Limbo features a captivating world full of clever puzzles, a cryptic story about rescuing a girl to save oneself, and a curious ending that arrives just slightly too soon. In these respects, Limbo has much in common with two exceptional (and, frankly, superior) titles from gaming's recent past: 2001's Ico and 2008's Braid.
 
The Good:  The art style. The level design. The many frights!

The Bad: The virtually non-existent story. The disappointing brevity.
 
The Stand-out Moment: Meeting your first of many grisly demises.
 
The Verdict: 8.5 out of 10.

I know that Limbo is very short, so I thought I'd pause just 20 minutes in to say that this game shows real promise. It actually strikes me as something of a nightmarish spin on the LittleBigPlanet community level "The Unfair Platformer": one of ten nominees for Media Molecule's 2009 Level of the Year Award.

About ten years ago, a friend introduced me to a strange new game called "Bust A Groove". This was one of the first examples of a genre then dubbed "rhythm-action", and it transformed my gaming world. Over the following few years, I sunk my teeth into DDR, Gitaroo Man, Amplitude, and even Donkey Konga.
 
Then, almost five years ago, I was the one introducing friends to a strange new game called "Guitar Hero", and they were the ones having their minds blown. The rest is history: Guitar Hero became super-popular; then, Rock Band exploded onto the scene with bass guitars, microphones, and even drums. Now, as must have been foretold in some awesome prophecy, DJ Hero has hit the main stage, putting little plastic turntables into the hands of the masses. And I couldn't be happier.
 
The Good: One of the only complaints that I ever had with Guitar Hero or Rock Band was that all they ever offered was rock music; mercifully, DJ Hero mashes together great songs from at least a half-dozen different genres. The game's controls take a little time to learn, but they're responsive to a fault, and once you've reached the game's Hard and Expert levels, you simply get into the zone and start feeling like a real DJ.  Looking back, I think DJ Hero's campaign mode actually made me blurt out "Holy shit! YES!!" more times than did Arkham Asylum, and that title was certified "Game of the Year" material.
 
The Bad: Although the "track" where the actual gameplay occurs does its job admirably, the rest of the game's graphics lack polish. And personally, I could've done without the campaign's co-op guitar sections, since any time the six-string's present, half of my screen gets taken up for no good reason. But beyond these minor complaints, I just wish that even more songs could've been incorporated into the game's long list of mixes. Thankfully, DJ Hero 2 is less than three months away!
 
The Stand-out Moment: NOISIA's challenging "Groundhog" earns its spot as the game's unofficial "final track".
 
The Verdict: 9.5 out of 10. October's sequel can't come soon enough!

DJ Hero's opening cinematic features the song "Genesis" by the band Justice. Its turntable controller looks and feels great, and its tutorial stages are emceed by Grandmaster Flash. No game has ever managed to win me over this quickly!

 ==Prologue==

In my very first Final Verdict, I called Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune “the most frustrating type of game to review: Great But Flawed”. Having just beaten Red Dead Redemption, I regret to add an even more ambitious game to that category. Rather than frustrate myself with an attempt to review the title, however, I’ve chosen instead to examine its flaws and propose the ways in which it could – theoretically – have achieved unqualified greatness.

==Introduction==

Red Dead Redemption has several interrelated issues that will take time to explain thoroughly. In short: the game is too long, its mission structures are too formulaic, and it fails to consistently motivate either the player or the main character. The fact that certain endgame events seem to be radically out-of-place serves only to complicate matters.

==Problem #1: The game’s length==

Needless to say, I can’t explain why Red Dead is too long without first summarizing its plot in some detail. Therefore, be warned:

** MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW **

Over the course of the almost-20 hours that I spent playing Red Dead, I experienced three different stories, three different endings, and an epilogue before credits finally rolled. I say “three different stories” and “three different endings” because the main character is tasked with completing three different central objectives in sequence.

Story #1 takes up the game’s first 8-or-so hours. Government agents have kidnapped the wife and son of a man named John Marston, forcing him to make his way across Texas to kill another man named Bill Williamson, a member of his old gang. This story ends when John finally storms Bill’s stronghold, only to learn that Bill has just fled for Mexico.

Story #2 takes up the game’s next 9-or-so hours. John makes his way across Mexico to kill both Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella, another member of his old gang who was never mentioned until now. It’s not until John has finally killed both of these men that he learns that he must also kill Dutch van der Linde, the leader of his old gang, who was only rarely mentioned before now. This story ends when John delivers Dutch’s body to his government handlers, freeing himself at last to be reunited with his family.

Story #3 takes up the game’s last hour-or-so. John labors to get his family farm back in order with the help of his wife, Abigail, his son, Jack, and his old friend, “Uncle”, who (say it with me!) was never mentioned until now. This story ends when – just as things are finally looking up for John – his former handlers suddenly descend upon his farm with a dozen soldiers and have him executed.

