ILX'S 100 GREATEST VIDEO GAMES EVER

#100: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Kotorbox.jpg
http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ecr/us/img/99/70/0000109970_20070723182747.jpg
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: LucasArts
Original format: X-Box
Highest position: #4, HI DERE

IT'S ON NOW, MUMMYCUDDLERS

Always wanted to play KotOR, but I don't really give a toss about the Star Wars and I don't know how much of any impediment to enjoying the game that would be.

#99: Kirby's Adventure (1993)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/Kirby_adv_boxfront.jpg
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/media/gen618.jpg
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Original format: NES
Highest position: #4, Alex In Baltimore

Probably gonna do about four an hour, I think. stokedforthemadness.jpg

Might have to break out the emulatorz to check one or two of these.

#98: Wolfenstein 3-D (1992)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Wolfenstein-3d.jpg
http://binarybonsai.com/images/wolf3d.gif
Developer:id
Publisher:Apogee Software
Original format:PC DOS
Highest position:#7, Louis Jagger

Okay, Wolfenstein is totally one of those games that people vote for because it's "seminal" or "important", but frankly as a thing for having fun with it wasn't even all that in 1992. It would be fair to describe the gameplay as limited.

#97: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (2004)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Dragon_Quest_VIII_Journey_of_the_Cursed_King.jpeg
http://web20.server-drome.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/m%E4chtig_gro%DF.png
Developer:Level-5
Publisher:Square Enix
Original format:Playstation 2
Highest position:#1, TOMBOT

I get the feeling this is going to be the thread equivalent of Katamari Damacy, slowly picking up readers and contributors until at around 11pm tomorrow night it ends up with some massed 60 person "WHY IS SHADOW OF THE BEAST #2 NOT RANKED #3????" clusterfuck

The "highest position" subdivision is a nice touch.

It was either that or a GameFAQs link.

One day we need Tom's definitive book on mentalist Japanese RPGs. I can take them or leave them meself. Love the Breath of Fire series, some of the early Fighting Fantasys and the first episode of Suikoden, but too often they feel like no-gameplay trawls through Planet Twee, on rails. Haven't got a clue what this is one is like, to be honest. Looking forward to reading an explanation.

My favourite RPG of the moment is Forumwarz.com, but then again I don't play anything in Japanese other than the FirePro series.

I'm gonna go on and on about my favourite RPGs further up this list.

Excellent stuff, Dom.

#96: Diablo II (2000)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/Diablo_II_Coverart.png
http://www.cheats.ru/uploaded/d/diablo2-01145.jpg
Developer:Blizzard North
Publisher:Blizzard Software
Original format:PC
Highest position:#13, EssKay

I like the highest position thing, but miss the general 'number of votes' listing. Am interested to see what ends up in this.

Also, I got bored with Forumwarz after a while. Might go back to it when I'm not supposed to be finishing my degree.

Diablo 2 = another one I haven't played. Got the first one, liked it in short doses, but the gameplay is essentially "click left mouse button as quick as you can". Hope they varied that up a bit for the sequel.

Forumwarz has a lot of "grinding" down forums/enemies about a week or so in, but I'm a sucker for meta humour and the BoingBoing zings.

xp

but frankly as a thing for having fun with it wasn't even all that in 1992

Two words: "MEIN LEBEN!"

Some more: this game was ridiculously fun in 1992! So long as you played it on your uncle's computer with the good sound card and the good processor - it was BLINDINGLY fast and the sounds just seemed MASSIVE - especially the chaingun. And the Nazi exclamations! Okay, banging around smacking spacebar and hoping to find secret doors got old fast, and the whole game looks basically the same, but compared to anything else I was playing at the time it was amazing. And yeah, the violence - cartoony though it seems now - was otherwise unavailable on my PC. The shock of the new!

Yeah, I voted for it largely on "seminal" terms and because its successor DOOM weren't available - but I really did play the hell out of Wolf/Spear.

