The 50 Best Video Games of All Time

Whether you play video games or not, they are now an integral part of our culture. For some, it’s hard to imagine a world without video games: the chup-chup-boop of an arcade legend like Space Invaders or the grunt “Finish Him”. in Mortal Kombat it can be as evocative as an air of Michael Jackson or the Beatles.
The best game ideas of almost four decades. Here are our picks for the 50 greatest video games of all time.
Ranking process to compile a representative sample of the best game ideas for almost four decades. Here are our picks for the greatest video games of all time.

50. Pokemon Red & Blue



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For many who grew up in the 1990s, Pokémon madness was inevitable. And when Pokémon Rouge et Bleu was launched in 1998, these children obsessed with the franchise had the chance to start an adventure filled with creatures, an experience that they had previously only experienced through television programs. , toys and collectible card games. Red and Blue also had all the characteristics of a strong RPG: addictive turn-based battles, a seemingly endless goal (catch them all), many achievable but rewarding goals (earn gym badges, level up) , and an unusually sympathetic vast world. The games also accomplished a feat too rare in the game industry: a configuration simple enough to appeal to children, but with layers of strategic depth sufficient to catch adults as well.

49. Myst

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Myst is a perfect example of a monumentally influential game that would be almost terribly painful to play today. The 1993 graphic adventure allowed players to relax, in a way, because it was a series of slow-loading, slow-rendering photos on a mysterious island. Despite its now awkward mechanics, it has created a whole new type of fiction whose influence can be felt in everything from mythical science fiction novels to the ABC television show Lost. Its great popularity also helped establish the emerging CD-ROM format.

48. Donkey Kong


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The first title conceived by the brain of Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto, 1981 Donkey Kong not only created Mario, but also a popular platform game, games in which a character must climb or jump on platforms. After dominating the golden age of arcades, Donkey Kong has had a massive influence on future Nintendo titles, ranging from the NES Ice Climber to the new Wii U Super Mario Bros. U. Even today, it takes time and patience for the experts, it’s still an eternal joy to play. (Additionally, Donkey Kong was probably the first game to feature dangerous barrels.)

47. Mortal Kombat


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Mortal Kombat has always stood out from the excess of fighting games that made their way from arcade cabinets to player lounges with their blatant sadistic violence. Gore is not an afterthought about this fighter from 1992, he is the main show. Mortal Kombat and the controversy it has sparked have been crucial in moving the video game market from a market that is obviously aimed at children to one that can appeal to teens and young adults. But it wasn’t just thanks to the game strap: its fluid controls, rewarding combinations, and imaginative character roster earned it a prominent place on our list.

46. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty


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Like many Blizzard games, this highly anticipated sequel to StarCraft released in 2010 was not intended to deploy huge new mechanics of real-time strategy, but to perfect the traditional dynamics of rock-paper-scissors to perfection. Was there a more finely tuned asymmetry between three separate factions in an RTS series? His lasting legacy can be summed up in three letters: MLG. Just like in “big league games” or simply “e-sports”, a form of competitive video game that covers a wide variety of genres.

45. Pong


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Laugh as much as you like in its two-dimensional graphics, Pong deserves a place on this list because, as the first arcade cabinet to catch fire with the general public, it is arguably the most responsible for the video game phenomenon. modern. A table tennis simulator developed by Atari and first released in 1972, the multiplayer game consisted of a pair of dial paddles and a bouncing ball, enough to qualify it as the first sports video game. The popularity of the arcade version led to a home setup that was sold by Sears in 1975. And when impersonators like Coleco and Nintendo followed, the first shots were fired in the console war. Sure, by today’s standards, it’s not as fascinating as the others on this list, but it depends largely on who you’re playing against.

44. Castlevania


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Pushing the boundaries of NES 8-bit architecture, Castlevania of 1987 was a gaming monster, with exhilarating graphics, sophisticated physics (for such an early platform game) and unforgettable music that went perfectly with the scary feel of the title. While not as terrifying as the kind of surface survival horror, it offered an experience in stark contrast to Nintendo’s fantastic Super Mario games. While exploring Dracula’s castle as vampire hunter Simon Belmont, players came across some pretty gaunt things. Bloodstained doors greet players from the start, holy water and crosses throwing weapons, and, oh yes, you have to beat Death, and it’s not even the final boss.

