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.

Best selling

For a detailed list, see List of best selling computer and video games

• Super Mario Bros. (NES) is the official Guinness Book of World Records record holder for best-selling game, at over 40 million units, although it was sold packaged along with the NES. The Mario series is also the top-selling series, with over 200 million games sold. [link]

• Similarly, Tetris for the Game Boy sold 33 million units, having been packaged with the Game Boy. [link]

• The best selling game not bundled with a console is Super Mario Bros. 3, also for the NES, selling more then 18 million units.
• The 2nd best selling game not bundled with a system was Super Mario Land, selling 18.14 million units.
• The best selling computer game is The Sims, having sold over 8 million units alone and 24 million counting expansion packs. [link]

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 [link].

Western Media

Expert polls

• The original Legend of Zelda game was noted as the best by Game Informer magazine.

• topped Edge staff's top 100, with GoldenEye 007 and Super Mario 64 rounding out the top three. [link]

• was noted as the best game by Entertainment Weekly.

• 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. [link]

• Elite is noted by Retrogamer magazine as the best in issue 9.

• Resident Evil 4 as noted by GamePro magazine in 2005.

• The Sims 2 is mentioned as the best game ever by The Age newspaper in 2005.

• 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. [link]

• Super Mario Bros. — IGN's Top 100 Games of All Time, compiled by the editors in 2003, and again in 2005 [link] [link]

• Super Metroid — Electronic Gaming Monthly's Top 100 Games of All Time, compiled by the editors in 2001 [link] (a previous poll held in 1997 ranked Tetris at number one); also by Dorkclub.com.

• Super Mario 64 was ranked number one by Next Generation Magazine's editors in its September 1996 article The Top 100 Videogames of All Time. Tetris was at the number two spot. Three years later in its February 1999 article The Top 50 Games of All Time, The Legend of Zelda series held the number one title. Tetris still remained at number two.

• Half-Life was voted number one out of "50 Greatest Games" in the U.S. PC Gamer's April 2005 article. Doom followed at number two, and Half-Life 2 at number three.

• Electronic Gaming Monthly's "top 200 games of their time" rank Super Mario Bros. as #1. The feature was meant to show how much impact a game had on its time period, and not how it holds up now.

User polls

• GoldenEye 007 - Computer And Video Games' 100 Greatest Games feature, voted for by readers of the magazine (January 2000).
• In 2001, the magazine repeated the poll, and came first.

• Final Fantasy VII won the "Best. Game. Ever" series of polls hosted by GameFAQs in 2004 [link]

• Half-Life won the "Title Fight" and "Black Mesa Champion" series of polls hosted by GameSpy in 2004. In the same poll, Doom won the "Hell Fight," Mario Kart 64 the "Stadium Champion," Super Mario Bros. 3 the "Arcade Champion," Civilization III the "Liberty City Champion," The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the "Hyrule Champion," Diablo II the "Azeroth Champion," and Halo the "Abandoned Base Champion." [link]

• In issue 150 of Nintendo Official Magazine a poll of the 150 greatest games ever to appear on a Nintendo console:

2. Pokémon
3. Super Mario 64
4. Super Smash Bros. Melee
5. Metroid Prime
6. Goldeneye 007
7. Super Mario World
10. Animal Crossing

• In issue 200 of Nintendo Power Magazine a poll of the 200 greatest games ever to appear on a Nintendo console ' came 1st followed by Resident Evil 4 in 2nd and ' in 3rd

• GameFAQs held a contest for its 10th anniversary ending on November 5, 2005 in which users chose their 10 favorite games and guessed what the overall top 10 games would be. The overall top 100 list, as chosen by the overall userbase of GameFAQs, was revealed at the conclusion of the contest. [link] The top ten were:

''Final Fantasy VII

''

''Chrono Trigger

''

''Super Mario Bros. 3

''Super Smash Bros. Melee

''Goldeneye 007

''Metal Gear Solid

''

''Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III in North America)

As of July 3, 2006, the top 10 games listed on NintendoHeadquarters, an unofficial poll attaining votes since 1997 on Nintendo-only titles suggests the top 10 are as follows: [link]

1. Super Mario Bros. 3, NES (41,506 votes)
2. , SNES (39,492 votes)
3. Super Mario 64, N64 (38,955 votes)
4. Dragon Quest IV, NES (37,212 votes)
5. Legend of Zelda, NES (33,406 votes)
6. Dragon Quest, NES (33,334 votes)
7. Super Mario Bros, NES (33,158 votes)
8. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, NES (33,060 votes)
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 - American Version, NES (32,822 votes)
10. Street Fighter 2 - World Warrior/Turbo, SNES (32,510 votes)

It should be noted that the 11th place game is in fact The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with 32,309 votes. Also note a chronological advantage for older games during the long history of voting.

