Lurker > CherryCokes

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The Thighmaster

11. The Jackbox Party Packs (PC, 2014-present)


No explanation necessary.

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The Thighmaster

14. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Gamecube, 2004)


The perpetual letdowns of the good but not great Paper Marios that followed The Thousand Year Door are a testament to how good the first two games in the series are. Theyre the funniest, most charismatic Mario games, and in many ways the most memorable. TTYD really shines in this regard, with venues like the Glitz Pit, Rogueport, and Creepy Steeple, and characters like Doopliss and Pennington the Penguin. 3 Days of Excess might be the best chapter in either game. Its such a pitch perfect, madcap take on Murder on the Orient Express.

The inclusion of the Peach and Bowser interludes really bolsters TTYDs case as the better Paper Mario. Bowser in particular is in rare form; his scenes are reliably among the funniest in the game, and its always a treat to see how Bowser manages his kingdom, which the main Mario games never really get into.

TTYD is also, I think, the harder game. Theres legitimate challenges in the main story, and the Pit of 100 Trials is a hell of an optional dungeon. The only thing that ultimately (spoilers) keeps it a notch below its predecessor for me is that the companions are kind of underwhelming. Goombella is fine, and an improvement over Goombario, but you basically dont get another companion whos both likeable and usable until Vivian, and later Admiral Bobbery. And its entirely possible to not get Ms Mowz on your squad, which is a shame because she is a delight.

Still, The Thousand Year Door is an incredible experience that improves on Paper Mario in significant ways while retaining most of the charm and character that makes the series so damn joyful.

13. Banjo-Tooie (N64, 2000)


I might catch some heat for this ranking, but the more I thought about it, the more resolute I felt about it: Banjo-Tooie takes everything Banjo-Kazooie does and improves upon it. Full stop.

Its opening is memorable and remarkably tragic for such a colorful, ridiculous game: Gruntilda murders Bottles as she begins her rampaging revenge tour. Fortunately, Bottles sticks around as a ghost, in the hopes of being resurrected, while his brother, the drill sergeant Jamjars, takes his place guiding Banjo and Kazooie - who can split up and use individual skills, in addition to their tag-team skills - through the game.

From top to bottom, Banjo-Tooie is a bigger, funnier, more engaging game, while also having a darker undertone than B-K. The score is tremendous. The visuals are at the peak end of what the N64 was capable of, and a significant step up from the already-beautiful prequel. Mumbo becoming a playable character doesnt feel out of place or tacked on, which you might expect in a situation like this, and he acts as a great change of pace. Plus, his rivalry with the definitely problematic in retrospect Humba Wumba is a great source of comedy. The magical transformations in this game are absurd to the nth degree, but by and large all work. Also, finding musical notes 5 at a time instead of 1 at a time is not to be understated as an improvement.

The game also has what I would describe as surprisingly good multiplayer, which is not something I anticipated but nonetheless got a lot of value out of between my friends, my brother, and me.

I am dead sure Im in the vast minority in thinking that Banjo-Tooie is better than Banjo-Kazooie, but I stand by it. Go replay it. It deserves it.

12. Resident Evil 2 (PS, 1998)


I played this game with one of my best friends over the span of several sleep-overs when we were in third or fourth grade. Needless to say, there was not much sleeping to be done.

This was my first exposure to horror games, and it immediately hooked me. Raccoon City and its Police Department are iconic settings, and they remain etched in my memory despite the fact that I havent played RE2 in like 15 years (though I will be buying the remake for myself for my birthday next week, I think). That first licker? Hoo boy.

Going beyond that: Leon and Claire are the best duo in a Resident Evil game, and its not even especially close, I dont think. Leon of course became the face of the franchise for a time, while Claire has largely been shelved, which is a damn shame, because shes the more interesting Redfield. William Birkin is, despite Weskers best efforts, the most compelling villain in the series, and his family is perhaps the most tragic. And on top of all that, we get Ada and HUNK, two of the more intriguing and mysterious characters the series has offered.

Not to mention the single greatest playable character in gaming history.


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The Thighmaster

17. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998)

So many people have said and will say so much more substantial and eloquent things about this game than I could possibly hope to, but Ill try my best.

While it was evident fairly quickly that the Mario series would easily make the jump from 2D to 3D fairly easily - there was only a year between Yoshis Island and Super Mario 64, two of the series best regarded games - I dont know that it was ever a given that The Legend of Zelda would be able to make the jump from 2D to 3D as gracefully. Add in substantial delays - Ocarina of Time was intended to be a launch game - and I have to imagine there was some trepidation.

Fortunately, any concerns there might have been were washed away in November of 98.

Nintendo had assembled a team, and that team produced a masterpiece. I didnt play it until the following year, but I remember being awe-stricken by it. It felt like a movie. I didnt fully understand all the reasons why at the time, but as I later took an interest in film and photography, I came to realize that there was a great element of cinematic influence present in the game. Its an action adventure game, sure, but its also at times a western, a horror movie, a romance, and above all, a bildungsroman. The way the game uses music helps signal these shifts, too. Think about how the Kondos score changes not based on character, but on location. The idea of having video games shift their music based on each level wasnt new, but there were abrupt cues in the game that related to those changes - loading screens, changing levels, going indoors or coming outdoors, etc. Because of the function of Hyrules overworld and its vast continuousness, music in Ocarina of Time is often used to signal that you have arrived. In that way, and in the way the camera frames the action - both when its under your control and when the game has control of it - Ocarina of Time owes as much to the lineage of the movies as it does to the lineage of video games. There is a bonafide sense of the game being an epic that comes from the visual and musical direction of the game. (Except the Hyrule Castle Market, which feels like a failed attempt at German Expressionism)

I dont think I would have grown to love movies or video games as much as I did if I hadnt played this game at the time that I did. Certainly a great many games on this list would not be here if not for Ocarina of Time. Its justifiably considered one of the greatest games of all time, and it remains a personal favorite, though it is not ranked as highly as it once might have been. The emotional attachment I have to it may have faded some over the years, but the impact it had on my taste in video games and movies certainly hasnt.

16. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, 2018)


Super Smash Bros. has been a favorite series from jump street for me. Brawl and Wii U, while both very good games, felt a little underwhelming coming off of Melee, and came at a time in life where I didnt have many people to play with in person and Nintendos online was largely a fucking mess.

Ultimate, like the first two entries in the series, hit at a perfect juncture. I was in grad school. I had just adopted a puppy, which turned out to be much more stressful than I expected. I was working full time. My cars engine had exploded. I was in the midst of a prolonged breakup. It was a total nightmare of a time.

So I splurged on a Switch the weekend of Thanksgiving, knowing that Smash was out in a couple of weeks. And it was the right choice. With the exception of one particular night of playing with Board 8ers where a beer was spilled directly into my laptop, effectively cooking the entire SSD and almost nothing else, playing Smash Ultimate over the past 2+ years has been one of the routine joys of my life, especially amid this now yearlong pandemic. The people that I play with - many of whom are my friends in this very topic - are some of the most fun people to play with. No one is beholden to any particular characters or settings, everyone is happy to play by some silly character selection gimmick, and no one really gets truly pissy when they lose (though there is plenty of bullshitting and shit-talking and ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? moments). Its exactly what I love about Smash, and what I love about Board 8. Its like a peanut butter cup, but with two sets of ridiculous characters, one real, one fictional, coming together to make for a perfectly delightful experience.

15. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch, 2018)


Breath of the Wild was hyped mightily before I got to playing it in early 2019. I bought it as soon as I got my Switch, but that giant wave of praise had me a little hesitant. Could it really be that good? was a question I kept asking myself.

It turns out the answer was a resounding yes.

Much like its beloved predecessors, Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, Breath of the Wild redefines the scale and scope of what a Zelda game can be. Hyrule is as enormous, diverse, and majestic as it has ever been. The temples are massive, living puzzles. The cast of characters who support (and sometimes stymy you) on your way are perhaps the most colorful and interesting cast ever assembled in a Nintendo game, which is saying something. The game just oozes personality and style in a way that hadnt been the case in a Zelda game in a decade and a half. Its a beautiful game. Its maybe the most smoothly controlled adventure game Ive ever played. It is by all measures as close to technically perfect as it can be. And its easily the most fun, explorative Zelda, due to the amount of things to discover, to find, to experience, and due to the fact that for the first time in many many years, its basically entirely non-linear, in the tradition of early Zeldas, which is something that endeared it to me even more. And there are DOGS. Not enough versions of Hyrule have dogs. Or giant horses.

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The Thighmaster

Whiskey_Nick posted...

Rude

Whiskey Nick, noted fan of Korn, the All-American Rejects, and Good Charlotte

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The Thighmaster

RPGlord95 posted...

Lego Rock Band though

Also good, because Lego Iggy Pop is the guide character

Trash song list though

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The Thighmaster

18. The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360, 2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbe5mpI16KA

We jokingly say stuff like its a miracle this movie/game/album/book even exists but in the case of The Beatles: Rock Band, it is unequivocally true. There are a million reasons this game shouldnt exist.

Heres a short, non-exhaustive list of hurdles:

*Beatles music is incredibly cost-prohibitive to use. It cost Mad Men $250,000 to use Tomorrow Never Knows in a 2012 episode!
*Michael Jackson owned 50% of the publishing rights to the Beatles music. You may recall that he died in early 2009, during the production of the game.
*There was a global recession, which prompted the sale of Harmonix by its brief parent company, Viacom/MTV, shortly after the release of the game.
*Harmonix had to convince the remaining Beatles, aged 69 and 67 when the game came out, as well as Yoko, aged 76, to participate in the creation of a video game with plastic instruments.
*Those same people, once convinced, then had to approve every single creative decision that went into the game.
*Oh, and so did Apple Corps.
*The first half or so of the Beatles career was recorded to two-track and four-track equipment, which meant that you had multiple instruments and/or vocal parts on the same track, rather than a separate track for each part, as became common in the later 60s to present. A great number of engineers headed by George Martins son, Giles, took months to create usable stems.

Somehow, all those pieces fell into place and stayed in place for three years, starting shortly after Viacom/MTV bought Harmonix in 2006, in the wake of Guitar Heros success. Dhani Harrison, son of George, happened to be familiar with Guitar Hero, and happened to have a conversation with the head of MTV at the time at a Christmas party, and happened to suggest a Beatles video game. This conversation led to a discussion with Alex Rigopulos, which led to Dhani talking to Apple Corps, Yoko, Paul, Ringo, and his mother Olivia. Eventually, Harmonix and Dhani presented a prototype of the game to all of the above parties, and got them all on board. Dhani Harrison was the lynchpin to getting this game in production.

But it was a challenge, even once they had the approvals they needed. They had a hard deadline: September 9, 2009, the day the entire Beatles catalogue was to be released in remastered form. They had to get the aforementioned Giles Martin working on the master recordings of the early works to make them usable. They programmed and tracked songs based on low fidelity versions of the upcoming remasters, because Apple Corps, still reeling from Danger Mouses Grey Album, was terrified of hi-fi leaks getting out ahead of the release of the remastered catalogue. They brought in some of the creative minds behind several Gorillaz music videos (including Feel Good Inc, I believe) and the opening title sequence to Quantum of Solace (you know the one) to work on the dreamy animatics. The game was first publicly shown off at Coachella, of all places, as Sir Paul used elements from the game in the visuals of his headlining set. They created an entirely new three-part harmony vocal system to accurately represent the Beatles vocals, which has remained in the series to date. They had Rock Band controllers that were replicas of the Beatles' iconic instruments (one of my greatest gaming regrets is not getting one of these). It was the largest project the relatively small Harmonix had ever undertaken, and the margins were smaller than ever.

And then, finally, the game came out.



And it was incredible. It was an ethereal, stunning game to experience. The gameplay was sharper than Rock Band 2, and not as overcooked as Rock Bands 3 and 4 would turn out. On the loading screens, bits of studio chatter or audience noise, all pulled from the actual recordings, bridged one song to the next. The venues, both real and imagined, are captivating enough that you want to watch them even while youre playing. The Beatles themselves appear through the various eras, in a sort of heightened, idyllic way that glosses over some of the strife of the later years, but still suits the music they produced during each period. It was a staggering homage and monument to one of the most important bands of all time, and Harmonix hit every mark.

The rhythm game market waned along with the global economy not long after The Beatles: Rock Band was released, but this game was an absolute high water mark for the genre as an artistic and commercial force, and Im not sure another game could have matched it, even if the conditions had been equally favorable. It was a magnificent miracle, a confluence of every right person being in the right places at the right times.

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The Thighmaster

20. Super Mario Galaxy / Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2007 / 2010)

As others have noted, separating these games just feels wrong. Theyre both so incredibly good and inextricably tied together that any arguing which is better feels like an exercise in preference, rather than anything substantial.

Unlike most of Nintendos flagship series in the Wii era, which either faltered, held pat, or remained on the bench, the Galaxies represent one giant leap for Mariokind. Perhaps we should have seen it coming: the progression was there - we went from Bros. to Land to World to Sunshine - to tell us that space would be the next frontier for the iconic plumber. What we didnt know, coming off Sunshine, was that Galaxy and Galaxy 2 would be world-beaters. Galaxy sold as much as Brawl did; Galaxy 2 sold as much as Twilight Princess. Both were critically acclaimed across the board, and rightfully so.

What puts the Galaxies far, far, away from the rest of the Mario series to me is the intelligent design at the core of each game. Galaxy, utilizing the Wiimote and nunchuk more adroitly than any game to that point, was filled with a dizzying array of planets and objectives that were as beautiful as they were clever. It introduced some outlandish new power-ups - Bee Mario most notably, but the underappreciated Boo and Spring Marios are equally great, I think - that add wrinkles and puzzle-solving elements that really deepen the enjoyment of the game. It brought back the Fire Flower, which had been absent since Super Mario World, and it introduced the Ice Flower. Then it throws you into these various galaxies and planets, each with unique attributes, residents, even their own gravity. Comets occasionally appear, forcing you to undertake specific objectives that offer some of the series hardest challenges. Its breathtaking, the breadth and depth of experiences that Super Mario Galaxy throws at you.

