 51) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Year of Release: 2004 Developed By: Rockstar North Published By: Rockstar Games Platforms: Microsoft Xbox, PC, Sony Playstation 2 "From those early missions in the neighbourhoods of Los Santos, San Andreas widens the scope to draw in the rest of that city, then keeps going. Vast tracts of countryside, hills and forests surround the looming bulk of Mount Chiliad. Then comes San Fierro, the city by the bay, and deeper still into the game you can head to Las Venturas, the gambling mecca in the desert. Each is its own place, with its own feel. And that's crucial. These are places that you can feel, more than just rearranged assets or a new gameplay stage. The devil is in the details, and Rockstar's intricate web makes these cities feel lived in, as if they were always there, not just conjured up from ones and zeroes stored on a disc." - Eurogamer, 2012 |  52) Diablo II Year of Release: 2000 Developed By: Blizzard North Published By: Blizzard Entertainment Platform: PC "Diablo II doesn't exactly go out of its way to be user friendly. Even choosing a class and build is daunting, let alone learning the quirks of its many systems. What hooks you in, however, is just how perfectly measured the core gameplay loop of killing, looting and upgrading is. Whether you're just starting out or wading through Hell with a hardcore character, Diablo II has a momentum that's impossible not to be swept up in. The odds are always overwhelming, the atmosphere always malevolent, and the reward always worth the risk." - IGN, 2013 |
 53) Super Smash Bros. Melee Year of Release: 2001 Developed By: HAL Laboratory Published By: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo GameCube "The first Super Smash Bros. was a Nintendo fanboy's wet dream: Take a bunch of Nintendo's most famous faces and throw them into a single, massive battle royale. The results were awesome. Two years later, Melee upped the ante-more characters, better graphics, and more varied movesets. Today, Smash Bros.'s legacy can be seen in a new wave of competitive local multiplayer games, such as TowerFall and Samurai Gunn." - Popular Mechanics, 2014 |  54) Pac-Man Year of Release: 1980 Developed By: Namco Published By: Namco, Midway Platforms: Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Commodore 64, Intellivision, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Game Gear "Pac-Man marked the moment when video games transcended the arcade vending industry that birthed it to become a medium and business in its own right. No single pinball table had ever spawned a novelty rock song (Tommy notwithstanding). No cardboard-cutout target-shooting game ever launched its own Saturday morning cartoon. Even as Atari worked diligently on the home front to establish console gaming as something more than a passing fad, Pac-Man handily demonstrated the appeal of video games on every level." - 1up, 2012 |
 55) Journey Year of Release: 2012 Developed By: Thatgamecompany Published By: Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: Sony Playstation 3 "A red-robed figure. A fluttering scarf. A barren desert landscape. Not the three elements you'd immediately guess would combine to form one of 2012's most memorable titles. Nonetheless, Thatgamecompany's third release captured hearts and minds with its simple, speechless odyssey. Unable to communicate save for a single, ambiguous chirp, anonymous players nonetheless forged emotional bonds, united by a common goal. With beautifully stylised visuals and an enchanting, evolving score, this simple saga is one of the PS3's most poignant legacies." - Empire, 2015 |  56) Ico Year of Release: 2001 Developed By: Team Ico Published By: Sony Platforms: Sony Playstation 2, Sony Playstation 3 "Single-player video games are lonely. Ico made loneliness feel magical by giving you a companion, even as it constantly reminded you how alien her mind must be. Just like Princess Yorda's gnomic utterances imply a story that she just can't share with you, so does the game's environment imply a vast narrative of which this story is only a part, creating a potent illusion of context by withholding backstory. While the gameplay itself is basic puzzle-solving and crude combat, it's the mood that makes it special, the constant sense that there's something vast just outside the frame." - Slant, 2014 |
