Top 10 Greatest Video Game Genres

The Top Ten
1 Role-Playing Games (RPG)

Action adventure is way too vague of a topic, to be honest. I mean, the only games that aren't action adventure are the simulation virtual creators. Seriously, it shouldn't even be a genre. RPGs are the best genre for a number of reasons.

1. Every video game company makes them, except for maybe Valve.
2. They include some of the best games ever, for example: Zelda, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Earthbound series, Mass Effect.
3. It is also incredibly vague when you think about it. Role-playing can refer to anything people want it to refer to. I managed to list off all these great games by narrowing the topic to some of the more obvious ones.

2 Sandbox

Okay, sandbox is the most creative and one of the most fun, in my opinion! The opportunities are limitless! I'm not trying to make people love it, but everyone has played Minecraft at some point and seen how its popularity, unless you're a graphics guy, then you can go away. It's all about how it plays out! Minecraft can simulate ANY game, like someone said earlier, and you can do ANYTHING from making guns to building castles, do role-play, and just plain survive! If you can think it, Minecraft can support it!

This is the best genre of video games. The top games like the Grand Theft Auto series, Assassin's Creed, Minecraft, Fallout, Metal Gear Solid, Skyrim, The Witcher, and World of Warcraft are sandbox. Even if Skyrim, The Witcher, and World of Warcraft are RPGs, they are still sandbox. World of Warcraft is a great success not just because it's an RPG. It's because it's an MMO where people can communicate with each other in an open world provided by the sandbox.

3 First-Person Shooter (FPS)

I get where people are coming from with hating on kids and all the copying, but all FPS games are basically the same. The only difference is they're entangled with other genres, the fan base is young and hated, or people put too much time into dissing it! FPS has a BIG future and is easily one of the most popular game genres and 100% the #1 most played genre with games like CS:GO and Crossfire coming into play, and the Call of Duty line of games and Battlefield making their stand! Even if it's slow or fast-paced, it's enjoyable for everyone! Just remember this, guys... they have a mute button!

4 Action-Adventure

Action-Adventure, come on. Portal, Metroid, Star Fox Adventures, they're the best games ever and are Action-Adventure. I just love Action with Adventure!

Zelda, Assassin's Creed, and Portal are some of my favorite games. Zelda is amazing, besides the Phillips CD-i games, which just make me cringe. I don't get how people get so much joy from an FPS when action-adventure games take you on a journey and give you a long-lasting experience.

Easily the most entertaining genre. It has a combination of different game elements like puzzles, shooting, platforming, and exploring with great stories.

5 Open World

Open-world games are the best, in my opinion. I'll explain to you what an open-world is before I explain why open-world games are great. First, let me show you some examples of open-world games.

Examples of open-world games:
- Grand Theft Auto
- Saints Row
- inFAMOUS
- Minecraft
- Sunset Overdrive
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Yakuza
- Sleeping Dogs
- Xenoblade Chronicles

Hopefully, this made the answer to "What is an open-world game?" more understandable. Open-world games are very similar to sandboxes. The difference is one thing. Sandboxes allow you to manipulate the environment or even create your environment. There's an obvious reason why those games are called sandboxes. Of these open-world examples, Minecraft would be an obvious example of a sandbox game. The player can create and manipulate the world he wanders. An example of a sandbox game that is not an open-world is LittleBigPlanet. You can create your worlds, but there are still many limits to your exploration.

Now that I've separated open-world games from sandbox games, I'll describe an open-world game. Like a sandbox game, you can free-roam a large world with a lack of limits. These games are often non-linear. You will have the time to explore the world and its vastness.

If an open-world will still have some limits, as you can't destroy, create, or change everything, then how can it be better than sandboxes? Well, that's the thing. These open-world games don't rely on the ability to customize your world but on exploration.

If you're a creative person, go for sandbox games.

If you're an explorer, go for open-world games.

If you don't really care for either... then alright. Thanks for reading, I guess.

6 Platformer

I loved platform video games when I was younger. Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Rayman are examples of great platformers. Sonic was my favorite at first, but I rapidly started to prefer Mario over Sonic over time. This is all I have to say. Goodbye.

What? A game you can actually pick up, play, and have a blast with in the first thirty seconds? By far the most accessible and most enjoyable genre.

This should be number 1 for it gave a new experience in gaming and is a fun genre, best to me.

7 Fighting

They're great games. People really ignore the great gameplay behind these. The only thing people see is beating up your opponent to the right, but it's so much more. Action-Adventure games are almost always credited for story and gameplay. Just think for a second, Mortal Kombat has a phenomenal story, Tekken has a good story, and Soul Calibur has a good story. I find fighting games very good, and I am unsatisfied with the fact that it is under open world games. Correct me if I am wrong, but open world is the same as sandbox/free roam, so that could be changed.

8 Hack 'n' Slash

Devil May Cry series, God of War series, both franchises received universal acclaim. Also, other great hack and slash video games like Shinobi, Musashi, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, etc., bring this genre to the top 10 RIGHT NOW!

Mindless fun. An epic quest where everything is solved through bashing everyone in sight.

Devil May Cry series and God of War are one of the best games ever made, enough said.

9 Real-Time Strategy (RTS)

This is among the top 3 genres for anyone who can "think" and execute tasks at the right time. Maybe that's why this genre is underrated. People are too lazy to think. This genre requires a higher skill than any other gaming genre. E.g., no normal player would ever beat a StarCraft 2 player in their lifetimes unless they decide to go for professional gaming in StarCraft 2 themselves.

RTS games are the games that require the most intelligence to play. Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are a great success. Starcraft 2 involves very good strategy that some people even believe it to be a replacement for chess. RTS could improve IQ.

RTS games not only require lots of strategy but also require good response time (to counter against opponents). To say the truth, it is the most useful type of game genre. Other games are a waste of time and involve no productivity.

