It’s a book. http://www.amazon.com/1001-Video-Games-Must-Before/dp/0789320908

I saw it, got excited, and decided to pick it up, quite a while ago. First off, any book like this *should* be subtitled with “As of 20## year.” Dozens of games are release every week and you never know when a new one is going to be a new Must Play. After all, Minecraft a year ago was barely a peep, and now I would say it is definitely worth the title of a Must Play.

I skimmed some of the index, of course great favorites were present. However, once I got the book home and took some further time to read it, there were dozens of terrible terrible games included. And some wonderful games that were truly great passed over. Not to mention that with 1001 games to list, one will likely have to list a huge number of lesser games. The book, while not great by any means, gets the idea across. There are games worth playing, even if they aren’t up your alley.

Of course, 1001 is over kill, but still, a 100 or so wouldn’t be amiss. (My List, not theirs)

Bioshock, Pac Man, Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, King’s Quest, King’s Quest 6, Zork, Pong, Lego Star Wars, World of Warcraft, Warcraft 1-3, Dune, Command and Conquer, Suikoden, Xenogears, Plants vs. Zombies, so on and so forth. Even if you get snobby and don’t count Facebook games, Windows games (like solitaire) or such, you are still gonna have a ton of great games.

I can forgive terrible games. What I can’t forgive is the serious omission of *critically* acclaimed games. No mention of Dark Cloud, Dark Ages of Camelot, Heroes of Might and Magic, but here we see Knights of the Old Republic 2?!? Really? The buggiest game ever released, and it gets mention? Heavy Rain, but no Indigo Prophecy, from who Heavy Rain stole the story? A slew of Final Fantasy’s, each more redundant than the last, but no Legend of Dragoon, with it’s innovative timing attack mechanic? No addition of Alan Wake or Mirror’s Edge, but we have three virtually word for word ports of Bomberman? Table Tennis makes the cut, but no Xenosaga?  I am shocked Valkyria Chronicles and Persona 4 made it in!

The most obscene of these errors is the inclusion of Suikoden 3, which while a decent game, with an innovative mechanic that allows the story to be told from 3 points of view, but NOT including Suikoden 1 OR Suikoden 2!!! We have every Zelda, even the terrible ones, every Mario, even the terrible ones, Guitar Hero METALLICA, enough Tennis games to choke a horse, games that aren’t even games but MODS of games, indie games that aren’t really games because they don’t have defined goals, Bass Fishing, Wii Sports Resort, 4 Wipeouts, 6 Resident Evils, 3 Space Invaders, and dozens of other sequel prone games that didn’t deserve their second!

To this DAY Suikoden 2 sells at $150 FOR A USED COPY. Clearly this is a game WORTH owning and playing at that cost.

All this has done is confirmed my belief that games reviewers are idiots. And that even if you have 1001 games, you are gonna miss a few diamonds, in addition to getting a ton of filler.