 57) Space Invaders Year of Release: 1978 Developed By: Taito Published By: Midway, Taito Platforms: Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Game Boy Color, Super Nintendo (SNES), WonderSwan "The games on this list hold a great deal of clout with gamers for creating the threads that made modern gaming what it is today, but few truly transcend the medium the way Space Invaders does. Its sheer reach envelops the world even as its popularity finally descended from its dizzying heights. For many, Space Invaders was games, almost serving as both herald and ambassador for the audiovisual, interactive onslaught on the horizon. Perhaps because of this, it defined games as we know them today, setting the stage for the entire industry and inspiring countless developers to continue to bring their imaginations to life." - 1up, 2012 |  58) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Year of Release: 2002 Developed By: Rockstar North Published By: Rockstar Games Platforms: Microsoft Xbox, PC, Sony Playstation 2 "Vice City is every bit as good as we thought it would be - if not better. When a game can keep you as consistently entertained as this one, you'll be glad of the depth, and you really won't want to stop playing it. But don't expect to be constantly surprised, for much of Vice City is a retread of old ground, and if you didn't like the last one, then Vice City probably won't change your mind. But bear in mind that's rather akin to being a footballer and deciding that you'd rather not play with a ball today. Do yourselves a large favour and buy this game, or as Rockstar once advocated, steal it." - Eurogamer, 2002 |
 59) Overwatch Year of Release: 2016 Developed By: Blizzard Published By: Blizzard Platforms: Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Sony Playstation 4 "It's a fan-art generator. It's pure cosplay fodder. It's a meme machine, a water-cooler mainstay, and a cultural obsession. Overwatch is all of those things, but above all else it's a finely tuned competitive video game that manages to encourage pitted competition and enthusiastic teamwork while ensuring everyone is having a good time." - Kotaku, 2017 |  60) The Sims Year of Release: 2000 Developed By: Maxis, Edge of Reality Published By: Electronic Arts Platforms: Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Sony Playstation 2 "Over a decade after it's release, The Sims and its subsequent expansion packs and sequels remain as the highest selling PC games of all time. Will Wright's interactive dollhouse seemed to do the impossible by destroying all notions of age, gender, and level of gamer. It was a game for everyone, whether they knew it or not. Very few developers have been able to transcend the concept of audience, but Wright and Maxis did that very thing with The Sims. Not only was it possible to live in the world of The Sims; it was encouraged." - 1up, 2014 |
 61) Donkey Kong Year of Release: 1981 Developed By: Nintendo Research & Development 1 Published By: Nintendo Platforms: Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Colecovision, Commodore 64, Intellivision, MSX, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sinclair ZX Spectrum "Donkey Kong's clever coding made it difficult to parse luck from skill, and the simple clarity of the game design made battling the giant ape even more maddening. All you needed to do was run, jump and pause at the right times, over and over again, and you'd eventually send Donkey Kong tumbling down the construction girders. And the cycle starts again, with you thinking, "I just did this. I can do it again. No sweat." But dodging, smashing and jumping the ever quickening springs, barrels and fireballs did make you sweat. You were sharpening your reflexes, sure, but to what end? To play more Donkey Kong, of course. What else was there?" - TIME, 2012 |  62) Mario Kart 8 Year of Release: 2014 Developed By: Nintendo Published By: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo Wii U "While some players will spend hours perfecting time trials and improving their standing online, that's not really what these games are for. Mario Kart is a vehicle for fun with all your friends and family, no matter their individual skill, and Mario Kart 8 is the best, most versatile version of that yet." - The Guardian, 2017 |
