Introduction
Oh yeah, I have a blog! Lots has been going on in the intervening months (see my Twitter feed for short attention span details), but I figured a video game post during NaBloPoMo would be a good way to get back on the wagon, even if I’m not actually posting every day during November.
While visiting my Little Brother this weekend, I noticed a rather unusual magazine cover… a (very pixelated) monster from the original Doom. This turned out to be the latest issue of Game Informer, specifically Volume XIX, Number 12, Issue 200. In honor of this decimalist anniversary, they published their Top 200 Video Games of All Time list, which unsurprisingly is linkbait for any video game fan who likes to rant about what should and should not be included in such a list. I ran through my opinions quickly with my Little, mostly fixating on why so many recent games were already on the list, but decided a deeper analysis was in order.
Instead of complaining about the contents of the list, I thought I’d use it to track my personal video game history (much as my father has in the past used the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time to guide his music purchases). I’ve also done some histogram breakdowns of what’s on the list. I would say that my guideline for inclusion on any such list would involve adjectives like “innovative” and “influential”, and explicitly avoid conditions like “critically acclaimed”, “popular”, or “best-selling”. This in turn means that inclusion must be viewed through a somewhat temporally distant lens, for sufficient perspective on a particular cultural artifact’s import.
How many of these have you played? Do you strongly agree/disagree with any of the rankings?
The columns are Game Informer rank, game title, platform(s), and year of publication from the original article; I believe using this data for commentary is covered by Fair Use. I added platforms in a few places to account for the particular port of a game that I played. I have also added columns for myself, for Played, Owned, and Completed. The full table and further analysis is below the cut.
Columns
A brief explanation before the table: I count a game as “Played” if I personally controlled the game for at least one significant play session (enough to see one full level, game, etc.); I count a game as “Owned” if I purchased the game or received it as a gift; and I count a game as “Completed” if I finished the primary plot levels for games with solo play, reached a reasonably high or maximum level in games with increasing difficulty level play, or played a simulation game to a goal threshold. Ownership and Completion are both subsets of Played, with some overlap, but not identical subsets.
Top 200 Video Games Table
Rank | Game | Platform(s) | Year | Played | Owned | Completed |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | The Legend of Zelda | NES | 1987 | |||
2 | Super Mario Bros. | NES | 1985 | X | ||
3 | Tetris | PC | 1984 | X | X | |
4 | Grand Theft Auto III | PS2 | 2001 | X | ||
5 | Half-Life 2 | PC | 2004 | X | X | |
6 | Doom | PC, iPhone | 1993 | X | ||
7 | Metroid | NES | 1986 | |||
8 | Final Fantasy III | SNES | 1994 | X | X | |
9 | Super Mario Bros. 3 | NES | 1990 | X | ||
10 | Ms. Pac-Man | Arcade | 1981 | X | ||
11 | World of Warcraft | PC | 2004 | X | X | X |
12 | The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past | SNES | 1992 | X | ||
13 | Super Mario 64 | N64 | 1996 | X | X | |
14 | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | PS3, 360, PC | 2007 | |||
15 | Final Fantasy VII | PS | 1997 | X | X | X |
16 | Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! | NES | 1987 | |||
17 | Chrono Trigger | SNES | 1995 | X | X | |
18 | Resident Evil 4 | GameCube | 2005 | |||
19 | Metal Gear Solid | PS | 1998 | |||
20 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | N64 | 1998 | |||
21 | Super Metroid | SNES | 1994 | X | ||
22 | Contra | NES | 1988 | X | ||
23 | Galaga | Arcade | 1981 | |||
24 | Castlevania: Symphony of the Night | PS | 1997 | |||
25 | Street Fighter II | Arcade, SNES | 1991 | X | ||
26 | God of War | PS2 | 2005 | |||
27 | BioShock | 360, PC | 2007 | |||
28 | Diablo II | PC | 2000 | X | X | |
29 | Half-Life | PC | 1998 | X | X | |
30 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | 360, PC | 2006 | |||
