Mama Robotnik
Member
(*Okay, six years and one day)
On 17th November 2006, then-Gamespot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann published his review of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. He made a number of observations about the game being a quality product, but questioned the implementation of motion controls and highlighted a perceived lack of innovation.
The game was "Great", and though the reviewers opinion was that it had some minor flaws, it was judged as a strong product.
Then this happened. Everywhere. From people who had never played the game.
GameFAQs
Vandalised Wikipedia
A few random grabs from forums
(There's loads more out there - just Google it)
Miscelleneous Links
NeoGAF's own thread for the review, from the archive. Unfortunate in places.
The TVTrope article that documents other instances of the "8.8" phenomenon
Six years later
So, wow. There hasn't been a review backlash like it since.
A few questions:
1. What the Hell was that all about? Zelda games have come and gone since, so have heavily anticipated games and launch titles, but nothing has exploded quite with the same rage and venom. Can this ever happen again?
2. In retrospect, I generally agree with Jeff's review. The backlash looks all the more absurd. Anyone else feel like this?

On 17th November 2006, then-Gamespot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann published his review of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. He made a number of observations about the game being a quality product, but questioned the implementation of motion controls and highlighted a perceived lack of innovation.
Twilight Princess is a lengthy adventure packed with many well-designed puzzles and some interesting characters. But once you get over the rush of excitement from a big, new Zelda game having finally arrived, it's hard not to feel a tinge of disappointment--there's a very noticeable lack of evolution here, which makes aspects of the game seem more dated than classic.
It's good that Twilight Princess' world and puzzle design can carry it, because the combat and boss fights aren't very deep at all. Most enemies just require you to swing your sword at them, which is done by shaking the Wii Remote or shaking the Nunchuk for a spin attack. You can lock onto enemies with the Z trigger and strafe around them, hop back and forth, leap in for a jumping attack, or jump back and out of the way--the same basic moves as past installments. But normally you can just keep on shaking the Wii Remote like a maniac and come out on top against most enemies. There's no finesse to the way the Wii Remote is used, and at times you'll wish that you could just hit a button to swing the sword instead of dealing with all the motion-sensing nonsense.
Objectively speaking, it's still a little disappointing that the series hasn't evolved much at all with this latest installment. You'll almost certainly enjoy the game for its terrific puzzles, colorful characters, and compelling story, but at some point the feeling of nostalgia crosses the line and holds this game back from being as unbelievably good as some of its predecessors. So as impressive of a game as it is, Twilight Princess seems like it could have been so much more with a few presentational updates and more effective and interesting uses of the Wii's unique control scheme. But even without those things, Twilight Princess is a great game that stays extremely true to the Zelda franchise's past. That's excellent news for fans of the series, who'll find in Twilight Princess a true-blue Zelda game with updated visuals, some new twists, plenty of challenging puzzles, and a faithful dedication to the series' roots.

The game was "Great", and though the reviewers opinion was that it had some minor flaws, it was judged as a strong product.
Then this happened. Everywhere. From people who had never played the game.
GameFAQs


Vandalised Wikipedia

A few random grabs from forums











(There's loads more out there - just Google it)
Miscelleneous Links
NeoGAF's own thread for the review, from the archive. Unfortunate in places.
The TVTrope article that documents other instances of the "8.8" phenomenon
Six years later
So, wow. There hasn't been a review backlash like it since.
A few questions:
1. What the Hell was that all about? Zelda games have come and gone since, so have heavily anticipated games and launch titles, but nothing has exploded quite with the same rage and venom. Can this ever happen again?
2. In retrospect, I generally agree with Jeff's review. The backlash looks all the more absurd. Anyone else feel like this?