43. Portal 2


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Portal’s unexpected balance of wit, dark comedy, and captivating reality-twisting puzzles made it an astonishing hit in 2007. Its sequel, Portal 2, built on that success by adding more complicated and complex polishing and puzzles when it was released in 2011. 3 million copies of Portal 2 would have been sold in the three months following the game’s launch, proving that the franchise had become much more than just an occasional puzzle game. .

42. Braid


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Jonathan Blow’s elliptical side scrolling in 2008 was for many a story of grief and disruption that touched many cultural complaints. Blow pushed back, suggesting that such interpretations were too simplistic. In any case, Braid plays like nothing else, the act of a mind capable of masterfully overturning conventional design ideas and the expectations of players while incorporating concepts as big as the nature of reality in the game. -even. No Man’s Sky co-creator Sean Murray likens Braid to a time machine: “It’s like Blow was going back to the aesthetics of the late 1980s and creating a gap in time, like an alternative universe where we would have gone in a different direction “Because Braid could have existed in the Amiga, and at that time, he would have blown the spirits. It would have completely changed the way the games were developed. “

41. Fallout 3


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Interplay’s original fallout came like a cloud after a drought in PC role-playing in the mid-1990s. But newcomer IP Bethesda had to apply moderate, obsessively traditional role-playing ideals to its games. Elder Scrolls fantastic for creating an experience in 2008 that outclassed the original in almost every way. Both vast but dense texture, filled with unforgettable characters and ethical, gloomy and melodic nuances once you find the right radio station: Fallout 3 showed us what an obsessive and laid-back post-apocalyptic masterpiece could be like.

40. Galaga


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What is the plot of Galaga? It doesn’t matter: you have a lot of coins and you want to destroy a lot of strangers. Launched in the United States in 1981, Galaga is an example of the golden age of the arcade, a simple shooter where the sole objective is to beat the high scores of other assholes. (Serious gamers know the trick is to let the aliens monitor your ship, then set it free with another life, getting double the firepower.) This is one of the few arcade games in the old school which is still fun to play. today, thus passing the cruel test of time.

39. Red Dead Redemption


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The stunning high plains and scrubby landscapes of Red Dead Redemption, the multi-layered missions, and the extensive story told with the verve of a Lioness and the introspection of a Peckinpah, are just a few of the reasons why the work of Rockstar’s Open World in 2010 deserves the highest honors on this list. The player follows former outlaw John Marston through an imaginary, sometimes mind-boggling, version of the West (circa 1911), where sudden weapon duels and galloping chases emerge, offset by less treacherous amusements such as raising cattle or mini-games like the Net. five fingers. Yes, Grand Theft Auto meets a western, but in a way that demonstrated Rockstar’s courage far more than a mischievous satyr slinger.

38. Super Mario Kart


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Turning competitive racing into fun, Super Mario Kart was much more than one of the most elegant games in Super Nintendo. As the first of what would become a lineage of dynastic racers, this jewel of 1992 was full of firsts in kart racing: a circuit mode with different degrees of difficulty, a split screen mode compared to allowing you to friends and a mode of combat to break the monotony of direct sprints. And Super Mario Kart launched the series in the blink of an eye with memorable titles like Rainbow Road, expert tactics like drifting equalizers and exasperating like lightning.

37. Wolfenstein 3D


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 If Doom is the father of modern first-person shooters, Wolfenstein 3D is his grandfather. Manufactured by id Software and released shortly before Doom in May 1992, Wolfenstein 3D portrayed players as William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, an allied spy captured by the Nazis during World War II. Like Blazkowicz, his job is simple: escape from Wolfenstein Castle and shoot a bunch of baddies in the process, which was (and still is) the definition of “thoughtless catharsis,” words that, to this day, define offspring. Wolfenstein 3D.

36. The Sims


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Game designer Will Wright said the Sims, first released in 2000, were intended to be a satire on American consumer culture. Millions of players seem to have missed the joke, happily occupied with the mundane tasks of managing the life of a digital subject, from the preparation of a new platform to the management of breaks in the bathroom (or other ). They have innovated both the category of games “sandbox” in which the “objectives” are defined broadly (or not at all), and the type of meticulously detailed task management which is a common characteristic of many games today.

