IGN's Top 100 Games of All Time

[Mustang]

https://www.ign.com/lists/top-100-games/100

I usually stay far away from these lists since they're usually all the same (Ocarina of Time or Super Mario Bros 1&3 at the #1 spot), but this one here caught me by surprise. The main shocker to me is Final Fantasy 7's placement and all the games that comes in front of it. I just knew for sure that IGN would say that games like Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed would be inferior to it, but, yeah, color me shocked.

A lot of these games I've yet to play, but overall, the list is ok-ish. Better than some of the ones I've seen in the past (I think the last one I've seen or paid attention to was in 2013-2014. I don't count EA's Hall of Greats because that's a complete joke)

Thoughts?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Obviously all lists are subjective, but when the first game I see listed is a fucking mobile app game that's mostly known for a gimmick, I can already tell that it's not my kind of list.

I'm not really going to rail on it or anything, but it's not really all that surprising. It has a lot of popular cinematic style games like Naughty Dawg's titles, as well as some clear nostalgia-driven picks where popularity clearly won out over what the actual best game in a series was, classic or otherwise. I mean, Halo 2 is a game known primarily for it's multiplayer, whereas even certain Bungie staff members have admitted that the campaign mode sucks due to massive time constraints. So, the game's quality is solely reliant on it's best feature, which currently has nowhere near the kind of community that made it so well regarded in the first place on the original XBOX. Yet this is ranked above Combat Evolved, and in the top 20 at that. Likewise, Soul Calibur II is commonly regarded as superior to the original and the highest-rated in the series to date. And Super Mario World is one of my first video games of all time and I have all of the nostalgia in the world for it, yet even I could tell you that it's not the best 2D Mario game of all time, let alone the greatest game ever made.

And of course, by nature lists like these are going to leave out a lot of great gems. I mean, putting my own personal biases aside, I can see why no Ninja Gaiden or DMC game would make this list, or even Bayonetta for that matter since those are decidedly niche titles despite their quality, but you know what the most insulting thing is? I was expecting a spectacle-driven game like God of War to make it in place of those as the hack n' slash representative for the list, but it's not even a classic God of War title. Instead it's the fucking reboot, which is the biggest slap in the face to the genre that I've ever seen.

Anyways, I don't really mean to get into a rant. Personally, I suppose the nicest thing I can say about a list like this is that it's not really surprising. It's the kind of list that I would expect a site like IGN to make.

[Mustang]

I'll admit that I laughed the moment I saw God of War on their list while every other game in the same genre was missing because I thought if you saw that you might go in on this list.

I agree with you on Halo 2. I don't remember this game at all. I know I've played it but I can't remember anything about it other than some ape-ish looking creature (which are in Halo 3 right?). Whereas I remember everything about Combat Evolved and a lot of bits from Halo 3 (I mostly remember Reach though), so I do find it odd to put Halo 2 above Combat Evolved simply for its multiplayer.

I had some thoughts about Soul Calibur, but decided I wouldn't touch on it mainly because of me being bias against SC2. I was a Tekken fan anyway and I hate ringouts.

[Foggle]

No Nier, huh

I mean, putting my own personal biases aside, I can see why no Ninja Gaiden or DMC game would make this list, or even Bayonetta for that matter since those are decidedly niche titles despite their quality

Honestly, even though they are niche, not having Ninja Gaiden Black or Devil May Cry 1 or 3 (or 5 since apparently stuff from this year is fair game) or ANY Platinum/Clover representation is a massive oversight. If these are supposed to be the best games ever made, they need to represent every possible genre and, well, the "best" games. I will laugh in the face of anyone who thinks Pokemon Go deserves to be on a list like this over any of those.

The list is crap, but thinking about it, video games are so subjective that making a truly great list is pretty much impossible. Even though they often follow narrative structures or mechanical pacing similar to films/TV shows/books, games are closer to music in the sense that everyone gets something completely different out of each title they play due to their interactivity.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

No Nier, huh

I doubt anyone involved with the making of this list has even heard of Nier.

Honestly, even though they are niche, not having Ninja Gaiden Black or Devil May Cry 1 or 3 (or 5 since apparently stuff from this year is fair game) or ANY Platinum/Clover representation is a massive oversight. If these are supposed to be the best games ever made, they need to represent every possible genre and, well, the "best" games. I will laugh in the face of anyone who thinks Pokemon Go deserves to be on a list like this over any of those

It's especially ironic considering that DMC5 is one of their best reviewed games of the year so far. In fact they even made a separate video ranking the best games of 2019 so far which DMC5 was near the very top of. Yet of course they make a spot for Sekiro instead, even though the Souls franchise already has DS1 and Bloodborne representing it on the list. To be clear, I beat and really enjoyed Sekiro, but it's nowhere near as great as Bloodborne, and I'd even argue that Nioh was a superior game overall as well.

Also, you know what else I just realized but am not even slightly surprised by? No F.E.A.R. on this list either.

The list is crap, but thinking about it, video games are so subjective that making a truly great list is pretty much impossible. Even though they often follow narrative structures or mechanical pacing similar to films/TV shows/books, games are closer to music in the sense that everyone gets something completely different out of each title they play due to their interactivity.

That's why I don't want to waste energy criticizing lists that don't fit my personal tastes. That said, this list doesn't feel the slightest bit personal. It feels like the creators of it prioritized what would be popular picks over ones meaningful to them.

[Mustang]

I also see there's no mention of Horizon when I've seen people compare it to Breath of the Wild.

Are there even any places that do these type of lists that actually feel meaningful to them? I've cut back on Easy Allies a bit because it seems like they're getting like other journalists (a lot of the content has not been much for me for the past couple of months). Playstation Access has been alright for me lately even though I wish they did more stuff.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Also, while on the topic of Nu God of War and Devil May Cry, here's a good video explaining why DMCV is not only a better game than GoW, but a more "mature" one at that, to the contrary of popular game journalists' opinions: https://youtu.be/1u0FJ0VpNHo