Top 10 Most Addictive Games

Top 10 Most Addictive Games

Written by Zeromage 72 Comments
Last Updated:: January 9, 2009

You know these games. You can’t put down the controller, you walk to go to the bathroom and you have vertigo from looking at a screen too long, your mother used to yell at you saying “stop playing that damn game”! These are the products of the most addicting video games. In this list we will go through the most addicting video games of all time. Many to choose from, many to eliminate, many obvious choices. These are the games you would play into all the hours of the night and then go to bed just to get enough rest to play them immediately in the morning. You couldn’t get away from these games, and for this reason they would be remembered as some of the greatest video games of all time.

10. Doctor Mario

Does anyone remember the original Dr Mario commercials? They were horrible. Released on the coat-tails of Tetris’ success the two kids playing the split-screen made you want to puke on your TV. The biggest problem with the commercial was that the brats looked so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! If this ultra-addictive 2 player was properly marketed, the two kids would be swearing and bloodshot, and one of them would have to throw their controller on the ground before the commercial ended. This game broke up friendships. This game continues to almost break up my marriage. This game is awesome. If you’ve forgotten about Dr Mario, plug in the NES and get a friend to play you. Be warned, you may not be talking when the game is done.

9. Ms. Pac-man

It’s very rare to find arcades around these days, but when I do, I immediately go to the Ms. Pac-Man machine. In the Arcade there are the skee ball machines, street fighter machines, claw machines and the like, but the Ms. Pac-Man machine in all its simplicity is what first strikes me. What is it about chomping dots and being chased around by ghosts that’s so fun? It’s simple, straightforward and difficult at the same time. I rarely get past level 8, but somehow I’m always impressed when I pass the first two levels. I don’t know if this is because when I see most people play, they can’t get by the first level, or I feel that after all these years I still have a decent grasp of the game. Whatever it is, it always calls for me when I enter the arcade.

8. Civilization 2

Civilization 2 was addictive because of the sheer scope of the game. The patience and time involved with trying to watch the world evolve was immense. Starting off as an indigenous tribe trying to eventually build a space craft wouldn’t take a couple hours or days, or even months. You would have to play this game for a year before you were able to accomplish this technological feat. Everything along the way would keep you gripped to the game as if you had complete control of the world. Building alliances, putting your resources into weaponry, having to fend off barbaric Germanic tribes, all this would keep you glued to your computer in hopes your civilization was the most superlative in the world. Call it ego or social Darwinism, whatever it was, your whole being was invested in what was as stake.

7. Tetris

When I first played Tetris, I played it for a year straight, getting irritable because I couldn’t get past level 50. I put down the controller for a year and stopped playing it. Two years after I would pick back up the controller and play for another year and get to level 60. Just last week, I asked Sage where I could find a place on the internet to play Tetris for free. I couldn’t get past level 10 this time around! Am I just getting old? No, it was just that the online version I was playing could only play up to level 10 and made it about as fast as level 100 on the traditional Tetris for the NES. Who would of thought that fitting blocks together would have been this entertaining? The Russians had great literature and a decent space program, but no one should forget that they created the most addicting video game of all time.

6. Diablo

This game was scary. Late at night, sitting at my computer, fighting off hordes of demons, goat men, skeletons, and other baddies often led to a night of bizarre dreams and nightmares. Even the way the lights shone out of the church’s windows was creepy. Blizzard basically has three universes that it works in, Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. Each is unique, detailed and story driven, and no story line is scarier than this one. The dark lord himself, Diablo, has returned and he has brought back some friends.

The principle of the game was simple; a church in a small town has been invaded by the denizens of hell and you are sent in to take care of the problem. Sort of makes you wonder why you became an exterminator in the first place. In an even more interesting twist it turns out the church was built on top of catacombs, which were built on top of caves, which were built on top of the entrance to hell. If I were the owners I would have sued not only the construction company but also the land developer, architect, and surveyor. I would imagine such a unique area would be hard to miss, but then again it might have been a union job so… Anyway I digress. Like most Blizzard games Diablo was also addicting. Every time you find the stairs to the next level you don’t want to wait till the morning to start hacking your way through. Eventually you kill the dark lord and for some reason plunge some sort of crystal into your head and then wander off. I guess that makes for a good sequel. I never actually finished playing Diablo 2. I can’t remember why.

5. Sim City

Sim City for SNES was addicting in its own way. You would keep the game on for long periods of time letting your towns build on their own while cash would slowly come in from taxes. The infrastructure in the game was colorful and much bigger than the computer version. The soundtrack to Sim City for SNES was amazing. This really came out of nowhere. Usually the Sim City games for the computer had elevator music which was fine enough for municipality engineering, but Sim City for the SNES had music that made you want to play the game just to listen to the music. Like the computer version though, I still needed to code of infinity money to play the game with any sense of evolving. I didn’t have the patience to wait yearly for tax income even with the game on a speed setting. Regardless of the code though, I would be building and building till the end hours of the night.

