GoNintendo 'End of Day' thought - What's the right game length for you?

I'm sitting here in our North Carolina vacation house. It's a house that most of my Mom's side of the family chips in on to rent out for a week. That means there's about 20+ people staying in the house during the week, with lots of video game fans being in the mix. With that being the case, I decided to pack up my Wii U and let the system get some love from the family. That's exactly what's been going on here during the nights this past week.

As you might have guessed, the big game being played is Smash Bros. Wii U. There are lots of Smash fans in the house. Plenty of them are still playing Brawl on Wii, but a few have moved on to Smash Wii U and 3DS. It's always great to get together in a house with a ground of friends or family that plays Smash. I jumped at the chance to set them up, and I also made sure to provide any controller they could want. We got GameCube controller users, as well as Pro Controller and event just Wiimote!

Of course, Smash isn't the only thing being played. I came to find out that my one younger cousin hasn't actually played The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. He has seen his brothers play through bits and pieces on the GameCube years ago, but never actually sat down to play it himself. He is definitely a Zelda fan, and now he's quite eager to give the game a shot. Unfortunately, he decided on doing this at the end of our vacation. We're leaving to head back to our respective homes come Saturday morning.

Unless he were planning on starting now and playing all day/night, I don't think he'd have enough time to finish the game. This is especially true when considering this is his first time running the game himself. When I told him I didn't think there'd be enough time, he was pretty shocked. He had the impression that Wind Waker would only be about 7 hours or so. He also thought most games were about that length.

It's funny to see how times change. Back in the day, we had a ton of games that could be beaten in a couple hours, if not less than that. Then as time went on, gameplay averages picked up. This is definitely true for the RPG genre, which helps to tack on the hours. Nowadays we think games that are 7-8 hours are short, but that's only for the older gamers. Younger kids are used to that time being the average length of games. Of course, then you have games that can jam-pack content that'll push you over the 60 hour mark!

With such a wide range of times, what feels right for you? Do you like more compact experiences overall, or do you like losing yourself in games that can take months to wrap up?