Blog Post: Crazy Review Tricks: Kid Icarus on GameSpot Subscribe to this RSS feed
Can opinion ever be wrong? In the case of some mind-boggling reviews, yes!
The perpetrator:
GameSpot
The victim:
Kid Icarus for the Wii Virtual Console
The crime:
Giving a Nintendo classic a 5.1
Nintendo fans are vociferous in their rage when they sense a classic has been slighted. Scores like 7.9 and 8.8 don't even need a game attached to spark a furor amongst gaming fans as they've become synonymous with infamous reviews for big-name Nintendo titles--Mario Kart: Double Dash (GameCube, IGN) and Legend of Zelda (Wii, GameSpot) respectively. Frankly, I think both reviews have a level or merit to them--both games still received scores that were considered "good", but were adequately docked for their transgressions; Mario Kart was made unwieldy with the addition of a second rider and Twilight Princess wasn't much more than a new coat of paint over the GameCube version, which in turn didn't update the formula much from the N64 days. There comes a time, however, when a stand must be made. I can't possibly allow Kid Icarus to get knocked in the dirt.
Strike him down and he shall become more powerful than you can imagine.
Kid Icarus was released in 1987 and received a quasi-sequel for the Game Boy a few years later. After that, a decade and a half of near-obscurlty--no GBA ports or appearances in the first two Smash Bros. games. That's essentially exile in the world of Nintendo. Thankfully, the game is getting the respect it deserves this year, in between Pit--the game's main character--appearing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and the game's recent rerelease on the Wii's Virtual Console. Now that it's arrived, GameSpot has deemed it worthy of a 5.1. To put things in perspective, it scored lower than the likes of Altered Beast, Far Cry Vengeance and Wii Play. The reviewer cites difficulty problems and poor graphics, which, while applicable, don't warrant deeming it "mediocre". Plenty of classic NES games were hard as hell--see Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the original Castlevania--and between the classic tunes and characters, the game exudes enough charm to be considered as appealing to the senses as most mid-80s NES games. To me, Kid Icarus hones a fine balance between the one-note arcade action games like Ice Climber and the epic scale of Metroid. It's a game that you'll definitely want to play to completion and look back fondly upon. It's certainly anything but "mediocre".
Comments [ 2 ] Post your comment subscribe to this rss feed
Posted at: 02/22/07 at 8:32 PM PST
As much as I respect Gamespot, you just have to call bull**** sometimes, like here. GS usually makes bids for respect by criticizing generally well received games, and thus making them look like hard asses to impress; the 9.6 for Gears of War boggles my mind, as does it's winning of Multiplayer Game of the Year. However, Kid Icarus' review is completely unwarranted, the game was great when it was released and considering that few people have had a chance to play it, this is the perfect time to do so. The game holds up, granted, it's not Mario or Castlevania but the game definitely was and still is enjoyable.
Posted at: 03/01/07 at 1:35 PM PST
Wow...reviewing reviews eh? Something weird about that. Actually, I say scrap the reviews for VC games. Just ditch them alltogether. Since when did the re-release of 20 year old games become newsworthy anyways? Granted, its nice a nice service for wii players, but beyond the initial 'oh, cool - I remember that game' feeling, why are we trying to shoehorn VC games into a rating systems anyways? Nevermind the bias. I mean, if its not an over-inflated nostalgic love that's inflating the score, its a technological snobbery that's bringing it down. Argue all you want, but its near impossible for reviewers to review a decades old game as a game in and of itself. To do that would mean comparing it to titles that were released at similar times and then you get into a viscious nostalgic loop all over again. Long story short - we've had access to these games through ROMS for years, why now do feel its important to review them? It's not. If you must put a rating on it, do some research and find out what it received when it was released - that's the only way I can see these reviews being relevant.
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