What's With Wii's Low Review Scores?

[hyp]

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9066&Itemid=2

What is Going on with the Wii?

So what is the Wii's problem? In a nutshell, all the games suck.

Just kidding, Nintendo fans. You can put away the pitchforks.

More seriously, one argument I've heard is that we as an industry are still trying to understand the Wii. Developers are having to put aside graphics to approach the hardware and its controller with different perspectives. Reviewers, on the other hand, have spent years lauding technical achievements and ever more realistic gameplay. Now they have to answer a question for which their training is quite possibly ill-suited: “Are these games fun to play?”

The graphs of review scores above are one bit of evidence, but let's take it a step further. Which Wii games appeal to the hardcore gamers, to the people who have been writing reviews for the past decade? I'd venture games like Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime 3, Super Paper Mario, and Madden NFL.

Those titles comprise six of the Wii's top 10 reviewed games. The lowest score of that bunch is Madden NFL 07 with an average of 81%.

Now, how did the professional reviewers view games which utilize the Wii controller extensively and have sold well in the past year? Wii Sports, the pack-in game that everyone loves, has a lowly 76% rating. Wii Play, which sold nearly as many copies as Halo 3 last year, has a 61% review average. (Aside: Has there ever been a game that reviewed as poorly as Wii Play yet sold so well?) And Carnival Games eked out a miserable 59% from reviewers.

Maybe Wii games have lower review scores because we, as an industry, still don't know what makes a good Wii game.

  @ the bolded part

your thoughts, eb?

[Van Cruncheon]

or because casuals don't know what makes a good game

srsly, what makes a great game for US !SUPER! !NERDLINGERS! does not make a great game for the filthy bandwagoneering soccer moms and preppies for whom the wii has finally allowed access to socially shame-free gaming

as i've said, the wii is not for us. it should not be discussed in GAMING forums.

[ToxicAdam]

Why are they scoring Wii games anyways? Why not score LeapFrog games too?

[brawndolicious]

well I guess you'd have to wait for jap games to migrate to wii or something.  plus you have to consider that nintendo hasn't secured many third-party games by themselves.

[Joe Molotov]

Most Wii games do suck. 3rd parties have repeatedly embarrassed themselves with lackluster showings, first on the DS and now on the Wii. The DS situation eventually got turned around, so maybe in 2008 they'll get their act together on the Wii as well.

[hyp]

wii games should get a special yellow school bus review rating system as follows:

YAY = 80% to 100%
OK = 60% to 79%
:'( BOO = < 60% 

[drohne]

should've stopped at the first sentence