I was playing Super Paper Mario last weekend and I suddenly realised that the game had become too much work and not enough reward.  I'd beaten it weeks ago, and was unsatisfied with what I felt was a relatively brief main story.  I'd beguin trying all the sidequests to squeeze out some more enjoyment from the title, and I guess I was somewhere in the middle of World 5's Maps when I realized I wasn't having any fun anymore.

What I was really doing was trying to justify the decision I'd made to buy SPM the day it came out.  I'd convinced myself that it would be a great title (based on the unmitigated greatness of the previous installments), and when I completed the game unsatisfied, I felt like I owed it to myself to enjoy the game as much as possible.

I suppose I've changed some as a gamer, in that I don't derive nearly as much pleasure from 100% completion anymore.  If it's a truly enjoyable title, I might stick it out, but most times I'm just not ready to spend my precious gaming time grinding away at a title I've already beaten for the sake of an accomplishment no-one outside my household will ever hear or care about.  With a full time job, a family, and social obligations (many of which don't involve game controllers), my time's just too precious to waste on games that have stopped being fun.

I made a similar decision with Super Mario Sunshine.  I standby my assessment that it is a great 3-D platformer, and tons of fun to play.  I've completed it with 76 Shines (out of 120), and I'm okay with that.  I may continue to play to try to get all of the Red Coin Secret Shines, because I feel like the difficulty of those tasks make the challenge worth my time.  But I won't be scouring the Isle of Delfino for any more Blue Coins.

Replacing these two titles in my queue are a number of other goodies.  My PS2 is working properly, so I picked up Okami again, and I'm logging in some time with Worms: Armageddon at the end of each day in bed.  I started Resident Evil 4 finally, but I haven't played enough to warrant any comments at this time.  And as for handhelds, I continue to enjoy Yoshi's Island, but Kirby: Squeak Squad was a disaster best left unmentioned.  I jettisoned that piece of junk and popped in Advance Wars: Duel strike for some more strategy goodness.

That's all from me, enjoy your week everybody!