Space Week Face-Off: Which Game Set in the Stars Above Is the Best?

It may be hard to believe, but Starfield has finally arrived (in early access!). While we are just as excited as you to fly off into the great beyond and make a name for ourselves among the stars, we also think it’s the perfect time to look back at the history of games set in space to decide which game is the best. However, we can’t do this alone and we’re going to need your help.

Do you think Mass Effect 2 deserves the top spot? Or does Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or EVE Online take number one? We’ve selected 93 of the best games where space is integral to the game to “Face-Off” against each other two at a time. The choice is yours…

Oh, and we’ve decided to include Starfield in this Face-Off as we know many of you have already started playing this space epic. If you have yet to start your journey in Bethesda’s latest RPG, feel free to hit “skip” at the bottom of the page! You can also do that for any game you aren’t familiar with!

Click here to start voting in the best space game Face-Off!

What Is a Face-Off?

Like the name suggests, a Face-Off pits two things against one another and you decide which one is the superior of the two. In this case, you are voting to determine what the best game set in space is. It’s possible to see certain games multiple times, so you can keep voting for your favorites to ensure they get ranked higher than the rest. IGN’s resident team of space experts pre-selected 93 games for you to choose from. These get randomly paired up and each time you pick a winner, it’s tracked.

How Is the Winner Determined?

When voting ends on September 8 at 5 pm P.T. where we’ll tally up the total number of “wins” and “losses” each space video game has and create a ranked list based on your choices that will go live on September 9. The game that won the most matchups will be crowned the “winner,” and in the event of a tied number of “wins,” the game with the least “losses” will take the top spot. If you continue to keep voting for your favorite game, they’ll have a better chance of ranking high on the list. You can vote as many times as you want until the Face-Off closes.

How Do I Know When I’ve Clicked Through Everything?

It’s difficult to know when you’ve seen every space video game included because they are matched randomly, and there are many possible match-ups. Playing until you vote for all your favorites or ensuring that certain games don’t get in the winner’s circle are different options you can take with a Face-Off. By deciding the winner throughout all these match-ups, you’re ensuring that your picks for the best space video game will have a fighting chance to reach the top of the list.

Which Space Video Games Have You Included?

The list of space video games has been decided by IGN staff, and we’ve tried to include only those games where space is integral to the game and not just a backdrop. So this means games that we love like Super Metroid or Dead Space don’t quite make the list as they aren’t as much about traveling between planets and experiencing the great beyond. After much discussion, we settled on 93 games, but we’d love to hear if we missed one of your favorites! Let us know in the comments below!

Click here to start voting in the best space game Face-Off!

For more, check out all the details on Space Week @ IGN and our look at why there aren’t more space RPGs like Starfield.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.