Collider ranks eight Naughty Dog games as essential, arguing that the studio’s evolution from platformers into cinematic, story-led games explains its lasting influence on PlayStation. The article presents the games as milestones that reveal the developer’s growing strengths in varied genres, character writing and ambitious design.

– Jak 3 (2004) is placed eighth for advancing the darker tone, gunplay and emotional storytelling of the Jak and Daxter series.
– Crash Team Racing (1999) is seventh, praised as a polished kart racer that demonstrated Naughty Dog’s versatility beyond platform games.