The VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time, #70-61 - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 11 May 2009 / 60,086 Views

The VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time, #70-61

By Stephen Kelley

Welcome , one and all, to the fourth edition of our Top 100 games countdown. This particular list carries a sense of retro gaming creeping into the countdown. As with the other lists, keep in mind that this list was voted on by you - the entire community here at VG Chartz.

70. Suikoden II

suikodenII-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga suikodenII-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

After the surprise hit of Konami’s Suikoden, they knew that they had a surefire franchise on their hands. Just like its older brother, Suikoden II appoints you to collect the “108 stars of destiny” to destroy evil once and for all, or a few years as the series has told us. Suikoden II takes place years after the events of the original Suikoden, and centers around an invasion by the Kingdom of Highland of the City States of Jowston. The series's trademark music arrangements and details to characters all return to make this one of its fans' favorite games of all time. With alternate character choices, 108 characters to collect with around 75% of them playable, this game is is hailed as one of the most flexible and engrossing games out there.

Platform PS1

69 . Bioshock

bioshock-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga bioshock-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

First person shooters can sometimes seem a bit derivative in their execution. Most are darkly lit gray and brown affairs, with largely the same guns, and some sort of elite group of futuristic or WWII commandos to play as. Bioshock takes this combination and slaps its face, bringing the player a solid storyline, branching paths, and a dash of survival horror flair. Set in an alternate history version of 1960, the game places the player in the role of a plane crash survivor named Jack, who must explore the underwater city of Rapture, and survive attacks by the mutated beings and mechanical drones that populate it. The game so far has done very well and is now the first part of a planned trilogy, and seen as a modern classic.

Platform: X-box 360 and later PC and PS3

68. Banjo Kazooie

banjokazzioe-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga banjokazzioe-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

After the success of Donkey Kong Country , Rare was on cloud nine as one of the premier platformer developers. Seemingly out of nowhere they struck gold again with Banjo Kazooie. The game is set on Spiral Mountain, where a bear named Banjo lives with a bird named Kazooie. Gruntilda the witch kidnaps Banjo's sister, Tooty, to steal her beauty via a transformation device. Banjo and Kazooie set out on an adventure to rescue Tooty. The game went on to be a huge success for the Nintendo 64, and spawned 2 sequels, the latter being on the X-box 360 and a handheld game.

Platform: Nintendo 64

67 . Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

supermariorpg-1.png picture by BengaBenga supermariorpg-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

1996 saw the release of a game born of one of the last flings that Nintendo and Square had before Square headed for Sony territory for almost ten years. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars showcases all of the main Mario staples, including Mario, Bowser, Peach, and Toad, as well as newcomers like Geno and Mallow in a turn based RPG. The game was (at the time) one of the few instances where Mario and Bowser seemed to bury the hatchet and work together, a trend that continues to this day.

Platform: SNES

66 . Final Fantasy IV

FFIV-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga FFIV-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

Here we have it, one of the most beloved games in the Final Fantasy series; one that has been remade quite a few times, and is one of the few games of the series to get a true sequel. The player takes the role of Cecil, a Dark Knight from the kingdom of Baron, on his journey to save the world from the evil Golbez. Struggling to prevent Golbez from acquiring powerful Crystals, Cecil learns of his heritage and travels through three realms to battle Golbez's minions. Final Fantasy IV introduced the “Active Time Battle” (ATB) system to the series, a staple that stayed until the most recent iterations.

Platform: SNES

65. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

sonic2-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga sonic2-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

Ah, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the game that made me a Sega fan. Taking ideas from the original game and improving on them in almost every way, Sonic 2 not only introduced a new playable character in Miles “Tails” Powers, but introduced a mechanic of tandem tag-team cooperative gameplay that has been used in many ways since then. Not only was Sonic faster this time, but the story of his epic battle with Dr. Eggman (Robotnik for us western gamers) was bigger than ever, culminating on a ship strangely similar to one dreamed up by George Lucas. For fans of fast platformers this is the watermark that all other games must try to match.

Platform: Genesis (Megadrive)

64. Shenmue 2

shenmue2-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga shenmue2-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

Do you know where I can find some sailors? With all kidding aside, Shenmue 2 is one of the best-loved games that nobody played . The reason for this was that a complex web of deals kept Shenmue 2 out of America for a few years, and it was not until an updated version rolled onto the X-box that most people got a chance to play it. European fans got all of the original goodness complete with the original Japanese audio on the Dreamcast. Shenmue 2 begins shortly after the conclusion of the first Shenmue . The game follows Ryu through Hong Kong as he looks for Master Lishao Tao, a quest imparted to him by his friend in the first game. This is so he can eventually track down the man who killed his father. Shenmue 2 is notable for its creative use of cinematic QTE (quick time events) seen very regularly in many games today.

