WiiU's Road to Sucess must travel through Camelot

There is a company within the gaming confides that has had a perfect track record for the past decade, and has quietly mustered hit after hit after hit. Yet, they aren’t mentioned as often as Bungie, Valve, Square, among others. This development company puts plenty of effort to their games and can really step up and deliver something magnificent if given the opportunity. This company has been a great help to Nintendo in recent years but if the WiiU is to conquer the gaming industry, Nintendo needs to let Camelot fly a little more.



Camelot is responsible for the Mario Tennis series, the Mario Golf series, and the Golden Sun trilogy. All great games and some of them are among Nintendo’s best in the past 15 years. Mario Tennis for the N64 was arguably Mario’s greatest spin-off not called Mario Kart as it combined the Super Mario flair with some intense, varied, and surprisingly deep tennis gameplay. Golden Sun is one of the greatest handheld games of all-time as it transfers you back to the SNES days when the system had incredible RPGs with engrossing storylines and interesting battle systems. To add to that, Camelot made the greatest Game Boy Color game not named Pokemon Silver or Wario Land, as it made a Mario Tennis with heavy RPG elements. Camelot has succeeded in the console front and (especially) in the handheld aspect.

Here is where Nintendo needs to turn to Camelot some more: the console market. Surely Camelot has worked on console games, but they were limited to just the Mario sports games and they don’t have anywhere near the depth of the handheld games. With Mario Tennis and Mario Golf for the GBC/GBA, you actually played as a different person and worked your way up the ranks to becoming the best golfer/tennis player in town. You earned experience, could mess around with your stats, and even practice around the environment to sharpen your skills. This incredible way of playing the Mario sports games needs to find its way into the WiiU, as there’s more space to develop, more room to grow, and more opportunity to pull something special.

Imagine Mario Tennis WiiU which allows you to play offline and online with your created character to see who is the best tennis player in the gaming world. Imagine playing a full-length RPG but instead of fighting monsters, you are just bouncing from court to court taking on other tennis players. If Nintendo has proven something over the years, is that outside the Pokemon franchise they offer very-very little in the RPG genre. While Dragon Quest may quench the thirst a little, more can definitely benefit the WiiU. That example of “more” is the RPG versions of Mario Tennis and Mario Golf.

And Golden Sun, my oh my Golden Sun. This series is just begging for a transition into the big screen complete with its fantastic art direction, clever puzzles, decent storyline, and addicting battle system. Part of Golden Sun’s appeal is the fantastically creative spells and monsters that are summoned throughout the game. An HD enhancement will bring Golden Sun to a new plateau of quality. Golden Sun can be the game the puts the nail on Final Fantasy’s coffin as that franchise has been slipping and sliding for years and has survived because of lack of competition.

If Nintendo really wants to push the envelope, why not hand the Paper Mario series to Camelot as well? Camelot is arguably the best RPG developer since Square in the 90s. So why not give them a shot at the Mario RPG games? They might be able to muster the magic to make something as memorable as the best Mario RPG work of all: Legend of the Seven Stars. While Intelligent Systems did a fantastic job with Paper Mario (With Thousand-Year Door being clearly their best effort), I wouldn’t mind seeing the franchise shifting elsewhere.


Bottom Line: Nintendo has a gem of a company making games for them, but their scope has been small. Whether it’s because of the Big N or because the company is so small, they haven’t cranked out too many games for the consoles. If Nintendo wants to truly conquer the eighth generation, then they must allow Camelot to grow, and to expand to make more console games. The last time Nintendo has such a great second-party working for them was Rareware from 1994-2000---when that company shelled out masterpiece after masterpiece. Bringing some of the excellent Game Boy games to the upcoming HD system would be a great game to nab the hardcore audiences’ attention. Imagine an RPG Mario Tennis, a Golden Sun, or another new Camelot franchise for the WiiU.

Or better yet, imagine Pokemon or Paper Mario bring run by Camelot.

It could happen, and it should happen.

7 Pokemon Games That Should Happen

The Pokemon franchise is the second biggest in the history of gaming, trailing of course only Super Mario. Selling over 200 million unites overall, this is a cash cow that will definitely not go away anytime soon. That being said it still has plenty of potential for growth and even more sales (and awesome games). Being a dreamer forever and always, I have assembled a list of Pokemon games that I would love to see occur in the near/far future. These are games that would benefit us gamers, Pokemon fans, and the 3DS and eventual WiiU. Now, none of these games have been rumored or announced yet, so this is all just wishful thinking.

