LogFAQs > #949542155

70. Donkey Kong 64 (N64 ,1999)


The inclusion of this game is something I expect will spark some discussion, because it's not a game most of you like. It is, however, a game that is near and dear to me, because it's the first console game I ever owned. I got the jungle green N64 for Christmas in 1999. Up until that point, all I'd owned were GameBoy and PC games. I'd played Genesis and SNES and N64 and PS games with friends, but my parents were reluctant in getting me a console until it was nearly the new millennium. Imagine the first time you turn your own video game system on and the first thing you experience is the DK Rap. How could this game not be on the list?

Also, a note for Nintendo, who is obviously reading this: BRING BACK LANKY AND CHUNKY YOU COWARDS

69. Wario Land 4 (GBA, 2001)

Now Imagine you get a GBA a couple of years later, after having played GameBoy and GameBoy Color games for the past 6 or so years, and this is among the first games you play. People often talk about how vibrant the Mario games are, and how artfully designed they are, but Wario Land 4 takes the familiar bright palette of his archrival and marries it with the off-kilter and somewhat gruesome aesthetic for which Wario is known, and it does it masterfully. I'm not sure Nintendo made a better looking 2D platformer. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Wario Land effectively ended here. The first WW game came out two years later, and aside from a half-baked attempt at a Wii game, Wario Land has remained a dormant series for the last 20 years, which is a shame, because it's an absolute treasure trove, and one that you should raid with Wario if you haven't already.

68. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (GBA, 2003)

67. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS, 2008)


These games are really radically different in tone and style, despite being part of the same series and having similar gameplay. In part because of that, I couldn't in good conscience combine them into one series entry (for as much as I like AW1 and DS, these two are much better games, for two). These are the two most challenging and balanced of the AW games, but as you can see, the tone of each is evident even in still shots. Where the GBA games and Dual Strike had a bright, colorful take and a consistent and comical cast of characters, Days of Ruin chucked it all for a darker, grittier look and feel (it was 2008, after all - darker and gritter was in). The end results are two supremely different but almost equally satisfying games in a series that seems to have been effectively shut down by the success of Fire Emblem, which like Wario Land, is a damn shame.

I guess you could say the theme of these last four games is "stuff I love that Nintendo forgot about doing more with"

66. Claw (PC, 1997)


Claw is a game that climbed this list the more I thought about it. I think it could charitably be called a cult classic at this point, but the gist of it is this: You play as Captain Nathaniel J. Claw, a pirate cat, imprisoned by the Cocker Spaniards after the sinking of his ship (presumably by the Spaniard Armada). He escapes his prison - and his execution - and sets off in pursuit of the Amulet of Nine Lives, and the gems that give it its power.

The gameplay is a fairly challenging 2D platformer, littered with secrets and jokes that you might miss the first time through. You have a cutlass for taking out enemies up close, a pistol (with limited ammo) for ranged attacks, and occasionally, a magic spell and bundles of dynamite for trickier situations and/or bosses. The game itself is really beautifully designed. Even against today's fare, as a 2D platformer, it can hold its own pretty well. The attention to detail is really something, and the sound design is as good as you'll find in a game, especially of its era - the characters are fully voiced, in the seaside levels you can hear distant waves crashing and occasional gulls cawing, doors ka-chunk and clatter when you open and close them. It's really immersive in a way that games by and large weren't then.

Bottom line: find a way to give this a play. It's worth it.

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The Thighmaster