I don't see how pac man ce can get anything less than a 9 by looking at their other review scores

i don't think this is any indication that hexic 2 is worse than hexic. the standards have surely changed, and hexic 2 is probably not free.

plus the fact that there's absolutely no semblance of consistency to their xbla review scores (or anybody's, really), as evident by pac man ce getting a lower score than [insert dozens of games here].

but yie ar kung fu... ouch!

The best pac-man game ever made gets a 6.5??? Unbelievable.

Marathon got a 5.5? How did this happen? I can't wait to read the text of their review... "It doesn't look like Halo?!?" "What do you mean I can't jump?!?"

Bleah.

The reviewer appears to have a bias towards puzzles. Personally, I don't like retro titles either, so I would be biased too, but I'm not a reviewer so I don't matter. That said, PacMan CE is brilliant! As for the others, I've got my 800 MSP lined up for Bomberman... and another bunch for Hexic 2. They can keep the rest.

They gave Prince of Persia a 7.5 even while glossing over the button caching issues and the AI getting stuck in moves.

Mad Tracks an 8 even saying: "For 800 Microsoft Points, the goofy racing variety of Mad Tracks gives you excellent milage." If the three pages of challenges were included I may agree, but as it stands I'd drop the value to a 1/3rd.

Doom got a 9...etc etc

I really don't see any consistency or basis in reality for most of their reviews. Sometimes they get what I would consider an accurate score, but that seems to be pure luck.

I think it's a bit silly to try and review retro games and give them a numerical score, the criteria on which most people judge them are so different to a regular retail release. 1UP's thumbs up/thumbs down system makes far more sense. Even small XBLA games aren't directly comparable to full retail games, and a scoring system that's directly comparable is going to cause problems (for example, the "Better than Halo/Gears of War" running joke that gets wheeled out in the Eurogamer comments whenever an XBLA game gets 8/10 or above).

Don't know if you guys saw Tycho's bit on reviewing retro rereleases last month, if not it's well worth a read (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/06/11), I fully agree with him.

Any chance xblarcade could try something new? Maybe instead of the impressions threads maybe do thumbs up/down polls? Something simple but in an easy place to find? I'm far more interested in the feedback from the people on this board than the magazines.

I second that idea. I know it would take a lot of work, but couple it with a database of all XBLA games and have a link to see the top-ten (or complete list) XBLA games based on ratings from users here.

Sure, as soon as I start making some progress on my todo list you guys start putting more stuff on it :)

Actually that sounds like a great idea, I'll take a look at how much effort it would take.

 

Would you guys like it to be within the forums? or a seperate section of the site?

Either way would be cool... the important thing is if I want to know the Xblarcade.com user rating of a particular game, I can find it quickly and easily.

It could be a simple system showing the percentage of thumbs up on a game, or a more complex one where each game gets it's own comments (read: user reviews) thread.

I think this is a really cool idea but now I'm wondering how simple or how complicated it would be. Here's what I'd love (aka the super complicated version):

Retro Games:

1: Have you played one of the game's previous versions? Yes/No

-If yes, your opinion of the previous? Thumbs up/down.

-If no, skip to #2.

2: Do you own the full game? Yes/No (to weed out issues/disappointments with the demo)

-If yes does the demo give a thorough impression of the game (i.e. if you like the demo, you'll like the game or vice versa)? Yes/No

-If no, skip to #3

3: Your opinion of the remake/port/whatever? Thumbs up/down.

(this way you can see if people like the game for nostalgia's sake or because it is currently fun.)

New IP:

1: Do you own the full game? Yes/No (to weed out issues/disappointments with the demo)

-If yes does the demo give a thorough impression of the game (i.e. if you like the demo, you'll like the game or vice versa)? Yes/No

-If no, skip to #2

2: Your opinion? Thumbs up/down.

------------------

That's the complicated version. A simple thumbs up/thumbs down would work or maybe something like the three level scale from OXM (cringe) DLC ratings scale (Buy, Fanboys Only, Don't Buy).

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