The Fifty Greatest Games of All Time - Ascending Order
by Brian_McInnis | created - 25 Feb 2012 | updated - 1 month ago | PublicThe best of the video and computer games I've played. In ascending order, so #1's the least, #50's the greatest. It's a safe bet there are many, many equally worthy games out there less famous than most of these. I swell with pride to note that nearly all the synopses below were written by me.
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Axiom Verge (2015 Video Game)
E10+ | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A young physicist is killed in a sudden laboratory explosion, only to awaken in the dephs of a mysterious, alien world in this retro, Metroid-inspired adventure game made entirely by one man.
Director: Thomas Happ
Votes: 179
2. The Manhole (1988 Video Game)
Adventure, Family, Fantasy
A manhole opens, a giant beanstalk rises far into a starry sky, and the player embarks on a serene Through-the-Looking-Glass-style adventure of nested worlds and eccentric creatures - and all in brilliantly rendered HyperCard graphics.
Directors: Rand Miller, Robyn C. Miller
Votes: 7
You can play the game here: https://archive.org/details/TheManholeMacintosh
3. Super Mario Galaxy (2007 Video Game)
E | Action, Adventure, Family
When Princess Peach is abducted as part of Bowser's galaxy creation scheme, stalwart plumber Mario must leap to her rescue, with the help of new celestial friends and powers.
Director: Yoshiaki Koizumi | Stars: Charles Martinet, Kenny James, Samantha Kelly, Mercedes Rose
Votes: 6,195
4. Flower (2009 Video Game)
Adventure
Float as a lone petal through beautiful surroundings and recognise the beauty, peace and serenity that is 'Flower'.
Director: Jenova Chen
Votes: 722
5. Memoranda (2017 Video Game)
Adventure
A point-and-click adventure inspired by Haruki Murakami's surreal short stories. The game tells the story of a young woman who has forgotten her own name. But is she really losing her memory?
Director: Sahand Saedi | Stars: Lisette De Artola, Monica De Leon, Andrew Dennis, Daniel J. Edwards
Votes: 11
6. The Dig (1995 Video Game)
K-A | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Three humans trapped on a distant planet discover its deadly secret which could be their undoing.
Director: Sean Clark | Stars: Robert Patrick, Mari Weiss, Steve Blum, Leilani Jones
Votes: 980
7. The Dream Machine (2010 Video Game)
The Dream Machine is an award-winning adventure game about dreams and voyeurism. It's built by hand using materials such as clay, cardboard and broccoli.
Votes: 19
8. Full Throttle (1995 Video Game)
T | Action, Adventure, Crime
Framed for murdering a motorcycle magnate, a biker gang leader tries to clear his name and take revenge on the scheming businessman responsible.
Director: Tim Schafer | Stars: Roy Conrad, Mark Hamill, Hamilton Camp, Kath Soucie
Votes: 1,710
Beware the uglified 'Remastered' version.
9. The Secret of Monkey Island (1990 Video Game)
E | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Young pirate wanna-be Guybrush Threepwood sets out to pass the Three Trials, woo the governess Elaine Marley, reach the fabled Monkey Island and vanquish the nefarious ghost pirate LeChuck.
Directors: Ron Gilbert, Hal Barwood | Stars: Dominic Armato, Earl Boen, Alexandra Boyd, Leilani Jones
Votes: 3,307
Beware the horrendous 'Special Edition' version.
10. Darwinia (2005 Video Game)
Adventure
Directors: Andrew Bainbridge, Chris Delay | Star: Maddie the Cat
Votes: 44
11. AM2R: Return of Samus (2016 Video Game)
E10+ | Action, Adventure, Mystery
This expanded, expertly crafted 16-bit fan-remake of 'Metroid II', AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) was taken down by Nintendo shortly after its brief Windows release.
Director: Milton Guasti
Votes: 36
12. Buck Bumble (1998 Video Game)
Action
In the year 2010, rural London's gardens are invaded by the Herd, a vicious swarm of pollution-mutated insectoids, and only special cybernetic agent Buck Bumble has the bollocks to save the day.
Director: Carl Graham
Votes: 28
13. Metroid: Fusion (2002 Video Game)
E | Action, Adventure, Mystery
After the Metroids were considered to be wiped out, the deadlier X parasites attack Samus. She is given a new suit after her near-death experience and returns to an empty Galactic Federation station, where something seems out of place.
