I have to admit, I'm about halfway through TW101. It was hard at first. Really hard. But, I persevered through because I knew it would be worth it. And guess what? It was. I'm on 006 and it's really quite an amazing game when you "get it". The problem with reviewers is they never get past that frustration stage. There's definitely something Platinum could've done to ease the frustration a tad, but do we really need to fault them for reviewers not taking the time and due diligence to "get" the game before assigning it a score.
That's the difference between reviewers and players. Reviewers have to play it, give it a score, write a review, and move on. Gamers focus on one game at a time, play it a lot, and invest in it. It's awesomeness unlocks as you go. I felt similarly to Bayo when it released, although not as much because the mechanics "click" easier, but it's still a problem with reviews.
I wish some reviewers were capable of seeing past their initial frustration and it's tiny flaws for the game as a whole, but instead they tend to knee-jerk react to novel experiences like this because they simply don't have time to figure the whole think out. Compare that with an established genre where reviewers basically already know the core mechanics, and can dive right into the the meat without so much as a learning curve.
It just annoys me that these reviewers have so much damn sway on the market. Their lack of journalistic integrity basically killed TW101 chance's of being a good seller.
