Lurker > Johnbobb

Bonus Writeup: Horace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhp2PpNS9i8

Just beat this one today. Horace I have kind of mixed feelings about. I mostly really liked it. It's not the most visually impressive game, the music (while well made) got kind of grating after awhile, and it has the Super Meat Boy-type of absurdly difficult platforming, only with chapters and sometimes even an open world. It also added in gravity mechanic, where your gravity is always facing the direction you're in, so you can walk on the walls and ceilings, and often have to use this to navigate otherwise impassable platforms. Except, sometimes you can't? And there's a lot of little quality of life changes it could use. Things like the fact that whenever you die, you respawn directly in front of the last door you entered through, but it's directly in front of it, and the game often takes your first movement immediately as going through the door, and then you have to go back through the door again to get back to the room you were in, and this happens A LOT. The gameplay has so many wild change ups though, occasionally becoming a rhythm game for a couple minutes, and having a lot of old-school NES-type sections, and so on. But what really redeems the game for me (and what ultimately kept me playing even when the gameplay was irritating) was the story, which is bonkers. It's told from the perspective of a robot with a child-like mindset as he experiences being created, forming a family, going to space, travelling through time, experiencing the apocalypse, playing video games, and so on. There's so much happening and it's a pretty wholly unique narrative experience, so it's kind of a shame when it randomly is just like "yeah step over into this room full of lasers and sawblades for a while"

I think I'm gonna drop this one for now just under Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, so #85.

62. Concrete Genie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoIf3HNI-DQ

Looking back at some of this list, I feel like I ranked Concrete Genie a little too high, but I did really enjoy it. It follows a young, lonely artist kid whose grafitti creatures come to life, which leads to some very cool mechanics as you lead the creatures along the walls. It's very wholesome, the creatures are precious, and I really dig how the neon art shows up visually in the mundane, dreary world.

61. Octodad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoSYDWX2Ig

Octodad is a tough one to rank, because while mechanically it's a little rough at times, conceptually I fell in love with it right away. Octodad is about as indie as an indie game comes, just being made by a few college students that didn't even have a developer name to throw on it. It has the loose, intentionally difficult controls of games like Surgeon Simulator and Grow Home and applied them to a genuinely genius idea: a man trying to do very simple tasks for his family around his suburban home, but that man is actually an octopus in disguise. It's genuinely endearing and funny in a way many games in this specific sub-subgenre don't manage to pull off.

And that completes this tier, leaving just 4 tiers left.

skullbone posted...

There's a throwaway line toward the end of the film where one of the Shield guys says all of the affected planets have stabilized

oh

that's very unsatisfying

So I saw The Marvels earlier this week

In general, I liked it a lot, with the big exception being that whatsername is the most forgettable and generic antagonist we've gotten since like... Thor The Dark World? Like I honestly do not comprehend how Marvel does so badly at crafting villains outside of a select few exceptions. She had exactly one emotion the entire film and then ended with her only motivation being power (Captain Marvel just like letting her get back up and trusting her to cooperate was cringy too, like this woman just did a whole ass genocide, possibly two since we never followed up on the musical planet, and you're like cool with it?)

Aside from that though, I really enjoyed it. Kamala absolutely carried the whole movie, and I saw it with a friend who had never watched Ms. Marvel and was just startled by how energetic and fun she is. I agree that the tone was inconsistent, but I think a lot of that falls on how poorly they handled the Kree in general.

Ocean musical planet is a blast, so much fun, so cool, very funny seeing Carol have to go into a whole number while also needing to take the situation seriously (which was actually a benefit of the inconsistent tone). My only complaint here is that I wish 1. it lasted a little longer and 2. they followed up on it. Like they abandoned the planet after bringing the Kree forces there, the same ones that wiped out the entire Skrull planet. Did those people survive? It said the planet was 99% water so it's not like they had unlimited resources to fight with there. Carol was rightfully mad about them just ditching the planet, and then it never followed up on what happened.

Captain Marvel herself is great, and honestly a joy to watch most of the time. Like she walks a fine line between being serious and silly, like you see her demeanor change immediately when she's told she needs to herd all the kittens and it's hard not to like her/

Action was pretty solid throughout and the accidental teleporting mechanic was fun.

Post credits scenes were both very exciting, mostly because I actually avoided spoilers! Seeing Kate was already great, but then Kelsey Grammer returning as Beast had me thrilled (I'm still of the opinion the X-Verse > MCU). Kinda feels lazy that it's just like... the X-Men are part of a different universe, but I think we all knew that was coming.

