Game Informer's Top 200 Games of All Time

[ChrisMWaters]

OK, since they just released their 200th issue, Game Informer Magazine decided to put a list of their top 200 games of all time. I took the time to transcribe it:

1. The Legend of Zelda
2. Super Mario Bros.
3. Tetris
4. Grand Theft Auto III
5. Half-Life 2
6. Doom
7. Metroid
8. Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan)
9. Super Mario Bros. 3
10. Ms. Pac-Man
11. World of Warcraft
12. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
13. Super Mario 64
14. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
15. Final Fantasy VII
16. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
17. Chrono Trigger
18. Resident Evil 4
19. Metal Gear Solid
20. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
21. Super Metroid
22. Contra
23. Galaga
24. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
25. Street Fighter II
26. God of War
27. BioShock
28. Diablo II
29. Half-Life
30. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
31. Tecmo Super Bowl
32. GoldenEye 007
33. Super Mario Kart
34. Sonic the Hedgehog (original)
35. StarCraft
36. Civilization
37. SimCity
38. Mega Man 2
39. Halo: Combat Evolved
40. Gran Turismo
41. Resident Evil 2
42. Pokémon Red and Blue
43. Final Fantasy X
44. EverQuest
45. Final Fantasy Tactics
46. Grand Theft Auto IV
47. Super Mario World
48. Deus Ex
49. Guitar Hero
50. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
51. Super Mario Galaxy
52. Pac-Man
53. Battlefield 2
54. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
55. Ico
56. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
57. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
58. Mass Effect
59. Adventure
60. Arkanoid
61. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
62. Star Wars: X-Wing
63. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
64. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
65. Fallout 3
66. Zork
67. Soul Calibur
68. Double Dragon
69. Dr. Mario
70. The Sims
71. Age of Empires
72. Mortal Kombat II
73. Rock Band 2
74. Tomb Raider
75. Super Bomberman
76. Mario’s Picross
77. Ninja Gaiden (original)
78. Command & Conquer
79. Kingdom Hearts
80. Final Fantasy II (IV in Japan)
81. Super Mario Bros. 2
82. Left 4 Dead
83. Okami
84. Shadow of the Colossus
85. Metroid Prime
86. Super Smash Bros. Melee
87. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
88. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
89. God of War II
90. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
91. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
92. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
93. Skies of Arcadia
94. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
95. Silent Hill 2
96. Counter-Strike
97. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
98. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
99. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
100. Portal
101. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
102. Heroes of Might & Magic III
103. Donkey Kong
104. Batman: Arkham Asylum
105. System Shock 2
106. Resident Evil
107. Gears of War
108. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
109. Crash Bandicoot: Warped
110. Halo 2
111. Tetris Attack
112. Final Fantasy XII
113. Earthbound
114. Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
115. Command & Conquer: Red Alert
116. Advance Wars
117. Fallout
118. Team Fortress 2
119. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
120. Mega Man X
121. Lemmings
122. Panzer Dragoon Saga
123. NHL ‘94
124. Warlords
125. Shadowrun
126. Twisted Metal 2
127. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
128. Metroid Fusion
129. Homeworld
130. Kingdom Hearts II
131. Pilotwings
132. Quake II
133. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
134. Borderlands
135. Final Fight
136. Star Fox
137. Madden NFL ‘99
138. Call of Duty 2
139. Wolfenstein 3D
140. Diablo
141. Civilization IV
142. Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle
143. Assassin’s Creed
144. Burnout 3: Takedown
145. Unreal Tournament 2004
146. Power Stone 2
147. Super Castlevania IV
148. Super Mario RPG
149. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
150. ActRaiser
151. Fable
152. Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht
153. Asteroids
154. LittleBigPlanet
155. Crackdown
156. Gauntlet
157. Devil May Cry
158. Pong
159. Battlefield 1942
160. Thief
161. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
162. Far Cry
163. Robotron 2084
164. X-COM: UFO Defense
165. Peggle
166. King’s Quest VI
167. Doom II
168. Tempest 2000
169. Braid
170. Ridge Racer
171. Bully
172. Ikaruga
173. Lode Runner
174. Gunstar Heroes
175. Dig Dug
176. Castlevania
177. Tekken 3
178. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
179. NBA Jam Tournament Edition
180. Max Payne
181. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
182. Samurai Shodown
183. NFL 2K5
184. Vagrant Story
185. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
186. Marble Madness
187. Infamous
188. Planescape: Torment
189. Kid Icarus
190. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
191. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
192. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
193. Jak 3
194. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
195. Ultima
196. Call of Duty
197. NHL 09
198. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
199. Tactics Ogre
200. Beyond Good and Evil

Discussion Away!

