• Top 5 Video Game Makers

  

  Written by Zeromage 24 Comments
  Last Updated:: June 29, 2008

  In this next list, we’ll explore who we think are the top 5 video game makers of all time. When making this list, we didn’t consider companies who had at one time or another also made video game consoles (i.e. Nintendo, Sega, and Playstation). One can certainly make the case for Nintendo as being one of the best video game makers of all time, but we didn’t want to consider the video game makers who also owned stock in the console market. There were many companies to choose from. The top 2 on this list were no-brainers though. They were the first companies to come to our mind when we were initially thinking up this list. The amount of memorable games conceived by these next companies gave much more than sales to the video game market. They gave an endless amount of entertainment and lasting memories to the avid game player.

  5. Rare

  Rare has given us pure video game entertainment for quite awhile now. Battletoads was one of their first popular titles. This game trumped all other fighting games for the NES. Everything looked bigger and everything sounded larger. R.C. Pro AM was another game that dominated its genre. This racing game was as rough and addicting as any coin-op racing game out now. And let’s not forget Marble Madness. What gamer has not enjoyed this game for at least a couple hours of their life time? Beyond the Nintendo, Rare capitalized on the one-on-one fighting game market with Killer Instinct. This game was violent and illustrious at the same time, showing that beauty and bestiality need not be mutually exclusive. Rare saw its popularity rise most though with the SNES. It’s here that we were introduced to Donkey Kong Country. DKC was one of the best adventure games for the superlative system. DKC 2 would even improve on a game that was already perfect in its own right. The graphics were perfectly rounded and the animation was unbelievably fluid for a 16-bit system. Never would they skimp out on storyline and discreetness for a pretty picture though. DKC and DKC 2 had an overwhelming amount of secrets to discover. Side quests were littered throughout these games making the gamer work hard for their 100% ranking. Great graphics, great games, and big ideas; this is what made Rare one of the greatest video game makers of all time.

  4. Tecmo

  Tecmo was most known for Tecmo Superbowl. This is no small fact though. Tecmo Superbowl is the best sports game ever released in the video game market. Nowhere would any game player find a sports game so easy to play while still retaining a certain complexity to make it all the way to the Superbowl. Being able to get 150 sacks a year with Jesse Tuggle of the Atlanta Falcons was one of the more memorable moments for us Old-Wizard sports fans. Being able to take Bo-Jackson and run circles around the entire opposing team was just another memorable moment from this classic game. Tecmo was not simply about its success with its premiere football game though. There was also the Ninja Gaiden series which inspired an endless amount of video gamers to enter Ninja Training, and even create Ninja Training Websites! While Ninja Gaiden was certainly difficult, it always proved to be one of the most entertaining side scrollers of all time. The cut scene graphics were also something ahead of its time. Beyond the Ninja Gaiden series, one was welcomed to one of the most unique adventure experiences of their lives with Rygar. Anyone who has played this game for a long time knows how memorable of a game this was. The music would never leave your head. The map was as vast as your own imagination. Rygar was the hero you always wanted to be. All three of these games were listed high in our top 100 video games of all time. While Tecmo didn’t gain much success from its other titles, it needs to be recognized as one of the best video game makers of all time based on how great these three games alone were.

  3. Konami

  Konami defined the video game genre. The amount of classic series produced by Konami was staggering. One need only take a look at the Castlevania, Contra, and Metal Gear series to understand the innumerous successes of Konami. Beyond these important games, there was still classic games that weren’t series oriented such as Goonies, Gradius, and Lifeforce. Konami like all the great video game makers had a distinguishable quality to all of its games. The sounds and music that came from Konami were all their own. There was a analogous quality to the music in games as diverse as Castlevania 2 and Goonies. While adventure games were clearly Konami’s own life-force, they also mastered the sports gaming market with two titles. These games were Blades of Steel and Double Dribble. Blades of Steel was the first time that two hockey players could go at it making the loser sit on the bench. The side games that the gamer could play at half time was ingenious. Double Dribble itself was one of the oddest basketball games released for the video game world. The mascots were unusual and the dunks would often be missed. These oddity’s would not stop Double Dribble from the endless hours of fun it provided. Great adventure games, great sports games, and some of the most memorable video game series came from Konami. Speaking about a series as grand and indelible as Castlevania could not be spoken about in a simple paragraph. It’s not to be spoken about in the first place. Anyone who has played Castlevania 1-3 understands this.

