Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week: December 7-13, 2008

This RotW is late. The reason isn’t important, but the tardiness is unacceptable. Even though there were only 4 reviews for this particular week (further confounding the reason why this topic is so late), we are happy to host each and every one of them. To Beverage, Pickhut, Wolfqueen001, and Woodhouse, the HG staff would like to apologize for making you wait such a long time.

As always, staff reviews are exempt.



2nd Runner-Up: Samba De Amigo (Wii) by Woodhouse

I remember once holding a conversation with a certain Michael LoCascio. He made a comment regarding how Woodhouse, who he acknowledged as a very good video game reviewer, would seemingly always follow up crazy hentai reviews with sports game reviews. I don’t know how true that is, seeing as I wasn’t around for that period, but I’ll assume the statement has some merit for the sake of making my point. Regardless of which genre Woodhouse reviews, you’re likely to find an informative and interesting piece that answers yours questions. This Samba de Amigo game is one I recall from the days when the Dreamcast was alive and all sorts of strange and interesting concepts were getting turned into games. Now Samba’s on the Wii, and Woodhouse explains what makes the game turn. There isn’t any catchy writing in this piece, but then catchy writing isn’t needed, because it’s far more important to establish what kind of game this is rather than make cutesy jokes/statements/etc. Woodhouse tells you what there is, how it works, and how it stacks up. So that’s solid.

1st Runner-Up: Ys (NES) by Wolfqueen001

This review was borne from a request. WQ followed her end of the bargain, and I seemingly have reneged on mine. Sorry, the holiday season is brutal. But the good news is that this is typical quality WQ material. Maybe it’s a little too typical in some senses. After reading this review at least 37 times (give or take), I came to notice at least one line that isn’t particularly great, such as the old over-elaboration bit, “which chucked three boomerangs at me while sidling left and right at the top edge of the screen.” That’s negligible, though, because WQ reviews contain one major inherent quality. You can tell that the author really likes writing about games. That’s exactly how this Ys review is. You can sense that WQ enjoys describing the worlds of Ys, and that makes the review all the better.

Review of the Week: Sonic Unleashed (X360) by Pickhut

I shouldn’t give Pickhut’s Sonic Unleashed review the win because it will undoubtedly serve as the linchpin that initiates the “Sonic Sucks Forever Curse,” but whatever. I like this review the most among this week’s collection for a couple of reasons. On its merits alone, it’s just as interesting and informative as any other piece. But the real reason why I choose it for the victory stems from the fact that I am very interested in Sonic Unleashed. If you have kept track of my occasional postings on the forums (I know Drella has), you’ll know that I’m curious to see how this game turns out. And according to Pickhut, it turns out well enough despite its quirky werehog gimmick. I think by now most sensible people have come to expect all Sonic games to kind of suck, or at least not live up to expectations, so it’s nice to read a review that bucks that preconception. My only (minor) complaint is that this review needs a slight bit of polish, as a few words don’t fit well with the sentence structure that’s employed in places. Nevertheless, I dug this review. And in spite of the fact that I called Pickhut a wily dork just the other day, I still think he’s hands down the second or third sexiest reviewer on this website, right after Soberdrive and possibly the Shadow of Tachibana Ukyo.



There it is, three solid reviews. Beverage, who has contributed work to this site on and off over the years, posted a very interesting Alone in the Dark review. This piece, as (I believed) stated in the feedback topic it received, could use a little word trimming, but I like the style it employs. I hope to see more from Beverage and the rest of you crazy little wombats in the immediate future. Happy holidays. Drella has this week, and I believe OVERDRIVE have the following one. I expect greatness all around.

I am indeed a sexy bitch, though, blu keeps on insisting that I have a mullet based on a now 4 or 5 year old picture he's seen of me.

Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to go off-topic and tell you my thanks for the RotW placing. I really liked the game, which is why I'm so... surprised at the negativity it's been getting. I can understand if people would think it's a decent game in comparison to my liking of it, but it has been getting bashed a lot. Oh well. I did enjoy Sonic Heroes, as well, another Sonic game people seem to dislike.

Also, congrats to wolfqueen and woodhouse!

I head spaceshit noises.

Thanks, Felix. After reading pickhut's review, I knew I had a slim chance for winning this, even if EmP had done this like he was supposed to. Pickhut's review was really good and for a much more popular (or at least looking-forward-to) game.

Also, shame on EmP for not doing this week. Lazy bum.

Congrats to woodhouse on his placing, too.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I would have thought that, by now, if I was particularly tardy on something, people would know there were outside factors heavily involved. But, no, we'll make snide snipes instead.

The wrong week was kind of my fault though; I'll never get used to the odd way you yanks illogically numerically order your dates.

This was a solid week, however, and the placements probably in the order I would have given them anyway. Good job to all that showed.

For us. For them. For you.

Sure - if outside factors means watching anime. =P

You know I'm kidding anyway.

Also, I got used to British dating ages ago. And I'm also in GMT AND central time zone all the time, so no complaining!

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will