How a Nintendo DS Meme is Threatening Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on Metacritic
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Community-driven internet memes are disrupting Metacritic user rankings as a wave of sarcastic 10/10 reviews for the 2008 Nintendo DS game Cory in the House threatens the top spot held by 2025 hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Internet culture has a long history of turning obscure media into legendary status, and the latest target of community-driven shenanigans is Metacritic. As reported by Polygon, 2025's breakout critical darling Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 currently holds the crown as the highest user-rated game on the platform with an impressive 9.6 score. However, that position is facing an unlikely challenger from the past. A wave of internet users has decided to rally around the 2008 Nintendo DS adaptation of Cory in the House, pushing the forgotten Disney tie-in game up the user rankings to rub shoulders with genuine industry heavyweights like Metal Gear Solid 3 and Silent Hill 2.
The phenomenon stems from a revival of an old meme first popularized on platforms like 4chan over a decade ago. Recently stoked by discussions on Reddit, community members have flooded the game's user review section with glowing, tongue-in-cheek 10 out of 10 reviews praising it as a hidden masterpiece of the gaming canon. While most participants are simply leaning into the absurdity of treating a rushed licensed handheld game with the reverence usually reserved for sprawling RPG epics, the collective action has real consequences for platform algorithms. The sudden influx of high scores has temporarily disrupted user aggregates, proving once again that crowdsourced scoring systems are uniquely vulnerable to organized community humor.
For players and community members, this situation highlights the ongoing disconnect between formal critical consensus and user-generated metrics. While review bombing is typically associated with negative community backlash over monetization or narrative choices, this positive brigade of a Disney sitcom tie-in is a reminder of gaming internet culture at its most whimsical. Whether Expedition 33 manages to maintain its top spot or gets temporarily dethroned by a decades-old meme, the episode highlights how player communities continue to treat gaming platforms as public social spaces where collective inside jokes can temporarily rewrite the internet history books.
Tags: Gaming News, Metacritic, Expedition 33, Internet Culture, Community
Original article: Polygon