The 35 best Xbox games

Ranked by the scores that magazines gave these games when they came out. The list draws on 2,824 review scores of 888 Xbox games; 769 of them have enough reviews to be ranked.

#	Game	Platform	Year	Score
1	Halo	Xbox	2001	97.3
2	Project Gotham Racing 2	Xbox	2003	95
3	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	Xbox	2005	94.3
4	Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow	Xbox	2004	94.1
5	Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance	Xbox	2002	94
6	Ninja Gaiden Black	Xbox	2005	94
7	SoulCalibur II	Xbox	2003	93.9
8	Halo 2	Xbox	2004	93.8
9	Knights of the Old Republic	Xbox	2003	93.8
10	Forza Motorsport	Xbox	2005	93
11	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Xbox	2003	93
12	Ninja Gaiden	Xbox	2004	92.6
13	Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory	Xbox	2005	92.6
14	Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3	Xbox	2002	92.5
15	Doom 3	Xbox	2005	92.5
16	Panzer Dragoon Orta	Xbox	2003	92.2
17	SSX 3	Xbox	2003	92
18	Madden NFL 2003	Xbox	2002	92
19	Madden NFL 2004	Xbox	2003	92
20	Jade Empire	Xbox	2005	91.8
21	Tony Hawk's Underground	Xbox	2003	91.5
22	Madden NFL 2005	Xbox	2004	91.3
23	Dead or Alive 3	Xbox	2001	91.2
24	ESPN NFL Football	Xbox	2003	91
25	Burnout 3: Takedown	Xbox	2004	90.7
26	Colin McRae Rally 3	Xbox	2002	90.6
27	SSX Tricky	Xbox	2001	90.2
28	Pro Evolution Soccer 4	Xbox	2004	90.1
29	ESPN NBA Basketball	Xbox	2003	90
30	Madden NFL 2002	Xbox	2001	90
31	MVP Baseball 2004	Xbox	2004	90
32	NBA 2k2	Xbox	2002	90
33	NCAA Football 2003	Xbox	2002	90
34	Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004	Xbox	2003	90
35	Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4	Xbox	2002	90

Highly rated, with fewer than 3 reviews

4 Xbox games have a score of 90 or more, but from only one or two reviews, and no Metacritic score.

Game	Platform	Year	Score
Mutant Storm	Xbox	2004	100
Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack	Xbox	2003	95
NFL 2K3	Xbox	2002	91
Moto GP - Ultimate Racing Technology 2	Xbox	2003	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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