#7: Pokemon Stadium 3DS
Pokemon Stadium for the N64 was one of my favorite games because you were finally able to truly put your Pokemon to the ultimate test by competing in several tournaments, pitting them in a Gym Leader Castle, and eventually engage in two showdowns against Mewtwo. It was a great game that was also surprisingly lengthy. A sequel can definitely happen on the 3DS as you can transfer data using an SD card and put your Pokemon team from Black, White, Diamond, Pearl, HeartGold, SoulSilver to the test. I can see a 3DS version of this boasting dozens of different tournaments, and then crafting some online in which anyone from around the world can join.

#6: Pokemon: Team Rocket Version (For the 3DS)
We always play as the hero in these Pokemon games, without the option of turning evil. Not enough video games out there give you the chance to become a hero. How different would the adventure be if you joined Team Rocket? This game would give you the option as you rise the ranks of the evil organization and wreak havoc throughout the Pokemon world. Personally, I think this would give an awesome twist to the usual formula of collecting and battling Pokemon. Lastly, this could be the Pokemn game with the deepest storyline.


#5: Super Smash Pokemon (For the WiiU)
Picture the craziness, epicness, and fun of Super Smash Brothers, but instead of characters in the Nintendo universe, just feature a bunch of Pokemon. Dozens of them to be exact. In this game, you can pick one Pokemon and take one countless others in different environments in the Pokemon universe. Basically take the best elements of Smash Brothers and apply it to Pokemon. That would be fun. I’d love to fight as Hitmonlee.


#4: Pokemon Pinball 3DS
Of all the Pokemon spin-offs, the Game Boy Color Pokemon Pinball was hands-down one of the best and one of the most underrated. Collecting 150 Pokemon through two different machines in several potential locations within said machine made for great varied gameplay and addicting moments. They should expand the idea here with more machines, more locations, and of course more mini-games and more Pokemon. Addicting as heck, and it wont cost you several quarters every time you play.


#3: Pokemon Puzzle League 2 for WiiU
The original was essentially Tetris Attack with a Pokemon twist. Nothing wrong with that though as it featured hours of addicting gameplay and actually had the authentic pokemon sounds we still don’t hear in the handheld games. But wouldn’t it be awesome to craft a sequel for the WiiU and make it online-friendly? Now you can compete in this puzzler against people around the world and even hold tournaments. Then you can compete for high scores throughout the year for bragging rights. As for the gameplay itself nothing has to change except depending on the Pokemon you choose and its type determines how much damage you can cause to the other side. That would vary the gameplay some more and give you a strategy on which Pokemon to use when puzzling.


#2: Pokemon Snap 2 (For the WiiU)
My favorite Pokemon spin-off, the N64 game was short, extremely easy, and doesn’t offer much outside the 6 levels. That being said, this idea is begging for an expansion. More levels, more environments, more secrets, more Pokemon, more items to use, and then make it online-friendly as you compete for the best pictures. To add to that the tablet controller would be perfect as a substitute of an actual camera. The IPad can be used as a camera, so why can’t the WiiU controller? Of all the great ideas that can rise from that unique upcoming controller, Pokemon Snap 2 rises as among the best.




#1: Pokemon MMORPG for the WiiU and 3DS
I have discussed this time and time again so let me just sum it up in one sentence: the Pokemon world with the scope of Skyrim, the online connectivity of World of Warcraft, and the blending of every Pokemon game that has come out before, remake and spin-offs included. In this massive game you can be good, be evil, you can be a trainer, collector, breeder, Team Rocket member, photographer, Tournament Junkie, Elite Four trainer, Gym Leader, trader, or even surgeon. With an MMORPG, the sky is the limit and if Nintendo really pulled out all the stops, they can make the best RPG of all-time with this idea. Just the potential of competing in tournaments around the world alone would make this worthy of a purchase.

