~ S.Peelman's Top 50 Best Video Games of All Times 2020: ~

Another year, another top 50 list. These are S.Peelman's most favorite games of all-time. Games can be on this list simply because they are excellent and made an impression on me due to quality, but they can also be here because they gave me countless hours of fun, or had a deeper impact on myself as a person or as a gamer. The very best games did all of those things, and that is worth a lot.

When a game spans multiple consoles, only those on which I played the game are mentioned, alongside the system a game originally released on if I never played it there. The year of release is based on the PAL releases of the original game, which really only really makes a difference in a handful of older games. This year there are four (4) games that return (R) to the list, and five (5) newcomers (*). This means that nine (9) games are different compared to last year. Most of the rest of the list has been shuffled to suit my updated feelings about all these games.

#	Title	Genre	Platform	Year	YoY	Guessed by
50	Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords	Role-playing game	PC	2005	R	unguessed
49	Soccer	Sports	NES	1987	=	Darashiva
48	Duck Hunt	Lightgun shooter	NES	1987	v1	Darashiva
47	RiMe	Adventure	SW	2017	*	unguessed
46	Child of Light	Role-playing game	WiiU	2014	*	Mnementh
45	Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (Crash Bandicoot: Warped)	3D platformer	PS1	1998	R	UnderwaterFunktown
44	Pokémon Blue Version	Role-playing game	GB	1999	=	Zippy6
43	Virtua Tennis	Sports	DC	2000	R	Zippy6
42	Star Wars Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire	Rail shooter	Mac, PS1	1995	^4	coolbeans
41	Star Wars: Dark Forces	First-person shooter	Mac	1995	*	coolbeans
40	Resident Evil: Revelations	Survival horror	3DS	2012	R	Mnementh
39	Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds	Real-time strategy	PC	2001	^3	unguessed
38	Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock	Rhythm	PS3	2007	=	TruckOSaurus
37	Wolfenstein 3D	First-person shooter	Mac	1994	^2	Mnementh
36	Super Metroid	Action platformer	SNES, WiiU	1994	v1	GoOnKid
35	SimTower	Construction & Management Simulation	Mac	1993	v5	kenjab
34	Medieval II: Total War	Turn-based strategy	PC	2006	*	Farsala
33	Metroid Fusion	Action platformer	GBA, 3DS	2002	v2	Kakadu18
32	Rome: Total War	Turn-based strategy	PC	2004	^4	Farsala
31	MotoCross Madness	Racing	PC	1998	v11	coolbeans
30	Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness	Real-time strategy	Mac	1996	*	The_Liquid_Laser
29	SoulCalibur	Fighting	DC	1999	v1	GoOnKid
28	The Operative: No One Lives Forever	First-person shooter	PC	2000	^4	Darashiva
27	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past	Adventure	SNES, GBA	1992	^2	The_Liquid_Laser
26	Super Mario Galaxy	3D platformer	Wii	2007	^1	drbunnig
25	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves	Third-person shooter	PS3	2009	=	Machina
24	Call of Duty	First-person shooter	PC	2003	^2	coolbeans
23	Mega Man 2	Action platformer	NES	1990	^1	The_Liquid_Laser
22	The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask	Adventure	N64, GC, 3DS	2000	v1	The_Liquid_Laser
21	Astérix (Asterix: The Gallic War)	Turn-based strategy	PS1	1999	v6	Darashiva
20	GoldenEye 007	First-person shooter	N64	1997	v1	drbunnig
19	Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast	First-person shooter	PC	2002	^4	unguessed
18	SimCity 3000	Construction & Management Simulation	PC	1999	^4	unguessed
17	Prince of Persia	Action platformer	Mac, Mobile	1989	^1	drbunnig
16	The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess	Adventure	GC, Wii, WiiU	2006	^1	Link_Nines.XBC
15	Lylat Wars (Star Fox 64)	Rail shooter	N64, 3DS	1997	v1	TruckOSaurus
14	Kula World (Rollaway)	Puzzle platformer	PS1, PS3	1998	v2	drbunnig
13	Super Mario Bros. 3	2D platformer	NES, SNES, GBA	1991	^3	TruckOSaurus
12	MediEvil	Adventure	PS1, PS4	1998	^1	Darashiva
11	Theme Hospital	Construction & Management Simulation	PC	1997	=	drbunnig
10	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	Adventure	WiiU, SW	2017	=	Platina
09	SimCity 4	Construction & Management Simulation	PC	2003	=	The_Liquid_Laser
08	Mario Kart 64	Racing	N64	1997	=	Darashiva
07	RollerCoaster Tycoon 2	Construction & Management Simulation	PC	2002	v1	The_Liquid_Laser
06	Anno 1602 (1602 A.D.)	Construction & Management Simulation	PC	1998	^1	The_Liquid_Laser
05	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening	Adventure	GB/C, 3DS, SW	1993	=	The_Liquid_Laser
04	Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island	2D Platformer	SNES, GBA, 3DS	1995	=	drbunnig
03	Super Mario 64	3D Platformer	N64, DS	1997		Vinther1991
02	Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic	Role-playing game	PC, Mobile	2003		coolbeans
01	The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time	Adventure	N64, GC, 3DS	1998		Kakadu18

