Tonight on ABC2 at 8.30pm, Good Game is running down its audience voted top 100 games of all time. As part of the show they kindly invited yours truly on to the show to talk about some of my own personal favourites and I had an absolute blast doing so.
It also inspired me to make a little list of my own.
So here it is, the Mark Serrels voted top 20 games of all time. It goes without saying that this list is subjective, and if I did it tomorrow it would probably look different. It also goes without saying that you’ll probably disagree. You’ll be angry that I didn’t include “THIS GODDAMN GAME YOU IDIOT IT’S THE BEST GAME OF ALL TIME”. If that’s how you feel, drop your own list in the comments below.
This is going to be fun!
1. The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past
I just think it was the most perfectly designed game ever made back then. In a lot of ways it helped inform me of my own tastes and taught me what I truly loved about video games and the experiences they could provide me. Playing A Link To The Past was a real formative experience for me personally. It is legitimately timeless. It provides the template to one of the greatest series in gaming history. But it’s more than that. It is a rare thing: a practically flawless gaming experience.
2. Metroid Prime
The words use to describe Metroid Prime are my very favourite words. The kind of words that describe – for me personally – what video games/art/anything should be striving to become: seamless, polished, otherworldly, awe-inspiring. No video game world has been able to compete since. I can’t think of another space in games that feels at once perfectly organic yet brilliantly designed. That will always be Metroid Prime’s crowning achievement. It has become lionised in my imagination. It is the game I always compare to others. It’s my high water mark.
3. Dark Souls
Imagine King Canute, sat on his throne at the edge of the ocean, roaring against the inevitable shifting of the tides. Only in this story King Canute forces the ocean backwards from sheer force of will, from his own ability to define himself in opposition to the natural changing of the guard. That’s Dark Souls: defined by its own power to not give a fuck about you or anything. Dark Souls has a stubborn power. It has already transformed gaming. It is flawed, unique, and masterful. Its world will affect you. Its world will become a part of you. I am convinced that I left a little part of myself in Dark Souls; probably Dark Souls has left a part of itself in me.
Yeah, that sounds a little bit gross.
4. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Man. That was a game that really became a strange obsession for me. I estimate I’ve finished it about 20 times. I just kept playing it and playing it… thinking about the details. Obsessing over the details, thinking about the details. It was unhealthy in hindsight. I essentially wanted to be Guybrush Threepwood. I wanted to have those adventures.
To this day I believe I could literally – in my imagination – walk through almost every single puzzle in that game in sequence. It is hardwired into my brain. I loved it so much.
5. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
As a huge Hideo Kojima fan, I truly believe that every single Metal Gear Solid game has elements of greatness, but Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater might be the only game in the series that is great in almost every single sense of the word. Kojima’s need to push gaming in strange directions often results in moments of pure genius, but it also tends to create moments that simply don’t work. In Snake Eater, Kojima’s strike rate was as high as it had ever been, or ever has been since. It’s my favourite entry into a series I adore.
6. Halo
Bizarrely, for a game so popular, I don’t think Halo gets quite enough recognition for how innovative it was within the FPS framework. It doesn’t get enough love for its brilliant sense of scale. Still my favourite multiplayer game of all time.
7. Yoshi’s Island
Arguably the greatest platformer ever made. Bursting with innovation. A game so full of ideas it had the ability to use some of the most interesting mechanics once and then toss them away. The Jimi Hendrix of video game design.
8. Street Fighter 2
On any other day this might be higher in the list. It’s Street Fighter 2. No-one who lived through the release of this game in arcades could possibly deny the strange power it had over nearly everyone.
9. Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
I showed restraint. I only placed two Zelda games in my top 20. Link’s Awakening was one of them. I think that says it all.
10. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Probably about 1 million times better than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
11. Journey
Everything about this game is perfect. The ending. Oh my god. The ending.
12. Super Mario Galaxy
A game that just removes all restraint, cuts all ties to common sense. The end result: a schizophrenic masterpiece where all bets are off. Gorgeous.
