RANK 12 (14 votes)

ignited from the artistic genius of suda51 and technical genius of shinji mikami, killer7 burns itself into both its era and a future filled with falsehoods. being a mikami game at heart it inherits a lot of tropes from its horror predecessors but in a more self-recognized way than just for the sake of it. plays around with the fundamentals and technicalities that inhabit games at their core. displays a gameplay loop deconstructive of survival horror and arcade action in their simplest forms; an intricate cake layered with on-rails traversal, interlinking hallways, and “simple” puzzles a la resident evil, topped with a sweet cherry ripe with stylized gore. the all-knowing, iconic A button is your personified life support; an artificial heart that only beats to the rhythm of every shot you make and every step you take. the battlegrounds housing heaven smile like a blank canvas for our anti-heroes to paint across in Blood… the vague proof of life and the unification of all beings. this blood stems from terrorism… a link between political agendas in their lust for power. amidst the obvious political peril, killer7 indulges into the hardships of identity and the affairs of criminality & assassination… you’ve likely heard it all before. killer7 is our link to the future and our means of killing the past.
(Josh_the_Fourth)

RANK 12 (14 votes)

It’s easy to boil down Earthbound's appeal to things like its jokes (which are very funny) or its music (which is groundbreaking), but doing so does the game a tremendous disservice. This is the rare game which is about something bigger than video games. Earthbound is about your life. My life. All of our lives. With role-playing systems that goad you into inserting yourself and your friends into its fiction, as well as a strict adherence to the formula of Famicom-era Dragon Quest, the game essentially argues that our mundane, everyday lives are just as dramatic and significant as the hero’s journeys which we fantasize about. Earthbound is a mirror, guaranteed to draw out deep-seated memories of childhood, adventure, and love.
(GoufyGoggs)

RANK 11 (15 votes)

Most games stick to the simple questions. Who are you? Where are you going? What is your goal? You know, the usual fare to quickly establish the Hero's Journey and get you ramped up for yet another epic adventure.

Shadow of the Colossus is one of the first games that really made me ask "Why?"

Why is the world so barren? Why are these hulking stone creatures afraid of me? Why is this demonic entity guiding me along?

There's really no game that conveys its sense of scale better than Shadow of the Colossus. It's just you and your horse silently galloping along this beautiful yet alien landscape, until you stumble upon the sleeping beast and the world explodes into a cacophony of death, scaling and snuffing out yet another life.

Even the complaints regarding the game could be framed as positives for the overall experience. The shaky camera, the inconsistent frame rate, even the pain from my fingers gripping the controller so tightly as I hang on for dear life. I honestly can't think of a game that makes me feel so alive, and for what it's worth, I wouldn't change a damn thing about Shadow of the Colossus.
(Drax)

RANK 10 (17 votes)

Everybody knows what this game is, if you haven't played it then your 8 year old cousin has.

Takes influence from simulationist PC games and infuses it with tactility. You can build anything from a humble dirt hut to a massive fortress, but the simple feeling of placing and breaking blocks is not to be overlooked. And even for my fellow arcade fiends, quickly traversing terrain is an interesting and challenging task: do some Nether runs if you don't believe me!

The wide variety of appeals (combat, exploration, building, messing with your friends) make this an ideal multiplayer game. And like Doom/Quake/etc. before it, there is a staggering breadth of user-made content to explore as well. Minigames, art works, PvP, an extensive modding scene (which gave birth to Factorio!), you name it and it's probably there.

In particular, I've always had a soft spot for the CTM genre of maps. Your only goal is to Complete The Monument by gathering all 16 (or less in shorter maps) colors of wool pieces scattered across a hostile world. Other than not crafting wool, there are no rules: you can build and break whatever and wherever the game systems allow. Traverse and survive a connected web of dark dungeons and huge vistas! Seriously, if you like the exploration aspect of Souls, check these out. https://ctmrepository.com/

Minecraft is a massively popular, social, all-ages game that appeals to the better drives of human nature. What more can you ask these days?
(HotPocketHPE)

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)

RANK 8 (18 votes)

Waving us with "what kind of cop are you?" it's such an elegant way to ask for cynicism, correctness, frustration, respect, pride, or political bore. But there is no correct way for being a cop. I don’t mean that as a political stance necessarily but as an actual mechanic inside Disco Elysium. It’s a beaten horse, it’s a failed mystery, it’s an annoying escapade to a depressing world, it’s another serving for the machine. It’s everything astounding, resonating and thwarting about the human condition and the way we conjure ways to order that same humanity. All encompassed inside another case to resolve, through an isometric camera, furbished stereotypes and tart humor. Disco Elysium preserves a palpable dual spirit of joy and bitterness that comes with history upon the making – no one wins, everyone loses. But there is light anyway. An achievement on videogame writing and holistic experiences. A triumph on destroying expectations. How couldn’t it be? It said the words we all need in our lives: We are the miracle. How? Simple. We’re the detectives arriving on the scene.

(MalditoMur)

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)

RANK 6 (20 votes)

A cozy cataclysm captured in miniature photography, Katamari Damacy is a memento mori of the material world, capturing the big-and-small of what makes life fun in its dying days. But as much as it's a veritable toybox of silly interactions in a Shibuya-kei playground, it's an experience built almost entirely around friction, even on a player-level.

You'll spend your ten-hour trip bumbling and stumbling your ball of mass reconstruction through busy streets and bustling households, barely able to move in a straight line. It's the small bit of resistance, a deliberate request to face the game at its own terms, that sells what could be a whimsical demolition derby into a soft reflection on what we get out of the games we play.
(Squigglydot)

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)

RANK 4 (23 votes)

This game’s existence, from its inception to its eventual reception and legacy, is nothing short of a miracle. Burning down the institution of tropes and conventions laden in the industry at the time, Demon’s Souls is a title that stands tall in its own corner of reality and feels entirely disconnected from everything that came before or since. I think it's rather easy to appreciate as a game that constantly pushes the limits of what it can get away with, but what makes it truly remarkable is how complete and well-realized an experience it ended up being in spite of some admittedly bizarre choices. From the world design and tone, to the allocation of important items and separation of valuable NPC’s, to the cruel yet creative ways the player can be kicked while they’re down - everything is constantly firing on all cylinders and comes together beautifully to create something that should not be as cohesive as it is. You could uncharitably read it as difficult for difficulty’s sake, but Demon’s Souls is a game that, if you give it your attention and intuition during play, will reward you with one of the consistently gripping and soulful experiences in the entire medium.
(LukeGirard)

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)

RANK 2 (25 votes)

A rustic Spain beset by the parasitisation of pastoral life and punctuated by the revving of chainsaws sets the stage for not only a complete and total re-examination of Resident Evil’s ethos, but a trailblazing effort which served as the template for an entire movement. What might be lost in terms of prior entries’ fear factor has instead been reinterpreted through the lens of a pervasive tension. Leon S. Kennedy is no longer left to haphazardly skulk in dingy hallways at the mercy of the walking dead but is instead a maestro in total control of each combative ordeal – so long as he remains composed throughout creeping turmoil. Shinji Mikami’s impeccable direction is transformative, configuring the traditional mechanical hallmarks of Resident Evil into a series of escalating challenges which favour steady aim, grit, and crowd control over resource management and route planning. What remains is the leanness of exceptional game design married with an extraordinarily taut pace which revels in never once allowing comfort. Resident Evil 4 is a watershed moment for the medium - a title with a lowbrow, grindhouse veneer which cloaks the dizzying extent of its commitment to precision and rigor.
(KB0)

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)