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Forums - Nintendo - Metacritic Says 4 of the 20 Best Wii Games are on WiiWare

rajendra82 on 30 March 2010
griffinA said:
rajendra82 said:
The reason so many WiiWare games show up the top 20 is because of relative lack of good games worth a full retail price on the system.

There's plenty of games on the Wii worth buying that fall outside of the top 20. Or are you the type of person who only buys what metacritic tells you to?

That's not what I am saying at all.  A retail game has to provide more value, because it costs three times as much.  Retail games that don't bank on nostalgia have to provide value by having an involved singleplayer campaign, amazing multiplayer modes, or a highly cinematic experience, or they will necessarily suffer in the scores department.  These same factors are generally much more irrelevant for a downloadable game which can get away with being short and simple.  Wii retail games typically have lacked the elements that give them a high value when compared to the downloadable games on WiiWare.  I am not saying that lower scores means not worth buying.  What I am saying is that getting less for your money means lower scores.  If you still want to buy the retail game knowing this, go ahead.



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griffinA on 30 March 2010
rajendra82 said:
griffinA said:
rajendra82 said:
The reason so many WiiWare games show up the top 20 is because of relative lack of good games worth a full retail price on the system.

There's plenty of games on the Wii worth buying that fall outside of the top 20. Or are you the type of person who only buys what metacritic tells you to?

That's not what I am saying at all.  A retail game has to provide more value, because it costs three times as much.  Retail games that don't bank on nostalgia have to provide value by having an involved singleplayer campaign, amazing multiplayer modes, or a highly cinematic experience, or they will necessarily suffer in the scores department.  These same factors are generally much more irrelevant for a downloadable game which can get away with being short and simple.  Wii retail games typically have lacked the elements that give them a high value when compared to the downloadable games on WiiWare.  I am not saying that lower scores means not worth buying.  What I am saying is that getting less for your money means lower scores.  If you still want to buy the retail game knowing this, go ahead.

But theres some problems with this theory that good score = good value. Madworld, a six hour single-player only game, is one of the highest scored games.  Then, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a very long game with multiple endings, is well outside the top 20. So then I would argue your getting "less for your money" of you bought Madworld over Muramasa. Trying to sum up what ALL reviewers are looking for is a fruitless task as all reviewers enjoy different things.

 

Also, I disagree that games need any of those three criteria you mentioned (especially a "highly cinematic experience") to be good.



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"The so-called "hardcore" gamer is a marketing brainwashed, innovation shunting, self-righteous idiot who pays videogame makers far too much money than what is delivered."

09tarheel on 30 March 2010

I think the WiiWare service is great, in fact I think there are enough good games on WiiWare now to justify a purchase of the Wii by itself. Games like World of Goo, Cave Story, Strong Bad series, Monkey Island series, Lost Winds, Swords and Soldiers, Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles, Art Style series, Flowerworks, Dr. Mario, Bomberman, and Tetris, and the list goes on. It really has become an impressive catalog. This March has been a particularly strong month in NA for WiiWare with MegaMan 10, Max and The Magic Marker, Rage of the Gladiator, Cave Story, and WarioWare DIY Showcase all releasing. I think Nintendo should have ran a "games of summer" like promotional push for them.



rajendra82 on 30 March 2010
griffinA said:
rajendra82 said:
griffinA said:
rajendra82 said:
The reason so many WiiWare games show up the top 20 is because of relative lack of good games worth a full retail price on the system.

There's plenty of games on the Wii worth buying that fall outside of the top 20. Or are you the type of person who only buys what metacritic tells you to?

That's not what I am saying at all.  A retail game has to provide more value, because it costs three times as much.  Retail games that don't bank on nostalgia have to provide value by having an involved singleplayer campaign, amazing multiplayer modes, or a highly cinematic experience, or they will necessarily suffer in the scores department.  These same factors are generally much more irrelevant for a downloadable game which can get away with being short and simple.  Wii retail games typically have lacked the elements that give them a high value when compared to the downloadable games on WiiWare.  I am not saying that lower scores means not worth buying.  What I am saying is that getting less for your money means lower scores.  If you still want to buy the retail game knowing this, go ahead.

