Backloggd Canon 2022 (Sight & Sound)

At the end of 2022, the users on Backloggd got together to vote on a canon for the site, inspired by the Sight & Sound top films list released concurrently. 129 separate site members submitted ballots containing 10 games each, with 527 unique games nominated, 113 of which were voted on by three or more people. These are the results, presented here with added commentary from many of the site's most fervent users. Thank you to everyone who participated, as well as those who were gracious enough to write blurbs for each!

You can find the ballots listed here.

Doom
Doom
RANK 1 (33 votes)

“At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular piece of media just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.” - John Carmack, 2004

Bottomless invention, technical achievement and an unbridled sense of speed make this first-person shooter one of gaming’s sharpest, most exciting experiences almost 30 years after its release - if you want a game that exemplifies and honours the impossible, arbitrary and contradictory history and nature of game-making, look no further. Video games are an artform and a mass entertainment, the product of a collective vision and of a ruthless industry, the work of great developers and the alchemical result of a thousand collaborations, coincidences and backs-against-the-wall snap decisions, and DOOM is all of the above and more.

An “unbelievable virtual-reality world” (PC Gamer, 1993) that revealed itself to be the genesis of gaming’s most popular genre - an epic that has generated its own mythic origin stories, from the designer who wouldn’t compromise to the programmer who was never entirely sure he could pull it off. Its persistence of legacy can be attributed to technical achievements, cultural influence, innovation or even its own ease-of-access; but at the end of the day, it’s just really fucking fun to play.
(letshugbro)
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4
RANK 2 (25 votes)

A rustic Spain beset by the parasitisation of pastoral life and punctuated by the revving of chainsaws sets the stage for not only a complete and total re-examination of Resident Evil’s ethos, but a trailblazing effort which served as the template for an entire movement. What might be lost in terms of prior entries’ fear factor has instead been reinterpreted through the lens of a pervasive tension. Leon S. Kennedy is no longer left to haphazardly skulk in dingy hallways at the mercy of the walking dead but is instead a maestro in total control of each combative ordeal – so long as he remains composed throughout creeping turmoil. Shinji Mikami’s impeccable direction is transformative, configuring the traditional mechanical hallmarks of Resident Evil into a series of escalating challenges which favour steady aim, grit, and crowd control over resource management and route planning. What remains is the leanness of exceptional game design married with an extraordinarily taut pace which revels in never once allowing comfort. Resident Evil 4 is a watershed moment for the medium - a title with a lowbrow, grindhouse veneer which cloaks the dizzying extent of its commitment to precision and rigor.
(KB0)
Tetris
Tetris
RANK 2 (25 votes)

Since its inception by Alexey Pajitnov on June 6, 1984 Tetris has occupied an enormity of humanity's collective brainspace. The Nintendo developed releases on NES/Famicom and Game Boy come to mind first and foremost for many, themselves oft-considered effectively the first versions to get the formula 'right'. However, that initial version crafted in the halls of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union for the Electronika 60 microcomputer represents a pure, cohesive experience, remaining highly enjoyable nearly fourty years later.

It's rather telling that this ur- Tetris operates with the same mechanical elegance as its progeny. The consideration of Tetris - and indeed, any game - as a 'perfect game' to be trite, but from the outset Alexey Pajitnov demonstrated with aplomb that Tetris is a perfect idea. The reiteration of gameplay systems necessarily precludes Tetris from an actualised perfection -- who can judge which of its 322+ official releases is 'definitive'?

Yet, with hundreds of versions each expanding on that which came before, one would expect the very first title to be lacking most of what allowed Tetris to be a success. The Electronika 60 release is a monochrome textscape without even the barest flourishes of the Game Boy version. The shrill piezoelectric beeper's pathetic tones are an auditory agony; the ubiquitous whine of the cathode ray tube a tinnital torment. There is no bag randomiser. There is no hold. Rotation is clockwise-only. No T-spins, no back-to-backs, no combos, no garbage, no ghost. One next piece is shown. Surprisingly the hard drop is present, despite its omission from subsequent versions until 2001's Tetris Worlds.

It all matters not. In a cacophany of noise befitting a Ryoji Ikeda installation, I am dealt five Z-pieces in a row. The inconsistent speed increments befuddle me, catching me off-guard. How characters are rendered makes it difficult to consider my board's layout. I am in love. This scant realisation feels pure. I am entranced by it. It is all I have ever needed and wanted.
(Detchibe)
Demon's Souls
Demon's Souls
RANK 4 (23 votes)

This game’s existence, from its inception to its eventual reception and legacy, is nothing short of a miracle. Burning down the institution of tropes and conventions laden in the industry at the time, Demon’s Souls is a title that stands tall in its own corner of reality and feels entirely disconnected from everything that came before or since. I think it's rather easy to appreciate as a game that constantly pushes the limits of what it can get away with, but what makes it truly remarkable is how complete and well-realized an experience it ended up being in spite of some admittedly bizarre choices. From the world design and tone, to the allocation of important items and separation of valuable NPC’s, to the cruel yet creative ways the player can be kicked while they’re down - everything is constantly firing on all cylinders and comes together beautifully to create something that should not be as cohesive as it is. You could uncharitably read it as difficult for difficulty’s sake, but Demon’s Souls is a game that, if you give it your attention and intuition during play, will reward you with one of the consistently gripping and soulful experiences in the entire medium.
(LukeGirard)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
RANK 5 (22 votes)

The draw here for most tends to be the infamous protagonist switch, but were you really ever playing as Raiden? Our old-school brethren played as Solid Snake, recreating their routes from Shadow Moses in the sterile halls of Big Shell, while Johnny-come-latelys jumping into the series after trying MGSV probed at the now-archaic control scheme wondering where Venom Snake's crouch-walk and OTS-aiming went, but absolutely no one played as Raiden, not even the supposed FOXHOUND agent himself. Seven million people all crowded around their PS2s trying to convince themselves they were Snake, just to be slapped in the face for even daring. You are not Snake. Have you ever even shot a gun? You'll never know what it means to kill.

It wasn't until Raiden toyed with his high-frequency blade in the bowels of Arsenal Gear that Metal Gear Solid 2 let you embody his story, soaring to wildly cathartic heights before strangling you in the mess of violent contradictions that formed his life. To truly shear himself from the ideal of Solid Snake, he needed to divest himself from the expectations of the player, giving them the parting kiss of a climatic final boss before retreating with his lover, shielding themselves from your gaze with "This is for your ears... only."

MGS2 somehow opened and shut the book on all of these concepts while seamlessly integrating them into the best stealth experience of its era. KojiPro at their most unorthodox and daring.
(Pangburn)
Katamari Damacy
Katamari Damacy
RANK 6 (20 votes)

A cozy cataclysm captured in miniature photography, Katamari Damacy is a memento mori of the material world, capturing the big-and-small of what makes life fun in its dying days. But as much as it's a veritable toybox of silly interactions in a Shibuya-kei playground, it's an experience built almost entirely around friction, even on a player-level.

You'll spend your ten-hour trip bumbling and stumbling your ball of mass reconstruction through busy streets and bustling households, barely able to move in a straight line. It's the small bit of resistance, a deliberate request to face the game at its own terms, that sells what could be a whimsical demolition derby into a soft reflection on what we get out of the games we play.
(Squigglydot)
Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64
RANK 7 (19 votes)

In Super Mario 64 your move-set is so expressive that moving around feels downright joyful and so varied that you’ll find yourself with multiple different ways to understand and approach individual platforming challenges. Meanwhile, the levels themselves take advantage of this move-set with so many criss-crossing routes that new players and seasoned veterans alike will find themselves traversing via sizably different yet equally valid, intended and rewarding approaches.

