YES, game franchises do affect how games are reviewed, specifically by coloring games with that franchise's inertia.

FF XIII is an obvious example, but XIII-2 is actually a better example. XIII-2 was mechanically superior to XIII in every conceivable way. The cast was likable, the story was coherent and willing to play with it's own ideas, and there was none of this corridor business in the level design. XIII-2 was everything I could reasonably expect in a Final Fantasy game.

I feel the review scores were harsher than it deserved because Final Fantasy was struggling at the time to recover from XIII.


Another good example: 3rd Birthday.

Taken on it's own it's a solid 3rd person shooter for the PSP if not better. The mechanics are solid and the overdrive mechanic in particular had the potential to create a tactics-shooter hybrid. Alas, 3rd Birthday was supposed to be Parasite Eve 3, and there's no way a shooter with an incoherent story and bland characters can fit in a franchise with the ridiculously well written Parasite Eve. It got reviewed reasonably poorly.

It's like 3rd Birthday deserved two scores; one for how it stands on it's own (rather well) and another for how it stands against the series it sequels (incredibly poorly).

Not quite sure what you mean. Naughty Dog had a solid reputation going into gen 7 but it wasn't OMG best studio evah! The Original Jak and Daxter is the only Jak game to meta in the 90's and it "only" managed 90 exactly best reviewed ND game before UC2 was Crash on PS.

The their first game on PS3 was Drake's fortune. It reviewed well but it also wasn't OMG Gears of War Killer!

So along comes Uncharted 2 and it has a studio name behind it with a credible reputation and a series of well reviewed but nothing that would cause critics to be star struck. And certainly no basis to go from an 88 (Drakes Fortune) to a 96 (UC2) on meta critic. So IMO Uncharted 2 earned what it got on its own merits because it really wasn't standing on the shoulders of giants. In fact it was Uncharted 2 that made Naughty Dog into THE premier Sony first party studio and one of the shining star studios of the whole video gaming industry.

So you can accuse Uncharted 3 of  benefitting from star status sure, but not the series as a whole.

I'm pretty sure TLOU would have got the same praise regardless of who made it so the ND name attached to it certainly helped sales, but not critical reception.

So in the end, of all the 4 games ND has put out on PS3 only Uncharted 3 can really be said to have possibly got better reviews because of franchise or studio name.

And because Uncharted 3 was not quite as well reviewed as Uncharted 2, Uncharted 4 actually has something to prove, beyond eye-watering graphics (for a console). If it seems to be pretty much more of the same only better looking I think it will get critically panned. Even though I am about ready for more of the same Uncharted but better looking.

I've not played enough big name franchises to be able to judge whether franchise name earns extra meta points. I suspect it probably does. But we have seen plenty of cases where franchise name has not done a mediocre game any favours: Gears Judgement; Ratchet and Clank Spin off titles.

I was talking about Uncharted as a franchise.

NSMBU vs The Wonderful 101. I honestly think NSMBU was a little better (not as buggy or annoying at times) but not as much as many depict it to be

Yes. The notes for the ign review of COD: Ghosts basically said "it sucks but it's still call of duty."

Definitely a yes.

BUT marketing helps to give the games a good impression. So when you mix the two you get lots of sales and 'acclaim'.

For some series, yes. GTA and 3D Mario's scores are too high IMO.

GTA is the top one for me. GTA IV was garbage and although GTA V is a lot of fun it's just a GTA game and doesn't deserve the scores it gets. In my opinion GTA V got it's rating before the reviewers got there hands on it.

Not sure if sarcasm.

XIII-2 was a time travel story. Time travel stories almost never make sense. Considering the woeful state of XIII's script, it's amazing XIII-2 wasn't a rehash of that bad movie adaptation of "A Sound of Thunder," which is an excellent example of how time travel can and does go bad.

I won't say XIII-2 was amazing or anything because the maps and menu designs can still be lazy, but I find myself inclined to forgive story hiccups when the script is playful. Stuff like paradox being key sidequest material, then making the Proto Fal-cie boss a literal paradox fits because it's fun. Making sense is optional when you're playing with causality.

I think that's the case with NSMBU! The Wii and 3DS games weren't anything spectacular!