No matter the industry – sports, television, movies, or games – the debate of “the greatest of all time” inevitably comes up. These debates are often full of superfluous apples-to-oranges comparisons and, as a result, are unlikely to come up with a definitive answer everyone will be happy with. But that’s what makes them so fun. In that spirit, we took the month of March to hold our own bracket-style tournament, voted on by readers, to determine the greatest video game of all time.
Though we here at Game Informer assembled the bracket, even that was heavily influenced by our Reader Vote we held in 2018 to coincide with our 300th issue. Using the results of our 2018 Reader Vote combined with some input from staff, general sentiment in various online communities, and critical reception for more recent games, we assembled a starting bracket of 64 games. Still, there were some exclusions that raised eyebrows within our community, most notably the original Deus Ex, as well as games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Max Payne, and the Ori games.
From there, we held two rounds of voting per week until we whittled this field down to one ultimate winner. After more than 200,000 votes were cast, the Game Informer readers and community have named The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the greatest video game of all time! This stands in contrast to the results in our 2018 Reader Vote, where The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt took home the top prize, and The Last of Us came in second. In that 2018 vote, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came in third, so it’s not exactly the underdog story of underdog stories, but it still shows the enduring legacy of Nintendo’s 1998 masterpiece.
Along the way, we had some blowouts, but we also experienced our fair share of close calls. The closest matchup in the tournament saw Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater eke out a win over the seminal Pokémon entries, Red and Blue, by a mere 12 votes. Meanwhile, one of the biggest upsets in the tournament, Metroid Prime over The Last of Us Part II, was also one of the closest, as Samus took out Ellie with a margin of just 23 votes. Finally, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past narrowly defeated Half-Life 2 with a difference of fewer than 90 votes separating these two classics.
You can see the full bracket below!
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Source: www.gameinformer.com