Then, three years later, Super Mario Galaxy 2 came around and turned it all to eleven. Bowser is now the size of a damn planet himself, and he re-kidnaps the perpetually recently-rescued Princess Peach. This time, Mario sets off in pursuit using a planet-like vessel made in his image, the Starship Mario.



Galaxy 2s design presupposes that youve played Galaxy, and its better for it. All of Galaxys power-ups return, and you get Rock Mario (the greatest), Cloud Mario (the weirdest, at least to that point), and the space drill item (the most useful) added on top. Then, of course, the game does what everyone wanted its predecessor to do: it brings Yoshi to space, with a host of fruit-inspired power-ups of his own. Theres a massive 240 stars to collect over 7 increasingly bonkers levels, including one galaxy that is, for some reason, a reimagining of Whomp's Fortress from Super Mario 64. Galaxy 2 is full of iconic elements of the series making their returns, like the Hammer Bros. and checkpoint flags. In many ways you can see Galaxy 2, and not NSMBU or 3D World - good as they both are - as the dress rehearsal for Super Mario Odyssey, which took many of the ideas present here, new and old alike, and pushed them in as far an innovative direction as they could. I cant say for certain whether Odyssey eclipses the stratospheric heights reached by the twin Galaxies, but theres no doubt that this duo is an out of this world pairing that dramatically shifted the Mario series for the better.

19. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, 2008)

From what I understand, theres a small, zealous enclave of gamers who view the modern Fallouts as sacrilege, a total anathema to the principles of the series. They decry the shift from isometric turn-based combat to the FPS-ARPG hybrid the series has become known for.

Fuck those guys.

Within the first 15 after you create your character, Fallout 3 achieves something its PC forebears couldnt: a sense of the grand scale of death, destruction, and chaos that nuclear war wrought on the world. Your introduction to, and subsequent explorations of, the Capital Wasteland are awe-inspiring and horrifying. So too, is the path you take as the Lone Wanderer. Almost every choice you make has karmic ripples throughout the Wasteland, changing how characters react and respond to you, and altering your course through the game. The cast of characters you meet along the way, from the residents of Megaton to robo-founding father Button Gwinnett to President John Henry Eden to Alistair Tenpenny to the ripped-out-of time abductees aboard Mothership Zeta and so on and so on, are each fascinating in their own right. The battles you fight as you progress through the story are some of the most memorable. The Super Mutant Behemoth in the Capitol Rotunda was, until very recently, the most transfixing and horrifying thing to happen on the Hill in any medium. And of course, no one forgets their first Deathclaw.

The Capital Wasteland is a stunning partial recreation of the greater DC area from which Bethesda Softworks hails. Given the circumstances, it can be a little drab in areas, but as an open world it is staggering in comparison to everything else its contemporaries put forth, with few exceptions. Getting to explore the DC Metro, the halls of power, decommissioned aircraft carriers, etc, much of which is roughly analogous to the real world, was an absolute thrill. The DLC expanded the universe to the shores of Maryland, the fiery, dire rust belt remnants of Pittsburgh, and a simulation of Alaska during its liberation from China. To that point in my gaming life, I had never played a game with such an enormous scope and such an engrossing world.

The plot of Fallout 3 is important, but it also isnt. You either side with the good guys, the Brotherhood of Steel, or the bad guys, the Enclave. You purify the waters of the Potomac or you kill off every mutated being in the Wasteland in a multispecies genocide. It matters, but it also doesnt, in that the real story is the good-natured Super Mutants and Ghouls you made friends with along the way.

Bonus fun fact: The specific bodily damage by your weapons in VATS was inspired by Burnout's crash mode!

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The Thighmaster

time for the injured guy to catch up a bit

3 games coming up

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The Thighmaster

I have an actual cart of SF64 and I don't think I've ever played it.

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The Thighmaster

I honestly did not know there was a space simulation craze of the mid-nineties

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The Thighmaster

Silent Hill: a series that would be on my list if I ever played any of them

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The Thighmaster

24. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES, 1995)

Super Mario World 2 stands at a unique point in the Mario landscape. It is both the last traditional 2D Mario game and the first proper Yoshi game. In TV parlance, you'd call it a "backdoor pilot", like the episode of All in the Family called "The Jeffersons Move On Up". It ended up being the perfect game at the perfect time in the perfect circumstance.

It enabled Mario to take off into 3D and do fantastical things, but it also turned Yoshi into a bona fide star, in large part because Yoshi's Island is damn close to perfect. It's got some of the most vivid and cleverly designed levels in the Mario series, which made you consider the enemies, the environment, the collectibles, and your eggs as you worked your way through. Its art direction is absolutely splendid, unmatched by any games of the period and matched by very few since. The Koji Kondo score is probably his best non-Zelda work. Getting hit and losing Baby Mario created real tension, real stakes, that a traditional health system or Mario power-up system couldn't. And it controls so much more sharply and fluidly than any Mario before it (and many since, if we're being honest).

Add all that together, and it's clear to me that Yoshi's Island is, simply put, the best 2D platformer yet.

23. Roller Coaster Tycoon (PC, 1999)

From early in life, even before RCT came along, I wanted to design rollercoasters when I grew up. I'd gone to Busch Gardens in Tampa with family in '95 or so and just been awed by Kumba, which soared upside-down over us as we walked through the park. I was too small to ride it, but something about seeing my dad and grandfather careening by as I looked up at them filled me with wonder, and it stuck. I ultimately didn't pursue it as a career, for a wide variety of reasons, but the magic of a good coaster is still something I seek out when I'm able. And over those many intervening years, I've spent hours and hours playing around in the RCT series. The first two games are undeniably the only ones worth playing, and I could easily have grouped them together here, but the first one has more charm - and fewer licensed parks, which is actually a benefit - and is the one I still periodically return to, either to try my hand at building some new idea, or to torture park guests. The expansion packs are both excellent, too.

22. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube, 2002)

Trying to explain why Eternal Darkness is an absolute masterpiece without giving up any spoilers or ruining the experience is a challenging task.

Created as the first M-rated game published by Nintendo, Eternal Darkness is the absolute peak of the psychological horror subgenre of games. It features a branched/nonlinear story told across many protagonists over many centuries and settings, heavily influenced by Lovecraft, Hitchcock, Lynch and Poe. As the chapters unravel, you get nearer and nearer to madness, and if you're not careful, you lose you can lose your mind entirely.

I don't want to say more than that, because the experience of the game is so engrossing and unique that it would be a disservice to anyone who hasn't played it - if not the game itself - for me to try to do it justice. It is impeccable, it is magnificent, it is ambitious, and it is batshit crazy.

There have been rumblings that it might get a remake or a port - lead protagonist Alex Rovias is in Smash as a spirit, and Nintendo filed for a trademark on the title last year - but I'm not holding my breath.

Find a way to play this game. You will absolutely not regret it.

21. Super Smash Bros. Melee (Gamecube, 2001)

It is absolutely wild looking at this character select screen for the first time in probably 10 years. What seemed so momentous at the time seems so small now.