The Legend of Sony's Patience

So there is a recent news story discussing how Sony is going to pick the wait-and-see method for annoucing their involvement in the next generation. They aren’t going to mention the PS4 until after Microsoft announces their successor. There has been a lot of speculation as to why Sony is deciding to reveal their stuff last. Some claim its to plagiarize easier, some claim that it will be easier for Sony to copy the competition by seeing what they are going to deliver. Sony has always been notorious for this, with the abysmal Playstation Move controller as a great example. The truth is however Sony works best when they are checking the pulse on gaming as opposed to trying to set the trend.

Even back in the 90s before the Playstation, Sony's wait-and-see game resulted in their first system obliterating the competiton. They saw the Nintendo's core audience was from 6-14 so they created a marketing campaign that would explore a new generation and cluster of gamers. The 18-34 crowd was thirsty for a system that would appeal to them, and that Playstation became that dream come true. For the record, the Playstation had been in construction since the late 80s---back when Nintendo and Sony were going to work together-----before all hell broke loose.

Sony didn't rush their Playstation 2 release either, as they waited for the Dreamcast to arrive and shoot themselves in the foot with an awkward release, lack of software, and a poor launch. The PS2 winds up becoming the most successful console in the history of gaming. But recently they tried to set the the trend of gaming and the end result was disappointment.

Surely the Playstation 3 arrived and predicted that Blu-Ray would be the future, but did not bank on everyone abandoning Sony and joining Nintendo. Nintendo copied Sony's strategy of the 90s and expanded the gaming audience even farther---from younglings under 7 to people in their 80s. The Nintendo Wii became the best-selling system for retirement homes in history. If Sony had waited a little longer and dropped the price and prepared a better helping of games they would have had a much better start and to this day not try to climb out of third place. And do recall the Playstation has free online service and also has a better helping of first/second-party titles than the 2nd place Xbox 360.

So now we have come to today. The Playstation 3 lifespan consisted of making big mistakes and learning from them. Sony would follow others by crafting several price cuts, cranking up the first-party library of games now that the third-party playing field is about even (Nintendo is closer than ever with the WiiU approaching), and most importantly making the games a bit more interactive by introducing a controller that resembles a goofier-looking Wiimote. Love or hate it, the Playstation Move has pushed good sales for the PS3. And with Nintendo poised to push gaming into another direction, Sony's decision to wait and see what happens next is very vital.

Why? Rumors are swirling that the XBox 720 might have a tablet controller similar to that of the WiiU. So if it is revealed to be true, Sony could then choose where the PS4 would go: continuing the low-key simpler approach of the PS3 or attempt to innovate similar to what the WiiU is destined to do. If Sony waits, then the ball will be in their court and they can decide how to return the serve. Some call it cheap, some call it copying; I call it a system that has helped Sony in the past, and should help them out in the near future.

Sony is going to wait? Let them wait, it will make the upcoming battle that much more interesting.

The Virtual Console Needs to Explode

So I moved to an apartment recently and one of the first things that I demanded that I would be able to take with me from my parent’s place is the Super Nintendo. It sounds trivial, but my SNES still works fine and has a plethora of spectacular games that still stand the test of time (and still unbelievably work). As a matter of fact, most of what I think are the greatest games of all-time (Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Super Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 2, Yoshi’s Island, NBA Jam) come from that system. And lastly, since 1998, I was so sure that the Super Nintendo was the greatest system in the history of gaming.


But.

It has heavy competition.


That was then, and this is now. This recent generation has been undeniably spectacular in terms of progression, technology, innovation, and lastly software. Each of the big three systems have released games that can arguably be placed amongst the 25 best games of all-time. The XBox 360 in my opinion had the most games with their superior versions of the original Modern Warfare, Bioshock, Skyrim, Mass Effect, and Portal. But the real draw has been their ability to look back. The XBox 360 has that excellent download service, which allows gamers to access previous masterpiece titles from the 90s and early 2000s. The PS3 and the Wii followed similar trends by crating instant classic games (The Wii….not as much) while at the same time glimpsing into the past with their download service.

So what if the greatest system of all-time is totally transferred to another system? Would that make the new system the best of all-time? Because it has all the masterpiece titles from the older system and then some? How can you deny the greatness of a system if it makes new great games and also doubles its game list by re-releasing classics?


WiiU, this is your chance.


Your Virtual Console service needs to explode to new heights.

