Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week - December 4-10 - I was told there'd be a holdover from Overdrive.

I almost thought I was getting out of it this week. One review by Pickhut sat alone for a few days, and was then followed by another Pickhut review. Then a review from Phazonmasher showed up, which still wouldn't have given me much to work with for a ranking. EmP and Masters got in on the 10th, giving me 4 unique contestants. So there'll be one honourable mention, and three placings. The site is settling down as we get into the holiday season. This is good for me, but probably not so good for Jason.



Zachary's Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is a follow up to a previous Tokyo Xanadu review I read some weeks back in one of these RotW topics. I remember being quite interested in the game then, on Vita. I still am interested in this, and this seems like the better version. The comparisons to Persona intrigue me (as I've been enjoying this series for a while now). There's also a lot of comparisons to Ys VIII. While I did find this review informative, it definitely does benefit from me having read your other reviews, and yeah, it does make me want to check out the game at some point (although Ys VIII is higher up my list). I do feel like the review didn't really stand on its own as well as Pickhut's River City reviews, which also rely on knowledge of the series, which Pick does supply. All five reviews this week were top quality.


THIRD PLACE
River City: Rival Showdown by Pickhut

Pickhut's Rival Showdown review felt like the better of the two, but this may be more to do with the game being better. I don't know much about this series, so I initially felt a little like an outsider with the comparisons to the game this is a remake to, but you do describe the game well so I come away with an idea of what this game is about, and how it stacks up against other RCR titles. I liked the way you went through the various features of the game, the good and the bad, often going back and forth. In terms of the writing, the casual, conversational tone worked for me.


SECOND PLACE
Hollow by EmP

You do this thing where you make just about every game sound interesting. This review starts off great. The writing hooked me in, even making me forget I'm reading yet another indie horror game review (This genre is possibly 2017's Metal Slug). You set up the atmosphere and setting of the game, make it sound so interesting - and even with the flaws, it does still sound interesting. I saw the comment from Masters that how you thought you were on autopilot writing this thing, and like him, I didn't get that sense at all. The only moment this review stumbled for me was near the end talking about the puzzles, but by then it was too late to break the momentum of this well crafted review. You make this look easy.


FIRST PLACE
Sky Force Reloaded by Masters

I'm not a shmup guy. I have always found them to be interesting games, but I've never really been up for the challenge. I don't think this game will be the one to hook me in, because of the grinding aspect. I thought this was a really balanced look at a game that would be all to easy to just dismiss based on its mobile platform origins. There's a formula to mobile games that is annoying and addictive, and I see that it's here as well. I get an idea of where this game sits in the genre. You say it's accessible, but you also make the reader fully aware of what they'd be getting themselves into. I'm not sure if the Steam version actually has the microtransactions that the iOS version surely would, but if it didn't, and you weren't willing to pay the extra, I can see where this would be a game with potential that is held back by greed on the part of the developers. Anyway, this review wins because EmP used "then" instead of "than", and I feel like this is the only way he'll learn. This clearly was the best written review of the week.



Less reviews this week, but putting these in order turned out to be a tough job, because you're all so freaking talented and you all have a huge catalog of reviews to your names. I don't know what the future is for RotW, but it looks like I might have the honour of closing out the year (and possibly the last of these for a while). I'll be sad to see it go, but I won't be sad to give it up.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty funny how a bunch of reviews got tossed onto the site on the last two days of your week.

Thanks for the mention, too! Glad to know you were still able to read along just fine, despite knowing very little/none about the series. Personally, I'm finding it increasingly hard to write these River City reviews without making constant comparisons, because every product has that "samey" feel to them. It's getting to Gradius-levels of reviewing where I might have to stop talking about the series.

Good job to EmP on getting second place mention, and congrats to Masters on snagging ANOTHER RotW. On a roll here.

I head spaceshit noises.

Thanks for this Jerec. You seem rejuvenated for this week's installment, after last week's curmudgeonly outing. ^_^ I definitely get it though -- I couldn't even get through the most recent tourney as judge, and that was a one-off. Incidentally, I left you some feedback in that topic even after I was ousted from the judging position.

Pick, it sounds like you're having series burnout... better quit, at least temporarily, before you start hating your own reviews. At least, that's what happened to me, but I forget which series it was that took my soul. In related news, I did TEN R-Type reviews in all. TEN! That's way too much talk about Force Devices.

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

Yeah, with three River City reviews earlier this year and the two now, I've had my fix of RC games for now. Kinda. There's actually one more yet to be published. But after that one!

This is why it's never a good idea to review marathon a series, since you're easily exhausted way before you're done. If someone here plans to do one, then I suggest plan ahead: do one review, save it (have backups saved elsewhere in case your computer dies), do reviews of different games, then come back and do another, etc.

Edit: or just simply do the above without holding onto the reviews. Do them piece by piece through the span of months/year.

I head spaceshit noises.

Well, to be precise, I said I had no holdovers, but was expecting at least one new review, as I had one in the queue and a couple I'm working on. But, the one in the queue didn't get taken care of until early this week and I'm working on finishing up one of the two I'm working on, so things didn't go quite according to plan.

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

Yeah, I knew holdover was the wrong word as soon as I hit post, but unfortunately, I can't edit the topic titles.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

I could but I won't.

Thanks for this topic, Jerec and apologies for the late reply I was trying to decide how much dangerous ground posting (This genre is possibly 2017's Metal Slug) was.

I think you might be right about horror stuff though; I've written about it a lot this year with Joe probably covering even more than I throughout. I think it's why i struggled writing up Hollow; I just felt I was saying a lot of things I'd already said elsewhere. It felt like a bit of a grind and I think it showed. I'm happy to be told otherwise.

Thanks for this topic and thank you for stepping in and helping out on the rota. I'll be putting a topic about the state of the RotW and what future it might have when I can summon up the energy to write more words. But I'm very grateful you've helped us finish up the year so strongly.

Congrats to serial winner Marc whose gloating I need endure for another week now. Great job to Pick and Zach who wrote reviews I enjoyed.

For us. For them. For you.