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Zekkyou on 20 April 2017
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Nuvendil said:
Zekkyou said:

I fail to see how bringing it up is "dismissing a score". As i noted to someone else, while i think portability is a logical point of discussion (if there was absolutely no net positive to something being portable, then the Switch wouldn't have a reason to exist), it's not a criticism. If it improved the experience for some critics, then it's a valid point of praise. It's just that MK8's score jump is an anomaly compare to the overwhelming majority of other remasters, remakes, and ports. We already know everything that's in the game, and yet even many Nintendo fans are surprised. Discussion is naturally going to turn to how we got here, and portability is one of the obvious places to start.

I suppose my wording was wrong. Downplaying is what it comes off as. Specifically when he implied, perhaps by mistake, that the game itself doesn't warrant the score and the portability lowers the standard (when he referrenced his main example of Persona 4 Golden and how it would not have gotten that score were it not for being on the Vita).  I do not like nor will ever approve of or shy away from criticizing handwaving if I believe it to be going on because I find it very petty. If that wasn't his intention, then I appologize but I think my mistake is understandable.

However worth pointing out, the big examples of this portability grace is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Persona 4 Golden, which are both upgrades in more than just graphics.  If that's the case and the gameplay had not aged (which neither had really), does not the upgrade explain the increased score more so than this grace that's given for portability. 

And while it is anomolous, I think the more obvious reason is that Mario Kart's battle mode has been considered core to the franchise for a very long time and Mario Kart 8's original battle mode was almost universally panned back when it first came out.  So for it to get comletely overhauled to be more in line in terms of quality with what is expected in Mario Kart would be a major improvement.  I mean, there were a lot of reviews if memory serves that said Mario Kart 8 would be the best in the franchise if the Battle Mode wasn't terrible, that should speak to its importance. 

Given the near total absence of anything comparable on home consoles (despite there being so many remasters this gen, with many of them offering significant visual, performance, gameplay, or content upgrades), i'm hesitant to just default to that. It's certainly possible that's the case, but it seems just as likley that portability is at minimum playing a part. We know for a fact that portability is a benefit many value, it's why handhelds exist at all, so the question is what kind of an effect does it have when you can have portability without the design limitations that usually comes with it? That's where the need for discussion comes in.

If you have a look through my posting history in meta-threads, i'm not aware that I've ever dismissed any score. I rarely even dismiss reviews that fall far outside a game's general score curve (in-fact i provided a degree of defence for both Jim Sterling's 7/10 for BotW, and the WaPo's 4/10 for UC4). I'll express scepticism, but i acknowledge that subjectivity is almost always at minimum a possible explanation. I wouldn't actively express confusion over an overall score unless it was genuinely unusual, and this is. I don't know or care if the score is justified, i'm just an individual so it's not really may place to comment on the validity of an aggregate (at least not without significant data to back me up). All i can do is express scepticism about how we ended up there, and have discussions stemming from that.