13. Rock Band 2
This is the kind of game I might forget to put on my list. I’m so glad I remembered this time. Few games have brought me such joy.
14. Skate 2
I think Skate 2 is the greatest sports game ever made. I dare you to disagree with me.
15. Fantasy World Dizzy
I don’t expect you to understand. But please understand.
16. Metroid Fusion
Technically Super Metroid should be here, but I played Metroid Fusion first. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
17. Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption is one of the few games that created an environment so stunning I was happy to just exist in it.
18. Trauma Center
This belongs on this list. Believe it. No other DS game can come close. No other DS game can compare.
19. Horace Goes Skiing
Nostalgia. This is my one self-indulgent nostalgia based pick. Don’t try and take it away from me.
20. Mass Effect 2
The only game that ever made me truly believe that I was saving the world.
Feel like making your own list? Drop it in the comments below.
Comments
110 responses to “My Top 20 Games Of All Time”
+1,000,000 respect points for including Rock Band 2!
I’m so glad I remembered.
Interesting choice, considering Rock Band 2 was never released in Australia.
Didn’t stop us from importing it! And even though RB3 has Beast and The Harlot and Free Bird, RB2 has a much better, more challenging setlist.
where’s goldeneye?
Rock Band just doesn’t get the recognition it deserves anymore. To me, it feels more like a game than most other games actually do these days. I can’t remember the last time that I had such fun playing a game for the sake of high scores.
-1,000,000 for no Deus Ex.
well as lists of favorites are very subjective i can calmly and safely say that was a terrible list 😛 lol
GODDAMMIT
You nailed it with Monkey Island 2 and Red Dead Redemption though
I’m really happy to see Yoshi’s Island represented on this list.
I voted The Last of Us as number 1, Red Dead Redemption as number 2 and I can’t remember my third…it would have been awesome, I promise.
Needs more Fallout 2.
This is a solid list. A lot of good games on here that really deserve a pave on the list. Not all of them, but I’m nitpicking.
Would be interesting but knowing Good Games audience I would expect it to be firmly stuck in the “Top 100 of Alltime (of the last 8 years)”.
I thought it was actually in the past 20 years (I remember seeing most of the games starting around the 90s era when I was voting)
So how high up the list will Minecraft be then?
Hahaha…. It will be all of the top 10… 1 spot for each OS it works on…
the rest of us Non Good Games audience are NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBS though, arent we?
Picked it. Top 100 of all amongst 15 years olds.
aww.. not a fan of RPGs Mark? 🙁
I guess Mass Effect 2 will have to do :p
I’ve played 3 of those games.
What am I even doing on this site???
What are you doing even wasting your time reading this article!? You should be playing the ones that you have missed right now!!
But I needed to read the article to know what ones I haven’t played! 🙂
Haha, I can totally relate. Fusion totally blew my mind when I first played it, such an amazing game. Although Zero Mission pipped it for favourite once that came along.
Respect. For me it’s one of those games I always forget about, often citing Rhythm Heaven of Soul Bubbles as my top DS game instead. They’re probably my top three* though.
*Subject to spontaneous expansion without notice
Also I totally didn’t “get” the Galaxy games. Can’t even remember which was which. Not that they were bad or anything, but neither came close to Mario 64 for me. I can just keep going back to that game forever.
Trauma Centre (I refuse to spell it Center)!!! I wonder if they have made a 3DS version of that game… now I want to go back and play it again! What an awesome game.
Apparently Under The Knife 2 was released in the US. Still need to nab a copy of it. Oh and also Trauma Team. And totally can’t remember if I’ve played New Blood, or only Second Opinion.
Skate 2 is a must have, as is Yoshi’s island. I’d also include a Trials game of some sort in there, along with Colin McRae Rally (the first one) (PS1), Dave Mirra BMX 2 (PS1). Point Blank, Psycho Fox (SMS), Then Farenheit on xbox… RDR is a great choice also. Most recent tomb raider I thought was amazing… so many to choose from!
Crap. I knew I’d forgotten something. ARGH.
