Greetings and Salutations everyone. I am hoping to offer a different style of reviews here and, if successful, I will continue to post more reviews of future games I play. My approach is to eliminate bias by focusing on specific categories of the games I review, and then at the end add up the score. A lot of people seem to write a review and then attach a score at the end and list out a couple pros/cons of the game. I want to show you specifically why I give a game a certain score.

A couple more things before I get started that demonstrate the unique quality of my reviews. First off I only review games I beat (and often don’t review until I beat all the bonus stuff too). Secondly I review games based on comparison of other games released around the same time. This means that a game released 20 years ago could still beat a game released today because it pushed the system it was on harder than the new one pushes it’s modern system (for example).

Lastly I want to point out, as you will see below, that story is THE MOST important aspect of a game for me. If games focus either mostly or entirely on multiplayer (Call of Duty, Mario kart, etc) then they probably won’t get a very high score. If the game is really fun despite its low score, I usually give that game an (*) symbol. I’m looking for art, and while coloring sheets of paper with crayons can be fun for a while, I’d much rather have high quality paint, and my reviews are the same thing.

Here is how I review games:

Review Standards for Videogames: Out of 100 points

Originality: Does this game have a unique feel, one that totally copies off of something in the past, or somewhere in between? /20

Graphics: How does this game look in proportion to the time it was released? /10

Art Style: Is the art style truly impressive and unique, or is it a game that only focused on pixels, p quality, and frame rate? /15

Story: The most important part of a game for me. /30

Game Interface: Annoying or not? /5

Controls easy and fluid or difficult and rigid? /5

Is it fun? /15

Trine Review:

Originality: The ability to seamlessly change characters in the middle of gameplay, the constant bantering going on (highly reflective of humanities consistent talking with oneself), the actual inclusion of a story in a side scroller (and a unique one at that), and the combination of various aspects of previous side scrollers makes this a rather unique experience to have all this in one game.

18/20

Graphics: For a side scroller this game is amazing. I would argue some of the backgrounds and obstacles in the game look as good as they do in 3-d games of the same time period. My only complaint is the rather simple look of the characters in comparison to the detail of their environments.

9/10

Art Style: A really beautiful and alive feeling art style. It’s rather realistic, but so much contrast with the fire and water levels.

13/15

Story: Oh my this side scroller actually has a story, narraration, diaglogue, character progression. This game makes my frustration with Nintendo all the stronger. It’s NOT hard to put together a simple, yet unique story in a side scroller game and yet gamer after gamer defends Nintendo for this because it’s not what the game was meant for. NEWS FLASH, you can still make the game a lot of fun and actually have a story like Trine does. Bravo!

That being said, this is no Arkham City…

20/30

Game Interface: Nothing in mah way!

5/5

Controls easy and fluid or difficult and rigid? Scrolling through weapon changes in the middle of a battle with 5 different skeleton knights, two skeleton archers, and 2 skeleton flame throwers is rather difficult when the scroll button is super sensitive on most mousse.

3/5

Is it fun? It is rather repetitive at times and is by no means as fun as NSMBU or, to a greater extent, DKKR: Tropical Freeze, but this game is still a lot of fun to play.

12/15

Total: 80/100

Up to Date Game Grade Rankings:

1. Batman Arkham City Armored Edition - 100

2. Zelda Skyward Sword-98

3. Zelda Minish Cap – 92

4. Zelda Oracle of Ages - 91

5. Zelda Twilight Princess - 90

T6.Guildwars 2 – 89

T6.Mario and Luigi: Dream Team - 89

T8. Pokemon X - 88

T8 Kid Icarus Uprising – 88

T8 Darksiders 2 - 88

T8 Fire Emblem Awakening - 88

12. Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story – 86

13. Animal Crossing New Leaf - 84

T14. Paper Mario Sticker Star – 83

T14. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds-83

16. Trine - 80

17. Zelda: A Link to the Past – 78

T18. Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – 74

T19. Rome: Total War-74

20. Super Mario 3d land – 72

21. Red Alert 3 - 70

22. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze* - 68

23. New Super Mario Bros. U - 66

24. New Super Mario Bros.Wii – 57 *

25. Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition – 53*

26. Kirby Squeak Squad - 43

Trine sucks. Its a sidescroller so tedious and boring that obviously they had to make up for it in the visual department.

