The 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time

When the Covid-19 pandemic made the world look hopeless, Animal Crossing: New Horizons provided a deliriously cute counterbalance. Over 30 million people bought the social simulation game in its first year on the market, ringing in the new age of “cozy gaming” with the mini, anthropomorphic animals that use New Horizons’ customizable island as a makeshift Munchkinland. 

Animal Crossing games have always allowed players to build out cutesy townships, but the slew of options in New Horizons, from harvesting fruit through complex cycles, and the ability to pop over into a friend’s space to do real-life bartering, made the game a global hit by connecting people, figuratively and literally. Even if you weren’t flying to others’ islands in a puddle jumper or using your virtual house to host live-streamed interviews, New Horizons arrived at a time when everyone was looking for the kinds of positive interactions it delivered — whether it’s talking to a lovable raccoon or telling your friends about him. -Ashley Bardhan

Live. Die. Repeat. Video games often boil down to this simple premise, and no genre better exemplifies that loop than “roguelikes,” which typically ask players to beat all levels in one go or be kicked back to the start. But what if there was more to the struggle than just the satisfaction of winning? What if the Sisyphean task had a deeper meaning? That’s the promise of Hades.

Putting players in the role of Zagreus, the moody son of the King of the Underworld rebelling against his dad, the game forces you to attempt a nightly escape from Hell, guided by an extended family of Greek gods and mythic figures. Although every death forces a full campaign restart, there’s an ongoing sense of progression, not just in strengthening Zag’s abilities for the next attempt, but deepening his newfound relationships with his kin.

Hades uses the familiar framework of gaming to deliver a deeply emotional sucker punch of a story that unfurls over dozens of hours, perfectly marrying storytelling to the moment-to-moment verbs of control. –Christopher Cruz

The 2D side-scroller Castlevania: Symphony of the Night should have been outmoded by the time it came out, but it’s instead become as timeless as the scowling Dracula within it. By building on the monster-hunting foundation of previous Castlevania, but eschewing its linear level design for a continuously evolving puzzle box of a castle, the game borrowed the best elements of Metroid to create a game that’s consistently surprising each time you play. With equippable gear and RPG elements, it was more strategic and thoughtful than before.

The grave family drama at the center of its plot, which focuses on the young half-vampire Alucard, is as romantic as it is tense; “You have been doomed ever since you lost the ability to love,” Alucard admonishes Dracula, his father. But their plight wouldn’t be as moving without Symphony of the Night‘s alluring world that’s so fun to explore, you’ll want to do it all over again as the castle flips upside down for a more difficult second campaign after completing the first. -A.B.

On a dark and stormy night, a voice cries out in the darkness; a hero answers the call. It’s here that The Legend of Zelda truly begins. Although it’s the third entry in the franchise, A Link to the Past is the game where Nintendo’s adventure series found its footing, cementing the dungeon crawling, item-grabbing formula that is associated with the franchise.

Predicated on exploration that always feels driven by clever self-discovery, A Link to the Past asks players to solve an endless stream of riddles about its overworld, where to go and what to do. It’s just obtuse enough to be satisfying without requiring a game guide. While later entries would be celebrated for breaking away from tradition, this game is the one that set it, both for its own series and hundreds of imitators. -C.C.

It doesn’t matter how skillful you are at League of Legends; you’re always one miscalculation away from losing. The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) has become an esports hit based on a simple premise: Pick a champion, get stronger, and strategize with your teammates to destroy the enemy base. Taking inspiration from Dota, which was originally a mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, the engrossing loop of League lies in its easy to learn, difficult to master nature, which is heightened by an overwhelming selection of over 160 champions, each with its unique abilities. 

The game’s popularity has inspired several transmedia creations, from spin-off games like Legends of Runeterra to companion books that expand its universe — the most notable being Netflix’s Arcane, an artistic feat and the most expensive animated series in history. Fifteen years later, League‘s appeal remains unshattered, its rich universe tempting you to keep on pushing after losing just to spend more time in it. -Diego Argüello

Not many games can have Snoop Dogg, Darth Vader, Spider-Man, and Goku coexisting in the same universe. Since its 2017 launch, Fortnite has become a massive amalgamation of industry licenses and pop culture references. Primarily known for its battle royale mode, in which 100 players descend onto an island and compete against each other to be the last person standing, Fortnite made over $9 billion in 2018 and 2019 combined. 

In the years that followed, artists such as Ariana Grande and Metallica have hosted in-game concerts, while film characters like the MCU villain Thanos have tormented the battle royale island. Aside from the novelty, Fortnite is an excellent shooter that’s constantly trying new ideas with each season. You’re free to jump in without paying a dime, too — unless you want to dress as one of your favorite characters, that is. -D.A.

Although it’s built off the bones of the Dark Souls series, there really is no other game like Elden Ring. FromSoftware’s chilly open-world fantasy, partly conceptualized by Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin, is dripping with gothic style. From its selfish, ethereal gods to towering, accursed monsters, the player must cut down all adversaries as part of their quest to seize the Lands Between’s empty throne. 