35. Halo: Combat Evolved


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 Steve Jobs introduced Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved to the public for the first time, promising in 1999 that he would hit Windows and Mac simultaneously. This was, of course, before Microsoft bought the studio and made Halo the final launch title for the Xbox 2001, simultaneously proving that shooters could work brilliantly on joysticks. Players play the Master Chief, a faceless futuristic soldier who fights against the Alien Pact and, later, the Zombie Flood. The single-player campaign offered a compelling storyline that brought the plot to the fore for the first time in a conventional shooting game, though some have complained about its repetitive design. The multiplayer mode, meanwhile, offered one of the best experiences of any shooter in history, packed with sniper rifles, stick grenades, vehicles, and other twists and turns.

34. Final Fantasy VII


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While some would vote for Final Fantasy VI as the best game, Final Fantasy VII from 1997 is arguably the most daring in this anything but final RPG series. Presenting complex polygon graphics on beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, the Japanese processor Squaresoft used the compact disc player PlayStation to create a rival Sony experience, Nintendo, which had rejected Sony’s tone for a plug-in based on disc for the Super Nintendo. I just couldn’t. The opera, labyrinthine and often wonderfully bizarre story of eco-friendly heroes saving their “living” planet from corporate energy attackers has proven to be the most popular in the series, selling for over 10 million copies worldwide and causing shouts. perennial for a new version (it finally happens)

33. Microsoft Flight Simulator X


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The next time you take a commercial flight, ask your pilot if you ever played Flight Simulator when you were a child. Chances are, the answer will be “yes”. The hyper-realistic series places players in the cockpit of everything from tiny Cessnas to huge giant jets. Obsessed flight simulators have built giant multi-screen platforms in basements around the world to better imitate reality. Meanwhile, Flight Simulator X from 2006 could bring players into the control tower, highlighting an intransigent community of simmers who, to this day, spend hours flying and directing simulated routes.

32. GoldenEye 007


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For some reason, it’s not often that you get a decent movie-based video game. GoldenEye 007, the 1997 Nintendo 64 shooter from Rare, which is linked to the 1995 James Bond movie, is a glorious exception. A thrilling campaign for a player allowed players to put on the shoes (no doubt impeccably) of the man who was allowed to kill. But as with the other shooters on this list, multiplayer is where GoldenEye really shines. Grenades bounce off the walls, gold pistols execute one-shot killings, and cheaters prefer Oddjob because it is a smaller target. This was, for many, the reason to buy a Nintendo 64. A word of advice: they don’t even bother you with the Klobb.

31. Diablo II


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Diablo II is arguably the best RPG of all time, the best dungeon finder of all time and the best PC game of all time. And that is before arriving at all that has influenced. Launched in 2000, Diablo II accomplished the clickfest hack-n-slash game of its predecessor mod therefore (everything happens in the best of the best case files). More importantly for future games, especially today’s popular free mobile games, how Diablo II could improve effort and reward the feedback loop for keeping dopamine discharges flowing through its infinite randomly generated levels.

30. King’s Quest III: To Heir Is Human


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In the 1980s, the years before Nintendo’s reign were dominated by PC titles, and none of them was better imagined than that of Sierra. By honoring their line of adventure, critics often praise the king’s original quest. But it is the third opus released in 1986 which deserves the most praise, because it was also twice as large as the first two episodes, and as intelligent as any other in the series. After the adventures of 17-year-old Prince Alexander of Daventry, the game got closer to its main players, who loved or were hardly children. However, despite the old-fashioned graphics (or maybe because of them), the keyboard-controlled adventure is still fun to play (try it yourself). Stacking all the ingredients to make potions, avoiding the wizard’s evil black cat, stealing the pirate’s treasure, it’s pure magic.

29. Dota 2


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The improbable continuation of a fan mod for a Blizzard game released in 2002, Dota 2 burst onto the e-sports scene in 2013 with its sophisticated touch on real-time resource management and territory control. Perhaps the pinnacle of the genre of multiplayer online combat arena (or MOBA, which is just another way of saying “competitive real-time strategy game”), sees two teams of five runners dominating lush jungle terrain assailed by armies of reproducing computers, blocking the horns in a river which cuts diagonally on a symmetrical map. Difficult to master but exciting to watch, the Dota 2 games unfold like frantic attention deficit, the camera views freak out around the battlefields outcrop with the antagonists converging on dozens of flash points, while the players fight to demolish the “old” of the other team.