Red Dead itself does not arrive at its true ending until – in a 15-minute epilogue set three years later – Jack Marston tracks and kills the government agent who killed his father.

==First things last: Events out of order==

What I can’t understand is that what I’ve called “Story #3” takes place at the very end of the game despite the fact that every part of it – except for its last mission – would make infinitely more sense if it took place at the very beginning of the game!

Let’s consider Story #3 in more detail: you meet John’s wife and son; you experience life on John’s farm; you complete a series of missions that are all shorter and simpler than even the earliest missions in the game. Wouldn’t it make every bit of sense to place all of this at the start of the game instead, so that players actually come to know John’s wife and son before they’re stripped away from him?

As it is, players spend some 17 hours attempting to rescue a wife and son whom they’ve never seen. It’s only after this odyssey that they finally advance from what appears to be the game’s final encounter (with van der Linde) onward to what seems to be an absurdly belated tutorial period (on Marston Farm).

==First things first: Re-order events sensibly==

Move all of Story #3 – except for its final mission – to the very beginning of the game, and then have Abigail and Jack kidnapped. The player could subsequently tackle what I’ve called “Story #1” and “Story #2”, winning Abigail and Jack back only moments before taking on the game’s final mission, followed by its epilogue. Why not?!

==Problems #2 and 3a: The formulaic mission structure and player motivation==

After spending a few hours as John Marston, I realized that Rockstar must have found a formula for their missions and then stuck by it slavishly.

Whenever you meet a new mission-giving character, you know that they will assign you 3-5 missions. Why is there not a single character who gives you only one mission? Or a single character who gives you a half-dozen or more? Once you’ve recognized this formula, some player motivation is lost, since suspension of disbelief becomes harder to maintain when certain events (such as character deaths) become obvious impossibilities for certain windows of time.

(Similarly, whenever you approach a floating X to start a new mission, you know that you are about to sit through a cut scene lasting 1-3 minutes. Why is there not a single cut scene that lasts for less than one minute or more than three? For reasons I can only begin to imagine, the team member in charge of cut scenes seemingly acted as a modern-day Procrustes, stretching briefer scenes and sawing away at longer ones until they all fit into this arbitrary framework, no matter the loss of drama involved!)

==Problems #2 and 3b: The formulaic mission structure and John’s motivations==

Just as the formulaic structure of Red Dead’s missions weakens player motivation, so too does it make a laughing stock of John Marston’s own motivations.

I can understand completing several missions for Bonnie; she saved John’s life, and it makes sense to repay her kindness in full. I can even understand completing several missions for Marshal Johnson; he’s the most obvious candidate for “guy who’s going to help John kill Bill Williamson, since he can’t seem to do it alone”, and it makes sense that it’ll take a while to earn his trust and respect.

But why does John run so many errands for everyone else, too? Dickens is a swindler, Irish is a drunkard, and Seth is a loon. Why does John agree to complete mission after mission for these fools instead of just helping each of them out once and then warning them that he’s going to put bullets in their brains if they don’t assist him immediately?

This is a man whose wife and son have been kidnapped, a man who has no time to waste. This is a man whose first defining action is pointing a gun at a fort full of gang members. Why then is this man taking shit from every Tom, Dick, and Harry in all of Texas?

Worse yet, nothing changes as John makes his way through Mexico in Story #2. I can understand completing a couple of missions for Ricketts, who’s something of a hero figure. And I can understand completing a mission or two for Luisa, who’s a damsel in distress. But Allende and Reyes are both rapists! Why is John – a man who regularly gives local prostitutes friendly reminders that he’s married – doing so much dirty work for men who treat women like sex slaves? They don’t even give him anything in return!

Lastly, when John finally returns north, it makes perfect sense that he completes several final missions for his government handlers, but it makes no sense whatsoever that he also wastes time doing a handful of favors for the heroin addict McDougal.

==Solution to all three problems: Make the game only half as long==

Keeping in mind that Red Dead is a sandbox-style game – and that mileage will therefore vary somewhat by player – I can’t see any reason why the game’s main storyline should take nearly 20 hours to complete. The way I see things, 10 hours should have sufficed.

Two different approaches would have achieved this effect, both of which presuppose the slight re-ordering of events that I recommended earlier.

===Option 1: Remove half of the game’s missions===

Complete several missions around Marston Farm. Watch as Ross abducts Abigail and Jack. Move on to complete several missions for Bonnie and several more for Marshal Johnson. Then complete one or two missions for Dickens and one each for Irish and Seth. Lastly, storm Fort Mercer, and learn that Williamson has escaped.

Travel to Mexico and complete a couple of missions for Ricketts. Move on to complete several missions for Allende and then several more for Reyes and Luisa combined. Take down Williamson, and then return to John’s government handlers for a few last missions. Finally, complete the stand-off mission, die, and play out the epilogue as Jack.

