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These lists are always so silly, especially once you reach the top. Like why are we comparing Elden Ring, to Tetris, to Super Mario 64, and saying “one of these is definitively better than the other”.
It’s also a weird mix of how good the actual game is, vs how big its historical legacy is. Like, as the resident pokemon fan, I will freely say this: RBY sucks. It’s not fun to play. And yet it seems to be included simply for being popular…?
I like RBY, but yeah, I would’ve opted for HG/SS here.
Historical Legacy is a good way to put it. For Pokemon in particular, RBY was the franchise for a lot of people, myself included. I’ve played a few of the others, but RBY is what came out when I was a kid and will always be the one I remember.
tldr: botw is #2
Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Half-Life Alyx all made the list. That’s pretty cool.
Can almost never agree with the exact numbering, but still a great collection of amazing games. Some I wouldn’t include, but opinions are opinions.
Not too bad of a list… I’d say most of the games on there probably deserve to be on there, even if they aren’t to my taste. Chrono Trigger all the way down at #84 is a headscratcher, though. That’s a top 10 game as far as I’m concerned.
All the usual problems you expect with lists like these.
- Franchises represented by their first or most ubiquitous game rather than their best (or better yet, all of them that deserve it making the list)
- Recency bias toward games that likely won’t be recognized as this good 5 years from now.
- Missing entries so egregious that almost anyone would agree they belong on the list (see the lack of Symphony of the Night, for example).
- Arguably too much weight put on storytelling.
- (most importantly) The items above being applied randomly and inconsistently.
Your 4th point really hits on the main problem with all lists like this and that is that what is “best” is different for everyone. I agree with you that this puts too much weight on storytelling, but I know for some people story is by far the most important part of any game. For me, I rarely care about the story at all, I just want interesting mechanics.
It seems inconsistent on how they rank series. For instance,
Starcraft 2 but no starcraft 1, which had a much bigger impact on the gaming world. Portal 2 but no Portal
But then they go and include all the half-lifes.
Top X Lists are fine but I hope people don’t take them too seriously given their subjectivity. Like my number 2 is gravity rush 2, variety is the spice of life
I can see this article garnering controversy with some of these choices
Bioshock (and Infinite) was a great game, but #7 of all time? No way.
Super Mario RPG isn’t even on that list. Super Mario RPG was groundbreaking for its time.
Super Mario RPG was amazing on so many levels. Sadly, we will never again see the likes of Mallow and Geno due to the Nintendo/Square schism, but at least it holds up well on a replay. The soundtrack is also great for background noises almost anytime.
I’ve never been so happy to be wrong!!! 🥲
