EDGE selects the top 100 best games of the past 30 years

The well-known magazine EDGE just turned 30 years old, and to celebrate, this month’s issue contains a ranking of the top 100 greatest games released over the past 30 years.

[-Foxtrot]

How predicable

There are dozens of games on that list which are way better than BotW and sometimes I feel like these “Top X list” makers know that deep down.

[Profchaos]

I tend to agree I played through it for the first time about 6 months ago and I really liked it but I wouldn't say it's the best game in 30 years I felt it had a lot of flaws and moments where I was bored Top 100 sure but honestly not top 10

[VenomUK]

EDGE must've put its Top 100 together before the 6th September as Starfield is not on the list.

[DarkZane]

@VenomUK it doesn't derserve to be in the top 100.

[TheColbertinator]

@venomuk

Edge was not significantly impressed with Starfield.

[LoveSpuds]

It's just opinions though Fox, whilst BotW didn't resonate with you (and many others), it did with millions of others.

Out of curiosity, do you have a personal top game? I really struggle with this question personally, I bounce between Last of Us, Bioshock and Bloodborne as my faves, but BotW is certainly up in my personal top 5.

[WiiU-Dude]

This is fair. It's completely subjective and ultimately someone's opinion, maybe a consensus of opinion with their staff, but still opinion. I don't agree it's the greatest, but I would struggle to say what is. At the moment I am playing the Personas and I absolutely love them. Persona 4 especially...maybe if asked at this very moment I would say Persona 4. Lol. Another time, Suikoden. Another Street Fighter. Ugh. Too difficult to choose for me.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I'm pretty happy that Ocarina of Time and BoTW were somewhere on the list, and both were highly rated.

[-Foxtrot]

The issue is it’s more flawed then people will admit but other games will be nitpicked to death by journalists. We’ve all seen it, they will say one game has X, Y and Z issue but Zelda it’s like “ahhh it’s not that bad, long as it’s fun”. They didn’t even criticise the weapon breakage system until like a month or so later when articles started to come out over it. That right there is pretty suss, whatever you think of the game.

Personal favourite? Of all time? No. I just can’t

However. Zelda wise? What deserves to be above BotW. Easy.

A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, so on.

[Yi-Long]

I think these lists are compiled by groups of people, so while a group of (for example) 10 folks might all, individually, have another game in the top spot on their personal list, so one will have Chrono Trigger as their no 1, someone else will have God of War, or whatever, but if BotW is in almost everyone’s top 5-10, then obviously it’s gonna add up and in the end, BotW is the overall winner …

I think many/most of us agree BotW is a great game, but I also think many of us will have a specific game or specific games that we personally just rate a little bit higher.

In the ends, lists like these are just celebrations of gaming’s high points, and of course a starting point for many discussions about which games deserve to be there, and which games should have been there in that list.

[Michiel1989]

have you ever considered that a game like Zelda has way more mass appeal than a souls game for example? Before clicking on this article, I knew which game would most likely be nr1 and that so many people would complain about it. Because of that also way more non-gamers get to play the game, I'll use my uncle as an example. The man's almost 80, only owns nintendo consoles (even the old game and watch ones) and basically only plays Zelda. If I'd ask him to give botw a rating I'm pretty sure he would give it a 9.5 or 10/10. Is that review now less legit because he didn't play twisted metal, mgs, moh, ff 6-9? No it's not, reviews are an opinion piece anyway and it's all a matter of perspective. That's why no value at all should be held to a sum of review scores and why it's honestly pathetic that you and others cry over this.

Find a youtuber or reviewer that has the same taste as you and let them inform you if you are unsure if a game is for you. People are more attached to what number the media gives a game than getting enjoyment out of a game and it's just dumb.

[Old McGroin]

@ -Foxtrot

Show us your top 100 so buddy, as that's obviously the only one that counts.

[Cacabunga]

Tetris better than God of War.. hhhhh
I feel like they just put whatever to make it sound they know about all genres..

Shenmue 1, A Link to the Past, Gran Turismo 3, Jak and Daxter, GOW 2, WipEout 3, Code Veronica, Soulcalibur for me MUST be in there..

[coolbeans]

Tetris is - unironically - better than any God of War.

https://upload.wikimedia.or...

[Sonic1881]

I enjoyed BOTW. I just don't think it should be number one

[senorfartcushion]

Easily BOTW for me

[goldwyncq]

It’s just their opinion, not an objective assessment of quality. You’re free to make your own top 100 list whenever.

[il-JumperMT]

botw is not even best zelda game on nintendo switch (and definitely not best zelda)

[Killer2020UK]

The Last Guardian sticks out like a sore thumb

[Tapani]

It is a solid list, many of them I agree with, but I'd very much replace something like Morrowind with Baldur's Gate 3, and put Divinity Original Sin II up there as well.

This is a personal opinion, but in my mind Grand Theft Auto III and V do not need to be there either, nor Outer Wilds, The Witness, Doom, Fortnite, Tomb Raider, The Sims, Fallout 3, Street Fighter IV or Minecraft.

