Better Sequels, Worse Reviews. The Gaming Paradox.

[enderfall]

Now, some 10+ years later, Sims 3 comes out, and it improves on the Sims formula, but doesn't break any new ground. I think the lower scores are there to say "Look, they didn't screw this game up, but at the same time, it's not something you haven't played before".

Yeah, but if they didn't screw anything up, so it's the same game only better then why didn't it get the same score, or a better one? I understand that games need to evolve and change when it is a series, but when it is a direct sequel it shouldn't be ground breaking already. We loved the first one, and the sequel is here to give us more of it. When a game does just that, plus gives us a little bit more, it shouldn't be penalized. Yeah maybe Sims 3 wasn't ground breaking, but since when is a review about how innovative a game is? Aren't they there to tell us how much we are going to enjoy them? On these lines, yeah Sims 3 is the same game, but it has been brought to this generation/level of gaming. Very improved graphics, better AI, more expansive in general. Yeah, it is just the Sims. But it has been super powered for this day and age. On that note, I think it deserves a score on par with the first, if not better.

Innovation is an innate part of the score. Just like sites might review and give a score to graphics, sound, replay factor, etc. and then give an overall score that is not an avg of the sub-scores, innovation does play a part in reviews. One can argue that it should or shouldn't, but that's the way I see it.

Another part of it is if you assign such a high score to begin with, it's got to be something special to be even higher. By your premise, Sims 7 should be a 11.2 on a scale of 10. Know what I mean?

Also, it's very likely that different people reviewed each game...

[KennerBoy]

Ok, you make a point. But like Dylan said, they made tons of Mega Man games and it got redundant. You can't make sequel after sequel without changing anything. What I'm trying to address is the way games are scored that are direct sequels, or the threequel at the latest. And what of the new gamer that comes into the picture and hears that a series is cool, he sees on IGN that the most recent game got a 7.X and the one before it got a 9.X. So he decides to play the original. Yeah Sims 3 got an 8.8, and that means something for those of us that have been playing those games for the last decade. But what about others who are just joining the scene?

[Mozgus]

Ok, you make a point. But like Dylan said, they made tons of Mega Man games and it got redundant. You can't make sequel after sequel without changing anything.

Why not? I love MM1-6 equally. I've analyzed the shit out of all 6 and I just cant conclude why people think 2 and sometimes 3 are so far superior. It's really nothing more than release dates that factor into those opinions.

[jfrost]

Most reviewers can't even justify any part of the scores they give. Consistency is the lesser of their worries.

Reviews on big websites like IGN are just dull and boring; there's not a single reviewer who can write, let alone argue, have valid and worthwhile points, and justify them.

[Dylan]

Ok, you make a point. But like Dylan said, they made tons of Mega Man games and it got redundant. You can't make sequel after sequel without changing anything.

Why not? I love MM1-6 equally. I've analyzed the shit out of all 6 and I just cant conclude why people think 2 and sometimes 3 are so far superior. It's really nothing more than release dates that factor into those opinions.

I also loved 1-6, but the public at some point didn't, and that's what the issue is. People aren't reasonable about these things, they write off titles just because they're "the same", though that seems disrespectful to the original, because in relative terms, it's "the same" also. I don't know, for whatever reason this just doesn't fly with the general people, I don't much understand it.

[jfrost]

To be fair, people don't think that MM games from 4 to 6 are bad because they're more of the same. They think just the opposite, that they're bad because they substantially altered the formula.

MM4 introduced the charged shot, thus decreasing the difficulty. MM5 changes his Mega Buster further and introduces Beat and Eddie (if I recall correctly). MM6 just throws a bunch of shit in, like the power and flying armors. MM7 for the Super Nintendo is a lot like 6, actually. You have a lot of worthless crap to collect and very few things actually useful.

I can see where these criticisms come from, in fact. The idea of the original Mega Man is to start weak and grow strong as you defeat enemies. The later games, by decreasing the importance of the boss weapons, feel less like Mega Man, so it's only natural that the old time fans will complain.

Speaking for myself, I can't seem to enjoy much MM5 and 6, but I do like 4, pretty much because I think it had interesting boss weapons. Mega Man 2 is the fan-favorite because of the simplicity, but although I love it and play it a lot, it has some boring level design sometimes (Metal Man's stage?). Now, I don't enjoy MM3 at all. I can't handle all the damn slowdown the game has. The fact that the game can't handle three shots and one enemy on-screen just kills it for me. Also, sliding is a bit broken; if you press down+jump before you finished one slide, you would jump. And none of these bugs appear to have been fixed on Virtual Console. Oh, well.

[KennerBoy]

I'm in the dark on this one. I don't think I've ever actually played all the way through a Mega Man game. Am I banished from Racketboy now?

[ZeroAX]

However, when Capcom decides to shake things up and release the great series that is Mega man Legends, Nobody buys it.

a sad day indeed

but I have to agree with the topic's author.

The best Donkey kong country game IS the 3rd one, and the same could be said with sonic and knuckles and the mega drive sonic games.
they play pretty much like their prequels, but that gave the chance to the developers to fine tune the formula, and make even greater games,
despite the fact that they look alike.


Oh one exception to your rule also seams to be the GTA franchise. vice city score more than 3 and SA more than VC

[Erik_Twice]

Buut, then this same reviews give Final Fantasy 239048290348290384902384908 points every time even if it's exactly the same game. The same goes to "introduce world war two shooter here".

At first glance it seemed to me that IGN was a good site for reviews but once I looked a bit more it was obvious it was pretty mediocre. For example their reviews of the SMT are like "Well, this game is great in every sense, let's give it a 7.8". In fact in Digital Devil Saga they say the game is flawless and praise everything but no, not so good score. The reviews are either OMG THIS GAME RULES or unispired and bland with a random score at the end.

In all my life I have only seen good reviews in an spanish magazine called "Micromania" about computer games that has been around since the days of the Spectrum. I bought it during years and the quality was top-notch. Also it was the only magazine who gave good games with it, they were old but they were good. And you could reverse the cover so it looked like the original.

[alienjesus]

You have to remember that for some people 5.0 is an average score, but nowadays, most consider a 7 to be average.

Kinda defeats the point of all those other numberes really. Whats the difference betweena bad game that gets 40 and a bad game that gets 20? i sure dont know.


Anyhow, DKC3 is easily the ebst donkey kong game on SNES. in fact, the magazine i read rated it 98% at the time, which is way too high, but reflects the principle of a better sequel getting better scores. Maybe this is the problem.


Having played megaman 2, its not all that. 9 is easily the best, because ALL of the master weapons are useful. In 2 i just used air shot for destroying giant robots, and metal blade at all other times. I disagree heavily with sonic and knuckles being the best sonic game, something feels off about sonic 3 and sonic and knuckles to me, sonic 2 is the superior game as far as i can see.