Gaming

Gotta be Portal 2. The puzzles are fun, the difficultly curve is reasonable, and the writing is fantastic. Truly the only complaint I have is that I wish there was more of it.

Maybe Tetris? Such a simple concept, and it's one of the most popular games of all time.

Minecraft for similar reasons. Even if it has become more complex in recent years, the core of it is just...you can break everything and build anything. It's hard to say that isn't a perfect sandbox.

More personal opinion though, maybe Super Mario Odyssey. Just incredibly polished and varied with an amazing movement system.

Chrono Trigger. It's basically the evolutionary peak of the NES-era console RPG. Every aspect, including the story, art, game mechanics, and music, are best-in-class, with no obvious room for improvement given the technical constraints of the time.

My vote is for Slay the Spire. Invented the deck-building roguelike genre and did so with an interesting setting, simple but appealing artstyle, memorable soundtrack, and very tight balancing across 21 difficulty levels.

Also Tetris, but that's already been said.

Outer Wilds. I consider it the best video game ever made and I've spent quite some time thinking about if there's something I could add, change or remove that would improve it and so far I've yet to come up with anything of substance (beyond tiny QoL changes or reeeally nitpicky stuff).

I think I would have to go with Stardew Valley. It has something for any mood I’m in.

I can spend my time on the farm, looking after the animals, crops, reorganising. I can go and be social with the neighbours, help them out, do some work towards the community centre. If I feel adventurous I can go explore the mines fighting monsters.

Where I’ve done all that I can start again on a new farm and try a different strategy, I can even play with friends and work together. Its just cozy fun.

Can we go really old with these?

Because Zelda Link to the Past is a perfect game.

I know how ubiquitous it is, but I still replay it on a regular basis. Its perfectly designed, balanced, simple... Im not saying its superior to modern games or something, I just think its pretty flawless. That is all.

I would interpret "perfect" as "i can't find anyhing negative to say about this game". So for me the candidates are:

• Portal 1&2
• Factorio
• Outer Wilds
• FTL
• TowerFall: Ascension
• Dishonored 2
• Prey (the Arkane studios one)
• Minit
• and maybe Nidhogg

I’ve said it 1 million times and so have many others, but it is and will always be Ocarina of Time. It’s the only game I play through every single year and still love every single second of it.

My answer to this is always Portal, the first one. It was so unexpected and so, so good. Nothing in gaming before or since has been that magical of an experience for me. Maybe early Pokemon, when my little kid eyes were opening to what gaming could be. But there's just something special about Portal. Such a concise, perfect little game.

For me, probably Half-Life 2. Especially at the time? It was such a leap ahead in both technology and overall world immersion. I still revisit it sometimes and get sucked right back in.

I’ll agree with you on Beatles Rock Band too, though. It’s a work of art.

FTL. It took a concept and ran with it. Plus a great soundtrack. It has a great replay value as well.

Both Portal games are perfect. Portal 1 did so much great stuff and portal 2 said fuck it and decided to be more perfect then the first.

Hollow knight. The gameplay, the smoothness of the controls, but also the universe, the atmosphere, the fantastic music. Absolutely wonderful game.

Hades. I don't think I've come across a game so carefully paced as Hades, both plot-wise and in the gradual introduction of game mechanics. Which is bloody impressive considering that it's a roguelite.

In very recent times, I honestly believe Zelda:TotK is very close to being perfect.

My vote goes to Shadow of the Colossus. The story, the mood, those damn creatures. Just enough frustration to keep you going and enough variation to not make it boring.

Factorio. The game automatically adjusts difficulty based on your speed and familiarity. Pros scaling rapidly are going to have a harder time with biters than a noob learning the ropes on the exact same difficulty settings. Difficulty settings can be scaled up for a true challenge. Mods are supported damn near as much as first party devs. It’s a very well optimized game. It’s just technically impressive, psychologically fun, and fundamentally well balanced.

For a game to be perfect I think it's got to be absolutely pinpoint in achieving what it sets out to do. Doesn't matter if it's a small game, or an expansive open world.

I'm gonna go with Superhot. For my money it took an idea, and ran with it to its natural conclusion. It's laser focused on that one core mechanic and pulls it off so well that I don't think anyone else has even tried to replicate it.

Metroid Prime has to be pretty far up there. It was a bold step forward for an established franchise that could have gone wrong so many different ways, but holy cow they nailed it. The controls are probably the only weak part, but to be fair dual analog controls hadn't really caught on yet. Every area of the map has character. So many of the boss fights are memorable, from Omega Pirate being fueled by raw Phazon and destroying its own soldiers, to Thardus whiting out the whole arena, to Meta Ridley wrecking the shit out of the Artifact Temple. The music is great, bringing back bangers from previous games, subtly remixing in other motifs from the past as well to give the game a familiar feeling, while adding beautiful new ambient music of it's own. The plot progresses forward with only a limited amount of cut scenes and dialog. It combined two genres in an innovative new way that 20+ years later still hasn't really been recreated yet.

And then once you've finished playing everything and finding every last thing as intended, there's still more fun to be had in learning some of the more basic glitches to get items way earlier than intended. Giving the devs the middle finger by getting items the first time around without taking a long backtracking trip later to come back and get it. Speeding through areas and blasting through boss fights with equipment and weapons you're not supposed to have yet. It contributed in large part to the birth of the modern speedrunning scene as people came up with more and more creative ways to get around formerly impassable obstacles.

