In the vein of Squilliam's thread in the Microsoft forums, I thought it would be fun to discuss what ratings you think the Wii's hyped games for 2008 (insofar as the Wii has hyped games, in comparison to the HD consoles) will get on Metacritic once they're released. Predicting the scores of Wii games is much more of a challenge than games for the HD consoles because they're mainly new IP, but we'll see...
The Games [By no means a comprehensive list, but these are a cross-section of the most-touted 2008 Wii exclusives]
Animal Crossing: City Folk - The much-touted creature-sim/sandbox game in its Wii incarnation, including online play and voice chat.
Castlevania Judgment - A Castlevania-themed fighting game exclusive to the Wii.
Dead Rising: Chop 'Til You Drop - An improved version of the Xbox 360 fan favorite zombie game, featuring no time limits and controls taking advantage of the Wiimote.
Deadly Creatures - A bizarre action game where you play as a tarantula and a scorpion.
de Blob - A stylish action/puzzle game that at least looks really promising.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse - The fourth incarnation of Tecmo's horror series where you photograph ghosts with a magic camera. (It's much less stupid than it sounds.
Little King's Story - A kingdom sim/RPG developed by Cing [Hotel Dusk, Trace Memory].
Monster Lab - A dark, creature-sim RPG described as, "Pokemon meets Tim Burton."
Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars - An artsy action platformer about, uh, mushroom men.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - A multiplatform game, but the Wii version is the flagship version, featuring lightsaber Wiimore controls and extra levels.
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World - The sequel to the Gamecube RPG; already released to mixed reviews in Japan.
Wario Land: Shake It! - A 2D platformer in the style of the GBC/GBA Wario Land games.
Wii Music - An iffy-looking music game that debuted ot hilarious results at this year's E3.
So, with that said, my predictions are:
Animal Crossing: 92%
Deadly Creatures: 87%
Dead Rising: 86%
Star Wars: 85%
Fatal Frame: 82%
de Blob: 82%
Wario Land: 80%
Little King's Story: 79%
Mushroom Men: 79%
Monster Lab: 77%
Tales of Symphonia: 76%
Wii Music: 72%
Castlevania: 68%
So, what are yours? Keep in mind that this is how you think the games will be reviewed, and not how you would like them to be reviewed.
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
