Famitsu: Pokemon Black & White DS Receive 40/40

By Jorge Ba-oh 08.09.2010 15

Famitsu: Pokemon Black & White DS Receive 40/40 on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

This week Famitsu magazine brings more good news with a perfect review score of 40/40 for the new DS Pokemon games, Black and White.

The duo, set in a new world packed to the brim with completely new critters, has already done exceptionally well in pre-orders and with its release just days away, has won over four reviewers for Famitsu magazine, with each of the reviewers awarding the game a perfect ten. The team have been very selective throughout the years, with only 13 titles earning the award so far, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Whilst being the 14th addition, Pokemon Black and White are the first Pokemon games to receive a perfect Famitsu score.

Box art for Pokémon Black & White
Developer

Game Freak

Publisher

Nintendo

Genre

Turn Based RPG

Players

5

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  9/10 (54 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date Out now   Australian release date Out now   

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Lol new Pokémon games suck every game should just be Blue and Red I don't know why they keep making new Pokémon games with different things in them and new battle mechanics they're so tired and outdated.

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery

Nintendogs got 40/40, so most games deserves a top score anyway, according to Famitsu.

Pokemon Black and White will probably deserve it though.

( Edited 08.09.2010 14:48 by Marzy )

Glad to see that the Pokemon series is finally trying to not just be 'more of the same but refined'. Black and White do look amazing though I'm sad that it'll be another 4-5 years before we get proper 3DS 6th gen games.

Marzy said:
Nintendogs got 40/40, so most games deserves a top score anyway, according to Famitsu.

That's not really a fair statement to make. You can't denounce their reviews/scores just because they saw Nintendogs differently to you. 4 individual reviewers liked it enough to give it a 10. I personally would have given it a 7. Smilie

That's not really a fair statement to make. You can't denounce their reviews/scores just because they saw Nintendogs differently to you. 4 individual reviewers liked it enough to give it a 10. I personally would have given it a 7.

They also gave New Super Mario Bros Wii 40/40. There's no way those two games deserve top scores, over the likes of Super Mario Galaxy.

I cannot take them seriously and their reviews/scores mean nothing to me.

Yeh I'm gonna side with Marzy here. In the past a 40/40 from Famitsu was a genuine sign of quality, but that's not always the case these days.

That said, I'd obviously rather it got a perfect score than half marks or whatever.
I personally can't wait for this game, although I am slightly cautious of being bitterly disappointed due to the large amount of hype. *cough* Twilight Princess *cough* Smilie

Reviews are only as good as the degree to which you agree with the reviewer.

In most case's, you dont know the reviewer personally, so a score is largely worthless. This is why I really dont like sites/magazines that dont tell WHO is reviewing.

If, on the other hand, you know that specific reviewer likes other stuff you like, you can trust their reviews a heck of a lot more.

And yes, this has been a commercial for a little site I worked on and no one tried Smilie I still believe its all true though.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+

Well Famitsu is slightly different in that it's not just the opinion of one review, it's the opinion of 4.

So for 4 people to give the game 10/10 is still pretty impressive, even if they did the same with the likes of Nintendogs.

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery

Cheesing it up said:
Yeh I'm gonna side with Marzy here. In the past a 40/40 from Famitsu was a genuine sign of quality, but that's not always the case these days.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Soulcalibur
Vagrant Story
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Nintendogs
Final Fantasy XII
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
428: Fūsa Sareta Shibuya de
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
Monster Hunter Tri
Bayonetta
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Pokémon Black and White

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't say that any of these games were of bad quality. Some may not be of your tastes but then again, you can't expect Famitsu to follow your way of thinking. I don't think Soul Calibur and Vagrant Story were anything special but appreciate that the Famitsu reviewers liked them.

Remember that the reviews are made up of 4 people each giving the game a score out of ten. If all 4 love it enough to give it a 10 each then that suddenly doesn't make it much more better than a game that just failed to fully impress one of the reviewers and receiving a 9.

NSMBW got:
10,10,10,10

SMG2 got:
10,10,9,9

I think people take the full out of 40 score too seriously. SMG2 got 2 perfect scores and two great 9s. The other 2 reviewers simply found more enjoyment out of NSMBWii despite Galaxy obviously being the game with higher production values (though the enjoyment one gets from either is completely down to opinion.)

( Edited 08.09.2010 17:15 by Ifrit XXII )

Most of the other games Famitsu gave a perfect score got perfect scores from various other sites too. As for stuff like Nintendogs, maybe they just found it to be a lot of fun and thus gave it a perfect score. I don't enjoy those kind of games at all and would probably rate it lower. And that Black and White are the first Pokémon games to receive a perfect score from them says something already, at least for me.

That aside, so far Black and White really look like they got it right this time, although it's a pity that they didn't wait for the 3DS powerhouse and made them the swan song of the DS instead.

( Edited 08.09.2010 21:36 by SirLink )

Nintendogs I can understand. Its not for everyone, but it was a significant release for quite a few reasons.

Its "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" scoring 40/40 but not Galaxy (1) thats utterly insane.

For that mater The Wind Waker scoring so high too, yet not Okami?

Well Famitsu is slightly different in that it's not just the opinion of one review, it's the opinion of 4.

It helps.
Certainly makes it harder to get perfect scores.

