How Ratings, Likes, and Comments Work on MSX Games World

Updated

MSX Games World is a growing MSX software database that lists games alongside three separate user signals: a numeric rating with a vote count, a like count, and comments. None of them is a review score from the site itself — they are all visitor contributions, so their value depends on how many people have contributed. Use the rating when a title has several votes, the like count as a rough popularity hint, and the comments when you want practical help such as solutions, maps, or pointers to external discussion.

The three signals at a glance

Signal What it shows How to read it
Rating A numeric score plus the number of votes, e.g. "Aleste 2 — 88.8 (3 votes)" Higher is better received, but check the vote count before trusting the number
Likes A separate count of users who liked the entry, e.g. "Konami's Soccer — 3 likes" A softer signal of appreciation; useful when a title has few or no votes
Comments User posts under entries, which can include tips, full solutions, and links Read for help and context, not as a score

Ratings: a score is only as good as its vote count

Each rated title displays an average-style number followed by the number of votes in parentheses. In the site's top-rated list you can see both ends of the reliability problem:

  • Aleste 2 — 88.8 with 3 votes
  • Aleste — 83.8 with 3 votes
  • Niwatris — 84.0 with 2 votes
  • Penguin Adventure — 84.5 with 1 vote
  • Yie Ar Kung-Fu 2 – The Emperor Yie-Gah — 84.5 with 1 vote
  • Elevator Action — 84.5 with 1 vote
  • Knightmare Gold — 84.5 with 1 vote
  • Yuureikun — 82.9 with 1 vote
  • Magical Kid Wiz — 82.4 with 1 vote
  • The Castle — 82.1 with 1 vote

A single vote can produce a high score, so a title sitting at 84.5 with one vote is not comparable to one at 88.8 with three. When two titles are close, prefer the one with more votes, and treat any score backed by one vote as a first impression rather than a consensus.

Likes: a separate, simpler signal

Likes are counted independently of ratings, and the site's top-likes list shows how flat the distribution can be:

  • Konami's Soccer — 3 likes
  • Lotus F3 — 3 likes
  • Aleste — 2 likes
  • Castle Excellent — 2 likes
  • Knight Lore — 2 likes
  • Warroid — 2 likes
  • Lazy Jones — 2 likes
  • Bank Panic — 2 likes
  • Exerion — 2 likes
  • EMU Editor de Músicas — 2 likes

Because the numbers are small, likes work best as a tiebreaker or as a signal for entries that have no rating votes yet. A game with 2 likes and no votes still tells you someone thought it was worth flagging.

Comments: where the practical help lives

Comments are not limited to opinions. On the site they can carry full walkthroughs, maps, and links out to other platforms. One long comment, credited to Carlos Mesa and originally published in issue 42 of the MSX Club magazine (July 1988), gives a day-by-day solution to La Abadía del Crimen, including maps, and opens with the note that players have to follow the steps "DÍA a DÍA" (day by day) to finish it. Other comments are short reactions or links to posts on X, such as a remark that a game was made using only MSX-BASIC.

Practical reading of comments:

  • For a game you're stuck on — scan the comments first; a solution or map may already be there.
  • For a game you're considering — comments reveal difficulty and quirks that a score won't.
  • For provenance — some solutions credit their original magazine source, which tells you how old and how tested the advice is.

Putting the signals together

  1. Check the vote count before the score. A high rating with one vote is weak evidence; the same rating with three or more is stronger.
  2. Use likes when ratings are absent. Many entries have likes but no votes, so likes are often the only community signal available.
  3. Read comments before deciding. They can change your mind about a title by showing a solution exists, or by revealing that a game is harder or quirkier than its score suggests.
  4. Cross-check across lists. A title appearing in both the top-rated and top-likes lists, such as Aleste, has more than one kind of support behind it.

The site also shows recently added and recently updated entries — for example Odyssey, Berzerk, Cue Brick, Yoomp!, Doom, Psy-Kongs – Attack of the Giant Gorillas, The Secret of Monkey Island, Niwatris, Uchotos City MSX, YokoXevi, and Strawberry Milk World — which is where new ratings, likes, and comments will accumulate first. If you want your own vote to matter, contributing to a title with one or two votes has more effect on how it reads than adding to an already well-voted entry.