Talk:Rocko's Modern Life: Spunky's Dangerous Day/GA1

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GA Review[edit]

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Reviewer: ArcticSeeress (talk · contribs) 17:13, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]


Hello, HumanxAnthro! I'll be your reviewer for this article. I've never played this game before, nor have I ever heard of it, so I'll be referring solely to the sources provided in the article.

By section[edit]

Gameplay[edit]

Should "laundromat" be capitalised?

fixed — Preceding unsigned comment added by PerryPerryD (talkcontribs) 19:14, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The actual actions the player has to perform to proceed in the game seems unclear to me. In the references, they mention the player taking control of Rocko guiding his dog Spunky through obstacles. As it's currently written, it makes it seem like the player has little agency over what happens in the game, and "affecting" the level environment is fairly vague language. Perhaps something like "...the player, as Rocko, must guide his dog Spunky through the level to dodge hazards by manipulating the level environment" would work better. Currently extra information is provided in a relative clause (with "who", that is), so splitting that off to make a shorter sentence would be better with this wording as well, as it would be fairly long. A similar sentence should be rewritten in the lead, as it seems to be based off this section.

I reworded this section a bit, but I have to respond to this. "The actual actions the player has to perform to proceed in the game seems unclear to me." and "As it's currently written, it makes it seem like the player has little agency over what happens in the game." You sure you didn't miss these sentences?
" the player acts as Rocko manipulating parts of the level environment to guide Spunky to a golden fire hydrant and keep him out of danger." I've reworded the sentence a bit.
"Rocko can jump, run, duck, punch, perform a quick succession of kicks, swipe his tail at enemies, and pick up objects"
"In the first level, for example, Rocko uses rafts to transport Spunky across water, jumps on lawn chairs and pulley system knobs to get Spunky to higher platforms, and protects Spunky from crabs and sea gulls"
I think these explain what you stated was missing. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:55, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Rocko uses rafts to traverse Spunky across water. Transport is the word you're thinking of. Traverse can't be used like this.

Fixed 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:55, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

On easy, the player, when pausing the game, can scroll through the entire map. I feel like this would be better worded as "On easy, the player can view the entirety of the map when the game is paused...". With this wording, you don't have too many clauses bunched up towards the beginning of the sentence. I also replaced the adjective "entire" with the noun phrase "entirety of", as the following "whereas" sentence seems to be contrasting the scope of the map, so you'd probably want more focus on that. I've also reworked the following sentence a bit: "whereas on hard, only a limited version of it is available." [with "it" referring to the map]

  • You did misinterpret this, but I have reworded it to make it clearer. "small" means the map of the entire level is smaller and thus you can't see it close-up, not the "part" of the map you can see. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 18:11, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    • I'm still not entirely sure what this means. What does "scrolling" refer to? Panning the area that is viewable on-screen? Does hard mode not include this? If I'm interpreting this correctly, on hard, the map occupies a small area of the area on the screen, whereas on easy, it occupies a much larger (entire?) area of the screen in addition to being pannable. Or is this wrong? Reading the original source, it states In the hard mode, you get only a small map of the level in the middle of the screen. In the easy mode, you can scroll through the level when the game is paused Does easy mode not include the "small map in the middle of the screen", or is that also included? The source doesn't explicitly state if easy mode has such a map, just that "you get only a small map" on hard mode. If the only real difference between easy and hard mode is the ability to pan the viewable area of the screen when paused, it doesn't make much sense to include the information about the hard mode map. Conversely, does the small map on hard mode only appear when the game is paused? In that case, you could write something like "The game difficulty determines what the player is able to do when the game is paused, with easy mode giving them the ability to scroll the view of the level, whereas on hard, they only have access to a map of the level", or something along those lines. The fact that it takes up a small area of the screen isn't really relavant in that case, and could be left out. ArcticSeeress (talk) 07:00, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      In my opinion, this detail could be removed entirely, as its a minor detail context. PerryPerryD Talk To Me 19:03, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      in context* PerryPerryD Talk To Me 19:04, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Rocko can [...] pick up objects, including Spunky, which the action changes the dog's walking direction. This sentence doesn't sound very grammatically correct, and seems to be needlessly wordy even if it were. I'd just write it as "including Spunky, which changes his direction"

    • Fixed

The article seems to introduce "Power-ups for Spunky" before it introduces that there even are power-ups in the first place. Perhaps writing something like "There are several power-ups that the player can use" before that, and then writing about their individual power-ups would flow better.

