FINAL WEEK - Vote Today! 🗳️ 2023 forums.insertcredit.com Video & Game Poll 🎮

yeso

it is two (2) years later and time once again to determine the “Greatest” video games in our collective opinion.

The Method:

Post a list of ten (10) games you consider “The Greatest,” however you choose to define (or not define) it. We want to keep this simple and inclusive, so don’t agonize too much unless that’s your style. Write as much or as little in your post about your choices as you care to, just include ten (10) games. Feel free to rank your picks, but this will not be taken into account in the final tally.
You may edit your posts and add and remove choices up until the deadline. Please do me a favor and @ me if you do
This poll closes at 12:01 AM CST, 1st August, 2023
Note that votes are cumulative across polls, meaning, for example, Earthbound's position in the poll will be based on combined 2021 and 2023 selections. Our data analytics team will have the stats from both polls and will provide breakdowns about games on the rise and on the decline, etc etc. We have a spreadsheet and everything
We ripped off the Sight & Sound film poll for this a couple years ago, which was before it was a big thing on the internet and people got mad (I think, not sure) about Jeanne Dielmann. Like S&S, this poll doesn’t indicate the single “greatest” game, but it does point to the games most highly-esteemed by the mutants on this forum. That’s all there is to it let’s have a good time 🎉

2021 Poll Thread (if you participated in 2021, this is where you can find your list from back in the olden days)

2021 Results Thread

rejj

yeso We have a spreadsheet and everything

If it is in any way helpful to you, please feel free to grab the bonus spreadsheet I came up with and use any of it.

I’ll likely do some extra number crunching after the results this time also, just to play with the numbers and see some patterns and stats I personally find interesting

Zack

yeso here we go!! In no rhyme or reason, just rattling them off!!!!:

*Shadow of the Colossus
*Earthbound
*Gunstar Heroes
*Super Mario Galaxy
*The Legend of Zelda - Windwaker
*Dark Souls
*Red Dead Redemption
*Dragon Quest III
*Yakuza 0
*Metal Gear Solid 3

This was very hard for me to make because I like so many games, but in terms of what I had the strongest emotional reactions to…. This’ll do just fine for me :’)

𝔞𝔷𝔲𝔯𝔢𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔢 𝔤𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔡𝔬𝔩𝔶𝔫 𝔨𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔦𝔤𝔞𝔫

yeso

yes, okay, so

riven: the sequel to myst
outrun (motorized arcade cab)
rez
disco elysium
typing of the dead
space invaders infinity gene
castlevania (1987, nes)
r-type (arcade)
katamari damacy
asteroids (arcade)

i am going to be strikingly unazure, and decline to elaborate

FaulteredBeast

yeso

Earthbound
Bloodborne
Super Mario Odyssey
Disco Elysium
~~Metal Gear Solid~~ Rollercoaster Tycoon
Yakuza 0
Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies
Gunstar Heroes
~~Gran Turismo 4~~ Burnout 3: Takedown
John Woo Presents: Stranglehold

@yeso updated to change the racing vote and diversify my list.

yeso

everyone is encouraged to participate! If you only post occasionally or not at all (aka lurk) please contribute a list. We want to know what everyone who reads the forum and listens to the show thinks!

@antillese would you please be so kind as to sticky this thread mil gracias

yeso

rejj yes, let’s collaborate on stats once the results are in

phylaxis hnghh I’ve been meaning to play this for like, literal decades at this point

it’s free! and make sure to refer to the feelies when you play it

https://gallery.guetech.org/amfv/amfv.html

MDS-02 I’m having a kid soon

Congratulations pops

Gaagaagiins

HOYEAH

Gaagaagiins

My list, in no particular order:

