Love them or hate them, Electronic Arts has been responsible for a number of highly popular and critically acclaimed games over the years. Covering practically every genre of gaming they have been responsible for some truly great games and titles that seemingly fly off the shelves.
According to Metacritic these are the best franchises that EA has had a hand in creating. Some of the entries are obvious, some may be surprising, but there’s no denying that there are some fun and engaging games on this list.
10 Bejeweled HD (Metascore 93)
Considered by many to be one of the most successful puzzle games in gaming history, Bejeweled is a powerhouse that was on many gamers and non-gamers phones and tablets when it came out. The entry with the highest Metascore is Bejeweled HD in 2012.
The price tag was justified by many thanks to fun game modes, pleasing graphics, and intuitive controls. Fans liked that you could play for a few minutes and be satisfied or get sucked in for hours and leave wanting more.
9 Rock Band 3 (Metascore 93)
The concept of music based rhythm games wasn’t entirely new when EA took a swing at it, but they set the gold standard with the wildly popular Rock Band series. Metacritic considers Rock Band 3 to be the pinnacle of the franchise.
Critics couldn’t get enough of the great soundtrack, how easy it was to pick up and play, and that it fixed nearly every mistake that came before it. The Keyboard was also popular with both critics and players. The DLCs released afterward may have irked some while many were more than happy to reach for their wallets.
8 SSX (Metascore 93)
The SSX series came seemingly out of nowhere and took the popularity of the Tony Hawk Skating style of play and put it on fresh powder. For Metacritic the best one was the original, SSX for the Playstation 2 in 2000.
The graphics were excellent, the courses were massive, and the trick mechanics felt fair, fluid, and rewarding. There was a lot of fun to be had performing sick tricks to an equally sick soundtrack. Multiplayer was where the fun was and singleplayer was used solely to let you practice in order to beat your friends next time, and to unlock customization features.
7 Plants Vs. Zombies HD (Metascore 93)
Some consider the Plants Vs. Zombies franchise to be responsible for the zombie craze in 2010, but regardless of whether it was the cause or the symptom it was a fantastic game that is still pumping out titles today. The HD version of Plants Vs. Zombies is considered the cream of the crop.
The simple premise was filled with interesting plants to defend you garden from increasingly quirky and difficult to beat zombies. The tongue in cheek story was engaging and the gameplay was surprisingly deep with a lot of strategies to cater to every playstyle.
6 NCAA Football 2004 (Metascore 94)
Sports games saw a golden age on the Playstation 2 and NCAA Football was one that appealed to many gaming and sports fans. Metacritic rates NCAA Football 2004 the highest out of the franchise.
On top of the solid gameplay, tight controls, and crowds that felt alive critics and fans couldn’t get enough over the depth and complexity of the game. It had much more freedom than previous football-based games and fans were stunned by the sheer number of plays at their disposal. It was the attention to little details such as recruiting and the soundtrack that made this a great game for many.
5 Need For Speed Shift (Metascore 94)
The racing series Need For Speed was once considered the standard in car racing games. Interestingly Metacritic feels that Need For Speed Shift for the IOS to be the best EA has put out.
It worked surprisingly well on Iphones thanks to some clever controls, smooth gameplay, and polished graphics. Many were a little upset by the multiplayer features, but singleplayer was fun enough to make up for it. It was a long game with a lot of content and critics and fans enjoyed it while it lasted.
4 Burnout 3: Takedown (Metascore 94)
As fun as racing games like Need For Speed are, people just want a little mayhem on the track which is what Burnout did very well. Racing through busy streets, crashing into cars, and massive explosions, this was a game that rewarded both skilled drivers and maniacal destructors. Metacritic has Burnout 3: Takedown as the best in the series.
It took everything the previous titles had built and made it bigger, better, and flashier. The highspeed racing was a dose of adrenaline as gamers dodged trucks, trees, and dove through gridlocked intersections. Then there were hours of fun in the action packed and often hilarious game modes.
3 Command & Conquer (Metascore 94)
Although real time strategy games have been eclipsed in popularity by other genres, Command & Conquer was a great series that kept the genre kicking for quite a while. According to Metacritic the first entry Command & Conquer from 1995 exclusively for the PC is easily the best in the series.
The gameplay was fun and challenging, it was a modernization of games like Warcraft, and playing both sides of the conflict was a thought-provoking experience. In fact the only beef anyone had with the game was that multiplayer hadn’t become a feature yet and had to be built-in later.
2 Madden NFL 2003 (Metascore 95)
It should be no surprise that Madden NFL is considered the best sports game franchise EA has ever produced. It also shouldn’t be too surprising that Metacritic considers Madden NFL 2003 to be the best title within that immensely popular series.
Copies of this game were flying off the shelves and critics couldn’t get enough. There were significant improvements to previous titles such as controls, graphics, and features. Many players got sucked into the Franchise Mode and rarely if ever left it. This was a definite highlight for both sports-based games and the company EA.
1 Mass Effect 2 (Metascore 96)
The most highly review franchise on Metacritic is the Mass Effect series. Mass Effect 2 is considered the flagship of the series and one of the better games that’s ever been made by Metacritics standards.
This Sci Fi RPG was a combination of action packed gameplay and sweeping narrative. It boasted forty-plus hours of gameplay that left players with tough choices, great graphics, engaging characters, and thrilling story. Both the franchise and the developers went through some rough patches after this point, but Mass Effect 2’s release left gamers feeling like there was a bright future ahead.