Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: July 26 to Aug. 1, 2021 -- No tagline needed.

After three reviews last week, this time, I have a whopping four! With two provided by Joe, so that still means we have three people fighting for as many places -- it's just a matter of which of Joe's two doesn't place, so I guess that means there is intrigue in his camp.

In brief movie notes, Mario Bava had some great stuff in the 60s. I'd seen Blood and Black Lace and the lesser, but still fun, Girl Who Knew Too Much; as well as his anthology film Black Sabbath previously. And via MST3K, I'd also seen Danger: Diabolik, but that was less of what I'm talking about and more Attempt #34556 to make a new version of James Bond without using his name. Recently, I added Black Sunday and Planet of the Vampires to what I've seen. Black Sunday is a stylish and enjoyable gothic horror about a resurrected witch and her lackey working their way through the descendants of the person who executed them a couple hundred years previously. Planet of the Vampire is a combination of your typical 1950s "aliens trying to use humans as a means to preserve their dying society" plot, along with some stuff that could be considered the framework for Alien. It also is a landmark to how directing talent can outweigh minor details like having a shoestring budget. Dude took a pair of rocks from another movie set and combined that with colored fog and camera tricks to create a super-atmospheric alien planet that only very rarely looks like a cheap movie set.

Also, plenty more Giallo features, with some, such as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (putting me in that awkward position of totally developing a crush on Edwige Fenech despite not having been born when she did this film), The Weekend Murders and Who Saw Her DIe? being really excellent. And another, Autopsy, at least having the benefit of having an enjoyably insane opening 10-15 minutes. With the rest being decent, if not exceptional.

There, that was fun.

THIRD PLACE

Dagoss' Super Mario 64 DS (DS)

This was a pretty comprehensive review that I could get into since I played and reviewed this version of SM64 not all that long ago. With how you seem really familiar with the original version, you were able to give a lot of information pertaining to how this version is different and how those differences work out in the gameplay. I agree with you about the controls, but you definitely put more work into trying to find something that worked, even if none of the solutions were perfect. And, yeah, the camera is pure trash for when this remake was made. I still remember one of those really early levels, the Thwomp Fortress you access almost immediately, where there was a long board you could knock down to walk over to get to some floating islands. It's really sad when the camera refuses to cooperate in allowing you to walk in a straight line on a straight, flat surface because it want's to put you on an angle to make that walk more challenging than it ever needed to be. Did notice a few misspellings and stuff along those lines that could probably be found with a read-through (for one example, in the first paragraph under The Diff-initive Version, you have "sloppily" spelled wrong), but this was a pretty strong review that did a good job of praising the overall nature of this game, while criticizing it for a shaky control scheme and refusing to improve the camera despite the advances in 3D camera technology over the decade or so between this game and the original.

SECOND PLACE

Joe's 007 Legends (PlayStation 3)

I dug your Wild Arms 3 review. I've also reviewed it and really agreed with your overall stance, particularly in how you can easily come into this one expecting all the typical tropes, only to find something a good bit deeper as far as characters and their motivations go. And I did like the emphasis you put on needing to garden your healing items and how doing so winds up putting you in a situation where you have to play smart in order to not constantly be needing to use them. But I really liked your 007 Legends review. As a huge fan of the movies, this game sounds like a dream come true for me. You did a great job of illustrating how a lot of the movies have some place in this game, whether it be through your writing or your pictures (I recognized Mr. Power Glove Korean-Turned-Brit from Die Another Day!). But this isn't a positive review, sadly. You do a good job starting out with the little things, such as one particular Bond being used for everything and how all those 60s and 70s movies apparently get transported into modern times with cell phones in Goldfinger. And then you move onto things like the tedious stealth, the generic Call of Duty gunfights and how the game seems to punish you at times for daring to not humor them with all the stealth and suddenly, I have no desire to ever think about playing this one, even if, on the surface, it seems like something I'd like. Good job on writing this in a way that, as a Bond fan, I was simultaneously enthralled by what could have been and annoyed by what actually got released, as you did a good job of painting both pictures.

REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

EmP's Edge of Eternity (PC)

Note to self: When the actual finished version of this game does get released on consoles, maybe remember to look into it. EmP made it sound good.

Your writing in the intro was vivid and sucked me into the review. When you started talking about things like gameplay and story, you did a good job of making it sound interesting. It's always good to not care that you're doing the same ol' fetch quests because the narrative is gripping enough that you want to explore an area to read tombstone inscriptions. And being confronted by both a powerful alien force and a more local corruption does definitely sound like you're really fighting against overwhelming odds. And via the combination of your writing and the pics, this one's world really does have a beautiful, otherworldly vibe to it. The other strength of this review is how you tackled the incomplete feel of the game. You brought up how some parts feel unfinished, how combat can be glitchy at times (falling off the map -- NOT IDEAL!) and how there are obvious holes that are waiting to be filled in by quests or DLC, while also giving the concrete example of how a running stamina meter (something I also hate) mysteriously vanished one day. I mean, I did get a laugh at how you're always cracking on my age and then, here we have Old Man Gary griping because when he buys a game, he actually wants a completed product! But I definitely see where you're coming from, as this is less "need a patch to fix some stuff" and more "need to insert 10-20 percent of the game's content". You did a good job of both tackling that rather glaring issue, as well as praising the stuff deserving praise.


I'll be back doing this in however many weeks it is until my turn again.

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

Congratulations to EmP and to Joe. If Joe had won the top spot, he would have been simultaneously in first and last!

I did not add it to my review, but I took the time to get all 150 stars in the game. The worst star by far was the 100 coins on Tall Tall Mountain. To "fix" the exploit where the player could jump down and grab the star in the cliff that you usually get from the slide, they put a cage around it. That also prevents the player from getting back to the course after going down the slide though, which is where like 40% of the course's coins are. So you have to get basically every other coin in the course.

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I nearly kneecapped myself, it seems by dropping some late screens for Joe's review. But it could be worse: I could have spent all that time collecting screens and then he'd not used them like OD does routinely!

Props to Dagoss and Joe for a pair of very interesting reviews for very different reasons. I seem to always say this, but I'm still a big retro game review guy and I really like the angles dagoss takes when talking about them. And, of course, thank you for the win. You should all keep an eye on Edge of Eternity; it's the most fun I've had with a JRPG since Lost Odyssey.

For us. For them. For you.