Ha hah, weird, clearly there's no conflict of interests or anything here. I mean, Mario Galaxy 2 is probably gonna be a great game, but ten pages? Ten? What could they possibly have to say that would fill ten pages? And seriously, giving the game a 6/10 after all this would probably be the best thing ever; image the looks on the faces of all the fanboys.

Reminds me of the old days of press from the 1990s - the only people who read "official" mags are fan boys of that platform who are reading what they want to read.

Apparently we live in some bizarro world where it takes 10 pages to say "yo, it's pretty good."

So I'm guessing Jeff's having a bad day...

But seriously... what the hell will they have to say over 10 pages?  Probably a lot of picture filler.

" Takes them 10 pages to say "Yo, did you like Super Mario Galaxy? Guess what" "

It's enough to make me wish that reviews couldn't be posted until the release day.

Well put Jeff. Here's my view of another of Future's 'review' products:  FirstPlay on PS3

" It's a shame the UK Official Nintendo Magazine became pretty much Nintendo propaganda, it was actually pretty reasonable with it's scores until all the former staff members at one point were suddenly swapped for new guys and began giving every game with a vague relation to Mario top scores. "

What the fuck is Official Nintendo Magazine?  What happened to Nintendo Power?

You know a magazine is good when it has a game company's name in the title.

 "Hooray, the latest Mario masterpiece is here, collect all six covers and read our 10-pager, and then at the end see that we've given it a 6/10 because it's somewhat middling! The only review that matters!"
 
This made me laugh so hard. haha! That was a good one, Jeff. :)

Well guess I'm leaving Giantbomb since Nintendo Power's review is the only review that matters.

I dunno about you guys, but 10 pages of Mario would've made me cream my pants as a kid. 
 
That is if I could cream my pants as a kid.

" @Tesla: yes@Tesla said:

" Jeff Gerstmann's review of this review is the only review that matters. "

yes. "

Is Nintendo magazine supposed to be anything besides a propaganda rag? Unless my perception of it is very off base. This is silly, yes, but is it really that suprising?

I used to read the Official Nintendo Magazine. I stopped when I noticed shit like this becoming more and more frequent. It was a decent magazine, with informative stuff. Obviously it was biased towards Nintendo products, but that's fine, I knew that & took that into account when reading it. But stuff like this kept happening and it was just overkill. I expect a bit of bias from an official magazine, but they just took it waaaaay too far.

" You are being a bit of a dick - AFAIK Nintendo Magazine is mostly aimed at little kids, and when I was little I couldn't get enough Mario - but in a funny and justified way :O) "

It's Spiderman 3 week/Kane and Lynch at Gamespot all over again. 
 
Hype for weeks!  And a middling or downright bad review.

 "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes..." 

It's marketing. If it's a press release on the web it's just essentially an announcement plagued with marketing. Usually paper editors and other sources won't accept it if it's chock-full of "buy our product!" but if you're just releasing it on your website? It's more marketing than announcement.
 
That being said that's a terrible press release. Like, goddamn. I just wrote one for the company I'm working for and it doesn't come off half as douchebag as that. Though there's not much that can be douched up in compliance software solutions. :|

The thing is, Official Magazines for any specific console are always propaganda, and always have been. However, in terms of blatancy and obviousness, I think that this takes the cake by a landsilde. The only thing that comes close recently is the Famitsu MGS Peacewalker ordeal.

In Retro Game Challenge, the fictional GameFan Magazine was continuing their coverage of Guadia Quest four months after release. This is what I'm hoping ONM will do. Give us our six covers and our ten-page review of the game, and then keep it coming for the next four months. That would be awesome.

Well, I mean, it's called Official Nintendo Magazine.  They exist as an advertorial, not an objective magazine.  Which, yeah, they should be more upfront about it.  But the magazine is run by British eight year-olds, so what are you going to do?  If what you take issue with is their hyperbole, then go nuts.  But it just seems a little crazy, because who honestly expects objectivity from Official Nintendo Magazine?

The weird thing is, I kinda would get all this crazyness if it was about the first Mario Galaxy. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm pretty sure Galaxy 2 will be good, but come on! I don't see people giving a tenth of the importance they gave to the first one, and I believe this is fair.

Giant Bomb, continue to expose such madness.

" What the fuck is Official Nintendo Magazine?  What happened to Nintendo Power? "

Oh jeez, Official Nintendo Magazine... no one likes that down here in the UK, we just stick to the Internet, like anyone born post 1990.

i once saw PC Gamer devote AN ENTIRE ISSUE for WoW: Wrath of the Lich King..
 
madness.

" All hail the great Miyamoto. "

Oh my god, the Official Nintendo Magazine is excited about a new Mario game
 
stop the godamn presses

I dunno, duder. I think if I was a Nintendo fanboy I would be pretty fucking excited about Galaxy 2. 
 
Fuck, I know I am and I hate EVERYTHING.

This review will be objective.

"Nintendo Power still exists. It's not published in the UK though. Official Nintendo Magazine is. "

Gee. How cynical have we become?

Y'know it was more disturbing to hear it being called the "latest and greatest" mario game more than calling it "another miyamoto masterpiece". 

It's called "Official Nintendo magazine" so this should kind of be expected.

Thats pretty fucking amazing. I would be totally cool with them flipping out over this game because, frankly, it looks great.  HOWEVER, as soon as they declare that their review is 'the only one that matters', is when I official give them a big pile of 'Fuck Off'. Saying that is just obnoxious and full of douchebaggery. 
 
But really, who buys that mag anyways.

I wish real game journalists gave 10 page reviews of games.
 
SHAME ON YOU JOURNALISTS.

" Is Nintendo magazine supposed to be anything besides a propaganda rag? Unless my perception of it is very off base. This is silly, yes, but is it really that suprising? "

I'd like to see giant bomb press releases.

Jeff, I could not love and respect you more. This is brilliant. Thanks for acknowledging and detailing this. Hilarious piece of top-notch industry criticism. :)

That brings me back. I remember reading the Twilight Princess developer spots Nintendo Power printed every month for nearly a year leading up to the game's release. TP was very disappointing to me, and it had a lot to do with the expectations I formed reading all those artists play up the game as the absolute zenith of their collective careers. Looking forward to SMG2, though, and I'm glad not to be reading a thing about it.

" Herp derp. "

Reminds me of the time that that one site ran a whole BUNCH of advertising for a game and some reviewer gave it 6 out of 10... 
 
Keep fighting the good fight, Jeff.

A good 7/10 game.

" @LordXavierBritish: I would assume so.. kinda like how 90% of the users of this site take turns sucking off the Giant bomb crew. "

" Jeff, I could not love and respect you more. "

This is a game magazine we're talking about. A 10-page review probably means a 2 page spread of mario with a caption, followed by 4 pages worth of actual review padded with 4 pages worth of pictures and bolded quotes of words we've just read.