Sounds horrifying! I'll have to check it out; maybe for a Christmas-themed BTS around the holidays. Thanks for the heads-up!

Thanks for the advice! Please understand that this series is not called "Here's Another Crappy Game." I've said numerous times, including in this column, that there may be fans of these games. Additionally, not all of them are "bad" games. You can call Mega Man Star Force 2 a good game, that's perfectly reasonable. But I don't think you can argue that the it's a fresh concept in which countless hours of planning and time went spent. And as the definition of shovelware goes, it can refer to "any game in which time and effort were eschewed in favor of turning a quick profit."

I understand the point about reviewing the countless cheap license games or [insert animal species]z games, but then things would get redundant. We need to push the bounds of what constitutes shovelware, and some of that might involve examining a game which you might like or not expect. Regardless, I appreciate your honesty. Thanks for reading. :)

You're too nice sometimes, Mr. Delgrego! People miss the point of your articles and then blame you for it. It's refreshing to see politeness in response to criticism on the internet, but sometimes I just have to wonder how you do it.

"Here's Another Crappy Game"? I would absolutely read that article, I swear.

Anyway, if it wasn't called "Bury" the Shovelware, it wouldn't necessarily facilitate the game havng to be bad. But instead of saying "Here's some shovelware, let's see if it's good", the title (and accompanying picture of Link destroying it with a spade) kind of say "Hey, this game sucks, let's RIP IT APART!", dontcha think?

@zealot:
Well, I'm a heavy drinker. Seriously though, I'm just very happy to be able to share my thoughts and feelings on the gaming world. It'd take some pretty harsh criticism to take the air out of my tires. Additionally, criticism is healthy, whether constructive or impolite. It helps you learn more about yourself and questioning your beliefs is a good thing. But thanks so much for the kind words! :)

@Skyler:
Maybe I'll have to pitch "Here's Another Crappy Game" to the site leads! That's a very fair critique of the title. To be honest, I started the series with that mindset: every game would be crappy. But from reading reviews from other sources and thinking about the word and its definition, it's tough to definitively state what makes something shovelware. That's part of the ongoing quest, I guess. Anyway, thanks for reading! :)

You are too nice. Critical readers have been dogging your moves for the past few iterations, and you just keep on smiling

In part its refreshing, but also kinda creepy.

Your view of shovelware is appropriate, though. They're really just low-budget games that are "shoveled" onto a platform simply to make money by quantity. N+ fell into that category because its all "We got the N license, let's just put it everywhere we can!" Whether they do so in a quality way (XBLA) or not necessarily so (DS), it's still shovelware

I'd call Crash Bandicoot games shovelware, but, while they cannot approach the glory of the PS1 games, they aren't bad titles, it's just a license that they flood the market with to profit off of

You keep doing what you like, Kaes, but you have to tread carefully.

Duly noted, Mr. Khan! Sorry for coming off creepy ... I'll curb some of the emoticons from now on! For the record, I don't sit at my computer with a creepy smile on my face the entire time or anything, it's more or less a gesture of peace through a medium that doesn't allow much flexibility in non-verbal displays of emotion.

@zealot

One of the things we pride ourselves on is the community here. They're the best people ever and, like everyone else on the internet, can lose their cool sometimes, but for the most part are civil and intelligent. That attitude also extends to us, the staff. Hopefully it means as much to others as it does to yourself.

Thanks for the compliment!

Mr. Delgrego: You're doing a great job of sharing your ideas. My conceptions regarding what constitutes shovelware have really changed since reading these articles, and I always look forward to what twists on the term you're going to introduce next. I promise to listen when the obligatory Order of Ecclesia article comes in a month!

Mr. Hinkle: It's exactly why I comment here. It's a place where you can be reasonable and generally expect that other people will be as well. I'm not above the occasional flash of anger either, but I do try to make it the rare exception to the rule. In the end, it's absolutely ridiculous to create bad blood over a hobby.

I read this column to find out if the game(s) is worth buying.

There are plenty of great games for the DS, so I can afford to be picky. However, if the game is worth buying and I see it on sale, I may buy it, even if it's not on my to-buy list.

IIRC I don't own any of the game you've reviewed, nor were any of those games on my to-buy list, which is a GOOD thing. Your reviews have opened up my mind to some games that are maybe worth buying on sale AND some truly terrible games that I should avoid like the plague.

Peace.

I'll go out on a limb and assume that you're talking about me. :) (Last smiley for awhile, I swear!)

Yes, you bring up an incredibly valid point. I touched on that at the end. Especially when compared with the classic Mega Man series, it's tough to say that being similar to predecessors makes something shovelware. I think the answer is that either the title's core gameplay has to be strong enough (Mega Man 9 is and MMSF2 isn't, in my opinion) or there has be to a large jump from previous iterations. I can't be the definitive answer since I never beat the first Mega man Star Force, but I didn't see many major improvements or evolutions.

Again, you may not like some of the games we examine. I apologize if you take offense, but it's part of the process. Either way, thanks for reading!

Catchy! That's EXACTLY the word to describe the old reviews!

I appreciate the feedback. I'll keep note of that, and maybe I'll bring the old format back. Either way, thanks so much!