LogFAQs > #951285840

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