So that consumers don't waste time and money paying for bad games.

I think it's a bit of a cop out to lay this on cultural differences. Over the years, Famitsu has been unusually invested in the games it reviews, and it slaps high scores on almost everything. To me, it's simply an untrustworthy publication, national origins notwithstanding.

Nintendogs > Odyssey
Rip hype

Dammit.... How can I buy SMO if I have yet to finish Knack 2?.. T-T

It is not trustworthy to me neither. I can't rely on an outlet that awards too many high scores. But is being too silky lacking integrity? That I couldn't be sure of.

So I have no faith in their standards of excellence, because they do not match the harshness I expect from a gaming outlet. But there is quite a gap between what sets those standards and journalistic integrity. Journalistic integrity =/= Strigency and rigidity. That's when culture comes in play: veracity comes in all shapes and sizes when it involves cultural perceptions. New Super Mario Bros Wii could be the epitome of what Japanese gaming culture considers a masterpiece, whereas here it's a different story.

Then customers of shitty niche titles have to get their informations somewhere else. The internet is big enough to find opinions to any game.

It's a print magazine with limited space for the printed reviews. Of course they heavily preselect the games their readers probably are interested in.

And there is no obligation to test every shitty game for any print magazine or online review site. Otherwise they would have big problems to find people to do the job.

Very disappointing score.

Ah, I see what you're saying now. When I was referring to integrity, I meant Famitsu's suspicious relationship with publishers and advertisers, not its scoring guidelines.

And to be fair to Famitsu, there's no hard data to point to, no smoking gun. Just a lot of hearsay and circumstantial evidence. It certainly seems, from an outsider's point of view, that Famitsu has cozy connections with game publishers, which could lead to some conflicts of interest. But I can't say that for a fact.

Love the new avatar, by the way :)

Huh. Famitsu has actually never given a perfect score to a 3D Mario game.

Famitsu's list of perfect scores are hilarious