More from famitsu Best 198

I took a photo of this too. Highest ratings per game type.
So the ratings don't make that much sense as you see.

Also, I noticed that they only include games from 1987-1992, or maybe it was up to 1993. Anyways, no Zelda or Super Mario Bros.
Here you can see the highest rated puzzle game was Lemmings for the Super Famicom. The highest rated action game was Castle of Illusion (Mickey Mouse something or other) for the Mega Drive and for shooter games it was Fantasy Zone for the Famicom. Maybe they rate games based on first impression. Those games aren't considered top games in Japan today...

Best 5 game boy games according to Famitsu 1993

Got this from Famistu "best 198" edition.

For once my picture is in high enough resolution so you can click on it and zoom in to see the release dates among other things.

I may need to explain how ratings work in Famitsu: There are four people who each give their score of the game from 1 to 10. These numbers are then summed to give the total. As you can see from the cross review, reviewer number 4 doesn't like game boy that much.

The list is:

1. SaGa ("Final Fantasy Legend")
2. SaGa 2 ("Final Fantasy Legend II")
3. Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden ("Final Fantasy Adventure"/"Mystic Quest")
4. Dr Mario
5. Game Boy Wars

No Tetris? No Super Mario Land...?

Note that reviewers at Famitsu don't spend a lot of time on each game because they have to review a lot of games each week. They are also a bit populistic towards well known series. And Japanese people do like their RPGs.

SaGa was the first game boy RPG. Released by Square at the end of 1989 it was the 18th game on the console in Japan. This likely influenced the ratings, as it was given at the time of the release. SaGa quickly became very popular in Japan. I haven't played it myself though, as I don't really enjoy RPGs that much.

I also want to add that the quality of game boy games continued to improve after 1993. Link's Awakening was released later in 1993, for one, and it got a top score.