Kid Icarus receives a perfect review score from Famitsu

[kupomogli]

Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS) – 10/10/10/10
Yakuza Black Panther 2 (PSP) – 10/10/9/9
Ninja Gaiden III (PS3/360) – 9/9/9/9
Attouteki Yuugi: Mugen Souls (PS3) – 8/8/7/8
FIFA Street (PS3/360) – 8/8/7/8
Little Busters! Converted Edition (PSV) – 8/8/7/7
Hakuouki: Bakumatsu Musou Roku (PSP) – 8/7/7/7
Pac-Man Party 3D (3DS) – 7/7/6/8
Hime Girl Paradise: Mechikawa! Age Sakari Sensation! (3DS) – 7/7/6/7
DJ Max Portable Black Square (PSP) – 6/7/6/7
Littlewitch Parfait: Kuroneko Mahouten Monogatari (PSP) – 6/7/5/7

http://gamingeverything.com/16896/famitsu-review-scores-31312/


Not denying that Kid Icarus Uprising may be a great game, but yet another game that's been being hyped all to hell has received a perfect score from Famitsu. Nintendo has been paying Famitsu off a lot lately. We sure as hell know that New Super Mario Bros Wii and Dragon Quest 9, despite being decent games, don't deserve perfect scores.

There are so many questionable perfect scores from Famitsu though. Final Fantasy 13-2 gets a legitimate perfect score? Bullshit. Three in 2008, four in 2009, two in 2010, two in 2011, and two in 2012. Famitsu is handing perfect scores out like candy.

[Oobgarm]

Who cares? Seriously.

[substantial_snake]

^ This

Famitsu giving a game a perfect score hasn't been relevant for a long time except for those who argue with "it got perfect scores in japan!" as a legitimate reason for liking a something that's panned in the west.

[DOAsaturn]

Just looking at those scores for the uninspired Pac-Man Party 3D. I bought that game for $10 during Amazon's holiday sales and probably paid double what I should. Not complete garbage - but not 7s and 8s.

[Parodius Duh!]

Its apparent Famitsu gets paid off by certain companies to hype up their titles. I mean seriously, there is no other explanation. Half those games listed are like 5s at most.....

[skaar]

Dragon Quest 9 was probably the one of the greatest in the series for me and the last time I sunk over 160 hours into a game.

8 got the same treatment from me.

Stop being such a bitter fanboy kupo, it's beyond old at this point.

[TonyTheTiger]

It's not just Famitsu. While still kinda rare, perfect scores are far more common today than ever before by a ridiculously wide margin.

Game Informer

Super Mario World - October 2000 (Classic GI review).
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - November 2000.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - December 2001.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - December 2002.
Metroid Fusion - January 2003.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - April 2003.
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - November 2004.
Halo 2 - December 2004.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - December 2004.
Resident Evil 4 - March 2005 (Gamecube) November 2005 (PlayStation 2).
God of War - April 2005.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - January 2007.
BioShock - September 2007.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - December 2007.
Grand Theft Auto IV - June 2008.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - July 2008.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - November 2009.
God of War III - April 2010.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - October 2010.
Batman: Arkham City - November 2011.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - December 2011.
Mass Effect 3 - March 2012.


Edge

Super Mario 64 - 1996
Gran Turismo - 1997
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 1998
Halo: Combat Evolved - 2001
Half-Life 2 - 2004
Halo 3 - 2007
The Orange Box - 2007
Super Mario Galaxy - 2007
Grand Theft Auto IV - 2008
LittleBigPlanet - 2008
Bayonetta - 2009
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - 2010
Rock Band 3 - 2010
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - 2011


Famitsu

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 1998
Soul Calibur -1999
Vagrant Story - 2000
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - 2003
Nintendogs - 2005
Final Fantasy XII - 2006
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 2007
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - 2008
428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de - 2008
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies - 2009
Monster Hunter Tri - 2009
Bayonetta - 2009
New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 2009
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - 2010
Pokémon Black and White - 2010
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - 2011
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 2011
Final Fantasy XIII-2 - 2012
Kid Icarus: Uprising - 2012

Do the math and you can see that, among these three magazines (two founded in the early 90s and one in the mid 80s), over 60% of perfect scores are current gen. That jumps to almost 90% if you go back to last gen.

[Emperor Megas]

At least two major publications gave Bayonetta a perfect score? Really? I've only played a few hours of it, and I enjoyed what I played, but, I mean, that's surprising to me.

[kedawa]

I stopped taking game reviews seriously in the early nineties, and the few I've read since have only validated that decision.

[TonyTheTiger]

The climate shifted. I've been a Game Informer subscriber since early 1995 and have seen a marked change in how they approach 10s. GI went about 9 years before giving its first perfect score and when questioned in letters on why 10s weren't offered they'd respond that the 10 represents perfection and, for the most part, cannot be realistically achieved. Later on, once the 10s started flying, they'd respond to letters concerned about unwarranted 10s with something along the lines of a 10 not necessarily meaning the game has no flaws, just that the game is a top representative of what it strives to be. It was more or less a total 180.