31 | Tecmo Super Bowl | NES | 1991 | |||
32 | GoldenEye 007 | N64 | 1997 | X | X | |
33 | Super Mario Kart | SNES | 1992 | X | X | |
34 | Sonic the Hedgehog | Genesis | 1991 | X | X | |
35 | Starcraft | PC | 1998 | X | X | X |
36 | Civilization | PC | 1991 | X | X | |
37 | SimCity | PC | 1989 | X | ||
38 | Mega Man 2 | NES | 1988 | |||
39 | Halo: Combat Evolved | Xbox | 2001 | X | X | |
40 | Gran Turismo | PS | 1998 | |||
41 | Resident Evil 2 | PS | 1998 | |||
42 | Pokemon Red and Blue | GB | 1996 | X | X | |
43 | Final Fantasy X | PS2 | 2001 | |||
44 | EverQuest | PC | 1999 | |||
45 | Final Fantasy Tactics | PS | 1998 | |||
46 | Grand Theft Auto IV | PS3, 360 | 2008 | |||
47 | Super Mario World | SNES | 1991 | X | X | |
48 | Deus Ex | PC | 2000 | |||
49 | Guitar Hero | PS2 | 2005 | |||
50 | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty | PS2 | 2001 | |||
51 | Super Mario Galaxy | Wii | 2007 | X | X | |
52 | Pac-Man | Arcade | 1980 | X | ||
53 | Battlefield 2 | PC | 2005 | |||
54 | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic | Xbox | 2003 | X | X | X |
55 | Ico | PS2 | 2001 | |||
56 | Uncharted 2: Among Thieves | PS3 | 2009 | |||
57 | Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 | PS | 2000 | |||
58 | Mass Effect | 360, PC | 2007 | X | X | |
59 | Adventure | 2600 | 1980 | |||
60 | Arkanoid | Arcade | 1986 | |||
61 | The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening | GB | 1993 | |||
62 | Star Wars: X-Wing | PC | 1993 | X | X | |
63 | The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask | N64 | 2000 | |||
64 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | PS2 | 2004 | X | ||
65 | Fallout 3 | PS3, 360, PC | 2008 | |||
66 | Zork | PC | 1980 | X | X | |
67 | Soul Calibur | DC | 1999 | |||
68 | Double Dragon | Arcade, NES | 1987 | X | ||
69 | Dr. Mario | NES | 1990 | X | ||
70 | The Sims | PC | 2000 | X | X | |
71 | Age of Empires | PC | 1997 | |||
72 | Mortal Kombat II | Arcade, SNES | 1993 | X | ||
73 | Rock Band 2 | PS3, 360 | 2008 | |||
74 | Tomb Raider | PS | 1996 | |||
75 | Super Bomberman | SNES | 1993 | X | ||
76 | Mario’s Picross | GB | 1995 | |||
77 | Ninja Gaiden | NES | 1989 | |||
78 | Command & Conquer | PC | 1995 | X | X | X |
79 | Kingdom Hearts | PS2 | 2002 | |||
80 | Final Fantasy II | SNES | 1991 | X | ||
81 | Super Mario Bros. 2 | NES | 1988 | X | ||
82 | Left 4 Dead | PC | 2008 | |||
83 | Okami | PS2 | 2006 | |||
84 | Shadow of the Colossus | PS2 | 2005 | |||
85 | Metroid Prime | GameCube | 2002 | X | ||
86 | Super Smash Bros. Melee | GameCube | 2001 | X | ||
87 | Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness | PC | 1995 | X | ||
88 | Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn | PC | 2000 | X | ||
89 | God of War II | PS2 | 2007 | |||
90 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Wii | 2006 | X | X | |
91 | Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal | PS2 | 2004 | X | X | |
92 | Medal of Honor: Allied Assault | PC | 2002 | |||
93 | Skies of Arcadia | DC | 2000 | |||
94 | The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker | GameCube | 2003 | |||
95 | Silent Hill 2 | PS2 | 2001 | |||
96 | Counter-Strike | PC | 1999 | X | ||
97 | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Genesis | 1992 | X | ||
98 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | PS2, Xbox, PC | 2002 | X | ||
99 | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time | PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC | 2003 | |||
100 | Portal | PC, 360 | 2007 | X | X | X |
101 | The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind | PC | 2002 | |||
102 | Heroes of Might & Magic III | PC | 1999 | X | ||
103 | Donkey Kong | Arcade | 1981 | |||
104 | Batman: Arkham Asylum | PS3, 360 | 2009 | X | ||
105 | System Shock 2 | PC | 1999 | |||
106 | Resident Evil | PS | 1996 | |||
107 | Gears of War | 360 | 2006 | X | ||
108 | Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots | PS3 | 2008 | |||
109 | Crash Bandicoot: Warped | PS | 1998 | |||
110 | Halo 2 | Xbox | 2004 | X | X | |
111 | Tetris Attack | SNES | 1996 | |||
112 | Final Fantasy XII | PS2 | 2006 | |||
113 | Earthbound | SNES | 1995 | |||
114 | Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri | PC | 1998 | X | X | X |
115 | Command & Conquer: Red Alert | PC | 1996 | X | ||