  2. Capcom

  What else can you say? Mega Man, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, Final Fight, Strider, and ehhh, Yo Noid! (ok, every company is allowed one bad game). The list of great games made by Capcom seems to never end. Street Fighter is arguably the best 2 player fighter in existence. Mega Man is arguably the best side-scrolling adventure game in existence. Duck Tales may have had the best music for the 8-bit medium. The accolades that can be showered on Capcom are never ending. This is a company that never skimped on any part of classic game play. Capcom made large fighting games and even larger adventure games. Count how many Capcom games are in our top 100 video games of all time. We stopped counting after awhile because of how many there were. When one thinks of 2d side scrolling adventure games, Capcom is the clearly the standout company. Mega Man would provide hours upon hours of entertainment. One could be entertained just listening to the music of Snake Man’s and Flash Man’s stage if they didn’t want to enjoy the actual game play. The same can be said for Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers. When we try to think of any standout Sega Genesis games, the only game that ever comes to our mind is Strider. The sheer creativity of this game goes a long way for furthering Capcom’s reputation. The inscrutable storyline that took you along various parts of the globe was could never be derived from another game. Speaking about Street Fighter as the greatest fighting game of all time is regular parlance for video games and us here at Old-Wizard. Classic games, classic music, and unique storylines; This is what makes Capcom one of the greatest successes in the video game medium.

  1. Squaresoft

  Anyone who has consistently read Old-Wizard articles had to already have known that Squaresoft was going to be #1 on this list. The games for Squaresoft take up most of the space on our top 100 video games of all time article. They also take up space in the top 5 video game soundtracks of all time. One of the biggest reasons why we rated the SNES as the greatest video game console of all time was because of Squaresoft. Basically, any chance we get to champion Squaresoft we will take. Why is Squaresoft the greatest video game company of all time? Anyone who has ever played Final Fantasy 3 would understand this without any hesitation. Anyone who has played the entirety of Chrono Trigger would confirm Squaresoft as the apex of video game creation. How about Soul Blazer? How about Secret of Mana? Squaresoft owned the storybook RPG adventure game. If a persons favorite video games are RPG’s then Squaresoft if the first name to come to their mind. It wasn’t just the basic RPG format that made Squaresoft the greatest video game makers of all time in our eyes. It was the massive storylines in the games that pushed their games above all others conceptually. The storylines weren’t just large either. They were intricate and philosophical in nature raising the video gamers scope beyond mere arcade entertainment into enlightenment. All issues were discussed in these games. Values were debated, magnanimity was sought, and characters developed right before our eyes. All this happened by our own control with the video game controller. No one who has ever played Final Fantasy 3 can say they felt empty at the end of the total journey, unless they felt empty knowing that they had nothing else to do in life after conquering the massive FF3. The feeling of conquering Secret of Mana with 2 other friends left more memorable moments then all the so-called memories of a “family-event”. In other words, the gamer left the real world by playing these seemingly never ending Squaresoft games. He knew that the “real world” couldn’t compare with the tragedy and adventure epitomized in these games. It’s with this in mind that we champion the games of Squaresoft so much. They do violence to all those who subtly try to criticize the video gamer for valuing fiction over “reality”.

24 Comments

1. #1 Aaron says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 12:13 am

   I honestly don’t think Tecmo or Rare have made that many contributions to the revolution of the game industry and they definitely don’t hold too many noteworthy titles under their belt to be placed over companies like Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Namco, Midway, Williams, Atari, etc.

   This list is flawed or you guys are flawed if you think those 2 companies really did that much outstanding work in the videogame field.

