The 5 best Nintendo 3DS games
Ranked by the scores that magazines gave these games when they came out. The list draws on 1,003 review scores of 597 Nintendo 3DS games; 356 of them have enough reviews to be ranked.
| # | Game | Platform | Year | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D | 3DS | 2011 | 95 |
| 2 | Animal Crossing: New Leaf | 3DS | 2012 | 92.5 |
| 3 | 7th Dragon III Code: VFD | 3DS | 2015 | 90 |
| 4 | Pushmo | 3DS | 2011 | 90 |
| 5 | Shovel Knight Treasure Trove | 3DS | 2014 | 90 |
Highly rated, with fewer than 3 reviews
6 Nintendo 3DS games have a score of 90 or more, but from only one or two reviews, and no Metacritic score.
| # | Game | Platform | Year | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age | 3DS | 2017 | 100 | |
| New Love Plus | 3DS | 2012 | 95 | |
| Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2 | 3DS | 2013 | 92 | |
| NEW LovePlus+ | 3DS | 2014 | 92 | |
| Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy: Big Bang / Supernova | 3DS | 2013 | 90 | |
| Puzzle & Dragons Z | 3DS | 2013 | 90 |
How the ranking works
- The scores are the ones magazines gave when the games came out, all converted to a 0–100 scale. Only one review per magazine counts for a game: the most recent.
- A game's score is half the average, half the median of its magazine reviews. A title opens the game's page on uvlist.net; a score opens the report with every review behind it.
- A game needs at least 3 magazine reviews to be ranked. With equal scores, the game with more reviews comes first.
- Metacritic already sums up many reviews, so it is never mixed with the magazines: it is used only for games with fewer than 3 magazine reviews, as their only score.
- Each list shows every game with a score of 90 or more. Games with fewer than 3 reviews and no Metacritic score are shown apart: their score is promising, but rests on one or two opinions.
The lists are rebuilt each time reviews are added. To filter by genre, year, magazine or publisher, explore all the scores in the report.
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