LogFAQs > #949809081

54. Sound Voltex [series] (Arcade, 2012-present)

This was a game that I knew I liked immediately upon playing it for the first time. It's a BEMANI-series AAA rhythm game title, which comes with all the positives of basically any of those games: great original music, a cohesively produced aesthetic, and clean and satisfying gameplay. The control setup (see above for example) is two rows of 4 and 2 buttons respectively, along with two knobs in the top left and right corners. Grey lines appearing in the four lanes correspond to the central white buttons, while orange lines mark the bottom two buttons (they'll appear in lanes 1/2 and 3/4 respectively). The centerpiece, of course, are the analog knobs, which appear as pink or blue lanes hovering above the main track and must be followed by rotating the knobs quickly or precisely (depending on the track) along with the music. Similar to Beatmania IIDX, the combination of digital (basic button presses) with analog (the knobs) really feels challenging, unique, and satisfying. Here's a (fast) youtube video example of what the hell's going on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFWMwscsxLo
There's a couple very small strikes against this series that keep it from being a top-50 placer: I don't really love the music as much as the other BEMANI series; I think it follows Vocaloid and other trends a little too much and has less interesting and different music. (There's still a lot of good stuff though.) As someone who is probably too ignorant to know better, it feels like its aesthetic is capitalizing on a lot of anime/weeb trends of the past decade, which is probably why it's gotten so popular, for better or worse. The other problem is that I really haven't been able to play it much - it's in Round 1 arcades but the nearest one is a couple hours from me (plus 2020 is a thing) and I've only really gone in on it at conventions. Home controllers are a thing but paying for a decent setup is outside of my price range right now. Anyway, it's still a great game - if you like basically any Japanese rhythm games you'll probably have a good time with this.

53. Tecmo Bowl (NES, 1989)

Another cheat entry, this is really about the Tecmo series as a whole but I don't know if I can classify it as an ongoing series technically? So I compromised and just picked the oldest game here I've played. If you're one of those people (Hi Nick) you can just pretend I picked Tecmo Super Bowl or whichever one you like best here and that's just as accurate.
I ended up getting into Tecmo kinda late through the DS release Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff. Kickoff had a pretty cute editor that I used to remake the actual NFL at first then a custom league I made up for fun. (Shoutouts to the multi-time Tecmo Bowl champion Pittsburgh Cannons!) It also had a...stat-gaining system (?) that you could use to level up players. Ultimately because of this everyone is slow and exploiting the CPU AI is easy - once I figured out Tecmo in general I basically steamrolled the AI, but I still had a good time with it. Later on I played some of the SNES Tecmo games a little bit, and I plowed through the NES Tecmo when it was ported to Switch online. I've followed along to multiple remade Tecmo leagues through B8 projects and Youtubers, etc. The game's charm is pervasive through basically every single of its iterations, great and bad alike.
What I think makes Tecmo so rad is that it's a brilliant facsimile of football. It clearly is structured and functions like football, but it's...not quite actually football. Kickoffs are wonky because the kicking team is so radically faster that you have to zigzag run like a champ to make up ground. Defensive plays don't exist so you have to play around the inherent weaknesses of the built-in coverage. Tackles end up culminating in a sort of rugby-scrum-like battle where both players mash like hell to escape or bring down the runner. And everything about Tecmo, from its cutaway action sequence "cutscenes" to its janky physics to its basic pixel graphics, ends up coming out making the whole package look even more endearing. The extensive fan scene that has continued building modern rosters of the game basically 30 years after its release is a testament to just how charming Tecmo is, and also how it is such a satisfyingly simple contrast to the complex behemoth that Madden has become.
For all of that, Tecmo is my #1 sports (non-racing) game on the list. Shoutouts to QB Eagles, Touchdown Thurman Thomas, and of course, Tecmo Bo Jackson.

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