Don’t Let Others’ Opinions Ruin Your Enjoyment

Back when I was in grade school, I wasn’t allowed to play video games during the week, lest my grades suffer. (Let’s face it, they probably would have.) Because of this, Friday was a special day. That marked the beginning of the weekend and I could play video games! However, beyond that, we had this kind of tradition in my household. We would go eat at our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner and then head across the street to Blockbuster. (For those of you youngins, Blockbuster was a movie/game rental company where you physically had to get up and go to in order to rent and watch a movie or play a game.)

The beauty of this was that it allowed us to try out video games without having to buy them. While games are still expensive today, they were only about ten dollars cheaper at the high price of 49.99USD. If we liked said game, then, we would go to the store later on and buy it. This was how I found games like Animal Crossing and Kirby Tilt ‘n’ Tumble. Nowadays, though, rental stores are few and far between. Sure, there’s Redbox and the occasional Family Video, but they typically don’t have a wide variety to choose from. So how are we supposed to know if a game or movie is worth it? (Note: There is, however, GameFly. Some people like it, I’ve heard some people say they hate it. I’ve never tried it so I’m not an advocate for either side.)

As they say, everyone’s a critic nowadays. However, there is a group of people that are actual critics. As in, they do it for a living. These are the people that judge a movie or a game based on different qualities and decide if it warrants a chance, in their opinion, from the general populace. While people genuinely accept what these professionals say as having some merit, we have seen an interesting turn of events this past year. With the poor critical release of both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, one would think that these movies would have done equally as poorly. However, the fan response has not reflected this. The latter is most noteworthy for having broken Guardian of the Galaxy’s August debut record. One would think that the low scores from critics would be deterring the fans from seeing these films. One would be wrong.

Despite the failure with the critics, both of these films (the latter more so) have strong fanbases that support them. I’m in the boat of Suicide Squad, having loved the movie. However, I know that not everyone enjoyed it and that’s okay. My favorite thing about any form of entertainment – from music to video games to movies and beyond – is that it elicits a different response from each person. Not only that, but it means something different from each person. As with any form of art, each person walks away with something different, whether good or bad.

But this is a different story completely with video games. Whereas a movie is typically around $10 USD to go see in theaters, a triple-a video game (typically) borders the 60USD price range. That’s a hefty price for a game that you may or may not like. For example, I bought Tri Force Heroes awhile back. While it was a tad entertaining, I didn’t enjoy it. It felt shallow to me and I felt like I wasted my money. (That’s saying something for a guy as flippant with his finances as I am.) While I may not have liked it, however, critics did. IGN scored it an 8.5/10 and it stands at a 73% on Metacritic. More than that, many of the staff here at Zelda Informer, such as our Editor-in-Chieff Nate, like the game. Of course, each person has a different reason for liking or disliking a game. That said, should the reviews have swayed me? Did their opinions affect my playthrough of the game? Sadly, not at all. My experience playing over the internet with other people was less than favorable and playing alone was simply a tedious chore for me.

I’ve begun to figure out, though, that despite the critics’ opinions of something, I tend to ignore them anyways. Things like enjoying a story, finding characters interesting, and more opinionated factors like that don’t necessarily affect my choice in whether or not to partake in a certain form of media and I’m not the only one. What I’m about to propose to you is something impossible that I never thought I would encounter. In my years at college so far, I have met a few people that actually like Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) – a game I bought because it was so laughably bad, I just had to try it out. Despite an overwhelmingly negative stigma towards the game, they like it. They enjoy the characters, the controls, the voice acting, etc. When I look at reviews, I tend to take note of the mechanical errors in the game. This is one of the reasons I have yet to play Batman: A Telltale Series on my PC; per many reviews, both critical and non, it is rife with bugs and glitches. However, it seems that not even that will stop some people.

Critic Reviews are nice. They let us figure out what the overwhelming majority of people in the industry think of a certain game or movie. Sometimes they can sour or hype up an experience that ends up falling right in line with their words. Sometimes, it’s quite the opposite. In the case of DC’s latest batch of movies, critics have given us a realistic view of the movies. Essentially, what I understood from them, was that I shouldn’t get my hopes up. While I take what they say with a grain of salt, I understood that there was probably a good reason for their warnings. However, when I saw the movies, I ended up having my expectations wildly exceeded. Don’t misunderstand me: I didn’t go in expecting a movie on par with Gone with the Wind or any other classic and walk out praising every aspect of the movie, nor did I walk in expecting a movie on par with the infamous Rubber and walk out comparing it favorable to Captain America: Civil War. What I did come out with was a view of a movie that I enjoyed and, in the case of Suicide Squad, thoroughly enjoyed.

So what is the purpose of critics then? I think that reviews have their place; they help us go into experiences with realistic expectations. The important thing to remember, though, is that if you like something or are hyped up for something, then don’t let anyone take that away from you. If there’s a game you’re excited for that has nothing mechanically wrong with it (I would always warn against buying broken games until they inevitably fix the game and lower the price, i.e. the case with Batman: Arkham Knight) then don’t let anyone tell you not to get it and enjoy it. Just because it may be a thematic mess, doesn’t mean that you can’t find redeemable qualities in it. Try to think about your favorite game and/or movie. Maybe go look up a couple of reviews, both critical and unprofessional and see what people think about the game. There’s guaranteed to be someone out there that utterly despises your favorites. Should that change your opinion of it? Absolutely not! I love Sonic Adventure 2. Yeah, I wear the most extreme case of nostalgia goggles for that game, but I haven’t let others’ opinions ruin it for me. I understand that, realistically, it’s not as great as I think it is. But in my head, it’s a fantastic game and will always be that way.