Skip past the story and the blank lines if you like.
A couple years ago, I was teaching high school. My students eventually found out I was a gamer, and it was an all-boys school, so of course they wanted to know all about which games I played, and tried to convince me to play either Call of Duty or whatever sports game they were currently playing on a pretty much constant basis. (Yeah, that’s pretty much all any of them ever played.)
One day, one of the students is talking to me privately on XBL. (I should never have given them my gamertag, but oh well.) He asks me to play CoD. I say no. He asks me to play NHL or Madden or something. I say I don’t own it. He says, “well goddamn, what DO you play, Mr. ___?” So I tell him I’m playing Borderlands, and looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII coming out in a few weeks.
There’s silence for a moment, and then a response of “…Final Fantasy? What the hell’s that?”
Needless to say, I went on a tirade against him for some time. His pitiful defense was to try to compare it to the fact that I (at the time when it was barely out of the theaters) hadn’t seen The Hangover. Um, no, dude. A movie I know exists, know what it’s about, and just haven’t gotten around to seeing is not the same as you never having heard of the most renowned video game franchise of all time not made by Nintendo. Thanks for playing.
Since then, I’ve been kind of curious with the notion of making a list of games that establishes a person’s gamer cred or gives them a guide to building it. Y’know, like the top 100 games you need to be somewhat familiar with to call yourself a gamer, or the 100 “most classic” games (if we could ever agree on just what that meant.) I tried making that list once before, and it was pretty lolfail because that really shouldn’t be the work of one person regardless of how knowledgeable they are, so now I’m turning the idea over to the board to see what they come up with.
So I want a list of your opinions on the games that any self-respecting gamer ought to know a bit about. Call it the games that give you street cred, call it the games that are most renowned/beloved/nostalgic or whatever, but give me your list of games that you believe a person who considers themselves an actual gamer (and not just a trendy Maddenhead) should learn what they’re missing out on if they don’t already know.
Note that I am not asking for what you believe are necessarily the BEST games. You might very well think some old school NES games like Punch-out!! or Double Dragon aren’t very good but should be on such a list. You might think some underground indie title is awesome, but doesn’t at all represent the general gamer zeitgeist. Give me the games that are beloved, deservedly endeared, that would belong on a list of “games you should play before you die.”
You may make your nominee list as long as you want, but the first FIVE games that you name will be counted as 3 points, the next FIFTEEN (so up to #20) will count as 2, and everything after that will be 1. Also, be aware that I will give the actual list some preferential treatment for diversity – i.e., not representing the same franchise fifteen times or the same two genres exclusively. Giving a variety of selections is preferable to giving a list of nothing but RPGs since a list like this should be balanced and all-inclusive. You're welcome to add to your list later, but please don't do it one and two games at a time, or ask me to change your doubles/triples.
Depending on how far this gets, I might also ask for write-ups later since there’s a lot of things I expect to see that I know I don’t know all that well. Right now I just want ur opinyuns.
Sample nomination:
Game Title 1 Game Title 2 Game Title 3 Game Title 4 Game Title 5
Being that there's not much of a consensus as to what "classic" is, you may want to list what your personal cutoff is; everything pre-Dreamcast? Pre-PSX? Even further back?
-- In this world which will someday fall to ruin... ...dreams and hopes don't matter at all.
Note: Some of these games I don't like. Several of them I haven't even played. They just seem to make the most sense to me with regard to what you're asking.
The Five:
Super Mario Bros. 3(1989) Final Fantasy VII (1997) Fallout 2 (1998) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) Halo (2001)
Another Fifteen:
Tetris (1984) Street Fighter 2 (1991) Ultima VII (1992) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) Super Metroid (1994) Chrono Trigger (1995) Super Mario 64 (1996) Starcraft (1998) Xenogears (1998) Final Fantasy X (2001) World of Warcraft (2003) Mass Effect (2007) Portal (2007) The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (2011) Journey (2012)
And Twenty-One More For The Road...
