Top 300 games of all time by GameInformer. Thoughts?

[marvelvscapcom2]

Hello Everyone


Now before I start with the rants and we all have fun with what we don't like about the listings, I do want to take in mind that this is of course all preference and I don't think I could ever make a list of the best 300 games in actual ascending order without angering a purist that loves a certain game. It's tough to do. But of course that's why you don't do it.  And when you do you pretty much solemnly give permission for us to get our laughs out of it.  So let's have at it .



Here is the whole list.  The magazine includes reasoning and nice pictures but in sense this is what you got for their choice of the top 300 holy grails to ever grace our beloved hobby. 


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hlsB-HNh05SpaU0Au6Oh2G-ndpsvXAsOJpv8PFlJp2E/htmlview#gid=0


I didn't make the list but someone took the trouble to list them all off.  Which is pretty neat.


But some of the eye brow raising decisions come from the lieks of Orcarina of Time at 39 lol.    FFVII at 80?

Let these few key notes sink in

NHL 94 better than Super Mario 64?

Galaga better than Last of Us?

Overwatch better than Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow and Orcarina of Time?

Super Mario Bros 3 the second best game of all time? 

Tetris over GTA 5 and Minecraft?


I mean.  Woah....   


Call of Duty 4 is in the Top 10 and DK Country, SMW, Super Metroid and OOT aren't.   Let's all stew in that for a moment ahahaha.


I have been laughing at the magazine for a good hour now.   Come join me and revel in it's comedic gold      It's like a stale tongue in cheek Fallon monologue.  It's so rich.




What do you all make of the list .    Which decision do you agree or disagree with most?   Which of your favorite games got robbed or were given their worthy props?   

[emporerdragon]

One thing I noticed is that there were quite a few games on there, where only the first game was on the list, despite the sequels being far more popular and critically acclaimed, like with Harvest Moon, Mario Kart, X-Wing, or Donkey Kong Country.

[kamikazekeeg]

Weird decisions for sure.  We do have to take a step back as fans of certain games to realize that this is a list that takes into account popularity and impact outside of our usual genres, though I feel it's abit wild that Red Dead Redemption is in the Top 10.  Ocarina of Time not making even the Top 20, but Bioshock does? Witcher 3 seems weirdly high too.  It's a good game, but Top 10? Super Mario 64 and FF7 being so low is also weird.

[hexen]

List like this are always going to make a lot of people mad. The worst one I ever saw was a popular website (I forgot which one) that put Portal as the best game of all time, I laughed my ass off while feeling disgust at the same time. Here are some things from this list I find dumb personally:

- ANY Western RPGs above Morrowind (Witcher 3, Skyrim)
- one of the world's most overrated games The Last of Us Cracking top 100 over many better titles
- Typical Super Metroid over-wanking (Metroid is lower tier in it's own namesake genre, Symphony of the Night is way better and stuff like Axiom Verge and especially Hollow Knight also surpass it. Not to mention the myriad of non-genre SNES games better than it.)
- Mass Effect 2 & 3 without Mass Effect 1, the best one...
- Super Mario Kart is the only Mario Kart on the list, and it's the worst one shy of 64.
- This effect also applies to Pokemon, only first 2 gens on the list, with RBY above GSC
- Donkey Kong Country, with not Donkey Kong Country 2...

There is always a weird balance of gameplay excellence versus cultural & industry importance. I think they do this to have more variety, or you would certainly have just about every mainline entry in the best series like Mario, Zelda, etc. These lists will always have to be taken with a massive pile of salt.

[skirvin]

It'd be more excusable if they had a better explanation of their process.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I just came back and tried to be unbiased about the whole issue as best as I could.  I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.  I looked over a couple of more times and to my dismay I didn't find Kingdom Hearts.   Am I missing something here or is this serious? I thought I was hallucinating or maybe just skipping it over but now i'm genuinely baffled and on the verge of lighting the magazine on fire lol. 

I get that KH is maybe just my cup of tea and by no means do I suggest it should be to 20 or something.  But is it not a top 300 game? I mean I found Amplitude and Axiom Verge?  No kingdom hearts in the top 300 games of all time? But NHL 09 is? lol.   I realized I can't give this list a pass.   Although it's subjective.  It's made with the intent to offend lol.   I get that they wanted to conserve room by only putting one entry for some franchises but they have two NHL games but couldn't put both kingdom hearts?  This is treason lol 


Next years list 


1. Sammy Sosa's Softball Slam     (It was a tough choice between this and Just Dance 4.  But not many games have had the impact on the ladnscape of gaming as SSSS.   It's literally 4 S's for satisfactory.   The gold standard.   A game that paved the way for all the other soft ball games  )
2. Just Dance 4
3. Mary Kate and Ashley's Get a Clue   
4. Madden 07    (Different than the other 30 maddens by only a little bit)
5. E.T   (ET Phoned home.  I never cried as much in a game as when ET phoned home in ET for the atari 2600.  You could see all 3 pixels of him phoning home)
6.  Spongebob's Boating Bash
7. Nintendogs Dashaund Edition
8. Call of Duty Ghosts   
9.  Roblox 
10.  Ecco the Dolphin 2   

[emporerdragon]

I just came back and tried to be unbiased about the whole issue as best as I could.  I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.  I looked over a couple of more times and to my dismay I didn't find Kingdom Hearts.

