It's funny you mention that because I agree with her, those commericials are AWFUL. ME2 is one of my favorite games for strengths that no Final Fantasy has come close to having, namely an excellent sense of pace, and a deep, "realistic", political universe. By realistic, I mean there are plenty of small things, like the codex information stuff, that really adds to the depth of the game. In FF games (or really just JRPGs), it's not unheard of to just walk into someone's house, take their money, and walk out without them even batting an eye. Some people are like "well it's your reward for exploring" but I say "why would the people in a game care if you explore?". In those JRPGs, I feel you are more of a bystander, in games that aren't like that, you can actually feel like you participate in shaping the story (even if it's linear and you have very little actual effect other than just going through the game). I have yet to play a FF game that can even nearly reach that level of immersion.

But that's also okay, I'm not saying thats a bad thing, but it's just something that FF games haven't been able to do yet.

I do not think it's a case of "make JRPGs more like WRPGs" as it is a case of "we've seen this before, about 20 times, do something more". You can talk as much as you want about gameplay differences from each FF game to the next, but when it boils down, there's always this feeling that "this is a Final Fantasy game". Which is good, and bad. It's kind of like (if you're a Foo Fighters fan) you hear a Foo Fighters song, and even if you don't know the song, you KNOW it's Foo Fighters, they have their own sound that's very easy to recognize. Plenty of great bands are like this, and some of them fall into a trap of being able to use that as a platform to propel their music as opposed to a crutch to hinder themselves. Maybe reviewers, namely western reviewers, are starting to feel that the "this is a FF game" feeling is starting to hold the series back, and would like to see the series transform. That's at least how I've felt.

Yes, there's a new combat system, a new levelling system, new story/characters. But there's something else, a sort of abstract thing, that needs to be re-worked. Maybe this is how some reviewers see it too.

Not to mention, if it's boring, it's boring, no matter how you spin it.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 70

Mario Kart Wii - 60

YES that's clearly the case. If you are trying to defend EDGE, atleast use valid arguments, if it was about fun factor, those games above would score through the roof.

EDGE has a very weired scoring system, they doesn't have any consistency or logic implied to it. Average games are getting 9's, while other arguably better ones are getting 6's and 7's.

Perhaps i'm in the minority but I didn't find MKWii fun at all... 

After a few stages of the DS game [was my sister's, just tried it out out of boredom], I had no interest in playing NSMBW.