 63) Super Mario Galaxy 2 Year of Release: 2010 Developed By: Nintendo EAD Published By: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo Wii "Super Mario Galaxy 2 has no business being as imaginative as it is. Hell, I've played entire games that are less interesting than a single one of its 49 galaxies, which twist you and discombobulate you and shoot you through space so fast it's still hard not to gawp at its finesse, at the fact Nintendo actually managed to make it all work. And like all the best Mario games, there's something incredibly joyous about Mario Galaxy 2; it's an antidote to the cynicism that can sometimes feel omnipresent in the industry; the reminder that the medium can produce beauty and wonder." - IGN, 2015 |  64) Bloodborne Year of Release: 2015 Developed By: FromSoftware, Inc. Published By: Sony Platform: Sony Playstation 4 "Dark Souls is typically the game of choice for insanely tough action, and rightfully so, but we actually prefer the PS4-exclusive sister game, Bloodborne. Similarly, it's intensely difficult and refuses to hold your hand - in fact, it'll bat your hand away and chide you for even assuming you'd be assisted. It's dark and massively atmospheric, as you battle through gothic scenery to take down huge bosses and other grim foes. Given its tone, Bloodborne won't be for everyone, but there's deep satisfaction to be found, if you're willing to work for it." - Stuff, 2017 |
 65) Baldur's Gate II Year of Release: 2000 Developed By: BioWare Published By: Black Isle Studios Platform: PC "Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn was very much a leader of the pack during the RPG renaissance of the early 2000s and is still an excellent example of that genre's strengths. From its fantastically written characters and story to its vast arsenal of weapons, armors and magic, Baldur's Gate 2 was an adventure that you could not only get lost in, but that could be lived in, spending hundreds of hours exploring every hidden secret and mystery." - IGN, 2015 |  66) Tomb Raider Year of Release: 1996 Developed By: Core Design Published By: Eidos Interactive Platforms: PC, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation "While its sequel sold more copies and improved on many aspects, the first Tomb Raider was by far more revolutionary. The game is known both for presenting one of the earliest and best female action-hero protagonists in video games and for its innovative gameplay. Tomb Raider was one of the most graphically detailed game; combined with its atmospheric soundtrack, the game felt extremely cinematic. The incredible popularity of both games was a major contributing factor in the success of the PlayStation console." - Popular Mechanics, 2014 |
 67) Team Fortress 2 Year of Release: 2007 Developed By: Valve Corporation Published By: Valve Corporation Platforms: Mac OS, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "It is a game where even a day's worth of play could fill a website's worth of anecdotes. Standing at the top of a tower trying to avoid Demo Man rounds while Heavies mount the stairs and Spies attempt to get behind you is a science-fiction Helm's Deep. And as with another of the Orange Box games, Portal, Valve's ability to teach players without over-encumbering them, or even without giving away that they are doing so, in no way diminishes the game's long-term appeal or its bounteous variety." - Eurogamer, 2007 |  68) Okami Year of Release: 2006 Developed By: Clover Studio Published By: Capcom Platforms: Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 2 "One of the greatest crimes in gaming history is that Capcom's breathtakingly beautiful Okami never quite found the audience it deserved. Presented in sumi-e inkwash visuals, the quest of the wolven sun goddess Amaterasu was a highlight of the PS2. Using a Celestial Brush to restore life and colour to the world was both a clever game mechanic and an oddly transcendent experience. Perhaps structural similarities to Zelda caused players to overlook Okami, or that its roots in Shinto mythology proved too confusing, but creator Hideki Kamiya's opus still deserves attention" - Empire, 2015 |
 69) Batman: Arkham Asylum Year of Release: 2009 Developed By: Rocksteady Studios Published By: Eidos Interactive Platforms: Mac OS, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "Rarely does a game do a character justice in such a satisfying way. Arkham Asylum finds room for every major aspect of Batman's enduring appeal, and it does so in a game compelling enough to work even without its masked star. Fans of the caped crusader really shouldn't hesitate - this isn't just the best grown-up Batman game, it's the best superhero game, bar none." - Eurogamer, 2009 |  70) The Secret of Monkey Island Year of Release: 1990 Developed By: Lucasfilm Games Published By: Lucasfilm Games Platforms: Amiga, PC, Sega CD "Comedy didn't really exist in video games until Monkey Island. Or at least, I'd never seen it. But then along came Guybrush Threepwood, a wannabe pirate who couldn't seem to get out of his own way -- or that of the evil pirate LeChuck. His bumbling point-and-click adventure, which included bottomless inventory pants, literal red herrings, and insult sword fighting, was not only funny, but also featured great characters (Stan!), colorful graphics, memorable music, and a playful Caribbean vibe. It remains every bit as wonderful today as it was 25 years ago." - IGN, 2015 |
