The Discussion Thread - The 14th Annual Greatest Games Event

[Runa216]

Top 50 Games:

1 - Final Fantasy VI
2 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
3 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
4 - Bloodborne
5 - Mega Man X
6 - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
7 - Final Fantasy VII
8 - Super Mario World
9 - Elden Ring
10- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
11- Final Fantasy XII
12- Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
13- Mega Man X3
14- Red Dead Redemption II
15- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
16- Rock Band 4
17- Mega Man 2
18- Final Fantasy X
19- Mega Man X2
20- Super Mario Bros. 3
21- Donkey Kong Country
22- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
23- Final Fantasy XVI
24- Pokemon Scarlet/Violet
25- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
26- Dark Souls III
27- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
28- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
29- God of War (Norse)
30- Final Fantasy IX
31- Dark Souls/Remastered
32- Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
33- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
34- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
35- Final Fantasy VIII
36- Pokemon Black/White
37- Cuphead and the Delicious Last Course
38- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
39- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
40- Resident Evil 4
41- Portal 2
42- Pokemon Red/Blue
43- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
44- Terraria
45- Axiom Verge
46- Guitar Hero II
47- The Messenger
48- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
49- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
50- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

I was gonna do a proper write-up but I ran outta time.

Long story short, a lot of positions are kinda jumbled around and inconsistent because my ACTUAL ranking style heavily emphasises groupings and this thread/event doesn't do that. For example, I don't really love any one Pokemon or Rock Band game more than the others, I like what they do as a collective franchise. I like the building of the pokedex or the track list, or how you can export/trade forward old content to new games so each new entry builds upon the last one instead of replacing it. Smash Bros. Ultimate is a similar case.

Other franchises I felt the need to separate entries even though they're ties. Final Fantasy VII, X, and XII are all tied in my mind, my preferences changing daily. what I wrote and what I decided on this list is not necessarily how I'd rank them if I started from scratch tomorrow.

Other games I purposely omitted because I wanted to avoid redundancy. Demon's Souls deserves to be on this list but I already had 5 other soulslikes (Dark souls, Dark souls III, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring) and Demon's Souls is certainly the weakest of that spiritual sequence. I also could have filled the list with Ratchet & Clank games so I chose the ones that I liked the most (And even had to omit other games I loved like the 2016 remake and Tools of Destruction to minimize redundancy).

On my official list I even include Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World since Mario World and Mario 3 are actually pretty close. but again I tried to separate them a bit.

I wanted to include remakes like the Resident Evil 4 Remake, Mario RPG Remake (If it had come out in time) and the Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster, but alas, not really an option.

so this is my list as I'm presenting it even though it is not appropriately representative of how I feel. but again, different parameters. Abide by the rules!

**Edit** also worth noting that this year helped to establish my top 2. both Final Fantasy VI and Mario RPG got remakes (Well, technically the Pixel Remaster was last year but I don't do PC gaming so they came out on Switch/PS4 this year and thus that's when I played them). 1 and 2 were both neck and neck for the last decade and a half, with Mario RPG barely edging Final Fantasy VI out due to how much easier it is/was to replay. But having played both the Pixel Remaster and the RPG Remake this year, I can firmly put Final Fantasy VI at the top of the list. both were excellent and both had damn near perfect remakes in their own right but reliving FFVI again really struck my heart in a way that solidified its place in the top spot. 

Last edited by Runa216 - on 03 January 2024