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[Anth0ny]

DS 3rd party support mercilessly kills the 3DS library in public and gets away with it before court. If you bought DS for Nintendo, you did it wrong.

i buy every nintendo console for nintendo games primarily

so the first party content not being there on the ds really hurt that platform for me



and I actually tried most of the acclaimed third party games on ds, almost none of them stuck with me. so even with the third party support i'd say 3ds>ds

 

[LegendofLex]

And I do like Ocarina it's a good game, but Majora's Mask came out just a few years later and is far more impressive, imo.

Try to play Ocarina of Time's main quest without doing any of the side content.

Then try doing the same thing with Majora's Mask.

There's a reason Ocarina of Time is better regarded, and that's because its core content has more substance and less fat.

And really the most impressive thing MM did was weave storytelling into sidequesting nicely. The actual quest design is kinda hit and miss.

 

[Servbot24]

Splatoon is really overrated tbh. Good game and all, but better than DKC2? Come on.

Also thought Majora's Mask would do a bit better.

Metroid Prime should be #1, but oh well, I'm used to seeing that game go unappreciated.

 

[Gartooth]

Really? At this stage it should be clear that it's a pretty divisive game. It had a lot of detractors prior to launch, and since then we've had anti-3D World threads on here all the time.

There are plenty of people out there who think that (as far as the exceptional Mario series goes) it's a pretty mediocre game.

Spoiler

I'm one of them.

Yeah I wasn't surprised either. 3D World ended up being one of the most acclaimed Wii U games out there, but it was always divisive on GAF.

It not making top 5 Wii U games didn't surprise me at all since the top 4 gets a hell of a lot more praise here. I don't see it jumping up the list in future years either, since I think the only vulnerable top 5 Wii U game is Pikmin 3, and Breath of the Wild will probably kick it out next time.

Edit: I completely forgot about Bayonetta 2! Its crazy that a GotY winner ended up so low on the list and didn't make top 5 Wii U games. Maybe its because people think of Bayonetta 2 as a 3rd party game rather than a Nintendo one?

 

[ViewtifulJC]

look how few DS games there are, too. I'm not surprised at all... I never understood the love that console always seems to get. 3DS' library shits on it with ease.

they both trash compared to their GBA output tbh

 

[Octavianus]

World over Bros 3? Madness.

Splatoon is really overrated tbh. Good game and all, but better than DKC2? Come on.

Also thought Majora's Mask would do a bit better.

Metroid Prime should be #1, but oh well, I'm used to seeing that game go unappreciated.

But it's not even the best Metroid.

 

[MrSaturn99]

Metroid Prime should be #1, but oh well, I'm used to seeing that game go unappreciated.

It's in the top 5!

 

[Spieler Eins]

they both trash compared to their GBA output tbh

If you like living in port-remake city, but otherwise, no way.

Splatoon is really overrated tbh. Good game and all, but better than DKC2? Come on.

The game will be forgotten once an actual fullfledged sequel comes out. Right now it's too fresh and literally one out of two worthwhile Nintendo console games of the past one and a half years, constituting an obvious bias.

 

[Anth0ny]

they both trash compared to their GBA output tbh

you're the last of a dying breed fam

look what gaf thinks of the gba:

Fire Emblem: 32->51 (-19)
Advance Wars: 33->74 (-41)
Metroid Fusion: 41->67 (-26)
Metroid: Zero Mission: 49->69 (-20)


even gaf is forgetting about metroid

rip

 

[iconoclast]

maybe some day Bayonetta 2 will take its rightful place as the best game with nintendo's name on it

 

[Chezzymann]

3D world is way too low. GOAT 3D Mario game.

Also, Mario 64 is the worst 3D Mario. I hate open ended level design.

 

[Griss]

Considering that only 4 of the top 20 games don't star Mario, Link or Samus I'd really love to see a vote on 'Best non-Mario/Zelda/Metroid' Nintendo games. There are plenty of us who voted almost exclusively for games from those three series gaes (as the results show) so freeing those votes up for different games might actually provide a very different order for the other games on the list not from those series.

