My Top Twenty Games of All Time

Date: August 6, 2025

Tags: Video Games

Well, various people I know are making lists of their top twenty video games of all time. So I thought I would add my list to the discussion.

Honorable Mentions

It was actually harder than I thought to limit the list to 20 entries. So here is the overflow.

I'm not going to call these games good. But Sega really new how to create great soundtracks. For how mediocre these games were, every single one had a banger soundtrack. Sonic and the Black Knight was my favorite.

Sonic Adventure 2

Arguable the only good 3D sonic game. So fun to play, but it is obviously held together with duct tape.

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2

Probably the most chill game I've ever played.

Factorio

This is a really cool simulation game. It is unique from other simulation games in that it is primarily about logistics. It has a lot of similarities to programming. The dev team for this game is absolutely fantastic. There devlog is one of the coolest you'll find.

Deep Rock Galactic

One of my favorite cooperative games. You won't see a lot of shooters on my list, partially because they became fairly generic, and they are all too competitive. The DRG community is one of the most welcoming there is.

And with that my honorable mentions are complete. Now on to the real list.

20. Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe

One way a game makes it onto my top 20 list is if I keep coming back to it. OpenTTD is a timeless classic. It is so fun to come back to it every year and make a new train network. The game is also deeper than you would expect. There is always something new to learn. every time I come back I discover a better way to do things.

19. Plants vs Zombies

The original plants vs zombies on the DS was a joy to play. I haven't come back to it, but I always look back on it with fond memories. If anything it reminds me of a time before micro transactions. Today a game like this simply would not be successful simply because the developer would cram to many gotchas into it.

18. Pikmin 3

I kind of surprised myself with how high I put this entry. But this was just a really fun game. It looked beautiful, and commanding your army of Pikmin in multiple places was really fun and satisfying. I also had a lot of fun with my brother in the two player modes.

17. Final Fantasy IX

Not the best final fantasy. But they're all so great that even this one makes it on the list. My favorite parts of this one were the battle system and fantasy theme. The story didn't convince me though.

16. Mario Party 5

This is the best Mario Party in my opinion. It still has the unhinged nature of the first few games. But not every minigame is a mashfest. If you think you won with skill, you're wrong.

15. Mario Kart 8

To be perfectly honest Mario Kart is on the list because it was the only game I could beat my younger brother in. All the Mario Karts are great. I seem to have a good knack for them.

14. WarCraft III

This game was one of my first introductions to video games. For better or for worse I played this game with my dad and younger brother every Sunday night when I was about eight years old.

And even as I've grown up this game has some good staying power. I appreciate its slower combat compared to a game like StarCraft II where your army can explode in an instant.

13. Portal 1 and 2

These games are one and the same really. Just look at Portal 1 as the prologue to Portal 2. They're fun to play, have great dialog, and will run on literally anything.

They're super cheap as well. I got both of them for $3 during the steam summer sale.

12. Halo 1-3

I kind of cheated by including three games here. Deal with it. I grew up in a family with four boys close enough in age to play Halo together. And these games were awesome. It was so fun to get into four player split screen and just shoot each other for hours on end. The campaigns were also amazing.

Halo 3 was my favorite as it seemed the most polished and balanced. But Halo CE has a special charm to it that no game will ever replicate.

11. Old-School Clash of Clans

I loved this game. For about a year of my life this was all I cared about. I played when Town Hall 11 was the highest and clan wars were still fairly new.

I got into an awesome clan and made a lot of great friends online (shout out to sassypants wherever you are). I made it to be a co-leader in the clan, and I was leading clan wars. I was on for probably four hours a day just talking to people and playing the game.

The builder base was a big turn off for me though. Play sessions turned from a quick 5-10 minutes of collecting resources and raiding, into something more like 20-30 minutes. It wasn't just a quick game to open up and play for a few minutes anymore.

Top Ten!!!

We're getting to the best.

10. Journey

This is one of those games that everyone just needs to play once. Its only a couple hours and its dramatic and cinematic moments will have you in awe.

The best part is the stranger you get to spend the journey with. They just kind of appear. They have no name, and your only form of communication is a small "boop". You will likely spend the whole journey with them, and they will be there to show you the way. The game is easier with two people, and despite the lack of communication you build an impressively deep bond with them.

