UK SNES Magazine Scores Spreadsheet

[S_R_G]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1he6GnibxV1xVkriG229v7x5RVavK9EMI9NPdV7S_qm8/

Ive created a spreadsheet for all the SNES game scores in the magazines that i have.

I have almost all the SNES era Super Play, NMS, Total!, Gamezone & lots of others like Super Pro, Super Action, Super Gamer etc..

Its a work in progress but the bulk is now included, Hopefully not too many mistakes. The magazines were interpreting Japanese game titles at the time so hopefully ive matched up any variations together.

If you spot anything wrong or have any suggestions - please let me know :D

[Wayler]

As I noted in reddit, this is a very interesting look into the reviews from back in the day. It's good that there's now a red font indicating a major difference in scores between magazines to see some of the wild swings and baffling scores. That 38 for Mega Man X from GameZone is easily the highlight. I think it needs a column where the difference between the highest score and lowest score is shown, so you could sort the list for the most contrasting games / scores.

 

And it would be perfection if there was a scanned link to every review when you click on it but that is asking a bit much. I would like to know what the GZ guys where puffing on when they reviewed MMX.

[Kirk_Johnston]

Much appreciated. Thanks.

[Wayler]

Found issue 18 of Game Zone and the three-page Mega Man X review:

 

 

So very baffling. The first page is just pure nonsense that has nothing to do with the game. The wireframe Mega Man picture also takes up a page with "funny" jokes. When the review finally starts, the criticisms are just off the walls. Unbalanced design? Awkward controls? Reappearing enemies, like that is somehow a new thing and greatly impacts things in MMX? And then splendid graphics are mentioned as positive, while similarly they went the effort to display the most boring corridor section on the same page (the screenshot quality as a whole is abysmal, wonder what their method was). It just comes across as contrarian for the sake of it. Something more must be behind this because there are more awful reviews from this same person. (not talking about the opinion, but the actual content of the review). It is no surprise this was the last issue of this magazine.

[S_R_G]

On 4/24/2023 at 10:16 AM, Wayler said:

As I noted in reddit, this is a very interesting look into the reviews from back in the day. It's good that there's now a red font indicating a major difference in scores between magazines to see some of the wild swings and baffling scores. That 38 for Mega Man X from GameZone is easily the highlight. I think it needs a column where the difference between the highest score and lowest score is shown, so you could sort the list for the most contrasting games / scores.

 

And it would be perfection if there was a scanned link to every review when you click on it but that is asking a bit much. I would like to know what the GZ guys where puffing on when they reviewed MMX.

 

If you scroll all the way to the right you will see my faded AA column with the high to low formula output, im not too good with excel so didnt know if you could hide it 😃 but it serves for a good use, you can put them in order exactly how you wanted. 👍

 

The Mega Man X review is a mystery! ...... "A horrible & rather depressing game" 😵

[newtmonkey]

Although there are of course exceptions (Super Play), my impression from scanning/reading through a bunch of 80s/90s UK gaming mags is that they were more "humor" mags than serious game publications.  It's obvious the "reviewers" didn't play the games most of the time, especially if the game was any more complicated than, I dunno, Jet Set Willy.

 

Some of these mags would have dozens of reviews a month, reviewed by just a couple of kids, so it's no surprise I guess that they had no choice but to simply look at the package, start the game up and listen to the loading/title tune, and then write two pages of nonsense.

[Kirk_Johnston]

On 4/26/2023 at 3:46 AM, newtmonkey said:

Although there are of course exceptions (Super Play), my impression from scanning/reading through a bunch of 80s/90s UK gaming mags is that they were more "humor" mags than serious game publications.  It's obvious the "reviewers" didn't play the games most of the time, especially if the game was any more complicated than, I dunno, Jet Set Willy.

 

Some of these mags would have dozens of reviews a month, reviewed by just a couple of kids, so it's no surprise I guess that they had no choice but to simply look at the package, start the game up and listen to the loading/title tune, and then write two pages of nonsense.

Not sure what magazines you were looking at, but I'm pretty confident that none of the big ones I read were doing this. I think magazines like Mean Machines, C&VG, Super Play, MAXIMUM, Nintendo Magazine System, Mean Machines Sega, EDGE [probably], etc, did play the games properly. At least that was the impression I always got.

