Board 8 > transience's top 100 games -- 2020 edition.

(+) Yeah! (+)

TheRock1525 posted...

Don't play XB2 if you have a healthy respect for women.

no worries there...!

that was a joke just to be clear

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Tag

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Xenoblade 1 is still Game of the Ever. Can't wait for the remake.

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79.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_iVHVGqMIU

1987
NES

Theres a rhythm to a Punch Out fight. Ive long pushed back on the idea that this is a sports game, instead calling it a puzzle game with some action elements. But I think theres another level you can reach with Punch-Out, when you know the answers to the puzzle and it all becomes about timing and execution.

That anxious anticipation of waiting for the enemy to throw their punch so you can counter turns Punch-Out into a sort of rhythm game, as you wait for the right note to come at you and then execute the right buttons to pull it off. Im good enough at Punch-Out to beat it without too much trouble, but Im not great, meaning I can easily screw up and get worked by a Bald Bull or a Sandman if Im not on top of my timing.

I think thats the best place to be with this game: good enough to dominate the opponents but vulnerable enough to get a rush when everything lines up your way. Any worse and this game could be frustrating, and any better and it would be trivial.

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78.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uycTT_S2nH8

2007
PS2

This might seem stupid but I really enjoy this games narrative. The game obviously looks and sounds great but the revenge story is what keeps me moving. You can reduce it to being just Kratos killing everyone, and that would be correct, but its cool to see what will happen next and the games final hours really wrap up in an exciting way. These production values were off the charts in 2007 compared to whatever JRPG was on the market.

The gameplay is simple but I like that. I dont want to do stylish action. With God of War, I like just hitting a few buttons and things die in front of me. Theres some amount of depth here but you dont need to go SSSSSS++++ in order to succeed and have fun. Sometimes its okay to just hit square-square-triangle a lot.

The in-fight cutscenes are of course fun to watch play out. QTE is a relic of the past now but its still fun to press the button prompts and watch gods get destroyed. The visuals dont pop now like they did in 2007 when this game pushed the PS2 to its absolute limits, but I kinda like that its not all HD and beautiful. God of War got unnecessarily gory and brutal following this game and its actually the last God of War that Ive played (well, besides the PSP games). GOW2 is still brutal but it feels justified through the narrative. This is a game that I can get a ways into and then just get sucked in until I finish it. Its fun and thats all I need.

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77.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCFTLQcA0ZQ

2017
PC, PS4, XB1

Look, I am very much not a shooter guy, but the new Wolfenstein games are 100% up my alley. The scenarios are off the wall bonkers and the characters are strange enough to be really likable. It tells a story thats pretty dumb, but also hilarious and perfect. It doesnt hurt that I hold Wolfenstein 3D in super high regard. I played the hell out of that when it came out and can still go back to it today somehow.

I suck at shooters so I just put this game on easy and go in guns blazing. It works perfectly with the style of game that Wolfenstein purports to be. Normally, putting a game on easy kind of nerfs the interest in the gameplay sections, but the levels themselves are so interesting and weird in Wolfenstein 2 that its actually better off for it, and the main character being an absolute monster fits the narrative,

If I were to make a list of top scenes from video games, Wolfenstein 2 would be all over that list. The first level has you fighting off dozens of nazis while rolling around in a wheelchair and another one has you dressed up in a firefighter costume, talking to the nazi-loving KKK while carrying a nuke in your bag. What a game.

You wouldnt think that a dumb game like Wolfenstein would be in full-on spoiler territory but it is. I really love the bizarre cast of characters that this series has developed over the course of this reboot and there are at least 6 moments in this game that are jaw-dropping.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Don't play XB2 if you have a healthy respect for women.

real talk, this is the first jrpg that's made me full on just stop playing for solely because of sexism and weirdness

and I still play Fire Emblem, Tales, and Trails on the reg

76.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WShCN-AYHqA

2018
Switch

I like the actual fighting in Smash, but thats not really why I come to these games. I mean, kicking people with Kirbys foot is fun but is almost separate to the core appeal of Smash Brothers.

Smash Brothers Ultimate has gone so far into the content side that its a straight up celebration of video games at this point. Its not celebrating *all* video games because it very much sticks to mascot type characters and content thats mostly suited for all ages, but its the closest thing youll find in video game form.