Fixed??? Im not sure what section you are referring too, Using Ctrl+F i cannot find any mention of power-ups or even the word Power at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by PerryPerryD (talkcontribs) 19:13, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
It's written in the second sentece in the second paragraph under "gameplay": Power-ups for Spunky include... ArcticSeeress (talk) 04:39, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There are red fire hydrants that serve as checkpoints, as well as passwords, and a level ends when Spunky gets to a golden fire hydrant. I feel like "Red fire hydrants in the levels serve as checkpoints" would be better. The "as well as passwords" phrase you use here, does it refer to "there are" or "serve as"? As it's written right now, it could very well refer to either, and end up confusing readers. I'm assuming the password system is used for tracking game progress, which could be explained better in the article. In the source (the second one, that is) it states that "a [pass]word is given after every fourth level". Should this be included in the article? I'm personally ambivalent on this, but it could help provide context for unfamiliar readers. The information about the golden fire hydrant could very well be its own sentence as well, as it doesn't really feel connected to the rest in any meaningful way.

Development and release[edit]

All developed the project in an improvisational manner. All? This seems like a clumsy sentence, but weird vocabulary aside, I'd just write it as a passive sentence instead to put focus on the development itself: "The development of the project was improvisational in nature". Also, "epecially with the backgrounds"? The original source doesn't make it seem like the background work was any more improvisational than the rest of the work, so I'd either reword it or just remove that specific line.

The source states the game was put together will a lot of improvisation by the team in the way of colors and backgrounds 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 19:35, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Again, the word "especially" doesn't make much sense then, as that quote doesn't put any particular emphasis on how improvisational the backgrounds were as opposed to any other part of their work. It only states that the colours and backgrounds were improvisational. Perhaps a better sentence would be "The coloring and background work was improvisational in nature", as that doesn't give weight to any part of the information, just like the source. Also, this sentence should probably be moved somewhere else, as the rest of the paragraph is now focused on the people behind the work, and not necessarily on the work itself, which seems to have been moved into the first paragraph. I'd recommend doing the same for this line. ArcticSeeress (talk) 05:01, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The seventh reference is listed as "Viacom New Media. Rocko's Modern Life. Viacom New Media." Does this refer to the game itself? You should probably include the full title of the game and year of release in that case. On a similar note, you should probably include the release date in the lead.

The year and "level", loosely speaking, was actually in the code, but I used the wrong = terms. "Section=" instead of "level=", and "year=" instead of "date=". This has been fixed. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 20:22, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The designer Karl Roelofs has an article, you should probably link that in this section.

Linked 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 20:22, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

With preview pieces in magazines such as GamePro and Game Players, the game was released by... This sentence feels kind of strange. Perhaps something like "The game was previewed in magazines such as [...] before its release in April 1994". I'd like to point out that Game Players marks the release date as June. What's that about? It seems a bit strange considering the magazine was published in May, after the game's purported release in April (according to Nintendo, at least). Also, why did include the Electronic Gaming Monthly reference? It doesn't really verify anything written in the sentence before it, so were you planning to use it as an example like the other magazines, but decided against it?

I fixed the initial phrasing concern, as for the latter, It could be a simple release date mixup, and Electronic Gaming Monthly could be used to source the magazine comment.PerryPerryD Talk To Me 19:28, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Reception[edit]

Critics favorably described Spunky's Dangerous Day as addicting and challenging, suggesting players will not put it down within a day. What does this sentence mean? Does "put[ting] it down" refer to completing it? If so, it could probably be worded better. Also, that seems a bit disparate from "addicting". Should they be in the same sentence? Or is it saying that players won't be able to complete it in addition to the game being addicting, and therefor hard to put down? I'm not sure how these two ideas are related, so it seems a bit strange to put them together like this.

    • Put Down in this context means stop playing, as in they will keep going back to this game.

GamePro journalist Lawrence of Arcadia wrote that during instances where Rocko has to spring Spunky, miscalculating can result in instance death. I assume you mean instant here. Also, the journalist wrote "ends up being high-grade dog food". Does this actually refer to instant death? I haven't played the game myself, so I don't know myself.

