10/10 Video Games The Public REJECTED

I use this joke a lot but I’ve said ‘divisive’ so now by law I need to mention The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, a game that has an incredible 93/100 on Metacritic but is memed by the internet for being, well, a bit shit.

Whether it is actually a bit shit or not will vary from person to person. In fact, if we take away the user score averages on Google and Metacritic they’re an overwhelming positive 96% thumbs up and 8.1 respectively suggesting the vast majority of people really liked it. But boy, you wouldn’t know it from the infamous derision this game earned as, for a time, the internet’s most hated Zelda game. 

Slammed for its incessant hand-holding via the means of Fi, art style, control scheme which at certain points made entire segments agonising, needless padding, and antagonist Ghirahim who is either a cult favourite tongue-wagging camp icon giving gay in all the right ways, or borderline offensive. Your call. Reception for Skyward Sword was probably also impacted negatively given it came out just one week after Skyrim which didn’t have the same padding or control issues. 

Also, not even making the cut as the best Sky game that came out that month is a tough break. Much like Deathloop, Skyward Sword was probably another victim of its own success in that fans might not have been so critical of it if it hadn't been praised almost unanimously by critics. Or maybe it’s just crap. Like I said, that one is entirely up to you. 

There’s a good chance that public opinion on this one changed dramatically when the HD version landed in 2021. Even though that's an entire decade after the original hit shelves, the Switch version benefited enormously from dropping the inconsistent Wiimote and Nunchuk controls, alongside fine-tuning the performance and letting players decide on their control scheme of choice. Always a good thing.