Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: April 25-May 1, 2022 -- Enough free time today to at least get one of the RotW backlog done.

Actually have a bit of free time during what's been a hellish month at work. Barely any time to write reviews, none to do RotWs, etc. And with the backlog of those that have been piling up, since EmP went on the disabled list and Jason vanished into the vapors of social media, might as well pick up a couple of them. This is EmP's from April 25 to May 1. Which is a week that had one review by 'Hut. So, to make things interesting, I included Joe's reviews from the last two RotWs he did (March 27-April 3 and April 11-17), since he was also clearing up old RotWs, so I may as well let his reviews be eligible for bragging rights and such.

Possibly a bit irregular, but since the site is currently undergoing a historical slump as far as content goes with a total of seven reviews done site-wide during the entire month of May, does it really matter if I just sort of make up my own RotW rules as I'm going along? But it does turn this edition from one review to four, so that at least puts a bit of suspense into things.

Also, I watched a few movies over the past month or whatever. A few of them were really good, as far as cult classics and the like goes. Such as The Beyond by Fulci and Rabid by Cronenberg. Those were very good. Some of the others were good, as well. Others, like old Troma-released film Mother's Day from 1970 had potential but were brought down by overall unevenness and a lot of stuff that didn't really fly.

Some of Joe's three reviews evoked a bit of nostalgia for me. Such as with You Have to Win the Game. Because I have become a fan of games like this. I've played a lot of Super Meat Boy and, to a degree, I would consider the Trials series to be at least some sort of cousin to them, with the platforming being done while riding a motorcycle and the levels being longer, but with frequent checkpoints and the goal being to make it from beginning to end with as few wipeouts as possible. In short, these games are addictive and can suck you in and you did a good job of exhibiting that by doing a good job of describing the game and its challenges.

With Kingdom of Arcadia, you also do a good job of getting to the heart of the game. Although in this case, the game isn't the most exciting to discuss, as you mainly are stuck pointing out just how forgettable it is due to being just like so many other games. Kudos, though, in doing a fine job of both pointing out elements reminiscent of other games, as well as mentioning how being generic doesn't mean it's bad, as the game does do some things right and can be fun to play -- it just isn't original or overly interesting to write about.


SECOND PLACE

dementedhut's Kunio no Oden (SNES)

Now this is an oddity. A Kunio game that's just Puyo Puyo with a few minor changes to that game's formula and a food cart setting. That's something! Unfortunately, when you take away the simple fact that this is a weird game simply due to being what it is, it's not the most exciting topic. But it is a well-written review that discusses the Kunio history and does a fine job of discussing the game as much as possible without becoming tiresome. Which probably takes some doing. I know I've never had the ambition to try to make a review out of a game like this, whether it be Tetris, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine or Columns. Just seems like it'd be a pain to accomplish, so my respect to you for doing so and making it a pretty fun read for me to get through.


REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Joe's ZuPaPa! (NeoGeo)

Going back to the theme of your reviews making me a bit nostalgic, several years ago at my mom's, we installed a shareware ripoff of Bubble Bobble (imaginatively titled Bub & Bob) and had a lot of fun with it. Which played a role in me reading your intro and nodding my head -- it would be cool to see a new one of these games. And this one is a pretty one. I remember emulating Neo-Geo for a spell, but MAME and the MAME offshoot for the Neo-Geo never really ran great on Mac (or at least were more complex and tricky to properly use than the average emulator) and my current one, OpenEmu doesn't support NeoGeo. It does the NeoGeo Pocket, but the only way I'm hitting that up would be if I REALLY wanted to say I've reviewed something for every damn retro system under the sun.

And when I was emulating Neo-Geo, I never noticed this game -- focusing more on beat-em-ups and shooters. That's a shame, as it looks like a fun one if you ignore the coin-op difficulty. And with you playing it via the AES Neo-Geo collection/system/whatever, you were able to circumvent that with unlimited lives. You do a good job of describing the mechanics and the combination of your words and the screenshots makes this one sound appealing. I dug this review a lot -- it hit the right notes with me to impress me more than I was expecting it to when I clicked on it.


Next up will be my regularly scheduled May 2-8 RotW and then I might pick up stuff that's not been done yet. Think there was one from the April batch that still hasn't been hit, as well as the rest of May.

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

Thanks for the topic, overdrive! It was a very retro week. Good job, Joe and dementedhut!

"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 taking the time to do this.

Oden was low on my list of Kunio games I would likely review over the others, but I was still on a puzzle buzz after reviewing Columns. I think that's what helped mold the review into how it turned out in its finished form. Also it helped that I was a bit burned out on reviewing traditional Kunio beat'em ups; doesn't help that some of those games feel phoned in. Glad you found it entertaining enough to read through!

I head spaceshit noises.