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Outspoken developer Tomonobu Itagaki has again accused the press of getting it wrong in its critical mauling of Wii U shooter Devil’s Third.
Having previously blamed poor previews on journalists’ collective lack of skill, and subsequently claim that the game will be a breakthrough for the industry” that is going to take shooter to the next level”, Itagaki now reckons that the review conditions imposed on journalists is the actual culprit.
I believe that those of you who actually have the game in your hands are more than satisfied with how interesting and fun the game is,” he said. Unfortunately the scores we’ve been receiving in Europe are pretty awful.
Some of the criticism we’re getting is constructive and fair – I can accept that. But in general, I’m going to guess that most of the people reviewing the game weren’t given a chance to evaluate it properly. Just as one example, we designed the online multiplayer mode to be enjoyed together with tons of people, but it seems dozens of reviewers were only allowed to try the game in a closed environment. That’s extremely unfortunate for everyone involved. As you can imagine, no one can effectively evaluate the playability of multiplayer games under these conditions.
For me though, I value the feedback you guys can offer much more. Please enjoy the game for yourselves.”
The response to this latest statement is mixed, although certainly Itagaki’s fans – dubbed the ‘Itagaki Defence Force’ by one consumer games site – are keen to show their support.
The media can’t change their stripes but real gamers will have fun,” one said, although another, altogether less enthused and seemingly homophobic contributor added: Don’t be a faggot and accept it, your game sucks.”
We’d also like to highlight this comment contribution: I have see a British play it … he said it’s asshole because too many hard ennemies spaming but he likes your charlenge.” Great.
Devil’s Third failed to break into the UK Top 40 this week, debuting at just No.8 in the Wii U charts. The game has a Metacritic average of 42 per cent.