BOOM. The game’s over in half the time, the order of events makes sense, the pacing quickens enough to consistently motivate the player, and John himself takes on only those missions that make sense for him to accept. Every single problem is solved simply by removing half of the game’s mission content and reshuffling a portion of what’s left!

==Option 2: Break the game up into two separate titles==

(This is a radically different approach which I like less but offer up as an alternative.)

Game 1: Complete Story #3 – except for the last mission, of course – and then complete Story #1. The only difference would be that you’d probably have to actually succeed in killing Bill Williamson in order for the game to not end on a disappointing cliffhanger.

Game 2: Complete Story #2 – modified slightly to be a story about hunting down only Escuella and van der Linde, since Williamson would already be dead – and then complete Story #3’s final mission, followed… perhaps… by completing the epilogue.

I say “perhaps” only because it might make more sense to end this hypothetical Game 2 with John’s death and then drastically expand Red Dead’s epilogue into one final 10-hour campaign, thus creating Game 3 in a Redemption trilogy.

==Conclusion==

I doubt that I’ve persuaded anyone of anything. Given the number of 10s that I’ve seen associated with reviews of Red Dead Redemption, it’s possible that I’m the only person in the world to have perceived any of the flaws detailed above as such. Nevertheless, I hope that I’ve provided a thought-provoking look at what could have been!

I found the first couple hours of this game to be almost agonizingly boring. But ever since I acquired a lasso and the Dead Eye ability, I've begun to feel like a bona fide cowboy. Here's hoping that Redemption proves itself to be more than simply "Grand Theft Horse"!

I'm not sure at what point it becomes truly fair to write a "final" verdict on Super Mario Galaxy 2. After beating the game, you've still got a whole 'nother world to play through, and even after collecting "all" 120 stars, you're tasked with collecting... *gulp*... another 120!
 
For full disclosure's sake: I just passed that second milestone, beating the game's final level for a second time only to learn that a whopping 50% of the game's stars still elude me. So, for my sanity's sake, let's consider that latter 50% purely "game-plus" material, and let's forge ahead with my verdict on SMG2!
 
The Good: Graphics, level design, and controls are all great, as I mentioned before. The sound design is fantastic. And the many worlds of SMG2 are all so unique that the game as a whole never stops demanding to be revisited. But what else could you expect? It's Mario! It's platforming at its finest!
 
The Bad: Half of the "cosmic clone" stars and half of the "purple coin" stars had me pulling my hair out, and the "fluzzard" levels (which rely entirely on motion controls) were annoying. Also, I don't understand why every time I'd reset my Wii, the game would reset my total lives to four, no matter how many more I'd managed to accumulate. But these are minor complaints.
 
The Stand-out  Moment: Reuniting with Yoshi for the first time.
 
The Verdict: 9.5 (out of 10)

I've run and jumped (and drilled and flown) my way through SMG2's first two worlds, and it should come as no surprise to anyone that this game is pure fun. Wonderful worlds to explore and flawless controls with which to explore them make collecting every star a blast!

Ever since I first completed Zero Mission, I've thought of the game as "that sort-of-sequel to Fusion that wasn't quite as good". But now that I've just completed the game for a second time, I've come to the conclusion that I've actually been giving Zero Mission too much credit; there are few respects in which the game outshines its predecessor, and that's especially bizarre considering that Zero Mission and Fusion were developed by the same team.
 
The Good: Zero Mission's pacing is great... up until the point at which the original Metroid ended. (After that, the game awkwardly continues with a lengthy epilogue that doesn't really jive with the rest of the game.) Whereas Fusion had terrific graphics and fantastic level design, Zero Mission has merely decent graphics and respectable level design. Zero Mission may, however, have the better music of the two. (The game's best tunes should be instantly familiar to any Melee fan.) 
 
The Bad: Zero Mission's story is non-existent beyond a handful of still images that I hesitate to call "cut scenes". And the game's bosses are virtually all letdowns, since most of them can be quickly defeated by simply firing a stream of missiles at them until they explode. (Later bosses are actually easier than earlier bosses, since the strategy for bringing them down remains the same, all while Samus's newly-acquired Super Missiles make her 5x more powerful!)
 
The Stand-out Moment: The startling appearance (and re-appearance) of the game's first boss.
 
The Verdict: 7.5 (out of 10)
 
I can't help but note here that it took me less than three hours to beat this game. While I value quality over quantity, Zero Mission doesn't do itself any favors by ending almost as soon as it's begun.

If Zero Mission has even more energetic pacing than Fusion, that fact is balanced out by the game's conspicuously inferior graphics. This installment is little more than a re-make of the (now ancient) original Metroid, and it shows. But even a below-average Metroid is an above-average game!