Platform: Dreamcast

63. Doom

doom-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga doom-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

Here we have it the granddaddy of the first person shooter. If Wolfenstein 3-D was the Rolling Stones of First person shooters genre, Doom was definitely the Metallica. Created in 1993, Doom started a tidal wave of shooters, and almost single handedly ushered the genre into the mainstream. The story follows a team of space marines as they investigate a set of weird happenings on Mars, only to find that a portal to Hell itself has opened there. Aside from its accomplishments, no game other than possibly Mortal Kombat, has become the bane of politicians the world over, and is still cited by out of touch parents as a game that is “destroying our children.” Despite this Doom still has a cult following and even spawned a series of books, and a feature film starring The Rock and Karl Urban.

Platform: PC

62 . Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

ageofempires-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga ageofempires-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

After the success of the original Age of Empires game, it was a long wait before Ensemble Studios finished its sequel . What gamers got was improved in almost every way with more classes, missions, weapons and everything else. The Age of Kings is set in the middle Ages and contains thirteen playable civilizations from around the world. In the game, players aim to gather resources (including gold, water, food), which they use to build towns, create armies, and ultimately defeat their enemies. There are five historically-based campaigns, which constrict the player to specialized and story-backed conditions and a rich online component. This is one of the best loved strategy games of its kind out there.

Platform: PC

61. Persona 4

persona4-1.jpg picture by BengaBenga persona4-2.jpg picture by BengaBenga

After the surprise hit of Atlus’ Persona 3 in the western world, the company behind Shin Megami Tensei and other RPG greats didn’t waste any time getting a new installment into the hands of western gamers. Released in 2008, Persona 4 tells the story of an unnamed protagonist who does what any kid that attends school in the Japanese countryside would do : goes to class, talks to girls, hangs out with friends, warps into the “midnight channel” to save missing people. Er-what? Fans of the series saw a game that was largely untouched graphically and combat-wise from its older brother, and that’s a good thing - why change something that works so well?

Platform: PS2

Missed one? Check out a previous installment!

Numbers 80-71

Numbers 90-81

Numbers 100-91

The VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time is based entirely on votes by our members. The source for the list can be found here . Only games released before January 1st 2009 are included.

100 Comments

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ESSpaceCowboy (on 19 June 2009)

I Like just about all the games on this list.

Cheebee (on 26 May 2009)

So Banjo-Kazooie spawned 2 sequels? One on 360 and one handheld version? Erm, right, so what about the 3rd one? The official sequel to the original, Banjo-Tooie? :p Lol.

lilwingman (on 17 May 2009)

Poor FFIV.

Philipnguyen88 (on 16 May 2009)

yeah! long live Suikoden II
the Suikoden series will always be a classic game
the first two was just great
the third one was it first 3d graphic and it was good not good as the first two
the fourth one was a disappointment
and the fifth made a comeback
now lets wait the sixth one which no announcement yet still in develop will be great and exclusive to the PS3

Slimebeast (on 14 May 2009)

Damn how I love Age of Empires II. So epic and amazing. And addictive online.

AoE II is my 2nd most favorite game ALL TIME.

Pyramid Head (on 14 May 2009)

@leet gamer

bioshock mops up the floor with gears of war

and im a guy who almost got the seriously achievement in the first one, pretty much 1000/1000 on the game, so it aint like i didnt play it

BanjoSKennedy (on 13 May 2009)

Banjo made it, list is now instant win

1337 Gamer (on 13 May 2009)

cool but i just dont see bioshock over Gears of War?

Dgc1808 (on 13 May 2009)

Good list.

Retrasado (on 13 May 2009)

nice list. When you're done posting all the 10-game articles, you should post an article with all 100 games in it so we can see them all easier

Nunza (on 13 May 2009)

Not so many great strategys have appeard so far. AoE II is good beginning, but what is better than that? Maybe RA1/2, Hearts of Iron, starcraft?

perpride (on 13 May 2009)

^ yes god yes you should

weaveworld (on 13 May 2009)

And thanks again, this time spdk1.

This list i can relate to, although i really really should try those persona's... found them together for 40 euro's... should i?

DirtyP2002 (on 13 May 2009)

Shenmue should be on No. 1! I really love this game. Please Sega, I want to finish it!

PAVEL (on 12 May 2009)

I´m surprised to see Age of empires in the list... I don´t remember many people writing it... But I´m glad actually, is an excellent game...

supermario128 (on 12 May 2009)

Mario still higher! :-)

javton (on 12 May 2009)

the list should be called most popular games not "best" games

blunty51 (on 12 May 2009)

yea......so I'm gonna have to go ahead and......complain about doom being so low on the list? yea.....that'll not be great....yea....

rulo_rezn0r (on 12 May 2009)

Doom at 63?
this list now loses all credibility

sonicshuffle (on 12 May 2009)

Sonic 2. Should be lower on the list. It was the best one.