Ms. Pac-Man (1981) Dragon Quest (1986) Streets of Rage II (1992) Wolfenstein 3D (1992) Mega Man X (1993) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (1993) Earthbound (1994) Pokemon Red/Blue (1996) Tomb Raider (1996) Star Wars: X-Wing versus TIE Fighter (1997) Suikoden II (1998) Metal Gear Solid (1998) EverQuest (1999) Diablo II (2000) Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) Metroid Prime (2002) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) Jak 3 (2004) Civilization IV (2005) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)
1) Super Mario Bros (NES, 1985) 2) Pokémon Red/Blue (GB, 1998) 3) Goldeneye 007 (N64, 1997) 4) Legend of Zelda (NES, 1987) 5) Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis, 1991)
Next 15 6) Donkey Kong (Arcade, 1981) 7) Tetris (GB, 1989) 8) Pong (Arcade/Home Console, 1972) 9) Pac-Man (Arcade, 1980) 10) Street Fighter II (Arcade/SNES/Genesis, 1991) 11) Super Mario 64 (N64, 1996) 12) Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998) 13) Final Fantasy VII (PS1, 1997) 14) Half Life (PC, 1998) 15) Super Mario Bros 3 (NES, 1990) 16) Mortal Kombat (Arcade/SNES/Genesis, 1992) 17) Castlevania (NES, 1987) 18) The Sims (PC, 2000) 19) Super Smash Bros (N64, 1999) 20) Halo (XBox, 2001)
1-pointers 21) Grand Theft Auto III (PS2, 2001) 22) Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995) 23) Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC, 2003) 24) Super Mario Bros 2 (NES, 1988) 25) Doom II (PC, 1994) 26) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis, 1992) 27) Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES, 1992) 28) Diablo II (PC, 2000) 29) The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC, 2002) 30) Super Mario World (SNES, 1991) 31) Contra (NES, 1988) 32) Metroid (NES, 1987) 33) Megaman 2 (NES, 1989) 34) Mario Kart 64 (N64, 1996) 35) Kirby's Dreamland (GB, 1992) 36) Space Invaders (Arcade, 1978) 37) Roller Coaster Tycoon (PC, 1999) 38) Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64, 2000) 39) Perfect Dark (N64, 2000) 40) Tekken 2 (Arcade/PS1, 1996) 41) Super Mario Land 2 (GB, 1991) 42) Resident Evil (PS1, 1996) 43) Star Fox 64 (N64, 1997) 44) TMNT Arcade Game (Arcade, 1989) 45) Prince of Persia (PC, 1989) 46) Mario Party (N64, 1999) 47) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (N64, 1999) 48) SoulCalibur (Dreamcast, 1999) 49) Silent Hill (PS1, 1999) 50) Timesplitters 2 (PS2/Xbox/GC, 2002) 51) Blades of Steel (NES, 1988) 52) Burnout 2 (PS2/GC/XBox, 2002) 53) Command & Conquer (PC, 1995) 54) Dance Dance Revolution (Arcade, 2001) 55) Frogger (Arcade, 1981)
For the purpose of this list, with the games supposed to be "classic" and all, I tried to only list games that are 10 or more years old, though I made a few exceptions. I also tried to come up with 100, but I can't think of any more that are worthy to make the list at the moment, so I may add more later.
Seisen_Kitsune posted... Being that there's not much of a consensus as to what "classic" is, you may want to list what your personal cutoff is; everything pre-Dreamcast? Pre-PSX? Even further back?
I'm keeping it intentionally open-ended because nobody's going to explicitly agree. I was born in 1980, so classic to me is 8-bit era and maybe 16. I'm hardly going to keep FFVII off the list just because it came out on PS1 though. For that matter, there is such a thing as "instant classic" -- there could certainly be a few games from the last few years there are meritorious enough to earn their spot here.
