Let’s not forget about the console wars! There are sale charts, there are fanboys slamming other fanboys’ data, there are all sorts of ways to “decide” the winner of the console wars… One of them is, of course, checking the exclusive games and that’s exactly what we’re planning to do now. So, the battle is on: PS3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Wii – which console has the best exclusives?

In order to decide the winners, I went to Metacritic, picked up the top five rated console exclusive games for each console (only retail titles released in 2008, of course, and only critics’ rating counting) and now we’re going to check out the results. The drums are rolling, ladies and gentleman, so let’s see the contestants!

The PlayStation 3:

1. LittleBigPlanet – 95
2. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – 94
3. Resistance 2 – 87
4. Valkyria Chronicles – 86
5. SingStar – 82

AVERAGE: 88.8

The Wii:

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 93
2. Bomberman Blast – 86
3. Boom Blox – 85
4. No More Heroes – 83
5. Mario Kart Wii – 82

AVERAGE: 85.8

The Xbox 360:

1. Gears of War 2 – 93
2. Fable II – 89
3. Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise – 82
4. Tales of Vesperia – 81
5. Ninja Gaiden II – 81

AVERAGE: 85.2

And these are the results – as you can see, different from the sales charts. According to critics, the PlayStation 3 had the best exclusive games in 2008 with an incredible average of 88.8, especially because of the high fliers LBP and MGS. The Nintendo Wii grabs the second place (and I must admit I am shocked to see that – I’ve always bashed the little console for the poor quality of its games), but the Xbox 360 is close with just 0.6 points behind. So please share your thoughts on the matter – do these results shock you?

Please note: Just to make a two things clear: a) I did not include WiiWare/XBLA/PSN titles in the charts. b) Boom Blox IS considered a console exclusive because there are ports of the game on mobiles. Mobiles don’t count as gaming platforms (yet).