just a heads up that you have both “survival horror” and “survival-horror”, two with the hyphen, one without.
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Thank you! They all have hyphens now.
I did most of the data entry by hand, so I would appreciate if anyone brings any errors or inconsistencies to my attention to fix. I’m sure there are many more in there.
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Then based on that, it’s about as a good as it’s going to get!
If you did want to clean it up there’s a couple of bits that could be done:
- There are titles which are both “Multi platform” and multiple platforms, there needs to be a standard. If it’s a recommended platform, should be one platform per game only which would elimate the above multi/multiple issues.
- If it’s based on recommended platform then the respective published/developer/release date would align perfectly based on recommended version.
Those two changes would allow a more manageable list.
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Yeah…I run into issues there where the PS3/360 verion of Mirror’s Edge was recommended. Why not the PC version? I don’t know. If I change that to “Multiplatform”, then we lose that info.
And again, many games were published by different publishers in different regions, even for the same platform.
I’m not in love with the data as it is, and I keep my own personal spreadsheets much tidier, but I don’t want to mess with other people’s words, or make my own assumptions about what they meant. The only alternatives are to start over (which is a terrible idea) or try to contact everyone for individual clarification, which is a project whose scope is beyond what I’m willing to take on.
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I can work some visual magic with the data as is, most of my work is trying to make sense of data that doesn’t make sense as is anyways. Compared to some of what I’ve been given, this is a masterpiece 
I won’t change it, just jazz it up a bit and who knows, maybe over time people can amend their games with a bit more specific info and it can evolve into something new.
Keep up the great work!
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Thanks, Tom. You rule!
I’m really pleased that my spreadsheet has generated so much excitement. Turns out we’re not in it here for the graphics, just the graphs.
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Numbers are great, especially when it’s about something we all love and enjoy! I had a few minutes to redo something. This is more what I have in mind:
Seeing the total number gives the values for each country more meaning. Based on those we could do by continent but when one value is almost two thirds of your data after that there’s not a lot to get out of it!
If I can host something I’ve built somewhere I can do a full interactive dashboard with all the data so far, but for now I think screenshots work nicely. I’ll probably do the rest tomorrow when I have some better formatting plans as I’m tired and numbered out for the day! Need to redo the colours, layout a bit nicer and generally make it more presentable.
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After some time, coffee and work I have put together a better layout for the data for the Essential List. I have only made a small amendement to the raw data, which is removing any additional release dates and focusing solely on the earliest release date provided. Not perfect, this does make it easier to give us an extra set of data which is very interesting, but more on that later.
Firstly, how many games and where are they from:
That total, 144, is very important as it gives us a total to look at for percentages of in this and other slides. At this point, analysis shows us Japan is the largest originator of development - a number which shouldn’t shock anyone who’s reading this. What is interesting for me is the single digit countries are quite varied on a global level.
So we know where they came from, but when did they come from:
In raw terms, pretty interesting. But with a bit of magic and using not calendar decades but numerical (1980-1989, 1990-1999, etc) we can see the decade breakdown:
After where and when, we need a who:
Keeping the data as is, which makes for a very small list but enlarge it, we can see a clear winner. However there is one key thing to look at. Some games are noted by different teams within a company. Sega, SE/Square/Enix, Capcom, Nintendo, Konami and others all are broken down to a much lower level. The actual totals would still put Nintendo top, but Sega would be second, Square and Capcom third. I may do a deeper level of data on this, purely for research purposes.
Another who, Publishers:
No big changes here, except that Square would actually be higher than Capcom if we included the PS1 FF games published by EA.
Now a what, specifically what genre they are:
Now this is a really tough one to categorise, as there’s a lot of crossover on certain genres. Is a Japanese developed Role Playing Game exclusively a JRPG? Adventure/Action-Adventure/Action is pretty broad so what makes each one what it is? What are Sports? All good questions with tough answers, but for now they are as they are, and JRPG wins!
A last what, what was it on:
Another tough one, as there’s a lot of games released on different systems. PC wins by a mile, but Playstation 2 would be higher if we included each multi platform release on each machine.
So what does it all mean? Averaging it all out, the Essential Game is a Nintendo developed and published JRPG (but maybe an Adventure/Action-Adventure/Action depending how you look at those genres), released in the 00s! But as the most popular platform would be a multiplatform game, so we can assume it’s a title that’s also re-released on different machines - either remade or emulated by hardware.
Now we have the data, and I have an idea what it is, I guess the question is… what is it?
*Small edit made because I forgot genre which is pretty important!
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I’ve been kicking this around since I joined and saw this post. And I cannot bring myself to choose between U.N. Squadron and Sim City for the SNES. How do I choose? Coin flip? Poll? Wait for a sign? One of these games needs adding to this list!
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I did the soul searching. It’s Sim City. I still play this game regularly. It’s a great hangout game. It’s fun at any stage of the game. It’s easy to learn and super hard to “complete”. I think this scale and style of builder/management needs to be explored more. It also has a FIRE soundtrack by Soyo Oka.
Please formally add Sim City for the SNES to the Essential Game List.
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Now that I realize I have established myself enough on this forum to submit a game to this list, I have decided to end my posting career for good so that I don’t need to choose
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You could also strategically withhold your choice for a future game you might find worthy of listing. It’s 2030, we’ve all long locked in our picks, and meanwhile you have a bevy of new, untold titles to pick from. Be decisively indecisive.
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Re-linking the spreadsheet for easy access.
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Before I checked, I figured this was too obvious, but:
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master/The Super Shinobi II (Genesis/Mega Drive 1993) is awesome. You have a level where you’re riding a horse through the plains being assailed by ninja, and your horse can do a divekick.
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