Pokemon GO in 2019 is a game I shouldn’t care about. When it launched in 2016 it was in a lot of ways a mediocre experience. Outside of catching the original 151 Pokemon the game itself relied heavily on the nostalgia of the Pokemon franchise and augmented reality gimmick of having them show up in the real world. If you didn’t care about the IP, the game itself was very lacking. In 2019, the game is flooded with a multitude of tasks, activities, and events that can involve anyone from yourself to a large group of people. These additions create an experience that incentivizes users to be more dedicated to daily play without feeling like a grind. Friendship has been introduced and allows users to now exchange gifts, trade or even battle each other. Quests (research tasks as they are referred to in-game) have been added that reward items and even special Pokemon. Events now fill each month’s calendar with new (and sometimes shiny) Pokemon, exclusive rewards and new ways to play the game. There is even a burgeoning competitive PVP scene which gave Pokemon GO its first-ever appearance at the Pokemon World Championships this year.
The list goes on of all the mechanics and elements that make Pokemon GO a game that’s worth playing every day in 2019. As Andrew Goldfarb stated last year when we named Pokemon GO our hundredth game, “it is as relevant for what happens outside of the game as what happens in it,” and to this day that could not be more true. Few games in history have done as much to bring together communities of the most disparate interests, locations, cultures, etc as much as Pokemon GO has. The experiences I have had, the places I have gone and the people I have met because of Pokemon GO are all part of why it is still so special to this day. With the game having its highest-grossing month since launch, it's safe to say Pokemon GO isn't going...anywhere, especially not off of this list.
- There are currently five (of eight) generations of Pokemon in the game, with more being added each year.
- To curb trespassing, Texas A&M opened its football stadium to players and ended up attracting 1,600 players in two hours.
- The game has helped several local businesses attract growth just by setting up lures and watching potential customers pour in.
Borderlands 2 elevated an excellent game to Legendary status. The original Borderlands captured the attention of gamers, seemingly from out of nowhere, and its sequel took everything that made the original great and expanded on it. From its seamless continuation of the Borderlands vault hunting lore, to its unmatched writing, Borderlands 2 remains the high point in the Borderlands franchise. Borderlands 3 is overflowing with improvements over its predecessor The Pre-Sequel, but Borderlands 2 still can't be beat for its awesome levels, excellent DLC, and series-best villain, Handsome Jack.
- Damage counters in the Borderlands series were originally a debug feature for the programmers and partially inspired by RPGs like Final Fantasy. Game testers liked it so much, it became a part of the series.
- An Easter egg in the Caustic Caverns level unlocks a Minecraft head for players who find its off-map location and defeat a giant Creeper.
- Almost everyone on the creative team for Borderlands 2 has since left Gearbox.
When I was famished for Dungeons and Dragons, Divinity: Original Sin 2 filled that void for me. It gave me the freedom to cheat, steal, kill, or persuade my way with kindness through the campaign with a friend (or three!) just like in D&D. Creative play is not only allowed, but encouraged and intentionally made possible by the developers. It felt liberating playing a huge RPG that rewards “cheating” the system, and encountering NPCs and opponents that acknowledge and react to it. I’ve since recommended it to all of my real-life D&D parties, and they’ve all come back with the same opinion: This is the best D&D experience you can get from a video game. DOS2 even has a Game Master mode, which lets you build your own campaigns. But, the built-in story is decidedly plenty and nearly infinitely replayable. The premade characters all have their own special storylines, and the numerous way things pan out depend on player actions, backstory choices, race, and more. Whether playing on an easy or hard difficulty setting, as an Elf Ranger or an Undead Conjurer, as a helpful adventurer or a murderous thief, DOS2 is a fun fantasy world to get lost in no matter what.
- The "Definitive Edition" doesn't just include improved visuals - it completely reworks the game's third act.
- Funds for the game were procured through Kickstarter, the campaign for which was fully funded (and then some) in less than 12 hours.
- Developer Larian Studios won over Wizards of the Coast (and thus the rights to make Baldur's Gate 3) with Divinity OS 2.
Dishonored managed to breathe new life into a faltering stealth genre by invigorating players with a host of magical abilities and wickedly clever tools for every occasion. By allowing you to get creative with stealth (or a total lack thereof), players could slip through levels like a ghostly wraith, or slice up unsuspecting foes as a murderous spirit of vengeance. Dishonored revitalized the stealth genre with its approach to rewarding each playstyle: whether challenging yourself to remain unseen and getting your revenge without ever spilling blood, or springing deadly traps and disposing of targets in the most gruesome way possible. Its levels are impeccably designed to reward careful exploration and planning, and provide multiple ways to complete objectives with secrets crammed in every corner.
- Though he never spoke in Dishonored, protagonist Corvo Attano was voiced by Stephen Russell in Dishonored 2, who played another iconic stealth protagonist: Garrett from the Thief series.
- Each of the main targets in Dishonored can be eliminated by nonlethal means - but the outcomes are sometimes a fate worse than death.
- According to The Outsider, only eight other people besides Corvo were granted The Outsider's Mark that allowed for supernatural abilities.
Final Fantasy VII is a landmark JRPG for a variety of reasons, but many of its achievements have now been lost to the winds of time and technological progress. Yet, its age has done nothing to change its status as the series' most popular and beloved entry, which has come about thanks to its wide cast of detailed, emotionally-driven characters that journey through one of the most memorable worlds to emerge from Japan's development scene. Fundamentally a story about dealing with loss and grief, Final Fantasy VII features troubled heroes fighting against the corporate might of the Shinra company, which is rapidly causing planetary devastation in the name of profit. The pacing of this continually timely tale is its masterstroke; Square allows you to slowly fall for its rag-tag bunch of eco-terrorists before introducing its main villain - the forever chilling Sephiroth - and then focussing the story on much more personal stakes, despite the looming apocalypse. While overall the story is heavy and sombre, the world thrives on its idiosyncrasies - a variety of bizarre incidental enemies, comedic minigames, and increasingly absurdly sized swords. It's this combination of light and dark that makes Final Fantasy VII such an enduring JRPG classic.
- Originally intended to launch on the SNES, then the Nintendo 64, before finally landing on the original PlayStation.Final Fantasy VII was originally set to be developed for the SNES as a traditional 2D JRPG, following the story of a detective investigating the destruction of Midgar.
- Ruby and Emeral Weapon - the game's two hardest optional bosses - were not in the original Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII. They were added for the North American and European releases.
- At the time, Final Fantasy VII was the most expensive video game ever made, with a budget of around $45 million.
There are plenty of entries in the Assassins Creed franchise that could find their way onto a Top 100 list, but for our money doubloons, Black Flag was as much fun as we’ve had in the franchise. Sure, there have been games that improved on the mechanical aspects of the AC series, but AC4 is an exceptional blend of both the massive open-world exploration that the franchise remains known for and the stealth-focused mission structure that gave the series its roots. Its naval combat and oceanic exploration offered boundless fun on the high seas, and there still hasn't been a historical guest star that rivaled the likes of Blackbeard or Mary Read.
- The development team pulled much of their information from two books: 2007's The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodward and The General History of Pyrates, originally published in 1724
- The subtitles for Black Flag adopt a style where every proper noun is capitalized (as in "every Noun in each Sentence in the Book"), which is the style in which The General History of Pyrates was written.
- Black Flag's modern-day segments contain references to the BLUME company, the corporate antagonists in the Watch Dogs universe. This was one of the first instances that Ubisoft leaned into the idea that their worlds were connected.
When Monkey Island 2 came out, we knew who Guybrush Threepwood was, so we knew what to expect. Or so we thought. Somehow, creator Ron Gilbert threw everyone for a loop, ending Monkey Island 2 in a carnival, leaving us to wonder if everything we'd played in the first two games took place in a boy's imagination, or if the ending itself was simply another LeChuck voodoo spell. Regardless, the story, jokes, and pacing were all tightened up for the second Monkey Island, making it arguably the best of the incredible run of LucasArts adventure games.
- Creator Ron Gilbert has never revealed to anyone what the secret of Monkey Island actually is.
- The ambience was heavily inspired by the Pirates of the Carribean ride at Disneyland.
- The Amiga community dubbed it Disk Juggling Simulator thanks to the 11 floppy disks it had to be played across.
While it may not be as old as Super Mario Kart or Road Rash, when it comes to arcade racers, Burnout 3: Takedown is an undeniable classic. I must have logged 60 hours in this game, and that was well before the days where I got paid to do that. I defy you to bring up arcade racers and not have someone mention Burnout 3. Its predecessor, Point of Impact, had fine-tuned the balance of high-speed racing and vehicular destruction, but Takedown perfected it.
This was one of those games you could easily lose hours playing, either alone or with friends. Among our nerdy cadre, there was no greater source of joy, sorrow, or white-hot rage than Burnout 3. Few things could ruin a friendship faster than wrecking someone's ride just before the finish line – though thankfully all was (usually) forgotten during the next round of Crash Mode.
- Introduced the "takedown" mechanic, which went on to become a Burnout staple.
- The only Burnout game to receive a "T" ESRB rating, since it was deemed too violent for an "E," and the "E-10+" rating hadn't been created.
- The cars on the cover are the Muscle Type 2, Muscle Type 3, and Super Type 2.
Starting the journey of Fallout 2 as a tribesman with nothing more than a loincloth and a spear to my name and gradually fighting my way up to a power-armored, gauss-gunning killing machine is a fantastic and surprisingly natural feeling of progression – one that few games have been able to match. Exploring a vast and open post-apocalyptic world full of deadly raiders, supermutants, and deathclaws is daunting but exciting, and thanks to attention to detail, atmospheric music, powerfully written morally ambiguous quests, and voice-acted interactions with key characters, the world feels personal and vivid even though we view it from a distant third-person camera.
In fact, it’s a game you have to replay just to appreciate how flexible and open it really is. I’ve done it so many times, experimenting with the ways in which different character builds and perks would dramatically affect the way events unfolded, from killing the final “boss” using stealth to playing all the way through with a character so dumb they can only communicate through grunts. Plus, you never knew when you’d stumble upon random events that would sometimes deliver game-changingly powerful items. Fallout 2 will surprise you again and again.
- Cassidy, one of Fallout 2's companions, says he was named after his dad's favorite comic character – likely Proinsias Cassidy from Preacher.
- The universally-hated Temple of Trials tutorial dungeon was a last-minute addition publisher Interplay forced the developers to include.
- There's an Easter egg – as in, a literal Easter egg – hidden behind a pile of garbage in the basement of the New Reno gun shop.
A small child falls into the world of monsters and suddenly finds themselves the target of an ancient grudge that calls for their death. Undertale puts the player in a unique situation; where you'd usually kill everything in your way, Undertale gives you the option to spare every monster you meet, though it never requires it. Every monster killed or spared alters something in the world, whether it be another monster wondering what happened to their friend, an opportunity for a hilarious date, or a slightly easier time with a specific monster's bullet hell battle. Undertale is jam-packed with emotion, charm, and determination to show that your actions make a difference, no matter how small you think they may be. Pair all that with an incredible soundtrack and challenging bullet hell battles and you've got one incredibly memorable game.
- Sans and Papyrus are not only named after the fonts Comic Sans and Papyrus, their dialogue is written in them too.
- While its soundtrack features 100 tracks, only 13 are original. The rest are remixes.
- A handful of characters were designed by Kickstarter backers, including Muffet, Glyde, and So Sorry.
League of Legends exists in a magical place that lies somewhere between intense competition and fun and enjoyable strategy. Though there’s a lot to master with a roster of nearly 130 playable Champions, League of Legends is equipped with great modes that make the MOBA easy to learn, yet is still incredibly challenging as players scale the competitive ladder. While the excellent Summoner’s Rift stands as the primary battleground for competitive play, the other modes like ARAM, or All Random All Middle, also provide a great means for a fun chance to practice with Champions for when things get too tense.
Developer Riot’s initiative to reboot League of Legends’ lore has also made it more captivating on the narrative front as well. Each new Champion or Champion makeover is presented with such beautiful pageantry that it’s difficult not to get sucked into catching up on any lore you may have missed. With continuous improvement updates and a constantly changing roster, League of Legends stands as one of the best competitive games in existence.
- League of Legends currently has 140 champions and counting, as of March 7, 2018.
- It was originally called League of Legends: Clash of Fates.
- The prize pool for the 2017 League of Legends World Championship was $4.59 million.
Mega Man 3 took every lesson that Capcom learned from Mega Man 2 and expanded, refined, and remixed it. The third game in the seminal series brought Mega Man into the 90s in true Blue Bomber style, retaining the challenging platforming (though, not the tough as nails version seen in the original) and incredible boss battles the series had become known for. While taking on new enemies like Snake Man and Magnet Man, our plucky robot hero managed to learn a few tricks that would become mainstays for future games in this, and the Mega Man X, series. The slide ability gave Mega Man a much mobility upgrade, and his friendly robot pooch, Rush, allowed him to explore greater heights and find more hidden secrets than in any of his previous outings. Mega Man 3 also marked the appearance of Proto Man who’s short arc established him not only as Mega Man’s older brother but also a series mainstay and occasional foil. There’s a long running debate as to whether Mega Man 2 or Mega Man 3 is the definitive NES Mega Man game, but for our money it’s the third installment, hands down.
- While many fans consider it the best game in the Mega Man franchise, Mega Man 3 is Keiji Inafune's least favorite from the classic series.
- Mega Man 3 debuted two major characters in the – Rush and Proto Man.
- This was also the first game where Mega Man could slide.
