Collections

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The big one. A lifetime of gaming distilled into 150 essential experiences, the games everyone should play at least once in their life. Ordered from 1978 (year before I was born) to today, this is a guided tour through the entire history of the medium, from the arcade cabinets I used to pump hundreds of 10p pieces into through to the modern masterpieces still being made. Every genre, every era, every must-play. You will not agree with all of it, and that is half the fun. Pick one, start playing, and work your way through a lifetime of greatness.

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These are the games that did not just sell, they changed everything that came after. The genre originators, the technical leaps, the cultural earthquakes. From a bat-and-ball in 1972 to the battle royale that swallowed pop culture, every game here moved the entire medium forward and left the rulebook a little different. Listed in order of release so you can trace the whole story, from the arcade to the open world to the online universe. This is not a best-of list, it is a how-we-got-here list. Required reading for anyone who loves games.

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The Golden Joystick Awards is the second oldest gaming award ceremony and is the longest-running video game award.

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The big black box that crashed the console party and changed gaming forever. Microsoft's debut machine brought us Halo, Xbox Live, and a library packed with bold exclusives and cult oddities. This is the home of Master Chief, the definitive stealth games, and a controller so huge it earned the nickname the Duke. Plenty of these never left the system, which makes them all the more worth hunting down. From genre-defining giants to forgotten gems, here is the essential original Xbox collection.

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The grey box that made gaming cool and put a CD drive in every living room. The original PlayStation was the home of the JRPG golden age, the birth of survival horror, and the moment 3D gaming truly went mainstream. This is where Final Fantasy VII broke hearts, Metal Gear Solid rewrote the rulebook, and Crash and Spyro became household names. Mind your memory cards. From genre-defining giants to beloved cult classics, here is the essential PS1 collection.

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The little purple lunchbox with a handle on the back. The GameCube sold modestly but punched so far above its weight it is genuinely absurd. This is the home of Metroid Prime, Melee, Wind Waker and the original Resident Evil 4, plus a deep bench of Nintendo classics and cult oddities. Tiny discs, a brilliant controller, and a library the faithful still treasure. From system-defining masterpieces to bongo-powered madness, here is the essential GameCube collection. Mind the handle on the way out.

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Gone far too soon, but never forgotten. Sega's final console was a box full of wild ideas, launched in the West on the unforgettable ninth of September 1999 and dead within three short years. In that brief life it gave us online console gaming, cel-shaded cool, and some of the most creative games ever made. This is the machine the enthusiasts never stopped loving. From arcade-perfect fighters to a talking fish voiced by Spock, here is the essential Dreamcast collection. Up up down down to unlock the magic.

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Sony's grey box is the best-selling console of all time, and this is exactly why. The PlayStation 2 library is a who-is-who of all-time greats, from sprawling crime sagas to lonely art masterpieces to JRPGs that swallowed entire summers. These are the games that defined a generation and still hold up today. Whether you are loading a memory card for nostalgia or discovering them through emulation, this is the essential PS2 collection. No light gun required.

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Here I give a little list of my top ranked open world games of all time. I may have missed a few, so leave a comment underneath and I'll try to check it out.

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Sixteen bits, Mode 7 magic, and a sound chip that turned game music into an art form. The Super Nintendo is, for many, the greatest console ever built, home to the finest RPGs, platformers and fighters of its age. This is where Square and Enix went to war, where Rare made apes look like the future, and where Nintendo simply refused to miss. From genre-defining masterpieces to import-only cult gems, here is the essential SNES library. The purple buttons are calling.

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Every one of these had money, talent or hype behind it, and every one of them face-planted. This is gaming's hall of shame, the launches that bombed, the servers that went dark in months, the studios that did not survive their own game. Some were broken, some were boring, some were just spectacularly mismanaged, and a couple got buried in an actual landfill. Listed in order of release rather than ranked, because picking the single biggest flop is a bar fight nobody wins. From Atari's 1982 catastrophe to Concord vanishing in a fortnight, here are the disasters we will never let the industry forget.

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After watching Mortal Kombat II I felt the need to go through all the Mortal Kombat games I have owned and rank them as to how I remember them. Such an iconic game that I still love to play.

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No publishers, no focus groups, no committees, just small teams and big ideas. These are the indie games that ran rings around the blockbusters, ranked by critic score. Some were made by a single person in a bedroom, some redefined entire genres, and all of them prove you do not need a Hollywood budget to make something unforgettable. From the game that started the whole indie boom to the roguelike that ate everyone's spare time, here is the best of the little guys. Bring a notepad and an open evening.

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Three prongs, a wobbly analogue stick, and a cartridge slot. The Nintendo 64 was the home of the four-player split-screen and some of the most beloved games ever made. This is where 3D gaming found its feet, where Rare ran riot, and where a generation learned that friendships do not survive a blue shell. From the greatest game ever scored to the cult classics only the faithful remember, here is the essential N64 collection. Blow on the cartridge first.

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The cream of the crop, the games critics simply could not fault. Ranked by Metacritic score, this is the all-time critical elite, every single one sitting at 95 or higher. At the very top, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and its near-perfect 99, a record that has stood for over two decades. Below it, a roll call of Nintendo classics, genre-defining shooters and generation-defining RPGs. If you want a reading list of the finest games ever made, start here and work your way down. There is not a dud in sight.

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Forget copies sold, this is about cold hard cash. The games that turned pixels into fortunes, ranked by estimated lifetime gross revenue. Fair warning, free-to-play and arcade earnings are notoriously hard to pin down, so these figures are the best widely-reported public estimates rather than audited accounts, and the order near the top is genuinely up for debate. What is not up for debate is the scale. From a Korean brawler that out-earned Hollywood blockbusters to the mobile match-three game funding itself off your nan, here are the biggest money machines gaming has ever built.

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The heavy hitters. The records nobody can touch. These are the games that did not just sell well, they redefined the ceiling. Ranked by total copies sold across every platform and re-release, this is the all-time sales hall of fame, from Tetris and Minecraft up on their hundred-million-plus thrones down to the modern blockbusters muscling in. Figures are the latest publicly reported lifetime sales, so bookmark it, because these numbers only ever go up.

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All the games that I love that have a female protagonist. These heroines are not just protagonists but gaming idols

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The games that I remember fondly from growing up, probably a good thing I haven't played them again. Rose-tinted glasses and all.

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The games that I have wanted to play for a while, but haven't quite got around too.

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A ranked list of my favourite gaming personalities. If they feature in a franchise then only one game will be picked.