MNP's 20 Greatest Video Games of All-Time!

midnightpunk · 27 January 2025 20:35

Not sure I’ve ever completed 100 video games so 20 it is!

20. Space Invaders (1978).

When I was about six years of age I went to Birmingham Airport with my Uncle to drop off one of his mates who was catching a flight. Not sure how but we ended up in the departures lounge, and in the corner of that lounge was someone standing at a cabinet doing something. That something that person was doing was that they were playing Pong. I watched wide-eyed and I realised they were controlling the bat, a simple line, on the screen and playing a game of very basic tennis. I didn’t play it but that moment was the first time I saw a video game and someone playing one. Mind. Blown.

Whilst Pong is a very basic game it would be a few years later, probably 1978? by which time I would be 8 years of age. I’d forgotten about Pong to an extent - but my next sighting of a video game would usurp Pong to such astonishing levels that my mind would go into near meltdown.

… and that game, of course was Space Invaders, a game you heard before you saw it, bleep, bleep, dun-dun dun-dun, wah-wah-wah-wah!

I spotted the game (Space Invaders) in the rear of a sweet shop, crowd of kids, ages from my age up to 16 or so, and them leather / denim jacketed older kids taking the game through many of its repetitive levels inspired the kind of looking up to that should be reserved for true statesmen not mere mortals.

I get to play it after waiting an age for my credit to be the next one - and I die immediately, die 3 times to be exact, but I’m hooked and this is digital love at first sight.

I scout around the Grove I grew up in asking at every single house if they have any Pop bottles they needed returning. You would get 10p for a returned empty Pop bottle, and the ten pence piece was the passport to play this game. Clank, clank, clank I would trudge with 6 empty bottles or so back and forth to the shop. Again I would wait my turn and gradually clear a screen of them aliens, spaceships too whilst getting the most unique of buzzes of people you didn’t know watching you play nodding along.

Space Invaders is the gateway to video games, for me at least. It doesn’t really hold up today, yet there’s still nothing quite like it, despite countless imitations. Just iconic. Still kind of love it even now…

midnightpunk · 29 January 2025 19:59

19. Jet Set Radio. (Dreamcast). (2000).

Summer 2000 and the ill fated Sega Dreamcast console was on one hell of a roll. Right up there with the best gaming consoles of all-time, ahead of its time - but waiting for the for the shadow of the PS2 to swallow it practically whole.

Yet in the year 2000 you kind of couldn’t compete with the quality that Sega console was dropping. In its short heyday Jet Set Radio would be a revelation. Rollerblading graffitiing anti-heroes doing their thing. A soundtrack to die for. Beats. Colour. Addictive gameplay. A small city that expands as the game goes on. It shone so brightly.

I haven’t played Jet Set Radio since selling my Dreamcast in 2008, but the memories are so fond that it has to be in my 20. I figure it is available somehow nowadays but haven’t investigated much past learning a fair bit of the soundtrack has been culled, which barring finding a cheap Dreamcast means I may never play it again. A Classic nonetheless…

riverwise · 29 January 2025 20:03

If the Star Wars arcade cabinet isn’t here I riot

hesastopsiiiiign · 29 January 2025 20:34

You might like Bomb Funk CyberRush. Big JSR vibes

midnightpunk · 31 January 2025 20:16

18. Jet Force Gemini (N64) (1999).

1999 and Rare were on fire with their last N64 game, (well my memory alone tells me this)?

Part Star Wars, Part Zelda exploration, a whole lotta Arcade style shooting formations (like Phoenix), I loved this game to pieces back in 1999. Juno, Vela and Lupus, all with their own unique abilities designed to tackle certain areas of the game.

Like Jet Set Radio I have not played Jet Force Gemini for a long time, purely because I no longer have an N64. For a good 2 month period in 1999 it was the only game I would play until its credits rolled.

Somewhat lost in time now but a Classic and no doubt about it…

midnightpunk · 12 February 2025 19:31

17. Ico. (PS2) (2001).

My Mum has phoned me about 2 video games. Code Veronica, seeking how to beat the enemy in the back of the plane and Ico a game she would eulogise about.

Sure, I had seen Ico in video game shops, with its arty looking card sleeve. I had also read reviews and knew it was a game I should pick up sooner rather than later.

To this day Ico is still a pretty hard game to describe with written words, it is more of a feeling of awe more than the standard button bashing games may otherwise provide.

Would suggest playing it (if you can) rather than reading about it.

“it awoke to me the possibilities of the medium” - Hidetaka Miyazaki (Dark Souls)…

riverwise · 12 February 2025 20:06

My favourite PS2 game, such an incredible haunting melancholic atmosphere.

The_Cosh · 12 February 2025 23:52

In my all time Top 3 for sure. Makes those plaintive, desolate sounds seem so expressive.

midnightpunk · 14 February 2025 20:48

16. Fallout 3 (XBOX 360) (2008).

In HMV Birmingham, the one where the huge Primark is now back in 2008 I spotted the opening film for a game playing on loop on the television screens in-store. I knew nothing about Fallout, or the previous 2 games - and I took a chance and blind bought it.