Your reviews also suck. Giving games low scores because they lack deep story elements is dumb.

Go and log-in in MovieChartz. This isnt the place for you.

Moderated,

-Mr Khan

I hate it when people think their way is the only way. Just because YOU don't focus on stories doesn't mean others do the same. If you don't like my review method, then simply don't read them. Why do you want to personally attack me for simply expressing my opinion?

And trine is tedious and boring at times, but the game isn't long enough to make it THAT tedious. That being said I respect your right to think otherwise of the game than I do.

I bought them both during a steam sale a while back. I'll be starting the 2nd one next. I'm trying to do all my sidescroller games at once (NSMBU, DKKRTF, Trine, and Trine 2) that way it's fresh on my mind how they all compare to one another.

After that I'll potentially move on to Arkham Origins and Asylum (I've only ever played/beat Arkham City which was stunning).

Im not going to say your reviews suck but story isnt important n all games. You should review things by what is important and what isnt. Example, People dont buy Mario Bros, TitanFall, and smash bros for the story. Its like me trying to review pokemon XY for voice acting, you just dont do that.

With that said you are saying that other people shouldnt think their way is the only way, and while yes i do agree with that reviews are meant for the readers. Stay true to your own opinions but also be true to the people who read them , other wise there is no reason to post them. If you want people to read your stuff then you will need to start thinking about how the majority thinks rather than just yourself.  Reviews are more for the reader than the writer.

I understand your perspective but that is precisely why I review things this way. MOST reviews I find incredibly similar to one another because they all focus on the same thing. I'm focusing on something different in order to appeal to story obsessed people like myself. There ARE story obsessed people out there other than me, and that is who I'm writing the reviews for, not myself. If someone is truly obsessed with voice acting and that is there most important aspect of any game then by all means they SHOULD write a review taking that with more weight.

And Marios Bros is a side scroller, it COULD have a decent story like Trine does. Nintendo just chooses not to include one because then (I guess) potentially children would find it more complicated. I can't speak for Titanfall because I don't play shooters often anymore.

I think these kind of rating systems don't really work since the importance of the single points depends of the game and genre. Saying that story is as important in a racing sim as in a cinematic game like Beyond doesn't really work in my opinion. Beyond without story is like nothing at all but Gran Turismo without story is still a great simulation of racing. Same goes for art style, interface (much more important in strategy games or a rpg as in most other games) and so on...

That's why I prefer ratings where you only have a final score and the important rest is in the text.

I know that this is your system to determine how good a game is for you but so that you probably also think that Gran Turismo is very bad but I think even for you that can't really work since the different points should have a different importance between let's say a jump&run or an action adventure? Or to speak about the interface, don't you find a good working interface more important in your reviewed Guild Wars 2 as in New Super Mario Bros?

If you cant figure out why people buy certain products then you will never be able to get people to trust you, and that is what a review is about.  getting people to trust you.  Keep doing what youre doing, that is fine, just giving you a suggestion.  But just like every other review ive seen of yours i expect people to criticize them for the same reason.  And if you continue to do it people are just going to ignore your reviews all together

A Review isnt about being different, it is about being trustworthy by giving a good insight on the game

Solid score. Maybe a little low.

Ah but I would add that what is truth in reviews for games is different depending on the person. For someone like me, the truth is that new super marios bros story is horrible and that greatly impacts the quality of the game. For the truth of others, maybe they just don't really care about the story. Regardless of the majority, I'm writing my reviews for the minority of gamers that love story in games more than anything else in games.