But theres some problems with this theory that good score = good value. Madworld, a six hour single-player only game, is one of the highest scored games.  Then, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a very long game with multiple endings, is well outside the top 20. So then I would argue your getting "less for your money" of you bought Madworld over Muramasa. Trying to sum up what ALL reviewers are looking for is a fruitless task as all reviewers enjoy different things.

 

Also, I disagree that games need any of those three criteria you mentioned (especially a "highly cinematic experience") to be good.

1.  Madworld and Muramasa are both at 81 on Metacritic.  One is not one of the most acclaimed games, while the other way out of top 20 like you think.  I am sure the reviewers docked a few points from MadWorld for being only 6 hours long (which is awefully close to a WiiWare game length IMHO), and probably gave Muramasa a point or two for being lengthy and involved.  There has to be other factors why neither cracked the top 20.  I haven't played either, so I won't speculate.

2. I am only trying to make sense of the review scores, not come up with a list of games to buy for me or anyone.  I personally am enjoying the heck out of Darksiders nowadays.  This is not the most highly rated game around, but I prefer it over some of the other higher rated games.  But I know why it scored the way it did (too similar to some other games, no nostalgia factor being a new IP, no multiplayer to extend play time).  I enjoy it and chose to buy it for what it is, but that alone does not make the review system broken or useless.  The reviews and scores told me about what to expect, and I was fine with that.

 



Samus Aran on 30 March 2010
TheSource said:

Metacritic Says 4 of the 20 Best Wii Games are on WiiWare

I find that pretty impressive given how much more advertising and attention is given to retail Wii games, not to mention the larger budgets those titles have, and the the fact that WiiWare has existed since Spring 2008 while Wii has existed since 2006...

Big congratulations to the Cave Story guys though - they've made the 12th best game on Wii of all time by Metacritic - ahead of NSMB Wii, and second on WiiWare only to World of Goo. Not an easy task.

What do you think of the WiiWare scene vs. the Wii retail scene?

Wiiware games get a lot less reviews making the score higher then retail wii games(there are exceptions of course) 

 

That said, world of goo is just an amazing game and it deserves its score :) 



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jarrod on 30 March 2010

I was curious so I decided to round up Metacritic's top ranking full downloadable games (only, no expansions, no dlc for retail, no retail as downloadables) this gen that scored 80 or above ... also worth noting that Virtual Console, PS Classic and Xbox Originals are NOT counted by metacritic...

