Does The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Deserve a Perfect Score?

Perhaps one of the hottest games of this year is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The last Wii U first-party game and the predominant reason many gamers decided to purchase a Nintendo Switch on day one. The, prior, to its release received major acclaim from critics with many giving the game perfect scores. But weeks after the release reviews started to pop up that made the game that shifted the opinions. Bad reviews intended to bring the Metacritic score down and others simply arguing that the game didn’t deserve a perfect score. Does The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild deserves a perfect score or simply hype after waiting so long for a new The Legend of Zelda?

When reviewers started putting up early reviews for The Legend of Zelda the game was met with incredible praise. Near perfect to perfect scores saturated the internet, many claiming that Breath of the Wild was the best Legend of Zelda game ever made and one of the best games overall in gaming. Of course, many took this with a grain of salt but when the game went public the flurry positive reviews from the community. So, what happened?

According to The Know many disgruntled gamers went to the Metacritic page of Breath of the Wild and started posting negative reviews. Not base on their own experiences with the game but similar out of hate to purposely bring the game’s score down. This isn’t new as other games have faced similar backlash such as The Last of Us, Overwatch, and DmC: Devil May Cry. Many publishers look to Metacritic scores to determine whether to issue out bonuses to the development team but look critically at notorious reviewers such as IGN, Game Rant, GameSpot, and DualShockers as oppose to community ones. However, community reviews have become more recognized which lead to the recent controversy with YouTuber Jim Sterling.

Jim Sterling has generated a large following and been featured in several video game publications. The biggest being the lawsuit between him and Digital Homicide. Recently Jim Sterling posted his review of Breath of the Wild, giving the game a 7/10 and being hit harshly by gamers; even targeted by DDoS’d attacks. 

In the end, what is the point of a meaningless number? As a consumer, you’re not getting a bonus and having someone else feel differently about a game you strongly enjoyed shouldn’t affect how you felt? While we work hard on our own review for Breath of the Wild consider that a review isn’t your view but the opinion of another person who should attempt to generate an opinion based on quality and not on personal taste without evidence to back each perspective.

Many of us put pride into the things we buy and the last thing anyone wants is people criticizing the purchase they made, regardless of how small or big. It’s excellent to see that many people played and enjoyed Breath of the Wild, as have I, but the reaction bewildering. Some may not like Breath of the Wild and some will feel like they wasted their time and money on the game, they’re entitled to their opinion. 

Did The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild deserve a perfect score, that’s up to you. In the end, you’re the one who makes the decision whether to purchase the video game or not. If you’re reading this article it’s likely you made up your mind on the game before scores were published. In the end, what matters if whether the game was worth the purchase in your eyes. And if so to continue to support the developers who took the time and effort to make it.

Source: Jim Sterling The Know

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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