2019/9/22: Nintendo Switch: Horizon Chase Turbo, Dragon's Lair Trilogy

[Sonicx9]

I noticed someone mentioned "why not get online?"

Why should I capitulate? There's nothing on the box description that says you need to be online. Why should I go out of my way to let them off the hook? It's like me complaining about DLC, and somebody saying "why don't you just buy it?"

I think C64 Critic was right. It probably would have suffered a less harsh grade without all the interruptions.

But before you call ME lazy, consider the developers didn't test this game once offline. And if they did, they designed the game to piss off a certain group of players.

Finally, the Switch has already amassed an incredible library of top-tier titles. The bar is very high, giving games like this a very small margin of error. Get it right!

Switch owns the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U hands down in terms of games and is the critics highest scoring of the 8th gen based on review average.

[Matchstick]

Switch owns the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U hands down in terms of games and is the critics highest scoring of the 8th gen based on review average.

Hmmm, is that so? Let's look at the numbers and find out!

From a pure numbers standpoint, the Xbox One is the only console of the current "big three" that doesn't have a single "F" rating. 27 reviews, 0 "F" ratings. Not even a "D-" as the lowest-rated game on the system is Ryse: Son of Rome, with a "D". Two games have an "A-" rating, the highest of the bunch. About 7% of Xbox One games earned an "A".

Meanwhile, Switch has 3 "F" ratings out of 33 reviews. There's even 2 "D-" reviews thrown in there. A similar sample size to the Xbox One, but just over 15% of all Switch reviews are either a "F" or a "D-". Switch does have 6 "A" ratings and among those three are even "A+" ratings. Just over 18% are "A" ratings.

PS4 looks like it has 7 "F" ratings out of 88 total reviews, with one of those even being a shocking "F-". Rounding up slightly, 8% of PS4 games get the "F". There's also 4 "D-" reviews, meaning 13% of PS4 games got an "F" or D-". 10 reviews got an "A" making just over 11% of all scores.

So, based on scores as a percentage of the system's relative sample size:

PS4: A = 11% ; F = 8%
Switch: A = 18% ; F = 9%
X1: A = 7% ; F = 0%

And if we take those totals out of all reviews for the current "big three" systems (148 total):

PS4: A = 7% ; F = 5%
Switch: A = 4% ; F = 2%
X1: A = 1% ; F = 0%

All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Yes, I know all reviews for all systems scored relative to the other games available for each specific system. PS4 has the largest sample size and X1 has the smallest. But it still says something that there are currently no "F" games on the X1 but three on the Switch. I guess the overall quality of those 6 "A" games skews the curve far enough to drag the rest of the lower-scored games down a little bit. Maybe Horizon Chase or Mutant Football League wouldn't get an "F" on the X1, but hey, here we are.

Given the sample sizes, though, I wouldn't say the Switch "blows away" any of the other systems from a ratings standpoint. More "A" titles, sure, with more "F" and "D-" scores per capita to follow suit. Seems like the X1 data could almost be labeled as "incomplete" since The Critic seems to play more games on the PS4 and Switch. Going by the numbers, it seems like those two systems compare favorably to each other, especially in terms of "F" and "D-" games. X1 is a bit of an outlier.

It is interesting to look at all the numbers in one place, though, and helps to answer one of the questions I posed on the previous page about recent scores and grade letters. This was a fun exercise to put together!

(Feel free to check my math, by the way. I was an art major, after all )

[Sonicx9]

Hmmm, is that so? Let's look at the numbers and find out!

From a pure numbers standpoint, the Xbox One is the only console of the current "big three" that doesn't have a single "F" rating. 27 reviews, 0 "F" ratings. Not even a "D-" as the lowest-rated game on the system is Ryse: Son of Rome, with a "D". Two games have an "A-" rating, the highest of the bunch. About 7% of Xbox One games earned an "A".

Meanwhile, Switch has 3 "F" ratings out of 33 reviews. There's even 2 "D-" reviews thrown in there. A similar sample size to the Xbox One, but just over 15% of all Switch reviews are either a "F" or a "D-". Switch does have 6 "A" ratings and among those three are even "A+" ratings. Just over 18% are "A" ratings.

