I was browsing the Gamerankings.com site today, seeing how my favorite game of the moment, Mario Bros. Strikers, is doing, and I couldn’t help but notice how busted the current “rating” system is.
Don’t be confused, I’m not defending Strikers, or any Wii game for that matter, while simultaneously bashing fine games like Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3), which I single out only because it held a top spot on the home page.
The gamers reviewing games phenomenon (as opposed to journalists reviewing games) was as apparent as ever. The bubble, I think, will soon burst.
Game titles in this analysis are largely irrelevant. It’s the genres themselves that betray the broken nature of today’s “gaming journalists” and their review scores. On any given day, you could blindly go into a site like Gamerankings.com and randomly select any of the highest rated games of the month, and you’d be right 99% of the time if you said that game — when its secret identity was revealed — was some kind of dark, shoot-em-up game with violence, murder or guns as its main theme. It’s as if certain genres of games automatically, on average, get a better starting point in the review process from reviewers today. Please note I said “on average.”
Take a look for yourself. The list looks largely like it was cut and pasted every 15 slots and the number “2″ was added to the end. This includes all the Mario titles in there too.
In the stock market (here I go again), there’s a term called correcting, which happens when a stock’s value becomes overpriced–either due to the surprise popularity of a new product (*cough* iPhone *cough*) or some other factor that has caused investors to call things into question.
I think gaming, and by association game journalists, are due for a correction. This doesn’t mean developers should stop making the same game over and over again — or even will — it just means that this lopsided little industry is about to get righted.
Nintendo won’t be the only company to benefit from this, although they will be the first. We see the correction taking place at behemoths like EA and in the candid interviews with developers at events like E3 (“we’re now taking a more serious look at Nintendo’s platforms,” they say). Nintendo may be leading the way, but it will be interesting to see who makes the first legitimate run at beating them at their own game.
The tipping point will come when a majority of people start buying and playing games that receive less than 60 or 70% from the “major” publications. Voting with their wallets, the rabbling masses will make these publications more of a niche than they already are — if not irrelevant entirely. A perfect example of this, IMO, will be Mario Bros. Strikers Charged. Before it came out Tuesday, I got the distinct impression that many people had written it off as “yet another Mario spinoff” or “an update to a GameCube game.” (in that vein I find it weird that the media was suspiciously silent on the success/failure of Strikers in Europe — do the not count? hint: they certainly do). Those rumblings, such as they were, have subsided a mere day after the launch of this, the true beginning of Wii’s online play. The true review of this game comes when a friend comes over to see your new game, or a relative arrives for a birthday party and sees a bunch of kids playing it together or 2v2 over the magical “Internets.”
In fact, the reaction I’m seeing today is typically a “holy crap, it works!” kind of reaction. But was there ever really any doubt? The Nintendo DS was the foundation for a lot of the things you’re seeing on the Wii right now. Free access, no nonsense menus (perhaps bare is more apt) and connectivity (and a lack of chatting, *grumble*); all were things that Nintendo fine tuned on the DS. The The only uncertainty about Strikers’ online chops was that which was manufactured by a media that had decided to conveniently ignore the slew of successful Wi-Fi games on the DS. Now that Strikers has proved itself so far, I’d consider it a watershed moment for Wii online: from here on out, things can only get more fine tuned and progressive. And the low hanging fruit of the gaming media can only become more irrelevant.
While I like your thinking (and I definitely believe the game is changing), the belief that niche gaming media will become obsolete assumes that no one will oppose Wii’s approach to gaming. That’s just not the case. More accurately, I think Wii will segment video game coverage as it is some core gamers. Also of note…
Report: “Microsoft’s Xbox 360 took top honors as the console with the most award-winning games at E3 this year according to the Game Critics Awards. Xbox 360 games took home 11 awards, followed by PS3 with eight, and Wii with just one.”
The discrepancy between awards won and the industry’s best selling platforms (read: DS and Wii) is glaringly obvious.
And who chose the winners? Was there any doubt as to who would win?
First they laugh, then they fight, then…
I think I have mentioned this before in previous comments:
I’ve found that the games I enjoy the most usually have a Metacritic average of between 75 and 85 out of 100. While many of the higher-ranked games are really good, whenever I get a hold of one they feel like something I’ve already played before!
The most original games coming out seem to always get an average rank below the 85%, but they always have two or three critics that rank them high (obviously). The reviews from these two or three high-ranking critics, as well as a couple of the lowest-ranking ones, are the ones you should read.
