"We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read."
And I'm not just trying to be cute, look at people The Angry Video Game Nerd, Yahtzee, The Nostaglic Critic and half the people on his website thatguywiththeglasses.com. Negative Critiscm sells. Take this excrept from an IGN review of Imagine: Party Babyz.
"I'll be honest, I really wanted to hate Party Babyz. We as gamers have, after all, been trained for years to be suspicious of mini-game compilations, to ignore products with babies on the cover and to absolutely abhor games using the letter "z" in their titles as an indication of a plural. I had all these great jokes lined up, a whole list of witty and sarcastic remarks that would have forced the developers into early retirement and ultimately secured my reputation as one the most scathing and hilarious freelancers the IGN readership had ever seen. That list now sits crumpled at the bottom of my trash bin.
Why, you ask? Because, despite one of the worst examples of botched box art marketing I've ever witnessed, Imagine: Party Babyz is one of the finest mini-game compilations to ever grace Nintendo's home console."
He fully admits he wanted to review this game for the sole purpose of tearing into for laughs. (He actually didn't because it turned out to be an okay game.)
Basically it's often easier, more fun, and more profitable to be a sarcastic casusitc critic, then say a balanced objective reviewer. Another IGN review for some terrible Kart racing game on the Wii had the reviewer (Think it was Mark Bozon) say that he had won the right to review the game in a coin toss and was happy to do it. No budget shovelware is like dessert for reviewers. Tastes great, but probably very unheathy. =P