4. Super Off Road

Super Off Road is one of the greatest games of all time, which we list in our top 100 games of all time along with our top 5 racing games of all time lists. Beyond being a great game though, this game was addicting as hell. One summer we became so addicted to it that we were planning on getting a generator to keep the SNES version on in case there was a power outage and we lost our place. You could play this game forever because there was never an end to the game and all the tracks were as fun as trying to make a friend slip on a banana peel. You had to create your own ending, and for us, this was getting “9’s” straight across the money board which we estimated would take 1000 hours. Obviously if were spending 500 hours on the game and couldn’t save, a generator would make sense. We never went ahead with this idea but it’s never too late to be the ultimate Super Off Road player by accomplishing this seemingly impenetrable feat.

3. Mario Kart Double Dash

We knew a Mario Kart had to be in this list, but which one? We considered all the games and choose the one we collectively spent most hours on which was Double Dash for the Gamecube. This game not only defined 75% of the time I spent at college, but about 90% of the time I spent after college. After my lifetime has past, I will have spent anywhere from 3-6% of it playing this game. Not only was this game addicting, but it could make people pissed beyond your wildest dreams. Thinking back to playing this with some of my roommates, I remember one of them being beaten by the other in the star cup and at the end the beaten roommate saying “You want to take this outside to really see who’s better” with no sense of humor in the statement. This game warped people into it for hours and hours at a time and made people define themselves as people by this game alone. Talk about hypnotic.

2. Starcraft

This is the game that got us talking about this list. It’s incredible on every level. An epic battle between the mindless overlords of the Zerg, the superior technology of the Protoss, and the corrupt government of the Terrans. We here at OW must have played this game for years of our lives. In fact DM and I used to play in high school during our CAD class. This game was also incredibly addicting many a night I said one more level, five or six times before passing out face down on my keyboard. Only to find that my base was leveled and I need to start again.

We all have fond memories of waiting for the dial up to connect so we could duke it out on battle net. At the time I was a master of the zergling rush. They were definitely my favorites. I’ve always been a huge fan of the borg or mindless species with genius overlords so the zerg were perfect. Plus the whole plot twist with Kerrigan becoming the queen of blades and overthrowing the overmind was even more awesome. Here at OW we are all very excited about Starcraft 2. In our opinion this is the Blizzard’s best universe.

1. World of Warcraft

It has recently been shown that World of Warcraft (WoW) is equivalent to crack cocaine (coke, yayo, the C-O,…). Seriously a team of the top chemists, biologists, psychologists, and doctors have found that there are no differences between the two. Addicts of both will sit in dark rooms for hours on end often soiling themselves and staring at screens. They can’t separate themselves from their drug for more than a few hours or they physically start to hurt and have to get a fix. They often speak an incomprehensible language of gibberish that only other addicts can understand. All of their earnings, which is usually meager to begin with, are spent on sating their devilish addictions. More often then not they become social outcasts interestingly, however, it is possible to distinguish the users of by their weight. Oddly WoW users are prone to obesity and acne, while coke heads tend to loose weight rapidly, but can have worse skin problems. Scientists are working hard to understand this disparity.Either way this game is amazing and possibly one of the most addicting games of all time. From a marketing stand point its also pure genius, think of it an addicting game that never ends. I have personally been battling my addiction for many years. Just when I think it’s been beat I’m back at my computer trying to get a group to raid Kara. It’s one hell of a monkey on my back. My family has been supportive and I have been able to hang on to my job, though I haven’t been able to re-establish lasting relationships. With time and consoling I believe that I will be able to make a full recovery. Until then my druid still needs his epic gear, and now there is the expansion to master. Its going to be a tough few months.

72 Comments

#1 Jerry says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:37 am

Another terrible list from a terrible site

1) Diablo 2 was the addicting cultural phenomenon not the first.

2) Mario Kart N64 was the addictive one double dash was overlooked

3) Dr. Mario Sucked

4) World of Warcraft does merit its place ont he list but so does Everquest, Everquest was a much larger time sink, WoW is only on here because your knowledge of games doesn’t extend past mainstream sites.

5)Your intro talks of not being able to put downt he controller yet most of the games on this list use a keyboard or an arcade cabinet.

6) What the fuck is super off road, your site is called old wizard and you don’t have any addictive (real) RPGs on this list?

This is the biggest waste of time since the Zelda top 5 that had Twilight instead of Ocarina.

Article fail
Site fail

#2 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:42 am

You tree-kicker. How about I kick in your nostril! Permanently!

