Forums > Contributor Zone > The JANUS Cup

EmP may have picked the name JANUS CUP because Janus was the one who wanted to do a Europe vs The World type event, but the name feels right – Janus being the god of transitions and beginnings – sort of looking forward and back. After reading all six reviews, I don’t even really feel like judging them. Every single review is written by someone who has been doing this for 10-15 years. They’ve all mastered this craft of writing video game reviews, and if I were to do my usual comment plus score, they’d all be in the 90’s with one being better than another down to arbitrary reasons or random synapse firing.

I’ve seen all our trends and phases come and go. We’ve moved on from gimmicks, we’ve moved on from describing a scene from the game to show off our own prose, we’ve moved on from using words like prose to describe our pieces. And I haven’t seen anyone call a review a ‘piece’ in a while, so that’s progress. Once we’ve stripped away all the fancy showcase writing, we’re back to writing confident, competent reviews that expertly build a positive or negative (or a mix of both) argument of a game to potential buyers.

All six reviews in this tournament are normal reviews – and I say normal in the best way possible. Each writer has an understanding of what makes a game good or bad, knowledge of the gaming industry that they can draw upon to compare a game to others, the ability to judge graphics on more than just resolution – actually getting into the use of colour and style.

No one submitted any overblown piece that tries to say something about the human condition or whatever. I am so thankful for that.

I feel like we’ve reached a point where we are so comfortable with our reviewing that we don’t really need to compete. We’ve outgrown our tournaments. I’d have a hard time saying one of these reviews is objectively better than another. Everything nice I can say about these reviews, I can say about all of them.

The original plan was that the top 3 from each team go against each other. Only 3 from each team showed up, with Suskie stepping in to relieve Wolfqueen at the last moment.

And since I’m the only judge, I’m not really sure how this is going to work. My usual approach is not going to cut it.


Dragon Age: Inquisition (PC) by Suskie

I actually went out and bought this game today since I just got a shiny new PS4. As always, Suskie knows a lot about the game he’s reviewing, the genre it belongs in, and the audience he’s writing it for. In this case, it’s people who enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins, were left disappointed by Dragon Age II, and have lost some faith in BioWare after the Mass Effect 3 ending fiasco. In other words: me. And I’m sure I’m not alone. This is exactly the sort of review I needed to read before buying Inquisition, and I’m glad I could find that review on this site by a writer whose opinions have nearly always aligned with mine. I don’t think there’s any higher praise I can give Suskie than if there’s a game I want, I check to see if Suskie has reviewed it.

For the America team, Suskie reviews a recent, big release. This is something that HonestGamers needs.

Hercules no Eikou III: Kamigami no Chinmoku (SNES) by Overdrive

Overdrive reviews what looks like a Japanese import SNES RPG that none of us are ever likely to play, and nor should we. Like Suskie, Overdrive understands the genre, providing numerous examples of what other RPGs were doing at the time. And I really identified with Overdrive’s plight: finishing a game out of a sense of duty or habit. It seems to happen to us gamers when we get older – especially reviewers. We see ourselves as an authority to a certain system or niche, and we feel we need to document as much of it as possible.

For the America team, Overdrive reviews an obscure retro game. This is something that makes HonestGamers the site it is.

Elliot Quest (PC) by Venter

One of the things that makes a Venter unique is the insight we get into his personality as a gamer. We’ve seen him review all sorts of games since this site’s inception – just about every console, every genre, and after all these reviews, we still learn a little more. Sure, it can leave him open to being mocked occasionally – but that’s only because he’s so honest. This time, we learn that Venter doesn’t like hand holding in games, and this is a very valid stance especially with current games. Venter’s review highlights the type of indie game Elliot Quest is, the games that influenced it, and what makes it fun, and the things that let it down.

For the America team, Venter reviews a current indie title that might otherwise get overlooked. This site has sometimes skipped reviews on the games that everyone is reviewing, to look at the stuff that might otherwise slip by unnoticed. This is something that justifies HonestGamers continued existence.



Sonic CD (Xbox 360) by Janus

I think we’ve all got a story of a game we always wanted to play but never got a chance to until digital remakes and ports of older games became a thing. This review really grasps that feeling when awe turns to disappointment. I wonder if Janus would’ve liked this game if he’d played it when it was new. The flaws are summed up really well – this review has one of the best objective reasoning for why graphics are bad, as it’s all in the colour use and design. And I love that even though Janus says this game is bad, he admires the fact that this port was created.

For the European Team, Janus looks at a recent port of an old game and offers a story of changing perspectives. This is yet another review that makes HonestGamers a great site – nostalgia is tempered by objectivity and honesty.

Psychonauts (PC) by EmP

I’ve played a little bit of this game, but I got frustrated at some of the things that EmP describes. And this review makes me want to get back in there and give it another go. This review manages to take the flaws of this underrated game and then turn around with a good reason of why it’s worth persevering and letting yourself enjoy it. This review is full of examples of bizarre creativity and it’s impossible to come away disinterested.

For the European Team, EmP rallies us readers into supporting a game that clearly deserved more attention than it got, but also preparing us for its flaws.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Vita) by Ben

Ben takes a sequel to a fairly niche Vita game, and by giving us a quick rundown of the first game, manages to set the context to make this instalment sound very intriguing. Ben focuses on the characters and the way this game can mess with your emotions. You know, I’ve seen this game from time to time and I’ve never really given it much of a look because it just seems like something outside of my usual tastes, but now I’m not so sure. And while I probably wouldn’t go out and buy this game based on this review, I might be convinced to look into the first game.

For the European team, Ben brings us a review of a strange title that we might otherwise dismiss. I think that’s an important thing to bring to the table.



