Fair enough.

Though I still think that even by saying "Wow, even in spite of their massive bias against Nintendo, GameSpot was forced to recognize this game's greatness." you admit that their criticism and scores of MK8 and similar games are somewhat legitimate and I personally don't think they were.  You're basically saying that if a game is really, really good, it will get a perfect score from them. If not, it's just not that good.   

I was paraphrasing the general response I'm seeing, not offering my own opinion. I don't care much about the track record of specifics sites or publications. To me, it comes down to the individual reviewer.

I don't read a lot of reviews. I hardly read any from GS, certainly not enough to have my own opinion about any of their reviewers. I can only think of a couple of critics I really respect, and even then I often disagree with them.

If I recall correctly the Gamespot reviewer that gave Tropical Freeze a 6 was fred (not for that, obviously) magazines are like soccer teams, they keep the same name, but they don't keep the same players.

He was fred? Those damn freds!

GameSpot "storytelling be damned..."

I understand this game does so many things right especially what it meant to do. But for ignore such an important aspects like storytelling / characters and then give the game a perfect score is a clear example of blind hype and maybe even fanboyism. (the reviewer of course not the site) 

I only say this because I really value the good storytelling and world building around it. The game seems to be great.

Games like this will always be punished for their sexuality. Even Captain Toad in Gaf had a thread of hundreds of post discussing if Toadette was a damsel in distress, and if Nintendo was indoctrinating young kids into the patriarchy or something like that.
It is better to make your game characters asexual aliens in the current enviroment.

I've played games with terribly weak stories but the gameplay made up for it in spades.

There's no such thing as a great action game though without a lot of stylization, especially when it comes to the characters. Look at the action classics from the last decade or so: Devil May Cry, God of War, Viewtiful Joe, Ninja Gaiden, etc. All had a huge stylistic flair driving them, just like Bayonetta. If reviewers don't like that about Bayonetta I doubt they really like the action genre then. Wether it be through gore, sexuality, art styel, or a combo of that, high stylization is an integral part of the genre.

I'm also here. Sales and review scores are to entirely different things. Sales can be bad (like Bayo 2s JP sales) even though reviews are good (again, like Bayo 2).

I never have. While gameplay can be good. Storytelling is just a different aspect on its own. It can not be "covered" by other things. I just find it strange to see such a comment in a professional review, the sentence is really something you'd expect to hear from a fanboy