The WiiU has the perfect opportunity here to create the best system of the main three coming up. Nintendo is boasting how powerful the system is---so now the goal is to go through with this potential. While the download service of the PS3 and XBox 360 have been very good, they are eerily similar sometimes and lack the first-party depth of Nintendo’s lineup. Nintendo has always been the best at preserving the past to re-release to the future, but now they can really deliver something special. And before you bring up the innovention of the new controller, expect the competition to copy the technique.

If I were running the show, I would do my absolute best to ensure that the WiiU becomes totally, fully, truly, madly, deeply backwards-compatible as soon after launch as possible. And I mean not just with the Gamecube, but bring back the N64, SNES, and NES games. I would make the WiiU the ultimate Nintendo system by giving gamers full access to all previous console masterpieces and classics that had graced a Nintendo console. Can you imagine on the same day purchasing Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 64, Super Mario World 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3 to put on the same system? Can you imagine purchasing Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 2, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and Ghouls n’ Ghosts on the same day? How about the entire Donkey Kong Country trilogy, as well as DK 64? Can you imagine purchasing Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, Link to the Past, and Zelda II on the same day?


Can you imagine if Nintendo created gaming packages involving games in all the previous Nintendo systems? I had spit this idea a long time ago but it can actually work with the WiiU because of the much more powerful machinery and (hopefully) better online service. I don’t know about you, but I would pay top dollar for Zelda, Mario, Resident Evil, Metroid, and/or other collections that chronicle you through multiple generations of Nintendo’s history. Nintendo has arguably the best system ever created, the Super Nintendo. So what better way to give the WiiU an awesome start than having N64, SNES, and Gamecube games available at launch?

Third-party companies aren’t as atrociously negligent towards Nintendo as they used to be, so I can see companies like Square Enix, Capcom, Sega, LucasArts, Ubisoft, and maybe even EA Games opening up their old-school libraries to help Nintendo. And if we push the bar even further with a little convincing maybe they can even release games that weren’t originally for the older Nintendo systems like Kingdom Hearts, Burnout 3, Soul Calibur, and the Tekken games. While that idea is a bit of a long-shot, third-party companies over the years have realized that Nintendo can indeed make you good money---the Just Dance franchise has sold over 23 million copies on the Wii alone.


Bottom Line: The WiiU needs to take advantage of the incredible and deep history of Nintendo and turn their next system into a gaming hybrid of sorts. The WiiU is already-backwards compatible with the Wii games and all the Wiimotes and secondary controllers. So why not increase the fun by digging into the thousands of games released over the years and re-release a slew of them at launch? You can do HD collections of Nintendo’s most lucrative franchises like Mario World, Zelda, Pokemon, and Mario Kart (idea sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), while also releasing some of the better NES, SNES, N64, and Gamecube games throughout its history. Now, nothing has been confirmed as to the online whereabouts of the WiiU, but if they really wanted to distance themselves from the competition, they will deliver an old-school lineup so extensive, so massive, and so full of quality; you have no choice but to purchase the system to partake in the whimsical insanity.

Dying Days of Ambiguous Gaming?

So Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars has recently been purchased from the Virtual Console in my household. Despite the fact that we already own the game for the SNES (That still works) we just wanted a backup copy on the Wii for the day the SNES finally knells over and dies. We’ve played this game dozens of times but still get a kick out of it as if it’s the first time we played it. Fast-forward to Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Skyward Sword was quite a good game, perhaps even a great one. However, it was still lacking. It was not the main quest, it was not the story, and it was not the musical score. Instead, Skyward Sword is following a trend of gaming that forces the Zelda franchise to deter from its roots. Modern games are becoming far too linear, and it’s a trend that I would like to see die down.

Flash back to the past. Super Mario RPG was a fantastic role-playing adventure that remains one of the most replayable experiences in gaming because of its utter cluster of secrets that was scattered all over the place. While the quest itself was fun as it is, the fact that you could go back to several different areas and see different events occurring (depending on what you accomplished and discovered on your way to the ending) added a layer of life to the game long after the quest was over. There were hidden locations, hidden events, and even hidden bosses. There are items in this game so rare they are part of old-school gaming folklore. With dozens upon dozens of different characters you can run into you can play this game many times and still find something new and exciting years after first beating Smithy.

