My System

Well, I have put up three reviews so far so I figured all my readers were wondering how I come to my final score. If you weren't then I'll tell you anyway so you will never have to. The way I see it, there are three main parts to 90% of games. Gameplay, story, and graphics/presentation. The presentation includes things like music, menus, how many loading screens there are, etc. The other three speak for themselves. The thing I place the most emphasis on in my reviews is gameplay. Gameplay is what makes a game a game, and separates games from other forms of entertainment. This hobby at its core is interactive entertainment after all. Right below gameplay for me is story. The story is (usually) the thing that keeps you playing, puts reason behind the gameplay. Unless the game is just designed around being fun, in which case a bad story won't overshadow how fun the gameplay is. I think all Mario games fall into the "fun and simple" category. Last and (in my opinion) least is the graphics/presentation. Now while graphics do add to the initial shock of how good a game is, you eventually get used to them, and even if a game looked like Halo 1 but played like Halo 3, I would play it over the other way around. Now presentation is important, as technical issues can really ruin a game, sloppy frame rate, screen tearing, and bad aliasing can really ruin your enjoyment of a game. Well, that's my system, give me yours in the comments below.

-Smith