TIME/CNN 100 greatest games of all time

[Breccia]

So Time/CNN put together their list of 100 greatest video games of all time. Then they put a "yes/no" poll on each one. Here is the list, as rated in order of the poll results, starting with the most favored:

1 Pac-Man
2 Super Mario Bros.
3 Pong
4 The Oregon Trail
5 Space Invaders
6 Donkey Kong
7 Tetris
8 The Legend of Zelda
9 Asteroids
10 Mass Effect 3
11 Breakout
12 Frogger
13 Mortal Kombat
14 Doom
15 Street Fighter II
16 Sonic the Hedgehog
17 Punch-Out!!
18 Goldeneye 007
19 Galaga
20 Contra
21 Grand Theft Auto III
22 Centipede
23 StarCraft
24 Super Mario 64
25 SimCity 2000
26 Pitfall!
27 Paperboy
28 Halo: Combat Evolved
29 Defender
30 Metroid
31 Metal Gear Solid
32 Civilization
33 Final Fantasy VII
34 Mega Man
35 Solitaire
36 World of Warcraft
37 Castlevania
38 Battlezone
39 Portal
40 Resident Evil
41 Diablo II
42 Tecmo Bowl
43 Half-Life 2
44 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
45 Guitar Hero
46 BioShock
47 The Sims
48 Quake
49 Tomb Raider
50 Myst
51 Angry Birds
52 Counter-Strike
53 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
54 NBA Jam
55 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
56 OutRun
57 Joust
58 King’s Quest
59 Prince of Persia
60 Wii Sports
61 Chrono Trigger
62 Gears of War
63 Castle Wolfenstein
64 Madden NFL 95
65 Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
66 Wing Commander
67 Zork
68 Splinter Cell
69 Deus Ex
70 Silent Hill
71 EverQuest
72 Adventure
73 Shadow of the Colossus
74 Lode Runner
75 Rock Band
76 Metroid Prime
77 Tempest
78 Demon’s Souls
79 Batman: Arkham City
80 Ultima Online
81 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
82 Final Fantasy Tactics
83 Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
84 Ico
85 O-kami
86 Grim Fandango
87 Thief: The Dark Project
88 Katamari Damacy
89 Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
90 Braid
91 Animal Crossing
92 Marathon
93 M.U.L.E.
94 Desktop Tower Defense
95 Flower
96 Hunt the Wumpus
97 Cave Story
98 NetHack
99 Myth: The Fallen Lords
100 Rez

I'm quite happy to see Goldeneye64, Elder Scrolls/Oblivion, Dune 2 and Hunt hte Wumpus here, because I played the CRAP out of those games. I'm surprised to see Ocarina of Time missing, and wierded out by the inclusion of Solitaire, a game on which I actually wrote a paper calling it out as one of the signs of the Robot Apocalypse.

How about you guys? Any favorites on the list? How about games that you think should be there, but aren't? Let's get some shout-outs for old favorites of yours.

Also, the original link can be found here.

[Zaelsino]

Where's BG2?

[Crashdummy]

No Baldurs gate? No Heroes of Might and Magic? Yet Solitaire is there?

Fail list.

[OrcsRLame]

That awkward moment when your favorite game of all time isn't even on the list. That game being God of War 3. In fact, not a single game from the God of War, Kingdom Hearts and Devil May Cry series, all of which I personally would rate higher than the vast majority of that list.

Honestly, I can't even figure out what criteria they used for their list.

[Mizzow]

Sorry, but I'll start taking these lists seriously when people who actually play games and know what they are talking about make them

[Remilia]

Can't really surprised about some of the results from CNN / Time I suppose.

And yes, why is Solitaire and Angry Chicken up there. (Yes I call it chicken).
Pac Man and Pong are mostly due to nostalgia.

[StationaryHawk]

Should Solitaire even be considered a "video game"? It's a card game. The fact that it's been converted to a digital format shouldn't change that.

But I guess that's what happens when you get a list put together by people who don't know anything about video games.

[Deleted]

Know what I hate? That for some reason, old seems to equals good. Why can't new games be amongst the best ones? Sure we produce a lot of crap, but a lot of the old games are just as crap as the new ones.

---------- Post added 2012-11-16 at 08:12 PM ----------

Lol please no.
Amazing how these 2 are higher on the list than Okami or Shadow of the Colossus (Just a couple of examples).

