Japan’s biggest gaming magazine, the Famitsu [JP], has given Nintendo’s newest Mario game New Super Mario Bros. the highest honor in the latest issue. All four editors who tested the game gave 10 points out of 10, resulting in a perfect 40/40 score.
New Super Mario Bros. is already the fourth game in 2009 to get a 40/40 rating, even though until 2007 the magazine was well-known for not giving away this score easily. But the perfect rating isn’t that surprising, as the game seems to be really that good and many reviewers outside Japan gave it the thumbs up already.
Here is a time line for all of Famitsu’s 40/40-games so far:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998, for Nintendo 64)
2. Soul Calibur (1999, for Dreamcast)
3. Vagrant Story (2000, for PlayStation)
4. The Legend of Zelda – The Wind Waker (2003, for GameCube)
5. Nintendogs (2005, for the DS)
6. Final Fantasy XII (2006, for PlayStation 2)
7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008, for the Wii)
8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008, for PlayStation 3)
9. 428: Fusasareta Shibuya de (2008, for the Wii)
10. Dragon Quest IX (2009, for the DS)
11. Monster Hunter Tri (2009, for the Wii)
12. Bayonetta (2009, for PlayStation 3/XBox 360)
13. New Super Mario Bros.
Gotta agree. The wife and I beat it in 6 days of after-dinner play and now are going back to get all the star coins. It’s proving to be a fun re-play.
What’s nice about it is that while we haven’t lost interest, we’re not going at it as hardcore as we did when we played through it the first time, which of course means it’ll be a nice staple for us for months to come.
I’m really hoping that a New Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 are just around the corner. :)
Haven’t had a chance to play NSMB yet so I can’t comment on whether the 40/40 is really deserved or not, but it definitely seems like it might be time to recalibrate the judges at Famitsu.
Did they fire the East German judge in 2007?
I have to agree here. I’ve been playing the game constantly with my fiancee and her little brother and we’ve all been having a lot of fun with it. I saw in a lot of reviews they dinged it for the multiplayer, complaining that their friends got in the way more often than not. I think that really only applies, though, if you’re trying to play it ultra seriously(in which case, you should really be playing it by yourself). If you’re just trying to have fun playing the game with some friends then it’s a blast and is only more fun when you play with someone who’s brand new to mario games or a complete jerk.
They seem to be giving a lot of perfect scores as of late.