 71) Mass Effect Year of Release: 2007 Developed By: BioWare Published By: Microsoft Game Studios Platforms: Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "What made Mass Effect so compelling was how effectively BioWare presented all of these things together. The game's visuals looked a far sight better than KOTOR and Jade Empire. The voice acting -- which included voice work for every single line of dialogue in the game, even incidental text like the in-menu glossary, and alternate male and female versions of protagonist Commander Shepard -- varied from acceptable to exceptional. It combined player agency and technical sophistication to an unprecedented degree; at the same time, it also united the depth and flexibility of a PC RPG with the immediacy of a console shooter (or at least faked it convincingly). Its uniqueness made it a hit, and that success made BioWare a breakout star." - 1up, 2012 |  72) The Walking Dead Year of Release: 2012 Developed By: Telltale Games Published By: Telltale Games Platforms: Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "People rarely talk about The Walking Dead as a great game, which it is, and often doesn't get enough credit for. It has a handful of great puzzles between its dramatic, dialogue-driven scenes and tense action sequences. But this typically gets lost amid conversations of what a particular moment meant to a player, what they did or said in a given situation, and how far they were willing to go to protect their people. The Walking Dead is a deeply engaging story, one of the best gaming has seen. This is the game that proved adventure gaming - and interactive drama - still worked, and works better than it ever has." - IGN, 2015 |
 73) Batman: Arkham City Year of Release: 2011 Developed By: Rocksteady Studios Published By: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Platforms: Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "Batman is no stranger to games, but the Arkham series has been an outstanding demonstration of the character's versatility within the field. Arkham City is the pinnacle to date, with the notorious Asylum spreading out through Gotham's slums, creating a powder-keg waiting to explode as the Dark Knight's worst villains took control. Open world adventuring suits Batman perfectly, and Rocksteady's careful balancing of gadget-based stealth, brutal melee combat, and thought-provoking detective work made for an absorbing challenge. Filtering the best elements of comics, animation, and film, Arkham City is a distillation of everything great about Batman's world." - Empire, 2015 |  74) Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Year of Release: 2003 Developed By: Ubisoft Montreal Published By: Ubisoft Platforms: Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Sony Playstation 2 "Where the third entry in the original Prince of Persia trilogy failed to successfully transfer the series from its 2D roots to a 3D setting, Sands of Time succeeded. A reboot of the classic franchise for the sixth generation of consoles, the game featured beautiful graphics and acrobatic 3D platforming and combat, all of which it combined with an innovative time-bending mechanic. The game was a hit, earning critical acclaim and spawning multiple sequels and a feature film adaptation. We try to forget about that last bit, though..." - Popular Mechanics, 2014 |
 75) Sonic the Hedgehog Year of Release: 1991 Developed By: Sonic Team,Sega Published By: Sega Platforms: Sega Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive "Sonic is now in his twenties, roughly three times the lifespan of actual hedgehogs. And what a life he's lived. The Sonic the Hedgehog series not only spans what seems like a million different video games, but spills over into TV shows and comic books as well. Nintendo has Mario; Sega has Sonic. Mario collects coins; Sonic collects rings. But Sonic can also tuck himself into a ball and whip through loop-de-loop levels at breakneck speed. The first of the many versions of the game, aptly titled Sonic the Hedgehog, hit the scene in mid-1991 on the Sega Genesis before going on to become one of the best-selling video game franchises in the world." - TIME, 2012 |  76) Grim Fandango Year of Release: 1998 Developed By: LucasArts Published By: LucasArts Platform: PC "LucasArts' Tim Schafer brought the world a piece of unpitchable brilliance in the late '90s with this one of a kind adventure game: a film noir pastiche set in the Aztec afterlife starring a skeleton travel agent called Manny and a giant orange demon who happened to be the best mechanic in existence. Critics swooned, but almost no-one bought a copy, sounding the death knell of the story-driven puzzle genre and spawning a group of die-hard superfans worshipping the game's dark humour, bonkers but brilliant storyline and harder-than-a-cryptic-crossword riddles. Nowhere else would a gun that fires marigolds be so frightening." - Empire, 2015 |
