Smithsonian selects top 80 games from past 40 years

i actually kinda like this list.  Sure there are some holes, but you can only have so many games, and i think i had played 80% of all of those games till you start getting into the modern era stuff.

Is this a sick joke? is Smithsonian a creationism museum? politely forgetting the shocking miriad of mistakes in game selection for ALL platforms, lets focus on Playstation.... no Wipeout? you know, the gamer-demographic-changing game that single-handedly converted the image of gaming from nerdy to cool? Smithsonian did'nt notice that? What about Tony hawk's skateboarding, silent hill, Resi!!!! The list of shocking omissions for this platform alone, are endless! Final fantasy tactics!?! Perhaps elsewhere in the Smithsonian there is an exhibit claiming that homosapians are descended from cheeseplants. No wonder Americans have not the slightest notion of historical fact.

How can they put Halo 2 on there, when obviously Halo CE should be the one on the list. There are a couple more mistakes but this one stands out the most!

WTF??? They completely forgot about Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Alone in the dark. They those were the fathers of survival horrors, especially Alone in the dark and yet they didn't appear. This list is completely wrong

Where is Gears of War 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Infamous, Assassin's Creed II? you have been living on a cave or what?

No this is wrong.

There are just to many games out there to remember all of them. But I agree with most gamers your list is crap!!!

whoever made this doesn't know much about video games. All i gotta say is why Brutal legend for ps3. Seriously. Everything else could have been perfect, but just that one thing failed the entire exhibition.

What about Silent Hunter? What about all the Bioware games? Gee wiz they didn't include a one!!! I don't know where the Smithsonian is, but it's not here, as far as I'm concerned.

Man this list is not right at all. They haven't included anything from when games first came out on the PC or the first consoles, and they're including a bunch of garbage that only a few cared about. Where in the hill is Asteroids, Missile Command, Pong, Battlezone, Defender, USS Fast Attack, ZWar, Star Trek (the first one), Zork, Adventure, Starflight, Empire, Gunship, The Ultimas, Wolfentstein 3D, Doom, etc. etc. etc.? Shall I go on? They left out all the stuff that was at the beginning, and they call this a history? Where was this stupid vote anyway? Who voted? This stupid list is not accurate at all. They should be ashamed of themselves for not including the games that STARTED IT ALL. The games that were THERE FIRST.

I am truly surprised at the inclusion of EINHANDER and Gradius V! Way to go for obscure games smithsonian!

Just glad Half-Life 2 isn't on this list; Overrated game is Overrated!!

theres a ton missing .... and a ton that shouldnt be here

While a lot of the newer games are completely off (Fallout 3? If anything, TES: Oblivion was more groundbreaking a game than Fallout 3), many of the older ones are very good choices. The first version of Sid Meier's Pirates! was absolutely groundbreaking for it's time, and the gameplay still holds up today in terms of freedom and openness. I spent many days simply lost in the vast oceans of this game, hunting down pirates and selling goods, I even found a treasure cache once. So many fine moments in Pirates! :D

um hello ... where is Super Metroid , Final Fantasy III ? and HALF - LIFE 1 & 2 ? joke list

BF2 should be on this list it made huge leaps in multiplayer

Really I want to shoot the person who made this list. I'm going to go to there house and shoot them in their sleep. If I remember correctly the 90s was all about Mario vs Sonic. Was it really just me imagining sonic and he didn't really exist, was it really mario vs some character from Dune II battle for arkansis?

Lol I just realised there is no half life either. Ok it is official now this list cannot be taken seriously.

Where are the original sonics and metal gear solid 4? This list is pretty stupid if you ask me. They have even included the 3D dreamcast version of sonic which is where most people say that the series started to fail but didn't included the originals which where generation defining at the time.

pretty disappointing list, referring to PC only. deeply influential and creative names got dropped for games that had better sales numbers. my versions: Era 4: Quake, Civilization, Baldur's Gate, The Sims Era 5: Half-Life 2, Neverwinter Nights, Deus Ex, Minecraft

Hey, where is "God of War?" Too much gore for a museum? Well, at least "Heavy Rain" and "Metal Gear Solid" are there. Still, I'd like to see "Assassin's Creed" there too. I think I want to see this exhibition.

they couldnt think of ANYTHING other than brutal legend for ps3? lol try killzone2, infamous DEMON"S SOULS?!?!

Sid Meier's Pirates! FTW.

