At Couch Company, every game review gets an official score from 0–100. Chiseled in stone and forever cataloged, we use these entries as an archive not only of gaming in a given timeframe, but of who we are as individuals.
But a plain number can be tricky; for instance, is a 78 good or bad? Ask anyone on the team what score we gave Game-X a year from when we gave it, and you’d probably get a ballpark guess instead of a specific number. But what we can tell you is where it fell within our six tiers: Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. It’s like seeing a B+ instead of an 87—much easier to catch the gist at a glance; the numbers are to dial it in a little bit more and give nuance to those future arguments when apple-game is compared to orange-game.
As we’ve been saying for the past several years, treat the tier and score as a quick summary, not a substitute for the full review. If you remember only one thing from this page, remember this: the review itself is what matters. The pretty score is just there to help you skim a little faster, feed into our doomed goldfish-brain evolution, and give you a rough sense of where a game lands compared to everything else we’ve played.
For the goldfish in the back: Full review discussions, good. Looking at the number alone, bad.
Still with us? Great! Let’s break down what each of the tiers means to give a little more structure when you ignore the line above.
Example: Tetris
The ultimate tier. Godhood. Probably unachievable in today’s age. This is reserved for the flawless game; the perfect title universally devoid of criticism and critique. If we’re honest with ourselves, we only have this slot to keep the hope alive.
Examples: Baldur’s Gate 3, Astro Bot, Hades 2
As high as high can feasibly go. These are the best of the best by every metric we hold them to. Games that are genre-defining, pushing the bar and moving the industry forward—we’ll still be talking about them years from now.
Examples: Bloons TD 6, Alan Wake 2, 007 First Light
Genuinely excellent games fall into this tier. Top-notch design and direction with barely any flaws; these make up the bulk of the titles we’d love to shove into your hands with a strong recommendation.
Examples: Octopath Traveler II, It Takes Two, Pragmata
Reliably fun and well-made games, with a few small hiccups that don’t really get in the way. If you’re into the genre, you’ll probably have a good time.
Examples: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, MOUSE: P.I. For Hire
These games are playable, but just rough enough that they can’t be recommended without a bunch of caveats. They usually have good ideas hiding in them, but they never quite click.
Examples: Redfall
You were the chosen one! Well, not really. Something’s gone off the rails with these. They’re broken, unfinished, boring, or just painful to play. We don’t take joy in handing out this tier.
FAQ
Why tiers instead of just a number?
Numbers have a funny way of making things seem more precise than they actually are. While our team may not agree on a specific point value, we take solace in being aligned on which tier it falls into. It definitely beats losing sleep over a two-point swing because someone was feeling grumpy that day.
Why are all your reviews Silver tier?
Okay, not all of them are. But yeah, turns out most of the games we play, finish, and review are pretty competent. We choose to see Silver less as a middling tier and more as a baseline: “it’s good, it’s worth your time, and it does what it says it will.”
Why did Game-X get a lower/higher tier than I expected?
Because your opinions are dumb and our taste is impeccable. Or maybe it’s because people are sometimes different. In all seriousness, if you disagree with a review or want more context, we’d love to hear from you and talk it out. It won’t change the score, but we love a good discussion! Oh, and we were kidding about the whole “dumb opinions” thing.
Can a game ever get Diamond tier?
I mean, technically. We’d honestly love to see it happen!
Can a review ever change?
Once it’s chiseled, it’s chiseled. Stone is expensive. Let’s put it this way: a review has never changed so far. Although that hasn’t stopped some of us from infighting years later, that’s part of the whole “place in time” callout from the intro.