Choosing the best Game Ever: GDC Panel discussion
08/30/02 @586 | Martijn | comments (22)

Mike Goldsmith

At the last day of the GDC (Game Developers Conference) in London a panel of eight professionals from the game industry discuss the best games ever. Moderator Mike Goldsmith from Official Playstation 2 Magazine leads this discussion.

Owain Bennallack from Developer Magazine defends the classic game Elite. Although the graphics are simple, this is the best game ever simply because it asks the question that life asks: Who are you? Next up is Charles Cecil from Revolution Software. Charles first takes some time to strike at Phil who thinks the best game ever has to be Tetris. According to

Charles Cecil

Charles is it a game for people who have absolutely nothing else to do. After some nice remarks about the looks of the listeners he explains why Grand Theft Auto 3 is the best game ever. Not because it lets you club people on the head, or because of the coolness of the main character, but simply because it let’s you walk the game world the way you want to and gives you an experience that you would expect from an epic game like this. This game, Charles says, *is* gameplay.

David MacCarthy

The freelance journalist Paul Davies who has worked for C&VG fills up the hole between Elite and GTA3 with Super Mario Bros. which has to be the best game ever. First of all, this game is a Mihomoto game and, according to Davies, the textbook on how to make games. The precise control is IT, the penalty for a misstep, DEATH. It is mental stamina, Super Mario Bros. is a challenge, and if you’re not challenged you’re not in the game. Martin de Ronde goes for Mario 64 and has a rather unusual approach. After apologizing to the women at the conference in advance, a photo of a naked woman holding a

Top, Mario 64 is the perfect woman. Above: Cameron Diaz is not

controller appears on the two large screens in the conference room. ‘Mario 64 is the perfect woman’. Like the perfect woman, Mario gets physical. When controlling Marion you really feel like you're in charge of 'an Italian midget plumber', unlike the feeling that you get when playing with Lara (Tombraider) or Snake (Metal Gear Solid). Unlike Cameron Diaz, Mario 64 looks good without make-up. No polys or textures are wasted to achieve the right look. 

John Hare, who has worked on titles like Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer brings on Space Invaders. Simply put, Space Invaders was *the* first. It was the first arcade game, the first shoot em up, the first game with bonus features, AI (simple AI, but still AI), high score lists, progressive levels, animated sprites, and the list goes on and on. Plus it has the same music as Jaws. Everything before was the pre-technology era and everything after the post-technology era. Tetris, another classis, is the best game according to Phil Harrison from Sony Entertainment Europe. Striking back at Charles, Phil mentions that Tetris as a game for

Phil Harrison

people who have nothing to do is the best compliment it can get. It is commercially the best with about 70 million copies sold. To raise some laughs (successfully might I add) he lines out that Tetris has excellent collision detection, pattern recognition and standardized friction control, that lets you slide a block right underneath another one at the last second. The graphics might be simple, but with Tetris, the graphics ARE the gameplay. Furthermore it is the only game that someone can learn just by looking over you shoulder. If something goes wrong, it's all your fault it's the only game Phil's mom voluntarily played. You can play it on the pc, nintendo, gameboy, mobile phone, what? you can even play it while taking a dump. You won't hear anyone say that about GTA3.

Last up is David McCarthy from Edge Magazine who thinks Rogue is by far the best game ever. Even though no one in the room seems to have played it. The interaction is great, one button to speed up the game when pressed repeatedly, or when not pressed pauses the game. Apparently Rogue is a text game that does allow you to make it say 'Hello 'Bullocks' and welcome to the dungeons of doom'. The levels are randomly generated and gives you endless opportunities, which more or less sums it all up.

The panel

After hearing all speakers, Mike sums it all up and the audience cheers and boo's for the speakers that convinced them that their game is the best game ever....or not. It's a tough selection process but the winners are narrowed down to Martin with Mario 64 and Phil with Tetris. Both speakers get one minute to convince the crowd of their best game ever. The final verdict is pretty much a tie, but the votes of the other speakers eventually result in .... Mario 64 as the best game ever. Even though Phil tried to brainwash everyone by whispering ‘Tetris is the best game, you all know it’ through his microphone.