Replaying through Skyward Sword, I realized that it really wasn't a 10/10 game, at least not for me. In fact, it's probably my least favorite 3D Zelda game (still love it though). I also realized that I really should be a bit more strict with my scores, so I lowered some of my scores for games that I gave really high scores to. For now, the only games that I would give a 10/10 are:

-Super Mario Galaxy

-Super Mario Galaxy 2

-The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

-The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

-The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Since writing full-blown reviews for Zelda games is sort of difficult for me, I'll just sum up my thoughts of Skyward Sword in this blog post.

Before I begin, here's the requirements a game must fulfill in order to get a 10 from me:

- Be loaded with great content

- Be fun as hell

- Have little to no flaws that detract from the overall experience

So yeah, I'm pretty easy to please. Skyward Sword fits all of these descriptions perfectly, thus why I gave it a 10. That said, is Skyward Sword my favorite Zelda game of all time? Not quite.

Skyward Sword has a great story, great dungeons, great combat, and great characters. However, the only thing out of these that I think Skyward Sword is the absolute best at in comparison to previous 3D Zelda games is combat. The story is good, but Majora's Masks' was better. The dungeons were good, but OoT's, MM's, and TP's were better. The charcters are good, but MM has more and better characters. This is not to say that these elements are lacking in SS, however, but they just don't hold up as well as others.

I personally love the art style they went for in this game. It's probably even my favorite art style out of all the Zelda games. I love flying, but would love it even more if the Sky was more interesting to explore. The bosses are really good for the most part. although some have a pretty weird design (namely the fifth boss). I really like the upgrade system introduced in the game, as well as mixing ingredients for potions. The sidequests aren't really all that complex, but most of them are still pretty fun. The game does have obvious padding, but depending on who you are, you may actually have fun with the padding, like me. The soundtrack is a tad disapointing, but there's still some great songs here and there. I haven't had much issues with the controls as they work pretty good for the most part in my experience with the game.

Pros:

Combat is fun as hell

Temples are well-designed

Bosses are fun

Great story

Great graphics (artistically)

Good controls

Full of content

Cons:

Uninteresting overworld

Disapointing soundtrack

......I honestly think Majora's Mask is my new all-time favorite video game. It used to be tied with Ocarina of Time, but I've come to the realization that no game in history had me as engaged as I was in Majora's Mask. I can't think of a single issue I had with Majora's Mask. Hell, I can't even think of a moment when I wasn't having any fun at all while playing it. The story is my absolute favorite video game story ever, boasting an incredible atmosphere and amazing characterization. I love how most things in the game require you to dig into a deeper layer of thought in order to fully understand something. The soundtrack is my favorite OST in a video game, and is the only soundtrack from a game I've actually downloaded. The dungeons are awesome (except for maybe the first one, which was still a decent dungeon), especially the Stone Tower Temple. The masks were awesome, the side quests were awesome, the world was awesome.......the game is just freaking awesome. So with that, I would like to congratulate Majora's Mask for beating out Ocarina of Time as my favorite game off all time.

And just for kicks, here's how I'd rate the main 3D Zelda games:

1. Majora's Mask

2. Ocarina of Time

3. Tie between WW and TP

I can't rank Skyward Sword yet since I haven't beaten the game, but I'm loving it so far.

Sadly, I was not around way back in 06 when Mr. Jeff brought down the flop hammer on TP. I always wondered just what it would be like if I could go back to the past and see people's reaction to the score. Looks like I won't have to do that, now.

As you are all likely aware, Skyward Sword has recieved a 7.5 from Tom McShea. This is so far the lowest score the game has gotten on Meatcritic, and it brought SS's average down to a 94, making it the lowest rated 3D Zelda game on MC. McShea's main complaints were that the games fails to do anything new (which COD got a free pass for, of course.) and that the motion controls were often unresponsive.

My thoughts on the score? Well, at first I was like :o, but then I was like :lol:. Being the massive Zelda fan I am, I was surprised to find myself not mad in the slightest, and instead I was actually laughing my ass of.