Full Respect for Point Blank.
Honestly I am going away on holidays in October and I am most excited about the fact they have a Point blank 2 machine in their arcade. Damn thing is 20yrs old and last time I was there worked great. If its still there I’m considering making them an offer on it.
Oh man I’m having nostalgia trips at my desk right now. So much fun playing the original time crisis and point blank on my mate’s PS1. Good times!!
i keep looking through ZAX amusements page, a smallish company in port melbourne. they have two versions of time crisis 2 for sale, and the smaller of the two is going for 8 grand more than the DX model. i would love to get my hands on a point blank or point blank 2 though. ive offered the guy who runs timeout in box hill $1000 for their 4 player simpsons cabinet.
I had my light gun for PS1 with point blank and that other game that I cant remember anymore…. I think the only game that ever brought out the PS1 after the PS2 came out was point blank….
How could Trials not be there……. a travesty 🙂
I loved the latest Tomb Raider too but I would still pick Uncharted over it unfortunately. Tomb Raider made me a little bit too squeamish…
SF2 on snes had so much hype, plus a costly price tag ($140 on release) But I loved that game, sunk so many hours in and had very bruised thumbs
Zelda LTTP deserves #1 – what an amazing game
Super Mario World not far behind
Goldeneye 64 would be in my top 20
I thought about it, but that game has just aged so, so terribly.
Whether the game has aged badly or not should not factor.
Shouldn’t you be judjing it on the memories you have of the game and where it ranks in your lifetime of game playing.
It’s like going back to watch starwars, I can’t do it anymore as it feels like it has aged badly to me but I still rate it as one of my most favourite films because of the the way it did affect my life throughout the years.
You shouldn’t be down on it because it hasn’t aged well.
My friend, if you can no longer watch Star Wars, I would suggest that you have aged badly.
I judge them on how many hours I spent on them, and how much they dominated my waking thoughts at the time.
I mean I can’t really seriously play System Shock 2 or Deus Ex anymore but back in the day? I KILLED those games and did multiple replays over the years.
So they will always be on any list that I’d make.
It’s aged badly but fuck it was awesome when it came out.
The age thing is interesting though – does aging badly invalidate an awesome game?
I think it does, a truly timeless classic should be just as enjoyable today as it was when it first came out.
Take FF7 for example, a timeless classic in every way except for one of the most important, the art style has not aged well and this detracts somewhat from its enjoyment today but FF6 or FF9, hell even FF8 has aged much better.
It really depends on what you are measuring through. A timeless classic – yeah, aging badly does not bode well.
Baldur’s Gate 2, Bioshock Infinite and Mass Effect 2… greatest games of all time imo.
Dammit mark where’s Baldur’s Gate 2?! You haven’t played it have you =,=
Edit: Also Chrono Trigger… because it’s Chrono Trigger dammit!
I think you mean your list is subjective, don’t you? 😛
As for my fav games of all time:
1. Starcraft: Brood War. Takes #1 spot by a mile.
2. FF7
3. MGS
4. WoW
5. Uncharted 2
6. Last of Us
7. Half Life
8. Half Life 2
9. Command and Conquer
10. Witcher 2
11. Diablo 2
12. Devil May Cry
13. Xenogears
14. Gran Turismo
15. GTA: Vice City
16. Mass Effect
17. Xenoblade Chronicles
18. Battlefield 3
19. Tenchu
20. Tekken Tag Tournament
Good list you have, but I’d drop Battlefield 3 and add in Goldeneye for the n64 purely for the multiplayer
And I’d then drop GoldenEye for Perfect Dark purely for doing everything it did plus more and better 😛
And I’d drop both and then add BC2 in the place.
I hear this from the boys I play BF with all the time. Unfortunately I came to the BF series too late to experience it in full swing 🙁
BC2 was my first Battlefield game actually, BF3 was amazing too, but BF4 is god awful yet I still force myself to play it for some fucked up reason. But apparently BC2 still has quite a following on PC, and it certainly does on PS3 cause I play with my friend on it all the time!