PS4 looks like it has 7 "F" ratings out of 88 total reviews, with one of those even being a shocking "F-". Rounding up slightly, 8% of PS4 games get the "F". There's also 4 "D-" reviews, meaning 13% of PS4 games got an "F" or D-". 10 reviews got an "A" making just over 11% of all scores.

So, based on scores as a percentage of the system's relative sample size:

PS4: A = 11% ; F = 8%
Switch: A = 18% ; F = 9%
X1: A = 7% ; F = 0%

And if we take those totals out of all reviews for the current "big three" systems (148 total):

PS4: A = 7% ; F = 5%
Switch: A = 4% ; F = 2%
X1: A = 1% ; F = 0%

All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Yes, I know all reviews for all systems scored relative to the other games available for each specific system. PS4 has the largest sample size and X1 has the smallest. But it still says something that there are currently no "F" games on the X1 but three on the Switch. I guess the overall quality of those 6 "A" games skews the curve far enough to drag the rest of the lower-scored games down a little bit. Maybe Horizon Chase or Mutant Football League wouldn't get an "F" on the X1, but hey, here we are.

Given the sample sizes, though, I wouldn't say the Switch "blows away" any of the other systems from a ratings standpoint. More "A" titles, sure, with more "F" and "D-" scores per capita to follow suit. Seems like the X1 data could almost be labeled as "incomplete" since The Critic seems to play more games on the PS4 and Switch. Going by the numbers, it seems like those two systems compare favorably to each other, especially in terms of "F" and "D-" games. X1 is a bit of an outlier.

It is interesting to look at all the numbers in one place, though, and helps to answer one of the questions I posed on the previous page about recent scores and grade letters. This was a fun exercise to put together!

(Feel free to check my math, by the way. I was an art major, after all )

On a related note I said this on the God of War 2018 game review feedback section "To be frank when I look at the critics reviews for current gen on this site (PS4/Xbox One Wii U before being replaced with Switch.) It just looks like the critic is not crazy at all about this gen as it full of mediocrity. If the gen was so great their would have been more A grade games or higher or even regular B or higher as this point. This is quite possibly the critics lowest score gen bar none and not hard to see why based on the reviews alone." Am I wrong on this or is it me generalizing the critic as not being a fan of 8th gen?

[Matchstick]

You may be onto something, Sonic. Then again, I think sample size is the important factor here.

There's way, way more 2600 and NES games out there than there are games for the current generation. The Critic is definitely a big fan of classic Atari games, and, well, I can't blame him! It's way easier to pick up a huge stack of 2600, Genesis, or Game Boy games for cheap than it is to load up on current-gen games, and most of The Critic's reviews likely come from his own collection. While his current generation collection is slowly growing, the classic game collection is already probably just about at maximum capacity. There's just way more content to review there.

For what it's worth, heck, I'd rather play my Genesis or my Saturn any day of the week over any current generation title. My wife likes the Switch and sometimes plays the X1, too, but for me, those newer systems just collect dust. Then again, I'm getting to be old as hell, too, so most of my best gaming memories are likewise stuck in the past. It's not such a bad thing, really.

Anyway, there's a lot of other variables at play here that would affect the numbers I threw together earlier. For example, three of the games that got an "A" grade on Switch are multiplatform - Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, and Sonic Mania Plus. Would those games also have gotten an "A" rating on the PS4 or X1? I'd say that's likely.

Likewise, all three of the "F" games on the Switch are multiplatform, as well. Those could have just as easily been reviewed on the PS4 or X1, and would have likely still gotten the same score.

I think the main thing to keep in mind here is that this will likely never be a website that tries to keep up with the current times. I mean, the site's logo is a 2600 joystick, for cryin' out loud! If I wanted to read mostly current reviews, I can do that plenty of other places. I like coming here to see the relatively simple, straightforward reviews of games from all eras, and the random posting format is exciting, as I never know what games to expect to see reviews from next, or even from what eras.