Director: Yoshio Sakamoto
Votes: 945
14. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002 Video Game)
E | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After his sister gets kidnapped from their peaceful island, a young boy aims to emulate the Hero of Time by saving her.
Director: Eiji Aonuma | Stars: Nate Bihldorff, Osamu Hosoi, Asami Imai, Eiji Maruyama
Votes: 3,734
15. StarCraft (1998 Video Game)
T | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In 2499 in the Koprulu sector, a ferocious collective race known as the Zerg arrives to massacre the exiled human colonies while a highly advanced race, the Protoss, intervenes to exterminate the Zerg.
Directors: Matt Samia, Mark Schwarz, Duane Stinnett, Chris Metzen, Glenn Stafford | Stars: Glynnis Talken, Michael Gough, Paul Eiding, Lani Minella
Votes: 5,506
Including 'Brood War'.
16. Samorost 3 (2016 Video Game)
Adventure
Samorost 3 is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design.
Director: Jakub Dvorský
Votes: 99
17. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (1996 Video Game)
K-A | Action, Adventure
Trouble is brewing yet again on Donkey Kong Island and it's up to Dixie to save the captured Donkey and Diddy Kong and stop the evil Kremlings.
Director: Tim Stamper
Votes: 1,249
18. Mario Kart 64 (1996 Video Game)
E | Action, Family, Fantasy
Nintendo's finest from the Mushroom Kingdom gather to race for first place in a multi-player mayhem classic for the Nintendo 64.
Director: Hideki Konno | Stars: Asako Haruhana, Tomoko Maruno, Charles Martinet, Julien Bardakoff
Votes: 3,527
19. Ico (2001 Video Game)
T | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
On a distant island, there is a legend that anyone born with horns will bring about calamity. When such a boy is locked away in a fortress, he must work together with a girl named Yorda to flee before they can be claimed by the spirits.
Director: Fumito Ueda | Stars: Kazuhiro Shindou, Rieko Takahashi, Misa Watanabe
Votes: 1,822
20. NaissanceE (2014 Video Game)
Adventure, Horror
'NaissanceE' is a visually dynamic adventure/platforming/puzzle game taking place in a mysterious, primitive structure. The player explores the deep ambiance of a desolate, atemporal world.
Director: Mavros Sedeño | Star: Eve Chaumontet
Votes: 11
21. The Silent Age (2012 Video Game)
T | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
The story is set in 1972 and follows Joe, a janitor at Archon (a luxurious company focusing on scientific research and development), on a quest to save mankind by using time travel.
Director: Thomas Ryder | Stars: Gavin Hammon, Adam Harrington, Roger Jackson, Chuck Kourouklis
Votes: 114
22. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017 Video Game)
E10+ | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
After a century of hibernation, Link reawakens to once again save a ruined Hyrule from a great evil.
Directors: Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Hiroki Hirano, Kentaro Tominaga | Stars: Kengo Takanashi, Yû Shimamura, Kôji Takeda, Noboru Yamaguchi
Votes: 9,877
23. Knytt (2006 Video Game)
Adventure
Knytt is abducted by a flying saucer, which promptly crash-lands on another planet after hitting an asteroid. Now Knytt must track down the spaceship's missing parts in this atmospheric low-key freeware platformer.
Director: Nicklas Nygren
24. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995 Video Game)
K-A | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
When the evil magikoopa Kamek knocks Baby Mario from the grasp of his delivery stork and lands him on the remote Yoshi's Island, the plucky green dinosaur sets out on a mission to carry the baby to his parents.
Directors: Shigefumi Hino, Hideki Konno, Toshihiko Nakago, Takashi Tezuka
Votes: 2,218
25. Football Game (2018 Video Game)
Adventure, Drama
It's game night for the Purchase County Turbines and high-school football hero Tommy's sweet-heart is waiting in the bleachers - isn't she? Join Tommy for a night of disturbing discovery in this eerie point-&-click adventure.
Director: Shaun Aitcheson
Votes: 19
26. Sumatra: Fate of Yandi (2019 Video Game)
Adventure
A logger is caught in a terrible landslide, stranding him deep in the Indonesian jungle. Join him on his quest to find his best friend and coworker Ramdan, and return home to his beloved Adiratna in this old-school point-&-click adventure.
