Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Feb. 18-24, 2019 -- A ton of work, trying to play Trials Rising and here I am doing this!

Another one of these things, this time while I'm swamped at work! Yay! Only five reviews to go through, as it seems EmP didn't have one last week for me to try to remember before forgetting about and inevitably seeing a litany of comments concerning my ability to remember stuff or do things or know what's what and so on. Oh, yeah, there also is one by me that gets pushed to next week. Or Jason will get a litany of comments concerning his ability to remember stuff or do things or know what's what and so on.

Now, honestly, I'd rather be working on Trials Rising now that doing this, since catching air and trying to get through tracks without wrecking horribly is more fun than writing about…most anything actually, but I'm a gamer, so let's look at these reviews and see who places.

To comment on the others briefly:

Jason did a solid review for a very cheap-n-disposable (emphasis on "disposable") Switch game. Those reviews are kind of his version of my Kemco ones, in that it's solid and gives coverage for the sort of game that probably doesn't get an abundance of publicity, but due to their nature, aren't the sort of thing that is overly inspirational to write about with the vigor to place during the average week. It's a good review that covers all the bases, though, allowing me to easily determine that if I had a Switch, I'd never touch this game, not even for a moment.

CRB continues to show improvement in his writing with his Final Fantasy Tactics review. I know in previous RotWs, I've commented that I'd like to see more detail about what you're writing about in your writing and this review showed a good bit of that, as you did give a pretty good run-down as to how FFT plays.

THIRD PLACE

Pickhut's 3D Altered Beast (3DS)

I'm just glad that someone else has about the same opinion of Altered Beast as I do. When I got Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, I started it up because it was one of those games that I thought looked cool, but never could play because I was NES/SNES back in the day. Five minutes later, I'd had all I cared to stomach and never have touched it again. All in all, you did a really good job explaining the game's basics, just why it really isn't that good and then noted how this port of it really doesn't add anything interesting or new to what it originally was…and the conclusion was really nice, as you said this game was made for a quick project and because it was popular on the Virtual Console. The definition of a truly uninspired port of a blah game. I really enjoyed this review; it was just a bit behind the next two to be discussed.

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SECOND PLACE

EmP's Toughman Contest (The Divine System: The Gift That Keeps On Giving)

I really enjoyed the opening part of this review, as that is a neat story as to how this game was devised. Take the Punch Out engine and upgrade it for newer systems and to cash in on the short-lived Toughman craze. Fun Fact: There was actually a prime-time Toughman Contest show on some cable channel for a little while and I watched it a couple times. The highlight of the show was that one commenter was coked-up former NFL'er Lawrence Taylor, whose main commentary was dissing the contestants because they weren't the sort of elite athlete that he was. Which should be all that needs to be said about the mark Toughman left on our country! You also did a good job of showing just why this game fell as far short of Punch Out that actual Toughman did to legitimate sports. A bunch of completely interchangeable fighters, due to how any skill could be applied to any of them? Foolish! Having attacks be overly complicated to use despite this being arcade-style boxing? Laughable! Less interesting backgrounds than the Genesis version? Were they even trying? Probably not; that seems to be the over-arcing story of this system. Anyway, this was a fun review of one of history's forgotten games for one of history's forgotten systems.

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REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Joe's Arcana: Gothic 4 (PC)

This is a great review showing what happens when a person plays a game that just didn't turn out to be all that great. Not necessarily horrible or anything, but just sort of there. Throughout the review, you put in a lot of little touches that showed how the game wasn't a complete chore to get through and even was somewhat enjoyable at times, but never really threatened to be the sort of thing that you were overly positive about going through. The ending proved that point nicely with your "I can't really remember that much more because the game didn't do anything particularly noteworthy." part. The previous paragraph also was nice, as you touched major plot points, but in a vague and disinterested manner that read in a "You do this and this and then you're *yawn* done…" manner that also really illustrated your feelings on the game. And I liked how you pointed out its repetition with the "Cave. Goblins. Horde." bit. A good example of how to review a game that isn't really good or bad, but just sort of exists in its "connect the dots, go through the motions" way.
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And now, back to advancing through tracks. Or not, that busy schedule has been getting in the way of me doing that, as well...

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

Yeah, Altered Beast was one of those games that looked cool from a distance if you only saw images and footage. Then you play it and... Sadly, it's one of those games that keeps thriving through the decades due to the nostalgia factor and Sega's need to rerelease the game on every collection or digital marketplace. Like Super Thunder Blade and the Vectorman games...

Thanks for third place! Glad you liked the review.

I head spaceshit noises.

Toughman had exactly zero impact here. The game and the fighting platform both, I guess.

Thanks for the nod, and props to Joe and Pick. I'm just glad to see the back of another 32X game. The list grows shorter still...

For us. For them. For you.

Thank you much for the victory! I'm glad this review worked out. Congrats to EmP and Pick also, for placing. Also, shout out to CRB, who's been turning in quality stuff!

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