A quick perusal of the Video Game Canon’s Top 1000 will give you a good idea about the games that are always in the discussion for the Best Games of All Time. There’s Tetris and Resident Evil 4 and Half-Life 2 and Mario, but also your Zeldas and your Marios, and a handful of other familiar titles.
But what if you wanted to go beyond that list? What if you wanted to talk about the greatest games of all time that nobody talks about? That’s where The MinnMaxx Show comes in.
The hosts of the popular podcast recently uploaded an episode all about “The Greatest Games of All Time (That Nobody Talks About).” Each host was given the chance to pick three games that go unmentioned whenever a publication puts together a Best Games list. And at the end of the segment, they also each added a few rapid fire picks to the discussion, bringing the total to 26 titles. How’d they do? Well…
To get it out of the way, yes, some of these picks were a bit off the mark. Games like Ico, Inside, Minecraft, Okami, Rock Band, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 are always part of the Best Games conversation. All six are well within the Video Game Canon’s Top 100, and Minecraft is sitting comfortably at #37. They’re not games that “nobody talks about.”
But the rest of the choices were a lot more interesting, including Sarah Podzorski’s selection of Chibi-Robo and Ben Hanson’s pick of Rocket League . And they’re interesting because they’re right! No one ever talks about those games as being part of the Greatest Games of All Time.
The full roster of choices from “The Greatest Games of All Time (That Nobody Talks About)” can be seen here:
Sarah Podzorski
- Chibi-Robo
- Gravity Rush 2
- Okami
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Divinity: Original Sin II
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Final Fantasy XIV
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Night in the Woods
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Outer Wilds
Leo Vader
- Drawful 2
- Hitman 3
- Titanfall 2
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Streets of Rogue
- RAPID FIRE PICK: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Jacob Geller
- Bayonetta
- Slay the Spire
- XCOM 2
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Anatomy
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Ico
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Inside
Ben Hanson
- Minecraft
- Rock Band / Rock Band 3
- Rocket League
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Peggle
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
- RAPID FIRE PICK: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
The hosts of The MinnMaxx Show also opened the question up to their community and got a bunch of great feedback (especially the criminally underrated Super Hexagon, which is all the way down at #1065 on the Video Game Canon):
Suggestions from the MixxMaxx Community
- Animal Crossing
- Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
- Batman: Arkham City
- Biker Mice From Mars
- Breath of Fire IV
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Cave Story
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale
- CrossCode
- Devil May Cry 5
- Dragon Quest Builders 2
- Einhander
- Gladius
- Jade Empire
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Lock’s Quest
- Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
- Lumines
- Mercenaries
- Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Minesweeper
- Ms. Pac-Man
- Planescape: Torment
- Resident Evil (Remake)
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- Rock N Roll Racing
- Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
- Splatoon 2
- Star Ocean: Second Story
- Subnautica
- Super Hexagon
- Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Terraria
- Tetris Effect
- The Swapper
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Viewtiful Joe
- Xenogears
So there you have it. But what do you think are “The Greatest Games of All Time (That Nobody Talks About)”? Give me your picks on Twitter.