Definitive versions

Chances are your favorite game has at least seen a number of ports, re-releases, End of the Year editions, and more versions than you can shake a stick at. This is due to companies trying to either milk a franchise for all it's worth, expand their audience, or to introduce new-players on new consoles to their game.

While sometimes it is clear-cut as to which edition or port you should get, other times it's not that simple. A special edition isn't actually better when the game on disk is missing something that the original game had. New versions can sometimes end up with FPS issues, toned down features, bad camera angles, or even ugly graphics. There have been many times when JP and PAL regions have a more superior version of a game while others get mere scraps and vice-versa. Sometimes even ports make a difference with some ports of a game having extra features or being better designed just because it's on a different console. All of this can make a specific version more or less desirable than the others!

This page is made to help gamers sort through all the versions and editions of a game and pick out which one is the best out of the bunch. Please focus on games that have multiple editions/releases of the same game (ex: Game Of The Year, Special Edition, Anniversary Editions, HD re-release, ect) in order to select the best edition of that particular game. Things like statues and music CDs are nice, but fixing up gameplay, less lag, faster loading, adding new levels, more on-disc content and updating graphics is much nicer! Please note that HD graphics or more DLC by itself does not automatically make a game "better"- there need to be actual improvements to the on-disk game itself for it to be better than previous iterations. Bonus points for when an HD release actually has text that can be read on a smaller screen or a tube TV.

Please do not list entire series as one entry unless they were released as a collection. (ex: all Bioshock games in one collection). Break games up into their own entries.

ROM hacks that do not significantly change the base game and are of a game that actually was released are allowed here. For example, a hack that simply fixes bugs the in a company-released game is OK; however, a Sonic game that is spliced with Metroid would not be appropriate. If the company releases a new version on par or better than the hack, please replace the hack with the official version.

It's also fine to give out honorable mentions of other editions that might not be as great but are better than the rest and well-worth checking out as well.

Versions Better Due to Content
Games to add: most 8- and 16-bit games (Mega Man, Castlevania, etc.), every 'Tales of' entry, Arcade/Console/PC ports and a shitton more.