It’s a daunting task, curating and ranking the 100 best video games of all time. There are a lot of video games – maybe too many – and lots of them deserve to be put on a pedestal. Shooting games, racing games, story-based games, horror games, indie games, RPGs… Trying to capture the breadth of the entire industry is like trying to catch a fly. With your tongue. When you’re a human and not a frog. But by God, we’re going to do it.
We’ve batted games back and forth across the entire GLHF team, voting and voting until we settled on a shortlist, then voting again to figure out each game’s placement. None of us are talking to each other anymore and we all hate how it turned out, but it was worth it.
There is one caveat to this list, however: If your personal favorite game isn’t here, that’s because it’s at number 102. Why not 101? Because we had to fire someone for constantly suggesting that Octopath Traveler made the list.
Anyway, forget that guy. Let’s dive in…
It unfortunately has a reputation for being “cringe” now and that often overrides the fact that Among Us is one of the best social deduction video games ever made. This is one of the few games that perfectly captures the tense joy of board games like Blood on the Clocktower or Werewolf, and adds to it in a way only video games can. Things like Gmod Trouble in Terrorist Town may use it to some degree, but the focus is still on the shooting rather than mystery solving. Among Us keeps the focus on those heated debates that take the entire room through their own personal murder-mystery as you get closer and closer to finding the truth.
“I wanna take you for a ride,” Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s character select screen screamed at us while we decided whether we preferred Felicia’s claws to Wolverine’s. We take it for granted now, but Marvel vs. Capcom 2 cemented the Capcom vs series playstyle, with characters from different franchises swapping out and using assist attacks. It looks chaotic, but it works wonderfully, and has since inspired titles like Dragon Ball FighterZ. Please Capcom, remaster this with rollback netcode for the new generation.
The evolution of the Total War series has changed a lot of aspects over the years, and thanks to the diverse historical eras in which the titles are set, there is now something for everyone – even fantasy fans get their money’s worth with the Warhammer trilogy. Medieval 2, however, is particularly memorable. There’s just something special about colorful armies of knights, armor shining in the sun, charging and clashing together, holding the walls of Constantinople against hordes of Mongol invaders, and finally being able to wipe out those treasonous rats in Milan because the Pope excommunicated you anyway. Do we need to educate you on what an antipope is, old man?
Remember when military shooters didn’t all look the same? Ah, the good old days. We may not have been able to go prone, but that doesn’t matter when you can strap C4 to a jetski and pull off a kamikaze run. It’s rare to have a match in Bad Company 2 where you don’t shout, “My god, did you see that?” over your mic. Destruction and map design were at their peak in DICE’s best multiplayer sandbox. The Vietnam-flavored multiplayer expansion and a Three Kings-esque story campaign were a delicious topping on a belly-busting dessert.
Remedy’s third-person shooter sequel was way ahead of its time. The first Max Payne might have introduced the world to slow-motion bullet dodging, coming hot on the heels of The Matrix doing the same for moviegoers, but Max Payne 2 is the morphine to the first game’s paracetamol. It was one of the first games of the era to physically simulate the enemies and environments, leading to proper action movie shootouts where shelves topple, spilling their contents onto the floor, walls chip, and bodies jerk as you pump hot rounds into soft flesh.
While ‘Mega Man-like’ is not a phrase, the series created a genre all of its own: the too-tough 2D platformer. Well-loved games such as Shovel Knight, Super Meat Boy, and Celeste all took inspiration from this NES original, with its powerful ‘just one more try’ gameplay loop. Mega Man 2 stands out as one of the best in the series, despite the difficulty, with some of the best weapon types, bosses, and level design these games have to offer. The Legacy Collection offers all of the Mega Man games with a life-saving ‘save state’ option, which lets everyone have the chance at experiencing Mega Man’s greatness without tearing their hair out.
A lot of games are about saving the world, being the hero, doing the right thing. Yawn. Crusader Kings 3 lets you live out your greatest and most perverse power fantasies; betray your best friends, murder your family to get that manor you’ve always wanted – no, always deserved! No two runs are the same, because chance always influences history. Set a goal and then do everything in your power to achieve it. Don’t worry about consequences – after all, once you’ve established your own religion, you can simply absolve yourself. Crusader Kings 3 makes Game of Thrones look like kindergarten – and it’s glorious!
Trying to explain to your friends what you’re doing when you’re playing The Binding of Isaac will only be met with a shocked expression. You play as a baby who has been abused by his Evangelical Christian Mom, who escapes through the basement tunneling into the abyss in order to return to his Mother’s womb and cry her heart to death. It’s a lot. We know. But while the story is a little on the wacky side, the gameplay is perfectly balanced. As a roguelike, you’ll need to play it dozens of times before you get a single ending, and there are so many new upgrades, bosses, and endings to unlock that even the most seasoned players come back for more. One to play as you cry yourself to sleep.
Pinpointing exactly why Fortnite became the juggernaut it did is difficult. It didn’t innovate the battle royale genre, and PUBG beat it to the punch of popularising it. So what caused it to explode as it did? Well, the fact it was free definitely plays a part, but there’s an unapologetic sense of fun that almost every other battle royale shies away from. Where PUBG tries to focus on gritty military realism, Fortnite just wants to mess about and have a good time, and that lets it play around with whacky weapons and items like no other game. Plus, now it’s such an industry giant, it can bring in huge crossover events. It doesn’t matter what game you’re playing, unleashing a Kamehameha on someone coming at you with a Lightsaber is a cool experience.
There are few games as influential as the original Modern Warfare, for better and for worse. This game is the sole reason we spent years stacking up behind AI, waiting for them to kick a door in for us. But while the series is often remembered for its prescriptive ‘Simon Says’ gameplay, this one found the perfect balance between spectacle and player agency. There’s a reason All Ghillied Up, a mission where you creep through Chornobyl with a sniper rifle, is so fondly remembered – it gives you room to make mistakes and react to them, rather than failing you for not doing as you’re told. And it’s not even a single standout in an otherwise bad game. Another mission, Death from Above, painted modern war as it often is: detached and cold, waged by an unseen hand.
A handful of games deal with the aftereffects of trauma and how it impacts a person’s life, but few have done it with as clever a concept as Firewatch. After a traumatic event, our protagonist starts his life again in the American wilderness as a fire lookout, his only other contact a voice on the end of a radio. The pair form a genuine connection despite their distance. At times, Firewatch threatens to morph into another game entirely – using the paranoia of the protagonist’s isolation and the expectations of the audience to create a kind of simmering dread – but to say more would spoil the experience.
