Backloggd Canon 2022 (Sight & Sound)
At the end of 2022, the users on Backloggd got together to vote on a canon for the site, inspired by the Sight & Sound top films list released concurrently. 129 separate site members submitted ballots containing 10 games each, with 527 unique games nominated, 113 of which were voted on by three or more people. These are the results, presented here with added commentary from many of the site's most fervent users. Thank you to everyone who participated, as well as those who were gracious enough to write blurbs for each!
You can find the ballots listed here.
You can find the ballots listed here.
113 Games
RANK 1 (33 votes)
“At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular piece of media just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.” - John Carmack, 2004
Bottomless invention, technical achievement and an unbridled sense of speed make this first-person shooter one of gaming’s sharpest, most exciting experiences almost 30 years after its release - if you want a game that exemplifies and honours the impossible, arbitrary and contradictory history and nature of game-making, look no further. Video games are an artform and a mass entertainment, the product of a collective vision and of a ruthless industry, the work of great developers and the alchemical result of a thousand collaborations, coincidences and backs-against-the-wall snap decisions, and DOOM is all of the above and more.
An “unbelievable virtual-reality world” (PC Gamer, 1993) that revealed itself to be the genesis of gaming’s most popular genre - an epic that has generated its own mythic origin stories, from the designer who wouldn’t compromise to the programmer who was never entirely sure he could pull it off. Its persistence of legacy can be attributed to technical achievements, cultural influence, innovation or even its own ease-of-access; but at the end of the day, it’s just really fucking fun to play.
(letshugbro)
“At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular piece of media just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.” - John Carmack, 2004
Bottomless invention, technical achievement and an unbridled sense of speed make this first-person shooter one of gaming’s sharpest, most exciting experiences almost 30 years after its release - if you want a game that exemplifies and honours the impossible, arbitrary and contradictory history and nature of game-making, look no further. Video games are an artform and a mass entertainment, the product of a collective vision and of a ruthless industry, the work of great developers and the alchemical result of a thousand collaborations, coincidences and backs-against-the-wall snap decisions, and DOOM is all of the above and more.
An “unbelievable virtual-reality world” (PC Gamer, 1993) that revealed itself to be the genesis of gaming’s most popular genre - an epic that has generated its own mythic origin stories, from the designer who wouldn’t compromise to the programmer who was never entirely sure he could pull it off. Its persistence of legacy can be attributed to technical achievements, cultural influence, innovation or even its own ease-of-access; but at the end of the day, it’s just really fucking fun to play.
(letshugbro)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
RANK 64 (4 votes)
RANK 5 (22 votes)
The draw here for most tends to be the infamous protagonist switch, but were you really ever playing as Raiden? Our old-school brethren played as Solid Snake, recreating their routes from Shadow Moses in the sterile halls of Big Shell, while Johnny-come-latelys jumping into the series after trying MGSV probed at the now-archaic control scheme wondering where Venom Snake's crouch-walk and OTS-aiming went, but absolutely no one played as Raiden, not even the supposed FOXHOUND agent himself. Seven million people all crowded around their PS2s trying to convince themselves they were Snake, just to be slapped in the face for even daring. You are not Snake. Have you ever even shot a gun? You'll never know what it means to kill.
It wasn't until Raiden toyed with his high-frequency blade in the bowels of Arsenal Gear that Metal Gear Solid 2 let you embody his story, soaring to wildly cathartic heights before strangling you in the mess of violent contradictions that formed his life. To truly shear himself from the ideal of Solid Snake, he needed to divest himself from the expectations of the player, giving them the parting kiss of a climatic final boss before retreating with his lover, shielding themselves from your gaze with "This is for your ears... only."
MGS2 somehow opened and shut the book on all of these concepts while seamlessly integrating them into the best stealth experience of its era. KojiPro at their most unorthodox and daring.
