Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Aug. 6-12 -- Only five reviews, but I liked them all. Not as much as mine, but you know...

Another week where I have five reviews to judge. And one that is mine, that I'm not allowed to judge, meaning it goes to Jason next week. I also have a lot of work I need to get done this week and two reviews I need to write before I forget what I want to say. So I shall be brief.

To briefly touch upon the non-placers, as this was the sort of week where I feel kind of bad about not having enough placements for everyone, since all five reviews were pretty kick-ass:

MidCore did what MidCore does -- reviewing a really old arcade game and giving a great history lesson about it, how it was influenced and what happens in it. While the review might be more technical and less "exciting" than the others, it's the sort of thing that's great to have on a site like this. A more "educational" sort of review than the typical "Kemco-this" or "cheap-Steam-that" that we're all so good at working on a regular basis. As always from you, it was a good (if dense) read where I feel I legitimately learned something about the days of gaming's origins that I wasn't aware of previously.

Mariner got a modern throwback title and used it as a love letter to those days, doing a very good job of stating how those short games not necessarily possessing tons of replay value still have a valuable place in gaming. They might be short, but they're fun to play, easy to get into and it's nice to simply lose yourself in their worlds, searching around until you find what you need to go somewhere else. A nice "nostalgia" review for me, as it brought back memories of any number of NES-era titles that I played a lot of back in the late 80s and early 90s.

THIRD PLACE

JoeTheDestroyer's Avencast: Rise of the Mage (PC)

A fun little review of a game that lured you into expecting a generic "Diablo meets Harry Potter" deal in the early going, but then exceeded your expectations. In short, that's what I loved most about your review. You started out stating how it was fun, but generic with nothing that jumped out and really got your attention. And then found that the combat just got more and more intense, making fighting more strategic than you were expecting and you found out the game was more than you thought. While giving good descriptions of how stuff works.

---

SECOND PLACE

FollowFreeman's Pokemon Uranium (PC)

Man, I never even knew we did reviews of fan-made games here. Kinda cool we do, if it'll induce reviews like these. This was just a fun bash review where you let the game speak for itself, describing all the glitches and all the incidents where a super-powered opponent could just crush you at a stage where you wouldn't expect something like that and, damn, that one dungeon with the timer, slowed movement and one-hit kill bosses just sounds hilariously horrible. Add in the "I have something important to say but suck at doing so" heavy-handed themes and your review makes this one look like a comedic misstep by people who had ideas that sounded good in their heads, but weren't so good in practice.

---

REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Emp's Blackthorne (Sega 32seX)

A (near) love letter to the 32X. Or at least to one game that was on the system. What has happened to this world? This was a great review because you did a good job of setting the stage for Blackthorne's creation and then segueing into this game, telling what it did well, mentioning how the 32X was where it was at its best and then finishing with the sad story about how this little sub-genre of game by this company came to its end with no one involved doing anything like it again. Along with, of course, describing some neat aspects such as how you and enemies fight from cover, but they might come to you and kill you if you rely on the cover. Or with how you can be relatively nimble with your movements…or have your gun out to actually fight stuff. This is a real winner. Not as angry, depressed, resigned to your fate, etc. as your 32X reviews usually are, but more of a bittersweet vibe of describing a pretty sweet game that is almost wasted as a 32X title, designed and ported by companies who all went in different directions after this, never doing anything like this again.
---

And, for anyone counting, that's two in a row that I've done in a timely manner. Who'd have thunk it?!? Not me, for sure...

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

Nice job, Rob, and quick, as you say.

I read all the reviews and agree that they were all good. Blackthorne was particularly strong -- having the 'system's only killer app' angle to work probably helped, but Emp's also a decent writer I suppose.

I was also happy to see another review from Mariner -- those never disappoint.

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

Marc "Day 2 BUMP" Golding strikes again.

Good job, Rob, on getting your last few RotWs out so timely and with zero nags; you're on the verge of becoming a productive member of the community at last. Thank you for the placement, too. I sat back on reviewing Blackthorne for a long time because I knew it was a good game and hoped that some of you lot would be more willing to help with this dumb project, so wanted to leave the other good one for someone else to enjoy. Alas, I'll just have to play the good games myself.


Congrats to Freeman and Joe for picking up the rest of the podium and to Midcore for my appreciated history lesson. I was also pretty taken to Marinier's review; his best since his return, I thought.

For us. For them. For you.

Emp: As someone who does this thankless job himself, I would think you of all people would appreciate that no RotWer wants to do the hard work of getting the topic up in a timely fashion only for people to swoop in, read the feedback (or maybe just skim it with disdain and get right to the placements) and swoop out without a word. Ingrate!

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

I don't typically comment right away because I find it helps me to give myself some time before I do so. That way I'm less likely to say something awkward, abrasive or terrible.

Thank you, Rob, for having this one out swiftly. I'm glad you liked the review. Congrats to EmP and Freeman for their win and placement.

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

Thank you kindly! As for your interest in fangames, I've reviewed two good ones from Castlevania and Yume Nikki, and I have many more to go. I usually wouldn't review a bad one -- who wants to hear me gripe about some Newgrounds nonsense? -- but this one was very high-profile and made a lot of buzz. I'm kinda amazed that it got so much good press, but the team halted development due to AM2R getting shut down by Nintendo, so people probably thought they were fighting against "the man" by praising a very poorly designed game Nintendo didn't even bother. Oh, well, at least we learned some game design tips from PU.

A song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RqzFkV2K4g
Film reviews: https://letterboxd.com/Follow_Freeman/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVo7uK3vlYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aToOckImfM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVpJTLpPLD0

I don't typically comment right away because I find it helps me to give myself some time before I do so. That way I'm less likely to say something awkward, abrasive or terrible

Hmm... troll level 9000?

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

I now like the idea of Joe seething at every RotW topic. Even the weeks he wins. Even the weeks he's not in. Screaming at the screen that he deserves better, and stomping off to throttle his EmP slime plushie he had custom made for that very activity.

For us. For them. For you.

Is there a viable market for selling plushies/voodoo dolls for vengeful people to throttle? There may be worse ways to pioneer a new trade.

Joking aside, I think Joe suggests a great policy.

A song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RqzFkV2K4g
Film reviews: https://letterboxd.com/Follow_Freeman/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVo7uK3vlYw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aToOckImfM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVpJTLpPLD0