The 100 Best Nintendo Games of All Time

Video games are synonymous with the sanction Nintendo. But which of the hundreds of unthinkable games that person graced the legendary Japanese company’s galore location and handheld consoles are the best? Well, present astatine IGN, we’ve teamed up with our friends astatine Nintendo Life to effort and reply that question. What follows is the 100 champion Nintendo games of each time, based connected a operation of each site’s adept opinions.

From iconic Nintendo in-house bid specified arsenic Super Mario, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda, to third-party heroes who person made their location connected everything from the NES to Switch 2, narrowing down the tract was nary casual task. These aren’t needfully the champion games to play close now, but a ranking based connected a operation of historical innovation, modern ingenuity, and the bequest each has near behind.

Have an sentiment connected what should beryllium placed where? You tin lend to our nationalist ranking by voting successful this Faceoff oregon fto america cognize successful the comments below. Over the people of this week, we’ll beryllium steadily revealing our picks, with 20 being revealed each time until the afloat ranking is implicit connected Friday, November 14. So, without further ado, present are the apical 100 Nintendo games of each time:

100. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

More than 20 years on, there’s inactive thing rather similar Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (which, yes, is astir apt owed successful portion to Nintendo's now-expired sanity strategy patent). Not lone did it person the temerity to leap betwixt wildly chiseled clip periods, but it besides went to large lengths to messiness with your caput should you get spotted by enemies excessively much. Whether it’s an unsettling noise, a somewhat skewed camera angle, oregon the crippled consecutive up simulating a ‘blue surface of death’, it made for 1 of the astir memorable experiences successful the fearfulness genre. The Lovecraftian aesthetic inactive sings to this precise day, and a definite bathtub country is conscionable arsenic definite to springiness you the willies present arsenic it did backmost successful 2002. A singular crippled that deserves a 2nd accidental successful the spotlight.

99. GTA: Chinatown Wars

A GTA crippled releasing exclusively (until its aboriginal PSP arrival) for a Nintendo handheld seems similar an incongruous proposal. But, successful 2009, Rockstar gave the DS Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a standalone communicative of Triads and tribulations successful GTA 4’s modern Liberty City setting. This top-down ode to the series’ roots miraculously converted the open-world cinema we’d travel to expect, adapting to its handheld confines done astute touchpad mechanics and a stylised, cell-shaded comic-book-like aesthetic to stunning effect. What could truthful easy person been a misguided experimentation betwixt Rockstar and Nintendo alternatively became 1 of the DS’s astir indispensable games.

98. Star Fox

From the days erstwhile the connection “polygon” was exclusively recovered successful mathematics textbooks comes Nintendo’s 3D improvement of a mainstay arcade genre: the SHMUP. Taxing the SNES hardware truthful much, adjacent the Super FX spot included wrong the cartridge couldn’t get the enactment to tally adjacent astatine a targeted 12 frames per second, Star Fox followed the linear signifier setups of R-Type and co., but played from a behind-the-ship and first-person perspective. The “talking” animals are present to punctual you that you’re playing a Nintendo game, but successful the end, Star Fox is simply a highly method and experimental harbinger of the future. Far from being conscionable a tech demo, it’s besides a truly amusive game, however, acknowledgment to challenging players to play again and again to cleanable their runs and experimentation to observe alternate paths.

97. Super Castlevania IV

While it's efficaciously a re-thread of the archetypal Castlevania, this 4th mainline instalment successful the bid truly does elevate things to an wholly antithetic level of quality. Sure, Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse mightiness beryllium the amended crippled overall, but Super Castlevania IV reimagines Transylvania done a 16-bit lens; the visuals are stunning, with Mode 7 effects adding a caller magnitude to proceedings, portion the euphony is truthful bully you'd curse it was being streamed from a CD. Subsequent entries would arguably instrumentality the franchise to the adjacent level of brilliance, but 1 happening is clear: Super Castlevania IV remains a masterpiece.

96. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

The Nintendo DS became a haven for ocular caller fans; an interactive storybook instrumentality that could easiness you into a heavy night’s sleep. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors was acold much apt to support you up each night, however, with its twisted crippled of beingness and death. Chunsoft’s archetypal introduction into the Zero Escape series, 999 placed you alongside 8 different imaginable victims wrong a sinking cruise liner that tested your puzzle and deduction skills arsenic you unraveled the web woven by a mysterious mastermind. It’s twisted, clever, and a large illustration of handheld experimentation that helium console would go known for.

95. Fire Emblem Three Houses

Three Houses is simply a Fire Emblem crippled that got it each truthful right; it's been hard to readjust to the bid successful its aftermath. You see, Three Houses gives america the turn-based strategy we're each fiending for, yes, and it does truthful with benignant to spare. However, the existent gully here, and the happening that makes this 1 truthful worthy of enactment overall, is the absorption and effort that’s been placed connected the socialising, customisation, relationships, and each that bully worldly that happens betwixt scraps. It's a crippled you could rather happily unrecorded successful for a bit.

94. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

What does Professor Layton fell nether that immense hat? Perhaps, a towering cylindrical caput of a signifier dissimilar immoderate different successful quality history. He’d surely request 1 to location a encephalon large capable to lick each of the puzzles thrown his mode implicit the people of his galore DS and 3DS adventures. A accordant prime of cosiness mixed with Sherlock Holmes-esque yarns tin beryllium recovered crossed the Layton series, but we’ve gone with The Unwound Future arsenic our prime of the bunch. Its time-traveling tale, afloat of memorable twists and turns, thrills conscionable arsenic overmuch arsenic solving 1 of its dozens of conundrums does, satisfying brains of each shapes and sizes to large effect.

93. WWF No Mercy

25 years later, WWF No Mercy, the THQ-published wrestling crippled released connected the Nintendo 64, is not lone inactive considered to beryllium the pinnacle of the N64 wrestling crippled boom, but it's besides wide thought of arsenic the top wrestling crippled of each time. Since its release, it's been the benchmark for what immoderate wrestling game, with oregon without the WWE license, has aspired to be. It's developed a cult-like following, with fans inactive playing (and modding) No Mercy to this day, updating its 25-year-old roster with modern superstars erstwhile the latest 2K crippled doesn't unrecorded up to its standards. It's not often a crippled inactive stands beardown aft a 4th of a century, and it's adjacent rarer erstwhile it's a sports game. All of this makes WWF No Mercy not lone the greatest-ever wrestling game, but possibly Nintendo's greatest-ever sports crippled that doesn't see Mario.

92. Kirby: Planet Robobot

Kirby: Planet Robobot, a genuinely astonishing small crippled for the Nintendo 3DS that encapsulates each that is champion and beloved astir the pinkish puffball. Robobot has everything: a heavy roster of unsocial and utile transcript abilities, colorful and originative levels, an absorbing one-off gimmick successful the robot armor, silly minigames, and a crippled that starts with Kirby taking a nap and ends successful a elephantine galactic conflict against a superintelligent, planet-sized being.

In summation to each this, Kirby: Planet Robobot is 1 of the precise fewer games to truly marque effectual usage of the Nintendo 3DS's 3D capabilities. While the crippled itself takes spot connected a 2D plane, it features a fig of levels that person extent arsenic good arsenic length, and look perfectly fantastic with the 3D turned on, arsenic cars thrust straight astatine the subordinate and elephantine crystal pick cones extremity implicit and spill connected the camera. While Kirby has since gained different caller transcript abilities, minigames, and adjacent his archetypal 3D escapade successful the years since, astir of them conflict to clasp a candle successful our hearts to Planet Robobot's breadth, depth, and axenic charm.

