Daniel Thomas Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Just wanted to let everyone know that I have a new review/essay for Ballblazer on my website. Let me know what you think. I'm sure that there are some fans on this board. Thank goodness for the wonderful Atari versions, and not that horrible NES version. And did anyone try out Ballblazer Champions on the PSX? www.danielthomas.org/pop/classics/ballblazer.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Mo Posted April 6, 2003 Share Posted April 6, 2003 Nice review. I wish you'd mentioned the few great bells and whistles on the game: notably the clever "intro" with the rotofoils driving back and forth and the drivers waving. Class act. I never played Ballblazer Champions because when I read about it and saw that they had done to it I lost all interest. Sigh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Thomas Posted April 6, 2003 Author Share Posted April 6, 2003 You know, I was thinking about that intro when writing the review. I alwasy enjoyed the loading intros that Lucasfilm Games put into their early games -- Rescue on Fractalus is another great one. Of course, with modern emulation, those loading sequences are now lost. When writing a review, there are so many things to highlight and talk about, that it really comes down to focusing on your main points. You'll notice that I'm trying to structure my game reviews differently than the norm. The typical videogame review follows the same pattern of "the graphics are..." and "the sound and music are..." and "the gameplay is..." It's game reviews by Mad Libs. My style is closer to Pauline Kael's, which gets at the marrow of what makes a videogame tick. Is this a legitimate part of the pop culture, ala movies, music, and television? If it is, then we need some better writing. Eventually, I plan to publish a collection of these reviews in a volume, not unlike Roger Ebert's "The Great Movies," a wonderful book of film reviews from his bi-weekly Sun-Times column. Again, thanks for the kind words. It means a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big_Mo Posted April 13, 2003 Share Posted April 13, 2003 Comparing yourself to Pauline Kael is pretty ballsy. I agree that most reviews are Mad Libs like. Typically, they're either like that, or they're trying too hard to be flip and funny...then there's the Harry Knowles "tell a novella length story about how you got to the game and forget the grammar" approach. Ugh. I used to write handheld gaming reviews for Video Games & Computer Animation Magazine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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