Smithsonian 'Art of Video Games' winners announced

by Justin McElroy on May 6th 2011 9:31AM

We get a little nervous when a mainstream group decides to make a best-of-gaming list -- "mainstream," of course, in this context being defined as "anyone that's not us." But damned if the Smithsonian and voters like you didn't turn in a dynamite list for the museum's "Art of Video Games" exhibit.

... OK, so Brutal Legend and Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II are kind of out of left field, and where the hell is Yo! Noid? But how do you not love a list that snatches Zack and Wiki from the brink of obscurity and places it right next to Shadow of the Colossus? Read the whole list after the break or peruse it with pictures along a timeline in this PDF.

Art of Video Games winners:

1943: The Battle of Midway
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
After Burner
Attack of the Mutant Camels
Bioshock
Boom Blox
Brütal Legend
ChuChu Rocket!
Combat
Desert Commander
Diablo II
Donkey Kong
DOOM II
Dune II: Battle for Arrakis
Earthworm Jim
Einhander
Fable
Fallout
Fallout 3
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy VII
flOw
Flower
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Goldeneye 007
Gradius V
Gunstar Heroes
Halo 2
Heavy Rain
Jumpman
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II
Marble Madness
MassEffect 2
Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metroid Prime 2: Echos
Minecraft
Okami
Pac-Man
Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Phantasy Star
Phantasy Star IV
Pikmin 2
Pitfall II: Lost Caverns
Pitfall!
Portal
Rez
Shadow of Colossus
Shenmue
Sid Meier's Pirates!
SimCity
SimCity 2000
Sonic Adventure
Space Invaders
Spy vs Spy
Star Fox
Star Fox: Assault
Star Strike
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator
StarCraft
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Brothers 3
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario World
The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Tomb Raider
TRON: Maze-Atron
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Utopia
Worms Armageddon
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
Zaxxon

Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum
More coverage: Winning Games [PDF]

Tags: art-of-video-games, microsoft, nintendo, pc, playstation, ps3, smithsonian, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (95)

decent list i suppose, but wtf to star fox assault over star fox 64

@shabby329
Its broken up by system so Star Fox Assault won on Gamecube

@shabby329
Exactly! Playing Assault only made me wish I was playing StarFox 64.

@BtheCarp gotcha, that makes sense i suppose. star fox adventures was much prettier on gamecube than assault though in my opinion

@shabby329

It was because they divided it up into genres/eras and all. Goldeneye 007 was considered a better shooter than Star Fox 64, whereas Assault won as there were no better GameCube shooters. That's the same reason that EarthBound and Chono Trigger lost to the SNES port of Sim City.

Am I the only one who is missing God of War on that list (the art is Awesome IMO)

@doubtingthomas

I was thinking that too. It's not just well executed it's great concept art.

@doubtingthomas

It was voted for by consumers - So blame yourself for not voting!

@doubtingthomas

Err, I take that back. It lost out to Shadow of Colossus. I have no sympathy for this loss.

@doubtingthomas I never really enjoyed God of War....Plus, Shadow of the Colossus won for PS2. God of War never had a chance.

@trinica

not sure about the downvotes on a compliment but whatever. so what beat out god of war 3? heavy rain? really?

@eat it

Actually, GoW3 wasn't even nominated. PS3 action choices were Uncharted 2 (winner), LittleBigPlanet 2, and CoD: Black Ops.

Heavy Rain won for adventure, which included Dragon Age: Origins and Final Fantasy 13.

Maybe Brutal Legend got in for having like the best soundtrack ever

"Shadow of Colossus"

As long as this game made the list, its legit IMO

@216: Oh wow Mass Effect 2 made it?! Great game, great story and I'm glad its on there (even tho its a pretty recent game)

@216: Waait flOw made it in? Wow this is an interesting list.

@216 kind of sad that Ico didn't make it.

Happy to see Mass Effect 2 on this list. Where's Super Mario Bros 3? Chrono Trigger?
WTF is Brutal Legend doing on this list?

@EX Rock Below Mario 64?

@EX Rock

See my comment below. Did you even PLAY Brutal Legend? Because I assure you, its art is far more distinctive than Chrono Trigger's.

Besides, Grim Fandango wasn't included due to the moronic bracket setup and equally moronic idea to put this to a public vote.

@EX Rock Super Mario Bros 3 IS on the list. =P

@trinica
Oh....oops. Didn't notice SMB3 for some reason. Okay, maybe not such a bad list then..

@Aerothorn

I have to agree. Brutal Legend is totally legit. I can't understand why anyone here would be against it.

@EX Rock
Chrono Trigger lost to A Link to the Past. Seriously, people should just shut up about it if they didn't vote or at least took a look at the PDF. It shows how broken their system was.

Hmm Jet Set Radio, Braid and Limbo are nowhere to be found but, they didn't forget Okami so I'll give the list a little credit.

Before people bitch about game X over game Y, they were put in categories against other games of the same era and genre. You didn't vote for Halo vs Final Fantasy, it was Halo vs other FPS games for that system/time period.

Also, they straight up said that having every game that people wanted in the voting process wasn't possible.

