77 on metacritic and spelunky get over 90 wtf!!!

[Slava Ukraini]

spelunky was not so very fun

[CarThief]

Eh, suppose spelunky's got more mainstream appeal compared to La-Mulana?

Roguelikes are typically quite highly-regarded titles anyway if they can rise above the masses of junk and show themselves among the decent/good indie titles. But the main factor is probably that La-Mulana is basically a action-puzzle metroidvania (with extra emphasis on puzzle), whereas Spelunky is just good ol action platforming.

Puzzles and clue hunting just aren't as popular with the kids these days (or with the lazy, uncaring, unprofessional "reviewers", whose opinions are worth less then ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ half the time, i just go for the user score/reviews, those are people who actually care about the game/genre they're playing and offer the most honest ratings/criticism because they paid for that game and are it's intended crowd).

Especially when said puzzles can get crazy and cryptic enough to actually warrant PULLING OUT A GUIDE (atleast LM2 is way better about this then the first one, just a few endgame ones in LM2 are a ♥♥♥♥♥ to deal with), most people don't have the attention span, the capability, or willpower to solve them and appreciate them.

Personally i like LM2 more then Spelunky, but i guess it's because Spelunky has taken the worst Roguelike approach yet. Nothing to keep you interested in playing long-term (unlockables, etc), and the worst mechanic in a roguelike ever: the Ghost. In a turn-based game, sure, i can handle turn-limits, but that timer ♥♥♥♥ can ♥♥♥♥ right off in real-time games! Maybe Spelunky 2's multiplayer will make it fun for me? (Whenever that gets released, anyway.)

Also, review/metascores mean nothing! Reviewers don't care about the stuff they review (to the point some get bribed to give a high score), just go for the user score if you want a honest review of how people feel about a game!

[Wild Matsu]

Who even pays attention to reviews anymore...? Game journalists are the type of people who couldn't figure out how to air dash in the Cuphead tutorial when the game is explicitly telling them how. Reviews are a joke and have been for an extremely long time. And La-Mulana is exactly the type of game reviewers would hate.

The average seems to be based on 8 reviewers I've never even heard of. The average is brought down a lot by one very unfair 4/10 review. Maybe when it launches on more platforms it'll even out some.

The similarities between La-Mulana and Spelunky are entirely superficial. At their core, they couldn't be more different. I don't see what point there is in comparing them. I don't happen to like Spelunky, personally, but that has a lot to do with me not liking roguelike elements pretty much at all. I won't go out there and say "it's a bad game" when it's not for me. Just like La-Mulana is, honestly, not for most people.

And, finally, the game launched in a pretty badly broken state (and still isn't in a place I'd personally call "finished"). The reviews were likely based on the release version, and though it pains me to say it, the release version wasn't exactly 10/10 material.

[Iido]

Yeah, it's better to just ignore Metacritic and most "professional" reviewers.. User reviews are where it's at, because they'll almost always be more honest. After all, they're not written for money, but out of love (or hate, or mixed feelings of a variety of sorts) for a game.

[Aquillion]

La-Mulana is really a bit more of a niche game compared to Splunky. The two look similar but play very different (since La-Mulana is focused on puzzles.)

On top of that, La-Mulana 2 is disadvantaged because many people will approach it expecting something like Splunky and will be turned off by the retro mechanics and difficult puzzles. If you look at the most negative review[cogconnected.com], for instance, it's clear the reviewer absolutely loathed La-Mulana 2's retro platforming. There's nothing to be done about that - it's not for everyone. Splunky is more of a general crowd-pleaser. (That one review is a bit of an outlier and is responsible for dropping the game from 82% to 77%.)

And, let's be real, La-Mulana 2's release has not been perfect. The first game had a score of 80%. I suspect this one's lower score is partially due to release bugs and translation issues (there have been a lot of serious issues, some game-breaking, and that's the kind of thing that makes people who otherwise wouldn't review your game give it a negative review.) I suspect that with those fixed, La-Mulana 2's review score will creep upwards.

All that said, a 77% review score is in the green and is absolutely nothing to be upset about; and it's very likely to creep up a bit now that the initial issues have been sorted. (Honestly, 77% is a pretty high score for a game that had game-breaking issues and serious balance problems on release, and speaks to how high its core quality is otherwise.)

[Slava Ukraini]

Originally posted by IidoTheMageFox:

Yeah, it's better to just ignore Metacritic and most "professional" reviewers.. User reviews are where it's at, because they'll almost always be more honest. After all, they're not written for money, but out of love (or hate, or mixed feelings of a variety of sorts) for a game.

"professional" reviewers I never trust and its a evidence about that now its fake news them give spelunky 90 omg. You need was a real hardcore player beat that game and a bit luck. "professional" reviewers can low a game coz a girl have big b*obs omg wtf is that but not if a game is for hard beat for 66% of the people.

I do a reviewer on steam and dev delete it and not let me even change it its locked omg wtf is that? "professional" reviewers shall understand a game be better after patch and not on realise. Why get diablo 3 so high score when its a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game compare with diablo 2. I never support blizzard again so why people play wow when thats are much more fun mmo I cant belive.

[krendall2006]

A big part of "professional" reviewer scores seems to be how far they can get in a pick-up-and-play session. A game like La-Mulana, which actually requires a person to think and solve somewhat-to-very complex puzzles is pretty much going to confuse and annoy them. All things considered, 77 isn't too bad a score.

Besides, as noted above, too many modern gamers just don't have the patience to play a game like this, especially since they view looking up anything on a first playthrough as "cheating."

[Ap2000]

Originally posted by ✅Johnny Spoiler⭐:

spelunky was not so very fun

Nah, Spelunky was great. At least the remake, never played the original.
It definitely deserved the 90 average.

As for La-Mulana 2, the game has some highly questionable design decisions and I can see why some people (not just reviewers) don't like it.
You always have to remember that the average score is calculated from all kinds of people playing a game and not just the fans that were looking forward to the game anyway.

[Dentorhedge]

I agree that LM2 having a 77 is no good, and makes no sense. Even compared with when LM was critically reviewed, every time it goes down 3 or 4--- despite each version (Wii, Steam, EX, This lovely sequel) getting pregressively better. The *words* that the critics write sound about right, just the scores themselves are getting lower. Hardly anybody reads the review when there a score, though...

The stuff that would generate store-page traffic (video reviews, youtuber coverage) is non-existant. Positive or not, if someone popular spent time with LM2 on camera, then that would mean good things for this title.

As for the spelunky thing- good for them. They're getting a sequel too? Cool. I don't understand how that's relevant. I haven't seen Mr. Yu credited in a lot of big projects over the years, though.

[JH1000]

Why does it surprise you that a niche exploration game where you often need days to make progress and which barely focused on action if you aren't using a guide or the forums is less popular than a fairly competent roguelike?

La-Mulana appeals neither to fans of logical puzzles nor to fans of great platforming. The amount of people who like this style of game is very small. It is very good at what it does though.