Topic: What makes a game a classic?

[NWR_insanolord]

Games get called "classics" all the time, but have you ever really sat back and thought about what that means? Usually it involves games that are older, but how old does a game need to be to fall into that category? Does being a classic depend on personal taste, or can there be any degree of objectivity in the process?


Take for instance a game like Super Mario Galaxy: at what point does it go from "great game" to "classic"?

[ShyGuy]

Classic cars have to be at least 25 years old. I would imagine it's fewer years for a video game. 5 years? 10 years?

[Caterkiller]

I say at least 1 generation old. But what the heck does that mean if the game came out 1 day before the new gen began? So I say a generation before last. Everything great in the WiiS360 gen will be known as a classic next gen after US4ONE.

I don't know, someone make a complicated formula. I can't, I didn't go to college.

[nickmitch]

How much time can pass after the game's initial release can you still play it and say, "Wow, this is a great game" makes it a classic.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I think the requirements for becoming a classic game are twofold. It needs to innovate in some way (be that something big like an evolution of gameplay or story telling, or something small like a control refinement or a meaningful tweak to an existing genre) and it also needs to stand the test of time. With regard the latter, standing the test of time can only really be assessed in retrospect, but in my experience those games which aren't overly ambitious tend to stand the test of time better than those that try to push the boundaries in several directions at once.

[Ian Sane]

I like the two generations back rule.  So now that the Wii U is out Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/Xbox/GBA games can be considered.  If you did only one gen back then Pandora's Tower could qualify as it is clearly "last gen", as would brand new Xbox 360 games.  Handhelds can be effectively grouped with the consoles of their era (3DS with Wii U, DS with Wii, etc.) but you run into a problem with computer games as they don't have clear generations.  You would have to go with just age on those (ten years seems appropriate).  The same issue would apply to arcade games, though they tend to get grouped by their home console conversions.

To me a game is a classic if it still merits significant conversation in the present day, either because it innovated in a way that influenced games that came later or it is just so damn good that people still play it and use it as an example of its genre.  What qualifies "significant conversation"?  Well that's really a matter of opinion.  You just have to observe gaming culture and see what comes up.  Something like Super Metroid gets talked about so damn often that you would be nuts to not acknowledge that it is regarded to be a classic.

Though in the context of a tradeshow called something like "Classic Gaming Convention" or a store selling used "Classic Games" the term would be interchangable with "retro" as it would merely mean a game of a certain age.

[NWR_insanolord]

The generational rule is a decent shorthand, but even within that there are shortcomings. For instance, it feels a lot more right to me to call Wind Waker a classic than to do the same to Twilight Princess, despite both of them being GameCube games.

[Luigi Dude]

The generational rule is a decent shorthand, but even within that there are shortcomings. For instance, it feels a lot more right to me to call Wind Waker a classic than to do the same to Twilight Princess, despite both of them being GameCube games.

Twilight Princess was released on the Wii first and that version sold much better so it's kind of an exception since a lot of people consider it a Wii game and part of that generation instead of the previous one, despite their being a Gamecube version released a few weeks later.

[ThePerm]

it depends on the game. A game can become an instant classic if its successful in all ways. It has to be critically acclaimed and popular for this to happen. 2 years if it was a game that was critically acclaimed and obscure, then it becomes a cult classic. The generation rule then applied to all other games. By default, even if they were terrible they become classic. This is due to the charm of old things.

[TJ Spyke]

The term "instant classic" should very rarely be used because there are a lot of games that are considered great when they first come out, but then age poorly and people only remember it being great (i.e. Final Fantasy VII, which is fondly remembered but is actually a mediocre game).

[Pixelated Pixies]

The term "instant classic" should very rarely be used because there are a lot of games that are considered great when they first come out, but then age poorly and people only remember it being great (i.e. Final Fantasy VII, which is fondly remembered but is actually a mediocre game).

That's true, but sometimes the term 'instant classic' really does apply. The first time I played Super Mario Galaxy I was very confident that it was a formative game and one which would eventually be looked upon as being a classic. Time will tell I guess, but I'd be very surprised if I and others don't look back upon the Galaxy games as classics.