 77) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Year of Release: 2006 Developed By: Bethesda Game Studios Published By: 2K Games Platforms: Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "Oblivion, the fourth in the series, was released in 2006 and swept sandbox gaming to new heights. Like other fantasy roleplaying games, it spun a high fantasy yarn replete with demonic invaders and dynastic shenanigans. But unlike its peers, it let you abandon its central quest and explore optional subplots...or just wander off into the forest, where you might encounter totally unrelated subplots, like a village overrun by Lovecraftian forces, or secret vampire cabals. Citizens in the game kept to daily schedules, performed basic jobs, chatted with each other in town plazas and even made their way from city to city on errands." - TIME, 2012 |  78) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Year of Release: 2000 Developed By: Nintendo EAD Published By: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo 64 "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has Link living his own personal Groundhog Day scenario to prevent a very-pissed-off-looking moon from crashing into the world, and right off the bat with that premise, the series is in heavier and more innovative territory than usual. The game still manages to reuse everything worth taking from Ocarina of Time's template, but also adding just a drop of haunting, elegiac melancholy, casting a much different and enthralling pallor over the whole thing than anything the series has seen. Majora's Mask is as close to grim-and-gritty as The Legend of Zelda ever needs to be, but it's also the one game in the series that every developer, Nintendo included, can learn the most from, when it comes to adding depth, not darkness, to a series such as this." - Slant, 2014 |
 79) Wii Sports Year of Release: 2006 Developed By: Nintendo Published By: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo Wii "Regardless of how "hardcore" you consider yourself to be, Wii Sports' impact on video games is undeniable. Alongside the explosion of iOS gaming, it broadened the very definition of our medium to a staggering degree. It provided merit to Nintendo's risky paradigm shift, put video games in homes that have no idea of what a Konami code is, and it may have very well been the last across the board pack-in that we ever see. It shattered the conception of video games as a compartmentalized hobby, and helped solidify our medium as a major facet of popular culture." - 1up, 2012 |  80) Counter-Strike Year of Release: 2001 Developed By: Valve L.L.C. Published By: Sierra Studios Platforms: Microsoft Xbox, PC "Counter-Strike is the game that's been with me the longest, in one form or another, but for me, it all started here. Many of the things I value most in games, I value because of Counter-Strike: good level design, team-based dynamics, the emphasis on skill, the dedication required to master it, a friendly sense of competition, and a solid sense of community. It taught me the joy of earning my victories in a game, but also the importance of learning from my failures. It's the reason I love first-person shooters and the reason I stuck by PC gaming at a young age, and I owe it all to its earliest iterations." - IGN, 2015 |
 81) Braid Year of Release: 2008 Developed By: Number None Inc. Published By: Number None Inc. Platforms: Mac OS, Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "Braid was the first art game to combine highbrow ambition with rock-solid gameplay. Like most pioneering works, it's largely about its own medium, appropriating the inexorable left-to-right movement and damsel-in-distress story of a certain famous gaming icon and using it as a metaphor for...life? Guilt? L'amour fou? Braid doesn't answer all the questions it raises, and that's a good thing. Better still is how elegantly the story and the game mechanics work together, with time-reversing levels exploring remorse and single-key puzzles as metaphors for loss. Like the games it parodies, Braid makes