116 | Advance Wars | GBA | 2001 | |||
117 | Fallout | PC | 1997 | X | ||
118 | Team Fortress 2 | PS3, 360, PC | 2007 | X | X | |
119 | Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory | Xbox | 2005 | |||
120 | Mega Man X | SNES | 1994 | |||
121 | Lemmings | PC | 1991 | X | ||
122 | Panzer Dragoon Saga | Saturn | 1998 | |||
123 | NHL ’94 | Genesis, SNES | 1993 | |||
124 | Warlords | Arcade | 1980 | |||
125 | Shadowrun | SNES | 1993 | |||
126 | Twisted Metal 2 | PS | 1996 | X | X | |
127 | Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee | PS | 1997 | |||
128 | Metroid Fusion | GBA | 2002 | |||
129 | Homeworld | PC | 1999 | |||
130 | Kingdom Hearts II | PS2 | 2006 | |||
131 | Pilotwings | SNES | 1991 | |||
132 | Quake II | PC | 1997 | X | X | |
133 | Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II | PC | 1997 | X | ||
134 | Borderlands | PS3, 360, PC | 2009 | X | X | |
135 | Final Fight | Arcade | 1989 | |||
136 | Star Fox | SNES | 1993 | X | ||
137 | Madden NFL ’99 | PS, N64, PC | 1999 | |||
138 | Call of Duty 2 | 360, PC | 2005 | |||
139 | Wolfenstein 3D | PC | 1992 | X | X | |
140 | Diablo | PC | 1996 | X | X | X |
141 | Civilization IV | PC | 2005 | X | X | X |
142 | Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle | PC | 1993 | X | ||
143 | Assassin’s Creed | PS3, 360 | 2007 | |||
144 | Burnout 3: Takedown | PS2, Xbox | 2004 | |||
145 | Unreal Tournament 2004 | PC | 2004 | X | ||
146 | Power Stone 2 | DC | 2000 | |||
147 | Super Castlevania IV | SNES | 1991 | |||
148 | Super Mario RPG | SNES | 1996 | X | X | |
149 | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | PC | 2002 | X | X | X |
150 | ActRaiser | SNES | 1991 | |||
151 | Fable | Xbox | 2004 | |||
152 | Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht | PS2 | 2003 | |||
153 | Asteroids | Arcade | 1979 | |||
154 | LittleBigPlanet | PS3 | 2008 | |||
155 | Crackdown | 360 | 2007 | |||
156 | Gauntlet | Arcade | 1985 | |||
157 | Devil May Cry | PS2 | 2001 | |||
158 | Pong | Arcade | 1972 | X | ||
159 | Battlefield 1942 | PC | 2002 | X | ||
160 | Thief | PC | 1998 | X | ||
161 | Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved | 360 | 2005 | |||
162 | Far Cry | PC | 2004 | |||
163 | Robotron: 2084 | Arcade | 1982 | |||
164 | X-COM: UFO Defense | PC | 1993 | |||
165 | Peggle | PC, iPhone | 2007 | X | X | X |
166 | King’s Quest VI | PC | 1992 | X | ||
167 | Doom II | PC | 1994 | X | ||
168 | Tempest 2000 | Jaguar | 1994 | |||
169 | Braid | 360, PC | 2008 | X | X | |
170 | Ridge Racer | PS | 1995 | |||
171 | Bully | PS2, Wii | 2006 | X | ||
172 | Ikaruga | GameCube | 2006 | |||
173 | Lode Runner | Apple II | 1983 | X | ||
174 | Gunstar Heroes | Genesis | 1993 | |||
175 | Dig Dug | Arcade | 1982 | |||
176 | Castlevania | NES | 1988 | |||
177 | Tekken 3 | Arcade, PS | 1997 | X | ||
178 | Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney | DS | 2005 | |||
179 | NBA Jam: Tournament Edition | Arcade | 1993 | X | ||
180 | Max Payne | PC | 2001 | X | ||
181 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | PS3, 360, PC | 2009 | |||
182 | Samurai Shodown | Neo Geo, SNES | 1993 | X | ||
183 | NFL 2K5 | PS2, Xbox | 2004 | |||
184 | Vagrant Story | PS | 2000 | |||
185 | Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island | SNES | 1995 | X | ||
186 | Marble Madness | Arcade | 1984 | |||
187 | Infamous | PS3 | 2009 | |||
188 | Planescape: Torment | PC | 1999 | X | ||
189 | Kid Icarus | NES | 1986 | |||
190 | The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay | Xbox | 2004 | |||
191 | Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater | PS2 | 2004 | |||
192 | Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem | GameCube | 2002 | |||
193 | Jak 3 | PS2 | 2004 | |||
194 | Marvel vs. Capcom 2 | DC | 2002 | |||
195 | Ultima | PC | 1981 | |||
196 | Call of Duty | PC | 2003 | |||
197 | NHL 09 | PS3, 360 | 2008 | |||
198 | Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow | Xbox | 2004 | X | ||
199 | Tactics Ogre | PS | 1997 | |||
200 | Beyond Good and Evil | PS2, Xbox, GameCube | 2003 |
Overall Breakdown
From browsing the list, I was expecting it to be skewed towards more recent offerings. A few quick histograms to some extent confirm this for the full list, but disprove it when you consider only the Top 20 games on the list. Click to embiggen any of the graphs.
