Spoiler The Best Video Games Ever Made

[Pokemon]

I'm sure this thread has been done before MANY times, but I sat and thought about this for awhile. This isn't about your favorite games or most nostalgic: try to put that aside for now. I'm talking best video games that excel in every single category a game can have, whether it be aesthetics to engagement: it has to be strong (or very good) in all or an extreme majority of them. Games that we can all agree on to represent the art of video games to the whole world. These games don't have to be fun, nor popular. A lot of this requires you to have completed these games, just saying, BUT I will be rather vague: for those of you who have played the games you'll understand. For those of you who haven't...you'll have less spoiled, but you'll understand nothing. Small wall of text incoming.

The first game I thought of was:
Shadow of the Colossus
This was the very first game that made me cry, and truly made me see games as art. In a nutshell this game has ver-EXTREMELY little dialog and little answers. It focuses more on questions than answers: its about what you think, whatever you theorize about the game is pretty much valid due to its small explanation on practically everything. To some this is a small, closed in game for that, but to others its a huge, wide open door. *SPOILERS, SPOILERS EVERYWHERE* For those of you who have played through this game do you remember when agro fell a great distance to save you, and then later he was there at the end. Wasn't that a little confusing? And when Wander was sucked into the pool at the end and was then a baby. END OF SPOILERS FOR NOWThese are few of many examples of when the game threw something at you and didn't explain it...on purpose. I can't begin to explain how beautiful this game is. It gives you a weird feeling whenever you think about the game as a whole, because you don't know the whole story and you never will, and that makes in beautiful. Another thing is the fact the only enemies are the 16 colossi, it makes this game feel very lonely in a huge, beautiful world. After playing through you will question what you did; was it right, wrong, what exactly did you do?

Man, don't even get me started on the music. This soundtrack is the most perfect soundtrack for this game...ever. Seriously listen to this:

Shadow of the Colossus - The Sunlit Earth - YouTube

That song made me cry with the scene that went with it. If this game was without music, it would be terrible. Because of no dialog to explain anything this game relies on the music. Its amazing how much the music tells in this game and how well it fits in. I have never seen a better use of music in anything else in my life that this game.

Seriously, play this game right now. Buy a PS2 for it. I can't do this game justice in words; which is a good thing. Go play through it if you haven't, read some theories about it after you've beat it. This game is truly perfect (mostly of course).

Mother 3
Oh man...what do I even say here. Not may video games, if any, have expressed the feelings Mother 3 has. Loss, regret, some genocide and much more. I was seriously contemplating putting this one up on the list, but I did. For the sheer fact it looked at the most horrible things in life put them in a package, made fun of them, expressed them, and managed to still have humor. I'm not going to say anything about this: because I can't. Play it, love it, cry because of it. It is amazing what this game can make you do: cry, laugh, rage....I'm speechless. Go now, to the GBA emulator.

I guess I kinda of spared you guys,. I could have gone all out and rambled forever about stuff...but whatever! So I want you guys to tell me some games, regardless of whether you like them or not, you think are some of the best made. It can be because of its amazingness, contribution to the industry, whatever.

 

[Ventus]

Ocarina of Time for quite obvious reasons. The entire world blends seamlessly, and although there are tons of locks and keyholes, the game was made in such a way that you could circumvent most if not all of these locks. The soundtrack was catchy and also mood-setting; the visuals (for the time) were breathtaking; the story although very simplistic (generic) was crafted in such a way that a player could feel Link. Although OoT wasn't the first 3D adventure game ever released, most feel that it was the first "perfect" 3D adventure game ever released. I'm one of those people.

Majora's Mask goes on the same block as OoT, although this is for different reasons. I feel MM is one of the few games that can properly tear down conventions despite using all of the assets from a previous title in a series, all the while crafting a masterful plot. This game simply draws out emotions, and I'm not too sure if this is because I played OoT beforehand and saw familiar faces juxtaposed with what appeared to be insanity, or if it's because the game is a beautiful game. I love the themes this game grazes (I admit it isn't perfect in those regards): sadness, death, divorce even...many things hang in the balance and it's up to you - the player - to rectify things. I love it all.

