Forums > Contributor Zone > ROTW: July 8-14

I’ll be brief, this week. No, really. That was the introduction.

3rd place: Minecraft

Fiddlesticks is either a newcomer to the site, bluberry writing under another pseudonym, or someone who has been here for a long time and I’m just getting around to noticing… I haven’t actually gone and checked to see which it is. Regardless, I enjoyed all three of his (her?) most recent reviews, but only one was viable for the ROTW lineup this week. I gave this review the third spot because it does an excellent job at taking a game that I find overwhelming and entirely not fun to play and makes it understandable and even enjoyable-sounding. Will I go out and buy Minecraft off the merits of this review? No, I know my destiny lies elsewhere. But the review did make me question that destiny.

2nd place: Binary Land

Hey, I like this review. It’s an unpretentious little review but it’s got sex. Dagoss found a good way to frame this review which I much appreciated: it’s writing like this which makes it viable for Honest Gamers to keep reviewing retro titles.

That said: what is with this game? Binary Land? That sounds like an educational game, like Munchers for computer programmers.

I’m curious about how this would work with two-player support. It sounds like the entire mechanic of the game is based around the puzzle aspect of controlling two penguins at once. Maybe I’m just not getting it, but it seems if two people could play at the same time, getting the penguins to meet in the middle would be an incredibly simple task.

… unless the point is that the concept of having two penguins in a pac-man maze with spiders is stupid in the first place.

1st place: Dead Rising 2

The winner this week is Pickhut, who clobbered my expectations with a great review of a game that has been a bit of a mystery to me for a long time, now. Why didn’t Dead Rising 2, the sequel to the phenomenally popular Dead Rising 1, get much fan attention? It came out, I saw a couple disparate scores tossed around and then… nothing. I honestly saw more reviews for Dead Island than I did for this. Why was that?

Pickhut doesn’t quite answer that question, but he gives me some things to consider. Dead Rising 2 didn’t really change the game up much over its predecessor. It was an enjoyable game but added nothing new to be discussed. It fixed up the little mistakes of its predecessor and moved on, head held high in the knowledge that it was a superior, if similar, being. Kind of like the jocks at a middle school who compete to see who brings the most trendy jacket to school.

All in all, that I’m able to spout these assumptions about a game series in which I haven’t played either game shows that Pickhut’s review really captures what Dead Rising 2 is all about in enough detail that I feel like an expert on the subject.

I like things that make me feel like an expert. Gold star.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

It was certainly a week full of quality reviews, so color me surprised to see me get RotW! I appreciate the pick, Zipp, and thanks for your comments on the review. Glad that you came away with a better picture of the game. Congrats, too, goes to Fiddlesticks and Dagoss on their spots, and again, an overall solid week of reviews.

I head spaceshit noises.

Hey, I like this review.

Hey, thanks. I liked your ROTW.

I think Binary Land would need to be altered a little for 2-players. If I could edit the game, I'd add doors that need to be opened on one side of the maze by pressing a button on the other. I'd also remove the timer and vary the enemies a bit. I felt like the game was too actiony when it should have been more puzzley.

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Pickhut's review still isn't featured...

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

It is now!

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2