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The story
Following the release of the new Marvel game “Wolverine,” review scores from major gaming outlets came in low across the board, prompting gaming influencer “Pokaos” to claim on X (formerly Twitter) that “the game may have been review-bombed in a smear campaign by legacy media outlets” — sparking discussion on 5ch’s console-war board. While some pointed to IGN’s score of 60 as evidence, other posters who’d actually played the game pushed back, saying things like “it’s more fun than I expected” and “I’ve got no complaints about the Metacritic score of 77.” Rather than debating the game itself, the thread mostly argued over Pokaos’s credibility, given his track record of alternately praising and bashing Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft — opinions split between those questioning his motives and those defending him.
What people said
Pokaos (⬬╹.╹⬬)
Wolverine may have been hit with a smear-campaign review bomb from legacy media outlets. This could be the worst thing to happen in gaming history.
Pokaos (⬬╹.╹⬬)
Once you actually play it, it stops bothering you. The story explains that it's Wolverine's sense of smell being visualized, and the tracking line doesn't even show up on every stage. The people making noise about this clearly aren't gamers who've actually played it — they're something else entirely, just watching videos and criticizing.
Looks to me like he's just trying to bait more people into buying it and getting disappointed?
Just try it. This is a genuinely great game, rare for recent years. Personally, I actually like that it's not open-world like Spider-Man — if you already know where you're going, getting there fast is just more time-efficient ("tapa").
He's just mocking Sony fanatics. Pokaos plays games on every platform.
He's never once praised PlayStation, idiot.
So this is what happens when conspiracy thinking gets out of hand. Is this guy some low-IQ old-timer who used to believe in Nostradamus's doomsday prophecies?
Re: #35
Wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing was aimed at lowering expectations, lol.
He never said it was actually fun, though. He's just questioning this smear-campaign review-bombing.
If you're going to frame "legacy media" as the problem, then critique the actual wording of the reviews instead of hiding behind "may have." Stop dodging.
Every one of Pokaos's videos is just clickbait with an inflammatory title, farming views — if anyone's spreading misinformation here, it's you, buddy.
Because he's a flagship figure on the console-war board, right up there with Mr. Yasuda.
He should just stick to game reviews — he's spent way too much time on the console-war board, lol.
He's not anti-Sony — he's just mocking the fanboys and their "guru" for spreading stuff that isn't even true. Pokaos has been saying Ghost of Yotei is fun this whole time.
Nah, you die constantly in this game — you can even die just from falling off a cliff. Enemy guns hit hard, and about 10 enemies show up at once, so if you don't properly use stealth like in Ghost of Tsushima, you'll get sniped to death over and over.
Pokaos even properly played through Saros before reviewing it. That's why he can't stand shills like Keiji who just review sponsored content.
Lol, he's just mad he's not getting any sponsorship deals himself.
Exactly. He's mostly playing on PS5 anyway.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Underlying this story is a tension familiar to the gaming industry: the gap between review scores published by major outlets (aggregated on sites like Metacritic) and how a game actually feels to the people who’ve bought it. The thread cites specific numbers — a Metacritic score of 77, an IGN score of 60 — showing that critics themselves are divided. At the same time, the term “review-bombing” technically refers to an organized effort by a specific group to deliberately tank a score, but no such evidence was presented in this thread; it remains purely one influencer’s personal speculation. As is typical for 5ch’s console-war board, discussion drifted away from the game’s actual quality and toward “which platform is this guy shilling for,” with much of the back-and-forth centered on whether Pokaos’s claims lined up with his past statements. What readers may easily miss is that the thread’s energy was really about the reviewer’s credibility rather than the game’s quality — the game’s actual merits were left unresolved.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Console Wars)) thread “Pokaos: ‘Wolverine may have been review-bombed in a smear campaign by legacy media. Worst thing in gaming history’”.
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