Maybe The Critic loves the current generation of games. Maybe he doesn't. It doesn't really matter either way. All I know for sure is that there's 8 gaming generations worth of content on this site, and coming here always makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. There's so much to see! There's so much to read! There's so much to agree and disagree with! Even if there were never another review posted to this site, the wealth of knowledge and memories stored here is a damn treasure.

There just aren't many places like this on the Internet anymore, and I mean that in the best possible way.

[Sonicx9]

You may be onto something, Sonic. Then again, I think sample size is the important factor here.

There's way, way more 2600 and NES games out there than there are games for the current generation. The Critic is definitely a big fan of classic Atari games, and, well, I can't blame him! It's way easier to pick up a huge stack of 2600, Genesis, or Game Boy games for cheap than it is to load up on current-gen games, and most of The Critic's reviews likely come from his own collection. While his current generation collection is slowly growing, the classic game collection is already probably just about at maximum capacity. There's just way more content to review there.

For what it's worth, heck, I'd rather play my Genesis or my Saturn any day of the week over any current generation title. My wife likes the Switch and sometimes plays the X1, too, but for me, those newer systems just collect dust. Then again, I'm getting to be old as hell, too, so most of my best gaming memories are likewise stuck in the past. It's not such a bad thing, really.

Anyway, there's a lot of other variables at play here that would affect the numbers I threw together earlier. For example, three of the games that got an "A" grade on Switch are multiplatform - Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, and Sonic Mania Plus. Would those games also have gotten an "A" rating on the PS4 or X1? I'd say that's likely.

Likewise, all three of the "F" games on the Switch are multiplatform, as well. Those could have just as easily been reviewed on the PS4 or X1, and would have likely still gotten the same score.

I think the main thing to keep in mind here is that this will likely never be a website that tries to keep up with the current times. I mean, the site's logo is a 2600 joystick, for cryin' out loud! If I wanted to read mostly current reviews, I can do that plenty of other places. I like coming here to see the relatively simple, straightforward reviews of games from all eras, and the random posting format is exciting, as I never know what games to expect to see reviews from next, or even from what eras.

Maybe The Critic loves the current generation of games. Maybe he doesn't. It doesn't really matter either way. All I know for sure is that there's 8 gaming generations worth of content on this site, and coming here always makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. There's so much to see! There's so much to read! There's so much to agree and disagree with! Even if there were never another review posted to this site, the wealth of knowledge and memories stored here is a damn treasure.

There just aren't many places like this on the Internet anymore, and I mean that in the best possible way.

On a semi related note: 3DS and Vita are technically part of 8th gen as well, and a interesting thing to point out is he gave the inferior 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. 2014 aka for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U even though critic gave the inferior Wii U version a B- (originally a C grade before being bumped up to a B- FYI).

[Verm3]

EDIT: My apologies for the comment mis-interpreted as rude.

[Sonicx9]

It's been suggested before that the Critic focus on retro consoles and abandon trying to follow the latest consoles.

I think it is telling that I don't think the critic has ever re-reviewed a 7th-8th gen game?

From the looks of it 7th gen onwards re-reviews is quite rare compared to 6th gen below.

[Stalvern]

I think it is telling that I don't think the critic has ever re-reviewed a 7th-8th gen game?

Telling of what? That it's only been a few years? Why would he revisit such recent reviews?

[Buttermancan]

Thanks for the reviews. I have Horizon Chase Turbo on my Steam Wishlist! The title is priced at £15.49 and though the retro aestheic appeals to me - my gut feeling is that the price is too high. After reading this I'll wait until the Christmas sale or when it is much more affordable.

With regards to the rude commenter, The Critic is entitled to his opinion and mentioned that his friends held the same sentiments about the game. We are all allowed to have differing opinions on things. Talking about opinions - I think that this site is far better than IGN. The reason this is my favourtie videogame website is due to how dissilussioned I became with most other media outlets. Often their reviews babble on for ten's of paragraphs and waste our time letting us know how the game doesn't align with their political ideologies. The critic on the other hand is succinct and to the point with his reviews.

[Verm3]

My apologies for the comment mis-interpreted as rude. I have some difficulty with interpretation and communication with others.

May I ask that any copies of my post quoted above be edited out?

Then I will delete the content of this post, as I find it a little embarrassing to admit the above.