The Best Video Games of All Time: A Digital Trends Exclusive

When it comes to video games, there are countless titles that could be considered the best of all time. However, after careful consideration and research, our team at Digital Trends has compiled a list of the top five games in the industry. From classic platformers to mind-bending puzzle games, these titles have stood the test of time and continue to entertain audiences around the world.

At number one on our list is Super Mario Brothers 3. This iconic game from Nintendo's golden era is a masterclass in level design, with each world boasting its own unique theme, power-ups, and challenges. The game's clever use of power stars, mushrooms, and fire flowers creates a sense of progression and accomplishment that has become synonymous with the Mario franchise. One of the most impressive aspects of Super Mario Brothers 3 is how it holds up even today, with its tight controls, charming graphics, and addictive gameplay ensuring that it remains an essential experience for gamers of all ages.

The game's enduring popularity can be attributed to its timeless appeal, which transcends generations and age groups. For many players, Super Mario Brothers 3 is a nostalgic trip back to their childhood, evoking memories of early gaming experiences and the sense of wonder that came with discovering new worlds and characters. The game's impact on the industry cannot be overstated, with its influence still felt in modern platformers and adventure games.

In contrast to the simplicity of Super Mario Brothers 3 is Portal 2, our runner-up for the best video game of all time. This first-person puzzle game from Valve Corporation has captivated audiences with its clever writing, engaging gameplay, and innovative mechanics. The game's portal-based system allows players to manipulate objects in creative ways, creating a sense of experimentation and discovery that is both exhilarating and frustrating.

One of Portal 2's greatest strengths is its humor, which adds a layer of depth and personality to the game's already impressive narrative. GLaDOS, the sadistic AI created by Cave Johnson, is one of the most memorable and quotable villains in gaming history, with her dark wit and sarcasm providing endless entertainment for players. The game's multiplayer mode also offers a unique twist on the single-player experience, pitting teams against each other in intense battles that test strategy and skill.

Portal 2's success can be attributed to its masterful blend of challenge and accessibility. Despite its demanding puzzles, the game is never too difficult or overwhelming, making it an excellent introduction to first-person puzzle games for newcomers. The game's ability to adapt to different skill levels ensures that players of all abilities can enjoy the experience, from casual gamers who are looking for a fun and relaxing experience to hardcore enthusiasts who will push themselves to solve every puzzle.

Finally, at number three on our list is Tetris. This iconic game from Alexey Pajitnov has become an integral part of gaming culture, with its simple yet addictive gameplay appealing to players of all ages and backgrounds. The game's clever use of geometric shapes allows for a high degree of complexity and strategy, making it both easy to learn and challenging to master.

Tetris is often cited as one of the most influential games in history, with its impact felt across multiple genres and industries. From puzzle games like Bejeweled to action-adventure titles like Portal 2, Tetris has inspired countless developers and designers. The game's universality is a testament to its enduring appeal, making it accessible to players who speak different languages, have varying skill levels, or come from diverse backgrounds.

One of the most impressive aspects of Tetris is its ability to transcend time and technology. From the original arcade release to modern-day VR experiences like Tetris Effect, the game has remained a staple of gaming culture, with each iteration building upon the foundation established by Pajitnov's classic design. The game's timeless appeal is a testament to its elegant simplicity, which allows players to enjoy a single-player experience or engage in competitive multiplayer battles.