Holy shit, Tag Tournament!
So many wasted afternoons after school playing that at my mate’s house.
Shining Force 1 & 2 would by my number 1 & 2. Absolutely epic! Also AFL NES and Cricket SNES versions 🙂
NOT OUT
OUT OF BOUNDS, ON THE FULL
Snes cricket was cool, I remember when the gaming magazines “leaked” screen grabs of that game – must have title of the time
An AFl games on SNES would have been cool
[This comment has been blocked by Sega to provide higher search rankings for the Shining Arc trailer]
well in terms of top 3 in no order
I had Doom 2, Super Mario Kart (SNES) and Chrono Trigger all 3 games I have spent a significant amount of hours in, totally absorbed making new challenges in and just playing to death.There are a few other games that make the expanded list (Sam and Max, Super Metroid, Adventures of Link, Yoshi’s Island etc.) but those 3 I keep coming back toeven today.
Favourite challenge is starting doom 2 with a pistol on each individual level on Hurt me plenty difficulty.
It’s always way too subjective! For my recent games – Last of Us, Mass Effect (series), and Dark Souls. Earlier (rosy-tinted) games – Majora’s Mask, Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime (series) and Shadowman.
I’m just going to put the name of the series if I have more than 1 in it that I like.
Elder Scrolls
Halo
Witcher
Smite
Fallout
Age of Empires 2
Civilization 5
Mount & Blade: Warband
Mass Effect
GTA IV (Five multiplayer was garbage)
Dark Souls
Far Cry 3
Alan Wake
Watch Dogs
Wolf Among Us
Small Arms (I bet nobody knows this game)
H.A.W.X
R-Type
Ghouls and Goblins
Spy vs Spy
Space Quest
Shogun TW
Baldurs Gate
OOT
Double Dragon
Golden Axe
Link to the Past
Donkey Kong Country
Super Mario World
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario Bros
Mario 64
Resident Evil
Dead Space
Mechwarrior 2
Morrowind
World of Warcraft
Mass Effect (All)
Dragon Age: O
Terranigma
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore
Alex Kidd
Boy and his Blob
Contra
Shinobi
Gran Turismo 1
I’m going to say a lot of those will miss out on the Good Game episode…
Top taste mate 😀
this is my kind of list.
Many Sierra games could be in the top 100. Police quest, Space Quest, Larry etc were so much fun
Downvote! Lucas Forever!
Lords of the Realm 2
Not one simulation game. No Civ, No Sim City….
Now there’s a fine show of hubris! 🙂
Oh goddammit!
In no particular order, the first twenty games I think of when I think of great games (limiting myself to one per franchise).
The Dig
Monkey Island 2
Space Quest 3
Halo 3
Mass Effect
Bioshock
Journey
Fallout: New Vegas (though it took me awhile to warm to it over Fallout 3)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Galactic Civilizations
Civilization V
X-Com: Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within
Broken Sword
Skyrim
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Geometry Wars
The Binding of Isaac
Saint’s Row 2
Tomb Raider (2013)
The Last of Us
I assume that list closely resembles my top twenty, even though my preferences fluctuate day to day.
Thumbs up for having The Dig as number 1.
Man… how do you stop listing favourites once you start? This is my list (that no-one cares about):
Basically everything LucasArts put on PC pre-2000 (I’m counting C64 as a PC here)
Max Payne 2
Arkham Asylum
The Neverhood
River City Ransom
Comix Zone
Tombi!
Fallout 1
Prince of Persia
Mercenary: Escape from Targ
Stunts
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
Sid Meier’s Pirates!
Link’s Awakening
Tekken 5
First of all Mark, Tony Hawks is a far better game then SKATE.
Secondly my only fear with the list is that some games will miss out just because they are separated by sequels. For example THPS had about 6 entries in the list, given I only had 3 votes I had to choose one which in part I understand, they are all different games but others like World of Warcraft expansions are all treated as one making it easy for all WoW fans to unite.