If contrasted with any other 3D platformer of its generation Super Mario 64 starts to look at least a decade ahead of its time in all those ways. Is it any wonder then that for people of a certain age loading up this game for the first time felt almost like they were peeking into the future, seeing the potential of video games and the wonder of being allowed to truly frolic in 3D digital spaces that are so deeply built for that?
(AutumnLily)
Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium
RANK 8 (18 votes)

Waving us with "what kind of cop are you?" it's such an elegant way to ask for cynicism, correctness, frustration, respect, pride, or political bore. But there is no correct way for being a cop. I don’t mean that as a political stance necessarily but as an actual mechanic inside Disco Elysium. It’s a beaten horse, it’s a failed mystery, it’s an annoying escapade to a depressing world, it’s another serving for the machine. It’s everything astounding, resonating and thwarting about the human condition and the way we conjure ways to order that same humanity. All encompassed inside another case to resolve, through an isometric camera, furbished stereotypes and tart humor. Disco Elysium preserves a palpable dual spirit of joy and bitterness that comes with history upon the making – no one wins, everyone loses. But there is light anyway. An achievement on videogame writing and holistic experiences. A triumph on destroying expectations. How couldn’t it be? It said the words we all need in our lives: We are the miracle. How? Simple. We’re the detectives arriving on the scene.

(MalditoMur)
Super Metroid
Super Metroid
RANK 8 (18 votes)

The “Metroid-” to Symphony of the Night’s “-Vania”, Super Metroid builds off the structure laid by the original Metroid and its sequel, Return of Samus to deliver a home run that still manages to hold up as the pinnacle of the genre that it in part helped to create. The freedom of expression in Samus’ moveset is still staggering to this day, and it’s what makes exploring Zebes such a satisfying experience. When paired alongside Super Metroid’s striking atmosphere and phenomenal game-design, it’s no wonder why it’s maintained its status as the Rosetta Stone all Metroidvanias derive inspiration from. While its commercial success upon release couldn’t match up to the other heavy-hitters of Nintendo’s staple franchises, Super Metroid’s dedicated speedrunning community and near-perfect quality are what has helped in part to cement its place in gaming canon as one of the best to ever do it.

(ConeCvltist)
Minecraft
Minecraft
RANK 10 (17 votes)

Everybody knows what this game is, if you haven't played it then your 8 year old cousin has.

Takes influence from simulationist PC games and infuses it with tactility. You can build anything from a humble dirt hut to a massive fortress, but the simple feeling of placing and breaking blocks is not to be overlooked. And even for my fellow arcade fiends, quickly traversing terrain is an interesting and challenging task: do some Nether runs if you don't believe me!

The wide variety of appeals (combat, exploration, building, messing with your friends) make this an ideal multiplayer game. And like Doom/Quake/etc. before it, there is a staggering breadth of user-made content to explore as well. Minigames, art works, PvP, an extensive modding scene (which gave birth to Factorio!), you name it and it's probably there.

In particular, I've always had a soft spot for the CTM genre of maps. Your only goal is to Complete The Monument by gathering all 16 (or less in shorter maps) colors of wool pieces scattered across a hostile world. Other than not crafting wool, there are no rules: you can build and break whatever and wherever the game systems allow. Traverse and survive a connected web of dark dungeons and huge vistas! Seriously, if you like the exploration aspect of Souls, check these out. https://ctmrepository.com/

Minecraft is a massively popular, social, all-ages game that appeals to the better drives of human nature. What more can you ask these days?
(HotPocketHPE)
Shadow of the Colossus
Shadow of the Colossus
RANK 11 (15 votes)

Most games stick to the simple questions. Who are you? Where are you going? What is your goal? You know, the usual fare to quickly establish the Hero's Journey and get you ramped up for yet another epic adventure.

Shadow of the Colossus is one of the first games that really made me ask "Why?"

Why is the world so barren? Why are these hulking stone creatures afraid of me? Why is this demonic entity guiding me along?

There's really no game that conveys its sense of scale better than Shadow of the Colossus. It's just you and your horse silently galloping along this beautiful yet alien landscape, until you stumble upon the sleeping beast and the world explodes into a cacophony of death, scaling and snuffing out yet another life.

Even the complaints regarding the game could be framed as positives for the overall experience. The shaky camera, the inconsistent frame rate, even the pain from my fingers gripping the controller so tightly as I hang on for dear life. I honestly can't think of a game that makes me feel so alive, and for what it's worth, I wouldn't change a damn thing about Shadow of the Colossus.
(Drax)
EarthBound
EarthBound
RANK 12 (14 votes)

It’s easy to boil down Earthbound's appeal to things like its jokes (which are very funny) or its music (which is groundbreaking), but doing so does the game a tremendous disservice. This is the rare game which is about something bigger than video games. Earthbound is about your life. My life. All of our lives. With role-playing systems that goad you into inserting yourself and your friends into its fiction, as well as a strict adherence to the formula of Famicom-era Dragon Quest, the game essentially argues that our mundane, everyday lives are just as dramatic and significant as the hero’s journeys which we fantasize about. Earthbound is a mirror, guaranteed to draw out deep-seated memories of childhood, adventure, and love.
(GoufyGoggs)
Killer7
Killer7
RANK 12 (14 votes)

ignited from the artistic genius of suda51 and technical genius of shinji mikami, killer7 burns itself into both its era and a future filled with falsehoods. being a mikami game at heart it inherits a lot of tropes from its horror predecessors but in a more self-recognized way than just for the sake of it. plays around with the fundamentals and technicalities that inhabit games at their core. displays a gameplay loop deconstructive of survival horror and arcade action in their simplest forms; an intricate cake layered with on-rails traversal, interlinking hallways, and “simple” puzzles a la resident evil, topped with a sweet cherry ripe with stylized gore. the all-knowing, iconic A button is your personified life support; an artificial heart that only beats to the rhythm of every shot you make and every step you take. the battlegrounds housing heaven smile like a blank canvas for our anti-heroes to paint across in Blood… the vague proof of life and the unification of all beings. this blood stems from terrorism… a link between political agendas in their lust for power. amidst the obvious political peril, killer7 indulges into the hardships of identity and the affairs of criminality & assassination… you’ve likely heard it all before. killer7 is our link to the future and our means of killing the past.
(Josh_the_Fourth)
Dark Souls
Dark Souls
RANK 14 (13 votes)

Dark Souls is a title that has come to carry a lot of weight with it in recent years. FromSoftware's breakout game following the success of Demon's Souls catapulted them into the mainstream spotlight. On top of spawning several sequels and spiritual successors from its developer, Dark Souls has created an entire genre of "soulslikes" attempting to follow in its footsteps. Despite the many games that have come after it, many still consider this the studio's magnum opus and the best of its kind. Much of the early focus on Dark Souls was about its difficulty; how it brought an old school, hardcore approach to game design back into the limelight. I would argue, however, that the real reason behind its lasting appeal is its world. Lordran is a place unlike any other in games, and the details of its design show a mastery rarely seen. The areas the player travels through are large, dense, and dreamlike, but all connect back to each other in ways that feel simultaneously surprising and logical. Exploring the world of Dark Souls is a joy unlike anything else, and is the driving force behind many of its players pushing through to master its difficult combat. Many of its other elements are also well done but would take too long to get into here, but Dark Souls is a very important game that many players and developers have learned from, and will continue to in the years to come.
(Silverhand)
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee
RANK 14 (13 votes)

Melee is integral to me not only because it’s a game that showed me the appeal of frantically fast-paced, execution-heavy fighting games with defined sets of rules among a cast of characters to allow for player expression and creativity in a competitive space, but it also introduced me to the values of the fighting game community. Even years after I first got into the scene in my sophomore year of high school, this is a game that’s still being played and beloved by many, and fighting games such as Melee have allowed me to meet and connect with some of my dearest friends that I’m still with to this very day. There’s something genuinely beautiful about walking into a built from the ground up tournament event filled with people from around the country or even the world just to play and watch a few games everyone is passionate about. While Melee might not be my personal favorite fighting game, it undoubtably deserves its legendary status and competitive longevity, and it’s a game I will forever be grateful for. I doubt I would’ve met the people I have if YouTube didn’t put some GRsmash videos on my timeline.
(DrDelicious)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
RANK 16 (12 votes)

I’m no gun specialist but, for the sake of argument, let’s look at the first Metal Gear Solid as a revolver. Its analogue parts may appear disparate by themselves, harder to handle and lacking efficiency in comparison to more elegantly designed tools, but together they form a weapon that brims with a unique and unmistakable character. It never fails to leave an impression, even with only six bullets in the barrel.

Its direct sequel etches elaborate engravings into that foundation. While certainly beautiful in their own right, it’s hard to ignore the fact that they offer no tactical advantage whatsoever over its predecessor. Nevertheless, we may continue unraveling the prescience of their craftsmanship for decades still.