Soulcalibur is that rare sequel that supplants the original. The successor to 1995’s Soul Edge, Soulcalibur perfected the formula for 3D weapon-based fighting games. A smash-hit in arcades and the first “must-have” game for the Dreamcast system, Soulcalibur is remembered for its balance, imaginative characters, and smooth combat. In the flood of new fighting game franchises that were introduced in the mid-90s, Soulcalibur separated itself from the pack because the core gameplay mechanics were so strong. Any fighter – whether a ninja, pirate, knight, or warrior monk – could challenge any other and the outcome would depend on the skill of the player. There is a reason why this fantastical tale of swords and souls has spawned so many sequels.
- The Dreamcast version of Soulcalibur was an early example of a home console port's graphics exceeding that of its arcade original.
- It is the second-highest-rated game on Metacritic alongside Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV.
- You can play the Dreamcast version using the console's motion-sensing fishing rod controller.
Thief II took everything right about stealth games, and then added a dash of steampunk-infused magic. Developer Looking Glass Studio crafted a believable world where technology was on the rise and the magic of the old world was on the run. Adding to the mix was the perfect anti-hero who wouldn't even consider the possibility of saving the world unless the end of the world meant no more houses to steal from.
Thief II gave the player all the right tools for the perfect heist, along with interactive maps for writing notes. It rewarded taking your time, and of course, listening to some of the best guard banter in any game to date. Silently sprinting along rooftops, ducking through secret mansion passages – the game didn't just make you feel like a thief, it made you feel like a master of the craft.
- Thief fans are known as Taffers, based on a fictional swear word used to refer to thieves in the game universe.
- Its studio Looking Glass Studios almost bankrupted mid-development and slow royalties post-launch forced it to close just two months later.
- Fanmade mods, patches, and fixes have helped keep the game alive.
SimCity 2000 may not be the most complex or original of the city-building series, but it’s definitely the most iconic. The sequel to the original SimCity is a beautiful, funny, detailed sandbox that gives players control of a huge, customizable map that they can manage how they see fit. You can build the perfect metropolis – see little sailboats in your marina and cars on your streets, get a statue built in your name, keep your advisors happy by building mass transit and hospitals. Or you can burn it all to the ground with catastrophes like earthquakes and alien attacks.
Compared to the other entries in the series, the game hits that player agency sweet spot so you feel like you’re empowered to save your city without being overwhelmed by choice. You need to make sure your Sims have access to electricity and water, but also that they’re safe, have access to healthcare, and the roads are maintained. As your city grows, you’ll have to keep track of things like mass transit, entertainment, and the economy but the difficulty curve never feels too steep, and success always seems just a stadium away. Plus, there’s never been a more satisfying feeling than zoning a land for residential and first seeing people move in.
- Before "reticulating splines" became an iconic phrase on the load screens in The Sims, it was coined as an inside joke for SimCity 2000.
- One of the disaster scenarios was directly inspired by the Oakland Hills Firestorm of 1991, which destroyed designer Will Wright's home.
- If you build a library, click it, and select "ruminate," you will be treated to an essay from Neil Gaiman on the living nature of cities.
With the mechanical abandon of a Mario game and the worldview of Werner Herzog, Inside spends its three brilliant hours of life holding the player in a loop of intrigue, delight, and disgust.
Playdead's bleak, gorgeous puzzle-platformer builds on its predecessor Limbo in all the right places – hello, colour palettes; goodbye, boring gravity puzzles. It leaves us with a game that sleekly, wordlessly pivots from brain-teaser to body horror, until hitting an ending that ranks among gaming’s best, a masterpiece of animation, design and outright strangeness.
Inside’s quiet genius lies in how the puzzles creep beyond its ever-changing challenges, and into its story. I’ve spent as much time or more wondering what it all means as I did playing through. If you’ve played, you understand. If you haven’t, you need to.
- Music for Inside was created by running synthesized sounds through a human skull. Vibrations caused most of its teeth to fall out.
- The look and movement of... the thing... was inspired by the boar god from Princess Mononoke, the squishy hero from Gish, and crowd surfing.
- Developer Playdead is partnering with sex doll manufacturer RealDoll for a mysterious $375 dollar collector's edition due in early 2019.
Say it with me: “UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, START.” The most iconic secret in video game history became a litany for the millions of kids who joined Bill and Lance on their quest to destroy Red Falcon. While a truly skilled player can clear Contra on a single credit, the power of the thirty lives code gave all of us a fair chance to power our way through the gauntlet of alien invaders, or more likely die trying.
Contra was one of the few cooperative video games of the 8-bit era where player two didn’t feel like a burden dragging you down with every step. With plenty of weapon drops to go around and hordes of enemies coming from every direction, a partner’s firepower was a welcome addition in most situations. And if a friend couldn’t keep up the pace on the waterfall level, you could easily incentivize them to improve their skills by scrolling the screen upward and killing them, which I did whenever my little brother lagged behind.
- The NES version's use of the Konami Code to grant players 30 lives also popularized the iconic cheat among North American audiences.
- Its North American localization changed the setting from the year 2633 to 1987, the year the arcade version debuted.
- The UK version changed the human characters into robots.
When Tony Hawk Pro Skater came out, it was like nothing anyone had ever played before. It just felt so insanely intuitive, it had great music, it just felt… cool? Gamers, skaters, heshers, posers, there was not one demo that wasn’t drawn into the cultural singularity of gaming and skateboarding like a rent-a-cop to a skate video shoot. When Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 came out, and improved upon the original in virtually every single way imaginable (even more flexible controls, an expanded soundtrack, more unlockable secrets, custom skaters, even a park editor!), the popularity of the game just exploded in a way that could only have ended in steadily diminishing annual releases. But for one shining moment, we all collectively agreed that THPS2 was, and still is, the perfect skateboarding game.
- THPS2 was built on a modified version of the engine Neversoft used to create the video game tie-in for the Bruce Willis movie, 'Apocalypse' — the pitch demo for the orignal game featured Bruce Willis' character model on a skateboard.
- Neversoft also developed the 2000 Spider-Man game on Playstation, so naturally the webslinger showed up in THPS2 as a friendly neighborhood skater complete with his own unique Spidey-moves!
- The original PS version of THPS2 featured an unlockable character, Private Carrera, based on the adult film star Asia Carerra. In the Dreamcast and Xbox ports, this character was replaced by the less salacious (and presumably more family-friendly) "Trixie".
Kill a monster, make gear out of its parts, and hunt a stronger monster sounds like a gameplay loop that can get old fast, but Monster Hunter: World has taken that decade-old hook and downright perfected it. World has streamlined the cycle and made the introduction into monster hunting more palatable for newcomers all without watering down the deep action-RPG mechanics longtime fans loved most.
With 14 unique weapons that all control entirely differently, endless armor customization options that change more than just fashion, and incredibly difficult (but fair) fights that reward players with an incomparable sense of accomplishment, Monster Hunter: World is in a world of its own when it comes to endless replayability and challenge. Add in the fact you can hunt with your best friends, and you have a recipe worthy of the Meowscular Chef himself.
- The sound of Rathalos' wings are made with an umbrella.
- Monster Hunter: World is in the fifth generation of Monster Hunter games, and is the first of the series to have a worldwide simultaneous launch.
- As of July 2019, Monster Hunter: World has shipped 19 million copies, making it Capcom's best selling game of all time.
Resident Evil 2 Remake redefined what a ‘remake’ could be. For players new to the game, this was a meticulously crafted survival horror experience that felt completely in step with the genre in 2019, while veterans got to enjoy a lovingly crafted piece of nostalgia that vitally, felt like the game they remembered from 1998. It trod a brilliant tightrope, capturing the inherent weirdness of the original - the baroque architecture and labyrinthian environments that flipped the bird to logic - while updating the control scheme to a fluid over-the-shoulder camera far more suited to the way we play games today. The result was uneasy but never frustrating, subversive but familiar. All remakes should learn from this one.
- Capcom wanted to initially remake Resident Evil 2 in 2002, but series creator Shinji Mikami wanted to keep everyone focused on development of Resident Evil 4.
- There were no bathrooms in the original Resident Evil 2 police station; they were added in the remake.
- Mods had a lot of fun turning the relentless Mr X into various other characters, including (but not limited to), Thomas the Tank Engine and Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
Say the word "SHODAN" to any veteran PC gamer and they're likely to do a full-body shudder followed immediately by cracking a big smile. System Shock 2 paved the way for the genre-blending first-person games that are commonplace today, perfecting the formula years before anyone else would even try.
Its premise was straightforward: you found yourself alone on a space station where you were apparently the only thing left alive. Well, the only organic thing. Rogue AI SHODAN wastes little time in establishing herself as your formidable opponent. Along the way you pick up elements of the backstory through audio logs (another design feature that's standard fare now) and can mold yourself in any way you choose, from a DPS/combat focus to a pure hacker that can infiltrate any system. System Shock 2 was tense, smart, and as great as it was immediately upon its release in 1999, ahead of its time.
- System Shock 2 did not initially enter production as a System Shock sequel until Electronic Arts signed on as publisher.
- Audio logs from a character named Norris were voiced by a System Shock fan who won the "Get Killed By SHODAN" contest out of 4,500 entrants.
- One of the keypad codes, 45100, is a reference to Fahrenheit 451.
As the second 3D game in the now mega-series Grand Theft Auto, Vice City had enormous shoes to fill coming off the groundbreaking statement that was Grand Theft Auto III. And did it ever deliver. Set during the 1980s in Rockstar’s facsimile of Miami, the violence, sex, and excess of this defining decade was slathered across a fully playable world of wannabe gangsters, sports cars, mountains of drugs, and briefcases full of bills.
Mining veins of content from Scarface, Miami Vice, and other seminal pop culture pillars of the era, Vice City had it all: a cast of larger-than-life characters and a rags-to-riches protagonist who builds his empire on the blood, sweat, and more blood of the sun-soaked, drug-addled, sex-crazed slice of beach city. And it's that ‘80s personality that propped up Vice City any time its open-world gameplay started to falter – much of that personality coming from the incredible soundtrack that is alone worth the price of admission. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a sexy, sour, excellent sendup of the decade that will never die.
- Vice City survived two lawsuits lead by anti-video game activist Jack Thompson, who claimed it was linked to real crimes.
- That famously '80s soundtrack has resulted in a few licensing issues over the years, seeing certain songs cut from different versions.
- Its script was over 1,000 pages long and over 8,000 lines of dialogue were recorded – four times as much dialogue as Grand Theft Auto III.
Persona 5 feels like the Persona game the team always wanted to make but didn’t have the technology to achieve. With hand-built palaces instead of procedurally-generated dungeons, a stunning visual style and art direction, and a memorable and moving soundtrack, this easily stands out as the most impressive Persona game yet. Everything from the UI to scene transitions to the animated cutscenes is absolutely dripping with style, and the battle system combines series staples with mechanics that haven’t been in the franchise in over a decade for perfectly balanced fights. All of that on top of a fantastic story and memorable characters make this one of the best JRPGs ever made.
- Cafe LeBlanc, where the protagonist lives, is named after Maurice Leblanc, who wrote the Arsène Lupin books his initial persona is based on.
- There are posters in the Shibuya subway station for Rise Kujikawa from Persona 4 and Kanami Mashita from Persona 4: Dancing All Night.
- According to Morgana, "'cats turning into buses' is an extremely widespread cognition" – a reference to The Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro.
Fortnite changed the playing field of battle royales upon its release in 2017. Originally starting out as a purchase to play cooperative shooter-survival game with the title “Save the World,” Epic Games branched out and opened up an early access Fortnite Battle Royale mode. Over 10 million players amassed over the first two weeks of the release and Epic quickly changed their Battle Royale to a free-to-play model. Almost overnight, Fortnite became the reigning battle royale game to play as consistent updates to the map and limited-time game modes rolled out. With the steady flow of fresh content and updates to Fortnite’s Battle Royale, it stands out in its genre as a colorful and unique title other games have yet to compete with.
- Fortnite allows for multiple crossplay options with Switch players matching up with iOS and Android. However iOS and Android players can also play against the PC, Mac, PlayStation and Xbox population.
- Epic Games reported that 10.7 million people attended the virtual Marshmello concert that took place in-game on February 2nd.
- Fortnite has participated in multiple crossover events, bringing in iconic characters from franchises like Marvel's Avengers (and Thanos), Batman, and even Borderlands.
The original Fable, while very very good, never quite lived up to co-creator Peter Molyneux's lofty "plant an acorn and it will grow into a tree over the course of the game" promises. Fable 2, however, fulfilled an amazing amount of this charming, decidedly British-humored action-adventure. The world of Albion came alive on the Xbox 360, while Fable 2 was also one of the first games to give you a full-time canine companion. The dog was, in gameplay terms, rather straightforward, but for many players, the pooch tugged on your heartstrings and made you care about him/her in a way that you typically wouldn't above the average human or fantasy-pet RPG. Solid combat, a multiple-choice ending, great music and world-building, and a deft balance of action, adventure, and role-playing helped make Fable 2 both the pinnacle of the series and one of the finest bits of escapist fantasy ever coded.
- As in the original Fable, you could be purely good or diabolically evil in Fable 2, and your character's appearance would change accordingly.
- Fable 2 allowed you to get married if you wooed an NPC enough, and in a gaming rarity, Fable 2 didn't restrict you to marrying the opposite gender of the one you were playing.
- Fable 2 Pub Games released a couple of months before the full and proper Fable 2. It allowed you to earn virtual currency that could be carried over into Fable 2.
When I was younger, few games settled an argument like GoldenEye. Living in a flat with three other people, if we couldn’t decide like rational adults whose turn it was to do the household chores, it was decided over a game of GoldenEye’s multiplayer. The battleground was always the Facility and to truly sort out the men from the Bonds it was Slaps only. Anyone who picked Odd Job was instantly disqualified.
