Breath of the Wild Secures Top Spot on IGN’s Revised “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” List
Posted on January 03 2022 by Mike Midwood
Last week, popular Japanese television station TV Asahi named The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as the best game ever made. This represented yet another example of the groundbreaking title’s critical acclaim and another notch in its inevitable legacy. Breath of the Wild may soon run out of space for new notches, as yet another prominent outlet has has awarded it the ultimate position atop a similar list. Arguably the preeminent website in gaming and pop culture, IGN has placed Breath of the Wild atop its most recent “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” list.
Regardless of how you feel about Breath of the Wild or this particular ranking, there’s no denying that Link’s most massive adventure has left an indelible mark on video games and the people who play them. It will likely be remembered as a defining release in the medium’s history, where the periods before and after it are considered truly distinct as a result of its impact. Breath of the Wild eschewed many of the series’ fairly niche standards in favor of the popular massively open-world genre. In the process, it revolutionized that genre’s tropes and expectations. Even 5 years later, many open-world games are still trying to catch up, and many of the most memorable ones are directly influenced by Breath of the Wild. Fittingly, it is the franchise’s most successful title by a mile. Coinciding with the extremely lucrative Switch launch, Breath of the Wild has nearly doubled the sales of second place Ocarina of Time, without so much as a single rerelease. The game’s power to influence players and developers of all types is undeniable.
Two other Zelda classics made the list. Perennial giant A Link to the Past nabbed the number 4 position, while Ocarina of Time managed to hit number 34. It’s awesome to see an older SNES titan like A Link to the Past rank so highly on a list that seems to skew towards more modern titles, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who considers Ocarina of Time‘s position to be absurdly low. Lists like this tend to avoid franchise fatigue, where a single series is overrepresented, but I think a couple more Zelda games could have made the list. The lack of a top 20 placement for Wand of Gamelon is puzzling. Other Nintendo staples like Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, and Super Metroid all cracked the top 10.
What do you think of IGN’s top 100 list? Is Breath of the Wild the best game of all time? Which absent Zelda game should have made the list? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: IGN (via My Nintendo News)
Hi, I’m Mike Midwood and I’m a Senior Editor at ZeldaDungeon! Video games and literature are my greatest joys in life. An avid Zelda fan, some of my other favorite games include the Resident Evil and Dark Souls series. I hope you enjoy my content here on ZeldaDungeon!
“The sword has no strength unless the hand that holds it has courage.”