Metal Gear Solid 3 could have been yet another modification. Maybe a laser sight, a scope for additional accuracy, perhaps even a silencer. Konami could’ve traded in the old model for an entirely different “gun” (as they would with every Metal Gear to follow). Instead, they reached into their back pocket…and pulled out a second revolver. This time, they’ve got twelve shots.

Metal Gear Solid 3 reaps all of the rewards and consequences of this approach. In several ways, it’s even more unwieldy than either of its forebears, but it deserves to be here, because all twelve of those bullets hit their mark.

It represents more than “one of, if not the best game in the illustrious Metal Gear series”; it isn’t beholden to insular qualifiers. It’s great Cold War Spy Fiction in its own right, drawing from the best of its own legacy and responding to an array of cinematic inspirations. Its iconic and combustible cast of characters has range enough to elicit both laughter and reflection at the drop of a hat, sometimes in the same breath. It’s an endless playground of stealth mechanics whose threshold for mastery is downright ludicrous, carefully paced to coincide with the highs and lows of its story. It’s proof that cutscenes can justify their inclusion on entertainment value alone. It’s a meditation on the evils of nationalism. Its Russian jungle setting does not exist. Kojima’s maximalist design philosophy may appear scattered and disparate, but here, there is always one eye on the bigger picture. In doubling down and committing wholeheartedly to its own soul, Metal Gear Solid 3 becomes totemic.
(CarbonCanine)
Rain World
Rain World
RANK 16 (12 votes)

In the eyes of Rain World language is a fluorescent silence - meaning and its absence coalescing into one, a series of deaths and rebirths unmastered as best we can from the frail, slippery body that is slugcat. Like two spears passing through your guts, and yet you live. I am at the center of everything that happens to me. Each cycle is more crucial than the last even when nothing happens, and our corpse lies in post-radioactive jaws, and then a second body slips on top of the first, and we find out that our little creature breathes again by a stroke of food-chained luck. Liquid punk. Play here lives and dies by this ruthless assortment of present tense mechanics, drainage systems soon giving way to megafauna and gravitational anomalies in a torrential god’s belly. There’s never enough time in Rain World, to see or touch every graffiti - sometimes to survive, even - but this urgency of the stakes serves against the workmanlike logic most videogames strive towards and instead asks a pause for thought, maybe a change of biome, to meditate on the buddhist teachings of Five Pebbles or just vibe with the vultures up above in this omnidirectional body we learn to cherish. Until the last words have been spoken. Nestle or perish. In the end the rain will wash it all away, rend us to the earth. Begin again.
(Fauxscerf)
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
RANK 16 (12 votes)

Being a series that founded its core identity on timeless, generalized depictions of caricatured combat, it’s fascinating to me that Street Fighter tried to reinvent itself with the SFIII Series, seemingly to appeal to the masses and ultimately burning bridges with a large number of their fans in the process. I think that’s a large part of why it's so special to me though: this series of games (especially Third Strike) stands nowadays as a perfect time capsule of a bygone era laced in frivolous sass and a shared optimism for a new generation. Third Strike could easily be held up on the merits of its artistic tendencies even if it wasn’t strong mechanically, but this aesthetic isn’t just cheap set dressing - this drive for creativity and spunk is interwoven with every thread of its design. While mechanics like parrying and a brand new roster of bozos may not appeal to everyone who loved the simplicity of SFII, the confidence on display in every element to the identity of SFIII makes it a peerless monolith in one of the most colorful and creative genres in the medium. As the turn of the millennium draws near and the world resets at midnight, what's the harm in being the most honest and playful versions of ourselves in the meantime?
(LukeGirard)
Undertale
Undertale
RANK 16 (12 votes)

Undertale took game culture by storm in 2015, becoming the source of song parodies and fanfiction for the next three years. This should come as no surprise, because the creator Toby Fox was involved in the similarly gargantuan touchstone of Homestuck prior working primarily on the music.

Undertale itself stands tall to the hype and acclaim garnered towards it, showing nary a crack in its pristine presentation. Undertale is a story to game devs everywhere about budgeting out the assets on your title as far as possible. Its short length is made up for by telling a story through the act of restarting, so you can meet the world in a whole different way. There is something similar in the music design with leitmotifs and borderline remixes of tunes for other spaces in the game. Far from being a detriment though, this reuse is seamless in form and presentation. That's not to say there isn't a wide cast of characters, everything from boisterous skeletons to dog knights lay ahead in your journey through the caves and ruins of Undertale. Every character, even the enemies, is excited to tell you their story.

Undertale is also a tour de force in keeping the player involved. For one, it's a RPG game for people don't like RPGs. The most novel mechanical inclusion is various SHMUP styled dodging minigames to avoid taking extra damage meaning that you always feel involved in the stakes of a fight rather than mechanically hitting the same buttons without worry. Of course it need not be said how such minigames add even further to the lush character portraits of the enemies you fight. Also, Undertale is constantly out to switch things up to keep players that much more engaged, using punchy humor and reasonable puzzles to keep the player immersed that much more. Even if you removed the metacommentary and stellar 3rd act finale boss fight from the picture, you would still be left with one of the best computer games of its year, if not of its decade.
(Erato_Heti)
Ico
Ico
RANK 20 (11 votes)

From the setting of a misty castle lying in the water, to the sparse soundscape and unknowable, grasping monsters who emerge from shadowy puddles, few games evoke the feeling of a dream more successfully than ICO. Universal in its foreignness, ICO adopts signifiers of ancient exotic cultures, blends them with surreal abstractions, and tells a story of a boy and girl overcoming impossible odds through their trust in each other. Ueda lead the production with the concept of "subtracting design"; removing aspects of game design that created a barrier between the player and the game's world. Unlike most similar games of its time, no on-screen HUD, health items or level transitions would be used. Weapons and items would need to be found, picked up and dropped, with sound and animation convincingly communicating the weight and physicality of each one. ICO's timeless appeal is owed to how little it adopted from contemporaries, and its willingness to stand on its own merits. Fumito Ueda continues to build on the ideas introduced in ICO in daring and innovative ways, and the whole industry benefits from his influence.
(87th)
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2
RANK 20 (11 votes)

Cereberal, paralyzing, familiar and tantamount to everything we understand is horror gaming. Silent Hill 2 works as a disturbed study of the human condition that is ultimately more empathetic than it is terrifying. A spiraling, macabre dive into how trauma shapes us - and the mind of those who create said trauma. A perpetually enigmatically beautiful and profound piece of work that urges you play it, one that horror games have been trying to catch up to for years since.
(Archagent)
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
RANK 22 (10 votes)

A true collaborative effort that drew on a vast well of ideas pooled from one of the most star-studded teams in the history of the medium, Final Fantasy VII is a genuine watershed moment that blazed trails we continue to follow to this day.

Taking full advantage of the liquid nature of the medium in this crucial moment of generational transition to make stunning revolutionary leaps in style and form, Final Fantasy VII blends countless disparate influences, from film noir to cyberpunk anime to new age mysticism, to tell the timelessly resonant story of a troubled cynic fighting against imminent ecological collapse whilst confronting the unanswerable question: Who Am I?

