A few people have pointed out that the overall scores in my reviews seem a little inconsistent with one another. I have to agree, as looking back, some of them are super weird. I mean, I never even decided whether they were the "overall score" or the "final score". As for the ratings themselves, for one thing, I didn't implement the half stars until Demon's Crest—my 12th review. That means at time of writing, only 3 of my 14 reviews have half stars in the ratings. Another thing is that I haven't really been thinking about what I rated other games while rating a new game. Now I realize that's a mistake, because a game I can't really recommend could be ranked only a half star lower than an all-time favorite. Both of these issues combined can lead to some downright humorous scores when you put everything side by side. It comes from me being a little tougher on games I love, and wanting to go a little easier on games I don't. I've got to start looking at things as a whole, though, and this article is the first step in that direction.
While I'm against the idea of retroactively changing my review scores on the actual individual review pages (unless people write in saying that I should), I did want to just lay out the final scores from all my reviews and see if I still stand by them, or if I've changed my mind... or my scoring system. This is JUST final scores; I won't be touching on the other categories, as I think most of those scores are still fine, as far as I'm concerned. Let's go in order from oldest to newest.
This review is definitely one of my most contested. People wanna blow me up for it. Well, I'm sorry, but I do stand by this one. I ranked it so low because I'm a Kirby fan, so to play a Kirby game that simply didn't bring me ANY enjoyment was a shock. I don't think the core Kirby gameplay is bad, of course, I just think that this is a title which is unfortunate enough to bear some of the worst recurring elements of Kirby games, for example, my most despised "blindly guess the correct path" segments. Combine that with spotty performance which can make it difficult to avoid taking damage and throw in some extra bogus level design on top of that and you get just a generally unpleasant game. I'd honestly drop the score a half star, but at the end of the day, it's still Kirby. Plus, I don't want to be assassinated.
I think I'm happy with that. I walked Izzy through this game a few years after I made this review and that only caused me to grow even more fond of it. If anything, I'm pondering if 4 is too low, but I think I'll leave it for now. It's a wonderful experience, but for someone like me, the replay value is pretty low. The game is absolutely huge, and core gameplay takes a while to get interesting, so once you already know the story, you lose that special something that makes it easier to push through to the real meat of the game. Maybe once I've replayed the game one or two more times, we'll talk again.
This was my first peripheral review. Obviously I couldn't rate it the same way as a game, but even so, maybe 3 is a little high. I'd say the Power Glove isn't like, complete garbage, but you won't catch me using it in earnest, either. It is fun, though! For a little while. I want to continue sticking up for the Power Glove, but I think I still need to knock a star off. It's still not really good, but it's the kind of bad that's at least fun to pass around at a party.
Back-to-back peripheral reviews! Yeah, the Game Boy Camera rocks. It's a crazy little thing that'll put a smile on anyone's face. A lot of people don't even know these exist, so if you pull out a Game Boy and have someone take a selfie with it, they usually respond very positively. Laughter, confusion, amazement. All this from a crummy digital camera from 1998. Oh, and it's compatible with the Game Boy Printer, if you happen to have one of those and six AA batteries. So, yeah, the Game Boy Camera is perfect.
Wait... it's perfect?! But that means... No... Can I retroactively give the site's first ever perfect score to the Game Boy Freakin' Camera?! I mean, It's not a game review, but I'd still feel so silly... I don't think I have a choice, though. As far as video game peripherals or accesories or whatever go, the Game Boy Camera is the gold standard. It adds new, exclusive functionality to the console, it's stylish and fun, it's packed full of games and special features and you can even use the link cable and trade photos like Pokémon. If that's not perfect, I don't know what is.
Mega Man X is a favorite of mine for sure. I'd call it the best game in the sub-series it spawned, and one of the best action games on the Super NES in general. That said, I think 4 is still good. It's a great game, but it still has enough "ugh" moments to knock a star off an otherwise perfect score, such as some of the stages and bosses in the late game. Also that big electric slime thing in Spark Mandrill's stage... I hate that thing. Of course, the game is still highly, highly recommended.
