The Walking Dead tops Metacritic for 2012

Item: The Walking Dead
Author: Brenna Hillier

Review by Brenna Hillier Contributor

Published on Jan. 2, 2013

TellTale's The Walking Dead adventure series has earned top nods from Metacritic in 2012.

The narrative-driven horror collected an average critical rating of 95 on Xbox 360 to win "game of the year" from the aggregate site.

It joins 2011 alumnus Batman: Arkham City, with 96 on PlayStation 3; Super Mario Galaxy 2, which won 2010 with 97 on Wii; 2009's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, a PS3 exclusive of 96; and Grand Theft Auto IV, the winner of 2008 with 98, again on PS3.

Metacritic 2012: By Platform
The PlayStation 3's overall Metascore was 70.3, with 204 releases. It produced six games ranked 90 or higher and 6 exclusives ranked 75 and higher. Journey was its top exclusive with 92.

The Xbox 360 managed a Metascore of 69.5 with 243 games. It produced seven games of 90 or higher and eight exclusives of 75 or higher. Trials Evolution was the top exclusive performer with a score of 90.

The Wii and Wii U were considered together, and collectively netted an average of 68.3 over 53 games. Only one game ranked 90 or above - Wii exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles - but six exclusives managed 75 or more.

Critical cooling
Metacritic noted that fewer 2012 releases took very high average scores in 2012 than in previous years.

"Just 14 console games - and 18 products overall, including PC and handheld (non-iOS) titles -scored 90 or higher in 2012. Those figures represent a huge drop from the previous year, when 23 console titles (and 32 games overall) met or exceeded the 90 mark," a blog post pointed out.

"In fact, since we started publishing these year-end reports in 2009, we have never encountered such a low total number of great games in a single year."

Lower critical enthusiasm may be partially attributed to fatigue caused by the most extended console lifecycle in the industry's history. The eighteen games which did score a Metacritic average of 90 or more are listed below.

Of these, a couple are repeat entries. Mass Effect 3's PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases both made it, as did Far Cry 3's. Mark of the Ninja snuck in on both PC and Xbox 360. Microsoft, EA and 2K had three entries each; Ubisoft had two.

Metacritic 2012: average of 90+