At the dawn of the 3D age, video gaming desperately searched for an answer to the same question. And just like it did with Cloud, Final Fantasy VII offered no easy answers, no cohesive solutions. Instead, it offered something better: a vision of video games that was not devoted to emulating film or manga, to realism or abstraction, but to all of it at once, a thousand ideas sprinting down a thousand roads, leaving seeds of the future scattered wherever they went.
(Woodaba)
Live A Live
Live A Live
RANK 22 (10 votes)

If there's a single aspect in Live A Live I could point to that signifies its draw and cult appeal, it'd be using the RPG structure and the melting pot of influences across medias and the world to weave together an incredibly powerful story of reconciliation and love. Whether its explicit about the woes of rejectment and isolation like with Sundown Kid's western legends, unfolding a cold, bitter tale of discord and disassociation that Cube witnesses in the far future, the respect of a fight and an opponent in Masaru's quest to become a champion in the present, or subtly using the dichotomous paths Oboromaru can follow when carrying out a stealth mission within Edo Japan, there's numerous beats that flow back to these two themes and expressions of the tragic villain in question. No matter if it's with the 1995 fan-translated original or the newly released and localized 2022 remake, I hope it aspires others to reapproach and better themselves for what they may face in the future, just as it has for me, my friends, a sliver of key figures like Toby Fox, and others.
(BlazingWaters)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
RANK 22 (10 votes)

Every lens through which you can view Majora’s Mask reveals startling new depth. As a standalone title, as the “avant-garde” Zelda, from a purely mechanics focused view to a narrative one, all aspects of the work complement and reinforce each other. The soundtrack – equally somber, whimsical, and haunting – enhances the strange, melancholic tone. That atmosphere in turn bolsters the themes of the story that are themselves so deftly woven into the mask mechanic and three-day cycle. To say that Majora’s is more than the sum of its parts would be almost reductive – implying both that the parts themselves are anything less than brilliantly executed and that their effect on each other is merely additive rather than multiplicative. Some of the most memorable time I’ve ever spent with a work of art, filled to the brim with all sorts of small yet meaningful moments that have left a lasting impact on me. A landmark moment in game history.
(Hylianhero777)
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
RANK 25 (9 votes)

The late 90s was something of a second birth for videogames. Not only did the transition to 3D present a host of challenges and opportunities for developers, but CD-quality audio, more strictly defined industry roles, and a hyper-competitive atmosphere between companies all contributed to produce games that were completely unlike anything that preceded them. It was a time when the most ambitious teams could really thrive. Coming off the high-concept sci-fi crime drama adventure title, Policenauts, Hideo Kojima sought to rework his first game in a form to rival Final Fantasy VII, Ocarina of Time and Half-Life. Metal Gear Solid embraced 3D with environments that utilised verticality and complex, layered geometry, but its greatest success was in the density of its ideas. Each new section came loaded with backstory and contextual justification that complemented what the player would be asked to do, further engaging them with the setting, themes and surrounding narrative. Throughout this, Metal Gear Solid maintains an atmosphere of fun, frequently silly, high-stakes drama with wildly eccentric characters, playful design concepts, and romantic ideals. Few games serve as a better example of a bridge between where videogames came from and where they would go.
(87th)
Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds
RANK 25 (9 votes)

It is rare to find titles in the medium that provide complete freedom to explore unbound by conventional means of progression. Rarer still are those that leave the player feeling that the world they inhabit outside of the game is a warmer, kinder place than the one they parted with at the door. These feelings have only grown stronger the more time has passed since my inaugural flight from Timber Hearth, where you inherit a rocket ship and the dreams of a space program birthed not as a military show of force, but out of a desire to understand the past and present.

The Outer Wilds is no mere puzzle game, its “solutions” betray the simplicity of the answers we expect to see when we march to GameFAQs in frustration. Nothing in the game just "is". You don't understand how to interact with something? The knowledge required simply lies somewhere else. Knowledge in this game is what items are in typical puzzle-adventure games, and the core of the gameplay is conducting science in tandem; experimenting, understanding and forming conclusions -even just tentative ones- to understand and experiment even more. There are few experiences as fulfilling in gaming to me, or in any medium for that matter.
(Nowhere)
Portal
Portal
RANK 25 (9 votes)

I wake up in a claustrophobic transparent box. I see nothing but a toilet, a bed and a radio inside - is that a camera watching me through the walls, what sort of prison is this? Wait, what is that door with a timer going down and what about that smaller room above floor level with a window and chairs, who's supposed to be watching me? As the timer is ending, I hear a feminine robotic voice - let's call her Kim - and I go through an orange portal to come out of a blue portal and continue to the only door in the room.

Kim explains to me that I'm going to begin a test. I proceed to solve what seems to be chamber #1 out of 19 and quickly understand what is expected from me, there was a similar room above ground floor in this chamber but still no signs of life in them. As I progress through the chambers Kim explains to me that, after I finish the test, I'm going to be rewarded with a cake so I got a little hungry but I'm going to pass this test with flying colors to enjoy that cake! As I progress through the rooms the lack of people is still evident.

I just entered a room that I don't think I'm supposed to be in. I see erratically written on the wall "the cake is a lie"...
(mutyumu)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
RANK 28 (8 votes)

On paper, Symphony of the Night sounds like a trainwreck. It's a game that can be broken in half with a million setups like using twin Crissaegrims to slash enemies 120 times per second or the Alucard Shield + Rod combo to nuke enemies just by touching them while absorbing their health. The visuals consist of an uncanny amalgamation of hand-drawn 2D art, pixel art, and 3D models. Yet, as Alucard said, Dracula's castle is a creature of Chaos; everything about this game embodies that concept flawlessly. Thousands of weapons and items either are just lying around Castlevania or spawn randomly; the sheer amount of items to find make every playthrough feel at least subtlely unique. The voice acting for the dub is legendarily dreadful, and honestly that was for the best; nobody is playing a Castlevania game for the story, but everybody can at least remember the iconic "Die monster!" scene. Symphony of the Night is lightning in a bottle stemming from a sheer lack of restraint in game design and visual consistency. It is more than the sum of its parts and the sheer soul of the experience revolutionized the metroidvania genre forever for good reason.
(C_F)
Cave Story
Cave Story
RANK 28 (8 votes)

Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya’s genocidal drama set against diminutive, interpretation-driven iconography inspired generations of solo indie artists to paint interpersonal stories of loss, often through ever-evolving mechanical lenses and framing mechanisms.

Cave Story demonstrates limited retro tools as the budget developer’s vocabulary: A pivotal ‘old game design principles meet new pathos’ masterpiece. Floaty, NES-inspired gunplay and energized music are all the motivation you have when your newfound allies’ lives are discarded as unceremoniously as trash to the curb. Morbid but not graphic; sorrowful but not suffocating; dark yet humanly-playful. Pixel art and chiptune obfuscate emotional beats into dread-fueled imagination: The player is a mute spectator, fighting like hell to remedy even a fraction of a hopeless, cruel fate. Yet through all of this, Cave Story is still excellent on gameplay, thanks to stellar weapon and enemy design. The active EXP system encourages defensive maneuvers without inhibiting the player’s ability to take risky point-blank gambles. And despite Nicalis wranging control over the IP, Cave Story’s freedom-seeking spirit lives on in the homebrew scene, available on over 2 dozen platforms, new and old.
(MagneticBurn)
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry
RANK 28 (8 votes)

Shaking the firmament of the industry as dramatically as its distant relative Resident Evil did on its debut, Hideki Kamiya and Team Little Devils' masterpiece stole the spotlight the instant it hit the dancefloor, and no one has ever quite been able to take it back.

For decades, success in most games was binary, a matter of finishing a level or getting the highest score, and creative play often went unacknowledged and unreciprocated. Devil May Cry, however, danced an intoxicating tango that challenged players not only to succeed but to do so stylishly; pushing players into the realm of genuine self-expression through play.

Devil May Cry has aged, but it has aged immaculately, in ways that only enhance it. Its combined aesthetic sensibilities and precise rhythms of play have fallen out of the zeitgeist and been rendered laughable to many, but a combo doesn't have to be all things to all people. It doesn't have to deliver the most points or do the most damage, it doesn't have to look cool to everyone. It just has to be yours. And as long as it is, it'll still feel as incredible as it always has.
(Woodaba)
God Hand
God Hand
RANK 28 (8 votes)

God Hand’s most intriguing element remains its move assignment system: rather than using the tried-and-true method of set input commands and various weapons to switch between, this game throws a dictionary of individual punches and kicks at you to map freely to the three action buttons. It’s easy enough to dive into the pause screen and tweak your setup for the current situation, but since you can’t just do this mid-combo, it pays off to choose attacks that complement each other well. How does Hand Plant Kick set itself apart from Charged Punch? Is having multiple launch moves redundant? Even the specific button you map any given action to has bearing on gameplay: Triangle accesses a few intrinsic, context-sensitive actions that may clash with certain moves; is it easier to execute a mid-combo Guard Break by holding back + Square or by pressing X? It’s this kind of player individuality and nitty-gritty hands-on thinking that God Hand encourages that still makes it a true standout among technical action games.
(wondermagenta)
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
RANK 28 (8 votes)

Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne marks the series' first major step into the west, an innovation on its systems, and the last game to effectively wear the facade of "punk rock". The press turn system that still remains in use to this day offers benefits to the players prepared for elemental weaknesses, but more often underlines every encounter with a dose of lethality that would consistently skewer any squad that is built less than prepared for it. Battle themes consist of rock tracks that make use of synths and vocals that care not for being immediately intelligible to a newcomer's ear. All of this tied together through a journey across the desolate and literally warped city of Tokyo, making your way through its demonic denizens, with a light but affecting plot that depicts both the importance of ideology and the futility of it once filtered through an absolute system, which stands as more than the easier to swallow status quo values of later titles. Through all of this, Nocturne wears its series roots into the mass market.
(AG147)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
RANK 28 (8 votes)

Shigeru Miyamoto and his team at Nintendo EAD used the unprecedented artistic license and technical ability offered to them by the Nintendo 64 to create a new interpretation of a NES and SNES classic: the player must defend their home against demonic forces by using a magic flute to travel through the ages; the protagonist, Link, travels back and forth through time and 3D space to set things right again. This five-director effort for Nintendo’s third home console tells a classic tale of time’s corrupting influence upon all things.