#95: Super Monkey Ball (2001)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/Super_Monkey_Ball_Coverart.png
http://thewiiremedia.revolutionreport.net/games/20/1210.jpg
Developer:Amusement Vision
Publisher:Sega
Original format:GameCube
Highest position:#5, caek

and i still think four per hour is going to blow the wad a little fast :( i have to grade papers with my fellow TAs for several hours today and i'm sure i'm going to miss the cosmopolitan furor surrounding all the best games on the list. but bravo to Dom for putting this thing together, the old-school poll is ILX's most difficult art form

I think Super Monkey Ball is the only N-Gage title on the list. Shocked, I know.

Ach, you might well be right Herr Doktor, but I figure this thread is best approached with Challops set to Kill. Raise the levels of debate, so to speak.

Wait until we get to #41 tomorrow. There's gonna be lulz-a-plenty there.

re #41 i suspect I'll have to review my ballot and figure out what extremely unpopular game I put in the top ten...

i'm going away for the weekend Dom. can't you drag it out a bit?

I could well be the only voter for my #10, pretty sure I'll be the highest voter for my #2 and #9. Were there only 100 games to choose from in the final list?

Nah, there was... 230 odd I think.

Do any of the top 100 have only one vote then?

#94: Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/26/Super_Mario_Galaxy.jpg
http://www.dignews.com/admin/screenshoot/super_mario_galaxy_10.jpg
Developer:Nintendo EAD Tokyo
Publisher:Nintendo
Original format:Wii
Highest position:#13, Thomas

Do any of the top 100 have only one vote then?

-- Noodle Vague, Saturday, 3 May 2008 13:49 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

Nah. There's only two or three that only got two votes as well.

SPOILER: That's not the highest placed Mario game

SHOCKAH!

I know I need to get SMG but I can't ever seem to be bothered, y'know?

#93: Metroid: Zero Mission (2004)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/Zmbox.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/7901/hdmetroiduu4.jpg
Developer:Nintendo R&D1
Publisher:Nintendo
Original format:Game Boy Advance
Highest position:#5, abanana

thread of fond memories so far and nothing i voted for has even come up yet. truly every game here can feel that they're a winner, even if they didn't place as high as they might have hoped.

#92: Maniac Mansion (1987)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/Maniac_Mansion_%28Commodore_64%29_box_front_cover_art.jpg
http://game-research.com/wp-content/uploads/maniacmansion.gif
Developer:Lucasfilm Games
Publisher:Lucasfilm Games
Original format:PC DOS
Highest position:#13, robertwolf8080

tl;dp

loltm

#91: Rez (2001)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/RezBoxArt.jpg
http://www.chipcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/_ps2games_rez_rez4.jpg
Developer:United Game Artists
Publisher:Sega
Original format:Dreamcast
Highest position:#1, Stet

^nerd bracket

http://i-eclectica.org/wordpress/wp-content/my%20images/People/ActHoffmanRainman.jpg

#90: Super Mario Bros 2 (1988)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Super_Mario_Bros_2.jpg
http://www.ugo.com/a/worst-videogame-sequels/images/3.jpg
Developer:Nintendo EAD
Publisher:Nintendo
Original format:NES
Highest position:#10, Jordan Cohen

OKAY! First one of my picks, ridiculously underrated. I spent a small fortune shovelling pounds into one of those Play 10 machines in The Mint in Hull in about 1990 to play this fecker. Completely groovy movement dynamics and didn't really feel like any previous game at the time. Oh how smug I felt when I picked up the first egg and threw it back at that little Dino-looking motherhugger.

Like many another game, all fun completely evaporates when you get to the twat-bastarding ice level.

SMB2? It was kinda disappointing at the time for me (compared with the still epic SMB1), but still leeched months of otherwise wasted time away. I don't remember if SMB3 made the list, but if so I probably voted pretty high for it.

oh and KOTOR is fabulous and you don't have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy it, I don't think.

generations is ideal for console games i think

(but)

This was a really bizarre list. No fighting games either, which is kind of understandable because they usually tend to blur into series rather than stand on their own.

