Our Review Scale at Nintendo Okie

Howdy folks. I just wanted to take a minute to explain our review system here at Nintendo Okie. Every site has their own take on the system. Each has the own merits, as well as drawbacks and I’m sure ours is no different. Most sites that you will visit use a 10 point scale and I have used that in the past with some of my other writing duties, but I don’t really like it. You get down to nit picking stupid stuff and people don’t use the scale in the way I think it should be. Too many people look at game and if they score below a 7 they don’t even bother taking a look at it, but I’ve played too many games that have a few issues with them that warranted a score in the 6’s or below, but was still fun and I enjoyed playing. The fact is on that 10 point scale a 5 should be considered average, at least in my opinion and go from there. That would mean that games that score a 5 are average and still worth playing. It just means they don’t bring a whole lot to the table you haven’t seen before, but they’re still good games.

I use a 5 point scale here at Nintendo Okie, with no half points. If you’ve seen reviews that I’ve done that have them they will be getting their score adjusted to reflect that fact. Here’s a bit of a breakdown on what each point means to us:

1 - Terrible This game should be avoided at all costs. There are not a lot of redeeming qualities to a game with this rating.

2 - Below Average This game had some good points and some bad points. Most of the bad outweigh the good, but it could still be fun to play.

3 - Average This is a good game. It has a lot of fun to be had, but there might be some points that get in the way. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table. You’ve seen all the elements of a game like this, but you will have fun playing it.

4 - Really Good We had a lot of fun with this title. This game is well worth playing, whether you rent it or buy it. You will find very few things that are wrong about a game like this and you could easily find worse ways to spend your time.

5 - Excellent Do not miss this title. It should be in your collection, no questions asked.

I don’t like review scores. They’re so subjective and a game that is an 8 to me, might be a 6 to someone else. I simply want to get across the point on whether I feel you should play the game or not. It’s much simpler to do that on a 5 point scale that simply says you should play it or not. I think people understand more that a 3 star game is good enough to get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but that same game might get a 6 on a 10 point scale and they would not even look at the title twice. What’s the difference between a 6.5 and a 7? Who really knows. It’s much easier to explain the difference between a 3 and 4 so that’s why I use the 5 point scale.

I hope this helps a little bit and you understand why we use the review scale we do. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Just send an email to tonymiller@nintendo-okie.com.