Winner: Jeff Minter and Space Giraffe
Space Giraffe | XBLA

Obviously, game developers have a love/hate relationship with game journalists. But we can't remember seeing a negative review handled so comically unprofessionally as when the US Official Xbox Magazine, one of GamesRadar's companion publications, handed Space Giraffe a scathing two out of 10 score. The game's creator, Jeff Minter, known for his predilection toward hoofed mammals and artfully psychedelic arcade-style shooters like Tempest 2000, Gridrunner, and Attack of the Mutant Camels, immediately went into angry, vengeful spin control mode with a fury that would have a hurricane begging him to take a valium.

It's enough that Minter started conspiracy theorizing and name-calling like a pouty eight year-old, declaring the reviewer an "incompetent, vindictive fuckwit" before he'd even read the review and sustaining a frothy-mouthed tantrum over literally dozens of forum pages. But things spiraled historically out of control when Minter began selling t-shirts sarcastically extolling the score with the phrase "Dan OXM is my Main Man! 2/10 FAIL!"

A wise football coach once said, "Football does not instill character. It reveals it." So, it would seem, do poor reviews.

Scratched disc: Mitch Gitelman and Shadowrun
Microsoft | 360, PC

With average graphics, few maps, tough-to-love gameplay and a total disregard for its RPG roots, this class-based FPS scored a lot of sixes and sevens (which isn't even that bad). In response, FASA Studio Manager Gitelman went on OXM's podcast and declared that those reviews "suck my ass," and that Shadowrun could be played for years. So can poker, but we're still not paying $60 for a deck of cards.