There’s no denying that The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is a runaway, smash hit. Having garnered tremendous amounts of praise despite a few hiccups at launch, Skyrim has proved that a hardcore fantasy RPG can still appeal to the masses.
To further echo that point, we bring you the news that noted Japanese magazine Famitsu has given Bethesda’s opus the coveted 40/40 score. Since Famitsu’s inception, only 17 games have received the coveted score, which requires that four separate Japanese reviewers love the game.
What’s even more impressive about Skyrim receiving 40/40 is the fact that it is the first “western” game to be given that honor. Previously, such high profile Japanese-developed titles as The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, and Final Fantasy received perfect scores, but no “western” game has been perfect.
There have been some western games, like most recently Modern Warfare 3 and Gears of War 3, to have received a near perfect 39 out of 40 so don’t think that Famitsu is biased. Actually you might be free to think them a little biased since most of their 40 out of 40 scores have gone to Nintendo or Square developed games.
Clearly Famitsu saw something in Skyrim, something that our own Rob Keyes saw and noted in his review, but was even-handed about. Yes, Skyrim is a tremendous achievement, and gets most of what Oblivion did wrong right, but it’s still got some issues here and there – issues that show be resolved in the forthcoming, console-wide patch.
Nonetheless this is a tremendous achievement for both Skyrim and western developed games. The dragon-slaying title has opened the door to a wide variety of games developed by western companies to vie for the coveted top spot. Sure, Skyrim joins Skyward Sword as 2011’s other 40 out of 40, but perhaps one day western games will take the lone top spot for the year.
Do you think that Skyrim is deserved of the coveted 40/40 from Famitsu? Are there any western-developed 2012 titles that you think could be perfect score contenders?
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Source: Eurogamer
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kinda loses impact when you tell us that Skyrim is in the same league as POKEMON! LOL
They obviously didn’t play it on the PS3 version because it has A LOT of issues – even after the latest patch.
Actually it was the PS3 version they reviewed haha
Well deserved, most engrossing game I’ve ever played.
Should get a 50/40
Nope 100/40
Agreed
they were gonna rate it 100/40, but then they took an arrow to the knee.
Perhaps Skyrim is so good compared to Japanese games that they gave it a perfect score. The game may be very good but there’s still a lot of issues to fix before I would consider it perfect.
The game is certainly one of the best of the year, but I have a hard time with perfect scores on games with so many bugs, glitches and AI problems.
Mass Effect 3 is definitely a contender for a 40/40, no doubt about it