Another World was one of those games which left a lasting impression on me as a kid.. I mean, I never really played it properly - probably just on a demo disk (which counted for most of my gaming as an impoverished child) or maybe the excellent sequent Flashback.

Either way, I finally got closure on the whole thing and completed the game!

“Why now?” you may ask. Indeed. Well, I recently discovered that Eric Chahi recently made the GBA version freely available! Courtesy of Visual Boy Advance for the Mac, I’ve been able to play it through in all its glory on my laptop - oh, joy!

I’ve always been impressed, slightly in awe even, with the idea that guys back then wrote a whole game like that on their own. Playing it through, though, does give you some idea of how.. I’m in no way cussing this game, I think it still looks gorgeous (ok, a little pixellated but sshh!), but there’s no escaping the fact it only took me an hour or two to complete the game. And I though ICO was short! (it wasn’t - at 8 hours it left you wanting more, just like a good meal at a really nice restaurant. you don’t want to feel bloated now, do you?) It’s a good feeling though. All too often I’ve simply lost interest in a game, and joins the pile of other uncompleted games in the corner. I never quite get round to trading them in because they arent finished, but the ones I do complete I end up liking lots so I don’t want rid of them either. Hmm, maybe time to get me some realistically completable games.

Or how about this for an idea - Films tell you the running time on the back of the packet. Well, why shouldn’t games have something similar? Obviously the time varies between people, but some kind of rough guide would let you know what you’re in for