Talk:The Unwanted/@comment-25021327-20150106011637

It's funny that you asked me to review this one, as when I started this, I realized that I had indeed read this when it was posted a while ago, and (apparently) didn't write up a reveiw for it. In any case...

I really enjoy the premise of this story as someone who grew up going to locally owned video rental stores and seeing games I'd never heard of. I was actually just talking with my brother about a game called Silent Assault which we used to rent (it was a ColorDreams NES game, one of those weird ones in a baby-blue cartridge) and how we never saw it anywhere else, and it was really shitty and glitchy as hell.

So reading about things like that resonated with me. I like to think about who makes these things, and how, and most importantly, why? And I like that you leave that last question unanswered in this story. The way the Unwanted games are described here could easily be interpretted as some kind of malicious, almost conspiratorial entity, but this is not blatently stated, which I like. The narrator simply states what he knows as facts.

Aside from the total lack of information about the Unwanted games discussed here, this story feels firmly grounded in reality. I like when a pasta can keep itself from straying too far into silly territory. Although the fact that the narrator uses a sort of rating system implies comunication between collectors (and maybe creators?) of these games and that there would be some sort of digital paper trail, or incidental info about the Unwanted games.

I liked the descriptions of the games in question, how innocuous they seem initially. I like reading about, and imagining really shitty, low quality games made by diy programmers. And that's how I prefer to imaging these titles, even though there is the hint of a greater conspiracy.

There were a few typos in the story, but nothing distracting, and nothing a quick look over wouldn;t take care of. The story, as such works mostly as a description of several things, and therefor the pacing is easier to regulate, and here it was well regulated. Likewise, the execution of this piece doesn;t lend itself to too much in the way of creative storytelling, but I still felt that the narrator had a distinct "voice."

Although other readers may want for more concrete answers, I liked the vague feel of the descriptions. how there were no direct or literary links between the games and the behaviour they induce. Reading this, I would mostly just want to know a little more about the people who had played the games, or maybe more about those who collect them, as there could be an interesting story in that kind of underground community, though expanding upon this would require a lot more writing, and for what it is, this works as a stand alone piece.

So, yeah... all my rambling and nonsense aside... I enoyed this one pretty well, especially the concept. I felt that I could kind of relate to it on certain levels, so maybe I'm being biased in my critique, but I thought this was a pretty well done little pasta :)