So when I say "good", I'm talking about the playing style. The great thing about a playing style is that you don't need to play hundreds of games, a few are enough to showcase the style. Traditionally, I play 10 games with minimal books.
The first thing is to calibrate an opposing engine, so that you get results close to 50% performance. In this case, it looks like Wasp 3.60 at fixed depth 19 plays a bit stronger than Rodent at depth 20, so I used that (here's the PGN for collectors.)
I didn't see anything special about Rodent's style whatsoever in these games, just look at this game:
[pgn]1.g3 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.d4 Bg7 5.Nc3 O-O 6.O-O Bf5 7.Ne5 c6 8.h3 Nbd7 9.g4 Be6 10.f4 Nb8 11.Qd3 Bc8 12.a3 Nbd7 13.Bd2 Qc7 14.Qf3 a5 15.Qf2 a4 16.Rae1 Qb6 17.Bc1 Qc7 18.Kh1 e6 19.e4 Nxe4 20.Nxe4 dxe4 21.Bxe4 c5 22.Be3 Nf6 23.Bg2 c4 24.d5 exd5 25.Bb6 Qb8 26.Bc5 Qc7 27.Bxf8 Kxf8 28.f5 gxf5 29.Qf4 Qc5 30.gxf5 Ra6 31.Re2 Qd6 32.Rd1 b5 33.Bf3 Bb7 34.Qg3 Bh8 35.Rg1 h6 36.Reg2 Ke7 37.Qh4 Qxe5 38.Re2 Qxe2 39.Bxe2 Kd7 40.Bf3 Ra8 41.Qxh6 Re8 42.h4 Bc6 43.Qf4 Kc8 44.h5 Ne4 45.h6 Rd8 46.Bxe4 dxe4 47.h7 e3+ 48.Kh2 e2 49.Qe3 Kb7 50.Qxe2 Bxb2 51.Rg8 Rd5 52.h8=Q Bxh8 53.Rxh8 Rd7 54.Qe5 Ka6 55.Qc5 Kb7 56.Rh6 f6 57.Rxf6 1-0[/pgn]
Very nice, huh? Except it was Wasp who was white
I think black on this game is a good representation of what you'd expect to see from Rodent (9...Be6 10...Nb8 11...Bc8 12...Nbd7 
).I know it has a couple dozen personalities and that some ought to blow me out the water, but I'd just think, what if some previous version of Rodent played as awesome as people praised it for by default, and the personalities would just enhance something already great?
Seeking help from people used to Rodent, do you know what was the last engine version with "the sparkle"?
so, yeah, an engine that remains stylistic as it becomes stronger will be appreciated.
)