Overall, these three games represent some of the best that the industry has to offer, showcasing a range of skills, creativity, and innovation. From platformers like Super Mario Brothers 3 to puzzle games like Portal 2 and Tetris, each title offers a unique gaming experience that is sure to captivate audiences around the world. Whether you're a seasoned gamer or just starting out, these games are sure to provide hours of entertainment and excitement.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign what are the best video games of all time now it's kind of a silly question right I mean there's so many video games out there that are accomplishing so many different things it's such a wide Rich array of games and you could not possibly put them onto some sort of ranked quantitative list that is just silly I mean you'd have to be a fool to do such a thing so so we did it yeah we we did it hi I'm Giovanni colantonio I'm the gaming section lead here at digitaltrends.com and a few months ago the gaming team started to ask ourselves a question what do we think are the best games of all time now this wasn't just an arbitrary thing we were asking ourselves we wanted to know what we valued in video games what are the kinds of things that make a game an enduring classic to us what are the kinds of things that have us coming back to a game over and over and over again these were questions that we felt would help us better understand how we approach things like game criticism and honestly we thought that would help our audience too if you watch a video review or read a review on our website we want you to understand our perspective we want you to know what we value in games so you can compare that to what you think about games and have a better understanding of where we're coming from so with that in mind we've spent the last couple of months putting together what we feel are the best video games of all time and you can go over to digitaltrends.com right now and see a list of our 50 top games plus a bunch of great honorable mentions as well but in this video I'm going to save you a little bit of time I'm going to go over our top 10 on that list and if you want to say thank you you can click the link to the full article in the description and give the whole list to read now before I get into this top 10 I want to talk really quickly about the methodology behind this list when you go to make a list of the top games of all time you have to ask yourself what you actually mean by that prompt are we talking about the most influential and important games of all time a list like that is really valuable but also it tends to favor games that are foundational older games that kind of laid the groundwork for what would come now on the other side of it you could also look at this as a list of truly the best games of all time games that are the culmination of Decades of work and developers riffing off one another but on that end of the spectrum you also end up with a lot of recent games I mean you really wouldn't want to put Super Mario Brothers on the list when you could put Super Mario Odyssey on it right so for our list we wanted to go somewhere in between we still wanted all these games to feel important and influential but we also wanted ones that you could go back to in 2023 and really get something out of and that's hard when a lot of older games don't necessarily hold up super well so when looking at these games our Focus here wasn't necessarily on the word fun obviously there are some games that are on our list that are just pure fun experiences but with some of these older games we were thinking about experiences that were engaging in some way and let me give you an example of that the 2016 version of Doom is probably more fun and refined than the 1993 original but you still get so much out of playing that original version of Doom you get to see how it laid the groundwork for the modern shooter and that feels incredible it's like going back to early Cinema and seeing all these camera techniques being born right in front of you so we just wanted to strike a really healthy balance between that on their list and I think you'll see that in this top 10. now before we get into the top 10 let's do a quick lightning round this will kind of prepare you to see how outraged you're going to be by the rest of this list here are a couple of games that were just off our top 10 but I think are worth shouting out in 2023 you can't have a list like this without the last of us a game that set the template for what a modern AAA Cinema attic action adventure game looks like and it's still influential today just look at the HBO series that is changing the way we're thinking about video game adaptations of course we have to shout out the Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim a fantastic open world game on its own right but the reason it stands out to us is the community around it and the modding scene that shows that there's always more life in a game once it gets in the hands of really dedicated fans you may be surprised to learn that Wii Sports is high up on our list but I challenge you to find a game that you could hand to your five-year-old niece and your 80 year old grandmother and have them both understand and have fun playing it is a fantastic game and it might be my pick for the best game of all time though my co-workers would not let that happen and finally we do have a Pokemon game on this list but it's probably not the one you're thinking of rather than going with red and blue we actually wanted to go with the game that perfects that formula the best and for us we think that's Pokemon Heart Gold and soul silver the Nintendo DS remakes of gold and silver these are games that really lock the Pokemon formula down and if you're going to have somebody play one game that represents the series we think these are the best choices with those out of the way let's get to the actual top 10. all right at number 10 it's a Super Mario 64. Eat Your Heart Out Chris Pratt now look this was one of these games that actually we had a lot of debate about there was a lot of conversation about whether or not we should put Super Mario Odyssey in this slot instead which is the most refined 3D Mario game but we kept coming back to Super Mario 64 and I think there's a really good reason for that on the influence side obviously this is the game that taught us all how to move in 3D space and taught developers how to make games in 3D space it's kind of patient zero for modern 3D games but beyond that I think few experiences are as joyful as this even other Mario games every little piece of this is memorable from the outside of Princess Peach's castle to Crown pounding a chain chomp in the first level to dropping a penguin off the side of a cliff something that you really shouldn't do that's horrible even today few games transport you to another world as well as Super Mario 64 does everything about it is just so inviting you almost want to jump through your TV screen like Mario jumping through a painting so even if its visuals are a little blocky or its movement a little stiff by today's standards Super Mario 64 still has a rightful place in our hearts it's a game that encourages exploration in a joyful manner that