Naughty Dog is currently one of the most famous companies in the gaming sphere due to the smashing success of the Last Of Us and the Uncharted series. It's not, however, a new company. Naughty Dog has exist?ed 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?

F Tier Naughty Dog games

Naughty Dog doesn't make F Tier games.

? Tier Naughty Dog games

Math Jam (1985)

The sheer obscurity o?f 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 Jam was 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 what they want you to think. I honestly don't know becau??se I haven't play??ed 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 about Math Jam are 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 Ap??ple 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's Rings Of Power and Apple's The Rings Of Power is not being very good. It's an isometric RPG that drew a lot of inspiration from The Lord Of The Rings and Dungeons And Dragons, but whi??ch? 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 Power got mixed reviews even at the time of release, meaning it definitely doesn't hol??d 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 Power for the Genesis was so naughty it featured an Easter egg that saw Naughty Dog's logo replaced by a pixelated-but-uncens?ored to??pless model.

Ski Crazed (1986)

Ski Crazed was the duo's follow up to Math 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 X is 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 original Jak and Daxter was 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 as Crash Team Racing.

Way Of The Warrior (1994)

Way Of The Warrior looked 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 like Mortal 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 Warrior was 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 ke?ep 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, Keef was 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 Zone was 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 like LSD: Dream Emulator , Dream Zone feels 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 love Crash Bandicoot for introducing?? me to the world of 3d p??latformers. 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.

Jak 2 and Jak 3

Naughty Dog has been transparent on the effect the success of Rockstar's GTA 3 had in the game industry, and especially in the Jak games. Yes, Jak didn'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??.

Both Jak and Daxter sequels play great, but not without doing away wi??th large part of what made the original special.

The Last Of Us Part 2

TLOU Part 2 got 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 2 plays 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 cha??stising players for partaking in violence, all the while providing no alternative to violent behav??ior. You can pet the dog here, yes, but you'll also have to kill it.

You could make the case that TLOU II is evil by way of actual cruelty, even when ignoring the truly dangerous politics it harbors.

Divisive works might end up getting a deserved positive cultural reappraisal in the decades that follow, but I suspect TLOU Part 2 will only go further down as we grow to re?alize all there is to it.

A Tier Naughty Dog games

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011)

Uncharted 3 was 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 H?ollywood-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 resul??t, especially for such an otherwise so technically proficient studio.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007)

While most were hypnotized by the original Assassin's Creed, Naughty Dog launched what would become a much more interesting series down the line. Many accused the original Uncharted of being just Dude Raider, and yeah, the game definitely did feature way-too-many gunfights, but ??you could immediately s?ee something magical brewing.

The newly-released PS3 allowed for Uncharted to be the best-looking Indiana Jones-style game up until then, and the game's slick albeit way-too-easy climbing and platforming sections did a gr??eat job of making players feel like a Hollywood action hero like few games before or after.

Jak and Daxter

Jak and Daxter was the perfect spiritual successor to the Crash Bandicoot series. It i??ntroduced likable new character?s 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 what Super Mario 64 did for Nintendo, but it sadl??y came out at a time when our l??ove for platformers was dying out.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

While it doesn't change the formula, Crash Bandicoot 2 not only improves upon the original in every concei??vable way, it also introduces a bunch o??f new concepts that prevent things from going stale.

Crash Bandicoot 2 has so??me 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 Us is 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 in Metal 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 with The Last Of Us because 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 g?ameplay feels.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

If we allow ourselves to be blinded by its spectacle, Uncharted 4 is 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 where Uncharted 4 begins to falter.

The game had a rough start of development, which saw The 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 m?ake no sense for the game at hand and that even �accidentall??y 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 Legacy looks and plays just like Uncharted 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 Racing owes a lot to Mario 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 b??ar 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 the excellent remaster.

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Crash Bandicoot is the rare trilogy where every new entry improves upon the previous one. Whereas most sequels fall for the possible mistake of just going bigger, the Crash series just went weirder.

The game added a bunch more abilities for C??rash 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 say Uncharted 2 is 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 of The 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 l?ist, as it currently ??stands:

Wo?uld you have chosen differently? Post your version in the comments!

The post The Best N??aughty Dog Games Of All Time (Ultimate Tier List) appeared first on Destructoid.