   I’m actually shocked that Nintendo wasn’t on the list to be honest.
2. #2 old-wizard.com says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 12:17 am

   Reading the introduction to the list you will see companies that also made consoles (i.e. Nintendo and Sega) weren’t considered.
3. #3 Kevbot says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 3:55 am

   Read the intro. Read the article before making comments
4. #4 TheGamesta says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 7:52 am

   Knowing Old-Wizard, I think it’s a fair bet to say that Nintendo wasn’t considered because it would’ve been #1, and Sega wasn’t considered because it wouldn’t have even made the list.

   Besides, one major flaw in this list is you didn’t differentiate between a publishing company and the actual developer. There’s quite a difference there when giving credit where credit is due.
5. #5 Aaron says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 8:28 am

   Kevbot can eat a dick! =D

   It stands that even though those certain companies aren’t considered. Williams, Midway and Namco have still made more headway in video games since their inception. So my comment still stands. The list is flawed.
6. #6 Pingfa says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 1:04 pm

   Thus far every list I’ve clicked on here, I’ve said to myself: ’so-and-so are going to be the top 2′ or ’so-and-so-and-so will be the top 3′ and I’ve been right every time.

   Anyhow, I already knew what the top 2 would be; was sure Rare would be on there but not sure where.
   Despite the apparent prejudice here, it’s a pretty good list. Glad you put Konami in there, though I would have them on there for different reasons – I’m what seems to be the only game player in existence who doesn’t like the Castlevania series, nor Metal Gear Solid.
   Contra is awesome, though. TMNT, Sunset Riders, the little known Rocket Knight Adventures (only for Genesis/MD, and Legend of the Mystical Ninja.

   There are a few which definitely could, and probably should make the cut, but didn’t particularly because of the hate towards Sega.
   I definitely think Tecmo can be replaced; other than Ninja Gaiden (awesome game) and Dead or Alive (pretty awesome), there isn’t much reason to put them on the list, in my humble opinion.
7. #7 Linklock says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

   Good list. Squaresoft is easy to argue as the best
8. #8 gnome says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

   Rare… hmm… I remember when they ruled the ZX Spectrum scene under the name of “Ultimate Play the Game”, producing classic after classic. Then they went for the NES and a suck-y new name…
9. #9 romi says:
   March 18th, 2010 at 1:08 pm

   Did you seriously leave Activision off that list? First off, they were the granddaddy of them all (third party developers), and secondly, with their acquisition of Blizzard, they now own the rights to the most financially successful gaming IP ever (I don’t think I have to say what that might be, and no, it’s nothing created by Nintendo, believe it or not).
10. #10 old-wizard.com sucks says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 9:10 pm

    Sucks
11. #11 LiairiuriCem says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    nice work, dude
12. #12 gunsn1per says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 5:14 am

    Do you mean FFIII, you mean the VIth one, right? Why do you always calling it FFIII? Feeling nostalgic or what? There might be someone confused by this…Anyway I can’t agree more with Squaresoft being the best.
13. #13 Wizard blows says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 10:48 pm

    Insomniac
14. #14 e says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    What about rockstar, valve and blizzard?

    All three of them are flawless companies creating classics after classics.

    And where’s Ubisoft? EA? the bigger publishers nowadays?

    I think this list was ok for… let’s say 1997.
15. #15 avi says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    top 5 third-party companies, you mean. 1.Konami 2.Capcom 3.Square 4.Valve 5.ID 6.Activision 7.Namco 8. EA
16. #16 avi says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 8:28 pm

    actually now I think 1.Konami 2.Capcom 3.Square Enix 4.Activision 5.Namco 6.EA.
17. #17 avi says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    7.Midway 8.ID.
18. #18 MR :D says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    Leaving out Nintendo to seem unique is just plain stupid, without them the industry wouldn’t exist and the amount of golden classics and new masterpeices are just too many to ignore. Before anyone call me a fanboy let me say that I am a fanboy for a reason.
19. #19 avi says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 11:01 pm

    MR : they said they were not including console developers.