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What Are the Best Games of All Time, Objectively?

Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Now I imagine a few of you are stopping by to post "There is no objective measure of video game quality, only personal preference". I don't really believe that is true, and I'll explain why in the next paragraph, but even if you are not convinced please entertain the notion that it is true for the sake of participating in this discussion.

I have a simple example for you that is not from the world of video games. Let's take three popular fantasy series: Twilight, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. If you've never read Twilight there is a series of videos where someone reads them out on Youtube. It's a badly written book: the prose is clumsy, the characters are hollow and the plot weak. By contrast Harry Potter is well written. It's not a work of literary excellence on par with the classics but it's still great. And Lord of the Rings is a work of genius.

Now this has almost nothing to do with my personal feelings for the books. Personally I enjoy Harry Potter more than what I have read of the other two (which is about a chapter from Twilight and the first 100 pages of the Lord of the Rings), but in literary terms Lord of the Rings are the best books, no question.

To put it another way, just because you dislike a meal does not necessarily mean it is poorly cooked or the chef is incompetent. That might be the case, but some flavours just do not appeal to your taste buds. And in the opposite sense just because you love eating McDonalds does not make it a culinary masterpiece.

And on that note, here are my nominations for the the best games ever.

World of Warcraft is something I only played for a handful of hours, but just from reading about it and knowing people who do play it I strongly suspect it is the best MMO ever made, and among the best games ever made.

Ocarina of Time I reckon to be the best Zelda, and also the best Action/Adventure ever (despite what Axel says about bottles, it's not really an RPG. Yes it has aspects that most RPGs have, but in gaming the main hallmark of an RPG is stats building.) Of course it's pretty hard to pick one Zelda game and surely A Link to the Past has an equally good claim. I'll let you argue that one out.

Super Mario World for my money is the best 2D platformer of all time. It's more refined that Super Mario Bros 3 (which probably still deserves a nomination) and better than the Sonic series and Donkey Kong Country series, although those two are amazing and Sonic 2 certainly is one of the best games I've ever played.

3D Platformers are numerous. Super Mario 64 and Galaxy deserve nominations, but I think the others in that series don't quite stand up. For me that is the only series I play, but I've heard good things about Ratchet and Clank. And I should probably mention Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo Kazooie (but not it's sequel).

Batman: Arkham Asylum is definitely the best comic book license ever, and probably the best license full stop, as well as being one of the best action games I've ever played.

As for FPS games the list is potentially huge.

Half Life 2 dystopic shooter that needs no introduction. Likewise Portal, Team Fortress 2 and even Counter-Strike Source could all be argued as among the best games ever. Outside of Valve you have Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Bioshock, Fallout 3 and the Call of Duty series (which I've always thought of as uninspired, but there you go).

I'm hoping this has kind of wetted your appetite and you'll have your own nominations, and a few arguments against some of mine.
 

00steven

Yeah, that's right!
Joined
Aug 21, 2010
Location
Michigan
Games like Ocarina of time, A Link to the Past, Super Mario Bros 1&3, Super mario World, Super Mario 64, SMG, Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark, and Halo will always top best ever list.
 

Caeda

Keyblade Master
I'll put my top 10:

1. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

2. Fire Emblem: Path of Radience

3. Kingdom Hearts 2

4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

5. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn

6. Super Smash Bros. Brawl

7. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

8. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

9. Super Paper Mario

10. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass

...Wow I really like RPGs. Half of these at least have RPG elements.
 
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Final Fantasy VI/VII- This is tough, because most fans of the series are torn between these games in one form or another (game versus game, protagonist vs protagonist, villain vs villain, etc.) I personally prefer VI, but others prefer VII. VII has more content I think, but not all of it is really all that good.
Super Mario World- I'll be honest, part of this is subjective. This game did so much better than 3 on so many levels. However I can back this up; look at the maps in both games and compare them. World has so much more to discover, having different pathways, secret levels, multiple power-ups for yourself and Yoshi, and ... well, I'll explain with more detail. This game had a lot more advantages because of the upgraded SNES powers. Graphically, 3 looked relatively the same as 2, in fact they even used the same sprite for Princess Toadstool. Super Mario World, in addition to having more colors, had no real scratch to build from, so it was all original and colorful. The music also had electrical yet realistic sounding instruments, making the game have more possibilities for song composing. Yeah, it's unfair of me to compare World as superior to 3 just because it was on the SNES as opposed to the NES, but you have to face facts for what they are in this thread.
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Yeah you do have to bear in mind that time isn't kind to all games.

I guess this thread is more geared towards a design point of view than subjective views. As fred points out Super Mario World had different pathways, secret levels and Yoshi to name a few. I believe the difficulty curve is kinder and it's certainly the prettier game.

To me, Wind Waker has serious design flaws.

  1. The sea. Wastes a lot of time while not being that fun or rewarding to the gamer. Being unable to sail while using the canon is also a poor design choice in my view.
  2. The graphics are strong but a lot of the island are relatively bland visually. There is not enough detail.
  3. The hub island Windfall is disappointing. There is not a lot to do, it's not really a fun place to hang out like Clock Town was in Majora's Mask
  4. A lot of the islands are too small, lack interest or are just forts filled with rupees, which are too abundant in the game anyway
  5. It's too easy. The difficulty curve is not really existent.
It's fine if you like it, of course, that's subjective taste. But I don't really believe anyone could argue it is objectively better than most other Zelda games.
 
