Anon10/19/25, 14:01No.12110935
Score games of the time often failed to provide meaning to the scores.
You wouldn't get rewards or acknowledgements for high scores, and they'd disappear when you turn the game off.
There was no benchmark to aim for in many games, including many with a default high score table that was designed to be emptied quickly.Fast completion often became the preferred metric for proficiency at a game, rather than wracking up the highest scores. In SMB1 specifically, it was trivial to achieve the maximum possible high score if you knew about the infinite 1-up trick and farmed lives and points, or even without that trick if you noticed there's a level where you could kick one koopa shell to knock over a bunch of enemies, get lots of point and extra lives, and take a death to repeat this process.
Games like Metroid also rewarded faster completion times, and item completion percentages became an alternative scoring system that eliminated hard to control variables like abusing respawns and enemy kill farming.Mega Man also started with a scoring system, but had bizarre choices like randomizing the points reward for defeating a boss when you select your stage, instead of awarding points based on your performance (e.g. fewer lives lost, more enemies defeated). Mega Man Zero would later implementing a ranking system with metrics like these, and is a highlight feature that encourages replayability effectively.Kid Icarus is notable for having a very meaningful score system.
By earning points through defeating enemies, you extend your life bar, get bargaining power at shops, enable the use of enchanted weapons, and factor into which ending you get. Your gameplay performance via some hidden metrics also determines whether or not gods bless you with additional strength (shown as 1-5 arrows with 4 upgrades possible).