To be fair, GI's shift to a single reviewer format made perfect scores easier to come by since now a game just has to wow one guy instead of three. IIRC, Super Mario 64 got a 10 from one GI reviewer but the "bottom line" score was lower. Arguably that's why Famitsu's fabled 40/40 has become so legendary as it's based on a consensus which should, at least in practice, be tougher to nail.

[The 1 2 P]

Famitsu giving a game a perfect score hasn't been relevant for a long time except for those who argue with "it got perfect scores in japan!" as a legitimate reason for liking a something that's panned in the west.

For me Famitsu has never been relevant because they have never given a perfect score to a non-Japanese game. And then the one time they finally award a perfect score to a Western made game after all these years it goes to one of the most buggiest releases of this generation: Skyrim. I even use to collect issues of Famitsu but I could never take their perfect score games seriously.

Official Xbox Magazine use to give out the least amount of 10's/perfect scores among all US and Japanese magazine but as Tony already elluded to, even they have started throwing out 10's as if people won't take them seriously otherwise. I still value their reviews but they have become way too generous the last few years with certain franchises.

[Streetball 21]

Dragon Quest 9 was probably the one of the greatest in the series for me and the last time I sunk over 160 hours into a game.

8 got the same treatment from me.

Stop being such a bitter fanboy kupo, it's beyond old at this point.

Same here, DQ 9 is my favorite as well in the series. Wow really, DQ 9 a decent game? And Kupo, I assumed you have played Kid Icarus Uprising already? You're acting like you have, maybe it is a game that deserves a perfect score. You might as well rate DQ 10 while you are at it.

[kupomogli]

Same here, DQ 9 is my favorite as well in the series. Wow really, DQ 9 a decent game? And Kupo, I assumed you have played Kid Icarus Uprising already? You're acting like you have, maybe it is a game that deserves a perfect score. You might as well rate DQ 10 while you are at it.

I'm only making mention that the game received a ton of hype only to get a perfect score. Nothing about saying the game is bad. Kid Icarus is nothing more than the latest game that's been hyped up ridiculously. Not only that, but aside from that hype it's also received negative press. A lot of news sites saying that it's uncomfortable to play, Nintendo then releasing a stand for Kid Icarus that was "required." I say required because the sites say it's not so uncomfortable to play, and obviously by Nintendo themselves as they're including it in every copy of the game.. This adds a ton of negative press to that hype.

So all this hype and then a lot of bad press could mean it wouldn't sell so well. How can you spin a negative outlook on a game to positive? A perfect review score from Famitsu is how. If the game has a perfect review score, then people will disregard all the bad press it's received on how it plays.

Final Fantasy 13-2 and Skyrim are up there. How hyped up they are and obviously all the bad press they've received. Final Fantasy 13 is a piece of shit, Final Fantasy 13-2 would be looked at the same after playing the demo. Skyrim and all the bugs it has, not to mention how bad the PS3 version is and most Japanese gamers own a PS3 over a 360. I guarantee the perfect scores helped these two games a lot. Perfect scores, then games come out, people run out and buy them and bitch about how they wasted whatever is proportionate to a $60 game in Japan.

It could have been any game, just happened to be a Nintendo game that I saw the news story. If I saw a story of FF13-2 getting a perfect score, my post would have been more like. "Final Fantasy 13-2 got a perfect? The game is a piece of shit."

[moggles]

This reeks of fanboyism.

How can you be critical of a review of a game that you've never even played?
You don't own a 3DS anyway, right?

Most people that own a 3DS in Japan don't read famitsu! Video game advertisments hardly ever feature any comments from magazines, that's something that only happens in US/Europe.

[badinsults]

It's not just Famitsu. While still kinda rare, perfect scores are far more common today than ever before by a ridiculously wide margin.

You obviously didn't read Gamepro in the early 90s.

[TonyTheTiger]

You obviously didn't read Gamepro in the early 90s.

Who did?

But, really, the thing about perfect scores is that there's a certain measure of luck involved. With Famitsu, unless there's some kind of shenanigans going on, it probably has a lot to do with catching four separate people each having a really good day.

And Game Informer has the problem of the decimal points. I don't even think they themselves can articulate the difference between a 9.5/9.75 and a 10. It's almost like the 9.75s are given out with the implicit "we don't want to bestow a perfect score for some arbitrary reason." Again, catch somebody on a good day and it's the difference between just getting a good score vs. making the list.

That's actually one reason why Siskel & Ebert had the thumbs up/down system. Because, in the end, what else really matters?

[Rob2600]

And Game Informer has the problem of the decimal points. I don't even think they themselves can articulate the difference between a 9.5/9.75 and a 10. ... That's actually one reason why Siskel & Ebert had the thumbs up/down system. Because, in the end, what else really matters?

To me, a 3-point rating scale is perfect for almost everything. To put it in terms of video games:

3 = Amazing. Definitely worth playing.

2 = Good. Play it if you get a chance.

1 = Bad. Don't waste your time.

A 10-point or 100-point rating scale is extreme overkill.

[Griking]

There's a few ways of looking at this. I personally don't think that a 10 makes a game perfect but it does indicate that it's a great game. A classic. The thing is if you have a 1-10 rating scale but never award 10s because of a pre-conceived notion that no game is ever worthy then essentially you have a 1-9 scale. I think that my pet peeve with ratings is that there's generally not enough 2-5s even though I feel that there are certainly games that deserve them.