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Have you ever played a PERFECT game?

Wonder Boy III, ALttP and SMW are near perfect, I'd say, I can't really come up with anything to complain about at all for those. edit: Okay, I could actually think of two things with WB3: The password system glitches out beyond a certain amount of gold, and the random chance at a potion after dying is a bit bullshit. :P

As games have become more complex after that there's been more things that can be at least annoying. Metroid Prime and Paper Mario 2 are probably the two 3D ones that have felt the closest to being perfect to me, if PM2 even qualifies as 3D, hehe. In MP's case it wasn't even technical issues, I just though the space pirate zones and encounters outstayed their welcome.
 
There are plenty. Sticking to the impossible to attain definition of perfect when talking about entertainment or art is useless so I just don't.

Gone Home
Kentucky Route Zero
Journey
Dark Souls
Portal
Uncharted 2
Pac Man CE DX
Shadow of the Colossus
Metal Gear Solid 3
Resident Evil 4
Half Life
Symphony of the Night
A Link to the Past
Mario World
etc.


These are singular experiences that I can't imagine being different from the way I played. For other people I can see why they wouldn't be perfect, but i'm not them.
 
I can think of so many games that are superb in so many ways, ranging from the mechanics, to the writing, to the music and artwork, to the very emotional and subjective value I put on my enjoyment of the games...but despite being able to think of even the favorites I've played throughout the years, I cannot in good conscience say that anything I've played be considered 'perfect'. To say something is perfect would be dismissing it as having no faults, unless of course, you start putting conditions of what perfect means. After all, one could make the argument that if a game isn't enjoyed, or doesn't evoke a feeling it was meant to, in 100% of its playerbase, then it could not be perfect. Each person could have their own interpretations of what is perfect to them, which brings things to, well, a lot of subjectivity, and I guess I can't feel comfortable blinding myself to a game's faults, no matter how much I may personally think it to be stupendous.

To achieve perfection, I believe, is an impossible feat, as it sort of implies that there's no room for improvement. Even in the best of games, I feel there is always something that can be improved, although I will always respect that how a game is, at a given moment, is a unique experience that can be all that's necessary at that moment, if that makes sense.
 
There are some faults in the design, exemplified by Ego https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOC3vixnj_0

Taking how this was their first 3D game you really can't fault them too much but they were avoidable thereafter.

"OOT's combat makes you wait, and wait and wait"......... Is he fucking serious? There's absolutely nothing wrong by preferring 2D to 3D games, especially one as ALTTP because ALTTP is great, but he has a lot of nonsense arguments throughout his video and this one really takes the cake. Are we going to say the combat in, for example, Dark Souls, Uncharted or Halo is shit too because you have to "wait" and you can't continuously attack? And also, there's plenty of waiting sequences in ATTP's combat as well, especially the some bigger/more armoured enemies and bosses.

It's ironic because he urges OOT fans to lose the nostalgia goggles while he forgot to lose his.
 
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Anyone who says otherwise either lacks taste or should be institutionalized.
 
Nope. Everything at least has some minor flaws.
 
I've played most games mentioned in this thread and wouldn't come close to agreeing that they're perfect. To me, perfect would mean that literally there wasn't a single thing I would change if I had some kind of input on the game, and even among my favorite games ever, I can think of many things that could be improved.
 
I played many games I thought were perfect at the time I finished them. Most recently 3D World, going back Galaxy too, TLOU, Uncharted 2, RE4, MGS1... With hindsight I don't think they are perfect anymore but still pretty damn good. Probably Tetris is the only perfect one that stands the test of time.
 
There's games I love enough that its tempting to call them perfect, but there's always something that can be improved.

It's called Persona 4

For example, P4G might very well be my favorite game. I also think that the level design of the dungeons could have been more interesting. That doesn't mean the game wasn't fucking amazing as it was. Games don't need to be perfect.
 
There's no such thing yadda yadda yadda but if I had to throw some out there:

Portal
Braid
Street Fighter II
Maaaaayyybe Link to the Past
Maaaaaayyyybbeeee Castlevania: SOTN
 
Metroid Prime's controls are garbage. One example: you have to hold down the right trigger to move the camera vertically. But to be fair obviously first person games have been completely revolutionized since 2002. Metroid Prime's backtracking also fluctuates between brilliant and padding. Still a fantastic game though. Obviously, there's no such thing as a perfect game because in every game (or in any product) there are always trade offs made, and the effectiveness of the game is a reflection of how successful those trade offs were. Dark Souls is my favorite game of all time. I think it's absolutely perfect the way it is, but its the whole package that I think is perfect. Not every single aspect of it is perfect, not even close.

