Why the word greatest? Why not best, or top? Why not something more specific, like most influential? We’ve been pondering this question for a while, ever since issue 200 of games™ began looming in the near distance and the prospect of following up issue 100’s Greatest Games list became a reality. What do we mean by greatest? Well, in some ways we mean all of the things above. For us a great game is a game that is technically excellent, innovative, influential and has longevity. Many games are a few of these things, but few are all of them. As such, in the list that follows you’ll see a good mix of classic and modern titles, all of which are here because they struck the strongest balance of playability and impact, achieving an outstanding level of technical quality for their time and possessing innovation that still holds true today. Perhaps above all other things, this list of the 200 Greatest Games represents games™. These are the games that stand for us.
This list represents everything that we as a magazine value about the videogames industry. There were many that have not made the cut (our long list started at over 700), and many of them will likely be cherished favourites in your lives. But that’s all part of the fun of a list, right? Agreeing with some of it, disagreeing with the rest. All that being said, I genuinely hope you enjoy the list to follow. If nothing else, I hope it reminds you of just some of the games that have helped to shape our lives and made this industry what it is today.