My example might be bad but I hope the statement makes sense ……
YOU ARE SO WRONG ABOUT SKATE.
Years of journalism and your best comeback was to press Caps Lock? That’s is as disappointing as SKATE was 🙂
Robbo are you talking Skate or Skate 2? Because the sequel just cast a massive shadow on the original. Which tony hawk’s are you talking about?
More just to have a dig at Mark, but yes Skate 2 was far superior to the original but still no THPS. If I had to choose I think THPS2 or 3 would be the best, think I voted for 2 from memory. 3 had the revert addition but the sound track on 2 was epic.
Sound track from 2, and how groundbreaking it was at the time. So much time spent in that hangar until I found out about all the bonus areas 😀
EDIT: You’ve just triggered a flashback haha. I’d forgotten about 3-4 years ago in Japan I was having a down day on a snowboarding trip. My mate Kohei had a copy of THPS2, but the memory card was busted so no save files. Ended up unlocking and clocking every part of the game in an 8 hour stint of gaming, instant ramen and shedloads of beer. Good times!!
THPS3 was my favourite for sure.
(And I totally don’t mind the dig!)
I knoww you meant the dig as in a jibe, but now all I can think of is that I never finished the Dig. So many lucasarts adventures to finish from my youth!!!!
I’ve finished every Lucas adventure except The Dig. I just couldn’t get into it.
Well, that and Labyrinth.
Deus Ex
Freespace 2
Civilization 2
Battlefield 1942
Cespenar and Boo
In no particular order.
Starcraft 2
Red Dead Redeption
Devil May Cry 3
Ninja Gaiden 2
Dragon Ball Z Tekainchi 2
GTA: Vice City
Skyrim
Arkham Asylum
Tekken… all and any
Street Fighter 4
Civilisation 2
Road Rash
Streets Of Rage 3
Halflife 2
Halflife & Action Half Life
CounterStrike (the original)
Day of Defeat
Mortal Kombat 3 – 9.
Mario Galaxy
Donkey Kong Country
Super Mario World
You. I like your taste. Devil May Cry 3 was more than enough, but man.
Our taste is the correct taste. Everyone else is wrong.
I couldn’t list them in a specific order, but for me it would be:
Metroid Prime
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Starcraft: Brood War
Starcraft II
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Q*Bert
Mortal Kombat II
Soul Calibur II
Secret of Mana
Xenoblade Chronicles
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Unreal
Unreal Tournament
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Super Smash Bros Melee
Sega Rally Championship
Final Fantasy VII
Shadow of the Beast
I’ve probably forgotten a few, but I’m limited to 20…so…
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.
My top 20 (no order per say)
-Banjo Kazooie
-Minecraft
-Team Fortress 2
-Fallout 3
-DOTA 2
-Castlevania (NES Orginal)
-Donkey Kong 64
-Super Smash Bros Brawl
-Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
-Pokemon Soulsilver
-Sid Meir’s Civ V
-Super Mario 64
-Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
-Counterstrike Global Offensive
-Pokemon Ruby
-Super Mario Bros (NES)
-Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
-Mario Kart 64
-Donkey Kong Country
-Fallout New Vegas
Um let’s see… Here are ten I thought of right now.
1. Zelda: Wind Waker
2. World of Warcraft
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2
4. GTA: San Andreas
5. Perfect Dark
6. Half Life 2
7. Mario Kart DS
8. Super Smash Bros Melee
9. Uncharted 2
10. One of these: Tetris DS, Monkey Island, MGS2, Final Fantasy IX, FIFA (probably FIFA 12)
Interestingly, my big issue at the moment is that I think WoW is overtaking Wind Waker as my #1. I’ve played both again recently and I think that what WoW accomplished is just so amazing and significant that it probably wins out.
Personal Best games:
Half-Life
Goldeneye 64
Zelda 64
All others would take too much time to work out favorites..