Final Fantasy XIV
Factorio
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Deltarune (That’s not “Deltarune Chapter 1+2+3” or whatever, this is specifically the game as a whole, which I feel confident will be worthy of being included on the list once it’s all said and done)
Metroid Prime
Pathologic 2
Darkest Dungeon
Lisa: The Painful
Kirby Super Star

and, of course,

GOD HAND

Honourable mentions and/or games that may trade places with the above if I feel so inclined closer to the deadline: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy X, Grandia, Dragon Quest XI, Bloodborne, Hollow Knight, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Disco Elysium, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Monster Hunter World, DOOM (2016), Return of the Obra Dinn, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

yeso

A Mind Forever Voyaging
Bare Knuckle 3/Streets Of Rage 3
Earthbound
Fear & Hunger 2: Termina
Oiκοςpiel, Book I
Pathologic 2
Raw Danger!
Shenmue
Suikoden II
Ys Books I & II

painful omissions : anything by Quartet, anything by Climax, the RE2make, King of Dragon Pass, ESPN NFL 2K5, Armed Police Batrider, Lunacy, The Last Express, Kagero: Deception II

phylaxis

yeso A Mind Forever Voyaging

hnghh I’ve been meaning to play this for like, literal decades at this point

JoJoestar

Way more Ace Combat 4 (and Ace Combat in general) representation than expected, looks like my psy-op borne its fruit.

yeso Fear & Hunger 2: Termina

This reminded me I still haven’t played the sequel, brb on my way to fix that. The first F&H is hands down the best game I have played in 2023 so far.

connrrr

These are the ten games that have been most important to me, I think, in the order that I played them.

Where multi-platform I’ve just listed the one I played it on.

Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2, 2003)
Vagrant Story (PSX, 2000)
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, 2005)
Gitaroo Man (PS2, 2001)
Mother 3 (GBA, 2006)
Fragile Dreams ~Farewell Ruins of the Moon~ (Wii, 2009)
Ghost Trick (NDS, 2010)
Soma (Xbone et al, 2015)
Ladykiller in a Bind (Mac et al, 2016)
The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (PS4 et al, 2018)

wickedcestus

I prepared for this months ago, and then last week started playing a game that might end up on my list… I will just have to complete it and see.

wickedcestus

wickedcestus I have determined that this idea is putting undue pressure on the game I am currently playing. It will have to wait another 2 years for its opportunity.

Here is my list:

Minesweeper (1992)
Metal Gear Solid (1998)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
Starcraft: Brood War (1999)
Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006)
NieR (2010)
Starcraft II (2010)
Deadly Premonition (2010)
Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
Death Stranding (2019)

I meant to play a lot more games between the last poll and this one, but turns out my annual pace of finishing one game and playing about a third of two others didn’t allow me to fulfill my goals. So, I have for the most part settled on re-evaluating games I’ve already played. I feel the most bad for removing Picross 3D Round 2 and replacing it with Minesweeper, but the simple infinite elegance of Minesweeper has placed it on top, for now. Thank you and goodbye.

Reverse Kaiser

I guess I’ll go for a walk and edit this when I get back or some other day maybe.

Terranigma
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Wild Arms
SaGa Frontier
Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001
Metal Gear Online
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (I am bleeding from having to choose between this and Yume Nikki)
Umihara Kawase Shun
NiGHTS: into dreams (I cannot pretend PDZ is more important no matter how much I want to)
Zone of the Enders (if only Armored Core 4: For Answer had more of a character and storyline it might be here instead)

Honorable mentions and possible swaps: AC4:FA, Undertale, Yume Nikki, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Tobal 2, FF6, Threads of Fate, Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi, Dark Souls II, Shadow Tower, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Deus Ex, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Vandal Hearts, Front Mission 2, Alundra, Landstalker, Light Crusader, Alien Soldier, Legend of Mana, Disco Elysium, Dragon Quest XI, FFXII, SMT Nocturne, SMRPG, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, Cyberpunk 2077, Nier, Nier: Automata, ChoRenSha 68k, Judgement Silversword, Einhander, Monster Rancher 2, Mirror’s Edge, R-Type Final, Cave Story, Undertale, Lisa: The Pointless, The Way, Ruina: Fairy Tale of the Forgotten Ruins, Dicing Knight, Umihara Kawase Shun, Shiren the Wanderer, Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon 2, Azure Dreams,

Actually can we just have a version of this with 100 games that you can’t vote on if you don’t list 100?

edit: replacing Earthbound with Umihara Kawase Shun since me not picking Earthbound won’t take it off the list. I"ll put an @ here when I’m sure I’m done.
edit2: replacing FF7R with Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter so I’m not nominating for a 3 part game that isn’t even finished yet

@yeso Do @ mentions work on an edit? I’m locking this in as this years picks since they’re solid enough to be unsure of changing any of them for my other favorites.

