A 10/10 score is an honor we at Game Informer don’t bestow often, but it’s a big deal when we do. It involves careful consideration and conversation with the other editors, ensuring that it’s not a number we hand out lightly. Across our outlet’s entire history, only a few dozen games have been awarded the score, and they’re included in this easily accessible list.
However, there are also some fun “almost” 10s throughout Game Informer’s history. By scouring through the magazine archive, we uncovered a handful of instances where 10s were sort of handed out that make for interesting edge cases.
The Games That Almost Got 10s
The Games That Almost Got 10s
The most common instances of “almost” 10s were in Game Informer’s early days. For the first nine years of the magazine’s lifespan, each game had three reviewers whose scores would be averaged into one “bottom line,” which is generally recognized as Game Informer’s final score. Even then, individual reviews were broken down into numbered scores across five categories (Concept, Graphics, Sound, Playability, and Entertainment), so it was extremely difficult for any game to get a 10. It would need to get perfect (or near-perfect) scores across the board from three separate writers. This, as far as we can tell, never happened.
However, there are instances where one of the three writers scored the game a 10. In issue 3, editor Marianne Morgan gave 10s to Lemmings (SNES) and Shatterhand (NES). In issue 6, Ed Martinez awarded a 10 to Out of this World (SNES). Finally, in issue 40, Paul Anderson gave Super Mario 64 a 10. If they had been the sole reviewers, like most outlets have now, these games would all have 10s, but the other editors’ scores ultimately pulled the average down. The only one of these games close to a 10 was Super Mario 64, which scored a 9.75.
Another edge case comes in issue 43 from October 1996, in a now-retired Classic GI segment on “The Mascot Wars,” chronicling the rivalry between Mario, Sonic, and the then-new Crash Bandicoot. In it, the writer quickly scores the mainline entries of each mascot’s games and gives Super Mario Bros., a game that predates Game Informer by several years, a retroactive 10. It’s far from an official score, however – not only does the game not go through the traditional, rigorous review process, but the list also includes scores inconsistent with the outlet’s published scores. Super Mario 64, for example, is incorrectly given a 9.5.
GI Classic struck again in October of 2000. In issue 90, they revisited Super Mario World, which launched just a few months before the first issue of Game Informer, and gave it a 10. This instance is more formal than before, part of a monthly section fully dedicated to retro reviews, but it’s still abnormal. It was only one opinion, it lacks a byline, and is generally formatted differently than a standard review.
If we want to reserve the “first” title for a game to receive a 10 upon release, that honor goes to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, which we reviewed in the very next issue, 91. It happens to coincide with an overhaul of Game Informer’s design and structure, with a new logo and a new review process. Each game now receives a primary review and a “second opinion,” which is also scored, but only gets a paragraph or so of text. Category scores are also no more, replaced with short blurbs breaking down the writer’s thoughts on the subject. There were far fewer barriers to score a 10/10 now, and the staff wasted no time doling one out.
There is also one instance of a game receiving a score higher than a 10… though it was an April Fool’s joke. In issue 84, a made-up game called Virtua Laundromat 3: Rinse Cycle for the “Mega Dreamblast” (a parody version of the Sega Dreamcast) scored a 10+. Published in April 2000, this was just seven months before the actual first 10/10 score.
For all 32 of our 10/10 scores, along with the issue each was published in, you can check out the list below. To see them in their original print layouts, you can access most of them* in the Game Informer magazine archive by making a free account and clicking right here.
*(Note: Our free magazine archive includes issue 368 and earlier. To read newer issues, including Astro Bot and Hades II, you can subscribe to Game Informer here.)
Every Official Game Informer 10
