Even if we do not all agree on our choices of games, one thing we can all agree on is a good game deserves to sell well. There have been some success stories this year, with Modern Warfare 2 making more money than most countries did in 2009, and games like Batman: Arkham Asylum deservedly selling well – but not every good game is so lucky.

Make no mistake we are not talking about the bad games or even the average games, this is a look at the games that generally scored above 85% or higher on Metacritic, and yet fell disappointingly short of the magic 1 million total worldwide sales figures (Total sales figures provided by VG Chartz).

Click on the jump to see the best game you did not buy in 2009…

Going Down Fighting

2009 was supposed to be the year the fighting game made a comeback, and with Street Fighter IV selling well in February, early signs were good. Well, maybe someone should have told these games they needed to punch their weight a little better.

By The Numbers:

• Blazblue: Calamity Trigger —Average Rating 89%—Total Sales = 0.24 million

• Tekken 6 —Average Rating 80%—Total Sales = 0.77 million

• Fight Night Round 4—Average Rating 88%—Total Sales = 0.96 million

Blazblue seems to stand out by comparison, with the highest average rating and the lowest sales but this was not helped by a limited release (not your fault, Europeans, not yet available in Europe).  Even though Tekken 6 rates lower and has sold three times as much as Blazblue, that must still be a disappointment to Namco given that that sold over 3.5 million copies of Tekken 5 and nearly 7 million copies of Tekken 3.

Fight Night Round 4 gets the closest to the million mark out of all the games in this article, but still has to be a concern to EA considering that Round 3 sold more than twice as much. Although some the success of the previous Fight Night can be partly attributed to being a great early example of the high definition graphics of the (then) new HD era.

Sony’s Sorrows

2009 was also supposed to be the year of Sony, and they did have their “slim” success stories throughout the year.  Not every PS3 game had “Uncharted” success in 2009 though…

By The Numbers:

• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time —Average Rating 86%—Total Sales = 0.41 million

• Demon’s Souls —Average Rating 89%—Total Sales = 0.45 million

• Ghostbusters —Average Rating 79%—Total Sales = 0.37 million

Considering the eight previous Ratchet & Clank titles have combined sales over 25 million units worldwide and that Tools of Destruction sold over one and half million copies, Insomniac have to be disappointed with falling short of half a million.

Despite Demon’s Souls not fairing much better, it is a bit misleading as it had a limited release and was not available in Europe.  In fact, I believe that Atlus sold all the copies they made and are making more copies – if you see a copy, buy it.

I put Ghostbusters on the list of Sony’s Sorrows because despite the fact it was a multi-format release in the USA, Sony paid for exclusive rights in Europe.  Only just selling over a third of a million worldwide must be a concern for a big franchise game with large overheads.  Perhaps Sony regret they decision to back the ‘bust.

Wii Worries

The Wii is a worrying wild west of minigames and sports sims.  Despite the cries for more hardcore games, the sales of the best efforts of big companies like EA and Sega have not sold well on the Wii.  If it does not say ‘Nintendo’ on your Wii game you may struggle for sales.

By The Numbers:

• Boom Blox Bash Party —Average Rating 86%—Total Sales = 0.14 million

• Dead Space Extraction —Average Rating 82%—Total Sales = 0.11 million

• Mad World —Average Rating 81%—Total Sales = 0.35 million

• Muramasa:The Demon Blade —Average Rating 81% —Total Sales = 0.17 million

Boom Blox did not sell well the first time but still EA gave it another go.  Perhaps with this second attempt falling flat EA and Steven Spielberg will stop bashing round pegs into square animal shaped holes.

Dead Space disappoints EA again with Extraction not getting any sales traction and Sega had high hopes for Mad World, but that did not sell that bloody well either.  Sega’s Wii woes continue with only six games breaking the one million mark on the Wii – four of them contain the word “Sonic” in the title of the game and two of them contain the word “Mario”.

Download Doubt

2009 definitely saw its fair share of highly-rated downloadable games (it’s the future of all games…or so they tell me) Exactly how many copies of these downloadable games were downloaded we have not been updated on, or given the downlow, or the lowdown — someone knows but their not telling! — With Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft being closely guarded about the number of downloads on Playstation Network, WiiWare and Xbox Live and the emergence and rise in popularity of PC download services such as Steam, the exact numbers of sales of these games are unknown.

