You guys are pretty spot on, no surprise there. For reference, here are the "Best 50 Games" from my Classics guide. 1976 has the most for EMs; 1980 is first, 1981 second for SS. Note that I don't use art or sound as factors in my ratings for that guide since it's geared towards competitive play; I just use "Fun-ness" and "Skill-ness." A lot of these games score well in both those areas as well, though. Your personal favorites may differ; that's fine, I'm not here to debate selections. Mine are based on my opinions after tens of thousands of tournament games on these (and some of my favorites have changed over the years).

Electro-Mechanical Games
1968 Royal Guard
1969 Target Pool – best stand-up target game
1970 Doodle Bug – best no-cradling game
1972 Fireball – best zipper flipper game
1973 High Hand
1973 Jack in the Box
1973 Time Zone
1974 Sky Jump – best mix of lanes and targets
1975 Abra Ca Dabra
1975 El Dorado – best for dead bounce and long precise shot training
1976 Flip Flop – most interesting playfield layout
1976 Grand Prix – best spinner game
1976 Surf Champ
1976 Volley
1977 Centigrade 37
1977 Jacks Open
1977 Jungle Queen – best use of two-tier flippers
Solid State Games
1978 Sinbad – best double flipper, plus bonus multiplier / drop target rules
1978 Joker Poker – best drop target game
1978 Stars – best use of Special
1979 Flash
1979 Harlem Globetrotters – best in-line target game
1979 Magic
1979 Meteor – best drop-target-plus-spinner game
1979 Paragon – #2 widebody, #2 in-line target game
1980 Ali
1980 Alien Poker
1980 Black Knight – best use of two playfield levels
1980 Blackout
1980 Firepower
1980 Frontier – best use of collect bonus
1980 HotDoggin’ – best widebody
1980 Mystic
1980 Nine Ball
1980 Sea Witch
1980 Skateball – best blend of ball control and strategy
1980 Star Gazer
1980 Viking
1981 Barracora – most interesting multiball rules
1981 Centaur – best multiball game
1981 Eight Ball Deluxe
1981 Fathom
1981 Flash Gordon – best variety of progressive scoring
1981 Medusa
1981 Pharaoh
1982 Warlok – best blend of target / orbit / collect bonus shots
1983 Time Fantasy – best use of time as a score element
1984 Alien Star – best “no lead is safe” game
1984 Laser Cue – best blend of shot variety and precision
1985 Andromeda