Slimebeast (on 12 May 2009)

Yay, Age of Empires II!!

makingmusic476 (on 12 May 2009)

AoEII!!

sethnintendo (on 12 May 2009)

Yea, I agree with Final-Fan. I voted both Diablo and Starcraft. They better be at least in the top 20.

Final-Fan (on 12 May 2009)

FFIV and SMRPG should be higher. FFIV probably suffered from the people who had FFVI on their list and didn't want to have FF fill 2 of only 5 slots. Personally speaking, that was true of me, and I also totally forgot about SMRPG!

@ Everpain, DAMN RIGHT! They're higher on the list, trust me. Either that or heads will roll.

Everpain (on 12 May 2009)

Still no Starcraft or Diablo... interesting. Dungeon Keeper should really make the list somewhere too, as well as at least one of the Total War games. Oh, and the original Pirates! game was absolutely legendary... Maybe X-Wing Alliance and X-Com as well. Ah, sweet memories... Ooh - System Shock 2!!!!

I appear to be exciting myself...

sethnintendo (on 12 May 2009)

Playing Super Mario RPG right now and loving every moment of it. I almost beat the game but my iguana turned off my Wii from hitting the power supply switch to off while I was on the last part (Bowser's Castle). So it corrupted my save file and I have to start over again. I am back to having 3 of the stars but it kind of sucks. My iguana is banned from roaming my room while I play this game from now on (even though I turned the power supply upside down to prevent this from happening again). It sucks that the saved files get corrupted if you accidentally lose power while playing the game.
Posted on: 05/12/09, 19:12

_mevildan (on 12 May 2009)

Considering the impact of Doom on the gaming world, I think it's position here is too low.

Paperdiego (on 12 May 2009)

getting better,.

Infinity (on 12 May 2009)

Shenmue I and II were both great Dreamcast games, but I would not put them in my top 5 of all time.

Ronster316 (on 12 May 2009)

Shenmue II in the top 65, Great stuff considering the small amount of people who got to play this amazing game.

Looks like The first Shenmue is a stone cold cert for the top 50.

Question is, how many more votes did Shenmue beat Shenmue II by?

Lets hope the Dreamcast mob voted for Shenmue over Shenmue II by a large majority.

outlawauron (on 12 May 2009)

Good list, but it seems I've lost hope for Valkyria Chronicles on this list.

toru_bozu (on 12 May 2009)

Few of my favorite games land here... Nice list though :)

tuoyo (on 12 May 2009)

Only played any of these games and have heard of only about 2.

IllegalPaladin (on 12 May 2009)

Cool, I spent a few years with Age of Empires 2. In fact, it was the first game I ever played online. The blood maps were awesome.

I'm kind of bummed though that Microsoft shut down their servers and I've thought about checking out the other service that popped up to continue to support the online. However, none of my friends play the game anymore.

Turin Turambar (on 12 May 2009)

Nooooo!!! I hoped that Age of Empires 2 was higher in that list...but it seems it didn't get so many votes

PS3beats360 (on 12 May 2009)

I hope the Top 10 games on the list will be all on the PS3. If not I will be really upset.

Kasz216 (on 12 May 2009)

I want to say I did at some point. Been a long time since i did vote though and my favotires change.

perpride (on 12 May 2009)

soriku - you are right I am getting more impressed with these lists as we go on.

chris1_16 (on 12 May 2009)

Banjo Kazooie and Sonic FTW!!!!!!

amp316 (on 12 May 2009)

No way in hell Doom should be rated higher than Bioshock. I'm going by Okey Dokey's newer is better philosophy.

Zkuq (on 12 May 2009)

Some platform errors seemed, while understandable, absolutely horrible. Doom was on PS1 too (that's all official big released I can think of, though wasn't it released on XBLA? - then there's tons of unofficial releases). I thought Shenmue 2 was on Xbox? I thought BioShock's PC version was released at the same time as the 360 version? Which remind me of Xbox being written as X-box somewhere - that's one of the most horrible mistakes I've usually seen.

Yeah, unnecessary nitpicking... But some of those errors really bugged me.

While this doesn't seem too bad, I still don't think any of these games should be above MGS2. Well, maybe Final Fantasy IV and Doom; not sure. Anyway, I sure hope Doom II is higher if Doom is this low.

Demoki (on 12 May 2009)

suikoden woo, shenmue 2 woo. Remember staying up to 4am on a work night to finish it as couldnt put it down.

finalrpgfantasy (on 12 May 2009)

final fantasy 4 yeah.

Wandamaximoff (on 12 May 2009)

banjo should be way up tops!!! One of the best games evvverrrr!!!

