March 7th, 2007 Or, “A Link to the Future: Foot in Mouth Edition.” The reviews are largely in for Episode 4, and I’m pleased to report that we significantly underestimated the fourth entry in the series, which stands at a 7.8 at Gamerankings.
We expected that S&M: Episode 4 would hew fairly closely to its previous iterations. Which is to say, it would be a moderately fun, extremely easy, and very brief trip down the Sam and Max path. Interestingly, we weren’t so much wrong on the merits as we were incorrect about about degree - this iteration seems to improve a bit on both length and puzzle variety, which leads to an overall better experience.
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Posted in PC, Post-Review | 1 Comment » February 27th, 2007 Welcome to our first post-review. Now that the majority of Sonic reviews are in, we’re here to see how we did - both in terms of our final score and impressions. In general, we seemed to hit pretty close to the mark: Jeff and I both predicted a 7.8 score, while the Gamerankings average is currently at 76% - a 7.6. So our error was +0.2 points.
In qualitative terms, we were also fairly close: reviewers seemed to find a common consensus on what was good and bad about the Sonic experience, although they differed on how heavily to weight those issues. We highlighted the control, lack of depth, and the minigames as our major concerns. Sure enough, these were the major problems most frequently mentioned. IGN (6.9) praised the graphics and overall ”fun” feel of the game, but knocked Sonic for the ”slim” level selection and control and camera problems. GamePro (7.5) commented that “the game is tough, and not in a good way”, primarily as the result of difficult controls and challenges. Reviewers were almost united in their disdain of the minigames, which they said had a few standouts but were largely pointless. In general, it seems like Sonic is fun but flawed; I’ll probably pick it up once the price drops a bit and hope for the best from SSX.
Oddly, several reviewers (such as Yahoo, 7.0) had a low score but very positive reviews. Given that the numerical rankings were roughly in line, I’m inclined to chalk this up to poor writing skills rather than errant reviewing.
Posted in Nintendo, Post-Review, Wii | 1 Comment » 