(Pangburn)
The draw here for most tends to be the infamous protagonist switch, but were you really ever playing as Raiden? Our old-school brethren played as Solid Snake, recreating their routes from Shadow Moses in the sterile halls of Big Shell, while Johnny-come-latelys jumping into the series after trying MGSV probed at the now-archaic control scheme wondering where Venom Snake's crouch-walk and OTS-aiming went, but absolutely no one played as Raiden, not even the supposed FOXHOUND agent himself. Seven million people all crowded around their PS2s trying to convince themselves they were Snake, just to be slapped in the face for even daring. You are not Snake. Have you ever even shot a gun? You'll never know what it means to kill.
It wasn't until Raiden toyed with his high-frequency blade in the bowels of Arsenal Gear that Metal Gear Solid 2 let you embody his story, soaring to wildly cathartic heights before strangling you in the mess of violent contradictions that formed his life. To truly shear himself from the ideal of Solid Snake, he needed to divest himself from the expectations of the player, giving them the parting kiss of a climatic final boss before retreating with his lover, shielding themselves from your gaze with "This is for your ears... only."
MGS2 somehow opened and shut the book on all of these concepts while seamlessly integrating them into the best stealth experience of its era. KojiPro at their most unorthodox and daring.
(Pangburn)
RANK 7 (19 votes)
In Super Mario 64 your move-set is so expressive that moving around feels downright joyful and so varied that you’ll find yourself with multiple different ways to understand and approach individual platforming challenges. Meanwhile, the levels themselves take advantage of this move-set with so many criss-crossing routes that new players and seasoned veterans alike will find themselves traversing via sizably different yet equally valid, intended and rewarding approaches.
If contrasted with any other 3D platformer of its generation Super Mario 64 starts to look at least a decade ahead of its time in all those ways. Is it any wonder then that for people of a certain age loading up this game for the first time felt almost like they were peeking into the future, seeing the potential of video games and the wonder of being allowed to truly frolic in 3D digital spaces that are so deeply built for that?
(AutumnLily)
In Super Mario 64 your move-set is so expressive that moving around feels downright joyful and so varied that you’ll find yourself with multiple different ways to understand and approach individual platforming challenges. Meanwhile, the levels themselves take advantage of this move-set with so many criss-crossing routes that new players and seasoned veterans alike will find themselves traversing via sizably different yet equally valid, intended and rewarding approaches.
If contrasted with any other 3D platformer of its generation Super Mario 64 starts to look at least a decade ahead of its time in all those ways. Is it any wonder then that for people of a certain age loading up this game for the first time felt almost like they were peeking into the future, seeing the potential of video games and the wonder of being allowed to truly frolic in 3D digital spaces that are so deeply built for that?
(AutumnLily)
RANK 47 (5 votes)
Decades after its release, Super Mario World may be found by some players to be somewhat “basic”. Compared to Super Mario Bros 3, World feels smaller and more restrained, taking place entirely in Dinosaur World and cutting out all of 3’s new power-ups. There are a variety of stage themes, but all more reserved as it all takes place on the same island. This restraint was done in order to focus on refining and polishing Mario’s movement over anything else in the game, resulting in the best-feeling Mario in any 2D Mario game. This is the game where they nail Mario’s acceleration and movement, no-longer requiring an on screen indicator of his speed since now it comes naturally to the player. He’s snappy, responsive, and allows for precise in-air movement, which is complemented by the two incredibly versatile power-ups of the cape and Yoshi. With secret exits, the game rewards forging your own path and experimenting with the tools given to you. It’s no wonder Mario World romhacks became so prevalent, the toolkit is so full of possibilities that fans feel the urge to go even further than the devs did. This is where the Mario series emphasized its main philosophy, the joy of movement and momentum over everything, and this philosophy would go on to inspire Mario 64 as well as every platformer to come since.
