Naughty Dog is currently one of the most famous companies in the gaming sphere due to the smashing success of theLast Of Usand theUnchartedseries. It’s not, however, a new company. Naughty Dog has existed since the ’80s, and it has been creating games as varied in genre as in quality.
Let’s look at the history of the company and categorize all of its games in a way that’s sure to please everyone on the Internet, shall we?
? Tier Naughty Dog games
Math Jam (1985)
The sheer obscurity of this title might give you the impression that I’m making it up, but I assure you it’s real and interesting in its own right.
Math Jamwas the very first game by Naughty Dog founders Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin. They released it before the company even got its awesome name! It was less of a game in the traditional sense, and more of a software intended to get kids interested in learning math. Or at least that’s whattheywant you to think. I honestly don’t know because I haven’t played it, and you likely haven’t either.
Since it was made back when the developers were only 14, the code ended up lost and the only thing that remains aboutMath Jamare pictures of its cool opening screen. If you happen to find a lost copy, make sure to try it out in any of the many readily available Apple II computers and get to the comments section to tell us all about it!
D Tier Naughty Dog games
Rings of Power (1992)
First things first, the only thing in comment Naughty Dog’sRings Of PowerandApple’s The Rings Of Poweris not being very good. It’s an isometric RPG that drew a lot of inspiration fromThe Lord Of The RingsandDungeons And Dragons, but which features its own lore and gameplay systems.
The story was decent, the music was great for its time, and the art was pretty good at times. Still, it was possibly too hard in comparison with the more fun RPGs of its time.Rings Of Powergot mixed reviews even at the time of release, meaning it definitely doesn’t hold up today.
Still, it remains a cool artifact of a time when Naughty Dog wasn’t afraid to try out different genres — as well as a display of Naughty Dog in its naughtiest form. Yes,Rings Of Powerfor the Genesis was so naughty it featured an Easter egg that saw Naughty Dog’s logoreplaced by a pixelated-but-uncensored topless model.
Ski Crazed (1986)
Ski Crazedwas the duo’s follow up toMath Jam. This time, they created a downhill 2d side scroller where you went skiing down a mountain while trying to avoid a bunch of obstacles. It’s not particularly fun, but it’s one hell of a lot better than anything I did when I was 16.
C Tier Naughty Dog games
JAK X: Combat Racing (2005)
Jak Xis a good game, but it suffers from two big problems. One, it loses too much of its original identity to become too narrowed-down. The thing that rocked about the originalJak and Daxterwas the amazing jump from Crash Bandicoot’s linear levels to an immersive 3d world. Making it a racing game severely hampered its aura. Two, It’s not as fun asCrash Team Racing.
Way Of The Warrior (1994)
Way Of The Warriorlooked gorgeous, quenched the thirst we all had for violent games in the ’90s, but it had a huge problem you’re likely to have guessed just by looking at the image above. Yes, it looked just a bit too much likeMortal Kombat, and, worse, it didn’t play as well. Lack of originality could kill a game in the eyes of gamers, especially at a time when games still had so many original paths to travel. Still,Way Of The Warriorwas one of the best things you could play on the 3DO.
Keef The Thief (1989)
Keef is an old-school first person RPG featuring some great music. I doubt anyone could keep up with its outdated gameplay nowadays, but the game features a really cool design choice that came up entirely by accident.
When publisher EA first looked at the game,Keefwas filled with sarcastic text meant as a placeholder for the real writing that would come up later. EA, however, found the writing so funny they had it stay like that. If any EA exec is reading this, know this is the energy we need from you.
Dream Zone (1988)
Dream Zonewas Naughty Dog’s first foray into the realm of classic RPGs. It was a visually extravagant, voyage that truly did the concept of dreaming justice, but it was not for everyone.
Much likeLSD: Dream Emulator,Dream Zonefeels more like a cool experiment than a game made for immense critical and commercial success, and that’s completely fine.
B Tier Naughty Dog games
Crash Bandicoot(1996)
I loveCrash Bandicootfor introducing me to the world of 3d platformers. It remains great fun — especially if you play the remastered version. Still, some segments proved too hard for the kids they were made for, and the game pales in comparison to its sequels.
Jak2andJak 3
Naughty Dog has been transparent on the effect the success of Rockstar’sGTA 3had in the game industry, and especially in theJakgames. Yes,Jakdidn’t go from a whimsical protagonist to a gun-slinging badass just because he grew up, but because he was chasing the tail of the biggest game in town.
BothJak and Daxtersequels play great, but not without doing away with large part of what made the original special.
The Last Of Us Part 2
TLOUPart 2got great reviews upon release, but also drew a lot of criticism from gamers. Some of it — like all the anti Abby discourse — is hogwash. Ironically — aside from all the money it made grifters — the torrent of hate did little more than drown the actual complaints to be had in a sea of dumb tweets.
TLOU Part 2plays great and looks amazing, so calling it a bad game would be dumb. Saying it’s a mean game, however, wouldn’t be too out of pocket. Whereas the original earned love for its narrative and characters,TLOU 2‘s narrative thrives in chastising players for partaking in violence, all the while providing no alternative to violent behavior. You can pet the dog here, yes, but you’ll also have to kill it.