64. Broken Age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjJAMM1MyTA

Another Tim Schafer game! It kind of felt like Broken Age was going to be the game that put Double Fine back into the spotlight for the first time since Brutal Legend (which, as I think I mentioned in the Psychonauts write-up, I left off the list since it was basically the only Double Fine game I'd call a AAA game). Broken Age was a massive Kickstarter success, but then I felt like nobody really talked about it after it came out. Did it have the Kentucky Route Zero effect, where releasing as multiple acts over a year apart made people lose interest? It had Elijah Wood! The game follows two stories only connected but similar themes of teenage rebellion; one is an old, ritualistic fantasy village, and the other takes place on a futuristic AI-controlled spaceship. Then Act 1 ends on a big cliffhanger where it turns out these weren't the past/future, they were both happening simultaneously, the big monster the village was sacrificing to was, in fact, the spaceship kidnapping people for DNA experimentation, and at the end of the act the player characters accidentally swap places. Definitely one of my favorite point-and-click adventures.

63. Hotline Miami
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg5s5Dq50Rg

Hotline Miami is an extremely addicting gameplay loop of violently killing entire rooms of enemies (usually in one hit) and dying just as easily. It's not a time loop game, but it might as well be, as that's largely what it feels like, as every death gives you the chance to memorize more of the map and how to kill enemies before they get the drop on you. It's super fun, and gets very difficult as it goes along -- difficult enough that I may have ended up dropping it if the weirdly psychadelic mystery story behind it all didn't keep me so hooked. It's extremely 80s to the point of parody in a Far Cry Blood Dragon kind of a way (which, while I've loved it in serveral games/shows/etc. in the past, I think the 80s-style nostalgia parodies have gotten a little played out now, in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty three).

I've been terrible about updating the last few days but, ya know, holidays

66. Superhot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrS86l_CtAY

SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT

What if all the characters from Tacoma were actually attacking you? The game is basically just a single mechanic pushed to its limits, but like, it's a really cool mechanic.

65. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj3dUvGLjNQ

Look, Fall Guys has a cringy social media presence and a fanbase not unlike that of games like Roblox and Fortnite. And as a general rule of thumb, I don't care for battle royale games. The idea of a multiplayer game where the whole idea is that people getting excluded from playing feels kind of counterproductive, especially if you're trying to play with friends (and why the fuck don't games that are strictly designed to be multiplayer have splitscreen anymore?!?!?). Especially when you get eliminated early on and then have to play the early levels over and over before inevitably getting to the end and then losing to someone that has like every premium customization unlocked. Anyway, despite all of that, the game still manages to be extremely fun and addicting. It's basically if they turned the game show Wipeout into a video game (fun fact: they did, but it's just a lesser version of Fall Guys). I don't really play it anymore, but I pretty much always keep it installed just in case I want to boot up a few runs and rage when I inevitably get eliminated.

Root Bear looks fun for like 20 minutes tops

Nightingale looks very compelling, definitely has Creepypasta vibes

$9 is way too much for like any game on this system I feel like

Pullfrog is cute at least? I feel like half of these games are just based on a pun

Like from your list:

Amadeus
Bohemian Rhapsody
Elvis
La Bamba
Ray
Rocketman
The Pianist
Tick, Tick... Boom! (arguably)
Walk the Line
Weird
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody

There's also:

8 Mile (arguably)
Behind the Candelabra
Bird
Blaze
Bound for Glory
Coal Miners Daughter
Control
Get On Up
Hendrix
I'm Not There
Jimi: All Is By My Side
La Vie en Rose
Love & Mercy
Notorious
Respect
Selena
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Sid and Nancy
Straight Outta Compton
The Buddy Holly Story
The Dirt
The Doors
The Jacksons: An American Dream
The Runaways
The Sound of Music (arguably)
Whats Love Got to Do With It

and probably a lot more

I think there also might be a little overlap with the War list that's planned upcoming but I'm not sure what's on that offhand

Underleveled posted...

