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The Video Game Canon’s 2020 Update is Here
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
The latest update to the Video Game Canon, Version 4.0, has arrived!
The Video Game Canon now includes a total of 1,232 games, which were pulled from 59 “Best Video Games of All Time” lists published between 1995 and 2020. Each game was ranked against the rest of the field using the C-Score, a formula that takes into account a game’s “Average Ranking” and the complementary percentage of its “Appearance Frequency” across all lists.
Finally, games released after December 31, 2016 were excluded from the ranking because of their newness.
Three brand new lists were added to Version 4.0 of the Video Game Canon, including “The 100 Best Video Games in History” from GQ Spain, a “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” ranking from Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, and a massive look back at “The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born” from Popular Mechanics. Alongside these new additions, updates to IGN‘s “Top 100 Video Games of All Time,” Popular Mechanics‘s “The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time,” and Slant Magazine‘s “The 100 Best Video Games of All Time” were also added to the calculation. Thanks to reader CriticalCid for providing research assistance with some of these new lists.
But even with all this new data, there was surprisingly very little movement near the top of the Video Game Canon, and the Top 3 was once again represented by Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris (#1), Valve’s Half-Life 2, and Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 (#3). There was some slight shuffling in the rest of the Top 10, but no new titles were able to crack the highest tier. Nintendo’s classic quartet of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (#4), Super Mario 64 (#5), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (#6), and Super Metroid (#10) all hung around, as did Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us (#7), Irrational’s BioShock (#8), and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption (#9).
Things get more interesting as you move further down the Top 100, especially for the 2015 and 2016 releases that now qualify for inclusion in the Video Game Canon.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to learn more about this year’s update to the big list and to explore the rest of the Top 1000.
Stan Lee, the legendary co-creator of many of Marvel’s superheroes, has died
Excelsior!
From behind his typewriter, Marvel’s Stan Lee used to answer fan mail with that authoritative declaration when he really wanted to drive home a point in his “Stan’s Soapbox” column. But there’s never enough that can be said about the man who helped define pop culture as we know it today.
Along with Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created many of Marvel’s most famous characters… The Spectacular Spider-Man… The Mighty Thor… The Incredible Hulk… The Fantastic Four… “Stan the Man” had a way with adjectives. Sadly, he passed away this morning at the age of 95.
After shepherding his comic creations towards the silver screen in the 80s and 90s, Lee lent his voice to more than a dozen video game adaptations starring Marvel’s mightiest heroes. Most often playing himself (starting with 2000’s Spider-Man), Lee closed the book on his voiceover career with an appearance in Insomniac’s Spider-Man earlier this year as a Short Order Cook.
Lee was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2008 for “his groundbreaking work as one of America’s most prolific storytellers.” The National Endowment for the Arts’s advisory committee also recognized Lee’s fight against injustice in his comics, adding, “His complex plots and humane super heroes celebrate courage, honesty, and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America’s inherent goodness.”
As Lee would say, “Nuff said!”
Viz Media will publish a Dragon Quest Illustrations artbook this December
I think it’s safe to say that the Dragon Quest franchise wouldn’t be quite as popular as it is without Akira Toriyama’s colorful character designs. Going all the way back to the franchise’s debut in 1986, the Dragon Ball creator’s unique style has helped the series stand out in the crowded RPG genre.
Late last week, Viz Media announced an English release of Dragon Quest Illustrations: 30th Anniversary Edition, an artbook that compiles a large number of Toriyama’s sketches and drawings for the series. Writing on Twitter, the publisher said that it’ll be available this December for a retail price of $34.99.
True to its title, Dragon Quest Illustrations will include an archive of Akira Toriyama’s “iconic illustrations and designs” from Dragon Quest titles released from 1986 through 2016.
