• Top 100 Video Games

  

  Written by Zeromage 226 Comments
  Last Updated:: February 1, 2009

  80. Burger Time (Arcade)

  Are you kidding? What the F is this? At first (and second, and third, and…) glance this looks like a recycled Donkey Kong background. Why is Mario white? Is he a chef? What the hell? Am I being chased by a fried egg and some pickles? What kind of power up is this? It looks like a giant Pepper Shaker! It seems I’ve stumbled upon the dumbest game ever. Then it hits you, you run over the top of a sesame seed bun and it falls onto a tomato, which falls onto some lettuce, which falls onto the bottom of the bun, which then falls onto the bottom of the screen. The pickle twins charge straight towards you and the egg is behind you…you hit all of the buttons in desperation and a spray of pepper freezes the pickles in their place. You run right through them and continue your sandwich construction. By level 4 you realize you have a limited amount of pepper and should conserve it wisely. You spend the next 6 hours in front of the TV playing an interactive fast food commercial, and the surgeon general wonders why the kids are morbidly obese. Man we love this game, and that’s coming from a vegetarian.

  79. Mortal Kombat 2

  Mortal Kombat 2 was a massive event for the arcade game world. Lines of people would be waiting to play this game. Loads of people would be crowded around two players playing this game. When you went into an Arcade in the mid 90’s, the commotion was coming from the Mortal Kombat 2 game machine. What made Mortal Kombat 2 so addicting and entertaining? How about all the characters who embodied strengths reserved only to themselves. How about all the finishing moves that started a population in “toasty” mantras. This game embodied the best qualities of deadly fighting games. It was with Mortal Kombat 2 that Street Fighter saw its popularity diminish slightly. Street Fighter couldn’t compare with the sheer amount of personalized moves for each character, nor with the bloodlust enveloped throughout Mortal Kombat 2. Being uppercut onto spikes way below the fighting platform gave the game player a tingle of X rated fun not felt before Mortal Kombat 2. The fight between what the best arcade fighter game is will continually go on. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were the premiere fighting games for the coin-op industry. For a time though, the Mortal Kombat series would clearly be ahead of the Street Fighter series. This was most conspicuous with the arcade release of Mortal Kombat 2.

  78. F-Zero

  F-Zero was a sophisticated racing game for its day. The controlling was perfect. The “cars” that you could choose from were slick. The graphics were superlative. The backgrounds you could watch by themselves without even racing. You felt the speed of the game at your hands while playing this game. The tracks themselves looked similar to Mario Kart (which came out two years later) which was of course a good thing. Knocking other racers out of the way was more fun than a date with a girl that you knew you could get in bed with easily afterwards. All in all, it was another strong showing from the Nintendo establishment and one of the better racing games of all time.

  77. Doom

  All the great 1st person shooters may have been better than Doom, but it was Doom which first brought the style to the video game market. Playing this game co-op was even more fun. Knocking down cacodemons with one person shooting a rocket launcher and the other shooting a shotgun was enormously entertainment. Meeting up with each other in the middle of a level knowing you’ve both cleared out the entire level of monsters was supremely satisfying. Just try not to hit each other while hitting all the enemies or you would be sucked into another Battletoads melee. Duke Nukem, Rise of the Triads, and Halo would all follow suit in Doom’s successful style. Halo especially was a fine example of a 1st person coop shooter. Doom though was the first to make this experience recognized.

  76. Toe Jam and Earl

  Wow was this game fun. Two players would walk across the most funakadelic of universes trying to uncover pieces of a broken ship. The amount of side adventures in this game proved to be one of Sega’s most unique moments. From the first screen of the game, you could travel way off the ocean into a distant Xanadu if you had the right equipment. The enemies were fun little creatures that would irritate the player as much as they would come across as harmless. The music to the game was as funky as a Parliament record; entire stages hip hoped with some of the best beats of the day. The sheer amount of items you could possess in this game was staggering; you could use tomatoes, slingshots, vehicles, and even floating rafts. One wonders why Sega didn’t want this creativity out of all of its games. Anyone who’s played Toe Jam and Earl knows they’re playing a game from a distant planet.76.

  75. Rescue Rangers
  

  Chip n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers was one of the best titles ever to be released for the NES. It was also one of the last titles to ever be released for it as well. Sadly Rescue Rangers is often ignored when one talks about the best games for the NES. This doesn’t make sense to us here at Old-Wizard. This game was almost as good as Duck Tales, and featured one of the best soundtracks ever for the NES. Rescue Rangers featured great game play and an excellent co-op mode which was a rarity for the time of its release. It’s really unfortunate that this game isn’t more well known – try to do a quick google search, and you’ll find virtually nothing about this game on the web, but don’t let that fool you. This game is a lost classic, and its well worth picking up for the $5 that you’ll spend on it at a used video game store…If you can find it.

  74. Sonic 2

  While its true that the staff here at Old-Wizard doesn’t really like Sonic as a character there is no denying he had a couple of good games (hey even Gordon Lightfoot had a couple of good songs). While Sonic 1 first delivered Sega’s superhero in full stride, it was Sonic 2 where we were given an adventure to be remembered. There were more stages and the music was killer throughout. The Aztec level music was as catchy as a mid 70’s Abba single. The Casino level was as fun as winning a $1,000 in one night in Las Vegas. Sonic was also given Tails as a partner throughout the whole game adding a new theme to the Sonic series. A second player could also control tails. While he often seemed futile throughout the stages of the game, he could become a devastating partner in boss battles. Since you never had to worry about him dying, he could just hammer away at Robotnic forever. The final form of Dr. Robotnic was a sight to be seen taking up the whole screen and towering over the smaller heroes. Sonic was the flagship of the Sega Genesis and Sonic 2 might have been the system’s best moment.

