by Jason R. Peters

Created on: January 07, 2009   Last Updated: March 01, 2012

There are literally thousands of video games by now; perhaps millions. Sometime when you're bored, browse a ROMs site for old Sega and Nintendo titles that you've never even heard of. You'll be amazed.

Classifying "the best EVER" is quite difficult given such a body of work, especially for a lifelong gamer. Since games have vastly different goals and approaches, and are even creating new genres of gaming every year, this is also tough to quantify. Games which primarily pit the player against the environment to test reflexes and dexterity (platformers) are vastly different in design from games meant to tell a story, sometimes over 50 to 100 hours of combined play (role-playing games).

At best, I think we can only identify "best of breed" for each genre.

BEST PLATFORMER: Super Mario 64 by Nintendo, hands down. There isn't even a contest in my mind on this one. The ability to run and jump and swim in 3D, yet still try to solve the same familiar puzzles from the series was an unprecedented breakthrough in gaming history, and yet the controls remained intuitive and gameplay simple enough to immerse a player within minutes. 3D platformers since then have become wonky and lopsided by comparison in their attempts to introduce even more options.

BEST REALTIME STRATEGY: Starcraft by Blizzard. While many RTSs have tried to bring additional elements to the field, such as film relevance (Star Wars: Empire at War), historic accuracy (Rome: Total War), additional sandbox elements (Empire Earth and Age of Empires series), or more control options (Supreme Commander), Starcraft remains a stellar (no pun intended) example of balance between factions, multiple gameplay styles allowed, and millions of strategic options for both small skirmishes and full-scale wars. And it did so without introduce so many units and upgrades that they became impossible to remember or learn, like so many of its successors.

BEST MASSIVELY-MULTIPLAYER ONLINE: World of Warcraft, by Blizzard. I've tried quite a few MMOs, and each new one has one or more new gimmicks to lure the next generation of players in. But WoW stands alone as one of the most immersive worlds, accompanied by outstanding customer service and constant tweaks for balance and improved gameplay. For starters, the interface is so simple a beginning gamer can begin playing in seconds, yet for the experienced hardcore gamer, there are raid bosses which require 25 players to strategize in advance and execute with precision and intelligence

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