Famitsu awarded more perfect scores in 2009 than any other year. You don’t need a graph to tell you that. To put that statistic in scope, we tracked the amount of top rated top rated games from 2000 to 2009. Games that had a total score of 36 or average of “9” were considered to be acclaimed by Famitsu and included in this report.
In 2000, Vagrant Story was the only game that got a 40 and seven other games were awarded a total score of 36 or higher. Dragon Quest VII, Tekken Tag Tournament, The Legend of Zelda; Majora’s Mask, Ridge Racer V, Final Fantasy IX, Phantasy Star Online, and Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 2 were part of the elite group.
Compare that to 2009 where eighteen games have a composite score of 36. What’s interesting is the sharp rise in games rated 36, which appears to have started in 2002. Suddenly, there was a surge of “9s” which include Ikaruga, Onimusha 2, and World Soccer Winning Eleven 6, and Tekken 4. That group only went down in 2006, where eight titles received an average score of 36.
It’s true that the number of perfect scores went up sharply in the past two years, but the number of games in the 36 club is even more dramatic. Notice the slope of the trend lines for “9s” to “10s”.
Are games better now than ten years ago? Is Famitsu scoring games lighter? That’s for you to decide, because Famitsu reviews are just opinions with a number attached to them.
