Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Aug. 3-9 of the year OD 2008

Today, as I do this RotW, I am sad. Very sad. No one apparently jumped on my Atari 2600 bandwagon and contributed any reviews for that system. And if someone did, I would have AUTOMATICALLY given them the win. Even if it was like 50 words where none of them formed legitimate sentences. "Fun maze time good!!!! GO PAC-MAN GO!!!! Atari 2600 not Pac-Man I like!!!! DIE PAC-MAN DIE!!!! Ghosts eat yellow gobble machine!!!!" And I'd be like, "Damn, that's the most original Pac-Man review ever. You win, dude!"

Anyhow, usual stuff applies. No staff reviews. Only one from any of you who submitted. On with the show. I got to pick a tourney review for myself and then get back to figuring out what I'm missing in Icarus L8 (Doom megawad).

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Review of the Week: Contra: Shattered Soldier (PS2) by pickhut

Man, this was one fun roller-coaster of a review to read. You start out indicating you didn't have high expectations for this one due to a crappy PS Contra game. And then you blow that out of the water with some great descriptions of a huge confrontation with a multi-form submarine boss. You do a great job of explaining that while the game's insanely difficult, after you learn how to get through obstacles, they're not so tough anymore. And then, you break the news this game ain't perfect by going into detail with how you have to replay the first four stages any time you die on a later one, making this game potentially tedious as you do the same four stages over and over, only to die on the fifth and have to do it again. You did good with this one. Very good.

First Runner Up: Worms Armageddon (PC) by wolfqueen001

One of your biggest strengths, which I alluded to in my really late critique of Fire-n-Ice, is on display here. You have a knack for writing really good personal anecdotes pertaining to your playing of a game. And that eighth paragraph, where you spin a tale about surviving a seemingly lost battle due to a fortunate item acquisition, is a great example of that. Things like that are great for showing your enthusiasm for a game and really add to a review. Only real complaint I had was that your review does seem to assume the reader has a certain amount of familiarity with Worms, which I really don't. Might have been nice to sneak in just a sentence or two giving a bit of detail on if it's turn-based strategy, real-time strategy, strategy with an action-oriented gameplay style or something else.

Second Runner Up: Star Wars: Shadows of the EmPire (N64) by Felix_Arabia

Overall, in some ways I might have liked this better than WQ's, but the first two paragraphs just threw me for a loop. You start out blasting the game's control, but then neuter that criticism with the last couple of sentences of the second paragraph to the point where, to me, it essentially read like, "The control in this game sucks and leads to horribly cheap deaths....unless you switch to first-person, in which case it's not that bad." After that bit got out of the way, though, this was a very good review I really enjoyed reading. You did a very nice job of showing both the positives and negative aspects of this one with the usual easy-to-read, entertaining writing I expect when I see your name.

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Enough of this foolish praise of non-Overdrives. It's off to find my glory!

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

good luck, your readers have never been able to.

uh, I mean, congrats to the runners-up! but fuck the winner.

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Oh no, it's a Goomba!

I look forward to seeing your meaty meat take a dive into my dark pit of doom!

Um... I mean, thanks for the RotW, OD. For the millionth time, I'll say I'm surprised I got it considering the competition this week. Congrats to wolfqueen and felix for their runner up wins.

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I head spaceshit noises

oh yeah, let me know what's up in that map if you beat it. I thought it was real stupid and just skipped it.

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Oh no, it's a Goomba!

Getting ready to get back into it now. You start with the mancubi and then the cacos when you push the switch in the courtyard. Then you go to the yellow key room where you get teleported all over the place. I'm at a dead end, but have a switch that opens a door or operates a lift for five seconds or whatnot. I just have to figure out where what it operates is, as the map isn't helping me.

The yellow key room is very nicely done. It's in a little box in the middle, but off the ground. You enter the box, you get teleported. Hitting switches opens sides of the box and you get teleported somewhere else depending on what side you enter the box. Now if I can just solve the fucker....

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

yeah, I got to the yellow key part (and found a teleporter to some other room with a divider between you and the half with a switch in it) and called it quits about there. generally, complicated Doom puzzles do nothing for me.

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Oh no, it's a Goomba!

I finished that part of the level. To call it complicated would be an understatement. I'd have liked it if not for all the speed-running to get to places quickly before doors close, as playing with a keyboard like I do makes that sort of thing tougher than it needs to be. Have other things to do tonight, so I haven't finished the level, but I hope the rest is less "puzzley".

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

playing Doom with just the keyboard is like playing Guilty Gear with PS2's analog stick. it just ain't the same, man. you'll be a UV/NM pro like me if you make the change, I highly recommend it.

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Oh no, it's a Goomba!

Thanks, OD. Honestly, I wasn't really sure how to explain any vagueness away, so I just sort hoped that contextual clues in my writing would be enough. There's really not a whole lot to explain about the game, anyway, at least in that regard, and that's partly what made reviewing it a bit difficult. But I guess you're right in saying I could've spared some time to explain how the turns worked at least, but I think I had difficulty figuring out where to put something like that without interrupting flow. If I remembered to try and put anything like that in it at all. Haha. I think I forgot to enlighten unfamiliars with the game more than I usually do...

Congrats to the rest, in any case. And wow, I can't believe I beat Felix again.

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What espiga does in his free time
[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will