Acclaimed Video Games: Sources

Here are all of the lists that are used in my database. I have provided links where available. To qualify for inclusion, lists must be produced by game critics, game designers, game magazines, game historians, or other professional media or scholarly sources. Lists created by individual fans or as a result of a public vote, even those published by major magazines, are ineligible. Lists from less established sources must pass my inspection to make sure that they possess a certain level of journalistic merit (think of it as 'fan-boy' filtering). If you know of a list that cannot be found below and would like for it to be included in a future update, please send an email to the address listed on the contact page.

List Database:
Best of All-Time Lists
1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die: Entries (2010)
1Up: Five Games That Changed The Way We Play...And Five That Should Have (2011)
1Up: The 60 Most Influential Games of All Time (2011)
AI GameDev: Top 10 Most Influential AI Games (2007)
Andy McNamara: 10 Greatest Video Games Of All Time (2007)
Atomic Gamer: Nine Classic Games that Hold Up (2010)
Austin Chronicle: Desert Island Games (2000)
Benchmark.pl: 100 Best Games of the 20th Century [1901-2000] (2009)
Best Buy On: Top 10 Games of All Time (2010)
bit-tech: The Best Games You Never Played (2007)
CVG: The best ever video games - in (almost) every genre (2011)
CyberShack TV: Top 5 - Best indie games (2009)
Dan Hsu (BitMob): 15 Games in 15 Minutes (2010)
David M. Ewalt (Forbes): Fifteen Games In Fifteen Minutes (2010)
Edge Magazine: 100 Best Games To Play Today (2009)
Empire Online: 100 Greatest Games (2009)
Entertainment Weekly: 50 New Videogame Classics (2008)

Gabe Newell: My 3 favourite games (2011)

Game Informer: 200 Greatest Games Ever (2009)
Game On: From Pong to Oblivion: The 50 Greatest Games of All Time (2006)
GameDaily: 25 Best Games of All Time (2008)
GamePro: Games That Changed Gaming Forever (2009)
GamePro: The 19 Best Underrated Games (2011)
GamePro: The 52 Most Important Video Games of All Time (2007)
GameSpot: Greatest Games of All Time (2007)
GameSpy: Top 25 Underrated Games of All Time (2003)
GameSpy: Top 50 Games of All Time (2001)
GamesRadar: Top 100 Video Games Series (2000) [Incomplete; only have the top 10]
GamesRadar: The 100 best games of all time (2012)
GamesRadar: The greatest game on every platform (2009)
GamesTM: 100 Best Games Ever (2010)
GamesTM: 100 Greatest Retro Games (2010)

G4TV: Top 100 Games (2012)
GT Countdown: Top 10 Most Innovative Games (2007)

IGN: Top 10 Most Influential Games (2007)
IGN: Top 100 Games of All Time (2007)
IGN: Top 100 Modern Games (2011)
Jaded Gamer: 100 Greatest Games? (2005)
Jeux Video Network: Top 100 Video Games of All Time (2009)
Jeuxvideo: The 100 Greatest Games of All Time (2011)
Jon-Paul Dyson: Most Influential Video Games (2010)
Jonny Greenwood: Top 10 Video Games (2010)
Kotaku Australia: The 50 Most Important Games Of All Time (2009)
Laser Orgy: Editors' Top 50 Games Ever (2010)
Mark Healey: My 3 favourite games (2011)
Mouse Digital: Eight Titles that Revolutionized the Industry (2005)
Next Generation: Top 50 Video Game Series (1999) [Incomplete, missing #50]
PC Mag: The 10 Most Influential Video Games of All Time (2010)
Peter Molyneux: 5 most innovative games [1989-2009] (2009)

Randy Pitchford: My 3 favourite games (2011)

Replay: The History of Video Games: Gameography (2010)
Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Gaming Made Me series (2009)
The Rough Guide to Videogames: Canon Entries (2008)

Rowan Kaiser: 10 Greatest Games of All Time (2012)