And yet the game is designed around the fact that it doesn't use dual analog controls. The controls aren't garbage, they work. The only time you are needing to aim manually in the vertical sense is when you're looking around the environment scanning for stuff and/or safely sniping enemies from afar. Pretty much all combat situations and bosses are completely accounted for using the wonderful lock-on system that's in place and the environments/platforms are designed to be navigated using a single stick. Saying they are garbage is way off when they work quite well.
 
Maybe I've gotten more scrutinizing ad I've aged, but most of the games that are close to perfection in my eyes are from the SNES.

Super Metroid is by far the closest to me. I don't think that I could pick a single flaw from this game if I had to.
Others are Secret of Mana, A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Gran Turismo 4, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. My favorite game of all time can't even be included in this list in my eyes due to so many bugs(FFVI).
 
Maybe I've gotten more scrutinizing ad I've aged, but most of the games that are close to perfection in my eyes are from the SNES.

Super Metroid is by far the closest to me. I don't think that I could pick a single flaw from this game if I had to.
Others are Secret of Mana, A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Gran Turismo 4, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. My favorite game of all time can't even be included in this list in my eyes due to so many bugs(FFVI).

Yeah, I can't think of a single thing that I would even nitpick about Super Metroid or Super Mario World or even Super Mario Bros. 3. Link to the Past has that one problem that most Zelda games have where when you get low on health it makes that annoying beeping sound that NEVER stops until you get a heart. That's about all I got for it.
 
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Ocarina of Time
Metroid Prime
Red Dead Redemption
Goldeneye
Mario 64
Street Fighter 2
Resident Evil 4
Jagged Alliance 2
Red Alert
Diablo 2 LOD
 
Perfect...

I think the first Half-Life is an excellent game, much tighter experience than it´s bloated younger sibling HL2.

Max Payne 2 is a simply fantastic action game. Also superhot female protagonist
 
This kinda is a conflict of interest as far as this topic goes, since, objective perfection is seriously easy to disprove.

If "perfect game" means subjective, it may as well be favorites, right?

The definition of a "perfect game" is essentially loaded to reach subjective territories anyways, so why tiptoe around it? Whether one wants to word it as "favorites" or "What the perfect title would do for me" is in the hands of the user.

There is a difference between a favourite game and a perfect game. Most of my favourite games are far from perfect, but merely do a limited set of things I enjoy really well, while maybe messing things up that I don't care about so much.

I never argued to the contrary of the first sentence here. My bulletpoint is, for example, if I hate the Etrian Odyssey series (which I do), for inherent unsightly and flawed role-playing presentation (for starters), that doesn't give me quarter to the dismissal of "really fucking flawed series" to properly rebut the notion of it being a perfect series due to the lack of a perfect paradigm. In fair, only a picture was posted in this case, but my approach is still getting to the core of such a question and from what models set the responses.
 
As has been said before, every game has its flaws. Because OP says that the game has to be perfect, i'll have to nitpick my favourite games - Metroid Prime has the awful Phazon Mines, even though this level is quite short and forgettable compared to the rest of the game, which is a masterpiece. Super Metroid has annoying controls when you fall in the sand sections of Maridia (yes, this is a ridiculous complaint, but one that could be made). Ocarina of Time's overworld is a bit empty. Half Life 2's vehicle controls don't hold up well. Bioshock's final boss is terrible.

All of these things stop these games from being 10/10, and make them 9.999999/10 for me. Only Journey and Portal are the two games that, to me at least, set out to do everything they want to do and have no flaws that I can think of. Maybe it's because they're shorter, I don't know.
 
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I can't think of much wrong with this game, it's genuinely great in every aspect. The controls are perfect, graphics and music timeless, level design fun and replayable, and it's just great.
 
Ocarina of Time
Portal
Braid
Fez

I'm surprised to see Metroid Prime... Did OP really enjoy the backtracking at the end? I loved the game in general, but trekking all over the place to find needles in a haystack is really disorienting and tedious is 3D games.
 
Nothing is perfect, but I will say this: the one game that I found to have the fewest flaws and was impeccable throughout is Metroid Prime. That game is unbelievable. I can't believe it exists, that's how good it is. Humanity didn't deserve something so amazing.

Ocarina of Time
Portal
Braid
Fez

I'm surprised to see Metroid Prime... Did OP really enjoy the backtracking at the end? I loved the game in general, but trekking all over the place to find needles in a haystack is really disorienting and tedious is 3D games.

I find this to be incredibly dismissive of the entire package. You can easily find several of the temple keys, naturally, while progressing through the game. And having those keys scattered about allowed the player to explore more and find more power ups. Not my favorite thing to do (the temple keys), but that issue (as you say) is just a drop in an ocean that is overall amazing and pristine.
 
After a good long thought...yeah Timesplitters 2 is the most perfect game Ive played...game just does so many things right from story, humor, controls, options, unlockables, level design, extras, multiplayer....yeah its just about perfect

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