MSR1701 wrote:Heck, through the years I've disagreed with the VGC here and there, though I still used the site as a benchmark to see if something would be worth the time to play. And even if his thoughts don't match with what I would think on some things (I have a soft spot for Lion King Game Boy, which he slammed, though my view is partially tinted by Nostalgia, I will admit), he is honest with his thoughts and conveys what he does or does not like in the games he reviews.
That's the thing about any reviewer who maintains a consistent perspective. If you understand what that perspective is, you don't need to agree with them for their reviews to still be useful to you.
It's possible for a review to be extremely negative, and yet still communicate that a person with different tastes might enjoy the thing being reviewed -- and vice versa. With any reviewer you kinda need to read between the lines and extrapolate the difference between their personal tastes and value judgments vs. the actual qualities of the thing being reviewed.
Anyone who reads Dave's site knows certain things consistently put his back up: a steep learning curve, a long manual that has to be read, unintuitive controls, slow methodical gameplay, a bad opening stage, and so forth. If those things don't bother you, then it's possible to read his review and infer that you'll enjoy the game. I've done that a few times -- read one of Dave's reviews and thought "He gave this a bad grade, but I think I'd like it." And I was right!
If we create a gaming spectrum from "bro" to "weeb", then Dave is definitely more toward the "bro" end. Naturally, people at the other end of that spectrum are more likely to WELL ACKTHUALLY his opinions. But I appreciate the fact that Dave doesn't get swept away by backstory/lore, anime iconography, or general nerding out. Many reviewers do fall prey to those things, so it's a welcome contrast.
But I do like F-Zero a lot.
That one's a B+ game in my book for sure, maybe even A-.