  73. Actraiser

  The front cover of the SNES forgotten classic states “Create order from Chaos”! Who couldn’t be interested in this plain imperative? The game didn’t sell well worldwide, it was barely featured on end-of-the-year best of lists and is never talked about on video game forums. This game was just to good to be forgotten though. This game combines superb side-scrolling action with a Civilization-esque overhead view that puts you in the God seat rebuilding the world from chaos and restoring your followers. This combines Mario Brothers with Sim City! Half the time you’re battling nefarious monsters in your mythical and statuesque body suit, and the other half your reshaping civilization by controlling infrastructure being built in the formerly destroyed world. Roads, buildings, farms, population, you name it, you are recreating civilization from the bottom up. This unique gameplay worked perfectly and it’s always been strange to us why Actraiser is never included in best of lists.
  72. Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii)
  

  Leave it to Nintendo to come up with a fighting game with no blood, no visible injuries and still make it fun and highly addictive. There is an endless amount of fun to be had with Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Hours upon hours of multiplayer action in games like SSBB makes Wii one of the best multiplayer systems of all time. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced gamer, you’ll be able to enjoy the massive amount of games to played in Super Smash Brother Brawl. The graphics might not be too much of an improvement on its predecessor, but the mini-games certainly have and the controlling especially has become smoothed out with the hugely innovative Wii controller. When it comes to replayability, its hard to think of game that is better in this category than Super Smash Brothers Brawl. With lots of interesting “level-ups” and plot twists, plus all the great Nintendo characters we’ve all come to know and love, this game is a must have for anyone who has a Wii.

  71. NBA Jam

  NBA Jam was not only one of the best arcade games of all time, but also one of the best basketball games of all time. The sounds were massive, the players were massive, and the jams were even more massive. This was no bastketball game where you had to skillfully wait out a 2-3 defense in hopes of finding an open 3 point shot. This was a game where you took it to the hoop each time, dominating the other player with a massive dunk over him. Playing with Shaq was every child’s dream. There was no player who could dominate inside the paint more than Shaq. Its unfortunate that his legacy would forever be diminished in the video game world due to the abominable Shaq Fu (an entry in our top 20 worst video games of all time). Besides the aggrandized form of Shaq, there was a host of great players that the gamer could choose from. The true NBA Jam fanatic would only pick the players who had the most powerful dunks though, i.e. centers. When NBA Jam came to the home console, it retained its qualities in large smashfest fun, but it could never compare to the arcade version which had larger sounds and more pristine graphics, not to mention the 4-player availability in the coin-op edition. When thinking of sports games that were made for the arcade, NBA Jam is the clear winner. It’s loud, in your face and fun for 10 dollars worth of quarters.

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226 Comments

1. #1 Bladerunner says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

   Terrible list imo.I realise this list is your opinion, and i respect that. Im just pointing out that my opinion differs from yours vastly

   1) Its a whore-fest of old games, lots of true modern classics were ignored. No half life 1,2, gta, resident evil, call of duty, fallout, civilization? Seriously???!!

   2) Toe jam and earl? give me a break….

   3) Not a single fricking N64 game? Majoras mask?! Mario 64?! Goldeneye?! Perfect dark?! OCARINA OF TIME?!!!!!! sheesh

   3) Just ONE ps2 game in the entire list? no shadow of the colossus? no okami? no gran turismo? no god of war? OMG

   4) Correct me if im wrong, but i dont think i saw a single racing game in there… wtf?

   I do agree with most of the top 20 though. Chrono trigger, Castlevania:SOTN, Zelda LTTP…. epic games
2. #2 Dopeycunt says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

   Seems like the author does not have a whole lot of experience playing catalogs of games on different systems, and probably stuck to Nintendo systems when he was a kid. Only the big-name (obvious) Sega titles are here, and a distinct lack of PSX, XBox, and PC games.
3. #3 Wolf says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 10:12 am

   …dodgeball beat DigDug?
   already bad things happening and im only on page 1
4. #4 Wolf says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 10:20 am

   Ducktales made the top 20?…
5. #5 dude says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 12:19 am

   while this list may not be well rounded (at all), it makes for a pretty good reference on which old roms I should be investing my time in.
6. #6 pd says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

   so your saying nhl 94 and a dodgeball game are better then say castlevania iv and contra 3 bullshit and there two games off the top of my head.
7. #7 Justin says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 3:45 am

   I didn’t know N64 was such a crappy system.LOL.What an ass list and an ass website. Terrible what you are putting into these viewer’s heads.
8. #8 Justin says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 3:50 am

   Oh and I also forgot to LOL @ having Madden 2004 on there without NFL 2k5.Props for putting Star Craft on there though,best game ever made.
9. #9 Azelfknight says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 8:44 pm

   Zelda 2 is the worst Zelda ever…just saying.

   This list is okay, but with way to many old ripoffs of each other in the platforming department. A link to the past is one of my favorite games and glad others recognize it too, but so many good game aren’t on this list that it makes me shake my head. Here are games that deserve more credit, in no order, Halo, Ocarina of Time, Fallout 3, WOW, Mario Kart 64, and more…
10. #10 pelham123 says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

    It’s nice to see a more personal top 100 list for a change, an enjoyable read. Cheers!
11. #11 Fedricco Rabaya says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

    Hey people can someone tell me the Mario game when the story is about a dream of Mario? There are 4 characters to choose from: MArio, Luigi, Princess and the Mushroom kid.
12. #12 Salo says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Super Mario 2.
13. #13 nick says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    good list, but you guys really need to play golden sun.