With the end of the year drawing near, the top 20 for Metacritic scores is basically set in stone, and it's time to give a look at what games came on top according to the critics selected by the popular (and often controversial when abused) score aggregation portal.
Here's the compiled top 20 between all the titles published this year, that very conveniently includes all the titles that scored with a Metacritic average of 90 and over. When you don't see a platform listed for a game, its because that particular version scored under 90.
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS3, Xbox 360) - 97
- The Last of Us (PS3) - 95
- Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) - 94
- BioShock Infinite (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) - 94 (93 on Xbox 360)
- Metal Hear Solid: The Legacy Collection (PS) - 93
- DEVICE 7 (iOS) - 92
- Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS) -92
- Skylanders Swap Force (Wii U) - 92
- Flower (PS4) - 91
- Rayman Legends (Wii U, PS3) - 91 (90 on Xbox 360)
- Asphalt 8: Airborne (iOS) - 91
- Ridiculous Fishing - A Tale of Redemption (iOS) -91
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown (iOS) - 91
- Fez (PC) 91
- Rocksmith 2014 Edition (PC) - 91
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U) - 90
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS) - 90
- Spelunky (PC) - 90
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC) - 90
- DOTA 2 (PC) - 90
Analyzing the chart above we can see that Grand Theft Auto V dominated with no immediate rival scoring a near-perfect 97 on both platforms. Slightly lower comes The Last of Us, that was penalized by a rather hilarious 60 by Quarter to Three and a 75 by Polygon. Third is Super Mario 3D World, that didn't receive scores under 80, but wasn't rated as high as the previous two in average. BioShock Infinite shares third place with Mario with its PS3 and PC version and unsurprisingly we find no scores under 80 here as well.
So far next generation titles generally failed to impress too much (which is pretty understandable considering that launch titles are almost never exceptional). Only Flower for the PS4 managed to make the top 20 and to score 90 or above, with a flattering 91, four points over the original for PS3.
No other game for PS4 or Xbox One managed to make the top 20, with FIFA 14 getting close, but not close enough, receiving an 87 on PS4 and an 88 on Xbox One. On the other hand the Wii U had more time to mature, and fares quite well, with four games in the top 20.
Of course it's early to observe the real results for the next generation. We'll see most probably see them a year from now.