Hey I think the reviews here are great but anybody else notice that they give like half the games here a 9 out of 10? Just putting that out there its kind of bothering me.

I guess you haven't met Corbie yet!

LOL!

Well out of 798 scores, we've given 117 9's. that's not too bad. About 1 game out of 7 gets a 9. And as has been stated, many of those are retro reviews, and we're mainly doing the games we like right now when we get time.

No, obviously not. What exactly is bothering you? Look at the lists of games on this site and sort them by review score if you really want to know how the scores break down.

Well I think they hand out 9's too often. GTA: ChinaTown Wars and the Legendary Starfy recieved the same score. The Legendary Starfy is a good game, I have it but I think it deserves a different score than a game like ChinaTown Wars.

Two completely different types of games. I can't believe that's an actual argument you are using, but you have the right to your opinion

A quick glance will tell you that most of those 10s and 9s belong to highly critically acclaimed retro titles. As for the Starfy thing, the reviewers at NintendoLife are obviously huge Starfy fans so it's natural that the game might have gotten an extra point because of that.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
World of Goo
Paper Mario
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Adventure
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Sunshine
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Banjo-Kazooie
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
LostWinds
Mayhem in Monsterland
Toki Tori
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Last Ninja 2: Back with a Vengeance
ActRaiser
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Devil's Crush
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
DoReMi Fantasy: Milon's DokiDoki Adventure
F-Zero
F-Zero X
Gate of Thunder
Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Gunstar Heroes
Last Ninja 3
Landstalker
Lords of Thunder
MUSHA
Mario Kart 64
Mario's Super Picross
Mega Man 2
New Adventure Island
Phantasy Star IV
Mega Man 9
Ristar
Samurai Shodown II
Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing
Sin and Punishment
Soldier Blade
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Star Fox 64
Star Parodier
Streets of Rage 2
Super Castlevania IV
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Super Mario Bros.
Super Turrican 2
Ys Book I & II
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Beyond Good & Evil
Bleach: Blade of Fate
Boom Blox
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol
Chrono Trigger
Contra 4
Elite Beat Agents
Essential Sudoku
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
Ikaruga
MadWorld
Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time
Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Mercury Meltdown Revolution
Metal Slug Anthology
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime: Hunters
Okami
Picross DS
Pikmin
Pokemon Diamond & Pearl
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
Resident Evil
Sonic Rush
SSX 3
Super Monkey Ball
Super Paper Mario
Super Smash Bros. Brawl

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
WarioWare Touched!
Wii Fit
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Rhythm Heaven
Swords & Soldiers
The House of the Dead: Overkill
Secret of Mana
Mega Man 3
Samurai Shodown Anthology
Terranigma
Punch-Out!!
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits
Bit.Trip: Beat
Bomberman '94
Klonoa
Boom Blox Bash Party
Onslaught
Virtua Tennis 2009
Excitebots: Trick Racing
Art Style: AQUITE
Virtual Boy Wario Land
Mighty Flip Champs!
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat N
Pokemon Platinum
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Art Style: PiCTOBiTS
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Pokémon Red and Blue
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
The Legendary Starfy
Little King's Story
Rune Factory: Frontier
Pic Pic
Shantae
Disgaea DS

Try not to focus on the numerical score so much. Read the whole review. People have a tendency to just look at the score and bypass the review. You got to take the whole review into consideration.

EDIT: I agree with you that both GTA: Chinatown Wars and Starfy are good games. Clearly you have excellent taste!

Yeah your right, they are pretty different but I'm just saying. They should get a 9.5 rating in here because it looks to me like they really need that.

Not THAT many games here get 9's. They're mostly 7s, duh!

If you think here there are too many 9's, i should reccomend you the Spanish magazines Hobby Consolas, Nintendo Acción and Micromania(all of the from the same publisher :rolleyes ). It's nearly impossible to see a review under an 8'5 score. Not to mention the reviews that are about a quarter part of a decent review.

Lol maybe once if I knew how to read Spanish. But IGN often rates games far too high compared to other sites, but IGN is way too sold-out.

Little King's Story got a 9. AND I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU PROSODY

10! 10! 10!

The funny thing is that Prosody really loves Little King's Story! I wonder what stopped him from giving it a perfect ten? Oh well, I'm still getting it obviously!

I wanted to give it a 10, I really did. In fact, in hindsight, I don't know why I didn't. I think it was the lack of 60Hz mode which made the graphics a tiny bit blurry for my poor ageing eyes.

It's interesting to hear feedback on our review scores though, particularly when we've received criticism in the past for not giving certain games 9/10.

I bet someone thought CID The Dummy diserved a 9 didn't they.

I'd just like a bigger scale to judge games on. Icarian is no where near as good as Tiger10, which isn't quite as good as LKS, but they all got a 9, instead of say.... Icarian -85, Tiger -93, LKS 100 (or 99 if your gonna insist no 60hz diminished the utter joy of living in Alpoko, which I miss like a dear friend now).

Note to self, change avatar as the lil fella is haunting me now. KING!

I think the scores are generally high, too, but I don't want a wider scale. Most people reading a review are going to round it, anyway. If I see a 9.2, I think 9. I don't think, man, this game is so much better than that 9 game, I better get it. People should just learn to ignore the score completely. Unless you don't trust their writing, there's no need to even look at the number. The score chart shows that they just mean things like "good" or "great," and you can easily pick up on that from the review.

I tend to look at the numerical score as representing not how good the game is, but how much the reviewer is recommending it. A 10 is a must get, a 1 is "I wouldn't recommend this to my worst enemy."

You can argue about Starfy and China Town Wars not deserving the same quality rating, but sharing a recommendation is something quite different, and might help you to reconcile them.