FromSoftware games are notorious for their unrelenting difficulty, but Elden Ring’s pivot from smaller, puzzle box-like catacombs to a more languidly-paced sandbox adventure makes every encounter feel more alluring. There’s a pervasive curiosity in seeing a colossal beast miles in the distance and choosing to investigate that makes the engagement feel more personal than in previous games, where enemies are simply grotesque roadblocks to the next place. Peppering its lore in every dusty crevice of its realm, Elden Ring makes an unfriendly world endlessly inviting. It’s the most beautifully depressing space you’ll ever want to occupy for a hundred hours or more. -A.B.

There are few experiences more pleasing than succeeding at a level in Celeste. Structured around a literal (and metaphorical) mountain to climb, indie developer Maddy Thorson’s opus asks players to never give up, no matter how impossible the task ahead may seem. A pixelated 2D platformer, Celeste has a simple premise: chain together insane combinations of parkour-like leaps, wall-jumps, and dashes to make it just a little bit further, inching room by room to victory.

With an ever-present synth score, the music in Celeste never cuts when the player dies, instead continuing to drive forward through every attempt and restart. Failures bleed together as players throw their bodies and minds at each problem, making small victories feel like personal breakthroughs. With a subtle narrative about overcoming self-doubt woven into each action, Celeste has a depth to its decision making and reflex-training that makes it more than the sum of its parts. -C.C.

Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham trilogy is one of the best superhero game series ever made, and its second installment, Arkham City, proves why. The 2011 action-adventure game places the Caped Crusader somewhere between Christian Bale’s throaty misanthrope and a Biblically accurate angel, making players feel irresistibly virtuous and completely untouchable as they soar over Arkham City‘s oily streets. The game’s open-world continues to be a revelation for superhero games, offering dark possibilities in its perpetual midnight — let the Joker die, let all evil die, and save Batman’s life. -A.B.

In 1994 Super Metroid helped coin what’s become known as “Metroidvania” — games where you unlock abilities that let you progress further in the world. These design ideas have seeped into countless other games, from Dark Souls to Zelda, but despite years of iteration, the most meaningful advancement of the Metroidvania formula came, once again, from Nintendo itself.

Metroid Prime is an astounding evolution of the series, creating one of the most unsettling experiences ever seen in gaming. It makes masterful use of mood and tone, while transforming the exploration-heavy design of Metroid into a first-person experience. More than anything, Metroid Prime does a phenomenal job of making you feel isolated, pitted against a deadly alien world with nothing but your wits and arm-cannon. From the way Samus’ breath fogs up her visor, to the eerie soundtrack that makes your ears itch — Metroid Prime is still one of the industry’s best cases of immersive, atmospheric storytelling. -Hayes Madsen

Chrono Trigger arrived at the end of the 16-bit era, just when it felt like RPGs had reached their maximum potential, to deliver a spellbinding time-travel story that capped off an entire generation of gaming. Blending the mature storytelling of Final Fantasy with the memorable character designs and aesthetics of Dragon Ball-creator Akira Toriyama’s illustrations, Chrono Trigger carved a unique space in the industry that hasn’t fully been replicated until the nostalgia-driven boom of recent years.

With a twisting story that leans into the strengths of its sprawling cast, and features multiple endings, Chrono Trigger piled simple innovations on top of pitch-perfect RPG fundamentals to make a Platonic ideal of the genre as it existed in the mid-Nineties. It’s a game that serves as a foundational text; easily suited to be the first and only RPG required to play for anyone unfamiliar with the genre. -C.C.

Since its first iteration in 2005, God of War has been a trailblazer for action gameplay, inspiring years’ worth of imitators, most of which failed to live up to its sharp mix of tactile controls, gruesome violence, and over-the-top cinematic flair. But the tone of the original entry and early sequels feels emotionally juvenile in today’s media landscape.

With 2018’s soft reboot, God of War transcended its immature, edgelord trappings to tell a complex story about fatherhood and loss, repositioning its angsty psychopath of a lead, Kratos, as an older, more tragic figure coming to terms with his bloody past. By reshaping both its mechanics and pushing the boundaries of its storytelling, the new God of War reimagined what an action game could be in the modern era, once again setting the pace for everyone else to follow. -C.C.

If there’s one word to describe Shadow ofthe Colossus, it’s visionary. A profound exploration of solitude and loneliness, the game casts you as a young boy named Wander, whose only task is to hunt down and kill hulking creatures called colossi. 

While Shadow of the Colossus is an action RPG, its gameplay systems are deliberately obtuse  — from the minutes you spend simply riding your horse through the environment, to the way you have to climb up the creatures and find weak spots through trial and error. But the way the game makes you reflect on your actions, how you’re mercilessly hunting down these otherwise peaceful creatures, is something truly profound. Shadow of the Colossus is a prime example of video games as an art form, how gameplay and story can come together to impart a message. -H.M.

While players who were in middle school when the first generation of Pokémon landed in the mid-Nineties are likely keen on Red & Blue, it was the direct sequels, Pokémon Gold and Silver, that sharpened the games’ premise into the enthralling pocket-sized RPG fans still love today. Adding 100 new catchable monsters on top of the originals’ 151, and doubling the size of the in-game world, the second gen delivered everything the initial games did with greater depth and strategy. With imaginative new character designs, like the living tree Sudowoodo or the adorably ugly canine Snubbull, and more Pokémon types extending beyond the basics like water, grass, and fire, Gold and Silver were entries made to play for those who had already mastered the first wave, as well as audiences just starting out.

