Including a carry over from Rob “Rob” Robington, as he will be known from henceforth, this week has a rather noteworthy ten entries of distinguished quality. Of all kind of crazy nonsense - handheld visual novels, indie horror games, forgotten arcade cabinets, awful NES imports and big-name PC reboots. There’s going to be reviews missing out on the top three slot this week that would have strolled into previous editions of this here recap that I’ve penned - suck it up, lads and ladettes. It’s the price you pay for heavy competition. So, the three marked below must be doing something right - or bribing me the most - to get their little slice of glory.
NOTES:
I had such a hard time settling on the final three that Nightfire’s Wasteland 2 cycled in and out several times. So much so that I even wrote a feedback topic which I shall recycle shortly and post as standalone feedback. Most other weeks, both his and silversuriv’s reviews would have been a certainty to place, and place well.
THIRD Steins;Gate [Vita] by Jerec
Jerec loves anime - don’t let him fool you with his misguiding words. I’ve seen him arguing about who in the Naruto cast is best girl and complaining about how tame Berserk has gotten.
Or maybe not. But that’s fine, because someone who rolls his eyes at usual anime tropes is perfect for falling into Steins;Gate’s rather brilliant trap, and Jerec talks openly about how he got good and snared. It’s subtle work, too, because those visual novel reviews are tricky to pull off. Because they’re games with so little mechanical function to complain about and are all almost entirely long streams of plot (almost like a novel, you might point out), it’s difficult to talk about too much without stumbling into spoilers.
It’s difficult to do this, but still talk enough about the game to engage, but Jerec’s only gone and done just that. The only tangible down point is how badly he goes to town in the last couple of paragraphs trying to squeeze in all the stuff that’s worth a mention, but couldn’t be fit in elsewhere. So you get kind of listy conclusion talking about scroll speeds and BGM quality and ending branches and the state of the artwork and the writing and the translation issues. It does feel overbearing, but the final few lines does help being it back in.
SECOND Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 [Arc] by Joe
Joe presents a double serving of indifference this week with two reviews on lukewarm games. Perhaps this one getting the nod over his caveman game was simply down to game choice, but is probably more down to the authoritative tone employed here. Joe takes Millennium Fight to task, but bases his mounting disappointment on solid fact, backed by pesky reference to both company’s pre-existing library. It makes it sound like he knows what he’s talking about, which is the greatest trick he’s ever pulled off.
Even if he seems to think Sakura is an obscure character for some reason, but we’ll forgive him that oddity. Just as we’ll try to overlook the “crap, I’ve not complained about the sound yet!” paragraph stuffed in at the end because we all do it and we know we do. I kind of remember this game having a tag in/tag out mechanic, but I could be thinking of any of the other four billion fighting games Capcom have released. Regardless, Joe comes out of this sounding like he’s well versed in the genre, and his review gets all the benefit from that.
WIN! Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu [NES] Rob
I do love a good bash review. And this is a good bash review that maybe takes a little long to really get to all the wailing and gnashing, but is worth the wait. A lot of the first half is spent establishing the game as a poor Ys rip off, which turns out to be vital once the ludicrous run of events starts unfolding. Once all that foreshadowing is out of the way, the descriptions of progression sound positively painful. Old games would use things like grind and backtracking as artificial padding to camouflage the simplicity of their games that the hardware of the time forced upon them -- but, still, that warp thing sound horrendous. As do the excuses used to force you to revisit beaten dungeons endlessly, or how the game essentially requires no skill to beat, just huge dollops of your time. I’d not have seen the end of this one - I wager not many would. But your patience has rewarded you with a lofty placement this week. Continue documenting your misery for our entertainment.
NOTES:
I had such a hard time settling on the final three that Nightfire’s Wasteland 2 cycled in and out several times. So much so that I even wrote a feedback topic which I shall recycle shortly and post as standalone feedback. Most other weeks, both his and silversuriv’s reviews would have been a certainty to place, and place well.
THIRD Steins;Gate [Vita] by Jerec
Jerec loves anime - don’t let him fool you with his misguiding words. I’ve seen him arguing about who in the Naruto cast is best girl and complaining about how tame Berserk has gotten.
Or maybe not. But that’s fine, because someone who rolls his eyes at usual anime tropes is perfect for falling into Steins;Gate’s rather brilliant trap, and Jerec talks openly about how he got good and snared. It’s subtle work, too, because those visual novel reviews are tricky to pull off. Because they’re games with so little mechanical function to complain about and are all almost entirely long streams of plot (almost like a novel, you might point out), it’s difficult to talk about too much without stumbling into spoilers.
It’s difficult to do this, but still talk enough about the game to engage, but Jerec’s only gone and done just that. The only tangible down point is how badly he goes to town in the last couple of paragraphs trying to squeeze in all the stuff that’s worth a mention, but couldn’t be fit in elsewhere. So you get kind of listy conclusion talking about scroll speeds and BGM quality and ending branches and the state of the artwork and the writing and the translation issues. It does feel overbearing, but the final few lines does help being it back in.
SECOND Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 [Arc] by Joe
Joe presents a double serving of indifference this week with two reviews on lukewarm games. Perhaps this one getting the nod over his caveman game was simply down to game choice, but is probably more down to the authoritative tone employed here. Joe takes Millennium Fight to task, but bases his mounting disappointment on solid fact, backed by pesky reference to both company’s pre-existing library. It makes it sound like he knows what he’s talking about, which is the greatest trick he’s ever pulled off.
Even if he seems to think Sakura is an obscure character for some reason, but we’ll forgive him that oddity. Just as we’ll try to overlook the “crap, I’ve not complained about the sound yet!” paragraph stuffed in at the end because we all do it and we know we do. I kind of remember this game having a tag in/tag out mechanic, but I could be thinking of any of the other four billion fighting games Capcom have released. Regardless, Joe comes out of this sounding like he’s well versed in the genre, and his review gets all the benefit from that.
WIN! Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu [NES] Rob
I do love a good bash review. And this is a good bash review that maybe takes a little long to really get to all the wailing and gnashing, but is worth the wait. A lot of the first half is spent establishing the game as a poor Ys rip off, which turns out to be vital once the ludicrous run of events starts unfolding. Once all that foreshadowing is out of the way, the descriptions of progression sound positively painful. Old games would use things like grind and backtracking as artificial padding to camouflage the simplicity of their games that the hardware of the time forced upon them -- but, still, that warp thing sound horrendous. As do the excuses used to force you to revisit beaten dungeons endlessly, or how the game essentially requires no skill to beat, just huge dollops of your time. I’d not have seen the end of this one - I wager not many would. But your patience has rewarded you with a lofty placement this week. Continue documenting your misery for our entertainment.
For us. For them. For you.