Following a relatively lengthy opening in the Vault, only released after I had sat an in-game exam, I ventured out into the wastelands. The Pip-Boy, the quests, the atmosphere, the characters and atrocities you meet (or flee from). I’d never played anything like it.

Of course I didn’t understand what was going on (I like this) and I ignored the main quest and just wandered off, and for doing just this, there is no game quite like Fallout 3.

Some brilliant scripts, spending hours inside a post apocalyptic hospital, cracking safes, just making your own story. No game, not even (the following) Skyrim, gave me that feeling awe, freedom and true danger. Probably helped on by the VATS system which offers insane gory kills in slow-mo glory.

The pure horror in some areas and distant Vaults, you explore in Fallout 3, you get rewarded (or killed, or both). The music. I could and would just spend hour upon hour exploring. I have never completed the game, but have never felt like I needed to, for Fallout 3 is complete the whole way through…

hesastopsiiiiign · 14 February 2025 21:04

That moment the sun blinds you on the way out of the vault is one my favourite ever gaming moments. I was in the same position as you, had never played a Fallout game before but the immediate possibilities just picking a direction and discovering was jncredible

midnightpunk · 17 February 2025 19:03

15. Ikaruga (GameCube) (2003).

Some of the best video games feature rushes of adrenaline, the kind of adrenaline whereby you cannot believe you are pulling off what you may be achieving on screen, a disembodiment, a near out body experience. This is pretty hard to come by and is only reserved for some of the greatest games of all-time.

Bullet Hell Ikaruga features this pretty much throughout and ramps up with near horror as the enemies on screen become rapidly overwhelming. Flipping between black ship / white ship at the quick press of a gamepad button. Feats you pull off, eventually, but are never really sure how you did it.

Ikaruga is a game that has never sold in big quantities, no matter which platform it is released on (many), yet it’s cult status underlines that those that have given it a whirl have fallen deeply for its punishing charm…

The_Cosh · 17 February 2025 19:14

Another great choice. Bought a Gamecube just so I could play this.

midnightpunk · 23 February 2025 17:38

14. Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast) (2000).

The best racing game of all-time? Probably. 3 different city locations, Tokyo, London, San Francisco, each city feeling very different. It’s the time difference, race the same track, or area of a city - at night and it feels different to the broad daylight, rain, sun, dusk, dawn. Such a beautiful game.

The mechanic of essentially gambling your Kudos points to get further into the game, unlock new cars, new circuits. The thrill of bettering a more difficult track. The music, actually feeling like you are flicking through a car radio rather than just some added sounds, and the soundtrack on MSR is an all-timer.

For a racing game Metropolis Street Racer felt alive, there’s not many racing games you can say that about as most, to me, feel cold and clinical. As such it stands quite alone for me and is, as such, a Classic…

Ilovetoast · 23 February 2025 17:48

I love that your mum even plays games. Mine was born in 1964 and has only really come around to them not being shit recently lol

midnightpunk · 28 February 2025 20:56

13. Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) (2005).

In 2005 GameStation had a booth you had to be over 18 to go in to be able to play a few minutes of what was then the latest mainline Resident Evil game. A GameCube exclusive (initially) I spent a few minutes playing it and it looked and felt like a grey / brown Shenmue, that was my immediate thought.

I bought the game and played it with a few mates. We all gasped at the part, right near the beginning where a more aggressive enemy clean chainsawed Leon’s head off, we couldn’t believe the game was that graphic yet still felt so pure.

The following areas, settings, enemies, sieges, characters, just everything about it relentlessly great. I must have completed Resident Evil 4 more times than any other game. It never really gets old. A better looking PS3, PS4 version and a recent overhaul surprisingly do not add much, for the OG GameCube game is still a 10/10, as are all of its versions.

Just a perfect game really…

midnightpunk · 7 March 2025 21:34

12. Super Mario Bros (NES) (1987).

Coming to gaming from the arcades as I did, the mid to late 1980’s felt like gaming had slipped in the home. The Atari 2600 had lost its way and was outdated, its glory years were in the early 1980’s. Sure, arcades still delivered addictive, quick burst gameplay and some sublime games but something felt missing.

It would be 1989 when I bought a NES from Argos, bundled with it was the game we all were probably seeking without even realising it.

Super Mario Bros took the gate away from the 10p slot arcade games, for this was a game of length and one where you could take your time, think and play… and what fantastic gameplay Super Mario Bros delivered. Hidden areas, music that bettered practically everything ever heard in a video game before. Addictive, moments of true wonder, power ups that brought a wide smile to your face.

There have been many Mario games since and despite a glorious transition into 3D I still don’t think Nintendo every truly topped the true magic of Super Mario Bros. A game to play at home and treasure every moment. A game to wobble the arcade - and after the spectacular Atari decline - make us believe all over again…