First one's not in there. 2 is at #88, between Team Fortress 2 and Earthbound.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I just came back and tried to be unbiased about the whole issue as best as I could.  I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.  I looked over a couple of more times and to my dismay I didn't find Kingdom Hearts.

First one's not in there. 2 is at #88, between Team Fortress 2 and Earthbound.

I personally don't get their logic.  With most entries they clearly chose the one that was more impactful and not which was better.   3 over SMW,  Little big Planet over LBP 2.    DKC 1 over 2.    They kept choosing the first and more inovative one that paved the way to be the golden one they chose.   But with kingdom hearts they put 2 over 1?    Why not both?    Saying KH1 isn't top 300 games of all time makes this publication lose the last shred of credibility I had for it. 

[dashv]

The only things that surprised me about SMB 3 was that it got #2 and not #1.

[arkaneer]

They have also now published their Readers Top 300 list as voted for last month:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2018/03/19/readers-choice-top-300-games-of-all-time.aspx

Quite the difference in lists

[Cartagia]

I just came back and tried to be unbiased about the whole issue as best as I could.  I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.  I looked over a couple of more times and to my dismay I didn't find Kingdom Hearts.

First one's not in there. 2 is at #88, between Team Fortress 2 and Earthbound.

I personally don't get their logic.  With most entries they clearly chose the one that was more impactful and not which was better.   3 over SMW,  Little big Planet over LBP 2.    DKC 1 over 2.    They kept choosing the first and more inovative one that paved the way to be the golden one they chose.

Yeah, I think the biggest problem with the "official" list is the placement of the more popular / important game in franchise over "better" entries (GTA V being the most egregious example, IMO).  But, that said, all-in-all the list is not as bad as I thought it would be.  Definitely a couple of questionable choices here and there, but when you are taking a holistic look at every game ever you can see how that would be difficult.

Now, the reader ranks are obviously suffering from a severe case of recency bias, especially with Mass Effect 1 in the Top 20, and other more questionable modern games ranked over some venerable classics - hell, Mass Effect: Andromeda made the list.

[marvelvscapcom2]

They have also now published their Readers Top 300 list as voted for last month:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2018/03/19/readers-choice-top-300-games-of-all-time.aspx

Quite the difference in lists

Holy moly lol.    I think the readers list might be worst than the editors one and I thought that'd be hard to do lol.   Witcher 3 as the best game of all time?    Minecraft as 74?       Wow.   Mass Effect Andromeda must have been a troll chain of votes I assume but it's still funny. 



One thing I wanted to touch on with everyone that I was thinking about last night and wanted to see if anyone agrees.  It's pretty out there and maybe offensive.  But does anyone else think it's ridiculous for Tetris to be number 3?   Should it even be discussed in the top 20?    Sure it's one of the most known, played, sold and legendary games.  But it's also placing blocks on other blocks to break lines.  It's so primative and simple.  It's a game that can be played on calculators.  Sure it was an amazing premise and the game is so addictive and iconic but some of the games it edges out are simply more deserving.  More technical and more difficult in design.  Tetris is 1 spot ahead of probably the most open, expansive and depth filled sandbox games of all time.      It seems odd.     

I just think as a whole the Ms.Pacman and other arcade games like galaga besting full fledged home console titles and mobile puzzle games like tetris getting a bronze out of 300 entries is a little odd and unfair to games with much more depth in their design and execution.   How far can nostalgia and innovation carry a entry?  . 

Not sure if anyone agrees but I was thinking of this while reading some of the higher arcade entries.   Although I love Ms. Pacman it seems a bit high to have a game where you eat pellets around a maze higher than something like Super Mario World.

[badATchaos]

I'm surprised how much higher Half-Life 2 was on the list compared to the first game. Many fans would argue Half-Life 1 was a better game.

[Cartagia]

Tetris is the absolute pinnacle of brilliant simplicity.  It’s is a game you can put in front of nearly anyone on the planet and they can figure it out and be enjoying themselves in 5 minutes.  It absolute deserves the spot.

[burningdoom]

One thing I noticed is that there were quite a few games on there, where only the first game was on the list, despite the sequels being far more popular and critically acclaimed, like with Harvest Moon, Mario Kart, X-Wing, or Donkey Kong Country.

Because Donkey Kong Country 1 is the best one.