Talk:Sonic R/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Jaguar (talk · contribs) 21:14, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

I'm actually sad. I was thinking of bringing this to GA lately! JAGUAR  21:14, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

Initial comments

• The first three paragraphs of the lead begin with "Sonic R". You could replace one of them with The game... or something
• The lead doesn't mention the release dates
• I would recommend merging the two latter paragraphs of the lead into one, to create a better flow
  • I agree, but they're nothing to do with each other. In my GAN of Black & White (video game) I had to split 2 paragraphs into 4 just to keep them separate! It was a major nitpick there (For reasons I don't understand. Heck, apparently, ports and versions aren't the same thing...).Adam9007 (talk) 00:49, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
• "Sonic 3D Blast is a port of the Genesis title" - Mega Drive
  • No, Jaguar, as long as the main article is Sega Genesis, which should just stick to that.TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 21:26, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
    • It's commonplace for both "Mega Drive" and "Genesis" to be used in articles. Some articles use both, and some use one or the other. I thought that since this is not a US-made game it would be better off using the former anyway. JAGUAR  21:32, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
      • Yeah, it's a British-Japanese game. In both countries, it's called Mega Drive. Adam9007 (talk) 21:35, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
        • It's not common to alternate between console names in GAs or FAs, as that is needlessly confusing. (Lower-quality exceptions are mere Wikipedia:Other stuff exists.) Mega Drive is less than ideal per WP:NOPIPE. Moreover, switching out "Genesis" for "Mega Drive" is not the sort of grammatical correction that can be justified by reference to the fact that this article is written in British English. Finally, your point about Japanese-developed games is absurd—this isn't the Japanese Wiki, and we would have to make changes to potentially hundreds of articles if your reasoning is accepted.TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 21:49, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
          • It's not something I'd worry about too much. Has there been an actual consensus to replace all uses of "Mega Drive" into Genesis? It's just that your first comment sounded like you wanted to keep the Genesis name per the article's namesake. Anyway, I don't think this is a big deal, either way I don't mind. JAGUAR  22:08, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
            • I also support the use of "Genesis", for the same reasons TheTimesAreAChanging stated above. Genesis is the article name and its most common usage, so its less confusing that way. Sergecross73 msg me 12:16, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
              • I agree, it should be fine to leave it that way. Not much of a big deal anyway! JAGUAR  20:27, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
• ""Item Panels" bestow a random advantage" - repetition of bestow
• "Sonic R features ten playable racers; four characters are initially available while the other six are secret characters that become available when the player completes certain in-game objectives. Each character has individual attributes and abilities" - this sounds like it should belong in the gameplay section, since it talks about the other six characters needing to be unlocked etc
• Unlink Sonic and Knuckles in the Characters section, since they've been previously linked in gameplay
• "The last initially available character Amy Rose operates a car" - would sound better as Amy Rose, the last initially available character, operates a car
• "(known in Japan as Eggman Robo)[15][16]," - citations after comma
• Development section is spotless
• The first sentence of Reception is unsourced. It also neglects to mention GameRankings' score
  • I'm not sure it needs to be; it's a summary of the section (which is sourced). How would you suggest to put GameRankings' scores there? I thought actual scores were for the infobox only? Adam9007 (talk) 00:49, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
    • For GameRankings, I would just say something like The game received an aggregate score of xx% from GameRankings, based on x reviews. JAGUAR  20:34, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
      • Done. Hope it's okay. Adam9007 (talk) 01:49, 27 August 2016 (UTC)
• "while Kelly of Electronic Gaming Monthly" - can you not get their first name? Also, the reference itself doesn't mention the author's name but is attributed to "EGM staff"
  • I don't have access to that source. I'll see if I can hunt down an archive of it like I did with some of the other magazine articles, but there are no guarantees. Adam9007 (talk) 21:41, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
    • I wrote the "Reception" section. Here's a link to the EGM review. As you can see, they only use first names.TheTimesAreAChanging (talk) 21:57, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
• "In a similar vein, Next Generation described Sonic R and N64 contemporary" - Nintendo 64
• " Later Sonic racing games would include Sonic Riders sequels Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity and Sonic Free Riders, and kart racing games Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed." - unsourced
  • Does it really need to be? They're basic facts. Should I just source their existence? Adam9007 (talk) 00:49, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
    • I had to reference something similar in Nights into Dreams.... The GA criteria requires every claim or at least every paragraph to have a source, but I think that this is too basic to mention, so I'll overlook it ;-D JAGUAR  20:27, 26 August 2016 (UTC)
      • Where is this similar information? I'm not seeing it... Adam9007 (talk) 01:49, 27 August 2016 (UTC)
• No dab links
• Ref 4 is dead, and needs a better title. Also, the author is 'The Matt'?

This article is looking good, and the references all check out. Can't believe that I have 30+ Saturn games yet I don't own this. On hold. JAGUAR  21:30, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

@Jaguar: I don't own the Saturn version of this either (I have the PC version), but I do own the Saturn Official Guide book, which I used as a source for this article. I noticed some repetition of information which I've (hopefully) fixed (characters' abilities were mentioned twice), and I've moved the Characters section into the gameplay section as it's about gameplay, not the plot. Do you (or anyone else?) know the ISSN of the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine? I just can't find it, although there's another Japanese magazine I also can't find it for. I'm beginning to wonder if Japanese magazines even have ISSNs... Also, was this sentence in the lead okay? It wasn't referring to the gameplay, but to the fact it's a racing game. Adam9007 (talk) 00:49, 26 August 2016 (UTC)

In regards to that dif, I mean, you could make a statement to the capacity that it was the first of many 3D racers for Sonic, or something like that, but I don't think you can say they were an inspiration, as that seems to insinuate some sort of connection conceptually or with motivation, and I don't believe that's particularly true. (They didn't design the future games to play similarly, or reach a similar level of success commercially or critically or anything.) Sergecross73 msg me 12:28, 26 August 2016 (UTC)

@Sergecross73: How's the lead now? Adam9007 (talk) 01:49, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

It looks like consensus is to use "Genesis" based on comments above, but otherwise it looks good now. Sergecross73 msg me 14:47, 27 August 2016 (UTC)

I've changed it back to Genesis. With all of the issues addressed, this article now meets the criteria. JAGUAR  15:08, 27 August 2016 (UTC)