Hideki Kamiya’s accidental masterpiece, Devil May Cry, practically invented the character action genre, and Devil May Cry 3 was when the formula was finally perfected. Devil May Cry 3 is the game that turned the series into a juggernaut that has fans screaming when a new entry is revealed. Dante’s gunslinging and brawling looked and felt incredible, and this just might be the very best game in the series.
Streets of Rage comes from an era where the arcade was king and limited lives were needed to extend the length of a game. However, the limitations of this led to tight and precise controls which are easy to play with, but difficult to master. The main thing that makes this side-scrolling brawler stand out in an era of similar games is not only the masterful soundtrack and special moves that cost health to deal big damage, but just how well the co-op worked. Balancing who got the next health drop and which side of the screen to stand made this the must play co-op game before Overcooked even gathered the raw ingredients.
Klei is one of the most consistent game developers in the business. The studio, without missing a beat, jumps from genre to genre like it’s nothing. With Invisible Inc, Klei tackles turn-based strategy, but with a twist. Rather than flanking and shooting enemies as a squad of soldiers, you take control of a couple of spies and attempt some crafty corporate espionage. Every mission is against the clock, and you use a range of skills to bypass security, steal documents, and escape. If it devolves into a firefight, you’ve messed up. There are a lot of great turn-based strategy games, but none have the same purity of vision as this.
Often remembered for its use of, at the time, next-gen technology – hundreds of zombies on-screen at once! – Dead Rising actually has a lot more going for it. In it, you play as journalist Frank West, who’s investigating a zombie outbreak at a local mall. It’s as if someone took Dawn of the Dead and kicked it through an anime convention. Combat is nothing special, but the fact every single object in the game can be used as a weapon elevates the action. West being a journalist is also a key mechanic, and you’re encouraged to take increasingly absurd photographs. Capture certain behavior, specific groups, as well as horror and comedy shots for a higher score, but don’t hang around too long – the action here plays out in real-time. That’s the thing the series forgot as it went on, that time restriction, which is a shame because that’s what made it special. You can’t save every survivor. You can’t see everything there is to see in a single playthrough. It’s almost Hitman-esque in its simulation of a place – a world that goes on with or without you – giving it near-endless replayability.
At least one person reading this will be saying, “Erm, actually, Arkham Asylum is the best Batman game.” And that’s fine – we’re all wrong sometimes. But go back and play Asylum now, and ideally, play Knight straight after. It’s a huge jump in quality. Sure, some of the Batmobile platforming sections are a bit naff, but it’s the full Batman experience, not just, you know, Batman walking around a prison. People tend to forget all the quality of life features here, such as allowing you to hit enemies who are on the floor without locking yourself into an animation that leaves you open to attacks. Then there’s the quality of the side missions, from hunting a serial killer to coming face to face with a flying Manbat. Mechanically, this was the template for Marvel’s Spider-Man, but Sony’s game missed the mark when it came to the activities you actually do out in the world.
People were skeptical when Bethesda set out to bring Fallout back, leaving behind the isometric view of the old games in favor of a first-person viewpoint, but that’s the thing about people: they’re often wrong. Bethesda took the template of The Elder Scrolls games and applied it to Fallout’s post-apocalypse America, swapping mudcrabs for irradiated molerats and caves for nuclear shelters. That moment where you leave the vault and emerge into the world likely still occupies some recess of your mind. Part of what makes Fallout 3 work so well is how barren it is. There are long stretches where you’re on the road, slurping toilet water to survive, and it’s those moments that make the big decisions – do you want to nuke an entire town to get a posh apartment or no? – all the more impactful.
Genshin Impact offers hundreds of hours of exploration of a beautiful open world, a compelling story with civilization-shattering drama and divine twists, intriguing characters, a supremely satisfying combat system with seven different elements interacting with each other, and rich updates on such a stringent schedule and of such high quality that it humbles other developers. Oh, and all this available completely free on every platform, including mobile – the wizards at Hoyoverse could probably get the game to run on your toaster.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory gave stealth games a real sense of weight, and we’re not just talking about the weight of your decisions. Everything in the world felt grounded, every kill or incapacitation felt functional and raw – the kind of thing you’d see a real special operative actually do out in the field. Palm meet jaw. Goodnight. Combat was always secondary, progress was slow, lights needed to be shot out, and every single door needed a fiber optic camera shoving under it before entering a new room. Then there’s the co-op campaign, which featured entirely new levels, a fresh story, and challenges tailored to suit two players. There’s nothing quite like whistling a guard over as your friend dangles from a pipe and wraps their legs around their neck. It helped that it was one of the best-looking games of its time, too. We just don’t see darkness used like this anymore, do we?
Often forgotten due to its original home on the Sega Dreamcast, Skies of Arcadia is a JRPG like no other. As part of a group of sky pirates, the entire adventure sees you making key discoveries about the world – new continents, anomalies, and even the fact that the world is a sphere. It made you feel like a real adventurer. When you’re not soaring through the skies on a flying galleon, there’s plenty of traditional turn-based combat in dungeons, towns to explore, and characters to meet. On top of all that? Ship-to-ship combat that takes into account every single upgrade and tweak of your flying base.
Multiplayer shooters seemed impossible to completely get right on console at the time, but with a few cheeky assists programmed in from the team at Rareware, Goldeneye 007, also known as Goldeneye 64, managed to become the first essential shooter. Yes, the campaign was fine and good, but competing to play as Oddjob as you race around stages shooting your friends was phenomenal. You probably shouldn’t play it now, seeing as it’s rapidly approaching 30 years old, but the impact it made on the industry can’t be understated.
Arguably, a lot of modern games wouldn’t have even happened without Deus Ex paving the way. Where most games of the time were beholden to a single genre, Deus Ex managed to blend RPG with stealth game with a first-person shooter, creating a genre-blended masterpiece where player expression is paramount. Sure, it didn’t have the gunfeel of the shooters of the time, and its stealth mechanics weren’t as in-depth as Thief, but it made up for it in sheer ambition. If you’re wondering why so many shooters have character statistics and leveling up these days, Deus Ex is the reason.
The series might not have become a behemoth until Skyrim, but Morrowind is actually a far more interesting game – Skyrim without the rough edges sanded down, freedom with very few bounds. In Morrowind, you can mess up your entire playthrough by killing a key character, but it doesn’t matter – these games are more than just their main quests. You never truly finish them. Then there are the magic and alchemy systems which, if you knew what you were doing, could be abused to create potions that allow you to leap and fly across the entire map. There’s also something about Morrowind’s idea of public transport that’s still novel, with its gangly silt strider creatures hanging around at bus stops adding intentionality to every journey you take.