3D world is way too low. GOAT 3D Mario game.

Also, Mario 64 is the worst 3D Mario.

Boy, it must hurt seeing a list like this confirm just how wrong you are

 

[Greatest Ever]

For Mario, the depth of the gameplay comes from mastering the controls.
For Zelda, the depth of the gameplay comes from mastering the world.

I think both games have lots of depth in the areas that count. But I think Mario 64's uneven content quality (

Spoiler

Rainbow Ride is the epitome of this

) and the shallow "revisit the same map multiple times" content design is more of a mark on its reputation than any of the flaws in Ocarina of Time are.

The world design in OoT isn't nearly strong enough to allow for skillful mastery. Dark Souls and Metroid are better examples.

 

[Fou-Lu]

There is only one single game I haven't played in the top 50, three guesses which.

It's a good list, but is a bit more stereotypical than I expected.

 

[Gartooth]

What this list really says to me about Nintendo's handheld games is that most of them aren't notable aside from the mainline Pokemon games. (and Link's Awakening. Bless that game)

I think 3DS really changed direction on that, but before then if you put a gun to my head and said I had to nominate a non-Pokemon DS game I would probably say Elite Beat Agents. lol

 

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Not top 30 good. Look at the games below that were commercially and critically better. Whatever Pokemon/Mother GAF.

lol I have to assume this is a joke post. Yes, commercial and critical success are totally great barometers of quality.

 

[Chezzymann]

Boy, it must hurt seeing a list like this confirm just how wrong you are

I hate the open ended, multiple mission per level design philosophy of it. Give me tight, lazer focused platforming stages.

 

[Deku Tree]

Man I missed the voting. List seems OK. Lot of Mario-Zelda.

 

[Griss]

My top 10 and where they finished in the overall results:

1. Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) (1st)
2. The Legend of Zelda (NES) (31st)
3. Metroid Prime (GC) (5th)
4. Yoshi’s Island (SNES) (16th)
5. Super Mario 64 (N64) (3rd)
6. Super Metroid (SNES) (2nd)
7. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) (4th)
8. Zelda: Link’s Awakening (GB) (22nd)
9. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) (13th)
10. Smash Bros Melee (GC) (11th)

I had the top 5 in my top 7. Very mainstream taste, obviously!

TLoZ (NES) not making the top 20 is a crime, and bizarre to me.

I hate the open ended, multiple mission per level design philosophy of it. Give me tight, lazer focused platforming stages.

Fair enough. I actually think Mario should be point A to point B platforming most of the time, but Mario 64 pulled off the open-world style so flawlessly that it doesn't matter. Galaxy ended up being the best of both worlds. Each star is a straight shot, but you visit each level multiple times as a kind of world-building exercise.

 

[Lothar]

Unlike Super Mario 64, it didn't play well at its time nor today. Most of its puzzles come down "hey look we're in 3D!" instead of being well designed.

I understand pushing paradigm, but I can't play influence or age. I can play it for its gameplay, where its best claim to fame for me was Z-targeting.

The same goes for Mario64. Both Mario 64 and Zelda: OoT are far far away from being the best of their series. Just for the fact of Mario64's crappy camera angles and awkward controls (in comparison to other 3D Nintendo platformers), it shouldn't be in the top 5 of Mario games.

How could any person put Mario 64 above Galaxy?

 

[MrSaturn99]

There is only one single game I haven't played in the top 50, three guesses which.

It's a good list, but is a bit more stereotypical than I expected.

Perfect Dark, which would be the same as me.

 

[Anth0ny]

What this list really says to me about Nintendo's handheld games is that most of them aren't notable aside from the mainline Pokemon games. (and Link's Awakening. Bless that game)

definitely lines up with my tastes. mainline pokemon (gen 1 and 2) and portable zeldas (ladx, lbw, mc) are the big stand outs for handheld games.

there are a few others like tetris, tetris ds, mario kart ds and 3d land, but they are few and far between.

