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[Forkball]

So the Super Famicom Mini came out in Japan last week, and Famitsu released a special edition of their magazine on the same day. I posted a thread about one of the article surveying Japanese game developers, but another interesting piece of the guide is that they republished the original reviews for all the games on the Super Famicom Mini.

If you're unfamiliar with Famitsu review scores, four people give a score from 1-10 and write a short blurb about their opinion. They are basically equivalent to asking someone what they thought of a game and giving them a ten second time limit. Though often chided for their inflated review scores in recent days, I thought it would be interesting to see what scores they originally gave now classic games. As a note, Famitsu first started being published in 1986 and their first 10/10/10/10 perfect score went to Ocarina of Time in 1998.

Super Mario World: 8/9/9/8
F-Zero: 10/8/9/10
Ganbare Goemon: 7/7/7/6
Super Ghosts and Ghouls: 7/7/7/6
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: 9/10/10/10
Super Formation Soccer: 8/9/6/8
Contra III: 7/8/7/6
Super Mario Kart: 8/9/8/7
Star Fox: 10/9/8/7
Secret of Mana: 9/9/8/7
Mega Man X: 7/6/6/7
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem: 9/8/9/10
Super Metroid: 8/8/8/8
Final Fantasy VI: 9/8/10/10
Super Street Fighter II: 8/8/7/7
Donkey Kong Country: 7/8/8/8
Yoshi's Island: 9/9/8/7
Panel de Pon: 7/7/8/7
Super Mario RPG: 9/8/8/7
Kirby Super Star: 9/8/7/8

LttP has the highest score with 39/40, and Mega Man X has the lowest score with 26/40. The games that got 8s or higher from all reviewers are SMW, F-Zero, LttP, Fire Emblem, Super Metroid, and FFVI. I don't wanna spend the time to translate all the reviews, but here are some tidbits.

+The 8s for Super Mario World, THE BEST GAME, say it's a good game but not a big jump from Mario 3.
+The field music in LttP made someone cry.
+The reviewer who gave LttP its lone 9 gave SMW an 8 and F-Zero a 10
+Many complained about MMX's difficulty
+All reviewers for Super Mario Kart compared it to F-Zero
+FFVI was 11400 Yen at release

Agree? Disagree? Filled with rage/vindication?

 

[BocoDragon]

+FFVI was 11400 Yen at release

A year or two back I bought Final Fantasy VI mint in box for 500 yen lol.

 

[Lights and Waves]

+The field music in LttP made someone cry.

Some of these scores are too low. Some are too high.

 

[nynt9]

Back then they actually used to score games instead of 36-40ing big games from big publishers, huh?

 

[Richie]

Unanimous 8 for Super Metroid is what caught by eye.

 

[massoluk]

What clown gave original Mario Kart less than 8??? T_T

 

[BY2K]

Super Mario World: 8/9/9/8
F-Zero: 10/8/9/10

What the fuck!?

 

[Rentahamster]

Mega Man X's genius was underappreciated back then.

 

[JusDoIt]

Unanimous 8 for Super Metroid is what caught by eye.

Japan hates Metroid.

 

[Drain You]

F-Zero got much higher than I thought it would have, but I only played it years after so I might not be the best judge I guess.

 

[Soulscribe]

This is cool to read. Show’s how the games held up without the air of nostalgia. I agree with most of them tbh

 

[georly]

Mega Man X: 7/6/6/7

+Many complained about MMX's difficulty

Agree? Disagree? Filled with rage/vindication?

X is like one of the easiest mega man games, though. Bizarre! I wonder how they rated past MM games, if they did at all.

 

[Beartruck]

Megaman X at 26 is criminal. Easily the best Megaman game.

 

[Stumpokapow]

someone thought f-zero was a better game than ALTTP or SMW

 

[inky]

Super Mario World: 8/9/9/8

 

[tesqui]

Super Mario World and Super Metroid lower than I expected. I guess this was when they were more critical and actually revered?

 

[Brazil]

What the fuck at those Mega Man X scores, man. Revolting.

Super Mario World and Super Metroid lower than I expected. I guess this was when they were more critical and actually revered?

Going by F-Zero's score, this was from back when all they wanted was 3D (even if shitty-ass, faux-3D).

 

[darkside31337]

I'm curious as to what the reception of SMW was at the time it came out. Obviously one of the greatest games of all time but could see why consumers maybe weren't as high on it at the time as reviewers compared to something totally different and fresh like Sonic.

Yoshi's Island score is way too high.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

I'm curious as to what the reception of SMW was at the time it came out. Obviously one of the greatest games of all time but could see why consumers maybe weren't as high on it at the time as reviewers compared to something totally different and fresh like Sonic.

Yoshi's Island score is way too high.

IIRC there were multiple reviews back then from professional reviews where SMW got criticized for people thinking it was a glorified NES game with slightly more colors and some token visual effects.

 

[JusDoIt]

Super Street Fighter II: 8/8/7/7

I wonder what their score for Street Fighter II Turbo was, since Nintendo decided to swap that for this.

Yoshi's Island score is way too high.

You're way too high.

 

[SalvaPot]

Link to the past was so close to the 40/40.

Ocarina looking at it all smug.

 

[nickgia]

Some of these review scores are wack.

 

[GhostSeed]

What the fuck!?

I assume everyone was blown away by the mode 7 graphics.

 

[Figgles]

Who gave contra a 6? Fuck that guy.

I played super metroid for the first time on the mini. It feels like an 8...

 

[SonicMegaDrive]

Mega Man X is one of the greatest games ever made. Certainly in the top 50.

 

[King Al B]

Some of those scores are down right crazy!