walking and jumping feel great, but it uses that visceral satisfaction to draw you into something profoundly disquieting." - Slant, 2014 |  82) Pong Year of Release: 1972 Developed By: Atari Inc. Published By: Atari Inc. Platform: Arcade "For all intents and purposes, video games began with four white rectangles on a field of stark black: Atari's Pong. No, Pong doesn't hold the honor of being the first-ever video game; it wasn't even the first interactive table tennis game. That doesn't matter, because Pong was the one that stuck. Just as motion pictures evolved from kinetoscopes and rock music mutated from blues, video games descended from mechanical arcade machines and novelty features that scientists put together with oscilloscopes. Pinpointing the first-ever true game will keep the medium's historians arguing among themselves for all eternity. But no one could reasonably claim that Pong wasn't the first one to matter." - 1up, 2012 |
 83) Final Fantasy X Year of Release: 2001 Developed By: Squaresoft Published By: Squaresoft Platform: Sony Playstation 2 "Final Fantasy X was a beautiful game when it was originally released and it was also the first in the series to feature a full cast of voice actors. The game detailed the quest of Tidus and Yuna, two potential lovers searching for a way to stop the mysterious and deadly force known as Sin. One of Final Fantasy X's greatest strengths was its turn-based battle system, which allowed players to freely swap out characters in their party at will, leading to an enhanced layer of strategy. Considering this, along with the heart-breaking story, Final Fantasy X is fondly remembered by fans of the series." IGN. 2010 |  84) Halo 2 Year of Release: 2004 Developed By: Bungie Published By: Microsoft Game Studios Platforms: Microsoft Xbox, PC "For Halo 2, developer Bungie put all their then-revolutionary ideas into one basket. While most players remember how they cried foul at Halo 2's cliffhanger ending, no one disputed its multiplayer wasn't an ambitious effort; one that applied a PC-centric way of thinking to create an online community for Xbox Live. Bungie already had this pedigree from their PC-developer days, so it made sense when Halo 2 introduced a bevy of retooled online options. Clan lists, matchmaking playlists, and expanded options custom gametypes transformed Halo 2 from a mere sequel into one of the most important exclusives of its time." - IGN, 2013 |
 85) Sid Meier's Civilization Year of Release: 1991 Developed By: MPS Labs Published By: MicroProse Platforms: PC, Super Nintendo (SNES) "PC game Civilization was inspired by Maxis's SimCity and Bullfrog's Populous, both games that let you muck with aspects of civilizations at different levels. Canadian history buff Sid Meier had played and admired both, but wanted something grander that intermingled warfare, exploration, diplomacy, city-building and elements of political philosophy. Civilization in 1991 was his answer, a turn-based strategy epic with a board game feel that asked players to lead a primitive tribe from the stone age to a flourishing civilization on the verge of traveling to distant star system Alpha Centauri." - TIME, 2012 |  86) Halo 3 Year of Release: 2007 Developed By: Bungie Published By: Microsoft Game Studios Platform: Microsoft Xbox 360 ""Finish the fight." Three words that sent chills running down the backs of the many players who walked away from Halo 2's cliffhanger ending unsatisfied. Halo 3 cemented the franchise as a perrenial all-star by proving that as many times as Master Chief's number was called, Bungie would find ways to make it a memorable affair. The big star this time out was The Forge, a sandbox-style creation tool that allowed players to create and customize their own multiplayer maps and game types. Fans also got a lot more closure out of this entry than the last, and thanks to it being the first Halo on the 360, Master Chief looked extra spiffy on his way to what would be a temporary retirement." - IGN, 2013 |
