Recently I’ve been wanting to make my yo-yo reviews better so I can improve my content. I thought what better way to improve then just ask. What is it exactly you want when clicking on a yo-yo review?(specs, demonstrations, funny skits, etc……) Thanks folks.
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The main things I care about when watching a yoyo review are as follows:
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A yoyo’s weight in play. More often than not, the specs don’t tell the story and it is important for me to know how the yoyo will actually play. I have noticed that this is actually a somewhat subjective concept though, so having multiple individuals reviewing the same yoyo in the same video would be awesome.
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I like seeing advanced tricks. I feel like I am better able to understand how a yoyo will play if I am able to see it used closer to its full potential. Think Yoyojoe and Brandonvu type tricks.
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Wow factor/ehh factor. Does this yoyo beg you to play it, if so why? Does this yoyo collect dust, if so why? Throws and Brews does a great job with wow factor. When he really likes a yoyo, you know it.
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Play comparisons. Is there another yoyo that you own that has similar qualities? If so, how is it similar, but also include how it differs. I personally don’t care if a yoyo has similar specs because I can tell that just by looking at numbers, but it is hard to predict play just based on specs.
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Spin time is something that I feel like few people talk about. I feel like most people say that most modern yoyos have the spin power to make it through basically every combo, but there is a wide range. Developing a long combo to push a yoyo to its limits could help determine if a yoyo has a short, average, or long spin time.
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Binds/snag. I hate snaggy yoyos! A yoyo can play perfectly until you try to bind and if it consistently grabs too much string then I will not want to play it. Slippy binds can also be a little annoying for me but far less annoying than snaggy binds.
If all of these things are present or discussed in a review video, then I feel like I can make a clear decision on whether or not I want the yoyo.
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I like when a review mentions fingerspin and grind abilities. Those are not really important in a competition yoyo, but it is still something I look for.
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Hmmm, exactly what @Blieske said.
I had to edit this text… It was getting too long: in short : I watch and appreciate all videos, but I dont like those which display the yoyo and talk about dimensions and shape - this I can read at specs sheet.
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I’ve seen lately some yoyojoe1’s videos where he promotes an online store selling YYF’s products at the beginning of the video that I personally don’t like. I understand he gets a cut for each yo-yo sold there but it doesn’t look professional IMO.
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When I watch people yoyo if they smile while playing, I want that yoyo. If there’s no smile, why bother! 
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i like seeing side by side shots of it next to other possibly similar throws. then if i happen to have the other yoyo i get a better idea of its scale and potential playability. then just lots of play time with it while talking about how it feels etc
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Right up front, your review - any review - must be transparent at the very start about how you got the yo-yo. Few people do that. For example:
-Did you buy the yo-yo yourself and pay retail?
-Was the yo-yo given to you for free (and to keep)? (such reviews tend to be overly positive and heavily biased).
-Was the yo-yo lent to you in exchange for your review and you had to return it afterward?
-Did you buy the yo-yo at a discounted price from the maker in exchange for a review?
The point is, think “Consumer Reports”. Their ratings are based exclusively on product they buy themselves, on the open market. They don’t accept free samples and they don’t accept advertising. A review of a yo-yo you bought yourself is going to be much more honest and open than a review for a yo-yo given to you for free or at a discounted price. Any review should always start with how you got the yo-yo.
And, be consistent in how you review each yo-yo. For example, it’s easier to judge the playability of different yo-yos when you perform the same base of core tricks or routines with each one so you get a feel for what is right or wrong about a yo-yo, from model to model.
Finally, let others know your yo-yoing background. A reviewer who has been playing for five months and owns eight yo-yos isn’t going to be as believable or convincing. Whereas, a reviewer who has been playing consistently for several years or more and owns more than a few dozen (hundreds? thousands?) is someone I would take much more seriously.
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I agree with all of what you said except for the last one.
I have generally found consistently snaggy binds to be more due to the player’s technique than the yo-yo itself.
It’s true, some yoyos are harder to get a snag with, but if you really drill your bind technique, it starts to become less and less of an issue.
