LogFAQs > #949576604

65. Audiosurf (PC, 2008)

The late 2000s really saw rhythm games expanding in all directions, trying to find the next Guitar Hero. Shy of Rock Band, which literally and metaphorically was the next Guitar Hero, Audiosurf is maybe the game that got the closest. The concept is pretty simple: you take equal parts Klax and F-Zero, and code it so the game can generate a course based on any song the player chooses from their library of MP3s. The result is an undulating, fast-paced, sometimes hypnotic rhythm game with an unlimited library of songs and infinite replayability. As DRM, and then later streaming services, became the predominant powers in the digital music space, Audiosurf was one of the casualties; a sequel was released in 2013 to almost no fanfare or reception.

But for those years in the late 00s and early 10s, Audiosurf was a reliably fun way to pass a lot of time listening to music in a way none of us had really thought could exist.

64. Pikmin (Gamecube, 2001)

Pikmin is a series that immediately captivated me. It took two things I love - real-time strategy and action-adventure - and put them together in a way that was as delightful as it was unexpected as it was nerve-wracking. You don't anticipate when you boot up a Pikmin game for the first time that you will form an emotional attachment to these hundreds of little weird creatures, but the more you get into the game, the more you do. When they die in battle, or god forbid if you don't get them back to the onions in time, you feel bad. They trusted you! And you let them die! So you push yourself harder to do better, to keep them safe, even though death is lurking for both the Pikmin and Olimar at every turn. There's almost an element of survival horror to it, except you're keeping 101 creatures alive instead of one or two. It's brilliant and affecting and I adore it.

That being said, Pikmin is the worst of the three main Pikmin games. It suffers a bit from the technical limitations of being an early GameCube game where Pikmin 2 and 3 exist at the upper reaches of their original system's technical capabilities. The remastered versions of 1 and 2 for Wii fix some of this, but it doesn't do enough to elevate Pikmin over Pikmin 2. Truthfully, I'd love to see the first two games re-ported to Switch, because the series as a whole is under-played, in large part due to the fact that the GCN and Wii games were relatively hard to find copies of.

63. WarioWare: Smooth Moves! (Wii, 2007)

For my money, this is the peak (for now, at least) of the WarioWare series. As a Wii launch title, it showed us, more than any other early game, just what this seemingly insane control scheme was capable of. It took the bizarre insanity of the WarioWare games, which had largely been a portable affair (let's just pretend Mega Party Games doesn't exist) and turned it into a frenzied, shared experience we were all having in our living rooms with our friends and family.

And like the Wario Land 4, the less said about the attempts to follow this game the better. Nintendo: get it together with the two Wario series already. Yeesh.

62. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS, 2005)

Growing up not owning NES, SNES or PlayStation, and having not played Castlevania 64, I never really got into Metroidvanias until Dawn of Sorrow. I still really haven't! But Dawn of Sorrow hit me at the right time and I loved it. Soma Cruz and his soul-stealing make for a compelling, highly variable playable character (who would have been much more interesting as a Smash DLC fighter than the Belmonts, IMO). I don't have a lot to say about this one, especially since you guys all know both it and the genre better than I do!

61. NBA Street Vol. 2 (Gamecube, 2003)

It's not news to anyone from #sports that my favorite sport is basketball. I will watch any good basketball that is available regardless of whether not I have a rooting interest. Despite my adoration of basketball - or perhaps because of it - I have rarely loved basketball video games.

NBA Street Vol. 2 is one of those rare exceptions.

The series started in 2001 as EA's attempt to cash in on the immensely popular And1 mixtape phenomenon, which featured street ball legends playing the most over the top, flashy, incredible basketball in parks, mostly around New York. And1, of course, was the result of increasing availability of portable video cameras and early cellphones meeting a half-century-long history of stylistically heightened ball that been played in places like the Rucker dating back to the 50s. The Rucker was in some ways to the NBA what the Negro Leagues were to the MLB: freer, looser, Blacker and more fun than their stodgier relatives.

NBA Street Vol. 2 captured all of that perfectly. They brought in perhaps the most authentic voice possible to do the color commentary: Bobbito Garcia aka Kool Bob Love aka DJ Cucumber Slice, a former streetballer turned DJ, radio host, and record label owner. As a DJ and radio show host, he and his partner Stretch Armstrong helped break some of the most enormous rap artists of all time: Nas, Jay-Z, the Wu-Tang Clan, the Fugees, Big L, the Notorious B.I.G., among many many others. As the founder of Fondle 'Em Records, he launched the career of the recently departed MF Doom and served as the precursor to El-P's Def Jux label. Bobbito was the secret sauce that married the solid gameplay of NBA Street, the hip-hop culture surrounding street ball, the soundtrack of the game, and the newly-added NBA legends - many of whom had history at the Rucker themselves - and turned it into the best basketball video game that has yet been created.

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The Thighmaster