 87) System Shock 2 Year of Release: 1999 Developed By: Looking Glass Studios Published By: Electronic Arts Platform: PC "In the wake of slippery BioShock, it's perhaps worth looking back at System Shock 2 to see why the release Irrational's watery opus was tinged with disappointment. BioShock was a broad, spectacular action game, but SS2 was an immersive sim and simply had more to offer. Inventory management, a more real sense of weakness and horror, heftier puzzles, environment mapping- it all builds into a sense of trust in the player that was absent in Bioshock. SS2 trusted that you'd figure out what happened onboard this ship, or the way into that room, or the way to survive against these creatures, which made for a more rewarding experience overall. It was simply a crystallisation of the first System Shock, providing something harder, sharper and larger, sacrificing nothing." - Rock, Paper, Shotgun, 2011 |  88) Mega Man 2 Year of Release: 1989 Developed By: Capcom Published By: Capcom Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) "Time has treated Mega Man 2 with kindness. The eye-popping novelty of its set piece battles -- the massive Mecha Dragon and imposing Guts Dozer -- has long since faded, yet Mega Man 2 remains as playable as it was back in 1989. Its lean design sensibility offers a no-nonsense experience with enough diversity to keep things interesting every time you play through it. The precision and immediacy of its action serve as a reminder of how satisfying a well-designed action game can be when it's not bogged down by superfluous cruft. Mega Man 2 was borne of love, and as a result it continues to be loved by gamers the world over." - 1up, 2012 |
 89) Super Mario Odyssey Year of Release: 2017 Developed By: Nintendo Published By: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo Switch "Super Mario Odyssey comes alive if you cover every single blade of grass - you might find a warp pipe that leads to one of the excellent 2D areas, an up-to-that-point uncaptured capturable, a skipping mini-game, a Koopa race, or even a Moon. You're ushered along in the right direction, but relish in going off the beaten path and you'll be rewarded for doing so. It's rarely daunting, always surprising, and a true modern day masterpiece." - videoGamer, 2017 |  90) Grand Theft Auto IV Year of Release: 2008 Developed By: Rockstar North Published By: Rockstar Games Platforms: Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "One of the most critically acclaimed games of all time, Grand Theft Auto IV took the open world of GTA III and molded it into the living, thriving metropolis of Liberty City. Though the story follows main character Niko Bellic, in many ways the game is about Liberty City itself. Modeled heavily on New York City, the game's cityscape harnessed the full power of the seventh-generation consoles." - Popular Mechanics, 2014 |
 91) Assassin's Creed II Year of Release: 2009 Developed By: Ubisoft Montreal Published By: Ubisoft Platforms: Microsoft Xbox 360, PC, Sony Playstation 3 "What makes Assassin's Creed II great isn't just that it fixes most of what was wrong with the first game, though. It's that it takes what the first game started and uses it to build something much bigger, much more involving and much more fun. The open-world action is similar - you'll still spend a lot of time free-running across rooftops and obstacles (which is a blast), climbing up the sides of gargantuan buildings, assassinating unwitting enemies and getting into seemingly endless swordfights with guards - but the sequel expands on the original formula so much, and so well, that Assassin's Creed feels like a training run by comparison." - Gamesradar, 2012 |  92) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Year of Release: 2006 Developed By: Nintendo EAD Published By: Nintendo Platforms: Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii "Twilight Princess is an incredible game on the whole, with so many peaks, so many magic moments that will live long in the minds of millions of gamers. Sure, there are times in the game when you want to shake Miyamoto and co by the lapels for including elements of the game which remain dogged by old-school convention, but they represent a flea bite on what is just a stunning and relentlessly enjoyable game. Regardless of whether you're a hardened series veteran or a wide-eyed newcomer, Twilight Princess is undoubtedly the best action adventure game for some time." - Eurogamer, 2006 |
 93) Punch-Out!! Year of Release: 1987 Developed By: Nintendo IRD Published By: Nintendo Platforms: Arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) "Punch-Out is fun from the first moment, thanks to its giant personality-filled sprites and simple, responsive controls. But the game manages to elevate itself from the NES pack once it becomes apparent in later fights that the entire experience is actually about pattern recognition and puzzle-solving. It's a puzzle-boxing game! First memorizing the tells for boxers like Bald Bull and King Hippo, and then figuring out the exact method to pick apart their defenses is an extremely satisfying video game experience." - IGN, 2014 |  94) Earthbound Year of Release: 1994 Developed By: Ape Studios Published By: Nintendo Platform: Super Nintendo (SNES) "There has never been a game as irreverently comic and deceptively touching as EarthBound. It takes place in a darkly skewed version of Earth, with 13-year-old Ness's "rockin'" telekinetic powers and trusty baseball bat going toe to toe with local gangs and bullies, Happy Happy cultists, and drugged-out hippies. Despite liberally borrowing from RPG conventions (including an emphasis on grind-heavy gameplay), the game oozed originality in just about every other aspect, offering more than just escapism, but, in its battle against loneliness and negative emotions, a reason to ultimately set the controller down." - Slant, 2014 |
