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Games reviewed twice in Zzap!

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 1:33 am
by Fab
The opposite of the previous thread :wink:

As far as I can remember, two games were reviewed twice in Zzap! One was the budget re-release of Ghosts'n'Goblins. First in issue 44, getting 94%, then in issue 54, getting 97%. The second one is International Speedway: first it was reviewed in issue 48, getting 49%. Then, again, it was reviewed in issue 80, getting 58%. Maybe a search in Zzap! Bible will dig out some more...

Why did this happen? My theory: a game was announced and reviewed, but did not come out; then, some months or years after, the game was released and was therefore reviewed again.

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 12:32 pm
by CraigGrannell
Bubble Bobble also. Some budget games simply got released more than once, sometimes at different price points (going from £1.99 to £2.99 for instance).

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 12:46 pm
by LeeT
Yes tons of games that were re-released on budget got reviewed again, and they usually pointed out the original rating in the budget review...

Plus of course there was ZZAP!BACK where the top rating games from the earlier issues were scruitinised from the latest reviewers. Anyone remember that?

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 2:00 pm
by Lloyd Mangram
Oh, Leet, it was my favourite part of the mag.
Especially when Jaz & Gaz admitted in Zzap!back that Chris Anderson pushed them to award Sizzlers for certain games they disliked.

btw, I'm very glad that Paul & Robin did justice to Delta in the Zzap!back of issue 107!

Rob

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 2:04 pm
by LeeT
Yes there was a few games that Chris Anderson 'forced' JR and GP to endorse, including Elite and Activision's Tennis - Naughty Chris!

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2003 2:18 pm
by CraigGrannell
That happens with _every_ mag of this type. As for Delta, I hate the game and was rather hoping they'd slate it. I thought Paul's comments odd in z107, saying that it's the graphics and sound which are good, and then saying that's enough for a Sizzler! :)

Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2003 10:24 am
by SLF
Rainbow Islands was another (kind of):

It was at first reviewed in issue 53 (september 1989) and got a 92% sizzler. Then the game didn't come out as Firebird was bought by Microprose (IIRC).

When it was finally released by Ocean, there was a box in issue 61's (may 1990) the Word saying that a Gold Medal might have been required.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:19 pm
by smila
well i thought delta was a rocking wee game.

was kind of a thinking persons shooter.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:46 pm
by gordon
biggestjim wrote:Especially when Jaz & Gaz admitted in Zzap!back that Chris Anderson pushed them to award Sizzlers for certain games they disliked.
Ironically, Paul (Glancey) and I had similar pressure in our first or second month writing for Zzap! when we wanted to give one of the Breakout clones a Sizzler, and Jaz decided against it... Funnily enough, given the arkanoid/krakout-related post in this forum, I think it was Traz -- from memory, we both thought it deserved a Sizzler, but it ended up in the high 80s (87%? 88%?). I was quite miffed. On the other hand, I was the one who upped Hawkeye's mark, so I can hardly talk :)

re Delta: I think it's the toughest of those controversial games to mark, since the music is pretty much one of the best on the C64, the graphics were pretty good at the time, very smooth and fast and colourful, and the gameplay -- well, at it's worst it's a good shoot 'em up, and given the whole graphics/sound package as well, it probably deserved a mark in the high 80s. If only it wasn't so unforgiving at the start: but having said that, games like Blazing Star on the NeoGeo and Ikaruga on the Cube are all about pattern recognition and pixel-perfect accuracy.

g.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 8:07 pm
by CraigGrannell
I'd probably have liked it a whole lot more if the power-ups didn't die out, and if you didn't need specific power-ups to get through certain areas of the game.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 8:16 pm
by gordon
CraigGrannell wrote:I'd probably have liked it a whole lot more if the power-ups didn't die out, and if you didn't need specific power-ups to get through certain areas of the game.
Yeah, that was the bit that really pissed me off, too; it's quite a serious flaw. Something like you lose *one* power-up would have been better, because if you lose your speed in certain areas, you're basically stuffed, particularly at the beginning. And like you say, if you could get through any section without powerups, even if it required some serious dodging skills, you would have felt fairly treated.

Oh well, at least Wizball got the mark it deserved :)

g.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 10:46 pm
by Lloyd Mangram
Gordon wrote:
Oh well, at least Wizball got the mark it deserved
Ha! I'm not too shure if that was a sarcastic joke :?:
Wizball could've been a Gold Medal, isn't it? (98% would be fine to me, instead of the sizzling 96%)

Just complaining... :wink:

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 11:03 pm
by gordon
biggestjim wrote:Gordon wrote:
Oh well, at least Wizball got the mark it deserved
Ha! I'm not too shure if that was a sarcastic joke :?:
Wizball could've been a Gold Medal, isn't it? (98% would be fine to me, instead of the sizzling 96%)

Just complaining... :wink:
Yep, it was sarcastic -- it should *definitely* have been a Gold Medal. What a great game, and what a cop out to let it Sizzle -- interesting that it was later given 97% in one of the 50s issues.

g.

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 11:50 pm
by LeeT
I was re-reading an issue of ZZAP! the other day and there was a budget review of 'Bubble Bobble' and it only got 94% and the reviewer said it looked dated!! Funny how it is nearly always in people's Top 10 games lists.... The budget review was from 1991.

Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2003 8:52 am
by SLF
gordon wrote:
biggestjim wrote:Especially when Jaz & Gaz admitted in Zzap!back that Chris Anderson pushed them to award Sizzlers for certain games they disliked.
Ironically, Paul (Glancey) and I had similar pressure in our first or second month writing for Zzap! when we wanted to give one of the Breakout clones a Sizzler, and Jaz decided against it... Funnily enough, given the arkanoid/krakout-related post in this forum, I think it was Traz -- from memory, we both thought it deserved a Sizzler, but it ended up in the high 80s (87%? 88%?). I was quite miffed. On the other hand, I was the one who upped Hawkeye's mark, so I can hardly talk :)

re Delta: I think it's the toughest of those controversial games to mark, since the music is pretty much one of the best on the C64, the graphics were pretty good at the time, very smooth and fast and colourful, and the gameplay -- well, at it's worst it's a good shoot 'em up, and given the whole graphics/sound package as well, it probably deserved a mark in the high 80s. If only it wasn't so unforgiving at the start: but having said that, games like Blazing Star on the NeoGeo and Ikaruga on the Cube are all about pattern recognition and pixel-perfect accuracy.

g.
Hawkeye: I'm really grateful then, g., as it is one of my absolute faves and I still play it to this day (De gustibus...).

Delta: at its time, despite the flaws, it should have sizzled. The main drawbacks were the lame extra weaponry (the rotating ball actually made the game harder!), the fact that its fading is time based and not, say, number-of-bullets-shot based (as Penn pointed out at the time), and the fact that it becomes far too hard at around level 20 (after the sun of dreams). But it's a great gaming experience all the same, like a dreamlike trip in outer space, good graphics, excellent sonics, and those level names are just so cool. I would still give it 85% circa, but I by far prefer Katakis, Armalyte and even Salamander.

Wizball: one of the best games ever, if a touch on the easy side: definitely gold medal stuff. Inspirational. BTW You and Paul G gave it the Def Shoot'em up award and 98% in issue 43 (november 1988). The page is online at Marticus' (a Lemon member) site.