The Legend of Zelda

[Syobon]

Follow up text reviews are actually a common feature of the show called "Extra Punctuation", not just something he did because fanboys cried out, because that happens everytime and he doesn't give a fuck.

[Lithium]

Has Yahtzee ever given a game a positive review?

If this happened a few years ago when I knew nothing about Zero Punctuation, I would call him out right on the spot. But he's famous for basically grilling the games he reviewed because that's what his series is all about. It's all the entertainment factor. I used to watch his stuff all the time, but I haven't in a while so I really know nothing about the slump he's gone through, but I agree completely with Kamak. He did this same thing in his other Zelda stuff, so this is really nothing new. Gamespot's review I was rustled off at because they seemed to glance over the whole point of the game entirely, but Yahtzee I didn't hold it past him

[Syobon]

His second review ever was a positive one, of Psychonauts. People preferred his negative style so he stuck to that. If you watch his Top 5 of 2012 you'll find out which games he actually did and didn't like this year.

[Lithium]

That would make sense, but even top quality games he still finds a flaw in. It's really just his review style

[Kamak]

Follow up text reviews are actually a common feature of the show called "Extra Punctuation", not just something he did because fanboys cried out, because that happens everytime and he doesn't give a fuck.

Ah, I only hear about his follow up reviews when a major shitstorm comes up. I was under the impression that it was a response thing.

Even so, he should have just done the text review and ignored the shitstorm entirely. Nothing of value is going to come out of acknowledging the hate and saying "fuck you" to the fanboys.

And I agree with Lithium. I hated Gamespot's review because it was inconsistent and complained about issues that in another game would get praise (they overlooked MW3's similarity to past games in the franchise because "the positive points outweigh" the issue, but they hammered Skyward for following the Zelda formula, despite the lack of other highly negative points (other than controls, which were the fault of the reviewer)). For Gamespot, they have an obligation to the consumers to remain consistent with their reviews, because their word could be the deciding factor of purchases. But for Yahtzee, I could care less what points he brings up or if he's consistent in his dislike of X. The reason I watch is entertainment, not to be an educated consumer. He's not the "brave reviewer" that "speaks the cold hard truth" about video games, like some of the internet seems to be deluded into thinking. He's a comedian looking for an angle. And that's what I prefer him to be.

[Liraxus]

Someone give Kamak the title of "God of the Wall o' text"

[Chekt]

or just "tl;dr"

[Lithium]

That's what happens when you're a writer (don't worry, I hold that title myself too.)

What rustled me off more about Gamespot is not just the inconsistencies, but they don't really seem to grasp the reality of their point system. It's just incredibly unbalanced. I mean, yeah in their Twilight Princess review if it's really that big of a deal that the speaker on the Wiimote ruined it for you then sure take off .1 of a point, but there's a whole different thing when it's preference as opposed to "the truth". Granted, what's a review other than an opinion, but I think a professional review site should be able to divide what's crap and what's not. Taking Skyward Sword down to a 7.5 or whatever they gave because "wow these controls suck" is just what. I mean, I found a few control problems myself, but they weren't apparent to me until I started doing the boss battle challenges where every move counted because I had two hearts left on the final guy. But I actually found that they pretty much completely overlooked the whole idea to the changes the game introduced to the formula. There's hub worlds, new items, new uses for those items, stamina actions, interactive music, longer dungeons, and so on. It may still have that basic Zelda formula but it's down to its skeleton at this point. And really, it's really hard to reinvent a series. There's still plenty of people who liked the original Resident Evil better compared to the reinvented combat in 4 which was arguably better. There's always a chance that you can financially bomb too, like the 2008 Prince of Persia did (even though I love that game.) And I see their points about how the cast was underdeveloped, and I agree they should have gone deeper, but from their review I got the impression they didn't bother playing past the first part of this game.

But to take off three and a half points for that? daisies. At least give it an 8, it wasn't that terrible. I mean, Skyward Sword isn't my favorite, but by no means is it bad. It's still pretty clear they put a lot of thought and effort into this game.

tl;dr: Gamespot sucks.

