Nintendo cut all of the right deals to post reviews early.
Though I kind of assumed IGN would be doing the first one wince they and HVS are so buddy buddy. IGN did launch their game into the spotlight.
Exactly. IGN did them a solid back in the day by pimping a tech demo to the internets and securing their place as the Wii's Lord and Savior. It just doesn't make any sense why their review wouldn't be up yet since they've had the final build a long time now, they always push to post reviews early, and they're always talking to HVS.
Unless HVS and Sega feels their game may receive a Meta score of 80 or less, its puzzling why they'd embargo review scores. Though the fans of the game are extremely vocal, its really not that large of a crowd. Maybe 65k. Considering how Madworld sales went, and even Punchout to a degree, I'd think you'd want as much publicity for this title as possible, assuming you believe it'll review well.
That said, I find the lack of reviews, now almost 2 days to launch, a bit disconcerting.