That's the perfect amount of time, playing 30 minutes a day I should have this finished just in time for Brawl's release... because if I don't, I won't ever finish it. I just wish Layton had a little bit of replay value because it'd make waiting for the sequel slightly more bearable.

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I tend to shy away from games that are longer than 30 hours. Actually, even 30 hours is pushing it. As a person who works 40 hours a week and has a ridiculous amount of hobbies, my time is precious. I love games that clock in at under 25, or under 15 with great replay value. The only extremely long game I've played in the past year that was great was Etrian Odyssey and that was largely because I could stop playing for months at a time and pick up where I left off with no problems.

I think it's fairly obvious that I grew up in the age of arcades.

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I really don't mind games that are short. If that's their ideal length then so be it. I used to get annoyed when people criticized Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin for being too short because they weren't. They were the perfect length for what they were, it would be like complaining that a short-film is too short.... it's a short-film! Why aren't games allowed to be short? I suppose price has something to do with it.

For example I much prefer Pikmin 1 over Pikmin 2 because it was shorter and the length felt just right. I felt that because of the complaints that the first one was too short Pikmin 2 had been clearly dragged out with those overused, overlong, repetitive underground dungeon bits.

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I usually prefer my games to be around ten hours, fifteen at the max, but some games I'm willing to play for longer. I happily sunk 40 hours into Revenant Wings -- and would willingly put in 40 more -- because I loved the gameplay and the setting. While I would have liked Layton to be longer, it really was the perfect length -- left me satisfied yet still wanting more.

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I am also enjoying the Professor. Good call on the Miyazaki likeness - I love his movies. I am about 5 hours into the game and enjoying every minute. I recently bought the DS primarily for this game and am not regretting it.

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I think i put in around 30 hours to final fantasy 3 and many more into Mario Kart and i think these demonstrate my two ideals.
A game like FF3 i will not pick up and play again so 30 hours seemed about right, mario kart on the other hand has such huge replayability (if that actually is a word!) that comleting it in about 6-10 hours doesn't phase me at all.

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Personally, I don't really like short games that much, at least if it's not something I can replay. I can't really replay Professor Layton as I already know the puzzle answers, so it would be pointless. I'd prefer for a game to be too long because if I get tired of it, I could always just stop playing it.

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it's totally an awesome game, i was very wary at first but it quickly charmed me.

and just for the record...
level 5 was inspired by the look of Les triplettes de Belleville, the french animated film.

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I like being able to actually finish a game. I don't finish most non-action RPGs.

Better to have a short game with no filler than a long one without enough variety.

On the PC side, almost nobody has criticized Portal for being "too" short, though it definitely *is* short.

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I finished Layton late last week...right around 13-14 hours. That's about perfect for me for this type of game. If it's an RPG like FFIII or Pokemon, I can sink 30-40 hours in and that's around my max.

Layton actually convinced me to buy all of the Phoenix Wright games. I'd been leary of them because I'd played Hotel Dusk and it bored me to tears. With Layton, though, I found myself wanting to blaze through the puzzles to finish the story, even though I had it figured out fairly early on. I'm deep into the second case of PW:AA, and I'm happy to say that so far all of those accolades are spot on.

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i usually like long games since i'm really picky and only buy games i deem worthy being in my collection. i like games that are long like at least 30 hours. any shorter and they feel not as great to me. although i passed portal and even though it was short the quality of it made up for that.

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10 hours is perfect for a handheld game, I think, though I like a bit more length for other games. I have a tendency to get tired of anything, even games I really love, once they reach upwards of 40 hours. Okami was the rare exception.

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