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| Hack Reviews: The Do's and Don'ts |
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Forum Index - SMW Hacking - SMW Hack Discussion - Hack Reviews: The Do's and Don'ts |
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| Posted on 2008-06-09 10:46:56 PM |
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tl;dr first: Reviews should be well-formed, easy-to-understand statements about your own experience with the hack. When writing a review, you should think of a few reasons why you liked the game, or why you didn't like the game, and in places you think the game could use improvement, constructive criticism and bug reports are always a plus. Treat your review like it's the only one there and the only one that ever will be there - ignore what every other review says. It doesn't need to be really long, but a paragraph touching on multiple aspects of the game should be satisfactory.
This announcement had to be made because of the quality of reviews on this site - abysmal is an understatement, for the most part, and I have deleted literally hundreds of reviews that did nothing but bog down the apparent intelligence level of the community. To prevent another influx of bad reviews, I want for people to use the tips below as sort of a guide for formulating a standard review, starting with what not to do, and wrapping up with some things to think about when writing a review.
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Examples of BAD reviews:
>"Halp! Teh patch iz all glitchzor!" -or- "I downloaded it but can't play, it is IPS. What's wrong? -or- "The whole game is glitched. 0/10"
Use Lunar IPS and apply the patch to a clean ROM, or if your emulator supports soft-patching, rename the ROM and the IPS to the same thing. Also, some emulators might be buggy - ZSNES is infamous for bugs. bSNES and SNESGT are my personal recommendations for playing hacks, but if you must use savestates, go with SNESGT.
**Moved this one up to the top because of how many people lately have been posting this type of review. EVERY HACK HOSTED THAT HAS PASSED MODERATION WILL WORK IF YOU PATCH IT TO A CLEAN ROM!
>"qwe" or blank reviews
Do not make test reviews. The system works the same for everyone.
**ADDED MAR 18 2012
>"Good hack 10/10" -or- "Graphics 7/10, Music 10/10, Overworld 8/10, ASM 10/10, Story 3/10, Level design 10/10."
Only giving ratings to the hack or specific areas, or just saying it's good or bad without reasons will not help anybody. What's the point of knowing how good or bad something is without knowing what's good or bad about it? Making a list of sections of the game and rating them out of ten doesn't do anything for anyone - it won't help the author improve, and people who want to play still have no idea what to expect based on "good," "bad," or "7/10" because there's no substance to it.
>"This hack sucks. Go play some featured hacks and get an idea of what you should do."
Not only is this completely worthless for giving a solution that anyone with common sense would've done beforehand for inspiration, it makes you look like a jerk, and you're too lazy to come up with any real ideas to offer for improving the hack. If you're just going to say this, keep your hands off the keyboard. All you do is make the author feel like crap and make SMWC look bad.
>"The graphics were cool, and I liked the music. Where did you get the song in level 5? Also, how do I get the secret exit in the third level? But other than that, it was fun."
Questions are not reviews, and you don't make an effort to say what made the graphics and music good. PM the author with your questions, and if the author is not an active member of SMWC, then the next best move would be to post your questions in the "Help in Hacks" thread if it's regarding how to get through a certain part in the game.
>"I don't think he's still hacking anymore, so the demo is all we'll have."
Starting a conversation in the review section is extremely bad. Reviews are things the author uses to improve their hack or feel proud of their accomplishment, and for people who are looking for a game to be able to determine whether or not it's what the player is looking for.
>"Looks good! *downloads*" -or- 'reviewing' a hack based solely on the screenshots shown
This completely invalidates your statements because you never even played the game. In fact it's the WORST possible review you could possibly make next to "fail, l2hax." Also, keep in mind that this isn't a screenshot thread - this is the game itself. The author isn't looking for criticism based on screenshots and videos anymore - s/he wants people to comment on the game now that it's available to them.
>"What are you talking about? This guy composed the music from scratch, and that takes a lot of effort, and here you are saying it sounds horrible. You're just jealous."
So people have different opinions. You don't need to jump on someone else for their opinions - it reflects poorly on you and is instigating. Just worry about making a good review - not trolling/flaming.
>"(derogatory term here because the hack is a translation or the story/setting is based on a specific culture)"
I've seen racial slurs posted as reviews, and I'm not going to name names or specific hacks that received these "reviews" in the past. These things are incredibly offensive.
