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REVIEWS - Authors - Sam ::
My taste in video games, as for most long-time gamers, has evolved considerably over time. I grew up mainly on adventure games like Super Mario Bros., E.V.O., and Donkey Kong Country, and like many boys in my generation, played a fair amount of 2D fighters like Mortal Kombat, Clay Fighter, and of course, Street Fighter II. While I appreciate both of these genres for what they offer to the history of gaming, I can't help but notice how completely unoriginal and uninteresting their games have become in recent generations. Perhaps because of this, today I find myself most drawn to "crazy" games - or rather, games too unique to clearly define, such as Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Wario Ware, and Katamari Damacy. Nintendo works with my personal tastes because they're really the only major publisher out there that's seriously dedicated to unique and exciting gameplay.
Scoring with Sam
Unlike a lot of reviewers, I only grade on solid integers. I just find it hard to clearly distinguish between 9.4 and 9.3 quality, y'know?
I'm very reluctant to give games below a 6, cause I really try to respect all the work it takes to put together a modern video game, even if it turns out somewhat misguided in the end.
An Overall score has little to do with my opinion on the game's control and replay value, and is pretty much unaffected by what I think of the graphics or sound in a game. Thus, very rarely will you see a review in which the score I give for gameplay is significantly different from the Overall score.
This is what an Overall score means to me in the end:
10 - =Perfect= - (no game is truly perfect)
9 - =Amazing= - one of the best games I've ever played
8 - =Great= - a high-end game
7 - =Good= - fun, but nothing spectacular
6 - =Okay= - could've been much better
5 - =Mediocre= - waste of my time
4 - =Crap= - shouldn't be played
3 - =Bad= - not fun at all
2 - =Trash= - terrible, painful to play
1 - =Terrible= - completely unplayable
0 - =N/A= - (somehow there is no game to play)
My Top 10 List
At least for me, this is important to reveal to my readers. The list is always changing as new games are coming out, and I'm not one to rank highly just for nostalgia. For instance, I basically grew up on the milk of Super Mario World's teat, although in recent years, I've acknowledged SMB3 as a better game all around.
Also important to note: I try to abstain from having two games from the same series take up space on this list. For example, I can't stand looking at lists that read "1 - Pokémon Red, 2 - Pokémon Blue, 3 - Pokémon Green, etc."
Without further ado, here are my ten favorite games of all time:
1: EarthBound - SNES
2: Wario Ware, Inc. series - GBA/GCN/DS
3: Katamari Damacy - PS2
4: Pikmin 2 - GCN
5: Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon - N64
6: Animal Crossing - GCN
7: Pokémon series - GB/GBC/GBA
8: Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - GCN
9: Harvest Moon Back to Nature - PS1
10: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - GCN
Bye!
Well, that's it. Hope this helps you put my reviews into context. As always, have fun around the site. Later!
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