The use of context-sensitive actions, open-world exploration and revolutionary Z-targeting system were just some of the myriad formal innovations that Ocarina of Time brought together for this groundbreaking entry in the Zelda canon - and the action-adventure genre as a whole. Ocarina still amazes for its formal bravado, a barrage of game design strategies that have retained their innovative resonances over 20 years later.

The game’s reputation as representing the apogee of an ossified ‘canon’ should not minimise its qualities – it deserves to be so recognised for all achieved, combining the restless energy of its subject with formal experimentations that demonstrate the artistry of game-making as a collaborative enterprise at a time when countless new approaches were being explored at the forefront of the three-dimensional revolution.
(letshugbro)
The World Ends with You
The World Ends with You
RANK 28 (8 votes)

Very few games manage to fully ingrain their narratives, themes, and characterization into their mechanics as well as The World Ends With You, let alone into the identity of the system itself. Even beyond the inherent uniqueness of playing it that its two screens provides, TWEWY manages to bring out so much artistic mileage with this layout. Every battle sees the two playable characters fighting in completely separately planes, the aptly named DS's dual screens, with them only being able to rely on their individual abilities and their trust in each other to fight as a team. Your own growth with adapting to this unruly and unconventional system reflects how Neku and his partners grow closer and deepen their trust in each other, reaching a point of synchronization that they can practically battle as one. It's a specific gratifying sensation that only TWEWY on its original hardware can supply.
(Midrulean)
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
RANK 35 (7 votes)

Character-action, stylish-action, DMC-likes, whichever you’re partial to: for as loosely defined as the induction-criteria for this group of games are, it’s hard to deny that we DO file them into a single broad category in practice. If Devil May Cry was the first game to make 3D swordplay truly graceful and complex, literally using “style” as a qualifier to grade your performance, then DMC3 is what fully cemented what we subconsciously expect from this “genre” of technical action games. The new mechanics it introduces to its series push the idea of “expression” very explicitly to the forefront: not only does the loadout system with its ten weapons and six “Style” button modifiers give you a greater degree of ownership over Dante, the game’s cancel system is also significantly more open, allowing you to break out of any given move’s prescribed surface-level function and combine them freely to create entirely unique interactions. While DMC3’s impact on larger gaming culture outside of its specific niche is debatable, one of the coolest things about gaming as a hobby is how it houses countless independent sub-communities — and is there anything more badass than shaping an entire culture in your wake the way DMC3 did?
(wondermagenta)
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas
RANK 35 (7 votes)

Fallout New Vegas is a game about choices, their consequences, and learning to accept them and move forward rather than remaining trapped in the past. The game echoes this theme through the lenses of its many characters and storylines, be it a war veteran dealing with PTSD and the loss of his wife or a Super-Mutant suffering dementia but desperately trying to hold on to the memories of her grandchildren. Your actions throughout the game have genuine impact on the world around you, allowing you to choose whether the desert of the Mojave Wasteland will move into a new future or stay rooted within beliefs of the past. It is New Vegas’ writing that makes it so impactful to me personally. The progressive theme of moving on from your past and facing tomorrow is just such a positive message that speaks both emotionally to our progress as human beings but also of gaming in general. War may never change, but we always can.
(Cab)
NieR
NieR
RANK 35 (7 votes)

NieR Gestalt and Replicant are both loving exploration of JRPGs and Video Games as an artistic medium. Through its focus on exploring the flawed nature of JRPG protagonists through its own protagonist (primarily the original younger version), recontextualization through repeat playthroughs, the utilization and deconstruction of typical video game tropes, & rich character writing, NieR manages to be a lovingly human story about the struggle of accepting one’s identity, the ways in which tragedy and trauma are utilized in creating a cycle of perpetual injustices which cause nothing but needless heartache and damage on the world, the fickle nature of morality as a concept, and the ways our past come to define how we approach the world moving forwards, and so many other rich, underlying themes. While NieR’s usage of repetition might be a turn-off for many, I believe its through its repetition in which NieR manages to be one of the most emotionally gripping Video Games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing.

To talk more about what makes NieR hit so hard for me, behind every major lofty ideal NieR Replicant tries to explore, there’s an intense sense of sentimentality and love which is predominant in every fiber of the work. Behind every criticism of a trope is an unabashed love for said troupe, behind every critique of an aspect of video games as an artistic medium is an unabashed love for what video games are, for all the ignorance of the characters within the story, there is an intense sense of love for who they are. My favorite ending of the work is ending B for how it manages to be this really soft sentimental as hell callback to the beginning of the game which just hurts me on a personal level. :) I will never forget the beautifully flawed and human work of NieR.
(ThatMagicalMage)
Ridge Racer Type 4
Ridge Racer Type 4
RANK 35 (7 votes)

Asphalt cracks at 200 miles per hour, taillights burning through wide-eye lens. Speed overtakes all, drifting over the precipice of life-and-death itself. In this moment, when tires kiss the street, the world blurs into a motorized helter-skelter; a chase to outpace excellence at the end of the millennium.

If Namco "only" made the greatest racing game on a mechanical level, it would be a masterpiece. But without the aesthetic cohesion, the killer soundtrack, the mastery in presentation, you don't have R4.

Ridge Racer Type 4 is speed, it's grace, it's perfection in a way no one has come close to before or since. The Gods of The Speedway convened and created Drift Heaven, and they just tossed you the keys.
(Squigglydot)
Celeste
Celeste
RANK 39 (6 votes)

Whilst it might be known for its wonderful aesthetics, gameplay that is challenging and yet wants you to succeed, creative level mechanics, and a sweet-hearted narrative about not giving up in the face of depression and anxiety, what really sets Celeste apart from other platformers is its movement. The controls are elegant in their simplicity - a dash, a jump and directional movement - making the game very approachable, yet the Farewell expansion teaches wavedashing and wall-bouncing as ways of using these basic controls to both further the challenges it can present whilst redefining those earlier levels by showing you the ways to zoom through them that you didn’t realise were there all along; truly the perfect speed-game.

The rabbit-hole goes so deep on how these basic controls emergently interact with each other though to make a list of increasingly silly sounding techniques - five jumps, demodashes, dream hypers, jellyvators, neutral reverse cornerboosts(?!) - which make Celeste rank alongside Super Mario World hacks in terms of being a kaizo designer’s dream; the custom level community surrounding Celeste is so vibrant and talented that you’ll never run out of new levels to play as long as you still have that drive to keep climbing ever-taller mountains.
(AutumnLily)
Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress
RANK 39 (6 votes)

A progenitor of the 'wiki always open' game, a staple of simulation-task allocation games, and a testament to freeware and the indie scene as a whole. Dwarf Fortress maintains a strong legacy of 15+ years with constant updates by two brother game designers, not needing a paid release until just recently. The result is a project in which the player manages and overlooks a fledgling expedition squad of seven dwarves as they dig into the earth and utilize their environment to establish a blossoming settlement.

