THE TOP 10 NON-ADVENTURE GAMES OF ALL TIME
Articles
THE TOP 10 NON-ADVENTURE GAMES OF ALL TIME
Article by Agustín Cordes and Michal Necasek
October 3, 2003
One sunny day we were browsing the Internet (is there anything better to do on sunny days?) and stumbled upon a fancy Top 10 list. While we generally enjoy reading such lists, we don’t always agree with them. This one however was truly outrageous. You can’t imagine how taken aback (or even upset, angry, maddened and thoroughly unhappy) we were with the choice of supposedly the best game of all time: Super Mario Brothers. These so-called game critics were resolutely claiming right there in our faces that Super Mario was the best game ever. We felt insulted, outraged, annoyed and almost depressed by this show of exquisitely bad taste. To improve our mood we decided to create a list of out own, to show those mainstream sites which games are the really great ones. Anyway…
In this list you might notice a preference for production value and game design. Production value meaning not just eye candy but also a careful balance between visuals and gameplay, although there are a couple of games with relatively low production value where the design outshines everything else. Speaking of design, that is a bit more tricky. Think about how the game would look on paper and drafts. We’re talking about the heart of the game. Consider Half-Life for instance, a game that was hailed by many as the best ever. If you’re one of them, we must warn you, it isn’t on this list – please don’t be too disappointed. While we enjoyed Half-Life and consider it a remarkable game (among FPSs), its gameplay is lacking in depth (like most FPSs). In other words, it’s a pretty straightforward game. You could ask “who gives a damn about the depth if the game plays great?” We would answer “you have a point there but why rate it so high if there are other games with great gameplay and depth?” Games such as the ones on this list. Save for a few minor issues in some of them, these games have a perfect, balanced gameplay and a remarkable design, in most cases revolutionary, spawning numerous sequels and knock-offs.
This list is not intended to be the final word either. There was no complicated scoring system, no ballots (no stuffed ballots either), nothing like that – we selected these games because they are the games we like best. We could be well talking utter nonsense here of course (and that wouldn’t be a big surprise). Nevertheless, we have full confidence in our judgment.
Because we don’t have a platformer on the list.