By The Numbers:

• (PC) World of Goo —Average Rating 90% • (PC) Torchlight —Average Rating 84%

• (PSN) Flower —Average Rating 87% • (PSN) Critter Crunch —Average Rating 87%

• (PSN) Shatter —Average Rating 86% • (XBL) Shadow Complex —Average Rating 88%

• (XBL) Trials HD —Average Rating 86% • (XBL) Splosion Man —Average Rating 84%

• GTA: Episodes from Liberty City —Average Rating 90%—Total Sales = 0.64 million

World of Goo recently switched to a ‘pay as much as you want’ model, either in an attempt to raise more money from game or, perhaps overly optimistically, because the game had already paid for itself.  Let’s hope the ambitious developers of games such as Torchlight have no such problems.

Flower got good coverage earlier in the year but I wonder how well it sold to a predominantly male audience.  I have not heard much chatter about Shatter or natter about Critter Crunch (my brief go on the demo seemed fun), but let’s wish them well.

Shadow Complex appears to have sold well with rumblings of a sequel and that was despite some controversy (concerning the author of the story) around the time of the launch.  Highly rated games Trials HD and Splosion Man got some good, games media based coverage and hopefully sold well too.

The sales figures for the GTA: Episodes from Liberty City are from the store copy version and while they do not accurately reflect the overall sales figures, there was recent talk of disappointment in the numbers of copies sold. Some excuses were given about length or size of the original game.  I am not sure about you but I would need to hear a long list of good excuses if you want to use the words ‘disappointing’ and ‘sales’, if I was picking up the, reported, $50 million bill for the exclusivity deal that Microsoft signed for it.

I do not yet know for sure that the future of all games is to go the downloadable root, but I can tell you if you did not download games this year, you have missed some good ones in 2009.

Still Not Selling

These are some highly rated games that were released late last year.  Despite having the whole of 2009 to sell more than they did last Christmas and despite being heavily discounted in stores throughout 2009, all three failed to break the 1 million mark.

By The Numbers;

• Valkyria Chronicles—Average Rating 86%—Total Sales = 0.66 million

• Mirror’s Edge —Average Rating 81%—Total Sales = 0.81 million

• Dead Space —Average Rating 89%—Total Sales = 0.76 million

I played Valkyria Chronicles after our votes for Game Of The Year last year, otherwise it would have been a strong contender as it is an excellent and refreshingly different game. Valkyria Chronicles 2 is coming to the PSP and I hope it sells well there.

Mirror’s Edge may have scored lower in the overall ratings but was a personal gaming highlight of 2009, as I only played it this year. It remains the only game I have ever purchased AFTER completion — I borrowed a friend’s copy on the 360 completed it and then picked a copy for the PS3 (Top tip: You can pick up a brand new copy for as low as £5-10 and in Europe the DLC is free)

I was very glad to hear that despite the slightly disappointing sales, that sequels for Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space were announced.  All three of these games should be available for heavily discounted prices this holiday season and if you missed out the first time, maybe it is about time you ran down the shops — just don’t go jumping off of any dayglo skyscrapers.

Final Countdown

I have saved the final spots for the games that scored the highest average, while not selling above 1 million copies.

By The Numbers;

• Dragon Age Origins —Average Rating 91% PC, 87% Ps3&360—Total Sales (combined PS3 & 360) = 0.96 million

• GTA: Chinatown Wars —Average Rating 93%—Total Sales = 0.80 million

• God of War Collection —Average Rating 92%—Total Sales = 0.26 million

• Metroid Prime Trilogy —Average Rating 91%—Total Sales = 0.30 million

Dragon Age Origins sales figures are slightly off, as the more highly reviewed PC version sales are unconfirmed. The combined totals of the two console formats are less than 1 million sales and does not compare well when put up against the Xbox exclusive Mass Effect, that sold over twice as much, without the extra PS3 development costs.

GTA: Chinatown Wars has the unwanted title of highest rated game released in 2009 that did not break 1 million worldwide sales.  It might be a large portion of the reason that the game is now being ported to the PSP.  You have to be pretty desperate to be looking for more sales and go over to the PSP and may be conclusive proof that there is no room for violent adult games on the DS.

Then comes the collection dejection.  Metroid Prime Trilogy and the God of War Collection both rated very highly, but sold very poorly.  The remastering of old games collected together on one disc appears not to be that popular.  Metroid Prime is either passed her prime or more proof that you need the words ‘Nintendo’ or ‘Wii Sports’ to sell well on Wii.

What of the might Kratos?  Well, hopefully the God of war Collection will continue to sell in America so that it definitely does get the European launch that Sony say is coming.  You may need to hurry though Sony; with the beginning of next year looking busy already, it may get lost in the shuffle —  you do not want to be featured on this list again next year.

What was the best game you did not buy in 2009?

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Thanks to Metacritic for the average ratings and to VGChartz for the sales figures. All figures are corrected at the time of writing, to the best of my knowledge.  I am not saying you have to buy these games just that lots of other people said lots of people should.