Is it possible that the real difference is in the base rates (relative frequency) of each game category? One can imagine several sets of games, each with games normally distributed about similar means. However, if one game category simply has more games than the others, then some of the games might be better–purely by chance. It might explain why “mature” games, currently so popular, dominate the top ten. Any sophisticated analysis of the relative ratings of different game categories will need to look at the central tendency within a game category and the variability of the games therein. For example, what about the bottom ten games, are those also dark, brooding cliches? If so, then there likely is not a bias, just more games that “keep it real”. Oh, and Strikers is phenomenal.
Examples of games I’ve liked or I’m looking forward to, with their average score:
Pokémon Diamond (85)
Picross DS (84)
Etrian Odyssey (74)
Nervous Brickdown (73)
Brothers in Arms DS (71)
Glory Days 2 (70)
All for DS, and all below 85… but when I read the highest and lowest reviews, I find something that attracts me about them.
DS usually gets lower-end scores, I don’t know why…
@InvisibleMan – it’s teh grapphix
This is why I’ve been saying for a little while, that, sad as we may find it (being aficionados), publications like Time Magazine probably give more realistic reviews and representations to video games than the industry press does. The industry gave Wii Sports straight 7s. Guess what; Time said they loved it and it would change gaming. They were right, the industry press was wrong. As seems to be happening throughout the industry, everyone who is or puts Hardcore first just isn’t making sense. And that includes the press.
Here in London the magazine situation is atrocious, with representation being the exact reverse of the public demand: Bloody well NO Nintendo coverage, ample PS3 mags, and bloody hell, 360 mags making up the majority of industry goings-on. Across all the mags, covers seem purposely designed to put off all women, children and old people. Vgchartz has the numbers, and they tell us someone’s high on something Hallucinogenic.
BTW, talk is cheap. I expect every 3rd party to mouth off about the changing state of the industry and how they’ve been making efforts, but a day after EA made their big speech about betting heavy on PS3 and none at all on Wii being a mistake, they announced a Marvel Beat-em up for PS3 and 360. After this year’s pathetic 3rd party E3 showing for both Nintendo Platforms, I have no faith in them getting a clue before getting dead.
I’d like to add that in ol’ Blighty I’ve seen two separate PSP mags, but not a whiff of DS even existing. I’ve seen 6 different 360 mags sitting side by side. In December, during the Wii’s launch, I saw EDGE of all people, with a PS3 blazoned on the cover, Proclaiming “The future is here” as if to insult all us real people with the fact that PS3 wasn’t here (it came out in March), that they were better than us (having access to PS3′s when we didn’t) and that Wii obviously doesn’t matter so we should kick it in the teeth and ignore it at it’s moment of triumph. Who they Fuck did they think they were? Edge for Christ’s sake!
As a former gigging musician, this all makes perfect sense. I’ve played a a lot of shows and invariably, people will “meh” original tunes, simply because they haven’t heard them before. They may be great songs played well, with a great hook but they are unfamiliar so it’s harder to get excited (you can’t sing along, you don’t anticipate the moments in the solos, drum rolls etc), but then you can break into a tired cover song, not even expertly performed and the crowd will go wild at the sound of something familiar. This is the same type of mentality that crushes musicians trying to push some original music, just like it crushes developers trying to push new gaming ideas or methods. Anyway, thats my .02.
I just think that what we are seeing here is that a significant majority of the “traditional” gamers, meaning gamers that have been interested in the industry for several years now and invest a large portion of their disposable income into games, have a very narrow range of game type interests. They love to see games of very specific genres done with all the bells and whistles that have historically been associated with quality games.
Now, there is another classification of games that also exists that generally tries to appeal to a more mainstream audience. In many cases, these are everything the “traditional” games are not (usually less depth, not as much emphasis on high technology, easy to pick up and play, etc.).
The gaming press is dominated by the traditional gamers, which makes total sense, since the traditional gamers are the ones who are reading the gaming press. Why would I want game reviews written by people with very little experience in gaming? We don’t see movie reviews from people who only watch 3 movies a year.
I use game reviews for traditional games, and rely on the opinions of normal people and my own research to judge the more mainstream games. Just like I wouldn’t trust the typical movie reviewer to help form my opinion of Spiderman 3, I would not trust the typical game reviewer for help with the decision to buy mario strikers charged.
like it or not, the industry press is trying to help change consumers minds on what to buy. Basically, pushing the psp and ps3. Of course it is not working, but they will continue down that route. People aren’t listening. For example, Costco had a pallet of wiis come in today. Sold all but 4 by mid-day. full pallet sitting right next to it. Sorry Sony.
oops, that was a full pallet of ps3 sitting right next to the empty wii pallet.
I thought this might be of interest, considering the topic.
This is a list of million-selling Wii games, in terms of worldwide sales. Note which titles have reached the million mark so far, and their placement on the list. The figures are in millions.