Joined
Nov 30, 2010
Location
Seattle Washington
Wow. I'm surprised no one has put any Square Enix games on this list. Let me list my top ten games, for you to judge my taste by...

5. Final Fanstasy. This game is purely classic; as classic, in my mind, as Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda.

5 1/2. Chrono trigger. It was much like Final Fantasy, but with better plot and overall gameplay. i recommend it to anyone who hasnt already discovered it, it is out for DS :)

4. Metroid Prime. This was the first 3D metroid game which is a great adventure/ platformer and shooter. amazing.

3. Mass Effect. Mass Effect is a jewel of the xbox 360, period.

2. Pokemon series. Sure they keep coming, but they keep coming because they are so great. there is so much to do, so much re playability, so many sidequests, all covered by the main quest which is really to "catch them all". amazing. simply amazing.
1. here we go. the Elder Scrolls series. now, this one may be off the beaten path, but ANYone who has played Elder Scrolls 3 or 4 (Morrowind or Oblivion) knows that there is simply nothing better. the combination of action, adventure, RPG, fantasy, its sublime. you can spend hours just exploring, finding every single cave, pillaging every single settlement, anything you want. you see a mountain on the horizon and in 10 minutes you've climbed to the top. If you havent plyed the Elder scrolls yet, put it on top of your list.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2010
Originally posted by: jdenicholls
To me, Wind Waker has serious design flaws.

  1. The sea. Wastes a lot of time while not being that fun or rewarding to the gamer. Being unable to sail while using the canon is also a poor design choice in my view.
  2. The graphics are strong but a lot of the island are relatively bland visually. There is not enough detail.
  3. The hub island Windfall is disappointing. There is not a lot to do, it's not really a fun place to hang out like Clock Town was in Majora's Mask
  4. A lot of the islands are too small, lack interest or are just forts filled with rupees, which are too abundant in the game anyway
  5. It's too easy. The difficulty curve is not really existent.

You could say the samething about Oot.
1. The teleport spell still have you traveling around even after you use them, and traveling at the beginning without Epona is really tedious.
2. Oh trees like I haven't seen those A THOUSAND TIMES BEFORE.
3. At least Wind Waker had a main hub. Plus there are some sidequests to do (which I get the feeling you don't like to do)
4. There is more optional stuff in OoT than there is in Wind Waker. Gold Skulltulas are a burden for a 100% run
5. OoT had easy and dissapointing bosses. I can defeat Phantom Ganon with a bottle, Dark Link gets owned with Din's Fire, and Twinrova...yeah.
Hey, flame me all you want. What can I say.

For me though it would have to be the game(s) that made Call of Duty, Halo, etc. into what they are today. Goldeneye007 and Perfect Dark. The FPS would not exist if these two didn't. Their campaigns were short and non linear, and their multiplayer is unspeakibly awesome.
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
I'd agree with Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.

1. There is no way you can compare the travelling in OoT to WW. Between each island on WW is like 2 minutes at least, it takes that time to cross Hyrule Field from one side to the other and before you get Epona you don't even have to do it that often.
2. Fairly irrelevant point to be honest. As I said, OoT is better detailed than WW.
3. OoT has Hyrule castle as a kid and Kakariko Village as an adult, which in my opinion are more fun than Windfall. I do like sidequests but I only do them if they were fun. Hence I didn't really bother with WW that much.
4. The sidequests in OoT don't involve lots of tedious sailing around. Most of the Skultas can be grabbed while you are doing the dungeons if you are diligent, but I have to agree without a guide its a ***** of a sidequest.
5. I need to get Axle on yo' ***. He would tell you what was what. The bosses in OoT are easy if you know what you are doing, the ones in WW are easy even if you have no idea what you are doing.
 
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Shenmue- Shenmue is a masterpiece. If there is any game that could easily be translated to a book or a movie, it's Shenmue. The gameplay plays out very cinematically, using QuickTimeEvents to move the occasional action scene along. Some people say QTSs are annoying, but in some games they actually help the plot along by putting in fluent action scenes (at least, that's how Shenmue did it.) Plus, the voice acting is actually well done. Aside from a couple of extremely awkward children, the accents and pitches reflect the type of character they are. The music also feels very cinematic; forgettable, but they set the right tones (the bar theme is laid back and jazzy, the city music is the white noise of various people talking, and the dojo has traditional Japanese percussion instruments.) The graphics are also VERY well done. A couple of scenes stumble into the Uncanny Valley, but overall every texture feels detailed and appealing. The game feels very cinematic and compelling. This is most likely the objective best game on the Dreamcast.
Oh, not that this contributes, but here's something worth mentioning that made me chuckle: in the downtown part of the main city, there's a Jamaican hot dog seller in the streets. His name is Tom, he has long black hair, he picks fights with people that muddle in his business, and he speaks with a very odd accent... remind you of anyone?
 

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