As a reviewer who typically plays several games in parallel, it always annoys me how each game in this modern age has its own "saving" indicator. Some have spinning symbols, some have flashing symbols, and some have little books that appear. Some have nothing at all. Usually the game will tell you in the beginning what to look for, and occasionally it's mentioned in the instructions. The problem with an icon is, it can be hard to tell if the game is really saving your progress, or just marking a checkpoint, or just loading!
I can't tell you how happy I get when I see a game actually display "Saving..." on the screen. It's refreshing and reassuring. Why all games can't do that I don't know. It's not hard.
Of course, the Wii is trying to start a new trend in which saves are transparent, happening behind the scenes. While it's an admirable goal, we're not there yet. I would much rather see "game saved" than nothing at all.
Of course, this gets back to that annoying prompt: "Are you sure you want to quit? All unsaved progress will be lost!" But that was my last rant...
Rant: Saving indicator
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