Yes, this is the most asked question in the history of gaming forums, but let's toss nostalgia, eras, and technical limitations aside.
Imagine a world with no games. The people in this world are just like us, but they've never experienced or known a "video game." Then, imagine if in one singular moment, every video game we have ever known - from Pong to Portal 2 - was released. What would be considered the best game ever?
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And that's without having played SMG2. I think it's obviously a game that looks good, while being fairly fun, having an interesting world with lots of weird stuff would be the best. I think Mario games are relatively easy to understand, and the games are vibrant and feel alive.
I'd love for something like Xenogears to be voted best game ever, but if we go by your description, many people would think it looked so ugly compared to everything else.
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See, your premise is really bad because it'd make no sense
Also you said technical limitations aside but then you rebuke someone for choosing a game made in 1998. Bad topic.
Anyway I'll say SMB3.
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Maybe I just worded it badly - I meant you're not supposed to use technical limitations as an excuse in the way that we usually do when critiquing games.
"Oh wow, Portal 2 looks so much more impressive than Pong, but Pong is decades older."
There's none of that.
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Tetris. It has the simplicity of pong relative to what non-gamers can handle, and infinitely more variation in gameplay. You can't beat it, but you can always get better. You can show it to your friends and once they get (the admittedly simple) premise you can win them over. It takes seconds to learn and there's just no way to master it, but it's fun from beginning to end unless you just don't like that type of game.
Bejeweled is a close second for, well, the exact same reasons.
As a note, I don't care for either much, but I find their mass appeal absolutely undeniable.
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"Principally I hate and detest the animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" - Jonathan Swift BT with the victory!
If every game was released at once in their current form? I'm thinking BioShock. It's already considered one of the best games ever made due to its artistic merit and acclaimed gameplay; and it's a current gen game, so it wouldn't be looked down upon for inferior technology or whatever.
Don't get me wrong, though: even in this scenario, I think older games that went for stylized visuals over pure technological prowess would receive plenty of acclaim. Chrono Trigger, Yoshi's Island and Okami would receive plenty of love in that situation; but many games considered "groundbreaking" back in the day, like the original Resident Evil and Donkey Kong Country, would fly under the radar.
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Jeff Zero posted... I absolutely abhor Tetris. But it all comes down to something already covered in this topic:
unless you just don't like that type of game.
I really don't.
Generally speaking it'd be a good game to send off to such a world.
I hear ya brother. I've found myself enjoying Tetris only in very specific situations that generally involved multiplayer when there just wasn't an alternative. But I'll be damned if anyone says that the masses don't love that game to death. And for good reason - it's accessible to everybody. You practically don't need instructions on how to play, and if you do it's "press this button to flip, press left or right to move that direction and if you're ready to drop a piece in a hurry press down." I just taught you all how to play Tetris in less than one sentence. That's why it owns in this scenario.
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"Principally I hate and detest the animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" - Jonathan Swift BT with the victory!
From: ChichiriMuyo | #024 I hear ya brother. I've found myself enjoying Tetris only in very specific situations that generally involved multiplayer when there just wasn't an alternative. But I'll be damned if anyone says that the masses don't love that game to death. And for good reason - it's accessible to every. You practically don't need instructions on how to play, and if you do it's "press this button to flip, press left or right to move that direction and if you're ready to drop a piece in a hurry press down." I just taught you all how to play Tetris in less than one sentence. That's why it owns in this scenario.
XD True that. It's the ultimate in easy to pick up without sucking utterly just because it's a casual-friendly game.
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TheCodeisBosco posted... If every game was released at once in their current form? I'm thinking BioShock. It's already considered one of the best games ever made due to its artistic merit and acclaimed gameplay; and it's a current gen game, so it wouldn't be looked down upon for inferior technology or whatever.
Don't get me wrong, though: even in this scenario, I think older games that went for stylized visuals over pure technological prowess would receive plenty of acclaim. Chrono Trigger, Yoshi's Island and Okami would receive plenty of love in that situation; but many games considered "groundbreaking" back in the day, like the original Resident Evil and Donkey Kong Country, would fly under the radar.