The new region of Johto sets the stage for a more bizarre and whimsical adventure than Red & Blue’s, from Team Rocket harvesting Slowpoke tails on the black market to the way your rival literally commits crimes to come out on top. Gold & Silver’s worldbuilding is utterly engrossing, even if you’re playing on a Game Boy. They’re the gold standard for creature-collecting, where you can capture and make a team of your favorite little weirdos. -H.M.

Most fighting games require players to have deep knowledge of their complex systems to flawlessly execute pixel-perfect hits, but Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. has always been more about the general ridiculousness of its toybox conceit. Mashing together all of its most famous characters, from Mario to Mr. Game & Watch, with absolutely zero regard for tone, the series is defined by its easy-to-play party whimsy rather than high-level competition.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is essentially the apex of the concept, bringing together a ludicrous 89 playable characters from both Nintendo titles and third-party IP like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, and Tekken for the end-all, be-all take on video gaming crossovers. Fine-tuned to have an easy barrier of entry with a high skill ceiling, it plays the best out of the bunch, and its litany of mini-game modes and museum-like references to hundreds of different games from throughout history make it a must-have for fans of all ages. -A.B.

Outside of Mario himself, Sonic the Hedgehog is perhaps the most recognizable video game character of all time; even more than his first outing, it was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that launched him into superstardom. While the original game introduced Sonic as an edgier, speedier counterpart to Nintendo’s offerings, Sonic 2 leaned harder into a unique mix of speed-based momentum and precision platforming that would become crucial to the character’s identity, all wrapped up in a candy-coated art style that pops off the screen. While Mario wanted to ease players into things, Sonic wants you to perfect its movement systems — to endlessly replay levels to eke out another second or two for that record.

Introducing Sonic’s sidekick, Tails, Sonic 2 began the outward expansion of the franchise’s world that bridged the gap between its edgy veneer and kid-friendly gameplay. Controlling faster and more elegantly than its predecessor, it’s the game that built Sega as a brand and showed that there’s no one way to make a pristine platformer. -H.M.

A city under perpetual rain. Sprawling cavern tunnels where the light shines no more. Asphyxiating barren lands haunted by the kingdom’s phantoms. Hollow Knight has you plunging through Hallownest, demanding precision in combat and traversal as you unlock abilities that grant access to previously locked areas. Regardless of where you find yourself, the atmosphere is arresting. Each location beckons discovery, as you need to purchase a map of every zone, as well as a quill, in order to gradually update them by exploring each nook and cranny. 

Hollow Knight has a plethora of memorable boss encounters, from the three-against-one Mantis Lords fight to the daunting Colosseum of Fools arena. Figuring out how to reach those moments, while slowly growing familiar with each biome to the point of memorization, is as thrilling as overcoming the challenges awaiting at your destination. Its success as a 2D exploration game that rivals the likes of Metroid and Castlevania in scope, with over 2.8 million copies sold by 2019, has served as a testament to other independent developers that small teams can and should believe in ambitious ideas. -D.A.

The NBA 2K franchise’s popularity and ever-present cultural appeal belies its best-in-class sports gameplay. It’s a game that real NBA players like the 76ers’ Paul George pick up when they’re off the court, continually driving the competitive spirit, but remains accessible enough for everyone to enjoy, whether or not they’re good at basketball in real life.

And while the series continues to be an annually released fixture of the industry, many fans consider the 2010 edition of the game to be its pinnacle, arriving at a time before endless microtransactions watered down the experience, and featuring some of the strongest team mechanics and ball movement in the series. There’s a reason this version adorned the image of Michael Jordan for multiple modes and box art — it’s using the universal visage of the best basketball player of all time as shorthand for the best basketball game ever. -C.C.

At a glance, Ms. Pac-Man could be seen as an undervalued arcade game compared to its playable character’s more famous husband, Pac-Man. But the 1982 sequel surpasses the original maze game in terms of exhilarating design. The player must guide fashionable Ms. Pac-Man through the series’ recognizable black mazes, though the hard-candy ghosts that haunt them are more unpredictable than they are in Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man’s mazes are also outfitted with multiple sets of disorienting warp tunnels instead of only one, and power-ups are elusive instead of stagnant, making for a more challenging and consistently surprising puzzler overall.

Developed to appeal to female players, a huge demographic that contributed to the frenzied success of the original game, Ms. Pac-Man isn’t just one of the first women to lead an arcade hit, but is widely appreciated as superior to her puck-shaped male counterpart. -A.B.

Arriving in 1999 as a more grounded mod of Valve’s Half-Life: Deathmatch, Counter-Strike connected players to compete online or via LAN in ways no game at the time had ever done. While many first-person shooters can be visually busy, Counter-Strike is unparalleled in its readability. Each team of five has its own task: Plant the bomb or disarm it. Rescue the hostages or prevent it. Every player’s death is permanent for the round, making the ticking clock increasingly stressful as teammates are picked off one-by-one.