In 1997, GoldenEye was a revelation. Not only was it a more-than-decent movie tie-in – I’m hard pushed to think of one that’s come close, even to this day – but it became the blueprint for console first-person shooters, serving up a wonderfully engaging single-player mode that made you feel like Bond, with split-screen multiplayer that quickly became a staple in dorm rooms across the world.
It was also the first time I realised how satisfying it is to take out a target from afar using a sniper rifle. 18 years later it’s still my go-to weapon in any game.
- GoldenEye 007's beloved multiplayer mode was a last-minute addition snuck in by developers without Rare or Nintendo management's permission.
- Shigeru Miyamoto was so repulsed by the game's violence, he suggested it show the player shaking hands with their hospitalized enemies.
- This was the reason the creators included a curtain call at the end, implying it was all portrayed by actors with no real killing involved.
It’s right there in the name: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is quite simply the ultimate Smash Bros. game. Purists will no doubt claim that SSB: Melee is the game that put the series on the map, but it’s impossible to ignore the sheer wealth of content that is present in Ultimate, from the insane roster size of 70+ characters that is still growing, to the enormous World of Light story mode, to the library of over 800 classic video game songs jam-packed within its cartridge.
Smash Bros. has always been simultaneously the quintessential party fighter, as well as one of the most hotly competitive fighting games on the scene, a split that has resulted in two different audiences for the series. What’s most amazing about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and all the teams involved in its creation, is that they have found a way to serve both those audiences at the same time, delivering a fighting game that is just as fun for the casual audience, as it is for the hardcore crowd.
- Smash: Ultimate’s current roster has 73 (soon to be 74) fighters: 65 from every other game in the series and 9 new ones from franchises like Splatoon and Castlevania.
- Post-launch additions to the roster include Joker from Persona 5, Banjo-Kazooie, and the divisive "Hero" from Dragon Quest.
- According to series creator Masahiro Sakurai, creating a Smash Bros game for Switch was one of the last wishes of the late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.
Skyrim was a pivotal turning point for me and my over twenty-year love affair with role-playing games. It was the moment that worlds became so big, so immersive, and so detailed that I resolved I would have to abandon my burning desire to overturn every rock, chase every quest, and collect every thingy.
To me, everything about Skyrim was a vast improvement over its predecessor, Oblivion. The craggy, intimidating peaks of the Nord homeland and the saga of the Dovahkiin were much more interesting than the relatively sedate happenings of their neighbors in Cyrodiil. But what’s more, there’s so much lying just around the corner, off the beaten path, that you could never even stumble upon it in a hundred hours as the Dragonborn. But the fact that such care for detail, for world-building, for exploration and for immersion was paid to every tome, tomb, and quest, is enough to cement Skyrim as one of the absolute best role-playing games we’ve ever seen, and one of the best games of all time.
- Skyrim was the first Western-developed game to get a perfect score from Japanese game magazine Famitsu. The second was Grand Theft Auto V.
- Charles Martinet, famously the voice actor of Mario, provided the voice of the dragon Paarthurnax.
- Burning dragon corpses are visible from the world map.
X-COM’s magic is how it makes the war to defend Earth from a vastly superior alien invasion force feel so intensely personal, even with its extremely dated (but expressive) graphics and spreadsheet-like interface. Part of this comes from the way that every decision you make, from where on the globe you place your bases, to which alien technology to research, to whether to spend your soldier’s last few time units to reload his weapon, crouch, or take a Hail Mary shot at a distant alien, has enormously high stakes. Choose right, and your team of alien hunters will gain a leg up on the battlefield from advanced weapons (like the guided Blaster Launcher missiles), armor, or tactical positioning; choose poorly and literally everyone could be slaughtered – or worse, transformed into drooling zombies to serve as incubators for horrific Chryssalids.
If you’re doing it right, you’ve named each of your very mortal soldiers after your friends and family, making the inevitable casualties you’ll take in combat sting far more than losing nameless fodder. Randomly generated maps ensure you never quite know what might be lurking around the next corner, and destructible terrain means that knocking down a building is always an option. The unpredictability makes the feeling of going from scrappy underdog to elite alien-butt-kicking futuristic super soldier squad incredibly rewarding, every single time. Except when you lose horribly.
- X-COM: UFO Defense was almost canceled twice, first due to money troubles and again when its publisher was acquired by Spectrum Holobyte.
- The second time it was officially canceled, but its publisher decided to ignore their parent company's order so development could continue.
- At the time, its developers had no idea it was canceled – co-creator Julian Gollop didn't learn about it until two decades later.
Akin to Chrono Trigger in stunning art direction, mechanical simplicity, and musical significance, Suikoden II diverges from Square’s masterpiece in its sense of moral ambiguity and dark storytelling. For the longest time, Suikoden II was locked behind a near-impenetrable wall of scarcity that kept it out of the hands of most American gamers. Now that it’s finally available to a wide audience, it’s a must-play for any RPG fan.
Suikoden II isn’t about saving the world. The scenario instead favors an extremely local perspective, gradually expanding outward from your personal circle of acquaintances to encompass your place in a war of feuding nations populated by characters with complex, realistic motivations. There are very few real villains (with one extreme and terrifying exception), a web of constantly conflicting loyalties and alliances, and a Machiavellian pragmatism that will ethically strain you as you try to balance your obligations to family, friends, mentors, and your own conscience.
Suikoden II manages to support an enormous cast of interesting characters by tasking the player with building a stronghold of their own in the world, a frontier nation of sorts populated by men and women from all walks of life eager to contribute their skills to building something better for everyone. It’s a remarkably optimistic and surprisingly fun diversion from the typically-reactive storytelling stance of most RPGs.
- Suikoden II's story was written before the first game.
- The kanji on Tuta's robe says "medicine."
- There's a sprite for a Magic the Gathering card inside the game data, but it never appears in the actual game.
As the very first game in what would become a landmark shooter series, Battlefield 1942 laid the groundwork for how I would be spending hundreds and hundreds of hours of my life. Though not the only cooperative, team-work oriented shooter of its time, Battlefield 1942 was in a class by itself.
As full battles ripped across huge, open landscapes, waged from land, air, and sea, the realization of being able to command a capital ship, lob tank shells from one point to the next, or changed the tide of the war with one well-placed bomber payload was intoxicating. There was simply nothing like the size and scale of Battlefield 1942, and its legacy has only gotten bigger over the last 15 years since.
- Battlefield 1942 was developed by a team of just 14 people.
- An Xbox version was planned, but EA canceled it in 2003.
- It was the first game in the Battlefield series.
Dota 2 doesn't end when the final unit on the map goes down, or even when you close your client. Dota isn't a game; it's a lifestyle.
Valve's MOBA is one of deepest, most mechanically complex games ever made, and though its base stays the same, mechanics are always being changed and added. The high barrier to entry will drive away new players, but those who crack the shell and get hooked have a very strong chance of rarely playing anything else again. Its 100+ heroes all play differently, and coming close to truly understanding one could take hundreds of hours. Even then, there's always something new to learn. Every failed strategy, every death, every comeback is a chance to discover something new. Getting better isn't just about making numbers go up – you feel the improvement, and every time you outplay an enemy feels as satisfying as the first.
Dota 2 is at its best when you're playing with a team of five friends. Gathering gold, killing enemies, taking objectives as a coordinated team, then making a final push to victory is an incredible high that you'll want to experience again and again.
- Dota 2 is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients, a fan-made mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos co-developed by a designer known as IceFrog.
- In 2009, Valve hired IceFrog to develop Dota 2 as a standalone sequel built in the Source engine.
- Blizzard – who owns the Warcraft brand – filed an opposition against Valve in 2011 to retain ownership of the Dota IP and lost.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe may be a re-release of the original Wii U kart racer, but its function as both a fantastic kart racer in its own right and a more complete package of an already great game. Its selection of classic and brand new tracks make for an excellent rotation of races that keeps things fresh no matter how much you play, with a thorough roster of racers and plenty of kart customization options.
While it's not the marquee attraction, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's suite of multiplayer options beyond racing are some of the best the franchise has had since the N64 days of Block Fort. But it's really the finely tuned racing of Nintendo's longstanding franchise that takes the spotlight — it's never felt better to race (even in the face of Blue Shells), while courses are beautiful, wonderfully detailed, and represent some of the best of the franchise both new and old.
- Despite being a re-release, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the Nintendo Switch's best-selling first-party game as of publish, with 17.89 million units sold so far.
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe added six new racers - Bowser Jr., Dry Bones, King Boo, Inkling Boys and Girls, and an unlockable Gold Mario costume for Metal Mario.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's Link costume and Master Cycle were added post-launch.
He may not be officially recognized by the new Star Wars canon, but there’s no Jedi I’d rather have in my corner than Kyle Katarn. Dark Forces 1 and 2 may have built up his character, but it wasn’t until Jedi Outcast that we really saw Kyle at his best (or worse, if you went down that path). More than just making choices about good and evil, Jedi Outcast allowed us to live out our force-using fantasies in a time where lightsaber battles were mostly relegated to the movies.
Jedi Outcast managed to make every enemy encounter a thrill – whether they be hapless stormtroopers you could fling around like ragdolls, or new Sith apprentices that gave you the chance to feel like a master as you expertly chained lightsaber strikes in different styles. Coupled with the roguish wit and charm of Kyle Katarn and his quest for revenge made Jedi Outcast one of the best stories in the Star Wars universe.
- Jedi Outcast contains at least two references to THX 1138, George Lucas' directorial debut.
- The code "g_realisticsabercombat 9" lets you realistically dismember enemies with your lightsaber.
- Luke Skywalker was going to be the protagonist, but to avoid story constraints, the developers changed it to an original character.
Spelunky is a game about patience. It’s punishing, and no matter how far along you are, death means starting from the beginning. But each time, you’ll die in a different way – an educational way. You’ll learn how to avoid it next time. You’ll grow.
Spelunky is a game about pattern recognition. Each level is randomly generated, but you’ll recognize familiar elements. You’ll know what separates the Mines from the Ice Caves from Temple. You’ll be more prepared. You’ll get just slightly further than last time, and further still the time after that. The game has taught you how to be better.
Spelunky is a game about triumph. When you finally make it to a new area for the first time, when you finally beat Olmec, when you finally beat your best time, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment. You earned this. You did it. But maybe you should go back and try to beat it. You can shave a few seconds off, right? Spelunky is a game about always being able to improve.
- Spelunky speedrunners have completed the game in less than 2 minutes and the harder Hell routes in less than 4 minutes.
- You can find the shotgun under a grave marked "Ash" – a reference to Ashley "Ash" Williams from the Evil Dead series.
- If you click the pug damsel in the options menu enough times, it will turn into a sloth damsel.
When you walk into a room full of arcade games, something looks different about Donkey Kong. Its pastel blue cabinet is a bit shorter than the others; a bit rounder, more welcoming. The glowing marquee and art on the game depicts characters that belong on a 1960s pizza delivery box. This machine clearly doesn’t hold a Star Wars-inspired space battle – but what’s in it? When you put a quarter in, the machine shows you a little cartoon of an ape clambering up a ladder, mocking you. It asks “How High Can You Get?” and the instructions end there. Barrels and fire fill the screen while the characters’ intricate animations for every movement continue the illusion that you are playing this cartoon. You probably don’t get very high. Hopefully, you have more quarters.
- Donkey Kong didn't have a jump mechanic at first, until the creators thought, "If you had a barrel rolling towards you, what would you do?"
- Shigeru Miyamoto originally wanted to do a Popeye game, but he couldn't license the characters.
- Universal sued Nintendo for what it claimed was a rip-off of the name King Kong, but lost because it didn't even have King Kong trademarked.
I know you can hear them too – the plucky strings accompanied by pleasant woodwinds that greeted us every time we opened Buy Mode. The Sims is iconic for so many reasons, from its soundtrack that is undoubtedly burned into our brains to cheat code prompts that live in the memory space right next door. This unique simulation game made day to day life exciting. We could concoct drama and design our own stories, complete with the tools to build dream living spaces. The Sims gave us an incredible playground to be creators and destroyers, and though The Sims' newer iterations make Sims far more complex, the original stands as a classic. Plus, it allowed us to drown our Sims in pools, which is, as we all know, an essential Sims experience. The new Sims are too smart for that.
- Will Wright was inspired to make The Sims after his house burned down in a fire and he was forced to rebuild his life from the ground up.
- Wright also meant The Sims to satirize American consumerism.
- Simlish, the language spoken in the series, was invented to avoid repetitive dialogue and avoid the cost of translation.
I'd heard about Guitar Hero, but I only had an Xbox and Xbox 360. So when Guitar Hero II hit, I fell for the plastic-guitar genre hard. And in 2007, when Rock Band – from Harmonix, the very same creators of Guitar Hero – released, my co-workers and I swooned for the full-band game.
We were justified in doing so. Rock Band literally invented a new form of multiplayer – one that was not only cooperative, but also one where four of you could share a physical energy in the room. It remains a feeling that no game has replicated, and the very act of learning the "language" of the game – teaching your hands to work the guitar neck, or your hands and feet to work in concert to "play" the drums – was a game in and of itself. Even once you learned that language, moving up the ranks, from Easy to Expert, was an adventure with a tangible payoff: you could see and feel the results. And dominating a classic song you and your friends all know and love as a four-player "band" playing on the highest difficulty made memories that last long after the console turned off.
- Rock Band featured an achievement for playing through every song in the game in a row without stopping.
- The original plastic instruments were wired. Rock Band 2 introduced wireless guitars and drums.
- Harmonix also shipped another game in 2007: the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II.