  1. [WW] World of Goo (2D Boy) 94
  2. [XBLA] Braid (MGS / Number None) 93
  3. [DSiW] Flipnote Studio (Nintendo) 93
  4. [PSN] Braid (Hothead Games / Number None) 93
  5. [PSN] Peggle (PopCap Games) 93
  6. [XBLA] Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 (Bizarre Creations) 90
  7. [XBLA] Portal: Still Alive (Valve) 90
  8. [XBLA] Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami / Backbone Entertainment) 89
  9. [XBLA] Rez HD (Q? Entertainment / Hexadrive) 89
  10. [XBLA] Peggle (PopCap Games) 89
  11. [WW] Cave Story (Nicalis / Studio Pixel) 89
  12. [XBLA] Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix (Capcom / Backbone Entertainment) 88
  13. [XBLA] Shadow Complex (MGS / Epic Games / Chair Entertainment) 88
  14. [XBLA] The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (LucasArts) 88
  15. [PSN] Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix (Capcom / Backbone Entertainment) 87
  16. [XBLA] Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (D3 Publisher / Infinite Interactive) 87
  17. [PSN] WipEout HD (SCE / Liverpool) 87
  18. [XBLA] Ikaruga (Treasure Video Games) 87
  19. [PSN] Bionic Commando Rearmed (Capcom / GRiN) 87
  20. [PSN] Critter Crunch (Capybara Games) 87
  21. [PSN] flower (SCE / thatgamecompany) 87
  22. [XBLA] Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (Bizarre creations) 86
  23. [WW] Bomberman Blast (Hudson) 86
  24. [WW] Tetris Party (Tetris Online / Hudson) 86
  25. [XBLA] Trials HD (MGS / RedLynx) 86
  26. [PSN] Shatter (Sidhe) 86
  27. [WW] LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias (Frontier) 86
  28. [PSN] PixelJunk Shooter (SCE / Q-Games) 86
  29. [PSN] Super Stardust HD (SCE / Housemarque) 85
  30. [XBLA] Bionic Commando Rearmed (Capcom / GRiN) 85
  31. [WW] MaBoShi: The 3 Shape Arcade (Nintendo / Mindware) 85
  32. [PSN] Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom / Backbone Entertainment) 85
  33. [PSPM] Tetris (Tetris Online / EA Mobile) 85
  34. [XBLA] Bomberman Live (Hudson / Backbone Entertainment) 84
  35. [PSN] Battlefield 1943 (EA Games / DICE) 84
  36. [WW] Swords & Soldiers (Ronimo Games) 84
  37. [XBLA] Worms 2: Armageddon (Team 17 Software) 84
  38. [XBLA] Splosion Man (MGS / Twisted Pixel) 84
  39. [PSPM] Blast Off (Halfbrick Studios) 84
  40. [WW] Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood (Telltale Games) 84
  41. [DSiW] Dark Void Zero (Capcom / Other Ocean) 84
  42. [XBLA] Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix (Capcom / Backbone Entertainment) 83
  43. [XBLA] Pac-Man Championship Edition (Namco Bandai) 83
  44. [PSN] Everyday Shooter (SCE / Johnathan Mark) 83
  45. [PSN] PixelJunk Monsters (SCE / Q-Games) 83
  46. [XBLA] N+ (Metanet Games / Slick Entertainment) 83
  47. [WW] Mega Man 9 (Capcom / inti-creates) 83
  48. [WW] Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive people Episode 5: 8-bit is Enough (Telltale Games) 83
  49. [XBLA] Battlefield 1943 (EA Games / DICE) 83
  50. [PSN] Comet Crash (Pelfast) 83
  51. [DSiW] Art Style: PiCTOBiTS (Nintendo / skip) 83
  52. [DSiW] Mighty Flip Champs (Wayforward Technologies) 83
  53. [PSN] Trine (Nobilis / FrozenByte) 83
  54. [DSiW] Dragon Quest Wars (Square Enix / Intelligent Systems) 83
  55. [DSiW] Art Style: DigiDrive (Nintendo / Q-Games) 83
  56. [XBLA] The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (2K Play / The Odd Gentlemen)
  57. [PSN] Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection (Namco Bandai) 82
  58. [PSN] Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix (Capcom / Backbone Entertainment) 82
  59. [XBLA] Prince of Persia Classic (Ubisoft / Gameloft) 82
  60. [XBLA] Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega / Sonic Team / Backbone Entertainemnt) 82
  61. [XBLA] Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) 82
  62. [WW] Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free (Telltale Games) 82
  63. [XBLA] Mega Man 9 (Capcom / inti-creates) 82
  64. [WW] Art Style: orbient (Nintendo / skip) 82
  65. [DSiW] Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (Nintendo / NST) 82
  66. [WW] NycQuest: Kindred Spirits (Over the Top Games) 82
  67. [XBLA] Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom / Backbone Entertainment) 82
  68. [XBLA] Defense grid: The Awakening (Hidden Path Entertainment) 82
  69. [WW] Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the pirate God (Telltale Games) 82
  70. [XBLA] Mega Man 10 (Capcom / inti-creates) 82
  71. [XBLA] Perfect Dark (MGS / Rare / 4J Studios) 82
  72. [XBLA] UNO (MGS / Carbon ated Games) 81
  73. [XBLA] Catan (MGS / Big Huge Games) 81
  74. [XBLA] Sensible World of Soccer (Codemasters / Kuju Sheffield) 81
  75. [XBLA] Poker Smash (MGS / Void Star) 81
  76. [PSN] echochrome (SCE / Japan Studio) 81
  77. [WW] Lost Winds (Frontier Developments) 81
  78. [WW] Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective (Telltale Games) 81
  79. [PSN] Bomberman Ultra (Hudson / Backbone Entertainment) 81
  80. [PSPM] Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios / Twitchy Thumbs) 81
  81. [PSPM] Kahoots (Honeyslung) 81
  82. [PSPM] Pinball Fantasies (Cowboy Rodeo) 81
  83. [PSN] Hustle Kings (SCE / Voofoo Studios) 81
  84. [DSiW] Starship Defense (Nintendo / Q-Games) 81
  85. [XBLA] Toy Soldiers (MGS / Signal Studios) 81
  86. [WW] Rage of the Gladiator (Ghostfire Games) 81
  87. [XBLA] Cloning Clyde (NinjaBee Studios) 80
  88. [XBLA] DOOM (id Software / Nerve Software) 80
  89. [WW] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Square Enix) 80
  90. [PSN] PixelJunk Eden (SCE / Q-Games) 80
  91. [XBLA] Duke Nuken 3D (3D Realms / ) 80
  92. [PSN] Penny Arcade Adventures: One the Rain-Slick Precipice of Death: Episode 2 (Hothead Games) 80
  93. [PSN] Lumines Supernova (Q? Entertainment / Fupac) 80
  94. [WW] Bit.Trip Beat (Aksys Games / Gaijin Games) 80
  95. [XBLA] Space Invaders Extreme (Taito / Backbone Entertainment) 80
  96. [PSN]  ZEN Pinball (SCE / Zen Studios) 80
  97. [XBLA] Rocket Riot (THQ / Codeglue) 80
  98. [DSiW] Art Style: Boxlife (Nintendo / skip) 80
  99. [WW] Bit.Trip Core (Aksys Games / Gaijin Games) 80
  100. [WW] Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan (Telltale Games) 80
  101. [XBLA] 0-D Beat Drop (Aksys Games / Cyclone Zero) 80
  102. [WW] Bit.Trip Void (Aksys Games / Gaijin Games) 80
  103. [XBLA] Chime (Valcon Games / Zoe Mode) 80
  104. [XBLA] Darwina+ (Introversion Software) 80
  105. [XBLA] Greed Corp (Valcon Games / W! Games) 80
  106. [WW] Mega Man 10 (Capcom / inti-creates) 80
  107. [PSN] Mega Man 10 (Capcom / inti-creates) 80