Today, Counter-Strike has seen a few facelifts, but its core gameplay — down to the maps and weapons — has remained constant for over 25 years. One of the games that created the global esports scene, it still draws competitors and viewers alike to digital tournaments and sold-out stadiums, even as newer, more complex games have come along. -C.C.

As a pack-in title for Nintendo’s Wii, no game better illustrates the mainstream appeal of gaming as Wii Sports. In 2006, it introduced the world to the easy-to-use, gesture-based play utilizing the console’s innovative TV remote-like controller (colloquially dubbed the “Wiimote”). With its wonky yet undeniably fun takes on IRL games like tennis, bowling and golf, Wii Sports taught players to interact with games more physically, but without the exertion of the real thing.

Arriving well before the proliferation of touchscreen gaming and virtual-reality headsets for consumers, the departure from exclusively button-based inputs initially raised eyebrows. But, with its intuitive design and stripped-down aesthetics, Wii Sports helped sell audiences of Nintendo’s vision for the future of the industry.

Players of all ages, from kids and parents in the living room to packs of college students in dorms, spent their weekends howling at the screen at full attention, mastering the intricacies of the perfect wrist flick to win. Nintendo has always understood the art of simplicity that makes their games readily playable, but few games speak to people of all generations and skill levels as artfully as Wii Sports. -C.C.

Well before The Last of Us tugged at people’s heartstrings, developers Naughty Dog had begun to lay the groundwork for “playable movies” with the Uncharted series. Following the globe-trotting adventures of an Indiana Jones-like hero in the present day, the series stars professional thief with a heart of gold, Nathan Drake, as he plunders underground tombs for ancient relics that would be worth a fortune if they weren’t a threat to humanity.

A third-person shooter that’s heavy on running and climbing, Uncharted is more about its intricately scripted set pieces than it is about player choice, but like Indy’s adventures, there’s an adrenaline-fueled glee to seeing Nate improvise his way through increasingly ludicrous situations and helping him come out unscathed with the player’s guiding hand. Uncharted 2 represents a high point for action gaming, where its motion-captured characters and humorous dialogue perfectly gel with over-the-top sequences in ways that most Hollywood blockbusters could only dream of. -C.C.

When it first arrived in its unfinished, open-beta form in 2009, there hadn’t been anything like Minecraft in gaming before. The concept of an open-world sandbox made of Lego-like bricks might be something kids dreamt up in their bedrooms, but in the virtual world of Minecraft, there was no limit to what could be built, however far or wide.

Although it’s been updated many times since launch, Minecraft is ostensibly a survival-crafting game, tasking players to learn how its low-poly world ticks through experimentation. What minerals can be gathered and what can they be turned into? How can you use your surroundings to survive at nightfall when the undead ghouls come out to play? How can you build something so gargantuan that it breaks the very reality of the game itself?

Although its lofty concepts can be tough for adults to grasp, Minecraft strikes a chord with younger players, whose unbridled imagination requires less “unlearning” of how a game should work in exchange for the freedom to do as they please. Played across many different servers each with their own specific purpose, it can be anything — from a brick-building puzzle kit to a full-on character roleplay space. Moving over 300 million copies with as many as 200 million active users per month in 2024, it is both the highest-selling game of all time and one of the most engaged with pieces of media on the planet every day. -H.M.

Though this survival horror game came out 20 years ago, it remains gruesomely fright-filled even today. Breaking away from the methodical (read: archaic) tank-like controls of the early games, Resident Evil 4’s pivot to a third-person shooter system marked a shift for the franchise to a more action-heavy tone. And although it popularized the over-the-shoulder viewpoint that games like Gears of War would adopt, Resident Evil 4 felt unique at the time, making players feel just empowered enough without detracting from its horrific tone.

In another shift, protagonist Leon S. Kennedy takes the leap from rookie cop in Resident Evil 2 to a full-blown action hero, ripping through tentacle-mouthed abominations in his quest to save the president’s daughter from a small Spanish town overrun by bio-mutation. With a campy B-movie tone that balances jump scares and theme park action, Resident Evil 4 mixes its many inspirations into an horror-tinged gaming spectacle. -A.B.

Mass Effect 2 is an audacious sci-fi epic where every decision counts, and everything you hold dear can be lost in an instant. Building off the first game, Mass Effect 2 places you in the shoes of galactic hero Commander Shepard, tasked with putting together a ragtag crew to pull off a “Suicide Mission,” to save humanity. The entry was crucial in pushing forward player agency in role-playing games, letting you play as a dastardly Shepard only out for himself, a paragon of justice looking out for the little guys, or everything in between. But past that, Mass Effect 2 does a phenomenal job of making you feel attached to its NPC party members — like the assassin Thane, who consciously grapples with his own mortality in contrast to his role bringing death to others. Every party member in Mass Effect 2 is complex, and if you make the wrong choices you can lose literally everyone in the climactic suicide mission. Few games can set the stakes and follow through as well as Mass Effect 2. -H.M.

Stardew Valley became synonymous with “cozy gaming” when solo developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone released it in 2016. And for good reason — every part of the farming sim points to its status as one of the most successful indie games ever.