28. Angry Birds


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Rovio’s first mobile game in 2009, today one of the most recognized franchises in the world, has certainly benefited from being one of the first titles for iPhone. But the physical puzzle of the studio’s offbeat avian launch (players must throw roly-poly birds to equally rounded and entrenched pigs) also focused on the key elements of the emerging smartphone game competition: small levels to play. anywhere, an easy to learn game (if it’s tiring for the teacher) and finally a free business model based on micro-transactions. It is safe to say that Angry Birds has set the model for all of the countless mobile games that have competed for our electronic wallets since then.

27. Guitar Hero


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Guitar Hero revived the genre of musical video games when it was released in 2005, magically transforming players into authentic rock and tremolo gods. Of course, he had to supply his own sweat bands, eyeliner and hair extensions. But for the price of the game and its eponymous accessory, players hitting the buttons on fake guitars were able to see rhythmically what it would be like to be a Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jake E. Lee. While games like Dance Dance Revolution have proven popular with a smaller audience, it’s the collection of classic and modern rock hymns from Guitar Hero that has led to the main distinctions (not to mention all the impromptu parties).

26. Resident Evil 4


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Who can forget the moment when a possessed farmer was shot for the first time in Resident Evil 4, only to evoke an animated Lovecraftian horror with tentacles twisting around his neck? It was the rebirth of Resident Evil, its crisp fixed perspectives and dull directional controls supplanted by a freer perspective on the shoulder, shooting first, both elegant and intuitive. Rather than frightening cheap haunted houses in claustrophobic spaces, the story has gone on to organic exploration of delightfully scary areas, dotted with frenzied riots to repel the series’ most inspired opponents. Capcom’s timely adoption of action-oriented principles in 2005 did not detract from the joyful atmosphere of the game, and in fact heightened the feeling of going through a ghostly nightmare.


25. Zork


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Zork was an early text adventure game, even if it wasn’t the first – this honor goes to Colossal Cave Adventure. Launched in 1980, it immersed the player in an extraordinarily rich and lively universe, despite its complete lack of graphics. To this day, the front lines cause hallucinations among old-school players: “You are on an open field west of a white house, with a lined front door. There is a small mailbox here.” What made Zork work, in addition to its minimalist eloquence and self-referential spirit (it was full of clever references to, among others, Colossal Cave Adventure), was its oddly advanced text parser, which accepted clear text player commands L English and turned them into actions in the game. Zork’s influence on subsequent adventure games cannot be overstated: As a tribute, all of Zork was included in Call of Duty: Black Ops as an Easter egg.

24. Space Invaders


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Influenced in the late 1970s, obsessed with space, this first shooting arcade was a milestone in the invasion of early video games. Designed in 1978, it drove the Atari 2600 into American homes in 1980, allowing people to detonate rows of strangers on the move from the comfort of their couches. In terms of pop culture, he captivated a lost audience in War of the Worlds, seduced by Star Wars and waiting for ET And, as a game, the pixelated villains of Space Invaders got closer and faster, with incredible sound effects for party : The players’ impulses have kept pace. Playing the classic version today is like watching a monster movie from the 50s, a partly comic reflection, seeing what once thrilled us. But without Space Invaders, there would be no Halo, making it a good spending room, even today.

23. Rise of the Tomb Raider


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With its expansive environments and clever puzzles, this 2015 episode of Crystal Dynamics’ famous Tomb Raider series is at its best (read TIME’s review here). It transcends the tired racing and fighting mechanism that dominates much of the action-adventure genre by instilling true feelings of desire and danger. Here, players can swing loose grip lines attached to glossy walls that frame icy cathedrals, or explore tombs trapped by optional explosives, each of which is a study of the art of not repeating puzzles or designing levels. He is the survivor at his best and an incredible example in reinventing the study of an iconic 90s franchise.

22. Half-Life 2


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Half-Life 2 showed us in 2004 how a developer could get closer to a genre (first-person shooter) given to the bang and bravado, and dignify it with an impressive dystopian story that sometimes rivaled literature. By becoming an armed theoretical physicist, gamers have explored a paranoid world, questioning the nature of everything as they cross waves of Alien Combine before grabbing a clever tool that made gravity a toy. Unfortunately, like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood, or Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, we may never know how the story of protagonist Gordon Freeman ends. But it’s a measure of the depth of resonance of Valve studio’s work, which when it comes to lists of the most anticipated suites, gamers talk about little else.