 

And breakdown by platforms...

  1. Xbox Live Arcade: 44 games 
  2. PlayStation (3) Network: 26 games 
  3. WiiWare: 23 games 
  4. DSiWare: 9 games 
  5. PSP Minis: 5 games 

...and interestingly, breakdown of platforms by 3rd party games alone...

  1. Xbox Live Arcade: 35 games
  2. WiiWare: 21 games
  3. PlayStation (3) Network: 16 games
  4. PSP Minis: 5 games
  5. DSiWare: 3 games

 

...shit, this took longer that I thought!  Interesting that Wiiware beat out PSN for 3rd party games...



Samus Aran on 30 March 2010
rajendra82 said:
griffinA said:
rajendra82 said:
griffinA said:
rajendra82 said:
The reason so many WiiWare games show up the top 20 is because of relative lack of good games worth a full retail price on the system.

There's plenty of games on the Wii worth buying that fall outside of the top 20. Or are you the type of person who only buys what metacritic tells you to?

That's not what I am saying at all.  A retail game has to provide more value, because it costs three times as much.  Retail games that don't bank on nostalgia have to provide value by having an involved singleplayer campaign, amazing multiplayer modes, or a highly cinematic experience, or they will necessarily suffer in the scores department.  These same factors are generally much more irrelevant for a downloadable game which can get away with being short and simple.  Wii retail games typically have lacked the elements that give them a high value when compared to the downloadable games on WiiWare.  I am not saying that lower scores means not worth buying.  What I am saying is that getting less for your money means lower scores.  If you still want to buy the retail game knowing this, go ahead.