Rowan Kaiser: 20 or so Best Games Not On theG4TV List (2012)
Smithsonian: The Art of Video Games Nominations (2011)

Stuff Magazine UK: 100 Greatest Games (2008)
Telespiele: Most Influential Games of All Time (2007)

Tetsuya Mizuguchi: My 3 favourite games (2011)

The Escapist: 12 Games That Defined Their Genres (2010)
"The Video Game Canon" (2007)
Times Online: The ten most influential video games ever (2007)
Time Magazine: All-TIME 100 Video Games (2012)
Tomonobu Itagaki: Hit List (2005)
Vintage Games: The Most Influential Games of All Time (2009)
WebUrbanist: 10 Innovative Video Games that Will Blow Your Mind (2010)
Yahoo! UK: Top 100 Greatest Computer Games of All Time (2006)
Yoshinori Ono: My 3 favourite games (2011)
. . . various designer lists [24] from GameSpy's 2001 poll.
. . . various industry lists [6] from The Video Game Revolution (2004)

Best of Decade Lists
Austin Chronicle: Top 10 Games of the Decade (2000)
AV Club: The 15 best videogames of the ’00s (2009)
Destructoid: The Top 50 Videogames of the Decade (2009)
Gamasutra: Top 12 Games of the Decade (2009)
Game Blend: Unplayed: The Most Underappreciated Games Of The Decade (2009)
Gameplayer.se: Decade's [2000s] best games (2010)
Gamer.no: The [2000s'] Best Games (2010)
Gamereactor Sweden: Best Games of the 2000s (2010)
GamesRadar: The 20 most important games of the [2000s] (2009)
Gamestooge: 50 Greatest Games of the Decade (2009)
Gamingbolt: Top 10 Games of the Decade (2009)
Gamingbolt: Top 10 Indie Games of This Generation (2011)
GT Countdown: Top 10 Games of the [2000s] (2010)
IGN: The Best Games of the Decade (2010)
Inner Juegos: The 100 Best Games of the Decade (2011)
Metromix Atlanta: Best game of the decade (2010)
MSN UK: The greatest games of the 90s (2009)
Mundo Gamers: 100 Best Games of the Decade (2009)
National Post: The most influential video games since Y2K (2009)
Paste: The 20 Best Video Games of the Decade (2009)
PC-World Australia: 15 Essential Games of [the Seventh] Generation (2010)
San Francisco Gate: Best video games of the decade (2009)
SavyGamer: 2000-2009 - The ones that got away (2010)
Wired: 15 Most Influential Games of the [2000s] (2009)
X Play: 10 Best Games Ever Reviewed By X Play (2007)
Yahoo!: Top 10 Games of the Decade (2009)

PC Only Lists
Atomic Gamer: The Best PC Games of the 2000s (2009)
Big Download: The 20 Most Influential PC Games (2009)
bit-tech: 30 PC Games to Play Before You Die (2009)
bit-tech: [Modern PC Game] Hall of Fame (2010)
Chip Online: Die Besten DOS-Games aller Zeiten
CNET Australia: Best games for Mac (2010)
CNN: Top 10 PC Games Ever (1999)