Has Biopics ever been suggested for a project? Here's a long-list I very quickly came up with and I'm sure there are many more notable ones that could be thrown out. Definitely seems like a topic that could warrant at least two lists. (some of these were probably done on other lists before... I left off ones I knew for sure were like Goodfellas and Remember the Titans)

12 Years a Slave
127 Hours
Air
Ali
Amadeus
The Aviator
A Beautiful Mind
Blonde
Bohemian Rhapsody
Braveheart
Capote
Catch Me if You Can
Ed Wood
Elvis
Erin Brockovich
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
Gandhi
Green Book
Hacksaw Ridge
Invictus
JFK
Julie & Julia
La Bamba
Lawrence of Arabia
Lincoln
Malcolm X
Man on the Moon
Milk
Moneyball
The Motorcycle Diaries
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Patch Adams
The Pianist
Raging Bull
Ray
Rocketman
Schindler's List
The Social Network
Soul Surfer
Spartacus
Stand and Deliver
Steve Jobs
Tick, Tick... Boom!
W.
Walk the Line
Weird
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody
The Wolf of Wall Street

Biopics has been discussed but never made into a proper list.

I think that it could maybe be broken down though? Like we could easily do a list of just musician biopics and still have extras left over

67. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHohBVfhGDU

Another from Josef Fares! His first game and one that pretty much instantly put him on the map. It's also his only game that wasn't strictly co-op, allowing you to play the two brothers with one controller or two. It showed glimpses of what would later become key aspects of his game style: two characters with distinct gameplay differences relying on each other to progress, with a strong story and little bits of characterization in the most inane places. I don't remember if Brothers made me cry but if not it got very, very close.

71. Ultimate Chicken Horse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYaE_xw4krw

This is a fantastic party game to play with friends unless you have a dickhead friend who likes to score one point and then blow up all the platforms and create impassable walls to stop anyone else from scoring. It's designed to be mostly limitlessly replayable, with the randomness really lending to the fun. Each match will usually play out differently depending on what obstacles/platforms/etc. it gives you to choose from. What sells the game for me is how obstacles interact with each other. Glue a baseball gun to a rotating platform and suddenly you have 360 degrees of baseballs flying across the map. Aim a crossbow just beside a black hole and you get a huge, warping orbit of arrows.

70. The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wo3TmI1VwE

My feelings on The Missing are a little hard to explain. As a horror game, I'm fascinated by it, as it's a puzzle platformer that requires you to kill yourself in repeated grisly ways, lighting yourself on fire or breaking your neck to solve various challenges. However, massive spoilers: as an inherently queer game, that does present some issues, as this dives into some dark, dark themes regarding its secretly transgender protagonist (which isn't exactly a big shock if you pay attention to the game's snippets of backstory via texts). Playing a game about a trans woman killing herself is... tough to stomach at times, but it also tackles queer struggles in a way most games never attempt, and definitely never in this way. If nothing else it is distinctly, painfully memorable.

69. Gris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRiKQIVo7ao

Oh hey, another beautifully-designed 2D puzzle-platformer used as a metaphor for heavy emotional subjects. Gris is a gorgeous game and one that really tugs at your heart as you're literally platforming through manifestations of the five stages of grief. The art style and soundtrack are the exact type of thing that draws people like me toward indie games, and basically any frame of this game feels like it belongs in a gallery.

68. Little Nightmares II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI9zBBTyX-E

Snake5555555555 posted...

LN2 is honestly one of the most insanely good horror games in recent memory, improvement on the original in every way.

This basically sums it up. Little Nightmares II is a massive step up from the first game, to the point where I'd honestly say if you weren't a fan of the first, it still might be worth trying out the second. The enemies here are more varied and uniquely interesting, the gameplay is more complex and the story is much more than the "escape the monsters while learning vague lore" of the first. I don't want to get into much because spoilers, but the twists this one takes really shook me.

72. OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aTwDkhDCRQ

OlliOlli World is a great time, but OlliOlli2, which I never would have played had it not been a random free PS+ game at a time I was bored. OlliOlli2 had me instantly hooked. While it doesn't have the glamour and flash of its threequel, OlliOlli2 feels faster and is so goddamn hard to drop. I think what sells OlliOlli for me compared to other endless runner types is the fact that a single button press can instantly reset the level, without even a second of loading, so failures, no matter how many, never make you want to give up. I also absolutely love the environments here, possibly even moreso than the much more characterized OOW.

75. Chicory: A Colorful Tale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJmNCphD_aU

Just a cute little game where you're a silly little dog putting some silly little colors into the world and nothing deeper than that. How fun!