As you can see, the Top 200 list (in red) is skewed towards PC games, since that category is not further broken down by OS or era. It also seems to be skewed towards more recent consoles, particularly the Playstations 2 & 3 and both Xboxen.
However, if you consider only the Top 20 (in blue), a more historical perspective is available. Nintendo is more favored, and the breakdown is more even by by both year and generation. To me that implies that Game Informer recognizes Nintendo as an early innovator (particularly on the NES and SNES), but more lacking in recent offerings for the GameCube and Wii, especially compared to what’s available on the Xbox and Playstation.
My Breakdown
So, in total, of the 200 games, I’ve played 89 (44.5%), owned 25 (12.5%), and completed 26 (13%); however, I’ve only completed 11 of the games I’ve owned. There are three factors here: first, I’ve played games to completion on friends’ consoles/computers; second, I played several classic console games via emulation in high school, where I had downloaded the ROMs; third, I have purchased some newer games on the list that I’ve yet to finish.
Until the Wii, I never owned a console myself (with the exception of the short-lived Virtual Game Station PlayStation emulator for Mac), so all the other games I owned are listed under PC (which I mean to include DOS, Windows, Mac OS 9, and Mac OS X versions of games). PC is nearly impossible to split into “generation”, and since it includes multiple hardware/software combinations, I can’t easily get good stats for it. In spite of all of this, I feel like I’ve experienced most of the key points in video game history from the Nintendo revolution on. In that regard I’m in a historical sweet spot, I suppose. Click to embiggen any of the graphs.

Bar graph histogram of the Top 200 games broken down by my Played, Owned, and Completed lists organized by publication year

Bar graph histogram of the Top 200 games broken down by my Played, Owned, and Completed lists organized by console platform (including PC)

Bar graph histogram of the Top 200 games broken down by my Played, Owned, and Completed lists organized by console generation
As you can see, my own gameplay is heavily skewed towards the PC, although until recently that was almost exclusively games that were available on Mac. This makes sense, given that my mother didn’t allow game consoles in the house, but non-violent and arguably educational games my sister and I could sneak onto the computer.
There’s also a strong “bump” for games in the mid-’90s; this is when I would have been playing lots of console games at friends’ houses (for sleepovers and such), but it also includes the non-trivial number of SNES and Playstation games I played via emulation on my Mac in high school. (Incidentally, that very Mac is now functioning as the webserver displaying this blog entry.)
My ownership numbers have unsurprisingly gone up since 2005, given that I now have disposable income and can indulge my video game habits more easily than when I was living at home or in college. Additionally, I have added a Wii (my first console I can call my own!), a gaming-capable phone (first the original iPhone, and now a 3GS), and with the advent of Intel-based Macs, a drive booting into Windows 7 that I use to play various Windows-only games, such as Half Life 2 and Borderlands.
Conclusion
Overall, I’d say this list is skewed towards recent years, which I think is explainable largely by the target audience of the magazine: roughly, my age group (and a little younger) who probably started playing on SNES (4th-gen) consoles and are currently playing Xbox 360. The breakdowns for the Top 20 however makes me feel a little better, in that games that are more influential (or arguably started a genre) are reflected there.
There are definitely a few “classics” on here that I’d like to pick up and play for historical reasons, and a few I’d go back to for nostalgia, but most of the games I haven’t played aren’t in genres I particularly care about. A number are relatively obscure Japanese releases that only the hardest of hardcore video game fans would have seen in the US.
My biggest complaint about the list is a few items that had been out less than a week at the time of publication of this Game Informer issue! (I’m looking at you Modern Warfare 2…) I don’t care how good your opening sales weekend numbers are, or how good the previews are, you don’t deserve to be on this list yet if you came out in 2009. Give it time!