91. Diddy Kong Racing

Apart from Nintendo itself, Rare was the N64’s astir important developer, and 1 spot the UK-based workplace really outpaced Nintendo was successful the kart racer category. Mario Kart 64 is an undeniable classic, but Diddy Kong Racing conscionable inches up arsenic our prime for the champion kart racer connected the 64. In summation to chaotic split-screen kart racing, Diddy Kong Racing drove the genre guardant with 3 conveyance types (your person could beryllium successful a level flying alternate routes during the aforesaid contention you were successful a car!), an escapade mode implicit with brag battles, and an astonishing soundtrack from Donkey Kong Country composer David Wise. Plus, it was the archetypal quality of Banjo and Conker up of their solo platformer outings – and it’s the forgotten, cute, family-friendly mentation of Conker good earlier helium started drinking, smoking, and swearing.

90. The World Ends With You

Though it's been ported and remade respective times, nary of the much caller versions of The World Ends With You has managed to seizure however fantabulous this crippled was backmost erstwhile it archetypal released connected Nintendo DS. We could spell connected each time astir what makes it great: the creation style, the heavy manner mechanics, its close portrayal of Shibuya and Japanese younker culture, its antithetic communicative with aggregate chaotic twists, its unthinkable formed of characters, the MUSIC.

But possibly the champion constituent of TWEWY that we've mislaid successful consequent editions is its conflict system, which made unsocial and superb usage of some the system's dual surface and its interaction controls simultaneously with its D-pad to efficaciously simulate 2 antithetic characters synchronizing their attacks with 1 different successful 2 antithetic realms. Combined with a wide assortment of "pins" that could beryllium activated with antithetic types of interaction attacks, determination was endless country for creativity and maturation done aggregate playthroughs. Which you decidedly wanted to do, if lone to perceive Calling and Three Seconds Clapping 1 much time.

89. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

After years of being relegated to supporting roles, our small mushroom-headed person Toad yet got his ain crippled successful Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Nintendo, implicit the years, has done a superb occupation of designing games acceptable and tuned perfectly to the personalities of each of its mascots, and Captain Toad is nary exception. The cute, diorama-like levels proved to beryllium magnificent puzzles for our intrepid explorer to navigate 1 by one, presenting a slower and cozier gait from different Nintendo challenges, yet inactive being perfectly, whimsically Nintendo. It's a shame we ne'er got different 1 of these.

88. Golden Sun: The Lost Age

We could’ve gone with either Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age arsenic our introduction connected this list, but we’ve settled for the 2nd portion of Camelot's two-act RPG adventure, arsenic it is yet the amended half. Golden Sun was already an implicit feat, with its originative Psynergy and Djinn systems, gorgeous environments and music, and amazingly robust unfastened world. In the sequel they quadrupled the size of that world, added adjacent much Psynergy and Djinn and classes, came up with much banger songs and environments, and opened the 2nd enactment with a chaotic enactment switching twist that would spell connected to beryllium subverted further successful a triumphant march to the last battle. Golden Sun and The Lost Age are nuts successful the champion way, The Lost Age adjacent much so, and are among the champion GBA games of each time.

87. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

Mario has tried his manus astatine a batch of antithetic sports implicit the years, but fewer person had the staying powerfulness of golf. Originally driving disconnected connected the NES, earlier approaching the 3D satellite of the N64, it’s Toadstool Tour connected the GameCube wherever the plumber truly nailed the enactment connected the green. Its sizeable roster of characters and compelling courses offered a large circular of multiplayer amusive for those looking for a much laid-back clip distant from the hectic unreserved of Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, and the furious consequences of Mario Party.

86. Super Monkey Ball 2

Super Monkey Ball’s brilliance lies successful the information that you’re tilting the signifier to rotation your monkey astir alternatively than straight moving the quality itself, and its array maze conception has ne'er been much finely tuned than successful Super Monkey Ball 2. The 2002 GameCube sequel is stuffed with 140 stages to wide – ranging from amusive and elemental courses cleanable for laughing astatine the silly monkeys connected household crippled nighttime to downright brutal challenges that’ll marque you spell bananas arsenic you suffer hundreds of lives trying to wide them. Mastering everything it has to connection is extraordinarily satisfying, and its physics, momentum, and controls are truthful pinpoint that a survey recovered that surgeons who lukewarm up by playing Super Monkey Ball 2 are much businesslike and precise successful simulated surgeries compared to the surgeons who didn’t play. Video games truly tin prevention lives!

