Talk:AlphaBounce/GA1

GA review

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Nominator: Cukie Gherkin (talk · contribs) 04:35, 9 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: Shooterwalker (talk · contribs) 17:11, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'll take this one on. Look for comments later this week, if not sooner. Shooterwalker (talk) 17:11, 14 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Let's try to get through a first pass on the body. Once we know it's stable, we can look at the lead.

Gameplay

Really solid opening sentence. Likens it to recognizable historic games, but still explains what those are, for readers who might not be familiar.
That said, it's a bit of a mouthful -- maybe consider moving "single-player" to later in the passage, as something less important? This is more of a suggestion, and not something that would disrupt a GA.
"The first two" -> " The first two characters" or " The first two levels" (for clarify)
"The game requires the use of the Nintendo DSi's touchscreen to use the paddle to manipulate a ball around the play field. " -> "The game uses the Nintendo DSi's touchscreen to control a paddle that manipulates a ball around the play field" (simpler)
" During play, modifiers may appear that the player can collect which either strengthen or weaken their paddle; positive modifiers include the addition of three other balls and causing parts of the map to be cleared. There are more than two dozen such items that can be found " -> "During play, items will sometimes appear that either help or hinder the player when collected. There are more than two dozen such items with unique effects, such as clearing parts of the map or adding additional balls." (turn one long sentence into two medium sentences)
"kicked out" / "force them out" -> I realize we might be hesitant to throw around jargon. But if something like "game over" doesn't feel right, even "ends the level" or "ends the play session" might be more clear.
" except for previously beaten levels" -> this sort of reduces the clarity, and might work better as its own sentence. e.g.: "Players can also replay previous levels".

Development and release

Consider breaking up the first sentence, for readability. e.g. ". It was released for..."
The section is short. Do you feel confident that this is all there is to say about its development?

Reception

Let's start with the timely reviews, and move the retrospective "best games on the DS" stuff to the end of the section. Alternatively, let's at least have a paragraph break. It helps readers to be able to distinguish between the immediate critical reaction, and then the retrospective reaction after time has passed.
" Multiple critics considered it a fresh take on the formula found in Arkanoid and Breakout; including IGN writer Daemon Hatfield and NintendoLife writer Marcel van Duyn, who considered it the best clone of Arkanoid ever made" -> the semi-colon is confusing here
- If you mean to apply this to just the two reviews, maybe simplify the sentence by having two shorter phrases, joined by an "also".
- If you mean to apply this to every review in the rest of the paragraph, I suggest turning everything before the semi-colon into its own sentence, with a bundle of a few citations to support it.
Inserting the sidebar about Joker breaks up the flow of the multiple Ronaghan comments. Either reduce Ronaghan to a single comment, or rearrange it so Joker comes after Ronaghan's are done.
Similar concern about the Van Duyn sidebar between the Hatfield comments. Try to do it one at a time, or do a quick summary sentence with all of them before diving into each one individually.
"M! Games staff felt that the gameplay could get too chaotic due to them being unable to parse the power-ups from one another due to so many dropping at a time" -> ""M! Games staff thought the gameplay became too chaotic and hard to follow whenever several power-ups dropped at once."
"This was a sentiment shared by Pocket Gamer writer Mike Rose, who felt that not only was it hard to see the difference between power-ups, but also found it hard to remember what some power-ups do. He felt that the concept was interesting, but that the execution was poor, criticizing long load times, tedious parts of the game, and the fragility of the player's ship." -> "Pocket Gamer’s Mike Rose felt that the concept was interesting, but also criticized the power-ups as hard to distinguish, while further criticizing details such as the fragile ship and long load times."
"Gamekult writer Boulapoire was similarly turned off by the long load times and difficulty discerning power-ups from each other, noting that their small size makes it more challenging. They felt that the concept was intriguing, but that the execution was lacking." -> "Gamekult writer Boulapoire also praised the game's concept, but had difficulty with the game's confusing power-ups and long load times."
" Eurogamer writer Kristan Reed felt that the sheer number of levels caused the game to be tedious to progress through; he felt that, at its best, it can be fun, thanks in part to its "inventive ideas and bold scope," but also felt that the level of patience required was too high for what it offers" -> "Eurogamer’s Kristan Reed praised the game’s inventive ideas and bold scope but felt its sheer number of levels made progression tedious and demanded more patience than it was worth"

This is really solid already. I think we might be able to finish it with just one more pass, if not two. Shooterwalker (talk) 20:54, 17 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome, thank you for the timely review. I will get to these shortly! Cukie Gherkin (talk) 21:41, 17 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]