CaptainDJ (on 12 May 2009)

Nice, It's awesome seeing Age of Empires on there! That game is fun.

benao87 (on 12 May 2009)

Good for Age of Empires II :)
FF IV deserves a lot more, :(

Quickdraw McGraw (on 12 May 2009)

Nice to see Age of Empires 2 make it, fantastic game.
Its older brother, and superior game in my opinion, Age of Mythology hopefully makes it as well.

Cthulhu (on 12 May 2009)

I am glad i see Suikoden2, i voted for this..its sad that its not higher though. For me its in the top10 ever

Araknie87 (on 12 May 2009)

And Nintendo is the best even this time, i'm surprised.

NoCtiS_NoX (on 12 May 2009)

Booo! Suikoden 2 is too low :-P but I am still happy that Suikoden 2 made it to top 100. Persona 4, FF4 and Shenmue 2 made it too. YAY!

Christhor (on 12 May 2009)

Aww Persona 4 not even in top 50? =(

MonstaMack (on 12 May 2009)

Suikoden 2 ! Yay! PC games! Yay!

carlos710 (on 12 May 2009)

Super Mario RPG deserves much higher.

dizzydee_011 (on 12 May 2009)

You guys are naming some good games! Although I don't agree with the order it's still good to know that these great games aren't forgotten.

Finnbar (on 12 May 2009)

Age of empires 2! Best FPS ever! glad this game made the list.

Pyramid Head (on 12 May 2009)

shenmue 2 is tragically low

call me a sissy, but thats a top 20 game to me :)

pearljammer (on 12 May 2009)

@Khuutra: I did! It was my number one. Shame it didn't score much higher.

Sapphire (on 12 May 2009)

<3333 Shenmue, Sonic, Suikoden and Mario RPG yay~

Hark21ball (on 12 May 2009)

Damn love most of those games... I need to try out Persona i guess. Anyone know which i should start with? IDK if they are connected at all.

Khuutra (on 12 May 2009)

Did you vote for it, Kasz?

Kasz216 (on 12 May 2009)

FF IV got robbed. IGN has it as the best FF on it's list... and i'm betting at least 3 FF top it on this one.

Epke (on 12 May 2009)

Suikoden great game, now playing Bioshock, great story! and final fantasy is one of my favorite franchise

insomniac17 (on 11 May 2009)

I'm glad to see AoE II up there. One of the best games I've ever played, whether on PC, console, or handheld. Absolutely fantastic!

darkveroth (on 11 May 2009)

WTF!!! they have announce like 15 games that should be higher rank. persona 4 should be in the 30s

Simulacrum (on 11 May 2009)

Go age of empires and bioshock.

Ryudo (on 11 May 2009)

SHENMUE! best game ever. Well I like the first more than the second but nice to see some love for the awesome series

duff4444 (on 11 May 2009)

Super mario RPG is in my top 10, one of the greatest!

nordlead (on 11 May 2009)

heck, half that list is rather old, so I don't know what you are complaining about mr. cool

nordlead (on 11 May 2009)

maybe, and just maybe, games have gotten better, not worse, as time goes on...

L.C.E.C. (on 11 May 2009)

@Smeags: Sonic 3 or Knuckles will definitely be above StH2... I am sure of it... maybe even Sonic CD...

coolestguyever (on 11 May 2009)

shakes head

If it wasn't for doom on that list I'd disagree with them all. We're talking the best games all time here, not best this gen or recently. Theres been some average games up there like GTA4 and No More Heroes.

tombi123 (on 11 May 2009)

Persona 4 is amazing!!!

Smeags (on 11 May 2009)

Sonic 2 this high up eh? :-( And with many people liking this game the best out of the series, this doesn't bode well for Sonic & Knuckles and the rest of the Sonic series.

I can still hope!

sirroman (on 11 May 2009)

Super Mario RPG! Sonic II! Age II!

Holy Cow! Yeah! Thank God they weren't forget.

Maybe I should try this Persona series, huh? ^^

mamboula (on 11 May 2009)

Hope that all Final fantasy will be in the list :D

zexen_lowe (on 11 May 2009)

To see Suikoden II chart in the 70th position, higher than a lot of high-profile titles, given that almost nobody played it, proves that everyone who played it loves it to death and shows what a masterpiece it is. Now, everyone who sees it play it so it can rank higher

Glad to see P4 chart also

theRepublic (on 11 May 2009)

Super Mario RPG was an amazing game. Great memories.

Signalstar (on 11 May 2009)

Sonic 2 was the first game I ever beat but my brother always made me be Tales. Grrr!

el_rika (on 11 May 2009)

Good list. Shenmue 2 was a great great game.

MasterZack (on 11 May 2009)

SUPER MARIO RPG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--OkeyDokey-- (on 11 May 2009)

Shenmue 2 should be listed as xbox, too. I don't think the Dreamcast version was ever released in the west. God, I hate that game.

Age of Empires 2. Fond memories...