Topic: Review Scores - Do you agree?

I was often wondering this, having a hard time finding a site that does reviews that are in "my taste" so to speak, how the general public, or the core fans, or whoever actually agrees or disagrees to popular review scores. That said lets make it this thread to discuss reviewscores on 3DS games and your personal opinion of them. Lately I've found to pretty much agree with most review scores on nintendolife (a GOOD thing) given that I actually like the genre of the reviewed game (Im absolutely not into casual games no matter how good they might be).

So let me hear your opinions!

I think the biggest controversy as of late is Castlevania. I haven't played the game myself yet (besides the demo) but watched a ton of youtube videos on it, saw a friend play and played the demo many times. I have to agree with Nintendolife's score of 8.0 so far because I really had a hard time getting into the oldschool Castlevanias because of all the backtracking and exploration. It was - for my taste - a tad too much and therefore I really enjoy the new combat/presentation/gameplay of the new game. IGN US though gave it a 4.5 and I guess it's just a biased fanboy opinion. That raises the question how "objective" should a review be? What if they let ME review call of duty? It will never get a high 8 or even 9-something score form me, even though it technically maybe deserves it...

Discuss. What scores do you agree/disagree to?

This is one of the reasons why the gaming community and "professional reviewers" are corrupting the industry.

The majority of reviewers are gamers, not critics, so when the new Zelda releases, and their nostalgic value of that franchise comes into play, it receives a better review than it initially would. Whereas a game such as Heavy Rain releases, a game no one had nostalgia for, receives multiple low-average reviews and is easily regarded as a sleeper hit.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of gamers who, when are unsure of an upcoming game, attachment or console, rely on reviews to decide for them. Whether it's Metacritic's average or an individual site, if the game doesn't receive an 8-10, no purchase.

Which brings me to scores. Scores are simply numbers and are irrelevant to gaming. It's just a number, a summarization of the reviews' description of the game's quality. Reading the review will inform you of what to expect and will be much more helpful than reading a number.

I don't pay much attention to scores from most places. I've always hated how 7 or 8 is treated as average. The only place I've seen get their scoring scale right is Edge. They really do use the whole thing, and when they give a game a 5, it's bang on average, and still worth a play if you're a fan or can pick it up cheap.

As much as I love Nintendo Life, the scores they assign games are almost worthless to me. I remember one of the first reviews I read was Super Mario 3D Land, and people were referring to a 'prestigious' NLife 9 for it. Well, looking over the reviews archive, a 9 score doesn't seem very prestigious at all. In fact, I look up my Wii collection using NLife's scores and nearly all of them get a 10! To me, if something gets a 10, it should be ground breaking. Super Mario Galaxy definitely deserves it, SMG2 probably doesn't. It's more of the same, which is good for us, but can't then be considered another milestone in gaming. Skyward Sword, NSMB Wii, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Rayman Origins all getting 10? I really like all those games, especially Kirby's Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong, but it baffles me how they can be given perfect scores. Great games, not groundbreaking.

You really should just read the review to get a sense of the game's features, how well it controls, it's depth, etc., to decide if it meets your taste. The score may be based on factors that aren't important to you, i.e., graphics, price, etc, so you shouldn't make a purchase based on the score.

I don't really take individual reviews seriously. I look for patterns in reviews, especially the complaints they have about the game. This has allowed me to avoid the vast majority of bad games. I didn't look for reviews of Castlevania Adventure for the GB first and I do regret it a little. I rarely buy a bigger game "blind," though.

I've said it before and I've said it again, review scores need to go away. Scores provide nothing more than controversy and don't add anything to the written review. Reviews should provide information on the game and point out problems in the most unbiased way possible so the readers can decide for themselves based on the points in the review. Seriously, when has a numbered score of a game ever been helpful?

A score is just an extension of the review itself IMO. it's a quick way for me to gauge whether or not a game is worth looking into at all, or how hard I'll need to read through the reviews in order to make sure it's really the choice for me. It saves me time and hassle regarding the chaff, and if there's a diamond left in the mid-to-high range rough, I'll root it out eventually.

