Topic: Nintendo Switch 2

I've been a fan of narrative reviews since... like, forever. I think the perception of consistency and professionalism in gaming journalism would benefit from it, and it would relegate contentious websites like Metacritic to just being the place where all the reviews are collected for easy navigation.

Just get rid of the numbers and scales and all that - it's so stupid and subject to the personal whims and expectations of the reviewer/organization.

Just... write a review with your thoughts. Make a video with your thoughts. Have a detailed profile or something where people can get a feel for your game preferences and gaming history and all that. I think that's the way to go.

When I was a kid reading EGM and Nintendo Power, it was fun to see the scores, but as I got older it pretty quickly showed itself for the farce it is. I applaud the various publications that went narrative-only with their reviews, but unfortunately the internet has steered us back towards numbers because that's what generates the clicks and comments.

Precise scores are mostly meaningless, but when I see a 40/100 aggregate, it's a good reason to not waste time reading reviews for that game. There are thousands of games and I have limited time, so triage is useful. I treat the review scores as the starting point, not the ending point.

The score is certainly no substitute for reading the review.

Still, it can be a useful indicator of sentiment, and it helps to identify different takes at a glance because they've got outlying scores.

Ya... on the one hand, I completely agree that gaming as a whole would be better if aggregate sites just gathered written reviews, and sites abolished all numeric scoring systems, instead relying on a summary blurb gamers could turn to for a quick synopsis.

On the other hand, I do find numeric assessments useful with regard to disqualifying terrible games from consideration. Any game that aggregates 7-10, I base my decision on what I see in terms of gameplay, and what my 3 most trusted reviewers, whose taste aligns with my own more times than not, have to say about it.

Any game I'm interested in that scores 6-6.9 I may seriously question, but if in my judgement I determine the criticisms to be less applicable for me, I will still buy.

But anything scoring 0-5.9 I pretty much just write off entirely. Not saying I've never bought a game my entire life that aggregates under a 60, but it's extremely rare.

Abolition of numerical scores would make ruling out terrible games more of a hassle. So despite the benefits I think it would bring (wouldn't see fanatics weaponizing scores as ammunition to justify their opinions or trolling others interested in something by declaring it "mid" or "horrible" as matter of fact), I don't think the benefits outweigh the downsides.

The only time I ever consider review scores much at all is when a game that wasn't on my radar gets an overwhelmingly positive critical reception. In which case I'll bank that into memory and consider it down the line. Same deal with music and movies, if the critical reception is positive at some point it's worth your time to notice it

But negative or middling reviews for stuff I was already considering? At that point it has already passed my filter so a negative response doesn't really change much for me. Unless it's something that was hyped which then gets universally panned I guess. But those are pretty rare

I will admit I have all of the Pokemon games since Sword/Shield (excluding Arceus). But in that case it was not the review that made me skip them. I was already fairly underwhelmed by where Pokemon had got to and then the videos showing the game just tipped me over the edge. I don't think I looked at any actual review scores of it

Quick question. Can game data for a GKC be wirelessly shared between Switch 2 consoles without an internet connection? (similar to how one can wirelessly share game updates with other consoles)

I strongly doubt that it will be the case that it will, but it would make my opinion of GKCs ever-so-slightly less scathing.

@SillyG
Not for the base game- only for updates.

But once installed, it should last as long as any game on a cart would last, with the benefit of being able to download to any system you want for at least the next 30 years (possibly in perpetuity but I think at 40 years, or half a lifespan, they'd probably cut off downloads... then again I could be proven wrong, after all even the rented WiiShop still allows downloads 20 years later with no indication of that changing any time soon).

Personally I'd rather just buy digital, but I can't deny the benefits of popping in another console (though to be fair, virtual game carts kinda allow that now also), or more importantly, reselling. Digital only does make one more selective with purchases, since you only want to buy games you for sure will want to keep.

@SillyG
I stand corrected. There is a way... sort of

You can actually do this IF AND ONLY IF the game's icon is already on the other system. Thing is, the icon doesn't appear until it starts the download. But once it does- let's say you cancel the download or archive the game at some point, to where the icon is present, then YES, you can then rely on a local wireless transfer.

So basically as long as the other system is able to get the icon, you can do it.

@JaxonH : Does the game's icon normally not appear immediately when the GKC is inserted in the system?

Yea, just not for me anymore (numbered review scores). Half these outlets say a 5 or higher is decent, others say only a 7 or higher is decent, and even the 7 is now in danger. Are we going by the school system or just upper and lower halves? Re-releases get lower scores than the original releases because… society has changed? The price is higher? The game is suddenly less fun? Some outlets don’t consider outside factors, but others do.

It’s all for the clicks. It’s all about money and eyeballs and market share for these gaming websites. They’re all buying each other up (look where we are). They know what gets people riled up, and a controversial review score does it better than anything else.

I mean lol - seriously - it’s so ridiculous. And then you squash em all together on Metacritic? Pure farce, and we all support it.

@rallydefault I haven't bothered with numerical review scores or aggregate scores for decades now. I'll read the reviews themselves and take it into consideration together with other info; I just consider the numbers comment / rage baiting at this point. Something to drive engagement, because rarely do people engage with the contents of the actual review, so you need that overly simplistic "hook" to drive "engagement".