But theres some problems with this theory that good score = good value. Madworld, a six hour single-player only game, is one of the highest scored games.  Then, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a very long game with multiple endings, is well outside the top 20. So then I would argue your getting "less for your money" of you bought Madworld over Muramasa. Trying to sum up what ALL reviewers are looking for is a fruitless task as all reviewers enjoy different things.

 

Also, I disagree that games need any of those three criteria you mentioned (especially a "highly cinematic experience") to be good.

1.  Madworld and Muramasa are both at 81 on Metacritic.  One is not one of the most acclaimed games, while the other way out of top 20 like you think.  I am sure the reviewers docked a few points from MadWorld for being only 6 hours long (which is awefully close to a WiiWare game length IMHO), and probably gave Muramasa a point or two for being lengthy and involved.  There has to be other factors why neither cracked the top 20.  I haven't played either, so I won't speculate.

2. I am only trying to make sense of the review scores, not come up with a list of games to buy for me or anyone.  I personally am enjoying the heck out of Darksiders nowadays.  This is not the most highly rated game around, but I prefer it over some of the other higher rated games.  But I know why it scored the way it did (too similar to some other games, no nostalgia factor being a new IP, no multiplayer to extend play time).  I enjoy it and chose to buy it for what it is, but that alone does not make the review system broken or useless.  The reviews and scores told me about what to expect, and I was fine with that.

 

There are some review sites that rate every wii game 58%(although they probably don't use a 1-10 scale), but they give almost every game low ratings.

They gave NSMBW 58%, red steel 2 58%, etc

Now I don't mind these low scores, but what they write is really laughable. In the red steel 2 review they just wrote a whole review about how all the enemies have no faces and wear masks, NOTHING ELSE. 



gansito on 30 March 2010
rajendra82 said:
griffinA said:
rajendra82 said:
The reason so many WiiWare games show up the top 20 is because of relative lack of good games worth a full retail price on the system.

There's plenty of games on the Wii worth buying that fall outside of the top 20. Or are you the type of person who only buys what metacritic tells you to?

That's not what I am saying at all.  A retail game has to provide more value, because it costs three times as much.  Retail games that don't bank on nostalgia have to provide value by having an involved singleplayer campaign, amazing multiplayer modes, or a highly cinematic experience, or they will necessarily suffer in the scores department.  These same factors are generally much more irrelevant for a downloadable game which can get away with being short and simple.  Wii retail games typically have lacked the elements that give them a high value when compared to the downloadable games on WiiWare.  I am not saying that lower scores means not worth buying.  What I am saying is that getting less for your money means lower scores.  If you still want to buy the retail game knowing this, go ahead.

Completely agree with you



Metallicube on 30 March 2010
cura said:

I'm not impressed by the top games on metacritic for wii (those rated 90+); 3 are gamecube or ps2 remakes (zelda: twilight princess, re4 wii, and okami).

then there's only mario galaxy, metroid prime 3 and SSBB that are true wii exclusives :(

wii's metacritic ratings just reinforces my opinion that the console has the weakest library of the 3 current gen consoles.

hopefully zelda wii, mario galaxy 2, and the new metroid game will give a much needed boost to the console's metacritic ratings.

Yeah but most of the HD Twins' top rated games are not exclusive either.

Now I wouldn't say Wii has the best LIBRARY, that title goes to the 360. But it easilly has the best exclusives IMO.

Also, it's tough to trust Metacritics when quite possibly the two greatest Wii games, NSMB Wii and Mario Kart Wii, are nowhere near 90.



archbrix on 30 March 2010

Interesting. I only have two WiiWare games so far: World of Goo and the original Lost Winds. I liked WOG but didn't care for LW at all. However I still haven't played the new Castlevania or Blaster Master, and I've heard nothing but great things for Cave Story, which will be my next WiiWare purchase.