The 25 Best Nintendo Games of All Time, According to IGN Readers
Blog Andrew Joseph 21 Nov , 2025 0
Recently, IGN partnered with Nintendo Life to The 100 Best Nintendo Games of All Time. But this celebration isn't just what's on our minds: We also want to know what's on your bucket list. This is calculated using our Face Off tool, which pits two games against each other until you've completed all permutations, then ranks the games in order of winning percentage. So, below Standoff as thousands vote – Your first choice participated in 21,405 duels – Our top 25 is based on the opinions of IGN viewers.
The games that appear on this list aren't actually all that different from our own top-ranked games, albeit in a completely different order. You prefer the Super Mario and Zelda series to most other series. In fact, the top ten is entirely occupied by these two works by Shigeru Miyamoto.
Here are the top 25 as voted by IGN readers, with a handy comparison below showing your picks alongside IGN's and Nintendo Life's lists.
25. Mario Kart 64 – 59.0% win rate
24. Super Mario Bros. – 59.2% win rate
23. Pokemon Yellow (Red/Blue) – 59.4% win rate
22. “Donkey Kong Bananza” – 61.2% winning rate
21. Chrono Trigger – 61.2% win rate
20. GoldenEye 007 – winning rate 61.9%
19. “The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening” – winning rate 62.7%
18. Super Metroid – 62.7% win rate
17. Super Smash Bros. – 63.4% win rate
16. “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” – winning rate 65.3%
15. Metroid Prime (+Remastered) – 65.6% win rate
14. “The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask” – winning rate 66.1%
13. “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition” – 66.1% winning rate
12. “Super Mario Galaxy 2” – 66.8% win rate
11. “Super Smash Bros. Special Edition” – 66.9% winning rate
10. Super Mario. Brothers 3 – 67.9% win rate
9. “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker” – winning rate 68.4%
8. “The Legend of Zelda: Aspect of the Gods” – winning rate 69.0%
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” – winning rate 73.2%
2. “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” – winning rate 77.1%
1. “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” – 77.5% win rate
So, that's your vote for the 25 best Nintendo games of all time, but how does it compare to IGN and Nintendo Life's versions? Well, there are some significant differences. IGN readers ranked Mario Kart 64 at No. 25 — a game that didn't even make our top 100 list of two Mario Kart games. On the other hand, we ranked Tetris at number 5, but it dropped all the way to 33rd in the public vote.
You can check out the table below for a direct comparison of 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 be found mostly lurking around open-world games, obsessing over Korean movies, or despairing about the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky: @cardy.bsky.social.