74. Stray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJawWyRUOBM

Stray took the gaming world, and even some of the non-gaming world, by storm last year. I think TikTok might to partially to blame, as a game where you play as a cat with a dedicated meow button and the most realistic cat-movement animations in probably any game to date is exactly the kind of thing to appeal as a cutesy viral sensation. It was effective enough auto-marketing that Stray got nominated for Game of the Year. As much as I did really enjoy Stray, I do think that might have been a little strong, as Stray never really attempts to alter the industry or even the genre. All that's to say Stray still fuckin rocks and is a pleasure to play.

73. Unpacking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BG98e_w6d0

speaking of cats:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cZ3WGxiXthM
he's my old roommate's cat and I miss this precious little deaf guy

So not sure if anyone would be interested, but the top 2 tiers of the ranking have a total of 25 games. My thought process is, once we hit 25, I could welcome people to try and guess the top 10. I don't have any specific reward in mind for the winner, but could be fun?

Anyway, more rankings incoming

GavsEvans123 posted...

Then again, they did come up rather quickly, so either the NetherRealm works really fast, or theres a Spirit Halloween down there.

That would be a fantastic FRIENDSHIP for Scorpion

79. Moving Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_IuHhgUlt4

Moving Out is a game you probably won't get much out of playing solo but it's one that will either make your night or drive you insane playing couch co-op. It almost feels like a Mario Party minigame fleshed out into its own full game, where your goal is simply to take all the boxes and furniture from a house and load it into a moving van. Simple in theory, chaos when put into action as all of your well-intentioned plans fall apart. Good way to convince your friends not to ask you for help when they move.

78. Cuphead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN-9SQXoi50

Like some of the puzzle games on this list, Cuphead is a game I liked everything about except it's difficulty. The style is charming, the art and soundtrack and boss design are all excellent across the board. But the game is so brutally difficult and for what. I think Cuphead is perhaps the number 1 justification for modern games bringing back cheat codes. I played Cuphead until I just absolutely could not progress any further, or at least wasn't having fun trying anymore. But because I liked the game as much as I did, I really wanted to see it through to the end, so I committed one of the greatest sins of gaming and installed a cheat engine, using it to give myself just enough extra health that I could actually progress through the game. Complain about the "true experience" all you want; if my options are playing a slightly easier version of the game and not playing it at all, I'm always going to go with the former.

77. Wattam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbW0MJxOu_Y

"From the creator of Katamari Damacy" was all I needed to be sold on Wattam. It's a bunch of inanimate objects with faces on them interacting in silly ways to unlock more inanimate objects, with the goal of, uh, I think unlocking all the inanimate object people? But that's like barely the goal, the real goal is just to fuck around and be silly. There are very few games that take themselves less seriously than this.

76. NORCO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKtesX4KTxo

NORCO does take itself seriously and is a fucking downer. Except for the time when you pet a dog too much and it explodes off into the air like a rocketship. But then the dog never comes back and people are legitimately mad at you for it. There's like cult conspiracies and sci-fi tech and people fucking die, but sometimes in a haha goofy way but sometimes in a grounded, depressingly realistic way. Trying to explain the tone of this game in a way that makes sense isn't easy to do, but it does have a very interesting web of mystery with some of the most deeply upsetting endings I've seen in indie gaming.

Bonus ranking: Lost In Random
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diilMn5gSAg

I remember having this in my wishlist for a long time, and ultimately I don't remember if I ended up buying it on sale or getting it free on PS+. I went into it with high expectations, as I love the art style and themes of the game. The whole thing has a very Tim Burton/Henry Selick feel that I absolutely adore, with an interestingly crafted world where the people are all sorts of monsters mishmashes and all the towns are grouped by numbers, with the queen rolling a 6-sided die on your 12th birthday to determine where you spend your life. The lore of it all really drew me in, but now, about 1/3 of the way into the game (I'm estimating, I've seen it counted as about 15 hours long and I'm about 5 in) I think I need to drop it. As cool as the world is, the combat system is painfully boring and repetitive. It seems cool in theory, being card-based, and you roll a die to see how many cards you can play, but to roll the die you need to collect little energy bits by shooting at enemies (which doesn't damage them), and you end up in this rinse and repeat cycle over and over of running around collecting energy, using it to do a little damage, and then doing that on and on against waves of the same generic enemies, with most of the cards not really doing much that's actually interesting or game-changing. It's not difficult, but man is it a drag, which is a shame because the rest of the game seems very cool. Just not cool enough to justify a base gameplay system I'm not enjoying.