 

[Spieler Eins]

2012 List: Super Mario Galaxy 2 >>> Super Mario Galaxy
2016 List: Super Mario Galaxy >>> Super Mario Galaxy 2

Wonder what happened in four years.

Enlightenment.

 

[Gaspard]

Btw why is New Leaf so low let alone below the GC version?

 

[MrSaturn99]

Btw why is New Leaf so low let alone below the GC version?

Yeah, this was a shocker for me.

 

[leroidys]

Top 10 is excellent.

I could nitpick here and there, but only a few things stood out as being way off to me. I think Wind Waker is way too high, and continues to be Nintendo's most overrated game.

Not when Galaxy is sitting at number four.

 

[Molemitts]

Try to play Ocarina of Time's main quest without doing any of the side content.

Then try doing the same thing with Majora's Mask.

There's a reason Ocarina of Time is better regarded, and that's because its core content has more substance and less fat.

And really the most impressive thing MM did was weave storytelling into sidequesting nicely. The actual quest design is kinda hit and miss.

I judge games by the entirety of the content but I don't think OoT's core content really has more substance than MM, it just has more content. More content doesn't mean better content.

MM still manages to present a better setting than OoT. Termina Field is smaller but contains more content, more environmental variety and actual enemies to fight compared to the empty Hyrule Field of OoT, which just felt like an oversized hub. Each area of MM also has it's own contained story that fits into the overall narrative. OoT tried to do this with the some of the dungeon areas, but I never found it satisfying like it is in MM as there's far less investment in the characters. There's more gameplay variety in MM, if you're just looking for only dungeons and don't care about anything else at all, sure OoT gives you more content, but I look for more than just that in games I play.

 

[Griss]

Damn, I've beaten (or played until content was exhausted) 95 out of the top 100 games. I've played a little bit of 3 of the remaining 5, too.

Shit, I'm more of a Nintenyearold than I thought. God damn, that's a lot of games, and a lot of coverage.

Enlightenment.

Exactly. It was only ever recency bias that had Galaxy 2 above Galaxy imo.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

you're the last of a dying breed fam

look what gaf thinks of the gba:

Fire Emblem: 32->51 (-19)
Advance Wars: 33->74 (-41)
Metroid Fusion: 41->67 (-26)
Metroid: Zero Mission: 49->69 (-20)


even gaf is forgetting about metroid

rip

Metroid Fusion/Zero Mission >>>>> whatever Metroid is on DS/3DS
Advance Wars 1/2 >> Advance Wars: Unbalanced Edition and Darkness No Parents Edition
Wario Land 4, MicroGames, Twisted >>> Touched, Master of Disguise, whatever Wario got on 3DS
Link Between Worlds > Minish Cap >>> 3DS flabby Zelda games
Superstar Saga > or = Bowser's Inside Story >> Dream Team >> that Mario and Luigi game that came out this year everyone already forgot about
Various Super Mario Advance ports >>> NSMB 1/2 bland anoyminity
GBA F-Zero > N/A F-Zero
Mario vs Donkey Kong >>> that fake Lemmings game with the Mario paint over it
Fire Emblem > Waifu Emblem now in ugly 3D

I'll give you the superior Mario Kart, but dats it.

 

[Cramoss]

I'm perfectly fine with that list (with the exception of Splatoon being too damn high). The number 41 (Animal Crossing) is my third favorite game of all time so yeah.. ¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[phanphare]

I hate the open ended, multiple mission per level design philosophy of it. Give me tight, lazer focused platforming stages.

yup. yoshi really should have been the IP used for exploration based 3D platforming games, not mario. it seems that with 64 -> sunshine -> galaxy -> galaxy 2 -> 3d land -> 3d world nintendo was slowly drip feeding the platforming back into the mario series. 3d land and 3d world got the series to the point of actually feeling like a mario game translated into 3d instead of 64 which felt like it should have been a different series.

