1996 - Super Mario 64 (94)
1997 - GoldenEye 007 (96)
1998 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (99)
1999 - Soulcalibur (98)
2000 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (98)
2001 - Halo: Combat Evolved (97)
2002 - Metroid Prime (97)
2003 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (96)
2004 - Half-Life 2 (96)
2005 - Resident Evil 4 (96)
2006 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (96)
2007 - Super Mario Galaxy (97)
2008 - Grand Theft Auto IV (98)
2009 - Uncharted 2: Amont Thieves (96)
2010 - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (97)
2011 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (96)
2012 - Mass Effect 3 (93)
2013 - Grand Theft Auto V (97)
2014 - Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (92)

Edit: I have been noted that a game needs at least seven reviews to qualify, and if that is the case Mass Effect 3 is the highest-rated of 2012 with a 93 average, as The Walking Dead had six reviews.

SSBU is really the highest game for 2014?

This truly proves the posts I've seen throughout the years where people claim the media is biased against Nintendo.

The last of us remastered is 95 on metacritic

What's fun is looking at the numbers for 2014, Vita games actually scored on average higher than 3DS games with more scored games total. Not bad for what many consider to be a no games dead system.

And yeah, Super Smash Bros U got the highest for 2014. I give it a pass though since we only get one SSB every generation, and they're usually pretty well polished games.

Metacritic discounts remasters and ports when counting their best games of the year, otherwise GTA V PS4/One also would have beaten SSB.

Down year last year but that's understandable. Is Soulcalibur the highest rated fighting game ever? Not that I disagree, that game was a revelation.

I guess this also answers the FInal Fantasy vs Zelda post :p

the highest game that isn't a port/remaster or on mobile devices.

http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/year/all?sort=desc&year_selected=2014

My thoughts too when I saw that.... I thought, that cant be right.