That is, I like the two lists we have so far, respectively. jcgamer's doesn't have anything from the last 10 years, with the absolute newest game being 2003. He's got a decent focus on old stuff like Frogger and Blades of Steel. Jeff Zero, otoh, has a couple games from last year like Skyrim, which I'm not going to dispute either.
IMHO, the list should heavily favor older games -- the older the better in that sense -- but it's about highlighting milestone games, too. Halo might be an Xbox game, and thus nowhere near as old as Breakout or Asteroids, but it certainly changed FPS console gaming.
I'll get started on my list. I just didn't want to be the first one to post or it would seem like I was leading the voters.
I'll include some games that I personally don't enjoy a whole lot (as well as some game I actually haven't played) as long as I feel their importance is significant enough. I'm trying to keep my bias out of this, but that's kinda hard to do.
Top 5 Super Mario Bros Tetris Final Fantasy VII Zelda: Ocarina of Time Metal Gear Solid
6-20 Street Fighter II Super Metroid Super Mario World Super Mario 64 Chrono Trigger Gran Turismo Mortal Kombat 2 The Legend of Zelda: LttP Pac-man Megaman X Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Tomb Raider Sonic 1 Resident Evil 4 GTA: San Andreas
Others Metroid Prime Half-Life 2 Deus Ex Xenogears Starcraft Pong Super Mario Kart Halo Super Smash Bros. Melee Soul Calibur
I'm only going for games that were released 10+ years ago (2002 and earlier). Should point this list doesn't reflect my favourite games.
#1 Pac-Man #2 Super Mario Bros #3 Final Fantasy VII #4 Tetris #5 Sonic The Hedgehog
#6 Street Fighter 2 (and its various editions) #7 Tekken 3 #8 Pokemon Red/Blue #9 Super Mario 64 #10 Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time #11 Metal Gear Solid #12 Grand Theft Auto III #13 Space Invaders #14 Chrono Trigger #15 Wolfenstein 3D #16 Super Mario World #17 Halo #18 Super Mario Kart #19 Mega Man 2 #20 Zelda: Link to the Past
#21 Kingdom Hearts #22 Donkey Kong Country #23 Crash Bandicoot: Warped #24 Tomb Raider #25 Contra #26 Final Fantasy IX #27 Super Smash Bros Melee #28 Super Metroid #29 Doom #30 Mortal Kombat
-- The Gamer In Me His dark secret is he's really Spark Brushel in disguise. If people knew, he'd be ruined. - Spiral on the black psyche locks
So on my first pass, I came up with almost 150 games...yikes.
Super Mario Bros Super Mario Bros 3 Pong Pac-Man Tetris
Asteroids Street Fighter II Final Fantasy VII Frogger LoZ: Ocarina of Time Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Mega Man 2 Rampage Joust Gauntlet Contra Excitebike T.M.N.T. (arcade) Space Invaders Donkey Kong
1942 Altered Beast Area 51 Battletoads Blades of Steel Breakout/Arkanoid Bubble Bobble Castle Crashers Castlevania Centipede Chrono Trigger Civilization Civilization IV Columns Combat Commander Keen Commando Cruis'n USA CV: SotN DDR Defender Deus Ex Diablo II Dig Dug Donkey Kong Country Doom Double Dragon II Dragon Warrior (Dragon Quest) Dragon's Lair Duck Hunt Ducktales Earthbound Earthworm Jim Ecco the Dolphin EverQuest Fallout 3 Final Fantasy Final Fantasy Tactics Final Fantasy X Galaxian Gauntlet Legends Ghosts'n Goblins Golden Axe II Goldeneye: 007 Gradius Guitar Hero II Half-Life 2 Halo Hardball House of the Dead Ice Hockey (NES) Illusion of Gaia Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road Kung Fu Lemmings LoZ:LttP LoZ:OoT Maniac Mansion Marathon II: Durandal Marble Madness Marvel vs Capcom 2 Mega Man 2 Metal Gear Solid 2 Missile Command Mortal Kombat II Myst Myth II: Soulblighter NBA Jam NFL Blitz Pac-Man Paperboy Phantasy Star II Pitfall Pokemon RBY Portal Prince of Persia ('89) Q-Bert Qix Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero R.C. Pro Am Rad