Yeah... I'll buy this **** the day that Big Daddy beats L-block in a tournament. It's WAY too complex to be considered the best amongst a bunch of people that haven't had decades of gaming to prepare for it. Bioshock is exactly the "fly under the radar" type of game you're talking about except for it being current generation. You're going to have to talk it up for the next two decades just to get it to CT levels of recognition because relative to the existing gamer population it has had the same or maybe even a weaker reception. It's the game (series) that in a decade a bunch of kids will be discovering for the first time because it isn't a heavy hitter.
NO WAY IN HELL
Bioshock is BGE in Yo's given scenario.
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"Principally I hate and detest the animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" - Jonathan Swift BT with the victory!
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I'm not saying BioShock is going to be considered the best game ever right off the bat! Indeed, it's probably going to be all about the most well-made casual titles at first; such as Tetris and even Angry Birds. As those casual gamers turn into seasoned gamers, though, I think titles like BioShock would be heralded as particularly important, and ahead of their time. And then the acclaim would just build from there.
But hey, I could be totally off! It's a crazy scenario to think about.
-- CRAZY DAVE (PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES) Character Battle IX champion. Also, XxmonsterxX is a boss.
TheCodeisBosco posted... Oh, and it should be EarthBound or Yoshi's Island, BTW. Though Plants vs. Zombies, NiGHTS Into Dreams and Super Mario Bros. 1 would be awesome too.
Funny, your "awesome too" selections have way, way, WAY more of a chance of fulfilling the requirements than your "should be" selections.
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"Principally I hate and detest the animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" - Jonathan Swift BT with the victory!
TheCodeisBosco posted... I'm not saying BioShock is going to be considered the best game ever right off the bat! Indeed, it's probably going to be all about the most well-made casual titles at first; such as Tetris and even Angry Birds. As those casual gamers turn into seasoned gamers, though, I think titles like BioShock would be heralded as particularly important, and ahead of their time. And then the acclaim would just build from there.
But hey, I could be totally off! It's a crazy scenario to think about.
So what you're saying is that you refuse to answer the actual question because you love Bioshock. Okay. As long as we both agree that you are completely ignoring reality AND the given situation I guess It's okay. Even if no game came out before Bioshock it wouldn't be able to compete with much simpler games for BGE, but I'll pretend to humor you if you want me to.
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"Principally I hate and detest the animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" - Jonathan Swift BT with the victory!
SMG2, and by some distance. Variety, accessibility, aesthetics and at a push sound are probably the most important traits in this situation, and it's very strong on all those fronts vs. everything else.
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SMG2, and by some distance. Variety, accessibility, aesthetics and at a push sound are probably the most important traits in this situation, and it's very strong on all those fronts vs. everything else.
Controls and camera might hold it back, however.
-- Perry would not be electable even without those comments. Those comments just make him a joke candidate.-- redrocket
Tetris for its great simplicity in the 2D-era, Portal for its great simplicity in the 3D-era, and Braid for the most exploration of how much further video games can go than we often do today.
All three are puzzle-games I love (Portal/Braid) or enjoy (Tetris), but I don't really consider myself a big fan of the genre...odd.
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This is a weird question. If the audience was automatically "into video games" and understood a lot of the concepts automatically, maybe something like Resident Evil 4. If not and they're a normal people audience, something simpler like Super Mario Bros 3 or Tetris.
I don't think there are really that many games that actually have a prerequisite of understanding video game concepts. Any game taken on its own can probably be figured out by someone who hasn't played any video games before with enough perseverance. That said, RE4 is kind of a tough one.
I don't think there are really that many games that actually have a prerequisite of understanding video game concepts. Any game taken on its own can probably be figured out by someone who hasn't played any video games before with enough perseverance.
When I was 16 I showed my step mom FFX and tried to explain how the game worked, what she should be doing, etc. It was all a giant ball of confusion for her and she gave up before getting out of Zanarkand. I think there's a lot of games like that!
KamikazePotato | Posted 8/20/2011 4:27:21 PM | message detail | quote It would not be anything before the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox era. Games before that tend to get by these days on nostalgia and legacy.
I happen to think that games after the PSX/N64 era tend to get by on pretty graphics and name recognition, but we can agree to disagree.