Ocarina of Time — Best Game Ever?

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the best game yet made, according to a list compiled by readers and writers of the lauded British gaming magazine Edge. Their list of the hundred best games ever is top-heavy with Nintendo titles, a full five out of the top ten being released to a Nintendo platform. Obviously, this sort of thing can get contentious, and CNet's Crave blog spoke up quickly with a contrary opinion. "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is truly a masterpiece that should be thought of as one of the greatest games ever created. But to call it the greatest game of all time is a serious misstatement. Unlike Super Mario Bros., Ocarina of Time was released in an era where video games were booming and sales were on the rise. Simply put, everyone was playing video games, and the game was the best of its time. But no other game in history--Ocarina of Time included--was able to save an entire industry from almost guaranteed destruction the way Super Mario Bros. did, and it is for this reason that we should all give ol' Mario and Luigi credit where it's due." Let's hear it, then. What game deserves to top a list of the 100 best games ever made?

Comments

Psychonauts

[cyberon22]

Psychonauts got in at 99? I would have pushed it into the top ten, but it's good to see that the game hasn't been completely ignored. I wonder how many people have actually played it.

BGOAT

[Reason58]

You can't say something is the "best" without defining what you think those qualities are that make something best.

Storyline? Gameplay? Graphics? Sounds? Replayability? Uniqueness?

Re:BGOAT

[Plekto]

Wasteland was great, but the game that broke the RPG wide open was the Ultima series. Before that it was nethack-ish games that lacked a persistent environment, real character development, or a decent plot. Now, Ultima III was good, but the best of the series and the one that made everyone at the time(and I mean *everyone*) was IV. It essentially was Final Fantasy VII in scope and play. A decade earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_IV
1985. Nothing for almost a decade surpassed it in quality and scale.

*quote from that link*
"In 1996 Computer Gaming World named Ultima IV as #2 on its Best Games of All Time list on the PC."

It didn't even make the top ten - which is how you know this "list" is a joke. And Final Fantasy VII was what - way near the very bottom? The thing still commands $60 a copy on Ebay.

I learned the other day...

[TerranFury]

...that the South Korean Air Force has an official Starcraft team.

I'd say that getting your videogame elevated to the status of stadium-worthy spectator sport is a pretty huge achievement. Blizzard's Starcraft is surely up there.

(This is complicated only by the fact that it has so many worthy competitors from the same era: Age of Empires is the first that comes to mind.)

Re:Counter-Strike

[LandoCalrizzian]

It still doesn't compare to the number of hours spent playing Super Mario Bros. Counterstrike can't even come close to the number of children(boys AND girls), teens(men AND women) and parents(men AND women) who were drawn to SMB like a moth to a flame. In 15 years, I doubt you'll find many people who keep a computer around just to play Counterstrike or it's sequels.

Nintendo is arguably the only developer(hardware and software) to stay true to the original idea of Video Games as a source of fun instead of pimping it out to gain control of the home theater market. Sony is starting to lose it's way and Microsoft is Microsoft.

I am not a nintendo fanboy but I do respect the Old School.

One of the best

[Jerry Rivers]

Deus Ex gets my vote.

Re:What's with the sequels?

[G-funk]

Coz doom 2 was better than doom, and ditto for hl2? The list isn't "revoltionary" or "groundbreaking" games, it's "best".

Solitaire!

[Wordsmith]

Um, dude. Solitaire. Win 3.11 edition. Before they ruined it with fancy graphics. Back when it was pure.

Re:Counter-Strike

[CastrTroy]

With the Wii, Nintendo may be getting closer to VR than any other game system ever has. Remember VR Headsets, Force feedback controls, and all those other things that you never see around anymore? Well I for one think the Wiimote is the best progression we have towards actual VR. The fact that you can swing it like a golf club, or a tennis racket, or a baseball bat, and have it do the same thing on the screen is kind of exactly what people looking for VR have been dreaming of for a long time. It's not much of VR if you're just pushing a bunch of buttons but you happen to have a set of VR goggles.