Flash forward to today. Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess’ biggest flaw is that unlike what we experienced with Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time, there is very little reason to go back and re-discover certain areas and try to find secrets that you couldn’t discover while hellbent on rescuing Zelda. The desire to go back to the assortment of towns, taverns, dungeon areas, etc. and re-meet some of the characters is far weaker when compared to the Zelda games from Link to the Past through Wind Waker (which was post-quest exploration at its peak) because, well, there isn’t much offered outside the main quest. There is no invitation of expanding your adventure past the quest spectrum. And before you think that Zelda is the only culprit of a more-linear gameplay, there’s others.

Your first-person shooters have definitely ditched the 90s style of open-space environments in favor of high-octane action sequences that requires following strict directions and going down a specific path. While the games of today seem to play these games with minimal complaints, I personally miss the good ol’ days of Doom, Goldeneye, and especially the very ambiguous Perfect Dark. Perfect Dark gave you a slew of operatives, but never guided you on which way to go—you were free to explore the entire area and find different ways to completing said mission. You just don’t see that in enough shooters. You feel more in control and more like an agent as you scour the area in search of what to do as opposed to an invisible arrow telling you where to go. With the exception of your more RPG-related shooters like Bioshock and Fallout, your shooters are short, straight, and to the point.

RPGs are also becoming a bit more linear. The Final Fantasy franchise is nowhere near as expansive as it used to be (Go back to Final Fantasy VI and talk to me later), the Pokemon games have become a little more restrictive and less spacious, and you have other RPG franchises like Kingdom Hearts, the Game Boy Mario sports RPGs, and Golden Sun not evolving and widening their scope. You would think that evolving technology, stronger systems, and more possibilities would propel the role-playing genre into new heights. But sadly unless you are the Elder Scrolls, you probably won’t be seeing the grand-scale open-environment games that the 90s SNES gems used to dream about evolving to someday.

Chrono Trigger was so big and flexible it had over a dozen different endings that span different timelines and storylines. Today you’ll be hard-pressed to find a game with at the least 2 endings. Super Metroid, one of the greatest games in history, literally threw you in a brutally ginormous world with absolutely no direction on where to go and how to survive. Let’s not even discuss what happened with Metroid: Other M. Even Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, despite being excellent games, are a bit more linear than Super Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine. I am still clamoring for that one day when Nintendo decides to make a Mario game with an overworld as big as Hyrule Field.

This trend of linear gaming started out with the easy-to-make shooters but has quietly been sneaking into other genres like action, adventure, and even RPGs. There is no reason why Pokemon Black and White have half the badges (and half the amount of interactive characters) of a game that came out 10 years before (Pokemon Gold and Silver). There is no reason why Zelda couldn’t have an overworld closely resembling the scope of Skyrim (Or to a more relatable example, Majora's Mask). And even platformers are adapting much more into the linear, simpler 2-D Mario as opposed to the N64 platform style which gave us Mario 64, Banjo-Kazzoie, Glover, Silicon Valley, Donkey Kong 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Spyro, and more.

Hopefully with the next generation, this trend will die away and with the improving technology we can create more games like Elder Scrolls that allow us to embed ourselves into the environments and interact with everything and everyone involved---as opposed to games that just make us trot through the area with minimal lag time and minimal reason to go back. In the meantime, developers should start replaying the 90s games and be inspired to expand their horizons and start re-introducing the spontaneous gaming of the Genesis and SNES to a new generation. We need less Final Fantasy XIII and more Final Fantasy VI.

Criticizing Lack of Criticism

So IGN recently went on a small rant about the Call of Duty franchise, one rant that a slew of us gamers have already brought up shortly after the release of Modern Warfare 3. Modern Warfare 3 has gotten quite weak reviews across the board from the gamers, but the critics stood by the side of the shooter and gave it the usual raving scores that Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops, and the original Halo-killer received. So, it was quite odd that IGN backed off its 9.2/10 score to give a detailed description as to why Modern Warfare 3 was truly disappointing and the franchise needs to change its ways.

The author in IGN claimed that Call of Duty is dated, isn’t trying hard anymore, needs to fix the multi-player, and needs better storytelling abilities, among other things. Wait, IGN is criticizing? IGN and its minions have been on this high-review rampage for years, and the theory that these gaming publications are getting quite soft on major titles is just as rampant as ever. So it was very funny that of all places, the website that has handed out perfect review after perfect review in recent years is suddenly going against one of its high scores. So much for standing by your opinion, eh?