High scores in multiple reviews

Note: These rankings, compiled from online sources, do not take into account games that were published before Internet reviewing became a standard in the game industry. This means older games like Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda are not on these lists.

As of June 2006, the top 10 games listed on GameRankings, a site which averages scores awarded by numerous websites and magazines, are: [link]

1. , Nintendo 64 (97.8%)
2. Soul Calibur, Sega Dreamcast (96.7%)
3. Tekken 3, PlayStation (96.4%)
4. Metroid Prime, Nintendo GameCube (96.3%)
5. GoldenEye 007, Nintendo 64 (96.0%)
6. Resident Evil 4, Nintendo GameCube (96.0%)
7. Resident Evil 4, PlayStation 2 (96.0%)
8. , Xbox (95.8%)
9. Half Life 2, PC (95.7%)
10. NFL 2K1, Sega Dreamcast (95.6%)

As of June 2006, according to Gamestats [link], the top 10 video games of all time are:

1. , Nintendo 64 (9.8)
2. Soul Calibur, Sega Dreamcast (9.7)
3. Resident Evil 4, Nintendo GameCube (9.7)
4. GoldenEye 007, Nintendo 64 (9.6)
5. Metal Gear Solid, PlayStation (9.6)
6. Half-Life 2, PC (9.5)
7. , Nintendo GameCube (9.5)
8. , Playstation 2 (9.5)
9. Resident Evil 4, Playstation 2 (9.5)
10. , PlayStation 2 (9.5)

As of June 2006, the top 10 games on Metacritic, are: [link]

1. , Nintendo 64 (99)
2. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, PlayStation (98)
3. Soul Calibur, Sega Dreamcast (98)
4. Perfect Dark, Nintendo 64 (97)
5. NFL 2K1, Sega Dreamcast (97)
6. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, PlayStation 2 (97)
7. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Sega Dreamcast (97)
8. , Xbox (97)
9. Metroid Prime, Nintendo GameCube (97)
10. Grand Theft Auto 3, Playstation 2 (97)

for the Nintendo 64 ranks on all three of the sites as the best reviewed game. It should be noted that Soul Calibur for the Sega Dreamcast is the only other game appearing on all sites that encompass all systems.

Japanese media

User polls

In March of 2006 Japanese Famitsu magazine readers voted on their 100 all-time favorite games. ([Full list])

The top ten games picked by fans were:

1. Final Fantasy X (2001)
2. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
3. Dragon Quest III (1988)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (2004)
5. Machi (1998)
6. Final Fantasy IV (1991)
7. Tactics Ogre (1995)
8. Final Fantasy III (1990)
9. Dragon Quest VII (2000)
10. (1998)

Notable review scores

• The notoriously tough reviewers from Famitsu magazine have given a perfect score of 40/40 to only six games: Soul Calibur, Vagrant Story, ', ', Nintendogs, and Final Fantasy XII.

• The reviewers at Official Xbox Magazine have only given a 10 out of 10 to only one game ever (Fight Night Round 3 for the Xbox 360).

• Similarly, only five titles have been given 10/10 by UK games magazine Edge: Super Mario 64, ', Gran Turismo, ' and Half-Life 2. In a short-run piece reviewing retro games, others to receive 10/10 were Elite and Super Mario Bros.. The magazine has also stated that the score was considered, but eventually rejected, for GoldenEye 007.

• In addition, Gamespot.com has awarded a perfect score of 10/10 to only four games: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Chrono Cross, Soul Calibur, and .

• IGN has awarded a 10/10 to only Soul Calibur and (not counting multiple Game Boy games which used a different rating scale). Thus, Soul Calibur and Ocarina of Time are the only games to get perfect scores from IGN and GameSpot, as well as garnering perfect scores from Famitsu.

• The U.S. PC Gamer has never awarded a perfect score of 100%, or even 99%. Only two games ever attained 98%: Half-Life 2 and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. The latter was dropped from the magazine's April 2005 list of the 50 best games of all time, despite being tied for the highest score ever awarded. These ratings include PC games only.

• The now-defunct PC Accelerator had a scale of 0-10. Half-Life was the only game that ever received an 11.

• The U.S. Maximum PC which uses a scale of 0-10 awarded Half-Life 2 an 11 in its January 2005 issue.

• The UK version of Official Playstation Magazine(2) awarded 10/10 to Timesplitters 2, , , Resident Evil 4, Black, and Burnout Revenge

Notable articles

• NetHack is named the Best Game Ever in an in-depth Salon article. [link]
• Civilization in 1996 topped ''Computer Gaming Worlds list of the 150 best games to be released for either the PC or Macintosh. In 1997, when the poll was repeated, the Collector's CD-ROM of ' placed first.

See also

• List of video games considered the worst ever
• Films that have been considered the greatest ever
• List of best selling video games
• Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever

External links

• [Windows Solitaire is massively popular in the workplace]
• [gamespot.com'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.)]

 

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