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The Video Game Canon’s 2020 Update is Here
The Video Game Canon is a statistical meta-ranking of dozens of “Best Video Games of All Time” lists that began in 2017 with Version 1.0, and the ranking has been updated several times since then. Which game is #1? There’s only one way to find out…
The latest update to the Video Game Canon, Version 4.0, has arrived!
The Video Game Canon now includes a total of 1,232 games, which were pulled from 59 “Best Video Games of All Time” lists published between 1995 and 2020. Each game was ranked against the rest of the field using the C-Score, a formula that takes into account a game’s “Average Ranking” and the complementary percentage of its “Appearance Frequency” across all lists.
Finally, games released after December 31, 2016 were excluded from the ranking because of their newness.
Three brand new lists were added to Version 4.0 of the Video Game Canon, including “The 100 Best Video Games in History” from GQ Spain, a “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” ranking from Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, and a massive look back at “The Best Video Game the Year You Were Born” from Popular Mechanics. Alongside these new additions, updates to IGN‘s “Top 100 Video Games of All Time,” Popular Mechanics‘s “The 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time,” and Slant Magazine‘s “The 100 Best Video Games of All Time” were also added to the calculation. Thanks to reader CriticalCid for providing research assistance with some of these new lists.
But even with all this new data, there was surprisingly very little movement near the top of the Video Game Canon, and the Top 3 was once again represented by Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris (#1), Valve’s Half-Life 2, and Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 (#3). There was some slight shuffling in the rest of the Top 10, but no new titles were able to crack the highest tier. Nintendo’s classic quartet of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (#4), Super Mario 64 (#5), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (#6), and Super Metroid (#10) all hung around, as did Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us (#7), Irrational’s BioShock (#8), and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption (#9).
Things get more interesting as you move further down the Top 100, especially for the 2015 and 2016 releases that now qualify for inclusion in the Video Game Canon.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to learn more about this year’s update to the big list and to explore the rest of the Top 1000.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is unsurprisingly the best-selling game of April 2020
The public has been anxiously awaiting the launch of Final Fantasy VII Remake ever since it was first announced all the way back in 2015. Well, it finally arrived on store shelves last month, and fans eagerly emptied their wallets to return to the world of Midgar.
According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), Final Fantasy VII Remake was far and away the best-selling game in April 2020. The game’s exceptional sales also pushed it to become the biggest launch in Final Fantasy franchise history.
Strong sales across the board for software ($662 million), hardware ($420 million), and accessories ($384 million) were recorded by The NPD Group. Added together, the video game industry racked up revenues of $1.467 billion last month, a whopping 73% increase over April 2019. The total also surpassed April 2008’s previous record of $1.2 billion.
An expanded list of April 2020’s best-selling games (featuring Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Resident Evil 3, and many others) can be found after the break. (more…)
It’s raining Bells as Animal Crossing: New Horizons becomes the best-selling game of March 2020
Multiple states attempted to “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic throughout the month of March by shutting down non-essential businesses, and The NPD Group’s recent report (via Twitter) about the month’s best-selling games absolutely reflects this strange new world.
Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, without the benefit of digital sales (the consolemaker doesn’t supply them to NPD), was the best-selling game of March 2020. According to analyst Mat Piscatella (also via Twitter), it’s impressive debut has already set a new sales record for the franchise, and it trails only Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Brawl for best first month sales by a Nintendo-published title.
The game also helped sell a lot of people on the Switch, as Nintendo sold more Switch consoles in March of 2020 than they did when the system launched in March of 2017.
With gamers doing their part and staying home, the entire industry surged ahead alongside Tom Nook, Isabelle, K.K. Slider, and the rest of the Animal Crossing crew. Total game sales were up 34% over March 2019 ($739 million vs $550 million), while total hardware sales rose 63% ($461 million vs $282 million).
And Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t the only new release that’s popular with players right now. MLB The Show 20 (#3), Resident Evil 3 (#4), Doom Eternal (#6), and Persona 5 Royal (#7) all debuted in the Top Ten. Looking further down the list, new games such as Nioh 2 (#11), Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (#15), and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered (#20) all snuck into the Top 20.
You can find a complete breakdown of The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from March 2020 after the break. (more…)
No new releases were able to break into The NPD Group’s list of best-selling games from February 2020
Aside from Airship Syndicate’s Darksiders Genesis and Media Molecule’s Dreams, there were few new releases of note last month. And while both have garnered decent reviews, they’re also fairly niche titles, so it’s not too surprising that neither broke into The NPD Group’s list of best-selling titles from February 2020.
According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella (via Twitter), you had to reach all the way down to #33 to find the best-selling new release of the month, which was Sega’s The Yakuza Remastered Collection.