Complex: The 50 Best PC Games of All Time (2012)
Computer Gaming World: 150 Best Games of All Time (1996)
Edge: The 50 Best Games of the 1980s (2008)
Edge: The Best Of 2000-2009 (2009)
EuroGamer: [50] Commodore 64 Classics (2007)
Eurogamer: Top 10 PC Games (2011)
Expert Reviews: Top 10 PC games ever (2010)
GameDaily: Top 25 PC Games of All Time (2008)
GamePro: The 30 Best [recent] PC Games (2011)
GamePro: The 32 Best PC Games (2008)
GamePro: The 37 Best Free PC Games (2011)
Gamer.no: The Best Commodore 64 Games (2008)
GameSpot: 15 (+10) Most Influential [PC] Games of All Time (2000)
GameSpy: 25 Favorite PC Games of the '90s (2009)
GameSpy: The Greatest PC Games of All Time: The '80s (2009)
GameSpy: Top 25 PC Games of the 2000s (2011)
Gamingbolt: The 10 PC games you must own (2009)
GeekDad: Top 10 Eighties Computer Games Worth Playing (Again) (2010)
GT Countdown: Top 10 Breakthrough PC Games (2009)
IGN: Top 25 Modern [1998-2010] PC Games (2010)
IGN: Top 25 PC Games of All Time (2009)
Imperium Gier: Top 30 games for Atari [8bit & 2600] (2011)
Imperium Gier: Top 30 games for the Amiga (2011)
Imperium Gier: Top 30 games for the Commodore 64 (2011)
Information Week: Top 12 PC Games Of All Time (2010)
MacLife: The Top 10 Apple Games of All Time (2008)
Maximum PC: The 30 Must-Play PC Games of The Decade [2001-2010] (2010)
My Gaming: Best Linux Games, Part 1 (2009) and Part 2 (2010)
Now Gamer: The Top 25 Spectrum Games (2009)
PC Authority: Top 10 PC Games Ever (2010)
PC Gamer [international poll]: 100 Best PC Games (2011)
PC Gamer UK: Top 100 PC Games (2007)
PC Gamer US: Top 50 PC Games (2005)
PC World: Ten Best PC Games Ever (2009)
PC Zone: The 101 best PC games ever (2007)
Ripten: Ten great [low spec] PC games (2009)
Ripten: Top Ten Games to Play on Your Netbook (2010)
Rock, Paper, Shotgun: The Very Important List Of PC Games (2011)
Simon Hill: Top Ten PC Games of All Time (2010)
Stuart Campbell: Top 100 ZX Spectrum Games (1992)
TechnoBuffalo: Top 10 Greatest PC Games of All Time (2009)
VGChartz: Top Ten PC Games (2008)
Wired: Top 10 Most Influential Amiga Games (2007)

Arcade Only Lists

Arcade Fever: The Fan's Guide to the Golden Age ofVideo Games (2001)
GameDaily: Top 25 Arcade Games of All Time (2008)

GameSpy: Top 50 Arcade Games of All-Time (2011)
GT Countdown: Top 10 Arcade Games (2009)
Killer List of VideoGames: Top 100 [Arcade] Video Games
PC Authority: Top 10 arcade games of all time (2010)
San Francisco Gate: The best classic arcade games ever made (2009)
TechRadar.com: 14 arcade machines that led to a misspent youth (2008)

Console Only Lists
1Up: The Best of Nintendo DS (2011)
1Up: Top 25 NES Games (2010)
About.com: The Most Important NES Games of All Time
About.com: Top 10 Best Xbox 360 Games (2009)
About.com: Top 10 PlayStation 2 (PS2) Games of All Time (2007)
About.com: Top 10 Xbox Games (2007)
Complex: The 25 Best Genesis Games (2010)
Complex: The 25 Best Playstation 2 Games (2010)
CVG: The 20 best games on PlayStation 3 (2012)
CVG: The 20 best games on Xbox 360 (2012)
Edge: Best 20 Indie Games [on XBLA] (2010)
Electronic Gaming Monthly: Top 200 Video Games of Their Time (2006)
Eurogamer: Top 10 PlayStation 3 Games (2011)
Eurogamer: Top10 Xbox 360 Games (2011)

Eurogamer: Top10 Wii Games (2011)
Game Informer: The 25 Best Game Boy Games Of All Time (2011)
GameDaily: Top 10 Sega Saturn Games (2008)

Lists Being Added in the Next Update:

- none, yet . . .

Other helpful resources:
All Game Guide [Contains info, reviews, and ratings for essentially every game commercially released in North America.]
Filibustercartoons.com [Similar to my site, but much older and with a more simplistic formula which includes fan lists. Regardless, it was an immense help early on.]
MobyGames [Useful for finding designer info, platforms, and release dates.]
Wikipedia [Has high quality images and trustworthy basic information. Specifically, it helped me find the North American and European release dates for various games.]

Acclaimed Video Games

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