README

Level up your apps with real-time Metacritic scores using this lightweight PHP package.
No API keys, no rate limits — just smart scraping and structured JSON output. 🧠⚡

📦 Install & Deploy

Install it via Composer and get your first score in less than 60 seconds:

composer require askancy/metacritic-api-php

🕹️ How to Play (Usage)

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Askancy\Metacritic\MetacriticScraper;
use Askancy\Metacritic\Exceptions\MetacriticException;

$scraper = new MetacriticScraper();

try {
    $result = $scraper->fetch('elden-ring'); // Use the Metacritic slug
    echo json_encode($result, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
} catch (MetacriticException $e) {
    echo "💥 Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}

🧠 Pro Tip: You can pass any valid slug like 'god-of-war-ragnarok', 'cyberpunk-2077', 'final-fantasy-vii-remake', etc.

🧾 Sample JSON Response

{
  "slug": "elden-ring",
  "url": "https://www.metacritic.com/game/elden-ring",
  "score": "96"
}

• slug: Slug used to build the URL
• url: Full Metacritic link to the game page
• score: Metacritic metascore (0-100)

🧪 Unit Testing (PHPUnit)

Run the full test suite to validate your setup:

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit tests/

✅ Includes:

• Score presence and format check
• Proper exception handling on 404 pages
• JSON serialization test

🛠️ Directory Structure

metacritic-api-php/
├── src/
│   ├── MetacriticScraper.php        # Main class
│   └── Exceptions/
│       └── MetacriticException.php  # Custom error
├── tests/
│   └── MetacriticScraperTest.php    # PHPUnit test
├── composer.json
├── README.md

🧙‍♂️ Advanced Features

• ✅ No API key required
• ⚠️ Graceful error handling (timeouts, 404s)
• 🧩 Easily extendable to retrieve more metadata (e.g., platforms, release date)
• 🕵️‍♀️ Smart fallback: if JSON-LD fails, uses HTML metascore node

🧠 Game Dev Friendly

This package is perfect for:

• Game databases 🗃️
• Gaming communities 🧑‍🤝‍🧑
• Game recommendation engines 🤖
• Gamified profiles or dashboards 📊

📜 License

This package is licensed under the MIT License, with one twist:

❌ Redistribution and reselling is NOT allowed. 🔁 Contributions and improvements are always welcome.

🔗 Credits & Contact

Made with ❤️ by Askancy For support, bugs or PRs: GitHub Issues

💬 "Always check the score, before you hit Play." 🎮