Racer Rampart Resident Evil River City Ransom Road Rash Rock Band Rygar Secret of Mana SimCity 2000 Soul Calibur II Spy Hunter SSX Tricky Star Fox 64 Starcraft Street Fighter 2 Streets of Rage 2 Super Mario 64 Super Mario Kart Super Mario World Super Meat Boy Super Metroid Super Smash Bros. Super Sprint Tecmo Bowl TES 3: Morrowind TES 5: Skyrim The 7th Guest The Legend of Zelda The Lost Vikings The Oregon Trail The Secret of Monkey Island The Simpsons (Arcade) Thief Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 Tomb Raider Ultima Online Warcraft III Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego? Winter Games Wolfenstein 3-D World of Warcraft X-Men (Arcade) X-Wing / TIE Fighter Zork
Quackshot Super Mario Bros. 3 Romance of the Three Kingdoms The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Tactics Ogre
The Legend of Zelda The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Super Mario Bros. Super Mario World Castlevania III Phantasy Star IV Tetris Street Fighter II Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) Ogre Battle Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Dance Dance Revolution The King of Fighters 96 Pokémon: Red/Green/Blue Gorillas (MS-DOS)
Dynasty Warriors 3 Super Bomberman Chu Chu Rocket Phantasy Star II Super Castlevania Castlevania River City Ransom Battletoads Final Fight Double Dragon Quiz & Dragons Mega Man 2 Mega Man X Star Fox 64 Nobunaga's Ambition X-Men (Arcade) Simpsons (Arcade) Final Fantasy Tactics Earthbound Samurai Shodown II The Last Blade The King of Fighters 98 Magical Drop Bust-A-Groove Frogger Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Warcraft SIM City NBA Jam WWF No Mercy Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Wild ARMs Wild ARMs: 2nd Ignition Shin Megami Tensei Shin Megami Tensei II Revelations: Persona Ms. Pac-Man Joust Sinistar Super Mario Bros. 2/Doki Doki Panic
I was trying to limit it to 10 years ago, but Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow snuck in near the end.
Ed Bellis posted... Glancing over these lists, can someone explain why Sonic 1 is in a few Top 5s? I get that it's a big milestone for platformers and all (though I think Sonic 2 refines the formula to a degree of making the first one obsolete), but Top 5 - especially when SMB1 is even there - seems odd.
I might try an attempt at this myself. It would be laughable, given my lack of experience with most games, though hey - on a list like this maybe that's a good thing!
Yeah, I... dunno. I put Sonic 2 in instead, and I only put it in the fifteen slot. In some cases I went with the 'this was the original, yo' but sometimes the original just got so utterly outclassed... yo.
Ed Bellis posted... Glancing over these lists, can someone explain why Sonic 1 is in a few Top 5s? I get that it's a big milestone for platformers and all (though I think Sonic 2 refines the formula to a degree of making the first one obsolete), but Top 5 - especially when SMB1 is even there - seems odd.
Sonic is a franchise character. In the early/mid 90's, Sonic was Sega and Mario was Nintendo. I agree that Sonic 2 is a better game, but it terms of games that every gamer should know of, I think it's top 5. Same reason the first Mario and first Zelda games are there - I'm not saying they're the best, but every gamer should be aware of them.
I guarantee those hating on Quackshot have either never played it or can't comprehend its greatness. It is a blast to play, and usually the reason I hook up my Genesis these days. I'd say it is my favorite platforming game...those plungers, that exploration...so much fun.
We're not listing favorite games here though... We're listing based on relevance in game history... And in that rank Quackshot is not even in the top 20 of Disney games...
