For Your Comparison

At the end of last year, I made mention of how, in 2005, I stumbled across a list made by IGN of the 100 Greatest Games. And how a new, updated list has arisen since.

This in turn got me thinking: With ten years separating these lists, how do they compare? What does this say about the games listed that have particular staying power? Is this truly the definitive list as it's made out to be?

So what I'll do for this post is to compare the lists: The 2005 original, the 2007 update and the 2015 iteration. Lets see if there are some common threads between them...

Firstly, the games that made both the 2005 and 2007 lists:

Alone in the Dark
Archon
Bionic Commando
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Day of the Tentacle
Dragon Warrior
Dune 2: Building of a Dynasty
Fallout
Final Fantasy 4
God of War
Gran Turismo 3
Grand Theft Auto 3
Mafia
NHL '94
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Pokemon
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Quake 2
Rayman 2: the Great escape
Rome: Total War
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Secret of Mana
Shining Force 2
Sid Meier's Civilization 2 
Sonic the Hedgehog
Star Wars Arcade
Super Mario Kart
Syndicate
Ultima 7
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
Wave Race 64

~*~

Next, the games that made both the 2007 and 2015 lists.

Final Fantasy Tactics
Mega Man 2
Shadow of the Colossus
Silent Hill 2 
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness
World of Warcraft

~*~

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, the games that made all three lists:

Advance Wars
Baldur's Gate 2
Battlefield 1942
Burnout 3: Takedown
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Chrono Trigger
Contra 
Deus Ex
Doom
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 7
Goldeneye 007
Grim Fandango
Half Life
Half Life 2
Halo
Ico
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
Metal Gear Solid
Metroid Prime
Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!
Ms. Pacman
Resident Evil 4
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sim City 2000
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Starcraft
Street Fighter 2
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Bros 1
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario World
Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island
Super Metroid
System Shock 2
Tetris
Thief 2: The Metal Age
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
X-COM: UFO Defense

 ~*~

So there you go: Forty-one games, that provide a common link between the three lists. 
So what does this mean? One can imagine that these forty-one games have been influential and have proven to have considerable saying power - even compared to the more recent games listed in the 2015 list.

That's saying a lot when one considers that these games represent a nineteen year time period, with the earliest, Super Mario Bros, hailing from 1985 and the latest, Rome Total War, coming from 2004. Indeed, one can only wonder what the more current games listed in the 2015 list will look like in 2025....