Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW - July 7-13, 2013

With heavy heart I do this RotW. Heavy heart because I have two reviews for this week and now they're not eligible. WWWWHHHHHYYYYYYYY?????? Anyone, on to you guys.


THIRD: Code Name: Viper (NES) by LBD_Nytetrayn

Tough to come up with third place, so due to my personal tie-breaking formula of "if I have a tough decision, award the guy who reviewed the game I was most interested in reading about" got put into play! In other words, be happy you reviewed a Rolling Thunder clone instead of a puzzle game. This is simply a really good illustration of a well-done by-the-books review. You do a good job showing how this game added to the RT Way with new control elements (shooting in air) and new game stuff (finding hostages). It's hard to put this into words, but there just are little touches that are nice in this review, like the mention of skeletons (dead hostages) in a NES game and the mention of those little cutscenes between levels. I guess what I'm saying is that you mentioned a ton of things in the game, but in a condensed-enough form that it all processed smoothly in my brain without running on too long.

SECOND: Exed Exes (NES) by EmP

Last time I did RotW, you got second place for reviewing a shitty NES shooter. We must now be in a Groundhog Day loop, so if you want, I can DEFINITELY give you a list of games to have ready for future RotWs, as I know shitty NES shooters like you wouldn't believe! I think my favorite part of this review was simply the one part where you praised this game for making an arcade port that wasn't as unfairly and cruelly difficult as one would expect from a quarter-muncher. That the sort of little detail that's really neat and educational to read about in a review. The game-bashing itself was good fun too, though. Especially since the pics were used expertly to back that up. A lot of weeks, this would have won, but instead, first place goes to...

CHAMPION: Final Fantasy III (SNES) by holdthephone

Really good stuff here, even if I don't completely agree with your assessment of the Ruin World. Still, you made a strong argument and used really strong writing throughout which drew me in. The finale to the review was just awesome in my eyes comparing it to the cast taking a last bow after a great performance. As a funny side-note, I think at least one of the pics here is from a different (GBA) version, as I don't recall Kefka (or anyone) having portraits pop up while they're talking. If that's the closest thing to a weak point I can find in a review, that says you might have done good with the whole writing part of things!


Good stuff this week. I hesitate to say this, but I actually might not have won if someone else was doing the judging. Hard to imagine, I know, but it could have happened like that.

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

I can't be stopped!

Mobius 1, engage...

I don't believe there is such a thing as a good NES shooter. Even Lifeforce is hugely overrated. I will admit to enjoying pulling them apart, though. It's been an interesting experiment.

Props to phone on his FF Odyssey. It's going to get a lot crueller once X is down!

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