I used to get snags on binds all the time. I too blamed it on the yo-yo. But after I improved my skills on binds, the snags became a non issue. Now, “snagginess” is not something that’s even on my radar the vast majority of the time.
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Fingerspin cappabilities
Stability
Spintime
And something VERY few (if any) yoyo reviewer does: dedicated time to the look and feel of the yoyo. Not just “It feels good on the hand” but things like… is it wide? how wide? How’s the catch zone? how heavy is it? Does it feel foaty or pully (term I invented to express the opposite of floaty) if I compare to another yoyo of the same brand and price range, how does it feel?
Not only “I looks cool” either but close ups from different angles and illumination. And noone does this last part. I know this won’t affect the play but yeah, I would love that.
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I would like to know if a yoyo can handle competitive tricks. I think that is the best way to judge a yoyo
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Great I’ll take them tips to make my reviews a lot more civilized. I’ll still have some fun though.
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Also… a written review. I prefer written reviews with a myriad of pics of the item. I can’t say why. I find the video as a complementary media. I know there are some things that can only be shown in video (like how much does it vibe or for how long does it spin.) but then again, there are things that I think it’s hard to show in video than to show them in pics (like the texture).
Also, you can show several pics in a written review and the reader can watch them pretty fast focusing on the ones he likes the most while in video… well, unless you want to suffer Youtube’s video compression on your pics and make a video several minutes long just because you want to show several pictures… it’s not feasible.
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When I watch reviews it’s really about seeing the throw in hand, and in play and everything else is just everything else. Yoyoing is so small, any kind of sponsor or plug for a company doesn’t really bother me at all, because it’s probably going to be a decent yoyo anyway, and it’s not like anyone anyone is running away with a bag of millions from a Coca-Cola sponsorship and most people’s opinions are subjective anyway and not really the reason I watch reviews, I don’t think I’ve ever made a purchase based on a reviewers opinion as much as I probably already wanted to get it anyway.
Which, again for me, I mainly just like to see how it looks on video because even with websites like YYE providing very good pictures there’s just something about seeing it in the hand and in play that pictures don’t always capture for me. The other main reason is purely for entertainment, I watch reviews all the time for throws I never intend to buy or ones I already own just for the entertainment so overall quality and amount of effort put into the video itself review or not is a big factor to me.
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I mainly look for indicators as to how easy the yo-yo is to untangle the string on after screwing up a trick attempt.
Ivan
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I don’t.
I just look at the specs and pictures.
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For me, I really only care about how the yoyo feels in play. Too many reviewers just skip this aspect of the yoyo and they just keep rambling on and on about the superficial things I can find on the store page or can deduce from the specs and pictures. I get that many people like it (just look above), but for me it’s of little importance. I want to obtain information that I otherwise cannot get by browsing the various stores carrying the yoyo. It makes most reviews for me pretty useless. If you want to talk about stability, show off some horizontal or some really fast speed tricks because that is where the stability of the yoyo is really being pushed to the limit. Otherwise, stability doesn’t mean much when doing regular tricks and saying it’s stable and long spinning. (@nightshadow’s review of the doom bot really puts stability into perspective and is super useful for someone who plays fast like me.)
Also, I’ll appreciate if you put the specs and price of the yoyo in the description because some companies (*ahem G2 ahem*) don’t have an updated repository of their throws. Also great when store pages get taken down on yoyoexpert. (Yoyoexpert should just leave them up, super useful for buying old yoyos.)
I also prefer written reviews because I find that often, more of it is dedicated to how the yoyo feels in play rather than it’s aesthetics, which is understandable since there’s no media to show when writing a review and aesthetics are best shown with media.
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Any tips to bind more consistently?
Man, I can go on for hours haha. Is there any type of bind you’re referring to specifically?
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Mostly the standard horizontal bind and the upward variation of the guy wright bind haha. Also how you adjust your bind technique to suit different yoyos.
Actually I wanna listen to you talk about hours about binds hahahaha.
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