The Video Game Canon: 2018’s “Version 2.0” Update
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
The Video Game Canon has been upgraded to “Version 2.0” thanks to the addition of four new lists that were published throughout the last year. Edge Magazine’s “100 Greatest Videogames” issue, Jeux Video’s “Top 100 Best Games of All Time,” Polygon’s massive “500 Best Games of All Time,” and Stuff UK’s “50 Greatest Games of All Time” have reshuffled the ranking in a big way.
Let’s take a look…
Visit VideoGameCanon.com for all future updates to this project and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Staff of Polygon name their “500 Best Games of All Time”
Polygon recently celebrated its fifth birthday with a weeklong countdown of their choices for the “500 Best Games of All Time.”
Along with a high-profile roster of special guests (including Jeremy Parish, Susan Arendt, Jon-Paul Dyson, and Benj Edwards), the site’s staff put together this massive ranking of games that includes titles from nearly every platform and stretching back to the very beginning of the medium. They even set some ground rules:
We asked everyone to vote based on innovation, polish and durability, rather than simply personal taste. We cut games released in 2017 to eliminate recency bias. And we left out sequels that we deemed too similar to the games that came before them.
Collecting all those votes together, we then combed through the data for anomalies and came up with the final order you see here.
Polygon’s final tally looks very similar to our own “Scientifically Proven Best Video Games of All Time,” and this includes their selection of Tetris as the #1 game of all time.
Insert Quarter: Remembering the Wacky Games Released in a Console’s Twilight
Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.
Now that the PS4 and Xbox One have completed their first full year on the market, it’s clear that the PS3 and Xbox 360 are slowly sliding into their golden years. The two consoles have lived exceptionally long lives, but now it’s time to say goodbye. However, that also means it’s time to say hello to some of the weird and wacky games that always appear during a console’s last days.
In light of the pending release of Yakuza 5, The A.V. Club’s Anthony John Agnello took a look back at some of these titles and reminisced about such strange offerings as Mega Man & Bass for the Super NES, Under Defeat for the Dreamcast, and Persona 4 for the PS2. Because even though those shiny new consoles look like fun, the party you’re currently at can get very interesting at the end:
Fashionably late: The same rules for when to arrive and leave a party hold true for video game consoles as well. Never show up too early. Is it exciting to get there before everyone else, maybe wait in line for a midnight release, sharing some weird, high-end booze you brought? Sure, but you’ll just end up buzzed before everyone else and playing lame games like Knack. It’s far more important to leave late, though. You never want to leave before things get weird. Parties and game consoles don’t necessarily peak when the guests do.
The full article is available for your perusal at The A.V. Club.
Posted in Insert Quarter
Tagged PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Yakuza 5
PlayStation 2 manufacturing ceases worldwide
It’s official: Sony has ceased the manufacture of new PlayStation 2 consoles for all territories. After 12 years, over 150 million consoles sold, and 10,828 games released (counting re-releases and international versions), the PS2 has earned a well-deserved place among the greatest game systems of all time.
The PlayStation 2 dominated the sixth generation of consoles, ultimately selling more than twice as many systems as the GameCube, Xbox, and Dreamcast combined. The console’s reach will surely extend far into the future, as dozens of PS2 games are regularly featured on lists of the best games of all time including Grand Theft Auto III, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
According to the latest industry rumors, Sony plans to announce the PlayStation 4 at this year’s E3 Expo. But for now, let’s remember the PlayStation 2’s amazing run. It’s likely the last time a console will dominate its competition like the PS2 did ever again.
[Source: The Guardian]
Sony discontinues PS2 shipments in Japan
What a run! After 12 years, nine months, and 25 days, Sony has announced that new shipments of the PlayStation 2 console in Japan have been discontinued. A similar announcement will probably be made for the European and American markets soon.
During the course of the system’s life, over 155 million PS2s were sold, making it the most successful video game console of all time.
It’s unlikely that any new games are still in development for the system, so this October’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 will probably go down in history as the last PS2 game ever.
[Source: Famitsu]