eShopperReviews.com One Year Anniversary!

Can you believe that one year ago today, on December 4, 2023, eShopperReviews.com first started up? Er… I hope you can, because it did. And anyway, that would be a very strange thing for me to lie about.

For those who were here since the beginning, thank you for joining me on this journey! I hope you continue to do so! And for those who discovered this website at some point along the way, I’m glad you’ve decided to stick around!

For all of you, I’ve prepared a nice surprise. I’m going to be doing another giveaway. Two, actually – one here, and one on the Patreon page. To find out about the Patreon contest, you’ll have to head there, but to participate in this contest, read on!

Before getting to the contest itself, let me tell you about the prize. The winner of this contest will receive a Phnixgam Pink Sakura Wireless Nintendo Switch Controller. If you’re wondering “what’s a Phnixgam?” (gesundheit), I can tell you I’m 99% positive it’s the exact same controller as the ECHTPower Wireless Switch Controller (ES01), just going by a different name and featuring a different color/design. Yeah, Controller manufacturers on Amazon do that a lot, I don’t know why.

Now, full disclosure: this controller has been very lightly used – I reviewed this specific unit for Amazon Vine so it’s technically got my fingerprints on it. However, it’s still in nearly-mint condition.

What’s more, if you’ve been paying attention to my hardware reviews, you know I’m not just foisting off onto you an extra budget controller I don’t need. Well, I’m not only doing that. That’s because I named the ECHTPower Wireless Switch Controller (ES01), and in turn this controller, as my pick for the absolute best bang for your buck when it comes to Nintendo Switch Pro-style wireless controllers. Go ahead and check out my review if you want – it is tied for the best grade I have given any hardware ever.

Okay, now that I’ve talked up the prize, how do you enter to win it? It’s easy, and there’s no purchase necessary:

  1. Sign up for a free Gravitar account (or use a pre-existing Gravitar or WordPress account), and be sure to include a valid working E-Mail address when signing up so we can contact you if needed. Alternately, create a temporary post using an E-Mail (I can see the E-Mail, and it doesn’t show it to others). I just need a way to contact you back if you win.
  2. Write a comment at the bottom of this page before midnight (PST) on Friday, December 13th, 2024.
  3. Your comment must include a mention of something you enjoyed on eShopperReviews over the last year. It can be a specific review, a regular feature, something about the way I write, your pick. And just to prove I’m not just doing this to fluff myself up…
  4. Your comment must also include a mention of something you didn’t like on eShopperReviews over the last year. A review you disagreed with or thought was poorly-written, a review you were hoping to see that I never did, a frustration that I review too much of this thing and not enough that thing, whatever. I just ask that you please try to be polite in your complaints and not resort to any language that isn’t “work safe”. You know, be civil.
  5. In fact, overall, no personal attacks, no hate speech, no illegal content, no personally-identifying information, and nothing that would be considered “non-work-safe”.
  6. Only one valid entry per person. Repeat entries will not be counted.
  7. I make no guarantees that any complaints will cause me to change anything. But you never know…
  8. After midnight (PST) on Friday, December 13th, 2024, the winner will be randomly selected from all valid contest entries. This winner will be contacted via E-Mail and asked to confirm their address. Upon doing so, they will be sent their prize in the mail.
  9. The winner will be announced on the morning of Monday, December 16th, 2024, at 6AM (PST).

Thanks in advance to all who participate! I look forward to seeing all of your responses!

.

You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!

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8 responses to “eShopperReviews.com One Year Anniversary!”

  1. nostalgiahopebad Avatar
    nostalgiahopebad

    I love the variety of game genres that are covered here. You turned me onto roguelikes and graphic adventure games and I don’t think I would have ever given these genres a chance had I not stumbled across your reviews. I’ve even downloaded Balatro after your review, and that game is really far out of my typically preferred genres.

    It’s nitpicky but since I need to add something I dislike, I wish you would add a link to jump to the tldr and rating. It’s not that I don’t want to read your review, but sometimes my attention span is fractured and I want to get the rating and summary and come back for the review when I’m a bit more put together.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    1. eShopperReviews Avatar
      eShopperReviews

      I’m glad you appreciate the variety! I do try to give every game a shot, because you never know when an oddball game will surprise you!

      As for your nitpick, I see what you’re saying, though at this point I think it would be really labor-intensive to make that sort of change. I appreciate the suggestion all the same, though!

      Like

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  2. Jared Avatar
    Jared

    I appreciate the depths to which you plumb the eShop. I enjoy reading reviews of games I’ve already played or ones which I’ve already had in my sights, but more often than I’d expect, you review something I’ve never heard of before that nevertheless sounds like exactly what I enjoy in a game. When a limited print game company announces a new physical game release, I’m always glad to see that you’ve already done a review so I can get a handle on whether it’s something I’d be interested in.

