NOTE: This is my first ever attempt at writing a "how-to" guide, so please, be as critical as possible.

Writing a review can be either an easy task, or a difficult task. It's all in the skill of the writer. The most important part is structure. The next is grammar and wording. And lastly any minor additions such as photos.

This is meant for a video game review.

First step is actually playing the entire game (or watching the whole movie, listening to the whole album, etc. I've seen far too many people base their reviews off the very first level in a game, usually because it was too hard. If the game is broken, then it's fair. But if not, then you have no excuse. You'll end up missing key sections. There's no rush, just do the whole thing, and see if it changes your opinion. This sounds too obvious, but it remains one of the most important steps to writing a quality review.

Now we are at the actual writing phase. Allow me to say DON'T WRITE IT ON YOUR DSi. The text limit of around 1500 characters is far too short, you'll get carpal tunnel if you do too many reviews, there's no spell-check, and you usually can't save your work. Seriously not worth it. Instead, use a computer. Again, all too obvious, yet again, key.

When writing the actual review, don't tell too much of the story to fill it up. You're not giving an opinion by informing us of the plotline for two-thirds of the review. Perhaps add a short paragraph MAX.

STRUCTURE:

Intro
Game Info
Critiquing
Outro

The critiquing section is the base of the review, and should definitely be the longest. Focus on the gameplay mostly, but the graphics, music, and lasting appeal should definitely get their own thought as well. Not just a half-assed sentence, but their own paragraph. Presentation, difficulty, and multiplayer (where applicable) can be thrown in too.

The intro is the best art to improvise. Do anything you want, series history, a sum of your thoughts, whatever. Game info only needs to inform us what you do in the game, and perhaps the basic storyline. Keep it simple. The outro should sum up your thoughts.

Before submitting, use spell-check to destroy any obvious typos, then proofread. The second step is far more important, as spell-check misses quite a few things at times. If you use both steps, your review will look a lot more professional. Lastly, feel free to add any photos, which can improve the reviews presentation.

EXAMPLE OF A BAD REVIEW (written by yours truly as a Hub joke last year): lolthis game suks it has bad graphics because ninjabread man looks likes legos and the enemies are candy candy is too yummy to be a enemy lolyah and the music sounds like this dahdahddahduhdahdahdahduhdahdahdahduh ;lololololpiez and it shouldve ben awesomesaucer then that olololol celery is yummy teh gameplay is like run around and eetz candiez are we not men? WE ARE DEVO!!! lolz the game sucks but I give it 9999999999999999999999/10 because i can lololololololol!!

See, as you can see, this person obviously didn’t spellcheck nor proofread, they lacked structure, there are no photos, it’s an overall mess. Writing a review like this causes you to make a fool out of yourself.

EXAMPLE OF A GREAT REVIEW (written by Skittles): http://dsipaint.com/memberblog.php?blog=37366

As you can see, the person followed structure, (probably) spell checked, and added photos. This review is basically flawless, and you’ll look a lot more intelligent writing this kind of review.

And to show you how incomplete it feels without an outro, here’s an example right now! (Laziness.)