The people have spoken, so long as you’re talking about “people who use Metacritic,” in regards to the best and most overrated games of 2014. From futuristic warfare to pocket-sized monsters and brawling Nintendo mascots, the past 12 month’s brightest gems range the spectrum, popping up on every console, from indie on up to AAA.
According to the official results, the highest rated Metacritic game of 2014 was Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, coming in at a final score of 92. It turns out that average players agreed with critics this time around, voting Smash Bros. into the number one spot in the annual “Game of the Year” poll. It’s also worth noting that three of the top five games of the year were only available on the Wii U console.
The announcement goes on to point out another interesting statistic, this time related to the annual FPS fix from the CoD camp.
“This was also the second year in a row that the annual Call of Duty entry failed to crack our users’ top 10,” reads the write-up. “That franchise at least fare better than Assassin’s Creed. Despite two releases in 2014, the highest it landed with users is 30th overall for Assassin’s Creed Unity.”
But enough of that jibba-jabba, let’s get onto the fan-selected results. According to Metacritic users, these are the top 20 games of 2014:
20. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby
19. inFamous: Second Son
18. Wolfenstein: The New Order
17. FIFA 15
16. Shovel Knight
15. Alien: Isolation
14. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
13. Destiny
12. The Walking Dead: Season Two
11. South Park: The Stick of Truth
10. The Wolf Among Us
9. The Last of Us Remastered
8. Dark Souls II
7. Grand Theft Auto V
6. Far Cry 4
5. Bayonetta 2
4. Mario Kart 8
3. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
2. Dragon Age: Inquisition
And, just because you can’t have a light side without the dark, Metacritic users were also asked to cast a vote for the most overrated games of the year. Only five results were listed for this category and, not surprisingly, four of them were also on the “Best Games” list.
5. Watch_Dogs
4. Dragon Age: Inquisition
3. Grand Theft Auto V
2. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
1. Destiny
For those of you keeping count, that means that three of the best games of the year, as voted by Metacritic users, were available on the 3DS, with the same number available on last-gen consoles, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Only one game on the list was available on the Vita, with the Wii U getting four nods.
Finally, both the PC and Xbox One had 12 “best of “games available on their platform, with the PlayStation 4 netting 14.
