Games with average or below critic reviews you thought were brilliant

[deleted-4439668]

Games that received a 70 or 75 or below on metacritic that you would give an 85 or 90 or above.

I’ll start with one that inspired this topic, I was amazed to find out Trace Memory on DS had a 70 critic metascore. I loved that game and it was one of the first (2005) to get me seeing games as art as a possibility. It was an adventure game mechanically, but it had an emotional story in which you uncovered memories by solving puzzles, some of which were full of grief/loss, and love. Meanwhile the user score for the game is an 81, and I’d go higher and give it something like an 88. This game was one of the first to come to mind when I was thinking about DS games that should be remade for switch.

Trace Memory

Trace Memory for DS game reviews & Metacritic score: (Also known as "Another Code: Two Memories") Uncover clues to a family's dark mystery in the first true adventure game on the Nintendo DS. Featuring a riveting...

www.metacritic.com

What are some of your underrated (by critics) gems that you thought were great?

 

[-Troopa-]

Big Bumpin’. It was a $3.99 game created by Burger King for the Xbox 360. They created three games at the time, and we bought all of them. Big Bumpin’ was my favorite. My best friend and I had a lot of fun playing the games.

It plays essentially like a mini version of Mario Party, but all the mini games use bumper cars. Some of them were really fun and had some depth to it.

Some critics realized it was actually good. IGN gave it a 7/10: https://www.ign.com/articles/2006/11/17/big-bumpin-review

I wouldn’t say it deserves any higher than that for most people, but it hit a sweet spot for us.

Here’s a goofy story. One of the other games they made is Sneak King. There’s a guy who is trying to collect as many copies as he can: https://www.nme.com/features/gaming...t-to-collect-every-copy-of-sneak-king-3112100

 

[deleted-4439668]

Ohh I’ve got another one, maybe this one’s too easy and I’ll have to dig deeper. But Pokémon Scarlet has a 72 critic and 32 user rating. It was my game of the year last year lol. I thought it was the best iteration of Pokémon yet.

Pokemon Scarlet

The Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games, the newest chapters in the Pokémon series, are coming to Nintendo Switch. With these new titles, the Pokémon series takes a new evolutionary step, allowing you to explore freely in a richly expressed open world. Various towns blend seamlessly into...

www.metacritic.com

I played a lot of good games last year but this one fulfilled my expectations of what an open world Pokémon should be, minus some MMO aspects but that’d be a different game. I’d give this one a 90.

Ok here’s a better one: Infinifactory. It has a 70 metascore, and 92 user score. It is Fantastic. I’ve had it as my “favorite game” on my Steam profile for years. Mind bending puzzles, and if I ever say that about another game, they’re not as mind bending as Infinifactory was. This game is like programming in 3D. Essentially looks like Minecraft in space but over the course of the game it makes you learn how to build red stone logic circuits. Logic circuits that power a factory that build increasingly complex outputs. This game just makes you think differently while playing it, it tickled the math/programming side of my brain hard. And I would give it a 99/100.

Infinifactory

Infinifactory for PlayStation 4 game reviews & Metacritic score: nfinifactory is the spiritual successor to two of our most popular games: SpaceChem, the fiendishly difficult puzzle game that introduced the world to Zachtroni...

www.metacritic.com

anyone who is able to complete this game, has my respect as a logician lol. It took me quite awhile. Most give up

 

[docSpock]

Interesting question. It’s a good thing Xbox keeps a list of all the games I own or this list would be impossible.

Borderline: El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron (75)
Or, why I still have an Xbox 360. This plarform game is wonderfully designed, bizarre and trippy. Clearly far beyond the minds of mere reviewers. It just makes the cut for this list at 75 though and I think anything 70 and above is actually a decent score.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron for Xbox 360 game reviews & Metacritic score: Developed by a hugely-talented, Tokyo-based team headed by the legendary Sawaki Takeyasu (Devil May Cry) and Masato Kimura (Okami, Viewtiful Joe) El Shaddai: As...

www.metacritic.com

The Surprise: Batman The Telltale Series (73)
This would be my favorite Batman game if not for its sequel. It’s one of the better Telltale games in that it’s relatively stable and lets you choose which problems to solve as Bruce Wayne or Batman. Bonus, it’s based on the same comics as The Batman so basically has the same plot as that movie.

Batman: The Telltale Series

Batman: The Telltale Series for PlayStation 4 game reviews & Metacritic score: Enter the fractured psyche of Bruce Wayne and discover the powerful and far-reaching consequences of your choices as the Dark Knight. In this gritty and violent...

www.metacritic.com

Why Reviews are Pointless: Forza Horizon 2 Presents The Fast and the Furious (61)
It’s understandable why this scored low. It offers no new content other than narration from Ludacris as Tej, a subset of Horizon 2’s map (notably larger than the demo though), about seven cars from Furious 7 (all of which are in the main game) and a remix of missions from the main game. It’s basically a glorified demo for Forza Horizon 2.

On the flip-side, it’s based on Forza Horizon 2, an excellent game and to this date Horizon’s best location and iirc it was free! That’s a tremendous value and a lot of a great game for zero dollars. As far as movie tie-ins go, this is easily the best one I ever played.

Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious

Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast & Furious for Xbox One game reviews & Metacritic score: For the first time , the Forza experience is combining with the Fast & Furious movie franchise to create an original expansion pack adventure filled with high-s...

www.metacritic.com

 

[IgglooV2]

I can’t think of too many because everything gets reviews of 75 or more.

 

[DevilDancer]

I really liked Othercide, which is borderline.