 

[Youth N Asia]

Figured there would be zero Master System titles. Meh.

 

[ChrisMWaters]

Figured there would be zero Master System titles. Meh.

And yet there's a Jaguar game on it.

 

[oldskool]

What's so great about Ms. Pac-Man?

 

[Angle-plex]

Is Madden 99 that highly regarded? And Zelda over Mario brothers? That seems like that just wanted the list to be talked about.

 

[ChrisMWaters]

What's so great about Ms. Pac-Man?

To quote from the magazine, here's what they said:

"10: Ms. Pac-Man
Arcade * 1981

Sometimes a great game takes months and months of hard work from a team of hundreds of specialized people, and sometimes a great game is simply made by modding a pre-existing one. When two MIT students first created a bootleg hack of Pac-Man, who knew they were helping create such an iconic symbol for girl power? With multiple maze layouts, speedier gameplay, and improved ghost AI, Ms. Pac-Man trumped her male counterpart in nearly every way. Since Ms. Pac-Man cabinets can still be found in bars, restaurants, and college campuses across the country, it's hard to argue against its lasting cultural relevance."

 

[Psycho Penguin]

I read the list earlier on the can. Their reason for putting Sonic 2 was basically 'it's the best Sonic game and better than Sonic 1', yet Sonic 1 is higher on the list.

 

[Obi Chris Kenobi]

Bit of a shit list.

 

[Rendclaw]

What's so great about Ms. Pac-Man?

That's fucking ironic, considering your nick and your question.

I'll tackle this one, since I'm one of maybe three people here that was alive during that era.

1981 was one hell of a year for arcade games. 1980 was something of a quantum leap, Namco/Midway was just starting their dominant run of games with Pac-Man. Just by judging the local arcade which had two Pac-Man machines (though they were hacks of Pac-Man called Gobbler), that game was huge, but by the beginning of 1981, the game had been basically mastered. If you could get to the second key level, you were an expert. You had the patterns down, could get the maximum amount of points for at least the first three or four levels, and could cruise the rest of the way. It had become stale, and old hat.

When Ms. Pac Man came out in '81, it changed things up big time. More mazes that require different strategies, the play was faster, the ghosts were smarter. If was a much more fun game. If you could get past the fourth set of boards, you could kick serious ass on the game. That game ate more quarters than any other during 1981, and possibly all time. Both local arcades had a minimum of three machines, with another one having I think four.

And yes, even to this day 28 years later, chances are a local bar will have a Ms. Pac Man machine, or the 20th anniversary Ms. Pac/Galaga machine. Most airports I have been to in the last seven or eight years have had one or the other, because they are wonderful time killers. If you're any good, that is.

 

[Black Lushus]

How is Metroid better than Super Metroid?

 

[kkktookmybabyaway]

Here is what stuck out to me upon first glance:

1) Regarding #59: The Atari 2600 Adventure?

2) Glad to see a Baldur's Gate entry make the cut.

3) Also glad to see NHL '94 get on the list.

And by "glad" I mean, "don't really care, but hey I played these games a bunch."

 

[Black Lushus]

Street Fighter 2 feels awfully low at 25, doesn't it?

 

[Taxman]

NHL '94 should've been a lot higher than #123. I can't believe there aren't any baseball games on the list. RBI, Triple Play, WS Baseball, even Tony La Russa's were great games for their time. One of them should've been recognized.

 

[Mattdotcom]

No Donkey Kong Country 2. GameInformer is severely misinformed.

 

[Black Lushus]

No Donkey Kong Country 2. GameInformer is severely misinformed.

More like GameMisInformer...amirite?

 

[Mattdotcom]

just blew my mind, BL

 

[luke-o]

Doom 2 is better than Doom
Super Metroid is better than Metroid
Super Castlevania is better than Symphony of the Night
Resident Evil 2 is better than Resident Evil 4
Links Awankening is better than Legend
Street Fighter II is good, but surely Super and Turbo are better games?
Super Mario World is better than 3 and 1
Guitar Hero 2 was better than GH1
Skies of Arcadia should have been higher
103. Donkey Kong - This the Game Boy one? If so, needs to be higher
Unreal Tournament was better than 2004
Ace Attorney should be higher... not much higher obviously. And 3 was better
MvC2 should be higher.