So could it be that IGN is beginning to realize that it’s becoming much too soft—like Gamespot, Famitsu, 1Up (Then again, it might be just trying to ruffle some feathers, but for the sake of this article exploring why each publication has become extremely soft in the past five years, we will neglect this side thought)? Before the seventh generation of gaming, you had to be damn perfect to pull even close to a 10.0. If I am not mistaken, not a single game in the PS2 era (Soul Calibur did, but Dreamcast is more in the PSX era) scored perfect—not from IGN and not from Gamespot. And this time period gave us the likes of Metroid Prime, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Still my favorite GTA), and Resident Evil 4. IGN has come a long way since infamously giving Mario Kart: Double Dash a 7.9.

Famitsu, the most popular gaming publication in Japan, only gave Wind Waker the perfect score, and before that only three games had gotten the infamous 40/40. Let’s fast-forward to today. IGN granted perfect scores to Skyward Sword, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, Uncharted 3, Read Dead Redemption, and even Halo Reach. Let’s be honest here, none of those games with the mild-mild possible exception of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 deserves that ultimate mark.

Famitsu is just as bad. 12 games in the seventh generation have nabbed the perfect score, when only 6 games between 1986 and 2006 achieved the same thing. And before you argue that these games might deserve said score, I shall point out that two Final Fantasy games that are not VI, VII, VIII, or X got said score. And then I will point out that VI, VII, VIII, and X did NOT get 40/40. Someone please explain to me why Pokemon Black and White got a perfect score. Please. Honestly.

Even Gamespot, the website that became notorious for ripping on Zelda (even though they technically became slightly right) back in the Twilight Princess days, softened up a little. Perfect score to Grand Theft Auto IV? The main character still has a weaker set of fighting moves when compared to Mario circa 1996 (Super Mario 64---also did not get a perfect score)…and that’s just the beginning of its issues. Modern Warfare 3 had it all for Gamespot to have a field day: same graphical engine as previous Call of Duty games (and Battlefield 3 on its heels with an incredible graphical display), similar multi-player, weaker single-player, and the inability to truly attempt to revolutionize or advance the franchise. Its score? 8.5.

So what does all this mean? Well, it means that these websites in recent years jump the gun and give all these games phenomenally high scores, only for us (and them to realize) that the games aren't as good as they seem. Skyrim is a fine example, as its a game that was grand, magnificent, but so full of bugs in all three versions that they have been deemed unplayable in some aspects. Why are they stunting a 9.5 score and Game of the Year awards? The average game with dozens of bugs is known to drop to at the highest a 7.0. IGN then played the cleanup role by criticizing it---weeks after originally giving it the very high score.

Let's move to Skyward Sword, a game that has gotten perfect on IGN amongst others. This Zelda game contains the least exploration since the CD-I games in the early 90s. Its the most linear Zelda game since Zelda II. It has weak graphics even for a Wii game. Worst of all, it still lacks the presentation now seen in competing AAA-titles. Good game? Yea, more or less. Perfect 10? Absolutely not. 1Up then wrote an article criticizing it, weeks after giving it a high score. Game critics are just the opposite of movie critics, they absolutely look past upon the flaws and give it high marks upon its strengths, while movie critics nitpick and hack points away for the smaller details.

This is where the trouble comes in: decreasing effort from both ends. Why work so hard to make good games when the critics (whether its thanks to an underground paycheck or because they are softies) are going to praise it regardless? Video game companies nowadays can cut back on effort, increase marketing, blitz the media with a big first week, and rake in the profits before the gamers realize what hit them. This is one of the unfortunate things that has happened recently and most likely will continue happening when we approach the eighth generation of gaming.

The moral of the story is that if we want true-blue opinions of video games, we have to wait and see what the gamers think. I know it is their opinion, but it can't be that this generation is so much better we have been receiving triple the amount of perfect games as other gaming generations combined--that's impossible. If Link to the Past couldn't nab a 40/40, why on earth should Final Fantasy XIII-2 get it? Yes we gamers are a cynical picky crowd, but we are far more accurate than what the magazines and websites have been delivering---in terms of praise and criticism.

Whatever the reason, they have been slacking. Bad.


And with all the recent backtracking, they seem to be realizing it too.