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Editorials   Cries Of Injustice and Smurfs!
- By Eric Tajchman

NOTE: The following editorial has been extracted from the damaged mind of me, the writer. A lot of what you are about to read is probably wrong, but this is the way I, an admitted quasi-fanboy, see things. It's also very long, so this might take up a good chunk of your time.

Part 1: A Fanboy's Cries of Injustice

I’m going to use my editorial privileges for a rant on the idiocy of pay sites and the advantages of fan sites. In reality, these are my mad ravings and the twisted thought that came out of them. This comes from my viewing of IGN GameCube’s senseless review of Super Mario Sunshine. I’m going to use some game scores from IGN to prove why the casual and hardcore gamers should not trust pay sites and their desensitized articles. The point of pay sites, ultimately, is to get you to pay for them and earn the site owners a profit. Providing you with great content is not the most important priority to them, and if they could provide less content for the same price, they would do it in a heartbeat.

The following scores are taken from IGN GameCube’s review of Super Mario Sunshine.

Presentation:
The combination of poor FMVs, zero story value, poor character design, and a "vacation" theme is rather a shocker. The focus was clearly on gameplay only. 6.0

Aside from citing Super Mario Sunshine’s less than glamorous FMVs, the rest of the reasoning is complete rubbish. Did any Mario game before it have any kind of quality story? Aside from Super Mario RPG, the entire Mario series has had the same type of story. It’s basically Bowser kidnaps the Princess, Mario goes to rescue her. Why is IGN now so damn anal about Mario having a good story if nobody’s ever cared before!!! And a vacation theme being a shocker? Why is it a shocker? Somebody needs to hit them upside the head so they remember the “vacation” theme of Super Mario World.

I like the line about the focus being on gameplay. Of course the focus was on gameplay. What else would it be on? Sound? The credits? The detail of the toilets in the bathrooms? (by the way, the toilets in SMS have mushroom covers) They say that like it’s a bad thing.

Graphics:
Mario Sunshine actually takes advantage of GameCube for quite a few pleasing visual touches. Brilliant water, particle effects, and draw distance add up. Bad art and textures damage it. 8.0

Onto the graphics rating. It should have been a 9.0, plain and simple. The levels are huge and beautiful, and anyone who‘s ever played the game will agree. It’s one of the most beautiful games on the system. IGN usually has some kind of statement where they say that the graphics rating is based on other games for the system. Has any other game had this much scope and detail to a single level, while maintaining a near solid framerate? Other than a few exceptions, no game has as impressive eye candy

Sound:
A few catchy tunes, some fitting level themes, and Dolby support. But, things get a little dirty with some bad interactive music and voice-overs. 7.0

Why is the sound rating so low. Just because of a few instances of bad voice-acting? In the meat of IGN’s review, they state how they aren’t impressed with the new music and that there’s more new music than old music. Is this the most idiotic criticism ever uttered? It’s a new game! It’s supposed to have new music! And all of the music is great. It fits the “shocking” vacation theme quite well, while still being catchy and keeping a Mario-esque feel to it.

Gameplay:
The definition of pure fun. The controls and level design come together beautifully for a must-play game. The camera, however, is a major nuisance. 9.0

You’d expect the editors at a pay site like IGN, who have imported the game from Japan and had a copy for over 3 months, would learn how to control the camera. Granted, the camera isn’t the best, but it’s a lot better than other games. And the only real problems you have with it are at the beginning when you learn how to properly use it. After about 10 Shines, me and many of my friends could easily use it. It takes the same amount of time to learn the camera system for Super Mario 64, and that title received a 10.0. This is perhaps the greatest and most entertaining game yet on the GameCube. It’s challenging, long, and most importantly, insanely (almost cosmically) fun. This game deserved a 10.0 and perhaps an even higher score.

Lasting Appeal:
The main quest is lengthy, and after-hours with going for all the 120 Shines keeps on kicking. Very entertaining, but only the most hardcore of fans will play through it twice. 9.0

Bull. Shit. Seriously, everyone who has a Nintendo 64 and owned a copy of Super Mario 64 played through it at least twice, many people played it many times over. Hell, I still play through Super Mario 64 every now and then, just to relive what a great game it was. The same is true with Super Mario Sunshine. Of course, you’re probably not going to play through it again right after you beat it. But later on, as with all great games, you’re going to play through it again.

OVERALL SCORE (not an average) 9.4

The only semi-rational score. I don’t understand how a game that received nothing above a 9.0 gets a total score of 9.4. I know it’s not an average, but it still makes no sense. Still, a 9.4 is too low. It should have been a 9.6 or somewhere around there. But, after I read through what they called a “review” (I call it more of a “let’s see how anal IGN is,” or crap for short) I came to the conclusion that I am bout to make.

Part 2: The Second Part

This is why IGN and most other pay sites are crap. I’m not going to go into the whole argument about paying for game content (although, I think paying for gaming news and content should be free to everyone).

My argument is against the editors of the big gaming pay-sites. These guys cover video games for a living. That means they’ve been desensitized to everything that many casual and non-industry gamers find exciting. If they Nintendo announced a new Zelda game for the GameCube, IGN and other pay sites would give it priority coverage. I’m sure they’d use exclamation marks and put some excitement-inducing words in there. But do you think these editors feel the same way that you or I do? Do they feel the overwhelming elation that we feel when we learn something of this importance? Doubtful.

But, I’m not blaming them for how they turned out. Many of them probably were avid gaming fans when they started working for a big pay-site, taking the position with jubilation and ecstasy. But, like any person who makes their hobby their career, they get a little tired of it. They’re around it so much that it saturates their life, and eventually they just want to get away from it.

These editors also become extremely accustomed to the gaming industry. They’ve literally seen it all, as they have access to exclusive sneak previews, ultra-secret information about some of the most anticipated games, and interviews with the gaming industry’s hottest talent. I’m sure IGN has contacts and information that a fan site like NGenres would kill to have. But therein lies the problem. They’ve seen it all. A lot of the flare of gaming is gone. They get to play every game weeks, even months before gamers get to. They have the time, patience, and the trained eye (having looked at hundred of other games) to spot every nuance and flaw in a game. But do us gamers go out, but a game, and sit there and look for these benign little problems? No! We're too busy playing the game to be that anal about a couple of fuzzy textures and whatnot.

The greatest advantage of a fan site is that it is run by fans. Whether it is a developer-specific site (such as the critically acclaimed Nintendo gaming site, NGenres), or a multi-platform gaming site, the only purpose for the site is to provide gamers with news, multimedia content, and features. We don’t get paid, we don’t get any kind of fame (except for former Senior Editor David Schwimmer). We do this because we love the world of gaming. Playing games, talking about games, being able to tell other people about games, pawning games for crack.. This gaming avidity that NGenres and other fan sites have allows us to look at a game and judge it on whether it is fun to us and fun to you. Big corporate sites lose that edge once they care more about profit than games, and the editors that work for said sites lose their edge once they start writing about games for a check than for the simple love of gaming.

You may call this a plug for our own [phenomenally stupendous] site, NGenres, but that's the way I see things. Of course, I'm hopped up on antihistamine medication, so I could be wrong. On Monday, I will reveal to you all Part 3: Smurfs in Time which shows the true nature of the fansite. You won't want to miss this (unless you're pregnant, have heart or back conditions, or are hypoglycemic)