Also, it's really generic and generally "meh!"...
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Nominate B.B. Hood for CB IX http://miniurl.org/ntI
hideto posted... I guarantee those hating on Quackshot have either never played it or can't comprehend its greatness. It is a blast to play, and usually the reason I hook up my Genesis these days. I'd say it is my favorite platforming game...those plungers, that exploration...so much fun.
I beat it several times, it's fun but it doesn't belong on this list.
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Ngamer64: Zylo, you're making less sense every day. SuperNiceDog > Me
Top 5 1Doom 2Pong 3Super Mario Bros. 4Pac-man 5Tetris
Next 15 6EverQuest 7Final Fantasy VII 8Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 9Goldeneye 007 10Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 11Half-Life 12Metal Gear Solid 13Quake 14Resident Evil 4 15Sonic the Hedgehog 2 16Space Invaders 17Starcraft 18Street Fighter II 19Super Mario 64 20The Sims
The Rest Angry Birds Bioshock Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Chrono Trigger Civilization IV Command & Conquer Contra Counter-Strike Crash Bandicoot Dance Dance Revolution Deus Ex Diablo II Donkey Kong Country 2 Final Fantasy IV Grand Theft Auto III Gran Turismo Guitar Hero Halo: Combat Evolved Journey Mass Effect Mega Man 2 Metroid Prime Minecraft Mortal Kombat Okami Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Pokemon Red/Blue Portal Rock Band Roller Coaster Tycoon Shadow of the Colossus Shenmue Silent Hill 2 Star Fox 64 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Streets of Rage 2 Suikoden II Super Metroid Super Smash Bros. Melee Team Fortress 2 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Secret of Monkey Island The Simpsons (Arcade) Tomb Raider Uncharted 2 Xenogears Wii Sports Wolfenstein 3D World of Warcraft
I met a guy who'd never heard of Final Fantasy or ZELDA. I was quite shocked. That being said.
Super Mario Bros. Sonic the Hedgehog The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Final Fantasy VII Street Fighter 2
Final Fantasy X Super Smash Bros. Melee Super Mario 64 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Pokemon Red/Blue Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Super Mario Bros. 3 Super Mario World
ehh thats what I got for now
-- MZero the extreme yes i am Yugi i have spike hair and i play card games with ugly monsters on them its time to Duel-ertyu
1. Tetris 2. Super Mario Bros. 3 3. Doom 4. Pac-Man 5. Everquest
6. Street Fighter 2 7. Halo: Combat Evolved 8. Final Fantasy 7 9. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 10. Space Invaders 11. Half-Life 12. Starcraft 13. Mortal Kombat 14. Super Mario 64 15. NBA Jam 16. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 17. Populus 18. Pokemon Red/Blue 19. Quake 3: Arena 20. Sonic the Hedgehog
Virtua Fighter Grim Fandango Aladdin (Sega Genesis) Sinistar Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Tomb Raider Twisted Metal 2 Goldeneye 007 WWF No Mercy Bomberman Galaga Soul Calibur Wing Commander SimCity Pong Earthworm Jim Ultima Online Donkey Kong Country
edit: made my list without looking at others, now I see a great deal of games I missed. Here's more 1 pointers:
Grand Theft Auto 3 Diablo 2 Super Metroid Deus Ex Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Defender Gran Turismo Super Mario Kart Burnout 2 Final Fantasy: Tactics Myst Mega Man 2 Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Counter-Strike Madden NFL (any year, doesn't matter) StarFox Contra Metal Gear Solid Resident Evil Breakout The Sims Dance Dance Revolution
hideto posted... I guarantee those hating on Quackshot have either never played it or can't comprehend its greatness. It is a blast to play, and usually the reason I hook up my Genesis these days. I'd say it is my favorite platforming game...those plungers, that exploration...so much fun.
Djungelurban posted... We're not listing favorite games here though... We're listing based on relevance in game history...
