Zelda game voted best game of all time--WRONG
Ocarina of Time
(Credit: Nintendo)In a recent poll conducted by Edge Magazine, readers were asked to pick their favorite video games of all time. And while it didn't surprise me that Nintendo games dominated the top 10, I was appalled at what I learned: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time finished first.
As an avid video game purist, I consider some of the games from my storied youth to be the best ever. And while Ocarina of Time warrants a 9.5 out of 10 on my made-up scale, I can think of at least three games that warrant a 10 rating. But first, let me tell you why Ocarina of Time should not be called the greatest game of all time.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was one of the most important games to ever impact the video game industry. Released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, it was the first Zelda game in 3D. A small boy with dreams of becoming a hero was summoned to the Great Deku Tree to be told of the problems plaguing the land. From there an epic adventure takes place that guides young Link through the perils of evil and helps adult Link save Hyrule and sweet Princess Zelda once again. According to analysts, Ocarina of Time sold 7.6 million copies in all. Not bad.
While the story was truly a masterpiece and the gameplay wonderful, Ocarina of Time is not the best game ever. I found the gameplay mechanics a but sluggish at times and like most Zelda games, the side quests you need to complete in order to get where you're going became a bit of a nuisance after a while. That said, Ocarina of Time is still one of the finest games ever created.
So now the question is, which game is actually the best ever? Well, I don't just judge video games on how well they played or if the storyline was better than another. The best video games are those that shape an entire industry and help make the video game business progress from its periodic years of no growth. So, with that framework in mind, I think Super Mario Bros. is the greatest game of all time.
Super Mario Bros.
Released in late 1985, Super Mario Bros. was the first game that put the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) on the map, and it was the first game to leave an indelible mark on the entire video game industry.
Super Mario Bros.
(Credit: Nintendo)For a frame of reference, Super Mario Bros.--according to the Guiness book of world records--is the best-selling video game of all time. Period.
In order to understand the impact this game had on the video game industry, you must first understand the state of the industry before the game was released. In 1983, the American video game industry crashed. With a boatload of companies going out of business and others filing bankruptcy, the second generation of video games quickly came to an end. During this time, retailers were both scared and unwilling to sell video game consoles, and a slew of video game titles already in production prior to the crash were shipped out and relegated to bargain bins.
There are a number of reasons attributed to the crash, but none are more convincing than the success of the video game industry prior to it. For a while, companies and start-ups were enjoying success and venture capitalists were willing to take a chance on a group of people who wanted to make it big in the booming video game industry. So as the market became flooded with young people creating (mostly crappy) games and consoles, consumers were left with far too many choices. With so many choices and the impending U.S. computer pricing war, consumers were forced to spread their money around. In just a few short years, the crash that so many had been fearing finally happened, and video game dominance shifted from the U.S. to Japan.
During the years between the crash and the release of Super Mario Bros., people still played their games, but sales were dropping each month. Then, a young man named Shigeru Miyamoto created the game that, for all intents and purposes, saved the United States gaming industry: Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. ushered in a new era for video games. The days of stick figures running around on the screen while they shot at another illegible object had finally given way to an Italian plumber named Mario and his twin brother Luigi. The Super Mario Bros. gameplay was truly second to none, and if you were to pick up the game today, you would still consider it the most rock-solid gameplay experience of your life. The story was, well, Mario-ish, but we didn't play that game for the story; we played it for the experience. In one fell swoop, one video game (one!) raised up a crippled video game market, and set the stage for an entirely new experience playing video games.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is truly a masterpiece that should be thought of as one of the greatest games ever created. But to call it the greatest game of all time is a serious misstatement. Unlike Super Mario Bros., Ocarina of Time was released in an era where video games were booming and sales were on the rise. Simply put, everyone was playing video games, and the game was the best of its time. But no other game in history--Ocarina of Time included--was able to save an entire industry from almost guaranteed destruction the way Super Mario Bros. did, and it is for this reason that we should all give ol' Mario and Luigi credit where it's due.
(oh and by the way, Super Mario Bros. isn't even in the top 10. Sheesh.)