Playing this game for the first time is a once in a lifetime experience.

9. Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2

My favorite Mario games. (In fact its my favorite platformer as well). This game was so fun and unique. It breaks the mold for a platforming game, and even for what Mario is. The mario formula is pretty much set. A grassy starting world, a desert world, and some castles. This game introduces some bold new mechanics and themes with planet gravity, new powerups, and a space theme. It also has a deep orchestral sound track.

I like these games not because they're Mario games, but because they break the mold for what a Mario game normally is.

8. Final Fantasy VII

The second best Final Fantasy in my opinion. It probably has the best all-round experience. But the story of the next Final Fantasy in this list is just too good to put it lower.

7. StarCraft 1 and 2

These games are just a another set of games with amazing staying power. I would still consider them THE definitive RTS titles.

I really like the 1v1 experience in StarCraft II. And the Brood War campaign in my opinion is still the best RTS campaign ever made.

6. Dwarf Fortress

This is one of my favorite simulation games. There is simply no other simulation game with as much going on as Dwarf Fortress. Its kind of gotten to the point where there is probably noone who fully understands all of the systems at play in this game.

It has a unique playing experience. You don't really control the game. You just give it some suggestions, and then watch as the world works around you. Sometime oblivious to the commands you give it.

I also really like the community for this game. There are just so many fun and wacky stories. And poorly drawn renditions of these stories are the norm. You don't need good art to make your mark in Dwarf Fortress history.

5. Civilization VI

Civilization VI is up this high simply for the number of hours I've put into it. When it released it was okay. But every expansion pack brought so much more to the game. I can't even imagine playing this game without the expansions. This is an amazing game that has had years of work put into it. The result is a very well polished game that is really fun to play.

4. Baldur's Gate 3

The standout feature of this game for me was the immense amount of voice acting, and the number of available paths. There is no reading in this game, and you are able to do just about anything you can imagine. This is exactly what I want for a DnD game. It is incredibly immersive.

It is also really nice to not have DLC and micro transactions shoved down your throat the whole time.

The Final Three

Everything before now is debatable in my eyes. But when I started making this list these three games immediately came to mind in this exact order.

3. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild cover art.

It is really hard to describe just how amazing this game is to me. It is the only game I have ever pre-ordered in my entire life. I pre-ordered a game for the Wii-U (said no one ever). I saw the trailer and instantly knew it was going to be something special.

First off it is the only real open world game I know. Open world is a really lame advertising strategy, mostly because nobody actually makes open world games. If you're going to advertise an open world game, it better be like Breath of the Wild.

And secondly, it is a technical marvel. In a world where game optimization is disappearing and games are getting buggier, Breath of the Wild brought us back to a better age. This is the most beautiful game to ever run on 2 gigabytes of ram (for real, look up the Wii-U's specs). I cannot believe that Pokemon Scarlet runs on the same system as this game. The Pokemon team has some serious laziness issues.

2. Heroes of the Storm

I have easily put more hours into this game than any other game. There isn't even a playtime counter, but I'm pretty confident. Not everyone will agree with how high I put this game up on my list. But it is just a ton of fun for me.

It has that amazing long-term support Blizzard provides, and it is the best MOBA in my opinion. The talent system simplifies champion progression, while providing more customization than a shop. The objectives provide opportunities for super fun team fights. And the classes are a lot more distinct than other MOBAs.

And at the end of the day, this is my comfort game. I know it inside and out, and I can play it without too much stress or mental effort.

1. Final Fantasy VI

This game is still easily my number 1 video game of all time. The story is one that cannot be told in any other medium, and it puts pretty much every other game's storyline to shame.

I realized just how much I liked this game when I was writing my Final Fantasy VII game review. I was doing a little bit of research for it, and I found myself accidentally getting sucked down more Final Fantasy VI rabbit holes than Final Fantasy VII.

No other game has such a diverse and fleshed out cast of characters. No game has a better villain. No game tackles the themes of loss and grief as profoundly as Final Fantasy VI does.

This is the game I select as my number 1.

Brigham Skarda