A sprawling Western that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Grand Theft Auto V as one of gaming’s greatest open-world achievements, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game of rare scope and even rarer quality. A beautiful ode to an ugly era, RDR2 combines Rockstar’s most authentic and lived-in open world ever with its most earnest storytelling to date, filling in the gaps with an astonishing array of deep systems and nearly endless emergent gameplay opportunities. Its slower pace allows us to binge on the world like a virtual museum but, when the lead starts flying, it puts the wild back in the west (and then some). Few games manage the level of uncompromising detail as Red Dead Redemption 2 does. Do we need to discuss the horse balls again?
- Actor Rob Wiethoff left L.A. and voice acting entirely following his acclaimed performance as John Marston in Red Dead Redemption, but returned for Red Dead Redemption 2 to bring the character back to life.
- On a leaked map prior to release, Saint Denis appeared to be named New Bordeaux. New Bordeaux is the name of the city in Take 2-published stablemate Mafia III.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 was released on October 26, 2018, on the anniversary of the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (which occurred on October 26, 1881).
Sam Fisher's third adventure is actually three masterpiece games in one. In the campaign, a stunning real-time lighting engine and open mission design allows you to play in countless different ways: total stealth, full gunplay, or a gadget-fest (shoot a Sticky Shocker into a puddle as an enemy walks through it, anyone?). Memorable locations like the lighthouse, bank, Hokkaido (with its "anti-ninja flooring"), and more made every mission memorable. Game 2 is the four-mission two-player co-op campaign, in which two young agents work together in a side story that runs parallel to Fisher's adventure. You literally have to play together, from boosting each other up to high ledges to going back-to-back to scale elevator shafts, the co-op mode committed to cooperation in a way no other action game had. And then you had Spies vs. Mercs, which took the asymmetrical multiplayer mode introduced in Pandora Tomorrow and refined it into something truly unique in the gaming world. Agile, non-lethal spies playing in third-person view faced off against slow-moving but heavily armed mercs that saw the game through a first-person helmet. It was tense, riveting, and brilliant.
- Ubisoft released two additional missions for the co-op campaign after launch as DLC – for free.
- Sam Fisher is voiced by Michael Ironside in Chaos Theory. The most recent Splinter Cell, 2013's Blacklist, is the only one to not star Ironside.
- Chaos Theory is the first game in the Splinter Cell series to be rated M for mature.
In this era of Trophies and Achievements, completing everything in a game is common. But when Yoshi’s Island came out, the reward for exploration was greater than a Gamerscore: for collecting all of the extremely well-hidden red coins and flowers and then finishing a level with 30 stars (which basically means you can’t get hit), you received a 100% rating. If you did this on every level in a world, you unlocked two more levels in each of the six worlds. And these levels were even harder than the others!
I spent many hours 100%-ing my Yoshi’s Island cartridge and the save stuck with me all the way until an unfortunate incident while reviewing a contemporary knockoff Super Nintendo. I’ve never been so excited to start over from scratch.
- There were only 48 levels in Yoshi's Island, half that of Super Mario World.
- In the level Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy, the dizzying, psychedelic effects were created by the Super FX2 chip.
- The characters and art style in Yoshi's Island were repurposed in Tetris Attack.
The first four Silent Hill games will always be dear to me, but Silent Hill 2 holds a special place in my heart. It was the first Silent Hill game to establish the town itself as a character – in a genre oversaturated with run-of-the-mill killers, zombies, aliens, and other more conventional adversaries, Silent Hill 2’s focus on horror in architecture, in the layout and personality of a space, of the human psyche turned tangible, was vastly more interesting to me.
Most of all, it was scary – like, actually scary: an exploration of the depths of human depravity and the effects it has on the people and places around us that few video games have handled with such a disturbing grace and maturity. As a hardened horror fan who’s tough to frighten, I appreciate Silent Hill 2’s ability to stick with me even a decade later.
I may be immune to Silent Hill 2’s scares now, having spent countless hours wandering its foggy streets and haunted otherworlds, but I still remember its power that first time I walked into town.
- The Blue Creek apartment building is a reference to the Deep River apartments in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet.
- Examining the knife in your inventory and staying at low health throughout the game increase your chance of getting the "In Water" ending.
- Events and characters referenced in Silent Hill 2 became key elements in Silent Hill 4: The Room, notably the serial killer Walter Sullivan.
2001’s Grand Theft Auto III was a real watershed in the history of open-world gaming. However, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released just three years later, is just how much it dwarfs Grand Theft Auto III in every way.
Forget one city. Have three, with vast swathes of forests, countryside, and desert in between. Want more vehicles? Have over 250 of them, including jump jets, combine harvesters, lawnmowers, bicycles, semi-trailers, forklifts, and so, so many more. Music? No problem. How does 11 radio stations and over 150 tracks sound?
Not enough? How about parachutes? How about a functioning casino? How about a jetpack? How about same-screen free-roaming co-op? How about fast food that actually makes you fat? How about arguably the greatest line-up of cheats ever assembled?
And how about we put Samuel L. Jackson in it?
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the all-time best-selling game on PlayStation 2 – itself the best-selling console of all-time – and it’s just not at all hard to see why.
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came under fire when players discovered a cut sex minigame called Hot Coffee hidden in the game files.
- After the Hot Coffee ordeal, Rockstar offered to swap San Andreas copies for an updated version and $30 dollars. Only 2,676 people did it.
- Several NPC pedestrians resemble movie characters from iconic films of the era, like Tre from Boyz N the Hood and Bishop from Juice.
BioWare has built its reputation on classic RPGs, but it's unlikely that any will represent its legacy as well as the Mass Effect series, and the original ME was an astounding introduction to that world. Who can forget the first time they opened the galaxy map of their very own starship Normandy for the first time or the outcome of their standoff with Wrex? Mass Effect managed to create an intricate new universe and fill it with compelling lore and secrets to discover, and one of the most intriguing campaign arcs of a sci-fi game to date. While later entries in the series may have failed to deliver on the seeds planted in this first chapter, the momentous choices that ME1 offered us were - and remain - some of the most compelling branching plot points out there, ones that won't be forgotten any time soon.
- Mass Effect's original codename was SFX, or Science Fiction X, which the team grew so attached to they wanted to keep it.
- Actor Seth Green, who provided the voice of Joker, improvised a lot of his dialogue.
- Fox News ran a hilariously misinformed segment on Mass Effect's "full digital nudity and sex," accompanied by the tagline "Sexbox?"
E3 2007 was memorable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it marked a shift away from the glitz and glamour of the Los Angeles Convention Center, moving to the more low-key setting in nearby Santa Monica. Secondly, it was the first time Call of Duty 4 was shown off, its modern-day setting a dramatic departure from the World War II backdrop of previous games.
All Ghillied Up was my first glimpse of it in action, as two camouflaged snipers worked their way through an irradiated Pripyat in Ukraine. The highlight – not just of the demo but arguably of the entire game – was watching, breath held, as an entire armoured patrol trundled past, inches from our hiding spot, and it’s a moment of tension that’s never been matched in a shooter since.
Electric set-pieces and superb pacing make Modern Warfare’s single-player campaign one of the most memorable first-person shooters ever, but it’s the perfectly balanced multiplayer that made it the de rigueur online game for years to follow. Multiplayer shooters were never the same again.
- Modern Warfare was the first M-rated Call of Duty game.
- The rap song that plays over the credits was performed by Mark Grigsby, the game's lead animator.
- Its main theme was written by film composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who has also written music for the Metal Gear Solid series.
While the Tomb Raider reboot in 2013 kicked off a new direction for the iconic heroine that was more in line with modern AAA storytelling (read: Lara was given a deeper backstory and a personality), Rise of the Tomb Raider took it and ran a mile. It continued to flesh out Lara as a driven, wary character while upping the ante on what made the 2013 game so fun; fluid traversal, crunchy combat, and beautifully intricate puzzle tombs. Add a delicately told emotional throughline centered on Lara’s relationship with her father, and you’ve got what is currently the series’ apex.
- Crystal Dynamics took direct inspiration from key aspects of films, including Rambo: First Blood Part II, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and Aliens vs Predator.
- There's a hidden "Underpus" plushie to be found in Rise of the Tomb Raider, a nod to the infamous boss in Tomb Raider Underworld.
- Lara Croft was originally designed to be a guy, but after drawing several variations of him, artist Toby Gard decided he liked the female variant better.
After Arkham Asylum laid the groundwork for a superhero game that hit all the right beats, Batman: Arkham City took everything to the next level by letting Batman loose in the streets of Gotham (sort of). Not only did it nail the feeling of stalking and beating down thugs with an impressive array of gadgets, it raised the stakes of what a caped crusader could deal with in a single night.
Arkham City’s heaping helping of infamous rogues let you experience them in their element, and found perfect ways for Batman to foil them via both brain and brawn – leading to some of the best boss fights ever conceived. Each supervillain added to the oppressive weight of trying to save the day with the odds stacked against you, and the story’s climax remains one of the most striking moments in video games.
- It's possible to glitch over the walls of Arkham City to reveal a fully modeled Gotham and Arkham Asylum.
- Several references to the TV show Lost can be overheard in NPC dialogue, including, "So, did they ever explain what the island was?"
- The developers considered adding a multiplayer mode, but ultimately decided to focus on making the single-player great.
The island setting of The Witness enveloped me in its striking colour palette and minimalistic soundscape. Weaved into this tranquil setting however is a series of fiendish puzzles, each offering a unique challenge. These puzzles had me scrawling patterns on pieces of graph paper, reflecting the sun, and listening to the local wildlife – I explored every corner of my brain, and this island, in search of increasingly-evasive solutions.
The final challenge – a sequence of 14 randomly generated problems that must be solved in just under seven minutes – had me questioning my sanity. Being stuck on one particular conundrum seemed frustrating at the time, but that all washed away in sense of near-unparalleled euphoria once it had been solved.
Although The Witness doesn’t offer a narrative in the traditional sense, that's not to say it does not have a story to tell. Philosophical metaphors and allegorical imagery are layered into the world, allowing the player to discover as much meaning as they care to. Unlike so many games that are desperate to hand-hold and drip-feed, The Witness has a refreshingly high opinion of its player, expecting them to think for themselves. It’s what makes The Witness so challenging but also deeply special.
- There are about 650 puzzles in The Witness.
- Many of the environments were created with the help of real architects and landscapers.
- One hidden puzzle in the game requires an hour to solve.
Journey is the closest a video game has come to emulating the effects of poetry. In terms of structure it’s so simple: you must reach a snowy mountain peak visible in the distance. Along the way, your character surfs across glistening deserts, hides from flying creatures made entirely from cloth, and occasionally meets other players embarking on the same pilgrimage.
Journey has a unique and special tone: it’s dreamlike and melancholic for the most part, but it’s the rapturous conclusion which truly elevates it. Words like "breathtaking" are used so liberally their meaning has been hollowed out, but Journey deserves to command its full significance.
- Journey's core development team consisted of only 18 people.
- According to director Jenova Chen, 25 playtesters cried after completing the game.
- Its soundtrack was the first video game soundtrack to be nominated for the Grammy's Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media award.
Many games attempt to emulate cinema, dealing in the same tropes and stock characters. Initially, it looks like Uncharted does the same thing – it focuses on a treasure hunter who frequently finds himself in danger across exotic locations. But when you play Uncharted, especially the second installment, Among Thieves, you realise it surpasses so much of Hollywood’s recent output with ease.
So often action exists for action sake – to look cool – but Uncharted 2: Among Thieves uses it to reveal more about its central character, Nathan Drake, and his relationships with a strong cast of supporting characters. That’s not to say the action isn’t spectacular. From being pursued by a helicopter on a moving train to being harassed by an angry tank in a Himalayan village, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves set a new benchmark for cinematic action, graphical fidelity, and established Nathan Drake as one of the great video game characters of his time.
- While the first Uncharted had 104 individual environments, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves boasts over 400.
- Naughty Dog claims 30,000 cans of soda were drunk during production.
- The Tibetan village sequence was inspired by the 2008 indie game The Graveyard by Tale of Tales.
Blizzard performed alchemy here. Overwatch should be leaden – a Team Fortress cover version with two-and-a-half modes and a MOBA approach to character design. And yet what we have is gold.
The key here is in how Blizzard looked beyond simply making a good shooter – it made an interesting one. Its backstory is PG-13 Pixar, its characters are diverse and lovable, and its community engagement is… well, it’s Jeff Kaplan. Pro gamers, cosplayers, fanfic writers, ARG detectives and everyone in between have all been given a reason to play a single game – no mean feat.
And this isn’t to play down the game itself – Blizzard didn’t make a Team Fortress clone, it made a successor. It’s a swift, satisfying shooter, with a whirling game-to-game internal meta of character picks and counter-picks. How many 30 million-player games have a Tumblr following as powerful as their eSports scene? Exactly.
- Development on Overwatch began in the aftermath of Titan's cancellation in 2013. Titan designer Jeff Kaplan became director of Overwatch.
- The sound supervisor wanted a satisfying sound to play when you hit someone, so he modified the sound of opening a beer can.
- Kaplan praised the game's fanbase for building on its story, saying, "It belongs to them. We're just the custodians of the universe."
Finding out just how deep the multi-layered near-future conspiracy goes is a driving force that encourages exploration of every corner of Deus Ex’s large and semi-open levels. It’s a surprisingly rich and juicy mystery that poses interesting questions about the future of human civilization amid ever-advancing technology.
Building JC Denton up as your own custom-built cyborg secret agent is a joy, allowing you to mix and match upgrades to suit your playstyle anywhere on the spectrum of action to stealth. This, naturally, leads to a great deal of replayability – no matter what augmentations you choose, Deus Ex’s levels have a different path that can only be accessed by someone of your particular skills. You might fight your way through a group of enemies, sneak past them undetected, or hack their automated gun turret and turn it against them. You might even complete the entire story without harming a soul.
