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Can games’ stories get out of the way already and let us play?
Masahiro Sakurai knows what he likes. The creator of Super Smash Bros. and the recent Kid Icarus: Uprising has an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink sort of style, packing his games with mechanics, extras, options, and more. So it’s interesting that an element many games revolve around–narrative–doesn’t fit into his philosophy. At least, it doesn’t if it gets in the way of his experiencing the actual game. In a column penned for Famitsu, he writes, “I just want the game to let me play it already.” Amen, brother. But the question remainds: Why are these narrative road-blocks so common today, if they merely impede…