Hate it or love it, review aggregators are becoming an increasingly important service for consumers of just about anything. In the video game space, people like them because it gives them a quick and quantifiable way of knowing what games are good and what games suck. The counterpoint to those people are those who don’t feel that aggregates tell the whole story and put an emphasis on a number rather than the context from which that number is derived from.
I’m not here to choose sides. Out of boredom and curiosity, I decided to take my XBOX 360 and Wii game collection, full retail games only, compile all of their Metacritic scores and see what the results say about my game stash. I must preface that this is far from scientific and that my collection has changed since I compiled these numbers.
With that said, lets hit the results.
Average XBOX 360 Game Score: 83.3
Average Wii Game Score: 83
This number really surprised me. Even across two different platforms, the average score among 360 games and Wii games is virtually identical. I guess this can mean that my taste is fairly consistent, regardless of the platform I buy games on. Also, the fact that my games have an average Metacritic of 83 could mean that I have good gaming taste. To be fair, I could build an entire stash of games that scored well on Metacritic that I think suck because they’re not my thing. For the sake of simplicity, let’s just say I have good gaming taste. 😉
Top 5 Overall Based on Metacritic Score
- Grand Theft Auto IV – 98
- Super Mario Galaxy – 97
- Bioshock – 96
- Mass Effect 2 – 96
- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – 96
All of these games were critical darlings. Would I say that they’re the best 5 in my collection? To me personally, probably not. I liked Grand Theft Auto IV a lot, I don’t see that game as 2% away from perfection, let alone the best game in my stash. I wouldn’t put Super Mario Galaxy in my top 5, either. If I were picking my top 5 overall, it would include (in no particular order) Bioshock, Mass Effect 2, Twilight Princess, Street Fighter IV and Rock Band 2.
Top 5 XBOX 360 Games Based On Metacritic Score
- Grand Theft Auto IV – 98
- Bioshock – 96
- Mass Effect 2 – 96
- Modern Warfare 2 – 94
- (Tie) Gears of Wart 2/Street Fighter IV – 93
Top 5 Wii Games Based On Metacritic Score
- Super Mario Galaxy – 97
- Legend of Zelda – Twilight Princess – 96
- Okami – 90
- Boom Blox Bash Party – 86
- Punch-Out – 86
Say what you will about the Wii’s catalogue of games, but I think all of the above are great games. I would not put Super Mario Galaxy on my personal #1, though I respect it for what it does. The sleeper on this list is Boom Blox Bash Party. Seriously, if you own a Wii, you need that game.
Bottom 5 XBOX 360 Games Based On Metacritic Score
- Turning Point: Fall of Liberty – 43
- DDR Universe 2 – 65
- DDR Universe 3 – 65
- Silent Hill: Homecoming – 70
- Lego Rock Band – 71
I hate to do this, but I can divorce myself from most of this list. Sure, I was the one who chose to pick up Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, but I was entitled to a free game, and that was the least crappy. The DDR games are the property of my brother. They’re not bad games, but I can see non-DDR fans hating on them. Silent Hill: Homecoming was a lump of coal I received for Christmas and Lego Rock Band, while far from perfect, doesn’t deserve to be bottom 5 in my collection.
Bottom 5 Wii Games Based on Metacritic
- Your Shape – 62
- Elebits – 75
- Wii Sports – 76
- Godfather: Blackhand Edition – 77
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn – 78
I’ve never actually seen Your Shape in action before. My brother bought it for my mom for Christmas (she asked for it). Elebits had some cool ideas, but the frame-rate was really bad. Godfather: Blackhand Edition, while totally deserving of the score it got, I would definitely say is not a bottom 5 Wii game in my stash. The biggest crime here is Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn only getting a 78. It’s generally a well-reviewed series and I feel that the Wii one is one of the best.
Median XBOX 360 Game Based On Metacritic Score: PGR 4 – 85
Median Wii Game Based On Metacritic Score: Mario Kart Wii -82
Oddly, both of my “middle of the road” games are racers. PGR 4 is more of a racing sim, which is a genre I usually steer clear of. The only reason I own it is because it came free with my subscription of XBOX Live. I’ll write about it some time down the road. Mario Kart Wii is really good, but I can see why it has that Metacritic score.
Did I learn anything from this experience? Can anyone learn anything from this? I doubt it. Metacritic can be a useful tool, but it’s definitely not the definitive source on what games are good and what games suck. Just because a game has a high Metacritic score doesn’t guarantee you’ll like it, and vice versa. The ultimate judge of whether or not a game is good should be your personal experience. It was still kind of neat to attach all these numbers to my games and see what happens. Try it out with your stash and see if Metacritic can tell you anything about your gaming purchases.
In Third Person 