What is the point of the reviews? To see how "good" or "bad" the quality of the emulation is.
Also, other than seeing how the emulation is, one of the main points of virtual console review is to see whether or not its able to withstand the test of time, and to see how "high" or "low" it is in that respect - what is wrong with that? Nostalgia or not, its rare instance when person, of clear thinking, is able to enjoy most any game with same exact level of enjoyment from their first experience.
So, with that being said, why should any game, regardless of its "status," recieve same exact score if the feeling is not same exact way it was back than?
In addition, while nostalgia ("classic" status) should be put into consideration (and I believe that has been the case in fairly good majority reviews I have seen from GameSpot), however, at the same time, you need realize reason these games are looked with "modern" views is due to the fact a) regardless of the fact you "approve" or "disapprove," expections have raised onto higher bar since many, if not all, of these titles were originally released and b) we are spending "modern" money here.
To be simple, if you are going to take one feeling into thought, person should be fair, and therefore, consider the other feelings, otherwise, for my liking, that is sign of bias and/or unclear/incomplete thinking.
Furthermore, you ever think about the possibility that some folks may have not played some of these games in the past, and therefore, notstalgia is not really factor? Or, for that matter, there are good amount of folks in my situation that, despite being around back in that era of gaming, did not have chance to play some of these games?
Anyhow, while I am on the point, that brings my next point. While there are some folks who will feel nostalgia for these titles (if that is the case for you and some others, for whateve its worth, I approve) , on the other hand, you need remember there will be others who will not be as "forgiving," and therefore, see some (if not most) of these titles, or certain elements of them, as being "dated." Well, for those folks, this is what these reviews are for - to see, as I have said previously, whether or not if the titles will be able to with-hold the test of time?
For my liking, I find these reviews to be helpful and therefore, necessary. To say that views on "classic" titles cannot be changed is silly. That is being unfair to modern titles that have been able to imporve on some of these formulas or, in other cases, created others.
And therefore, with that being put into account, if they were truly classics, in my mind, they would be able to, in sense, on some kind of degree, compete with the modern stuff, and therefore, with-stand the test of time.
On side note, some of these titles were not exactly great to begin with. Honestly, Urban Champion? Pinball? Soccer? Tennis? I played each of those titles "back in the day" and to be honest, I was not exactly "thrilled" by them back than - I seriously doubt passing time has helped matters (if anything, it has only damaged them).
Couple of other notes:
- These games are reviewed with "score" system instead of "approval" due to the fact that how rating system works at GameSpot - what part of that logic are you having difficulty with?
- Other than Nintendo 64 titles, pratically most every one of these games were not reviewed by GameSpot "back in the day" due to the fact that website was not around. In another words - there is no such thing as "original" review for many of the titles that are available on the virtual console.
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