Replying to #89
My understanding of quality is that the only reason why a certain game should get a bad review is because simply the reviewer did not like it. Not because the game is horribly designed, or lame plot devices, or whatever. It should only be because the person didn't like the style, or it's not their type of game.
I personally don't like puzzle games, but as long as it is well designed (yeah I know, real vague there), then it is a quality game.
It should be to the point where you can ask anyone and they can say that the game that they are seeing at that moment is a quality game, without a doubt, regardless of whether they actually like the game.
I do have to give game review sites (IGN mostly) some credit though. The ones they rate 4.0s and 5.0s and most shit around there is pretty spot on. They're pretty accurate until we get into the 8s and 9s and what they think are 10s.
Not every game has to have top-end graphics. Some games are designed to have a retro feel to it. That's acceptable. However, a game that struggles to display graphics of even mediocre quality is not acceptable. For example, even some of the best DS games absolutely fail at 3D graphics. Even FF3 looked HORRIBLE. Reminded me of Animal Crossing sprites with weapons. They were better off staying 2D because it doesn't look so pixelated, rugged and crappy.
Going back to my "fill the entire medium idea," every DS game should be around 256 MB. If you're not spending most of your space on graphics, then it better be on gameplay, and I'd expect every low-end graphic game to be in the 200-300 hour play time range. If the game isn't meant to be that long, then fill it with some decent music, not music that sounds like it's bleeding out its ass. Up the graphics, sound, etc. until you reached a balance between the three aspects. If at the end of that balance, you've only managed to hit 128, then keep going, keep increasing until you've hit as close to the max as you can get it.
I'm still wondering how the HELL did RE4 do decent on the Wii. Not only is it a re-release, but the Wii controls absolutely SUCK. They made the controls harder than it had to be. You had to hold buttons to shoot? Wait, what? Why can't I point and shoot with B like a NORMAL FPS/TPS would. The only explanation I can get out of this one is that it was the only adult-oriented title on the Wii at the time, and when you have no competition, well of course it's gonna do better than its nonexistent competitors.
I can see why MadWorld didn't do well. Their biggest mistake was the black and white style. I don't care if that was intentional or not, big mistake. People already get screwed on the graphics on the Wii, and this double screws them. I mean, come on, you're playing a last-gen console with motion controls and you're literally playing last-gen games with motion controls. It's the main reason why this game is still the only game I haven't played out of my entire 30+ game collection and it's the black and white style that puts me off every time I think about playing it. I know they say don't judge a book by its cover, but we all do it whether we'd like to admit it or not.
I also think that any game that fails to provide more than one means of control is shooting themselves in the foot. For FPS, however, only the motion control is really viable since the GC controllers suck at aiming and don't have enough shoulder buttons. But for any other game, there should be an option to use the GC controllers, classic, Wiimote, and Wiimote+Nunchuk. They shouldn't FORCE you to use only one means of control, unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Even Twilight Princess could have used the GC controller since it has its very own GC edition. If SSBB were only Wiimote compatible, I bet we'd get a TON of pissed off fans and lots of returned copies of the game. Who ACTUALLY plays using the Wiimote on Brawl? Might as well turn all items on, and put it to free for all, timed. Yeah. WTF. This is where the hardcore players use the GC controller and the casuals or in this case, the noobs use the Wiimote. In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, the Wiimote is designed for beginner players, allowing them to use special moves using B, where the GC controller allows better combos, but at the cost of not having that luxury of accessing special moves so easily.
It's the casual gamer that has forever ruined games like WoW, where the idiots overaggro, taunt when they're not supposed to, aggro trash, run around/out of range so we can't target the mobs near them to peel aggro, and trail behind on the dps charts. Meanwhile, the hardcore players are just sitting there and wondering why the hell did they bother joining a PUG in the first place...
I've gone on too many tangents so I'll be done for the night. It went from my definition of quality games to bashing casual gamers. And yeah, most of this shit is their fault. I liked it better when only the truly nerdy played videogames. (sarcasm)