Yep, cause remember, you are protecting Spunky from danger, so Spunky will be the one that dies. Game journalists just love to describe simple gameplay concepts in creative ways, don't they? Fixed comment above. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 17:34, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

acknowledged "Rocko seems to float a bit at first". Putting a "that" between "acknowledged" and the quote would make the sentence sound better here.

Added 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 17:39, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In the third paragraph, you seem to use a surname, Fish, without any introduction to who that is. I'd suggest providing the full name in the sentence and who they're writing for, or at least writing their name for an earlier part of the reception section.

Whoops! Good catch. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 17:39, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Other miscellaneous thoughts[edit]

You could add the content provider for the links you used in the reference, that is, the Internet Archive, by using the "via" parameter of the template. This isn't, strictly speaking, necessary, but it is nice to have.

I noticed that an earlier version of the article included a plot section. Did you feel that the plot was unnecessary for this article?

I took a cue from Donkey Kong 64, one of the many well-known VG FAs here. The plot was so simple it could be summarized in the gameplay section. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 17:39, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Is this game related to Rocko's Modern Life in any meaningful aside from using the same characters?

This isn't related to the article per se, but I noticed that the infobox uses the term "Super NES". Is there any particular reason to use that over other terms like Super Nintendo Entertainment System or SNES?

infobox pre-made template i assume

Overall[edit]

  • Aside from the things I've commented on here, the article is fairly well written.
  • I haven't verified all the information in the article yet, as I've only been skimming the references, so I'll get to that soon (probably tomorrow).
  • The article covers most of what could be written about this game, aside from the plot comment I mentioned earlier. If that isn't relevant here, I'll rescind this point. I also found a pretty recent article from Kotaku. Do you think any of the information written there should be included here? I haven't done much research beyond a few google pages, but does this game have any sort of legacy?
  • It's written in a neutral manner.
  • It's stable.
  • It contains relevant media with non-free use rationale. Could use a face or two; I see the designer Karl Roelofs has a free picture on Wikimedia, so you could add that to the development section.
Good Article review progress box
Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV ()
3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant ()
Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

Anyway, I'll look forward to hearing from you! If I made myself unclear in any of the comments here, I can always clarify further. Regards, ArcticSeeress (talk) 17:13, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Further comments[edit]

to guide Spunky to a golden fire hydrant and keep him out of danger. You could probably explain what the golden fire hydrant does here.

This is explained pretty quickly afterwards, I do not see a need to mention its purpose twice in the same paragraph? — Preceding unsigned comment added by PerryPerryD (talkcontribs) 19:38, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

and protects Spunky from crabs and seagulls. You could add "enemies like" before the crabs and seagulls, as there does seem to me more than these two enemies in the first stage. Also note that seagulls is usually spelled without a space. Also, what happens if Spunky were to not be protected from these enemies: Would the player lose the game? Does Spunky have any sort of health, or is the game lost immediately? I see you write about power-ups increasing Spunky's health later in the article, so perhaps you could introduce a section about their health here.

A way to rewrite the sentence "there are red fire hydrants..." would be "The game tracks the progress within the level with red fire hydrants, which serve as checkpoints. Progress in the game can be saved with the use of passwords".

the game hyped them for the developer's later projects. I feel like this would be written better as "the game made them excited for the developer's future projects".

Rocko can jump, run, duck, punch, perform a quick succession of kicks, swipe his tail at enemies, and pick up objects; he can also change Spunky's walking direction by picking him up. I'm able to verify everything in this sentence except for the work "run". Does it simply refer to traversing the stage? In that case, I can understand why no one would write about it, but it still needs to be verifiable. From what I can tell, the GamePro reference used here doesn't actually describe anything in this sentence, so it could be removed. The other sources state the following: Rocko has several offensive weapons at his disposal. He can: lay back on his wallaby's tail and deliver a series of kicks; jump and kick simultaneously; wipe out low-flying obstacles with a tail swipe in either direction; and bound great distances. He can also punch, access objects in his survival pack, and even pick up Spunky in order to rescue him from some scrape and reverse his direction. & Rocko's quite the talented wallaby: he can jump, duck, punch, kick, and best of all, pick up and drop objects scattered through each level. Neither of these describe any running. If it can't be verified, you can just remove it, as it isn't strictly speaking necessary for understanding the content of the game.