#3 Michael .V. says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:43 am

Diablo 2 was the phenom, but anyway yes StarCraft is a game I can play now with great enjoyment still!

#4 Jerry says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:43 am

Nice comeback Zero, face it, you have terrible taste in games

#5 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:50 am

good to see some people actually read the blurbs

#6 Michael .V. says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:53 am

Of course any site that makes fun of FF7 which is the highly over-rated game of all time especially in comparison to 6 deserves full attention… I check here daily

#7 The Mountain says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:07 am

Good article. You’re new banner is horrendous though.

#8 Michael .V. says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:12 am

Yeah I did prefer old banner as well, fit the sites name cause it made it seem older. But I must embrace CHANGE!

#9 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:15 am

we’ll be using the old banner somewhere still. and the current banner is only temporary. we have something special in the works. so stay tuned.

#10 Ryan says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:27 am

As much as I don’t like the Nintendo fanboy site that this is.

I have to say Diablo was waaaaayyyyy more addicting than Diablo 2.

Diablo 2 just built a bit on what Diablo had built.

I did the same as this guy, I spent a lot of late nights playing this game when I shouldn’t have.

#11 Jerry says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:28 am

Stay tuned for more mediocrity

#12 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:33 am

i hope you choke on a pencil eraser.

#13 Wild Bill says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:33 am

LOLOLOLOL!!!!!

#14 The Mountain says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:45 am

Zeromage- What’s the deal with the banner? you got such a solid site but such a bad banner

#15 Damien says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:56 am

I think you went through a list of nintendo games real quick and picked the ones that you played the most and not ones that were all that addicting. Why the hell isnt Contra on this list? RC Pro AM? GTA:SA? The first mario?

#16 Wild Bill says:
March 19th, 2010 at 2:02 am

dude, i count 2 nintendo games on that.

#17 Wild Bill says:
March 19th, 2010 at 2:04 am

“that list” too many shots of tequilla tonight.

#18 Ceiltsei says:
March 19th, 2010 at 2:08 am

A message to those critics here, this list seems to be about those great addictive games and the passion for them and not a ranking system of most addictive games.

I completely agree with this list but my experience would have you add:

Warzone 2100 – Still my favorite RTS game.
Mario Kart – Not double dash, I am old.
Unreal Tournament – Played this game for at least 500 hours.
Quake – Best deathmatch game ever, played it for over 1000 hours and had whole days occupied by it.

And lets not forget.. a strange and immersive platforming game that I was stuck to for eons:

Yoshi Island.

Great list! It always seems the old gaming days were better.

#19 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 2:39 am

Nice post ceiltsei

#20 Bob says:
March 19th, 2010 at 3:17 am

WOW is not like a drug. I f your so fucking stupid you cant turn your PC off and stop playing your dumb as hell. I have this game and yeah its fun but come on just like a drug.

#21 ShiHe says:
March 19th, 2010 at 3:40 am

Super Smash Bros. by far is the most addictive game ever.

I also fell strangely addicted to Metroid Fusion. I simply could NOT let go off that game!

#22 Beth says:
March 19th, 2010 at 3:41 am

I knew Sim City would be on that list.

#23 hiimathinghatiscalledachoombe says:
March 19th, 2010 at 3:46 am

mm….. Starcraft… And I think Diablo 2 > Diablo

#24 Damien says:
March 19th, 2010 at 5:10 am

to wild Bill: Or 6 if you count correctly and arent a fucking retard.

#25 Phil says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:03 pm

Actually Bill is right. 2 games made by Nintendo:

Doctor Mario and Double Dash.

Not only that but the top 2 games were made by blizzard and were released on the PC. So i dont see this as a list of nintendo games by any means.

And mario 1 addicting? fun maybe. but once you beat it its over.

#26 Roby says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:45 pm

i would add to this list heroes of might and magic 3, i’ve played it almoust for 10 years now and it still is a great game

#27 Gyb says:
March 19th, 2010 at 1:53 pm

Hmmm…

Ctrl + C,

Ctrl + V,

*Editing*,

*Repeating the steps*…

“You tree-kicker. How about I kick in your nostril! Permanently!”

LOL

#28 Phil says:
March 19th, 2010 at 2:26 pm

that’s the most ridiculous comeback i’ve ever seen.

#29 Twig743 says:
March 19th, 2010 at 5:51 pm

i am not a big fan but i think the Halo series should be on there

#30 tomtom says:
March 19th, 2010 at 7:09 pm

counterstrike 1.3

#31 Damien says:
March 19th, 2010 at 10:45 pm

Actually,he’s not right. I said LIST of nintendo games,not just NES,not just SNES, all nintendo systems. 6 of these games have been released on Nintendo systems. eat it.