I'd replace them and select the top games out of the likes of Xcom 2 (new), Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, The Secret of Monkey Island II, Myst, Nier Automata, Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Suikoden I-III, Shadow Hearts I-III, Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest V, VIII and XI, and Mother 3.

[Crows90]

From what I've heard...outer wilds likely needs to be on that list.

Not to be confused with outer worlds.

[LoveSpuds]

That's the beauty of these kinds of lists though, I find the Edge list interesting and your choices too. There are so many great games out there.

I would put lots of games in my list that many have probably never played, but I adored on my Amiga back in the 90s. A list without Cannon Fodder, Populous 2, Syndicate and especially Sensible World of Soccer seems sacrilegious to me 😄

Anyway dood, you have great taste in games, some great picks you suggested.

[Tapani]

Love those games! Populous 2, Cannon Fodder, Syndicate and Sensible Soccer. Had some great time with those games in the 90s. Also loved games such as Pool of Radiance, Ultima IV and V, Death Knights of Krynn, Awesome and Paradroid etc. There were so many cool C64 classics such as Way of the Exploding Fist and Last Ninja II, and Dragon Skulle.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Well GTA III pioneered the entire modern open world genre and catapulted a multibillion dollar franchise that everyone knows. Street Fighter IV literally saved the fighting genre and was a huge game in an already established household name. Not having them in the top 100 ignores that and actually doesn't make sense. It seems like you just like a lot of RPGs and fantasy games.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I feel like this list was compiled by one person instead of multiple staff members at Edge Magazine, mainly for some of the more odd games that I would not expect to be common on most of these kinds of lists.

[Machina]

They have more of my favourite games in the top 25 than I expected tbh.

[coolbeans]

Not so much top 25 for me, but the spread of the top 100 has a few of those surprises.

[OmegaSoldati]

Love to see Yakuza 0 on the list

[PhillyDonJawn]

This is a joke. Halo 2 and San Andreas didn't even make the list

[Profchaos]

For some reason they thought GTA 3 and v did be but IMO if you stack up the top GTA games of all time I'd have them closer to the bottom

[Number1TailzFan]

GTA 3 was the most boring one if you compare to all the 3D GTA games, IMO of course.

Also I would say Half Life 2 should easily be better than Halo, for 2004 it was awesome in terms of physics, and shortly after it came out it also had online multiplayer.

[PhillyDonJawn]

Exactly, there is no realm where gta 3 is better than SA.

[Vits]

Honestly, this is much less of a "basic bitch" list than I thought it would be. Particularly from the 30 and up.

[EmperorDalek]

The Last of Us 2 over Uncharted 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3. What a joke. Happy to see Outer Wilds high on the the list though.

[S2Killinit]

Last of Us 2 would be top 10 for me, original Last of Us would be top 3, Uncharted 2 would also be top 3. Ocarina of time top 3. Original Shenmue was top 4 (it blew me away somehow).

[RedDevils]

Shitty list. Top of my head, there no FFX, Kingdom Hearts, Dark Cloud, Dragon Quest, Shadow Hears, Nino Kuni, Age of empires, WOW, C&C, CS,GTA: Sand Andres and Vice City etc. I can go on even more.

[LoveSpuds]

It's just an opinion though duder, no need to take it so personally. Some of your choices would make it in to many people's lists and I am sure many of mine wouldn't make it into yours.

Just take these lists as a bit of fun, I find it really interesting to look at others lists.

[Soulsborne]

Kingdom farts

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

KH1 and 2 were pretty great, it's hard to care for the series outside of those, you can pick any reason why I think that though.

[RupeeHoarder]

These lists are always silly as they generally depend on the nostalgia level of the writer. You have to decide on the impact a game had on gaming as a whole if you’re going to create a list like this and there are certainly more groundbreaking titles ranked much lower than some others….Hades while good has no business ranked as high as it is and certainly should be lower than Street Fighter II for example which set the world and arcades on fire or Quake which set the stage for online / competitive e-sports in many ways. QuakeCon anyone? How can you not have Counter-Strike or the original Resident Evil on a top 100 also?

[RupeeHoarder]

Well sock me sideways I missed OG RE on the list, nevertheless sentiment still remains.

[Profchaos]

Yeah they really are often it comes down to an office pool

[LoveSpuds]

Loved Hades personally, but I agree CS is a surprising omission given is impact on gaming over the years.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

This feels more like someone's personal list, rather than a group of people.

[Brazz]

Very bad list. BoTW is overrated as fuck, no way it deserves number 1 spot.

[RupeeHoarder]

Agreed. Ocarina of Time is THE Zelda game and everyone knows it.

[S2Killinit]

Agreed

[Crows90]

Absofuckinglutely

[Kakashi Hatake]

Breath of the Wild is the most overrated game of all time. Just putting that out there.

[Ryuk_2007]

Nope, that would be GTA4

[Profchaos]

GTA IV is the best GTA game to date v was overrated

[Blad3runner00]

Super Mario 64 #3?