(BansheeNeet)
Decades after its release, Super Mario World may be found by some players to be somewhat “basic”. Compared to Super Mario Bros 3, World feels smaller and more restrained, taking place entirely in Dinosaur World and cutting out all of 3’s new power-ups. There are a variety of stage themes, but all more reserved as it all takes place on the same island. This restraint was done in order to focus on refining and polishing Mario’s movement over anything else in the game, resulting in the best-feeling Mario in any 2D Mario game. This is the game where they nail Mario’s acceleration and movement, no-longer requiring an on screen indicator of his speed since now it comes naturally to the player. He’s snappy, responsive, and allows for precise in-air movement, which is complemented by the two incredibly versatile power-ups of the cape and Yoshi. With secret exits, the game rewards forging your own path and experimenting with the tools given to you. It’s no wonder Mario World romhacks became so prevalent, the toolkit is so full of possibilities that fans feel the urge to go even further than the devs did. This is where the Mario series emphasized its main philosophy, the joy of movement and momentum over everything, and this philosophy would go on to inspire Mario 64 as well as every platformer to come since.
(BansheeNeet)
RANK 8 (18 votes)
The “Metroid-” to Symphony of the Night’s “-Vania”, Super Metroid builds off the structure laid by the original Metroid and its sequel, Return of Samus to deliver a home run that still manages to hold up as the pinnacle of the genre that it in part helped to create. The freedom of expression in Samus’ moveset is still staggering to this day, and it’s what makes exploring Zebes such a satisfying experience. When paired alongside Super Metroid’s striking atmosphere and phenomenal game-design, it’s no wonder why it’s maintained its status as the Rosetta Stone all Metroidvanias derive inspiration from. While its commercial success upon release couldn’t match up to the other heavy-hitters of Nintendo’s staple franchises, Super Metroid’s dedicated speedrunning community and near-perfect quality are what has helped in part to cement its place in gaming canon as one of the best to ever do it.
(ConeCvltist)
The “Metroid-” to Symphony of the Night’s “-Vania”, Super Metroid builds off the structure laid by the original Metroid and its sequel, Return of Samus to deliver a home run that still manages to hold up as the pinnacle of the genre that it in part helped to create. The freedom of expression in Samus’ moveset is still staggering to this day, and it’s what makes exploring Zebes such a satisfying experience. When paired alongside Super Metroid’s striking atmosphere and phenomenal game-design, it’s no wonder why it’s maintained its status as the Rosetta Stone all Metroidvanias derive inspiration from. While its commercial success upon release couldn’t match up to the other heavy-hitters of Nintendo’s staple franchises, Super Metroid’s dedicated speedrunning community and near-perfect quality are what has helped in part to cement its place in gaming canon as one of the best to ever do it.
(ConeCvltist)
RANK 64 (4 votes)
RANK 14 (13 votes)
Melee is integral to me not only because it’s a game that showed me the appeal of frantically fast-paced, execution-heavy fighting games with defined sets of rules among a cast of characters to allow for player expression and creativity in a competitive space, but it also introduced me to the values of the fighting game community. Even years after I first got into the scene in my sophomore year of high school, this is a game that’s still being played and beloved by many, and fighting games such as Melee have allowed me to meet and connect with some of my dearest friends that I’m still with to this very day. There’s something genuinely beautiful about walking into a built from the ground up tournament event filled with people from around the country or even the world just to play and watch a few games everyone is passionate about. While Melee might not be my personal favorite fighting game, it undoubtably deserves its legendary status and competitive longevity, and it’s a game I will forever be grateful for. I doubt I would’ve met the people I have if YouTube didn’t put some GRsmash videos on my timeline.
(DrDelicious)
Melee is integral to me not only because it’s a game that showed me the appeal of frantically fast-paced, execution-heavy fighting games with defined sets of rules among a cast of characters to allow for player expression and creativity in a competitive space, but it also introduced me to the values of the fighting game community. Even years after I first got into the scene in my sophomore year of high school, this is a game that’s still being played and beloved by many, and fighting games such as Melee have allowed me to meet and connect with some of my dearest friends that I’m still with to this very day. There’s something genuinely beautiful about walking into a built from the ground up tournament event filled with people from around the country or even the world just to play and watch a few games everyone is passionate about. While Melee might not be my personal favorite fighting game, it undoubtably deserves its legendary status and competitive longevity, and it’s a game I will forever be grateful for. I doubt I would’ve met the people I have if YouTube didn’t put some GRsmash videos on my timeline.