- Deus Ex was one of the earliest licensed Unreal Engine games.
- A film adaptation was announced in 2002, but never materialized.
- The developers accidentally predicted 9/11 by leaving the Twin Towers out of the New York City skyline... one year before the attack.
Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn was very much a leader of the pack during the RPG renaissance of the early 2000s and is still an excellent example of that genre’s strengths. From its fantastically written characters and story to its vast arsenal of weapons, armors, and magic, Baldur’s Gate II was an adventure that you could not only get lost in, but that could be lived in, spending hundreds of hours exploring every hidden secret and mystery.
But, personally, Baldur’s Gate II was a truly digital representation of the world and rules of Dungeons and Dragons. D&D video games have historically been hit-or-miss, and as a kid I was enamored with games like Eye of the Beholder, but these virtual dungeon-crawling adventures were a far cry from the real thing. Baldur’s Gate II changed that for me, finally making good on the digital promise of its tabletop ancestry. And though it may be a little dusty, it’s still as good today as it was when the saga of the Bhaalspawn first unfolded.
- Baldur's Gate II's immense size – 300 total hours and 290 quests – made it a "tester's nightmare," said co-executive producer Ray Muzyka.
- Despite the name, players still never get to actually visit the city of Baldur's Gate in its sequel.
- The game is dedicated to late BioWare employee Daniel Walker.
I restore classic arcade and pinball machines and one of my favorite projects was bringing a Ms. Pac-Man cocktail machine back from the dead. With a rebuilt monitor, restored art, and of course the speed chip that makes it many times faster, Ms. Pac-Man made a popular addition to my homecade. We run an occasional high score competition at IGN and so I thought it would be cool to bring it into our lunch room for a bit. For a month, the machine was never left alone. We work in an office surrounded by the latest toys and games, but Ms. Pac-Man attracted crowds. People changed their commutes to come in early and stay late just to play. Frequently we'd be across the office in a conference room and the strains of the Ms. Pac-Man cutscene music would waft over and make everyone giggle. There are very few games which can create so much happiness after so many decades.
- Ms. Pac-Man began as a conversion kit for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto. Midway licensed it and made huge changes, like giving Pac-Man a bow.
- You can't use standard patterns to solve the mazes in Ms. Pac-Man like you can in Pac-Man thanks to semi-random ghost movements.
- Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani had nothing to do with Ms. Pac-Man, and instead worked on the less popular (but still fun) Super Pac-Man.
Counter-Strike is the game that’s been with me the longest, in one form or another, but for me, it all started here. Many of the things I value most in skill-based games, I value because of Counter-Strike: good level design, team-based dynamic, the dedication required to master it, a friendly sense of competition, and a solid sense of community. It taught me the joy of earning my victories in a game, but also the importance of learning from my failures. It’s the reason I love first-person shooters and the reason I stuck by PC gaming at a young age, and I owe it all to its earliest iterations.
- Counter-Strike was originally a Half-Life mod from 1999 before Valve acquired the rights for it and hired its creators a year later.
- Valve released the first retail version under the name Half-Life: Counter-Strike, believing the name couldn't stand on its own yet.
- Many Counter-Strike staples were added in early versions – spectate mode in 1.1, voice chat in 1.3, and anti-cheat protection in 1.5.
Left 4 Dead 2 came out exactly a year after the original, which upset a lot of people who (incorrectly) assumed the sequel would be a glorified expansion pack to the first. But Left 4 Dead 2 does exactly what a sequel needs to do: be better in every way.
L4D2 - developed in-house at Valve - has more creative levels in its campaign, more special infected to kill (or play as, if playing in Versus Mode), a bigger variety of weapons, and protagonists with some actual personality. Even the Source Engine, though already showing its age with L4D1, looked - and most importantly, played, - just fine, considering the dozens of ravenous zombies the game could throw at you at any moment.
The series’ A.I. Director, which in the first game handled how many zombies pounced on you depending on how well you’re doing, got an upgrade. It not only controlled the flow of zombies, but would try to force players to take more difficult paths in a level, and reward players with extra health packs and ammo if they were doing well. Though the original development team went on to create the asymmetrical multiplayer shooter Evolve, nothing has quite matched the visceral thrills and scares of Left 4 Dead 2, which stands as one of the pinnacles of modern co-op gaming.
- Eagle-eyed viewers can spot a view of the Special Infected from Left 4 Dead in the film The Cabin in the Woods.
- Valve released an extra Campaign, “The Passing,” which featured characters from Left 4 Dead running into the cast from Left 4 Dead 2. A second DLC campaign, “The Sacrifice,” was released for L4D1 and acted as a prequel to L4D2.
- A group of upset Left 4 Dead fans attempted to boycott L4D2, over the perceived “rushed” nature of the sequel being released so soon after the first game. Valve flew two members of the 10,000-strong ‘NO-L4D2’ group to the project’s development site to playtest the game. The members came away impressed and the boycott was called off.
EarthBound is probably the game that I rented the most. I know it's a weird thing to say, but I was a weird kid back in 1995, which is probably why Shigesato Itoi's RPG resonated so heavily with me.
The story of Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo's journey across a strange, slanted version of America was such a vast departure from previous RPGs I'd played like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. It wasn't drenched in fantasy tropes and pathos, but rather brimming with color, humor, and some of the weirdest characters and events I'd ever seen in a game. Simultaneously, it knows how to pack an emotional punch.
So yeah, I rented it. Obviously, it didn't come with the pack-in player's guide, so I only made it so far before I had to return it. Then I rented it again. And again. And again. Eventually, my parents noticed that my college fund was being given to Blockbuster, so they nipped the problem in the bud and bought it for me. It's been my favorite JRPG ever since.
- Co-developer Ape, Inc. cited The Beatles' John Lennon as one of the inspirations for Earthbound's music.
- The name Ness is an intentional reference to the NES, the abbreviation for Nintendo Entertainment System.
- The American version came packaged with a walkthrough.
Resident Evil was not only an impressively faithful remake of one of the most important games ever made – it managed to surpass the base material in almost every way, carving out an identity all its own without sacrificing an ounce of the original's creative vision. Retreading even the most familiar paths through the Spencer Mansion's many hallways and rooms felt like a fresh experience with its highly detailed, Gothic art direction. The classic puzzle-heavy horror and inventory management were revamped rather than abandoned, polished up for a new generation of players without scorning the old. And yet it was the bold new additions that ended up as some of Resident Evil's most iconic elements: the otherworldly groaning beyond that mysterious gate behind the stairs, and the terrifying subversion of the original game's faithful promise – that the zombies you kill will stay dead. Resident Evil's reanimated zombies and vicious Crimson Heads brought a frightening intensity to the ghostly halls of the mansion, upping the stakes in a whole new way and bringing a new dimension to the core elements that drive the series: exploration, combat, and strategic item management. While the series has taken many turns, few games in the series have come close to being as perfect as this one.
- Shinji Mikami, the original Resident Evil director, wanted to create a remake because he didn't think the original's graphics had aged well.
- It was created in just one year as part of an agreement between Capcom and Nintendo, which brought many old Resident Evil games to Gamecube.
- This was the final game in the Resident Evil series to feature multiple endings.
I came to the Diablo II party incredibly late. The first time I actually played it properly was in 2011, more than ten years after its initial release. Could this iconic game possibly live up to my lofty expectations that late in the day? Absolutely. In fact, I was surprised by just how good it was. After all, Diablo II doesn’t exactly go out of its way to be user-friendly. Even choosing a class and build is daunting, let alone learning the quirks of its many systems.
What hooks you in, however, is just how perfectly measured the core gameplay loop of killing, looting and upgrading is. Whether you’re just starting out or wading through Hell with a hardcore character, Diablo II has a momentum that’s impossible not to be swept up in. The odds are always overwhelming, the atmosphere always malevolent, and the reward always worth the risk.
And as is typical of Blizzard as a studio, Diablo II can be played on countless different levels. I never even touched most of what the game had to offer, but ultimately I didn’t need to. The simple joy of wading through thick knots of enemies with my necromancer and his summoned brood of skeletons and mages, setting off chains of corpse explosions and painting the world red was an end game in itself.
- The Guinness Book of World Records 2000 awarded Diablo the title of fastest-selling PC game after it sold one million copies in two weeks
- Diablo II's infamous secret cow level spawned as a result of a (false) rumor about a secret cow level in the first Diablo.
- Blizzard designed Diablo II with online multiplayer in mind.
Cutscenes were one of the driving forces behind the success of PC gaming in the late '90s and Blizzard was regarded as the king when it came to jaw-dropping visuals. They took things to an entirely new level with StarCraft and the Brood War expansion in 1998, though. Not only were players treated to an excellent RTS experience, but their reward for completing sections of the campaign were evocative visuals that further immersed you in a world where humans are losing a war against brutal space aliens.
Taking it a step further, those cutscenes were paired with some truly talented voice acting and narrative design. As I played through the storyline I learned to love the different little characters I interacted with and felt genuine anger when the Zerg managed to capture Kerrigan and bend her to their will. This character had been with you through thick and thin and after she's captured you, of course, begin the mission to rescue her.
Still, the highlight of StarCraft is easily its multiplayer. Few gaming moments are as satisfying as defending your base against a Zerg rush as the Protoss or successfully sending in a fleet of Terran to decimate an enemy's base. StarCraft is still played competitively in parts of the world, making it remain relevant for longer than almost any other video game in existence. There's a reason too. It's because the gameplay is so expertly crafted and balanced that players can continually go head to head with a different result each time. It's those near losses and photo finish victories that keep you coming back and have kept the series alive all these years.
- The slang "pwned" is said to have originated from StarCraft, when a map designer misspelled the word "owned."
- Zerg facial structure is modeled after dental x-rays of human skulls.
- Astronaut Daniel Barry brought a copy on his 1999 mission to the International Space Station.
In a universe where Everquest was king, and MMOs seemed like a dominated market, leave it up to Blizzard to turn one of their key franchises into the biggest MMO there ever was, and possibly ever will be. After six expansions, World of Warcraft has shown very little signs of slowing down. Of course, the player-base has always fluctuated, but the massive hype around a brand new expansion is always enough to bring even the most retired player back for more.
I believe the defining characteristic that draws people to the game is the freedom to play the game as you see fit. Like grouping with friends? If so, the game gives you the ability to start with a crew and play through the entire game together, regardless of race or class. Want to make a go at it solo? Then feel free to take on quests alone. The higher level dungeons and raids demand teamwork, but with its stellar Looking for Group system, finding people to tackle a hard boss has never been easier.
It’s always worth mentioning the warring factions of the alliance and horde. While choosing a faction seems a tad more meaningless than it used to, mainly because the factions basically are tasked with the same things, the old days of Crossroads and Tarren Mill are memories some players will have forever.
- World of Warcraft reached peak subscriptions in October 2010, at 12 million subscribers.
- It contained a whopping 40,000 NPCs... in 2009.
- Between 2004 and 2011 alone, humans collectively spent nearly 6 million years playing World of Warcraft.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic almost single-handedly rescued Star Wars video games from purgatory. It was also one of the first times the beloved IP was handed to a world-class developer in BioWare. The result was not just one of the best role-playing games ever made, but one that helped legitimize Western RPGs on consoles and establish the fledgling Xbox as a destination for top-tier third-party games.
KOTOR was a 40-hour role-playing epic set 4,000 years before the Original Trilogy. As such, it had the freedom to tell the story it wanted and invent a new universe of characters without Lucasfilm slapping it on the wrist and telling it no. And so we got Revan and one of the best twists in gaming history, and we got the dark wit of robot party member HK-47. Best of all, we got a Star Wars story where your choices truly mattered. Choosing to double-cross someone you'd agreed to help would earn you Dark Side points, and eventually you could become truly evil and sadistically powerful. But so too could your benevolent actions bring you to the Light Side and make you a virtuous hero.
- Knights of the Old Republic is set 4,000 years before the events of the Star Wars films.
- There are two possible endings, but you can trigger a third joke ending with a series of inputs prior to the final battle with Darth Malak.
- The full script, which features 15,000 lines of recorded dialogue, fills up 10 five-inch binders.
Like Fallout 3 before it, Fallout New Vegas throws us into a harsh, post-nuclear America. But it very quickly becomes something greater than just more of the same thanks to some amazing writing and touches by some of the minds behind the original Fallout and Fallout 2. It’s not limited to mechanical tweaks like improved real-time combat and crafting. Several factions with deep, shades-of-gray characters populate the wastes with interesting moral decisions, making the conflict between the New California Republic, Caesar’s Legion, and the mysterious Mr. House feel like anything but a black-and-white choice between good and evil.
The fact that we get to decide the outcome makes it even better. And again some amazing modding work by the community make the PC version of New Vegas the definitive one.
- It was developed in 18 months.
- It contains 65,000 lines of dialogue, as compared to 40,000 for Fallout 3.
- Parts of New Vegas, including Caesar's Legion, were taken from the original canceled version of Fallout 3, known as Van Buren.
Final Fantasy VI was a revelation for me back in the mid ‘90s. It’s dark, steampunk-laden world was like nothing I’d ever seen before, and I loved how the heroes were more brooding and complex than their cheery predecessors. The music affected me profoundly as well; some of my favorite Nobuo Uematsu pieces (including "Dancing Mad" and "Aria di Mezzo Carattere") are from the Final Fantasy VI soundtrack.