There are a lot of survival games these days, but there’s only one Subnautica. Not a single tree to punch in sight – just an alien ocean, your escape pod, and a crashed ship that’s slowly leaking radioactive muck into the sea. Best hurry up and suck some fresh water out of a bladderfish, then. Outside of its unique setting, Subnautica stands above most other survival games because it has a proper story, a real mystery that pulls you through. Every time you delve that little bit deeper, you uncover some kind of secret about the planet you’re stranded on. Oh, and there are hulking leviathans that can crush your jury-rigged submarines like a tin of beans.
Card games aren’t for everyone, but Slay the Spire will get its hooks in you whether you like them or not. A combat-based roguelite, you battle your way through dungeons, unlock cards, and grow in power until you can finally defeat the boss at the end. It sounds simple, but there’s so much flexibility in how your decks can synergize that it’s almost impossible to have ‘just one more go’. It helps that each of the characters you can control has a completely different combat style, giving you another excuse to jump back in for a final attempt. What’s that – the entire day has gone? Oh.
While definitely not the first MMO to make it big (Ultima and Everquest say hi!), World of Warcraft took the MMO experience and distilled it down into a more user-friendly package. Eliminating experience loss on death and adding more user-friendly features well before other MMOs could catch up allowed WoW to experience several years of unchecked popularity (until Final Fantasy XIV came along, that is.) For the Horde!
Where most horror games are content with scaring you, Silent Hill lingers long in the memory just as much for its capacity to make you sad. It’s an unflinching portrayal of depression and psychological trauma, and its home on the PlayStation 2, which required ample use of fog to hide rendering limitations, means it’s still as atmospheric today as it was at launch. This isn’t a game about redemption, it’s about coming to terms with your guilt.
Booting up Wii Sports meets you with a jingle. If you know, you know, and you just heard it in your head. That’s the power of Wii Sports. It took the world by storm, every generation, and had them logging in daily to track their skills and scores online, in addition to those fights against grandma. Sure, it destroyed a fair few televisions back in the day, but it was worth it.
The best battle royale game around thanks to its slick movement, punchy gunfeel, and high skill ceiling. From the nuances of the doors of Apex Legends to the character skills, weapon differences, and map rotations, there’s a lot to learn if you want to get competitive, but there are few games that provide the same euphoria as winning a tense battle in the final zone.
Uncharted 4 might be mechanically superior, but this was the game that really put Naughty Dog on the map. The first Uncharted was a fun enough take on Tomb Raider-style gameplay, but Uncharted 2 cemented the series as its own thing, introducing the more bombastic set pieces it became known for. It’s telling that Lara Croft quickly became a Nathan Drake wannabe after this. Still one of the best train levels ever, too.
Isn’t it wild how you can take two things you don’t like, combine them, and create something brilliant? Marmite on its own? No. Marmite with butter, on toast? Hell to the yes. Soccer? No. Soccer in rocket-powered cars? Now we’re talking. Rocket League is perhaps the purest esport game around. Two teams face off across a pitch, driving, jumping, spinning, and rocket boosting in an attempt to score goals with a giant ball. Simple on the surface, but just you wait until you see a competent player drive on the ceiling before launching off to land a perfect mid-air volley.
“You know what would make chess better? If the pieces on one side were mechs and the pieces on the other side were overgrown bugs.” This was probably the pitch meeting for Into the Breach, a turn-based strategy game where you can punch kaiju through mountains.
A wordless adventure game where your only objective it to reach the summit of a mountain, what actually makes this game special is the, you know, journey it takes you on. It’s essentially a linear path from start to finish, but the adventure feels unique to you because of its subtle multiplayer component. This sees you bump into other wanderers who are on the same path as you, and those interactions are what make this a trip to remember. There’s an entire community of players who, having mastered the game, hang out among the dunes, waiting for new players to come along so they can show them all the game’s secrets.
There’s no overstating what an incredible achievement Final Fantasy 14 is. Back in 2010, it nearly put Square Enix out of business and was the go-to example of how not to launch an MMORPG. All these years later, Final Fantasy 14 represents everything that makes this series great. Whether you are wearily trudging across Heavensward’s snow-covered peaks or staring down the embodiment of nihilism in Endwalker, nearly every storyline culminates in a staggeringly satisfying way. Final Fantasy 14 puts most single-player RPGs to shame in that regard, let alone any MMORPG peers. Throat-punching deities with your actual friends is practically an added benefit. Did we mention there’s a free trial up to level 60? They say it’s critically acclaimed too.
It’s been a busy few years for timeloop games, but none have done it quite like Outer Wilds. You’re an alien astronaut who’s tasked with heading into the solar system on a mission of discovery. Little do you know, the sun is about to go supernova and wipe out every trace of life. When it happens and you go full crispy mode, you’re back on your home planet, waiting to go into space again. Against the clock, you have to make a series of discoveries, each one more mind-blowing and mysterious than the last. There’s nothing else like this in video games.
The Final Fantasy series might get most of the love when people reminisce about PlayStation-era JRPGs, but Suikoden is a forgotten masterpiece. A simple story of two friends who end up on opposite sides of a war, Suikoden 2 stands out because of its sheer variety and ambition. Over 100 characters to recruit, a base to build up, minigames to complete, battles to fight, duels to win, and even a strategy game layer where you command entire armies. It’s a shame Konami has sat on this series for so long.
The Metroid series laid dormant for far too long. After a mere teaser of the word “Dread” included in 2002’s Metroid Fusion, the 2D franchise didn’t receive another new entry for just shy of 20 years. This could’ve massively disappointed thousands of eager fans, but it didn’t. Metroid Dread looks incredible, plays fluidly, and while it may retread old Metroid trappings a bit too often, it does so in a way to please the fans exclusively. Even if Metroid Dread is the first game in the series you play, you’ll enjoy every moment.
If it’s not impressive enough that Toby Fox created every part of a game, from the coding down to a soundtrack that is so potent it invaded every aspect of pop culture, it’s impressive that the game also happens to be Undertale. Every single aspect of Undertale works in harmony while being jarring at the same time. The nuanced humor balances with consistent fourth-wall breaks, and a touching story about friendship in a genre known for its fights. Undertale will make you question what makes a good RPG (and person) while also breaking your heart.
