9 Video Games That Almost Took GTA's Crown

1. Saint€™s Row

When it debuted for the launching Xbox 360 in 2006, Saints Row was instantly labeled as €œnothing but GTA-lite.€ Sure, the character creation section, where you could model your protagonist in any way, was different than the pre-selected characters of Rockstar but that was the only unique thing. It was much the same: playing a gang member in a dirty city, doing various missions, some wild stuff and the crazy cool of Johnny Gat but it still seemed nothing but filler until GTA IV was released. But then the second game was released in 2008 and instantly elevated the franchise nicely. This time, you could remake your character as male or female, even down to their voice, giving instant replay value. The city was larger and had more unique touches, the plot of taking on four different gangs at once was well done and the side-missions were truly fun. What other game basically makes you indestructible to get hit by cars in traffic in order to earn more money via €œInsurance fraud?€ Or using a septic tank to douse buildings to affect real estate? Indeed, while GTA IV was seen as rather serious at times, Saint's Row appeared to revive the wild, anything goes spirit of that franchise. It got wilder with the third game that inserted brilliant parody of product placement, fame, the entire video game genre and more. The missions were strictly insane from a fight on top of falling globe to being naked and coked up brawling in a brothel to using military jets in bombing raids. The story may have been short but the sheer amount of carnage you could enjoy made the game a blast. It climaxed with the fourth game, putting you inside a Matrix-like world where you could use actual super-powers to battle aliens and even watch Keith David and Roddy Piper reenact their brawl from They Live. That sheer wildness may be the reason Row has never totally supplanted GTA at the top despite its huge fanbase. The games can be too wild for some and far looser in character and play so gamers would prefer the more streamlined world GTA offers. But Row still offers a better challenge to GTA than the rest of this list by going so over the top you can't help but love it. Which sandbox and open world games do you think could have toppled GTA's crown as the greatest? Share your own picks below in the comments thread.