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Using a bad analogy, that would be like saying a silent movie from the 20's is better than 'The Departed' because the silent movie had a big impact on the movie industry. The best game means the game that was the most fun, innovative at the time, and had the best story and characters. Ocarina definitely fits the bill for that. Super Mario Bros. was innovative at the time, sure... but a story and characters were nonexistent. (A plumber has to save a princess by jumping on mushrooms...)
Anyways my point is... while yes, Super Mario Brothers launched videogames into the mainstream, it is certainly not the best game ever because of it. Videogames are made to entertain, and if I play Super Mario Brothers and then Ocarina, it's the latter that entertains me the most.
Would anyone really rate pong a great game???
But I agree on the Super Mario Brothers thing...
Your blog reads as if you believe your opinion to be fact. If the majority believe Zelda to be the best, then it is the best, no matter how many WRONGs you put in your title.
top 10?
Smokes, :)
Edge Magazine can take their reader poll and shove it, simply put. Don't get me wrong: [i]Ocarina[/i] is a fantastic game, and its beauty is not to be understated, but if you're going to ask the Brits to rank the whole of gaming, you might as well be asking the French for military strategery (or, to be fair, Americans for weight control advice). I swear it's all because of PAL.
For the record, I disagree with your assessment that Super Mario Bros. is the best game of all time. While ground-breaking and industry reviving all at the same time, few games did in terms of technical ability, playability, and downright insane fun as was achieved by Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES.
- by The_AI January 29, 2009 4:22 AM PST
- Fail. SMB is a great game, but if you want to argue greatest game of all time, it's not it in my opinion. And you really shouldn't be a snob about the list, it IS an opinion after all.
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- by cloudsmiles1982 August 24, 2009 2:22 PM PDT
- I really don't get votes they really confuse me why popularity polls are taken to decide these things. if we did the same with pop songs some of the worst songs of all time would be up there on sales/popularity.
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(13 Comments)There were so many better games released AFTER SMB. The games that I can think of that are "perfect tens" are:
Ocarina of Time (Of course)
Super Mario World (Better than Bros. by a long shot)
Half-Life (If you don't like this game, there is something wrong with you)
Star Wars: KOTOR (Best RPG of the last decade; kind of the wild card pick, but it totally qualifies)
ocarina of time was an OK game, the graphics were the same as every N64 game every created which was very boring.
the gameplay was sluggish and in reference to the action/adventure category? there was very little action filling in the gaps of the story.
the story was a bog-standard attempt at a 'save the princess kill the bad guy' fairy tale and I think I actually saw the words 'defined the action /adventure category' or someting to that affect. the only game it seemed to influence was star fox adventures which of course was a terrifically boring game much like its over-glorified fairy brother.
oh yeah it aso felt like the story was made up and the puzzles were put in as filler.
and before you call me biast in some brand motivated by loyalty rant...DON'T i have owned every console - nintendo, sega, Sony, handheld, console whatever, i've played it.
some of these consoles had amazing games and some had bad games its the same with every console.
and 10 out of 10, 7.0 more like
i agree with super mario world, cool game but final fantasy 7 was far more epic and more action in it. also FF7 has had films and anime and numerous musical albums and concerts held and still being held to this day ten years later and the characters and characters story are still being told in spin-off titles which usually is the main reason for buying the game. This all suggesting that there was - logically - content to work with (story, characters, etc). can't see zelda having any of this, thus better story, more content, better characters, more to work with.
if there was a film for zelda i think it would just be mario bros. wouldn't it or Prince valiant maybe? see this is my point, the story is unbelievebly plagerized from other sources.
Final word:
this was of course proven by the unimaginative developers themselves when they released wind waker (ocarina of tima - again) carbon copy of ocarina of time, completely undisputable, same characters same nemisis, same story, same sluggish action, same, exact items that are picked up - megaton hammer, arrows, etc its embarrasing that this was given a 10 out of 10 never mind ocarina of time being voted the best game ever
I am embarrassed to be associated with this industry that holds this game in such high regard.
final fantasy 7 -