Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Sept. 3-9, 2018 -- Back to getting these out in a timely manner after last week's tardiness!

Looks like I have nine reviews by seven different people to whittle down to three winners this week. And it looks like there are no hold-overs, so I don't have to worry about last week's really tardy RotWer (EmP) yelling at me for forgetting about him again and again, which is a victory in itself!

With no further ado because I have no ados to give, here are my rambling, incoherent comments about either what you wrote or just whatever popped into my scattered brain while I was thinking about something to say about what you wrote.

Since everything was good this week (something I've said in some form or another every week I've done this for some time), to briefly touch on the non-placers.

Both MidCore and Sam1193 have really informative reviews that, depending on personal reading preference, may have put too much focus on setting the stage, as it takes multiple paragraphs in both reviews to actually get to the game being reviewed. MidCore sets up the history leading to the creation of Boot Hill, while Sam opens with a lengthy discussion of former Burnout games and then concludes with that series' eventual fate, as well as that of its design company. I enjoyed both reviews, but when I'm looking for nits to pick to rank the top three of a given week, "takes a long time to get going" is as good of one as any.

Follow Freeman had a strong review for Devil May Cry 4, which also took a little while for me to get into. In this case, it's mainly because I played the first DMC a long-ass time ago, but haven't touched the series since then, so to me, there was a touch of familiarity in the first couple paragraphs that had me a bit confused. After getting past those couple paragraphs, everything was really good, though, and I could definitely understand the complaint that you have two super-diverse characters, but not enough content to truly delve into all that they can do.

With Masters' two reviews, I had some trouble finding random nitpicks. Well, maybe not with Xargon, which had this "Here's information about this old game and, you know what, it's really blah and forgettable, so this is getting wrapped up quickly!" vibe, but Death's Gambit was a fun little review illustrating a certain disappointment with a game that had potential that was unfulfilled. I really liked your Street Fighter reference in describing the bosses as being simple encounters that are tough simply because you take so much damage for getting hit by their really basic attacks. One game I'm playing right now is Mega Man Anniversary Collection on my PS2 and I had that exact issue with the final alien hologram boss in MM2. Simple pattern and simple shot attacks, but if you get aggressive, you might collide with it and, therefore, lose 2/3 or so of your life in collision damage. And then I got annoyed and frustrated and it took me like 25 tries to beat the damn thing. And let me tell you, knowing that virtually everyone who's played that game describes that as a simple and easy MM boss DID NOT HELP with the frustration factor. For that matter, neither did the stabbing pains in my thumbs after shooting through the rest of Wily's Fortress. Anyway, that was a definite placement-worthy review any week; this was just a really tough week to get on the board.

THIRD PLACE

JoeTheDestroyer's Beyond Oasis (Genesis)

You reviewed two games for this week and here's a fun fact. I own both of them in some form (original Darksiders and not the remastered one you hit up AND I have Beyond Oasis on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection) but haven't even touched either in just one more example of how bloated my backlog has been for years. To add to the fun, your (first) review this week for DA Origins 2…another game I own, but haven't touched. If you spend the next 2-3 weeks reviewing Witcher 2, Record of Agarest War (and RoAW Zero) and Kingdom of Amalur, I'm gonna think you're spying on me and my gaming progress, since those games are in the same category of "own; haven't touched".

As for this review, it got moved in front of Darksiders (and, essentially, a couple of those non-placers) because of how I related to it. I always thought this game was a Zelda-clone, so that first paragraph was essentially my impression as well. From there, you describe it as a hybrid of Zelda and beat-em-up, but not as good as it could be because it's kind of linear and simple, marring the Zelda-ness and because you have limited number of enemies that get palette-swapped to make the beating-em-up a bit more tedious than it could be. This was an easy read that I enjoyed a lot.

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SECOND PLACE

mariner's Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Switch)

This was a really fun review to read. Your tagline questioned whether the game might have too much content and you made a very persuasive argument as to why it might, but is still a really fun and awesome game to play for at least a good while. You did a good job of explaining how this game plays as pure action, opposed to the slower pace of the action-adventures that Zelda is known for. And did a great job of explaining that it's a really fun game, but that 100-percenters would probably snap at some point due to just how many characters there are and how maximizing some of them can be really frustrating due to features such as how some Master Quest maps can be amazingly difficult to pull off under said levels' criteria. I enjoyed this one a lot -- it was both really informative and easy to read.

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REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Pickhut's Sonic Mania Plus (PlayStation 4)

I thought this was just a great review, as it did a great job of showing how this was a novelty act game that added new content, so you aren't just rehashing classic Sonic games, which is too easy to do nowadays (hell, I own PS2 and 360 collections that have all the Genesis Sonics on them) to make a simple rehash particularly viable. What really made this review awesome was how you tackled the dual argument that both the rehashing and the new content were flawed ideas. The new content because so much of it wasn't as good as the original stuff that inspired it and the rehashing because, as someone familiar with a lot of the old-school Sonic stuff, you found yourself most enjoying the old stuff that you weren't so familiar with. It was a really good argument that makes sense. If you're playing 5 classic games that you love or know you'll love and you're really familiar with 4, it goes to show that you'd be most fired up about playing the one that you aren't familiar with because that'll be a new experience that you aren't going through for the dozenth time or so.
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Man, I am on fire getting these out quickly. I better save the next one until Friday so everyone doesn't start worrying that I got got by the Body Snatchers or something.

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

Nice job getting this up on Tuesday -- that's fast. I'm always glad to see Pickhut get his props as his style seems a bit underappreciated around these parts in my view. And the mariner comeback tour continues. And Joe continues to Joe.

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

Props to Pick, even if he lowballed Sonic Mania by 2.5 stars. I can still see myself playing Mania years and years from now, but it was interesting to see what the other side thought didn't stack up as well.

Props to Mariner on the off chance he checks these things and well played Joe for continuing to out-consistent us all. Some great stuff on the podium fringes this week would have been a hard call to pick a top three.

For us. For them. For you.

Thanks for the RotW, OD! And to Masters and EmP for the thanks in return.

It was really a crunch getting this review finished, writing and combing it up until the final hours of 9/9. I try putting a Dreamcast or Sega-related review up on that date; some years I get it, some I completely miss it, and others I miss it by a few days. So, I'm glad the review didn't feel rushed, and the flow I was aiming for translated well enough to get it the top spot!

Congrats to Mariner and Joe for nabbing their respective placements, and for everyone else who kept throwing up reviews this week til the final minutes!

I head spaceshit noises.

Congrats on getting this one out quickly. I have Kingdom of Amalur and The Witcher II, but I haven't even come close to starting either. Maybe one day. I've mainly been sinking hours into Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is a way, way better game than DA2.

Thank you for placement, congrats to Pick and Mariner!

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