Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Smash Hit/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by David Fuchs via FACBot (talk) 30 October 2024 [1].

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Smash Hit

Nominator(s): Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 15:56, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

Hello everyone. This article is about a 2014 smash hit mobile game, Smash Hit. You shoot balls and break glass and crystals. There's also a virtual reality version of the game. This is my second FAC nomination overall. This article was promoted to GA last month and was then reviewed by three editors in a peer review. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 15:56, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

750h+

Support I was a reviewer at the PR and can say that I have no comments left. 750h+ 23:42, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 09:46, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

Comments from TechnoSquirrel69

This looks interesting! Putting myself down for a review later. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 16:03, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi @TechnoSquirrel69:. Do you still plan on reviewing this? Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 10:22, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

Apologies for the delay; I am indeed! I have started a source review but haven't gotten an opportunity to wrap it up yet. I'm hoping to do that and post my comments later today. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 14:41, 27 September 2024 (UTC)

Alright, thanks. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 17:02, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

Source review

Citation numbers from this revision. Let's do this!

• What make citations 25 and 43 reliable and high-quality? Both seem to be blogs.
  • Ref 25 App Annie (now Data.ai) was a data analytics platform that also covered the statistics of apps in App Store and Play Store. In this case, it is used to reference the position of Smash Hit on the Play Store. The App Store claim is cited by VentureBeat which also cites the data from App Annie. Ref 43 is indeed a developer blog, it was copied from the FA Teardown (video game).
• What makes citation 8 reliable and high-quality? Their about page from around the time of the article's publication doesn't mention an editorial review process or similar.
  • From what I was able to find, AppleNApps is used by Metacritic to aggregate reviews while the author covered iOS apps and games for about 10 years and now works at Apple.

  I'm not sure if that's a satisfactory explanation to use the source for critical opinions on a video game — Metacritic lists plenty of publications that we would consider unreliable here on Wikipedia, and the author of the publication being hired at Apple years later does not give them preumptive reliability in this topic area. —TS

  Fair enough. I've removed the two AppleNApps refs. This, however, created an issue with "After completion, the player enters the endless mode, a stage which is infinitely repeated until the player is out of balls." We only have several references calling it an endless runner, so I've had to change it to that. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 17:49, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

• Points for pulling reviews from multiple languages; nice work!
• There are a handful of citations that need archive links for consistency. I used theLink Dispenser tool to pick them out. (Hi Sohom!)
  • I've used IABot to archive refs but for some reason it refused to archive a couple of them several times. I've added missing archive URLs.
• "travels forward at a constant speed" fails verification, though Starr does mention that the player moves on a "pre-set path".
  • I've added another ref that should confirm this 100%. I've removed the "constant speed" part though because I've played the game yesterday and the player's speed is not always the same.
• Citations 5 and 29: Don't use the {{ill}} template in citation templates as it corrupts the metadata they generate.
  • Done.
• "The game's music initially had 33 tracks" Source verifies the claim but also mentions that the tracks were "stitched together in different combinations", so they weren't really 33 distinct songs. I think this could be rephrased a little to include that detail.
  • Done.
• Which part of the source supports the claim "He was satisfied with the end result"?
  • I've interpreted the "it works well in practice" part about the shattering algorithm as him being satisfied.
• Citation 25: The site is down and redirects to something else, switch |status=unfit.
  • Done.
• Citation 33: Switch |status=dead.
  • Done.
• I conducted a dozen or so source–text integrity spot-checks, most of which came back clean except for a few which I've mentioned above.

General comments

• The first sentence of § Gameplay appends the background music tidbit somewhat awkwardly. I would split that into another sentence or merge into a later sentence.
  • Done.
• "... a 3D video game, and has been categorised as an action and puzzle game" reads like you're pulling genre tags from the app store page. The action one seems especially redundant considering that the game is already identified as a rail shooter. Can we convey this style information in a way that's more engaging?
  • I've removed that sentence altogether and added "puzzle game" in the first sentence. I hope it's better now.
• This is a bit of a nitpick, and rather optional: in the sentence "Michelle Starr of CNET described the glass-shattering effect as impressive, while Pugliese viewed them as detailed and comprehensive." I typically prefer to see the corresponding citation at the end of the clause rather than both being pushed to the end of the sentence. This occurs a few times in the prose. Also, what's a "comprehensive" sound effect?
  • Visual effect, not sound effect! I've replaced the word with one that more closely resembles the one from the original article.

