A couple of weeks ago, I was vibing in Discord with some fellow gamers when I came across a redux of IGN’s Top 100 Video Games of All Time. To many people, this statement this means nothing but for many netizens who actively pay attention to gaming news, this is the equivalent of hearing that the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus has come to town. Jokes aside, the list was interesting to say the least and I love it when ranked lists come out for various reasons—mainly because they make for great banter between friends. However, as I continued to struggle to scrounge up some sort of topic to rant about this week, I figured that I could take that concept and spin it into something a little more applicable. That is to say that people can take a look at the questionable nature of most ranked lists in order to highlight the importance of rationality when discussing their likes and dislikes.

Oh, and for anybody who’s curious about what caught my eye in a funny way on IGN’s list, you can find those items below with snarky summaries of why I saw them in that way:

• #91) Animal Crossing: New Horizons: while being the best addition to the Animal Crossing series, I felt that part of its praises was inflated due to its fortunate release date which was during US stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19. If I were to suggest a game to replace this one, I would opt for Stardew Valley because I believe that it offers a level of art direction, music, writing, and creative freedom similar to its triple-A constituent but with just a bit more in-game options for variety outside of finding a way to payoff your home property (I.e., character dating options, dungeon combat)—add the fact that the entire project is helmed by one man, Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, and the game becomes that much more of a love letter to peaceful farming sims that came before it.

• #84) Resident Evil 2 (Remake): for all of the praises that IGN cites for this game—redefining what a remake could be, introducing newer generations to a classic survival horror game, and catering to familiar veterans with nostalgia—one can make the same case for Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro’s P.T., a playable teaser for the tragically canceled Silent Hills video game. However, unlike the Resident Evil remake, the game’s unsettling and disturbing atmosphere need not be reliant on the familiar as you investigate the hallways of an unknown house trapped in infinity all while learning more and more about the possible blood that was once splattered along its walls.

• #52) Counter-Strike 1.6: despite being one of the first games to propel any semblance of a proper competitive gaming scene on a large scale, I’m perplexed as to why they didn’t go with the peak of a first-person shooter like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive—a game that’s managed to spruce up its visuals and canonize popular mods into game modes now commonplace in pro play—that’s managed to establish the game as a pillar of professional esports.

• #38) The Last of Us Part 2: a general bruh moment in developer Naughty Dog’s library due to gambling on writing (spoiler alert: the writing’s scuffed) rather than trying to build on/renovate technical gameplay aspects from the first game in the series. For more elaboration on the bruh moment, watch this neat video.

• #35) Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: it can be argued that Civ 6 managed to patch itself over time but I would counter that the game stands as a testament against the titular Meier’s 33/33/33 philosophy for game design and that IGN should’ve picked Sid Meier’s Civilization V as the prime representative for the series and turn-based 4X strategy video games as a whole.

Okay, writing those blurbs took a lot longer than I thought. So, just to make sure you’re still with me, we’re talking about the importance of rationality in defining your preferences In this case, that would mean being able to have some sort of metric in terms of judging something. Now, for something so closely associated with subjectivity such as video games, coming up with separate categories representative of quality may be a bit of a daunting task especially if one lacks any actual game design experience. But that seems to be the usual for most publications if the outlet in question opts for the purely democratic option—the inclusive superlative list— for constructing such articles (asking 100 writers within the company to pick their number one pick for their best game overall). However, I’d like to draw attention to a content creator who’s known for creating best-of lists in the best way possible through an exclusive superlative list model—ironically, the then-independent and now-IGN-claimed CineFix on YouTube. In CineFix’s case, a format that doesn’t vie for a two-dimensional worst-to-best alignment but rather a 10-sub-category approach to create more of an amalgam profile of a medium/category rather than a single-face profile. Then again, I understand that IGN’s gotta make headlines from time to time so hot takes are probably key strategies for marketing—in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the writing staff even gave a fuck about the list’s quality but I digress. What I’m trying to say here is that CineFix is great because, by approaching a familiar format in an unconventional manner, their personal metric for judging the subjective—because even if opinions are inherently subjective, that does not excuse them from scrutiny so it’s within one’s best interest to have some sort of reason for believing in whatever you believe in.

With all that said, allow me to apply this sort of approach to attempt to remedy IGN’s flawed list by proposing my own top 10 video games of all time [as of February 2022] based on the following criteria:

• Initial critical and fan reception

• Current critical and fan reception (as many games include downloadable content and/or can be open for player modifications)

• Modern playability

• Cultural Impact

Author’s Note: halfway down the list, I did have to skimp on detail which, understandably, seems antithetical to what I’ve been writing about thus far. With that said, please leave a comment if you wanted to know more about some of my lighter blurbs after you hit the bottom of this piece.

