The Best Switch Review Rating System
Let us count the many failures of the 10 point review scale and show you why our unique heart rating scale is the best.
10 Point Ratings Suck
There’s plenty of rating scales out there. Some use stars while others use bars but the common theme found throughout many of these is that they all rely on 10 rating points.
The infographic below highlights the problems with this and calls it the “Modern Review Scale” and we feel it’s quite accurate. It’s wrong, but it’s accurate for the current gaming market.
To complicate matters rating sites like Metacritic use a wildly inaccurate 10 point scale where no game ever seems to get below a 6.
If it does happen to fall into that dark barren land it’s written off as one of the worst games ever created. I’ve had loads of fun with games that should be appropriately rated 3, 4, or 5.
What’s the point of a 10 point scale if you don’t use 80% of it?!
The platform is also easily brigaded by the forces of good and evil based on whatever the current social climate temperature is. It’s fairly ridiculous and shameful that some companies’ bonus payouts are tied to Metacritic scores. Yet again, a topic for a different day.
With all of this, players are more forced to rely on top lists, clickbait YouTube videos, and social media sources to find good games,
Nintendo eShop Failures
If you’ve had a Nintendo Switch for even a little while you would know that the Nintendo eShop is one of the most disappointing, lackluster, and featureless storefronts known to man.
The Nintendo Switch eShop is really shitty and we should expect more from a company like Nintendo.
It’s not easy to navigate and while it does have a built-in deals section, it can take forever to scroll through all of them. All while hoping you find that one game at just the right price that forces you to click the buy button.
Needless to say, the Nintendo eShop definitely doesn’t have any rating system. Even if it did I’m not sure it would be all that great considering how Nintendo handles online functionalities and the Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Bolt-On Game Catalogs
There is hope! Websites like Deku Deals attempt to fill this gap by offering Nintendo Switch owners with plenty of features such as wishlists, enhanced sorting, and pricing history.
I use Deku Deals almost daily, it’s the best solution to fill in the wide gaps left by Nintendo. You’ll have to manually maintain catalogs and wishlists independent of where you actually buy them.
Not ideal, but it’s better than nothing.
You can assign a 5 point star rating to games on Deku Deals but it’s not searchable or even sharable. It seems to only be a feature to sort your own collection by.
Alright, enough about shitty scales and onto how we rate things at Nindie Nexus.
The Heart Rating System
A while back all of us at Nindie Nexus decided to leave the 10 point scale behind and adopt a more meaningful scale. What we came up with I think is one of the best game rating schemes on the scene. The heart rating.
We’re first and foremost gamers that love to play games. We check professional elitism at the door and simply write about our experiences and feelings.
After all, isn’t playing games about having fun?
The rating mechanism should also be fun and convey a sense of purpose. There’s nothing better for this than the well-known heart. The 10 point rating scale should be put to death but we don’t think that will be happening anytime soon.
Nothing is Perfect
We also recognize the most important part of all this. No rating scale is perfect, even ours. After all, game reviews are subjective. If anyone tells you differently they are flat out wrong. We still think our rating system is one of the best out there.
Here at Nindie Nexus, we tell our reviewers to rate the games based on how they felt while playing it.
We try to match reviewers to games they actually think they might like but sometimes it’s a gamble. I’ve found many games I never thought I would have liked this way. It pays to reach outside your comfort zone sometimes.
Do you really want to read a review that doesn’t rely on past gaming experiences?
In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we're doing. Handing out golden hearts when they are deserved and never backing down from bad games worthy of the empty heart rating.
After all, the most important part when dealing with Nintendo Switch Indies is spreading the word. The end goal is always to try and connect players with developers, through fun gaming experiences.
