The World Video Game Hall of Fame has welcomed four new games into the fold, as the inductees from the Class of 2019 were announced this morning in a special ceremony. This year, three games that practically defined gaming in the 1990s lead the way, while a groundbreaking text adventure from the 1970s also made the cut.
Just a few months after Popular Mechanics revealed “The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born” (which they plan to update on a yearly basis), the publication’s editors are back with an update to their “100 Greatest Video Games of All Time” list, which was first published in 2014.
This time around, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past earned the #1 spot, dethroning BioShock, which had to settle for #7. Link’s third adventure is actually in some familiar company, as aside from Irrational’s shooter, the majority of the Top 15 is heavily populated by a slew of games from the 1990s. Ready?
There’s Super Mario Bros. 3 (#15) from 1990, Super Mario World (#2) and Street Fighter II (#6) from 1991, Super Mario Kart (#11) from 1992, Doom (#13) from 1993, Final Fantasy VII (#4) and GoldenEye 007 (#10) from 1997, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (#12) and Metal Gear Solid (#14) from 1998.
Outside of the Top 15, Popular Mechanics is the first publication to give Epic’s Fortnite (#34) a spot on their “Best Games” list, and believe it or not, they’re also the first to include car combat classic Twisted Metal (#87).
The Video Game Canon’s Version 3.0 Update was published just a few weeks ago, but you can be sure that Popular Mechanics’s “The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time” will be included in the next revision.
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.
Slant Magazine recently updated their list of “The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time” and named Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask as their #1 game. The oft-ignored sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been undergoing a bit of a reevaluation in recent years, and it’s selection by Slant is the first time it’s earned the top spot on a “Best Games” list.
In addition to old favorites, the editors at Slant gave four games their first exposure on a “Best Games” list… Platinum’s Nier: Automata (#7), Bracket’s Three Fourths Home (#73), Croteam’s The Talos Principle (#82), and Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (#94).
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey have been on a perfect streak since their release in 2017, and Slate kept it alive by slotting Link’s latest adventure at #39 and Mario’s Cappy-tivating quest at #31.
Slant Magazine’s “The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time” will be added to the Video Game Canon in a future update.
Hyper, Australia’s oldest gaming magazine, has always had a slightly skewed perspective on the industry. Earlier this year, they published their latest “Best Games” list, “The 200 Games You Must Play.”
Hyper, Australia’s oldest gaming magazine, has always had a slightly skewed perspective on the industry. Their previous stabs at “Best Games” lists in 1995 and 2013 often focused on titles that no one else was looking at. And the same is true for “The 200 Games You Must Play,” which was published earlier this year.
“The 200 Games You Must Play” is an unranked list, just like Hyper’s previous lists, so you won’t find a consensus pick for the “Best Game of All Time” from the magazine’s editors. Instead, the 203 games on the list (there were a few ties) cut across a huge spectrum of genres and decades, as well as the inclusion of almost three dozen titles that are brand new to the Video Game Canon.
The good folks at Game Informer published their 300th issue last month, and a big part of the celebration included the unveiling of a brand new “Best Games” list, “The Top 300 Games of All Time.”
The good folks at Game Informer published their 300th issue last month, and a big part of the celebration included the unveiling of a brand new Best Games list, “The Top 300 Games of All Time.”
The editors of Game Informer chose Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past as the #1 game, writing this about Link’s third adventure: “Although many of the series’ conventions debuted on the NES in The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past defined the blueprint Nintendo has used for most sequels, and is still one of the most ambitious entries to date.”
Yesterday, the Strong Museum and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games announced this year’s inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame.
Yesterday, the Strong Museum and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games announced this year’s inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The Class of 2018 includes Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix’s beloved RPG; Tomb Raider, Eidos Interactive’s 1996 introduction to Lara Croft; John Madden Football, EA Sports’s first football simulation; and Spacewar!, an early game created by the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT in 1962.
IGN recently published a new update to their “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” list. The selections from the list will be added to the Video Game Canon in a future update.
IGN recently published a new update to their “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” list.
This time around, Super Mario World landed at #1, climbing 13 spots since the last time IGN selected a Top 100 in 2015. Three years ago, Super Mario Bros. 3 claimed the top spot, but it fell to #6 in the most recent ranking.
The site also enshrined several 2017 releases in their latest Top 100, honoring The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at #26, Persona 5 at #81, and Super Mario Odyssey at #84.
IGN’s “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” will be added to the Video Game Canon in a future update.
The debate has ended for another year and the induction committee from the World Video Game Hall of Fame is ready to announce their Class of 2017. Drum roll, please…
This year’s first new addition to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games’s Hall of Fame is Donkey Kong. Nintendo’s first big hit became an arcade sensation in 1980, and also introduced the world to a mustachioed plumber named Mario. On the game’s selection, ICHEG Director Jon-Paul Dyson said, “[Donkey Kong’s] overarching narrative of love and its vibrant graphics brought the game to life in a way that few other games could in the early 1980s. It captured the hearts of a generation.”
This year’s class also includes Halo: Combat Evolved, Bungie’s groundbreaking first person shooter and the game that put Microsoft’s Xbox on the map. Curator Shannon Symonds said, “[Halo] boasted one of the strongest multiplayer experiences of its time and created a legion of hardcore fans that refer to themselves as the ‘Halo Nation.’ ”
Hot off the heels of the launch of Pokemon Go, the Hall of Fame also chose to induct Pokemon Red and Blue, the first pair of games released in the far-reaching RPG franchise. The universal appeal of the franchise was a major factor in its selection, as Symonds added: “Pokemon Red and Blue launched a franchise that has taken the world by storm, vaulting many of its characters, such as Pikachu, into popular, mainstream culture. Nearly two decades after its inception and with the introduction of Pokemon Go, ‘Poke-mania’ shows little sign of fading.”
Finally, Capcom’s Street Fighter II: The World Warrior became the first one-on-one fighting game to be added to the Hall of Fame as the final member of the Class of 2017. ICHEG Assistant Director Jeremy Saucier believes that Street Fighter II’s social component fueled its popularity, adding, “This communal style of game play reinvigorated the arcade industry in the 1990s and helped give birth to a generation of fighting games.”
Congratulations to all of this year’s inductees.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame chose to deny entry to eight other finalists this year including Final Fantasy VII, Microsoft Windows Solitaire, Mortal Kombat, Myst, Portal, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, and Wii Sports. But they’ll get another shot. Nominations are already being accepted for the Class of 2018.