(DrDelicious)
RANK 2 (25 votes)
Since its inception by Alexey Pajitnov on June 6, 1984 Tetris has occupied an enormity of humanity's collective brainspace. The Nintendo developed releases on NES/Famicom and Game Boy come to mind first and foremost for many, themselves oft-considered effectively the first versions to get the formula 'right'. However, that initial version crafted in the halls of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union for the Electronika 60 microcomputer represents a pure, cohesive experience, remaining highly enjoyable nearly fourty years later.
It's rather telling that this ur- Tetris operates with the same mechanical elegance as its progeny. The consideration of Tetris - and indeed, any game - as a 'perfect game' to be trite, but from the outset Alexey Pajitnov demonstrated with aplomb that Tetris is a perfect idea. The reiteration of gameplay systems necessarily precludes Tetris from an actualised perfection -- who can judge which of its 322+ official releases is 'definitive'?
Yet, with hundreds of versions each expanding on that which came before, one would expect the very first title to be lacking most of what allowed Tetris to be a success. The Electronika 60 release is a monochrome textscape without even the barest flourishes of the Game Boy version. The shrill piezoelectric beeper's pathetic tones are an auditory agony; the ubiquitous whine of the cathode ray tube a tinnital torment. There is no bag randomiser. There is no hold. Rotation is clockwise-only. No T-spins, no back-to-backs, no combos, no garbage, no ghost. One next piece is shown. Surprisingly the hard drop is present, despite its omission from subsequent versions until 2001's Tetris Worlds.
It all matters not. In a cacophany of noise befitting a Ryoji Ikeda installation, I am dealt five Z-pieces in a row. The inconsistent speed increments befuddle me, catching me off-guard. How characters are rendered makes it difficult to consider my board's layout. I am in love. This scant realisation feels pure. I am entranced by it. It is all I have ever needed and wanted.
(Detchibe)
Since its inception by Alexey Pajitnov on June 6, 1984 Tetris has occupied an enormity of humanity's collective brainspace. The Nintendo developed releases on NES/Famicom and Game Boy come to mind first and foremost for many, themselves oft-considered effectively the first versions to get the formula 'right'. However, that initial version crafted in the halls of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union for the Electronika 60 microcomputer represents a pure, cohesive experience, remaining highly enjoyable nearly fourty years later.
It's rather telling that this ur- Tetris operates with the same mechanical elegance as its progeny. The consideration of Tetris - and indeed, any game - as a 'perfect game' to be trite, but from the outset Alexey Pajitnov demonstrated with aplomb that Tetris is a perfect idea. The reiteration of gameplay systems necessarily precludes Tetris from an actualised perfection -- who can judge which of its 322+ official releases is 'definitive'?
Yet, with hundreds of versions each expanding on that which came before, one would expect the very first title to be lacking most of what allowed Tetris to be a success. The Electronika 60 release is a monochrome textscape without even the barest flourishes of the Game Boy version. The shrill piezoelectric beeper's pathetic tones are an auditory agony; the ubiquitous whine of the cathode ray tube a tinnital torment. There is no bag randomiser. There is no hold. Rotation is clockwise-only. No T-spins, no back-to-backs, no combos, no garbage, no ghost. One next piece is shown. Surprisingly the hard drop is present, despite its omission from subsequent versions until 2001's Tetris Worlds.
It all matters not. In a cacophany of noise befitting a Ryoji Ikeda installation, I am dealt five Z-pieces in a row. The inconsistent speed increments befuddle me, catching me off-guard. How characters are rendered makes it difficult to consider my board's layout. I am in love. This scant realisation feels pure. I am entranced by it. It is all I have ever needed and wanted.