reminds us why we love video games all over again at number nine it's Half-Life 2. now this one probably won't come as much of a surprise to some PC Gamers out here when this game launched it was a huge huge deal not only did it raise the bar for video game visuals at the time but it was a truly revolutionary first person shooter as well that was for a lot of different reasons one is the way that it worked puzzling into its gameplay there were a lot of really really great physics puzzles in this game that still really hold up to this day and on top of that there's so much incredible environmental storytelling that happens in this game you didn't need to have NPCs filling your ear with lore you could see so much of the story in the world around you and that made for a really special experience that a lot of games still haven't quite lived up to in the same way now I think you can see the DNA of this game in a lot of modern Shooters but Half-Life 2 still Reigns Supreme as a master class in atmosphere if you've never played it before you should check it out and see for yourself view Tales are totaled of Hades whose very name inspires and penitence at number eight we have what I think is the biggest surprise on this list it's the Indie roguelike Hades now a lot of really great indie games are featured on our top 50 from disco Elysium to Celeste but Hades was the one that we all really really gravitated towards at first it felt a little weird to have it in the top 10 considering it's a fairly new game that came out in 2020 but the more we talked about it the more it felt Justified there's a lot that's incredible about Hades and the action is obviously a clear standout here the way that perks and Boons combine to make it so that no two runs feel the same is truly extraordinary and I don't think any other game has done it as well as this but what we really love about Hades is the fact that it's so good at making you feel like you are never wasting your time and that is so hard in a roguelike I mean that's hard in games in general who hasn't played an RPG died in a half an hour boss fight and thought what what am I doing with my life with Hades you never really have that moment you're always progressing no matter what even when you die on a run you're learning more about these characters you're moving the story forward you're collecting materials that let you upgrade your underworld base you're getting new abilities and unlocking weapons all of those things make it incredibly easy to lose yourself in Hades I think I've spent over 100 hours in this game and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface if you forced me to pick a desert island game I honestly think it would be Hades there's just no bottom to this thing foreign at number seven we've got the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time now this one's interesting 10 years ago this would be number one on the top of every single best game of all time list but it's actually been a little more controversial in recent years there's been a lot of discourse about how this game is held up with a lot of people mentioning that the Nintendo 64 has not been super kind to it it may not be the most refined Zelda game mechanically but to us it's still one of the most important ones and that's because it's one of the only video games that kind of feels equivalent to Classic canonical Literature Like You know when you're learning about literature and they make you read the Canterbury Tales or something like that these really foundational stories that really show you the evolution of writing that's kind of what Ocarina of Time feels like to us today it feels like that building brick both in terms of how developers would learn to make 3D adventure games but also it's kind of the quintessential Heroes Journey story within video games it is a Timeless Timeless Tale in a way that I think a lot of games don't really capture there's something classical about it so even if this is a game that maybe doesn't feel totally great to play by today's standards I still think you can go back to it and have a really strong experience with it it's the kind of game that should be on a syllabus for any class teaching you about the history of video games at number six it's Minecraft now this one might have some people rolling their eyes especially if you didn't grow up with this game but honestly it's hard to deny the importance of Minecraft it has been a powerful powerful educational tool that is almost operated as a modern sandbox for younger players it encourages creativity through its excellent building mechanics it almost feels like modern Legos and I think Minecraft was incredibly ahead of its time too I mean look at where it is now it kind of is a successful metaverse a digital space that people can really soak into a lot of people have chased this idea trying to replicate what Minecraft does and failed I'm looking at you Mark Zuckerberg there's a lot of reasons that Minecraft has been able to pull this off obviously the live service support for it over the years has been incredible and something that I think a lot of developers are probably envious of but beyond all of that Minecraft is just incredibly fun it's survival and building mechanics are really easy to get into but have an incredible amount of depth to them it makes for something that a kid can play very casually but you can also create some really wild inventions in it that are jaw-dropping so even if Minecraft isn't for you I think we can all agree that it deserves a little bit of recognition on this list and if you think it's too high let us know in the comments okay we've made it to the top five and let's start it off with an easy one at number five we've got Pac-Man now I could sit here and describe what Pac-Man is but I think we probably all know what it is at this point and that is thanks to the fact that this is one of the most iconic and easy to communicate games of all time so instead of going deep into explaining what the maze game really looks like let me tell you an anecdote instead that really speaks to the power of the game for me on a recent trip I found myself in an airport that had this arcade cabinet it was loaded up with a bunch of Atari games and Pac-Man was on it now I did have my Nintendo switch with me and a bunch of modern games that I was itching to play but I was drawn to that cabinet I walked over to it loaded up a game and immediately got sucked into it but what was more incredible to me was that while I was playing it a random little kid ran up and just started watching it behind my back he was transfixed on it just as much as I was now these are kids who were growing up in the age of fortnite games that are much more complex and look prettier but he still was drawn into Pac-Man he actually kicked me off the machine to play it himself I think that speaks to the timelessness of this game it's so so easy to see someone playing it and just understand hey that looks like fun and I want to try it now even though this formula was perfected a little bit later with games like Miss Pac-Man we still feel that Pac-Man is a foundational game that deserves its spot on this list I kind of want to go play it right now okay so here's an interesting one at