Tiamatini

So I arrived home from work today and checked my post, and sure enough sitting there, in my mailbox, was the latest issue of Game Informer – the 200th issue no less.  In honour of their 200th issue, the team over at Game Informer decided to publish their list of the top 200 games of all time, so I thought I’d share some of the results with you.

Don’t panic, I’m not going to list all 200 with their reasoning, you’ll need to buy the magazine if you want that, but I thought I’d pull out a couple of highlights…

So, let’s begin at the beginning…  The top game of all time, the ultimate in gaming, the best there ever was?  Read on to find out…

Taking the top spot and pushing out all the rest was, from 1987, arguably unsurprisingly, The Legend of Zelda.

I realise there may be many cries of “Oh but we’ve come so far since then!  What about X, Y or Z?!” but they make some pretty good points in their justification.  As they stated, the Legend of Zelda is responsible for the creation of many lifelong gamers, not to mention future game developers.  This blast from the past may seem primitive in its style now, but it provided the starting point for many future developments, and for the 80′s it was pretty impressive! Shigeru Miyamoto can rest easy knowing that he did indeed create a level of greatness in the gaming industry that others could at that time barely aspire to, and that many have since credited this game as their inspiration.

So what else made it?  In their top 5 are others such as Super Mario Bros (#2), Tetris (#3), GTA III (#4), and Half Life 2(#5) – all very well known and pretty well respected games – it’s almost enough for me to have another bash at Half Life 2, which if I’m honest, never really grabbed me.  “But,” I hear you wail, “where is Mass Effect?!?!”  I know, I know, that was my response too!  So I scoured the lists, I turned page after page until I found it, and they do indeed bill it as “one of the greatest interactive tales we’ve ever experienced” but sadly, and clearly in an horrendous misprint, it only comes in at number 58!!  Despite my now clear disagreement with their positions, I read on anyway to see what else they had come up with…

Perhaps somewhat oddly, given their reasoning for Zelda winning overall, Ms Pac-Man made it into the top 10, whereas Pac-Man itself was held back at a mere 52nd place.  The various Final Fantasies pretty much all made it in, with FFIII the best of the bunch apparently at #8.  The various Mario games all seemed to rank pretty high, with good ol’ Sonic not getting a look in til #34.  Otherwise there are very few surprises, though one or two did make me raise an eyebrow…

Perhaps the biggest shocker personally (other than ME’s clearly incorrect placement) was Batman: Arkham Asylum.  Yes, I know it’s Batman, and yes, I realise to those who are not very discerning that automatically makes it super cool, and yes, the graphics were fantastic, but dear lord the gameplay is shocking.  One button takes out 5 enemies, and to me, that’s just not what this sort of game should be about, so seeing it at #104, above the much loved (by some) Borderlands for instance was a bit of a surprise.  Modern Warfare 2, for all the hype, only made it in at #181, and Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! was in the top 20!?!

So there you have it, a very brief summary of a very lengthy article.  I have no doubt that others will have their opinions on where things should or should not have been included, and which games should have been higher than others, so buy the magazine, read the full article and feel free to let me know what congratulations or exclamations I’ve overlooked, but don’t think you’ll change my mind on poor old Shepard…