 

[Greatest Ever]

The same goes for Mario64. Both Mario 64 and Zelda: OoT are far far away from being the best of their series. Just for the fact of Mario64's crappy camera angles and awkward controls (in comparison to other 3D Nintendo platformers), it shouldn't be in the top 5 of Mario games.

How could any person put Mario 64 above Galaxy?

Camera, sure, the game doesn't endear itself there. Controls? Hell no. The amount of mechanical depth is afforded by the controls.

I am an unabashed Galaxy fan, they are both masterpieces, but even I know that 64 has more mechanical depth.

 

[Spieler Eins]

For some being so vocal about New Mario Bros. U being the best 2d Mario, it sure didn't do all that hot. I guess NSMBWii could have been a little higher, but at least it's the only one in the top 150.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Tropical Freeze and DKC2 getting their due and passing the original DKC in votes, I can now confirm that my time on GAF has been well spent.

 

[phanphare]

Camera, sure, the game doesn't endear itself there. Controls? Hell no. The amount of mechanical depth is afforded by the controls.

I am an unabashed Galaxy fan, they are both masterpieces, but even I know that 64 has more mechanical depth.

perhaps at a certain point there's an inverse relationship between mechanical depth with the controls and the depth that can be presented by the level design. you say mario 64 has arguably the most mechanical depth in a 3d mario game because of the controls whereas something like 3d world is very limited in that regard. however the depth of the level design and pure platforming in 3d world is astounding whereas the depth of the level design and pure platforming in 64 is very limited.

 

[Griss]

Alright GAF, which of the following games would you recommend I play. These are my missing 5 from the top 100. I'm going to hold out for a Mother 3 announcement with the NX, so that one's off the table. Are any of the others still worth it?

Mother 3 (Don't own for obvious reasons, haven't played it)
Paper Mario (Own, have started it and plan to play soon)
Super Mario RPG (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Own, have started it, but have little motivation to play it)

Tropical Freeze and DKC2 getting their due and passing the original DKC in votes, I can now confirm that my time on GAF has been well spent.

Well said.

For some being so vocal about New Mario Bros. U being the best 2d Mario, it sure didn't do all that hot. I guess NSMBWii could have been a little higher, but at least it's the only one in the top 150.

I guess many are like me, and believe it's the best 2D Mario but that no 2D Mario was worthy of the top 10.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

For some being so vocal about New Mario Bros. U being the best 2d Mario, it sure didn't do all that hot. I guess NSMBWii could have been a little higher, but at least it's the only one in the top 150.

Any list where Wonderful 101 sits at 43 and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out sits at 99, clearly isn't based on merit or impact. This is merely an everyone vote three random favorite games at the moment.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Alright GAF, which of the following games would you recommend I play. These are my missing 5 from the top 100. I'm going to hold out for a Mother 3 announcement with the NX, so that one's off the table. Are any of the others still worth it?

Mother 3 (Don't own for obvious reasons, haven't played it)
Paper Mario (Own, have started it and plan to play soon)
Super Mario RPG (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Own, have started it, but have little motivation to play it)

Of the three Mario RPG titles there I'd say Paper is the best of them.
Star Successor isn't a long game and it can be tough but it's a quality title so just give it a shake, play as Isa, stick the dialogue on Japanese.

 

[Lothar]

Camera, sure, the game doesn't endear itself there. Controls? Hell no. The amount of mechanical depth is afforded by the controls.

I am an unabashed Galaxy fan, they are both masterpieces, but even I know that 64 has more mechanical depth.

One of the biggest problems I had with the controls was when you're moving forward and want to go in the opposite direction, Mario doesn't just go in the opposite direction, he makes a little circle, which always ended up making me fall off. So annoying. A game with controls like that and shitty camera angles shouldn't be in a top 3 unless it's top 3 most innovative and revolutionary. Even Banjo Kazooie that came out just a year later far surpassed it as a 3D platformer.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Any list where Wonderful 101 sits at 43 and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out sits at 99, clearly isn't based on impact.