85. Viewtiful Joe

Viewtiful Joe practically attacks your eyeballs with its standout creation absorption and frantically amusive combat. It’s unfiltered Hideki Kamiya astatine an breathtaking vocation crossroads, melding his Devil May Cry enactment with a colourful paintbrush palette that would aboriginal germinate into the likes of Okami and The Wonderful 101. A wholly archetypal side-scroller that threatens to burst retired of its purple cube confines if your fingers don’t support up with its cell-shaded antics, it's an breathtaking combo of 2D and 3D level enactment that felt caller successful 2003, with an intoxicating benignant that fewer person travel adjacent to matching since. It spawned sequels, but nary genuinely reached the heights of the original, which has stood the trial of clip arsenic 1 of the GameCube’s precise best.

84. F-Zero GX

F-Zero is astir cheating decease to spell faster, and F-Zero GX’s uncompromising trouble and incredibly precocious accomplishment ceiling correspond a highest of the futuristic racing genre. Like F-Zero X earlier it, GX forces you to sacrifice your machine’s wellness barroom to get a boost, resulting successful tense risk-reward scenarios that get your humor pumping each time. And if you autumn disconnected the way portion trying to shave disconnected an other divided second, Lakitu won’t swoop successful to prevention you – you’re dead. You indispensable maestro GX’s choky mechanics and memorize its extremist way designs to adjacent basal fractional a accidental against its toughest CPUs, and you deed a precocious astir video games can’t scope erstwhile you yet transverse the decorativeness enactment successful archetypal place. The cold-blooded situation lone works due to the fact that GX runs perfectly astatine 60 fps and looks fantastic with beardown creation absorption that rivals the GameCube’s best, similar Metroid Prime and Rogue Leader. F-Zero GX is simply a masterpiece, and astir apt the astir hardcore Nintendo crippled since the NES.

83. Ring Fit Adventure

Ring Fit Adventure is 1 of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games, acknowledgment mostly to a planetary pandemic making indoor workout concisely appealing. Unfortunately, similar galore different workout programs, astir radical who started Ring Fit fell disconnected the crippled earlier they could observe however overmuch much than conscionable an workout crippled it truly is. Ring Fit Adventure is genuinely 1 of the astir unsocial RPGs of the generation. It has a colorful formed of characters, bolstered by amazingly bully writing, a conflict strategy revolving astir your ain carnal movement, implicit with accomplishment trees, elemental weaknesses, and adjacent healing items you tin trade done much exercise. Plus, its soundtrack is consecutive work-out bangers, too.

82. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Nearly each infinitesimal of Phoenix Wright’s archetypal courtroom escapade is iconic. From Phoenix’s debut proceedings against Mr. Sahwit (Or should I say... Mr. Did It!) to cross-examining a literal parrot, the archetypal Ace Attorney afloat commits to its wholly unhinged satellite and ne'er looks back. Exposing witnesses’ lies and uncovering the information of each lawsuit is exhilarating, mostly due to the fact that of its fantabulous soundtrack and lively quality animations, and the mode Ace Attorney balances its unabashed silliness with genuinely serious, heartfelt moments is thing abbreviated of masterful. It’s besides an indispensable crippled successful its genre, arsenic Ace Attorney’s amazingly palmy income paved the mode for much ocular caller and puzzle games to find a footing successful the West.

81. Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse

Considered by galore to beryllium the apex of the 'classic' Castlevania entries, Dracula's Curse remains a fantastic illustration of a talented radical of developers pushing aging hardware to its maximum potential. By the clip it arrived successful 1989, the 16-bit epoch was already successful afloat plaything and the NES was looking precise old-fashioned. However, contempt the humble quality of the big hardware, Konami created a stunning enactment platformer, boasting aggregate playable characters and optional routes done Dracula's castle. Indeed, galore see this to beryllium superior to the archetypal 16-bit introduction successful the series, Super Castlevania IV, which arrived conscionable a abbreviated clip aboriginal successful 1991.

Come backmost time erstwhile we'll beryllium revealing numbers 80 to 61...