Let us put together an ILX canon of video games

I actually thought Super Mario 64 was hell on earth to play, but that was after a lot of time playing eg Spyro, which has a great camera system.

Actually, that reminds me:

Ratchet & Clank 3 (I forget the actual name)

civilization 1-2 (perhaps its bastard cousin colonization as well)
space quest 1-6?
ultima 7 pts 1 & 2
dune 2

there was one micro machines game on the mega drive that was my LIFE

is it too early to include GTA vice city and san andreas? nah, it's not.

that's a list from the heart.

fact

did anybody ever complete Chuck Rock?

...game's been getting the better of me for over ten years.

Galaga (seconded)
Ms Pac-Man
Star Wars

homestyle:
Yar's Revenge
Pitfall II
River Raid
Defender
Adventure

-Forza Motorsport, which was only released three weeks ago but is easily the best simulation-style racing game I've ever played: 40 years' worth of Ferraris + custom decals + online play with drunk/stoned college dudes in tricked-out CRXes which is a lot more fun that it sounds + superior AI that actually avoids slamming into you -- unless you try starting shit with it, then it will go into vengeful payback mode + the ability to do nutty things like drop a Skyline GT-R engine into a Datsun 240Z and tuning it to 700 HP, rendering it almost completely undrivable + LANCIA STRATOS! + excellent damage model + it has the Nurburgring which most racing games do nowadays but it is fucking GORGEOUS in this.

-Midnight Club 3 -- also a recently released racer; lots of fun customization stuff (you can create a chop-top '78 Monte Carlo with gold trim and pimp rims but still throw in a monster engine with a huge blower), plus it has M.I.A. on the soundtrack which instantly makes it one of the ILx-iest games ever

-Fire Pro Wrestling D or Z -- Japanese import and the most fun I've had every playing a game that involved giving people beatings (this includes the Street Fighter and Tekken series); a great simulation of the 'sport' that almost never fails to bring the drama in every match.

-But still, STREET FIGHTER II YOU CORNY PC-GAMER FUXX

-Double Dribble for NES. I always liked smashing the backboard with the Boston Frogs.

- Doom (ffs!)
- the Sims (ffs even further! essential? if you cannot tell me why, move to the back of the class)
- HalfLife

Ant attack
Dun Darach
Doom & Doom2
Quake expansion pack "Scourge of Armagon"
Half Life
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Arx Fatalis
My favourite = Hexen 2, and especially the mission pack for it though.

Too fucked to think of reasons why right now, more later perhaps.

http://www.retrogaming.it/amiga/flashback_4.gif
http://www.retrogaming.it/amiga/flashback_5.gif
http://www.retrogaming.it/amiga/flashback_2.gif

Also, Maniac Mansion. Put the gerbil in the microwave!

Steve - did you have an Atari ST or an Amiga? (or BOTH????)

firmly ensconced in the ultimate 80s arcade:

R-Type
Gemini Wing (not so well known but the best vertical shoot 'em up i ever played)
Rainbow Islands already

Its interesting most of you are focusing on console and arcade games, and not at all/so much on PC.

Yeah, I definitely want to play it again after the memory's faded some more. I don't about Mercenaries though, 'cause I sucked ass at that.

Can we denominate other things? Vice City is the weakest of the three games by far.