Trust me, I try my damndest to make sure I don't miss anything in the sources when writing the prose. I don't know how these unconscious mistakes keep happening. Anyway, removing "run". 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 16:53, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

For Rocko, there are invincibility shields as well as lighting icons that increase his speed and springs that make him jump higher. There are several things I'd like to note about this sentence:

  1. The source you use states that there are "short-term shields", but doesn't mention anything about invincibility specifically. This feels like OR.
Fixed. The VideoGames source states that they are invincibility shields, but for some reason I did not add this citation at the end of the sentence. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:49, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  1. It just calls the lightning power-up "lightning" instead of "lightning icons". I'd go with just calling them lightning.
Fixed. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:49, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  1. It mentions that the lightning "provides Rocko with a quick burst of speed", which you have written here as "increase his speed". You might want to mention that they are temporary (along with the shields).
Fixed 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:49, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Their intention was to produce products with licenses of shows airing on MTV and Nickelodeon, two networks owned by Viacom. The source never states anything about licences, just that they were "working hard to produce [...] software that [...] has the look and feel of the various TV shows [MTV and Nickelodeon] produce". Perhaps writing something like "The division was created to develop and market games with the "look and feel" [quotations included] of shows airing on MTV and Nickelodeon", though this of course fails to explain why they were developing a game with property that is explicitly Nickelodeon's, instead of something generic that just happens to have the "look and feel" of the channels' shows. Sidenote: you don't need to use the same reference twice in this paragraph, as it's all cited to the same source anyway.

  • I think it's pretty obvious the games were not just meant to have the "look and feel" of the games, but be actually based on the source material. Also, "license", in adaptation terminology, refers to the source of the thing being adapted. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:29, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
A licence is a legal permission to do something. While you could infer that it is a licenced product based on it existing in the first place, and it literally having Viacom's logo on the box art, the source doesn't explicitly state that Viacom would use that division to create products with licences to their shows. I'll concede that this is a pretty minor point, and maybe I'm conforming too hard to verifiability guidelines here, but it still feels like an inference based on reading between the lines. Perhaps a compromise like "produce games based on shows..." could work instead, which avoids the issue of licencing entirely. Anyway, if you don't like this suggestion, you could at least change the wording from "produce products", as they're basically the same word used twice in a row, either to "create products" or "produce games", or any other variations thereof. ArcticSeeress (talk) 14:10, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I've changed this to "based on". I only reasoned I used "license" initially was because I used based so many times in other parts of the article, but I have changed the wording to fix this problem. I actually appreciate that you are getting this specific, because it prepares me for FA reviews. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:53, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Producer Dave Marsh led a team of background artists Jared Prano, Tony Sherman and Brian Babenderede, animators Tom Zehner, Jarod Pranno and Alisa Kober, and programmers Boris Remus and Roman Scharnberg. Several things:

  1. Tony Sherman isn't mentioned in the source. Are they listed in the credits?
Yep, it is listed in the credits. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:16, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Brian Babenderede is listed as lead designer, not background artist.
Again, listed in the game's end credits. I thought I already added the citation to the credits, but for some reason I did not. Good catch. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:16, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Jarod Prano is not listed as an animator in the source.
Listed in the credits.
  1. Jarod's name is spelt wrong on three occasions: his given name in his first mention and in the infobox; and his surname in the second mention.
Good catch. I never notice a single letter being off, so I appreciate other users calling out stuff like that. Thanks! 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:16, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Babendererde, Kober, Marsh, Remus, Zehner, and Scharnberg also did the design, as well as Karl Roelofs and Nickelodeon product manager Donna Friedman

  1. Babenderede is listed as lead designer in the previous source anyway, so remove him from this list.
  1. Should "executive support" from Carol Balkcom be mentioned?

suggesting players will not stop playing it within a day. I've commented about this before, but who is suggesting this?

