21 Games Everyone Should Play Before They Die

[cimerians]

To each their own.

 

Its a solid list even though he has a lot of modern games listed. Need some old stuff in there and he's not even considering 80's computer games which is another huge platform in itself. Ultima, M.U.L.E, Seven Cities of Gold, Zork, Maniac Mansion....

[78001987]

This list is terrible.

[Cynicaster]

Needs moar Robotron.

 

This list is so inextricably linked to the specific tastes of the author that it might a well be 21 games selected randomly out of a hat.

[SoulBlazer]

I'll comment later on with my own thoughts on each of the games....I agree with some, disagree with others, but also keep in mind I'm also as much of a modern gamer as a retro one.

 

And yeah, I'd agree with two observations some others made -- these are all games that are still for sale legaly, and were made by someone younger then most of us.

[ledzep]

To each their own.

 

Its a solid list even though he has a lot of modern games listed. Need some old stuff in there and he's not even considering 80's computer games which is another huge platform in itself. Ultima, M.U.L.E, Seven Cities of Gold, Zork, Maniac Mansion....

 

Ya, but in a vacuum it's useless. You're right, he's ignoring so many potential games. I mean is this 21 out of 100 games everyone should play before they die? 21 of the more modern games everyone should play before they die? And why those games over others? Especially others that are the same/nearly identical that are probably better?

 

Without an explanation of why these and not others the list isn't worth printing.

[ledzep]

I'll comment later on with my own thoughts on each of the games....I agree with some, disagree with others, but also keep in mind I'm also as much of a modern gamer as a retro one.

 

And yeah, I'd agree with two observations some others made -- these are all games that are still for sale legaly, and were made by someone younger then most of us.

 

He should have mentioned that, that would have helped to explain the list - 21 games still for sale legally everyone should play before they die. But that's assuming you would need to buy them to play them. I'm not advocating stealing but what about going to someone else's house, someone who bought some of the best older games a long time ago and can still play them on much older hardware? This guy never heard of collectors or gaming conventions or emulators? Or eBay? If someone I know wants to play most (I don't own the shitty ones) of the Atari 5200 and Vectrex games that were available he can come over to my place and try them out even though he can't buy any of that crap new today (except homebrews). It's not illegal for him to play my old game consoles, is it? No. And if I want to play legal versions of arcade games there are a few arcades in L.A. that I can drive to for that, or a few friends who have them, nothing illegal there, either.

 

The list needs a bit of an explanation, otherwise it is, as Cynicaster said, just games pulled out of a hat. I'm curious about what games the author actually played or was exposed to. If he has never dealt with 8-bit games, early console games, arcade games, etc., at all, that certainly explains the narrowness of the list but it obviously invalidates the list as well. It's like making a list of 21 liquors everyone should drink before they die and most of them are some form of whisky and then you find out that the guy who came up with the list has never even tried or heard of tequila, vodka or sake - useless. Without including why the list is so restricted the reader is forced to assume that the list includes most/all video games and, once that happens, nobody is going to accept it because it ignores way too many great/greatest games outside the scope of where this guy got his choices from. Or, worse, he has no idea what makes a must-play game because he honestly believes these 21 are the most important out of all of them (absolutely not).

 

(File under "meh" for those who are topic exploration-averse)