Take this reasoning to the extream though, and that makes metacritic and gamerankings the best score's as they are averages of dozens of reviewers.

I'm not sure that gets closer to my own tastes really, it more just helps ensure those making dont have a huge bias for/again something.



( Edited 08.09.2010 22:17 by Darkflame )

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+

Is it impossible for a review to be completely objective and thus, in a way, are obsolete. But they can give guidlines on what to expect and in that way can be good, but a score alone is pointless. Like God Hand has mostly terrible reviews, and God of War is constantly rated higher than Devil May Cry...and don't even get me started on Heavy Rain.

Smilie

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't say that any of these games were of bad quality. Some may not be of your tastes but then again, you can't expect Famitsu to follow your way of thinking.

I'm not saying that there's bad games up there, just that some of them don't deserve a 10/10, let alone four separate reviewers giving it a 10/10.

Nintendogs, NSMB Wii and Monster Hunter Tri stand out on that list to me as games that didn't deserve the mark the received (there may be others, but I haven't played all of them).

Obviously I appreciate that different people have different opinions, but the point is that they HAVE different opinions, four of them in fact, and they ALL gave a game full marks. That should suggest an outstanding game, but just merely good.

Like I said before, I'd obviously prefer it to have a perfect score (the first for a pokemon game) than not, but it doesn't automatically mean that the game is amazing.

( Edited 09.09.2010 16:35 by Cheesing it up )

All of Famitsu's "perfect 40s" are high quality games. While I wouldn't agree that some games get 10s all around, there is no doubt that they are all great games.

Nintendogs was revolutionary at the time of its launch. There was never a game before it on a hand held that included such game play.

But anyways, their score of Pokemon B&W just got me a lot more excited for the games release in the US.

"Do a Barrel Roll!"
anon11 (guest) 20.09.2010#15

URGENT NOTICE: PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS!!

Nintendo fans, it might be worth your while to take a look at this. I know this might have nothing to do with this news story, and it might not even be real, but if it is, it could be serious and have a real impact on the Pokémon community on the internet, and potentially the entire online Nintendo fanbase.

Pokébeach ordered to take down Pokémon Black and White images by Nintendo Lawyers

If the above article doesn’t appear for you then I’ll explain the story. The websites Pokébeach and Serebii.net were supposedly contacted by lawyers representing Nintendo of America and asked to remove content concerning the new Pokémon Black and White games. At the moment, no one knows why they're doing this, but Nintendo claim that images and videos of the games were "infringing on their intellectual property rights".

Everyone is saying that this makes no sense, because the Japanese games have already been officially released. These images are also only used for the express purpose of reporting news, and both sites have disclaimers openly stating the Nintendo owns the Pokémon franchise and the fansites are not making any money from posting them. So, why attack them claiming copyright infringement? What's more, the letter implies that the fansites should also refrain from posting images and videos for any further games or content related to Pokémon in the future, effectively cutting off their news reporting capabilities and restricting the content that they post. So far, only these two fansites have been hit, but the letter claims that they will go after other fansites as well. Whether this also includes Nintendo fansites in general is unknown at the moment.

These fansites work tirelessly to bring us up-to-date news; it would be a great blow if they were banned from posting any new images or videos ever again. Really, these sites provide free advertising for Nintendo and actually encourage people to buy the games. To me, it makes zero sense why they would want to punish them for that.

Seeing as Pokébeach and Serebii are two of the most popular Pokémon sites on the internet, if they fall, it's likely that the entire online Pokémon community might collapse along with them.
This also doesn't bode well for other Nintendo franchises. How long before they go after Mario or Zelda fansites? This may only be about Pokémon at the moment but, whether you like the Pokémon games or not, this could potentially affect us all.

Perhaps if we all band together we can do something to save the online Pokémon Community from being wiped out. So, here's what you have to do: spread the word. Post this message in every (Nintendo friendly) games site you can think of and let everybody know about this. I would urge people to follow this story and, if this does turn out to be real, contact as many Nintendo representatives as you can in regards to this story and what they hope to achieve by basically stomping on one of their largest fanbases. Let them know our feelings on this matter. Let them know that we don’t like it. Make them listen. Like I said before, we are the people who buy their games, we pay them money to keep making games. If they are going to start treating the fans that do so much for them like this, then they really don't deserve to be known as the world's greatest gaming company. This may not even get us anywhere, but you never know. Other fanbases have taken on big companies before and won, e.g. Harry Potter fansites.

This isn't spam, and I'm not trying to "troll" anyone by posting this. If you don't agree with what I'm saying then fair enough. That's your opinion; I won't hold it against you. I'm not that sort of person. I'm just a concerned Nintendo fan that doesn't want my two favourite Pokémon sites to be taken down by the big guns. I may even be blowing this all out of proportion, but there is a lot of confusion among most of the Pokémon fanbase at the moment and no one really knows what the outcome of this action by Nintendo will be, so I'm just going to roll with it for now. I’m just a messenger reporting this news story to the Nintendo fans. I have no intention of getting tangled up in any legal matters either, which is why I’m choosing to remain anonymous. It’s up to you to decide whether that makes me a “troll” or not.

The main thing here is that this hasn't yet been confirmed as 100% real. But in the event that it is, I believe something should be done by the fans to protect our community.

Thanks for taking your time to read this. Smilie

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