Top 30 Video Games of All Time
Sources: Nintendo Power 2006, Metacritic 2006, EGM 2005, GamePro 2005, GameFAQs 2005, IGN 2005, The Age 2005, Edge 2004, Retrogamer 2004, Entertainment Weekly 2003, Dorkclub 2003, GameSpy 2001, Game Informer 2001, GameSpot 2001, Computer and Video Games 2001, GamesRadar 2000, Nintendorks 2000, Next Generation 1999, CNET (?).
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scott:
June 29th, 2006 at 6:40 am
A few notes on the list, to help fill in your blanks:
Ocarina of Time – I actually have played it (it came with my GameCube), and it’s cool and all, but i actually prefer Link to the Past, which is my favorite in the series (with Wind Waker being a close second). I didn’t get all the way through Ocarina mainly due to time constraints and then basically phasing out of games in general, but it is good. #1 all time? Not in my book.
Link to the Past – I can definitely tell you that LttP is way better than the original game just because of its depth of storytelling. The original game is a classic, don’t get me wrong, but LttP takes that classic world and expands it to a place that is darn near perfect in my estimation. I would definitely have this higher.
Tetris, SMB – I agree that these two are oddly placed. Ubiquity, indeed.
Goldeneye 007 – I was honestly surprised that this game isn’t #1 on more lists. Consider that my experience has been that even utter and complete non-gamers have probably played this game at some point, or are at least familiar enough with it that you can describe an FPS as being “like Goldeneye” and they’ll know what you’re talking about. Maybe my experience is a bad representative sample, but still.
FFVII – I’m not sure why you’re grudged. This was *the* reason to buy a PS1 when it was at its height. It was the best RPG of its generation (though you’re probably right that VI/III is superior) and it set a new standard for RPGs to follow, and most have.
SMB3/SMW – It’s kind of easy to forget how good these games are (and i actually liked SMW a lot, and probably have as fond or fonder memories of it compared to SMB3). SMB3 was an incredible phenomenon in the gaming community – I remember when the movie “The Wizard” came out and it was this huge deal that it had real footage of SMB3. It was like Windows 95 – you had the impression that it was going to change the entire world.
Doom – I don’t know exactly what the big deal was with this game; it’s cool and all, and i guess it probably was the first big hit of the FPS genre. If you want to play it you can do so for free on Linux.
SFII – It is interesting to remember the halcyon days of this game, when it was serious street cred to be good at SFII. And like you, i was terrible at this game and could only watch in awe as people played the masters and were dismantled down at 00 Liquors.
Chrono Trigger – It is a really great game, it really is, but i always have liked Secret of Mana better for some reason. Chrono Trigger does deserve any praise it gets and any ranking on a top ten of all time list.
Super Metroid – When you go through these lists and see how many of these games were on the SNES console, it makes you think that the SNES days were some of the best that gaming’s ever had. Which is probably true. Note how the Genesis, its main competitor, had a lot of solid games but none really that were as truly memorable.
Anyway, that’s all i can pitch in. My memories of other games are either similar to yours or i have less experience with them.
ironsoap:
June 29th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Re: Link to the Past — Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ll start keeping my eyes peeled for a copy of the GBA port and give it another whirl.
Re: Goldeneye 007 — I don’t actually think your experience is non-representative of the truth: Most people who have even a passing acquaintance with a Nintendo 64 have played this game at least once. The thing about it is that I don’t think it has aged particularly well. While it certainly proved that First-Person Shooters were possible on consoles, the control scheme wasn’t ideal. It took Halo to finally get the sensitivity and controls correct on console analog sticks. Likewise multiplayer where 4-player splitscreen was the bee’s knees back in 1998, these days splitscreen is a disgruntling proposition when there are so many games that offer nearly seamless online multiplayer including voice chat. One other interesting aside about this game: I read that the level designers didn’t design the levels the way most developers do, which is to come up with the objective for the mission/whatever and then put the pieces together to make that objective happen in a fairly intuitive way. With Goldeneye 007, they actually built the levels to represent the locations they wanted (probably from the movie) and after the fact they added in objectives, enemies, etc. People have speculated that this made the game world feel more organic and natural as there were dead ends, rooms that served no purpose, and a non-linear type of exploration that was necessary to get from point A to point B since it wasn’t like “I just came from here and there is only one corridor that doesn’t lead back where I came from… this must be the way to go.”
Re: FFVII — Here’s why I’m grudged about FFVII: For one thing the end sequence (which I’ve griped about before) was poorly designed. I was able to fight the boss to a 45-minute stalemate with one character (he had no Phoenix Downs and no life-restoring magic, but he was taking practically no damage from the boss and dealing about as much). I’m sorry, but that just shouldn’t be possible. Also the graphics were pretty painful. Don’t cite the FMV to me, either. Any console at the time could have done pre-rendered backgrounds but the character models were, what, four and a half polygons? Lame. Also a lot of the length and depth of the game came from inconsequential side activities like Chocobo breeding and hunting for annoyingly well hidden super artifacts. What it did have going for it are strong production values, a truly epic-level quest with some good storytelling and a tolerable combat system (especially in light of the atrocities committed against RPGs in later FF installments). But this was also the first Final Fantasy game that should have been called Final Science Fiction because it’s nods to a fantasy setting were strained at best. I suppose that’s a minor quibble, but I did prefer the FFVI approach to incorporating some SF elements with the overall fantasy theme.
Re: SNES — In a lot of ways I do think that the SNES days were the best gaming has seen… but some of that might stem from the relative ages we all were then. I’m guessing a kid who was seven or eight when the SNES and Genesis were the Big Two might not really look back that fondly on those games but being roughly high school aged now will probably have a lot of nostalgia for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 down the road. But either way there were a lot of really solid games for the SNES, so long as you liked certain genres. Sports game fans will probably remember the Genesis as being best of the best… after all, it had the best NHL ’94 version ever.
scott:
June 29th, 2006 at 8:55 am
One more thing on LttP – I think i might still have the cart, although i’m not sure you have a SNES handy anymore. Heck, i have one of those i’m not using too. Maybe i should just ship that to you along with the Magic stuff.
scott:
July 17th, 2006 at 9:39 am
A note on GTA – one idea i had was to have a sort of Deathmatch game, kind of like an FPS only without the First-person and with multiple players. Kind of like playing Tag in a huge city. And with the pedestrians and cars and stuff. It could be like a Twisted Metal/GTA kind of thing, and i think it would be loads of fun.