Trying To Make Sense of So Many 'Perfect' Games

What does it mean when everything is great? What's happening when it's no longer the exception for something to be regarded as exceptional?

While many lamented that today's era of gaming is one stagnated by sequels, it may in fact be an era that has been polished and buffed, built and re-built to something resembling… perfection?

[CRIMS0N_W0LF]

none of the games mentioned deserve a perfect score

[Picnico]

On the Amiga and Megadrive games regularly got 90%+. Rick Dangerous 2 was given 97% by one magazine. A game called Creatures 2: Torture Trouble, a sequel to the equally great Creatures by British company Thalamus was given the same score. As far as I am concerned, they deserved those scores- I would still play them now not for 'retro' reasons but because they still look and play well but nobody talks about them or regards them as anything but a distant footnote so it is like they, and many other high scoring games of the era, culturally did not exist which is just wrong because they were clever, beautifully constructed games.

[StrboyM]

its the pressure
when a game has so many fans and the companies spend globs of money on advertising (*cough halo2 *cough) these so called reviewers slap a 97 or better on em so their sites don't look like a ghost town when fanboys go nuts cause the game only got a (shock horror wait for it!!) an 85 lmao

[iceman2885]

Right on
Pretty much, if you think about it, no game is perfect. Games that are very good but have huge followings are automatically going to get anywhere between a 9 and 10 from gaming critics because of the pressure to appease the games' rabid fanbases (and indirectly their advertisers). With all that said, I'm not sure it matters, I don't trust critics worth a spit anymore, and base my gaming purchases on past experience, comments from friends I know who have similar tastes, and from renting the game or playing the demo.
Pretty much critics only exist anymore so that fanboys can brag about their game by saying look x and x site gave my favorite game a perfect score, total pwnage, i own so hard for being a fan of this game, blah blah blah. You get the picture.

[bootsielon]

Hype
A 10 for Halo 3? come on, that's the definition of a Mediocre FPS.

[r1000]

I lost interest in Mario Galaxy... this is very upsetting for me as i was a LOOOOOONG time nintendo fan... but to say I'm dissapointed in Ninty is understatement..

[GametimeUK]

noooooooo!!!
im a long time ninty fan... i hate the wii but love mario galaxy... omg it was so refreshing to play in an age filled with shooters and it was refreshing to platforming thanx to its creative controls and the gravity concept... I loved it