>"This hack is as good as Odyssey!"
For someone who never played a hack that's being compared, this review is useless. For someone who has, their opinion can be drastically different, as people have different tastes.
>"If I could rate this higher, I would rate it 9999999999999999999/10!" -or- "Veeeeeeeeeeeeeery Goooooooooooooooood."
Character trains just make your review an eyesore. 
>"Yeah, what he said. You should fix it." -or- "Everything I would say here, I put in your thread already."
Redundant.
>"Nothing to say about this hack... 4/10"
...Is it necessary to announce it to the whole world that you have nothing to say? o.o
>"Why didn't u edit the levels? This should be like a new game..."
We wouldn't accept a hack if it didn't bring anything new to the table. However, a translation hack is a great thing to have on the site since it expands SMW to an audience that previously may not have been able to read the text ingame, therefore, IS something new and useful. Not all hacks are level edits. Translations should be rated on accuracy alone, to both the plot and the new language. Similarly, graphics hacks should be judged on the consistency and quality of the graphics.
* Thanks to fyarball for bringing this one up.
>"How did this get accepted?"
Agh. Unless you can back it up with solid evidence that the hack should be removed, this is nothing but rude. If you DO find stuff in a hack that calls for removal, PM it to a hack moderator or find a hack moderator on IRC and query the problem to him/her (preferably with screenshots).
Any derogatory comments, flaming, or trolling will be edited out of otherwise good reviews if I catch any of it happening. If any of the above are stand-alone comments for reviews, they will be nuked. I'd also like to encourage the authors of the hack to not post answers to questions being asked or "thank you for your positive review/gtfo, my hack rocks" as reviews of their hacks. Again, if someone reviews asking for an answer, keep it to PM. If you do review your own hack, remember to stay mostly objective and not biased. In terms of grammar and spelling, it doesn't need to be perfect, but it should be understandable. Try to avoid leetspeak.
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So, then, how do I make a good review?
Some things to think about when you're making a review. (Keyword - some. This isn't a full list of everything you could talk about in a hack, but they are some essential parts.) Now, I'm not saying to write a massive book about a hack, but you should at least try to touch on all the aspects and pick maybe one or two of the questions in each topic to answer when you're making a review, just to give you an idea on where to start:
Level design:
-Did you like the level design? If so, what made you like it? If not, what made you dislike it?
-Did you find any places you can get stuck?
-Was any idea overused?
-What do you think would make the level design better?
-Were you sent to level 0 bonus rooms at any time?
-Did you see background garbage caused by BG scrolling? If so, where?
-Did any levels have poorly-chosen time limits?
-Did it feel repetitive or uninspired?
-Was anything unedited from the original SMW that could easily be changed?
-Were sprites over-distributed or under-distributed in places? If so, where?
-Did the use of sprites/blocks make it unfair? If so, where?
-Can you think of a spot that will benefit from a sprite/block? If so, where?
Graphics:
-Did the palettes flow well, or did they hurt your eyes? If so, in what levels?
-If they stood out, what levels in particular did they stand out?
-Were there any style clashes?
-Were there any "broken" graphics or "glitchy" graphics? Where?
Music:
-Did the music bring the ambience alive or set an appropriate mood? If so, where?
-Did any songs hurt your ears? If so, which song and why?
-Did you notice any parts of songs that were abruptly cut off?
-Did any songs seem out of place/did the soundtrack's style seem inconsistent?
ASM:
-Did you find a glitch in any coding and/or have advice on how to improve it?
-Did you like additions to the status bar, like HP count or progress trackers, that didn't exist in SMW?
-Did you enjoy any side-quests that would not be possible without the coding?
-If the physics were altered, could you become accustomed to them easily?
Overworld:
-Was the overworld clean and detailed?
-Did you like the graphics and music, and did they go together with the theme?
-Can you think of anything that would make the overworld better?
-Did you notice any glitches? If so, where?
Story/Text:
-Did you feel that the story helped make the hack original?
-Did you notice any plotholes?
-Did the story ever motivate you to play through the levels?
-Was there too little/enough/too much emphasis on the story?
-Did you like how the story was presented?
-Are there any grammar/spelling errors you can point out?
-Was it easy to understand?
