Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's title of Metacritic's highest player-rated game comes under threat from seminal Nintendo DS classic Cory in the House: "The gaming industry peaked with this game. Anyone else saying otherwise is delusional"

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's title of Metacritic's highest player-rated game comes under threat from seminal Nintendo DS classic Cory in the House: "The gaming industry peaked with this game. Anyone else saying otherwise is delusional" News By Scott McCrae published 15 January 2026

He's officially the candidate for being number 1

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Metacritic's top-rated games of all time list is facing an unstoppable contender who is operating from The White House – the 2008 Nintendo DS classic, Cory in the House.

User scores can be a weird thing; you have the likes of the IMDB top 250 that will tell you Interstellar is better than Seven Samurai and The Silence of the Lambs, but weirdly Metacritic's top games list is solid. Within the top 10 are Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill 2, The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion, and two versions of the greatest game of all time, Metal Gear Solid 3. But it was rocked last year when Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 arrived and became the highest-rated game of all time when it comes to user score, where it sits today… but there is another.

As spotted by Kotaku, 2008's Cory in the House – a DS game based on the Disney Channel TV series and That's So Raven spinoff – has had a meteoric rise up the user ratings. And it doesn't even have enough critic reviews to get a score of its own, with IGN's 3/10 (a score it shares with God Hand, an absolute masterpiece) and Da Gameboyz's 4/10.

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But, as of right now, Cory in the House sits at a 9.3 user score, and is tied with Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 3, Silent Hill 2, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, and Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (although the latter is down to a 9.2 on its own page) for the second highest user rated game.

User reviews include one from NAESCH, which reads: "The gaming industry peaked with this game. Anyone else saying otherwise is delusional." Meanwhile user Alienz is calling out negative reviews emerging as a result of its momentum, saying, "The haters want to dethrone a classic because their favorite game is not #1 anymore, I respect your opinion but it never should've been when objectivity says Cory in the House is a masterpiece. Thankfully more people are starting to play it and give the merits it deserves."

The TV series – which featured appearances from Golden Globe nominee Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Metal Gear Solid 3's Lori Alan and Star Trek's George Takei – followed Cory, in the house… the White House, that is. The game is described as an "adventure stealth video game" on Wikipedia, just like Metal Gear Solid. And like the TV series it's based on, it follows Cory, in the house, as he tries to rescue bobbleheads of the President of the United States from The Evil Toymaker. Of course, that is nothing for Cory, because in the house, it's a party every week, baby.

Theme Song 🎶 | Cory In the House | Disney Channel - YouTube Watch On

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 overtakes The Last of Us 2 for the second most Game of the Year nods ever, but the J'RPG has a ways to go before beating Elden Ring's record

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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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