(Detchibe)
RANK 39 (6 votes)
A game that absolutely raised the bar of standards for open world game design, maybe to an unfair degree. BOTW to me isn’t about the destinations you travel to but about how you journey around Hyrule. Thanks to its free-form mechanical structure, physics and chemistry systems, combined with the tools given to the player, there’s a real sense of constant decision making and flexibility for those decisions to allow for player expression across the world like no other. I see it sometimes jokingly called “babies first Immersive Sim”, but it’s telling to me that even years after its release, with notably a lot of the open world game industry trying to copy BOTWs homework, that many fail to capture the small moment-to-moment player experimentation elements that truly made Hyrule a joy to explore and a breath of fresh air.
(DrDelicious)
A game that absolutely raised the bar of standards for open world game design, maybe to an unfair degree. BOTW to me isn’t about the destinations you travel to but about how you journey around Hyrule. Thanks to its free-form mechanical structure, physics and chemistry systems, combined with the tools given to the player, there’s a real sense of constant decision making and flexibility for those decisions to allow for player expression across the world like no other. I see it sometimes jokingly called “babies first Immersive Sim”, but it’s telling to me that even years after its release, with notably a lot of the open world game industry trying to copy BOTWs homework, that many fail to capture the small moment-to-moment player experimentation elements that truly made Hyrule a joy to explore and a breath of fresh air.
(DrDelicious)
RANK 28 (8 votes)
Very few games manage to fully ingrain their narratives, themes, and characterization into their mechanics as well as The World Ends With You, let alone into the identity of the system itself. Even beyond the inherent uniqueness of playing it that its two screens provides, TWEWY manages to bring out so much artistic mileage with this layout. Every battle sees the two playable characters fighting in completely separately planes, the aptly named DS's dual screens, with them only being able to rely on their individual abilities and their trust in each other to fight as a team. Your own growth with adapting to this unruly and unconventional system reflects how Neku and his partners grow closer and deepen their trust in each other, reaching a point of synchronization that they can practically battle as one. It's a specific gratifying sensation that only TWEWY on its original hardware can supply.
(Midrulean)
Very few games manage to fully ingrain their narratives, themes, and characterization into their mechanics as well as The World Ends With You, let alone into the identity of the system itself. Even beyond the inherent uniqueness of playing it that its two screens provides, TWEWY manages to bring out so much artistic mileage with this layout. Every battle sees the two playable characters fighting in completely separately planes, the aptly named DS's dual screens, with them only being able to rely on their individual abilities and their trust in each other to fight as a team. Your own growth with adapting to this unruly and unconventional system reflects how Neku and his partners grow closer and deepen their trust in each other, reaching a point of synchronization that they can practically battle as one. It's a specific gratifying sensation that only TWEWY on its original hardware can supply.
(Midrulean)
RANK 81 (3 votes)
48 Comments
This is awesome! Thank you Pangburn for letting me contribute in it and for making this happen :)
Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this!
Thank you, everyone! Btw, there sure are a lot of trans girls on backloggd
Incredible work Pangburn in putting this altogether, and I'm very happy to have been included. Cannot express how much I love every blurb written in this list, such a wonderful showcase of the talent and genius on this site, everyone did a great job. Also, damn this is a good list of games!
based
Oh shit, I didn't know this was happening! Would have loved to join. Is it Discord only?
It looks like a fairly fun list. Any chance this'll be yearly?
It looks like a fairly fun list. Any chance this'll be yearly?
@FrozenRoy Decade-ly
This comment was deleted
Proper good stuff man, and thanks to everyone involved!
This shit is straight up Legendary. Should be promoted anywhere on the site.
such a great way to be introduced to more of the wonderful writers on this site. bravo!
