Most game journalists are absolutely terrible at games, you only have to watch them playing E3 demos to realise that.
tis true. it's very rare to find a good game journalist who can play well. who is up to the challenge. it's also just as hard to find a 'hardcore' gamer who can write/investigate/put their time into their pieces as some of the good game journalists out there.
It does suck. but this is the industry we're in. Ebert, rip, knew what made good movies, but he couldn't do a good movie himself.
in all fairness if a game is too challenging to the reviewer (average gamer) then it should be noted, and also should reflect the gameplay aspect of the review. Lowering the score because you have had tremendous difficulty in beating the game, or because the game is not what you wanted it to be tells many things about the reviewer(s).
We have these reviews every now and then, and you have to ask yourself how do some of these reviewers go through some games with unforgiving difficulty without some sort of assistance.
But who cares? The game is targeted at the hardcore platformer crowd who have played dkcr and enjoyed the difficulty, the unforgiveness, the creativity and some of the tid bits that made you throw your wii mote/3ds on the floor while yelling out every single letter of the alphabet.
I'm glad it's getting these reviews. I bought dkcr for the wife (now fiancee) on the wii. She didn't play it much and I struggled with the waggles. Then I got her and myself the 3ds copies. She played for 10 minutes and I had trouble playing dkcr with the 3ds. I might buy this... but I have high blood pressure since I was a toddler... been going through life, peacefully and relaxed without much anger, or yelling, and reading some of the impressions/reviews I may not live long enough to see the next retro game.
But I do love the sound track, so....