As I talked about in my post last week, when a game averages scores in the 7s on an aggregator site like Metacritic, it seems to have a bit of a stink on it. Gamers become wary of it and even view it as a bad score, despite the fact that almost every review scale views 7s as a good game.
The reality is that there are tons of gems with scores in these ranges. Sometimes, your taste aligns with a game in a way that makes you enjoy it more than most. I also believe there are times when reviewers focus too much on the entire package of the game and not enough on if the game is executing on the main things that it wants to accomplish.
The reason I picked 76 and under for this list is because of Rise of the Ronin releasing to that score on Metacritic this year. I happen to think it is an absolute blast to play, and while it certainly has flaws, it has really fun combat, which is the main thing it needed to have. Since I started working on this list, I also had a magnificent time with Harold Halibut, which is sitting in the low 70s on Metacritic. Both of these games would be on this list if I didn’t just write about them.
With that, here are my top 10 video games with a 76 or under on Metacritic.
10. Picross S
Metacritic Score: 67
It’s very possible that the reviewers had valid points with this one. Basically, Picross S gets slammed for being worse than the Picross games that came out for the 3DS. The puzzles are the same between the two main modes, and some features that were in the 3DS games were missing.
But here’s the thing, I am not the audience for most of these reviews. This game was my entryway to picross/nonograms. And if you are in the same boat as me, this game is absolutely incredible. I somehow stumbled on this in 2020 right when the pandemic began, and it was a bit of a lifesaver for me. I played the heck out of this, the sequel, and the next game after that. Future games add a lot more content and new puzzles to the equation, but if this is your first Picross game, and you like puzzle games at all, I guarantee you will love this. In my opinion, nonograms are infinitely more fun than just about any of the more famous puzzle games out there. I’m looking at you, sudoku.
9. Gunfire Reborn
Metacritic Score: 75
I’m really happy that Roboquest got an 85 on Metacritic last year, as it is a very fun roguelite FPS. However, it made me wonder how Gunfire Reborn didn’t get more love in 2022. I think it is a better game than Roboquest.
I preferred the level design and art direction with Gunfire Reborn. The actual roguelite/RPG elements are a bit more rewarding, and I think the difficulty balancing is a little better and more fair. The actual gunplay is quite strong in both. Both are great games, but if you want an FPS roguelite that is on Game Pass, I would direct you to this game before anything else, despite what the reviews say.
8. Evil Within 2
Metacritic Score: 76
I’d put the Evil Within games really damn close to just about any other survival horror series out there. I love the gunplay, the balancing is great, and the story and characters are over the top and entertaining. Obviously, these aren’t absolute artistic masterpieces, but I would say they are very fun and well-rounded games.
Most of the concerns about this game are regarding the plot, and honestly, while there are some great survival horror plots out there, I would say most fall flat, but don’t seem to get punished for it the way Evil Within does. If you like survival horror games, and the Resident Evil series in particular, I’m not sure how you couldn’t view these games as at least an 8/10, and I thought Evil Within 2 is the better of the two games in the series, hence its inclusion on this list.
7. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney- Justice For All
Metacritic Score: 76
I never looked at reviews when I played any of the Ace Attorney games. They were incredibly hyped on a gaming message board I posted on as a teen, so I dove in. Each game in the original trilogy blew me away in different ways, and Justice for All is no exception. This is an excellent visual novel game.
Just like any game in the series, the characters are incredibly strong, the plot twists are fast and furious, and the last case in particular is absolutely incredible and emotional. This game got dinged for not evolving enough from the first game, which is going to be hard for any visual novel type game to do. If you like visual novels and the original game, I find it hard to believe that you wouldn’t like Justice for All.
6. Etrian Odyssey
Metacritic Score: 75
When I started exploring RPGs as a teen, I was playing almost any game I could get my hands on. But whenever I saw an old school dungeon crawler, I had absolutely no interest. They all seemed so dreary and like such a slog.
