It’s a challenge that has been faced by countless media outlets and enthusiastic gamers: ranking the greatest games of all time. Since no one out there has gotten it right yet, we’re here to finally set the record straight. And by “set the record straight” we mean add our name to the list of people who have gotten it wrong. The truth is our opinion is no more valid than yours. But ranking things is fun and it makes us feel warm and tingly inside! So without further ado, here is our list of the greatest games of all time.

Many people enjoy playing video games because they can make you feel powerful. Playing as a futuristic space marine comes to mind. But nothing beats The Sims. Become all powerful as you watch over the lives of tiny virtual people; you could help them lead happy and fruitful lives. Or you could take the door off the bathroom and disregard any and all reasonable safety precautions just to see what might happen. Either way, playing a virtual deity proved quite addicting. The Sims became a massive hit, and the addiction continued in two sequels and countless expansions.

StarCraft is like the NFL in South Korea. Still now, over ten years after its release, it’s a professional sport of sorts for many skilled and passionate Korean gamers. For players across the world, it stands as an example of the real-time strategy genre at its finest. Developer Blizzard has been a little busy of late with World of WarCraft (a game many would argue merits consideration on this list), but after much wishing and waiting they finally gave StarCraft II its long-awaited debut.

The yearly release of the latest Madden football game is a holiday marked in the calendars of many gamers. But Madden wouldn’t be the game it is today without Tecmo Super Bowl. Revolutionary for being one of the first sports games to have virtual representations of both the teams and the players of the professional sports league it simulated, gamers could finally feel first hand the frustration of trying to tackle Bo Jackson in a Raiders uniform. And by the way, there are still people playing in Tecmo Super Bowl leagues. How’s that for a long career?!

“Cinematic” is a term used to describe many games these days, but not so long ago games weren’t all that concerned with being cinematic. Or perhaps more accurately, games didn’t know how to be cinematic whether due to technological limitations or a limited understanding of how it was done. If you like your games to tell compelling stories and to contain complex characters and worlds, you might want to thank Metal Gear Solid. With its twisting and turning plot and solid gameplay (pun intended) that continued on into numerous sequels, Metal Gear Solid had no trouble grabbing our attention.

If the original Guitar Hero was the opening act, Guitar Hero II was the headliner. It tightened up the gameplay, added more songs (with more master recordings) plus cooperative gameplay (slappin’ de bass) that set the stage for band play in future games, and more. Guitar Hero II didn’t only revitalize the music genre of games; its impact can be felt in the larger world of music as well.

Though Pac-Man is probably the bigger gaming icon, when it comes to the pellet-munching, ghost-evading gameplay he’s known for, Ms. Pac-Man is queen. The original Pac-Man set the stage, but Ms. Pac-Man expanded on the formula with more maze layouts, smarter enemy ghosts and don’t forget, a red bow and some lipstick! Though the golden age of the arcade is long behind us, Ms. Pac-Man cabinets can still be seen (and played) in many a bowling alley, waiting room and arcade.

PC gaming is not dead! It’s alive and well thanks in part to Valve, the makers of fantastic games like Left 4 Dead and Counter-Strike. Valve is also behind Steam, the thriving digital distribution channel and platform for PC gaming. The Half-Life franchise is Valve’s real bread and butter, and it’s not hard to see why. Half-Life 2 and its two episodic add-ons offer first-person shooting at its finest, but what sets it apart is a unique storytelling approach that never takes you out of the action. Plus, its physics engine fuels some real jaw-dropping moments (can you say Gravity Gun?).

The transition from 2D to 3D-style graphics is a one that troubles many gaming franchises (we’re looking at you, Sonic), so when the seminal Legend of Zelda series was preparing for its first foray into the third dimension, gamers were watching with a critical eye. But Nintendo pulled it off, as Ocarina of Time offered the same tried and true Zelda gameplay (labyrinthine dungeons and brilliant puzzles) with an added sense of scale and scope that makes this a defining title for the Zelda series and an all time classic.

The grand-daddy of all puzzle games, Tetris has appeared in some form on just about every gaming console ever. Okay, maybe not for the Pippin, but you get the picture. Want to get your hands on Tetris today? Take your pick of Tetris on the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, iPhone, iPod, or Xbox 360, just for starters. But it was the release of Tetris on the original Game Boy over 20 years ago that made it a worldwide phenomenon, and it’s now dropping its puzzling perfection into the number two spot on our list.

It had to be Mario. Truthfully, Mario games could have filled half of this list, if not more, but out of respect for games that don’t feature a plumber wearing a red cap, we’ve limited our Mario love to one game: the original Super Mario Bros. Long ago, this game may have saved video games and made home console gaming viable again as Atari’s plans were crumbling and consumers were losing faith and interest in the industry. As millions of gamers now enjoy New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy 2, this much is clear: Mario is timeless, Mario IS gaming. And it all started here.

And there you have it. Ten games that may not be the absolute “best” of all time, but have unquestionably had a huge impact on the world of gaming and have brought us where we are today. Now’s the part where you tell us how horribly we messed up. What’d we miss? What doesn’t deserve a spot? What’s your list look like? Are you upset that we didn’t include Barbie Horse Adventures? We know you have an opinion, so let us have it.