See. How can I give out scores? I feel like picking apart grammar is futile. There might be some oddly constructed sentences in the reviews I’ve read, but nothing really stands out as a distraction. I didn’t get bored reading any of these, so the old “PC clock” test doesn’t really work anymore. Yeah, there was a time when some reviewers felt the need to spend 2000, 3000 words on a review, and some of those could be difficult to get through. But everyone here has a writing style that flows. I could just throw around some scores between 90 and 100 but I don’t know by what criteria I could use to work that out.

So what I decided to do was take a step back and look at each team’s contribution as a whole. Personally, I feel like the American team came out ahead here, with a good variety of reviews. But all these reviews are essential to making this site what it is. I think all the contestants and any other spectators should look at these reviews and find a few things they like about the writing and use it to try and improve their own.

We’re past the need to compete – we should be working as a team. I know Review of the Week died out at the start of this year, and while I was a little sad about that, I can understand. There’s only so many times a group of writers can go up against each other, there’s only so much you can say about a review. Personally, I find myself wanting to talk more about the games than the reviews. I want to continue the discussion. I want to talk about Dragon Age as I play through it; I want to share my experiences in Psychonauts.

So, um, yeah. That’s it from me. I don’t expect I’ll be doing any more review judging, because there’s nothing left for me to say. I just want to keep reading.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

This more abstract judging has ruined my back-up plan of docking Team USA X amount of points for swapping a writer past deadline. You'll have to take that guilt to your grave.

I think you've hit a lot of nails in your commentary, and it has made me come away with more food for thought than I expected. I do miss the days on this site where you could almost expect a feedback topic on writing mechanics and what people thought you did right or wrong, but you're dead right on that it would make my day if I could just swap 'nauts story's with someone for a bit. Or if someone picked up the game they would drop in on the topic and talk about it a bit. Maybe the workshop aspect of the site isn't what I miss, but basic interaction is. I dunno.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Congrats to my across the pond chums, though I still urge you to exile OD to Canada.

For us. For them. For you.

Thanks Jerec, for the comments on my review and the interesting overall commentary. I definitely think this community (although it's a lot smaller) has reached the point where we don't need to show off or whatever. I know my dominant thought when writing a review these days is "am I overwriting this?" It should always be about the game, not the writer (and I think this is why Suskie's reviews are so consistently great).

"fuck yeah oblivion" - Jihad

Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts on the reviews that went into this tournament, Jerec! I especially liked and agreed with your second-to-last paragraph, about the community cooperation.

The thing I like most about the site right now is that sense of partnership, where we get together and we review games that interest us and that might interest others. I love it when discussion on HG Chatter prompts someone to play a game he had forgotten about--eventually leading to a new review that hundreds or thousands of strangers might find useful in coming years--and I like learning about titles that have us jaded gamers looking forward to the future or playing familiar games with a new perspective.

To an extent, that aspect has always been there, through the tournaments and the bickering and the feedback threads. Sometimes it has been easier to see than others, and sometimes--often--our community has been larger than it is now.

In 2015, I hope that spirit of cooperation and mutual interest in games will continue and perhaps grow while including more people. I hate seeing our group slowly dwindle, because I think it's still exciting to get together with folks who love games as much as we do, who can talk and sometimes disagree without it turning immediately into a bitter feud. As long as we can do that, there's always reason to return to HonestGamers, and to wish for it to grow enough that years of the same enjoyable discussion and activity are assured.

I appreciate all of you who throughout the years have made the site into the spectacular resource it is today, and I hope we all can enjoy it for a long time to come.

"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

Thanks for the kind words and, yeah, I know what you mean.

I picked the game up because it seemed neat if it avoided HoE2's big problem of breakable equipment and due to general time considerations, I want to mainly play games (esp. w/ROMs) that seem neat.

The longer I played it, the more annoying it got, but I wanted to see where the story went and I figured things had to pick up soon. By the time I was sick of it, I'd already put a certain amount of time into it and, therefore, I felt stuck for the duration.

Psrt of the "ROM thing" is the ability to play translation patches of games that never came to America and a lot of the ones I play, particularly RPGs, are translated ones. But after this and the debacle that is Burning Heroes, I might have to start doing a "who's who of RPGs I actually LIKED/LOVED" from that era. I just don't like having this "whoa, you're not getting any younger and you shouldn't feel like you're wasting your life by playing these games, so why do you?" vibe that a game like this gave me.

And, EmP, if I get sent to Canada, sure it'll be great for them, but I don't know if I can bear to watch my home country go completely down the shitter due to losing me.

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

Wow. Really neat write-up Jerec. I also tend to agree with you. I think this phenomenon you describe is why I found it difficult to judge the last tourney. Though I didn't say too much about it then, I will say now that it is hard to come up with something to say about the writing itself now that those who regularly write on the site have been doing so for such a long time. In a way, it makes the community more relaxed, even at the expense of the "excitement" these kinds of events used to stir up. Though I may miss that kind of fanfare from time to time, I think the way it has shifted now is ultimately better.

I don't feel guilty at all about not making this. :P Suskie's writing ability far exceeds my own. If I had shown up, perhaps his review would not have gotten the attention it did, or, at the very least, it may not have convinced you to get it (unless you read it regardless of your judge status). Either way, I am content to sit on the side lines. I still intend to finish the review I would have submitted for this, but I'm not going to feel pressured to get it out any sooner.

[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

Thanks for the tainted win, Jerec! Really interesting approach to judging, and one that makes me extra sad to see you back out the game when you're so good at it (which, nope, has nothing to do with the fact that you basically always give my reviews high marks). I hope you make good on your promise to at least keep reading! We love having you around, man.

You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

Bravo, Jerec. That's just about the realest thing I've read in awhile.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!