It’s filled with satisfying chores (catch a fish, fry an egg, marry your neighbor) and is set in a bright 16-bit world, as welcoming as a campfire. Its comforting questlines imbue players with a lovely, never-ending sense of purpose.

While many games are distinctly goal-oriented, Stardew Valley’s combination of relaxing vibes and low-urgency tasks manages to turn the labor of farm work into something more therapeutic. It’s a game of true escapism, making every urbanite’s fantasy of going off-the-grid into an achievable reprieve. -A.B.

The Sims is one of the original life-simulation games, and the first to have spawned a messianic following by bestowing players with a strange omnipotence. And while earlier games like SimCity let people play God on a large scale, The Sims makes it all much more personal by allowing people to manipulate lives on a much more intimate level.

It’s a game defined by its quirks. Eccentricities, like the gibberish language Sim-lish and a sexy Grim Reaper, let players indulge in their most wild power fantasies. They can control the most minuscule aspects of their custom characters’ lives, like how often they pee, along with more macro issues, like if they’ll get abducted by aliens. This level of domination feels like a never-ending sugar rush, which is why players never put it down. -A.B.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater remains one of the best examples of the intersection between games and culture. As you take control of 10 real-life pro skateboarders, from Chad Muska to Hawk himself, the world of extreme sports becomes an open playground rife with experimentation as you’re tasked with chaining together some of the most ludicrous physical feats possible for a wholly satisfying score attack. Or you can faceplant hard into the ground, which has its own special novelty.

With its cheeky tone, ease of play, and an all-time great licensed soundtrack featuring songs from Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, and Goldfinger, Pro Skater offers an arcade showcase of the freeform and countercultural nature of the sport.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is a way of experiencing the thrills of skateboarding while also being able to grind your board on top of taxis in downtown Minneapolis and slide on escalators inside a New York City mall without getting arrested or shattering your femur.  -D.A.

While the franchise has now been around for decades, its position in the zeitgeist can be entirely drawn back to Modern Warfare. By shifting the setting from battlefields of old and putting players in a contemporary setting that’s more morally gray, the game’s single-player campaign leaps from being a mere war simulator to something closer to the thrills of a military action fantasy, complete with a twisting narrative filled with breathless set pieces.

But it’s the multiplayer mode that made Modern Warfare transcendent among its peers, with fast-paced, twitchy gunplay that redefined the pace of online shooters of the time. The introduction of the “prestige” system gave the community a never-ending list of upgrades and accomplishments to chase, making every quick spurt of competition rewarding in some way.

It was a seismic success whose impact could be immediately felt in how shooters, and frankly any type of online game, would be designed for years to come. Its many features may feel commonplace now but Call of Duty’s innovative vision of contemporary conflict planted the seeds for how games are still being played today. -H.M.

“War. War never changes.” In its opening scroll, Fallout 3 sets the tone for a bleak journey into the apocalypse, but the reality is much stranger. Bethesda Game Studios’ revision of the cult RPG series could’ve been a simple sci-fi take on The Elder Scrolls, but instead introduced players to an immersive open world of nuclear-powered robots, cowboys, mutants and ghouls in the ruin of the Capital Wasteland.

RPGs had met first-person shooters before, but Fallout 3 brought unseen complexity and a high risk/reward factor to every decision, whether it’s pickpocketing or deciding the fate of an entire city. By telling a player-driven narrative that retains a satirical undercurrent throughout, Fallout 3 paired the best parts of its predecessors and expanded into a more immersive and engrossing world. The industry has been chasing its unique blend of humor and pathos ever since. -C.C.

Mario Kart 64 is the game that ends friendships: when you hit a banana peel and see your kart spin out, only to be struck by a homing shell a second later. Through its many iterations across different generations of Nintendo’s hardware, the series has become one of the most popular multiplayer games ever — whether it’s played on the couch with friends or handheld via online play.

The second game in Nintendo’s racing franchise introduced four-player competitions and is one of the most infuriating party games in history. It set the standard for kart racers and sprinkled in all of those essential ingredients that are now a given — a vast array of colorful characters, dynamic tracks that feel unique, and that melancholic whiplash of going from first to fifth place in the blink of an eye.

Mario Kart 64 is just as easy to pick up as it is to rage quit, but its siren song always calls you back. There’s no greater badge of honor for games of its ilk. -H.M.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is easily the most intricate adaptation of a tabletop RPG in existence. Like a delectably knotty campaign of Dungeons & Dragons’ fifth edition, on which the 2023 game is based, BG 3 is an intoxicating blend of conjuring and combat, best friends and backstabbers. And, in a bold move for both Dungeons & Dragons and modern gaming, Baldur’s Gate 3 includes love and sex across genders and species (elf, drow, tiefling, etc.).

It’s more than 100 hours of pure fantasy, improved only by the fact that testing out all of Baldur’s Gate 3’s starting classes and exploring every available romantic partner — say, a sexy, octopus-headed Mind Flayer, or a shapeshifting bear — can lead players to one of 17,000 permutations of the game’s ending.