For the moment, I think I'll have to drop this one just below Kentucky Route Zero at 166th, though that might change slightly.

First I'm learning about it too

I feel like this has been coming out about a lot of indie devs lately, like anytime something cool comes out, it turns out the person who made it is just kinda of awful

West of Loathing is not one I expected to make many lists

The "These Are Really Getting to Be Something Special" Tier

81. Untitled Goose Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LL2AtHo1gk

I feel like we're starting to see more of these in recent years; short, small indie games that get absolutely massive among both dedicated and casual gaming communities for having something that is basically self-marketable, whether it's a realistic cat strolling through a future city or a comically cruel goose with a dedicated honk button and a memeable desire to steal. Does UGG live up to the hype? Basically! It delivers exactly what it promises.

80. Subnautica

I have two friends who would likely put this in their top 5 games of all time, and I get it. If you've ever had the desire to explore the sea, Subnautica is basically a must-play, and if you're scared of the sea, Subnautica will make you feel extremely justified in that fear. The main thing that holds the game back for me is the need to constantly return to base, go back out, with more gear and newly discovered goals each time... holy shit is Subnautica a roguelike? No, not quite, because Subnautica isn't fucking randomized every time you go back out, although it might feel like it if you're as bad at navigating as I am.

Robazoid posted...

Minecraft is one of the greatest games ever

the fact that an indie game is also the best-selling game of all-time is pretty wild

83. West of Loathing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG1QcGO_nTc

I know I said Roundabout is possibly the stupidest game on this list, but West of Loathing definitely takes a shot at it. It's an RPG, technically, drawn in the simplest possible 2D stick figure style, and absolutely seems like it's making shit up as it goes along. It'sa western in its absolutely most basic structure, but it sticks to its genre about as much as Castle Crashers sticks to being about medieval knights. The sense of humor is absolutely the draw here, with one of my favorite running gags being that the tavern in every new town you go to and every time you can try to search the nasty old spittoon, and each time the game criticizes you for it in new ways.

82. Tabletop Simulator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKZVGZEuCHo

This is probably the hardest game on this list to rank, because it's specifically not a game in the traditional sense, but quite literally a simulator of tabletop games. But I have played it more than I've probably played most games on Steam, and have had a lot of fun doing so. I can't really justify placing it higher compared to games that are, in themselves, games, but I also really like it.

and that will complete this tier!

85. Minecraft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmB9b5njVbA

yeah

84. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgcYbc9ZCtQ

Fun fact, and possibly a spoiler for the list, but I've never actually played Yooka-Laylee! From what I've heard, it's not great, and I wasn't all that interested in it anyway because I've never actually played Banjo-Kazooie either. I didn't go into YLatIL expecting much, but I had heard good things from people whose opinions I trust, so I ended up checking it out. And I was not expecting something this good. A lot of indie platformers do the thing where you play a level, and then there's like a slightly harder version of that same level (SMB and Celeste both come to mind) but I don't think I've ever seen a game do it like this, where when navigating the overworld map, the things you change will affect the levels in interesting and constantly new ways. Change the flow of water so that it goes into the doorway to the level, suddenly that whole level is flooded. Flip the doorway over, and the level will be upside down. It is so undeniably cool and gives so much reason to go back and play the levels again.

88. A Way Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGZGSdgJVPM

Josef Fares games always have a very specific focus on co-op, and A Way Out is one of the best examples of that, following two prisoners who have to rely on each other to escape. It's plays out sort of like a typical road trip movie, with two characters that initially dislike each other but are forced together due to a shared need, and eventually learn each others' stories and begin to bond. It flew a little under the radar, and while I definitely think it deserves more attention, I get why it's overlooked. It's kind of like Heavy Rain with forced multiplayer, which isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I loved playing it (even though I'm not really close with the person I played it with at the time anymore, but that's how it goes).

87. Guacamelee!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hGPyHacsG0

I'd never been a big metroidvania fan, and Guacamelee! is the game that slowly started to change that. Juan is a great protagonist, the skills you gain shake up the gameplay considerably in a way that is frequently exciting, and the color and style feel like they inspired a lot of indie games to come after. The only thing holding it back is that ultimately the characters and story aren't quite as memorable as similar games that placed a little bit higher.