Director: Shaun Aitcheson
Votes: 11
27. Grim Fandango (1998 Video Game)
T | Adventure, Comedy, Crime
Manuel Calavera is a travel agent in The Land of the Dead who has stumbled across a ring of corruption.
Director: Tim Schafer | Stars: Tony Plana, Maria Canals-Barrera, Alan Blumenfeld, Pamela Adlon
Votes: 3,752
In this case the Remastered version's actually better than the original: The characters are in better resolution, the game's way less buggy, and the scenery's unaltered.
28. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996 Video Game)
E | Action, Adventure, Family
Just as Mario trounces Bowser for the millionth time, a giant, malevolent sword crashes into Bowser's keep, casting Mario, Princess Toadstool and Bowser far and wide, and breaking seven pieces from the wish-granting Star Road.
Directors: Chihiro Fujioka, Yoshihiko Maekawa
Votes: 1,576
See no remake, hear no remake.
29. Machinarium (2009 Video Game)
E10+ | Adventure
A point-and-click adventure in which a humble robot must free his friend from the clutches of the nefarious Black Cap Brotherhood and save the control tower of the Steampunk-like city of Machinarium from being blown up.
Director: Jakub Dvorský
Votes: 634
If possible, avoid the tolerable but inferior 'Definitive Version', which sucks out a great deal of the original game's charm.
30. NightSky (2011 Video Game)
Adventure
Players guide a marble through intricate physics puzzles against superbly rendered evening backdrops in this quiet 2D platformer from the creator of the Knytt games.
Director: Nicklas Nygren
31. Knytt Stories (2007 Video Game)
Adventure
A freeware collection of atmospheric platforming adventures designed by Nicklas Nygren and the many players who've made and uploaded their own. In the original story, Juni must shut down a machine sapping life from the land.
Director: Nicklas Nygren
32. Journey (2012 Video Game)
E | Adventure, Fantasy
A robed figure in a desolate world undertakes a journey towards a distant, glowing mountain.
Director: Jenova Chen
Votes: 4,180
This thing is one of the visual wonders of the world.
33. NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (2009 Video Game)
Adventure
After Helios sears the world to sand, the winged Nyx descends to the earth to seek her new-found lover Icarus amid the ruins of Greece.
Star: Ana de Castro
Votes: 11
34. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000 Video Game)
E | Action, Adventure, Family
After becoming the hero of Hyrule, Link stumbles into the enchanted land of Termina, where a falling moon will crush the world in three days.
Directors: Eiji Aonuma, Yoshiaki Koizumi | Stars: Fujiko Takimoto, Sachi Matsumoto, Kôji Tobe, Mari Maruta
Votes: 4,083
35. Shadow of the Colossus (2005 Video Game)
T | Action, Adventure, Drama
A young man brings a deceased woman to a forbidden land inhabited by colossal beings said to house the power to revive the dead.
Director: Fumito Ueda | Stars: Kenji Nojima, Kazuhiro Nakata, Kyôko Hikami, Naoki Bando
Votes: 4,569
36. Bomberman Hero (1998 Video Game)
Adventure
The evil Garaden Empire has attacked Primus Star, home of Princess Millian. It seems the Princess has stolen a secret data disk from the clutches of the Empire, and she safely smuggles out ... See full summary »
Director: Naruhiro Matsumoto
Votes: 88
37. Limbo (2010 Video Game)
T | Adventure, Horror, Mystery
A boy wakes up in a forest and sets off to find his sister.
Director: Arnt Jensen
Votes: 6,427
38. Inside (2016 Video Game)
M | Adventure, Horror, Mystery
Hunted and alone, a boy finds himself drawn into the center of a dark project.
Director: Arnt Jensen | Stars: Signa Köstler, Arthur Köstler, Cecilie Gellert Nielsen, Emil Groth Larsen
Votes: 4,739
39. Jet Force Gemini (1999 Video Game)
T | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Twins Juno and Vela, with their dog Lupus, as members of Jet Force Gemini must free the adorably furry Tribals from the evil interstellar conqueror Mizar and his insectoid army.