From its release in 2001 to through the end of 2004, I would say I played Melee with my friends more days than not. That's not an exaggeration. None of us could drive yet, we were in middle and early high school. We had part time jobs and not much else to do. We played 2-3 hours after school almost every week day. For years. In the summer, it was more variable. Raining? Sweltering? Melee. Nice out? Raise hell outside. But to say we played thousands of hours of free for alls is not an exaggeration. There were usually 6 of us, so it was your classic "3rd and 4th place pass the sticks" situation. One kid, Javy, was not well liked because he steadfastly refused to pick anyone but Fox or Pikachu. But every friend group needs a villain sometimes, and I think he reveled in the role a bit, in part because he got pretty good with both, while the rest of us were either fucking around with random selection or were playing a wider array of characters in rotation. He became a figure to rail against, someone with a target on his back. We wanted him in 3rd at best. We didn't want someone hogging the stick by having specialized so well with just one or two characters. We didn't gang up on him, because we were still all out for ourselves, but if he was in a match, he had to stay sharp.

The sad thing is that all our data was erased by the true villain of this story, a lumbering oaf named Dave, who, late in the summer of 2004, yanked out the memory card out of my Gamecube (it was always my system; my parents had bought me one of those nifty carrying cases) while we were playing at the previously mentioned Boys and Girls Club, vaporizing the record of those thousands and thousands of battles.

We chased him out of the building with a pool cue.

He didn't come back for two weeks. And when he did, he avoided us. To this day, I have no idea why he did it, other than that he was one of those cruel, dumb teenagers who did things just to do them.

Ultimately, it didn't matter. The damage was done. Disheartened by the erasure, we barely played it after that. The bonds in that friend group eroded broke apart as 2004 wound to a close. I haven't seen or spoken to any of them in nearly as long. I wonder sometimes if Melee was the only thing that kept that friend group going as long as it did. Who knows.

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The Thighmaster

CasanovaZelos posted...

Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr.
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer

...two very different tones here

It's these two and there's nothing else even remotely close

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The Thighmaster

Never really understood the adoration for Mario 64. It's a fine game. Maybe if I had played it contemporaneous to its release I'd care about it more.

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The Thighmaster

Off to a terrible start

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The Thighmaster

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79208627/949507217

I basically already have.

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The Thighmaster

I'll play it - I feel a survival horror phase coming - but they should just remake CVX if they want a CV level title

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The Thighmaster

DeepsPraw posted...

I care more about Ethan, Tom and Mikhail than I do about Chang

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The Thighmaster

Maybe it's a reverse trick and Ultimate is next

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The Thighmaster

Whiskey_Nick posted...

Amingo main represent

Amingo 4 Smash Ultimate

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The Thighmaster

TheKnightOfNee posted...

I wasn't a fan of Doom myself, but those other two characters were really fun.

Really though, with a cast that size, you can just jump around to anyone and find some fun team combos.

In traditional fighters I tend to love zoning and mix-up types. Doom is a character who is a nice combo of both (and someone I long adored as a kid who grew up reading Fantastic Four comics)

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The Thighmaster

TheKnightOfNee posted...

Cokes, what was the MvC2 trio of choice for you?

Shuma/Doom/Amingo, most often

I'd occasionally work Venom, Sentinel, and Morrigan in as well.


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The Thighmaster

28. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Arcade, 2000)

Please read the remainder of this post while listening to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPjjnfGKrPc

The character select song in MvC2 might be the song I've heard most in my life against my will. From the time it appeared in my local arcade through its DC and PS2 and later XBLA versions I've heard it thousands of times. It is both obnoxious and obnoxiously catchy. But I put up with it all those years because it always was a signifier of a good time. I had a pretty good crew of friends and acquaintances in the early 2000s for in person gaming, and we spent a lot of time playing this in arcades, and later, in our homes and at the aforementioned Boys & Girls Club. It's not the most technically proficient or fair fighting game, even in its own insane series - MvC1 almost certainly earns that title - but its 56 characters and triple tag team format created an almost endless number of permutations, which kept the game fresher than almost any other fighting game. The ability to mix and match and make your own squad of Avengers, X-Men, Street Fighters, etc - or their arch enemies - was just as compelling then as watching an Avengers movie would become a dozen years later. 56 characters, of course, has been surpassed, but man, at the time, what a thrill to unlock them as you went.

27. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch, 2017)


Simply put, it is the perfect kart racing game. It is everything that Mario Kart can be and needs to be to be endlessly replayable and ceaselessly fun, and the Switch version, with 42 playable characters and the full array of karts and customizations and courses, is just tremendous. There's almost no great courses from the series missing, and it even gave us fans of F-Zero a nice little token in the forms of Mute City and Big Blue, which play appropriately fast.

26. Resident Evil (aka REmake) (Gamecube, 2002)

REmake was a series-saving game. The more I think about it, the more I believe it to be true. Code Veronica was not the success that Capcom had hoped, Gaiden was Gaiden, and the series needed to hit big. Coincidentally, Capcom had entered into a period of semi-exclusivity with Nintendo. Not for every series, but it was a Big Deal at the time. They were dedicated to bringing big games to the Gamecube, and REmake was the first. It set the stage for a series of incredible and bold successes over the following years, and P.N.03. Most importantly, it took a game that had become almost entirely skippable in Resident Evil, overhauled the graphics, the controls, the voice acting, and upped the fear factor (no one expects that first Crimson Head zombie, or the horrors of those Chimeras). The most remarkable thing is that it took an entire human generation for RE2 and RE3 to get remakes, given how overwhelmingly successful this game and its series proved to be in the subsequent years. It's rare, even in this age of revisiting and rebooting beloved games, that you can entirely redefine a game and a series, but REmake did it first, and maybe best.

(screenshot from the 2015 HD remaster)

25. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch, 2017)

Not the most recently released game on my list, but the game I've most recently played to make the list. I didn't start playing Super Mario Odyssey until the tail end of last year, but it is the 3D Mario best designed for my brain in the 2020s. It's a beautiful, smooth-handling game that you can play for any length of time you please, because there are so many Moons to chase and you're not obligated to proceed in any direction or pace at any time. It pays homage to the entire lineage of Mario games that came before it. It features Captain Toad. But on top of all that, it's among the most cleverly designed and most thoughtful Mario games to date. None of the Moons - at least to where I am, which is not that deep into the game, even still - seem unfair or rude or tacked on. They all feel pretty organically included into their fantastical worlds, which themselves all feel spectacularly designed. It's really a remarkable game and I'm excited to keep playing it and seeing how it continues to surprise me.

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The Thighmaster

I anticipated a lot from you telling me about it and that is still more than I expected

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The Thighmaster

32. Kirby Canvas Curse (DS, 2005)

I don't know what to say about Canvas Curse other than it is both the best Kirby game to date and the best DS game. Perfectly designed and executed, with great replayability offered by the other playable characters, each of whom plays very distinctly different from the others. A portable masterpiece.

Just don't lose your stylus.

31. Pokemon Red/Blue (GB, 1998)

Blue > Red > Yellow
LeafGreen > FireRed
Charmander = Bulbasaur > Squirtle
Ivysaur >>> Wartortle > Charmeleon
Blastoise > Charizard > Venusaur

I can't speak more eloquently about RBY than anyone, but it was obviously a transformative game. It brought thousands (millions?) of people to video games who might not have come to it otherwise. The trading element made gaming outwardly social in a way that it hadn't been before. It was and remains a cultural force, but it's also a pretty damn good game. I never got into the subsequent ones as much, but I did play the hell out of Blue, and I played LeafGreen from beginning to end when I found a cartridge in the grass in the park on a rainy day. I have no idea how it still worked!

30. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES, 1995)


I'm not gonna say this has the greatest soundtrack of any Nintendo game, but I'm not going to say it doesn't, either. Even the songs we don't really think about are just as great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUgqqhgVGNQ&list=PL334A457011BC5467&index=8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY-mhdPdtq0&list=PL334A457011BC5467&index=9

Everything about DKC2 is great, honestly. K. Rool is at his best. It's just a tremendous game from a tremendous series. You know this.

29. Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360/PC 2012)

The formula of the Borderlands games has a shelf life. That is undoubtedly part of why I did not play Borderlands 3. I do feel fortunate, though, that I also never played Borderlands, because that means I got to use the entirety of that shelf life on Borderlands 2, which by the accounts of my peers in this topic and on discord, remains the best in the series. I was also fortunate enough to spend much of my time playing this, both on 360 and on PC, with a wide array of Board 8ers, which significantly ratcheted up my enjoyment of the game and prolonged the magic through countless hours of irreverent, wanton destruction. I may never sink time like this into a game like this again, but I wouldn't trade it, either.

(Gaige > Maya = Zer0 > Krieg > Salvador > Axton)

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The Thighmaster

36. F-Zero GX (Gamecube, 2003)

The blackbird sings to him: "Brother, brother,
If this be the last song you shall sing,
Sing well, for you may not sing another;
Brother, sing."

In dreary doubtful waiting hours,
Before the brazen frenzy starts,
The horses show him nobler powers;
O patient eyes, courageous hearts!

And when the burning moment breaks,
And all things else are out of mind,
And only joy of battle takes
Him by the throat and makes him blind,
Through joy and blindness he shall know,
Not caring much to know, that still
Nor lead nor steel shall reach him, so
That it be not the Destined Will.

The thundering line of battle stands,
And in the air Death moans and sings;
But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,
And Night shall fold him in soft wings.

from "Into Battle" by Julian Grenfell

35. Pikmin 2 (Gamecube, 2004)

Pikmin 2 is one of those rare sequels that takes the general premise of the original game, remixes it heavily, and hits every mark. The President of Hocotate Freight sends Olimar and his hapless co-captain Louie back to the Distant Planet to retrieve as many treasures as they can to clear up the company's debt (which was incurred by Louie bungling a shipment of carrots by letting a "space rabbit" eat them)

Olimar and Louie get separated on the planet, but with the Pikmin's help, are reunited. What springs forth is a more robust, complex game than the original Pikmin, where you must use both Captains in tandem to solve puzzles and retrieve treasures that one Captain could never retrieve alone. You confront two new kinds of Pikmin - purple and white - who are super strong and poisonous, respectively. And you descend into dark and foreboding caves, where for Complicated Science Reasons, time does not pass as it does on the surface.

Initially, my concern was that these untimed areas would lessen the tension of the game, as danger of impending night was the prime motivator up to that point in the series. But the Caves replace the time constraint with a different one - the Pikmin you bring in are all you get for the whole cave. You occasionally get candypop bulbs to change Pikmin from one color to another, but you really have to strategize to clear each cave effectively and efficiently while minimizing your losses. Add to that the fact that some of the cave denizens you have to fight (or avoid) are horrific threats unlike anything on the surface, and you've got an incredible game that leans harder into survival horror than any of us would have thought the series possible.

34. Command & Conquer: Red Alert II/Yuri's Revenge (PC, 2000-2001)

I played the first Red Alert some, and liked it well enough. It's a good game. But Red Alert 2 was better in every way, and came after I'd been transfixed by the RTS genre; RA1 had come before. The setting, the story, and the insane live action cutscenes, helped hook me. An alt-history where the Cold War went hot was a compelling way to frame a strategy game. But it was the gameplay - both the strong single player campaigns and the fun but somewhat outlandish (and in retrospect, probably a little racist?) multiplayer - that kept me coming back for years (until I moved on to Warhammer: Dawn of War in college; a game I've only just remembered and should have been an Honorable Mention). The creativity of unit and structure design was top notch, and in many ways remains unparalleled. Here's hoping it gets a remaster soon, like C&C and RA1 did last year. I'd love to replay it with a full visual upgrade.

33. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Gamecube, 2003)

Speaking of games that got a fancy remaster: It's The Wind Waker, the most charming of 3D Zelda games. Despite its flaws, which are well-documented, it remains among the most enjoyable and satisfying Zelda games in the series. A lot of that is attributable to its inimitable style, which was as dramatic a shift from OoT/MM as OoT/MM were from LttP/LA. It's a style that endures, though, thanks in part to Toon Link's inclusion in the Smash series and its use in the handheld Zeldas that followed it.

Another reason it Wind Waker endures is how it subtly but fundamentally shifted (and re-shifted) the way the series is played. It introduced a new camera system that gave the player much needed control over their field of vision, something that its 3D predecessors sorely lacked. It brought Zelda back to its roots as a game where exploration of the world is as central to progressing through the game as the plot is. It brought back greater elements of non-linearity that had largely left the series over the preceding ten years or so. These fingerprints are still on the series, as anyone who's played Breath of the Wild can attest.

Also Wind Waker has the best endgame in a Zelda game. It ends with the Master Sword plunged into Ganondorf's skull. Unbeatable.

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The Thighmaster

no idea why the thing i used to append numbers separated with a comma but here we are

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The Thighmaster

An updated list of my games:

100, Battle of Polytopia
99, Jet Force Gemini
98, Mount Your Friends 3D
97, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
96, Final Fantasy IV
95, Rock Band Blitz
94, Top Skater
93, Castle Crashers
92, Simpsons Arcade
91, Snowboard Kids 2
90, Super Mario 3D World
89, Raiden II
88, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
87, Blast Corps
86, Civilization IV
85, StarCraft II
84, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
83, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
82, Guitar Hero II
81, Mario Party 2
80, Perfect Dark
79, Mario Kart 64
78, Meteos
77, Thomas Was Alone
76, The Legend of Zelda
75, Portal
74, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
73, Trauma Center: Under the Knife / Second Opinion
72, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
71, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
70, Donkey Kong 64
69, Wario Land 4
68, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
67, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
66, Claw
65, Audiosurf
64, Pikmin
63, WarioWare: Smooth Moves!
62, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
61, NBA Street Vol. 2
60, Mario Kart Double Dash!
59, Fallout: New Vegas
58, The Walking Dead: Season 1
57, Super Mario World
56, The Stanley Parable
55, Mario Tennis
54, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
53, Super Monkey Ball 2
52, NBA Jam
51, Donkey Kong 94
50, Goldeneye
49, Need for Speed: Underground
48, Ken Griffey Jr's Slugfest
47, Bastion
46, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
45, Banjo-Kazooie
44, Bioshock
43, Mario Golf
42, Left 4 Dead 2
41, Diddy Kong Racing
40, Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
39, Total Annihilation
38, Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX 2
37, Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II / Blue Burst

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The Thighmaster

Whiskey_Nick posted...

