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7 Nintendo Franchises That Have Never Dipped Below 80 On Metacritic



7 Nintendo Franchises That Have Never Dipped Below 80 On Metacritic

by IamIUareU

37 Comments

  1. blackthorn_orion

    I feel like a through-line here is a lot of these games just haven’t gotten a ton of entries. Like, not to diminish any of these series, but it’s easier to stay above an 80 if you’re a 3 game series versus a series that’s gotten regular installments (and weird spin-offs) for decades. And some of these probably benefit from being older series that haven’t really had all their entries in the “modern landscape” of video game reviews; for example, Wave Race for the Gameboy isn’t even on Metacritic.

    e: Also, I got curious and looked up some other older/limited series. Golden Sun missed out by literally one point (first two games are 91 and 86, Dark Dawn is a 79). And Wario Land only misses the list because Shake it is a 78 (though admittedly, only Shake It and Wario Land 4 are on Metacritic). Meanwhile F-Zero missed it due to GP Legend (77).

  2. golden-mirror

    1. Xenoblade Chronicles
    2. Advance Wars
    3. Splatoon
    4. Pushmo
    5. Rhythm Heaven
    6. Wave Race
    7. Clubhouse Games

  3. BoysWillCry

    Man I really want a new Wave Race. Loved Blue Storm and the N64 release. Never did play the original GameBoy release though. Not enough jet ski games out there fr.

  4. StyleVSTAR253

    And this matters why?

    So people would rather downvote than give me a legitimate answer? That sounds about reddit

  5. Makotroid

    I’ll see your Xenoblade, and i raise you one metroid other M holding us back.

  6. Kariodude

    What a pointless list. Might as well have made a list of Nintendo franchises that have less than 5 entries.

  7. > The lowest mainline score goes to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which had an 83, and an expansion title that got an 80.

    I’ll never understand Torna getting a lower rating than the main game, the expansion was so good.

  8. milkstrike

    Nintendo gets a reviewer bias so their games get higher scores in general

  9. henryuuk

    Mostly surprised Days of Ruin didn’t *ruin* (pun intended) this for Advance wars.
    I mostly remember people not jiving with it compared to the rest

  10. Juanisawesome98

    I don’t trust Metacritic as a legitimate source.

  11. Mattock1987

    It’s mostly because there aren’t many games.

  12. VinMannie

    nintendo please make another rhythm heaven i will buy 7

  13. TheEclipse0

    Not only do these series have fewer games, but Wave Race is missing the gameboy version, so they might not even be complete.

  14. osterlay

    Wait, both mainline Zelda and Mario games never dipped below 90% let alone 80% excluding ports and side games.

  15. MetricOutlaw

    I’d love a new Pushmo game. Such an amazing game for such a reasonable price.

  16. Tanookikid210

    I mean, all of these franchises have less than 10 games in their series, however there are some clear gems in this list (Xenoblade and Splatoon in particular are phenomenal in design, while Rhythm Heaven has an endless life span thanks to the ability to make custom levels)

  17. Cagliostro81

    Now if only Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp would come out…

  18. hypermog

    OK the last wave race game was over 20 years ago

  19. forgotten_tomato

    no mario or zelda series???

    *checks philips cd-i*

    oh wtf

  20. TGreatGoo

    F-Zero is a close one I think the only game under 80 is climax

  21. Honda_TypeR

    Give me a new wave race for switch!

    It’s all I want and I will be happy…ok give me a new donkey Kong too!

  22. BebeFanMasterJ

    Xenoblade is perfection. As expected.

  23. Lucas-DM

    I’m glad Xenoblade is being acknolodged, though i’m still surprised how the original on Wii is the highest rated at a 92, like, i’d get if Xenoblade 3 with it’s 89 wasn’t as good in some people’s opinions compared to Definitive Edition (which is also 89), but the Wii version? I guess those were different times, so fair enough.

  24. HyruleJedi

    Jetmotto kicked the shit out of wave race in 1996.

  25. ShadooTH

    You bet your ass xenoblade is up there. Fucking awesome series.

  26. mabubsonyeo

    This is a sign to get Advance Wars on the switch

  27. legalizemonapizza

    Pushmo has four games, released across ~4.5 years. Then they just *stopped.* Then miiverse got killed off and the fan made levels got harder to share. Community got btfo.

    Tragic.

  28. Is hey pikmin counted as a mainline pikmin game because otherwise how is pikmin not on here

  29. Rockalot_L

    You can’t just show me Advance Wars like that 😭

  30. Swift_Shot

    Wow that’s whack. I acknowledge Xenoblade 1 & 2, but I have 0 idea how 3 was not below 80.

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