The spartan ASCII ant farm-like visuals of your dwarves scattering about for tasks keenly betrays the intense meta-detail of each material buried within the generated world, as well as the complexities of keeping your dwarves not just busy, but alive. Keeping a consistent crop cycle going turns into managing a trade depot turns into keeping a hardened defense force standing. Its a notoriously difficult game to parse at first, one that demands constant experimentation, wiki-dives and creative thinking. But it's also the paramount example of the notion 'Losing is fun!'.
(PolaroidJack)
Ninja Gaiden Black
Ninja Gaiden Black
RANK 39 (6 votes)

What Ninja Gaiden Black understands better than perhaps any other game in its genre is the importance of enemy design. NGB builds off Team Ninja’s prior experience with 3D fighting games, crafting a combat system littered with some of the most highly aggressive enemies out there. It may not have the biggest combo list or the fanciest weaponry, but no other title has such a lethal and dynamic spacing game. The tug of war between you and your opponents is never-ending, as you constantly vie for control over the playfield using abilities which merge offense and defense into one big tornado of hyperviolence. NGB’s combat is pure liquid, a flowing dance of death where it feels like the fate of the world is riding on your every input.
(GoufyGoggs)
OutRun 2
OutRun 2
RANK 39 (6 votes)

A good measuring stick for arcade racers derives from the drift mechanics: how versatile, how organic, how consistent, how well-integrated into the overall handling model? OutRun 2 veers so far into the fantasy side of those spectrums that the car damn near goes perpendicular to the asphalt when you lean into a powerslide. Never before had a car felt so effortless to control while simultaneously so twitchy as to spin out of control at the slightest unwanted bit of torque. Beyond maneuvering these corners and U-turns with grace lies little else in a perfect display of AM2's characteristic economy of design. 15 minute-long tracks weave together in a lattice of potential routes for the player to take, all of which the game extrapolates into a bevy of white-knuckle races and quirky minigames in the console version's mission mode. With all that the team inherited from the original two decades prior, they fused those familiar hallmarks of the series into that handling model, which took the pseudo-3D kludge of the original into something just as exaggerated as its predecessor while simultaneously laced with nuance accrued from years of experience building arcade racers. In this way OutRun 2 provides the perfect capstone for Yu Suzuki's tenure as head of AM2, unquestionably the most innovative arcade designers at the height of the coin-op era.
(Pangburn)
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
RANK 39 (6 votes)

"Hopefully it would have been worth the wait. Thanks, and have fun."

It is no exaggeration to say Team Fortress 2 has forever altered the gaming landscape in innumerable ways. Its strong visual identity has put its competitors and progeny to shame for over fifteen years. The first non-MMO live service commercial game, Valve's iteration and innovation is responsible for that which we have come to love and loathe in contemporary titles. Over time, TF2 gave us random weapon and cosmetic drops, promotional tie-ins, community contributions (and later, their monetisation), a real-money shop, evolving items, obtuse crafting systems, time-value propositions, digital economies, loot boxes, a community market, in-game content sharing, tie-in comics, a free-to-play revival, countless imitators and knock-offs. With no TF2, there would be no Dota 2 battle pass and thus, no Fortnite battle pass. No TF2, no Jerma985. Without TF2's brand of humour, we'd be spared the likes of Rick and Morty.

What Team Fortress 2 has given us is greater than all that combined. It has given us identity.

You might be Pyro or Scout, RED or BLU, F2P or veteran, cracked or bad, disabled or abled, queer or straight, cis or trans, furry or weeaboo, Christian or Atheist, /v/irgin or ledditor; TF2 has a place for you. It has changed so much over the years, but so have we.
(Detchibe)
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda
RANK 39 (6 votes)

Following in the footsteps of Warren Robinett’s Adventure six years before, Shigeru Miyamoto’s 1986 masterpiece streamlined role-playing concepts into a slick action game format, pioneering immersive open world design in the process. Simultaneously offered unparalleled freedom to explore and little to no guidance on how to progress, players were left to truly inhabit the enigmatic and dangerous world of Hyrule.

All too often these days the game is dismissed for being obtuse; and to be sure, it is. By modern standards it can seem irredeemably reliant on guesswork. However, things must be put into context. You were not meant to blast through Zelda in an afternoon or two; you were meant to take your sweet time with it – months even – slowly unfurling its mystique, trading tips with friends and scouring for solutions in newsletters and magazines, treating it almost like a cipher of sorts, a mystery inviting you to solve it. In a sense, the game was played outside the console as much as it was within it.

More than thirty-five years later, the original Legend of Zelda remains eminently influential. Its sense of mystery and engendering of real-world cooperation heavily inspired FromSoftware’s Souls series, and Breath of the Wild, currently the latest mainline Zelda entry, sought to reinvent the series by looking to the past – at the game that, through a staggering number of sequels, had not yet been meaningfully outdone. One could argue that it still hasn’t.
(baldur)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
RANK 39 (6 votes)

A game that absolutely raised the bar of standards for open world game design, maybe to an unfair degree. BOTW to me isn’t about the destinations you travel to but about how you journey around Hyrule. Thanks to its free-form mechanical structure, physics and chemistry systems, combined with the tools given to the player, there’s a real sense of constant decision making and flexibility for those decisions to allow for player expression across the world like no other. I see it sometimes jokingly called “babies first Immersive Sim”, but it’s telling to me that even years after its release, with notably a lot of the open world game industry trying to copy BOTWs homework, that many fail to capture the small moment-to-moment player experimentation elements that truly made Hyrule a joy to explore and a breath of fresh air.
(DrDelicious)
The Silver Case
The Silver Case
RANK 39 (6 votes)

The fear of the new millennium is not by chance: with the imminent advancement of the internet, people’s online presence becomes more relevant as their physical and information is propagated non-stop; all the hand-work becomes obsolete by the century’s new technologies; it becomes easier for the greater corporations to control us as well to the government to distort the truth in its favor. It is in this context that The Silver Case takes place. People’s lives are changing, the internet is taking place and everyone, sooner or later, will be connected. I mean, when they open their mouths, their words are literally typed by the loudest keyboard you could even imagine. As a citizen of the 21st century, everything around you seems slightly off and when you close your eyes, all you see is a dark room where the only light is from your monitor. While diving down a conspiratory rabbit hole until you hit Wonderland and trying to not get infected by the Internet Collective Consciousness, Goichi Suda’s visionary masterpiece asks you to Kill the Past: maybe the new reality isn’t so bad, the same “internet” that destroy us, can be used to discover the truth and break with the old rites, thus, we all can break free. Believe in the net.
(heatten)
Bloodborne
Bloodborne
RANK 47 (5 votes)

There’s only one shield in Bloodborne: a rusty, wooden shield that says in its description “Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.” and this is Bloodborne’s combat approach: don’t be a coward, transfuse your blood with the beasts, ripping their organs off. It’s a very violent game but made in a very elegant way: most of the enemies are battled in cities with gothic architecture or woods that looks like a hand-made scenery from a horror movie, and all of this beautifully interconnected in the same elegancy – and dare I say, even more – as the first Dark Souls. The moon illuminates the floor of those architectures, getting more bloody as the game goes, reflecting the player itself, getting more violent with each fight. Don’t confuse being brave with not being afraid, though. As Eileen, a NPC of the game, says: “Without fear in our hearts, we're little different from the beasts themselves.” We are not supposed to be fearless – this is what makes us humans – but we can’t let it control us. Fight your nightmare and search for the truth, enriching yourself with the frenesi of the battle. Just be careful with all the knowledge you get, the truth may set you free, but if you can't stand it, you will turn into a madman, not so different from the beasts you killed.
(heatten)
Castlevania
Castlevania
RANK 47 (5 votes)

A kaleidoscopic smattering of ideas from all walks of old horror movies, but not necessarily to a goofy degree. While camp is a large amount of horror as an artistic medium, Castlevania focuses on the terror that these icons used to instill in people when these films were fresh. Restricting, compelling and isolating in both its control scheme and level design, it’s the essence of horror. Yet there’s a rhythm to it: a mastery that can only be provided by the medium of video games, one where each successive return to Dracula’s satanic castle brings with it growth. A satisfying and rewarding experience each and every time, one so satisfying and inspired that its echoes are felt throughout action platforming to this day.
(Archagent)
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Final Fantasy VII may have truly brought JRPGs to the mainstream two years later, but Chrono Trigger was the genre’s first true blockbuster. Brought to life by an absolute dream team of minds, most notably Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy), Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest) and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Quest/Dragon Ball), Chrono Trigger is a celebration – and arguably pinnacle – of everything JRPGs had done to that point. Its epic scale and wealth of exploration is tempered by a very manageable difficulty and streamlined pacing, making it accessible even to RPG novices. And while some players may point to its simplistic plot and themes as a shortcoming, its excellent script and masterful storytelling show that the best of humanity can be found in these simple virtues that even a child – or cavewoman – can understand. In being one of the few games that has similarly affected this humble blurb-writer at whatever age he has played it at, Chrono Trigger shows that it – rather aptly – transcends time.
(iyellatcloud)
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest
RANK 47 (5 votes)

It can't be stated enough how much Dragon Quest has done for the role playing genre and gaming space in general. Being able to translate the Dungeons and Dragons experience to the masses is no small feat, and many would say it's Japan's greatest and maybe even proudest contribution to the gaming space. It wasn't the first, but it set the roots that still hold together the Japanese role playing genre today, and honestly it made me appreciate what goes into every game. Every single word written, every non playable character placed in the world, and every interaction you have with the game itself all the way down to the hero defeating the grand evil while saving the world represents a tale almost as old as time itself. It may not mean much and may even sound cliché to a lot of people today, but in 1986, it was all you ever wanted and needed.
(ExAndOh)
Half-Life
Half-Life
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Half Life 1 is above all a pioneer, for good and for ill. Being based on a modified version of the Quake 2 engine called GoldSource, the technical marvel (at the time of release) was on full display during the opening monorail section with skeletal animations, robots etc.

