IGN recently teamed up with Nintendo Life to rank the 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time. But this celebration wasn’t just about what we thought: we also wanted to know what your list would be. This was calculated using our Face Off tool, which compares two games against each other until you’ve gone through all the permutations, and then ranks the games by winning percentage. So, after a head-to-head matchup in which thousands of players voted – and your number one took part in 21,405 matches – we selected the top 25 based on feedback from the IGN audience.
The games that appear on this list are actually not that different from the games that top our list, although they are in a completely different order. You prefer the Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series more than most. So much so, in fact, that the top ten was entirely dominated by these two Miyamoto creations.
Below is a list of the 25 best games as voted by IGN readers, along with a handy comparison that shows your picks against the IGN and Nintendo Life lists.
25. Mario Kart 64 – 59.0% win rate.
24. Super Mario Bros. – win rate 59.2%.
23. Pokemon Yellow (red/blue) – 59.4% win rate.
22. Donkey Kong Bananza – 61.2% win rate.
21. Chrono Trigger – 61.2% win rate.
20. GoldenEye 007 – win rate 61.9%.
19. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – 62.7% win rate
18. Super Metroid – 62.7% win rate.
17. Super Smash Bros. Melee – win rate 63.4%.
16. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – 65.3% win rate.
15. Metroid Prime (+ remastered) – 65.6% win rate.
14. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – 66.1% win rate.
13. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 66.1% win rate.
12. Super Mario Galaxy 2 – 66.8% win rate.
11. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 66.9% win rate.
10. Super Mario. Bros 3 – 67.9% win rate.
9. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker – 68.4% win rate.
8. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – 69.0% win rate.
7. Super Mario Galaxy – 69.6% win rate.
6. Super Mario World – 70.5% win rate.
5. Super Mario 64 – 70.5% win rate.
4. Super Mario Odyssey – 71.3% win rate.
3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – 73.2% win rate.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 77.1% win rate.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – 77.5% win rate.
So these are what you considered the 25 best Nintendo games ever, but how does it compare to the IGN and Nintendo Life versions? Well, there are a few noticeable differences. IGN readers voted Mario Kart 64 25th – a game that didn’t even make our Top 100 list as one of our two Mario Kart games. On the other hand, Tetris came in 5th place, but dropped to 33rd place in the public vote.
You can check the table below for a side-by-side comparison between the top 25. Which one do you ultimately agree with more? Let us know in the comments below!
Simon Cardy is a senior editor at IGN who can mostly be found hanging around open-world games, watching Korean cinema, or moping about the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