number four we settled on the Legend of Zelda breath of the wild that's right two Zelda games in our top 10 and I think that honestly that's very earned we're six years removed from breath of the Wild's release now but I think its influence has been very clear it's easy to see why people really grasped onto this open world design at the time a lot of games in the genre kind of give you a map that's full of icons and as you play you check things off the list until the world becomes Barren breath of the Wild's kind of the opposite of that when you start you have nothing you have to discover things for yourself and as you do that the map actually fills up with icons reminding you of everything that you've done it becomes a document of your journey in the world and that's a really smart inversion of the open world formula however what really sells this game for me is the fact that six years later I still routinely see videos of this game with people doing things that I never thought was possible in it I mean I remember when it first came out and seeing a flying machine for the first time and thinking wow that's crazy people really busted this thing open but nowadays that seems like nothing people are orchestrating wild stunts in the game having link flip up in the air in a motorcycle and blow up three Guardians with a well-placed arrow things like that make this game constantly exciting it feels like we haven't found the end of what's possible in this game and honestly that's an incredible feat even with something as massive as Elden ring I kind of felt like I'd seen everything there was to see after a year of it with breath of the wild that is not the case and that makes it a special experience that I just want to go back to over and over again but note that we're releasing this video right before the Legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom comes out so who knows maybe this list will change the next time we update it three fit Choice it's Super Mario Bros 3. now a lot of the things that I I said about Super Mario 64 honestly are completely applicable here once again this really shows the power of Nintendo and its ability to create really joyful experiences that encourage the act of play but Super Mario Brothers 3 feels even more Timeless it's a game that I have come back to at multiple points in my life as a kid as a student in college as an adult no matter how I play it on what console I play it on it is still consistently one of the most fun experiences I have with a video game now that is largely thanks to the fact that it is just an incredibly refined 2D platformer with some of Nintendo's best level design ever I mean I bet you could list all of the power-ups or the themes for every World off the top of your head without thinking about it for too long now there are games like the last of us that are incredible because they tell really deep stories that make us think about the human condition but Mario Brothers 3 is kind of the other side of that this is a game that's pure entertainment but it's not empty entertainment it's almost like a fountain of youth anytime I go back to it I'm transport it back to my childhood I'm that kid playing early video games for the first time and thinking that anything is possible just completely taken by all the sights and sounds it's so easy to get cynical with these gigantic modern video games that take hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to produce but there's a simple simple joy to Super Mario Brothers 3 that seems like it'll never fade these next tests require cooperation consequently they have never been solved by a human that's where you come in you don't know cry you don't know fear you don't know anything you'll be perfect okay our runner-up for the best video game of all time at number two it's portal 2. now this one almost surprised me at first but looking at the data it actually made a lot of sense as a peek behind the curtain we had a council of about five people who put together this list but we didn't want it to just be the opinion of only those people so we pulled a ton of people within Digital Trends from staff writers to Freelancers to people who weren't even necessarily Gamers quote unquote and what we found was that portal and Portal 2 ended up on the top of a lot of lists so it became clear right away that it should be pretty high on ours too and it's really easy to see why both portal games but especially Portal 2 almost feel like magic tricks the active creating a portal and walking through it and coming out somewhere else is the kind of thing that you can only accomplish in a video game it's the kind of sharp puzzle game that makes you feel like a genius smart portal placement is always going to result in some sort of Eureka moment that's just so satisfying to see unfold now on top of all that there's also the game's humor which I think has been maybe more important than we give it credit for it is a hilarious game and in some ways I think it kind of built what modern humor looks like on the internet maybe for better or worse but in this game for better with memorable characters like GLaDOS and Wheatley a fantastic multiplayer mode and a perfectly engineered single player mode that never overstates its welcome Portal 2 truly is one of the greatest games of all time and something that we can return to over and over again which I guess we're gonna need to since valve doesn't really make games anymore I'm not saying that we need Portal 3 anytime soon but you know just saying okay it's the moment we've all been waiting for Digital Trends pick for the best game of all time is Tetris now there was actually no debate about this one when we first asked ourselves what we thought the best game of all time was pretty much everybody agreed on Tetris right away there was never a question about what was going to be in this top spot and that speaks to the power of this game there just isn't a game that's as elegantly designed as Tetris the tetramino stacking formula was honestly perfect when it first released and it's only gotten better over time I mean no matter what way you slice this game it's still good look at something like a Tetris effect which is one of the best VR experiences out there or something like Tetris 99 which is a fantastic Battle Royale game that doesn't seem like it should work but really really does all of this speaks to the Elegance of this formula something that puts you into this Zen Flow State that just feels incredibly good to play while still being challenging for those who want to play it at a really high competitive level and what we love about this most of all is that it's Universal you don't need to speak a certain language or be a certain age to appreciate this game it feels like something that anybody can easily pick up and enjoy and that's something that's really unique about video games operating at their best they can feel like a shared experience that breaks all barriers anyone can pick this up and have fun and that's something that we admire in an age where games aren't necessarily always as approachable there are no complex controls to learn you don't need to know a certain language to understand its story it's just Tetris plain and simple Tetris and it's perfect\n"