At PAX East over the weekend, former videogame journalist (now videogame consultant) N’Gai Croal and Kotaku deputy editor Stephen Totilo hosted an extremely interesting (and what sounded like an extremely entertaining) panel that tried something a little different in trying to come up with a ‘best ever’ list of games, by enlisting the help of not only the audience gathered to witness the panel, but a group of top industry luminaries who had agreed to help shape and evolve an original list into something they felt was a little more accurate.

The original list of top ten ‘best games of all time’ upon which these proceedings were based was taken from that currently registered at Gamerankings.com, based on reviews aggregated by that site. By the end of the panel, that list (which follows below) was barely recognisable:

Original List of ‘Best Games of All Time’

• 1.) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• 2.) Super MarioGalaxy
• 3.) GTA IV
• 4.) Super Mario World.
• 5.) Metroid Prime
• 6.) SoulCalibur
• 7.) The Orange Box
• 8.) Uncharted 2
• 9.) Super Metroid
• 10.) Metal Gear Solid Gameboy

Over the course of the hour, a varied and bountiful group of developers came up to swap and change the games, including Patrice Desilets (Ubisoft) Jeremiah Slaczka (5th Cell, which made Scribblenauts), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead), Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen (thatgamecompany), Jade Raymond (Ubisoft), Alex Evans and David Smith (Media Molecule), as well as members from Naughty Dog, Obsidian Entertainment and 38 Studios, who all moulded the ‘best ever’ list above into something they could be happy with.

After many chops and swaps, the group ended up with the following list:

Final List of ‘Best Games of All Time’

• 1.) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• 2.) Mario 64
• 3.) Metal Gear Solid
• 4.) Chrono Trigger
• 5.) Portal
• 6.) Half-Life
• 7.) World of Warcraft
• 8.) StarCraft
• 9.) Super Metroid
• 10.) Tetris

Notice, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is still at the top of the list (no-one dared move it!), while instead of The Orange Box, Portal and Half-Life have spread out to occupy two positions.

Similarly, two of Blizzard’s games now occupy the list, while the PlayStation version of Metal Gear Solid (not the Game Boy version) made it in. Uncharted 2 was removed because members thought it was too soon (and might not have the staying power) to make the list, while obvious additions, such as Tetris and Chrono Trigger, materialised.

Super Metroid remained at No. 9, while Super Mario Galaxy was swapped out for Mario 64, which perhaps showed the intention of the developers to craft a list that displayed games that had the biggest impact on the games industry as a whole, as opposed to games that are the best example of their genre after multiple refinements.

Overall, I agree with the final list. What do you think? What’s been left out, or what order do you think the games should appear in?

Source: Kotaku