Honourable mentions:

Great games, but not enough to make it into the list. Some have in years past, but have since fallen out, some come in and out, and some have never been featured. Some honourable mentions of last year have made it into the main list this year or have disappeared entirely and there's some new ones.

• Age of Empires
• Age of Mythology
• Anno 1404
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Crazy Taxi
• Dynamite Cop
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
• Game #14: Gunfighter
• The Legend of Zelda
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon
• Missile Command
• Professor Layton & Pandora's Box
• SimCity 2000
• Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force
• Star Wars Shadows of the Empire
• Step-On-It
• Super Mario 3D Land
• Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Platform statistics:

Under here are some statistics like the amount of games from the main list by platform (counted by a game's original platform only) for each platform I own. The number of games in a "franchise" includes all games regardless of genre or sub-series.

List statistics:

Here are some statistics from the main list like most featured genre, or highest new game. "Median game" means this is the 'middle game' by age in the list; there's as much games newer as there are games older in the list.

• Best Year: 1998; 6 titles.
• Best Decade: '90s; 27 titles.
• Median Game by Release Date:  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Nintendo 64/GameCube/Nintendo 3DS, 11 December 1998, #1

• Most Featured Genre: Adventure; 8 titles.
• Most Represented Platform: Windows PC; 14 titles (inc. Mac 20 titles). Nintendo 64; 6 titles.
• Most Represented Generation: 5th; Nintendo 64+PlayStation+GameBoy/Color and Windows PC+Mac (of equivalent era); 17 titles.
• Number of Genres in List: 18 genres.
• Number of Franchises in List: 32 franchises.

• Most Featured Publisher: Nintendo (including subsidiaries); 18 titles.
• Most Featured Franchise: The Legend of Zelda; 6 titles, Star Wars; 6 titles.
• Most Featured Game-(sub-)series: The Legend of Zelda; 6 titles.

• Oldest Game: Soccer, Nintendo NES, 1987, #49
• Newest Game: RiMe, Nintendo Switch, 2017, #47
• Number of new or returning games: 9 titles.
• Highest Newcomer: Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Macintosh, 1996, #30
• Highest Re-Entry: Resident Evil: Revelations, Nintendo 3DS, 2012, #40

• Unchanged compared to last year: 13 titles
• Largest climb compared to last year: +4 places; Multiple (4) titles.
• Largest drop compared to last year: -11 places; MotoCross Madness, Windows PC, 1998, #31
• Highest placed dropped game from last year: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Nintendo 64, 1997, #33 (2020)

Correct guesses:

Here will be a ranking of people's correct guesses in the Discussion Thread, and number of games that went unguessed. These will be added up each time someone correctly guesses a next entry in the list.

Honorable mentions:

55 - Bravely Default (3DS)

54 - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)

53 - Dark Cloud 2 (PS2)

52 - Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)

51 - Bravely Second: End Layer (3DS)

The top 50:

VC = Virtual Console version