The nature of public reviews always invites questions of sincerity. Websites like IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes often face targeted attacks on certain films that have garnered negative attention from certain corners of the internet, sometimes bringing out the worst in people and turning a space for criticism and commentary into a stage for offensive assaults. Sometimes, though, the system can just be turned on its head for the sake of a joke.
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That’s what is happening to Metacritic, with a forgotten Nintendo DS game turning into one of the best-rated games on the site. In fact, users seem to be angling to get the game higher than Metacritic’s most acclaimed game, subverting the typical way that games receive player accolades from the larger user base. It’s a pretty simple but silly gag that nevertheless highlights some unavoidable fallout of how gamer internet culture has developed and how easy it can be to turn a public forum like Metacritic’s user reviews into something different.
Cory In The House Might Beat Clair Obscura
Disney Cory in the House is the Nintendo DS adaptation of the Disney Channel show of the same name. Released April 15, 2008, the eighteen-year-old game has been getting some of the best user ratings of any game on the site, with a 9.3 “Universal Acclaim” at the time of writing. That puts it ahead of almost every major release from the last few years (including games with strong fanbases, like Hollow Knight: Silksong, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Dispatch), tying for the second-highest score with The Witcher 3. Notably, those major releases currently have fewer user reviews than Cory in the House does, underlining just how widespread the meme about the video game has become. Only Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sits higher, currently with a 9.5 user score.
The user reviews for Cory in the House, which were largely generated in recent weeks, speak to this sudden burst of activity on the page as something of a collective joke. Overwhelmingly, the reviews are extremely positive and describe the game in flowery superlatives, such as claiming that playing it is a life-changing experience. A stealth game where players sneak around the White House collecting hypnotic bobbleheads of the President, the bizarre game adaptation of the That’s So Raven spin-off was described as aggressively clunky and poorly designed by the two official critical reviews. While there have been some negative responses that are bristling against the joke, along with 46 “mixed” user reviews, the game’s current positive rating – built up by over 7,000 users – score puts it ahead of some of the biggest games of all time.
This isn’t even the first time Cory in the House has been the subject of a reverse review bombing. In 2015, the internet’s goofy response to a meme about the show saw the DS game generate a collective user score of 9.3, making it the highest-rated game for the Nintendo handheld. It’s a silly meme about a forgettable tie-in game, nothing that unusual for the goofball side of gamer culture. However, it also speaks to a few unavoidable truths about some of the metrics the culture uses to appraise games.
What Cory In The House’s Metacritic Score Says About Online Culture
The success of the campaign to push Cory in the House to the top of the Metacritic rankings is a fresh example of the internet’s ability to lock onto a gag and lean into it for comedic purposes. The overzealous descriptions of the 2008 Disney Channel adaptation make for an overtly silly bit. There have been memes like it before, and there will be more like it in the future. That’s part of the nature of the internet. However, it also underscores an inherent challenge of websites that allow for public commentary and reviews. People can use the system, taken on good faith by users for their authenticity and accuracy, and morph the results either through informal movements or dedicated attacks.
The entertainment industry as a whole has seen the negative potential of this approach, especially when targeted against a specific person or group of people. On top of that, this helps give Cory in the House a place in the larger gaming culture, to the point where DS copies of the game have become surprisingly valuable on websites like eBay. The attempt to dethrone Clair Obscur with Cory in the House could also be seen as a jokey response to the universal critical acclaim the RPG has generated, especially in light of controversies like the game’s limited use of AI, which has generated negative attention. Websites like Metacritic are an invaluable tool in recording the general consensus of a game, so it does undercut the idea that systems like user ratings can be subverted so easily. At least the Cory in the House flip has been funnier than dark.
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Image courtesy of Valve
