Maximum Carnage recalls my favourite videogame review ever. It was in Sega Megazone, a magazine I’ve not referred to since my second review ever for Every Game Ever.
Ever.
December 1994, issue 46.
Granted, it was for the Megadrive version of the game, but I can assure you, it’s the same game. To me – a ten year old boy – this review was a revelation. Probably it was more a case of irresponsible games journalism, but it wasn’t about the content – it was the way the words fell from the written page. It’s been said by Drew Barrymore [quoting Edgar Allan Poe] that “cellar door” is the most beautiful phrase in the English language, from a purely phonoaesthetic point of view; but for me, even this review trumped it.
It was the “Jesus wept” of videogame reviews – so short; so powerful; so all-encompassing.
Now, it’s entirely possible that there were *other words* in this review, but I’d like to think it was just these four:
“Maximum Carnage. Maximum Crap.”
[...] Read the full review here. [...]
[...] at someone/something else’s expense. The fact that the videogame is a carbon copy of every terrible Spider-Man game is almost vindicating. [...]
[...] to be at someone/something else's expense. The fact that the videogame is a carbon copy of every terrible Spider-Man game is almost vindicating. [...]