1. Donkey Kong 2. Doom 3. Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game 4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 5. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
6. Castlevania 7. Civilization 8. Final Fantasy VII 9. Half-Life 10. Halo: Combat Evolved 11. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 12. Metal Slug 13. Quake III: Arena 14. Silent Hill 2 15. Space Invaders 16. StarCraft 17. Super Mario Kart 18. Super Mario 64 19. Super Mario World 20. Ultima VII
21. Contra 22. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 23. Goldeneye 007 24. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 25. Metal Gear Solid 26. R-Type 27. Super Smash Brothers Melee 28. Star Fox 64 29. Super Metroid 30. Tetris
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... as if rights are like muscles - the more you use it, the better it gets. Indeed he may be exercising his first amendment-- but he's an IDIOT! - A. Scalia
I realize people have some concern over the impact Quackshot had on gaming history, but is indeed important. Quackshot is not only a product of both the gaming and pop cultural zeitgeist, but also had a large influencing and shaping said zeitgeits. It was a melding of solid game development with a surprising display of franchise upward mobility. It is not only a beautiful send-off of pulp fiction that manages to no only capture the thriling sense of adventure, but also weaves a rich and developed world-building in a way only matched in the works of sequential art by Carl Barks that were brave enough to venture beyond the confines of Duckberg.
I could probably write an entire essay on the seemingly non-linear, yet tiered paths of adventure that gave the player a much greater sense of scale. Scale illustrated with the use of an overworld map connecting areas instead of sparse corridors like those previously seen in Metroid and Castlevania. The geographical nomenclature and illustrated map also serve to differentiate the game from the likes of Mega Man, which has a similar non-linear stage choice, but Mega Man only offered a boss portrait to serves a guide.
Even if some people claim it lacks influence in the gaming community, I know it affected myself and many other lovers of games. Nearly every time I mention the game in a group I can see some older gamers' eyes light up with fond memories. I'm sure many in the field of creating games feel the same way, and even if they don't consumers crave quality games based on existing licensed intellectual properties. In the quest for great licensed games there have been many dark times, but there are also great triumphs like Quackshot, Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Knights of the Old Republic, and Spider-Man 2.
I don't deny Quackshot's quality as a game. I look back on it fondly. But as you can see from the length of my list, I look back on a LOT of games fondly. Hopefully someone will agree with you enough to list it. Hell, maybe I'll come around and do so myself.
1) Super Mario Bros. 2) Legend of Zelda 3) Dungeons & Dragons Cloudy Mountain 4) Tron Deadly Discs 5) Ultima III Exodus
6) Rampage 7) Mechwarrior 8) Doom 9) Final Fantasy 10) Castlevania II Simon's Quest 11) Ultima IV Quest of the Avatar 12) Dragon Warrior/Quest 13) Shadowgate 14) Wizardry 15) Bard's Tale 16) Rygar 17) Mega Man 18) Shinobi 19) Crystalis 20) Paperboy
21) Ice Hockey 22) RBI Baseball 23) Kung Fu 24) RC Pro Am 25) Micro Machines 26) Warcraft 27) Super Mario Bros 3 28) Duck Hunt 29) Life Force 30) Contra 31) Fester's Quest 32) Beauty and the Beast 33) Star Strike 34) Night Stalker
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Donny: Are they gonna hurt us, Walter? Walter: No, Donny. These men are cowards.
Don't get too fixated on the singular adjective "classic" -- I needed to call this list something, and that seemed like the best descriptor to quickly convey what I was going for. Read the story in the OP and ask yourself what kind of games do you think that kid should be aware of, or are you disappointed that he probably doesn't know? What games do you think every gamer should at least witness before they die? What games are venerable oldies that helped shaped the gaming industry? So long as you aren't specifically picking games because they're your favorites, make of the list what you will, and understand that others will be doing the same.