 95) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Year of Release: 2015 Developed By: Kojima Productions Published By: Konami Platforms: Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Xbox One, PC, Sony Playstation 3, Sony Playstation 4 "Metal Gear Solid V is a game-changing triumph. It is comfortably the best stealth game yet made. But that accolade sells the game short. This is the final evolution of a video game director's singular vision, one first painted in the crude pixels of the 1980s and now fully realised, fully resplendent." - The Guardian, 2015 |  96) Resident Evil 2 Year of Release: 1998 Developed By: Capcom Published By: Capcom Platforms: Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, PC, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation "Resident Evil 2 grossed more money than most Hollywood movies of the time and broke many video game sales records. Marketing had something to do with it, but over the years the game has proven that it stands on its own. You play as Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield in a variety of overlapping scenarios as the two protagonists attempt to survive a zombie outbreak. The game's graphics, sound design, and level design all contributed to the game's atmospheric tone, an impressive feat for the PlayStation's hardware." - Popular Mechanics, 2014 |
 97) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Year of Release: 2008 Developed By: Atlus Published By: Atlus Platform: Sony Playstation 2 "While Persona 3 was the game that pushed the series furthest forward, this fourth instalment just did everything so well. Visually, it had no right to be running on PS2, and the soundtrack perfectly suited the mood and feel of the action. The fish-out-of-water characters struck a chord with many fans too, which is perhaps the best explanation for the game's enduring appeal." - Gamesradar, 2013 |  98) Yoshi's Island Year of Release: 1995 Developed By: Nintendo Published By: Nintendo Platform: Super Nintendo (SNES) "In this era of Trophies and Achievements, completing 100% of everything in a game is a common thing. But when Yoshi's Island came out, the reward for exploration was greater than a Gamerscore: For collecting all of the extremely well-hidden red coins and flowers and then finishing a level with 30 stars (which basically means you can't get hit), you received a 100% rating. If you did this on every level in a world, you unlocked two more levels in each of the six worlds. And these levels were even harder than the others! I spent many hours one-hundred-percenting my Yoshi's Island cartridge and the save stuck with me all the way until an unfortunate incident while reviewing a contemporary knockoff Super Nintendo. I've never been so excited to start over from scratch." - IGN, 2015 |
 99) Quake Year of Release: 1996 Developed By: id Software Published By: GT Interactive Platforms: Nintendo 64, PC, Sega Saturn "It's rare for a game like Quake to come along and find itself at the intersection of so many big ideas. It was at the forefront of 3D. It influenced the public's acceptance of an emerging hardware category. It blazed new trails in multiplayer gaming, fostered a passionate community, and opened the doors to modding in a way that had never been done before. Somehow, in the midst of all this, Quake also managed to be an absolute blast to play." - 1up, 2012 |  100) Doom Year of Release: 2016 Developed By: iD Software Published By: Bethesda Softworks Platforms: 3DO, Atari Jaguar, Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Switch, PC, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Sony Playstation 4, Super Nintendo (SNES) "If there's one revival that deserves all of the praise it's received, it's Doom. id has brought this classic shooter to the current generation of consoles, completely modernized this titan, while never losing sight of what made it great in the first place. A job well done." - Den of Geek, 2016 |
