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?

Re:Counter-Strike

[nebaz]

How many millions of people still play Mario bros?
I do.

Print View

[GroovinWithMrBloe]

For people who don't like clicking next 100 times. Print View [next-gen.biz]

Crave Misunderstanding

[Dunx]

What criteria are you using to measure greatness?

The Edge piece is quite clear that it is looking for games which are still worth playing now.

The Crave posting misunderstands this point and brings in an entirely different criterion.

I don't actually agree with either article (I don't remember Mario mattering that much in Britain, and I didn't like Ocarina of Time much), but the Crave piece just seems like pointless disagreement with the basis of the Edge article.

Top 10

[Bibz]

is top-heavy with Nintendo titles

Here it is, for those who don't want to click all 10 pages :

01. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
02. Resident Evil 4
03. Super Mario 64
04. Half-Life 2
05. Super Mario World
06. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past
07. Halo
08. Final Fantasy XII
09. Tetris
10. Super Metroid

Re:Yes

[plunge]

I have to disagree on the last part. I've actually by coincidence been playing through it recently, and I don't think it holds up all that well: the controls and concept were neat for its day, but compared to modern versions the controls are clunky and the world sort of shallow: way way too much of the game feels I'm playing through busywork to get to the good stuff. It also doesn't help that the game is so dark: I have the brightness turned up all the way on my tv, and I still can barely see anything at night or in some of the more annoying temples.

preemptive grammar nazi

[Anonymous Coward]

Lest anyone be confused by the AC here, "Hear hear!" is in fact the correct form of this expression. "Here here!", despite being used all over the Internet, is incorrect. Wikipedia has the facts. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Did the UK never see Deus Ex?

[Clazzy]

Of course they did, PC Gamer loved it to bits and still call it a classic of the FPS genre. Deus Ex came in at 29, a shocking crime unfortunately. And System Shock at 64 too...

The whole thing seems to look like they picked 100 games they liked then gave reasons why they liked them and only really orded the top 10 into an actual list with an obvious bias towards Nintendo games. How they managed to miss off Command and Conquer, Knights of the Old Republic, Worms and various others is beyond me.

Re:One of the best

[StillAnonymous]

Yes! I was just playing NOLF the other day. The game is just all-round superb.

It's got a decent graphics engine with nice lighting.

Nice positional sound which helps if you like a stealth approach.

Stealth gameplay is great, enemies hear you when they should and don't have cyborg vision so you have a fighting chance.

There's a variety of ways to complete missions depending on whether you like stealth or full out combat.

Creative level design.

The storyline, dialog, and characters are hilarious.

One of my favourite FPS games of all time.

Top 100's are subjective; but this one has holes.

[Cordath]

Top 100 lists are something that are pretty open to criticism. Nobody's top 100 is the same, nor should they be. However, this particular list fails to mention an unsettlingly large number of the "obligatories" that all top 100 lists should have at least a few of. While this is evidence that the author didn't just troll other top 100 lists and cherry pick the titles he had played, it's also evidence that his gaming experience has some rather gaping holes.

Obligatories from the RPG category:
- *Anything* from the Baldur's Gate series?
- Planescape: Torment?
- Knights of the Old Republic?
- Dragon Warrior?

From Strategy:
- Some of the Civ sequels show up, but where's the original?
- Master of Orion?

Other must-haves in any top 100:
- Tie Fighter
- Privateer, or at least *something* from the Wing Commander world?
- Grim Fandango? (The list is in dire need of more classic lucasarts adventure games)

There are plenty more, but this is the point at which I get lazy. :p I'll leave it to others to list off other "obligatories".

Isn't nitpicking top 100's fun on a slow news day?

Glaring Omissions

[jpatters]

They correctly honored several classic arcade derivatives including Tempest, Robotron 2084 (twice) and Pac Man, but if they are going to include Dig Dug in that list (Mr Driller) than they should also include Defender, Galaga and Joust. There is no excuse. I would also argue for I Robot as a pioneer in 3D, even though they only sold like 500 of those.

As far games that are not classic arcade derivatives, I would also include Master of Orion and Crazy Taxi.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Congratulations

[hsoft]

You just started a lame slashdot inside joke.

Who knows, it might actually get popular. I'm sure it would impress chicks.

1. Start some horsecock slashdot inside joke.
2. ???
3. Profit!

OT/Meta: Horsecock trolls, etc.

[Kadin2048]

I'm not entirely certain, but I think the "Horsecock" meme might have gotten started over on K5 ... at least, it seems to be more prevalent there, and I saw it there before I ever saw it on Slashdot. (In fact, there is a post on K5 [kuro5hin.org] asking people to up-mod the GP.)

At any rate, it seems like it's been a while since I've seen a new troll on /.; while the lack of trolling is undoubtedly a good thing overall, I have to admit that I got a fair bit of amusement out of the old GNAA/Hot Grits/Stephen King/priorities posts, at least initially. But then they all seemed to disappear, whether because of the moderation system working, or a mildew epidemic in basements somewhere, I'm not sure.

Glad to see that the universe is back in balance.

Re:Something is seriously wrong with this list...

[AndyboyH]

You obviously missed the part about Edge saying they're rating games that are still playable now. Not that they're technologically playable - I'm sure there's like 3 billion java SpaceWar applets (and after all, that was the first video game (AFAIK) which should almost certainly give it a position in the Top 100) but that they're still enjoyable by today's standards.

As in little Joe Bloggs who never lived through the 80s, and didn't know the pleasure of blowing on cartridges to get them playing on the NES or listening to ZX spectrums screech as they load - this is the set of games he should play to get a feel for gaming heritage.

Personally I'd have loved it if Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri was in there - however I know that playing it now would be fun, but it has essentially been bettered in most if not all respects by Halo.

Having revisited Mario 1 last weekend (emulated via Mario All-Stars) I can kind of feel that they're right. Games now are far more expansive - they're a different prospect. (I still have foremost respect for Mario - and I'm of the opinion that Mario World should be higher than Mario 64 - but that doesn't blinker myself to the fact that people demand more from games now than they did when I was a kid playing an hour at a time after school)