the opposite reaction to Majora's Mask. The negative, almost allergic-type reaction most likely comes down to a conflict of expectations: it looks and moves like a Zelda game, but it isn't the same rhythm and routine, so it put a lot of people off. Any time a game (or anything!) defies expectations, the player is asked to grow and adapt and incorporate new ideas into their brains. Seems like many people find it excruciating to accept these radical Trojan Horses of innovation; when the nefarious payload is dropped, and it becomes clear that Link's adorable little face was used to sell you an unexpected and confusing challenge, aversion is a natural response.

I did the same thing with Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, when I tried playing it years ago. It deviated so sharply from the BoF canon -- and, notably, included a similar time-based constraint in the form of the ever-ticking D-Counter, and almost punished the player for turning into a dragon, for indulging that thirst for power and easy victory -- that my young mind reeled and rejected it. I wanted to be a dragon and explore at my leisure, not worry about how many steps I'd taken! It's nagged me in the intervening years, however, with the feeling that I hadn't given it a fair chance. When I picked it up again a few months ago with adjusted expectations, I found out I'd missed an enthralling game.



And Majora's Mask isn't Mario Kart, by any means. But if it represents a light-bulb moment for Nintendo, then it's significant.

Nintendo isn't the only one pursuing the "deep, compact play" style, and it certainly isn't the only type of game they make, nor the only type of game that can be enjoyable. However, most of their highly-successful franchises use a format that incorporates the philosophy. Almost any game with quick levels or matches -- traditional Mario games, fighting games, puzzle games -- breaks the play up into digestible chunks that leave you wanting more before it's even over. Popcap and their Match-3-based dynasty are lords of an adjacent realm. Valve's recent emphasis has shifted from Half-Life-style narrative to quicker-session games like Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead. By no means do I want that to be the only kind of game available, but I can't deny that when I've got a few minutes or hours of leisure time, I'm much more inclined to boot up TF2 and get in a few rounds than try to figure out where I was last time I played Final Fantasy 12.

It's not an attention-deficit thing, either; I've played all but one of the main-series Final Fantasy games, and last month I read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. I can handle longer-span engagements. I need them. That's why it's good we don't have to choose one type of entertainment. We don't have to play favorites.

But "we" so-called Gamers do choose, at least rhetorically. The interesting corollary to Iwata's realization is that gamers seem by and large to have remained willfully ignorant of the value of the Nugget of Joy model. Rather, we enjoy them, but we're conditioned to expect and demand huge stories and endless questing. Most of the Zelda games tend more toward that model. Twilight Princess went so far in that direction that it became insufferable to me. I don't mean to say there's anything wrong with a good, sprawling RPG -- but we pile on the praise for games like Fallout 3 when their fun:time ratio is much lower than any of these quick-in, whenever-out games. We hunger for the next big franchise entry. The much-lamented review score system rewards length and complexity over simplicity almost every time. And in that environment, games like David Jaffe's Calling All Cars!, designed with that Nugget-style multiplayer in mind, gets panned for having only twenty minutes of single-player campaigning. I guess that's a tangent, and old hat.

To answer the question briefly: yes, I have noticed deep, compact play emphasized in Nintendo's games, as well as others'. Majora's Mask is an interesting balance of that model and the longer form of the other Zelda games. You could break down almost any game into its Nuggets (of Joy or Suffering), but to hear Nintendo's top brass refer to that as a guiding principle is very telling, especially when combined with their avowed interest in entertaining as many people as possible with non-traditional inputs and gameplay.



Yeah, I think that's terrifically interesting, and could be explored in much greater depth. Thanks for piquing my interest, Mr. Razak.