Everyone thought someone else was going to burn their one '90s pick on Street Fighter II, but it turned out there were a lot of good games made in the 1990s.

Symphony of the Night for one.

somebody start a nomination thread for video games of the 80's plz

I still like generations -- question is, would we start at 1? 2? (3 is where everyone's a renaissance person i think, probably a lot more response on best NES vs best Atari 2600)

(and all 80s = good luck atari 2600)

How do arcade and personal computer games fit in though?

i reckon i might well be the biggest Football Manager saddo left on this board and no fucken way am i distinguishing one year from another, bundle or die imo

also if we do this again maybe my ballot won't get disappeared

is ILX still british enough for lords of midnight to place

important questions 2015

The handhelds hold roughly similar generations as well (DS vs PSP, 3DS vs Vita). The problem of course is that the PC doesn't really care - so where does a game released before the last PS3 title but after the first PS4 count? And that's not counting staggered console release dates.

Hmm maybe decades is just the best way to do it then. Until '89, 90-99, 00-09?

or make best-computer-games its own category? 1/2gen, 3,gen, 4gen, ... & computer games

I like mixing everything together but I'll go with whatever

I understand that this would probably be a totally separate thing, but it'd also be cool to see a poll by genre.

I really see no reason to segregate computer games off in their own space, just reduces turnout in every poll as people may not feel they have enough of a stake to throw in on any given individual poll. Plus, a lot of work for the poll-runner etc.

If they need to be broken down, decades makes more sense - you'll catch people who were gaming a lot at a certain moment in time, regardless of how they split their time between arcade/console/computers. Plus, then the results feel more like a comparison among peers, which could be more interesting - - - ranking Zelda vs. Mario 3 is meaningful in a way that ranking Asteroids vs. Half-Life 2 might not be.

however we do it can we have a lot of votes on our ballots? esp for games i'm gonna be bummed if i only get like 25 spots.

just throw everything together, if the kids can't deal with the fact that games were better back in my day then fuck em

This was a really bizarre list. No fighting games either, which is kind of understandable because they usually tend to blur into series rather than stand on their own.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, January 26, 2015 7:36 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Everyone thought someone else was going to burn their one '90s pick on Street Fighter II, but it turned out there were a lot of good games made in the 1990s.

― Doctor Casino, Monday, January 26, 2015 7:50 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Unforgivable!

No offense to Rygar, but there is no way it would have made it on my ballot had Street Fighter 2, any Sim City, DOOM, or Ms. Pac-Man been available.

for kicks heres another thing we did

ILX TOP PS2 GAMES POLL RESULTS (116 - 86)
ILX TOP PS2 GAMES POLL RESULTS (85-51)
ILX TOP PS2 GAMES POLL RESULTS (48-21)
ILX TOP PS2 GAMES POLL RESULTS (20-1)

I love that it went :

100-7. other games
6. Team Ico game
5. Katamari game
4. GTA game
3. GTA game
2. Katamari game
1. Team Ico game

And their combined scores wouldve been
3. GTA games, 280 (incl. gta3)
2. Katamari games, 294
1. Team Ico games, 303

yr hivemind @ work

old hivemind though tbh, i dunno if overwhelming lasting love for GTA, Katamari or Team Ico still exists universally on this board

hmm maybe, in the context of ps2 i can't imagine they'd move far from the top...

dang it yall, i am seriously considering running an X360+PS3+Wii "seventh generation" ILX poll just so i can think more and talk more about mgs4. i'm reviving this thread because the conversation kinda died, but i like games and rankings and shit.

i'm also into running previous gens polls too...
6: ps2/xbox/dreamcast/gamecube, even though we did ps2 already it'd be worth a redo including the xbox and gc and especially the DC
5: ps1/n64/saturn/jaguar?/3do?
4: snes/genesis/neo geo/tg16 (this one would be v popular... did we ever do this?)
3: nes/master system/7800?

the original issue with the generation method is that it became murky when to include PC games. easy fix: no pc games. we could do a separate thing for pc games at some point.

an october rollout for one of these would be pretty fun, what is up ILX can we do it?!