The only thing better than one Kirby game is eight Kirby games all tied together in a neat little bow. Kirby Super Star is often thought of as the best game in the franchise because it offered fans the option of what kind of Kirby they wanted to play, while also offering up two-player co-op. The great cave offensive is many players’ personal highlight, as it offered a Metroidvania-style Kirby game we had never seen before. Kirby Super Star paved the way for more modern games, such as the recent Forgotten Land with its high variety of gameplay styles. If you are ever in the mood to see why Kirby became such an enduring series, this game will give you the crib notes.
It takes guts to mess with a series formula you’ve established over decades, but Capcom proved that it can pay off with Resident Evil 7. The company that popularized the survival horror genre showed that there’s still room for evolution, changing to a first-person perspective and introducing a whole new threat to the series. The Bakers are some of the most menacing antagonists in video games, from the patriarch who stomps after you like the goddamn Terminator to the grandma who’s got the hives (wasp hives, that is), the new perspective brings these fresh horrors up close and personal without negatively impacting what a survival horror game is. Play it in VR to truly poop your pants.
Despite being a tiny game made with a tiny budget on a handheld console, not only has Ace Attorney endured through the years, it has created some of the most recognisable gaming iconography. Even if you haven’t played one of these games, you’ve probably shouted “Objection!” with an overly dramatic point at least once in your life. The overwhelming personality and charm in every character elevates what should be “just” a visual novel into a grandiose dramatic experience for the ages. It’s over the top by design, and that imprints every big moment into your memory forever.
The Assassin’s Creed series is a strange beast. It found a formula that worked and stuck with it for years – to the point of becoming stale – before suddenly exploding into a fully-fledged RPG series out of nowhere. Then, in the middle of all that, you’ve got this absolute blast of a pirate adventure. Sailing the Caribbean sea as your crew sings shanties long into the night is one of those experience that just feels right. Then when the action kicks off you’ve got some of the best boat vs boat combat ever seen in games. Each fight sowly ramps up the tension as you blast away at each other, using a huge variety of tools to send your foes to Davey Jones’ locker.
Scream about this being cheating all you want, but name two games that are more intrinsically bound together than these. We’ll wait. The Last of Us Part 2 is the better game by far – more open, better combat, improved AI, and smart stealth – but it wouldn’t work without the first game, which itself set the bar for every PlayStation exclusive that followed. Cinematic, great performances, characters you care about, and terrifying mushroom men – what more could you ask for? Oh yeah, a GOAT soundtrack. Sold.
There are so many Metroidvanias in video games – indies love making them – but Ori is easily one of the best of them all. Razor sharp platforming, a Disney-quality art style, and a story that manages to pull on your heartstrings without muttering a single word, it’s not just one of the best indie games ever made, it’s one of the best Xbox exclusives of all time.
Arguably the most influential stealth game ever made. Without it, would we have Alien Isolation, Far Cry, Deus Ex, and essentially any first-person games with stealth elements? It’s doubtful. During development, the team at Looking Glass used submarines as inspiration for the stealth mechanics of Thief – there you are, waiting in the dark for that perfect moment, the right time to expose yourself. Only, there aren’t any torpedoes here. Just fast hands, water arrows, and a blackjack melee weapon for knocking out guards. It’s a shame we don’t see games use light and shadow like this anymore. The grandfather of modern stealth games is still worth playing in 2022.
This was the essential Xbox RPG. Fable put Peter Molyneux and the team at Lionhead Studios on the map, and not for the first time. Fable may not have fully lived up to all of the promises that were made on the run-up to launch, but the end result was an incredible tale that is a favorite for many gamers. Even now the idea of Fable IV has fans salivating. A trailer would be nice to see by the way, Microsoft.
A game where you check and compare ID and paperwork at a Soviet era border control doesn’t sound the most exciting, but with every error made, the life of you and your family hangs in the balance. Do you let in a man with the right paperwork, even though you know he’s trafficking people? Do you align yourself with the rebellion against the government, even though you could get murdered in the process? There are no right or wrong answers. Papers, Please leaves it all up to your judgment, and that’s what hurts the most.
Hotline Miami is a puzzle-based rhythm game. You don’t believe me? Just try playing it with the sound off and see your strategy fall apart. It gives you a top down perspective on your masked assassin and a mission to take out the target somewhere in a sprawling floor plan. You are only human, and while restarting is quick, one shot and you’re done for. The trick to getting that perfect run is to try and try again. Sidestepping vicious dogs and armed guards who will shoot you through the windows keeps you on your toes while you peep through doors and slaughter those curious enough to see what’s up.
Warcraft 3 continued a series of great real-time strategy games from Blizzard Entertainment and brought a lot of innovation to the genre that, in retrospect, may have led to its downfall: Heroes changed RTS games forever. Between its four races – humans, night elves, orcs and undead – the balance wasn’t always there, but for those who needed a break from the heated and micromanagement-focused multiplayer battles, the game offered an exciting campaign – how could you, Arthas? – and thousands of player-created custom games. These are arguably the game’s greatest legacy, as Warcraft 3’s custom lobbies popularized DotA, paving the way for the entire MOBA genre. It also spawned many tower defense variants that are now on the market as standalone titles. Warcraft 3 not only had an impact as a game and as an esports title, but also as a tool for creativity thanks to its easy-to-use and yet powerful map editor.
Need for Speed: Underground 2 is a bit like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in the sense that it managed to define the music tastes of a generation. Skindred’s Nobody is an undisputed banger, and this was the first place many would hear of it. What about Riders on the Storm, with Snoop Dogg and The Doors? GOAT track, honestly. Oh yeah, there was also a bunch of fast cars, and “open-world” exploration mode, and it capitalized on the Pimp My Ride car modification scene of the time. Spinners in the rims? Dated, but hard not to love.
If we were to teach boss design, we would make all of our students play the Mantis boss fight from Hollow Knight. It’s the perfect mix of introducing players to the mechanics of a fight, before cranking the difficulty up. The reward? You earn the Mantis’ respect, meaning they will never hunt you down again. The precision of this fight is one of the many things that makes Hollow Knight so great. Then there’s the vast world, the multiple pathways to the end, the additional bosses, the multiple endings, and the charming characters you meet along the way. We hope you’re not scared of bugs as this is a must-play.
“XCOM, XCOM, you’re my XCOM; I tuck up into cover and I shoot an alien.” – Tom Jones. XCOM positions you as the commander of the human resistance, fighting back against an increasingly hostile alien threat. You command your troops in turn-based battles and fill out your subterranean base between missions, researching and developing new tech to bring down the invaders. Through leveling up, XCOM builds a bond between you and your favorite soldiers, then unceremoniously rips them away when a mission goes to hell. Strategy game nirvana.
