Criteria for the reviews - Updated: 23rd of December 2002


The reviews are divided into the below categories.

(Short information)

System: Which system or systems the game can be played on.
The system I've tested the game on will be to the left.
Television System: In most countries in Europe we have
the television system PAL, in Japan and USA the television
system is NTSC. Here I state which version I've tested.
Probably just PAL.
Publisher: Which company that publishes the game. Often 
they have not much to do with the design of the game.
They put the game to market and sometimes they assign
developers to make games for them. An example is the
Pokémon Stadium games HAL made for Nintendo in the late 90's.
Developer: The ones who made the game but didn't get any
money for it, just kidding.
Players: How many players that can play at the same time.
Genre: Which genre the game belongs to. Pretty hard to define.
Memory Card: How many blocks or KB a memory card uses to save.
Released: When the game was first released in the regions below.
Japan: 
USA: 
Europe:

(Intro:)
The topic won't be shown in the reviews. Here I tell in short if the
game has any prequels and I also give a short summary of the game.
So you'll know if the review is worth spending time with.

Story:
Here there are no grade, here I only explain the background to the
story and a very short part in the beginning of the game. Don't 
worry I won't spoil anything. I don't rate this because in many games
there are no story and in some the story isn't supposed to be 
complicated just a way to get the player into the game.

Graphics:
The visual parts of the game. How beautiful, detailed, fast and
mostly how well the graphics suits the game.

Sound:
Music, soundeffects, narration and voice acting. An average on 
how well these elements are performed in the game determines the
sound grade. It's not only for the music to be good, it must also 
be right for the game.

Control/Gameplay:
The most important part of a game. How it's played. The control.
The grade is dependent on how fun it is to play, how well it is
controlled and how few annoying moments there are.

Lasting appeal:
This score is determined on how long a player can play the game without
getting bored. This is of course pretty individual but I try to make
a fair score by judging the length, the variation, the replayability
and multiplayer options.

Total:
Not an average. A score which involves everything about the game.
Not only the categories above, every little detail and how well it
is mixed to become a game. All of the categories do not weigh a like,
some is more important than others, but that's often dependent on 
which game type it is.

Spoilers:
As the topic indicates here you'll get minor spoilers which are here in
case you want to get more excited about the game and feel the rest of
the review don't say enough. But be warned there will be spoilers so 
don't you mail me angry e-mail for I saying too much.


In the categories, Graphics, Sound, Control/Gameplay, Lasting appeal and Total
the games are rated from 10-1, where 10 being best and 1 being worse.

10 - Few games live up to this. The game has to be really special and
     lack nothing to earn the perfect 10.

 9 - Fantastic. Those games worth a nine, are games that should
     be in every serious gamer's shelf.

 8 - Very good. A must buy if you fancy the genre.

 7 - Good. Worth buying, worth spending time with but beware
     if you don't like the genre.

 6 - Above mediocre, but still OK. Should be rented first.

 5 - Mediocre, nothing to waste money buying, but maybe renting.

<4 - How many words are there for "don't care, this game isn't
     worth the money, nor the time".

*Note* These grades are based on my opinions, so please do not 
feel offended if I give a low grade to a game you like.

© 2002 Christian Wall