Because it offers seemingly infinite choices, Baldur’s Gate 3 has often been referred to as the game to ruin all other games. A player’s smoldering bard character, for example, faces diverging options on what to do with their time: Rip an enemy’s limbs off, give him the silent treatment, or disparage him for having a “Twat-Soul.” -A.B.

Sports games are an essential part of pop culture, existing right at the nexus between mainstream popularity and cult-like fandom. No series better embodies this ubiquity than Madden. Since launching in 1988, the series has continued annually, perpetually evolving alongside the NFL itself.

Over 17 million people watch football yearly; everyone knows something about it, making Madden accessible to those who aren’t devoted to every statistic, while also being deep enough to satisfy diehards. There are people who don’t even own a game outside of Madden. It’s a franchise that thrives in the gray space between different cultures that ties people together, whether they identify as gamers or not.

But of all the installments, 2004 holds a special place for many as the one that introduced Owner Mode, taking the action beyond the field into controlling a franchise — right down to the hotdog sales. -C.C.

Kill an enemy, gain experience, get gold, wear better gear, learn more powerful spells. Repeat, repeat, repeat. In 2000, the concept of seasonal events and battle passes were nowhere to be seen. The grind of the action RPG relied solely on pushing your character further, click by click. In this realm, Diablo reigned supreme.

Both its somber setting filled with harrowing demons and claustrophobic catacombs with torture chambers and the fast-paced combat have influenced dungeon crawlers from Hades to Path of Exile. Diablo II and its expansions helped usher in a world where the most satisfying games could combine deep lore peppered throughout side quests and notes with an almost hypnotic loop of combat grinding, and encouraged players to revisit it depths time and again with different strategies, builds, and outlooks on how best to conquer its challenges.

So far, not even its developer Blizzard has been able to rekindle its eerie greatness. -D.A.

Most people will never fulfill their childhood dreams of being a cowboy, but Red Dead Redemption 2 invites them to try. In it, protagonist Arthur Morgan chews tobacco and fights for his life in an alternate version of 1899. Outlaws and disease threaten at every turn, but make no mistake, this isn’t The Oregon Trail. Taking all the lessons learned through the development of the Grand Theft Auto series, the creators at Rockstar imbue Red Dead with one of the most lavishly designed open worlds in existence.

Even with dozens of tasks at hands, players will always find time to walk their horses over powdery snow or green mountain paths — it’s just part of the core experience to slow down and smell the roses in between robberies and hunting down Klansmen. From trudging the wilds on foot to chasing down bandits from horseback, Red Dead Redemption 2 demands your attention to its tiniest details.  -A.B.

Full of weighty choices, complex side quests, and a cornucopia of deadly monsters, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is probably as close to the perfect fantasy RPG as we’ve gotten. With its shockingly dense open world filled with threads to unfurl, it’s a game that refuses to hold your hand. Following the tale of Geralt of Rivia, a superhuman monster hunter trying to outrun fate, it could have easily been a stock power fantasy, but at every turn transcends what could otherwise be genre trappings.

Inspired by the work of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, its story continually surprises as small side quests beget larger yarns, like a simple wraith hunt yielding a tragic love story. Every aspect is finetuned to draw you in — like the way you brew potions to prepare for fights, how bestiary entries can provide vital weaknesses, and how your choices can come back to haunt you hours later.

The Witcher 3 is rarely easy, but its many challenges demand that players meet the game on its own footing. By doing so, audiences will find one of the richest stories in all of gaming and an unforgettable roleplaying experience. -H.M.

Capcom’s Street Fighter II obviously isn’t the first fighting game, but it kind of feels like it is. Building off the foundation of arcade beat-em-ups and remedial 1v1 combat games, it popularized the hallmarks of the genre that remain standard: High and low hits, combos, and special character moves all were cemented here, as well as a core cast of international fighters who each fit an individual player’s style.

While it was a hit on home consoles, it was in arcades where Street Fighter II birthed the fighting-game community, creating an international competitive scene that would be the progenitor to the world of esports.

While other fighting games have more salacious gore or sex appeal, and many become more complicated with dazzling 3D visuals and omnidirectional movement, the beauty of Street Fighter is its simplicity. Two fighters, one plane, and a handful of easily executed yet flashy attacks. Although the earliest versions of the game are slower than later updates, the soul is very much intact. -C.C.

A space marine finds himself battling demons on the moons of Mars, eventually taking the fight back to hell. Not only does Doom have one of gaming’s strongest premises, but it also influenced the blueprint of a first-person shooter: Labyrinthine level layouts filled with secrets, challenging foes, and an unmatched rock and metal soundtrack were all gelled together by tight gunplay.

Even though it’s over three decades old, playing Doom today never feels like going back to a more archaic time. Its movement and aim are quick and razor sharp. Enemies tucked into every corner of its maps remain a threat, even if you’ve memorized their locations. It’s a game whose purity and complete lack of unnecessary fat make it timeless.

Doom has seen many sequels, but it’s the original that players continue to revere with countless mods, and that developers take as inspiration, with no end in sight. No matter how many modern shooters you’ve played, there’s always a delight in tearing up the minions of Hell with a Big Fucking Gun. -D.A.

