Topic: Famitsu Has Reviewed Some 3DS Games.....

Just so there's no confusion...

@Otaku

I'm just trying to say that I find it hard to understand that you can agree with a score without understanding the numbers meaning. Scores mean something different depending on the person. You can call a game a six a decent or average game, while to one of their reviewers a 6 means its terrible, or maybe Good but not for everyone. If you just mean that you'd put the same number in that box as they would, then what's the significance of that?

...Of course, at the end of the day I'm assuming you just meant that You like that they give high scores to games you like. If that is true, then I can get behind that, since that's part of why I like Famitsu, too.

Nintendogs got a 38/40?! Wow, wasn't expecting that. I don't believe Pilotwings or Steel Diver are launch titles in Japan, so that would explain the lack of reviews for those.

I'm surprised Samurai Warriors got a high score. My brother and two cousins love those games (Dynasty Warriors- same game though) but I can never get into them as much as they do. But I do like Cao Cao in the DW games He's freakin cool.

This is Japan we are talking about....They love cute things.

And remember this http://3ds.nintendolife.com/news/2010/09/youll_be_shocked_by_...
Their taste are not bad.

Famitsu is still relevant, what?

No. Dynasty Warriors is not the same game as Samurai Warriors, any more than Japanese people are the same as Chinese people.

And the reason it scored well is because the Warriors games almost always score well in Japanese press. Because they're good games.

It's only over here in the West that they score poorly, and the reason for that is the western press simply do not understand those games. The "reviewers" see a button masher - they don't see the importance of the historical context, nor the appeal of being in control of someone that helped shape Japanese (or Chinese) history.

In Japan they know about these things, and so they care. The game then becomes a whole lot more than a button-masher, and then gets good write-ups in magazines like Famitsu.

Honestly, the way the media approaches the Warriors games over here in the west is proof of how amateur and inferior games journalism is as a whole. It's pretty much the first rule you learn in critical journalism - to be mindful of context. And yet IGN, Gamespot, even Edge all fail this basic rule.

...Of course, at the end of the day I'm assuming you just meant that You like that they give high scores to games you like. If that is true, then I can get behind that, since that's part of why I like Famitsu, too.

yep

Okay, Glad we got that outta the way.

The mixed reaction to Ridge Racer 3DS has me a bit worried, though the summary did sound positive. I wish Websites would quote more than one summary per game...assuming Famitsu puts down more than one summary, which would be nice but I'm not so sure they actually do that.

EDIT: Rereading the summary, I see that No difficulty selection was the problem. I don't mind that, so my worries are put to rest.

Don't they actually do 4 different summaries usually ?
Anyway, I still don't know which launch game to get ... Too much hesitation !

Yeah. The way Famitsu works is four journalists write literally one paragraph on a game, attach a score and that's that.

Reviews are really not very important to that magazine.

The infos and Nekii (the mascot ) is where it's at with Famitsu !

I lend my wholehearted agreement to this observation.

Yeah, Famitsu does brilliant previews, info pages, interviews and industry coverage. It's also a massive magazine - well over 100 pages of content each month.

There's also a photo shoot with an idol in each issue

Famitsu make no attempt to hide that their scores can be inflated by publishers who pay money for advertisement space and some of the games that have received perfect scores of them lately have been highly questionable.. Nintendogs, Final Fantasy XII, Bayonetta, Monster Hunter Tri, Pokemon Black & White, Peace Walker. I wouldn't deny that these are all good games but perfect? Every one of those has a list of flaws I could give you off the top of my head.

Try EDGE magazine.

I will say that much of the difference likely come from Western and Japanese tastes differing, but I'm afraid I'll have to side with the west on this one and agree with the general consensus that Japanese gaming has (generally, there are exceptions) become stale.

Try EDGE magazine.

I subscribe. Best of a bad bunch. I will say it's the only western publication that has any kind of genuine standards in who they hire, though. That's something.

Western gaming magazines are ususally the first job out of uni for wannabe "journalists" (if they even went to uni and did a degree in professional writing), edited by "editors" that are the youngest in the industry, and these publications don't usually benefit from proper subeditors, dedicated fact checkers and the like.

In other words, they're barely a step above the standards and capabilities of a blogger or amateur website. Edge is a slightly different beast, but that's because it's also writen for the industry, not just the consumer. It's not The Economist though.

Famitsu make no attempt to hide that their scores can be inflated by publishers who pay money for advertisement space and some of the games that have received perfect scores of them lately have been highly questionable.. Nintendogs, Final Fantasy XII, Bayonetta, Monster Hunter Tri, Pokemon Black & White, Peace Walker. I wouldn't deny that these are all good games but perfect? Every one of those has a list of flaws I could give you off the top of my head.

Square Enix, Capcom, Sega and Nintendo (especially Nintendo) advertise only minimally with Famitsu, relative to other publishers. Koei and Atlus advertise a great deal, and just about every "adult" games publisher also makes great use of Famitsu.

And yet those games don't get preferential treatment. Do you actually read the magazine?

Beyond that, within the context of the Japanese market, FFXII, Bayonetta, Monster Hunter Tri, Pokemon Black and White, Nintenendogs and Peace Walker all hold a deep, deep appeal for Japanese gamers.

Ever stop to consider that Famitsu isn't written to your personal tastes? It's writen for the Japanese market, and it's accurate.

_{Trolls. Trolls everywhere.}
On topic, I think those scores are pretty promising. And you can't really judge a magazine solely because they gave a game you didn't like a perfect score. It's opinions, people.

This. why: because I hate CoD with a passion but except the fact that they gave MW a 37/40, MW2 a 39/40 and BO a 39/40

Fair enough, I certainly understand that the magazine isn't written to appeal to my tastes, but that also works both ways. You can't really expect western magazines to buy into a very Eastern centric game like Samurai/Dynasty Warriors, especially considering in terms of being a game.. it's sloppy, dated and remained pretty much untouched for the past decade, which is where my criticise are coming from. I'm not denying the likes of Peace Walker or Monster Hunter are great games, but even if you consider them amongst your favourite games ever, could you honestly say they're 100% perfect and without flaws?

EDGE tend to review games from a technical perspective. Just because they give something a low score, doesn't necessarily mean they don't understand the culturally significance behind it. A game can have a great story, character development, underlying messages, or whatever else.. But if it's a bad game, it's still a bad game.

Yet you'll judge me as a troll because I disagree with your opinions?

Like I said, I'm disregarding their reviews because of how their score and advertisement methods work, in my opinion it makes them biased and untrustworthy and as someone who isn't in love with every facet of Japanese culture, I'll admit that their views probably don't mesh with mine anyway.