But what really sets Final Fantasy VI apart for me is its many iconic moments: Magitek armor moving slowly through a snowy field. Celes singing at the opera house. Running into Deathgaze while flying around in Setzer's airship. Kefka destroying the world and becoming a god. These moments have stayed with me for over 20 years.
Along with its incredible story and soundtrack, Final Fantasy VI also features a fantastic combat system, which includes the ability to freely swap out party members between battles. (There are a whopping 14 playable characters in all.) The tetradeca of heroes isn’t stacked with useless filler characters either, something I remember very much appreciating when I was faced with a tough Boss fight and needed to adjust my strategy. I also liked switching out spells and abilities using magicite, which allows players to freely customize characters however they see fit.
Final Fantasy VI is considered a milestone in the Final Fantasy series, and with good reason. It’s unique combat and incredibly dramatic story sets it apart from most games of its generation. Even today, I get goosebumps just thinking about it. I loved Final Fantasy VI then, and I love it now.
- Final Fantasy music composer Nobuo Uematsu has said Final Fantasy VI was his favorite score.
- Artist Yoshitaka Amano's favorite Final Fantasy character he's drawn is Terra Branford.
- Real-life professional wrestler Joshua Harter's ring name is Chris Sabin, a reference to Sabin Figaro.
Where Mass Effect set the stage a futuristic Milky Way, Mass Effect 2 let you explore and experience so much more of it. As Commander Shepard, I traveled the galaxy on the best recruitment trip I could have wished for, and experienced possibly one of the most heart-wrenching stories – but whether or not the game ends in tears is entirely up to you.
As you head out for a suicide mission, you’ll meet some of the best-written characters that feel original and have the power to evoke true emotions. Perhaps one of the best parts about earning the loyalty of each of the companions was discovering more about their respective species and seeing how they’re surviving in a violent galaxy. Maximum loyalty for my companions in Mass Effect 2 was not an option; for my heart’s own good, it was a requirement.
- Importing a completed saved game from the first Mass Effect game can change elements of the story
- Commander Shepard is named after the first American astronaut in space, Alan Shepard.
- There are 13 possible companions.
Before you can catch all 151 Pokémon, Pokémon Yellow first teaches you how to respect and care for the sometimes temperamental creatures. Pokémon Yellow takes all the best elements from Pokémon Red and Blue and upgrades it to make it feel more like the anime. The best change to the originals, of course, was a Pikachu following you around on your journey. Suddenly, the Pokémon weren’t just creatures you summoned for battle; they become emotional creatures that accompany on your adventure. They’re no longer just fighters you bring along. The small story elements that link Pokémon Yellow back to the anime were a fun way to let the player relive the beginning of Ash’s journey, but ultimately, Pokémon Yellow is simply one of the best ways to experience the Pokémon universe – it's as simple as that.
- Pokémon Yellow is essentially the same game as Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green, but it includes elements from the anime.
- It was one of the handful of games compatible with the Game Boy Printer, letting players print Pokédex entries onto stickers.
- Nintendo released a special, Pikachu-themed Game Boy Color alongside it.
Bloodborne initially presents as a work of Gothic horror – you spend the opening hours inching through Yharnam’s dark alleyways and ominous churches, culling hordes of muttering werewolves – but this soon gives way to a weird tale worthy of Lovecraft himself.
But its ambitious story – of religious and scientific schisms, of dreams and reality, of idiot gods and nightmare newborns – is told not in the overwritten prose favoured by Lovecraft but by an exceptionally savage third-person action game.
From Software intentionally ditched Dark Souls’ trusted shield to force the player to be more aggressive. Director Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted every slash inflicted by its arsenal of gruesome weapons feels to feel as if you’re were fighting for your life. As is usually the case, his design works flawlessly.
- Bloodborne's working title was Project Beast.
- Romania and the Czech Republic inspired the bulk of its world's architectural design.
- The soundtrack alone took over two years to compose.
When Metroid Prime hit the GameCube it was one of the prettiest, most technologically advanced games on any platform. In a post-Wii era, it's hard to fathom Nintendo ever shaking up the industry again with a cutting-edge, first-person shooter, but that's what made 2002 such an exciting year for GameCube owners.
I didn't play the previous Metroid games, so I bought Metroid Prime just to see what my GameCube was capable of – and because IGN gave it a 9.8. It was gorgeous and fast, but it was also amazingly packed with detail: birds, bugs, and other wildlife occupied the ruins of the game, while hieroglyphs and etchings revealed its history.
Metroid Prime was also a lonely game. Metroid Prime dropped you into the Chozo ruins with no one to talk to. Exploring an alien planet solo is what the series is all about, and why the subsequent games with space marines and hunters just didn't work as well.
- If you complete Metroid Prime with a 100% rating, you'll see a short video of Dark Samus's creation.
- A "sequence break" technique lets you get the handy Space Jump as the first item on Talon IV via a tricky jump from the top of your ship.
- The hand symbols that represent each beam type are the gestures Samus must make to switch between each beam.
There are three Resident Evil games in our top 100 list, but RE4 is both the highest-ranked title and the only one that isn’t a remake. That’s because Capcom got it right the first time, with a perfect blend of atmosphere, action and story that made us want to play through again and again, through multiple releases, on every platform until my girlfriend was all like “Hey, maybe it’s about time that you should think about getting a job?” and I was like “Uh, unlocking the Handcannon is my job now, howbouthat?!”
Not only did RE4 totally redefine the 3rd person shooter, but it did so in the seemingly incongruent genre of survival horror. Turns out, it totally worked and led to some incredible set pieces battling against chainsaw-wielding maniacs, giant men, giant fish, tiny men in Napoleon costumes, and medium-sized centipede men. RE4 unlocked the true potential of the series in a way that hasn’t been matched before or since, and will probably always be the most universally beloved Resident Evil title.
- Hardware manufacturer Nuby Tech created an official RE4 custom controller shaped like a chainsaw. It was incredibly cumbersome and nearly impossible to play the game with (especially if you were used to playing the game with a Wii-mote), but they look cool as hell.
- If you try to make Leon look up Ashley Graham's skirt, she will call you a pervert, and she will be right ya little freak, you!
- There was a version of Resident Evil 4 in development before the one we all know and love that was very supernatural and even more action-heavy than what we finally ended up with. That version of the game eventually made it into our hands as well, only it did so as 'Devil May Cry'.
Few games have ever inspired the same sense of awe that Shadow of the Colossus does within its first 10 minutes. Climbing that first ledge and coming face to face with the first Colossus is among the most impactful, and almost terrifying, experiences in all of gaming. From its beautiful, crumbling ruins to the hulking, ancient Colossi, Fumito Ueda’s sun-soaked action/adventure game is drenched in a muted, melancholy aesthetic that has become synonymous with his, admittedly limited, works.
At its core, Shadow of the Colossus is really a puzzle game. Once you’ve managed to recover from the shock of stumbling across each of the colossi, you’ll need to figure out the best way to scale, and ultimately destroy each monster. Each of these harrowing encounters will not only leave you sweaty, but reveal just the tiniest bit more about the vague, mournful plot that main character Wander has managed to find himself in. Part love story, part monster hunt, part parable, Shadow of the Colossus borrows heavily from what came before, but inspires much of what came after.
- Shadow of the Colossus was a spiritual sequel to Fumito Ueda's first game, Ico.
- A movie adaptation was announced back in 2009, but was never put into production.
- The game played a significant role in Adam Sandler's 2007 film Reign Over Me... which is still very strange.
Though there'd already been two official entries in the Metal Gear series (not counting Snake's Revenge, which we don't talk about) it wasn't until Snake covertly slithered his way onto the PlayStation that this franchise cemented itself as a big deal. Though often lauded for its contributions to the "stealth" genre, it was billed as a "Tactical Espionage Action" game. The moment-to-moment gameplay was about being sneaky, and players were rewarded for outsmarting the defenses of Shadow Moses quietly and cleverly, but things frequently got loud during iconic boss fights and over-the-top action setpieces.
However, where Metal Gear Solid was truly groundbreaking was its emphasis on narrative and cinematic presentation. Hideo Kojima's love of Hollywood action movies was readily apparent through slick cutscenes, and Yoji Shinkawa's character and mechanical designs added a heavy dose of anime sensibility, and the whole experience sounded amazing thanks to the musical contributions of Harry Gregson Williams and a stellar voice cast including Cam Clarke, Jennifer Hale, and *OF COURSE* David Hayter. Metal Gear Solid looked like a movie, sounded like a movie, and felt like a movie, but still played like a video game, striking a delicate balance that the medium is still striving for over twenty years later.
- Voicing Solid Snake wasn't David Hayter's first time playing a genetically-engineered super soldier; he'd previously voiced Captain America on Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
- Hideo Kojima's idea to have Snake hide in a box came from the 1973 Kobo Abe novel "The Box Man." Kojima has cited Abe's earlier play "The Man Who Turned into A Stick" as a similar source inspiration for his upcoming game, Death Stranding.
- After being frightened by the cyborg ninja, Otacon pees his pants and then continues wearing them for the duration of the game. That's just nasty.
God of War didn't just pull off the impressive feat of reinvigorating and reinventing a franchise that had seemingly run cold, but it also smartly subverted what came before to create an adventure that both played to its past and stood on its own as one of the finest games of its generation.
Nearly every facet of Sony Santa Monica's Norse epic is working in concert with one another to craft a thrilling, memorable, and engrossing adventure. From its haunting score, to the beautifully written and acted story of Kratos and Atreus, to the incredible feel of the Leviathan Axe, God of War's impressive craftsmanship shines through at every step, honoring the past while forging its own path.
- God of War continues the series' trend of making reference to the Boat Captain from the first game, offering an allusion to him in one of the game's treasure maps.
- God of War received its own feature-length making-of documentary, Raising Kratos, which chronicled the ups and downs of Kratos' reimagining.
- As of May of 2019, God of War has passed 10 million copies sold.
For all its inter-dimensional threats, monster hunts and magic powers, I’ve always thought The Witcher 3’s key achievement is in how it nails the mundane. Geralt’s fantasy world is one of mud, thatch and metal, his main quests are freelance work, and he loves a game of cards down the pub. That sense of reality is what helps you empathise with Geralt, understand the world, and really understand how bad things have gotten when the crazy shit starts popping off.
An RPG with enough complexity to satisfy the urge to tinker, but enough character never to feel impersonal, Wild Hunt is a staggering achievement no matter how you look at it. Its story deftly balances cosmic threat and family drama, its choices feel truly meaningful and world-changingly effective, and it looks gorgeous in its own grubby way. Even its two DLC expansions are among the best ever released. Geralt’s final journey might be built on the mundane, but that makes it nothing short of magical.
- Doug Cockle, the English voice of Geralt, bought a console to play The Witcher 3 – the first Witcher game he decided to play.
- Developers at CD Projekt Red cited Dark Souls as a major influence on The Witcher 3's combat system.
- Dynamic beard growth causes Geralt's facial hair to grow over time.
BioShock will likely always be remembered for its game-changing “Would You Kindly?” twist, but the first adventure in Rapture is so much more than a dressed-up dupe. From first encountering a splicer caring for a gun the way a mother cares for her baby to the still-enrapturing Andrew Ryan twist toward the game’s end, BioShock delivers one enrapturing setpiece after another. That’s largely in part thanks to one of the most memorable locations in gaming history. So much story is embedded in the dilapidated hallways and shuttered rooms of Rapture, a decaying underwater labyrinth that demands to be investigated. The mark of a good experience is one that you keep thinking about long after you’ve finished it. And I still haven’t stopped thinking about BioShock, its incredible location, and those awesome Plasmids, over a decade later.
- Ayn Rand's philosophical system of Objectivism forms much of the foundation that Andrew Ryan's utopian vision for Rapture was rooted in.
- Even Andrew Ryan's name is a play on Ayn Rand.
- Some original designs for the Little Sisters, before they became actual little girls, were slugs, crabs, and injured dogs.
Civilization IV is a great turn-based strategy game on its own, but it wasn’t until the Beyond the Sword expansion that it became truly legendary, and the highlight of the 28-year-old Civilization series. The changes it makes are sweeping: it adds corporations, which add another religion-like layer, fleshes out the espionage system and victory conditions, and enhances the AI to put up a great fight.
Meanwhile, random events ranging from tornadoes to baby booms make every playthrough even more unique and eventful than ever before. And we remind you, that’s on top of a game that’s so addictive to begin with that it’s cost us countless nights of sleep whilst chanting its “Just one more turn” mantra or humming its Grammy award-winning theme song.
- Civilization IV was the first video game to ever win a Grammy – it won in 2011 for its main theme, Baba Yetu.
- Baba Yetu, which was originally composed for the album Calling All Dawns, is a Swahili-language translation of the Lord's Prayer.
- Newly researched technologies were narrated by Leonard Nimoy.
There's not a ton left that we can really say about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time outside of the fact that it's indisputably one of the greatest games ever made. Not only did it redefine action/adventure games, but it completely changed the way the industry thought about 3D combat and exploration.
The seven-year gap between A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time saw Zelda fans eagerly anticipating Link’s next adventure, and they weren’t disappointed. Garnering nearly unanimous critical praise and fan adoration, Ocarina of Time was quickly regarded as one of the most important and groundbreaking games of all time, and for good reason. A sweeping, epic tale that introduced new characters, new lore, and an ever-expanding timeline theory, this version of Zelda took what was great about its predecessors and expanded on those themes and ideas exponentially.
Solving puzzle across time, riding Epona through the vast expanse of Hyrule, and the final confrontation with Ganon are moments that will stick with Zelda fans forever, but in 1998 they were mind-bending, genre-defining, and more than enough to earn The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time a spot on our Top 100 list.
- Ocarina of Time invented the z-targeting system that's been used in many action games ever since its 1998 debut.