@jynxycat

I just think the whole "user voted winner" thing should tell people they have no one to blame but themselves for not rallying their choices. Most people bitching probably didn't even vote themselves.

Possibly the most peculiar list I've EVER seen.

That being said lotta good memories looking over said list.

I can't believe halo 2 beat out Psychonauts. That is the greatest shame of this list

Some hits, some misses...but I guess the real point is that video gaming can finally be officially declared as "artistic" and "historic".

@angelkin

Don't tell Roger Ebert!

How is there no Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross? So much for the art idea.

Kind of pissed that Earthbound didn't make it. That game is pure art. It would be somewhat ok if Chrono Trigger had made it, but nope, we had to have EVERY DAMN ZELDA on there.

@Sketchampm
Yeah, I am a HUGE Zelda fan, but I was afraid that the Zelda (and Mario) games would beat out some of the other games that deserve some attention (such as Earthbound).

As much as I like the series, I think it would be a little weird for someone who wasn't as familiar with gaming (which I hope does happen) to go into the exhibit and see a Zelda game listed in every era instead of having a little more variety.

On a side note, I am happy Zack and Wiki along with Okami made it.

@Sketchampm
Exactly. EarthBound is a FAR more artistic game than Link to the Past, but hey, Link to the Past is "popular" along with every OTHER Zelda game. You can forget about any other game beating it out.

@Sketchampm

I like to imagine this happened because Chrono Trigger and Earthbound split the vote, but I think we all know the Zelda fanboy theory is far more accurate.

I see how Zelda, Mario and Mass Effect got on the list, BUT HOW THE FUDGE ARE KINGDOM HEARTS AND CHRONO TRIGGER NOT ON HERE

The way the voting went was very strange. They had a very limited number of choices for every category in every era. And they also had exactly the same 4 categories for every era, which is very strange because it completely disregards any new or different genres of gaming (or genre bending games for that matter. ) But I guess it is nice to get some recognition from the Smithsonian for gaming.

Oh hell yes, Worms Armageddon. Also pleasantly surprising: Rez.

Why was Myst considered "not part of the public vote". What does that mean. Yea, I'm a Myst junkie.

@waterhand
It means it was a shoe-in. The curators decided that it would be included no matter what the public voted.

Uh...you guys get that there is an emphasis on VISUAL arts, right?

Justin either didn't get that or doesn't remember just how amazing and distinctive Brutal Legend's world was.

That said, the voting brackets were completely moronic. Shoehorning the games into four genres (what does that matter?) one of them being "target" (WTF is that?) and one of them being "combat/strategy" (combat? How is that different from "action?"). What's worse, they treated the PC as equivalent to a given console, which it really isn't; it has a much larger library than any single console (traditionally) and so it got totally screwed over, particularly in the ridiculous decision to limit only 4 games for DOS/Windows. The result is a distinctly console visual style for the vast majority of the entrants.

@Aerothorn I think that it was called "The Art of Video Games" because the games in and of themselves are now being considered forms of art. I don't think it had any specific emphasis on the actual art in the game. Link me to something that says I'm wrong if I am, but I'm pretty sure that's what it meant.

@Aerothorn From the FAQ:

8. Your genres seem odd. Where are the RPG, Fighting, Racing, MMOG, etc. genres?
There are so many different types of games that we knew our show could not feature them all. We looked for four broad categories that would allow us to offer a wide selection.

9. How could you leave out my favorite games?
It was really difficult to narrow the tens of thousands of game choices down to just 240 titles and we appreciate that there will always be games that people feel should have made the cut but didn’t. The games that are being considered for the exhibition represent certain points in time for each of the 20 systems that also contribute to the overall narrative of the exhibition.

10. Where are the arcade games, handhelds, and system XYZ? How could you not include these?

We considered the size of the museum’s galleries that will house the exhibition, as well as the time that visitors will need to experience the content. The 20 selected systems represent significant points in time for the eras described. Hopefully this will be the first exhibition of many that explore the medium of video games.

@trinica From the PDF:

"The Art of Video Games [will] focus on striking visual effects, the creative use of new technologies, and the most influential artists and designers." Note that "great game design" or "fun to play" is not a criteria.

@CMelissinos

Appreciate the link, but none of those questions address any of the issues I raised...so (and I say this in as non-aggressive a way as possible) I don't really see your point?

hey, Brutal Legend might not have been the greatest game, but it had some pretty awesome art.

Nothing wrong with having Brütal Legend on the list. I thought it was very creative. The world and the characters were wonderfully realised. Nobody can argue that the soundtrack trumps any other game in existence. Sure, the gameplay wasn't up to the standard of the rest of the game, but it was still pretty fun to play.

1. Make a list of 2000 video games.
2. Hit "shuffle".
3. Get a job at Smithsonian, get a position in the Smithsonian art committee, kill everyone else in the committee.
4. Release totally random list to the unsuspecting public.
5. Laugh in amusement at the pitiful complaints of those whose favorites did not enter the list.

I don't recall Zelda: Wind Walker ever being released ;)

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Smithsonian 'Art of Video Games' winners announced

Reader Comments (95)

Posted: May 6th 2011 9:33AM shabby329 said

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