General Gaming Edge Magazine ranks the 100 Greatest Videogames of the last 30 years

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

 

As part of Edge's 30th anniversary celebrations in this month's issue (#390) of Edge magazine, they invited ~100 people from the industry to pick the 100 greatest games of the past 30 years. Or, as they call it, The 100 Greatest Games of Edge's Lifetime.

 

The List:

 

Spoiler

100. Kentucky Route Zero
99. Warioware, Inc: Mega Microgames
98. Starcraft
97. God of War (2018)
96. Persona 5
95. Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
94. The Sims
93. Yakuza 0
92. Fez
91. Team Fortress 2
90. Papers, Please
89. System Shock
88. Fallout 3
87. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
86. Half-Life: Alyx
85. Thief: The Dark Project
84. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
83. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
82. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
81. Super Mario Galaxy 2
80. Street Fighter IV
79. Tomb Raider
78. Fortnite
77. Bayonetta
76. Immortality
75. Katamari Damacy
74. Demon's Souls
73. The Last Guardian
72. Mario Kart 64
71. Resident Evil
70. The Last of Us Part II
69. Silent Hill 2
68. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
67. Chrono Trigger
66. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
65. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
64. Halo 3
63. Shenmue
62. X-Com: UFO Defense
61. Red Dead Redemption
60. Xcom: Enemy Unknown
59. Advance Wars
58. The Witness
57. Hitman (2016)
56. Rez
55. Castlevania: Symphony of The Night
54. Mario Kart 8
53. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
52. Inside
51. Ico
50. Grand Theft Auto V
49. Quake
48. Mass Effect 2
47. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
46. Pokémon Red/Blue
45. Into the Breach
44. Civilization II
43. What Remains of Edith Finch
42. Hollow Knight
41. Super Mario Odyssey
40. Dishonored 2
39. Street Fighter II Turbo
38. Return of The Obra Dinn
37. Hades
36. Slay the Spire
35. Metroid Prime
34. Spelunky
33. Journey
32. Disco Elyisium
31. World of Warcraft
30. Half-Life
29. Tetris Effect
28. Red Dead Redemption 2
27. Super Metroid
26. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
25. Metal Gear Solid
24. Goldeneye 007
23. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
22. Portal 2
21. Bioshock
20. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
19. Outer Wilds
18. Grand Theft Auto III
17. Shadow of the Colossus
16. Deus Ex
15. The Last of Us
14. Final Fantasy VII
13. Minecraft
12. Bloodborne
11. Super Mario Galaxy
10. Doom
9. Elden Ring
8. Portal
7. Half-Life 2
6. Halo: Combat Evolved
5. Resident Evil 4
4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
3. Super Mario 64
2. Dark Souls
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

 

The Voters:

 

Spoiler

Together with votes from readers and the in-house Edge editorial team, we polled a variety of videogame industry representatives, alongside regular contributors to the magazine and former Edge staff. Thank you to the following for taking part: Nate Austin, Jon Bailes, Callum Bains, Dinga Bakaba, Sam Barlow, Alex Beachum, Joel Beardshaw, Sébastien Bénard, Mike Bithell, Lucy Blundell, Wren Brier, Ben Brode, Mike Brown, Nathan Brown, Jeppe Carlsen, Matthew Castle, Roger Clark, Oli Clarke Smith, Simon Cox, Phil Crabtree, Ste Curran, Dylan Cuthbert, Martin Davies, Tim Dawson, Teddy Dief, Joao Diniz Sanches, Christian Donlan, Nicolas Doucet, Caelyn Ellis, Joel Eschler, Caspar Field, Simon Flesser, Aaryn Flynn, Ojiro Fumoto, Michael Gapper, Ian Hardingham, Duncan Harris, Alan Hazelden, Chris Hecker, Adrian Hon, Sam Horti, Casey Hudson, Joseph Humfrey, Alex Hutchinson, Jon Ingold, Bryan Intihar, Phil Iwaniuk, Steve Jarratt, Meghna Jayanth, John Johanas, Madison Karrh, Greg Kasavin, Mikael Kasurinen, Jake Kazdal, Emma Kent, Paul Kilduff-Taylor, Jason Killingsworth, Andrejs Klavinš, Ilari Kuittinen, Trent Kusters, Rick Lane, Greg Lobanov, Mark MacDonald, Dan Marshall, Corey Martin, Gareth Damian Martin, Ben Maxwell, David McCarthy, Edmund McMillen, Anna Megill, Daniel Mullins, Xalavier Nelson Jr, Dana Nightingale, Niall O'Donoghue, Henrique Olifiers, Dave Oshry, Trent Oster, Craig Owens, Lewis Packwood, Simon Parkin, Jeremy Peel, Gary Penn, Dan Pinchbeck, Lucas Pope, Lena Raine, Jade Raymond, Siobhan Reddy, Paweł Sasko, Andrew Shouldice, Jen Simpkins, Harvey Smith, Randy Smith, Davide Soliani, Jake Solomon, Richard Stanton, Matt Stark, Abbie Stone, Keith Stuart, Goichi Suda, Jörg Tittel, Ragnar Tørnquist, Feargus Urquhart, David Valjalo, Jan-Bart Van Beek, Sean Vanaman, Swen Vincke, Robin Walker, Alex Ward, Alan Wen, Tim Willits, Alex Wiltshire, Erik Wolpaw, Shuhei Yoshida and Derek Yu. Some additional game development and publishing staff who preferred to remain anonymous also contributed.

