Review History

[Click the links on the right to read my reviews!]
(Sorted by platform and alphabetized)

[-Newest Reviews-]
Kirby Super Star Ultra - Wario Land: Shake It! - Mega Man 9 - Super Mario RPG

I have been writing reviews seriously for almost two years now and have a collection that is over 50 strong. I started writing DS reviews at TheHylia in January of 2007. By the summer, I was writing Wii reviews, as well, and by mid summer was writing reviews for Zentendo, where I eventually became the editor of reviews.

I have written reviews for Wii, DS, Virtual Console, and WiiWare titles, as well as a few reviews for other systems, such as the XBox 360.

My reviews at Zentendo are featured in the databases for Metacritic and Game Rankings as professional reviews.

My review of LostWinds was also referenced on Gamasutra alongside reviews from IGN and Eurogamer in an article regarding critical reception of the game.

[NOTE: There are no images in my reviews because I don't feel they're needed and they would take a LOT of time which I don't have to insert -- images are included in the original review locations.]

Review Policy

I feel it's important to know what one's review policy is before judging their reviews too quickly. Unfortunately, most major gaming sites don't make their review policy (if they even have one in written form) easily accessible. Here is some info on my policy on reviews:

- When reviewing a game, my ultimate goal is to present my opinion but also take into account objective evidence or what I perceive to be objective evidence to back it up.

- I never claim to have some authority over others -- these reviews are simply my opinions as someone who has been playing games passionately for over 15 years. I know a lot of time and energy goes into video games, even ones I consider bland. I mean no offense to the creators of these games, I simply am voicing my opinion in an effort to direct gamers to play games I think deserve attention and avoid ones I think don't, because in the end this benefits the industry. This, in my opinion, is the duty of the critic: to spur consumers to avoid content we think should be better and to support content we think is quality work. This encourages developers to continue making good games and encourages developers who make poor games to make better ones.

- I feel that scores are a neccessary evil: they provide an easy way to generally guage how a reviewer feels a game is compared to others, but scores often get overrated in importance. READ my review, don't just look at the score.

- I've added "Pros and Cons" to my reviews, something I don't do in my professional site, Zentendo, because I feel it helps readers get a quick glimpse of my general feelings on certain issues in the game that stood out to me.

- I try to review games based on a number of criteria, including how well I feel they stand up to other titles for the same platform and within the same genre. Price does come into play when I decide on a score and general attitude toward a game because the fact of the matter is that price comes into consideration for the consumer, as well.

- One important factor that I try to consider and always make mention of is what I perceive the game's goals/target audience to be. If I feel it accomplishes what it sets out to do well and is a quality product, I will mention that. If I feel it is good for a specific audience but not good for gamers in general, I will express that and why. If I feel it's just not a good game all around, that will be reflected, too.

- I try to rate classic games based on a combination of how influencial they were but more importantly if I feel they are still fun today and still hold up well. Usually, these two come together, but not always.

- I, like anyone else who has and ever will write a review, cannot completely avoid subjectivity. There are simply some games I will dislike or like more or less than others will. I try to let that personal skew carry some weight in my reviews but not too much. I do not expect everyone to agree with me. The point of a review is to read the opinion of someone who has already played the game to see what they thought of it, not to scientifically measure up a game, which is impossible. If you tend to agree with my opinion on games you have played, you will quite possibly agree with me on games you have yet to play.

- For the purposes of this site, I will use a scoring scale from 0-5 using halves. This is essentially the 1-10 rating scale but simplified a bit in an effort to avoid the unfortunate truth that games rated 7 or 6 get viewed as "bad" when in fact games they should be viewed as "good" and "fair/OK", respectively. A 3/5 looks better to most people than a 6/10 for some reason. I have yet to review a game I considered to be a 1.5/5 or lower, mainly because I only have time to review a couple of games a month or so and the games which I would consider to be that bad probably aren't ones my readerships cares to know about.

- A game I award a 5/5 does not mean I think it is perfect: no game is. It means I feel the game is complete, very polished, extremely well-designed, and will likely be enjoyed greatly by most anyone.

[NOTE: Some review scores have been modified from their original forms to better reflect my thoughts on the games in an effort to expand the ratings to cover a wider breadth of the scoring scale and also to better differentiate them.]