The greatest game ever made...
Now there's a topic of discussion. How do you even go about judging such a thing? It would be like asking the world's nations what their favourite food is. There's all kinda of foods and within them, all kinds of flavours. Do you prefer pizza over steak, ok what toppings? Are you always in the mood for pizza over anything else? Would you have pizza for breakfast or does the greatness depend on the setting?
In order to judge the greatest game, we need to evaluate the judging criteria? After all, not everyone loves FPS or Strategy or side scrollers or RPGs. Not everyone likes PC or consoles or jumping around in front of a motion sensor.
If we had to pick THE greatest, what would it be based on? Metacritic scores or personal choice? How can personal choice even be wrong? (Don't do drugs, kids.)
We could suss out a myriad of "greatest game" if we scored singular properties, we could argue:
- Best Graphics Currently: Skyrim mods
- Breakthrough Graphics for its time: Quake
- Most Immersive story: Red Dead Redemption
- Most Memorable Characters: Mass Effect
- Best replayability: Pretty much any Bethesda game
- Best side scroller: Mario Bros 2
- Best Multiplayer: Call of Duty franchise
- Best standalone turned mod: Counter Strike
- Best racing game: Need For Speed most Wanted
- Best sports game: Fifa 1-254
- Best 2 player game: Contra
- Best sandbox game: GTA San Andreas
- Best MMO: World of Warcraft
- Best Strategy: Age of Empires
- Best decision dependent: Heavy Rain
- Best musical score: Guild Wars
The list goes on and on. However, in a subjective manner I think the greatest game is probably the one game that turned you from "playing a game" into a lifelong gamer. What is that game that kept you up every night and had you glued to your screen? The one game that stood the test of time no matter how many times you clocked it.
When rating games, my goto titles are always KoTOR I & II, but I always mention that it excludes The Secret of Monkey Islandâ„¢ as that game was created by the gods. I also played Battlefield 2 online for years and probably invested even more into my MMOs.
At the end of it all, as much as I would want to say World of Warcraft, the simple fact of the matter is that even though it attracted 12 million players at one point and has been growing continuously for over 9 years with new content and activities for every person to enjoy...the icon of "gaming" that is universal, no matter who you speak to or what their age. The game and tune that everyone knows, the game you, your sister, that hot girl you have a crush on and even your school teacher has played countless times regardless of how many times you've clocked it or not at all...simply has to be:
Super Mario Bros