That means that a lot of games from 2019 (and January’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot) continued to find new homes during the month. Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare took the top spot in February, followed by 2K’s NBA 2K20 at #2 and Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V #3. A little further down the list, Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure had it’s best showing yet, peaking at #7 during the month.
You can find the full list of best-selling games from February 2020 after the break. (more…)
Conduit 2 delayed, multiplayer modes detailed
High Voltage Software’s Conduit 2 has been hit with another delay, pushing the Wii title’s release to April 19. This is Conduit 2’s third delay as it was originally slated for a Fall 2010 release before being pushed back to February 15th and then March 22nd.
The team at High Voltage has pinned this latest delay on the development issues as they want to “continue to balance and enhance the game’s multiplayer,” which they call one of the game’s key features.
To make up for this sad news, the team has released some new details on all 14 multiplayer gametypes:
- Deathmatch: First player to the kill limit in the time allowed wins!
- Team Deathmatch: First team to the kill limit in the time allowed wins!
- Capture the Flag (CTF): Each team tries to capture the ASE (flag) of the other. First team to the capture limit in the time allowed wins!
- Single Flag CTF: Teams fight over a single centrally-located ASE (flag). First team to the capture limit wins!
- Free for All CTF: Get to the flag and then carry it back to a random goal location. First to the scoring limit wins!
- ASE Ball: Longest time holding the ASE wins!
- Bounty Hunter: Kill your assigned target for points or kill those hunting you for fun. But beware; killing someone who doesn’t fill those roles will cost you points!
- Shared Stock: Teammates share a pool of lives while trying to get the highest kill count possible.
- Killing Override: First team to the kill or capture limit wins!
- VIP: Fight to kill the randomly selected VIP on the opposing team. First team to the point limit wins!
- ASE Basketball: Each team tries to capture a centrally-located ASE and then carry it into the enemy base. Toss or carry the ASE through the goal to score. First team to the point limit wins!
- Balloon Battle: Lose balloons with every death. Gain balloons with kills. With no balloon, become a mini bomb! Last player alive wins!
- Annexation: Teams fight for control over capture points. These totems award points over time. First team to the point limit wins!
- Power Surge: Teams must defend their own generator while destroying the enemy’s when its shield is down. First team to destroy the generator or the team with the more intact generator wins!
Kirby returns to the Wii, DS in 2011
Kirby’s Epic Yarn was one of 2010’s biggest surprises. Gamers everywhere loved the patchwork look of the game which had many of them in stitches (pun intended!).
But after a Nitendo investor’s briefing, it appears the company is wasting no time bringing the little puffball back. HAL Laboratory is developing a currently untitled Kirby Adventure game for the Wii that gives Kirby a variety of different hats. A trailer showcasing the side-scrolling gameplay is available at Nintendo Japan’s website, but it’s also available in a larger format on YouTube, which you can watch right here:
As you can see from the trailer, each of the hats gives Kirby a new power including Link’s Cap (which allows Kirby to swing a sword), a flame cap (that calls a dragon) and a cowboy hat (that gives him a lasso).
The trailer is very similar to one that Nintendo released years ago for an untitled Kirby title for the GameCube. Perhaps this game is that game reincarnated?
And on a final Kirby-related note, Nintendo included a new Kirby game for the DS in their quarterly list of upcoming titles, but no other details were revealed.
Posted in News
Tagged DS, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, Wii
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies Soundtrack available now
Say what you want about Call of Duty: Black Ops, but the game has a great soundtrack. So great that Activision has released a soundtrack of songs from the Zombies Mode on Amazon, iTunes,the Zune Marketplace and other digital retailers.
Titled Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies Soundtrack, the album includes 17 tracks of undead-themed tunes. Each track can be downloaded separately for 99 cents each with the whole album priced at $11.99.
Thirty-second samples of each track are available at Amazon.
The Smurfs smurf their way onto the Wii, DS this Summer
A film adaptation of The Smurfs will be released in theaters on August 3, and Ubisoft has announced that the blue creatures will smurf their way onto the Wii and DS around the same time as well.
Nothing else was announced about the game, but executives at Ubisoft are absolutely thrilled to be working on a Smurfs game (the game’s unnamed developers didn’t mention what they thought of the deal):
“We’re thrilled to be working with Lafig Belgium and Sony Pictures on the Smurfs license. Our ongoing partnership with Sony Pictures Consumer Products allows us to create fun and entertaining video games based on some of the most popular family films,” said Christian Salomon, vice president of worldwide licensing at Ubisoft. “Ubisoft’s creative team is working hard on crafting the perfect video game experience that will appeal to new and old fans of The Smurfs.”