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Unfortunately, it seems nearly every day we see a reminder as to why the internet is a not-so-great place. Today’s example comes from evidence of a concerted effort to review-bomb Nintendo’s 2023 Switch releases.

As noted by ILovethegameAC on Famiboards, it appears that in recent days, Nintendo’s 2023 Switch releases have been hit with a review of extremely low scores from users. This isn’t a case of honest opinions or reviews, but instead, waves of 1s and 0s.

The lineup of games getting bombed includes Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, Bayonetta Origins, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 4, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, Fire Emblem Engage, and Metroid Prime Remastered.

Metroid Prime Remastered is especially noteworthy, as the game’s user score was originally incredibly high, but the bombardment of 0s brought the score down to an 82 for now. Obviously most would agree that an 82 isn’t bad by any means, but with a score average in the high 90s shortly after launch, you can see just how far things have fallen.

As far as we know, Metacritic hasn’t commented on this matter. The review aggregator has been under attack from review bombings for years now, but things seem to have grown much worse in recent months, with Metacritic recently sharing a statement that they’re working on new tools to combat these bombings.

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Comments (19)

tendonin

11M ago

It’s probably the GitHub business from a few days ago. Regardless, it’s definitely a concerted attack from some angry special interest group of terminally online people.

Metacritic is terribly designed for user scores on games, even compared to other sites. Because it codified game review averages around 60-70 rather than 50 there’s more room for negative vote brigading to have an impact (unless there’s some different formula behind the scenes). Last I browsed the site there were bizarrely low scores on all sorts of recent games across multiple platforms. At the very least user scores should require people to write a few sentences worth of explanation. It’s a REVIEW aggregation site after all. Make people admit if they’re not really reviewing something. As the initial Famiboards post noted, it’s pretty much all anonymous scores.

Other people could try to counterbalance it with positive vote brigading, but honestly…no, just no. The feedback loop of BS and counter-BS is a big part of what’s made the internet such a hellhole this past decade. Often the only good response to bad faith is no response at all.

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tendonin

11M ago

@rawmeatcowboy

Minor, pedantic correction: The Famiboards post indicates the review scores changing over the past "few days" rather than weeks. There could have been a longer trend, it just isn't indicated here.


dauntless

11M ago

No, Metacritic has NOT been 'review bombed' for years, unless you're talking about the new accounts that always pop up with excessive positives for certain movies, to counteract often VALID negative ones.

Why does no one think that a sudden wash of negatives are legit, but a sudden spike in positives are?


rawmeatcowboy

11M ago

@dauntless

Just to clarify two things:

1. Review bombing on Metacritic started to pop up around Mass Effect 3, but really came into the more 'modern' sense of the term with Skyrim in 2015 due to the introduction of paid mods. If we ignore Mass Effect 3, that would put the phenomenon as really kicking off around 2015 and continuing since. I would personally say that qualifies as 'years.'

2. Personally speaking, I don't think 10s should be given out to combat 1s, or vice-versa. A score to combat another score serves no real purpose, and only feeds into the review bombing. It just a side effect of the greater issue that needs to be addressed, and hopefully Metacritic is serious in their statement saying they're working on new tools.

Finally, I'd like to say I was sharing my comment just to explain where I'm coming from in the post, and not to come down on you in any way, shape or form. I appreciate your comment and thought it brought up valid points to discuss, which is why I jumped in. Hopefully it comes off as respectful, as I really do appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

Edited 1 time

Because no matter how butthurt you are about something in the game, how many games have you played that have been so terrible they deserve a zero? Dropping a zero anonymously is not a critique, therefore it can't be valid. I don't understand that, no matter the medium, when review bombing starts because people are upset about something tangentially related, there is always some dude pretending it's valid criticism while denouncing the review inflating.

Feel free to respond, but the response is always "how is it not valid?" as we go in a circle of you pretending that people are posting their legitimate critiques of the games themselves.

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cheesus 2

11M ago

Stupid people just keep being stupid.


bluespheal

11M ago

It's not like I care, intelligent consumers are going to read several reviews and make an educated purchase, these do absolutely nothing for me, besides I only look at reviews for games I don't know a thing about.

That said, I do wonder how much of an impact this will have on sales and such, to me reviews can really become useful to downright useless in a matter of seconds due to stuff like this.


kingbroly

11M ago

Metacritic only cares when it's Sony's games getting the treatment. Methinks foul play behind the scenes is coming from them.


juja

11M ago

I could forgive people trolling on the other games, but Metroid Prime is an all-time classic. So many people put it on their lists of greatest games ever made (along with Super Metroid!). That Michael Fassbender perfection meme applies 100% to Metroid Prime Remastered.


You’re describing exactly what review bombing is. It happens for the positive score as well as the negative.
It HAS been happening for years.


smasher89

11M ago

I wonder how this effects people on those companies bonuses, heard before some publishers tie bonuses to a metacritic score, so could potentially have an direct effect on the developers themselves, even if its both the publisher that creates such goals and also put unrealistic deadlines (towards adding new content).


As far as I know, any bonus or metric tied to Metacritic reviews or similar are for the Critic Reviews and not user reviews. User reviews is too easily manipulated.


dubbie

11M ago

@juja

Bayonetta Origins and Fire Emblem Engage are amazing games as well,the former earned a respectable 83+ user score average over weeks.
The latter is high quality and underrated af,these games deserve better than a manchildren troll horde trying to stain their prestige on a popular review site(even if i think its trash) for petty reasons ,its not like a
new Zelda where its going to sell well regardless and critic scores will make up for this or Pokemon where quality doesn't matter

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enthropy

11M ago

Some people don't need a hobby but a fucking life!

Review bombing is stupid. Be that 0s or 10s (Rings of Power had some odd 10s for example).
I really hope they find a way to get rid of the troll "revies" because I sometimes like the reader reviews. Sometimes even better than the "critics". The can seem a bit more honest at times.


enthropy

11M ago

@dubbie

Bayonetta Origins is a very pleasant surprise actually.


smasher89

11M ago

@kuribo

Ok that makes a bit more sence, even if it very hard goals to reach!


yomerodes

11M ago

Review bombing is always bad...except when it is Fifa legacy edition or a microtransaction filled game, then review bombing is the righteous weapon of the people 🤪


Heh it seems the counterattack has already started for Bayonetta Origins,it now has an 87 user score the other games like Metroid Remastered and FE Engage are still lower


enthropy

11M ago

@dubbie

*SIGH* What has the world come to? =D

Yeah, Metacritic really have to find a way to weed out the trolls so this shit doesn't happen anymore.