40/40
June 4th, 2008Here’s an interesting factoid from Joystiq: Famitsu, the highly respected Japanese game magazine, has given out 40/40 reviews to only 8 games in its history: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Soul Calibur, Vagrant Story, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Nintendogs, Final Fantasy XII, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and now, Metal Gear Solid 4.
I have no idea how good MGS4 is, but some of these entries seem outright odd. Nintendogs? Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Fine games all, but perfect ones? Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker? I loved Wind Waker - more than Ocarina, even - but it’s not substantively different in most ways, and the Triforce treasure quest alone disqualifies it from perfection. I’m sure you can think of plenty of omissions that should be on the list as well. I was a bit surprised to see the company that MGS now keeps. (Feel free to avoid general comments about the quality of game reviews and/or Famitsu - I think we exhausted that topic a few days ago and will no doubt return to it shortly.)
Posted in Geoff, Journalism |
June 4th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
C’mon Geff. I love you but, why keep grabbing the scruggly, wrinkly balls of reviewers? I mean, the ‘toughest’ of popular reviewers I know is from Edge, and I don’t give a shit about THEIR scores either, because I know that numerical scores are, by their nature, bull. Ever since Edge gave Halo 3 a 10, and Famitsu gave WW and Nintendogs a 10, I relized it was a sham. And that was years ago!
Mr. Croshaw makes a good point: who cares about numerical judgement? Unless you’re a stupidhead!
June 4th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Man, wordpress has the worst emoticons
June 4th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
This is all very matter-of-opinion. I personally don’t have much interest in Metal Gear Solid, and I don’t think anything from the series should be ranked as highly as Soul Calibur. I’m not sure it’s reasonable to raise objective criticisms of wholly subjective issues.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Laesperanzapaz, I keep picking on reviewers not because I expect some magical perfection in a completely subjective profession, but because I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect some sort of coherent consistency. Of all the games to come out, this struck me as a very odd assortment
In other words, I’m highlighting it not because I think Famitsu was wrong per se, but because it reflects a very odd aesthetic to enjoy these incredibly different games to the point that you think they all represent perfection.
In other words, “weird, huh?”
June 4th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
“I keep picking on reviewers not because I expect some magical perfection in a completely subjective profession, but because I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect some sort of coherent consistency. Of all the games to come out, this struck me as a very odd assortment”
Oh, but must thou forsake English for exotic Croalesque diction yet again?
Must you insult my limited capacity of handling high-level dialogue like this….eth?
But to be on topic: Saying you “keep picking on reviewers” or “highlighting” their oddness is a gross understatement; you give CREDIBILITY to these reviewers by 1] continually making articles specifically about reviewers and their Murdochesque journalistic standards, and 2] pondering deeply about them/analyzing them.
What is there to analyze really? There is nothing ‘weird’ about them at all. I mean, I look at what music critics are saying and writing, and in my POV, they suck ass! Music critics often fail at being CRITICAL and simply appeasing to what the hardcore/blind fans may want to hear; Games reviewers suck ass because they are too vulnerable to publishers’ wrath, and scared of fanboys.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I think we get too caught up on the idea of a game that when a game gets a “perfect” score, it somehow needs to be “perfect”. I don’t know where this idea started, but lets kill it now shall we? A 10 doesn’t mean perfect. You can have a game be a 10 even if the game has some flaws.
That being said, yes this is an odd assortment, but it actually gives me faith in Famitsu simply because it means they are open to different styles of games. I would be much more worried if all the perfect scores were FF games or RPGs or whatever. This list shows that if they like a game they’ll score it well, despite whatever the common wisdom is about it’s quality.
The nice part about famitsu is that a 40 represents the score from 4 different reviewers who all rate the game independent of each other. They are not supposed to know what the other 3 are going to give the game. This is a much better indicator to me than simply 1 persons subjective opinion. I honestly can’t find fault with any game on that list. Certainly there are some I would personally put there, but I’m not sure if I could find 3 other people who would agree with my choices.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
OH and btw…
*turns around*
the name…
*puts sunglasses*
is Laspy
*yeaahhhh*
June 4th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Yes, agreed with cisco… Perfect scores do not indicate a “perfect” game. It’s simply the highest numerical accolade that a reviewer can give a game.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I fail to see how talking negatively about someone gives them credibility. Publicity, yes, but credibility? Not so much.
Talking only about things with which you agree seems like a pretty boring way to live.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:34 am
I never said to discuss things you only agree with. I said, you are pondering and analyzing something that is quite obvious: not only are numerical scores objective, they are also arbitrary.
I ask you to read this quote:
“I have no idea how good MGS4 is, but some of these entries seem outright odd. Nintendogs? Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Fine games all, but perfect ones? Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker? I loved Wind Waker - more than Ocarina, even - but it’s not substantively different in most ways, and the Triforce treasure quest alone disqualifies it from perfection. I’m sure you can think of plenty of omissions that should be on the list as well. I was a bit surprised to see the company that MGS now keeps.”
You are analyzing how SSBB, WW, etc etc could have possibly, POSSIBLY received a 10 from Famipoo. The focus is NOT whether or not 10 = perfection, but the fact that you are analyzing so much on something so fleeting, so arbitrary, so…
blegh.