Few developers take a painstaking interest in achieving a sense of place in their video game settings; World of Warcraft’s Azeroth is an exception. The scale is daunting — opening the map of World of Warcraft doesn’t show a city, but multiple continents to navigate. As your character traverses the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, banding together with other players and taking on quests, Azeroth engulfs you with each step you take.

You can use magic portals or take zeppelins to travel between bustling capitals, like Orgrimmar or Silvermoon City, which are brimming with everything from moody woodlands to snowy plains. Each destination is distinct and feels like a part of a living world where real people exist — because they do.

By joining guilds, players can become part of a community. Gaining levels and progressing with your character is the main allure, but taking in the sights and becoming a part of Azeroth is tantalizing, and the experience is unmatched to this day. -D.A.

Catapulting Microsoft to smashing success in the world of video games, Halo: Combat Evolved utterly raised the bar. Before its release, first-person shooters were largely played on PCs, but the incredible work of the developers at the studio Bungie was nothing short of a revelation — a stark look at the future games could have on consoles.

The first Halo revolutionized the idea of playing shooters on controllers, instead of a mouse and keyboard — particularly in how it used two control sticks for aiming. The scheme that Halo created has been carried over to countless other games.

Halo is gripping from start to finish, like the nail-biting moments of fighting parasitic aliens or a breakneck escape out of an exploding ship. Coupled with that is a diverse suite of multiplayer options, from deathmatch to capture the flag, which provide near-endless hours of entertainment, and even left a lasting cultural impact through other media, like the fan-made web series Red vs. Blue. -H.M.

The original Metroid was Nintendo’s riff on the movie Alien, but its sequel Super Metroid became a game so singular, it would be riffed on for the next 30 years. The definitive 2D exploration game, Super Metroid puts players in the role of intergalactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, who must trudge the dangerous depths of planet Zebes and stop a band of space pirates from unleashing a living bioweapon.

Popularizing the formula of exploring one interconnected map, then backtracking with new toys to unlock new areas, the game became the blueprint for 2D blockbusters and indies alike. It was one of the earliest games to fully realize the concept of atmospheric dread, with its haunting synthetic soundtrack humming in and out — sometimes leaving players alone in silence, with only the pulsing of crawling enemies and the bleeps of machinery to fill the void.

Games of every genre owe a debt to the fundamentals Super Metroid built. And although many have followed in its footsteps, the template it set remains perfect. -C.C.

Although The Elder Scrolls has been a highlight of roleplaying games for years, it wasn’t until the fifth installment, Skyrim, that its deeply mechanical vision of first-person fantasy broke through into the mainstream.

In 2011, it seems like Skyrim was everywhere. Its NPC dialogue inspired online memes and its systems were being folded into just about every game of the era. But none ever managed to reach the levels of complexity as the real deal. It was sold as a game where you could anywhere, do anything, but the elevator pitch never quite does justice to the experience of accidentally stumbling across a sleeping dragon and dual-wielding arcane weapons for the fight of your life.

Skyrim is one of the few games that live up to the premise that no two playthroughs will ever be the same. You can learn magic in the College of Winterhold or get tangled in the underground schemes of the Thieves Guild. You’re free to take either side in the civil war between Imperials and Stormcloaks, but ultimately, Skyrim’s biggest strength is giving you the option to just ignore it altogether, allowing you to explore more than 100 dungeons and a stunning array of quests, all at your own pace. -D.A.

Final Fantasy VII might as well have been released in a piranha pit; in 1997, when developer Square put out the role-playing game for PlayStation, the industry was stocked with enough RPGs, such as Diablo and The Elder Scrolls, to last a lifetime. But even among the excess, Final Fantasy VII stands out like a shooting star.

Making the leap from Nintendo consoles to PlayStation, Final Fantasy VII was the first time that the series’ ambitious storytelling could be matched by the hardware to drive it. With a massive narrative spanning three discs, it was operatic in scope and its many emotional twists remain unmatched to this day.

By taking fantasy out of the cliché of a medieval setting and into a more steampunk world filled with themes ripped from real life (ecological terrorism, corporate propaganda, mental health and identity crisis), Final Fantasy VII matured the medium as whole beyond its own series’ hallmarks. -A.B.

Everybody has a different favorite in this series. But the 1998 release of Metal Gear Solid set the blueprint for what the franchise grew to become in later years: prescient, politically infused stories met with supernatural, fourth wall-breaking sequences.

The stealth gameplay and clever enemy AI were impressive, pushing audiences to think on their toes to outwit potential threads. There’s an unbridled thrill to leering around a corner at a guard and knocking against a wall to get their attention. And even when everything goes awry, there’s a cardboard box to hide under or another mind game to play.

But beyond the cat-and-mouse bits, there was a deeper soul to everything in the game. Its villains each have tragic backstories that change the player’s perception even after multiple near-death bouts. The game even breaks the fourth wall multiple times, like when they’re forced to use a different controller port to prevent Psycho Mantis from using telekinetic powers. Inventive moments like this became historic emblems that shaped not just the series, but also the unique elements video games can offer as a medium. -D.A.

With the first Half-Life, Valve brought fans of complex puzzles and high-octane shooters together with one stellar sci-fi. However, its sequel felt like a leap forward through multiple generations — in some ways literally. The game picks up 20 years after its predecessor and brings its mute protagonist, Dr. Gordon Freeman, into a world where humanity is enslaved by a trans-dimensional race.

