Is there any game that is universally considered great?

I haven't been a member of this forum for a very long time, but I in my short tenure have seen some hateration on every major game ever released ever. That being said, is there any game that we call all agree on that is great?

Nothing is perfect, but we have to have at least a few games that everyone can say are great. I'm not saying flawless, but just something everyone should play. The reason why I created this topic is I have seen nothing to vitriol for new releases (ghost recon) in this forum and I wonder if anyone will just praise something instead of finding something to hate.

something basic like Tetris I guess

Call Of Duty is universally considered great by 20 miilion morons who purchase the game every year. 20 million is probably the closest thing to being classified as "universally".

Call Of Duty is universally considered great by 20 miilion morons who purchase the game every year. 20 million is probably the closest thing to being classified as "universally".

brucecambell

then there's the 25+ million people that buy New Super Mario Bros. games as well... I'd say the love for Mario is rather universal. For games that have received so many perfect scores, the Mario Galaxies get very little hate from the community

I think some of the MArio and zelda games are universally considered great, I think the SF games are aswell. In this gen It is a little harder to be honest, people are insanely picky, unrealistic, and tastes varry too much to place any universal agreement on great, the Souls games are by the majority I suppose, Minecraft might be aswell. A rule of thumb is that if something is to be universally considered great, it has to be Multipalt, since alot of people hate on any kind of exclusive even if they are technically great. (Uncharted 2, Halo 3, and Heavy rain, being good examples).

If you detract all the morons who hates on other platforms exclusives, or on anything that is popular (by the fact that it is popular) I would consider most of the nintendo games, as being considered great, Deus ex:HR seems to be liked across all platforms, CoD4 is also pretty universally well recived.

other then that? EEh... Good luck on finding universally well liked games.

Considered by who? Gamers? How would you know someone isnt trolling hating on a popular game. You could maybe find a game that is universally considered great by each seperate crowd (360, PS3, PC and so on) but not an overall one.

Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are all games with no 'hater' that I'm aware of.

[QUOTE="brucecambell"]

Call Of Duty is universally considered great by 20 miilion morons who purchase the game every year. 20 million is probably the closest thing to being classified as "universally".

Pikminmaniac

then there's the 25+ million people that buy New Super Mario Bros. games as well... I'd say the love for Mario is rather universal. For games that have received so many perfect scores, the Mario Galaxies get very little hate from the community

Very little indeed. The Mario Galaxies are some of the best platforming games Nintendo ever created in their resume. It's truly something special, for sure.

Pong, Space Invaders, Tetris, Street Cleaning Simulator, Big Rigs, and the original Super Mario Bros.

[QUOTE="brucecambell"]

Call Of Duty is universally considered great by 20 miilion morons who purchase the game every year. 20 million is probably the closest thing to being classified as "universally".

Pikminmaniac

then there's the 25+ million people that buy New Super Mario Bros. games as well... I'd say the love for Mario is rather universal. For games that have received so many perfect scores, the Mario Galaxies get very little hate from the community

I actually prefer Super Mario 64 over the SMG games. Does that count as hate?

[QUOTE="Pikminmaniac"]

[QUOTE="brucecambell"]

Call Of Duty is universally considered great by 20 miilion morons who purchase the game every year. 20 million is probably the closest thing to being classified as "universally".

brucecambell

then there's the 25+ million people that buy New Super Mario Bros. games as well... I'd say the love for Mario is rather universal. For games that have received so many perfect scores, the Mario Galaxies get very little hate from the community

I actually prefer Super Mario 64 over the SMG games. Does that count as hate?

Call Of Duty is universally considered great by 20 miilion morons who purchase the game every year. 20 million is probably the closest thing to being classified as "universally".

brucecambell

So, let me get this straight. They are morons because they buy and enjoy something you don't? :|

Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are all games with no 'hater' that I'm aware of.

iHarlequin

Ocarina of Time hater do exist, although after at least 5 playthroughs of that game I'm not one of them. I haven't heard of much hate for the Mario galaxy games so that was a really good answer.

The problem is that many people are simply incapable of considering a game (or much else for that matter) objectively.

Subjectivism is fine when catering to our own personal tastes and preferences but I would argue that the only way to have an intelligent discussion on any game is to look at its elements objectively.

There are plenty of high quality games that I don?t personally care for but that doesn?t mean I would be myopic enough to claim they were anything less than outstanding merely because I didn?t find personal gratification whilst playing them.

Example: The Metroid Prime games do nothing for me and I was genuinely disappointed that they chose to utilize FPS mechanics in a franchise predicated upon third person exploration. I?ve tried to play them all and not a single game has ever moved me like the original two Metroids. However, I still recognize the quality of these games from a technical and developmental standpoint and despite my personal misgivings and predilections I would never opt to deride this franchise even though I don?t much care for it.

I think one of the most difficult lessons for people to learn is that you don?t have to love (or even like) something to appreciate it. I may not care for the paintings of Picasso but that doesn?t mean I would slander his body of work or attempt to undermine the general consensus that the man was a genius.

When applying objectivism, there are literally hundreds of games that can be defined as legitimately great works within the medium. Being objective strips away personal bias, agendas and other impediments to honest deconstruction but it is also something that requires a person to remove their ego from the equation, which is not always an easy task to accomplish.

That understood, not everyone subscribes to this theory and so it becomes much more difficult to reach a universal consensus on much of anything

The other factor that needs to be considered is hindsight. Do you mean universally great in that there are no "haters" or that the game is timeless? Many games are considered universally great within the first few years of their release (Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time) but earn their detractors years later. The only game that comes to mind is universally great and timeless is Super Metroid.

no, and that's completely fine. there isnt a set of universal standards for quality in any artistic medium. if there were, the medium would become formulaic, boring, the language would become useless, and those standards would have to change.

it's just a matter of being constructive with the criticism you have of a game.

[QUOTE="brucecambell"]

Call Of Duty is universally considered great by 20 miilion morons who purchase the game every year. 20 million is probably the closest thing to being classified as "universally".

Pedro

So, let me get this straight. They are morons because they buy and enjoy something you don't? :|

logic of the high and mighty anti-cod league.

Metroid Prime Trilogy and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are all games with no 'hater' that I'm aware of.

iHarlequin

I've actually come across several people that dislike Metroid Prime on the notion that any all games in the first person perspective suck. As for OoT, I've seen plenty of people on GS forums that say it's overrated and doesn't deserve its merit.

Grand Theft Auto

[spoiler] San Andreas [/spoiler]

You just HAD to bring CoD into this didn't you...

[QUOTE="iHarlequin"]

Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are all games with no 'hater' that I'm aware of.

DarkCatalyst

Do you think it's a genuinely bad game, or do you think it's overrated? I know several people who would rate it an 8.0 - 9;0 instead of 10.0, but none who 'hated' the game.

[QUOTE="iHarlequin"]

Metroid Prime Trilogy and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are all games with no 'hater' that I'm aware of.

MadVybz

I've actually come across several people that dislike Metroid Prime on the notion that any all games in the first person perspective suck. As for OoT, I've seen plenty of people on GS forums that say it's overrated and doesn't deserve its merit.

As I said before, overrated =/= hate. Of course a game that has a 99% Metacritic and a 100% score on most sites is going to get considered overrated by some people - out of one hundred different scores, there are only TWO that would make you agree with the rating.

I've seen people prejudiced about Metroid's 3D transition, but never someone who hated it.