Well yes, obviously. It's a beautiful spectacle, for sure, but you'll see it for about twenty seconds and then it's gone. Plus, it's rarer than you've convinced yourself. Come on, be honest, how often have you seen one of those perfect V-shaped avian platoons in flight over your head? And in real life mind, not on the telly. Rarely, at best. Overrated, that's what I'm saying.
Not overrated: Endless Migration.
This is a game that pushes just about every single one of my joy buttons.
Firstly, it's an original idea: you are a goose. A Canada goose, migrating. In an era where the main selling point of most videogames seems to be either "his gun can shoot snakes" or "her tits grow in proportion to her magic level", I'm really heartened that someone sat down and thought, "You know what? I'm going to design a goose-em-up". There's more to it than that, of course, but crucially - not much more. When you meet other geese, they fly with you too. You have to avoid aeroplanes and the like. It's the life of a goose, only stylised, and stylised ever so well.
It's simple, too. I love simple games. The mouse is your only control, and your success depends entirely on dragging your leader-goose around the screen quickly enough to avoid becoming a big red stain on a 747's windscreen. One go lasts a few minutes maximum, because once you're doing well it fucking hurls aeroplanes at you, and helicopters and all sorts. It gets pretty fucking hectic and very, very exciting.
The clincher, though, is the progress mechanic. This is my biggest joy button, and it's so big that it has three separate sub-buttons, all of which are smothered comfortably by this simple online game, while one big-budget console game after the next misses them and fumbles around on the dashboard, sweating and cursing. These are they:
Progress can be made through skill, perseverance, or both
Time spent is never wasted
All challenges are achievable with patience and practice
Endless Migration has an "upgrade" menu: between goes, you can buy things that make your glorious goose faster, stronger, and smarter. You earn the points to buy these either by attaining in-game achievements (which are witty, varied and fun), or by simply having another go and getting a few more points. A limber-wristed wizard can burn through the upgrades within a few games, and a ham-fisted donkey can slowly get them all by simply playing for a while. Each upgrade gives a bit of help, lets you improve that high score a little. They don't get taken away if you fuck up. It's a short game (I managed all the achievements over a hugely enjoyable 45 minutes) but I wish more full, proper-release games would adopt Endless Migration's approach to player progress. The word "game" implies fun: why do so many games insist on punishing players by withholding parts that they're not good enough to unlock?
I know many folks like a bit of "hardcore", but it should be an option. I've been burned before - I bought Viewtiful Joe, was enchanted by its design, but even on Easy (named in the game, balls-out-dismissively, as "Kids") it demanded a level of study and revision that removed most of the fun from the equation. Fuck that bullshit.
As a perfect, shining example of this particular gaming virtue, I cite Blast Corps. But then, I cite Blast Corps as perfect in most ways. I really like Blast Corps. I also really like Endless Migration.
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