Nowadays it might feel quaint or even annoying how long it takes to get to the action but I think its refreshing for an FPS to have such dedication to immersion and narrative pacing; you truly feel like a scientist late for work making your way through a massive facility.

Some of the experiments that didn't quite work would include the platforming sections added for variety. Frustrating, but a noble effort nonetheless.

When the action does eventually happen its completely hands off, very little exposition as you make your way through Black Mesa, the subtle hints at the unfolding alien invasion being mostly in the background, there is no fade to cutscene when we learn the US army is here to silence the scientists, not save them. Games like Elden Ring, Inside, and Journey can trace some of their narrative approaches to Half Life 1.
(LordDarias)
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved
RANK 47 (5 votes)

In these gardens is a holy war fought with plasma and concrete. I’m lost even when knowing - exactly - which way this groove goes, what it takes to cross the Silent Cartographer from one end to the other and then back again, sat somewhere between full-on simulations where grenades stick to carapaces and plastic arcades erupting under fire, a kill in this place is never just a kill encroaching on a familiar sense of kinaesthesia but moreso a ritual, full of violence and cheesy renditions, stuck in time. It's not that the history of these rings is irrelevant but what more can be told, exactly? The means have been laid out in front you - a floor of rifles is coming alive. Jet-engines in direct conversation with the sand. Rocket spores prong out of lush warthogs. A whole environment designed to repeatedly recontextualize the emotional core of the player’s actions; new verbs? Not really. But new ways to look, to consider. When I blow up a Grunt and watch their meagre corpse flail in the air searching for purchase there's shits and giggles, yes. But they’re also so obviously there. It's not drama. Not quite. But a body is flung all the same. « It’s Combat Evolved, in the blood. »
(Fauxscerf)
Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Inspired by Tapan Kaiiki and the work of Ikiki, Hotline Miami marks the first major collaboration between Dennis Wedin and Jonatan "cactus" Söderström. A One Hit Kill top-down action game where quick thinking and improvisation matter as you splatter the halls of its quick fire levels, you play as a silent loner, only defined by the mask he wears when committing serial murder against nameless mobsters at the behest of cryptic messages left at his answering machine. This rumination on the nature of player agency and the context of action is punctuated with a visual style taking cues from shows like Miami Vice and a now-legendary soundtrack of eclectic synth songs. The games legacy is incalculable as the first major success for publisher Devolver Digital, with its influence being seen in smaller titles like Ruiner and Katana Zero to some of the biggest titles of the past decade like The Last Of Us Part 2.
(AlwaysBetOnDunc)
Myst
Myst
RANK 47 (5 votes)

whether or not you believe Myst sounded the death knell for traditional Adventure Games, it undoubtedly marked a sea change. hark, the unbidden future has arrived: gorgeous, tactile, and inscrutable in turn

the prototypical escape room or puzzle box game; an experience that envelops, asking you to paw and ponder your way out, rather than in. as its quiet mysteries peel back with each revelation — whether by careful erudition or dumb luck — the world begins to reveal its dreamlike form and logic among the trinkets, levers, glyphs, and prose

from Hexen to Outer Wilds, Dear Esther to The Nonary Games, the medium has walked steadily along the many footpaths first worn into shape here. and so the future morphs into the past and back into the future, as if by alchemy

nearly thirty years on, all roads lead to Myst
(HEADWOUND)
OutRun
OutRun
RANK 47 (5 votes)

The original audiovisual masterpiece. OutRun wastes no bytes attempting to complicate the process of driving, instead treating your Ferrari as what is is: a vehicle towards new horizons. Visionary designer Yu Suzuki combines Sega's frantic arcade sensibilities with still gorgeous scenery and a surprisingly mellow soundtrack to create an almost zen-like feeling that remains unmatched, even by modern standards. The wind through your hair, the "whoosh" of leaving other drivers in the dust, the satisfaction of perfectly turning a corner, the shift in color palette as you cross country lines, and that big, beautiful, open sky. What else do you need?
(chump)
Pathologic 2
Pathologic 2
RANK 47 (5 votes)

When I talk about Pathologic 2 I usually mention its unique gameplay language defined by the search for a comfortable flow and convenient conservation routine, where The Best And Most Optimal Way Of Doing Things – it is nearby, yet slipping away as it is impossible to predict what shape the Plague is going to take next. But in reality, playing Pathologic 2 for me was an act of defying hubris. The savior complex, naturally nurtured by other videogames, is the cause of an inevitable downfall, as you time and time again take on battles that can’t be won and try saving lives impossible to save. It’s a play where every actor has their own relationship with pride, and by the thirteenth toll of the bell everyone will be measured by whether they could part with it.
(Cakewalking)
Shenmue
Shenmue
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Yu Suzuki’s ambitious foray into sculpting a fully explorable and living three-dimensional world is nevertheless matched by its quiet restraint. It would be easy to invoke the specter of 80’s Japan – to imagine a lively cityscape brimming with possibility and anchored by a flourishing economy. Suzuki and his stable of talented AM-2 designers instead emphasize its forlorn qualities, eschewing any semblance of nostalgia in Shenmue’s herculean effort to capture a sense of adolescent ennui and alienation. Every last detail which defines Yokosuka is in service of theme and characterization, not to fetishize through technological capability; the result is a defiant first-take on an open world distinguished not by freedom and by diversions, but instead by limitation and obstruction. Ryo Hazuki is an awkward and abrasive teen who inharmoniously drifts through the streets of Yokosuka looking for answers, searching unceasingly for an unreachable catharsis. Elliptical and terse writing prevents genuine connection and belonging, while unresolvable grief underscores a rich soundscape. Allusions to epics, mythology, and Chinese cinema starkly contrast a mechanical rhythm which is unmoored from stability and balance. It’s difficult to say when Ryo’s journey will end, but the headstrong boy who departed Yokosuka will always wistfully linger in memory.
(KB0)
Silent Hill
Silent Hill
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Building further on the steady development of its progenitors SWEET HOME, ALONE IN THE DARK, and RESIDENT EVIL, Silent Hill expanded the scope of video game horror both outward and inward. Rather than a mansion or series of interconnected buildings, it gave players a sprawling, fully three-dimensional town full of terrors to explore, yet focused on assaulting them mainly with their own fear of the unknown, clouding the story, characters, monsters, and environments in metaphor and dream logic, keeping them submerged in an oppressive sense of dread that made opening any new door genuinely unnerving. The aesthetic - essentially unmatched on the PlayStation - married Japanese sensibilities with the nightmarish imagery of its developers' favorite western horror media, and created a dark and atmospheric, crisp yet deliberately obscured look and sound that threw the doors open wide for a whole subgenre of J-Horror games that would follow. Silent Hill's project and effect on the player can be understood through its most indelible image, one that continues to define scary video games to this day - a normal person alone on an abandoned city street faced with an enveloping gray fog ahead, crippled with the fear of taking even one more step into it.
(DJSCheddar)
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Just feels like the perfect blend of everything: tightly structured on a macro level, but full of small pattern variations that require adaptability, experimentation, and effective use of your kit. For how visually creative and exciting its scenarios and enemy attacks are, the opacity of it all is never really lost, all the while only changing the core mechanics for one specifically special moment.