It’s been almost a year since we last played Deathloop, but we’re still singing ‘The Revenant’ from its original soundtrack in our heads. Deathloop oozes style, like a catwalk model driving a Lexus. In it, you take control of Colt, an amnesiac who’s trapped in a timeloop – a never-ending party at the end of the world. To escape, he has to take out a series of targets in a single day. In the usual Arkane Studios style, you’re free to approach every object in a variety of creative ways: hacking open windows, creeping through tunnels, sniping, stabbing, and using an array of supernatural powers. From the swinging sixties decor to the Dark Souls-esque multiplayer invasions, Deathloop is one of the most inventive triple-A games ever created.
With Sid Meier’s Civilization, every strategy gamer knows what they’re getting into, even though the series has certainly evolved over the years. If you ask a number of long-time players, Civ 4 is the one everyone wishes the series would go back to. It is the last game in the turn-based series to rely on squares instead of hexagons to create its world, and thus enjoys the advantage of being the conclusion of a whole generation of Civ games that have all built on each other. Civ 4’s systems are complex and mesh perfectly to create the right depth and degree of challenge. Whether it’s the management of one’s empire, diplomacy or war, Civ 4 offered such a well-rounded overall package that even today you can spend hundreds of hours in it without getting tired.
Super Mario 64 didn’t just set the bar for platformers of the era, it set the standard for 3D games as a whole. The N64 analogue stick, the degree of control it gave you over Mario’s speed and direction, the sprawling open layout of the stages – this was all impossible on the older 2D consoles, and made Super Mario 64 something truly spectacular. Its influence is found throughout 3D games, and even today a floating camera perspective behind your character is the standard. Super Mario 64 is the game that cemented all of this in the language of game design, and its influence cannot be understated.
While creator Lucas Pope may prefer his former work – Papers, Please – people fell in love with Return of the Obra Dinn. A game where you play an insurance broker trying to figure out the payout for a boat’s crew following a tragic incident doesn’t sound all that exciting, but piecing together the clues as to just who is who and how they died is as thrilling as it is challenging. It’s hard to compare the feeling you get when the screen stops and tells you that you’ve mastered three more fates, slowly revealing the story through the snapshots of tragic deaths. A game like no other, worth it just for the unique experience.
Place any game from the Hitman trilogy here because they’re all masterpieces. We’ve gone for Hitman 3 because you can play Hitman and Hitman 2’s levels from the very same menu screen. You call it cheating, we call it winning. Every single level is an intricate clockwork piece, full of NPCs with routines and stories, and it’s up to you to insert yourself into those stories by stealing the clothes from their backs, approaching your target, and killing them in a variety of imaginative ways. If you’ve ever wondered why no other developer has copied Hitman, it’s because making a game like this is like trying to build a train track while driving a train.
In most respects, Link’s Awakening doesn’t represent the Zelda series all that well. There’s no Hyrule, Master Sword, Triforce, Ganondorf, or the princess we save in almost every other mainline entry. However, that strict adherence to going against tradition is what makes Link’s Awakening great. Director Takashi Tezuka claims that Twin Peaks was a massive inspiration, and it shows. Towns are rife with quirky NPCs that exude these eerie, dreamlike vibes. And the dungeon bosses? Goodness, gracious. They all loudly scream that you’re destroying everything upon defeat. Spine-chilling stuff, honestly. It’s one of the first games to make players question their ‘heroic’ actions.
Sonic 3 and Knuckles is a game so impressive in its scope that Sega had to split it into two connected cartridges to even get it on the Genesis. It was worth all the technical effort though as Sonic 3 and Knuckles continues to stand up as the most impressive Sonic game of all time. Not only does it have three playable characters for the first time, but it also has some of the best levels in the series. The Sonic and Knuckles cartridge could also be plugged into Sonic 2 and let you play as the nasty echidna in that game as well. Fast fun.
Another Super Mario game, why not? Super Mario Bros. 3 defined how all platformers should play going forward. We had the Fire Flower power up already, but Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced the Tanuki Suit, Frog Suit, Hammer Bro Suit, and much more. Even Sonic the Hedgehog picked up these lessons and implemented them into the power up dispensing destructible televisions found throughout the series. Plus, it plays amazingly, and introduced the overworld that helped make the Mushroom Kingdom feel more like a believable place. Gaming excellence.
To explain why Nier: Automata leaves such a huge impact on those who play it is difficult to put into just a few words. First of all, the gameplay is damn-near flawless. You’ll be hard pressed to find a hack and slash this weighty, complex, and satisfying this side of Devil May Cry. This carries one of the most meaningful stories ever produced, in any medium. It doesn’t just interrogate what it is to be human, plenty of media has done that. It drills deeper and makes you consider the very meaning of feeling an emotion, and how something that was designed to be emotionless can learn how to do it. It emotionally destroys you by beating you down in this depressing and hopeless world, yet still providing you with an optimistic outlook. It shouldn’t even be possible, but it’s a magical feeling.
Heroes of Might and Magic III came out in 1999 and reinvigorated the turn-based strategy genre, already losing ground to real-time games like StarCraft and Age of Empires. HoMM3 didn’t introduce any groundbreaking changes to the formula established by its two predecessors and forerunner King’s Bounty, as the gameplay didn’t need fixing at that point. Nevertheless, it was a quantum leap in terms of graphics and interface refinements compared to Heroes II and it significantly increased the number of heroes, monsters, skills and magic items available. These improvements to an already intriguing mix of a 4x game with addictive gameplay and some light RPG elements were enough to earn Heroes III rave reviews and guaranteed hours of local multiplayer fun in its signature hot seat mode. The game and its expansions, Armageddon’s Blade and The Shadow of Death, spawned a cult following with a dedicated modding community that continues to release fully-featured unofficial expansions that completely revamp the base game, for better or worse. Heroes of Might and Magic III is still widely considered the high point in the series, even after four mainline releases plus the latest King’s Bounty II from 2021, and the Heroes III Complete edition with the fan-made HoMM 3 HD mod is the best way to play it today.
Oh, Elden Ring. FromSoftware’s most recent game was the most anticipated title in years, with player hype pumped up beyond control. Surely it couldn’t live up to such lofty expectations. Except, somehow, it did. Transporting the Dark Souls formula to an open world, it’s a game that pushes back against established best practices. It never tells you where to go or what to do – you just stumble across things as you explore the world, slowly piecing the story together as you go. Then there’s the freedom of approach, thanks to hundreds of unique weapons – each with its own moveset – and dozens of magical abilities. A hundred hours isn’t enough to see it all. We’ll never forget the moment we stepped into a seemingly innocuous elevator and found ourselves in a whole new area, miles below the surface of the world but somehow blanketed in a sky of stars.