It's already established in the sentence. "The critics". Pay attention. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:13, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Right, maybe I worded that poorly. Using the word "suggest" implies that it's not something they said directly. Anyway, I'd like to address the entire sentence here, as that seems like a better angle to get at this from: the difficulty of a game and how good a game is (or addicting, whatever verbage you want to use) are very different things. There's only one critic in the citations there suggests something like that, and he doesn't seem to combine the points into one like you have here: "you won't beat the game in a day and you'll never get bored" (Joe D.). The other ones state either or:
  1. "...looking for a game that you won't beat in one sitting" - hard (1st source in the footnote)
  2. "I'll be playing this one for a while" - addictive (1st source)
  3. "Once you get past the learning curve, you're hooked" - addictive (2nd source)
  4. "I did find myself coming back for another crack at certain levels, so the game does have a certain addictiveness about it" - addictive (4th source)
This smells like synthesis to me. I'd just replace it with something else, like "Critics favorably described the game's addictive nature, commenting that it was hard to put down [or "they kept coming back to it", or something like that]. They also commended the game's difficulty, however some argued that it may have been too much for its young target demographic." You'll notice that I moved the line after the Bill Kunkel one up, as it seemed more relevant here. You'd need to rearrange the citations a fair bit here, but I think it'd sound better this way. ArcticSeeress (talk) 14:45, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Honestly, I'm looking at this in retrospective, and Nintendo Power was the only source that stated the difficulty was a positive. I have definitely changed this. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 01:48, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Electronic Games labeled the puzzles as "clever" and "thoughtfully designed". They called the game "thoughtfully designed", not the puzzles. Also, should the author be attributed here? I.e. "Bill Kunkel of Electronic Games..."

All of the game is the player figuring out how to move the stage in a way that Spunky gets to the hydrant. He might as well have talked about the puzzles. However, I have reworded this. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:07, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

However, they argued that its difficulty was probably too much for its young target demographic. Who are "they"? The referrent here could really be anyone, and a reader might assume you're talking about the opinions of Electronic Games, which was mentioned by name in the previous sentence. You should probably move this sentence somewhere where "critics" is the preferred referrent. As it stands, it seems like you wrote this to be part of the "critics favorably described..." sentence, and then added another sentence inbetween.

Yep. I did not catch this until now, and I do a lot of re-reading before nominating, so I am glad you are catching this. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:13, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

GamePro journalist Lawrence of Arcadia wrote that during instances where Rocko has to spring Spunky, miscalculating can result in Spunky dying. I think using the word "launch spunky into the air" instead of "spring Spunky" sounds better here.

I initially described it this, cause I also make sure the prose has little WP:FLUFF where possible. I have reworded this for clarity. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 21:12, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

and the fact that pick-ups for Spunky only work sometimes. Is this referring to the items that Spunky can pick up, or is referring to Rocko picking up Spunky. I'm assuming the latter, so you should probably rewrite it to something like "and that picking up Spunky only works sometimes"

I initially described it this, cause I also make sure the prose has little WP:FLUFF where possible. I have reworded this for clarity. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 21:12, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Joe D. of GameFan, more forgivingly, wrote that... Forgivingly to who? This seems like strange wording. I'd replace it with "positively" or "on a more positive note". E.g.: "Joe D. of GameFan wrote, on a more positive note, that".

Forgiving to the game, duh. I thought forgivingly would be synonymous with positively, but I have changed. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:18, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Critics admired the reflection of the series' aesthetic via the visuals. The use of "reflection" here sounds a bit strange. Perhaps replace it with "Critics admired how the visuals reflected the series' aesthetic".

Fixed. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:18, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Spunky's death yelp. This could alternatively be written as "Spunky's yelp upon death", which I think reads better.

PerryPerryD has making been edits to this and removed this, so yeah. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 15:18, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
hello there @HumanxAnthro PerryPerryD Talk To Me 15:19, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've gone through and verified all the information in the article. Beyond the stuff I've written above, it seems pretty good. If everything here is rectified, I see no reason for this not to pass. My only real hold-up for the topic of broadness would be the "legacy" thing I mentioned earlier, which I'd like to hear back about.