My personal thoughts -- and these are strictly personal thoughts -- are that the list should greatly emphasize older games, but I don't have some magical cut-off for when games stop being older and start being middle-aged or newer. Thus, I didn't want to explicitly define any restrictions. I'm sorry if that muddies the waters.
I don't think "old" "classic" was quite the idea; it was more to determine the games every gamer should be familiar with in order to have a grasp of the industry and its history. So there's a number of different genres and you nominate the most notable games to represent them.
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... as if rights are like muscles - the more you use it, the better it gets. Indeed he may be exercising his first amendment-- but he's an IDIOT! - A. Scalia
Yeah, gonna try to keep this to at least ten years old, though I may fudge it just a little. Unfortunately, my list is going to probably be skewed towards certain systems because that's what I mainly play. Well, let's see what I've got:
1. Star Fox 64 - 1997 2. Super Mario Bros. 3 - 1988 (1990 international release) 3. Sonic 3 and Knuckles - 1994 4. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu - 1996 5. Super Mario 64 - 1996
6. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - 2000 7. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 1998 8. Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow - 1996 (Japanese Red/Green)/1998 (international Red/Blue)/1999 (Yellow) 9. Chrono Trigger - 1995 10. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - 1995 11. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 1992 12. Super Mario Bros. - 1985 13. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - 1992 14. Sonic Adventure 2 - 2001 15. Mortal Kombat II - 1993 16. Super Smash Bros. Melee - 2001 17. Wolfenstein 3D - 1992 18. Touhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil - 2002 19. Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 - 1999 20. Tetris - 1986-1989 (due to its numerous systems)
21. Golden Sun: The Lost Age - 2003 (yeah, less than 10 years, but it's close enough) 22. Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi - 2002 23. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen - 1990 (1992 international release) 24. Final Fantasy VI - 1994 25. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening/DX - 1993/1998 26. GoldenEye 007 - 1997 27. Asteroids - 1979 28. Pac-Man - 1980 29. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - 2003 30. Final Fantasy X - 2002 31. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - 2001 32. One Must Fall: 2097 - 1994 33. Street Fighter II - 1991 34. Final Fantasy - 1987 (1990 international release) 35. Mario Kart 64 - 1997 36. Touhou Kaikidan ~ Mystic Square - 1998 37. Arkanoid - 1986 38. Altered Beast - 1988 39. Banjo-Kazooie - 1998 40. Donkey Kong 64 - 1999 41. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - 2000 42. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages - 2001 43. Kirby's Dream Land 2 - 1995 44. Kirby's Dream Land 3 - 1997 (1998 international release) 45. Oregon Trail - 1992 46. SimCity - 1989 47. Sonic 3D Blast - 1996 48. Kanon - 1999 49. Air - 2000 50. Bomberman Hero - 1998
I think that'll be all for now.
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"Everyone has a dick although it may not be physical. You just have to learn to access it within your mind." - blindhobo13
Okay, time for some more. I'm going to cut back my line a little from what I previously said.
51. Sakura Wars - 1996 52. Fate/stay night - 2004 53. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - 2004 54. Feel the Magic: XY/XX - 2004 55. Operation Neptune - 1991 56. Metroid Prime - 2002 57. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness - 1995 58. Lemmings - 1991 59. Super Mario Land - 1989 60. Duck Hunt - 1985 61. Conker's Bad Fur Day - 2001 62. Tokimeki Memorial 2 - 1999 63. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 1997 64. Suikoden - 1995 (1996 in North America; 1997 in Europe) 65. Pikmin - 2001 66. Ever17: The Out of Infinity - 2002 67. Tales of Symphonia - 2003 (2004 international release) 68. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean - 2003 (2004 international release) 69. Tales of Phantasia - 1995
It was somewhere around this point that I re-read the OP and realized that the word "classic" in the topic's title doesn't actually necessitate that games be older than a certain point and decided to start including even more recent games that are nevertheless "important" somehow. But not all of them are "more recent", because there were also things I'd just plain forgotten that I was planning to include earlier in the update.
