-News on the hottest gaming trends

 As many know, the PS4, XBOX One, and Wii U have been out on shelves for multiple months now, replacing their older brothers the PS3, XBOX 360, and Wii. With all these new consoles being out, (along with 3DS and PS Vita) gaming has entered a new generation. With every generation of consoles comes some great games, so today Universal Gaming is presenting the Seventh Generation Awards. In the following article, we see the best and worst games of the last generation and review some deadly mistakes companies made with consoles. The categories will be Best Seventh Generation Game (with runner up), Worst Seventh Generation game, best console, worst console, best handheld, best selling console, worst selling console, best selling handheld and the best game from each of the major companies, along with a runner up for each.

Best Seventh Generation Game

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mario_galaxy2.svg

Getting superb ratings everywhere, not only does Super mario Galaxy stand as the highest rated game ever on our list, it tops the charts on Gamerankings.com too with a 97.64%.

Runner-Up

Grand Theft Auto V (PS3, XBOX360, PC)

Coming close to Super Mario Galaxy, Grand Theft Auto V is one of the newest seventh generation games and one of the best too, especially when dealing with graphics and online play.

Worst Seventh Generation Game

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (PS3, XBOX360)

After being called a dead series once the Dreamcast was no more, Sega wanted to make sure that Sonic the Hedgehog, their 15 year anniversary would put Sonic up with series such as Pokemon, Super Mario and Call of Duty again. Unfortunately, they didn’t completely finish the game and rushed it, leaving the finished product with uncountable glitches, errors, slippy graphics, boring storylines, and a lot of nonsense.

Best Console

XBOX 360

Having the best online, best third party games and wonderful exclusives, it is obvious XBOX 360 would take the spot as number one. Being the best selling console in the U.S. and Europe, Microsoft’s last gen console led the pack for a while, until being overtaken by the Wii and eventually the PS3. Despite the low sales in Japan, XBOX 360 is still one of the most high tech, wonderful consoles to date.

Worst Console

PlayStation 3

Poorly scripted exclusives, watered down third party games, and a lackluster online service left the PlayStation 3 in the dust of its’ competitors with ratings. Though sales and good exclusives did pick up in 2013 and the console did overtake Microsoft’s XBOX 360 last year, there is no way the PS3 will catch up to the Wii’s astounding 100 million sales, making it the first PlayStation not to win the console wars that generation.

Best Handheld

Nintendo DS

Selling over 155 million units worldwide, the Nintendo DS would obviously hold the top spot of handhelds. Reviving the Super Mario series to it’s usual high sales, being the home of some of the best Pokemon games to date and attracting a lot of third party support, the DS was ultimately a success, holding the record as the highest selling piece of Nintendo hardware to date.

Best Selling Console

Wii

courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:100_0704.JPG

100 million +

After a let-down generation for Nintendo with the GameCube only selling about 22 million units, Nintendo needed something to bring them back to their former legacy. The Wii was the solution to their answer. Not only is it the highest selling Nintendo console to date, the Wii singlehandedly wiped the XBOX 360 and PS3 from anyone’s mind for its first three years. Even though sales started slowing down after 2009, the console still brought joy to hundreds of thousands of homes weekly until around late 2012. Having wonderful exclusives that enticed casuals and lured in harcore Nintendo fans, the Wii was Nintendo’s greatest success, featuring some of the highest rated games ever and being the home of the best selling game of all time.

Worst Selling Console

XBOX 360

80 million +

Despite being the best hardware and having the best online from last generation, low sales in Japan crippled this console, leaving it to bite Nintendo and Sony’s dust. Though some great exclusives like Halo and great 3rd party support were frequent throughout the console, little Japanese interest hurt the console.

Best Selling Handheld

Nintendo DS

155 million +

As always the undisputed king of handheld, Nintendo, stole the show from any other competitors who dared cross over into the territory. Being a pioneer in touch screen technology and bringing in some high grossing games like all time favorites Pokemon, Mario and Zelda, it is obvious that Nintendo would have no worries with their handheld.

Best Nintendo Game

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

As stated before, featuring some of the greatest graphics for the Wii, providing some of the best gameplay ever and wonderful music accompanying it really helped this game fly to the top of almost every rating site ever.

runner up

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Being a successor to the highly acclaimed Super Mario Galaxy, many had doubts for this game. A lot of gamers thought this would not hold up to the magic of the original, but having a massive amount of replay value, even better graphics than the original, the inclusion of Yoshi and an extra world of challenges really complemented this game, making it even better to some fans.

Best Microsoft Game

Halo: Reach (XBOX 360)

Stunning graphics, a hard-hitting campaign and wonderful online really helped this game achieve amazing ratings. An extensive amount of online and a large fanbase to play online with also helped this game achieve success.

runner up

Halo 3 (XBOX 360)

Almost two years after the launch of the XBOX 360, Microsoft finally decided to release Halo 3 for their new powerhouse. Changing the way gamers looked at online console gaming and supporting a wonderful storyline helped get this game start selling.

Best Sony Game

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Proving just how good exclusives still can be, Uncharted 2 was a wonderful game for the PS3. Hopefully more PS4 titles come out like this.

runner up

The Last of Us (PS3)

Coming out just before the PS4, The Last of Us provided many Sony fans a chance to get one last great game for the PS3 before their brand new console was released.