#32 roberto says:
March 19th, 2010 at 10:46 pm

still hate the ‘revolution’ look. u shud change the site name to old-hippie.com

#33 Dr strangelove says:
March 19th, 2010 at 3:08 am

This list was good but i think that smash bros melee should have been on here

other than that i have no quarrels

#34 roberto says:
March 19th, 2010 at 6:49 am

my biggest addictions with video games were: (in desc order) the mario series (nes,snes), the final fantasy series, street fighter 2/mortal kombat. world of warcraft.

nes was my first system and mario/duck hunt my first game. i’m confident in saying my bro and i found every secret in the side-scrollers. super mario kart, greatest racing game ever.

the ff series reached it peak with ff7. ff8’s gfx style ruined it. i think it made the
same mistake evercrack 2 did, combine cartoony gameplay with too much realism. after that
ff started following a formula. kind of like modern fps. the biggest lost was the
specialization of characters classes. modern ff characters are too customizable and evolve
into clones by the end of the game, basic diff is weapon style and special moves. in the
old games a wizard was a wizard and a knight a knight. u didnt make a fucking career move
half way down the road to saving the universe. then there’s the time-consuming and annoying casino-style games. world of warcraft has the right idea.

street figher 2/mortal kombat. that was just the thing to do. the world tournaments. the
debates. all characters had unique special moves. sf characters had a unique fighting
style. mk characters all hired the same sensei (uppercut, roundhouse, sweep…) but
shopped at diff clothing stores. blood and finishing moves. my vote went to sf2 just on
its combo system alone.

its been a while since warcraft. i was one of the first players. reality kinda sucked back then. i made it to gnome mage level 30-something. cool game, but some people take it too seriously.

#35 roberto says:
March 19th, 2010 at 6:51 am

sorry about the formatting, pasted from notepad.

#36 Nate says:
March 19th, 2010 at 8:00 am

Good article… But seriously you have to show some love to smash bros. It’s soooo fucking addictive. Change the site back. Out.

#37 Old Banner says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:06 am

I must say that I, the old banner, demands my place again at the top of your site.

I have been the flag of your site so put me up again!
Who can ever forget these guys for removing the

“Pick a box, it’s contents will help you on your way”

(And why did Toad was so freakin stingy to just let you pick only ONE box)

#38 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:35 am

Good point about the one box!

#39 safcsx says:
March 19th, 2010 at 4:53 am

Wow you guys can copy paste. And I liked when you called Tetris the “most addicting game of all time” when you put it at 7th on the list. Idiots.

#40 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 11:45 am

wow you take video game lists seriously. idiot.

#41 brad says:
March 19th, 2010 at 5:19 pm

You end the Tetris blurb by saying “they created the most addicting video game of all” and yet place it at #7. So that would mean it’s NOT the MOST addicting of all time, then.

#42 Zeromage says:
March 19th, 2010 at 5:27 pm

ever hear of hyperbole?

#43 brad says:
March 19th, 2010 at 2:32 pm

Ever hear of poor editing?

#44 Andreas says:
March 19th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

World of Warcraft? I hate MMOs becuase they’re too adicting for they’re own good.

#45 grambo says:
March 19th, 2010 at 6:12 pm

Great list. Super Off Road is an amazing game, surprised others don’t remember it.

I’d probably add Quake or Quake 3 and Counter-strike, wasted an insane amount of time on those personally. Put about 140 hours into TF2 in the last 15 months or so as well.

#46 Meta Knight 293 says:
March 19th, 2010 at 6:11 pm

PROBLEM!

1.WORLD OF WARCRAFT! I mean really,everywhere I go I here wow wow wo its ANNOYING!

#47 karl says:
March 19th, 2010 at 6:38 am

I had the Tengen version of tetris too!

#48 Iris says:
March 19th, 2010 at 3:02 pm

Super Off Road for the NES was better, though. With a 4-score and all the controllers, there were no computer trucks until someone eventually lost too many times. It could be one of the original party games. The top down map beat memorizing tracks and the controls were smooth.

#49 colle says:
March 19th, 2010 at 4:44 pm

where the fuck is Golden Eye 64? ive spend a big percentage of my life playing this

#50 Raymond says:
March 19th, 2010 at 8:07 pm

Hey Jerrey why do you think its called Old Wizard? Cuz they like the old games and only some of the new games. But i think OW will LOVE Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 since the first Diablo and Starcraft are on this list. Btw I started playing WoW 3 years ago and i could’nt stop playing it after the first time. Really addictive game that is rightfully on 1. place. I think i’ve spent 12 hours every day playing it.

Newer Comments »

Top 10 Most Addictive Games

72 Comments

Leave a Comment