21. Grand Theft Auto III


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Before Grand Theft Auto III, game levels were basically designed as a series of boxes. Rockstar’s epic crime broke that pattern in 2001, ushering in a golden age of worlds that do it all. Since then, designers have been trying to recapture the feeling of freedom and possibility created by GTA III’s grainy vision of New York, which allowed players to build up a criminal empire, or simply manage a mundane job, like becoming citizens in taxis. or coming to light.

20. World of Warcraft


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World of Warcraft, the exhilarating fantasy simulation of Blizzard in 2004, introduced millions of players to the concept (and the joys and frustrations) of the massively multiplayer online worlds. Like many influential products, he didn’t invent as much as refining and refining, from how players meet and socialize online to how to populate big digital worlds with satisfying things to do. It was one of the first games to represent a land mass that seemed “real” and unlocked, allowing players to run across the continent in their fictional Azeroth without seeing a loading screen. He also destigmatized and normalized online games by revealing, over time, that his millions of players (around 12 million at its peak in 2010) were no different from non-players. The massive revenues generated over the years have also prompted legions of game designers to try to create similar online gaming zones.

19. The Oregon Trail


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“You died of dysentery.” The famous Oregon Trail final destination proclamation was only part of the software’s brutal charm. As a simulation of the westward expansion of the strategy of choosing your own adventure and the game of hunting to survive, it was rudimentary. But in part because it was originally developed in 1971 by three student teachers from Carleton College in Minnesota as an educational tool, The Oregon Trail found captive and willing audiences in thousands of classrooms across the country equipped with Apple II computers in the 80s. There he helped initiate an entire generation (several, in fact) to video games.

18. Super Mario Bros.


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We are in 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System invaded the American living rooms, and the brothers Mario and Luigi are raging in the kingdom of mushrooms. They trample on goombas, gut winged turtles, hit blocks of question marks and throw fireballs, as if it were normal plumber behavior. (Obviously, drugs from the 1970s worked.) Strange as it sounds, side scrolling is just as incredibly fun to play today as it was three decades ago. And due to Mario’s continued operation, this quintessential platform game has made the NES a fixture, Mario a beloved game franchise, and Nintendo a household name. Talk about grabbing the flag.

17. The Legend of Zelda


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Sure, there’s an undeniable nostalgia associated with this 1986 NES classic, but there is no doubt about the fascination of playing the original Zelda. Mixing evolving weapons with a (then) sprawling map and pretty cool puzzles, Link’s original adventure provided a different experience than anything console gamers had ever experienced. Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary game designer, decided to create a world that looked like a “miniature garden that [players] can put in their drawers”. And thanks to the cartridge’s ability to save games (the first console title to offer this option), they could do just that. Instead of working hard to beat Zelda in a single session, players could follow him, scrutinizing every corner of Hyrule in his spare time, an obsession that continues throughout 18 games (and counts) in this historic series.

16. Minecraft


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The independent racing car from the Swedish studio Mojang from the blue turns out to be this rare example of a game whose title perfectly sums up your game: you extract things, then you create them. In its simplest form, Minecraft is an exercise generated in a procedural way to reorganize information, all these cubes of earth, rocks and minerals scattered in landscapes torn from computers of the 1980s, in recognizable objects, structures and mechanisms . Or in other words: a spreadsheet part, a Bonsai pruning part. Since its launch in November 2011, it has sold more than 100 million copies, colonized almost all computer platforms, generated a personalized “educational edition” designed for classrooms and inspired by exploits of insane grandeur, like this attempt to model huge portions of the song. Ice and fire by George RR Martin. Has there ever been a game as shocking as this one.

15. Ms. Pac-Man


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The Mrs.” Maybe she debuted as an imitation of the original arcade cabinet, but she has a lot more movement than her husband. An unlicensed modification of Pac-Man from the 1980s, this 1982 game was originally called “Crazy Otto”, until the developers sold it to Midway, who called it Ms. Pac-Man to attract gamers. . But Ms. Pac-Man did much more than launch an already popular game. With four mazes (compared to Pac-Man’s), smarter ghosts, and moving fruit bonuses, the original is quickly obsolete. The fact that it’s always fun to play puts it high on this list. Admit it: If you come across a Ms. Pac-Man cabinet in the wild, you would throw away a quarter. Hell, you probably would have to queue.