A few years after Miyamoto and his team set the bar with Super Mario 64, they decided to do it again. Though Ocarina of Time essentially transplants the Zelda formula set by A Link to the Past into a 3D environment, it felt like nothing else at the time. A full 3D world to explore, with dozens of characters and a huge list of dungeons that could take hours to solve. So many enemies, areas, and items were able to be discovered and used by the player, complete with an atmosphere that truly made you believe in Hyrule and your adventure. Ocarina of Time is still incredible more than 20 years later, and that makes it one of the greatest games of all time.
Games can provide so many different things: catharsis, escapism, entertainment, fun, sadness, and more. Stardew Valley, however, is focused on pure relaxation. Your character inherits a farm and you’re whisked away to Nowheresville to grow crops, raise livestock, and chat up the locals. It’s a life sim where you set your own goals, be that creating a farming empire or marrying to local hottie. There’s farming, fishing, relationship building, monster fighting, item hunts, minigames, and so much more. Developer Eric Barone got sick of waiting for a good new Harvest Moon game and simply decided to make it himself. What a hero. What a game.
Age of Empires 2 was released in 1999 and expansions for the real-time strategy game are still coming out, adding new factions and campaigns – you can’t get away from this game. You go about your daily life, hear someone muttering ‘Wololo’ from somewhere, and you suddenly feel an irresistible urge to hunt a boar and build a castle. The great campaigns have taught many players historical lessons they would never have undergone otherwise, and in Skirmish mode you build the fortress of your dreams before driving out of the gates in blue and white Cobra sports cars that for some reason have machine guns mounted on them and flattening the AI. If you like things to be a little more competitive, Age of Empires 2 lets you dive into what is arguably the most mechanically challenging esports game in history after the StarCraft games. Honestly? It wouldn’t be surprising if there are still new expansions for it in 20 years.
It’s been almost a decade since GTA V launched and there’s still not an urban open-world game that even comes close. Its heist-based single-player, which weaves the stories of three separate protagonists together, still holds up today, and GTA Online is bigger and better than ever. An iconic soundtrack, inventive missions, brilliant characters, and a sprawling world that you can almost draw from memory, nobody does it quite like Rockstar.
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There are a few roguelites on this list, but FTL is unlike any of them. Take control of a spaceship on the run, recruit your crew, upgrade your guns, and fight off threats along the way. We’ve put dozens of hours into this game and still haven’t finished, but that hardcore difficulty is just a part of its charm – after all, surely you’ll have better luck on the next run. Surely your best crewmate can’t get kidnapped by aliens this time. Plus, you should have sucked those borders out of the airlock, and you should have used the depressurization to put out those fires while you were at it. Idiot.
The main issue with voting as a team is that Dishonored 2 didn’t get our number one slot. This is Arkane Lyon in its prime, painting an alien but familiar world in caricature. From the Clockwork Mansion to A Crack in the Slab, the game is stuffed full of inventive missions. But it’s the small details that make Dishonored 2 special – those little extras the developers topped it with that only a small portion of the playerbase ever see. That’s the key to creating compelling discoveries in video games: make them feel personal. It feels handcrafted down to every seam. Whether you leave the city of Karnaca completely untouched by your presence or you leave a trail of bodies in your wake, the game contorts itself to suit your tastes. Powers or no powers? Emily or Corvo? Kill or shame? The world is in your hands.
Hideo Kojima’s last ever Metal Gear Solid game released unfinished and it’s still better than almost everything else. With fewer cutscenes and presumably barely any booth time for the weirdly mute lead actor Kiefer Sutherland, gameplay is the focus here. There’s no feature film-length cutscene to pull you out – it’s just you, your gadgets, the desert and the jungle. If you’ve never crept through an enemy base and stole soldiers with a fulton baloon while listening to Spandau Ballet on a walkman, you haven’t lived.
Dragon Age: Origins felt like one of the few RPGs available on console at the time that delivered on everything it promised. It was a huge RPG, one where your decisions could have major repercussions. People would die, or areas would be skipped entirely if you say the right, or wrong, things. Combat was either your standard auto-attack with ability cooldowns fare, but you could also use an overhead tactical view to direct your party members to attack different foes, depending on the kind of game you wanted to play. The six prequel stories and bombastic adventure are incredibly memorable, but then the DLC expansion, Awakening, takes things even further. Play this game.
The Xenoblade Chronicles series is a masterclass in storytelling. Even when its dialogue feels a little clunky, and the voice performances are a little lacking, it irresistibly pulls you into the world and connects you with its characters. The care and attention it pays to giving you a full perspective on every major character is a fundamental part of storytelling that so many games cast aside, and that’s how it leaves you in floods of tears by the closing credits in every single game. That’s not even mentioning the top-tier open-world design, engaging (and endless) side quests, and unique battle system that is still fun even after 100 hours.
Dungeon, fort santiago manila #dungeon#intramuros. My first attempt took around two hours, and i thoroughly enjoyed this map, so i went. Cursed temple (puzzle) by wertandrew in fortnite creative.
The sharpest a platform fighter has ever been. Super Smash Bros. Melee was beloved by Nintendo fans of the day, but nobody expected the dedicated competitive scene that would form around it, and still thrives today, in the shadows. Wavedashes, dash-dancing, L-cancelling, and more competitive techniques make this one of the fastest and most intense games to ever be played competitively, right up there with StarCraft 2. Oh, it also has Pikachu as a playable character. That helps.
The biggest MOBA on the planet is also one of the biggest games in the world for a reason. Not only is it one of the sharpest, complex competitive games out there, but its fans have fallen in love with its huge cast of characters. Characters which, by the way, are so compelling that they carry Netlix’s animated show, Arcane, even if you don’t care about League of Legends. Every developer on the planet wishes it could compete with Riot games in the MOBA scene, but hardly anyone even gets close.
The entire Mass Effect trilogy is one of the greatest stories ever told in video games, but it peaked with Mass Effect 2. Not only was it a significant gameplay improvement over the first game, but its structure was a stroke of genius. You spend the entire game traveling the galaxy, recruiting a team of badasses, then the game ends on a suicide mission where everyone – including you – can die if you make a bad decision. The fact that the middle of the game sees you bonding with them, completing their personal stories to unlock extra loyalty and new abilities, just makes it land even harder. There aren’t many games where the stakes are as high, or as personal, as they are here. Mess up and your favorites won’t even show up in the next game in the series.