Zelda (first one and Link to the Past)
Super Metroid
Out of This World

1. Super Metroid (SNES, 1994)
2. Out of this World (1990)
3. Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994)
4. Final Fantasy VII (PSX, 1997)
5. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES, 1990)
6. Deadly Rooms of Death (1996)
7. Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995)
8. Metal Gear Solid (PSX, 1998)
9. Street Fighter Alpha 3 PSX (PSX, 1999)
10.Civilization II (1996)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX, 1997)
Gabriel Knight 3 (1999)
Pro-Pinball: The Web (1995)
Photopia (1998)
Mega Man 3 (NES, 1990)
Street Fighter 2 (1992)
Grim Fandango (1998)
Super Mario 64 (N64, 1996)
Final Fantasy VIII (PSX, 1999)
A Link To the Past (SNES, 1991)
The Last Express (1997)
Lemmings 2: Tribes (1994)
Full Throttle (1996)
Secret of Monkey Island (1990)
Xenogears (PSX, 1998)
Gabriel Knight (1993)
Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX, 1997)
StarTropics (NES, 1990)
Microsoft FreeCell (1992)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN, 1992)
Fallout (1997)
Fallout 2 (1998)
Lemmings (1991)
Monkey Island 2 (1991)
Super Mario Kart (SNES, 1992)
Gabriel Knight 2 (1995)
Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey (1997)
Planescape: Torment (1999)
Adventures of Lolo 3 (NES, 1990)
SimCity SNES (SNES, 1991)
Super Mario World (SNES, 1991)
Grand Theft Auto (1997)
Curse of Monkey Island (1997)
Riven (1997)
The Incredible Machine (1990)
Spider and Web (1998)
Spycraft: The Great Game (1996)
Flashback: The Quest for Identity (Delphine, PC/SNES/etc, 1992)
Super Punch-Out!! (SNES, 1994)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Mortal Kombat - you all admit that savagely killing people was a new and thrilling frontier in arcadery
720 (even though I couldnt play the shit it was fascinating)
S.T.U.N. Runner - the coolest game at Chuck E. Cheese
Golden Axe

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/features/makegames/gauntlet.gif

Oh, and impossible mission: "Stay Awhile, Stay Forever!" creeps me out.

Spin that arm!

Tir Na Nog
Marsport
Heavy on the Magick (all alongside Dun Darach, nominated earlier)

Cannon Fodder
PGA Golf
First 3 Breath of Fires

Does anybody remember Hunter on the Amiga? That was so far ahead of its time. Move around a group of islands using tanks, boats, bikes, helicopters (?), to complete various sabotage/rescue missions. Awesome stuff. Can't even find it as abandonware :(

Forgot to mention The Chaos Engine

Wonder if anyone remembers Apidya on the Amiga. The best horizontal shooter released for that machine bar the spaceship levels of Turrican 2.

zelda: ocarina of time (starry)

sensible world of soccer; pro evolution 3 & 4 (the lads)

ico; rez; katamari damacy (andrew farrell & the noise board tenderness)

goldeneye; half-life; half-life 2

cannon fodder; walker; syndicate; pga golf; swos slight return; speedball 2; turrican 2; chaos engine; flashback & another world (the amiga generation)

nes gems: excitebike; mario 1; tmnt (so hard!); mario 2 (the robert altman's popeye videogame)

tekken 2; metal gear solid; final fantasy 7 (the playstation!)

the gba: advance wars; minish cap

mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

alien Vs. predator on the jaguar deserves an honorable mention for being one of those games your friend played at his other friend's house and always enthused about it but you never actually got a chance to play it.

then there are my beloved 386-era pc games:

wing commander
secret weapons of the luftwaffe
darklands
civ
mines of titan

from the NES
mario 1 and 3
duck hunt

from the SNES
streetfighter
mario tennis
mario cart
star fox

from the ps1
ISS

from the ps2
PES 4
all of the need 4 speed series
virtua tennis
San Andreus and Vice City (though spending more than 30 mins playing video games by myself depresses me too much to ever progress.)

http://www.juegomania.org/emuladores/pc/6/6175_t.jpg

would be in my top 10 favourite Amiga games of all time.

C64: Mercenary, Pitstop II, Hypersports, Uridium
Mega Drive: Sonic The Hedgehog
SNES: Street Fighter II, Mario Kart
Amiga: Monkey Island I & II, Flashback, Lemmings, Alien Breed, The Chaos Engine
Playstation: Tomb Raider, Wipeout, Crash Bandicoot, Ridge Racer Type 4
N64: Mario 64, Zelda OOT, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye, Waverace 64, Banjo Kazooie
Dreamcast: Shenmue, Soul Calibur
GBA: Advance Wars, Wario Ware
PS2: Vice City
Gamecube: Zelda Windwaker, Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, Tricky SSX, Burnout 2
Arcade: 1942, Scramble, Gauntlet, Virtua Fighter, Star Wars

Ultra geekery: Panzer General & Fantasy General. I was playing PG lots a couple of months ago. So more-ish.

Hey, I liked it too until the horseshit AI and the sometimes iffy physics (ricocheting off the wall = minor speed buffer and little else) started overshadowing its prettiness and the fact you could drive a '62 Buick special (at least in GT4). The only things it does better than Forza are graphics and original track design.

