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The difficulty is part of the game just like anything else, so it should be part of the score accordingly.Quote:
Originally posted by PhlegmMaster
...a game's difficulty level shouldn't have any effect on its score. Ikaruga is hard, but it's not cheap.
IMHO of course.
Actually, the person who I picked to write our review is a very hardcore shmup fan. He was really into DC Ikaruga and PS2 Psyvariar last year, for example.
However, he wisely (IMO) realized that GameSpy's audience is much more mainstream than Shumps.com or a forum like this, and wrote the review accordingly. Granted, a few bits of the article irritated my hardcore shooter fanboy sensibilities, but those are precisely the parts that the less hardcore readership will most agree with. Like it or not, people want things like unlockables to extend their gaming experiences.
In the end, it's debatable whether it's better to write a review like this in deference to hardcore shooter fans or to the more numerous casual readers. We chose to go with the latter, and in doing so I think the review will be relevant to the greatest amount of people. "Hardcore" folk like ourselves already know the game is to our liking, and can get that opinion reinforced at enthusiast sites like Shmups.
Well Ikaruga does that, as you play you unlock features like artwork galleries, more credits, etc.Quote:
Originally posted by BenT
Like it or not, people want things like unlockables to extend their gaming experiences.
It's kind of like a dual-incentive in this game...repeated plays to get better/further and to unlock goodies. That's one area that I think is balanced out really well in Ikaruga.
-Kevin
What Ben said.
A website's staff have to consider their audience when writing articles. Since Gamespy appears to cater to the mainstream of gaming, they did the right thing in aiming the review at that group. If they aimed it at the shooter fans, then they would be doing their core audience a disservice.
How come sports game reviews are written for sports game fans, and RPG reviews are written for RPG fans, and so forth; but shooter reviews have to be written for "everyone"?
Maybe if the mainstream would give shooters a chance, they would find themselves enjoying their new game. Ikaruga is of a high enough calibur that it just might have made a "mainstream" gamer into a shooter fan.
Another view: the "shooter fans" know enough to ignore the games they won't like (no matter how well reviewers score Madden); so why wouldn't the "mainstream" gamers be able to do the same thing?
Or maybe one day everyone will admit that both Tony Hawk and Ikaruga are fantastic games and worthy of any gamers time and money.
Is Ikaruga as hard as Mars Matrix? I'm getting Ikaruga tomorrow and I got Mars Matrix a few days ago and it's been making me its bitch. I fear the same for Ikaruga. :confused:
Oh well. Despite the fact that I'm MM's bitch it's still fucking fun. :)
Sports games are mainstream, and RPGs have become mainstream. But shooters have left the mainstream. Hence why they're treated differently on mainstream-tilted sites.
And I don't agree that games like Tony Hawk and Ikaruga are worth any gamer's time. I don't care much for the former, myself, and while the latter may be good, it's also one of the most difficult, painstakingly precise games in recent memory. It's hardly a good choice to introduce newbies to the shooting genre. I wager it'd make most of them run away screaming. ;)
I don't think a review for a game like Ikaruga(or any niche genre) should be written for everyone. It should be reviewed from the perspective of a fan of that genre. It should cater to the fans of that genre or else it's not going to be represented fairly. Ikaruga is hard and more than likely, only the "hardcore" are gonna get it. So a "hardcore shooter fan should review it.
Ikaruga's not as hard as Mars Matrix.Quote:
Originally posted by SXA
Is Ikaruga as hard as Mars Matrix? I'm getting Ikaruga tomorrow and I got Mars Matrix a few days ago and it's been making me its bitch. I fear the same for Ikaruga. :confused:
Ikaruga does have some mass appeal, I hooked up with some fellow board members last year and brought it with me, two of them have it pre-ordered now. I tried to get them to pick up DDP also but that's "too ugly" for them. Most people in our age have atleast played a shooter and what better way for them to get into it again than with a game that has something fresh to it (and great visuals)?
Cause that seems to be the biggest beef casual gamers seems to have with shooters, that they haven't evolved in their eyes.
Just some random thoughts, but speaking of gamespy's review, I don't see how anyone can respect that way, It's like a movie critic should give Godzilla a higher grading than Seven samurai's because it's easier to get into(eh you get the picture). No respectable reviewer would or should be forced to do that.
Sure it's hard but if you point that out in the review then it's up to the reader to make the decision. But if it wasn't the difficulty then it would be the lenght or the graphics or...