Ryuker.com: Weekly Famitsu March, 2006 Cover Collection

One of the features of this site will be to archive magazine covers, and to start things off I present the Weekly Famitsu covers for March, 2006. Weekly Famitsu is released every Friday I believe, and March had five Fridays. The big games for the month were Final Fantasy XII and Monster Hunter 2 (dos), garnering a mention on almost every cover.

But March also held a special anniversary for Weekly Famitsu: the 900th issue! The week of the 17th marked the 900th issue of Famitsu and Famitsu made sure that this issue would be special. Physically, the issue isn't stapled like the usual issue of Weekly Famitsu; this time, it's got the flat spine that other Famitsu magazines usually have. The cover also has a silvery sheen to it--almost like foil but not quite. A DVD is also included featuring previews of upcoming games. The issue also has special articles, like one that takes a brief look at the history of games and game systems from 1983 to 2006.

But perhaps the coolest part of the 900th issue is the mini-booklet that comes with it which features the top 100 games of all time as voted by the readers. So what's the number one game of all time? Final Fantasy X! Was it really that good? Honestly I don't know, since I've never played it. Final Fantasy VII is second on the list, missing the number one spot by about 5,000 points. Number 3 is Dragon Quest III, number four is Dragon Quest VIII. Surprisingly, number 5 on the list is a Sega Saturn game! The game, I believe, is called Street and was made by Chunsoft and released in January of 1998. It falls under a series known as "sound novel" and has apparently been a favorite among Japanese gamers for quite some time.

Other notables in the top 100: Far East of Eden II Manji Maru is the highest ranked PC Engine game on the list at #12. The original Sakura Taisen for Sega Saturn is #13. Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom (NES) is number 21. Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS is #43 and is the only DS title on the list. Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 is #50. Ys I and II for the PC Engine is #52. Super Mario Kart for the Super Famicom is #69. Grandia for the Sega Saturn is #73. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PS2 is #76. Monster Hunter Portable is #83 and is the only PSP title on the list. Spartan X for the Famicom is #87 (that's Kung Fu on the NES in case you didn't know). Biohazard 4 for the PS2 is #100 (Biohazard 4 for the Gamecube is #74). Interesting stuff.