I have lost faith in the crediblity of reviewers

[Kantor]

Garcian Smith said:

Kantor said:

Why should IGN give special treatment to the Wii? Because it's a casual console, the games should get higher ratings?

 

Stopped reading here.

But, no. Review sites shouldn't be giving the Wii "special treatment." What they should be doing is hiring reviewers from demographics other than "the hardcore" to review any games - from whatever console - not aimed at the "hardcore" market. There's a reason why games like Boom Blox and de Blob didn't get GTA4/MGS4/Fable 2-caliber reviews, and it isn't because they don't deserve it.

 

At the end of the day, a review is an opinion. Is it superior to your opinion or my opinion? No it is not. Is it a well defended opinion? Usually.

So why do casual games get lower ratings? Let's look at IGN's ratings, shall we? Ratings are based upon:

Presentation

Graphics

Sound

Gameplay

Lasting Appeal.

They are not going to give Wii games special treatment because they are casual games. And the Wii is more than capable of having extremely good graphics- look at Super Mario Galaxy. So there goes a good graphics score for Wii games that think they can get by with a pixelated mess.

I don't think IGN is going to hire a whole bunch of new reviewers because their close-to-non-existent casual membership doesn't like the fact that they rated MGS4 (a technical masterpiece, you have to admit) higher than Wii Music (not a technical masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination).

Look at the Wii Music reviews. Have you actually read them? Seen what they said instead of looking at the numbers and condemning them as badly written? How does IGN justify their 5/10 for Wii Music?

To begin with, the reviewer says he really enjoys Wii Sports. There goes your 'the reviewers hate casual' comment.

"I wouldn't qualify Wii Music as an abysmal failure. The truth is, I like some of the concepts powering the game. The ability to dynamically alter music using a variety of instruments. The fact that you can layer together different songs and really create your own style. And the integration of Mii avatars, not to mention WiiConnect24 support, definitely add further polish to the fun and simple presentation. I think for all of the above reasons, kids may really latch onto Nintendo's latest effort (although I feel a little sorry for parents who must endure the cacophony of noises coming from their child's bedroom).

That said, I think most adults will quickly recognize that Wii Music is little more than a noise maker tied to a series of gestures and grow bored of the experience in a matter of hours, if not minutes. The controls aren't particularly intuitive, but gimmicky, and the selection of music is fundamentally flawed with dated public domain songs rendered in equally dated MIDI. That Guitar Hero World Tour's complementary modes -- namely Mii Freestyle and advanced studio -- completely obliterate the entire Wii Music package is proof just how much Nintendo's game either doesn't do or doesn't do well."

So, according to IGN, the sound is bad quality, the controls are bad, the music selection is bad and it gets boring fast. Isn't that enough to justify his opinion, even if it isn't yours? Just because somebody does not agree with you does not mean that they are wrong. If you don't like IGN, don't use it. Simple as that.

And why are you including Fable II with MGS4 and GTA4 for review scores? 10, 10, 8.8...