14. Doom


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Quick, name your favorite modern shooter in the first person. Maybe it’s Call of Duty, or Halo, or Counter-Strike. All of these games, and dozens, if not hundreds, of others have a huge debt to Doom. The 1993 classic id software developer pits an unnamed marine space against the forces of hell, plunging players into a high-intensity battle for Earth. Another credential, Wolfenstein 3D, may have arrived a year earlier. But Doom has become a real phenomenon, introducing millions of players to what has become the foundation of the genre, from frantic multiplayer deathmatches to player-led mods that can completely alter or change the look of a game.

13. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time


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Link’s longtime Nintendo 64 odyssey, starring with pointy ears and green pants, via a vast and exquisite three-dimensional version of Hyrule, regularly appears at the top of the “best” game lists for various reasons. . His approach to allowing gamers to explore a 3D world was so consummate and sublime that it was less like Shoehorning Nintendo’s Eureka concepts in a new paradigm, than the paradigm that bends to Nintendo’s whims. Its mechanical puzzles, smart zone and dungeon levels, and its revolutionary interface, we can thank Nintendo for the intuitive blocking objective that preserves our freedom to perform other actions, they were so revolutionary that they are revered by little almost all designers, which it led some to call the game a “traveling patent office.”

12. Super Mario 64


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Mario’s shenanigans, breaking the brick, breaking Goomba were enough to hypnotize players around the world in idiosyncratic Super Mario Bros games. But Super Mario 64 from 1996 transported Nintendo fans to the Mario world like no other game in the series, while also establishing the grammar on how to interact with the 3D worlds (and in his case, divinely insane). With over 11 million copies sold, it was one of the best-selling games for the Nintendo 64, but its real impact was possibly off-platform, where it tectonically changed the design imperatives of an entire game. industry. As Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar and co-founder of Grand Theft Auto V, said: “Anyone who creates 3D games and says they didn’t borrow anything from Mario or Zelda [on Nintendo 64] is lie.”

11. Counter-Strike


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If you’ve ever had a hard time realizing that eSports will become a billion-dollar industry by the end of the decade, spend half an hour watching world-class teams play Counter-Strike. Originally designed in 1999 as a modification of Half-Life, Counter-Strike and its modern incarnations are among the best sports electronic games in the world. Players are divided into two teams, “terrorists” and “anti-terrorists,” then the first tries to bombard a target or kidnap hostages while the second tries to stop them. Watching the world’s best Counter-Strike players is often more fun than playing it yourself, hence the rise of game streaming sites like Twitch, acquired by Amazon in 2014 on a contract of around a billion dollars.

10. Quake


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Where Doom first popularized the first-person shooter, 1996’s Quake changed the genre to a more spatially plausible, performance-hungry 3D world. The single player campaign, again pitting players against the forces of evil (albeit with a Lovecraftian twist) is perfectly fine. But Quake’s real contribution has been to close the lid on multiplayer combat. Thanks in part to faster internet connections, Quake players, who have formed like-minded ballistic tactics “clans,” have been able to find opponents to death on the web. And the game’s new fully polygonal engine has made techniques such a rabbit jump (constant jump to avoid enemy fire) and rocket jump (using a rocket launcher to propel you) towards advantageous positions).

9. SimCity 2000


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By no means the first urban builder, SimCity 2000 has certainly influenced all those who have succeeded. The 1994 game found an almost perfect balance between the ins and outs of managing a (virtual) metropolis. Graphics showing the corner view of each building, bridge, road, hill and valley made the series more real. And the constant chatter from political advisers, as well as comments from the local newspaper, the forerunners of modern notifications, made the roles of mayors particularly realistic.

8. Final Fantasy VI


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Super Nintendo players have known Final Fantasy VI as Final Fantasy III for years after its release in 1994, because no one expected this Japanese series to become so popular in the United States as II and III originals are located and the series returns. be numbered. What made Final Fantasy VI one of the examples, not only of RPGs, but of the genre in general, is how perfectly it synthesized so many different tangents: battles in real time, magical creatures that grant magic, indelible characters, parties … exchanges, heartbreaking twists and turns, an unforgettable villain villain, a four-minute opera and its witty inflection of dark steampunk fantasy.

7. Sid Meier’s Civilization IV


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History enthusiast Sid Meier had played and admired both SimCity from Maxis and Populous from Bullfrog when he decided to design something bigger that would mix war, exploration, diplomacy, city building and elements of political philosophy. Civilization of 1991 published an epic series of highly regarded and appreciated turn-based strategy in which players lead a Stone Age society into the distant future. Civilization IV, released in 2005, was the crowning achievement of the series and universally acclaimed for its many innovations, from its 3D graphics to its greatly improved artificial intelligence. It is arguably the best strategy game ever, and it remains a benchmark design for developers today.