@ArcticSeeress: I have added content from the Kotaku source. However, I would need a lot more for a "legacy" section to be justified. Content from the source is in the development and reception section. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 03:09, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Alright. The article's coverage is broad enough, then. ArcticSeeress (talk) 06:29, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Good Article review progress box
Criteria: 1a. prose () 1b. MoS () 2a. ref layout () 2b. cites WP:RS () 2c. no WP:OR () 2d. no WP:CV ()
3a. broadness () 3b. focus () 4. neutral () 5. stable () 6a. free or tagged images () 6b. pics relevant ()
Note: this represents where the article stands relative to the Good Article criteria. Criteria marked are unassessed

ArcticSeeress (talk) 10:00, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Additional note: I decided to add alt text to the images, which had escaped me when assessing the article. ArcticSeeress (talk) 17:52, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

While there's a lot to address, and I love the fact that your comments and very thorough and detailed on this, I'm was initially skeptical of using the Kotaku source, because it's only one source discussing it... Ah, why the heck not, I'll add it? 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 19:32, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Great job so far! I'll try to keep up with your revisions to help fine-tune this article. Regarding the Kotaku source, you might want to write that it's retrospective (e.g. "reported in a retrospective review"), along with a year when describing the content, as "in recent years" can be vague. ArcticSeeress (talk) 05:05, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

On a sentence in the lead: There are four levels, each consisting of four sections, that involve Spunky being distracted by an object and moving around looking for it, oblivious to the dangers around him. The player acts as Rocko, who alters the level environment by methods such as moving platforms, getting Spunky onto rafts, and fighting enemies to guide his dog safely to a golden fire hydrant. This section could be reworded/rearranged to allow the reader to understand the role of the player in the game, which they probably care about more than what Spunky does. Something like "There are four levels, each consisting of four sections, wherein the player, as Rocko, must guide his dog Spunky to the end by protecting him from enemies and manipulating the environment of the level. Spunky, distracted by objects in the stage, runs around oblivious to any nearby danger." This wording removes unnecessary details (like moving platforms, etc.) from the lead, while giving the reader the more important information first (or at least what I consider to be more important). ArcticSeeress (talk) 15:03, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 18:06, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Some final nitpicks, and previous comments I felt weren't addressed properly (or: the review is getting long, and probably hard to navigate, so I'll put it all here)[edit]

The review is at the finish line now (and I'll assume the reason you tagged me was to acknowledge that :p), so I'll go through some thoughts while rereading the article, and also collect some of the critiques I made that I don't think were addressed propely here.

  1. Lead:
    1. You might want to rewrite the reception section, as you rewrote it a bit in the body.
Rewritten 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 16:10, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    1. a golden fire hydrant. You don't specify that this is the end of the level, which might confuse casual readers. Add "at the end of the level" here.
    1. Spunky's Dangerous Day was developed for nearly 12 months during the show's creation. Replace "for nearly" with "in under".
    1. rough sketches sent by artists working on the series. Might want to specify that it's the TV series, and not just "the series".
  1. Gameplay:
    1. and keep him out of danger -> "and keeping him out of danger"
Fixed. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 16:10, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    1. protects Spunky from crabs and sea gulls -> "protects Spunky from enemies like crabs and seagulls"
These are only in the first level, and the sentence is discussing the stage as an example. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 16:10, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    1. only a small-sized map of the entire stage. "Small-sized" isn't necessary here. Just remove it.
I have changed the sentence anyway. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 16:10, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    1. Along the way, the player collects power-ups specifically for Spunky and Rocko to utilize. Remove "specifically".
  1. Development and release:
    1. All developed the project in an improvisational manner, especially with the backgrounds. "all" is rarely used as a pronoun in English. Also, the backgrounds weren't especially improvisational, but one of two things that were. Replace it with "The coloring and background work were improvisational in nature" and move it to the first paragraph, as I suggested earlier.
Fixed. I was meant to do this earlier but somehow it flew out of my head. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 16:07, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Reception:
    1. "thrilled" is too intense an emotion to describe looking forward to something. Just use "excited" instead.
Excited 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:19, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    1. However, some critics also admitted to be addicted. I don't really like using the word "addicted" to describe people, so perhaps something more specific like "Elliot Fish of Hyper also admitted that he kept coming back to the game despite its unresponsive controls". I'd also suggest moving it to after the Joe D. sentence in the second paragraph, and removing the full mention of his name in the third paragraph.
Fixed 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:19, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    1. Bill Kunkel has an article.
Linked both in citation and prose 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 13:19, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I also added the content provider for one source that you forgot. Anyway, these little niggles aside, the article isn't far from passing, so hang in there! ArcticSeeress (talk) 06:29, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, that's pretty much everything accounted for. I've done a quick read-through in case I missed something, and made some minor changes (e.g. wording and missed capitalisation). The article looks good to go, so pass. Good work, and congrats! ArcticSeeress (talk) 18:25, 19 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]