That's a full source review, but I might be back for further review of the prose. Feel free to reply to my comments in line and let me know if you have any questions! —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 05:18, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the review, @TechnoSquirrel69:! I've addressed your comments. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 12:01, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

@Vacant0: I have one reply above; everything else looks good! —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 16:58, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Done! Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 17:52, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Looks good to me; source review passed. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 18:35, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 19:01, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Sodium

I'm putting myself down to take a look at this later this week. Sohom (talk) 04:30, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi, @Sohom Datta:. It's been 13 days so are you still interested in reviewing this? Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 11:53, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi Sohom Datta, just following this up. Is it still your intention to review? Thanks. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:17, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

If I don't pick this up by this weekend, feel free to ignore my comment above and proceed as if I did not comment at all, sorry for this, I got into a spate of IRL work and have fallen behind onwiki on a few things :( Sohom (talk) 00:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

That is alright. Good luck with your admin election! Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 19:26, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

TWOrantula

Ooh, shiny! Gonna review this later. TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 23:50, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi, @TrademarkedTWOrantula:. Are you still interested in reviewing this article again? Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 11:10, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Sorry for the wait! I'll plan to review this article's prose sometime this week (if time is on my side). TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 14:46, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

No problem. Take your time. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 15:57, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Lead

• "specific amount of time" - Perhaps change it to "limited"?
• "in-game purchase, allowing..." -> "in-game purchase that allows..."
• "created its physics engine, and the acoustics" - Feels as though a verb is needed here, between "engine" and "and"
• "while Henrik Johansson designed its art and levels" - You could cut "art" because I think it's part of the levels
• "was also hired" - Recommend cutting "also"
• "reviewers who" - Comma needed between these words
• Solid paragraph here!
  • All done. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 17:40, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

  @TrademarkedTWOrantula: Any updates on this? Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 13:51, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

  Ahh, life's getting busy... don't worry, I'll have time today to review the rest of the article. TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 14:25, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

  Alrighty, review's done! TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 00:15, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

  @TrademarkedTWOrantula: All done. I chose not to change the Metacritic sentence. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 10:30, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

  You've earned my support. TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 14:29, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

  Thanks! Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 14:53, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Gameplay

• "Smash Hit is a first-person and 3D rail shooter and endless runner" -> "Smash Hit is a first-person 3D rail shooter and endless runner"
• "Any collision with an obstacle results in the loss of ten balls." - ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (my generation finds this funny, so don't judge me)
• "The player can also choose to shoot at crystals"
• "depending on the crystal's shape" - Hang on... I distinctly remember crystals only being in the shape of a pyramid. Perhaps this means something like different sizes?
  • The crystals can be shaped as pyramids, octahedrons, and stars.
• "time, but" - Remove comma
• "an endless supply of balls" - would "unlimited" work instead of "endless"?
• "or slowing down the player's mobility" -> "or slowing the game's speed"
• Not sure why the word "levels" is linked to "saved game"
• "each with a unique appearance" - Sounds promotional to me?

Development and release

• "indie game studio" - Shorten to "indie studio"?
• "and produced its sound effects"?
• "soundtrack, and" - Remove comma
• "he opted on" -> "he opted for"?
• "surrounding effects" - as in, surround sound?
• "He implemented the game's reverberation and echoing systems." - Wait, Gustafsson or Holmquist?
• "'"fully procedural and also 100% reliable'" - Could cut this quote down to: "fully procedural" and reliable
• "Gustafsson referred to Smash Hit as Mediocre's "most ambitious project to date" in December 2013." - Relevant?

Reception

• "Smash Hit has received 'generally favourable' reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic." -> "On Metacritic, Smash Hit received 'generally favourable' reviews based on nine critics." (that's how I usually phrase it; up to you if you want to change it)
• "flawless, and" - Remove comma
• Shouldn't "minimalistic" be "minimalist"?
• "looks, as" - Remove comma
• "...Mediocre's previous games, such as Sprinkle and Granny Smith." - Should be mentioned in the development section
• Overall I think the critics' opinions could be better organized, but I'm not really sure how sooooooooo

Legacy

• Nothing wrong here!

BP!

Hi. I will point this out early so you can work this out immediately before the actual source reviewer comes.

• What makes 148Apps, Sphil, Techradar, CNET (it is a low quality source according to FAC reviewers), UploadVR, and Holmquist Tonalitet reliable? 🍕Boneless Pizza!🍕 (🔔) 01:12, 6 October 2024 (UTC)
  • The article already received a source and spotcheck review, so I'm unsure what you actually mean.
  • Shpil was/is a gaming magazine that is listed as an authoritative source on the Russian VG/RS. TechRadar is a Future plc publication and is listed as a reliable source at WP:VG/RS. CNET is situational nowadays but pre-2020 content is considered reliable per WP:RSP. UploadVR is also listed as a reliable source. Homlquist Tonalitet is a primary source and was copied from Teardown (video game), which is a FA. 148Apps is the weakest out of all of these, but from discussions circa 2014 it leans reliable. It is also a Steel Media publication, which also publishes Pocket Gamer. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 11:50, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

    hmmmm, Fair enough. Ill try to read this article again in a couple of days. 🍕Boneless Pizza!🍕 (🔔) 22:06, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

    • Be consistent with whether or not the citations use title case for the titles. Make sure to italicize game titles in the citation titles per MOS:CONFORMTITLE. Like for ex. the websites has "Smash hit" on their title, it should be italicized like Smash Hit.