I've got to disagree. If a game is getting 4s and 5s across the board, I'm not wasting my time reading reviews about the game. And I'm certainly not going to be wasting my money on said game. There are a plethora of titles that I could purchase, especially considering I own a console, handheld, and PC. There's no shortage of quality titles out there. Unless it's a game I'm especially interested in despite low reviews, why should I settle for anything less than the best reviewed games?

I get that the words comprising the review are the important part, but the score isn't simply assigned by spinning a wheel or rolling a die. It's a quantitative representation of the reviewer's opinion. It certainly isn't arbitrary. It's always difficult to assign a number to a qualitative trait. There is no formula to follow. Two people could write the exact same review and yet assign different scores. But aggregate sites like Metacritic make that technicality essentially moot. With a large enough sample size, scores become more and more relevant.

I'm someone who thinks mathematically. I'm a numbers and statistics person. Review scores are great for me. Of course I'll read some reviews of a game before I buy it. Numbers don't tell the whole story. They can certainly help guide you in the right direction though.

@WesCash
I know what you're saying about Metacritic and I do agree that it is very helpful sometimes. I just believe that the reviews should provide you with the information and knowledge to allow you to choose for yourself whether or not to buy the game. Since everyone in the world has a different opinion on things, unbiased reviews are difficult, but I just see the game score as something too polarizing and the cause of a lot of hate when X game doesn't get X score and so on.

Sometimes in the Nintendo Life review comments you'll see someone say to the reviewer, "Hey, your review sounded like you were going to give it a 9 but it ended up as an 8", and such. That's just a little example of what i'm talking about, letting the reader choose with the information given in the review.

If you like review scores, that's alright, sometimes I do like them. That's just my little rant on things so take it as you will.

I agree that scores need to be gotten rid of. It's not that they're completely useless (It's actually nice to see in an instant how well received the game was by a certain reviewer), but they've led to people not actually reading the review itself, Metacritic's existence and constant arguments (not over the game itself or aspects of it, but simply the number someone applied to it).

Nobody is ever going to agree with every single review score because everyone has different tastes. People seem to think everyone should universally love/hate a game whether it scores a 10 or 1 respectively, but that's not the case. Video games are a lot like music; some people like rap, others hate it, some people like classical music, others don't, etc. Really, a review is just someone's opinion written down - you shouldn't take it as gospel.

I love the way 5 is supposed to be average in this site, but still most members love to think 8 is average and 5 is OMGSOBADITSUCKS.

to be fair, how many of the people who only read the number at the end of the review would actually be reading every last detail of the review in the if that score wasn't there? there's no way to know for sure; you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force him to read anything you've written. besides, people wanting a 'yes' or 'no' answer would still be asking for recommendations in the comment threads, and the arguments would still wind up happening when users disagree.

I'll never understand the gaming community's logic. NintendoLife seems to hint that 5s are average but I've read enough 7 reviews to declare that the rating scale is misinterpreted. That and the abuse of the number 10.

Yeah. I've noticed that too... By members I include the ones who write the reviews too.

I've come to the conclusion that 10s are mostly going to be disappointing games, as well as many 9s, and that games that are 5 and below are going to be genuinely bad. I really pay the most attention to the games that are around 8s.

I don't really care about reviews but I still tend to take a quick look at NL's score every time a new review comes up. If it's a game I'm interested in I read the whole story but if I never even thought about getting that game I just scroll down to see the score. If the score is much better than I expected I may take a look at the whole review to see why the score is so good. Reviews hardly never convince me to buy a game I hadn't had an eye on before but I still want to see the score of each game.

Hopefully arguments would then actually have to be backed up by something to do with the game, thus being more helpful than 'Lol why only a 7?'.

@Geonjaha: when are discussions started by 'lol why only a 7' not backed up afterward? it's the same situation and the same arguments, just one will begin with a number and the other will begin with a black-and-white positive or negative recommendation posted by a user.

I see your point there, and it's certainly not a bad way of doing things. Still, I've experienced enough to grow so wary of review scores that I find I usually have to read pretty hard no matter what the score is. I just use scores to get an idea of what the tone will be, nothing more. I certainly don't bother trying to see if I agree with an arbitrary number or not (not often, at least...).