86. Roundabout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpfBnMmpQsE

This may be the stupidest game on this entire list and it's one I never would have discovered had it not been free on PS+ one month when I didn't really have anything else to play. The game is essentially Crazy Taxi, only instead of driving a taxi, you're driving a limo, and the limo is always spinning. As in, it is impossible not to spin constantly, and you have to make your way between destinations and around obstacles by timing the spins around their curves to try and avoid crashing into things. All of the story and character interactions are told through live-action video clips of recurring characters, including your protagonist, Georgio Manos, who might be one of the all-time greatest silent protagonist. Seriously, having a silent protagonist in live-action is hilariously dumb, and the dry, absurdist humor of this game just precisely scratches an itch for me. Just thinking about this game makes me chuckle.

Bonus Ranking: Twelve Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uob80LBVgzA

Played this one during the course of posting this ranking, so it gets ranked retrospectively. I really dug the first, like, half of Twelve Minutes. Time Loops aren't like new, and not even really new in games specifically, but I still dig time loop stories, and the most fun section of this game is in trying to figure out all the different things you can do in your small, enclosed space. The only problem with this is that ultimately there are a finite amount of things you can do, and around halfway through I started to hit a wall where I couldn't move the story forward anymore without doing a very specific thing, which led to a lot of repetitive trying the same thing but very slightly different until I figured out that one thing. And then the story goes from interesting to... weird. And not weird in a great way. But I still really dug the voice work and the time loop mechanics as a whole.

I'm already past where I would've ranked this so I'll drop it at uhhhh... just below Telling Lies feels right, so I'll call this 109

90. OlliOlli World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OrHNwx6Yik

The OlliOlli games are basically the Runner games mixed with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Part of what I think makes these stand out a good bit above traditional endless runners is the added challenge of trying to do everything as a single combo. In a normal endless runner, a combo is built up by avoiding obstacles without crashing, but in OlliOlli World, you have to do the same thing, but with the extra goal of adding in tricks and connecting them through manuals. Add onto that the extra flavor of a skate crew (the best of which is Dad, who isn't anyone's dad, just a random wholesome middle-aged skateboarder amongst the teens and twenty-somethings) and skate gods.

89. Ghostrunner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b70uw0XxeLg

Ghostrunner isn't as good as I hoped it would be, if only because I went into it with very high expectations. Ghostrunner doesn't always work out the way I hope it will, but when it does, maaaan does it feel good. Feeling fast and strong like an insane cybernetic ninja is a very fun experience, but trying to be a cybernetic ninja and then getting one-shot by some random goon as you flop around because something didn't work right isn't, like, the best. In hindsight, I think I ranked this one too high, but I did overall enjoy it a decent bit.

93. Cult of the Lamb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsPtUNB1z-Q

That thing I said about not being a big fan of roguelike dungeon crawlers? That still applies here! But fortunately that kinda feels like a secondary aspect of this game, with the big draw being taking the role of an immortal sheep antichrist trying to raise a cult of cutesy animals while trying to slaughter the old gods. It's like the very specific sense of dark humor that made all the Animal Crossing x Doom memes so popular. You gather followers, sometimes marry them, sometimes sacrifice them in your own name, it's a very good time.

92. Little Nightmares
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOadxZBsPiA

You've gotta love an accurate game title, because in Little Nightmares, you are very little and it is very much a nightmare. Seriously, this game manages to be creepy in every way imaginable. Creepy porcelain face lady, grotesque giant beings with body-horror distorted limbs. I'm a little iffy with survival horror games in general but I was really drawn in by just how creepy this is the whole way through.

91. Rocket League
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgSX3gOrj60

Cars playing soccer is the stupidest idea for a game and it is frankly insane that it works this well. And that was before this game started partnering with every brand imaginable. We live in a timeline where Rocket League x lofi hip hop beats to relax/study to is an actual thing that exists and that's truly a blessing.

having just read the book for the first time like last year, that feels extremely accurate to the book

what the hell is that godawful Riptide cover though

Please give me the easy shit

-Girlfriend

specifically in the context of the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Movie you finished? Theater Camp
TV/web series you finished? Doom Patrol
Novel/book you finished? Lore by Alexandra Bracken
Live theater show you watched? Welcome to Night Vale Live
Video game you finished? Resident Evil 2 Remake

Professor

96. Super Meat Boy
https://youtube.com/watch?v=snaionoxjos

It's honestly a little ridiculous that such a silly premise managed to be as successful as it was, but Super Meat Boy would serve as a source of inspiration for an entire generation of indie platformers that would come after. It's kind of gross and super difficult, and every time you think you've hit the hardest challenges it has to offer, it brings you an alternate extra hard level to take on. There's so much content here, but one of the best aspects is the end of levels, where it replays all the death simultaneously (and there are inevitably going to be a lot of deaths). I think I actually had more patience for this level of difficulty in platforming around the time Meat Boy came out. Now I'm old and slow.