What do you expect when the average person who reads the article haven't played anything else than smartphone games?

[Ferocity]

Yeah, another one of those lists. No Might and Magic, no Heroes of Might and Magic. At least they got Wizardry I on their list.

[Kinettik]

Alot of these games, especially at the top of the list seem to be more of a "Most influential to gaming history" games then they are "Top100".

[Deleo]

Matter of opinions I guess. But this list and mine won't be agreeing with each other any time soon.

[Deleted]

I agree with most of the posters in this thread. The criteria, under which these games were chosen for the list, are unknown and apparently REALLY weird. I honestly don't think they know what the f*** they're talking about. And really? The Oregon Trail placing 4th? I haven't even heard of it, and it's a friggin game from 1974. I could understand if it was a genre defining game, but I definitely would have heard of it somehow. I call bullsh*t on that list.

[Deleted]

Mass Effect 3 on there atall.
And at number 10.
Hahahahaha

[Ascius]

ME3... right... and is it one of the greatest and of all time how exactly?

[Penguintamer]

How the fuck is Ocarina of Time not in the top 5? I hope they classified it as "Legend of Zelda"

[Dasffion]

I agree with most of the posters in this thread. The criteria, under which these games were chosen for the list, are unknown and apparently REALLY weird. I honestly don't think they know what the f*** they're talking about. And really? The Oregon Trail placing 4th? I haven't even heard of it, and it's a friggin game from 1974. I could understand if it was a genre defining game, but I definitely would have heard of it somehow. I call bullsh*t on that list.

You'd have to have been born before ~ 1990 to have heard of Orgeon Trail. I'd assume that most of us who grew up playing it though are comfortable with it's place on that list. I spent countless hours playing it.

---------- Post added 2012-11-16 at 01:22 PM ----------

How the fuck is Ocarina of Time not in the top 5? I hope they classified it as "Legend of Zelda"

The Legend of Zelda is The Legend of Zelda. Good god you people are making me feel old.

[Titan2k10]

Probably a list more closely related to greatest of their time. Though I must say angry birds is a bit far fetched. Instead of focusing on the 5 that you dont think should be on there why not be more realistic and realize that damn the majority of them are some of the greatest games ever.

---------- Post added 2012-11-16 at 07:25 PM ----------

How the fuck is Ocarina of Time not in the top 5? I hope they classified it as "Legend of Zelda"

No other title in the Zelda franchise will EVER come close to the original.

[Deleted]

Discuss:


I understand Pong might be revolutionary, but can it really be compared to so much on that list?
Maybe it should say "most influential", because it Pong was the greatest game of all time, you'd have a lot more people playing it than you do now. Great games like Zelda are very old, and STILL stand the test of time.
I would also argue that my favorite game, FF7, does to.
As does Mario.

But Pong?
No.
Never have I heard "oh shit I need to go and replay Pong."

[Yunru]

Where is Duke nukem? Where is C&C games? (and no dune doesnt count as C&C)

This list fells bribed!

Also junk games:
The Oregon Trail, Breakout, Punch-Out!!, Solitaire, Tecmo Bowl, Wii Sports, Desktop Tower Defense, Flower, Hunt the Wumpus (those dont desere too be called games at all)

[wariofan1]

Meh, can't take such a list seriously from CNN. CNN never has anything to do with video games anyways.

Also, they are obviously just listing video game franchises because they don't know shit about the actual games in the series. The original Metroid over ANY of the future Metroid games? The original Metroid is the weakest game in the series. Oh wait, Metroid Prime is actually there, but it's on the 76th place, so that's waaaay behind the original Metroid, which Prime undoubtedly and unarguably pummels to death.

The Oregon Trail? A quick google showed it up as an educational game. Now I know quite a lot about video game history, but I've never heard of this one making any kind of impact, especially not compared to Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda. Either I just failed on Video Game history, or it's a piss poor attempt to make people play an educational game.

Anyways, not a good list. They don't know anything about the series they're talking about. There are a few exceptions like Diablo II and not just calling it Diablo, but then there's stuff like Mega Man. Could they be any more unspecific? Mega Man has so many fucking games, and the first one of them isn't even the revolutionizing one of them, that'd be Mega Man II. Seems like it's an article made just to gather readers.