- It was originally planned as a Nintendo 64DD release.
- Ocarina of time runs on a modified Super Mario 64 engine.
The premise of Minecraft is incredibly simple. Mine materials such as stone and wood, and build things with it. Yet the possibilities are incredibly limitless. An epic gaming moment many people have reflected on is what they call, “The First Night in Minecraft.” The world always begins as a bright sunny day, and you use this time to chop down trees, dig, and maybe even slay a few animals for food. It’s great, until the sun starts to set and the actual enemies start to appear. It’s at this point you realize this is actually a survival game, and you’re forced to either burrow underground or make a quick makeshift wood cabin. Then as the sun rises and you watch all the enemies burn to a crisp, you are finally free to explore again, you are hit with a joyous urge to explore and dive even deeper into the game. Will you keep your first house, or search for a better landscape? Will you become an unground dweller, or live atop a mountain? These are the freedoms Minecraft offers, and the only thing that’s standing in between you and literally anything, is imagination.
- Minecraft's original title was Cave Game, then Minecraft: The Order of the Stone, before the team settled on just Minecraft.
- It takes 4 minutes and 10 seconds to break an obsidian block with your bare hands.
- Microsoft purchased the Minecraft IP for over $2 billion dollars.
Halo didn't invent the first-person shooter. Not by a longshot. Nor was it even the first console FPS. But it was the first FPS to finally get it right on a console, and the industry hasn't been the same since. Halo: Combat Evolved simply felt at home on a gamepad, and the fact that it had a likeable and heroic protagonist, a rich sci-fi universe that felt fleshed-out despite this being the first game in the series, and Halo became an instant smash hit.
But its story was only half of its success. Halo was quite simply one of the best multiplayer shooters ever upon its release, thanks to its incredible complement of weapons (two-shot death pistol FTW!) that mixed seamlessly with third-person-controlled vehicles across a swath of classic maps like Blood Gulch, Sidewinder, Hang 'em High, and more. That it was all set to the chanting-monks theme song that, like the game itself, became legendary.
- Halo: Combat Evolved was originally designed and revealed for Mac computers.
- In its early stages, it was also an RTS, and later a third-person shooter, before finally becoming an FPS.
- During Halo's first press tour in Europe, the demo computer literally exploded.
When Half-Life first came out in 1998, it was immediately obvious how transformative a game it was. Valve not only proved it was possible to tell a real, atmospheric story from within a first-person-shooter, but did it so brilliantly that its lessons have informed virtually every shooter campaign since.
Stepping into the Black Mesa Research Facility as mild-mannered Gordon Freeman and bearing witness to the accident that sets off an interdimensional invasion is a master class in introducing a game’s universe. Instead of stopping the action and playing a cutscene to advance the story, Half-Life’s tale all plays out from Gordon’s perspective, never taking control away from us, but directing our eyes toward its scripted events. That technique was surprisingly effective at making me feel like Gordon and I were one in the same.
Iconic monsters – most notably the Alien facehugger-like Headcrabs that transform scientists into gruesome zombies – and impressive soldier AI gave Half-Life a spooky atmosphere backed up by enemies that pose a real threat. Great and memorable weapons, from the simple crowbar to the silent sniper crossbow and the biological homing weapon that shoots alien bees, made fighting through the spooky ruins of Black Mesa a fantastic battle.
- Half-Life was primarily influenced by Stephen King's The Mist, which is also about interdimensional aliens.
- Valve fully supports the 2012 fan-created remake, Black Mesa, which features updated graphics, character models, and voices.
- The HEV Suit model of Gordon Freeman features a small ponytail, but this is not canon and is merely a leftover from his early designs.
There’s a reason a snake’s skeleton, and not a snake itself, features prominently in the title sequence of Snake Eater. This was the game that stripped the Metal Gear formula down to its very core and proved that it could still function even outside our expectations. It forced us to take what we knew about espionage and infiltration and learn how to apply it in a new, unfamiliar environment, and it did so with a bold and elegant understanding of its own systems. You could have all the stealth know-how and military training in the world, but out there in the unpredictable jungle of the Russian wilderness, you were exposed, vulnerable… a Naked Snake. And it worked.
This weird shift in tone, structure – it all worked beautifully, and with a poetic edge that is unrivaled in other Metal Gear installments. Snake Eater is arguably one of the most interesting love stories ever told in a game, one of the strangest and most exciting Cold War-era adventures, and one of the first games to truly make me reflect on my actions as a player. It manages to be tragic, sometimes devastatingly so, and yet still maintain that absurd comedic flair that I admire about this series.
Any game that can make you emotional about climbing a ladder deserves some kind of recognition.
- Hideo Kojima wanted someone else on his team to direct Metal Gear Solid 3, but when no one wanted to, he took on the role after all.
- The grandfather of Johnny Sasaki, the incompetent guard from the first game, watches over your jail cell in one scene in MGS3.
- Raikov's character is a parody of Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2, who was infamous unpopular with many fans.
I still think about three moments in The Last of Us at least once a week, nearly five years later. The first is when Joel’s life changes in a moment in the game’s intro. I knew I was in for something so narratively special from Naughty Dog. The second moment solidified that, as, late into the game, it demanded I make a certain gameplay choice because that’s how Joel would act, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to do. That dissonance struck me, but made so much sense. This was Joel and Ellie’s story I was experiencing, and those characters feel so real thanks to the script, animation, and Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s stellar performances. The Last of Us marries its storytelling with its gameplay, and nothing made me feel more than that last moment. The game’s final discussion between its two protagonists that is filled with so much emotional weight because of their experience – because of what you experienced – that it’s difficult to think of another ending so perfectly true to this unforgettable experience.
- The Infected were inspired by cordyceps, a type of killer fungi that takes over the bodies of insects.
- Alan Weisman's book The World Without Us served as partial inspiration for the game's scenery and setting.
- Naughty Dog fought to keep Ellie on the cover of the game – many publishers feel that games with women on the cover will sell less.
DOOM changed my life. My gaming life, at least. Having spent my entire existence up to that point playing platformers, side-scrolling action games, etc. on 8- and 16-bit consoles, DOOM's first-person shooting was a jaw-dropping paradigm shift.
Everything about DOOM was incredible. The graphics were colorful and convincing. Lightning was spooky. It felt like you were on a Martian moon. It's music was memorable. Weapon design was brilliant, and enemy design even more so. From the imps to the Cacodemons to the Cyberdemon, nearly every creature in DOOM was the stuff of nightmares – and in a then-unheard-of gameplay twist, they hated each other as much as they hated you.
And then there was DeathMatch. Whether you were connecting two PCs with a serial cable for one-on-one action or throwing a LAN party where four people hauled their PCs to the same place (bulky CRT monitors and all!) to chainsaw each other in the game, DOOM DeathMatch changed everything. And, incredibly, it's still fun.
- A series of four Doom novels were written after the game took off, the first two serving as narrative retellings of the first two games.
- Doom's legendary MIDI music was done by Bobby Prince and sounds suspiciously close to a lot of early Metallica songs.
- Users could make their own Doom levels using free, third-party editors such as DoomEd.
Chrono Trigger is widely regarded as the greatest RPG of all time, and for good reason. What begins as a typical “day-in-the-life” adventure, quickly spirals into a sprawling, epoch jumping romp that is equally exhilarating and endearing. Created by a “dream team” at Squaresoft including Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii, and character designs by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama, Chrono Trigger’s pedigree was only outshined by its universal praise upon its release in the spring of 1995. Even at the twilight of the SNES’ lifespan, Chrono Trigger’s branching narrative, colorful characters and unforgettable soundtrack were are more than enough to earn it a place on our list in this timeline or any other.
- Artwork for Chrono Trigger was done by Akira Toriyama, best known for his work on the Dragon Ball series.
- Localization director Richard Honeywood created a system to automatically generate characters; unique speech patterns in real-time.
- Norstein Bekklar has the same laugh as Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI.
There's a reason first-person puzzle games far and wide are constantly compared to Portal — though a brief adventure, its gameplay, tone, writing, and structure so cohesively work together to create one of the most memorable, challenging, and fascinating puzzle games around. Arming players with the now-iconic Portal gun and the devastating - and lethal - wit of Glad0s, Valve guided players through a fantastically orchestrated and escalating set of physics-based puzzles. Learning to use the seemingly simple Portal gun in increasingly more complex, all culminating in perhaps one of the most memorable end-credits songs of all time.
But for as great as its puzzles are, and the way they take the simplicity of two portals you can shoot almost anywhere into such fascinating territory, it's also Portal's world-building that equally makes the game such a memorable touchstone. From secrets and scrawlings hidden within the walls of Portal's testing facility, to the way it slowly uncovers the mystery of who Glad0s is offers environmental storytelling at some of its finest. Players learn just enough to paint a vivid picture while Valve leaves enough blank space in its story to let the player fill in their own details. The cake may be a lie, but it's not a lie to tell you to play Portal if you haven't already.
- Portal first was released as part of Valve's The Orange Box, which saw the debut of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, and Team Fortress 2, as well.
- Ellen McLain voices Glad0s, having previously performed as the Combine Overwatch in the Half-Life franchise.
- Portal: No Escape saw a beloved fan film made by Dan Trachtenberg, who would go on to direct 10 Cloverfield Lane.
The most boring thing to note about Dark Souls is its difficulty. Why? Because it stops you from focusing on all of the things that make it the most influential game of the last decade.
You fail to mention how incredible Lordran is – a single continuous location that spirals from lava-flooded ruins to a glistening city of the gods. A place where new paths often lead back to familiar locations, so that exploring it for the first time feels like solving a puzzle. You overlook its precise, nuanced combat or the fact it has the most interesting and meaningful bosses of any game. And you certainly never get round to discussing its story, which revels in ambiguity and invites interpretation like no other.
Yes, Dark Souls is challenging, but the rewards it yields to the persistent and curious are limitless.
- Dark Souls is considered a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, which is a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's first game, King's Field.
- The series bears several striking similarities to the manga Berserk, a major influence on director Hidetaka Miyazaki.
- Early ideas for a title were "Dark Race" and "Dark Ring," but both were scrapped due to controversial connotations overseas.
What can you say about the definitive fighting game, the game that has spawned countless imitators, acolytes, and sequels? Street Fighter II remains a classic in video game lore, making series mainstays Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li as well as words like “Hadouken” part of the public lexicon. Everyone has a favorite character and that’s because of its diverse, fantastical character design.
It’s hard to fathom how exceptional Street Fighter II was at its time. While exceptionally balanced, the imaginative design and high-end graphics for its time helped set it apart. Street Fighter II became perhaps the first fighting game global arcade smash. Over the years, Capcom kept updating and refining the combat, allowing players to play as more characters, speed up the combat, and see new special moves for their favorite characters. Its ports kept getting nominated for awards years after its initial 1991 release. That’s how enduring and exceptional Street Fighter II remains.
- Street Fighter II was the first game on the Super NES to feature 16 megabits of memory.
- The special moves printed in the Street Fighter II manual for Commodore 64 were incorrect.
- It was ported to nearly every platform in existence at the time of its initial release.
For many gamers of a certain age (and now, thanks to the NES Classic, the children of same people), Super Mario Bros. was the first video game they ever played. Mario's move out of arcades, away from Donkey Kong, and into the Mushroom Kingdom changed our hobby and our industry as we know it, setting of a chain of events (Nintendo's rise from the game industry crash's ashes, the popularization of the platformer genre, etc.) that shaped gaming as we know it today.
Super Mario Bros. has been re-released many times, but there's no such thing as too many times because it's still fun and it's still some kid's first time ever playing a game. Super Mario Bros. spawned an industry and fueled a mushroom-powered empire. Its influence cannot be overstated. Example: literally everyone reading this can hum its theme song, right now, from memory. See? Now it's playing in your head again. You're welcome.
- Super Mario Bros. established Nintendo's home console dominance in America and Japan.
- Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to let Mario ride a dinosaur, but hardware limitations didn't allow it at the time.
- It was one of the first among six video games inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Play.
Few games had more of a buildup prior to their release than Halo 2, and even fewer managed to live up to them in the way that Halo 2 did. Master Chief taking the fight with the Covenant to Earth was epic, action-packed, and visually stunning on the original Xbox. Sure, the campaign didn't so much end as much as stopped, but the shocking reveal of the playable Arbiter and his story that mirrored the Chief's was a twist no one saw coming.
Furthermore, and perhaps even more importantly, Halo 2 was the killer app for Xbox Live. It brought the party system and matchmaking hopper concept to consoles, instantly making every other online console game look archaic in its infrastructure by comparison. Of course, it helped that the multiplayer gameplay was, well, legendary. The maps were almost all memorably brilliant, the match options were vast, and the ranking system kept you fighting night after night to try and move up. Halo 2 remains the gold standard for console first-person shooter multiplayer, despite the fact that it's been 15 years since its release.
- Pop/blues musician (and guitar hero) John Mayer plays on the Halo 2 soundtrack in an uncredited appearance.
- Bungie did later admit that there was indeed supposed to be a last level to Halo 2 that never made it in, as the team didn't have time after reworking the entire campaign about a year before release.
- 343 Industries showed off Bungie's infamous E3 2003 Halo 2 campaign demo on a livestream last year, proving that the never-released build was actually real and could be played.
Symphony of the Night is beloved by gamers the world over thanks to its responsive controls combined with its expansive, rewarding game world. If you make a game character that’s fun to control, and then put that character in a unique world full of secrets that reward the inquisitive, the end result is a game that’s very hard not to love.