 

[JuicieJ]

The first five games to come to my head, when listing one game per franchise and in no particular order of excellence, are:

• Metroid Prime

• Majora's Mask

• Metal Gear Solid 3

• Portal

• Super Mario Galaxy 2

 

[DarkestLink]

Hmmmm...five come to mind.

Super Mario 64: The pinnacle of Mario. Basically taking advantage of every single thing the Mario series has to offer. Very few flaws, most of which can be attributed to only its age.

Ocarina of Time: Not so much that it excels, but that it lacks flaws.

Twilight Princess: Ocarina of Time on steroids, equally small flaws.

Okami: It did have a weak point, combat, but it had very few flaws in itself. The biggest I can think of is it's beginning, but its purpose was well served and ultimately paid off in the long wrong. Not too challenging for newbies, but had a few challenges for hardcore players in the sidequest department. Had an engaging overworld, story, and--most of all--characters. The style--to me--is cell shading done right.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: The pinnacle of Paper Mario with the best leveling system, the best battle system, the best story, and the best extra content. While I am not the hugest RPG style fan, I still think this game deserves credit for what it is. Very few annoyances or flaws in this game.

Two other games I'd like to put here are Skyward Sword and Okamiden. However Skyward Sword was riddled with flaws--moreso than Zelda games I have lower on my list. And Okamiden really should have waited for the 3DS to reach its full potential.

 

[Krazy4Krash]

I'm going to take that title as "the least flawed games ever made". In that case, my immediate thoughts are:
- Super Metroid
- Metroid Prime
- A Link to the Past
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Portal 2
- Super Mario Galaxy 2

I could go into painstaking detail as to why these games are the closest to perfection achieved, but to praise every aspect of all these would be...redundant. To even attempt to bring up whatever "flaws" I found the game to have would be nitpicking. No thanks.

 

[Pokemon]

And Okamiden really should have waited for the 3DS to reach its full potential.

Okamiden wouldn't exist if they waited to get it on the 3DS, and the 3DS wasn't even announced the year it was released.

 

[DarkestLink]

Okamiden wouldn't exist if they waited to get it on the 3DS, and the 3DS wasn't even announced the year it was released.

1) Why's that?

2) Never said it was.

 

[prince rallis]

The only one I can think of is Minecraft there are only few people(Excluding people who play Roblox and just hate on the game even though they never played it.)who hate it,and Mojang doesn't even care what you do to the game if you wanna hack it,go ahead nothings stopping you.

 

[Justac00lguy]

I'll start off with one game for now...

GTA San Andreas
Nit only is this my favourite game of all time but I would consider it has a strong argument to be technically the greatest game of all time. The GTA franchise only really took off after GTA III where it made the change into the 3D concept, we were aloud to roam in what at the time was themost realistic sand box world. It gave us the freedom to do what as we pleased, it gave us a huge story, filled with interesting missions and tons of other content. In 2002 we got the brilliant Vice City which pretty much improved in every aspect and tookthe story and gamplay up a notch.

Fast forward just 2 years! And we get the masterpiece that was San Andreas, this pretty much took the sandbox idea and flipped it on its head. Not only was the world huge but we seen a large variety of landscapes such as urban cities, sub urban towns, docks, desert, woods, farmland, mountains Etc. It was set in the 3 major cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas but it gave a nice GTA twist to make this areas feel that much different and new. There was a huge amount of content In this game, over 100 main missions, which all were fresh, unique and challenging. There was a ton of side quests, and you felt the need to complete these as they were not only fun but they actually helped you. One could also find many collectibles that would give you some neat perks and I found purchasing houses, cars, clothes Etc, to be very fun.

