10 Hit Video Games That Were Totally Critic-Proof

It can be annoying when a reviewer criticises a game you love or praises one you hate. Yet reviews are an important part of the gaming industry.

Without reviews, game developers could just focus on using lots of money to create interesting looking trailers that get people to buy their games, without giving the proper care to the product they're selling.

That's not to say that all companies would phone it in if reviews didn't exist, but it would give them the opportunity to do so if they wanted.

Negative reviews just before or as a game is released allows players to avoid wasting their money on projects that didn't live up to their hype. This doesn't always work though, as sometimes a poorly reviewed game still somehow sells well.

At times, the hype surrounding a game is too strong to stop players purchasing it before reading reviews. Additionally, devoted fans of a long running franchise may ignore reviews completely because of their love for the series.

Whatever the reason, the games on the list survived the critics' onslaughts and still sold well.

When the first Sonic the Hedgehog game was released in 1991, it's unlikely that anyone thought the series would ever include guns - but Shadow the Hedgehog did just that.

Sega decided that they wanted to create a Sonic game that was edgier than previous instalments in the franchise.

This new approach to Sonic was not appreciated by critics with many finding the darker tone to be a strange alteration to the series.

The plot didn't help either, with reviewers finding it to be over complicated for a Sonic game. Critics also didn't like that Shadow the Hedgehog's 10 different endings were made redundant after players unlocked the true canon ending.

Regardless of the reviews, it still managed to sell over 2 million copies, showing that fans were interested in a new type of Sonic game. The popularity of the Shadow character also played a part in the strong sales.