I’m not a fan of throwing objective numbers at subjective media. The “out of 10” system is personally irritating for how useless it turns out in practice. A reading audience shouldn’t have wildly differing interpretations behind the significance of 7 versus 7.5 (and so on).

Rather, I use a different metric for my reviews. On a technical level, it’s similar to the 5-star scale, but with heavier focus on the emotion I want to convey. This page will quickly break down each rating for clarification.

Reserved for the all-time favorites. “Highest Praise” represents what I find to be the best qualities in a character/product/etc.

Another high-ranking stamp of quality. The topic won’t get super ecstatic fangirl rambles out of me, but they’re still fantastic. Essentially, this is a “second best” rank.

A general positive feeling encapsulates the “Thumbs Up” rating. I aim to expand on my opinions in my reviews, but in a casual conversation I’d simply say that “I like this thing; it’s neat.”

The ultimate middle-of the-road possibility for my ratings.

This is where things become negative. However, “Thumbs Down” isn’t a heavily pessimistic rank. I can often see why other people would like the discussed topic, and it’s just a matter of personal taste why I don’t care for it.

Originally called “Boo!” to describe the gut feeling of wanting to mock the subject unfortunate enough to earn this rank. Having an unpleasant construction or concepts with shoddy execution fit under this category.

And yet, this isn’t the worst rank I can give. If even one redeeming quality is present, I often “boost” the final verdict to this.

The bottom of the barrel. If I could, I’d jettison the subject to the nearest garbage pail. My purest cynicism unleashes when I feel this negative.

Variant Scores (for Characters)

Sometimes, a character has an additional costume or palette treated as secondary to the main design (e.g. Series 2 or Legendary Skylanders). In these cases, I’ll use “Variant” scores to weigh them as better or worse than the original (or “Neutral” if I’m indifferent).