Sorry, but go back and play it TODAY and tell me if its aged well., or if its as fun TODAY, compared to games like Super Mario Galaxy.
Old games on this list should be analysed on how they play TODAY, not what the experience was when they released. Guarantee you that some of the old games on this list aren't as fun today as they were back then.

Resident Evil 4? Resident Evil 4 Remake is far superior, just from a gameplay perspective.

Lots of inaccuracies with this list. The Witcher 3 should be, easily, in the Top 5.

[RupeeHoarder]

You can’t compare old games to new games and how they play today. Mario 64 was groundbreaking for the time. It has aged much better than some others on this list like GoldenEye, that game is atrocious to go back to. RE4 remake is superior, but when RE4 came out it did things no other game did. I’d put the OG resident evil over RE4 personally though just for the impact it had on the survival horror genre as a whole. Max Payne could arguably be on this list over some others also…bullet time was a mind blowing mechanic.

[Profchaos]

Exactly look at something like gears of war in 2006 this was a revolutionary idea that didn't invent but refined third person cover based shooters before it most attempts didn't work and were just clunky so it was highly praised for exactly that fast forward 5 years and the market is oversaturated everyone is making a gears clone and suddenly gears looks far less impressive

[S2Killinit]

That is a no factor. Mario 64 was revolutionary. The games SHOULD be rated based on what they were at time of release.

[Profchaos]

Sure just posted it earlier today still holds up I'd rate it above galaxy

For me in teams of 3d Mario
1 Odyssey
2 Sunshine
3 64
4 galaxy 2
5 gakaxy
6 3d world

Old games won't win want points on visuals but the gameplay can still be fun and story better than modern iterations

I mean I still call Mario 3 the greatest game of all time so what do I know

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Strong disagree there, you have to look at the time those classics were made, there's no way they could have made Mario 64 with today's technology back then.

Those games are amazing for doing what they could with so little resources and technology available to them, there were so many limitations, watch some Youtube documentaries or something. I watched one on Pokemon Gens 1 & 2 this morning, it was fascinating what they did to get around those limitations, also how the idea of the game came about was interesting too.

Not only that, but some of those games are still very playable and fun even today, some of them are more amazing then today's games (modern budget/development cycles, gatcha, loot boxes, dlc, incomplete or buggy, microtransactions. ect... Suck quite a bit of fun out games)

[Profchaos]

Man time goes so fast when it says 30 years I had a quick look and my initial reaction was where is super Mario bros 3 them I realised I'm old af and beyond this list

But also GTA 3 and v are arguably the weaker entries sure 3 was the revolutionary one but let's be honest IV, vc and SA are unbeatable

[Shane Kim]

No heart of darkness :(

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I feel like hardly anyone played that game, I almost never hear anyone mention.

[Shane Kim]

It's one the best games ever, and only us old school gamers knows what a hidden gem that is.

[smolinsk]

1. The last of us 1
2. Elden ring
3. Red dead redemption 1.
4. Fallout 3

[razielsonofkain]

Soul Reaver being omitted from this list is a travesty.

[lukejd1088]

How is Gears of War not a top 100 game?

[babadivad]

That's pretty crazy honestly.

[purple101]

no Valkyria Chronicles

or shenmue

soul caliber 1 - dreamcast version.,

tsk-tsk

[SockeyBoy]

Shenmue is at 63

[jznrpg]

Edge is lame to me so I don’t care about what’s on their list

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Seems to be a bit of a meh list with some odd choices, there's some stuff on there I don't even recognise like Kentucky Route Zero and Inside

[Flenter]

No Super Castlevania 4??? Worthless list....

[purple101]

50 cent blood in the sand /

call of Juarez

pfhht

[Fluke_Skywalker]

Haven't looked yet but if Half Life 2 isn't top I'm not interested 😂

[Rockstar]

This list is flawed!
Chrono trigger at 67?

I dunno...

[wladisha]

A very bullshit list.

[Nittdarko]

Im just going to say it, BotW shouldn't even be in the top 50, not even the best zelda game

[Inverno]

A list of the last 20 years would've been better and even then I wouldn't agree with BoTW at number 1. There's too many games to look at and consider to pick any of the recent games as the number 1.

[mastershredder]

Celebrate your 30 years edge, as far as what the “top” games are concerned, you have as much opinion weight as drunk debating eating sidewalk pizza.

[PCgamer98]

Personally I think games like elden ring, witcher 3, and baldurs gate 3 are a far superior games to botw, but then again topics like these are always going to be highly subjective.

[lellkay]

I enjoy both BOTW and TOTK (I'm 90 hours in currently) but neither of the games resonate with me in a way, that I would class them as anything more that "pretty decent" games.., certainly not GOAT tier. I don't understand the way they are put on such a pedastal.

[smolinsk]

Top 100 lists are dumb. It's so random. Only Top 10 lists does anything

[Babadook7]

Both Bloodborne and Demons Souls behind Dark Souls? Not a popular opinion unless you're an xbox gamer, but whatever. I guess this being a Nintendo based site would explain the extreme favour to Nintendo games.