Dark Souls didn’t do anything too revolutionary, it just took action RPG combat, slowed it down, and made the dodge roll one of the most essential parts of your arsenal – a recipe that started with Demon’s Souls, which was hidden away as an undermarketed PS3 exclusive. This combination cemented the Dark Souls formula, and while subsequent games may have sped things up considerably, all games in the series focus on patience, dodging at the right time, and striking back whenever you can. You won’t often be solving puzzles, but you will be memorizing the location of each enemy you come across, so they never get the jump on you again. You won’t die because it’s hard, you’ll die because enemies and traps will surprise you. Once you know, you know, and you’ll take them all down with ease.
Half-Life 2 might be one of the most influential games of all time, but developer Valve somehow managed to do it all again with VR game Half-Life: Alyx. The reason Half-Life 2 made such a big splash at launch was because of how ahead of its time it was – it used physics in ways we’d never seen before in video games. Half-Life: Alyx does the same but in VR. Almost every object is interactive, from marker pens to whiteboard rubbers and construction helmets. But it’s more than just a novelty. Physically reloading your gun, fumbling and dropping the magazine as a headcrab zombie lurches towards you is something that can only be done in virtual reality.
The original Doom popularised the first-person shooter, but Doom 2016 managed to be just as influential years later, its ‘Glory Kill’ system finding itself in other contemporary shooters. Reinventing Doom for a modern audience meant almost turning it into a character action game – a Devil May Cry for gun nuts – where you manage resources by cycling through your murder methods. Chainsaw kills for ammo, Glory Kills for health, and constantly switch between weapons to deal with different enemy types and groupings, all backed by a rip-roaring metal soundtrack. Glorious.
Alien games have been mostly disappointments over the years, but Creative Assembly broke the trend with this, one of the scariest games ever made. A single, unkillable xenomorph hunts you through the majority of the game, scuttling in the vents, constantly searching. Instead of scripted encounters, it’s an advanced AI stalking you, and you never know where it’s going to turn up. If you have the stomach for it, this is as claustrophobic as horror games get.
Rockstar outdid itself with Red Dead Redemption 2, the follow-up to a near-perfect game. Despite that ‘2’, this is a prequel where you spend time with the characters you’re hunting down in the first game. You’re part of a family of crooks, conning and sharpshooting your way across the Wild West. Despite being an outlaw who kills indiscriminately, Rockstar created one of the most likable protagonists in games with Arthur Morgan, which makes the inevitable ending all that more bitter. But even outside the story, the world is the real star of the show. Every lonely shack, every cave, every landmark has its own story for you to uncover as you roam this expansive, beautiful, untamed landscape.
StarCraft 2 marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one: Wings of Liberty hit like a bomb in 2010, revolutionizing the way you design campaign missions in real-time strategy games, offering fluid and technically advanced controls that are still unmatched today, and creating the modern esports and streaming scene as we know it. At its zenith, StarCraft 2 was the most popular game on the planet. At the same time, Blizzard chose an outdated business model and realized too late which way the wind was blowing. Balance issues were stubbornly ignored for a critically long time, frustrating many players. StarCraft 2 fell out of the limelight but continued to mature like fine wine. Today, it’s available for free, the balance is better than ever, player numbers are healthy, it continues to be the most challenging esports game ever after its predecessor Brood War, and the title’s co-op system is a model that many next-gen RTS games will follow. For many, StarCraft 2 is the pinnacle of a Golden Age of RTS games, a now unattainable ideal.
Almost everyone can hum the Tetris theme tune on demand, and there’s a reason it’s the most recognizable game in the world. Simple and moreish, you bring down different shaped blocks and attempt to fill out rows before the blocks reach the top of the screen. If you want a transformative experience, try Tetris Effect in VR for a synesthesia-esque out-of-body experience.
Final Fantasy 7 is many people’s favorite RPG, but it’s also many people’s favorite game, and with good reason. Not only does it have a finely tuned battle system, honed over six previous entries, with plenty of ways to synergize your team for powerful attacks, but the story is also one of the best from the series, with one of gaming’s most infamous plot twists slap bang at the end of act one. Put all that in a game thatwas innovative in terms of graphics and style, add in a truly memorable soundtrack filled with tearjerkers, and it’s rightly one that deserves to be high on anyone’s list.
There are not a large number of roguelites on the list as the genre suffers from player fatigue, as they repeat the same set of obstacles over and over. However, Hades breaks that mold by offering multiple different builds, offering incentives for using weapons and buffs that you’re not so comfortable with. Where Hades really succeeds though is in the story. You care about all the individual NPCs, despite how many the game throws at you, and the relationships you build can be more powerful than the powers you inherit from the Gods.
Remakes come in plenty of different shapes, but more developers should look to this – the best video game remake of all time – for inspiration. The map layout is almost identical to the original game, but there are plenty of surprises around every corner and the new over-the-shoulder camera completely transforms the action. Add onto that grisly graphics and a gruesome gore system and you have a remake that surpasses the original release in every single way.
We don’t get many co-op games these days, but Josef Fares and the team at Hazelight seem to be obsessed with them. Good news for us, since it’s one of the best co-op games ever made. In fact, it can’t be played any other way. You and a friend take control of a bickering couple who are shrunk down to the size of toys by their daughter’s tears. What follows is a constantly evolving adventure where no two levels are the same. One minute you might be torturing a toy elephant and the next one of you is flying a plane while the other fights a squirrel on top of its wings.
If you like clean and crisp platformers that expertly build up the challenge, then you’ll love Celeste. If you like hard-hitting stories that intelligently and honestly tackle mental health issues, then you’ll love Celeste. Anxiety can be a tough thing to convey, because the cocktail of emotions you feel is almost indescribable, but the metaphor of the “part of you” gives a perspective anyone can understand. If you suffer from anxiety, then it can help you come to terms with it and accept it as part of who you are, if you don’t, then it helps you learn what those who do are experiencing. Plus, even if you don’t care about any of that, you’ve got one of the most challenging but fair platformers ever made that will have you accomplishing feats you never thought possible.
Here comes the boy. Hello, boy. Welcome. There he is. Here comes the boy. Sony Santa Monica had a lot on its hands when it was tasked with rebooting God of War for the modern audience. After all, how do you redeem a character like Kratos, who murdered his family, kills innocent women so he can open doors, and basically doomed the entire Greek world to apocalypse on his quest for revenge? It’s simple. You give him a kid, tell his actor to say “boy” a lot, and you transport him to the world of Norse mythology. A fresh start. His temper has reduced a bit, but he’s still able to murder dragons with ancient construction machines. What a lad. It’ll take more than a bit of family murder to keep Kratos down.
