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AndroidGamingFox Review Guidelines

Android Fox
The AndroidGamingFox

What Are These Review Guidelines?

If you are curious or bored enough to read this, then I assume you want to know more about how I review games. I will explain the entire process on this page. 

I will also explain why I sometimes delete older content from the blog.

Review Devices

I review Android games with a Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 tablet. I bought a used device on Amazon, and it works well enough for my blogging needs. It is a big tablet, though. So I only play games at home now, mostly. I review pretty much every game with this device.

I try to play and review most devices on this tablet to stick with the spirit of the Android gaming blog. But right now I own an iPhone XR, so in some cases I will play and review cross-platform games on that. It is a secret. Don’t tell anyone.

How Long Do I Play Games for Reviews?

When I started my blog, I was more consistent with review times. I tried to play games for at least two days.

But I am no longer that consistent. Some games don’t need a lot of time to see what they are about.

The better the game, the longer I am willing to play it for a review. I will stop testing bad games sooner than a game I think is good.

I feel this is fair.

Would you want to spend days playing a game you think is bad?

I am not shy about playing a game I think is bad and then stopping to write a review after about 15 minutes or so. I try not to do this often. But some games don’t need any more time than that.

The main thing to remember is that I am the only content writer for this website.

I try to be fair and give games a good amount of time before writing a review. But there are endless mobile games. Sometimes a day or two (or less) of testing is all a game is getting for a review.

Android Game Review Criteria

I review mobile games based on seven key points.

  1. Gameplay
  2. Presentation
  3. How Does This Game Get You to Spend Money
  4. How Does This Game Annoy You?
  5. Overall Score
  6. Do I recommend the game?
  7. Will I keep on playing the game?

Gameplay

For gameplay, I go over how fun the game is to play and other related things. I consider factors such as how good the controls of the game are.

I consider If the game feels good and if the game works. Games that have a lot of bugs or crash often will be heavily penalized.

Presentation

Presentation is about how good the game looks and sounds. I know these things are subjective.

For me, a game doesn’t have to look photo-realistic to look good. The game needs to have an art style that is used well.

I also rate games based on sound and music quality. I tend to be more critical of music as most games have forgettable music.

Spending Factor

I Explain Ways You Can Spend Money in Games

Often mobile games are free to play games with many ways to spend money. In this review section, I explain the ways you can spend money on a game and how this game gets you to spend more money.

Is This Game Fair for People Who Don’t Spend Money?

I write this from the viewpoint of somebody who plays a lot of free games and tends to spend very little money. This is how I often play free to play games.

I consider how fair the game is for people who rather save their money. If I feel a game is considerably easier or feels much better for people who frequently spend money, I make sure to mention this in this section.

How Does This Game Annoy You?

Unfortunately, mobile games tend to have many things in them that are annoying for players.

As repetitive and tiring it is, I make sure to point out every annoyance a game possibly might have.

These are some of the things I consider in this section. There may be other things I consider.

  • Does the game have ads? How many? When do they show? How often do they show?
  • Does the game annoy you with constant popups and message spam often?
  • Does the game make you wait for things? How long does the game make you wait?
  • Do you need to spend in game currency often for things? Can you easily get more of it?

The Game Recommendation Section

At the end of every review, I voice my thoughts on if I think people will like a game and if I think you should play it. This is pretty straightforward.

I also acknowledge if I think a game is bad, but people still might enjoy it anyway. It happens.

Will I Keep on Playing the Game?

This the final part of all reviews. I put this section last as I think my personal thoughts should be considered second compared to if I recommend the game or not.

This is where I decide if I want to play a game anymore after reviewing it.

The fact is I review a lot games. So often I don’t feel like playing games anymore after reviewing them. This alone is not a sign of a bad game. Take this at face value. I just don’t want to play this game anymore.

Where Is the Review Score?!

So this is something I spent a lot of time thinking about. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want to use review scores in my reviews. So there won’t be any.

I just don’t think it is something worth doing. I know a lot of people give review scores, and many bigger content websites do. But I personally don’t feel like I can be objective enough to try to score a game. I write about games very personally, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

Instead of stressing over whether a game should be 4/5 or 8/10, I will just state my overall thoughts about the game, whether I liked it, and if I recommend playing it. I also state whether I will play the game anymore.

I leave it up to you, the reader, to score the game if you feel it is necessary.

Why I Delete Content

So first, let me state that I don’t like deleting content. It means I am getting rid of my own work, and it was a waste of time in some sense. 

But there are reasons why I will remove a blog post.

The Game Doesn’t Exist Anymore or No Android Version

I am not writing this blog for historical purposes.

I only have so much server and disk space to use. So if a game is no longer on Google Play, then that content or game review is getting deleted. I might consider keeping a review of a direct download game or one on some other store than Google Play. But there better be a way to get the game on Android!

So developer, if you ask me to write about your game and then you remove it from Google Play, your review is also getting removed. 

Sigh. Yes, this has happened a few times to me. It really makes me question writing content for smaller developers.

Very Low Performing Content

I don’t do it often. But I have removed posts in the past for just getting no views at all. I normally just ignore these posts. But when they become very outdated or need updates, I might opt to just delete them.