Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW // 8th - 14th FEB //

CARRYOVER - Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen [PC] EmP

3/1 odds on Rob forgetting.

THIRD - ACA NeoGeo: Crossed Swords [PS4] PIckhut

Pick continues to find relevant ways to talk about old games, and does an excellent job ordering his thoughts on this one. He starts by talking about the hook; an atypical design choice in a very common genre. I thought the Punch Out comparison seemed very apt. He then talks about how this approach is interesting and how it mostly succeeds, but is downtrodden by the lack of variety and easily abused specials. It’s a descriptive enough piece that I find myself informed enough about an interesting sounding game, and persuasive enough that I’ll never feel the need to seek it out for myself. A service has been done.

SECOND - Darksiders [360] Overdrive

The intro was this review’s strongest part, briefly running down the games that Darksiders draws inspiration from before saying that it doesn’t match up to the subject material, but isn’t an awful base copy job. It’s a clever way to start, because it means you can close things out with the worst example of mechanic borrowing with the awful sounding last dungeon. You lose a bit of momentum in the middle, including a pretty tepid combat paragraph and a few overlong, overloaded sentences. But it’s good stuff! I’ve been meaning to play this game for a while now, and got an hour or so in on the 360, but have since misplaced the disk. I could just jump straight to the second game, but it feels all kinds of wrong. There’s countless games I’ve never started because of this...

FIRST - S.U.M. Slay Uncool Monsters [SWH] Jason

I don’t think many will blame me if I admit I had written off what is essentially maths homework as a challenger for this week’s crown. I figured I’d make another glib comment like that time Jason reviewed a clock and be on my way, but this is an excellently produced review that absolutely understands its niche subject. SUM is a game about doing math. As such, Jason has to establish himself as being interested in math because if he can establish that he’s not the cause of the complaints he’s about to make, then it only leaves the game itself to blame. But even then, he’s self deprecating enough to ensure the topic isn’t all about him. Then the complaints come and the groundwork is already complete; this is bad game design, not the mental folly of the reviewer.

This review wins this week because it’s taken an extremely difficult game to talk about engagingly and made it look very, very easy.

For us. For them. For you.

Thanks for the topic, and I'm excited to add another win to my record to boot. Honestly, I didn't like my chances of winning with a review of a math game, so I'm glad I managed to pull the right rabbits out of my hat when it counted. Congrats to pickhut and overdrive, as well, for putting together solid reviews and keeping things competitive. I continue to love the wide variety of content we cover on the site, and may even have another clock game review in me to keep the good times flowing!

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

Thanks for the comments and, yeah, I know what you mean about the whole "gotta start from the first game" vibe with series. I think the only ways I can avoid that trap are if the first game is really rare/obscure or if it's more a "series" than a series and the games aren't all that related (ie: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Super Mario, Zelda kinds of series where the games are essentially stand-alone). But if there's some sort of consistent narrative, I pretty much feel compelled to start at the beginning and work from there.

Makes some of the stuff on PS Now really good due to having most/all the games in a series and makes some of it hurt my brain. Like, I can play Saints Row 2-3-4, but 1 isn't there. And so I'll have the decision of whether I just start with 2 or wind up caving in and hunting down the first game. On one hand, it was a series I'd likely never would have gotten to if not for getting Now. On the other, compulsive behavior is a real hassle at times.

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

Well, I've completely lost track of time, because I keep thinking you submitted this thread a day ago... That was three days ago.

But thanks for the placement! Crossed Swords was something I was interested in for some time, so it was a bummer when I finally played it. The final few stages bordered on torture with the way gameplay was.

Good on OD and congrats to Jason!

I head spaceshit noises.