Computer and video games that have been considered the greatest ever
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While there is no universal standard by which to judge the quality of games, some games regularly feature in "best game ever" lists. Some games achieve this status simply by selling well, others by topping polls of gamers or industry critics and winning gaming industry awards.
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[edit] Best selling
Main article: List of best selling computer and video games
- Super Mario Bros. - the official Guinness Book of World Records record holder for best-selling game, at over 40 million copies sold, although it was sold packaged with the NES. [1]
- The Sims - the best selling PC game, having sold over 8 million units alone and 24 million counting expansion packs. [2]
- Games featuring Mario - the top-selling series of games, with over 153 million games sold in total. [3]
- Myst - the top-selling game of the 1990s before The Sims, selling over 6 million copies and boosting the popularity of the adventure game genre (and the CD-ROM).
- Pokémon Red, Blue and Green - These three games have sold approximately 30 million copies, making them the best-selling RPG. While they may hold different titles, the games differ only in the fact that the Pokémon available in Red differs only very slightly from those in Blue and Green. The American versions (Red and Blue) are based on the Japanese version of Pokémon Blue, which features better graphics and different dungeon layouts and was released after Red and Green. [citation needed]
A bestseller list will necessarily exclude non-commercial games, and games such as Minesweeper and Solitaire which are present on more than 200 million desktop PCs as part of Microsoft Windows [4].
[edit] Polls and votes
[edit] Editor polls
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - topped Edge magazine's staff top 100 [5]
- Doom - was voted the "#1 game of all time" in a poll among over 100 game developers and journalists conducted by GameSpy in July 2001 [6]
- Resident Evil 4 - was noted as the best by GamePro magazine in 2005 [citation needed]
- Super Mario 64 - was chosen as the best game ever by a panel of eight industry professionals at the 2002 Game Developers Conference in London [7]
- IGN
- Super Mario Bros. - topped IGN's editor-compiled Top 100 Games of All Time in 2003 [8]
- Super Mario Bros. - same feat repeated in 2005 [9]
- Electronic Gaming Monthly:
- Super Metroid - topped EGM's Top 100 Games of All Time, compiled by the editors in 2001 [10].
- Tetris - ranked at number one in a previous poll held in 1997 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.[citation needed]
- Super Mario Bros. - ranked #1 in EGM's "Top 200 Games Of Their Time"
- Next Generation Magazine:
- Super Mario 64 - was ranked number one by NGM's editors in its September 1996 article
- The Legend of Zelda series - held the number one title in its February 1999 article "The Top 50 Games of All Time"
- The Legend of Zelda - The original Zelda game, noted as the best by Game Informer magazine
- Elite - is noted by Retro Gamer magazine as the best in issue 9
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - was noted as the best game by Entertainment Weekly
- The Sims 2 - was mentioned as the best game ever by The Age newspaper in 2005
- Civilization - topped a list of the 150 best games to be released for either the PC or Macintosh in the November 1996 issue of Computer Gaming World
- NetHack - is named the Best Game Ever in an in-depth Salon article [11]
- PC Gamer:
- Star Wars: TIE Fighter - placed first in their "50 Greatest Games" article in May 1997
- Half-Life - was voted number one out of "50 Greatest Games" in the U.S. PC Gamer's April 2005 article
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - #1 game in 2006's PC Gamer Top 100 feature
[edit] Public polls
- IGN
- Resident Evil 4 - topped IGN's top 99 games as voted by users [12]
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - topped IGN's similar list of the top 100 games in 2006 [13]
- Computer And Video Games magazine:
- GoldenEye 007 - 100 Greatest Games feature, January 2000, voted by readers
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - same poll in 2001
- GameFAQs:
- Final Fantasy VII - won the "Best. Game. Ever." tournament of polls in 2004 [14]
- Final Fantasy VII - the favorite game of GameFAQs users, as of November 5, 2005. Compiled from users submitting lists of their 10 favorite games [15]
- The Legend of Zelda game series - won the "Best. Series. Ever." tournament in 2006
- Half-Life - won the "Title Fight" series of polls hosted by GameSpy in 2004 [16]
- Final Fantasy X - all-time favourite game of readers of Famitsu magazine, as voted in March of 2006 [17]
[edit] Notable review scores
- Official Xbox Magazine - has given a maximum score of 10.0 out of 10.0 only to Fight Night Round 3 and Gears of War. Although this is after it had switched away from a hundred point system, and it has been mentioned that it would award a 10.0 to Halo 2, Ninja Gaiden, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory had they been graded the same as Fight Night and Gears of War.