Here is my top 20 game series
20. medieval series: a cooky zombie night with a good difficulty setting
19. Fire emblem: new crossover game incoming (using old characters) megami sengan series aka the universe that persona is set in
18. empire earth: you got me at using mechs to destroy ancient rome
17. The sims: you become an evil scientist finding ways to kill people
16. Grand theft auto: mayhem ensues
15. kid icarus: the spiritual foil to god of war
14. Red faction: you got me at ‘do you want to blow up stuff’
13. Street fighter: 1 of thee great fighting game series with 2 great villians
12. Guilty gear: 1st main villian in this game series was supposed to be sega’s (the company that helped make this game) answer to samus aran, both of whom are queens who control sentient super weapons
11. Legend of Spyro: details the gritty restart of the spyro series, in which you control an iconic dragon
10. Halo: epic diverse villians: check, epic superweapons & supersoldiers: check
9. bioshock: big daddies and little sisters and its adult form big sisters are steampunk equivalent of a loving father caring for their daughter
8. Blazblue: a good fighting game series with diverse themes
7. Batman arkham: a good series based in 1 of thee most infamous prisons of all time
6. Fear: you vs your powerful psychic mother
5. Tekken: the closest that we have come to with demon infighting in a yakuza style mega corp war
4. final fantasy: memorable villians, memorable protaginists & monsters
3. Pokemon: each gen: new epic villians, epic legends & epic story
2. Metal gear: imagine the cold war with an illuminati & mechas
1. Metroid: 1 of thee best ever sci fi series detailing the diverse story of the 1 of thee best bounty hunters of all time, (to all m.o.m critics, samus was still greiving for baby, but this game for me, brings up a horrible possibility: mother brain can enter the cybernetic body of a little girl & become a psycho child)
When GG got rid of the American neckbeard and replaced with that yuppie I knew it was over.
I’m pretty sure that American neckbeard writes for this site sometimes. But yeah, you’re right.
Seeing these lists makes me sad that i missed out on some truly greats games not only as a kid but as a teen and adult. 🙁
Do you count mobile games as well? Snake would fall in to a few top 20 i think 😛 also Tetris would definitely get some love.
Fun Fact:
Snake was around pre-Nokia
😛
1. Skyrim (Well Duh?)
2. Minecraft (No matter what I do I cannot escape its grasp)
3. Last of Us
4. Need For Speed Underground 2 (Simply because we need a 3rd)
5. Tony Hawks Pro Skater
6. Portal (Both Games)
7. FIFA (Doesn’t matter which one, great game to play with/against friends
8. Diablo (I have played 3 the most but the series as a whole gets my vote)
9. Pokemon (1st Gen) Red/Yellow/Gold/Silver
10. Call of Duty Modern Warfare (But honourable mention for MW2 for time played)
11. Age of Empires (Classic, great series) (Honourable mention to Age of Mythology)
12. Alex the Kid (SEGA)
13. Looney Tunes Racing (PS1 – Family Nostalgia)
14. Commander & Conqueror Generals (And Zero Hour)
15. GoldenEye 64
16. Arma II (never played the singleplayer but the mods are worthy of the list: DayZ etc)
17. League of Legends
18. Spyro the Dragon (the original PS1)
19. Trials (the whole series)
20. YouTube LetsPlays (Its definitely worthy of the list don’t question it. It’s how I enjoy games that I won’t play myself or different ways of playing the games I do. YouTube is probably the biggest way I’ve absorbed entertainment from video games.
I’ve played 3 or 4 of those
my top11 list:
1. Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness, it was the first time i had ever cried about losing a character in a video game
2. Command and Conquer. Just so much fun to play and very easy to mod
3.Marathon Trilogy. Back when FPSes were only on PC Bungie gave us Mac gamers hope with the single best FPS from that era
4. Escape Velocity and EV: Nova By Ambrosia Software. Still one the best Space games i have ever played
5. Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis by Bohemia Interactive. 3, 4, 6 target that MAN 8 o’Clock. I got him!
