Suggestion for Improving Game Reviews

[WarCheese]

Hello fellow Shmuppers:

After reading the "what is the most controversial shmup" thread, I was curious about Battle Garrega. So, I googled for a review and came up with a few reviews. For example:

http://www.arcadebase.de/batgarr.htm

After reading the review, I suspect that the reviewer didn't spend enough time and effort trying to understand the game. His critisms are many, but not too convincing. So, I asked myself, what if there are some standards for reviewing a game, won't that be nice? I think coming up with a good standard is important for game reviews. Casual gamers take reviews as written. Shmups, being a genre that takes patience to master, could easily be assigned bad reviews if the reviewer just gave the shmup a cursory glance. As a result, new gamers would be discouraged from shmups... The consequence goes on...

As an improvement, I suggest that game reviews be logged with the amount of time the reviewer spent with the game. Also, some screenshots should be posted to proved that the reviewer actually spent that amount of time. This, I think, would improve the quality of many game reviews out there, and probably would lead to shmups being less misunderstood in general.

Cheers.

WarCheese

[BulletMagnet]

As an improvement, I suggest that game reviews be logged with the amount of time the reviewer spent with the game.

Offhand, that doesn't sound like a bad idea from here...not like I read many reviews these days anyways.

In any event, welcome to the forum. Btw, I love your user name...be sure to find an equally eye-catching avatar to go with it!

[Randorama]

Well...i suppose that this thread will become a stagnant exercise for ontological relativism, with the usual people asking "what's a shmup?Is it possible to give definitions?Do we really exist?" etc. My personal suggestion, since you technically give yourself a rational reply, is to write 4 sections, i.e. Graphics, Music, Gameplay and Longevity. First two are self-explanatory, on Gameplay...i explain briefly (if there are any FAQs or STs, much better) the game engine, then explain why i think it works or not. Longevity...that's where i put comments on level design: if a game has a good engine but levels are poorly designed, you'll throw it away after 4 plays. Related arguments (2 players mode, extra modes in case of ports, quality of the port) are also dumped in this section. Last but not least, no more than 1 page per section, else your crowd will realize that they're reading and thus will try to commit suicide (ok, that's an exageration, but more is less, i agree on that).

Ah, and if you don't follow this rules, i will eat your liver with Chianti and Fava beans