RANKING BY REVIEW

Just by way of reference, we’ve ranked the games according to review scores. This offers some idea of the relative sales position games have achieved against the average review scores, as tabulated by Metacritic or Gamerankings.

At the extremes, there is a definite correlation between high sales and high review scores. The top-selling games tended to be rated highly, while the lower selling games tended to be rated poorly. However, there are clear exceptions – certainly enough to repeat the truism that a good review doesn’t guarantee high sales; but that bad reviews offer little in the way of help.

Badly reviewed games that sold well were almost all licenses of some form, with a target audience outside the core gamer demographic.

It’s interesting how few games that score in the middling-70s, achieved remarkable sales. Only three of the 30 games scoring 70-odd made it into the top 20 and only one into the top ten.

As noted previously, licenses cram the lower orders. The reasons for this have been debated at length down the years, ranging from a tightening of budgets to pay licensing fees, to false deadline imposed by movie releases, to developers not feeling any ownership in the IP. Indeed, you have to go 15 places down the list of best-reviewed to find the first non-sports license, and that is Lego Star Wars which some might argue barely qualifies as a straight license in any case. The only other three that made it above 80% were Lord of The Rings, Marvel and Star Wars: Empire at War.

THE GREAT GAMES

95%
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (11th)

94%
Gears of War (6th)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (12th)

93%
Final Fantasy XII (16th)
Okami (100th)

92%
Guitar Hero 2 (14th)

91%
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (13th)

VERY GOOD GAMES

89%
New Super Mario Bros (5th)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas (52nd)
Resistance: Fall of Man (80th)
Burnout Revenge (86th)

87%
NCAA Football (4th)
Kingdom Hearts II (7th)
Bully (59th)

86%
Daxter (92nd)

85%
Madden NFL (1st)
Lego Star Wars II (3rd)
Fight Night (9th)
Splinter Cell: Double Agent (35th)
NBA 2K7 (36th)
Dead Rising (41st)
Metroid Prime: Hunters (62nd)
FEAR (97th)

GOOD GAMES

84%
Call of Duty (8th)
Lord of the Rings (45th)
Tetris (77th)

83%
MLB ’06: The Show (26th)

82%
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (20th)
FIFA Soccer (31st)
Hitman: Blood Money (38th)
Saints Row (40th)
Nintendogs (43rd)
Yoshi’s Island (48th)

80%
Black (25th)
Tiger Woods (30th)
Tomb Raider (42nd)
Empire at War (60th)
Flight Simulator (82nd)
Battlefield 2142 (95th)

OKAY GAMES

79%
WWE Smackdown vs Raw (17th)

78%
Brain Age (19th)
NCAA Baseball (37th)
Final Fantasy III (75th)
Battlefield 2 (81st)
Prey (98th)

77%
Liberty City Stories (21st)
Scarface (22nd)
FIFA World Cup (24th)
The Godfather (29th)
DDR Super Nova (50th)
Princess Peach (64th)
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja (70th)
SOCOM (72nd)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (99th)

76%

MK: Armageddon (46th)
Dragon Ball Z (55th)
March of the Minis (65th)
Destroy All Humans 2 (71st)
Star Fox Command (93rd)

75%
Need For Speed Carbon (10th)
Big Brain Academy (33rd)
Top Spin 2 (88th)

PASSABLE GAMES

74%
Tourist Trophy (94th)

72%
Kirby Squeak Squad (84th)

71%
Cars (2nd)
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 (28th)
NBA Ballers: Phenom (85th)
NFL Street 3 (90th)

70%
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (39th)
Pirates of the Caribbean (49th)
Mario Hoops (61st)
Naruto: Clash of Ninja (69th)
NASCAR 07 (83rd)
Chromehounds (87th)

DISAPPOINTMENTS

69%
Thrillville (53rd)

67%
Arena Football (74th)

66%

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red & Blue (15th)
Blazing Angels (91st)

65%
NBA Live (18th)
Avatar: The Last Airbender (34th)
Hanna Montana (78th)


64%
Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (56th)
NFL Head Coach (76th)

63%
Major League Baseball (23rd)
Red Steel (96th)

62%
Sonic Riders (32nd)

60%
Dirge of Cerberus (68th)

POOR GAMES
(below 60% - worse ones nearer the bottom)

FIFA Street 2 (73rd)
Over The Hedge (27th)
X-Men: The Official Game (47th)
Spongebob (54th)
Jaws Unleashed (66th)
The Sims 2: Pets (44th)
Rampage: Total Destruction (58th)
Eragon (63rd)
Bratz: Forever Diamondz (57th)
Family Guy (89th)
Happy Feet (51st)
Superman (67th)
Catz (79th)