20+ years old now, and it still holds up (as long as you play Primehack or Remastered to get more modern controls).

Knights of the Old Republic - I know KOTOR 2 is probably better storywise, but there's bugs and cut content (even with TSLRCM) which drag it down. The first game is a solid banger, I still remember my first playthrough when it came out (installing it over 4 discs!) and the revelation near the end of the game blew me away. I still replay this yearly.

Mass Effect - Fuck me, what a game. I know everybody rates the second game the most, but for me the first one is absolutely perfect. The air of mystery, the size of the galaxy and the overall atmosphere are second to none. I never had an issue with the combat (just don't use the cover system and it's literally fine) but that's sorted in the Remaster. Again, replayed annually.

Dragon Age: Origins - I mean where do we start? Refines the mechanics from KOTOR and introduces an incredible, original dark fantasy world. So much replayability because of all the different origins and choices you can make. The world feels fucking hopeless and every choice you make is seemingly about harm reduction rather than ultimately "good". I try and replay this annually but I'm currently trying to work through DA2 and DA:I (the quality of these games really shows how good DA:O is).

I'm aware that I've only chosen BioWare games from a certain era, but I just absolutely love them.

Celeste has just perfect controls and pacing. I still think about it. I wasn't as touched by the story as others but many were. I'm still playing Super Mario World and find it so impressive and charming.

The original Deus Ex. The storyline, the way the game world reacted to your actions and made it feel like your actions were relevant to the world around you instead of just being a static place where stuff happened to you...

Super Metroid. It's an amazing game if you play it normally, and you can branch out into sequence breaking tricks pretty easily. It basically created/popularized an entire genre of games.

I think Terraria? Especially with the years it's had to grow and improve.

I have always been a fan of stealth games. Dishonored (especially the first) scratched the itch perfectly! It's atmospheric. It's not open world, but each level has its own area to explore that is filled to the brim with stories, sometimes a small side quest etc. I also love how you get to influence the ending.

Control seems pretty good at what it wants to do. Nice graphics and soundtrack, fluid movement in combat (closest description I could think of) and cool, intriguing story. It also has one of the best video game quests I've played: Ashtray Maze

Skyrim (despite the numerous bugs) is another one I will say is close to perfect. Really good game and the community is pretty great as well.

Hades

Outer Wilds

It's always Outer Wilds

If we're going really old school, then Space Invaders. Its way of leveraging the hardware at the time to make the enemies and music speed up after you defeat more of them is elegant. Back then, the more things a game had on screen, the slower it ran. So, destroying more enemies removes more things from the screen, causing both enemies and music to speed up.

This is something that's taken for granted today, but I think at the time, it was genius.

Bioshock I think, loved it so much. Excellent writing and graphic design. Wish the remaster had improved the visuals more tho

Zelda Links Awakening. It's a perfect clock, every wheel in place.

Fata Morgana.

Listen, whether you like Visual Novels or not doesn't matter. But Fata Morgana is just somehow...perfect. Everything is resolved and I don't feel any need to complain about any aspect of it. It was an experience to play a game that left me with no questions afterwards. It was just a really good story.

Skyrim. It's a beautiful game, even now when I play it I take a moment to just look at how gorgeous the scenery is. I love the quests and that you can own a horse/house/child/ get married. I love the potions and crafting and customisation.

I don't think there are many games quite like Skyrim

I did not expect your pick to be The Beatles: Rock Band.

Is it because of rock band or are you just a really big Beatles fan?

Final Fantasy 6 and Monkey Island 2. I’ve replayed both many times and each is perfect all the way through.

I rarely see point and click adventures on lists like this, maybe because their popularity dropped like a rock and never recovered, but MI2 deserves a play through for anyone who hasn’t played it.

Witcher 3. They very well combined open world with story telling, with tons of side quests, many of which affect the story. The characters aren't one dimensional. For example Bloody Barron is a low life, but also draws sympathy as he pays for his sins from the past. The world is also unforgiving, many times you have to make a decision between shitty option and even shit tier option. The graphics and characters are also very detailed. All of that creates a great atmosphere.

If you haven't played it, you should give it a try.

Chrono Trigger

Return of the Obra Dinn. Most intelectually stimulating, stylized (to the point of being uncomfortable), well-paced puzzle mystery. The only bad thing about it for me is that it has zero replay value.

I was going to say Outer Wilds but somebody beat me to it, so I'll say Final Fantasy 6 instead.

The Pixel remaster on mobile and Switch is a great version but it's missing the bonus content from the GBA release.

I think it gets harder for a game to be perfect as it increases in complexity and scope. I think games like Tetris and Guitar Hero are good examples of games that are basically perfect, but that's partially because they're so simple.

In terms of more complex games, I think some Mario games could be described as perfect. I remember Super Mario Galaxy 2 being basically flawless. (Although it's been so long since I played it so maybe it had some flaws that I don't remember).

Also personally I might argue that Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 is flawless.

Lots of contenders for me: Resident Evil 2, A Link to the Past, Ocarina of time, Goldeneye, Half-Life, Diablo II, Skyrim, Alien: Isolation, Borderlands 2, Mario 64

But I gotta go with Runescape