@Killzone: Apparently, reviewers don't like hard games either. When ever a game is even slightly challenging they call it ridiculous. They bitch if it's too easy, they bitch if it's too hard.

Wario Ware, Wii Sports, Rabbids, Mario Party none of those are really easy... Brain Age is definitely not easy, even though I can score in my 20's every day, the harder puzzles/activities are more challenging than most games (or my school work at Rollins :) ) How bout the reviewer describe the game, and then instead of being so quick to make comments that are really outside of their scale, they say "I like/don't like it".

@topic: Some things that make a bad journalist in general or a bad reviewer in this case. 

Demeaning a product because it plays to a certain audience: "Plus, the new Family Play is for 4-year-olds. Literally." my take: it's an EXTRA mode, so that you can play with your - you guessed it - four year old.

Comparing things that have nothing to do with one another:  "Madden has gotten very difficult over the years, but playing on Rookie on any system is better than Family Play on this one."

A journalists jobs is to explain, not to miss the point: "The Telestrator mode is laughably moronic. After a big play in multiplayer, you can write all over the screen with the remote. It sounds fun, and we love that it makes a squeaky marker sound, but it's useless. "  The real life telestrator is quite useless, it's a novelty in the real game, it's a novelty in the Wii version.  It's supposed to be fun, you know, a video game - fun.  You can't have fun when your bitter.

But statements like this, are what prove bias:  First sentance:  For most sports gamers, the Wii is little more than a novelty; an amusing yet insubstantial distraction that can't keep pace with the big new-gen hitters. Ok, that's not so bad, they are just saying what some people think, that the Wii is just a Novelty... oh wait... "The latest version of Madden is further evidence."  They basically are confirming that they agree with them, that the Wii is a novelty.  It's not the 4.5 it's these two sentences.

They are certainly entitled to their opinions and many of the things they bring up are valid, but if you are a multi-platform site that claims no bias between platforms, than you should watch HOW you say things.   They are looking to lose the biggest audience of this generation.

Oh, so that's why they gave:

Resident Evil 4 Wii an 8 (Industry average 9.1)
Super Paper Mario an 8 (industry average 8.6)
Mario Strikers Charged a 7.5 (Industry average 8)
The Godfather: Blackhand a 7 (Industry average 7.5)
Trauma Center a 6.5 (Industry average 8)
SSX Blur a 5.5 (Industry average 7.4)
Excite Truck a 7 (Industry average 7.5)


and lets not forget Madden itself, which offers an optional family play mode along with it's regular advanced complex core game control settings.  1UP Score 4.5 (Industry Average 7.7).

I fail to see how any of those are casual games and yet all of them were scored harshly by 1UP compared to the industry average. Yes, it could be argued that in general they are a somewhat harsher reviewer on all games, but the amount of games that get hit hard and the huge difference in some of their scores compared to the industry average (as well as a 9.5% difference overall) shows a clear anti-Wii bias. Why do they hate the Wii? I have no clue, but they clearly have disdane towards the Wii in general, not just casual Wii games.

Oh no the 1UP bias strikes again!!!!!!

Let's try and break tradition here ck. Rather than you posting a sarcastic comment and then leaving the topic, pretending you were never asked to defend your point of view, why don't you... defend your point of view, and engage in a discussion on it.

Explain to me how it's okay that the vast majority of Wii games are reviewed signifficantly lower than most other review sources. Then explain to me how it's okay that while 1UP may be a strict reviewer (applying around -4% to the 360 and PS3), they manage to apply more than double that negativity to the Wii (-9.5%). Now, try to salvage the credibility of a site that can say things like "For most sports gamers, the Wii is little more than a novelty; an amusing yet insubstantial distraction that can't keep pace with the big new-gen hitters. The latest version of Madden is further evidence."

Either that, or, keeping with tradition, you can simply pretend you never read this and next time the issue comes up make a sarcastic comment once again then flee without defending your opinion. Up to you.

Edit: Meanwhile, I'm going to class, so I'll respond later lol. 

I deleted my 1up bookmark after reading their very badly written Metroid Prime 3 review. They completely miss the point of anything, looking for anything and everything to complain about. If they can't find something really good, they'll bend something new or optional into something bad, like the Family Play thing. Am I the only one who thinks reviewers should review from the perspective of the targeted audience and not from the jackass elite gamer?

I hear the same arguments against Sony all the time too. Usually not with reviews though but with news claiming they only report negative Sony news.

Overall, 1up just stinks now.

That review is pretty harsh compared to most of the other reviews for Madden Wii. The gameplay should be no worse then the ps2 version which they didn't even review apparently and they also added the family mode regardless wether they like it or not it is nice to have more features. Based on other reviews and madden being about the same for the past couple of years I just don't see how it all of sudden would suck so bad based on their review. Last year they gave it a 6.5 and knowing madden tradition it should be about the same this year if not slightly better.

You realise that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, you seem to use it a lot.

I honestly believe that the day you were made a mod this site became a less enjoyable place. A lot of your posts  would struggle to measure up to the average member's on these boards never mind those of other mods who imo are in a different league to yourself and actually try to set an example. I really hope ioi reassesses your appointment. 

On Topic, I think 1UP will be the ones who suffer in the long run. If you look at any game with a negative enough agenda it's easy to tear it apart, I just think the fact that a somewhat reputable site has chosen to do this is all a bit sad. If all of the1UP reviewers don't get the whole concept of Wii then somebody should be brought in that does. You wouldn't ask an arthouse fan to review an action film or vice versa, pretty simple.

Apparently ioi wants more pro-Sony (or at least anti-Nintendo, which ck definitely is, passive-agressive denials to the contrary) voices on the site, so probably not a good chance there.

And this is why I'm happy to use GameRankings or MetaCritic, but I don't actually read any of the reviews. If there's a couple dozen reviews they'll probably average out to something rasonable, despite 1UP's presence.  

@cklmb: Fail. A lot.

@wanting more pro-Sony voices on this website: When Sony starts having a solid enough set of games to support a 600$ system, then it'll happen. Don't force it.

@Rayman being easy: I found getting scores high enough to unlock all the videos to be rather challenging. The single player was easy, though.