6. Diablo. My very first introduction to RPGs
7. Civ 2. First Introduction to Turn based Stratergy
8. Alex the Kidd in Miricle World. My very first console was the Sega Master Sysem 2 and had this game built in.
9. Altered Beast. WISE FWOM YOR GWAVE!!!
10. Sonic 2, 3 and Knuckles. they way how the 2nd and 3rd games interacted with the Sonic and Knuckles cartriage was ingenious
11. Street Fighter 2 (arcade edition) oh so many dollar coins where lost to this game
I’m surprised you didn’t include one from the battlefield series as this was a break through also, not to mention MirrorEdge
Whatever my list would be, can definitely include Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 9 on it
How dare you sell Super Metroid short, I still put it ahead of Metroid Prime!
As for Red Dead Redemption it should lose a lot of points for staying console exclusive, I never bought it because I waited for the PC version. A snub from me to the developers, just like they snubbed me and fellow PC enthusiasts!
I’ve always wondered Mark.
Why Skate2 and not 1 or 3?
For me, I enjoyed 3 way more than the first two.
Serrels mate, love your work, but any Top 20 Games list that doesn’t include either ‘Resident Evil 2’ or ‘Resident Evil 4’ just shouldn’t exist. Period. No ifs and buts about it 🙂
Nice list, I agree with most of those, so awesome to see a Dizzy game on there!
Off the top of my head, mine would be (in no particular order)
Virtua Fighter 2
Sega Rally Championship
Sonic 2
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Age Of Empires 2
Nights
Red Dead Redemption
Skyrim
Gran Turismo 5 & 6 (together because 6 is basically 5 Championship Edition)
Super Street Fighter 2
Road and Track Presents The Need For Speed
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Far Cry 3
Doom
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Super Mario Brothers
Fight Night Champion
Uncharted 3
Unreal
And definitely NOT Transbot or Aztec Adventure.
So glad there’s not one but two Point and Click Adventure games on this list!
Way too many Nintendo yawnfest titles here (Yes, yes, rabid fans, deliver your hatred and downvotes, I know they’re coming). In no particular order, a top twenty would roughly be:
Once off gems:
Sid Meier’s Pirates! (aka what AC4 wanted to be – particularly the remake)
Planescape Torment
Dishonored (The Thief sequel we *actually* deserved)
Red Dead Redemption
Sequel fest!
Baldur’s Gate 2 (One of the best RPGs ever)
Witcher 2 (Ditto)
Descent 2 (I would kill for another real fully 3D shooter)
Assassin’s Creed 2 (Still the pinnacle of the series)
Diablo 2 (Ditto)
Thief 2 (Because, damn, Garrett was just too cool before they ruined him)
Series Highlights:
World of Warcraft (Yes, it’s a heinous grindfest and soul-sucking life trap, but for scale and size, nothing really competes)
Mass Effect (The first one, not 2 or that “ending”)
CoD:MW (Despite the following titles, this was genuinely good)
Monkey Island (The original and best)
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (For breathing life back into the platformer)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Was a lot tighter before it became a badguy cameo-fest and bogged down in throwing on more and more stuff)
Mario Kart (It has to be the N64 version right?… Though they’re all pretty much the same game.)
Need For Speed: Most Wanted (The *FIRST* one, not the trashy one that came later)
Unreal Tournament 2K3/4 (Still a glorious shooter)
Dance Dance Revolution/ITG (Come on, this is still *the* rhythm game – and is still having more content added to it to this day)
I don’t know if I could do 20, but I can definitely share my top 10 games.
1. Metroid Prime
2. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
3. Shadow of the Colossus
4. Super Metroid
5. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
6. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
7. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
8. Red Dead Redemption
9. God of War 2
10. Spec Ops: The Line
Hmmm… A rough top 20…
1 – Shining Force II
2 – Phantasy Star Online
3 – DOOM
4 – Halo 1/3
5 – Bayonetta
6 – Alan Wake
7 – Final Fantasy VI/VII
8 – Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
9 – Sonic Adventure
10 – NiGHTS: Into Dreams…
11 – Serious Sam First/Second Encounter
12 – Pokémon (Take your pick with this one)
13 – Devil May Cry 1/3/4
14 – Dark Savior
15 – Daytona USA
16 – Toy Commander
17 – Shenmue
18 – Darkstalkers 3
19 – Donkey Kong Country 1/2/3 (Screw you, I’m not picking a favourite child!)