I would strongly consider this game to have one of the best and most realistic stories in a game. It was a play on 90's gang culture onthe west coast and it followed a character named CJ. He was your stereotypical African American of that era and probably one of my fav main characters in gaming, as he was humorous, courageous, interesting and in a way relatable. The story itself was great, CJ escaped from the gang culture of Los Santos and was finally succeeding in life, however he gets a call from his brother outlining that his mother had been shot. Returning to Los Santos you find corrupt cops, your gang has diminished and drug culture has increased. Now your main goal is to find the killers of your mother, but a long the way you must buil up your reputation and your local gang as well as stopping the corrupted cops and big drug trade. Of course it wouldn't be GTA without the over the top story and this game brings just that....You will find yourself in huge gang fights, escaping police helicopters, robbing Casinos, hijacking planes, infiltrating milatary bases, having a dog fight in milatary jets...Well you get the point.

For me it is just the amount of fun in the game as well. When I first got this game i had no intention of playing the main story I just remember playing for hours and hours just exploring and having fun. You can just walk around picking fights with pedestrians, having gun fights with rival gangs, getting a chase from the cops, drive round like a loon, fly planes, go mountain biking down Mt. Chillard, swim underwater, gamble and have fun with the many cheats Etc. Fact is that this game is the true definition of a game with a near unlimited re-playability, you don't even need to engage in the main missions to have fun, though I would recommend it.

I could go on about this game forever but I guess I'll just end here and say that in my opinion I think this is one of the greatest achievements in gaming!

 

[Spirit]

Shadow of the Colossus
ICO
Ocarina of Time
Wind Waker
Mario 64
Super Mario World
Donkey Kong Country
Luigi's Mansion
F-Zero GX
Journey
Resident Evil Remake
A Link to the Past
Super Metroid
Metroid Prime
Kirby Superstar/Funpack

 

[Zenox]

I made a list of my top 25 awhile ago. I didn't save it, but I remember a few in the list.

1. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Greatest RPG of all time. It has great open world questing as well as character development.

2. F-Zero GX
Greatest Racer of all time. Great environments, visuals, music, and plenty of unlockables. The game gives you plenty of reason to try each mode a few times.

3. NBA Street V3
Greatest sports game of all time. V3 added plenty of features to increase the customability of NBA Street from the previous game, and kept the great gameplay of the rest of the series.

now I don't remember where I ranked everything else, but I know I included the following:

Fallout: New Vegas
Greatest post-apocalyptic anything. Insanely good RPG.

Civilization IV
Greatest strategy game ever. Plenty of micromanaging and the scale of the game is just massive.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Sunshine

amongst others, I can't quite remember. I don't believe I included any Zelda games in the list. Wind Waker might've been there, but I don't consider Zelda games to be that great anymore.

 

[Justac00lguy]

So here is what I would consider my top ten.... (Note this is very hard and it will probably change within the minute I post it)

1. GTA: San Andreas

2. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

3. Fallout New Vegas

4. Super Mario Galaxy

5. Shadow of the Colossus

6. Pokemon Sapphire

7. Heavy Rain

8. Spyro 2 Riptos Rage

9. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves

10. GTA IV

 

[*M i d n a*]

From personal experience in playing them I like these:

Pokémon Series
Mario Bros Series
Assassin's Creed Series
GRAW Series
Elder Scrolls Series
LOZ Series (Only played and finished WW)
Valkyrie Profile Series
Mass Effect Series
Fire Emblem Series
Resident Evil Series
Soul Calibur Series
Street Fighter Series

Yes, I've played all those series and others, but I haven't played all the games in some of those series. Still, I think those series have within them some of the best games ever made.

 

[Austin]

Fallout New Vegas is just great.

Minecraft is also a fantastic game. It's hard to describe my relationship with this game, but for me it goes behind a simple form of entertainment to an outlet for expression. I get a lot of strong feelings from playing this game. Also the soundtrack is amazing.

 

[surferguy7]

Platforming: Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2

First-Person - Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime, Portal 2

Racing - Burnout and Mario Kart Series

Action/Adventure - Ocarina of Time

Visual Novel - Zero Escape Series