You're right, it's absolutely a farce, so it's best to mentally treat it as such.

I think review scores are generally a good indicator of the quality of the game. They're defo fraught with issues (in fact, any measure by which we can score or compare artistic works like video games is flawed IMO), but they definitely correlate with the quality of a game...even if the extent to which they do this is arguable. I think the issue is that many take a number to mean objective value which simply isn't the case.

Personally I find review scores to be a good general guide, but will always look at the reviews themselves if I'm interested in something. I'd say my approach is similar to that of @skywake's...if something's on my radar already I'm unlikely to allow the score alone to put me off, and will look at reviews to understand whether it's worth my time or not. Conversely, if I see something score 90+ it is bound to get my attention...but again, I need to do some further research to determine whether that particular game is for me.

User scores? Those are absolute rubbish.

@SillyG
I think it does as long as there's a wifi connection- the game key cart has no installable data on it, so everything comes from the eShop like a digital game. But like I said, once the icon is there, you're golden.

Ya know, I'm starting to get really skeptical that these digital storefronts will ever cut off redownloads in our lifetimes. Maybe for rented shops from the early pioneering days like Wii or DS, even the segregated eShops of 3DS and Wii U, but moving forward with the Nintendo-owned, unified, account-based eShop of Switch and Switch 2... I wouldn't be surprised if they maintained redownloads for purchased titles in perpetuity. Particularly since Switch 2 BC means the original NSW1 games are still being bought this gen.

@Buizel
If you mean user scores from sites like MC, I agree. It's just a competition of 10's and 0's, and typically anything that's not fully multiplatform will not have trustworthy reviews, and anything with controversy. God forbid it's an exclusive with controversy.

But user reviews from normal people on sites like this... those reviews I trust- but only from those who I know don't have a habit of bashing everything and have similar taste to my own.

Although I generally agree with you (especially on Steam and Metacritic), the Nintendo Life user's scores are often pretty reasonable for the games with lots of votes. There are a certain amount of troll votes but they only nudge the final tally, not totally disrupt it. Even a game like Mario Kart World which got initially review bombed on this site with 'too expensive, 1/10' reviews ended up above 8/10 and will probably veer towards a more honest score over time as people add to it. Versus Metacritic where it is below 7/10 because of a much larger proportion of review bombing. Not perfect obviously, but a lot of games don't get review bombed here and have pretty reasonable scores indicative of how good the mostly honest people in this community feel a game is.

@JaxonH I think Buizel meant the average user score, not ones from known individuals.

@JaxonH @FishyS Yeah sorry I meant aggregate user scores, particularly those on Metacritic. Although I do agree with @FishyS that the scores on this site can at least be reasonable but eh...I'd rather get the perspectives of individuals I trust or professional reviewers.

Steam is an odd one because, while it is prone to review bombing like Metacritic, I do think it's worth looking out for mixed and negative reception as this is often an indicator of port quality rather than the quality of the game itself.

@Buizel The other weird thing about Steam is that insanely high scores don't always translate to a good game. Sometimes a game is rated high just for the lulz.

Plus bots have historically been a problem there.

I don’t know if you guys heard, but Sony knocked 100 bucks off the PS5 and absolutely CRUSHED the Switch 2 in Black Friday sales.

I do think this is the end of the line for Nintendo. I expect to hear of the Galaxy movie’s cancellation any day now, and I’m bummed they will be closing all of their theme parks.

It’s been real, all.

Agree that Metacritic user scores are utter rubbish. The last few times I've noticed a big discrepancy between critic and user scores there, it's because the user reviews are full of people complaining about Sweet Baby Inc., or "forced diversity", or whatever the most recent code word is for sexists, racists and homophobes who can't just straight up admit they don't want to play games with queer, POC, or non-fanservicey female characters.

Farewell, friend. It was good while it lasted 😔

For real though, hats of to Sony for the aggressive discounts and top shelf performance over BF. It's just over a single weekend so not really indicative of long term seasonal performance in Q3, but it does show price matters, and discounts work as incentives.

I still see the NSW2 as #1 console on Amazon, and ever since the $449.99 Mario Kart Bundle went live it's noticeably shot up the rankings.

Competition is good. Switch 2 forced Sony to drop PS5 down $100-150 to retain its relevance, and Sony's aggressive discounts forced Switch 2 to offer a $50 discount to keep its lead over the holiday season.

@Polvastiwhi
While I agree for the most part, simply name-calling and slandering everyone who takes issues with such things is an oversimplification and doesn't really represent everyone's viewpoints. There's definitely a contingent that scours games looking for any reason to get hysterical, but there are also many that grow irritated with games shoehorning and flaunting such things at every opportunity. Most have a policy of, "I really don't care what you do in your private life, but I don't want it plastered all throughout my video games like propaganda". And that's a perfectly valid viewpoint to have. They don't want pro-whatever flags in their games any more than you'd want anti-whatever flags in yours.

But the whole situation does muck up reviews, yet another reason aggregates are a fundamentally flawed metric.

@rallydefault
I heard... Might have to sell my Switch 2 over this debacle.