Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW // 9th March – 15th April // The Slow Week Joe Wishes He Got

Sorry again about your awful week, Joseph!

I don’t think there’s much filler I can produce for this. There’s four reviews in total, two of which are from Masters, making three reviews to list. Which is handy; that’s the exact amount of positions I need to fill. Onwards!


THIRD Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm [SCD] Follow_Freeman

Freeman has this happy knack of finding really worthwhile semi-obscure retro games to review and then making them sounds like something I should already know about. This is another great pick; the Sega CD houses some fine games that will forever go unrecognised thanks to the failing of its hardware (moreso that the 32X, but that’s my cross to bear)

It’s well researched and even cited at points (show-off). It’s biggest strength is how you apply your genre knowledge to appeal to existing fans, but do so broadly enough that even the unfamiliar can understand your points. There’s a few things that bring the review down, though. For one, you mention Gradius as a peer which is a game that you can probably see of quite comfortably in 15-20 minutes, but complain Bari’s runtime is only double that. I’m personally okay with well-made shorter shooters and it encourages multiple replays while you try and better your scores, but perhaps that’s just me. A bigger offender is the occasional sentence that gets away from you. Such as:

Gibberish line is gibberish: The plot is that space bad guys bad you mecha kill them happy ending with anime spouse -- I mean, I guess it's purposefully engrish, but, still...

Good review and, as usual, very good game choice. You’re killing that apart of it weekly.

SECOND Night in the Woods [PC] by Brian

Brian scores his first set of points with a good in depth review that’s occasionally prone to a bit of hyperbole. The claim that this game might be the Earthbound of its generation is a bit grandiose.

Still, its job was to impress upon me that Night in the Woods is a bit of an underappreciated gem, and it’s certainly done that. To begin with, I though the comparison to Catcher in the Rye was shoehorn in a clever bit of wordplay, but it does fit when given context. It was a solid review concerning a game that you obviously feel some connection to and, as such, was well championed.

WIN Guns, Gore and Cannoli 2 [PC] by Masters

While the rest of the site takes a siesta (or waits for copy-editing), Marc makes a spirited attempt to take over the front page. At the time of typing this up, he takes three of the four spaces on the front page; it might be time to retire the EmPGamers alternative site name and substitute it with MasterGamers. Bit Third Reich-y, though.

I liked his Doug and Lily review for being exactly what it needed to be; a short run down of a short, simple game, comparing it to the source that inspired it and displaying his knowledge of the genre. In doing this, it makes his voice more authoritative and trustworthy.

Likewise with GGC2; your make scattered comparisons with Contra, displaying both pros and cons that show you know what you’re talking about, and you resist the urge to go with Metal Slug instead, therefore saving a little of Jerec’s sanity. The review’s built around this and, while it’s short, says everything it needs to say to sell us on the game while still warning us about its pitfalls. All the reviews this week were worded well enough to make their authors sound authoritative on their subjects, but that Marc does so in so few words and still finds room to comment on important touches such as how unimportant it is to have experienced the previous game put him on top of the pile this week.

For us. For them. For you.

Thanks for doing this so quickly Emp. I'm trying to work through my backlog and it just so happens I'm doing that while not a whole lot else is going on at the site in terms of contributions. Congrats to Brian who I don't know that I've seen before, and to Freeman of course who continues to cover and pay tribute to obscure gems.

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