Sure thing, tho some of it will be odd voting patterns: Had a PS2, never touched an XBOX, so my voting will be heavily skewed. Less of a problem with later generations of course.

I would be down, for sure. I only opted in to the 7th gen when I bought a PS3 early last year and I've been binging ever since.

i'm game for this shit even tho i've only had a PS3 for a couple of months, i feel the need to get aggro about under-rated Wii games i have loved

It might get me all nostalgic about playing videogames, which is a thing I don't do anymore, but I'm in. 7th gen probably the peak of my gaming career, which tempts me towards the indefensible thesis that it was the ne plus ultra of videogaming, period.

yes

to the poll. real games don't come in "gens" obv

</pcmorbz>

anyway this will rule i will post about bully and sm64

i can take on the pc thing later actually if no one else wants! eventually, whenever.

i know sm64 is not seventh gen but i will probably talk about it anyway.

there are literally no good games after the ps2

to the poll. real games don't come in "gens" obv

Real music doesn't come on decades, but, y'know, it's a handy device.

this will rule

I think I might start w/ third generation, because A) moving fwd chronologically, B) hitting those nostalgia spots early, C) by the time I get to seventh generation it's more fully "complete" (i mean there are still games coming out for these consoles rn, they're just usually inferior ports of 8g games).

cool?

Home Game Poll vol. 1 (1984-1992): Nominate the best NES, Master System, etc console games ever (Nom deadline: September 8th)

love love love the idea of this coming back, still bummed about no PC/arcade games tbh. as a kid i was playing all three, maybe with a vague sense of them going with different moods, moods, or styles of play. (for that matter i was still playing atari games in 1990 if the mood struck me, but that's neither here nor there.) during the "third generation" i probably divided my time pretty evenly between NES, commodore and PC games, plus hitting up the arcade any time i was at the mall.

i get that "generations" get hazy but maybe you could just use the console generations as a basis for *years* and then extend the years to other systems? like, the famicom was released 1983, the super famicom 1990. so you could say, in this "third generation" poll, include all games released for the famicom and master system, period, plus all games released for anything else from 1983 to 1990. that may be hard to get used to, since a PC game from 1994 wouldn't appear on the same countdown as an NES game from 1994. but it kinda makes sense IMO - the PC and arcade games of 1994 have a lot more in common (genre, graphics, aspirations) with super nintendo games. like, street fighter II as an arcade game obviously belongs with genesis/SNES, generationally. and obviously the console hardware is locked in, so a "late" NES game sort of isn't on the same playing field as another game from 1994... not that i think anyone would vote for wario's woods. maybe kirby. i guess this sort of goes against my "what you might have been playing around the same time" logic. but in any case i still think it'd be less weird-feeling than not including them at all.

just my two cents though!

oops xpost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6_2ZGBZ0ZE

Even better, from 1994...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16upFloYak

I remember kind of being frustrated that PC would never get a Mario game, and the side scrollers were close approximations but I kind of remember controller lag being a big problem for a long time. Maybe I am mis-remembering but now that they have emulators and know all about frame lag and stuff it makes a lot of sense. You were just never going to get that SMOOTH scrolling, that instantaneous controller feedback, etc. Going back and playing console games on the original equipment, the smoothness of everything is very apparent.

wow this is a pretty sick list. no pokemon games tho?

ha, wow, we had ABUSE and I'm sure I played it a lot but that longplay video is triggering no moments of memory, no familiar music or sound effects or anything. you see one minute and you've basically got it. i remember it being ... playable? sooooo gray and ugly-looking.

Abuse is 96 though.

What about speccy/commodore/st/amiga games, do they count as 'pc games'? That's my only chance of input pre gen 5.