I highly doubt the things that bugged Tom will bother me. Rehashed formula? As long as it's more inventive than TP, this won't bother me (Hell, I didn't even mind TP's staleness all that much). Bad motion controls? This is something that apparently only Tom is having issues with. Every other reviwer has praised the motion controls as the best yet on the Wii, and then here comes Tom saying otherwise. I highly, HIGHLY doubt I'm going to have a big issue with the motion controls, as they worked about 99% of the time for me in Red Steel 2.

I'm not mad at Tom in the slightest. He gave the game what he felt it deserved, and he had reasons to back up the score (which some may find reasonable, but others might be going lolwut while reading his review). I know for a fact that Tom's score will not affect my judgement of the game, considering that I personally had an AAA experience with inFAMOUS 2 despite it's 7.5.

I just wish the response to the score was....I dunno, wilder. With TP's score, we had death threats, viewers demanding a re-review 24/7, and people accusing Jeff of being abused in his childhood. With Skyward Sword, I'm seeing a much more calm reaction. Of course, it's kind of expected since SW and most (keyword: MOST) gaming boards in general have matured a considerable amount. I'm actually more dissapointed in the reactions from people than from SS's score. :(

So I just got Arkham City the other day and.....holy frak. I was NOT expecting the game to be this good. When I saw it's MC average and people's claims of it being "one the best games ever made", I back then would just lol and proceed with my life. There was absolutely no way a freaking Batman game could be one of the greatest games of all time. But when the day I decided to pick the game up came, I realized I was eating my own words the more I played through the game. I'm honestly having a blast with the game so far. In fact, I don't really think I've encountered a single major flaw with this game yet. This may actually have a chance of recieving a ten out of ten from me, but of course, I'll be fair and pass full judgement on the game once I've beaten it.

You could consider this particular blog the start of this little series I'm working on. Right now it's simply titled "Debate Time" because I'm an uncreative twit, and for the most part, they will focus on debates that have been going on in the gaming world for quite a while. Since I just downloaded the entire Majoras Mask OST (Yes, downloaded. Sue me.) I decided that the good ol' "Ocarina of Time vs Majoras Mask" debate would be a good start. How these blogs work is pretty simple. I'll sometimes start off with a little background information for some games, although this mainly depends on their popularity status. After all, I'm pretty sure no one wants to hear info about COD again, or else I'll probably be punched through the screen or something. Anyway, back to the blog basics. Next, I'll list what Game A does better, and what Game B does better. Then I'll give my final thoughts on each. Simple, right? Now let's get started.

What Ocarina of Time does better:

• Longer Main Quest - This is an obvious one. While Ocarina of Time has seven dungeons/temples, Majoras Mask only has four. Considering how heavy Majora's Mask is with it's side quests, I think that can be forgiven, though.
• Better Save System - If there was only one very noticeable flaw with Majoras Mask, it would be its save system. In Ocarina of Time, you could save literally anywhere. The only time you would be allowed to save in MM is when a) You went back to the very first day, losing all of your items, or b) Finding an owl statue. I think it's safe to say that Ocarina of Time easily wins in this department.
• More Revolutionary - Not to say that Majoras Mask wasn't revolutionary in a sense, but Ocarina of Time signified the jump from 2D to 3D for the Zelda series, and improved upon just about everything present in its predecessors.

What Majoras Mask does better:

• Better Atmosphere - Majoras Mask had one of, if not the greatest atmosphere present in any game to date. The music plays a big role in this, as well as the overall settings and character emotions.
• More Unique - I'm still astonished by the fact that no game developer has even made an attempt to copy MM. MM is clearly that rare, one-of-a-kind Zelda game that requires a specific taste for you to get the most out of it. With the 3-day system, mask transformations, and ect., Majors Mask is definitely the weird one out of the bunch.
• More Replay Value - Like I said before, MM has a humongous focus on side quests and collectibles. With the amount of things you can do outside of the main quest, it sort of feels like the game is just as long as Ocarina of Time, if not longer.

So what else can I say? Obvioulsy there's a lot more things I can list, but it's pretty late where I'm at now and I'm just too gosh darn tired and lazy to go on. As far as which game I personally think is better....uh.....that's a tough one. I think that if MM had a longer main quest and a better save system, I would have enjoyed it a little more than OoT. As it stands, however, both are fighting for my favorite game of all time spot, and have been for quite awhile.