Stars: Neil Gallagher, Alastair Lindsay, Eveline Fischer
Votes: 215
'Jet Force have saved the galaxy and found my pants. What a team.' - Gimlet
40. Metroid Prime (2002 Video Game)
T | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A Space Pirate distress signal draws bounty hunter Samus Aran to Tallon IV, a world she discovers is being consumed by a terrible poison.
Director: Mark Pacini | Stars: Jennifer Hale, Vanessa Marshall
Votes: 2,203
Avoid the remastered version. It's less disastrous than most, but does great harm to the atmosphere of the game's two most beautiful regions by thinning out rainfall and snowfall.
41. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004 Video Game)
T | Action, Adventure, Mystery
Sent to assist a Galactic Federation squadron stranded on the planet Aether, Samus Aran is thrust into an all-but-lost war between the dying Luminoth race and the umbral demons known as the Ing, on a world torn between light and darkness.
Director: Mark Pacini | Stars: Jennifer Hale, Vanessa Marshall
Votes: 1,027
42. The Curse of Monkey Island (1997 Video Game)
K-A | Animation, Action, Adventure
After unwittingly turning his true love Elaine into solid gold with a cursed engagement ring, Guybrush Threepwood must find a map, a ship and a crew, sail to Blood Island and track down an uncursed diamond ring to reverse the curse.
Directors: Jonathan Ackley, Larry Ahern | Stars: Dominic Armato, Alexandra Boyd, Earl Boen, Denny Delk
Votes: 2,838
43. The Last Door: Season One (2013 Video Game)
T | Adventure, Horror, Mystery
The story follows Jeremiah Devitt, who receives a letter from his childhood friend, Anthony Beechworth. Devitt travels to Beechworth manor, where he finds that strange things are afoot. As ... See full summary »
Director: Enrique Cabeza
Votes: 133
Along with Season Two, of course.
44. Donkey Kong Country (1994 Video Game)
K-A | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Waking to find his banana hoard clean gone, Donkey Kong sets out with his nephew Diddy Kong through jungle and cavern, past temples and reef, across pine forests, factories, and mountains to rid the island of the wicked Kremlings and reclaim his bananas.
Director: Tim Stamper
Votes: 3,295
45. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995 Video Game)
K-A | Action, Adventure
Kaptain K. Rool kidnaps Donkey Kong and imprisons him high atop Crocodile Isle. Diddy Kong and his friend Dixie Kong must brave pirate ships, volcanoes, swamps, demented theme parks and deep, dark forests to rescue the gormless gorilla.
Director: Tim Stamper
Votes: 1,943
46. Kairo (2012 Video Game)
Adventure
Enter the lost world of Kairo. Explore vast abandoned monuments. Bring strange and ancient machinery back to life. Slowly uncover the true purpose of Kairo.
Director: Richard Perrin
Votes: 12
47. Super Metroid (1994 Video Game)
E | Action, Adventure, Mystery
Samus Aran returns to the brooding planet Zebes to recover the last metroid from the Space Pirates.
Director: Yoshio Sakamoto | Stars: Kenji Yamamoto, Dan Owsen
Votes: 2,354
'What do you people think you're doing, making a work of art?' — Gunpei Yokoi
48. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006 Video Game)
T | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Link, a young man from a small farming village, finds Hyrule is being consumed by an otherworldly twilight. Guided by a strange pixie named Midna, he endeavors to return light to the land and confront the usurper king Zant.
Director: Eiji Aonuma | Stars: Akira Sasanuma, Akiko Kômoto, Hironori Miyata, Junji Kitajima
Votes: 5,484
49. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998 Video Game)
E | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
A young Kokiri boy discovers that his destiny is to free the Seven Sages and save the land of Hyrule from the treacherous sorcerer Ganondorf.
Directors: Eiji Aonuma, Yoichi Yamada, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Shigeru Miyamoto, Tôru Ôsawa | Stars: Nobuyuki Hiyama, Fujiko Takimoto, Jun Mizusawa, Takashi Nagasako
Votes: 10,667
50. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991 Video Game)
E | Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Having vanquished the ghost pirate LeChuck with a soft drink, Guybrush Threepwood now seeks the treasure of Big Whoop. During his quest he discovers LeChuck is back from the dead. Once again.
Director: Ron Gilbert | Stars: Dominic Armato, Earl Boen, Alexandra Boyd, Leilani Jones
Votes: 2,531
The greatest of all video games. Beware the ghastly 'Special Edition' version.
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