Forums > Contributor Zone > ROTW: OCT 27 - NOV 2

I could toss out a bunch of excuses explaining why this ROTW is late. Most of them either involve being sick or having several review assignments to fill for HG and RoG. Having finally caught up on my assignments and slain a variety of nasty bugs, I've finally gotten this ROTW together. And it goes a little something like this:


THIRD PLACE
Override - Turbografx-16 - overdrive
Writing an effective 5/10 review is tricky. You wisely spared your readers the torture of padding out your review with grotesque details of "meh-ness" and instead said, "Look, you've all seen this junk before. Here's what this game does right." It worked to your advantage here, leading to a snappy shmup review. Still, it's not the best review of the trio, mostly because there wasn't much interesting material to talk about--though you made do with what little interesting material the game boasted in a rather creative way.


SECOND PLACE
Ghost House - Sega Master System - pickhut
There are a couple of small errors near the beginning of the review, but this is an otherwise great and entertaining read. I loved your bit on how the game felt like a "haunted house suffering a nervous breakdown" or something like that. Best of all were your descriptions of the various enemies, environs, and encounters with the Draculas. Although this game sounds like total garbage, I'm actually kind of game to play it after reading this review, if only to have a title to talk about next October (spoiler: it turns out I'm not going to nursing school, so there will mostly likely be a 2014 run of October reviews).


REVIEW OF THE WEEK
Vampire Rain - Xbox 360 - EmP
Damn it, EmP. I'm tired of handing you the crown. It's difficult not to when you write reviews that don't follow much of a formula or pattern, that raise great points without going into horribly drawn out details, and that are more or less divergent opinions. Although you've made Vampire Rain sound better than the vast majority of hyperbole-laden professional reviews had in the past, I'm still not completely sold it on it. It's not because your review didn't do its job properly. Rather, it described the game well enough and interestingly enough that I know to avoid the shit out of it. Thanks for that!

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I'm hoping to get more ROTW schedules up. If you're game to take a week--and actually do it--then let me know or post in the upcoming topic.

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

Thanks to you, dear Joe. I wrote two that week, and Vampire Rain was off the cuff while the other was meretriciously planned. As such, I'm glad you preferred this review to the other. To hell with planning!

Thank you for jumping on this one, and congrats to my worthy rivals for their attempts to dethrone me. Try harder, losers! Until we meet again!

EDIT: Pick, if you read this, how are you finding Nihulumbra?

For us. For them. For you.

I found Nihilumbra to be sort of pleasantly dull. It was okay. I just think the narrator was sniffing the paint fumes from my brush a bit too deeply.

Mobius 1, engage...

Thanks for the mention, thanks for the comments, and congrats to EmP on his RotW for Vampire Rain. As a fellow Vampire Rain player, I really feel he nails why the game both does and doesn't work. Good job to Overdrive, as well. He did well in describing a shoot'em up that sounds like the rest, but in a neat and interesting angle.

Anyway, I quite enjoyed Nihulumbra for what it is. The use of the colors were interesting, and the puzzle solving was entertaining in the traditional sense. I didn't mind the voice, but as demonstrated with holdthephone's colorful commentary, it's not for everyone. xD

I head spaceshit noises.

Thanks for the placement! And congrats to the two infidels who outperformed me!

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