6: Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec


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Like Microsoft Flight Simulator for the genre of flight simulation, also the Gran Turismo series from Polyphony Digital for hi-fi motor sports. Of all the Gran Turismo games, 2001 Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec for PlayStation 2 continues to be the pinnacle of the series, a wildly ambitious encyclopedia of vehicles modeled with love and views that surpass the wildest fantasies. It was a racing game to rule everyone, which on its surface promised countless championship events framed by extremely realistic physics and minutely reproduced visuals, but also aimed at the big monkeys on the sofa, who could spend hours tuning and then yawning at its fall. beautiful dead rides.

5. Super Smash Bros.


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Since the original release of Nintendo 64 in 1999, Super Smash Bros. games have become a no-brainer for Nintendo fans. Borrowing from the stable of iconic Nintendo characters, the game has introduced something radical to the fighting genre: instead of beating your opponents’ adversaries until they retire, you essentially play an elaborate variant of King of the Hill, trying to knock your enemies off the platforms at some point. Additionally, players were able to move freely through the stages, expanding the canvas on which the spankings were armed. And unlike other fighters that require players to memorize arcane button combos to execute a character’s special maneuvers, Super Smash Bros. uses the same button template for everyone, making collecting easy. and master the best way to synthesize all of the above.

4. Call of Duty 2


The 50 Best Video Games of All TimeThe 50 Best Video Games of All Time


The Call of Duty franchise epitomizes everything a modern first-person shooter should be: a game with a compelling story-based single player campaign in multiplayer mode that can steal hours of your life. The newer incarnations are, of course, more complex and prettier. But they owe a big debt to Call of Duty 2, which took over in 2005, which made the original title excellent and doubled. Large cinematic images gave players an idea of ​​scope, while realism (fallen soldiers sometimes tried in vain to crawl for safety) brought home the horrors of war. Iron sights on weapons have made him a favorite with ultra-precise PC gamers.

3. BioShock


The 50 Best Video Games of All TimeThe 50 Best Video Games of All Time


BioShock’s captivating metaphysical intrigue, exaggerated levels of art deco, and the motley cast of eerily mixed characters blend to provide an experience as fascinating and at the same time unsettling that fueled (then perfectly reasonable) conversations about games as more than amusements fed with dopamine. Studio Irrational Games’ 2007 first-person shooter takes the player on an imaginary journey through the fictional underwater city of Rapture, built by industrial fanatic Andrew Ryan (whose name refers to the novelist and objectivist). self-proclaimed Ayn Rand of Atlas Shrugged). The game has set new standards for video games on many levels, from its horrible forms of self-augmentation, to its ecology of enemy intersectional behavior, and its sublime ways of channeling what amounted to a withered deconstruction of extremist modes of thought.

2. ESPN NFL 2K5


The 50 Best Video Games of All TimeThe 50 Best Video Games of All Time


Sorry Madden NFL fans, true football fans know this is the best grill game. Launched in 2004 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, ESPN NFL 2K5 introduced an exceptional method of franchise building and live talent in-game from the eponymous sports network. It also marked a watershed moment in the sports gaming tradition: Publisher Sega valued the game at just $ 19.99, a fraction of what EA was charging for Madden NFL at the time. A frightened EA regained the exclusive rights to the NFL and its players, making Madden the only name in the city.

1. Tetris


The 50 Best Video Games of All TimeThe 50 Best Video Games of All Time


Designed by a Russian computer scientist, mass distributed by a Japanese company, and eaten by gamers, casual or compulsive, from around the world, Tetris has been a worldwide phenomenon since its arrival in 1984. In 1989, Nintendo created the legendary puzzle. of chips on NES and Game Boy, where he catapulted the latter to dazzling success. Since then, it has been available on almost every platform, a testament to our endless zeal for stacking blocks. Addictive as it is, Tetris also appears to have modest health benefits, such as controlling cravings and preventing PTSD. Enthusiasts will likely bow their heads and notice how meditative a session in the high-scoring area can be. And speaking of Zen, the game has also generated its share of life lessons, including this apocryphal truism: “If Tetris taught me something, it’s because mistakes accumulate and achievements disappear.”

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