Star Fox Zero Review Thread: MC: 69 / GR: 68.84%

[binary solo]

Veknoid_Outcast said:

binary solo said:

But surely you would argue that a single play through of such a short game is inadequate as a basis for a fair review. And it's not like the reviewer isn't still playing games that he will review. He's not not doing his job. Not every reviewer reviews every game. He's choosing to not review this game, and instead review other games. which is a valid thing to do and a choice all critics make frequently. The only differnce here is that he's publicly stated that he's not going to review SFZ because he thinks it's a shit game. No reviewer in the history of gaming has the time or the motivation to review every game.

I have to disagree with you binary. It's a totally petulant and amateurish move, and it reflects poorly on the author and on Polygon. If he doesn't want to review a game he can always pass it along to someone else on staff. By starting and not finishing (a two hour game, mind you) he does a disservice to the game, his readers, and his profession. As someone who's worked as a journalist in print and electronic media, I find his actions embarrassing.

If he was an amateur blogger he could get away with that garbage. A paid professional at Polygon? No way.

I think writing an article about how shit the game is (which is a review in itself in a way) and his decision to not review it was the wrong thing to do. Which is a bad editorial decision. Deciding not to review the game, in consultation with his boss, is no problem at all. I'm sure his employer didn't just say, "OK well we'll pay you anyway and you can just go blob for those hours instead." People talking like the guy is being paid to do nothing. I'm sure he's still got to use those hours productively for his employer, and perhaps his employer decided his hours would be more productively used on other things.

Perhpas Ploygon thought it needed to give its readers a reason why a game like SFZ isn't getting reviewed.  It's a high profile Nintendo IP, so you'd expect a major publication to review SFZ. But perhaps just not reviewing the game and being silent is the better option here.