 

In case you didn't get the memo, some gamers can be hardcore nerds and put hundreds of hours into playing games. And these guys were getting paid to do little more than play games and write up the reviews for them back in the day. I'm sure that was well within their capabilities. Of course, if they ended up with a turd, who'd blame them if they maybe only played the first few levels and then just faffed the rest. With the big releases and indeed the actual good games though, I think they likely put in the hours, mostly likely out of pure gamer pride if nothing else.

 

Just to be clear, the people working on video game mags back then weren't the half-assing "gamers" that much of the "reviewers" you see on YouTube and the like are today. The dudes back then were proper hardcore gamer types who were as deep in the trenches as anyone, and lots of them often still write about games even today. Many of them run sites like Nintendo Life or TimeExtension and hybrid gaming sites/blogs like Digitiser 2000, etc.

 

They did have a lot better and often quite risky humour in most of those old mags than the kinda straight and boring, walking-on-eggshells, self-censored stuff we see on the Internet today though--that's for sure. I mean, I guarantee you won't find stuff like this in any of the major gaming sites or few remaining gaming mags today (not that this is from a physical magazine, but more the first digital one really):

Edited April 27, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[Wayler]

On 4/26/2023 at 5:46 AM, newtmonkey said:

Although there are of course exceptions (Super Play), my impression from scanning/reading through a bunch of 80s/90s UK gaming mags is that they were more "humor" mags than serious game publications.  It's obvious the "reviewers" didn't play the games most of the time, especially if the game was any more complicated than, I dunno, Jet Set Willy.

 

Some of these mags would have dozens of reviews a month, reviewed by just a couple of kids, so it's no surprise I guess that they had no choice but to simply look at the package, start the game up and listen to the loading/title tune, and then write two pages of nonsense.

From the material released, it seems like this was the case with Game Zone but then I look at their staff and see that they have over 10 people working on the team with at least 6 doing reviews for a total of 12-14 games a month. That is max 4-5 games for one reviewer, plenty of time to do something else than look at the box. This Jonathan Nash fellow does not seem to know how to play action platformers as Skyblazer gets a whopping 47. And he only seems to have the woefully inexplicable humorous style in him.

 

"Lots of variety in the graphics and plenty of difference between the numerous levels, but gameplay that hobbles along identically no matter what"

 

What, what? By that definition, Super Mario World also belongs in the same camp. In actuality, accompanying the variety in levels, you also get all kinds of new abilities as you progress in Skyblazer, to not feel like you are repeating the same thing. And then they give Dennis the Menace, the very definition of mind numbingly average and bland platformer, a logic defying 83 (oh wait, it's by Ocean and they are brits, so we got to give them +40 by default)

 

Reading through these publications, it makes even less sense that this magazine was able to last 18 issues.

 

[KidGameR186496]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:07 AM, S_R_G said:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1he6GnibxV1xVkriG229v7x5RVavK9EMI9NPdV7S_qm8/

Ive created a spreadsheet for all the SNES game scores in the magazines that i have.

I have almost all the SNES era Super Play, NMS, Total!, Gamezone & lots of others like Super Pro, Super Action, Super Gamer etc..

Its a work in progress but the bulk is now included, Hopefully not too many mistakes. The magazines were interpreting Japanese game titles at the time so hopefully ive matched up any variations together.

If you spot anything wrong or have any suggestions - please let me know 

Thank You so much for the herculean effort!

[KidGameR186496]

On 4/22/2023 at 11:07 AM, S_R_G said:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1he6GnibxV1xVkriG229v7x5RVavK9EMI9NPdV7S_qm8/

Ive created a spreadsheet for all the SNES game scores in the magazines that i have.

I have almost all the SNES era Super Play, NMS, Total!, Gamezone & lots of others like Super Pro, Super Action, Super Gamer etc..

Its a work in progress but the bulk is now included, Hopefully not too many mistakes. The magazines were interpreting Japanese game titles at the time so hopefully ive matched up any variations together.

If you spot anything wrong or have any suggestions - please let me know 

Sorry for bothering but i noticed that it's not available for download anymore. Is there anyway to re-download it?