Even for how little you have to engage with it, its story has charm through the interactions of its protagonists, giving it a personal element that just makes things feel complete. That final segment of gameplay, tied to that piece of music, is made all the more impactful because of the context behind it… there's something there that feels so grand, but still so intimate.

Add in a desert highway motorbike section… the cherry on top.

Everything I wanted out of a game. Not sure if anything else can top this one.
(Reyn)
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. 3
RANK 47 (5 votes)

An icon for every child growing up in the 8-bit era, featuring a mustachioed leaping plumber who worldwide was more recognized and beloved than Mickey Mouse. Big enough to demand a Fred Savage movie to introduce it to the west to hype that couldn't be comprehended with utterly gigantic Kuribo's Shoes to fill.

With it often labeled as the greatest NES game ever made, it did not disappoint and would solidify Mario with a permanent spot on gaming's Mt. Rushmore. Super Mario Bros. 3 is an impeccable stage play that never stops surprising you with new gimmicks, perils and secrets to find within its outrageously huge size weighing in at a whopping 384 kilobytes, pushing the boundaries of the console to the furthest extent with its sheer amount of content. Get the power! Nintendo Power! It took me two decades to even realize there was an anchor item in this! Bewildering stuff, it never stops surprising me. A game that was all too perfect to play this close to the holidays, my earliest memory of gaming with my family. Thank you so much.

"It's good, for an NES game." It's perfect, for a video game.
(Vee)
Super Mario World
Super Mario World
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Decades after its release, Super Mario World may be found by some players to be somewhat “basic”. Compared to Super Mario Bros 3, World feels smaller and more restrained, taking place entirely in Dinosaur World and cutting out all of 3’s new power-ups. There are a variety of stage themes, but all more reserved as it all takes place on the same island. This restraint was done in order to focus on refining and polishing Mario’s movement over anything else in the game, resulting in the best-feeling Mario in any 2D Mario game. This is the game where they nail Mario’s acceleration and movement, no-longer requiring an on screen indicator of his speed since now it comes naturally to the player. He’s snappy, responsive, and allows for precise in-air movement, which is complemented by the two incredibly versatile power-ups of the cape and Yoshi. With secret exits, the game rewards forging your own path and experimenting with the tools given to you. It’s no wonder Mario World romhacks became so prevalent, the toolkit is so full of possibilities that fans feel the urge to go even further than the devs did. This is where the Mario series emphasized its main philosophy, the joy of movement and momentum over everything, and this philosophy would go on to inspire Mario 64 as well as every platformer to come since.
(BansheeNeet)
Ultrakill
Ultrakill
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Hell is for those who committed to a great sin in their mortal lifetime. What happens when something not alive nor mortal enters the fiery jaws of Hell?

One such figure must acquire a thirst for blood, for it is something they cannot possess or shed, thus creating the want or need for it. This thing must also be designed in a particular manner, one that is mechanically dense, yet needs the capability to flow like water as it braves the depths of hell. Its prey will be forced adapt and change as it is cornered. Yet, as its prey changes, so too does the figure. The figure will clear out the layers of Hell one by one, and with that the figure changes little by little. It becomes more unpredictable. It becomes more violent. It becomes smarter.

What such thing can possess these qualities? The will of God would not dare to even think of creating such a thing so ravenous. It would have to be the will of man, as their existence reaches their climax and time of peril will create the perfect killing machine, born from their past failures.

Mankind is dead. Blood is fuel. Hell is full.
(Nightblade)
Yume Nikki
Yume Nikki
RANK 47 (5 votes)

Abstract art as a whole is all about getting out what you put in: By its very nature, it’s incredibly unintuitive, and if you are not willing to put in the legwork to meet it halfway, you’re never going to truly understand what it’s trying to say. Yume Nikki is gaming as abstract art, an entry in the medium that defies the very mold of a traditional “game” with its free-form structure and minimalist design, and while that can be off-putting to the average gamer, if you’re willing to meet Yume Nikki on its own terms, you’re rewarded with one of the most beautiful experiences to ever grace RPG Maker 2003. Kikiyama’s magnum opus as a one-game wonder has created a ripple so massive with Yume Nikki’s release in 2004 that traces of its influence can be seen in indie games to this day, and it has single-handedly secured Kikiyama’s place in the upper echelon of indie developers.
(ConeCvltist)
Death Stranding
Death Stranding
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Deus Ex
Deus Ex
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Drakengard
Drakengard
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Hypnospace Outlaw
Hypnospace Outlaw
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Jet Set Radio Future
Jet Set Radio Future
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Kentucky Route Zero
Kentucky Route Zero
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Kid Icarus: Uprising
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Pac-Man
Pac-Man
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Super Monkey Ball
Super Monkey Ball
RANK 64 (4 votes)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Thief: The Dark Project
Thief: The Dark Project
RANK 64 (4 votes)
Adventure
Adventure
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Another World
Another World
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Cruelty Squad
Cruelty Squad
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Devil May Cry 4
Devil May Cry 4
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Fallout
Fallout
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Jet Set Radio
Jet Set Radio
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts II
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Mega Man X
Mega Man X
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Ninja Gaiden
Ninja Gaiden
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Off
Off
RANK 81 (3 votes)
PaRappa the Rapper
PaRappa the Rapper
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Persona 5
Persona 5
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Pokémon Blue Version
Pokémon Blue Version
RANK 81 (3 votes)
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia
RANK 81 (3 votes)

49 Comments


1 year ago

congrats on getting this put together! its extremely cool to see the final product

1 year ago

I just want to say thank you again for including me in such a special experience!!!!

1 year ago

Well done! Thanks for tackling this, and thanks for trusting me with a blurb.
Really great to see all this come together, along with more under-the-counter type games nabbing a spot as well. I'd also like to thank you for inquiring me about writing a blurb for an entry I hold dearly, it was a wonderful feeling!

1 year ago

What a special list, I'm extremely glad I could've been a part of it <3

1 year ago

Thanks for organizing everything, good stuff.

1 year ago

Yall did a great job on your writings!! what a fantastic list
rawness incarnate.

1 year ago

Excellent work here!

1 year ago

Hell yes, what a great project.

1 year ago

I mentioned it in the Discord already but I would like to extend my thanks for putting this together. It was a wonderful community effort and I'm glad to have been able to contribute something, no matter how small, to the finished product and to have been allowed to have my writing sit shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best on the site. Thank you once again!

1 year ago

It's here! Awesome list. Thanks for putting this together and giving me the chance to contribute.

1 year ago

This is so amazing: thank you for including me, and thank you everyone that wrote for this! Seriously, this makes me so happy...

1 year ago

Incredibly based guys 😎

1 year ago

really cool to see everything so well put together!! i'm glad to be part of the blurbs with so many people and friends i admire a lot! thank you and congrats!!!

1 year ago

Incredibly cool.

1 year ago

Having read this list through properly now, I must admit that I feel hopelessly inadequate next to some of these absolutely stunning contributions. Fantastic work, everyone - I'm proud to have stood alongside you!

1 year ago

nice, very well done
doom, katamari and super metroid in the top 10. not bad

1 year ago

So so endlessly bummed that I missed this entirely while it while it was happening

1 year ago

I'm adding yet another thank you to the evergrowing pile of thank yous for putting together something like this, it's something you didn't need to do, but you did. So my hat's off to you.

1 year ago

Thank you for giving me a shot. Glad I was able to contribute and must have been a huge undertaking. Amazing end result.

1 year ago

great work here man, seriously. thanks for letting me take a couple of chances at bat

1 year ago

So happy to have been a part of this killer project. Everyone's prompts were stellar !

1 year ago

awesome work

1 year ago

also i had no idea when i wrote the DOOM piece that it was art #1 on the poll... that carmack quote feels well-placed now lol

1 year ago

Delighted to see this come together. (I have plenty of personal favourites on the list that don't have blurbs, if you're looking for someone to write them)

1 year ago

incredible work from everyone involved, some really great stuff here, but most of all, what a wonderful thing to pull together and create Pangburn!! You should feel immensely proud of what you've put together here. Thank you for letting me be a part of it!
Great job everyone and a huge thank you Pangburn for putting this together!
truly something special. thanks for putting this together, glad i could be included. everyone involved did an amazing job!


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