In such a case, you should go for Super Mario: All-Stars on the SNES. ;) Can't go wrong.

You should take Survival Kids, not as a game but more of a survival handbook.

FF7?!?!? That game is WAY overrated. So is FFX. 8 is better. And come on, it beats Zelda Ocarina of Time? Those ho-hum lists.

go to www.gamestats.com
and www.gamerankings.com

Those should give you a better idea of which are the best games.

Well that was a little obvious. good research mind you. Who didn't expect to see the best games hitting Nintendo machines ;) surprised to see the Sims 2 up there. Maybe im just snobby when it comes to games but The Sims is just utter tripe.

I cant choose a best game ever. the top list would be Mario Bros 1, Mario Bros 3, Metroid Prime, Ocarina of Time, Turrican 2. thats including all consoles.

The statistics used to make those lists aren't very sound. If a game were seventh place on ten lists with different choices for spots 1-6, it would have 70 points total and wind up first, even though it's clearly intended to be around seventh place overall. I guess you could argue that being seventh place a bunch has merit, but it's still nobody's choice for best game.

Yeah what I was surprised by was how SMB3 did not make more or in fact all the lists. I remember when that came out it blew everything else out of the water. I mean it was huge and truly life altering(in video game terms). When you crouch on that white block and go behind the scenery to grab the warp whistle, priceless.

Another conspicous absense is Mario Kart, that was the most fun to be had on the SNES outside of an RPG.

If you look at number of games made in a particular genre compared to the number that are seen as "classics", surely RPG's are the most consistently quality games.
I think a theme seems to be that games that grant the gamer more freedom in some way seem most likely to be classics. Either through use of 3d environment (goldeneye, zelda64) or through a new gameplay style (mario bros, metal gear solid).

My all-time top games are mostly RPG's like Morrowind, Ocarina of time, fallout2, shadowrun, KOTOR, Deus Ex2.......

Please god let oblivion get released as soon as possible!

those magazines were hardly around in the 80's. and certainly not the websites. It's not an all-encompassing sample, and shouldn't be taken as anything definitive.

More than anything, it shows the evolution of the video game industry. The quality and enjoyment of gaming reached a peak in the 90's and it's clear that it has declined afterward, as few games have replaced the SNES, N64, PS, while these systems replaced the ones from the 80's.

Some of my faves in not perticular order are:
Castlevania SOTN - PS1
Zelda ALTTP - SNES
Ninja Gaiden 2 - NES
Soul Calibur - DC
Ikaruga - Gamecube
Final Fantasy 4 and 6 - SNES
Chrono Trigger - SNES
Adventure - Atari 2600
Actraiser - SNES
Zelda - NES
Warcraft 3 with expansion - PC
Space Megaforce - SNES
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - 3DO
Super Mario World - SNES
Master Of Orion 2 - PC
Phantasy Star 4 - Genesis
Keith Courage - TG16
Star Control 2 - 3DO
House Of the Dead 3 - Xbox
Super Metroid - SNES
Panzer Dragoon Orta - Xbox
Gradius V - PS2
Daytona USA - Saturn
Strider - Genesis
Metal Gear Solid 2 - PS2
Faxanadu - NES
- nothing but fun memories!

nintendork.com and nintendo power shouldn't be count since it's limited for nintendo product only.

Still... it make no different that Tetris, Super Mario 64 & Zelda OOT are still in three top.

@ 3: Those pages are fairly new and you won't find many of the classics on them. But for current-gen and to a limited amount for last-gen they are pretty represantative.

What I would like to add to the discussion is, that most if not all of those lists are from english sites. Outside of America other games would have done better. Strategy games for example are almost not in there at all. And that is not because other genres are better than strategy games but simply because consoles dominate in America and there are almost no strategy games for consoles.

Also there should be some other criterias. For example how many people actually play this game. Counter-Strike should definitely be in there. As well as Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. Simply because they are HUGE online. I mean there has got to be a reason why so many people actively play these games.

If I would make such a list my criterias would be:
1. Average ratings
2. sales (maybe in relation to the sales of the console which it came on)
3. amount of people who play it online
4. amount of support by players who play it like mods, maps, skins etc
5. and of course a lot of those Top 100/ Top 10 lists that you find all over the Net.

Why all of those criterias? Because there are so many things which you can not cover with just one or two of them. The amount of players online alone is represantative of nothing because there are so many games out which have no online play but it has to be in there because it shows that this game is so special that millions of people play it together and do not stash it away after they played through it once.

I don't think sales should count though. Not because I don't believe that good games do sell a lot of copies. More so beacuse I believe that bad games can also sell quite well. I'm sorry, I know that there are lots of Halo fans out there, and they have the right to like it, but Halo is a horrible game.

When I think about it's development I can't help but imagine that it was done by Peter Parker and J.K. Simmons (Peter's boss at the Newspaper).

JK: "Okay, now give the characters only two guns to hold at a time. Makes things more real."

Peter: "Real? But this is a space game."

JK: "Yeah, but this a real space game. It has alien overloards, and a ring. Everybody likes rings. Heck, I like rings."

Peter: "Okay, two guns. So when he's using the sniper rifle, and is holding a rocket launcher, should we have the rocket launcher slung around his back?"

JK: "No, that takes too much time to animate. We need this simple. We need this fast."

Peter: "So just don't draw in the second weapon?"

JK: "Exactly!"

Peter: "But that isn't very real."

JK: "Who cares about reality, this is a game about aliens and crap. Just do it, and make it pretty."

Lists like these are all a matter of opinion, as #3 shows. Magazine writers, game reviewers, game creators, gaming experts; it's all varying opinions coming from different backgrounds using different criteria.

"- Sonic the Hedgehog is not popular. In fact, Sega in general has not left much of a legacy, with no Genesis games making anyone's lists."

Hahaha, this really, really satisfies the kid in me who used to get angry at the "SEGA DOES WHAT NINTENDONT" stuff. I love being a fanboy sometimes.

Gotta agree with the first post. Super Mario All Stars. 16-bit graphics, 8 bit gameplay, Mario 1 & 3! Great choice!

While I agree with most on the list, they need to get rid of the sims, ffVII and halo. Halo is the most overrated pile of garbage i've ever played. Well maybe it's not that bad. But anyone who loves that game go out and buy a computer and try a good fps. Some of my favorites:
Castlevania SOTN (it was nice to see it made one list)
Wing Commander 3
mario 3
Unreal tourn 2004
double dragon 2
mike tyson's punch out
007 goldeneye
RE4
Metal gear solid

not sure why you'd go through the trouble of collecting all this information, and then not using it.

It took me all of 5 minutes to generate this table using excel (paste html tables -> pivot table):

http://strlen.com/bestgames.html

it awards a #1 rank with 10 points all the way down to #10 with 1 point... and shows the totals.

dudes, this is just a big test of concensus among a bunch of varied groups. one group had 9 pc games. how does that bear on a list of mostly console games? and can you really compare a pc game with a console game? i mean, half-life is only good on a computer that was current then, so if you had anything less, i guaruntee it was less of a game, whereas lemmings always loaded..
but i sure do love pc games. this list doesn't mean anything other than some dude took time out just to mess around and see what people are/were saying was the best game ever, using generalities. and it totally ignores pac-man. because gamers moved beyond pac-man, whereas humanity as a whole has not. so dudes, grain of salt, please.