Gaagaagiins

Reverse Kaiser Actually can we just have a version of this with 100 games that you can’t vote on if you don’t list 100?

Yes and you, personally, are allowed to list Undertale twice

yeso

Reverse Kaiser Do @ mentions work on an edit?

got it thanks for the heads up

mindleftbody

Wow these are some hard hitting lists. I have 8 games on mine I’ll keep working on it, it feels very middle of the road compared to what’s here so far.

Reverse Kaiser

Gaagaagiins the second one is an anagram

TracyDMcGrath

This is my top 10 I didn’t put on my first list

In literally no order:

Gimmick
Battle Garegga
Dangun Feveron
ZeroRanger
Joust
OutRun
Outfoxies
Gunbird 2
FixEight
The Legend of Zelda

Funbil

TracyDMcGrath Joust

It’d be so tight if Joust placed well this year. The year of Joust

Funbil

EarthBound (SNES, 1994)
Pocky & Rocky (SNES, 1992)
Ihatovo Monogatari (SNES, 1993)
Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn, 1998)
Yume Nikki (PC, 2004)
Densha de GO! Final (PS2/PC, 2004)
L.O.L.: Lack of Love (Dreamcast, 2000)
Mushihimesama (Arcade, 2004)
F-Zero X (N64, 1998)
Oikospiel (PC, 2017)

Tradegood

Nightshade 百花百狼 (PS Vita, 2016)
Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo Switch, 2019)
Aerobiz (Super NES, 1992)
SaGa 2 aka The Final Fantasy Legend 2 (Gameboy, 1993)
Victoria 3 (PC, 2022)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PC, 2004)
Europa Universalis IV (PC, 2013)
Earthbound (Super NES, 1994)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Nintendo Switch, 2019)
Final Fantasy X (PS2, 2001)

Honorable mentions:
Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Hakuōki ~ Shinsengumi Kitan ~, Harvest Moon, Mario 64, Octopath Traveler, Sid Meier’s Pirates!, SimCity 2000, The Sims, Stardew Valley, Super Metroid, Vagrant Story, Xenosaga, Ys Origin

whatsarobot

How has it already been two years. Well, anyway…

Chrono Trigger
Etrian Odyssey IV
Mother 3
Disco Elysium
Mario Kart 8
Kirby’s Dream Land
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Link’s Awakening
Killer 7
Bloodborne

MovingCastles

I’m not particularly creative but here goes 10 games in no particularly order. Ask me in a months time and I’ll probably have another list. Here goes:

Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Metal Gear Solid
Marvel v. Capcom 1 (arcade and dreamcast version)
X-COM: Enemy Unknown
Demon’s Souls
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
Fall Out 1
Devil May Cry 3
Final Fantasy 7 but spiritually I want to say Shin Megami Tensei IV.
Yakuza 0

Also shout out to The Sims. Spent thousands of hours playing that game growing up but for some reason I have to remember that that is a video game. Gracias.

MDS-02

Panekit (PSX) - gave me hope for the world
Donkey Kong (GB) - handheld heaven
UnReal World (PC) - go live in the woods
Sid Meier’s Pirates! - themed sandboxes can be cool
Outer Wilds - puzzles are good for you
Dwarf Fortress - hard work pays off
Wipeout XL - move fast and twist a controller
Dragon Quest I - a vote for the first souls game
Fantasy Life - time well wasted
Bokurano Kazoku - I’m having a kid soon and it’s fun to play this with my wife

kyleprocrastinations

Banjo Kazooie
Dragon Quest XI
Final Fantasy VII
Fire Emblem Awakening
Hades
Hollow Knight
The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask
MegaMan Battle Network 3 Blue Version
MegaMan Legends
Pokemon Soul Silver

Picking just 10 is hard! I know banjo could be controversial going by the opinion of the podcast panelists, but I’ll have you know I almost put demon’s souls instead. I only just played that one this year, though, so it’s hard to call it a personal all timer just yet. Banjo and ds are basically the same anyway, right? Same level selection mechanic, collecting a bunch of shiny things, there’s a witch, they both have a poison swamp level…

MovingCastles

kyleprocrastinations I do recall having to collect all of the golden jiggy pieces before facing off Old King Allant. Pretty sure I got the “Get Jiggy with it” trophy for it as well.