Where the guythroughsoutcomputer.gif

 

[Kayhan]

someone thought f-zero was a better game than ALTTP or SMW

And that person was right.

F-Zero is an undying masterpiece and probably my most played game on that system.

 

[Porcile]

Err besides Mario Kart what other racing games are better than F-Zero on SNES/SF? It's a classic and an incredible launch game.

 

[Vital Tundra]

That Megaman X score, though.

 

[AtomicShroom]

I agree though, it wasn’t a perfect game. The art direction felt inferior to Mario 3 in many regards, for example.

 

[Z..]

I wonder what their score for Street Fighter II Turbo was, since Nintendo decided to swap that for this.

Turbo is BY FAR the one to get, though. Super was a completely stupid iteration. Thank god Super Turbo fixed it, shame it never came to SNES.

 

[Bishop89]

Mega Man X: 7/6/6/7

lmao ok..

 

[ReyVGM]

Looks at Contra 3 and MMX scores.
Looks at the scores for the RPGs.

Yep, Japan hated action games.

 

[JusDoIt]

Turbo is BY FAR the one to get, though. Super was a completely stupid iteration. Thank god Super Turbo fixed it, shame it never came to SNES.

I agree. SSFII is easily the worst version of SFII. I just want to know what Japan thinks about Hyper Fighting, especially since there was so much American influence on Hyper Fighting (with James Goddard as the co-lead designer).

 

[CarolinaMike]

+The reviewer who gave LttP its lone 9 gave SMW an 8 and F-Zero a 10

I don't care that they gave F-Zero 10 and SMW 8, but LttP blew my mind as a kid and is a true masterpiece. It's one of those few games I can go back and play anytime and still get that feeling of excitement. It deserved a perfect score.

 

[Stumpokapow]

And that person was right.

F-Zero is an undying masterpiece and probably my most played game on that system.

Is this like when someone grew up poor and claims cold cabbage and potato soup is the best food?

 

[mrmickfran]

Contra 3, Yoshi's Island and Mega Man X were robbed.

Especially MMX. A fucking 6 for the GOAT?

 

[Z..]

Err besides Mario Kart what other racing games are better than F-Zero on SNES/SF? It's a classic and an incredible launch game.

Who gave a crap about racing games at all otuside the arcades before the 5th gen? I love Mario Kart in general and consider GX to be the single finest racer ever created and still wouldn't consider the 2D entries anything beyond decent fun. Before the Saturn/PS/N64 gen came along with Sega Rally/Daytona/F-Zero X/Wipeout/Ridge Racer/Gran Turismo there was no real great console racing games aside from some "outsider" stuff like Micro Machines.and such. The original 1986 Outrun still kicks any single console racer released before 95's ass and then some.

 

[FloweryMarston]

zelda always the goat

 

[bloodyroarxx]

Bring me the head of the editor who gave LttP a 9


woah woah woah

Mega Man X: 7/6/6/7


FUCK Capcom was slippin on the checks big time

 

[guyssorry]

Wow. Much harsher than we see today, especially since a bunch of those games are GOAT-tier.

 

[Toxi]

Back in the days these games were judged as new games and not as ridiculous sacred cows above all criticism.

The fact people get upset about giving Super Mario World anything less than a 10 gives me life.

 

[Jezan]

Wow, that Mega Man X score! Famitsu wtf? I won't ever believe in your shitty score again.
"Git gud"

 

[Spukc]

Fzero aged like shit.
Mario kart didnt.

I agree on megaman x what a boring game

Why did that guy rated fzero higher then smw?

 

[woopWOOP]

Huh, X having that "low" of a score is surprising. Because it was too hard?

Spoiler

I could never beat the final bosses, but everything up to that point wasn't too tough

 

[Aeana]

You guys are too used to the Famitsu that hands out 40s like candy. It didn't always used to be that way.

 

[BriGuy]

Famitsu used to be a harsh mistress for sure. If you could supplant their past incarnation with their present one, none of these games would get less than a 35.

 

[MrCunningham]

from best to worst....

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: 39
Final Fantasy VI: 37
F-Zero: 37
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem: 36
Super Mario World: 34
Star Fox: 34
Yoshi's Island: 33
Secret of Mana: 33
Super Mario Kart: 32
Super Metroid: 32
Super Mario RPG: 32
Kirby Super Star: 32
Donkey Kong Country: 31
Super Formation Soccer: 31
Super Street Fighter II: 30
Panel de Pon: 29
Contra III: 28
Ganbare Goemon: 27
Super Ghosts and Ghouls: 27
Mega Man X: 26

Mega Man X is Famitsu's lowest scoring Super Famicom game on this list. Interesting. Keep in mind that 40 is the magazines top score.

Japan hates Metroid.

I don't know if I would go that far, but the Metroid series most certainly does not have the same popularity in Japan that it does in other parts of the world. That was the reason why Miyamoto gave Metroid Prime to Retro and told them to turn it into a FPS.

 

[Effect]

What the fuck!?

I can actually understand why they'd rank F-Zero over Mario World. Of the two F-Zero could be seen as the more visually interesting. Mario World is great and amazing but it's honestly not that much of a leap from Mario Bros 3 in the end. Where F-Zero was new and nothing like it. I can see some liking or rating that higher. Same goes with Mario Kart where I do think F-Zero is the more interesting and challenging of the two.

Edit: Sorry I thought it was comparing Mario Kart to F-Zero at first.

 

[Lindsay]

Can't disagree with MMX. Just never felt as fun to me as the old games. Starting with literally half your health bar an having to scavenge around for the rest of it was never cool to me.