I'm glad to have been able to put this together for everyone on the site! thank you again to every single person who was generous enough to submit commentary for each game, as well as everyone who considered writing one, helped edit or prepare one, or pointed me in the direction of someone who would be perfect for the role!
to those wondering: I left the bottom half of the list without blurbs to make the coordination process easier, as those who were writing two blurbs already were under enough pressure as is to put theirs together, and handing out 60-odd blurbs was already very time-consuming. the five-vote cutoff was arbitrary... the bottom tiers of this list were so coarse that it was difficult to cut it cleanly in half LOL. I'm sure this will happen again in the future though! I don't know if I'll be the person running it, but I'm sure one of these could happen biyearly or so as the site continues to evolve -- the original s&s poll occurs once each decade but that seems a little long for a random internet community lol. regardless, if you didn't submit a ballot or write a blurb this go-round, perhaps you'll get a chance the next time this happens!
@letshugbro I didn't even think to tell people placements for games when I assigned blurbs LOL but I think the ambiguity definitely added some fun surprises even for those who had a sense of what was on the list and what wasn't
@FrozenRoy I definitely advertised it in the discord but the actual submissions were located at the list linked in the description above. I'm sorry to you and other "prominent" users for not getting a notif about it! I initially considered tracking down people just to ask them to submit ballots but didn't for a couple reasons... I knew some people already weren't interested and I didn't want to harass them about it, and I also didn't want to implicitly exclude people who may be well-known but not known to me... easy for me to overlook people on accident, esp since I spend less time on the site now than I used to. but hopefully now that this has been done once we'll get even more ballots for a potential redo a couple years down the line.
thanks again to everyone who participated! this is probably a good time for me to start tucking into some of the games listed here that I've never gotten around to playing...
to those wondering: I left the bottom half of the list without blurbs to make the coordination process easier, as those who were writing two blurbs already were under enough pressure as is to put theirs together, and handing out 60-odd blurbs was already very time-consuming. the five-vote cutoff was arbitrary... the bottom tiers of this list were so coarse that it was difficult to cut it cleanly in half LOL. I'm sure this will happen again in the future though! I don't know if I'll be the person running it, but I'm sure one of these could happen biyearly or so as the site continues to evolve -- the original s&s poll occurs once each decade but that seems a little long for a random internet community lol. regardless, if you didn't submit a ballot or write a blurb this go-round, perhaps you'll get a chance the next time this happens!
@letshugbro I didn't even think to tell people placements for games when I assigned blurbs LOL but I think the ambiguity definitely added some fun surprises even for those who had a sense of what was on the list and what wasn't
@FrozenRoy I definitely advertised it in the discord but the actual submissions were located at the list linked in the description above. I'm sorry to you and other "prominent" users for not getting a notif about it! I initially considered tracking down people just to ask them to submit ballots but didn't for a couple reasons... I knew some people already weren't interested and I didn't want to harass them about it, and I also didn't want to implicitly exclude people who may be well-known but not known to me... easy for me to overlook people on accident, esp since I spend less time on the site now than I used to. but hopefully now that this has been done once we'll get even more ballots for a potential redo a couple years down the line.
thanks again to everyone who participated! this is probably a good time for me to start tucking into some of the games listed here that I've never gotten around to playing...
I will be putting this on my CV. Wonderful job!
Im just astonished DOOM is the Top 1, seriously, im impressed
I'm sad I wasn't able to participate in this event. Goddamn, that's cool as hell. And such great games!
@Pangburn Hey, yo, no problem man! It's my own fault for not being on top of things, especially given I am Following you anyway. Really, I'm glad you even seem to consider me prominent at all, heh. I will say I would definitely recommend not doing a full decade like S&S, it'll be way too long for an internet community like this and Backloggd itself could be gone by then. IDK if people would want yearly but if not, something like 2-3 years seems good? 2025 would be an even number. 5 years instead is possible but I honestly think it might be too long, especially since unlike S&S there isn't a critic's base to rely on so who knows how much interest there will be.
Thanks again for organizing this to begin with!
Thanks again for organizing this to begin with!
When will the next edition be?
Cab
1 year ago