    🍕Boneless Pizza!🍕 (🔔) 04:53, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

    @Boneless Pizza!: Done. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 10:54, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

    Nice. I support this FAC for promotion based on the prose. 🍕BP!🍕 (🔔) 10:58, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

    Thanks. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 11:02, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

Support from Draken Bowser

Looks neat. Just a few ideas below:

• An earlier tweak removed "3D video game". My understanding is that a rail shooter could also be in 2D. If so, we need to re-add this information, preferably at the beginning of the "Gameplay"-section.
  • Reinstated.
• The description of bullet-gameplay mechanics is a bit unclear, and these are always hard to write without ambiguity. I'm assuming here that "at once" refers to the maximum number of balls allowed to travel through the air at a time. I think it would make sense to restructure this entire section to begin by stating that the count starts at one ball at a time, and then explain how combo mechanics come into play.
  • I've restructured the sentences according to your recommendation. "By default, the player's rate of fire is one ball and it can be increased to five by smashing a consecutive sequence of crystals. Despite the increase, the player would still only lose one ball from their ammunition from each shot" Does it look better now?
    • I think so, though I don't think "how many balls are in" is necessary. We've already established the concept of "rate of fire". /DB
      • Removed that part (I did not add this).
• beginning of each game - prefer "level"
  • Why though? The player always starts at the beginning of the game, while the in-game purchase allows the ability to start at the beginning of any level. If this sentence was confusing, I do not think it should be anymore.
    • If that's the case I'd prefer for it to say: "beginning of the first level" /DB
      • Done.
• Holmquist stated that Smash Hit was the toughest of all games on which he worked with Mediocre. - Do we know how or in what respect? Without that extra info I don't find the sentence very compelling.
  • Removed.
• considering that the glass shatters at the point where it is hit - I'm a bit confused here. I thought that's where you'd expect glass to break?
  • In the game, yes. He, however, wrote: "This is not true in the real world, where tension builds up in the material, and objects tend to break at their weakest spot". I've added this mention.
• Since its initial release, the game has received several updates. - This is another sentence where I'd like either a little more info or removal.
  • Removed.

Regards. Draken Bowser (talk) 14:23, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 18:20, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

While scouring for Swedish sources I realized we should probably mention when Mediocre was founded. Only, Dagens Nyheter states that the company was founded "in the fall of 2012", but the company blog says "fall of 2010", although the aktiebolag wasn't registered until 2011 (which was also the year Sprinkle released). Not sure what to do about that. Draken Bowser (talk) 19:45, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Here's a 2011 PG interview in which Johansson said that Mediocre was founded in fall of 2010. Escapist and Holmquist's blog also say 2010. Based on this, should I include this in the article? Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 19:55, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

I've found a few more: Dagens Nyheter and LiU.se. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 20:01, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Please don't me sliding into these DMs, but is "rate of fire" the correct word here? You shoot five balls at the same time, not individual balls at a faster rate. IceWelder [✉] 20:09, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

You're right. I did not know what terminology to use without making it sound worse. I've changed this now but it can be improved if it does not sound good enough. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 20:19, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Maybe we should simply call it a "limit"? Draken Bowser (talk) 12:23, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

Where exactly? The sentences are currently worded as: "By default, the player shoots one ball at a time, but can shoot up to five at once by smashing a consecutive sequence of crystals. Regardless of the amount, the player will only lose ball of ammunition per shot." Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 12:28, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

I've added the year of their foundation in the article, considering that multiple sources indicate that it was founded in 2010. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 11:00, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

• Hi Draken Bowser, I was wondering if you felt in a position to either support or oppose this nomination? Obviously, neither is obligatory. Thanks. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:18, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

• Yes thanks, I think it's time to support. I've been unable to find the appropriate tweak for the question I left hanging. Draken Bowser (talk) 21:39, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

  Thanks. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 19:28, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Image review

Image review passed. The article features two fair use images, properly licensed, one of the game's logo and the other of gameplay. Both have relevant captions and WP:ALT text. 750h+ 08:24, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 21:00, 24 October 2024 (UTC)

• Closing note: This candidate has been promoted, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FAC/ar, and leave the {{featured article candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ^talk 17:29, 30 October 2024 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.