Forums > Contributor Zone > ROTW: September 6-12 edition for 2009

Here we go! One review per user can be used and no staff reviews can count. Now let's see who wins what!


THIRD PLACE: Mortal Kombat (Arcade) by spaceworlder

I think the thing that probably pushed this review a bit above ASchultz' and/or one of Felix's is the simply "cool nostalgia" factor this one brought me. That opening paragraph basically sums up in a nutshell why MK is so sweet. It might not be the best game with the best system, but it has the most "WHOA!?!?!? WTF!!!!! SWEET!!!!!" moments of any such game. In this review, you do a great job of simply letting those moments speak for themselves — from the fatalities to the secrets (real and imagined). This one brought me down memory lane (and in a good way, unlike Felix's Sneak-n-Peek.....which was a more nightmarish trip).

SECOND PLACE: Tales of Vesperia (XBox 360) by jerec

To get the negative out of the way first, I thought the part where you discussed the characters ran overly long. I have to admit that I did skim a bit of that to get to the rest of the review. To get more positive, as a person who has played a couple of the Tales of... games (SNES Phantasia translation, PS1 Destiny, PS2 Legendia), I feel you did nail this review on a number of levels. I've always thought the defining strength of this series is that the characters tend to be more memorably written than in most games (due in part to little things like those skits and post-battle scenes, which seem to have been greatly enhanced from those in Legendia) and regardless of how one feels about the battles (I always have gotten worn down by the sheer number of them), they at least are fast-paced. You pretty much tackled everything I'd want to see in a review of this game and, with the exception of what I feel to be a bloated list of characters, did so very well.

OVERDRIVE PLACE: System Shock 2 (PC) by darketernal

While System Shock 2, being a PC game, isn't one I'm overly familiar with, your theme of "This game is considered godly, but I'm not so sure...." is a fairly regular one that I am familiar with. So, I was looking at your review kinda critically to see how well you made your point and you get like 15 gold medals or something (payable by EmP). I'm reading this review and thinking...."It sounds cool and everything, but it's just you on an abandoned (except for beasties) ship with all your human correspondence coming from files you find? Man.....that eliminates a sort of big component of this sort of game...." And guess what? You specifically bring up that point to good effect. As well as a number of others, such as how you can really eliminate a great deal of the difference between classes by training and how your character is a personality-free silent guy. You also do a great job of mentioning how the game is really cool, but easily spend enough attention on its shortcomings to prove your point. Actually, if anything, I think you could put a bit more attention on "fantastic experience in gaming history written in a futuristic world where you have to fight teeth and nails to survive the infestation of the parasitic alien" part of things, as if I find any real flaw with this review it's that it focuses on the character classes and the flaws while assuming the reader already knows how great this game is perceived to be.


I'd also have to give kudos to just about everyone who made picking these three reviews so damn tough. Felix put some clever lines in both of his Atari reviews, ensuring I was well entertained by both of them, while Schultz did an admirable job reviewing a game that has to be considered a very tricky one to write about, being that it's a text adventure that's extremely dialogue-heavy. I'd put this week down as one where I didn't necessarily find any of the reviews to be exceptional, but there were a lot of them that I thought were very good. And that makes me happy. So does beer. I'm off to get happier, now!

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

ODDY, my crazed chum, might you have used an earlier RotW template and left the old linkage in foe the winner? Otherwise, that's a tad confusing.

For us. For them. For you.

I..uh...errr.....have no idea what you are talking about. Yeah, that's it. No clue whatsoever! No rapid editing of any mistakes on my part or anything like that.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

There were heaps of reviews this week, so reaching second place (rusty as I am) makes me happy. I do agree that the character stuff might have gone on a little long, but looking back on the 50 hours I spent on that game, they were pretty much all I wanted to talk about. Looking through it again there isn't anything I'd want to cut.

Thank you, Overdrive!

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Congrats to the winners. Good to see Jerec back. ROTW next time maybe--and here's to next time being not too far away.

This seems like the right order, too. More ambitious reviews do tend to take the day and I think DarkEternal did really well with that, and retro reviews about relatively simpler games (like I had) should take a back seat unless they're something really special. Especially since I got tangled up in some explanations, at least in my first draft.

That said, I hope to dig into my collection of Apple RPGs to re-write GameFAQs reviews on. The more good reviews here I read, the more ammo I get.

My principal said, 'Emo, Emo, Emo.'
I said 'I'm the one in the middle, you lousy drunk!'
-- Emo Phillips

Oh, and thanks to you, too, Mr. Schultz. Your critique really helped me make this one tighter (I did end up moving the story/character stuff to the start of the review). It was like that in my initial plans, too. Just when I started writing, the battle stuff came easier so I ended up putting that at the start and going from there.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Thanks for the feedback, glad you lot liked it.

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Hey, I'm going to let you finish, but JEREC HAD ONE OF THE BEST REVIEWS OF ALL TIME. ONE OF THE BEST REVIEWS OF ALL TIME!

All joking aside, thanks Overdrive, and congrats to Jerec and Darketernal.

JOSEPH VALENCIA was able to build this sig IN A CAVE…… WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!

Good thing Darketernal already gave his acceptance speech or he'd be too stunned to go on now.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Jackass.

"fuck yeah oblivion" - Jihad