Well, you might get arguments about quality (though I appear to be the only one starting fights:) but as regards importance to the industry, you'd have to be pretty dumb to argue about it: it made 5 million billion quid, many of it out of the mysterious market known as "ladies".

By the same token, I'd nominate Myst. But something I can't figure out: Myst-clones must cost a fortune to make, but still there have been some, like Schism. Sims-clones could be knocked out in a weekend (okay not really but you get my point), but the only one I know of (The Urbz) is an officially related product. Why is that?

Stretch Panic/Freak Out
ARKANOID

I don't think canonical has to only mean innovative or a milestone. It doesn't mean that in music or movies, for example.

What I think it means there is something unique, an indepenant vector. If you don't know the canon, you don't understand/can't discuss video games. From this perspective, a canon doesn't need Tomb Raiders I, II and III.

Two 1980s games that should definitely be on the canonical list (but hardly anyone has heard of): Spindizzy and Starquake.

San Andreas - because...just because it's the best game ever, goddammit!

Elite - for fucks sake! What are you people on? Why hasn't this been mentioned?

Tekken 3 - best Tekken ever.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - fun, beautiful, clever, satisfying, doesn't outstay it's welcome. What more do you want?

I don't think canonical has to only mean innovative or a milestone.

- I would have thought it has to mean exactly that, what's the point of something being canonical if it doesn't display it's importannce by fitting those criteria?

Look at every record/book/movie in their respective canons and tell me that they're all innovative.

Super Puyo-Puyo - fantastic Puzzle game.
Kick Off 2 - classic football game (I actually preferred it's sequel Goal! But I'm not sure if it's a cannon choice.)

http://www.bitmap-brothers.co.uk/MAGS1.GIF

Word. Ditto Out of this World. Beating that was an almost Biblical triumph for me at the time.

Actually Andrew, its quite the opposite! Myst was, while gorgeous looking, all static screens done in Hypercard that you panned past/thru for the most part (like other adventure games did, eg Day of the Tentacle). It wouldnt be that hard to replicate, unless it went to proper 3d like Uru did (which kind of died commercially).

Whereas the Sims requires 3d programming AND a highly complex AI, which takes a hell lotta time to get right (hence the long delay in Sims2, and for that matter SC4).

The Urbz is a proper Maxis offshoot made for the PS/2 and Xbox and wont ever see a PC release. But there are Sims knockoffs - such as Singles, Playboy Mansion, and even Space Colony (sort of a Sims/SimCity mishmash with great Brit humour).

And having reread the thread I realise theres a lot more canon in here than I figured, I mustr have been half asleep y'day.

And no ones mentioned Thief or Deus Ex yet? Maybe I missed it.

http://www.zxsoftware.co.uk/ZX81/Covers/3D%20Monster%20Maze%20-%20J%20K%20Greye%20-%20ZX81.jpg

I think the SNES canon has to include many of the first releases in the UK including F-Zero, Super Tennis and Castlevania IV. God I loved Mode 7.

Magic Pockets wasn't really a good game. Gods was probably better but there were countless other superior platform games on the Amiga, including Chuck Rock, Toki, Switchblade II, Addams Family, Fire & Ice, The Killing Game Show and James Pond 2: Robocod...didn't rate Zool or Harlequin really.

Grim Fandango is #1 of all time ever.
Half-Life
Deus Ex
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Quake II
Max Payne

Also, for me, and these have been mentioned: Mario 3, original Zelda and Ocarina of Time, these are obvious. Pokemon Snap, Samba de Amigo, Animal Crossing were all great, too. The original Adventure for Atari 2600. You Don't Know Jack, esp #2 and #4. The Sims and Sim City. I spent hours and hours playing Jumpman on my old Atari 800XL but I'm not sure it really belongs in the canon...

It's all about Chaos! Up to eight players! Responsible for many a young fight when the kid from across the road has the temerity to see if your Golden Dragon is an illusion…

This is definitely one of the ten best games ever.

but oh, what a concept. what a beautiful, beautiful concept. fuck the gameplay, fuck the sychronisation, just bask in the glory of the idea and the audacity and ... mel croucher, where are you when we need you?

Return Fire, which was great in its use of classical music to accompany your attacking vehicle(Ride of the Valkyries, Mars Bringer of War, etc)...

and, to a lesser extent, SWIV