    That being said, I think it’s hard for new people to find your content. It was easy enough on Reddit where there was already a built-in audience who could stumble upon it; it is much harder to bring people here organically. I can sometimes bring your reviews up if we are talking about a specific game, but the home page of the site is not the friendliest place to send people. You’re not a web developer and you shouldn’t have to be, but I do think that a prettier front page with a few pictures would be more inviting.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. eShopperReviews Avatar
      eShopperReviews

      Yes, I do find the most unusual and unlikely things sometimes.

      As for your suggestion… hm… I think I can see how such a change could be made to add more visual flair to the main page. I worry about cluttering up the main page though, and adding game pictures could make it take longer to scroll through.

      I don’t know, do others here have any thoughts on this?

      Like

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  3. jamieandhiscats Avatar
    jamieandhiscats

    I love your style of writing – you were the reason I’ve bought so many indie games! Slay the Spire is now my most-played game approaching 300 hours (more than twice as many hours than my next most-played game) and I’ve bought another dozen-or-so games purely from your reviews that I wouldn’t ever have really chosen by myself – Celeste, Cat Quest 1-3, Stray, (I like cats, doesn’t necessarily mean I want them in my games without reading about gameplay first).

    One thing that I would’ve liked to have not happen – Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers edition won your most disappointing game of 2022. I’ve got this game, it’s been on my backlog for a couple of years and was one of my most anticipated games. I’m not sure I can ever bring myself to play it as it exists in my mind as a fantastic game (in Chrono Cross) and I’m not ready to break that nostalgia.

    Pre-EDIT: I re-read the entry criteria and realised I need to find a flaw from “this year”. Here it goes: because of your reviews, I purchased the NSO Expansion pack. It’s great and been hours of fun, especially Banjo-Kazooie that I’d never played on the original hardware. But whyyyy are the N64 and other NSO reviews buried in the “Other Articles” page and so hard to find? I can’t just go to the “Reviews” page and search for the name, I have to use the “Search” function but that’s usually after spending a few minutes thinking “I’m sure there was a review for Banjo-Tooie somewhere around here”.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. eShopperReviews Avatar
      eShopperReviews

      I don’t remember what other games came out the year Slay the Spire was released, but if I reviewed it that year it would have been a contender for my Game of the year. IIRC, I think I gave it an A-, and I still feel like that’s about right, because it won’t appeal to everyone. But if it is in your wheelhouse… yeah, that’s a game I will surely be playing for years and years to come.

      One thing that I would’ve liked to have not happen – Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers edition won your most disappointing game of 2022. I’ve got this game, it’s been on my backlog for a couple of years and was one of my most anticipated games. I’m not sure I can ever bring myself to play it as it exists in my mind as a fantastic game (in Chrono Cross) and I’m not ready to break that nostalgia.

      I think I may have good news for you here. First, it didn’t win “Most Disappointing”, it was a runner-up (Run Box Run won that year, because developer Atooi is capable of so much more than that garbage). Second, a large part of why I felt it was disappointing was because of Radical Dreamers – there’s clearly a good reason this game was never originally brought to the US. And third, and this only comes second-hand and I cannot vouch for it personally, I hear that a post-launch patch greatly improved performance issues that Chrono Cross was having.

      As such, I think you’re probably safe to play this game. Just be sure to update it to the latest version, and don’t hold too high hopes for Radical Dreamers, and you should be fine. 🙂

      I re-read the entry criteria and realised I need to find a flaw from “this year”. Here it goes

      Glad you caught that!

      But whyyyy are the N64 and other NSO reviews buried in the “Other Articles” page and so hard to find?

      Because I don’t know of a better place for them. They don’t really belong with other Nintendo Switch reviews because you can’t just buy them on their own. And if I list NSO/Virtual Console review pages on the main review page I worry that’ll clutter up that page, especially with hardware reviews *and* Nintendo’s next game system just around the corner.

      Honestly, I’m not super-pleased with the “Other Articles” page myself, but I’m not quite sure what to do about it to make things work better.

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  4. Steven Galvin Avatar
    Steven Galvin

    I really love the variety of games you review. There are so many hidden gems I would have never discovered if it wasn’t for your reviews and I really appreciate you digging into the lesser traversed parts of the eShop. I also love the detail you go into your reviews. I always get a good sense of how a game will feel to play after reading your review, and sometimes you compel to buy games that otherwise look boring or uninspired because you explain how the story is actually very moving in spite of the gameplay. 

    The only real constructive feedback I have is that the website’s menu feels and looks a bit clunky on my iPhone. I know your focus is on the reviews and not the web design, but I think making a search bar a global feature on every page rather than a dedicated page accessed via the menu, and moving the social icons to the footer would do a lot to help clean up the menu. 

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. eShopperReviews Avatar
      eShopperReviews

      Thank you for the constructive feedback, both the positive and negative!

      On the iPhone issues, I do apologize, but I’m limited both by my own lack of web design skills as well as the tools WordPress provides to creators. When creating this website, I actually spent a good chunk of time testing different design solutions that would work for both mobile and PC-based browsing, and this was the best compromise I could find. However, I must strongly thank you for the reminder to check any future changes I make on both platforms – I was considering tinkering with the site a bit, and I needed this reminder not to inadvertently mess up one version in favor of the other.

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