 

[5timechamp]

Its always interesting seeing these lists.. you can always feel the turmoil of rating a game for its significance and historical importance vs is it still a great game that is still above others of its kind

[Bacon]

I'll never agree with #1. Shit is mid.

And lol, ME2 over 1? No way.

DOOM Eternal is better in every way. Boomershooters are actually dogshit. I don't get it. I tried playing the old DOOM and it was so trash. Like, it's actual nostalgia goggles.

[Bacon]

The only redeeming thing about this list is that Dark Souls 2 isn't on it.

[Paperclyp]

While I adore the game and it's not like anything is perfect, BOTW is pound for pound perhaps the most overrated game of all time to me. 

[Keyser_Soze]

Seems like a safe list.

[skillzdadirecta]

I have beatean 38 of the games on that list 

[crispy4000]

Quote

35. Metroid Prime
21. Bioshock

Umm no.  I was one of those who preferred Metroid Prime 3 to Bioshock that year. 

[skillzdadirecta]

Out of the three Metal Gears posted, I TOTALLY disagree with Snake Eater being the lowest.

[Ricofoley]

Mostly reasonable. Skyrim too high, Chrono Trigger too low are what I'd quibble with at a glance. And I'm not as much of a From Software guy to put 3 in the top 12 but I'm not gonna get that worked up over that.

 

8 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Out of the three Metal Gears posted, I TOTALLY disagree with Snake Eater being the lowest.

Also true

[crispy4000]

26 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

While I adore the game and it's not like anything is perfect, BOTW is pound for pound perhaps the most overrated game of all time to me. 

ToTK makes that even more apparent.  Not that it’s a perfect game either.

[skillzdadirecta]

Resident Evil 2 and GTA: San Andreas should both be on this list SOMEWHERE.

[crispy4000]

The Witness is a very Edge pick IMO.  It’s a clever thing, but maybe not a very good game.  Plus I found the movement is motion sickness inducing.

 

Portal is a better pick, but definitely not top 10 to me.

 

That said there are some cool picks on there.  I could get behind Civ 2 and Slay the Spire belonging.

[stepee]

Finally a list that excludes the actual best game ever Super Mario World (92 in EU) by default 

[Paperclyp]

I think these broad lists should favor more timeless games like Tetris, Minecraft, Street Fighter 2, pick your 2D Mario, Super Metroid, stuff like that in the top 10. 

 

It's an impossible task in general, but then I see stuff up there like Edith Finch in like the top 50 and I just can't imagine that is correct lol. 

[Keyser_Soze]

10 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

 but then I see stuff up there like Edith Finch in like the top 50 and I just can't imagine that is correct lol. 

 

Heartless bastard confirmed

[stepee]

I’ll also say Portal over Portal 2 makes no sense. 

[Keyser_Soze]

9 minutes ago, stepee said:

I’ll also say Portal over Portal 2 makes no sense. 

 

Some people just prefer the pure puzzle element of the first game. The second game is cool but has a lot more narrative stuff going on.

[stepee]

15 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Some people just prefer the pure puzzle element of the first game. The second game is cool but has a lot more narrative stuff going on.

 

Those people ARE LITERALLY MAD

[Kal-El814]

Anything From related coming before Minecraft is absolute fucking lunacy.

[Bacon]

Minecraft is shit

[Keyser_Soze]

23 minutes ago, stepee said:

Those people ARE LITERALLY MAD

 

Well I know Jeff Gerstmann is one of those people and he mentioned it somewhat recently.

