Note: This was written during all of 2020 and published in late October. All opinions are likely outdated now.
This is a list that has been in the works for well over 4 years. While reading GameInformer’s Top 300 Games of All Time list I had laughed at the concept while also feverishly reading every sentry about all 300 games. Comparing most video games is absurd in nature because the can be so different. How do you properly evaluate historical importance? What about games that you literally just played and feel like they were the most amazing experience until a few months go by and you perhaps forget entirely what the hype was all about? Is Donkey Kong on the Nintendo 64 better than the Donkey Kong in arcades just because it’s bigger, better, and stronger too? I cannot imagine the nightmare of debating in a room of writers why StarCraft is the 94th best game and not the 93rd because Q-Bert has to be #93 on the list.
However, as someone who envied this nightmare and wished it upon himself I set forth in an attempt to list 500 games I’ve played and to rank them in order. Looking at the final result was fun before it helped me remember that I have played A LOT of platforming games. Maybe too many, because even as I was putting the finishing touches on the list I suddenly remembered that, hey, I forgot to put A Bug’s Life on the list or a few others. Making the list also helped me learn that evaluating games that I played primarily as a multiplayer experience is difficult because when you’re no longer playing those games with friends they’re suddenly not as good anymore. Weird. While this began as a dumb joke (I would sometimes stream myself playing Fortnite and add games to the list while sitting in a bush) I have seen it through and I am almost ready to bring it to you.
Before we can begin there are a few things you should know.
- This is unofficially the Top 500 Games I’ve Played Before I Got Married because that seemed like a fair cutting off point. You need time for a game to digest to really see how you feel about it. Hades is the main thing that this excludes, but I can guarantee you that if it were on the list it easily breaks top 50.
- I have done as well as I can in remembering well over 500 games to put here, but it’s very possible I left things off. Games that I played through quickly on a whim or as a small child can be easily forgotten. Example: I just remembered as I was writing this about hit GameBoy game, BUBBLE GHOST so expect that to be wedged into the list somewhere.
- Many games were stricken from the list because they were not beaten. This isn’t a universal policy, but I have put an adequate amount of time into all games listed whether by beating it or by playing a majority of its content.
- There will be a short list of things that got bumped off the top 500 list: the Worst Games I Have Ever Played, but that is for another time.
With that said, I’ll be publishing this list 100 games at a time because it’s probably way too much to put into a single article. I hope you enjoy scrolling through to find the game you like only to see my bad taste in action.
Table of Contents:
• Introduction
• #500-#401
• #400-#301
• #300-#201
• #200–#101
• #100–#11
• The Bottom Ten Games
• The Top Ten Games
