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