This game is one of my favorites on the N64. It's every bit as replayable as it is memorable. After all these years, it's still the best Star Fox game by most peoples' standards, and while the multiplayer isn't exactly amazing, it can still be fun, especially once you unlock the on-foot mode. Even though I don't play this game as much as I used to, I just can't seem to think of a reason to rate it lower than 4. So, at 4 it will stay!
The main gameplay mechanics can be cumbersome and the level design can be infuriating, but there's still a lot to like in this game. It's not one of my favorite SNES games, but I've still played through it a few times and think it's worth checking out. 3 still feels good to me.
I can't really stick with that 4. Let's knock it down to 3. I do really like this game, but man-oh-man is it a pain in the butt. You'll curse the game, curse the controller, curse the console, curse the TV and curse the horses they rode in on, but if you're like me, you'll like it. I'm not saying I love every brutal, punishing game, but this one just has a good flow to it. The movement is stiff, yet somehow fluid at the same time. Memorizing enemy placement and the hidden chest triggers is almost like a meditative experience. That being said, the difficulty does go a little too far at multiple points, especially, as I've stated multiple times, the penultimate boss fight. That's where all my runs grind to a standstill and often die. If you manage to beat it, though, oh boy. There's no better feeling. It just might not exactly be worth it.
I still agree, and it's still my favorite top-down Zelda game. It has a wonderful sense of whismy and humor from start to finish which other Zelda games don't really come close to. I will say that I've grown less and less fond of the general Zelda formula the older I've gotten, so while the gameplay doesn't exactly grab me a lot of the time, most everything else does.
I was right on the money with this score. A fantastic platformer, and one I love dearly, even if it's a little rough around the edges at times. I think I said enough about this one in the review, so I'll just leave it at that.
I've been teased for this one a few times. I spent a lot of the article trashing the game, but I gave it a 3 at the end. Mind you, I do say in the final score section that the music and visuals are the only things keeping it from being a 2. I do love the soundtrack, the visuals are solid and the gamplay isn't, like, horrible, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a pretty mediocre game that I don't really ever need to play again. Let's call it a 2 after all.
Man, I love this game! It's one I went into completely blind and it pretty quickly become one of my favorite games on the SNES. It's like a secret Mega Man X game, but with more gruesome enemies... and flying. Speaking of Mega Man X, I think Demon's Crest deserves the same score. They both have about the same awesome-stuff-to-annoying-parts ratio, and I go back to each game a similar amount. Demon's Crest gets a lot harder than Mega Man X, but unlike that game it has multiple endings, so you don't even have to do the hardest fights in order to finish the game if you don't want to. I recommend this game hardcore.
That's about right. This game is perfectly middle-of-the-road. I didn't hate it, but I didn't really like it at all, either. All the things in this game that I was initially excited for left me disappointed pretty quickly. Cool ideas with frustratingly bland execution is the name of the game. Kirby Squeak Squad is like, fine. I guess.
I think I'm alright with this score. I do enjoy the game, but it's a strange beast to say the least. Rhyme not intended. You basically have to spend a zillion bolts on upgrades if you want any chance of surviving, which isn't exactly par for the course as far as Mega Man goes, and even then, the game can be BRU-TAL. No energy tanks, and only Mega Man has a somewhat decent replacement? Some of the collectable CDs are insanely annoying to get? No saving at all past stage 1 of King's fortress, meaning you have to do 3 stages and FIFTEEN BOSSES in one sitting? Check, check and check. The only thing keeping it just above a 3 is that, well, it's a rock-solid (pun not intended) Mega Man game at its core, just with some... abnormalities.
Alright, it looks like that's everything. I really didn't change that many scores, but hopefully this exercise will help my future reviews be a little more cohesive. Maybe I should drop overall scores altogether? I know some critics hate numerical ratings, because games are such complicated things. I tend to agree, but I mean, at this point, I'd probably better stick with it. It's simply The G-Zone Way. However, the real question remains—how long until I review a game that dethrones the Game Boy Camera? Only time will tell...