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After 200,000 Votes, Game Informer Readers Name Zelda: Ocarina of Time as the Greatest Game of All Time

Thick Thighs Save Lives

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
No matter the industry – sports, television, movies, or games – the debate of "the greatest of all time" inevitably comes up. These debates are often full of superfluous apples-to-oranges comparisons and, as a result, are unlikely to come up with a definitive answer everyone will be happy with. But that's what makes them so fun. In that spirit, we took the month of March to hold our own bracket-style tournament, voted on by readers, to determine the greatest video game of all time.

Though we here at Game Informer assembled the bracket, even that was heavily influenced by our Reader Vote we held in 2018 to coincide with our 300th issue. Using the results of our 2018 Reader Vote combined with some input from staff, general sentiment in various online communities, and critical reception for more recent games, we assembled a starting bracket of 64 games. Still, there were some exclusions that raised eyebrows within our community, most notably the original Deus Ex, as well as games like Super Smash Bros. Melee, Max Payne, and the Ori games.
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From there, we held two rounds of voting per week until we whittled this field down to one ultimate winner. After more than 200,000 votes were cast, the Game Informer readers and community have named The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the greatest video game of all time! This stands in contrast to the results in our 2018 Reader Vote, where The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt took home the top prize, and The Last of Us came in second. In that 2018 vote, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time came in third, so it's not exactly the underdog story of underdog stories, but it still shows the enduring legacy of Nintendo's 1998 masterpiece.
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Along the way, we had some blowouts, but we also experienced our fair share of close calls. The closest matchup in the tournament saw Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater eke out a win over the seminal Pokémon entries, Red and Blue, by a mere 12 votes. Meanwhile, one of the biggest upsets in the tournament, Metroid Prime over The Last of Us Part II, was also one of the closest, as Samus took out Ellie with a margin of just 23 votes. Finally, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past narrowly defeated Half-Life 2 with a difference of fewer than 90 votes separating these two classics.

You can see the full bracket below!
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bracket_winner.jpg

Was Ocarina of Time your pick to go all the way? If not, when did your favorite get eliminated? Which results surprised you the most? Sound off in the comments below!
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www.gameinformer.com

Game Informer Readers Name Zelda: Ocarina Of Time As Greatest Game Of All Time

The results are in, and Link's debut 3D adventure takes home the top prize in our 2024 reader vote to determine the greatest video game of all time!
www.gameinformer.com www.gameinformer.com
 
Lupin25

Lupin25

Member
Super Mario World vs Fallout: NV
would be the toughest. Holy.

Also, no BOTW or TOTK (at the top) is surprising.
 
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UltimaKilo

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
Success said:
Gamer Informer will not survive in the future.

Shows the age of the audience.

My Gen Z people that I know are laughing at this.

"Another boomer game"
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Quite the opposite. Had it been players with more experience, you’d have had games like Chrono Trigger on the list. For those finalists to almost all be games of the last 10-15 years is nuts.
 
Astral Dog

Astral Dog

Member
Ocarina of Time is one of those games that defined videogames as we know it, its a high bar.

Now i think its been surpassed since then, so many years, but still holds up as a classic as the 3DS version showed
 
Mozzarella

Mozzarella

Member
For me the most impressive thing in this bracket is that Skyrim reached the final, you would think after all the try hard work youtubers did into convincing gamers its trash, nobody cared and the game is still going strong in 2024 which is hilarious.
I like Skyrim, great game.

Obviously i disagree with this bracket, but i dont care since its a popular vote by an outlet that leans towards simple console mainstream gaming, GameInformer is and was extremely casual, so the winners are predictable, the games here are not bad at all, in fact some of them are also my favorites, a lot of great games here, its just that i disagree with how the results went, and i believe a lot of great games are missing out too.

I think the final is a great contrast on online gaming community.
The winner game OoT is a game that has been shilled to the death as the GOAT countless years as the best game by journalists and old gamers, so the new gamers took the bandwagon and kept running with it.
The runner-up is the exact opposite, its a game that has been attacked to the death as overrated countless years by Youtubers and e-celebs, however the plot twist here is that gamers found nothing like it and it stayed relevant after all these years and found its way to the top, lol.
 
nial

nial

Member
The weirdest thing is Animal Crossing: New Horizons somehow being on this list. It's not even the best AC, ffs.
 
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SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
The Last of Us beat out Bioshock and Breath of the Wild? I mean, great game but get real.

Wait…Bloodborne lost to Tetris? Yeah ok. If you were locked away and could only play one game for the next year I want to meet the people that would pick Tetris.
 
Dacvak

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Well, there you have it. Clearly we don’t need games to be more than 20 fps.
 
OmegaSupreme

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
SmokedMeat said:
The Last of Us beat out Bioshock and Breath of the Wild? I mean, great game but get real.

Wait…Bloodborne lost to Tetris? Yeah ok. If you were locked away and could only play one game for the next year I want to meet the people that would pick Tetris.
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I would. Most would I'd wager. Tetris is a perfect and ageless game.
 
Heimdall_Xtreme

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
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March Climber

March Climber

Member
OmegaSupreme said:
Gen z aren't old enough to have an opinion worth a damn yet so fuck em
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Every year, every month, and every day this decade, another Gen Z individual enters their mid 20s. It's already their time man.

I can already tell there's going to be gigantic levels of copium and out of touch takes on this forum sometime soon. I think that will be year when Minecraft wins best game of all time on multiple outlets over OoT and Mario.
 
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