With iOS reviews I often have to hunt through a review quite thoroughly to know whether the game is of the kind that I like to play. I am pretty burnt out on the "one-hit-wonder" type of games as well as most of the well-worn genres (.e.g tower defense), but am highly interested in games with more replay value. It would be really useful if TouchArcade had a classification system in its reviews. e.g. is the game one of those "30 seconds at a time" type games, or is it one you really have to sit down to play? Also, is it in an established iOS app category (tower defense, endless runner, etc), more of a "console-style" (FPS with virtual controls) or something else entirely? Many of the reviews answer these questions in long-form but it would be great to be able to glance at a game and get its headlining genre and play-style without having to fully dig into the review. Just a thought.
I agree that classification for ease of discovery would be a welcome bonus. Then again, the result could reach insane levels of complexity. For example, Dungeon Raid is a fantasy RPG Rogue-like puzzler that uses a twist on the Match-3 genre with lots of replayability. Puzzle Craft is a semi-fantasy RPG city-building puzzler in the same vein as Dungeon Raid with lots of content. 10000000 is an endless runner RPG match-3 that controls differently from other Match-3 games. Cruel Jewels is a Match-3 puzzler with a unique art style and multiple modes of play. These all fall within the general "puzzle" category. But each of these provide very different gameplay experiences, have highly different art styles AND, with two exceptions, different control methods. One way to solve the issue of being inundated by games with only the slightest commonality would be to make the categories highly specific, i.e. have a category for Match-3, a category for Farming games, a category for action RPGs, turn-based RPGs, bullet hell games, classic shmups, re-releases, sword-fighting games, retro brawlers, etc.... Of course, this produces STAGGERING amounts of complexity, and EVEN THEN you may end up with titles in places they shouldn't logically be, like Kairosoft games in the RPG category. Last, but not least, TA staff, if they wanted to implement this idea, would have to go through THEIR ENTIRE CATALOG OF REVIEWS and categorize them by whatever system they would desire. By this time, there could be THOUSANDS of these reviews to "convert". That's a massive undertaking that takes time and money, especially when it takes time away from new reviews/TA Plays/upcoming games/recent news/etc.... I do like the idea, since it helps organize the reviews by the games they review, which helps when looking for reviews of titles in a specific genre. But to implement such a system at this point could be more trouble than it could be worth. TA staff would need to consider the pros/cons of the idea and figure out a way to implement it effectively and as painlessly as possible. Just my $0.02 ^_^ Sincerely, Mr. Album
