Totals tallied, contest over, winner announced!

[digitalpress]

The math wasn't the greatest part of this contest, I can tell you that. I input the scores of all four judges, and for the averaged totals that were close (9 or higher) I tallied all of the forum judges and used your average as the "fifth judge". It turned out incredibly close, but our winning entry is:

*drum roll*

M.U.L.E.!
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23147

You can find the calculated totals of all the reviews that made the cut at the end of this thread. Thanks again to everyone who participated, both as writers and as "review the reviewer" critics.

This forum is open again - feel free to reveal your identities if you'd like!

Review Drexel PC Kwaj Cap'n DP AVG Forum re-AVG
M.U.L.E. (Atari 8-bit) 9 9 10 10 9.5 9 9.4
Defender (Arcade) 10 9 9 9 9.25 9.28 9.256
StarFlight (PC) 10 9 8 10 9.25 8 9
Undead Line (Mega Drive) 9 9 9 9 9 8.57 8.914
Paradroid (Commodore 64) 9 9 8 9 8.75
Road Trip (PS2) 8 8 8.5 10 8.625
Solaris (Atari 2600) 9 8.5 8 9 8.625
Eggerland Meikyuu Fukkatsu (Famicom) 9 8 8 9 8.5
Disgaea (PS2) 9 7 8.75 9 8.4375
Diner (Intellivision) 9 8.5 7 9 8.375
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PS2) 8 8.5 9 8 8.375
T-Mek (Cross-Platform) 8 7.5 8 9 8.125
Gradius II (Famicom) 9 9 7 6 7.75
Sly Cooper (PS2) 9 8 7 7 7.75
F-Zero GX (GC) 8 8.5 7 7 7.625
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) 8 7.5 8 7 7.625
Viewtiful Joe (GC) 9 7.5 7 7 7.625
Grid Runner (Saturn) 7 8.5 8 6 7.375
WWF No Mercy (N64) 8 8.5 6 7 7.375
Battle Bakraid (Arcade) 8 7 7 7 7.25
Thunder Castle (Intellivision) 7 8 6 8 7.25
Pac-Man 2 (SNES) 7 6.5 5 10 7.125
Tapper (Atari 8-bit) 9 8 5 6 7
Tobal No. 1 (Playstation) 7 8 6 6 6.75
Halo (Xbox) 8 7.5 5 6 6.625
Soul Calibur 2 (GC) 7 7.5 6 6 6.625
Castlevania: LoI (PS2) 7 6 5 8 6.5
Life Force (NES) 6 5.5 6 7 6.125
Shenmue (DC) 5 7.5 6 6 6.125
Video Life (Atari 2600) 6 6 6 6 6
Alf (SMS) 7 5.5 4 7 5.875
Bounty Bob Strikes Back (Atari 8-bit) 7 6.5 3 7 5.875
Congo Bongo (Cross-Platform) 6 6 5 6 5.75
Legend of Zelda (NES) 7 6 3 7 5.75
Legend of Zelda: ALttP (SNES) 6 6 4 6 5.5
Popeye (Atari 8-bit) 7 6 4 5 5.5

[maxlords]

Damn! FOURTH! So close yet SOOOOOOO far!

[Half Japanese]

I did Sly Cooper which came in 15th. I had fun though, and I got my first issue of DP in the mail today! Here's hoping for another one, where I can improve my writing and hopefully come in a little closer to the top! Thanks for the contest and the prizes!

[Captain Wrong]

Congrats to all the winners! The finals were pretty tough to judge.

[Flack]

I wrote the Paradroid and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reviews, which ended up ranking #5 and #11. Good job to everybody who entered. I know I learned to look at my own writing a bit more objectively.

Let's hurry up and get round two started!

[Sotenga]

My Battle Bakraid came in #20 place... not bad at all for a review that wasn't even intended for this contest!

Hope everyone had a fun time, and I'm looking forward to the next battle... er, war... er, contest... OF DOOM!!!

