People will sometimes say stuff like "site x hates Nintendo" or "game y only got a score of 90 because z is a Nintendo fanboy." Well, I decided to examine ten of the biggest websites on the internet for reviewing Nintendo games. I decided to start with the 3DS, since it's been out longer and we have more data.

The following is a table showing howten reviewers scored 26 of the most widely covered 3DS games released since launch. Games were chosen based on sales success and being widely reviewed, and reviewers were chosen based on covering as many of these games as possible. Reviews highlighted Red were at least 10 points below the Metascore, while Green Games were at least 10 points above. The few reviews not done by a certain reviewer for a certain game are marked as N/A.

Here's a Breakdown for the Lazy Among Us.

Note that the average of these ten reviewers is actually slightly higher than the Metascore, by a margin of about 1 point out of 100.

Conclusions:

• Out of all ten reviewers, none of them broke the mold of giving more exceptionally good scores if they weren't biased towards the 3DS and exceptionally poor scores if not biased against it.
• Based on Average Review Score Alone, the most pro-3DS websites were those devoted to Nintendo games, like Nintendo Life and Nintendo World Report. IGN, Game Informer, Pocket Gamer UK, and Cheat Code Central are also bigger 3DS fans than average, while GamesRadar was extremely close to matching the average Metascore. Eurogamer and Destructoid are harsher on the 3DS library, while GameSpot is notably biased against it, even more than the Nintendo sites are biased for 3DS games.
• That said, no single reviewer was OUTRAGEOUSLY for or against the 3DS: the two extremes only add to about 10 or so points difference. Any conspiracy one way or another is fairly well disguised.
• Certain games were more controversial than others. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon had more reviews deviating from the Metascore than those close to it. Pokemon Rumble Blast, to a lesser extent, was in the same boat, as was Yoshi's New Island. Generally, these were games with mixed, not strictly mediocre, reviews.
• In contrast, some games got no exceptional reviews either way. These included universally praised games like Fire Emblem and Ocarina of Time 3D in addition to other less revered games like Street Fighter, Resident Evil: Revelations, and Nintendogs + cats.
• Destructoid is interesting. Despite being generally less than fans of the 3DS, they gave three games exceptionally high reviews: DKCR3D, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 3, and SMT4, a diverse lot. The five games they in particular disliked were less diverse, all being iterations in Nintendo series at least a decade old.

Any Thoughts or Requests? I will be doing a Wii U version sometime in the future.

Do Gametrailers too!

And I gotta loll at gamespot, I can never understand them, ever! They gave some of the best games like the weirdest scores and I am not talking about just 3ds...

I had my suspicions about Gamespot....

Interesting. The work you put into this is much appreciated. Though I have to say the information doesn't seem all that useful without an analysis of each review site's overall trend relative to metascore. For example, IGN may appear based on this to have a positive Nintendo bias, but if they give, on average, a score 5 points higher to all games than the meta, that would actually move them to the negative bias category.

Gametrailers was strongly considered for this list, but didn't make the cut due to it only reviewing a limited number of 3DS games. For instance, they only reviewed three games since 2014 began. Not enough to provide a clear analysis.

Without knowing what their average review scores relative to Metascore are overall, there's no way to substantiate anything from that suspicion.

They are the most below metacritic. I would have been fine with the Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze review if the reviewer didn't call the environments "bland"

I don't think you understood what I meant. We have to know what score they give relative to games in general. If they give all games on average a score 7 points below Meta, for example, then that would make them appear pro-Nintendo.

To think I expected this thread to disprove conspiracy theories about GameSpot. That's damning evidence.

According to their meta page, Gamespot are on average 5.4 points lower than other critics, so the OT doesn't really suggest them to be biased against the 3DS. They are just harsh in general :P