RRB Games uses a 5-point ratings scale. Here’s how it works.

Enshrine It

Philosophically speaking, video games cannot be perfect because they’re created by imperfect beings, us lowly humans, but if a game, despite its imperfections, simply outdoes itself and has left the reviewer in a catatonic state of awe, we award it with our highest possible rating. If we actually knew how to build shrines, we would build one for games that receive this award.

Praise It

Games can’t all be superstars, but they can still be excellent. They can still bring a smile to us even in our worst of days. Although these games may not be the zenith of gaming design or creativity or technical achievement, they’re still worth our time. To these games we award our second highest rating. These are the games we would talk highly of to our friends.

Play It

Greatness doesn’t come overnight. It is borne from uncountable number of trials of differing levels of success. As such, not all video games can earn our two highest ratings, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth looking at. These games may lack the quality or the polish of the great games, but these games still does it well enough to warrant some attention. In these cases, we say that they are still worth playing, if nothing else is available at the moment.

Forget It

Edison experimented with over ten thousand filaments before finding the perfect combination for the lightbulb. Although video games doesn’t have nearly as high a failure rate as Edison’s search for the perfect lightbulb, failures cannot be avoided. When a game simply fails to achieve that special, unknowable combination of design, execution, and imagination, we regrettably must use this rating. We value our time too much to be bothered by such failures.

Trash It

Nobody sets out to make a bad game. Or at least that’s what we try to tell ourselves when we ponder about the games that gets this rating. These games didn’t just fail. They offend the very box that holds them. Their stink wafts through the air like asbestos on a windy day. Karma’s mood must have taken the turn for the worst during the production of this game. Such abominations require far more than simple ignorance. Action must be taken against these “games”.