With cutting-edge tech behind it, Half-Life 2 made everything a weapon via its gravity gun. Why shoot bullets when you can blast buzz saws snatched from a table? Despite the lofty competition of the era, Half-Life 2 became the benchmark for first-person storytelling without the need for slowing down the game for long cutscenes.

Its POV is intimate, and its lovable characters shine amid the bleak world of alien fascism. Beyond that, its tool kit became an open-source playground for users to create their own experiences, years ahead of anything like Minecraft or Roblox. -C.C.

It can be tough for games to be taken seriously as a narrative medium — but The Last of Us is a perfect example of how powerful it can be when it works. The follow-up to Naughty Dog’s playable action movie Uncharted, it genuinely matches Hollywood’s storytelling potential at every turn.

The third-person survival game stars Joel and Ellie, forced together on an odyssey to find the cure for the zombie-like disease that ended the world. Skillfully emulating directors like Alfonso Cuarón, it offers a devastating tale with master-class motion-capture work. Violence has always been a critical part of gaming, but The Last of Us invites players to look beyond the actions to the characters’ intent. It can be easy to kill faceless goons, but when the enemies are seen as people, too, there’s a certain pang of guilt that most other games never instill.

But all the violence would be for nothing without the deeply affecting relationship between Joel and Ellie, a surrogate father-daughter relationship that’s among the best fleshed out dynamics in modern media, full-stop. The internal desperation of players to protect Ellie as their bond grows stronger remains the story’s most powerful motivator. It is, bar none, the single most cinematic game ever made. -C.C.

There are many Mario games. As a character and a franchise, Nintendo’s mascot has been on the forefront of just about every innovative leap in gaming. But Super Mario World is the perfect sweet spot. Its tight controls and inventive level design, like Chocolate Island 2, which has alternate pathways based on performance, are the gold standard that others have been chasing for decades.

Super Mario World is a perfectly paced game, constantly introducing experimental new elements that build on the core mechanics, like how Yoshi can eat enemies and items to create a throwable egg, or give Mario an extra-long jump. It teaches players its physical language, then invites them to best it over and over, not just through the clear path forward but in the hidden avenues that always lurk in plain sight. Even an expert going into Super Mario World will leave consistently surprised by what awaits around every corner. –H.M.

Grand Theft Auto V has had a profound effect on video games as a whole, through its staggeringly realistic open-world design and eclectic mix of storytelling and goofiness. The beloved crime series weaves a fascinating tale that involves three unlikely heroes — psychotic Trevor, naive Franklin, and smarmy Michael — while creating an online ecosystem that encourages everything from role playing as cops and robbers to pulling off a daring casino heist.

The single-player campaign is revolutionary on its own, but GTA Online spread the game’s influence further and helped define the idea of a live-service multiplayer. GTA V is not just a masterful subversion of American society, but with its tackling of corrupt politicians, cocky influencers, kids who won’t leave home, and even extreme patriotism, what was on the nose in 2013 feels even more prescient by today’s standards.

Between that timely commentary and an unstoppable multiplayer machine, GTA V has easily secured its spot among the greats. -H.M.

Henk Rogers showed up in Moscow uninvited in 1988 with one goal in mind: to secure the rights to Tetris. He saw in Alexey Pajitnov’s puzzle game what millions around the world would, too: That the simple act of turning geometric shapes and fitting them together was at once stimulating and meditative, and the drive to beat a high score could be a lifelong fixation.

For 40 years, the act of placing Tetrominoes has been iterated to exhaustion, from clashes between characters in Tetris Battle Gaiden to flipping bricks by shaking the Pokémon Mini device in Pokémon Tetris (Guinness World Records declared Tetris the most ported game in history).

Equally, the swarm of unlicensed clones is rampant, which the Tetris Company has been adamant about removing from the market, especially within the Android and iOS stores. Yet, whether you’re playing an older monochrome version on Game Boy or using a VR headset to gaze into surreal worlds as you chase a higher score, Tetris is still Tetris. -D.A.

The Legend of Zelda is a series defined by reinvention. With some exceptions, each game literally stars a different hero named Link, in a different era or timeline from the last, trapped in a perpetual loop in the fight between good and evil. Each game presents new innovations, new mechanics and worlds to explore, down to their art style and tone.

But Breath of the Wild was revolutionary. It took the very simple premise of the original — a hero dropped cold into an unfathomably huge world — and ran with it to the furthest extent. Other open world games let you feel like you’re exploring, but Breath of the Wild makes every action a personal puzzle to solve. Leaving behind the endless fetch quests, checklists and markers of the genre, it’s a freeform game of discovery, where its colorful environments and subdued orchestral score lead players along by hinting at their curiosities.

And while most games present players with a goal and maybe a handful of solutions, Breath of the Wild offers a world whose physics and rules were meant to be bent (or broken). But beyond ways to play, the game’s greatest achievement is building a place players want to be. More than anything else, Breath of the Wild is a vibe, where you can spend your hours just doing whatever it is you want to do. Saving the day can wait. -C.C.