The Guinness World Records releases annual “Gamer’s Edition” books, which rate and document some of the more dramatic feats in the world of video games. However, Guinness is branching out from the objective realm of records and numbers into the subjective world of opinion and “expert judging panels”. One of the products of this ideological shift is a ranking of “The Top 50 Console Games of All Time“, and the results are raising a few eyebrows.
The list from the press release is after the jump, but we’ll go ahead and tell you that Gran Turismo scored 19th place. Yes, it was up against stiff competition like Super Mario Kart (in the top spot), Final Fantasy, and Grand Theft Auto. They were all impressive sellers, but the games were ranked 
by their “initial impact and lasting legacy”. Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday continues, “We knew this would be a complex task so we invited a crack team of industry experts to form a judging panel – and the result is a ‘top 50’ list of games ranked both on their importance and on how fun they are to play.”
Unfortunately for Kazunori Yamauchi, the panel did not consider achievements outside of the video game industry “important”. Otherwise, a game which has sold more than 50 million copies, been referred to as the ultimate automotive “brand ambassador” by BusinessWeek magazine, pushed technical boundaries, increased sales of actual vehicles, turned a video gamer into a professional race car driver, and developed real and concept cars would – at the very least – manage into the “top 10”. But, no, when the competition inspired…other games, such real-world accomplishments just aren’t enough.
Here’s the complete list:
- Super Mario Kart (series)
- Tetris
- Grand Theft Auto
- Super Mario World
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Halo
- Resident Evil IV
- Final Fantasy XII
- Street Fighter II
- GoldenEye
- Super Mario 64
- Tomb Raider
- Metal Gear Solid
- Call of Duty 4
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- GTA San Andreas
- Super Mario Bros
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Gran Turismo
- Final Fantasy VII
- Pro Evolution Soccer 4
- The Orange Box
- Lego Star Wars Complete Saga
- Tekken 2
- Wii Sports
- Pokemon Red/Blue
- Guitar Hero
- Project Gotham Racing 4
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Resident Evil
- Ico
- Chrono Trigger
- Gunstar Heroes
- Soul Calibur
- Advance Wars
- Ridge Racer
- Super Metroid
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
- GTA Vice City
- BioShock
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- God of War
- Sega Rally Championship
- Starfox 64
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- WarioWare Inc
- Saturn Bomberman
- Crash Bandicoot
- Outrun 2
See more articles on Kazunori Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital.
List is an epic fail!
really what kind of moron puts mario cart at the top
Well it’s nice to know where wii profits went
nothing else…. not nothing left.
Sorry, typo.
This list is a joke. Where are the classics?
Super Mario Bros?
Sonic?
R-Type?
Halo is a good game. Nothing more nothing left, the rest is hype. What NEWS were in this game?
Metal Gear Solid was defining a new kind of games. Splinter Cell and others followed….
And why was there GTA San Andreas? What was the big chances to GTA 3???
Well, this list is nothing else than a bad joke.
They should stick to verifiable facts. This list is as meaningless as the way they created it.
I agree with you on Jak and Daxter, Crash Bandcoot and Gran Turismo being on top ten. Halo is a really great game though, i think it has a top 10 well deserved.
Final Fantasy VII should be ahead of Final Fantasy XII.
Gran Turismo should be in the top 10, instead of Halo.
Pokemon Red/Blue (Green) should be #1.
Crash Bandicoot should be higher up the list.
Jak & Daxter should’ve been on this list.
After all of what it took to make GT and what GT has done for the automotive world, it loses to Mario Cart. What kind of s**t is that!!!???
Super Mario Cart looks to be the only one they rated by “series” where as all the others do not have this tag which would explain why some series have more than one game showing on the list. That being said, I would like to know which titles they reviewed of the games that have multiple titles but only show up once on the list with no distintion of the title. I would also like to know how Crash Bandicoot made #49 but Ratchet & Clank did even make the list. Seems to be unfair if you rate some games by series and some individually.
I would think that out right sales would be first criteria and then impact on the genre for which the game is designed to affect would be second with the length gaming pleasure third, i. e. how long they can have pleasure playing the game after it has been completed.
@jordan
they did break up the final fantasy series, as FFVIII is #20 and FFXII is #8…
though this list isn’t any better than whatever list you might find on n4g… I mean FFXII at #8 and FFVII at #20??? I’m not saying that FFXII is a bad game, though I think it would have been more accurate to place it at like #40 or whatever (and after some of the other ff games for that matter)… I mean, FFXII better than Super Mario 64? To me that’s utter bs and I feel like this list shouldn’t have been made in the first place. I didn’t expect this crap from Guiness World Records. Sure they have registered some strange records before but this list is based purely on opinion, no matter how they try to pass it off as that “initial impact and lasting legacy” bs. And again let me use the FF’s as an example. FFVII: How long has fanboys cried for a remake? how many spinoffs has there been? How many times did they release new versions of the anime based on FFVII? Answer those questions and compare it to the “lasting legacy” of FFXII. How did they even come up with FFXII on the list? Wow, just wow. /end of rant
that list is from nintendo?
Shadow of the Colossus isn’t even on that list, should be top 10 easily
What a load of BS…
Leaving Gran Turismo out of the top 10 is outrageous enough but, HOW ON EARTH is Halo ahead of Metal Gear Solid?? I think I read “initial impact and lasting legacy”… What where they smoking?? Mario Kart at the top?? This list is total laugh.
I think any gamer will find this list a bit strange at least… it sure doesn’t help Guiness World Records’s reputation.
Yep shit list wthout a doubt
it looks like some 14 year old with a basic knowledge of games made this list. What a joke.
@Igniz: Yeah, I thought it was a little shady that GTA came in at number 3, and GTA: San Andreas came in at number 16th. Why would they decide to break the series up like that – they didn’t do the same for Final Fantasy or Mario Kart…?
The only games on this list I think should not be ahead of GT are Halo and COD4. I’d replace one with Counterstrike but bump GT up a few. Castlevania should have been much higher. Glad to see Sega Rally though! Anyhow GT is the highest ranked racing game by far, excludint mario kart of course which is only technically in the same genre.
Gran theft auto at 3???? LOL…Nice One.