LogFAQs > #949809593

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