So I have never been a fan of IGN's reviewers (and since Mark Bozon has taken over most of the Wii reviews, it has gotten exponentially worse,) but a recent one left me scratching my head and wanting to strike an infant.

When perusing the review of "Alien Crush Returns" for Wii ware, a pinball title, the main graphical gripe was, and I quote "The game isn't pushing a full-on 16:9 mode..."

Now everyone who is older than 12 probably knows that pinball is inherantly vertical in nature.  Why then would we need more horizontal resolution?  It drives me insane:

"IGN's Wii Graphics Review process: "

1.) Start with 10.0

2.)Is the game on the Wii? Yes? subtract 1.5 points

3.)Does the game lack Widescreen? Yes? subtract 0.5 points

4.) Is the reviewer drunk? Of Course! Pick a random number and go with it.

Now normally, I would understand a gripe about lacking widescreen, but if anything, a larger width would DETRACT from the game's graphics.  Nothing is worse than a pinball game with massive ammounts of vertical scrolling.

Feel Free to post any other inane review experiences you have had at IGN.

Wow...I see what you mean with the pinball thing....What was the score he gave it???

"4.) Is the reviewer drunk? Of Course! Pick a random number and go with it."

Epic!! This line is pure win!!

No wii owners are not allowed to spew this BS becuase last year when MP3 came out and everyone was so hyped about it. Then the game got an 8.5 from Gamespot and a 9.5 from IGN then all you heard was how much better IGN was at reviewing wii games and how they said the gfx matched the HD console gfx.

No I won't allow this. You cannot disown IGN.

The game got a 7.8 overall, and a 8.0 for graphics.

The full graphics synopsis:

"One of the better packages on WiiWare thus far. The game isn't pushing a full-on 16:9 mode, but it's about halfway between 4:3 and true widescreen display. Great animation and effects trickery."

Isn't this evidence of exaclty what I am talking about?  I don't care that the game got the score it did, I am complaining about the methodology.  If this was a PSN or a XBLA game with the same criticism, I would be complaining just as much.

Who the hell cares? I feel sorry for these guys, and listening to the podcast, they do hate you, largely for things like this. They give an opinion on a game, people disagree with it and then they have to put up with with message boards full of people bitching about a number. Here's an idea, go play the damn game and quit whining about an arbitrary numerical assignment.

Then why are you claiming that developers randomly lower scores just because it's a game on the Wii? Sounds like you're defending only one console to me. And Vagabond's point holds true as well.

I enjoyed our time at Chili's.......and...I....I.....love you......*cries and runs*

I am not singleing out the Wii, but IGN's treatment of the Wii with regards to graphics ratings.  I have seen numerous ratings that referenced the games graphics relative to "High Def" consoles, and reducing scores due to the fact they are not on par.  With that rating basis, a Wii game will never be able to get a 10 rating on graphics.  

The point I was trying to make, which seems to be lost on so many, is that the reviews at IGN seem to be read from a script.