The magazine racks at your local bookstore (or even your local Barnes & Noble) are mostly empty these days. And that’s doubly-true for game-focused publications like Nintendo Power, GamePro, and Electronic Gaming Monthly, all of which closed down more than a decade ago.
Those three (and many others) might be gone, but Edge endures. The venerable UK-based magazine launched in October of 1993, and it’s come back again and again to deliver thousands of pages of outstanding game journalism to readers in all the months since.
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the editors at Edge did what they do best… they put together another Best Games list. But rather than reach all the way back to Pong and the beginning of the video game industry, they kept things simpler and tried to determine “The 100 Greatest Games of Edge’s Lifetime” in Edge 390.
The editors at Edge polled “readers, former and current staff, and a broad selection of leading lights in game development and publishing” to create their list, which includes games from October 1993 (allowing Doom to sneak in at #10) all the way up to this May’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (#20).
Before we get to all the other great games from the past 30 years, I have to note that the list cheats a little bit with the inclusion of Street Fighter II Turbo (#39). Turbo‘s arcade cabinet made its public debut in December 1992, so it doesn’t really have a place on this list. That said, it’s still Street Fighter II, and you have to hand it to the listmakers for finding a loophole (in this case, the game’s November 1993 launch on the Super NES in Europe) to include one of the greatest fighting games of all time.
Moving on from that little controversy, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild earned the top spot in Edge’s list. It was joined in the Top 5 by two other Nintendo-published classics, Super Mario 64 (#3) and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (#4). And that’s not all, a full 10% of the list was comprised of games starring Mario or Link. Mario took up five additional spots, including Super Mario Galaxy (#11), Super Mario Odyssey (#41), Mario Kart 8 (#54), Mario Kart 64 (#72), and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (#81). Unsurprisingly, Link’s fourth appearance in the Top 100 was the originally-divisive The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (#87).
All told, the consolemaker claimed 16 spots in the Top 100, including appearances from GoldenEye 007 (#24), Pokemon Red/Blue (#46), and Advance Wars (#59).
But Mario and Zelda weren’t the only franchises to earn multiple spots on the list from voters. Just staying within the Top 10, you’ll find Resident Evil 4 (#5) and Resident Evil (#71), Halo: Combat Evolved (#6) and Halo 3 (#64), Half-Life 2 (#7), Half-Life (#30), and Half-Life: Alyx (#86), and Portal (#8) and Portal 2 (#22).
“The 100 Greatest Games of Edge’s Lifetime” hits most of the high points from the past 30 years of video games, and I’m even impressed that the excellent, but usually underappreciated, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast managed to slip in at #95.
If you’re interested in the full article, you can (hopefully) buy Edge 390 from your local magazine seller. But if not, you can find the full list right here:
Edge – The 100 Greatest Games of Edge’s Lifetime
- 1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- 2. Dark Souls
- 3. Super Mario 64
- 4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- 5. Resident Evil 4
- 6. Halo: Combat Evolved
- 7. Half-Life 2
- 8. Portal
- 9. Elden Ring
- 10. Doom (1993)
- 11. Super Mario Galaxy
- 12. Bloodborne
- 13. Minecraft
- 14. Final Fantasy VII
- 15. The Last of Us
- 16. Deus Ex
- 17. Shadow of the Colossus
- 18. Grand Theft Auto III
- 19. Outer Wilds
- 20. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- 21. BioShock
- 22. Portal 2
- 23. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- 24. GoldenEye 007
- 25. Metal Gear Solid
- 26. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- 27. Super Metroid
- 28. Red Dead Redemption 2
- 29. Tetris Effect
- 30. Half-Life
- 31. World of Warcraft
- 32. Disco Elyisium
- 33. Journey
- 34. Spelunky
- 35. Metroid Prime
- 36. Slay the Spire
- 37. Hades
- 38. Return of the Obra Dinn
- 39. Street Fighter II Turbo
- 40. Dishonored 2
- 41. Super Mario Odyssey
- 42. Hollow Knight
- 43. What Remains of Edith Finch
- 44. Civilization II
- 45. Into the Breach
- 46. Pokemon Red/Blue
- 47. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- 48. Mass Effect 2
- 49. Quake
- 50. Grand Theft Auto V
- 51. Ico
- 52. Inside
- 53. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- 54. Mario Kart 8
- 55. Castlevania: Symphony of The Night
- 56. Rez
- 57. Hitman (2016)
- 58. The Witness
- 59. Advance Wars
- 60. XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- 61. Red Dead Redemption
- 62. X-COM: UFO Defense
- 63. Shenmue
- 64. Halo 3
- 65. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- 66. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- 67. Chrono Trigger
- 68. Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
- 69. Silent Hill 2
- 70. The Last of Us Part II
- 71. Resident Evil
- 72. Mario Kart 64
- 73. The Last Guardian
- 74. Demon’s Souls
- 75. Katamari Damacy
- 76. Immortality
- 77. Bayonetta
- 78. Fortnite
- 79. Tomb Raider (1996)
- 80. Street Fighter IV
- 81. Super Mario Galaxy 2
- 82. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- 83. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- 84. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- 85. Thief: The Dark Project
- 86. Half-Life: Alyx
- 87. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
- 88. Fallout 3
- 89. System Shock
- 90. Papers, Please
- 91. Team Fortress 2
- 92. Fez
- 93. Yakuza 0
- 94. The Sims
- 95. OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
- 96. Persona 5
- 97. God of War (2018)
- 98. Starcraft
- 99. Warioware, Inc: Mega Microgames
- 100. Kentucky Route Zero