Best Video Games of All Time TIMEs Top 5. Whether you play video games or not, theyve become an integral part of our culture. For some, its hard to imagine a world without video gamesthe chup chup boop of an arcade legend like Space Invaders or the growling Finish Him in Mortal Kombat can be as evocative as a Michael Jackson or Beatles tune. Representing multiple generations of gamers, TIMEs tech team put more than 1. Here are our picks for the 5. In the 1. 98. 0s, the years that led up to Nintendos reign were dominated by PC titles, and of these none were better imagined than Sierras. When honoring their adventure line, critics typically laud the original Kings Quest. But its the third installment released in 1. BIw0D-JDU/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Super Mario 64 Zelda Hack' title='Super Mario 64 Zelda Hack' />Following the adventures of Daventrys 1. Prince Alexander, the game hit closer to home with its primary players, who like it or not were pretty much boys. Yet despite the outmoded graphics or maybe because of them, the keyboard controlled adventure is still a joy to play try it yourself. From amassing all the ingredients to make potions, to avoiding the wizards evil black cat, to stealing the pirates treasure, its pure magic. Super Mario 64 Zelda Hack' title='Super Mario 64 Zelda Hack' />Get it now. Suzi PrattFilm. MagicGetty Images. The improbable sequel to a fan mod for a Blizzard game that came out in 2. Dota 2 stormed the e sports scene in 2. Arguably the pinnacle of the multiplayer online battle arena genre or MOBA, which is just another way of saying competitive real time strategy game, it sees two teams of five jockey for sway over lush, jungled terrain beset by ever spawning computer armies, locking horns at a river that cuts diagonally across a symmetric map. Difficult to master but thrilling to watch, Dota 2 matches unfold like frenetic attention deficit sprees, camera views pinballing around battlefields flush with antagonists converging on dozens of flashpoints, as players battle to demolish the other teams ancient. Play it now. Rovios debut 2. With the last open source retrogaming console The recalbox. Recalbox allows you to replay a variety of videogame consoles and platforms in your living room, with ease Cheating Dome The Genie provides you with daily codes cheats From Mario to Minecraft, these are the video games that changed the world. Phone. But the studios quirky avian flinging physics puzzlerplayers have to slingshot roly poly birds at likewise rotund, entrenched pigsalso honed in on key elements of smartphone gamings then nascent purview bite sized levels for on the go play, easy to pickup if grueling to master gameplay, and eventually a free to play biz model built on micro transactions. Its safe to say Angry Birds established the template for all the untold numbers of mobile games vying for our e wallets since. Play it now. Get the latest deals, reviews and recommendations from the editors of TIME sign up for The Goods newsletter here. Guitar Hero reanimated the music video game genre when it launched in 2. Rock Gods. Sure, you had to provide your own sweatbands, eyeliner and hair extensions. But for the price of the game and its eponymous accessory, players hammering buttons on faux guitars were able to rhythmically glimpse what it might feel like to be a Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jake E. Lee. While games like Dance Dance Revolution had proven popular with smaller audiences, it was Guitar Heros rolling collection of classic and modern rock anthems that drove it to mainstream accolades to say nothing of all the impromptu house parties. Get it now. Who can forget the moment they first shot the face off a possessed farmer in Resident Evil 4, only to conjure a lively Lovecraftian horror with tentacles squirming from its neck This was Resident Evil reborn, its creaky fixed perspectives and klutzy directional controls supplanted by a freer over the shoulder, shoot first perspective that felt at once elegant and intuitive. Installing Windows On Raid 1. Instead of cheap haunted house scares in claustrophobic spaces, the story shifted to organic exploration of delightfully creepy areas, punctuated by frenzied scrambles to fend off the series most inspired adversaries. Capcoms timely embrace in 2. Get it now. Sony Interactive Entertainment. As Microsoft Flight Simulator to the flight sim genre, so Polyphony Digitals Gran Turismo series to hi fi motorsport hot rodding. Of all the Gran Turismo games, 2. Gran Turismo 3 A Spec for the Play. Station 2 remains the series apotheosis, a madly ambitious encyclopedia of lovingly modeled vehicles and vistas surpassing the wildest gear nut fantasies. Here was a racing game to rule all others, that on its surface promised endless championship events framed by thrillingly realistic physics and painstakingly replicated visuals, but that also catered to armchair grease monkeys, who might spend hours fine tuning then gawking at their drop dead gorgeous rides. Get it now. Since the original launched on the Nintendo 6. Super Smash Bros. Nintendo fans. The game, which borrows from Nintendos stable of iconic characters, introduced something radical to the fighter genre Rather than pounding the bejesus out of your opponents until they bow out, youre basically playing an elaborate variant of King of the Hill, trying to successfully knock your enemies off platforms in a given stage. Whats more, players could romp through stages freely, expanding the canvas upon which to doll out whuppings. And unlike other fighters that require players memorize arcane buttons combos to execute a characters special maneuvers, Super Smash Bros. Get it now. The Call of Duty franchise epitomizes everything a modern first person shooter ought to be A game with a compelling, story driven single player campaign along with a multiplayer mode that can steal hours of your life. The newer incarnations are more complex and prettier, of course. But they owe a great debt to Call of Duty 2, which in 2. Grand cinematic sequences gave players a sense of scope, while the realismfallen soldiers would sometimes try fruitlessly to crawl to safetydrove home the horrors of war. Iron sights on the guns, meanwhile, made this a favorite of hyper accurate PC gamers. Get it now. Bio. Shocks gripping metaphysical plot, over the top art deco levels and motley cast of hauntingly broken personas intermingle to furnish an experience so riveting and simultaneously disturbing that it fueled at the time perfectly reasonable conversations about games as more than dopamine fueled diversions. Studio Irrational Games 2. Rapture, built by fanatical industrialist Andrew Ryan whose name references Atlas Shrugged novelist and self described objectivist Ayn Rand. The game set new standards for video games on so many levels, from its horrifying forms of self augmentation, to its ecology of intersectional enemy behaviors and its sublime ways of channeling what amounted to a withering deconstruction of extremist modes of thought. Get it now. Sorry, Madden NFL fans, true football gaming fanatics know this is the best gridiron game ever made. Released in 2. 00. Play. Station 2 and Xbox, ESPN NFL 2. K5 featured a standout franchise building mode and in game on air talent from the eponymous sports network. It also marked a watershed moment in sports gaming lore Publisher Sega priced the game at just 1. EA was charging for Madden NFL at the time. A frightened EA later scooped up the exclusive rights to the NFL and its players, making Madden the only name in town. Get it now. Snicker all you want about its two dimensional graphics, Pong deserves a slot on this list because, as the first arcade cabinet to catch fire with the mainstream, its arguably most responsible for the modern video gaming phenomenon. A table tennis simulator developed by Atari and first released in 1.