Guinness World Records have released a list showing the 50 best video game endings of all time, as voted for by 13,519 gamers. Call of Duty: Black Ops tops that list. The top 5 also included Halo: Reach, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, CoD: Modern Warfare 2 and God of War.
“Everyone has an opinion on how to end a game whether it’s an epic boss fight, a clever plot twist or a 90-minute movie.” said Gaz Deaves, the Gaming Editor for Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition. “This list recognises some of the greatest endings and hopefully will get gamers talking about what are their favourites and why.”
The full list, which is in ascending order, is below.
50. Resident Evil 4
49. Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic
48. Ratchet & Clank: a Crack in Time
47. Crysis 2
46. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
45. Call of Duty: World at War
44. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
43. Half-Life 2: Episode Two
42. Super Metroid
41. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
40. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
39. inFamous
38. Fallout 3
37. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
36. Gears of War 2
35. Bioshock
34. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
33. Sonic Adventures 2
32. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
31. Kingdom Hearts II
30. Mass Effect
29. Super Mario Galaxy
28. Sonic the Hedgehog
27. Metal Gear Solid
26. Assassin’s Creed II
25. Assassin’s Creed
24. Shadow of the Colossus
23. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
22. Kingdom Hearts
21. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
20. Super Mario Galaxy 2
19. Mass Effect 2
18. Grand Theft Auto IV
17. Portal 2
16. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
15. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
14. Halo: Combat Evolved
13. Halo 3
12. Pokemon Black and White
11. Super Mario Bros
10. Heavy Rain
9. Final Fantasy VII
8. Metal Gear Solid 4
7. Portal
6. Red Dead Redemption
5. God of War
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. Halo: Reach
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
Source: Guinness World Records
Erroneus
Oh dear god…. major derps. While the ending in Black Ops, was better then most COD games, it’s no where near the top, but hey when the extremely lame ending in MW2 is at 4th place, it pretty much shows how much of a popularity contest, that list is.
SpikeyMikey23
agree completely! I love COD but there’s no way that their endings are the best.
And I agree, MW2’s ending was pants compared to others on that list.
Averna
How about Assassin’s Creed beating out Assassin’s Creed 2? What’s going on there?
rht992
yeah this to me is just another list worth avoiding because it makes me very very sad. There are some great choices in there like Portal, Heavy Rain, Half Life and GTA but the rest just seem to be filled up with popular games for no reason… I’m surprised Fifa isn’t in there
JesseDeya
What do you mean derp?
The end of of COD BLOPS was easily the best…. it signalled the long over due end to their god awful single player campaign!!!
rht992
You sir just gave me a whole new way of looking at this
Origami Killer
April Fools coming way too early here. One of the worst endings for me. Same goes for half of the games of that list. Enslaved not on there, Dead Space 2?
Storytelling in Call of Duty games is shit so I struggle to see how this has happened.
Origami Killer
At least I see Heavy rain at 10.
ron_mcphatty
Indeed, it seems like a list of popular games from the last 15ish years in a roughly random order. I can see a few which definitely deserve a bit of praise for their ending but the list as a whole speaks volumes about why kids DONT want a Guiness World Records book at Christmas anymore. Where are Rebel Assault 2 and The Dig on there? What a load of crap!
Origami Killer
Most of them are from this gen, bar the exception of a few eg Prince Of Persia SoT (deserves to be there). I would have liked to have seen more PS2 games on there.
BrendanCalls
For me it would’ve been close between MGS4 and Uncharted 2, but UC2 would just about edge it because I cant, hand on heart, say I totally understood everything going on in MGS4.
Just thought I’d get that in before the vitriolic outpouring of people who feel disgraced that a game they like didnt come top.
Sympozium
Lack of gaming soul… triumphs
Youles
Indeed.
This seems more like a “most popular game” list that was asked around the release of Black Ops. I can’t see any of the top 4 having the best story, let alone ending.
For me Bioshock had a great story throughout and subsequent ending, especially with the odd twist and various layers added through audio tapes etc. You can’t have a good ending without a good story first. I also enjoyed FFVII given that the story grabbed me throughout and the game was so long.
jikomanzoku
Bioshock was indeed genius, brilliant atmosphere, story and art direction and then “that twist” was one of the most intelligent bits of games design I have ever seen, played to the strengths and limitations of the medium beautifully. It’s probably the only time a game has literally made my jaw drop, other than Rise of the Robots – but that was for very different reasons, none of them good.
uncleniccius
It’s either April, or Activision have given a donation to the people who voted. Seriously though, I enjoy Cod, but this is wrong!
Mike
MGS4 is 8th?! LOL
gazzagb
Makes you realise how many fanboys there are. Glad to see Red Dead up in 6th though, amazingly underrated game.
McProley
yeah, fully agree. one of my best games this gen!
Kennykazey
I wouldn’t call it underrated, it got lots and lots of praise and if I remember correctly it’s sold quite nicely aswell…
gazzagb
I mean in the sense of ‘official’ awards and recognition. Rockstar got the hump and didn’t enter it into the golden joystick awards and the like.
cc_star
BlOps was the only FPS I’ve ever enjoyed, liked the ending & tied the story together better than most mainstream games.
For the best endings you have to look at the best stories & more often than not, they’re not in the mainstream, so would fail to pick up sufficient votes.
HoboCastro
It has a great story. Treyarch did a great job of telling a Cold War story.
jikomanzoku
COD games feel increasingly like Time Crisis or Point Blank to me these days. Invariably end up borrowing them and going through them, but can only take it in small doses, still think that COD 4 MW was the series crowning glory meself.
Bilbo_bobbins
crikey, thats a bit worrying.
justboy
I think infamous should be a lot higher on the list, I loved the twist at the end as I didn’t see it coming.
The chart unfortunately is biased due to a lot more people playing codblops than other titles.
bunimomike
inFamous had a good ending and the twist was genuinely “oh reeeally?”. However, for my money, Shadow of the Colossus has the finest game ending I’ve witnessed. Still stunning to play/watch. All this list illustrates is how well a game has sold and if it’s had not-too-crap an ending. Meh.