Bruh I know you salty cuz you really dont like W101 and nobody remembers DK94, but this is a list that has an ugly mediocre action adventure game that looks/feels/sounds every bit like it came from 1998 at #1. "Impact" is probably the biggest decision maker here in these things

 

[Spieler Eins]

I guess many are like me, and believe it's the best 2D Mario but that no 2D Mario was worthy of the top 10.

Two are in the top 10.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

those N64 Zeldas are too damn high

I guess nobody said to remove nostalgia and the value of influence from the equation when the votes were polled, but meh, those games don't hold up so good IMO

 

[Sadist]

Galaxy 2 is the superior Galaxy

You all know it to be true. Note, in terms of honourable mentions Galaxy 2 was mentioned 22 times.

 

[TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared]

Mario Galaxy 1/2 so fucking great. The best 3D platformers ever in my mind.

 

[Molemitts]

Alright GAF, which of the following games would you recommend I play. These are my missing 5 from the top 100. I'm going to hold out for a Mother 3 announcement with the NX, so that one's off the table. Are any of the others still worth it?

Mother 3 (Don't own for obvious reasons, haven't played it)
Paper Mario (Own, have started it and plan to play soon)
Super Mario RPG (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Own, have started it, but have little motivation to play it)

If you liked Earthbound I guess Mother 3 will suit you. It does play quite differently it's more linear and has a more serious and focused story throughout. The combat is more engaging, too. The fan translation is brilliant and not hard to get working.

Paper Mario is great too, it seem like it would be a straight downgrade from The Thousand Year Door, and in story it is, but the combat is just as fun and exploration has less backtracking, plus I do think TTYD gets a little too exposition heavy sometimes, the original, not so much.

Can't really say much about the rest.

 

[Griss]

Two are in the top 10.

Right, but voted in there by people who didn't vote for NSMBU.

What I'm saying is that the vocal 'NSMBU is the best 2D Mario' crowd may well believe that 2D Marios aren't all that special compared to other Nintendo games or even 3D Marios. That's my opinion, and I can't be alone.

I'm just trying to explain why that vocal minority support for NSMBU didn't result in votes.

those N64 Zeldas are too damn high

I guess nobody said to remove nostalgia and the value of influence from the equation when the votes were polled, but meh, those games don't hold up so good IMO

I specifically asked in the thread if we should try to account for nostalgia or not and people seemed to think we shouldn't, so...

If there was a poll saying... 'What Nintendo games would you recommend an average gamer play for the first time TODAY' I believe the results would be very different.

 

[Spieler Eins]

those N64 Zeldas are too damn high

I guess nobody said to remove nostalgia and the value of influence from the equation when the votes were polled, but meh, those games don't hold up so good IMO

Which game out there does the same things as MM did, let alone better?

 

[Gartooth]

Alright GAF, which of the following games would you recommend I play. These are my missing 5 from the top 100. I'm going to hold out for a Mother 3 announcement with the NX, so that one's off the table. Are any of the others still worth it?

Mother 3 (Don't own for obvious reasons, haven't played it)
Paper Mario (Own, have started it and plan to play soon)
Super Mario RPG (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Own but have little motivation to play it)
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Own, have started it, but have little motivation to play it)

Play Paper Mario first since that's the best of the three Mario RPGs. You can swap it for Bowser's Inside Story if you are a fan of Bowser since its the closest he gets to his own game.

 

[Chezzymann]

those N64 Zeldas are too damn high

I guess nobody said to remove nostalgia and the value of influence from the equation when the votes were polled, but meh, those games don't hold up so good IMO

For me its mainly the performance. The framerate is so low, the resolution is really ugly on modern TVs, 5th gen games are just really hard to go back to compared to all the other generations.

 

[Toxi]

Glad to see some people remembered the other amazing GameCube Metroid.