4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

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Alienblue

4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby Alienblue » April 24th, 2007, 5:20 am

I COULD see the point of computerized jigsaw puzzles for two reasons. 1) You never lose pieces and 2) the computer COULD make a new puzzle every time by "cutting" random pieces. Is there a random option on the CD-i game?

I am actually reading a HISTORY OF JIGSAW PUZZLES book right now (hey it was on sale for five lousy bucks!). Seriously, there are some interesting things about them. Did you know in the early part of the century, and into the 30's, they had JIGSAW RENTAL outfits-the precurors to todays movie/game rental outfits? Puzzles cost about 1/3 of a weekly salary back then, so most rented them. Cheap puzzles came later, and, strangely, one of the biggest puzzle crazes was during the depression! Out of work? Starving? Don't buy food, get a puzzle!- and we think VIDEOGAMES are a craze NOW!

feilong801
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4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby feilong801 » April 24th, 2007, 10:20 am

[QUOTE=EdwardM]I noticed for the Zelda Game, you said "On any other system this is game would be considered "bottom of the barrel", but on a system so lacking of action titles, Faces of Evil seems almost respectable."  You gave it a C-, which wouldn't be a "bottom of the barrel grade"   Are you trying to say that you don't grade your games equally.  Meaning that a C- for an SNES or Dreamcast game would be much better than a C- for a CD-I game.   Are the games for the CD-I so bad, that you actually increase the grading curve for it.  Would this be comparable to a C- SNES game, or do you increase the curve for lackluster systems?
[/QUOTE]

I think the Critic's philosophy here is that a game is graded based on how it is compared to other games on that system. So, as the SNES and Genesis had far better games than the CD-i, an "A" game on the CD-i might only be a C game if it were released for the SNES.

Though I disagree with this grading system somewhat (sometimes bad is bad, you know?), I understand what he's getting at. A "C" game for the CD-i is a bad game indeed.

-Rob

m0zart1
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4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby m0zart1 » April 24th, 2007, 10:31 am

[QUOTE=EdwardM]I noticed for the Zelda Game, you said "On any other system this is game would be considered "bottom of the barrel", but on a system so lacking of action titles, Faces of Evil seems almost respectable."  You gave it a C-, which wouldn't be a "bottom of the barrel grade"   Are you trying to say that you don't grade your games equally.  Meaning that a C- for an SNES or Dreamcast game would be much better than a C- for a CD-I game.   Are the games for the CD-I so bad, that you actually increase the grading curve for it.  Would this be comparable to a C- SNES game, or do you increase the curve for lackluster systems?
[/QUOTE]

He's always stated that he grades his games per system, treating each system as a single universe.  That's how he is able to keep games in the Atari 2600 universe scoring in respect to their other Atari 2600 games.  It's how he avoids the trap that sites like Gamespot have set for themselves in respect to their recent reviews of VC games where they keep comparing classic games to the modern generation, and failing most of them.


gleebergloben1
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4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby gleebergloben1 » April 24th, 2007, 1:27 pm

[QUOTE=m0zart]

[QUOTE=EdwardM]I noticed for the Zelda Game, you said "On any other system this is game would be considered "bottom of the barrel", but on a system so lacking of action titles, Faces of Evil seems almost respectable."  You gave it a C-, which wouldn't be a "bottom of the barrel grade"   Are you trying to say that you don't grade your games equally.  Meaning that a C- for an SNES or Dreamcast game would be much better than a C- for a CD-I game.   Are the games for the CD-I so bad, that you actually increase the grading curve for it.  Would this be comparable to a C- SNES game, or do you increase the curve for lackluster systems?
[/QUOTE]

He's always stated that he grades his games per system, treating each system as a single universe.  That's how he is able to keep games in the Atari 2600 universe scoring in respect to their other Atari 2600 games.  It's how he avoids the trap that sites like Gamespot have set for themselves in respect to their recent reviews of VC games where they keep comparing classic games to the modern generation, and failing most of them.

