Movie Magic Monday! Iron Man's average hours, total hours, & review scores averages. Official Nintendo Channel data report.

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Iron Man 3 released last Friday, and is doing a nice job of wracking up hundreds of millions of dollars. With Iron Man 3 having just released last week, for this Movie Magic Monday feature we're taking a look at the first Iron Man video game on the Nintendo Wii.

Iron Man was developed by Artificial Mind and Movement, and published by Sega. The game was released on May 2, 2008 and received an ESRB rating of "TEEN" with "Alcohol Reference, Mild Language, Violence" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of.

A description for the game on Amazon.com says, "Iron Man, one of Marvel's most indestructible Super Heroes, is blasting onto video game platforms and the big screen next year (2008). The epic, action-packed Marvel Studios production will be directed by John Favreau and stars Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow. This third-person action game will immerse players in explosive militaristic combat from the film with loads of additional content created exclusively for the game."

The original Iron Man movie has a runtime of 2 Hours 6 Minutes, but how many hours can you expect from the Iron Man video game? Did the "additional content created exclusively for the game" as the game's description says, add more hours of "explosive militaristic combat" to the game than what the movie provided viewers? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look at the official Nintendo Channel data for Iron Man!

Critics vs. Customers! ZombiU reviews, or zombie reviewers?

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Do you like zombies? Do you not like zombies? Do you feel like a zombie when you wake up, and generally throughout the day?

ZombiU released for (and with) the Wii U on November 18, 2012, basically as a brand new IP. The game was developed and published by Ubisoft, and received an ESRB rating of "MATURE" with "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language" listed as content for gamers and parents to be aware of. It released with a MSRP of $59.99 in the United States, and can be purchased either via a physical retail copy from stores, or a digital "copy" through the Wii U's eShop.

With a full month of "professional" critic reviews and customer reviews for ZombiU to look at now, and having completed the game myself, is ZombiU a Wii U title you should play (if, you are of age)? Have Wii U owners agreed with the "professional" reviewers on ZombiU? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

Critics vs. Customers! Madden NFL 13 - PS3 & Xbox 360 Reviews Averages

Review score averages shown were captured around 5:00PM EST, on 9-24-12.

Coffee Beans
Did you know the Madden NFL video game series has been around for almost 25 years now, with a "new" Madden game being released basically every year since the series started?

Madden NFL 13 was released almost one month ago now, on August 28, 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It released with a MSRP of $59.99 and received an ESRB rating of "Everyone" with no content listed for gamers or parents to be aware of. The game was developed by EA Tiburon, and published under Electronic Arts' EA Sports label.

One big new feature in Madden NFL 13 is the new physics engine in the game, the Infinity Engine, which is designed to make tackles and hits more authentic, and it tries to make sure "no two plays ever look or feel the same" in the game.

We are now 3 weeks into the the official NFL season, and we have almost a full month of "professional" critic reviews and customer reviews for Madden NFL 13 to look at. Have PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 players of Madden NFL 13 agreed with critics on the game? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

Critics vs. Customers! New Review Feature

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What is "Critics vs. Customers"? The image above shows the "professional" critic review score average for a Wii retail game as 48.41%, and the Amazon.com customer review score average for the exact same game as 87.08%. How can there be such a huge difference?

If you have wondered why I usually write professional, as "professional" when it comes to the general video game critics' review score average in my posts, it's because I find most of the critic review scores for games to be so similar to each other, and it's almost like I can get more useful information about games from reading user reviews on Amazon.com, video game forums, and smaller blogs, than I can from reading reviews from sites that are supposed to be considered "professional".

The "professional" critics are often getting paid to play the games they review (either paid for writing the review and/or getting a free copy of the game), while the majority of the user reviews are probably from paying customers that are just trying to inform other potential customers of the good/bad they can expect from the game.

With Critics vs. Customers we will look at a wide variety of games and see how games did with the critics' review score averages from MetaCritic.com and GameRankings.com, and customers' review score averages from sites like Amazon.com. General information and trailers about the games will be provided as well if possible, and maybe even more developer feedback on the posts.

If I have played the game being covered then the piece will probably be titled, "Critics vs. Customers AND Coffee" (or something close to it), and I will try to give my insights on the game and what I thought was bitter and/or sweet about it.

Caffeinated Thoughts
Many times game developers will have in their contracts that they may get a bonus or higher return on their games, if their game can meet certain MetaCritic review score averages. If you were to take a look at the image above and base your opinion on the game just on the "professional" critic review score average, you might not even give that game a try.

Why should developers not get a bonus because the "professionals" apparently are the wrong target audience for the game and perhaps don't even complete the game before writing their "reviews", while the customers that are playing, and paying for, the very same game seem to really be enjoying it?

I wrote a post on this topic of video game reviews, "Should There Be Game Review Standards?", ironically just over 2 years ago (almost to the date of this post being published). I hope this new feature can perhaps shine a spotlight on older games, and even new releases, from a different angle and give potential buyers a different look at what paying customers think about the games, instead of just the paid critics.

Question
Can you identify which game is used my image above, with the critic review score average of 48.41% from GameRankings.com and the customer review score average of 87.08 from Amazon.com?