Hating Ign For God Hand Review

[Aigis]

About four years ago, Clover Studios released a game that was to become a cult classic: God Hand. This game didn't receive good reviews by any means, but there was one review in particular that earned the ire of fans.

IGN.com gave God hand a 3.0.

Even now, four years later, people are using this review as a reason to hate popular gaming news and review website IGN.com. I see this all too often on Newgrounds

And this is just a little ridiculous.

A review is a description of the opinion of the reviewer. IGN employs a lot of editors, and only one reviewed that game. IGN is not a hive mind.

But what makes it particularly bizarre that this is still a complaint is something that happened in March 2010.

In March 2010 Chris Roper, the editor who wrote the God Hand review, got laid off. He no longer works at IGN. People complaining about the God Hand review are complaining about the four year old opinion of a guy that doesn't even work at IGN.

I'm not saying that IGN isn't worthy of any dislike. I'm just saying you guys need to find something new to hate the website for.

[MetalDart]

At 6/27/10 12:26 AM, Aigis wrote: I'm not saying that IGN isn't worthy of any dislike. I'm just saying you guys need to find something new to hate the website for.

Who's the guy that gave Wii Imagine Babiez like a 7.9?

[Jerkapotamus]

At 6/27/10 12:30 AM, MetalDart wrote: Who's the guy that gave Wii Imagine Babiez like a 7.9?

Josh Clark? Fairly certain he is freelance, which would be another sort of fruitless reason to hate IGN. Also, just out of curiosity, have you actually played the game to confirm whether or not it is 7.5-worthy? I never have, so I can't really comment on the quality, but its conceivable to me that the game isn't terrible. No one else really reviewed it either, so we can't go by that either.

But yeah, totally agree OP. Roper was one of the better writers IGN had, too. He caught a lot of flack for God Hand, but his work was generally pretty good.

[MetalDart]

At 6/27/10 12:45 AM, Jerkapotamus wrote: Also, just out of curiosity, have you actually played the game to confirm whether or not it is 7.5-worthy? I never have, so I can't really comment on the quality, but its conceivable to me that the game isn't terrible. No one else really reviewed it either, so we can't go by that either.

Haha, yeah of course I've never played it. It's just that when watching gameplay like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhjq5vgxp yc
I don't really take it seriously when it's on the same playing field as other games.
I mean, I know you can't review a game just by trailers, but I think this can pretty much sum up the gameplay and challenges along with a certain milk-chugging minigame.

Also, I think generally people look at the review scores first, not the writer.

[ZJ]

At 6/27/10 12:30 AM, MetalDart wrote:

At 6/27/10 12:26 AM, Aigis wrote: I'm not saying that IGN isn't worthy of any dislike. I'm just saying you guys need to find something new to hate the website for.

Who's the guy that gave Wii Imagine Babiez like a 7.9?

It was actually a 7.5.

So, according to IGN, Imagine: Party Babyz is a better game than Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition

Go figure! ;D

[Aigis]

At 6/27/10 12:52 AM, puddinN64 wrote: So, according to IGN, Imagine: Party Babyz is a better game than Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition

Or rather,

Joshua Clark has a higher opinion of Imagine: Party Babyz than what Lucas M. Thomas's opinion of Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition is. Assuming that they both have the exact same opinion of what a 7.5 and a 7.0 constitute in terms of the quality of a game.

I haven't played Imagine: Party Babyz, and apparently no critics other than Joshua Clark have so I really can't form an opinion of it.

[Salnax]

In 2008, IGN said:

I'll be honest, I really wanted to hate Party Babyz. We as gamers have, after all, been trained for years to be suspicious of mini-game compilations, to ignore products with babies on the cover and to absolutely abhor games using the letter "z" in their titles as an indication of a plural. I had all these great jokes lined up, a whole list of witty and sarcastic remarks that would have forced the developers into early retirement and ultimately secured my reputation as one the most scathing and hilarious freelancers the IGN readership had ever seen. That list now sits crumpled at the bottom of my trash bin.

Why, you ask? Because, despite one of the worst examples of botched box art marketing I've ever witnessed, Imagine: Party Babyz is one of the finest mini-game compilations to ever grace Nintendo's home console.

I think they're as ashamed of the score as you are. The review goes on to praise how the minigames are remarkably in depth, usually allow multiplayer, have good controls, unlockables, and an oddly appealing art style.

Just because a game should suck doesn't mean it will.

[JingoJoe14]

At 6/27/10 12:26 AM, Aigis wrote: A review is a description of the opinion of the reviewer. IGN employs a lot of editors, and only one reviewed that game. IGN is not a hive mind.

You know what, you're right! Let's completely forget about the most quoted line from the entire review

"In my years of working here at IGN, no other game has earned the universal disdain God Hand generated among our editorial staff. Mention God Hand anywhere in the office west of my humble corner and in return faces scrunch up tight and moan.

God Hand is an obviously bad game."

[Aigis]

At 6/27/10 01:05 AM, JingoJoe14 wrote: "In my years of working here at IGN, no other game has earned the universal disdain God Hand generated among our editorial staff. Mention God Hand anywhere in the office west of my humble corner and in return faces scrunch up tight and moan.

"Hyperbole is a rhetorical device in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally."

[JingoJoe14]

At 6/27/10 01:24 AM, Aigis wrote: "Hyperbole is a rhetorical device in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally."

Seriously? The part about "faces scrunching up" is clearly exaggerated, but do you honestly believe that there wasn't "universal disdain" for God Hand around the office?

I'm not going to be bold enough to claim that this is 100% proof that everyone in the IGN offices thought God Hand was a bad game. That would be stupid. However, it should be proof that the majority of the office did, and this idea contradicts the "hive mind" statement made in the OP.

[Aigis]

At 6/27/10 01:31 AM, JingoJoe14 wrote: I'm not going to be bold enough to claim that this is 100% proof that everyone in the IGN offices thought God Hand was a bad game. That would be stupid. However, it should be proof that the majority of the office did, and this idea contradicts the "hive mind" statement made in the OP.

I'm going to take it as proof that four years ago a bunch of IGN editors didn't like God Hand.

Which isn't any different from the general populace. A lot of people didn't like God Hand.

It's not any evidence that these editors would have given the game a 3.0. Perhaps their distain translated into a 6.5.

[BioEthanol]

I hate IGN cos in their countdown of the best games in the 2000s, in the 2008 section Mirror's Edge and Prince of Persia are on it but Gears 2, Fable 2 and Super Smash Bros Brawl.
I also hate the site because:
1. They never swear (immature reason this).
2. When they try to be funny they aren't.
3. They are too neutral, they dont just call games shit apart from when they did this tears and cheers thing they put no reasons for the tears section they just declared these games were shit and gave no reasons why they were shit.
4. The site looks to professional, i prefer amateurish games site with pop-ups and dodgy ads.
5. Apart from the 3 they gave God Hand (a game which i never played but problee shud) they barely ever score games under a 7.
6. I dont really have a reason to visit their site, i use metacritic for reviews if i want reviews i just read the best and worst review to get an idea of what a game is like.