10 Turn-Based Strategy

This is a sub-genre for RPGs where, whenever you fight enemies, you enter a turn-based fight where each turn the player and the opponent make their attack. This is usually my preferred way to play RPGs, since most of my favorite RPGs like Undertale, Pokemon, and the Mario RPGs follow this format. Even though I play lots of platformers, I have to admit I am not the best with controlling my big hands, and my strength mostly comes from my insane knowledge of the games, so these turn-based RPGs are usually the games I excel the most at. In fact, I could make a case for being the best Pokemon player on this site (that is currently active, at least). It's just a genre I am comfortable with, and with lots of strategies to develop, and they often have some great stories.

The Contenders
11 Third-Person Shooter

Basically, shooters without the first-person perspective, and therefore worse for some people, but better for people like me. I don't have a lot of experience with this genre, but the little of what I played, like Agent 9's sections in Spyro 3 or Kid Icarus: Uprising, they are very good, so I think I should explore more of this genre.

Not really a genre but Resident Evil, Tom Clancy, Splatoon, Uncharted, etc. You just can't play enough of these franchises.

12 Survival Horror

The more recent games in the genre are atmospheric, but they lost the essence. The early Resident Evil games, Silent Hill, and Deep Fear for the Sega Saturn are the genre's greatest games.

If done correctly, survival horror games can instill fear whilst remaining intriguing. I feel that games where you cannot defend yourself to be the most impressive type of Survival Horror.

Best genre ever in video game history. Resident Evil and Silent Hill are the best games ever.

13 Racing

The principle of a racing game is ridiculously simple. It's a game where you do racing. It doesn't even have to be with cars though. For me, there are two types of game. The games of this genre range in two categories for me. We have the racing game where the focus is on having fun with your family and friends, like Mario Kart, and the games where the focus is to challenge the player and make him want to get better and better at the game, like F-Zero. That being said, you can be both, like Crash Team Racing, which is why it is the best racing game ever.

14 Stealth

Apparently, no one even bothers to list this. Stealth is one of the best genres ever. It's a super logical version of FPS but geared towards not killing anyone you don't need to kill.

I just love stealth games! They often coincide with strategy, fighting, and action-adventure. My personal favorite stealth series is the Assassin's Creed series.

Metal Gear Solid, the best stealth video game franchise of all time.

15 3D Platformer

This is a sub-genre for the platforming genre. Basically, these are platforming games, but with the freedom to move in every direction. This kind of freedom is excellent for collect-a-thons, which are games where you have to explore levels to get collectibles, and is my personal favorite genre. However, the kind of impressive stuff you can do with 3D to create big memorable set pieces is great for making more linear games like A Hat in Time, Super Mario Galaxy, or Crash Bandicoot.

Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Super Mario, Sonic, Banjo-Kazooie, Jak, Ratchet, Tak. Haven't played Sly or Conker, but watched Pewdiepie play Conker's Bad Fur Day. I'm thinking about playing it myself. This genre is stacked, especially the Spyro games.

16 Beat 'Em Up

Beat 'em Ups all the way. The '90s for me were the best time for games because of all the awesome beat 'em ups. Then 3D became the norm and killed off the beat 'em up genre. I don't play a lot of newer games these days because it seems like gaming companies are so concerned with graphics and story that the gameplay just isn't as fun. I mean, I played Metal Gear Solid 4 and geez, it was like half the game was just cut scenes. None of that with beat 'em ups. You grab a friend, pick your characters, and spend the next hour kicking ass.

17 Simulation

Simulator is, for me, the best and most realistic game genre made. I've played a lot of simulator games like "Euro Truck Simulator" (both the original and ETS2), "American Truck Simulator", "Microsoft Flight Simulator X", the Farming Simulator series by Giants Software, "Spintires", "Construction-Simulator 2015", "Car Mechanic Simulator 2014", "My Summer Car", and "Goat Simulator".

I also love this genre because it has so various game concepts. All simulator games are different. Simulator games stand out from each other in one way or another.

18 MMORPG

Honestly, I think MMORPGs are beautiful games because I simply love how it's like you're living in the story yourself. Like reading, but at my computer, in a gorgeous world full of endless wonder. I also adore how you can share the joy of playing MMORPGs with your friends! One of my favourite things to do when I have spare time is to blast through a dungeon on Dragon Nest with my level 95 Dark Avenger.

Guild Wars 2 is my favorite game. Also, random fact, the rank 15 on this site, "Legendary Defender of Ascalon", references the first game.

19 Puzzle

Come on, people. Tetris, Portal, Bejeweled, Candy Crush. So many great games under this genre. This should be at least #10!

20 Survival

Games like DayZ, The Forest, and even Unturned are all in survival, and the survival genre can last you so long and never gets old! Plus, you can feel satisfied when you have a base of operations up and running and good gear. Then you can go help others if it's online or build a community! The opportunities are virtually limitless! All you need is a little imagination.

It's fun to start from scratch and look back at how you were at the beginning. The feeling of progression along with the suspense at the beginning of each night makes these games extremely fun.

21 2D Sidescroller

Platforming games are the games I play the most, and I generally play more 2D sidescrollers than 3D platformers. When someone creates a game like this rather than a 3D platformer, it's usually to restrict the player to create a kind of level design that would be too easy with the freedom of 3D. This can be great for linear experiences with tons of challenge. But you can also restrict your character at the start of the game and then give them the ability to cheese the level design with new power-ups you acquire, which makes the Metroidvania subgenre.

22 Point-and-Click Adventure

This is my favorite genre. It requires a fair amount of thinking to get through these games, due to the puzzles, and the storytelling capabilities are limitless.

23 Sports
24 Interactive Drama
25 JRPG
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