Home Gaming Guinness Compiles List of Top Games, Gets it Horribly Wrong

Guinness Compiles List of Top Games, Gets it Horribly Wrong

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guinness-gamer-edition Guinness, progenitors of the Guinness Book Of World Records (and more importantly, the black stuff that keeps most of Ireland from getting scurvy) have tasked themselves with creating a list of the top 50 console games of all time, based on their legacy and and how influential they are. They’ve also made a special note of their initial impact, and how fun they are to play.

It’s a pity then, that they’ve made a right mess of it.

Guinness employed a team of experts to compile this list, and while it contains some of gaming’s finest examples – it’s still mind-numbingly wrong.

Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief, Craig Glenday, said of their selection process: “We knew this would be a complex task so we invited a crack team of industry experts to form a judging panel – and the result is a “top 50″ list of games ranked both on their importance and on how fun they are to play.”

I think what he meant was they invited a team of industry experts on crack, because the list is downright silly.

For the full list – and why it’s rubbish, hit the jump!

The supposed experts selected Super Mario Kart as the premier game, mostly because it’s the best-selling racer on the SNES, the GameCube and the DS. Ok, fair enough. Where then is Super Mario Bros – the grandfather of platform games and indeed the source of Mario Kart’s characters and setting? All the way down at 17. This is the game that until recently dethroned by Wii Sports was the best-selling game of all time. 17. Below Sonic the Hedgehog. Make sense? Didn’t think so.

Brace yourselves, because this is only the start of their insanity.

Not only have they placed Final Fantasy XII above the wildly successful and incredibly influential Final Fantasy VII, they’ve placed it above Street Fighter II – the game widely credited for refining and popularising the one on one fighting genre. That’s not to mention the other 10 Final Fantasy games that antecede it.

They’ve included the first Grand Theft Auto at number 3, which I have no problems with – I do take issue though that they’ve included both San Andreas and Vice City, but have omitted GTA III – the first 3D sandbox iteration, and arguably the most ground-breaking and seminal game in the series.

There are even a few games I don’t think should be anywhere near that list. PGR4? The disappointing sequel to PGR3, in turn the disappointing sequel to PGR2? Saturn Bomberman? Really? If any Bomberman game belongs on that list, it should be Bomberman for the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine, as it was the first to include the frenetic multiplayer the series is now so renowned for.

We shan’t begin to discuss Halo’s position above GoldenEye, and the fact that The Orange Box isn’t one game; lest the blood vessels near my temporal lobe implode.

My biggest gripes though, are the glaring omissions of both Pong and Pac-Man (the obvious inspiration for our as yet unnamed mascot), both of which were so instrumental to the promulgation of our hobby, that I’m not entirely certain we’d be playing anything without them.

Please peruse the list and tell us how wrong you think it is.
If you have the inclination, let us know what your top 5 console games – based on legacy and influence – would be.

  • Super Mario Kart (#1)
  • Tetris (#2)
  • Grand Theft Auto (#3)
  • Super Mario World (#4)
  • Zelda Ocarina of Time (#5)
  • Halo (#6)
  • Resident Evil IV (#7)
  • Final Fantasy XII (#8)
  • Street Fighter II (#9)
  • GoldenEye (#10)
  • Super Mario 64 (# 11)
  • Tomb Raider (#12)
  • Metal Gear Solid (#13)
  • Call of Duty 4 (#14)
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (#15)
  • GTA San Andreas (#16)
  • Super Mario Bros (#17)
  • Zelda: A Link to the Past (#18)
  • Gran Turismo (#19)
  • Final Fantasy VII (#20)
  • Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (#21)
  • The Orange Box (#22)
  • Lego Star Wars Complete Saga (#23)
  • Tekken 2 (#24)
  • Wii Sports (#25)
  • Pokemon Red/Blue (#26)
  • Guitar Hero (#27)
  • Project Gotham Racing 4 (#28)
  • Super Mario Galaxy (#29)
  • Resident Evil (#30)
  • Ico (#31)
  • Chrono Trigger (#32)
  • Gunstar Heroes (#33)
  • Soul Calibur (#34)
  • Advance Wars (#35)
  • Ridge Racer (#36)
  • Super Metroid (#37)
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (#38)
  • GTA Vice City (#39)
  • BioShock (#40)
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (#41)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (# 42)
  • God of War (#43)
  • Sega Rally Championship (#44)
  • Starfox 64 (#45)
  • Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (#46)
  • WarioWare, Inc. (#47)
  • Saturn Bomberman (#48)
  • Crash Bandicoot (#49)
  • Outrun 2 (#50)

Source : Joystiq

Last Updated: February 27, 2009

17 Comments

  1. captain beer

    February 27, 2009 at 09:08

    :ninja:

    Reply

  2. LazySAGamer

    February 27, 2009 at 09:14

    I can’t get over the fact that Pac-Man was not on that list… Implausible

    Reply

  3. Bboy

    February 27, 2009 at 09:24

    – Final Fantasy VII
    – Mega Man 2
    – Super Mario Bros
    … geez this is tough, most of the ones i’m thinking of aren’t in the list… but hella tough to rank.

    Reply

  4. Bboy

    February 27, 2009 at 09:24

    Should be called “Guinness Book Of World Records, 2009: n00b edition” :w00t:

    Reply

  5. V@mp

    February 27, 2009 at 09:50

    uhm…wow.
    First of all,I don’t see how you can put different
    games of the same franchise on one list.
    okay,so ja, pac-man,definitely should be there.
    Resident Evil 4? Really? Stick with nr 1.
    (although 2 beats them all hands down)
    And you can’t include Resident Evil without Alone in
    the Dark (okay but this is console only tho so i guess
    you can).
    And where the hell is Mortal Kombat???!!!

    Reply

  6. baba

    February 27, 2009 at 09:55

    An absolute dismal effort, I’m really dissapointed.

    Reply

  7. Lupus

    February 27, 2009 at 09:56

    Not even funny how wrong this list is…

    Reply

  8. janrik

    February 27, 2009 at 10:19

    Ranked by importance and fun to play.

    Kinda subjective then.

    Reply

  9. Werner

    February 27, 2009 at 10:25

    This is a truly sad, sad list. :cwy: Wonder who these so called experts were???

    Reply

  10. Geoff

    February 27, 2009 at 10:25

    Of course yes.
    Any lists of this nature are inherently subjective – which is primarily why it’s so much fun to bitch about them. 😉

    Reply

  11. Roto

    February 27, 2009 at 10:39

    Ok, where is Battlefield???? Any version of it!

    Reply

  12. janrik

    February 27, 2009 at 10:49

    😎

    Reply

  13. Geoff

    February 27, 2009 at 10:55

    Nowhere near this list, which is where it belongs 😉

    Reply

  14. Bboy

    February 27, 2009 at 11:31

    lol

    Reply

  15. Karl

    February 27, 2009 at 13:36

    Why is Tekken 2 there and not Tekken 1 or 3. Tekken 1 was the start of it all and Tekken 3 was the best. Tekken 2 has the horrible middle child syndrome.

    Stupid list

    Reply

  16. Fox1

    February 27, 2009 at 18:31

    Where is Gears of War? :angry:

    Reply

  17. Macethy

    February 28, 2009 at 09:09

    Where the hell are games like prince of persia (anyone of them), Diablo (anyone of them), Mortal Kombat 2 or most importantly DEUS EX!!! :devil: Wonder if Duke Nukem Forever will be on the list come the 2017 edition :angel:

    Reply

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