Innovative video games appear from time to time, but most video games take concepts from older ones and attempt to improve upon them.

The result is new games constantly making older games, games once considered the best in their genres, unplayable by comparison.

Take, for example, Devil May Cry. It redefined the traditional action game, but Devil May Cry 3 has since taken what once made the original Devil May Cry the greatest action game ever and improved upon it.

After you play Devil May Cry 3, you will not want to go back to Devil May Cry 1. The third makes the first feel dated.

Despite Devil May Cry 3's superiority over its predecessor, GameSpot gave the original a higher score (9.1) than its sequel (8.6). And the updated, more superior Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition received a still lower score (8.2).

Why? Video games are an evolution. By nature, the new ones will often be better than the old ones. If every new, improved game gets a higher score than the ones that came before it, eventually every game deserves a perfect 10. And that would make game review scores useless.

The standards get higher as time passes. Games like Ninja Gaiden, released a year prior to Devil May Cry 3, and God of War, released shortly after Devil May Cry 3, also improved upon concepts first seen in the original Devil May Cry and arguably did them better than Devil May Cry 3.

It isn't enough for a video game to slightly improve upon past games to get a higher score. It has to be significantly improved to deserve that higher score. A slightly improved more of the same will appeal to hardcore fans, but it isn't enough to justify purchases by more casual fans who bought the older game.

The same applies to when a previously released game is re-released on another platform. The new version might be superior, but unless it's a big improvement over the version already available on another platform, the new one still deserves a lower score. People who own both platforms and have played the older version need to know if the game is worth playing again.

Which is why it's important to read reviews, not just look at their scores.