You could make the case thatTLOU IIis evil by way of actual cruelty, even when ignoring thetruly dangerous politics it harbors.
Divisive works might end up getting a deserved positive cultural reappraisal in the decades that follow, but I suspectTLOU Part 2will only go further down as we grow to realize all there is to it.
A Tier Naughty Dog games
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (2011)
Uncharted 3was a step down from its predecessor, albeit an interesting one. It features the series’ biggest set pieces, but that’s both a positive and a negative. At the end of pretty much every segment, Nathan Drake would face off against an event perilous enough to kill a demigod, only to walk away miraculously unscathed.
We all loved seeing just how far the PS3 hardware would go in showing us Naughty Dog’s incredible Hollywood-level blockbuster vision, but many of these removed any semblance of a stake for the plot.
Also, a few gameplay elements, such as aiming and enemy AI, felt worse than they did in the previous entry. Baffling result, especially for such an otherwise so technically proficient studio.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007)
While most were hypnotized by the originalAssassin’s Creed, Naughty Dog launched what would become a much more interesting series down the line. Many accused the originalUnchartedof being justDude Raider, and yeah, the game definitely did feature way-too-many gunfights, but you could immediately see something magical brewing.
The newly-released PS3 allowed forUnchartedto be the best-lookingIndiana Jones-style game up until then, and the game’s slick albeit way-too-easy climbing and platforming sections did a great job of making players feel like a Hollywood action hero like few games before or after.
Jak and Daxter
Jak and Daxterwas the perfect spiritual successor to theCrash Bandicootseries. It introduced likable new characters in a fresh new setting, and expanded upon the platforming action we all loved by making it open world. Jak and Daxter was a bunch of fun,
This one could have done for the PlayStation whatSuper Mario 64did for Nintendo, but it sadly came out at a time when our love for platformers was dying out.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
While it doesn’t change the formula,Crash Bandicoot 2not only improves upon the original in every conceivable way, it also introduces a bunch of new concepts that prevent things from going stale.
Crash Bandicoot2has some of the most memorable levels and bosses in the series, and many argue it’s actually the highest point in the series.
The Last Of Us
Time to address the other elephant in the room.The Last Of Usis a good game, not a fantastic one.
Even upon release, the stealth segments — which amounted for a large part of the game — felt inferior to a lot of what we’d previously seen inMetal Gear Solid.The AI, enemy and friendly alike, was never all that great, either. Even the shooting segments, which Naughty Dog had previously nailed so well, now felt unnecessarily cumbersome. I get that you’re trying to make us embody a survivor in a desolate land and not a Hollywood hero, but the game still needs to be fun. And you want to know the least fun of all? Spending such a large portion of the game grabbing and carrying ladders around just so Ellie can go from one side of the map to another.
Gaming fans fell in love withThe Last Of Usbecause of its heartwarming, sometimes heart-wrenching, narrative. While I completely get why people love it, and use that love to carry the ranking it’s getting, I can’t deny how lackluster its gameplay feels.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
If we allow ourselves to be blinded by its spectacle,Uncharted 4is easily the best game in the series. The gameplay has never been this rich and polished, and the levels have never looked so good. Still, one of the defining elements of the best Naughty Dog games is the balance between gameplay and heart, and that’s whereUncharted 4begins to falter.
The game had a rough start of development, which sawThe Last Of Us‘ Neil Druckmann replacing series’ creator Amy Henning at the helm. Though the game’s plot isn’t bad, it’s filled with bonkers retcons that make no sense for the game at hand and that even — accidentally or not — try to take value away from the previous games in the series.
S Tier Naughty Dog games
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
The Lost Legacylooks and plays just likeUncharted 4, but is an even better game in many ways. It does away with the beautiful-but-linear set pieces of the bigger game, but replaces them with magnificent open-world environments that I’d really love to see featured in a possible next game in the series.
Crash Team Racing
If you want to turn your platformer into a racing game, this is how you go about it. Sure,Crash Team Racingowes a lot toMario Kart, but this is arguably the most fun you could have with three other friends on the original PlayStation, and that’s a very hard bar to clear.
This is Naughty Dog at its most fun, meaning it came from a time when the studio was in a place diametrically opposed to where it is now. While you need an original PlayStation to play Naughty Dog’s iteration of the game, you can have one hell of a lot of fun playing theexcellent remaster.
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
Crash Bandicootis the rare trilogy where every new entry improves upon the previous one. Whereas most sequels fall for the possible mistake of just going bigger, theCrashseries just wentweirder.
The game added a bunch more abilities for Crash to use, a way more varied selection of levels, and did all that without ever messing with the game’s beloved scope.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
With the gift of hindsight, I can wisely sayUncharted 2is the crowning achievement of Naughty Dog. A sequel that goes bigger while avoiding unnecessary bloat — and also solves all the problems of the original game.
While it doesn’t feature the visual flair ofThe Last Of Us Part II, it still looks, and more than makes up for the (only barely) graphics by way of heart and fun gameplay.
And, because everyone loves these things, here’s the tier list, as it currently stands:
Would you have chosen differently? Post your version in the comments!