- GameSpot - has awarded a maximum score of 10.0 out of 10.0 to four games: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Chrono Cross, Soul Calibur and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
- Edge magazine - has given a maximum score of 10 out of 10 to five games: Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Gran Turismo, Halo: Combat Evolved and Half-Life 2. In a short-run piece reviewing retro games, two other games to receive retroactive 10s were Elite and Super Mario Bros.. The magazine has also stated that the score was considered, but eventually rejected, for GoldenEye 007.
- Famitsu magazine - has given a maximum score of 40 out of 40 to six games: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Vagrant Story, Soul Calibur, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Nintendogs and Final Fantasy XII.
- IGN - has awarded a maximum score of 10.0 out of 10.0 to two console games: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Soul Calibur. Handheld games, which had a different review system, are 16: Pokémon Red and Blue, Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon Gold and Silver, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, Dragon Warrior III, Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Magical Tetris Challenge, SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium, Mario Golf (Game Boy Color), Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX, Shangai,Joust, Checkered Flag, Tornado Mania and Sonic Pocket Adventure.
- Official Playstation 2 Magazine (UK) - awarded maximum scores of 10 out of 10 to twelve games: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, TimeSplitters 2, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack, Soul Calibur II, Burnout 3: Takedown, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Resident Evil 4, Burnout Revenge, BLACK, Tekken: Dark Resurrection and Pro Evolution Soccer 6
- PC Gamer (U.S.) - has never awarded a maximum score of 100%, or even 99%. Two games have been awarded scores of 98%: Half-Life 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
- PC Gamer (UK) - likewise has never awarded a maximum score of 100%. Their highest awarded score is 96%, shared by four games: Civilization II, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Quake II.
- Maximum PC - has only awarded an 11 out of 10 score to what it considered the best PC game ever made, Half-Life 2.
[edit] High scores in multiple reviews
As of December, 2006, the top 10 games listed on Game Rankings, a site which averages scores awarded by numerous websites and magazines, are: [18]
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64 (97.9%)
- Soul Calibur, Sega Dreamcast (96.4%)
- Metroid Prime, Nintendo GameCube (96.4%)
- GoldenEye 007, Nintendo 64 (96.1%)
- Resident Evil 4, Nintendo GameCube (95.9%)
- Tekken 3, PlayStation (96.3%)
- Super Mario 64, Nintendo 64 (95.7%)
- Resident Evil 4, PlayStation 2 (95.6%)
- Halo: Combat Evolved, Xbox (95.6%)
- Half-Life 2, PC (95.6%)
As of December 2006, according to Gamestats [19], the top 10 video games of all time are:
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64 (9.8)
- Soul Calibur, Sega Dreamcast (9.7)
- Resident Evil 4, Nintendo GameCube (9.7)
- GoldenEye 007, Nintendo 64 (9.6)
- Metal Gear Solid, PlayStation (9.6)
- Half-Life 2, PC (9.5)
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Nintendo GameCube (9.5)
- Resident Evil 4, Playstation 2 (9.5)
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, PlayStation 2 (9.5)
- Halo: Combat Evolved, Xbox (9.5)
As of August 2006, the top 10 games on Metacritic, are: [20]
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64 (99)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, PlayStation (98)
- Soul Calibur, Sega Dreamcast (98)
- Perfect Dark, Nintendo 64 (97)
- NFL 2K1, Sega Dreamcast (97)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, PlayStation 2 (97)
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Sega Dreamcast (97)
- Halo: Combat Evolved, Xbox (97)
- Metroid Prime, Nintendo GameCube (97)
- Grand Theft Auto III, Playstation 2 (97)
And on Game Ratio: [21]
- Halo 2, Xbox (98%)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64 (97%)
- Half-Life 2, PC (97%)
- GoldenEye 007, Nintendo 64(97%)
- Resident Evil 4, Nintendo GameCube (96%)
- Soul Calibur, Sega Dreamcast (96%)
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, PlayStation 2 (96%)
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii (96%)
- Perfect Dark, Nintendo 64 (96%)
- Resident Evil 4, PlayStation 2 (96%)
[edit] See also
- List of computer and video games considered the worst ever
- Films that have been considered the greatest ever
- List of best-selling computer and video games
[edit] External links
- Windows Solitaire is massively popular in the workplace
- GameSpot's "The Greatest Games of All Time" column
- Collection of various "top 10" lists from different sources
- Four 'Top 25 Games of All Time' articles with extended explanations (includes up to 2003)
- Game Informer's Top 100 Games
- Gamez-n-Stuff's Top 10 greatest video games of all time