95. Bound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE37l6

I was pretty disappointed this one flew as under the radar as it did, because it had all the makings to be one of the greats. Maybe the idea of "ballet-based platforming" doesn't appeal to everyone, but this game is gorgeous and a lot of fun to play. It can be a little awkward at times, as it does require you to keep in that ballet style consistently, but you'll eventually get used to it. It makes up for it by having plenty of options for speedrunners, encouraging you to find obscure and unintended pathways.

94. What the Golf?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSaEYgGEW6k

There was a brief period there in the late 2010s where I swear we were getting so many silly golf games, and What the Golf? is pretty easily the silliest. The game has some very liberal interpretations of what "golf" is. Sometimes, soccer is golf. Sometimes, bowling is golf. Sometimes, Portal is golf. It takes the simple mechanic of sending one thing toward another thing and constantly tries to one-up itself with its sense of humor.

7

mostly just because I liked Annie Murphy

First thought is the Regis in Pokmon R/S/E

Why is that marked as sensitive content

Yeah I think i lean towards softer puzzle games as well. I like a challenge, by not typically to a point where I feel like I need to be following a guide the whole way through

you to want me

She looks neat but I'm primarily interested what her story implications are; it seems like she's going to be a very important character

sad we're not getting Gigas or Miguel back though

99. Later Alligator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbmKuBrDhow

I really want to see more indie games like this. It strikes me as something that is almost impossible to dislike. It's fun, it's funny, it's silly and stylistic. I'm honestly surprised the game didn't take off more than it actually did, it seems like the kind of thing I would've expected to get big on Tiktok or something for being so wholesome. The gameplay doesn't change the game or anything but it is definitely a fun way to spend a day.

98. Pentiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfYryKWkNfw

I've had trouble pinpointing exactly how I feel about Pentiment. At first, I dug the art style, but thought the gameplay, which basically consists of running back and forth across the town, felt kind of monotonous. And, I mean, it kind of is, but the story draws you in enough to barely notice as it goes. The biggest mechanic you're fighting is time, where you have to solve a murder mystery but you don't have enough time to explore all the potential clues. You have to accuse someone despite it being impossible to have all the facts, and there are real consequences of your actions. And the style of using different classical fonts to show the social status of the characters speaking is such a fantastic design choice.

97. Toem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh0kQM0e6Oo

Think Pokemon Snap if it was a point-and-click adventure game. It's addicting just taking pictures of everything you see, and the game is packed full of reasons to do so. There are puzzles to solve, sure, but the biggest draw is just navigating the different environments and seeing what all they have to offer. There are animals to seek out and photograph, and many characters have special photos you can take of them under the right circumstances.

hombad46 posted...

Johnbobb is win!

I try

TomNook posted...

100%ing Baba Is You without any outside help is one of my favorite gaming accomplishments. It is possibly the best puzzle game ever made.

jesus how

Kenri posted...

It's so insane to me that I've played hundreds of indie games and yet I've still barely played anything on this list. Like maybe 15 games out of the 100+ listed so far are ones I've played.

I mean I consider myself as someone who plays a lot of indie games (at least relative to the games I play overall) and yet there are still crazy amounts I haven't touched and incomparably more I haven't heard of

Snake5555555555 posted...

Personally I don't even feel like Luca should've won against Bateman anyway.

I agree with this

but yeah Yawgmoth probably ends up beating both

So I fucked up the numbering somewhere along the way. Baba Is You is actually #100, so we've finally cracked the top 100!

