The battle to be the highest-rated game of the year continues as Astro Bot finally claims the top spot from Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Astro Bot has overtaken both Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and Metaphor: ReFantazio to become the highest rated game on Metacritic this year.

It's been a competitive year for great games, and Astro Bot seems to have just edged in front of the competition on Metacritic. All three games actually tie in terms of their overall score of 94, but Astro Bot has 139 reviews compared to Shadow of the Erdtree's 70 and Metaphor: ReFantazio's 53.

Astro Bot managed to edge out this win after picking up a perfect 10 score in Game Grin's review which came out just three days ago, November 26. It reads: "From beginning to end, Astro Bot is a charming, stunning platformer that looks gorgeous and plays flawlessly," and cites the "brilliantly designed levels, incredibly responsive platforming, and an absurdly charming cast of characters" as reasons for why the game is so good.

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Team Asobi's adorable PS5 platforming adventure is a celebration of all things PlayStation, with cameos from many Sony mascots like Kratos, Aloy, and even a hunter from Bloodborne. Matt writes in our own Astro Bot review that the game "Soars above and beyond to serve up a near-perfect platformer."

Meanwhile, Catherine's Metaphor: ReFantazio review calls it "an evolution of Atlus' best RPGs" while Joel's Shadow of the Erdtree review jokes "it's almost getting boring praising FromSoftware every time." FromSoftware really is the golden goose in gaming these days, and Sony has already made its interest to buy its parent company Kadokawa known, although some Japanese analysts think it might be too expensive.

Out of these three games the only one I've played this year is Shadow of the Erdtree, and I feel strange calling it a full game and seeing it nominated for Game of the Year. I love it, but watching DLC, even one as huge as Shadow of the Erdtree, against new games feels odd. But by that logic, why not discount sequels, too?

If you're in the mood for more critical darlings, you should read our list of the best games of 2024 so far.