{
  "updated": "2026-08-15",
  "count": 12,
  "note": "Ordered best to worst. There are no scores; rank is position in the list.",
  "games": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "slug": "tetris",
      "title": "Tetris",
      "year": 1984,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: the falling-block puzzle that ended up on nearly every device with a screen.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "slug": "half-life-2",
      "title": "Half-Life 2",
      "year": 2004,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: a shooter remembered for its physics and its unbroken first-person storytelling.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "slug": "super-mario-64",
      "title": "Super Mario 64",
      "year": 1996,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: the game that had to invent a working camera before 3D platforming could exist.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "slug": "portal",
      "title": "Portal",
      "year": 2007,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: a short first-person puzzle game built entirely around a single idea.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "slug": "the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild",
      "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild",
      "year": 2017,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: an open world that answers almost every question of can I do that with yes.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "slug": "doom",
      "title": "Doom",
      "year": 1993,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: the shareware shooter that shaped a genre and now runs on anything with a processor.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "slug": "minecraft",
      "title": "Minecraft",
      "year": 2011,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: a block-placing sandbox that turned into a construction toy for a whole generation.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "slug": "stardew-valley",
      "title": "Stardew Valley",
      "year": 2016,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: a farming and small-town life sim written almost entirely by one person.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 9,
      "slug": "dark-souls",
      "title": "Dark Souls",
      "year": 2011,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: an interlocking world where the difficulty is the tutorial.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 10,
      "slug": "civilization-ii",
      "title": "Civilization II",
      "year": 1996,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: the turn-based strategy game responsible for a generation of one-more-turn nights.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 11,
      "slug": "among-us",
      "title": "Among Us",
      "year": 2018,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: a social deduction game that sat unnoticed for two years before finding an audience.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    },
    {
      "rank": 12,
      "slug": "e-t-the-extra-terrestrial",
      "title": "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial",
      "year": 1982,
      "line": "Placeholder line, replace me: the cartridge whose rushed production became the standard cautionary tale of its era.",
      "placeholder": true,
      "added": "2026-08-15"
    }
  ]
}