Going all the way back to 1971 and the the very dawn of commercial video games, the editors of Popular Mechanics have chosen “The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born.”
Popular Mechanics’s choices range from the obvious (Pong over everything in 1972) to the debatable (Sonic the Hedgehog over Street Fighter II and Zelda: A Link to the Past in 1991) to the controversial (Donkey Kong Country over both Earthbound and Final Fantasy VI in 1994). The editors went with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for 2017, pushing Link’s latest adventure to eight total selections since its release two years ago.
“The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born” is also the first “Best Games” list I’ve found to include the entirety of 2018 in its purview and the editors chose to honor Into the Breach as the best game from last year, while also selecting Deltarune, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, God of War, Celeste, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Monster Hunter: World as “Honorable Mentions.” Popular Mechanics plans to update “The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born” with new titles every year.
The Video Game Canon’s Version 3.0 Update has already been locked down and will be published soon, but Popular Mechanics’s “The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born” will be added in a further update.