20 – Yoshi’s Island
Hmm the best games…
1. GTA San Andreas
I played that game for a year… A YEAR! to the exclusion of everything else. at the time I was coming back to gaming after a long hiatus spurred by the failure of the GameCube dovetailing with becoming a parent. It was a revelation – everything about San Andreas blew my mind!
2. TF2
Runner up in terms of sheer time investment has to be Team Fortress 2 – and what a perfect game – it took them 9 years to make it and shows in every detail!
3. Banjo Tooie
What a game – a vast interconnected world full of weird short cuts long before Dark Souls surprised everyone with the same feat; A game with a huge variety of play styles (platforming, flying, driving, puzzle solving, FPS!) long before the GTA games exploded that idea.
A game that was the Seinfeld platformers; effectively killing off its own genre (as Seinfeld did to the multicamera sitcom for almost a decade) because everything that came afterwards (Jak & Daxter anyone?) was a weak imitation.
4. Ocarina of Time
I got an N64 for a second time JUST to play this game AGAIN such is its beauty as a work of art.
5. Yoshi’s Island
Came with my SNES (which I bought to play all-stars) and left that game in the dust!
6. Tekken 3
I sunk more money into that game than I’d like to admit – so much so that buying a chipped PS1 just to play the Japanese version when it dropped was something a considered a shrewd financial move (you know I never did play a pirated game on that machine! I got it for the import!)
7. Splinter Cell Conviction
Researchers have said that demos hurt game sales – they certainly do if your game is crap – but Splinter Cell Conviction was great and demo convinced me to buy the game which subsequently got me into the stealth genre – it’s easier than most stealth games with the mark + execute system – so it’s a gateway drug I guess!
8. Dark Souls
Bought this a year ago for $10 on XBLA played it – got killed by everything in the undead burg and gave up
Then the sequel comes out and the whole internet is going on about it so I decided to try again – look up some tips on YouTube, build a new character and learn some of the systems.
I am 60 hours in, have rung both bells and am getting killed by snake men and rolling rocks!
This game, once it gets it’s hooks into you – you’re done
9. Mario 64
I just got Mario Galaxy so this may change but this game, this is game that would not get made today – it’s a touchstone in the evolution of gaming from 2D to 3D and rather than being akward and imperfect – it’s actually flawless! It’s every bit as good as you remember it to be!
I remember playing Tomb Raider on the PS1 for the first time after Mario 64 and being completely baffled by the awful control scheme – Mario got everything right – first try
10. Sim City 3000
The sheer amount of my life I spent on this gets it on my list – Sim City 4 was too hard and I’m not roughing the new one with a ten foot pole but 3000 was brilliant fun
My top 3:
1) Syndicate
2) Syndicate
3) Syndicate
The rest of the list is made up of Syndicate Wars, and Star Raiders.
Top 20 eh?
1: Baldur’s gate 2
2: Goldeneye
3: Half life 2
4: Marvel vs Capcom 2
5: Diablo 2
6: Binding of Isaac
7: Super Meat Boy
8: Persona 4 Golden
9: Mass Effect (1 & 2) 3rd game seemed aimless
10: Legend of Zelda – Link between worlds
11: Etrian Odessey (yes the first one)
12: Empire: Total War
13: Knights of the Old republic 2
14: NWN series (played the shit out of both)
15: Metal Gear Acid 2
16: Bioshock
17: Disgaea: Hour of darkness
18: Heroes of Newerth
19: Counter strike (1.3)
20: Resident evil 4 on gamecube (EPIC)
This is a MUCH better list than the GG100, but both are still glaringly missing Grim Fandango.
Glad that some modern classics are getting recognition (Dark Souls has ruined most kinds of gaming for me), but calling Skyrim the best game ever? Yeah, nah. Not even in the top 40.