I was thinking that there are a number of 3rd party games releasing this year that have a chance to receive a large amount of critical acclaim, and am curious which game people think will be the most critically acclaimed.

Using gamerankings.com there have been several titles around the 85 mark released already this year.

The highest games so far are

1.Tiger Woods 11 - 85.90

2. Tatsunko vs. Capcom - 85.89

3. Monster Hunter Tri - 85.00

4.No More Heroes 2 - 84.26

5. Trauma Team - 81.22

If we were to count WiiWare the highest game would be Cave Story at 90.30 which might so high that the titles yet to release would have a hard time toppling it.

Some of the games yet to be released which I think will have a good chance at strong critical reviews.

TrackMania

Disney Guilty Party

NBA Jam

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Conduit 2

Goldeneye

Disney’s Epic Mickey

Then of course the music games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and DJ Hero all usually get strong reviews as well.

I think Epic Mickey will be the highest rated game of the bunch, and probably the only one with a chance of a 90 rating. I think Black Ops, NBA Jam, and DJ Hero 2 will be above the ~86 mark set by the current leader. The rest may be in the low 80s or lower.

So what do you all think about the 3rd party offerings this year, and which is most likely to get the most acclaim? Did I leave any big games off my list? Will any of the yet to release titles surpass the ratings of the highest retail (Tiger Woods) or maybe even WiiWare (Cave Story) games?

Epic mickey for sure...

Gotta be Epic Mickey, though Machina makes a good point too, but Epic Mickey's going to have the kind of stuff to really make critics drool.

Epic Mickey.

Epic Mickey.. or Last Story whenever it hits.

I suspect Epic Mickey but NBA Jam and Trackmania could surprise.   NBA Jam just needs to keep it simple/fun while bringing the classic to modern times and Trackmania probably won't have a lot of coverage, so if it nails what it does, could end up with 90's due to it.

All FPS suffer from comparisons to the the robust FPS on HD consoles so don't expect anything beyond 80's there.

Oh that's easy: Epic Mickey

Ill add a Epic Mickey vote to the list

My vote goes to Epic Mickey... because I know Last Story will be slammed be reviewers, despite being an awesome game. If that were not the case, I'd pick Last Story.

I have to agree with machina. Music games are one of the only genres on Wii were the difference between Wii and HD versions are verrrry slight.