[Great Eyewarp]

Speaking of walls of text, I realized something rather sad after writing an essay on another forum about what I hate about Phantom Hourglass: if I put as much time and effort into my schoolwork as I put into some of my forum posts, I might actually get decent grades in classes other than art.

Meh. Maybe it's just the subject matter. At least Phantom Hourglass was playable. I'd rather be suspended upside down by my own vas deferens than read The Fountainhead again.

[Lithium]

Bro Linebeck is the man. Best daisies Zelda character ever.

But yeah, you should see the rants I used to make. Wrote one that ran about five pages once. I could've handed that in for my daisies final.

[Syobon]

Online reviewing sites suck balls, this is not news. Also, Yahtzee might be a comedian first, but that doesn't mean he doesn't mean what he says. I think he's one of the few game journalists out there who still values his integrity.

[Crawfish]

Also I'm pretty sure yahtzee loved both Portal games, I remember those being really positive reviews.

[Great Eyewarp]

I dunno...I like some of the critics at TGWTG. Jesuotaku's good at what she does, Spoony and Linkara are pretty good, and, yes, I even like the Nostalgia Critic.

And yes, Linebeck is a great character and freezing time is awesome. But they almost don't make up for the bad soundtrack, Bellum, and Nyeve.

And Yahtzee gave positive reviews of No More Heroes and Amnesia.

[LordSeth]

I watched Yahtzee's review, and I agree that the sky being separate and only three min areas made the world feel small. Windwaker's ocean was better in my opinion, I had fun just sailing. (unless I had to readjust the wind) and that every island had a purpose.
Though I will admit I liked Skyward sword, it just didn't feel like it's own game. I spotted tons of references, which in part helped me guess Impa was the old maid. Because When she's not a sheika/ninja, that's what Impa basically is.
My favorite part was probably right before the final Girahim battle. The Hoard battle. Because when something similar was about to happen in Twilight Princess during the castle raid Link's friends take care of that problem. When that happened I felt cheated. "That was going to be the most awesome thing in Zelda history! Why would you stop it!?"
Then there was the way Fi leaves (you know she can't stay). I didn't care for her through almost the entire game, Yahtzee got that about right. So at the end I was hoping for Fi to do something, like sacrifice herself into some spell to counter the dark master sword. It would've added a much-needed third part to the final battle. but no, she just stays in the master sword and slowly dies. She might be keeping Demise sealed, but it's never implied to need her to do so.
Still, it was a great game. Though I still love Windwaker.

[Lithium]

Totally agree, Seth. I really liked how in previous Zelda games each dungeon had a theme and each area reflected that theme. Not that Skyward Sword didn't do that, but it eventually got a little dull to me visiting the same places. Flying also had some great potential if they made more stuff to do. There are like, what? Four main islands? Six maybe including what's in the thunderhead? Also areal combat like Twilight Princess had with horseback would have been more exciting. Though I admit the one battle you faced was a bit difficult for me because the bird controls weren't tight enough for me.

The horde had to be the most epic part for me, not because of the battles but because of the intensity of the story at that point. I felt motivated that I needed to run down there as fast as I could, avoiding everyone as I went. I somehow managed to take practically no damage doing that even while facing Ghirahim again, but whenever I replay the boss battles and do that same fight I just can't manage it again for some reason.

I haven't finished the game yet and I made the dumb mistake to read the spoiler there (I'm bodaciously about to finish it so it's not too big of a deal), but yeah, I was really disappointed with Fi. They kinda hyped her up with the first concept art and then the beginning of the game but then she just...didn't matter. Really a shame too since she's pretty much a one-off thing, whereas Midna was the same but she was incredibly developed.

I guess Skyward Sword is really just borrowed elements from all the other games, but I really liked how the expanded upon those features. I would be interested to see the new formulas be used in the next game as long as they have improvements.