What do you think? How do you measure up?
I don’t want to check played…I might be afraid of the tally. I do play fewer games lately though, and am far more discerning of it.
It’s an interesting list for sure, but honestly I think I project like this is pretty ill-conceived to begin with. First of all, it’s really hard to compare games cross generationally as gaming has changed so dramatically over the course of its history. Then there is the possibly even bigger problem of how you assign value to a game — do we compare games against all games overall or simply games of their time period? Furthermore, how much emphasis do you place on originality vs. polish? Then there are the myriad problems with comparing games across genres — how much credit do you give to a game that is clearly the best game in a narrow genre vs. merely excellent games in more played genres?
Anyway, all those complaints aside it’s still a fun endeavor. There are a few things that jump out to me as not making sense:
1. Overrated games: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Half-Life 2 all jump out at me as games that don’t belong nearly as high on this list as they do. Half-Life is arguably better than Half-Life 2, especially if you give points for originality. Oblivion was just a dramatically overrated game, and I’m saying that as both a fan of the game and of the series in general. The same goes with Fallout 3, which I liked better than Oblivion… but it just doesn’t compete with Fallout or Fallout 2 (which somehow didn’t even make the list). There are other games on there that I also hear are overrated (like Bioshock) but haven’t had the chance to play them enough to judge.
2. Sequel Problems: See above with Fallout 3 and Oblivion, but several other games as well. The ordering of the GTA games makes no sense to me other than Vice City. Granted I haven’t played GTA 4, so I can’t really place that one properly, but San Andreas was way better than GTA. So they must be giving GTA a ton of points for being the first game of it’s type… but then they use very different criteria in other parts of the list (for example, Fallout vs. Fallout 3). I have absolutely no idea how they let Age of Empires on the list but left Age of Kings off it. AoE was an allright game, but nowhere even remotely close to Age of Kings.
3. Symphony of the Night – I love, love, love this game. But it’s not the 24th best game of all time.
4. Accessibility – I think this is my biggest problem with the list. I think it dramatically overemphasizes accessibility over depth. One thing that is very consistent throughout the list is that they rate dumbed-down but polished games well above high learning curve games with incredible depth. This even applies to whole genres of games, such as the flight sim genre. Flight sim games (and I’m including space combat sims in this) are notoriously tough to pick up. Yet even accessible games that also happen to be ridiculously good (*cough* Descent Freespace II) are left off largely because the genre in general is so niche. A lot of old school RPGs (like the Might and Magic series, for example) also fit into this category.
Anyway, it’s a fun exercise and I should probably take some more time to consider the list later!
I’m surprised you never played Everquest, given your fondness for WoW. Or am I revealing my ignorance of the genre by thinking the two are similar?
And I when I got to the graphs in your post, I couldn’t help but think of the How I Met Your Mother episode where Marshall goes chart-crazy.
I’m pleased to see that favorites like Legend of Zelda/Link to the Past, Final Fantasy 6, Super Mario Bros. 1/3, Metroid, and Chrono Trigger all made it near the top. I’m confused by some of the rankings though–why is the original Zelda above the (vastly better) Link to the Past? And why is Ms. Pac-Man (10) so much higher-ranked than the original Pac-Man (52)?
Reading the list, I get the sense that the criteria are a confused mix of historical importance, popularity-at-the-time, and the personal preferences of the GameInformer staff. What kind of criteria put Legend of Zelda at the top of the list but leave Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior entirely unranked? Objectively they were suckier than Legend of Zelda, but if LoZ gets to be on the list due entirely to historical interest how do you justify leaving them out?
@Stormwynd I probably would have played Everquest had I been a working adult at the time :oD
@Brodie @arnapcay I agree that the criteria they used varies over the course of the list. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt by interpreting their goal as targeting originality and/or historical influence, but calling them on games that are far too recent additions.
I’m surprised some of those arcade games are up there, but I’m glad they are. I remember playing Gauntlet at our local rec center. I would save up my quarters for like a month and then go and play for hours on end. If you get the chance, I believe they did release a version of it for PS2.
And you need to play the origional dig dug. Classic.
nevermind I thought this was the new list that was just released…
I keep wondering if Game Informer will nail me for copyright, even though I think commenting on their list is Fair Use. Sorry about the confusion – I’ll add a year header or something.
Did you ever heard about Shenmue ?
excuse me…. where the F*CK IS Xenogears !!???
Hey, I didn’t make the list :oD. Although, to be honest, I’ve never played Xenogears or Xenosaga.