But it’s one specific moment in Symphony that elevates it from merely being a “game I love” into its position as one of the best games ever made. It’s also one of the most epic video game secrets of all time. After you’ve played through the entire game, defeating massive bosses, equipping badass loot and discovering dozens of secrets, right at the moment you think you’re about to win, you discover you’re only halfway done! Symphony’s (spoilers!) inverted second castle is much more than just a lazy way to extend the quest. It has devilish new enemy patterns, new bosses, and fantastic new equipment. Not bad for a secret that is easy to miss entirely.
Symphony of the Night is much more than just a fun side-scroller with an awesome twist, though. Dracula’s castle has never been more varied, filled with gorgeous gothic pixel art and backed up by a fantastic soundtrack. Alucard and all of his monstrous foes are lusciously animated. It’s basically the entire package. Art, animation, sound, gameplay, design… even replay value, thanks to multiple playable characters. It all comes together perfectly.
- The little-played Sega Saturn port of Symphony of the Night contains exclusive areas and bosses.
- A secret audio track plays if you put the PlayStation disc in a CD player.
- Players can manipulate the loading screen text by playing with the D-pad.
If Grand Theft Auto V is anything it’s a game of immense, obsessive detail. There is no open world that feels as authentic and lived-in as Grand Theft Auto V’s Los Santos and its surrounding countryside.
Turn it on and pick a street. Any street. Analyse it; really absorb it. Look at the unique shopfronts that aren’t repeated anywhere else. Look at the asphalt, worn and cracked; punished by the millions of cars that have hypothetically passed over it. Look at the litter, the graffiti. Grand Theft Auto V’s mad mix of high-speed chases, cinematic shootouts, and hectic heists may be outrageous at times, but the environment it unfolds within is just so real.
A technical titan and an endless source of emergent fun, it’s no wonder Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most successful games ever made. No game sells 90 million copies by accident.
- Grand Theft Auto V cost an estimated $265 million to make.
- It made $1 billion dollars in its first 72 hours.
- In fact, it made its budget back with pre-orders alone.
Mario games are synonymous with fun and innovation, and perhaps Mario 64 is the best example of the latter. It gathered the core elements of Mario’s best 2D, side-scrolling adventures and worked out how to translate them into a groundbreaking 3D world. It was still recognisably Mario – he collected mushrooms and ran and jumped his way to success, but he was forever changed. He could now long jump, triple jump, and backflip. While the underlying challenge remained the same and the locations were reassuringly familiar, the shift in perspective changed everything.
What’s even more impressive is that Mario did not simply enter a new dimension with ease, he did it with style that few games unburdened with such technical challenges ever achieve. Mario 64 might now look a little blocky but it remains bold and brilliant, too.
- Shigeru Miyamoto delayed the launch of the N64 in Japan – from late 1995 to April 1996 – so they could put more work into Super Mario 64.
- A rideable horse was discussed but not used. This idea would later provide the basis for Epona in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
- There was a sequel planned for the Nintendo 64DD, but it was canceled after the expansion console failed.
If you're reading this list and haven't played Red Dead Redemption, go find yourself a copy of the game and the appropriate console to play it on. Right now. We'll wait the 30+ hours – this is important.
2008's GTA 4 may have been the reason that I bought an Xbox 360, but RDR is the reason I kept it. Not only did I get completely lost in the massive single-player world, to the point where I'd started talking with a bit of a drawl because I was so used to hearing it, but it also drew me into online gaming unlike anything I'd played before. Sure, CoD was fun for a bit and racing games were okay, but never before had I so successfully crafted my own stories and adventures (with friends and strangers alike) than in Red Dead's Free Roam mode.
It was the kind of game you couldn't wait to discuss with your friends the next day. "Did you save that woman on the train tracks?" "No, but I found this cabin that had, like, 1,000 cougars in it," "That's cool, but did you kill Sasquatch?" Everyone had their own amazing tales to tell about their time in the old west, and you were constantly making new ones every time you turned it on. The only real downside to Red Dead is that it never came out on PC – which is mostly sad because my 360 died years ago and I really want to play it again.
- Although significantly altered, Red Dead Redemption is technically a sequel to Red Dead Revolver.
- Development took five years.
- John Marston swears far less than most Rockstar protagonists.
Half-Life 2 forever changed our expectations for what a first-person shooter could be. Its richly imagined world and wonderfully paced gameplay is a delight, never letting up and brimming with invention. The Gravity Gun is obviously the poster child of Half-Life 2, turning each environment into a tactile playground in which you can create improvised weapons and solve basic but clever physics puzzles - and its importance can’t be overstated - but there’s an awful lot more here.
We’re introduced to Alyx Vance, a supporting character with a rare warmth and intelligence. We’re transported to an iconic city, where Combine barricades loom with grim authority, and Striders stalk the streets with an otherworldly menace. We get to set Antlions on our enemies and in which we play fetch with a robot Dog. In short, it is a truly memorable piece of game design.
- Warren Spector was, at one point, working on an episode for Half-Life 2. It was canceled and his studio worked on Epic Mickey instead.
- Merle Dandridge, the voice of Alyx Vance, also appears in The Last of Us, Dota 2, and Sons of Anarchy.
- Lamarr is a reference to Hedy Lamarr, an actress and scientist who co-developed a radio guidance system using frequency hopping technology.
The classic Russian title-matching puzzle game by Alexey Pajitnov blew my mind way back in the day. Even as a little girl, I was obsessed with Tetris. I’d never played a video game that mentally stimulating, let alone that addictive.
I still remember spending hours sitting in front of the TV with the Nintendo Entertainment System sitting at my feet, rotating brightly colored puzzle pieces as they fell from the abyss, attempting to arrange them into horizontal lines that when assembled correctly would disappear and cause me to advance to the next stage. It was crazy fun, even when blocks began to fall at an alarmingly fast pace and I fell into a frenzied panic. (I still remember how frustrated I’d get making careless mistakes that resulted in giant, pixelated Towers of Pisa.)
But no matter how many times I had to start the game over, it was just too much fun to stop. There was always the chance that this time I’d get the right puzzle piece at the right time and could move on to the next stage. I never got tired of it, and even now Tetris remains one of my favorite games of all time.
- The name Tetris is derived from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- as well as tennis, creator Alexey Pajitnov's favorite sport.
- It was the first game exported from the USSR to the United States.
- Tetris was the first video game played in space.
As a kid, I played almost any game that had a cool character on the box or starred my beloved Ninja Turtles. But even then, although I lacked the vocabulary to explain it, I knew that Super Mario Bros. was special, and better than almost everything else. So when I received Super Mario Bros. 3 from Santa one year, and saw on the back of the box that Mario could fly, I knew I was in for something special.
The game exceeded my every hope and wish for it, and I spent hundreds of blissful afternoons defeating Koopa Kids, rescuing kings, and discovering secrets strewn throughout Mushroom World. Mario 3 earned a place on my list of favorite games way back in 1990, and 25 years of gaming progress have yet to dislodge it.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a textbook example of how to make a perfect video game sequel. It’s a mixture of the original’s best elements, combined with an almost excessive amount of imaginative new ideas. So much of what we consider so quintessentially Mario – the suits, the boos, the overworld – all actually originated here.
- Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first Mario game to introduce an overworld.
- The Super Leaf allowed Mario to fly for the first time.
- It came out in the US almost a year and a half after Japan.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild eschewed the semi-linear, borderline predictable path of the 3D Zelda games before it in favor of a bold, crazy new approach: let players do what they want, how they want, and in whatever order they decide.
By marrying an open-ended approach to quest structure with the ability to freely explore a vast, beautiful, intriguing world with little specific regulation, the 3D Zelda game template was shattered about as fast as the average breakable weapon in Breath of the Wild. The result is a gorgeous, freeing open-world action/adventure experience that evokes the wonder and fear of exploring a bold new place with the empowering tangibility of becoming its hero.
- There are 900 Korok Seeds hidden across Breath of the Wild's massive map and finding them all will reward players with one of the weirdest prizes in the history of Zelda games - a useless, golden statue shaped like a turd.
- Speedrunners have taken a huge liking to Breath of the Wild due it its freeform quest layout, allowing skilled players to bypass most of the game's content and take on the final boss fight very early on.
- Similar to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Breath of the Wild's launch bridged Nintendo console generations by getting released at the very tail end of the Nintendo Wii U as well as the launch day of the Nintendo Switch.
Super Metroid’s minimalistic environmental storytelling set a bar, way back in 1994, that I believe has still yet to be eclipsed. The planet Zebes is atmospheric, oppressive, and extremely lethal. At first glance, there doesn’t even appear to be any story. But then you start to look more closely. The parasite-riddled dead soldier outside of an early boss room. The crashed, half-submerged alien spaceship that may or may not be haunted. The techno lair of the space pirates hiding under your nose the entire game. It’s brilliant and confident. It doesn’t explain to you what each new area is all about. It’s all there, for you to figure out (or ignore) on your own.
But it’s Super Metroid’s ability to consistently invite the player to be curious – and then rewarding that curiosity – that makes it one of the greatest video games ever made. It’s not just that there are secrets hidden everywhere (although there are, and it’s awesome) – it’s that the game teases you with tantalizing clues – items, always just out of reach. An energy tank embedded in a seemingly impassable wall. A pair of missiles only obtainable from the collapsing blocks above, leaving you no idea of how to get up there, just with the knowledge that you can get up there.
Super Metroid is an impeccable action-platformer – that’s the “easy” part. What makes it truly special is its genius combination of puzzle-solving, atmosphere, storytelling, exploration, game design, and gameplay. There’s nothing else like it.
- Super Metroid was released on a 24 megabit cartridge, making it the largest SNES game at the time.
- It was developed by a core team of just 15 people.
- It sold poorly in Japan, but fared far better in the US.
Portal undoubtedly came out of nowhere and shattered the mold, but Portal 2 took that raw and incredible concept and managed to shape it into a more polished and impressive package. It cranked the dials up on just about everything that made the original so special. The mind-bending puzzles, the surprisingly dark story, and the ridiculous humor that balanced it out - each piece of that picture was refined and refreshed to build a sequel that actually surpassed the ambition of an already extremely ambitious game, making something both familiar and altogether new.
It gave us a deeper look into the wonderful world of Aperture Science without completely dragging all of its mysteries out into the light. It also mixed its “thinking with portals” puzzles up even further by weaving in gel mechanics that felt entirely fresh and completely natural at the same time - while simultaneously and subtly using them to tie gameplay mechanics into the story, patiently waiting until its incredible finale to pay off those setups with one of the weirdest and most spectacular video game endings around. Couple that with a seriously good co-op campaign and even a full-on custom level builder and sharing systems added post-launch and Portal 2 has stayed the high bar by which all first-person puzzle games should be measured, even nearly a decade later.
- Portal 2's plucky personality core Wheatley is voiced by English Actor Stephen Merchant, best known from the original UK version of The Office and plenty more TV Shows.
- Merchant isn't the only celebrity guest: The voice of Aperture's Cave Johnson is played by J.K Simmons, known for movies like Whiplash and recently returning to his role as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man.
- The end of Portal was changed post-launch to setup the beginning of Portal 2, showing that Chell wasn't actually able to escape the facility.
The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link laid the foundations Link’s quest, but it was A Link to the Past that built the land of Hyrule into a world. From it’s unforgettable beginnings guiding a swordless Link through the rain, to the final showdown with Ganon and utilizing mastery of sword and bow to defeat evil, Link to the Past measured out a perfect pace of dungeons, exploration, and a gripping narrative that was almost unheard of at the time. It’s open landscape was always inviting but never felt aimless – striking the perfect balance of freedom and purpose in your quest to save Princess Zelda.
This iteration of Hyrule was more than just moving between enemy-filled screens, it encompassed everything an immersive experience should be: a vast open world that teased you with secrets hiding just beyond your reach, begging you to come back with new and inventive tools. Each zone – whether in the cheerful overworld, dimly lit caves, or the intimidating Dark World – was brought to life through a culmination of details like the sound of the Tempered Sword cleaving the air, the catchy jingle of a puzzle well-solved, and the ambient tunes of Koji Kondo’s score. This version of Hyrule more than any other before or since, is the one I fell most in love with.
- A Link to the Past is technically not the first Zelda game to include the Master Sword
- It was the first Zelda game to include an Ocarina, though at the time it was called the Flute.
- The theme from Kakariko Village is inspired by Kiki's Delivery Service.
In nearly three decades no game has supplanted Super Mario World as the best game ever made... Which is stupid. I’ll get to that in a bit. Super Mario World is a relatively simple game to describe. It’s a Super Mario game, and we all know what that means: Mushrooms; perfect running and jumping action; and a giant world to explore, crammed with secrets.
But what sets Super Mario World apart from other 2D Mario games is its irresistible complexity. Subsequent Super Mario games, like the New Super Mario Bros. series, simplified the overworld, trading Super Mario World’s cool hidden paths for linear tracks, largely abandoned the skies and treetops of Super Mario World’s vertical levels for ground-based obstacle courses, and did away with flying almost entirely (capes rule, helicopter hats drool!). Super Mario World is the crescendo to the slow build in technology and game design that started with Super Mario Bros. And that crescendo featured a cool, simulated 90s slap bass track.
So look, we want to play a better game than Super Mario World. There’s no great, existential reason for Super Mario World to remain at the top of IGN’s list. Let Super Mario World’s placement on this list be a challenge to future game developers. We dare you to make a better game: Puzzling, but not opaque; tough but not intimidating; beautiful, funny, joyful, and universally recognizable. And, while we have your attention, dinosaurs are always a plus.
- Super Mario World is the best-selling SNES game, selling over 20 million copies.
- It debuted Yoshi and introduced the spin-jump.
- The Reznors are a reference to Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
We encourage you to read our updated PRIVACY POLICY and COOKIE POLICY.