[/QUOTE]

I totally see the reason for not comparing a 2600 game to a PS3 game, of course, but what about judging a game in comparison with systems that came out during the same time?  Sega CD and the SNES came out at the same time as CD-i, so I'm not sure that such a grade curve should be given to CD-i in that case.  But I'm a slobbering catatonic who loves watching infomercials all day, so what do I know.

m0zart1
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4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby m0zart1 » April 24th, 2007, 3:54 pm

[QUOTE=gleebergloben]I totally see the reason for not comparing a 2600 game to a PS3 game, of course, but what about judging a game in comparison with systems that came out during the same time?  Sega CD and the SNES came out at the same time as CD-i, so I'm not sure that such a grade curve should be given to CD-i in that case.  But I'm a slobbering catatonic who loves watching infomercials all day, so what do I know.[/QUOTE]

Well, I am sure he's heard this before.  I personally like judging games within their own generation better than within a single system, but I believe the single system scale is what he uses.

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4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby VideoGameCritic » April 24th, 2007, 6:20 pm

It would be hard to measure games against others in the same generation, because generations overlap and often blur together.  I prefer my current system of grading against other games on the system. 

It is true that a "C" game on the CD-i might be a D or F on the SNES.  That said, you can bet that any game that gets an A or B is pretty darned good (no matter what the system) and any D or F titles are pretty lousy.



Alienblue

4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby Alienblue » April 25th, 2007, 5:17 am

My own feeling is that the critic should grade on a curve, although having to go outside and write the game down on a curve in the road must take more time.

He is right about systems overlapping. Early NES games were only a bit better than some Colecovision or high-end computer games, but near the end, SUPER MARIO BROS. 3 compared quite favorably to an SNES game. And 16 bit games like Donkey Kong Country looked good compared to some 32-bit ones.

If all he had was a letter, it would be confusing but as long as, in the review somewhere, he states it would be a "bottom of the barrel" game on another system, he's ok. It's like FIREFLY is an F game on the Atari 2600, but if the Channel F could've pulled that game off, it too would get a C-even though it is awful!

PSXferrari

4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby PSXferrari » May 29th, 2007, 1:11 am

Hey, crappy system or not, keep those retro reviews coming Critic.  I personally picked up a CD-i a couple years ago just to try out the Zelda games (and already knowing what mess I was getting into) and Hotel Mario. And seeing the hilarious Zelda cutscenes alone is worth the money and probably has to rank as the most unintentionally funny moment in gaming.

Owning several of the terrible systems from the 90s (Jaguar, 3DO, CD-i, Virtual Boy, etc) and loving those systems despite (or for) their crappiness, it's great to see new reviews getting posted for them. So keep them coming, cuz I'm sure there's plenty of people besides me reading them and using them. I can search and find 100 reviews for the newest Wii games, but it's those older titles that are impossible to find stuff on. (Which reminds me, thanks for pointing out NFL Instant Replay. After reading your review it took me 2 years to get a hold of a copy [couldn't even find it on eBay], and even overpaid for it [$20]. Definitely worth it though.)

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4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby VideoGameCritic » May 29th, 2007, 8:09 pm

[QUOTE=PSXferrari]Hey, crappy system or not, keep those retro reviews coming Critic.  I personally picked up a CD-i a couple years ago just to try out the Zelda games (and already knowing what mess I was getting into) and Hotel Mario. And seeing the hilarious Zelda cutscenes alone is worth the money and probably has to rank as the most unintentionally funny moment in gaming.

Owning several of the terrible systems from the 90s (Jaguar, 3DO, CD-i, Virtual Boy, etc) and loving those systems despite (or for) their crappiness, it's great to see new reviews getting posted for them. So keep them coming, cuz I'm sure there's plenty of people besides me reading them and using them. I can search and find 100 reviews for the newest Wii games, but it's those older titles that are impossible to find stuff on. (Which reminds me, thanks for pointing out NFL Instant Replay. After reading your review it took me 2 years to get a hold of a copy [couldn't even find it on eBay], and even overpaid for it [$20]. Definitely worth it though.)
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the feedback!  Yeah I agree that my reviews of mediocre and obscure titles can be far more informative (and entertaining) than the more popular stuff.  Rest assured I will keep churning out reviews for bad games!  Because you guys deserve it!

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4/23/2007: Philips CD-i: Jigsaw, Link: The Faces of Evil, Merlin's Apprentice, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon

Postby feilong801 » May 30th, 2007, 12:09 am

Awesome. Bad game reviewers are great fun to read!

-Rob


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