[5timechamp]

Not a single Sonic game on the list… timeless quality of some old games will continue to fall by the wayside…

 

Thank goodness for personal preferences cause I will be damned if I ever forget how much I love F-zero X, Starfox 64 and even older forgotten series/games like Road Rash, Desert Strike, Age of Empires and Tecmo Super Bowl 

[Best]

No GOW for Ragnarok?

[Mercury33]

I have played 65 of those. 
 

There’s lots to argue over. which is fun, but Slay the Spire being a spot ahead of Hades? Fuck right off on that one. 
 

And Mario 3 or Super Mario World not on the list? Fuck Edge

[Mr.Vic20]

My read of this list is that the Edge has elected to do what so many have, which is to combine excellent games with impactful games and call them all "Top" games. Its not criminal, but its also not particularly accurate. Look, Shenmue was certainly an influential game, but it not a "top" game and I happen to love it. The original Doom is no longer an eternal classic, even if it showed many the way to making the games that would surpass it. I could go on, but instead I'm off to host a meeting full of angry construction people, good day to you all! 

[Best]

@Biggie I only now saw they barely gave GOW 2018 a top 100 nod. Ragnarok is easily top 15. 

[Biggie]

21 minutes ago, best3444 said:

@Biggie I only now saw they barely gave GOW 2018 a top 100 nod. Ragnarok is easily top 15. 

Honestly I liked GoW 2018 better. 

[Best]

6 minutes ago, Biggie said:

Honestly I liked GoW 2018 better. 

 

I can see that because it was more cohesive and not as bloated as Ragnarok. I still prefer Ragnarok but both are simply incredible. 

[CastletonSnob]

Arkham Asylum and Arkham City aren't even on the list? No Final Fantasy VI? No System Shock 2? No The Walking Dead? No Undertale?

[crispy4000]

1 hour ago, Mercury33 said:

There’s lots to argue over which is fun but Slay the Spire being a spot ahead of Hades? Fuck right off on that one. 

As someone who adores both games, I’d be happier with the order swapped, but I’m not complaining.  It’s just one spot.

[crispy4000]

9 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

I think these broad lists should favor more timeless games like Tetris, Minecraft, Street Fighter 2, pick your 2D Mario, Super Metroid, stuff like that in the top 10. 

 

It's an impossible task in general, but then I see stuff up there like Edith Finch in like the top 50 and I just can't imagine that is correct lol. 

Sure, but only when they still deserve to hang.  Can we still say SF2 is the best fighting game ever?  Or just the one with the most history attached?  I’m kind of two minds there.

 

Another example: I feel that the ‘timeless’ quality of Wind Waker is a bit of a cover.  It’s stuck in a no man’s land between traditional 3D Zelda and BotW/ToTK, and doesn’t excel at either approach.  But people get nostalgic for the visual style and story.

 

You know which Zelda should be in its place?  A Link Between Worids.  I noticed LTTP was missing, but sacred cows be slaughtered, the 3DS game is better.

[Paperclyp]

1 minute ago, crispy4000 said:

Sure, but only when they still deserve to hang.  Can we still say SF2 is the best fighting game ever?  Or just the one with the most history attached?  I’m kind of two minds there.

 

Another example: I feel that the ‘timeless’ quality of Wind Waker is a bit of a cover.  It’s stuck in a no man’s land between traditional 3D Zelda and BotW/ToTK, and doesn’t excel at either approach.  But people get nostalgic for the visual style and story.

 

 

No it’s a valid question and any time I have discussions like this with my friends with games or sports I’m the asshole who really wants to tamp down on what are you actually saying here…

 

Is Street Fighter 2 the actual “best” fighting game of all time - I would say of course not. But given the quality of it plus its context in history, were I making this list, it would have strong consideration for top 10. 
 

I would like publications to get some balls and list what they think are the actual best games ever and ignore as much as you can (cuz I think some of it is just subconscious at this point) historical context. 

[crispy4000]

26 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

Is Street Fighter 2 the actual “best” fighting game of all time - I would say of course not. But given the quality of it plus its context in history, were I making this list, it would have strong consideration for top 10. 

Maybe there would have been a time I’d agree.  But with where gaming is now, something that isn’t best ever in its class probably doesn’t deserve to be in a top 50.  Unless being second or third best in a particular genre or franchise still gives it a ton of sway.

[TheLeon]

It’s so easy to roll your eyes at these lists, but could we as a group do any better? I would love to see what a D1P list looks like.