Whenever I post a review of an NES game, I usually round it off with two numbers: the Initial Interest Rating, and the Final Score. The final score should be pretty self explanatory; just what I thought of that title on a scale from 1 to 10. Easy peasy review stuff. But what in the hell is an Initial Interest Rating?
When I first decided that I would take on the task of beating every single NES game and launch this blog, I dedicated a few days to watching a video that showed snippets of gameplay of every NES game ever made, across all regions, in its entirety. For the curious, that video is here. This helpful video encyclopedia shows off about ten seconds of gameplay per title, giving the viewer a vague idea of what each game plays like. As my eyeballs were glued to the screen, each one that popped up would evoke a different response from the last; for some, I’d look on in wide-eye wonder, and a genuine excitement filling my heart as I thought about playing that particular game. While some, I stared on in horror, wincing both internally and externally at the thought of spending time trying to slog my way through such digital drivel.
I’d quickly jot down the game’s title, what the genre appeared to be at a glance so I would’t forget, and how interested I thought I would be in playing it on a scale from 1 to 10. And thus, the Initial Interest Rating was born! Ta-da!
Obviously, there’s no way you can get a true gauge for how a game plays based off of ten seconds of gameplay; even the most basic games ever made have layers of depth put into them to try and make them fun, and this is something that can only be experienced for oneself. So my point is: please bear in mind that the Initial Interest Rating is by no means my way of reviewing these games, or a reflection of what their actual quality is – it’s just how fun I thought something looked based off of a ten second impression.
Part of the reason I started keeping track of this ratings scale in the first place was because I knew I would be pleasantly surprised by some of my lower-rated ones, as well as probably let down by some of my higher rated ones. I thought keeping track of the surprises and disappointments would be interesting; after all, you can’t judge a book by its cover, or an NES game by its choice in tinny soundfont.
Since I bothered to make a page about it, I’ll break down a bit of the scale here:
Initial Interest Rating of 10: Mom, holy fuck. I gotta get that shit into my NES and FAST. Looks like something I’d love the hell out of, something I’ve already been interested in playing for years, or a game that has an extremely high reputation. Can’t wait to get around to it.
Initial Interest Rating of 7: Looks cool! I might not be holding back my child-like glee to ingest these games ASAP, but I thought they looked genuinely fun or interesting, and am looking forward to getting around to having a crack at ’em.
Initial Interest Rating of 5: Ehhh. (insert non-committal hand wiggling motion here.) I could take it or leave it. You won’t be hearing the word “excited” coming from me when it comes to these ones, but I’m not recoiling in terror at the thought of playing them, either. I’m not offended by the idea of trying these out; in terms of fun, it looks perfectly average.
Initial Interest Rating of 3: These ones are gonna sting. Logically, I know there are worse things out there, like waiting in line or taking an eye exam. But this doesn’t catch my interest at all. Not even a little. Despite the low initial interest, I’m expecting to be pleasantly surprised by more than a few titles in this number range; they almost feel like wild cards from how little I’m expecting from them. Here’s hoping!
Initial Interest Rating of 1: The thought of playing these makes my skin crawl. I hate the look of it – maybe the ten second sample of music made my ears ache, the brief glimpse at the graphics look downright horrid, it’s based on an IP that I can’t stand, or it’s genre I don’t abide by (of which there are extremely few). No matter the reason, chances are that it’s going to be a test of endurance for these games.
Initial Interest Rating of 0: In the paragraph above, I mentioned that there are few genres I don’t care for. This is genuinely true: I’m at least a casual fan of most every type of game out there… except for four. Those four would be: edutainment meant for pre-schoolers, “simulation” games with way too much information relayed through nonsensical dials and overwhelming walls of text, overhead isometric racers where the cars are really small (weirdly specific I know), and sluggish first person flight simulators. Of course there are some things with a 0 interest that don’t fall in these genres at all and, likewise, a few games that fall into these genres have relatively high interest ratings. But there you go.
NESJunk 