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| Last edited on 2012-03-18 09:29:17 AM by Counterfeit. |
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| Posted on 2008-06-09 10:55:20 PM |
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YES. This has been a mjor problem lately. I myself even admit to making some bad reviews in the past. (However, I've been making an effort to improve my reviews in recent months...)
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| Posted on 2008-06-09 11:41:41 PM |
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WIN!
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| Posted on 2008-06-10 12:21:33 AM |
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Finally! Someone that gives a darn about the situation.
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| Posted on 2008-06-10 01:02:01 AM |
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YES! 
I got soooo tired of seeing all the pointless reviews. ._.
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| Posted on 2008-06-10 01:06:34 AM |
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Oh God yes! Finally, an announcement about the reviews. I really got sick of some reviews at some point. Reviews like "COOL 1337/10" are bad. Now to hope people follow these rules...
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| Last edited on 2008-06-10 11:11:00 AM by Ersanio. |
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| Posted on 2008-06-10 08:49:34 AM |
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=D
As everybody else has said, these rules are pure win.
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| Posted on 2008-06-10 03:01:07 PM |
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good thread 100000/10.
sequel plz.
Serious:
We needed this rule. 
These type of reviews are annoying... and stupid.
I mean, just look at this shit's reviews. -_-
Moe's review is more of a "glitch report" but some actual, GOOD reviews have glitch reports... (how'd he get the cape and the Yoshi, anyways? I never put both there...)
Let's just hope the users that only come to download and review hacks know about this rule. 
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| Posted on 2008-06-10 08:03:09 PM |
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Originally posted by Ran Yakumo
"This hack sucks. Go play some featured hacks and get an idea of what you should do."
Not only is this completely worthless for giving a solution that anyone with common sense would've done beforehand for inspiration, it makes you look like a jerk, and you're too lazy to come up with any real ideas to offer for improving the hack. If you're just going to say this, keep your hands off the keyboard. All you do is make the author feel like crap and make SMWC look bad.
I remember getting a review like that, and you are right about the part where it makes the author feel terrible, I really did feel bad that somebody actually openly said that. I don't remember what hack I made that got that review, but that was horrible what that user said.
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| Posted on 2008-06-28 01:52:51 AM |
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Recommended candidate for automatic redirection upon adding a review (run-once for registered users) or a separate page with this and the required textboxes.
This, kind person is pure win indeed. This is what all true warriors strive for, mah- *shot*
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| Posted on 2008-07-06 01:18:33 AM |
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Hm. Probably should have read before posting my own review... I won't do it again. (I just pointed out some bugs and left.)
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| Posted on 2008-07-07 08:59:34 AM |
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i shall look out for what im saying ;)
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| Posted on 2008-07-08 09:12:27 AM |
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AWSOME WIN x 2!!!
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| Posted on 2008-07-31 09:18:52 PM |
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Can I make reviews in spanish?
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| Posted on 2008-07-31 09:35:39 PM |
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Yes, you may. You can post a review in any language you are comfortable with, but the rules remain the same.
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| Last edited on 2008-07-31 09:37:12 PM by Counterfeit. |
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| Posted on 2008-08-03 08:55:03 PM |
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Originally posted by KyoseronTreat your review like it's the only one there and the only one that ever will be there - ignore what every other review says.
Wouldn't it be repetitive to see the same thing over and over again?
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| Posted on 2008-08-04 04:28:53 AM |
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Well, don't you think you'll have a different opinion from someone else? You won't copy and paste it, now will you? The whole point is, is that you are trying to give the best review possible because you want the author to be able to improve. If you are giving the only review, then this is all that the author can learn from.
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| Posted on 2008-08-04 01:13:37 PM |
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DANG!!! this is wicked tight and very
useful also resourceful,
I gotta do this in my reviews more
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| Last edited on 2008-08-04 09:04:14 PM by BigBoss. |
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| Posted on 2008-08-12 05:36:47 PM |
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Is it okay to write a review if you have seen someone else post a video of them playing the whole hack on youtube, when you have not played the hack?
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| Posted on 2008-08-13 10:58:24 AM |
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No, because you are only seeing the part of the level that the youtube user played. You might miss something.
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Forum Index - SMW Hacking - SMW Hack Discussion - Hack Reviews: The Do's and Don'ts |
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