Nah, I'm just kidding. Congrats to all who placed #19 and above!

[NoahsMyBro]

Damn, I KNEW I should have reviewed myself!!

Just kidding. I was the humble author of Defender, the oh-so-close Second Place entry.

This was fun - I would have never entertained the notion of writing something for public consumption, but now that I've tried it I'm open to the possibility of doing it again.

I hope everybody else had as much fun as I did with this contest.

Thanks again Joe, Sniderman, and everyone else involved!

[IntvGene]

Well, congrats to the winners, and anyone who put the effort into writing a review.

My emotionless review was quite a ways down the list (Thunder Castle). But, it was fun, even though it was a bit of a bumpy ride with some of the comments. And, I think that many of us learned quite a bit. As a sidenote, for anyone who did as bad as me (or worse), I wouldn't take it too hard, writing is incredibly subjective, and if you get any personal enjoyment out of it, like I do, keep at it.

Finally, as always, kudos to Joe, et al. for ponying up the prizes, and to all the judges for their hard work... except that Russian judge that gave me a six!

Thanks again.

[Dire 51]

I wrote the Gradius II review, and I'm glad that something I wrote so long ago still holds up somewhat today. However, one of these days I'm going to go back and rewrite the whole thing, taking the comments posted here about it into account.

[o2william]

I penned, or rather typed, the #3-ranked Starflight entry. As I told Joe, I felt a little funny about entering the contest since I have some professional writing experience (although I haven't written to make my living for some time now), but I just couldn't resist reviewing my favorite game with 6 free DP issues on the line! As many readers noticed, my article was more of a tribute to/overview of the game than a regular review, so third place is actually better than I hoped for.

Congrats to the #1 and #2 winners, and everybody who entered!

[Drexel923]

Congrats to the winners. I had a fun time being a judge as there were a lot of good entries...I'm sure that the next time will be even better.

[Lady Jaye]

I wrote the Solaris review, which ended up in 7th place. I have to admit one thing: what you saw was basically a first draft. I got so enthusiastic about the contest that I wrote that review in one shot and sent it almost immediately, instead of letting it sit for a few hours/days.

I, too, have some professional writing experience as a game columnist, and writing is somewhat my daily life anyway, since I work as a translator (however, I work mostly from English to French, and it had been a while since I had last written any text in English).

Anyway, congrats to all the winners! I'm now looking forward to my issues of DP!

[Retro Pro]

I wrote the "Road Trip" review. I came in 6th out of 36 finalists and 67 overall entries (if my math is correct), got a really nice "10" from Joe, and won a free six-issue subscription to the newsletter, so I'm very happy. I've done some professional writing in the past myself, but it's been a while. I entered this contest mainly to see if I "still have it." I guess I do. The responses I received were all REALLY encouraging, and I managed to spread the word a little bit about an incredible game, so all in all, this was a great experience for me.

*Anxiously awaits the next contest.*

Now, to find a Nomad for cheap...

(BTW, I have a question: Will these reviews be transferred to the regular review section of the website with our actual names listed? I certainly wouldn't mind having my review there. I assume one of the purposes of this contest was to increase the number of reviews on the site.)

[Lady Jaye]

Ooh, I took a closer look at the rankings, and I actually finished 6th (tied with Retro Pro's Road Trip review)... Cool!

[Jorpho]

Number Nine... Hey, that would be the Top 25 percent.

Stuck as I was for a topic, I remembered this old thread, and wrote the Eggerland review. (I'm really glad no one caught my mistake of writing "Lamola" instead of "Alma".) I guess it was hard to know where to stop, and actually I could have gone on longer...

The translation patch for the game is currently somewhere in development limbo, while I wait for yet another person whose Japanese skills are theoretically superior to mine to tackle the script.

Speaking of which, has anyone heard from Charlie lately? I've seen him post on some other boards. He never did tell me how to finish one of the later unsolvable levels.