#20. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U, 2013)

Oh hey and this comes out this week too on Switch. With online. And a new mode. So in a week this will be Mario 3D World Deluxe in this position. What an absolute joy to play. It builds so much on the excellence of 3D Land and captures that Mario 2D feel in 3D even better. This game also made Captain Toad playable for the first time and god did I fall in love with that little guy. Being able to play as a bunch of characters like in Mario 2 is also an excellent idea. There is more than enough challenge in this game and tons to collect too. The Mario Kart stage is so damn good. I really hope lots of you pick this up so I can play this 4 player online with competent players. The Bell Hill theme is excellent and continues Nintendo's tradition of locking the bass player in a separate room with no sheet music or any idea what they are even doing then just adding it to the song.

I anticipate getting it fyi

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The Thighmaster

Tagging

Having some computer issues. Hopefully get back rolling tomorrow

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The Thighmaster

In on the ground floor

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The Thighmaster

40. Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (Gamecube, 2001)

I dunno if this is a Hot Take or not, but Rogue Leader is the best Star Wars game by a country mile. It puts you in the cockpit for the greatest missions of the original trilogy, both those seen and not seen during the films. It handles superbly, regardless of which of the many ships you choose - and most ships in the universe are available for most missions. Unlike its predecessor, though, it also puts you in the seat of the Empire for some missions. At the time, it was a game that looked and sounded so much better than its peers and its predecessor that it was absolutely breathtaking at the time. It is the closest any Star Wars game comes to making you feel like you are playing a Star Wars film. The only demerit (fixed by its successor the good but not great Rogue Squadron 3) is its lack of multiplayer, but honestly, it was so engrossing - and there were plenty of other good multiplayer games in the Gamecube launch window - that you never noticed.

39. Total Annihilation (PC, 1997)

Total Annihilation is, I think, the most dystopic RTS game. The landscapes are often - but not always - desolate and sparse, and your resource gathering is often reclaiming discarded hunks of metal and such. But mostly, I think, it's that there's not a single human or even sentient creature involved. The entire cast of units and characters - in so much as there are characters - is robotic. That doesn't detract from the experience, it just creates a much darker feel than most RTS games have, which is saying something.

This game, as Bartz alluded to earlier, proved to be somewhat influential and transitory in the RTS landscape. Hero units were by and large not a thing yet. Naval units were still prominent features in strategy games. Solar energy was a blossoming technology in the real world, featured in-game as a futurist take on limitless energy. From a gameplay perspective, it's a two faction situation, with 2-3 styles of unit, depending on whether or not there's water present for the naval units, and it's incredibly well balanced. The missions are satisfying and plentiful, and the multiplayer was pretty good for the late 90s on DSL or whatever. But more than anything, it's the game that got me hooked on strategy games, which have been a continued delight, whether turn-based or real-time, ever since.

38. Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX 2 (Gamecube, 2001)

This might surprise people to learn, but of all the EXTREME SPORTS games, this might actually be the best. THPS games played as a sort of cartoonish/heightened/surreal version of skateboarding, and they are all great. But Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX 2 is a little less heightened, a little more true to the sport, and largely better for it. The game features enormous, well-designed levels, a roster of the greatest riders of the time, plus a kid who won a contest, an Amish child who rode a wooden bike, and the Slim Jim guy. It controlled spectacularly, which is no small feat given that bikes are a lot harder to program for and animate than skateboards. And it had a dope soundtrack, featuring Gang Starr, Rage Against the Machine, A Tribe Called Quest, and Black Sabbath.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GybhmEvcFX8&list=PLj4BYrSiv2LOuFTNGZuWV_OyGKWBmOywk

As a kid who grew up pulling dangerous tricks without a helmet in ramshackle environments on a shitty Huffy, this game meant the world to me as a teenager. It's a shame Acclaim basically fell apart shortly after releasing it. There's never been a good BMX game since.

37. Phantasy Star Online: Episodes I & II / Blue Burst (DC/Gamecube/PC, 2001-2005)

Phantasy Star Online is probably the game I have put the most hours into in my life. It started with one circle of friends, on the Dreamcast. It shifted to a second group of friends (and sometimes my brother) on GameCube, when Episode I & II were released. It jumped to Board 8 for Blue Burst. I have played this game from the beginning with so many people and I have enjoyed it with all of them. I don't regret a single minute of it, not even with those who aren't a part of my life any more.

I don't have much else to say about it that you don't already know, except for this: it remains one of my absolute favorite video game soundtracks of all time. It's so lush and beautiful and every song matches its setting to a T. Listen to it below.

https://youtu.be/8AXsWrgPRZ0?t=6072

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The Thighmaster

45. Banjo-Kazooie (N64, 1998)

Banjo-Kazooie was really the first RARE game since Battletoads to make an enormous, successful splash with an original IP, and it's undoubtedly the most original, unique IP in their glistening pre-Microsoft body of work. Banjo-Kazooie, and its titular characters, ooze with charm and creativity. The game is whimsical and weird and wonderful. The music is an utter delight. The characters all have personality in a way that was - if you'll pardon the pun = rare at the time. It's just a game that makes you feel good playing it.

44. Bioshock (Xbox 360, 2007)

Undoubtedly the greatest game based on the Objectivist writings of Ayn Rand, Bioshock also represents one of the most unsettling and immersive (again, pardon the pun) games in recent history. There are few moments in my gaming history that have gripped me like the opening of Bioshock, from the crash to the lighthouse, down beneath the depths and into the bathysphere, while Andrew Ryan delivers the iconic monologue about Rapture, all while you get inklings of the horrors that await you. Just a magnificent presentation, and a great game.

43. Mario Golf (N64, 1999)

Unlike MSG, I don't feel a particular affinity for golf games. They're fine, usually. Good as a minigame in some things (Super Monkey Ball, for one). It's just hard to make the mechanics of golf and the setting of golf interesting to me. Mario Golf is the one exception to that, and the way they did it is pretty ingenious. From a gameplay perspective, Mario Golf is as straight a golf sim as it gets. You have to consider the elements, pick your club, have good aim, good distance, good timing. There's no power-ups or anything kooky. Your initial playable characters aren't even Mario characters, that's how straight they play it. But as you progress through the game, unlocking Mario & friends, all of whom play like otherwise normal golfers, the courses get more and more outlandish and Mario-inspired. They aren't unfair, but they are increasingly ridiculous and force you to really consider your strategic approach to each hole as the margins for error get smaller. If real live golf had course designs that challenged players mentally the way Boo Valley does, golf would be infinitely more entertaining (but still ethically and morally suspect).

42. Left 4 Dead 2 Xbox (360/PC, 2009)

I don't know if it's been clear at all from this list but I love survival horror games. Typically, of course, these games operate in a reliable way: you are alone, you are isolated, bad things you don't fully understand are happening, death is imminent, get out. It's the formula of choice for the genre because it's generally very effective. I alluded to this a bit in my Pikmin writeup, as it follows the same conventions, albeit in a different setting and format that hooked me immediately.

Left 4 Dead and its largely superior sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, also follow some of the same conventions, but present them in a radically different way, and it also hooked me immediately. The conceit here is that you're not alone, you're stuck with a small group of survivors, and you have to work as a team to survive. It's a concept that is familiar to anyone who's watched a horror movie, or who's played a squad-based shooter, but for whatever reason, the connection between those two things had never really been made until L4D arrived on the scene.