Wii Sports – 8.29
Wii Play – 4.49
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – 3.61
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves – 1.82
Super Paper Mario – 1.25
Mario Party 8 – 1.19
Rayman Raving Rabbids – 1.02
Red Steel – 1.01
Wii Sports received a luke-warm reception from gaming journalists, and Wii Play was absolutely trashed in most reviews. Yet both of these “bad games” outsold one of the best Zelda games ever made, which also happened to receive stellar reviews from the gaming press.
And what of Red Steel and Mario Party 8, which both received reviews ranging from bad to medicore? How is it possible that such “bad games” have sold so convincingly well?
I cannot say that I necessarily disagree with the gaming press; negative critiques of Wii Play, Mario Party 8, Red Steel and other Wii clunkers have been deserved, in my opinion. Yet each of them have eclipsed a million worldwide sales.
Well, going way back up to the second post by Jack, it’s the greif cycle. We’ll be seeing the death of the constant remakes that have been in cycle since the days of the N64. First it’s denial(they laugh at us and what we do), then anger(it’ll never last, the wii bubble will burst), bargaining (hey, we’ve got motion control too, sort of), depression(silence, no word from the old front for a while), acceptance(we screwed up, and we’ll support you now). After that we’ll truly see games for everyone, not just the “hardcore” gamers. We’ll also see new play mechanisms. It will be interesting.
Here in Italy specialized press is atrocious:
there’s just one mag left that covers every platform. It’s not biased but PSs (PS2, PS3 and PSP) are leading the way, followed closely by X360 and N’s platforms.
Single format press are pushing hard on PS2, PS3 (6-7 different mags), X360 has 3-4 and Wii has a couple which also covers DS (which has none by itself). PSP has a couple of mags for itself!!!
Basically, Italy itself is Sony biased!!! All caused by PES being on Sony’s platforms and the high piracy factor coming from Naples.
Here nobody cares if a game is new and fresh… people like the same stuff over and over!!!
Derek B – Super Paper Mario isn’t even out in Europe yet so expect a boost on its figures come September 14th.
Paolo painted a pretty groom picture in Italy, but here in Portugal its 10x worse! Not only is the press Sony biased (in a tipical gamming mag its 80% sony, 15% microsoft and 5% nintendo), but big n as an AWFULL distribuitor here! No ads, no nothing! Stores get games 3 weeks after the rest of europe (like strikers…) and there’s no wii or ds fever arround here… Ps3 and Psp are top sellers, but even so the wii is getting some momentum… i see more games on the top stores shelfs so that ain’t so bad.
As for the review system… I really don’t know if its the system or the reviewer, i stoped reading game sites and go to the forums and see what people have to say! Power to the ppl! lol
@invisibleman
like David said, it’s the graphics. That’s all critics care about. I know for a fact that all those games (except glory days, haven’t played it) are very good DS games, deserving at least 85/100
i find that most gamers criticising mario party 8 have not played it yet.
just because a game isnt revolutionary, that does not mean it isnt still a good game.
every person that liked the previous mario parties and has played this one says they love it. thats all that matters. the criticism was not deserves because they didnt criticise it for its flaws they criticised it for not being what they wanted.
reviews in other mediums go for flaws in whats there, not trying to find things that arent there to criticise. guess what, all of the Die Hard movies were basically the same formula, but each were great, i wouldnt lower ones score because its the same formula since it entertained me just as much as before, but with different plots.
also, i played red steel alot, and i liked it. if you like shoot-em-ups of that style and you played this one and didnt like it thats fine, but i also know too many people who did not play red steel and yet talk about how much it deserved to be hated. it had flaws but was still worth playing. i here alot of praise for it from people that played it. and if you notice, user scores on metacritic and gamerankings tend to be alot higher then pro ratings because pro reviewers dont know how to have fun with games anymore unless its violent. rarely do non-violent games get any press sadly.
Well ok, let’s do a little common sense here as to why Wii Sports has sold so well….it came with the system. And Wii Play comes with a Wiimote, essentially making it a $10 game. Not exactly on the same grounds as Zelda.
Wii Sports wasn’t sold with the system in Japan… however, it does seem as if the bundled wii sports copies are being included, because I don’t think that the Wii itself has sold that many units in Japan, which’d make it highly unlikely for the sales of the game there to actually be that high. Japanese sales of the game though, do exceed most of the other games for the system… it’s been on the top ten Wii games since pretty much the launch of the Wii there. A quick check of the Japanese sales charts puts it on the top ten games overall there, with a total sales of nearly 2 million units as of last week. Considering that the Wii’s sold a little over 3 million units over there, that’s a sell through of nearly 2/3rds of their install base, which is quite frankly, insane.