70. Killer7 - 2005 71. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 2006 72. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - 2007 73. Kingdom of Loathing - 2003 74. Mario Party 3 - 2001 75. Shadow the Hedgehog - 2005 76. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 2009 77. Super Marisa World - 2007 78. Shift - 2008 79. I Wanna Be The Guy - 2007 80. Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver - 2010 (much better than the 2000 original IMO) 81. Pokémon Black/White - 2011
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"Everyone has a dick although it may not be physical. You just have to learn to access it within your mind." - blindhobo13
I'm starting to tabulate some of the posts, slowly. Some of these (especially mine) are long posts to go through...not that that should stop you from giving a longer list if you want to.
Super Mario Bros Sonic the Hedgehog Doom Final Fantasy VII The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Pokemon Red/Blue Metal Gear Solid Resident Evil Super Smash Bros. Starcraft Command & Conquer Star Fox 64 Portal World of Warcraft Super Mario 64 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas The Legend of Zelda Mega Man 2 Street Fighter II Mario Kart 64
Perhaps that site sums it up best. "Games every gamer should know about." Except that I'm sort of assuming you won't have to work too hard to "know about" games that are more recent.
Top 5 Super Mario Land Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Final Fantasy VII Tetris Sonic the Hedgehog
Game Title 5
6-20
Prince of Persia Pac-Man Tekken 2 Street Fighter II Chrono Trigger Lemmings Worms: Armageddon The Sims Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Space Invaders Pong Duke Nukem Secret of Monkey Island Goldeneye Pokemon RBY
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~C~ - NIO BUNNY - http://img.imgcake.com/nio/76ayvpngam.png A Hot Dog will make you a fatty, a SuperNiceDog will make you a GURU!
Super Mario Bros. Pokemon Red/Blue Donkey Kong Final Fantasy The Legend of Zelda
#6 Street Fighter II #7 Half-Life #8 Final Fantasy VII #9 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time #10 Final Fantasy IV #11 Pac-Man #12 Super Mario Bros. 3 #13 Super Mario 64 #14 Super Mario Galaxy #15 Wolfenstein 3D #16 Super Metroid #17 Metroid Prime #18 Tetris #19 Chrono Trigger #20 Sonic the Hedgehog
#21 Chrono Cross #22 Bioshock #23 Final Fantasy X #24 Kingdom Hearts #25 Super Smash Bros. Melee #26 007 Goldeneye #27 Space Invaders #28 Galaga #29 Pong #30 SoulCalibur #31 Grand Theft Auto III #32 Crash Bandicoot #33 Spyro the Dragon #34 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves #35 Call of Duty #36 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare #37 The Sims #38 Civilization #39 Silent Hill #40 Halo: Combat Evolved #41 Contra #42 Fallout #43 Okami #44 StarCraft #45 Devil May Cry #46 Metal Gear Solid #47 Resident Evil 4 #48 Doom #49 Tomb Raider #50 Resident Evil
Super Mario Bros. Sonic the Hedgehog The Legend of Zelda Donkey Kong Pac-man
Next 15
Kirby Super Star Final Fantasy IV Mega Man Donkey Kong Country Street Fighter II The Sims Starcraft Pokemon R/B/Y Goldeneye Halo: Combat Evolved Metal Gear Solid Portal Super Mario 64 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Final Fantasy VII
The Rest
EarthBound Chrono Trigger Castlevania Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Contra Marvel vs. Capcom Resident Evil Final Fantasy Tactics Tales of Phantasia Secret of Mana Mega Man X Golden Sun Final Fantasy X Katamari Damacy Super Metroid Super Mario World Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Harvest Moon Super Mario Kart Dragon Quest Star Fox The Simpsons Arcade SoulCalibur Super Smash Bros Mario Party Advance Wars Fire Emblem 7 Kingdom Hearts Brain Age Nintendogs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Oregon Trail