Couple that with an AI "Director" who, in a roguelike fashion, scrambles the level and the types of enemies you can expect every time you play through, and you have a recipe for hours and hours of tense, thrilling fun, trying to navigate your way through the immersive environs of the American South to safety.

Ultimately, while the first game introduced the core ideas into play, the second game expands on both the scope and the gameplay so significantly that it basically makes the first game unnecessary. The multiplayer, which features two teams, alternating sides as powerful zombies and the human survivors they're chasing, was broadened and deepened immensely through the addition of new weapons and new Special Infected. I'm not sure there's a multiplayer game on my list (or possibly any other) that creates tension and camaraderie the way L4D2 does.

Incidentally, it just got a significant update at the end of last year, after 8 years, if anyone wants to get some 8 player games going on Steam >_>

41. Diddy Kong Racing (N64, 1997)

I alluded to this in the Discord chat, but Diddy Kong Racing is probably the best game that exists almost entirely out of desperation.

In 1996 and 1997, RARE were working on Banjo-Kazooie a racing game called Pro-Am 64, a spiritual successor to RC Pro-Am, starring a cute tiger named Timber. In '97, it became clear that B-K, their next major major game, was going to be delayed, leaving them with nothing for the holiday release window. Thinking that Pro-Am 64 didn't have enough cache on its own, they added Diddy (and Banjo and Conker, who also had a game on the horizon for GBC) and friends and adapted the game's colorful, beautiful presentation from there, and added a soundtrack by none other than David Wise. The result was one of the most effortlessly fun kart racers of all time. It's equal parts Mario Kart, Wave Race, and Pilotwings, as the enormously satisfying campaign asks you to choose between kart, hovercraft, and plane across some of the most creatively designed and challenging courses in the genre in pursuit of the dastardly Wizpig.

It's also worth noting that there's an element of strategy present in DKR that other kart racers lack. Not only is there the question of what vehicle is the best option, but the power-ups on the course are color-coded based on what they do: red balloons to attack, blue balloons for a speed boost, yellow balloons to defend, green balloons for traps, and rainbow balloons for the magnet powerup, which acts both like drafting and a short-term rubber band. Picking the right balloon at the right time can make a world of difference in some of the more notoriously challenging races, especially in Future Fun Land, the space themed final world.

In sum: DKR is great, fuck you Nick.

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The Thighmaster

But not on this page because that's dumb

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The Thighmaster

Updates coming from yours truly

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The Thighmaster

Until I was writing my write-ups, I had LttP at 47 too, but I realized I had to swap it with Bastion

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The Thighmaster

and now for the Extreme Block

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIiLvg58SY

thus concludes the Extreme Block

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The Thighmaster

I am surprised this received so many votes/posts

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The Thighmaster

50. Need for Speed: Underground (Gamecube, 2003)

The very best Need for Speed games all have an element of danger to them. Not just in the aforementioned speed, but in the illegality of the racing itself, or the risk of totaling or otherwise losing your ride. Need For Speed Underground (and it's slicker, but somewhat less engaging sequel) achieve that not by featuring the police, as so many other NFS games have done, but by steeping itself in the tuner / illegal street racing culture that was chic in the early 2000s, thanks in part to movies like The Fast and The Furious and Tokyo Drift.

At the time it was one of the most thematically cohesive and immersive racing games around, and I think that largely holds true. It's still, to this date, the best reviewed NFS game when you add up the reviews for each platform, and for good reason. It controls beautifully, whether its in the drift races, which are as challenging as they are exhilarating, or the fast-twitch action of the drag races, where you must drive a manual and hit your upshifts perfectly to stand a shot. Throw in the almost limitless customization options and the deep roster of import cars, and you've got not only a great racing game, but one of the underrated gems of the 2000s.

49. Goldeneye (N64, 1997)

If you read my Perfect Dark writeup, you likely intuited that this was coming at some point. Looking back on it now, it's amazing that we all loved this game and played it so extensively. The levels were iconic, yes, but the textures and character designs were hideous. We just didn't know any better in '97. This game was the multiplayer king in my friend group up until Smash took the crown and never looked back. It was just the right game at the right time, and it provided hours of fun and ridiculous arguments over what settings to use and whether or not it was fair to play as Oddjob (it was, imo). This is a moment in time we can't get back, but what a moment it was.

48. Ken Griffey Jr's Slugfest (N64, 1999)

Despite being a huge baseball fan for most of my life, I've never been a huge fan of baseball video games. But Slugfest came along at the right time, and featured my favorite non-Red Sox player ever as its star, and I absolutely loved this game. I got so good at it so quickly that in season mode, I was breaking the game by the All-Star Break. Turns out the game only allotted enough code for you to have 255 RBI in a season with a single player, so when you got to 256 it would reset that byte and start the count at 0. I had to keep notepads with my stats for most of my players once I realized this. Slugfest also had perhaps the first truly satisfying Home Run Derby mode. Given that this game came out in the spring of '99, leading into the iconic '99 All Star weekend at Fenway - for my money still the best All-Star Game / HR Derby combo to date, even putting my personal bias about the Sox and Fenway aside - and amid the "chicks dig the longball" phase, having a game that made an effort on the Derby mode was a big deal. By the time the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox gen came around, I was largely disinterested in sports games that played it straight, but I kept playing Slugfest for years beyond its supposed expiration date.

47. Bastion (PC, 2011)

Given how much I immediately enjoyed Bastion, which I played working overnights at the psych ward, my first job out of undergrad, it's a little amazing to me that I didn't return to any Supergiant offerings until diving into Hades about a month ago. Bastion is a masterful presentation - the visuals, the music, the gameplay all perfectly complement one another. The score is among the best in recent gaming history. Caeldonia, The Calamity, The Kid, and The Narrator are four distinct hooks that catch you almost immediately and keep you engaged as you unravel the mysteries and undo the damage. If you haven't played it by now, what are you waiting for?

46. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, 1991)

I've never owned Link to the Past. I've never emulated Link to the Past.

But I loved Link to the Past.

I went to the Boys and Girls Club after school and during the summers when I was young, because my parents needed to work long, often overlapping hours to give us any sort of financial security. The Club had a rickety old SNES with some games, like Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Super Mario World and Link to the Past and some other stuff. It was an SNES that had seen some shit. It was such a fragile situation that if the cartridge was bumped even slightly while the game was playing, the save file that was playing would be erased. I have no idea to this day why or how this was possible, but as you might imagine, among adolescents, there were many bumpings of the cart - some accidental, some "accidental" - while my friends and I used the three save files to try to see who could beat the game first. It was this challenge that brought me to GameFAQs, as we all agreed - printing out a map of Hyrule would not only be cool, but useful.

Ultimately, I was the first to navigate both Hyrule and the Dark World to finish the game first. I won by maybe a day or two, mitigating the risk of lost saves by playing in small bursts at times when the more sociopathic kids were playing dodgeball or whatever. It was a truly unique spring and summer that we raced to complete LttP, and one of my fondest memories.