Once again, I hadn’t seen reviews for Etrian Odyssey, but there was plenty of hype on a gaming message board I was on, so I took the plunge. At the very least, putting this type of game into a more colorful setting is a big help for making this a little less intimidating than a traditional dungeon crawler.
Of course, there is nothing special here in terms of story or characters, but it’s a fun and rewarding battle system, and as a guy who likes to have the map whenever I go to a museum or the zoo, it was a blast making the map as I explored. I thought it was very well balanced as well. It is challenging but not overwhelming. I never thought I’d get into dungeon crawlers, but the entire Etrian Odyssey series changed that for me.
5. Stuntman: Ignition
Metacritic Score: 75
Stuntman: Ignition is a game where you are a stunt driver for various movies. You have to navigate different movie sets in stylish ways to create the perfect action sequence.
I do understand some of the complaints reviewers had with this game. It’s almost impossible to nail a run on your first few attempts Explosions and collisions can happen out of nowhere, so you really need to experience the levels multiple times before it becomes feasible to excel at them.
But personally, I didn’t mind this at all. Yes, it’s trial and error, but the levels are so fun that it never bugged me. When you finally get through one, you can watch your whole run afterward like it is in the movie, and it creates a huge sense of pride. I love big set piece driving moments in video games, and this is a video game designed to essentially just do that. That is awesome, and I’d love for this series to come back one day.
4. Grandia 2
Metacritic Score: 71
This might be the biggest miss by reviewers on the whole list. I was stunned reading some of the reviews here. There are a lot of complaints about the graphics looking dated. The game also gets ripped for its lackluster story and characters, which honestly was not a strength for a lot of RPGs in this era anyway.
This all overlooks why I think most people love this series, and that is the incredible battle system. The “ATB” style system, combined with character movement and being able to delay/counter enemies, is still something I have not seen many other battle systems even try to replicate. This is also one of the few RPGs where the guard option is actually quite viable and even fun to use. As long as a battle system is this good, no RPG should get scores in this range, and with one of the best battle systems in all of JRPGs, Grandia 2 deserved much better than this.
3. Spec Ops: The Line
Metacritic Score: 76
Spec Ops: The Line plays like a competent but pretty generic 3rd person military shooter. It was released during the heyday of these types of games.
The twist is… this game doesn’t actually celebrate being a military shooter. Instead, what follows is one of the more mind-blowing and impactful plots in all of video games.
I understand if you are checking boxes when writing a review, it’s easy to say that the gameplay is relatively generic and mark this game down a few notches for that. But the game isn’t about that. It was truly made to be a narrative experience, and it nails that. The gameplay is at least competent enough to get you through those gameplay sections. Spec Ops is still talked about for its story to this day, and it absolutely deserved better than this.
2. Nier
Metacritic Score: 67
Reading reviews back from the first Nier is interesting because even the reviews trashing it acknowledge that the game is brilliant in many ways.
This is another game from the early 2010s that got crushed for its graphics, which I’m glad isn’t something reviewers tend to harp on as much these days. It also gets consistently criticized for some boring quest design, which is fair, but honestly, the music in the game is so good, and the basic combat was solid enough where that never bugged me personally.
The world and story are also incredibly interesting. It’s no shocker that despite the reviews, this connected with a lot of people, and has become a bonafide blockbuster series. I somehow still haven’t played the remake of this game, Replicant, and making this list reminded me that I need to fix that soon.
1. Days Gone
Metacritic Score: 71
It seems like a lot of quality open world zombie games end up in this 71-76 range with game critics. Some of those are understandable, but this one didn’t make tons of sense to me. Yes, there are some flaws. I thought the story, in particular, lost a lot of steam as it went on and had some pretty weird moments.
But the scale, especially with the amount of zombies they throw at you and the motorcycle element and managing it, are both so fun and rewarding. I’d argue this is easily one of the best open world zombie games of all time.
I did play this later on, and I know bugs were at least part of the reason for the original review scores, but they didn’t come up as much as you’d think in the reviews I read. If reviews scared you off from this one, you should definitely give it a go. It feels great to play on the PS5, and is likely a lot better than it was at launch.
Big Nerd Gaming 
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