Where's Snatcher? Or Castle of Illusion? Where's Panzer Dragoon? Where's Sega Bass Fishing? Where's Shenmue?!

This list blows.

 

[Mattdotcom]

Methinks they mean the arcade Donkey Kong, as the (superior) Game Boy game is colloquially known in the game community as DK '94. Also, I never owned a Genesis, but even I know that Sonic & Knuckles/Sonic 3 w/ Knuckles is THE Sega game.

 

[mellow]

I always felt that Sonic 3 was much better than Sonic 2. Was that Death Egg Zone not ridiculously frustrating?

Also, it fills me with joy whenever Dig Dug makes any list.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Resident Evil 2 is better than Resident Evil 4

No way.

 

[ChrisMWaters]

I always felt that Sonic 3 was much better than Sonic 2. Was that Death Egg Zone not ridiculously frustrating?

Also, it fills me with joy whenever Dig Dug makes any list.

I rarely ever had a problem with the Death Egg Zone, unless I was playing "Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2".

Plus, the final boss of Sonic 2 has a great theme.

Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles alone are OK games, but they were MEANT to be one game put together. So while Sonic 2 is superior IMO to Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles alone, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is superior to Sonic 2.

 

[treble]

Sonic 2 is probably my favourite game ever.

Sonic 3 is really good (especially when combined with Sonic & Knuckles) and I love that game, too, but I'll always pick Sonic 2 over it.

Did they really call this list their top 200 games or was there some other criteria? I mean, how can you play GTAIII and think it's better than GTAIV (plus most of the other examples people have given)?

 

[ChrisMWaters]

Sonic 2 is probably my favourite game ever.

Sonic 3 is really good (especially when combined with Sonic & Knuckles) and I love that game, too, but I'll always pick Sonic 2 over it.

Did they really call this list their top 200 games or was there some other criteria? I mean, how can you play GTAIII and think it's better than GTAIV (plus most of the other examples people have given)?

They called it their top 200 games of all time.

 

[luke-o]

Resident Evil 2 is better than Resident Evil 4

No way.

Yes way.

 

[Black Lushus]

Super Castlevania is better than Symphony of the Night

whoa!

Resident Evil 2 is better than Resident Evil 4

WHOA!

 

[ChrisMWaters]

Super Castlevania is better than Symphony of the Night

whoa!

Well, he's not the only one that thinks that. James Rolfe AKA The Angry Video Game Nerd does too.

 

[AndrewTS]

I always felt that Sonic 3 was much better than Sonic 2. Was that Death Egg Zone not ridiculously frustrating?

Maybe, but it's short.

Sonic 3 / Knuckles, for me, will never really live down how poorly balanced some of the levels are length-wise with time. See: Carnival Night Zone and Sandopolis Act 2. Don't get me wrong, the two games together are pretty epic, but the more polished overall experience is Sonic 2, and I say that as someone who loathes Metropolis Zone.

Anyway, just like all of these lists are, this one is pretty bad, plus illogical. NES Zelda over Link's Awakening and Link to the Past? Really? NES Metroid over Super? Fucking WoW in the top ten? YOSHI'S ISLAND at 185?

Fuck this list. Ours is still better.

Also, I like Kingdom Hearts, but what is it even doing on this list at all, let alone having 1 *and* 2 on it?

 

[luke-o]

Super Castlevania is better than Symphony of the Night

whoa!

Out of everyone here, I thought you'd be the one to be on board with this.

Resident Evil 2 is better than Resident Evil 4

WHOA!

I really, really like Resident Evil 2. I felt it had a better plot (ridiculous as it was), I liked the gameplay (flawed as it was), the voice acting is terrible and great all at the same time, the boss' were cool and I loved the 2 sides of the fire gameplay.

Resident Evil 4 was good. Not as great as some people will tell you, but I did like it.

 

[FLAM]

Super Castlevania is better than Symphony of the Night

whoa!

Resident Evil 2 is better than Resident Evil 4

WHOA!

 

[Youth N Asia]

Castlevania SOTN is far and away the franchise's best title.

And Metroid sucks balls compared to Super Metroid.