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The Thighmaster

A recap of my list so far

51. Donkey Kong 94
52. NBA Jam
53. Super Monkey Ball 2
54. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
55. Mario Tennis
56. The Stanley Parable
57. Super Mario World
58. The Walking Dead: Season 1
59. Fallout: New Vegas
60. Mario Kart Double Dash!
61. NBA Street Vol. 2
62. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
63. WarioWare: Smooth Moves!
64. Pikmin
65. Audiosurf
66. Claw
67. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
68. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
69. Wario Land 4
70. Donkey Kong 64
71. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
72. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
73. Trauma Center: Under the Knife / Second Opinion
74. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
75. Portal
76. The Legend of Zelda
77. Thomas Was Alone
78. Meteos
79. Mario Kart 64
80. Perfect Dark
81. Mario Party 2
82. Guitar Hero II
83. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
84. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
85. StarCraft II
86. Civilization IV
87. Blast Corps
88. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
89. Raiden II
90. Super Mario 3D World
91. Snowboard Kids 2
92. Simpsons Arcade
93. Castle Crashers
94. Top Skater
95. Rock Band Blitz
96. Final Fantasy IV
97. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
98. Mount Your Friends 3D
99. Jet Force Gemini
100. Battle of Polytopia

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The Thighmaster

55. Mario Tennis (Nintendo 64, 2000)

Not only is Mario Tennis the most fun tennis game around, it gave the world the greatest gift a game could give: Waluigi.

For that, how could it not make the list?

54. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PlayStation 2, 2001)

I can't say for certain that this is the weirdest Metal Gear Solid game, but I feel pretty comfortable assuming that it is, We all clamored for the Tanker Demo, and I assume we all loved it. Then we get the full game, and SURPRISE, it's Raiden. And he's doing nude cartwheels. And Snake is there in disguise (though not much of a disguise if you were a fan of Escape from New York, which was very clearly an enormous influence on Kojima in the making of this game, especially when you consider the stuff they had to remove due to 9/11). It just gets progressively more batshit from there. And I loved every minute of the madness.

Gimme an HD Remake Director's Cut, Kojima.

53. Super Monkey Ball 2 (Gamecube, 2002)

Super Monkey Ball was a good game, and an unexpected hit for Sega. It had satisfying single player and multiplayer modes. It was, actually, the first video game my brother and I could reliably get our parents to play, because Monkey Target, Monkey Bowling, and Monkey Billiards were easy to understand and be competitive at (I'm not sure another game has done Billiards as well since, to be honest)

Super Monkey Ball 2 took everything that was good about the original and exceeded it. The levels got wilder, longer, funnier, and more challenging. Challenge mode's secret stages turned all of those factors to 11. The multiplayer expanded, introducing games like Monkey Baseball and Monkey Boatrace, and improving the preexisting games significantly. The series never again reached these heights, but man, for a couple of years, this game got nearly as much play in my life as Smash did.

52. NBA Jam (Arcade, 1993)

I previously stated that NBA Street Vol. 2 is the best basketball game of all time, and I stand by that. It's a perfect blend of arcade style theatrics and realistic basketball a la NBA Live or 2K. But the incorporation of those high flying theatrics is owed almost entirely to NBA Jam, the second best basketball game ever, but certainly the most important. This is a game whose success was so pervasive within basketball culture that you can feel its influence in modern NBA broadcasts and arenas. The entire idea of a "heat check" three exists because of Jam. NBA Jam players figured out long before NBA GMs did that threes and dunks win games. We talk about the way Madden influenced the NFL all the time, but for a game so objectively ridiculous as NBA Jam to have had the influence it did is just as impressive, I think.

51. Donkey Kong (Game Boy, 1994)

Donkey Kong 94 exists as both a sequel and reimagining of the Donkey Kong games of yore, while also surpassing them in every way. The game opens with the familiar classic Donkey Kong run to rescue Pauline... except when you finish the fourth level, DK isn't as down for the count as he seems. The rest of the game unfolds over 9 increasingly difficult and vibrant worlds, each requiring different skills and applications of those skills, totaling 101 levels. DK Jr swings through to disrupt your progress at times, and Mario apes a few abilities from Super Mario Bros. 2 to even out the playing field. And, as I recall, you can only save after beating a boss level, which happens every 4 stages. The whole affair proves to be the absolute perfect presentation of one of the all-time classics.

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The Thighmaster

Excellent top 2

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The Thighmaster

In obv

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The Thighmaster

Bonus Question: if you answered peach, is it because of Friends?

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The Thighmaster

This is Important

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The Thighmaster

WiggumFan267 posted...

Next up: A really boring game?

Mr Driller

or Dig Dug

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The Thighmaster

60. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Gamecube, 2003)


Sometimes, when I'm talking with friends about movies or music I like, we get into discussions about two qualities of the thing: the timeliness and the timelessness of it. Was it a throwback, was it right on time, was it ahead of its time? Is it timeless or does it belong to its time period?

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! occupies a weird combination of those things - it was both ahead of its time and very of its time. As most Gamecube games tended to, it pushed at the ideas of what a game in a given series could be. Sometimes Nintendo was successful at this (Wind Waker) and sometimes they weren't (Sunshine) but it all feels of a piece in terms of design philosophy. To play Double Dash now, as it was, feels like stepping back in time to the weird days of 2003 and 2004. You could play this game with 16 humans via LAN! Almost no one did, but you could. If Double Dash got a deluxe remaster for Switch, or if it had been released in a time when online console gaming was a routine experience instead of a special occasion, it would have been an unmitigated success.

The one thing that is timeless though, that I have to give it specific credit for, is that it expanded the Mario Kart roster to include a wider and more entertaining cast of characters that has become one of the mainstays of the series.

59. Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360/PC, 2010)


By all objective measures, and many subjective ones, New Vegas is the best. It's got a more coherent story with a definitive(ish) ending, it feels like there are actual and significant stakes when you make choices, and it's almost certainly the funniest. Despite that, I have not actually completely finished playing it. As much as I like the Fallout games (and spoilers, there's another one coming on this list), I've never actually finished one entirely. Some day, maybe.

58. The Walking Dead: Season 1 (PC, 2012)


After the unmitigated disaster of Seasons 2 through whatever of The Walking Dead TV series, and the comic series heading in a similarly irretrievable direction, this proved to be an oasis for those of us who loved the first few dozen issues of the comics. It was a nice reminder that there were people out there who could write a zombie story with meaningful, harrowing consequences.

57. Super Mario World (SNES, 1991)


I mean, come on. It's not my favorite, but it's impeccable and timeless.

56. The Stanley Parable (PC, 2013)


As you might be starting to suspect - or as you certainly will learn as this list carries on - I enjoy when games take a familiar concept or idea and take it in a strange or unexpected direction. Few games do this better than The Stanley Parable, a first person game about a man who notices the world around him is not what he believed it to be. What it ends up being depends on the choices the player makes, and the range of outcomes and the journeys you take to get to them is compelling. I won't say more, because I know there is an Ultra Deluxe remake coming later this year that promises to expand upon the premise even further, but suffice it to say: play the game and experience it yourself.

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The Thighmaster

I am a big fan of sci-fi and horror and I could not for the life of me find Dead Space interesting

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The Thighmaster

Goddamn it Nee

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The Thighmaster