100. Baba Is You
101. Shank
102. VVVVVV
103. Maquette
104. Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
105. Quadrilateral Cowboy
106. The Witness
107. The Beginners Guide
108. Telling Lies
109. Superliminal
110. McPixel
111. Machinarium
112. The Looker
113. Entwined
114. Donut County
115. Cook, Serve, Delicious!
116. Tacoma
117. Little Inferno
118. Runner3
119. Psychonauts
120. Maneater
121. Outland
122. Monument Valley
123. Runbow
124. Hohokum
125. Brawlout
126. Super Time Force Ultra
127. Sound Shapes
128. Zen Pinball 2
129. Erica
130. Apotheon
131. Fez
132. Afterparty
133. That Dragon, Cancer
134. A Little to the Left
135. Reus
136. Plague Inc.
137. Crayon Physics Deluxe
138. Grow Home
139. The Cave
140. My Friend Pedro
141. Sportsfriends
142. Pony Island
143. Everybodys Gone to the Rapture
144. Cibele
145. Dungeons & Lesbians
146. Bastion
147. Monument Valley 2
148. If On a Winter's Night, Four Travelers
149. Coffee Talk
150. The Binding of Isaac
151. Rime
152. Pizza Tower
153. Mark of the Ninja
154. Skullgirls
155. We Happy Few
156. BattleBlock Theater
157. Tokyo Jungle
158. Florence
159. Abobos Big Adventure
160. Disc Jam
161. Sky: Children of the Light
162. House Party
163. Rubber Bandits
164. Kentucky Route Zero (Chapters 1 & 2)
165. Hue
166. I Am Bread
167. Naughty Bear
168. TowerFall Ascension
169. Happy Wheels
170. Friday the 13th: The Game
171. Human: Fall Flat
172. Foul Play
173. This Is The Only Level
174. Burly Men At Sea
175. Virginia
176. World of Goo
177. Party Crashers
178. Deltarune Chapter 1
179. Sunset
180. Toribash
181. Stephens Sausage Roll
182. KickBeat
183. Tales from Space: About a Blob
184. Quantum Conundrum
185. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
186. Escape Plan
187. The Bridge
188. The Swapper
189. Dear Esther
190. Surgeon Simulator
191. Joe Danger
192. Angry Birds
193. here
194. Racing Bros
195. Goat Simulator
196. We Become What We Behold
197. Facade
198. Run Sausage Run!
199. Five Nights at Freddys
200. Interactive Buddy
201. Threes
202. Slender: The Eight Pages
203. KIDS
204. Cookie Clicker
205. Bounty Battle
206. Flappy Bird
207. Hello Neighbor
208. The Unknown City (Horror Begins Now..Episode 1)

104. Maquette
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AGQQF_VQeo

More than a few of these games are going to be ones I played because they were free on PS+. Maquette is in theory very similar to Superliminal, manipulating objects to change their size in reality, but in this case it's done not through POV, but in moving objects between the world around you and a tiny version of the world in the middle. Drop a penny in the model, a giant one appears in the world, pick up a tower from the model and it disappears from the world, etc. But what draws me in here is that there is motivation in what you're doing as you piece together scenes from a past relationship, with much of the world symbolically representing it.

103. VVVVVV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnLdDTLnjm0

oh shit i'm sorry

Veni Vidi Vici is probably a evil masterpiece of mind-bogglingly difficult platforming (that I fully admit I never beat). I think what sells it for me is the the 8-screen drop you have to fall through as you approach it. It is the developer directly saying to the player, "haha fuck you" before dropping you into the hardest freefall and immediate reverse freefall it could come up with, all for a single collectible.

102. Shank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n_XkjD52M4

Shank is the visual style of Mark of the Ninja, but instead of grim stealth, it's a violent retelling of the movie Machete (I looked it up, and Shank came out exactly 10 days before Machete did). The gameplay gets a little repetitive at times, but it's never boring, and is possibly the closest we've ever gotten to a playable Robert Rodriguez story (if there are better examples I'd be happy to hear them!)

101. Baba Is You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3_yA4HTJfs

JON
BOB
IS
DU
MB

Baba Is You's ranking is limited only by my own personal ability to play it. Because whileI think Baba Is You is legitimately in consideration for the most ingenius puzzle game ever created, I am way, way too stupid for it. I was riding high, solving puzzles left and right, only for it to turn out that I had barely scratched the surface in terms of what this game expects of you. I mean, holy shit. The whole point of the game is that the rules of the game are able to be changed by you if you're smart enough, and I don't want to spoil the extent of what that means because they hold to that idea without end.

it's weird that it keeps marking the MK vs DC fatalities as age-restricted when they're like the least gory of any of these

Yeah I still think team Ryu takes it

Yawgmoth

but whatever weird coincidence, I feel like a lot of the first round fights were less decisive?

Earl