As you investigate a murder in a town somewhere that’s not quite France, you build your character to match your ideals. Just like in life, there are multiple solutions to your problems, and brute force is just as valid as intellectualism or charisma. Even if you don’t have the stats to solve a problem in the way you would like, your success is ultimately dependent on the roll of the dice. Alongside your partner Kim Kitsuragi, one of the best-written and unique characters in gaming, Disco Elysium has earned its place in gaming history.
Every Persona game has a unique sense of personality that makes it stand out, and Persona 5 leans into that harder than of them. It strikes a perfect balance between the top-tier JRPG combat and life sim elements, bouncing you between the two so regularly that they always feel fresh, but that’s just half the appeal. While it’s not the best character writing ever (hello again, Xenoblade), it gets the vibe just right. It makes you want to spend as much time as possible hanging out with this band of misfits and getting to know every aspect of their lives. Then you’ve got Persona 5 Royal, which not only expands on the game’s best characters, but adds a whole new story arc which is one of the best in JRPG history, if not all of gaming.
This could well be the most controversial pick on this list. Not because it’s bad – almost all FromSoftware’s games are masterpieces – but because which one you prefer is a matter of personal taste. Bloodborne takes it for us because the world is rich, thick like congealed blood. The cobbles, the viscera – everything is imposing and intimidating, but so are you. Much more aggressive than other FromSoftware games, Bloodborne is all about pressing the advantage, using quick dodges, and interrupting attacks with hot led from Victorian-era firearms. Also, you don’t get swords that are also canes in Dark Souls. Checkmate. We’ll never forget the first time we got enough Insight to see what the hell was going on with the invisible… thing in the courtyard.
As it turns out, the Resident Evil series’ signature “tank controls” feel very different from an over-the-shoulder perspective. A simple change in viewpoint completely shifted how Resident Evil played, and Resident Evil 4 took full use of its new perspective. Third-person shooting allowed Leon to aim his weapon precisely, nailing headshots, and bringing foes down with a shot to the knee. Follow this up with a suplex, and you’ll feel like the coolest person to ever hold a controller. The campy dialogue complements the horror shockingly well, and no matter how you play it, Resident Evil 4 might still be the best action horror game ever made.
Despite the many flaws of the second generation of Pokémon, it is often fondly remembered by many fans as their favorite. However, the remakes Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver do everything a good remake should. They take the core of the original games which are so beloved; the sprawling open world that expands over two separate regions, and the best final boss of any game in the franchise, and just made everything better. Adding in the Physical/Special split on moves making more Pokémon viable to play, and massively upping the number of legendary Pokémon and gym leader battles to fight, makes this the best Pokémon game to date.
Well…it’s Minecraft, right? What more is there to be said about it at this point? It can be whatever you want it to be. It’s the best-selling video game of all time (depending on who you ask about Tetris sales), it almost single-handedly created the YouTube gaming boom of the early 2010s, and it sparked an obsession with the survival/crafting genre that just won’t ever seem to die — for better or for worse. No matter what kind of games you like, there is always a simple joy to be had in placing a few blocks and admiring something you’ve created, especially if you do it with friends.
People are still playing Skyrim. It’s been ported to everything, and it has more editions than the Oxford Dictionary. That’s because Bethesda created a world so vast that you can almost live a double life in its snowy sandbox. Join the Dark Brotherhood to become an assassin, then take a break from all the murder and track down flowers for the mage’s guild. It helped that Skyrim launched around the same time as Game of Thrones, capturing the zeitgeist and allowing us to all pretend we’ve Taken the Black.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game where the rewards are almost always intrinsic. Yes, there’s the goal of powering up Link so he can climb bigger cliffs, but when you climb a mountain or solve a puzzle, the motivation is your own curiosity. The map markers on the horizon should only be ones you placed, simply because you wanted to explore every corner of the world. You really need to draw an intrinsic joy from this, because the Korok Seeds aren’t good enough otherwise. Entirely throwing out the beloved Zelda formula, Breath of the Wild is one of few open-world games that feels as if you can genuinely go anywhere. Once you acquire the paraglider, you will have all the tools you need to solve every puzzle and dungeon in the game, and you can even head straight for the final boss if you feel you have enough strength on your side. One of few games that can be considered revolutionary, and its influence will be felt for at least another generation.
There’s only one Western RPG that can topple Skyrim from its dragon perch, and that’s The Witcher 3. While it doesn’t offer the same kind of freedom and player expression as Skyrim, it makes up for it with some of the best writing in video games. Every decision you make has weight, every character you meet is fleshed out, and the sidequests are generally of better quality than the main missions in most other games. With its two expansion packs, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, it somehow got even better. It’s no wonder Henry Cavill went to Netflix and begged them to play Geralt in the show.
For many, this was the video game that opened their eyes to the medium’s potential. 3D stealth games only really became a thing the year Metal Gear Solid launched, and not a single other game has managed to bottle the same lightning. Much of that is down to Hideo Kojima, a creative whirlwind of a game designer who allows his wildest impulses to make it into his games. Lighting up lasers with cigarette smoke, switching your controller to defeat a mind-reading boss, squirting ketchup on the floor to play dead in a prison cell – Metal Gear Solid is still way more inventive than most contemporary games.
Putting the Vania in Metroidvania marks Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as one of the most influential games in history. Despite releasing in 1997, some of the ideas that SotN introduced still influence games made today. The fear you feel as you make your way ever closer to the next checkpoint, balancing low health in the face of a barrage of enemies is iconic, and the way the castle (castles?) slowly unfolds the more abilities you learn is a design used in endless games. SotN is a lesson in not only gaming history, but also in great game design. One for the ages.
You never forget your first colossus. The game throws you into the world with little context and nudges you to follow the light that reflects on your sword when you hold it in the air. You gallop across desolate plains, past hulking ruins, silent except for the occasional bird in flight. Eventually, you reach a dead end and are forced to climb. Up and up you go until you finally crest the last verge and there it is – a giant of rock and hair, lumbering around an otherwise empty field. It doesn’t attack. You do. You cling on its fur and climb the beast, hanging on for life when it tries to shake you off. You reach its head and plunge your sword into its soft spot, which erupts in a geyser of blood. Repeat until the beast falls. In most games, you’d feel good about this, but it’s clear from the start that none of these creatures deserve your blade.
Written by Dave Aubrey, Georgina Young, Kyle Campbell, Marco Wutz, Ryan Woodrow, and Stoyan Ovcharov on behalf of GLHF.