Starting the list, I’d like to take a look at platformers, action games focused on physicality and mainly centered around jumping and traversing through foreign digital lands. This is the type of game that your grandparents probably think about when you tell them about video games—think about Donkey Kong 64, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, [as weird as it sounds] Pitfall!, Super Metroid, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and Mega Man—but has since then evolved alongside its visual graphics and mechanics to transport players into different worlds just like in any other creative medium can such as the case with LittleBigPlanet, Limbo, and Super Meat Boy. However, if we’re talking about the peak of platform games, you have to go with Shigeru Miyamoto’s golden boy, Mario, and while the arcade iteration of Donkey Kong and the original Super Mario Bros. are deserving of this title (there are a lot of Mario games that could be considered if I’m being quite honest), I’d much opt for the best incarnation of a timeless franchise with Super Mario Odyssey for being able to marry modern gaming motifs with classical level design to create a love letter to a series still going strong.

Moving on, let’s talk about shooters—games with guns, lots of guns. And while simple in concept alone, it’s important many aspects that can influence the overall experience of a shooter such as player end-goals/objectives to how the player’s camera is set up in order to differentiate a shooter game from its peers. Think about Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Fortnite, Doom (the original 1993 version), Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Overwatch, Gears of War 2, Splatoon, Half-Life 2, Destiny, Cuphead, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and then think about how each of the games play—it might be like comparing barbecue chicken to barbecue pizza. But when it comes to mass appeal and being a part of the cultural zeitgeist for several decades, you can’t bring up this conversation without mentioning the master chief from the Halo franchise, of which I choose Halo 3 for its improvements on the previous game’s story and multiplayer mode—and not just because the TV series is expected to come out later this year.

Keeping on with the theme of combat and general violence, I think it’s time that we start to think about the world of fighting games. This is the category that introduced “wombo combo” into the average gamer’s lexicon and focused on maintaining game balance while varying playstyles. This is competition at its most intimate as it’s just you versus the game or another eager player looking to lay-eth some smack-eth down preferably in front of a roaring crowd. This is Punch-Out!! for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Street Fighter II, Soul Calibur II, Mortal Kombat 11, and more recently Dragon Ball FighterZ. The block here’s bigger than ever before but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my pick for this category for its accessibility to casual players and its potential for high-level mechanics for pros: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Contrary to popular belief, video games aren’t always about violence. Sometimes it’s about journeying and immersing the mind in a complex narrative that interacts with you in real time which is the case for the adventure game genre. Unlike the previous entries of the list, this particular genre does exhibit five definitive attributes: problem solving, having an interactive narrative, exploration, assuming the role of a main character, and collecting/handling items. It’s because of this simple list of requirements that the genre’s produced many eccentric and varied titles in terms of art and story direction such as Grim Fandango, Myst, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead. But if we include a sixth component, action, to the criteria you get games like The Last of Us, Left 4 Dead 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Silent Hill 2, Tomb Raider (1996), or the majority of the Legend of Zelda series—specifically The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for being the first to delve into darker aesthetics and cinematic tones within the series and coming out on top. Add the fact that it expanded on Ocarina of Time’s mask mechanic (an element of the game where the player could transform into a different being depending on what mask they put on, presenting new abilities while in the new form) and introduced an in-game time limit to create a sense of foreboding dread akin to an Edgar Allen Poe poem and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a cult classic.

Best Puzzle Game of All Time: Tetris

Notable Games to Consider: Portal 2, The Witness, Braid, Fez, Bejeweled

Best Role-Playing Game of All Time: Pokémon Gold / Pokémon Silver

Notable Games to Consider: Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VII, Hades, Disco Elysium, Chrono Trigger, Mother, Deus Ex

Best Simulation Game of All Time: Stardew Valley

Notable Games to Consider: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tokimeki Memorial, The Sims 2, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)

Best Strategy Game of All Time: Dota 2

Notable Games to Consider: League of Legends, StarCraft 2, Sid Meier’s Civilization V, Fire Emblem Awakening

Best Sports Game of All Time: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Notable Games to Consider: Rocket League, Gran Turismo (1997), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2

Best Massively Multiplayer Online Game of All time: World of Warcraft

Notable Games to Consider: Final Fantasy XIV, EVE Online

Never Fade Away (SAMURAI Cover) P.T. Adamczyk, Olga Jankowska Video Games by Tyrone B.

Hey, everyone, it’s me. I’m very tired after writing this thing but still glad I did it for whatever reason. Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone who read this and to also spread some good news: I finally got some of my writing accepted for publication. a poem to be exact which I find incredibly ironic considering my attitude towards modern poetry but, fuck me, I’ll take this W. And, of course, after that bit of writing comes out, I’ll be sure to let you all know where to find it if any of y’all are curious enough to read it. Also, this means that I’ll have to find a tattoo parlor somewhere near to get something inked to commemorate the occasion. Anyway, thanks again—I’m gonna go pass out now.

Thank you for reading this edition of The Morning Owl. If you liked what you saw here, please leave a like, subscribe, leave a comment, and share this newsletter. Until we meet again, do take care.

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