I Guess Sega’s Cheque to Gamespot Bounced
Ouch. A 3.5 for Sonic Unleashed. Now, far be it from me to claim that Gamespot are the kind of place to be influenced by outside factors, but does Unleashed really deserve the lowest score GS have ever given to a Sonic Team title?
I’m well aware that it’s not the best game in the world. It’s averaging around 6/10 across all reviews. But using Gamespot’s 6 to 9 scale, a 3.5 implies the game literally killed the reviewer’s family.
Just to be clear, the following games were scored higher by GS than Sonic’s latest outing;
- Transformers: The Game (4.0)
- Chris Moneymaker Poker (3.8)
- The Golden Compass (Wii) (4.0)
- Wonderworld Amusement Park (4.0)
- Top Angler (4.1)
- Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (6.0)
- Bruce Jenner’s World Class Decathlon (4.1)
- Wii Music (6.5)
To take a quote from the opening paragraph out of context;
Put simply, there is no reason to play Sonic Unleashed.
For the first time since Zero Punctuation reviewed Braid, I can honestly say I think that review is wrong. I don’t entirely disagree with what it says, and perhaps I don’t even disagree with its conclusion. But in the context of Gamespot and their style of reviews, it clearly doesn’t fit.
Still, at least we know Sega don’t pay off reviewers.
Misc Tags: Gamespot, Sega, Sonic
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I hate to say it…but I like Sonic Unleashed. It was entertaining. While I won’t say its without fault, Sonic team is FINALLY starting to go in the right direction.
I really don’t think however the game deserves such a low score.
For the amount of good that Sonic Unleashed does, I would definitely suggest that’s incredibly harsh. It’s Gamespot’s review and it’s totally their call, but there is too much good in the game for me to think it’s not worth at least a rental.
I was pretty rough on Sonic Unleashed when I reviewed it, but I am still playing it, because some of the levels are ridiculously wonderful. Sonic Unleashed is not a bad game, it’s just very schizophrenic and suffered through some awful decision making and bad design choices.
A 3.5 is rather unbelievable, but like I say, that’s Gamespot’s call.
I’m with you on the unnecessary harshness, but comparing scores given to other games on the same website can be a tricky business. Remember that it isn’t Gamespot that is giving the score, it’s the reviewer, and that guy is going to have his own idea of what a 6 or a 4 is, which may or may not jive with some of his fellow reviewers.
Also, did it ever occur to you that maybe Sega is paying them off for a LOW review score? You know to make us think that they don’t pay off reviewers so that when their next title launches we’ll blindly accept a stream of 10′s?
CONSPIRACY THEORIES: You can’t prove them wrong, thus they are right. :)