@ Smuggler2 It's in Era 4, Nintendo 64 :)

Lol Brutal Legend ?! How about, let's see, LittleBigPlanet or Assassin's Creed II :/

And for the love of all that is HOLY, where the HELL is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time?!!!!

GTA III and Assassin's Creed? Dear Smithsonian American Art Museum, Do not use the opinions of normal people. Normal people don't know what they want. Furthermore, their ability to differentiate a quality video game from a horrible one is synonymous with the ability of a walrus teaching a pencil how to play Bach. Go with a more professional opinion (ie: people who play through the bad games, thus gaining an unbreakable appreciation for the good games). Love, Disgruntled, rambling video gamer #7459

"omg there list is different from mine!" I better complain and flame about it.

Why is Earthworm Jim in over Sonic the Hedgehog 2? Also, Yoshi's Island? Mario RPG? C'mon, those are two of the plumber's finest!

@psycho_chaos True, but I was basically just saying GTA3 really kicked it off in popularity.

@GameBeaten "If any GTA game is to be included it should be Grand Theft Auto III for revolutionizing games with it's sandbox gameplay everyone decided to do after it was released." Actually sandbox gameplay pre-dates GTA III by about 10 - 20 years. Off the top of my head, some of the games you should of heard of include Elder Scrolls 1, 2 & 3, Sid Meier's Pirates(the original), Fallout, Driver, Elite (which is still probably the biggest game world to date) and GTA & GTA II. Also, there was the original Mafia, that was about announced & shown off a year before GTA III but came out 9 months after. So there is at least 1 game that did the same thing at the same time. Again, GTA III was brilliant, did so many things really well, set new standards, but it wasn't revolutionary, it was just really well made.

Sounds like a fun exhibit.

Where's the Demon's Souls!?

Brutal Legend in place of MGS4 or GOW3? :?

Wow...worst list ever. Where is Crazy Taxi, KotR, Oblivion or Morrowind, Half-Life, Team Fortress, Mario Kart??? I could probably name 80 games that should've been on this list.

The most crappy list of all time, I played most of the Sega genesis and best of its games are not in the list, let's not get started with ZX Spectrum not being there or even the crappy games they chose for the current generation. By the way a list without these games are worth nothing 1- KOTOR. 2- Max Payne. 3- Mafia. 4- Morrowind. 5- Baldur's gate.

I thought Super Metroid might make the SNES era games. I think its the best looking game and the best game overall from that era imo.

WoW? Ah come on.... And no Assassins Creed? It is only one of the best selling franchises out there. I mean, it is certainly better as monkey island or LOTR: TBME... I loved the movies but there's nothing special about the games.

WTF! There's no Half Life or Half Life 2:shock: The game changed the shooter genre.

this list is weird, many things dont fit, ill just name 2. they place super mario bros. but not super mario bros. 3, which to me is better, but its arguable because smb came first and was revolutionary and all that, but then there is metroid prime 2?? when metroid prime not only came first, its much better. Any way just my opinion. Also, PS3 list is also very strange

Very Weird list

Since this list is about how artsy a game was for it's time period, I can't believe the voters forgot about Sonic 2 and Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles. Those were easily some of the best looking games on the Sega Genesis. Oh well, at least none of the Call of Duty games made the list.

PS3's list was a joke. You forgot about God of War 3, Killzone, LBP and MGS:4... Any of those are easily better than Heavy Rain, Brutal Legend and Flower.. At least you didn't forget to mention Uncharted 2.

im very surprised they include Sonic in their list, it is an era defining game, and a major evolution to the simple platformer games

No racing games? where's Mario Kart, Grand Turismo or need for speeed? What about fighting games. Mortal Kombat and Street fighter What about Command and Conquer for PC it was massive in its own rite? some good games on here but a lot of notable ommisions. What about the N64 selection; Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye007 and than Worms. Im not saying worms is a bad game but its grouped in with some fundamentaly revolutionary games. I guess with a list of 80 games there is going to be gaps, and variety is good

awesomesauce @ Pikmin 2 and Shadow of the Colossus

Boom Blox was a good game a suprise inclusion

On gamecube I would not have chosen star fox assault. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun game. I just don't think its great enough to be one of the 80 greatest games of all time. I also don't understand why they chose zack and wiki and boom blox over super smash bros brawl and metroid prime 3.

A few flaws on this list, but its still good. I like how the chose Sonic Adventure. In my Opinions it is the best 3d sonics, and one of the best sonics games. It is truly a great game.

No MGS4 and why Brutal Legend on PS3? That is a multi-platform saaaaad.