This is the most complete single game that you can show to a person who just wants to know what video games are. That celebration, that curation, is what makes this collection great. Ultimate specifically has a single player mode (World of Light) that strengthens this museum-like quality. This game really is a virtual tour of video games packed with hundreds of characters and thousands of songs and the most careful attention to detail possible. Even the third party characters are treated with surgical care, protecting their moves and simulating the feeling of playing their games.

Sometimes you just want to see through the looking glass at all the things that make games great. I think I like seeing this games trailers and presentations more than picking up the controller. The 2 or 3 characters that get added to the game every year is an internet event and while that fandom can get more than a little weird, the Smash creators worship at the altar of video games is such a reverent way that I look forward to it anyway.

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colliding posted...

real talk, this is the first jrpg that's made me full on just stop playing for solely because of sexism and weirdness

and I still play Fire Emblem, Tales, and Trails on the reg

Whoa this must be on a whole other level then

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transience posted...

This is the most complete single game that you can show to a person who just wants to know what video games are. That celebration, that curation, is what makes this collection great. Ultimate specifically has a single player mode (World of Light) that strengthens this museum-like quality. This game really is a virtual tour of video games packed with hundreds of characters and thousands of songs and the most careful attention to detail possible. Even the third party characters are treated with surgical care, protecting their moves and simulating the feeling of playing their games.

This is a great way to describe the appeal of Ultimate: a tour. It reminds me of being a kid and playing with various unrelated action figures but headcanoning it to work.

Brawl will always be superior to Ultimate because of the way Nintendo had the characters interact in SSE. It is and will always be the apex of fanservice until KH4 finds a way to integrate FF, Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars into a cohesive universe.

Melee and SSB64 still feel the best to me mechanically, for whatever reason.

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okay, one quarter done! also, another tier complete.

100. hacknet
99. braid
98. batman: arkham asylum
97. super meat boy
96. portal
95. world of goo
94. hollow knight
93. super mario world
92. mega man maker
91. ace attorney 2
90. zelda: majora's mask
89. xenoblade chronicles x

88. monument valley
87. dragon warrior
86. mega man 3
85. castlevania: dawn of sorrow
84. nier: automata
83. we love katamari
82. zelda: link to the past
81. lethal league
80. half-minute hero 2
79. mike tyson's punch out!!
78. god of war 2
77. wolfenstein 2: the new colossus
76. super smash bros ultimate

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Ultimate was fun, but I think Smash has passed me by at this point. It just doesn't engross me anymore the way that the first three did.

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75.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiZ6mMlOF7c

2011
PC, Vita, Switch, PS4, XB1

Theres an alternate reality where I go all in on Binding of Isaacs insane smorgosboard of random items and powerups and get to know each one intimately. I would have thousands of hours on my Steam profile and would probably hate that I loved this game. You see, in Binding of Isaac, enjoyment = knowledge x time. The more you play, the better you get to know everything and the more addicted you get. It is a vicious loop. If you put enough time into this game, you start to learn all these insane powerup combos and it just makes you want to try out more things.

In our reality, I pick this game up every now and then and play a few runs and then put it back down before I start to feel dirty. Im never away for more than a year or two. Each time I come back, its like a new game: that item knowledge that makes this game so crazy is so easy to lose given how esoteric it is, and by the time you come back you just hope to make it as far as you can.

Heres the thing: theres no real feeling of reward to this game. You get a cheap thrill every time you pick up a new item and then keep going until you get the next one. The gameplay itself isnt very fun, but man, the lottery of items keeps you coming back, and back, and back. Its kind of like a Diablo or some other loot based game. Isaac is a fascinating experiment but it feels more like a mad scientist poured every potion into a cauldron and something really gross crawled out of it. This game is fascinating as hell.

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i don't have the friends to play SSBU with anymore :(

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74.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrmfrWhyTAY

FF7s setting is pretty incredible. I cant say enough positive things about the oppressive tone that permeates Midgar. Even when you get to the overworld, it still manages to hold you down through its great sound design (audio quality notwithstanding, and its not something I hold against the game) and great world design.

Unfortunately, the game playing part of FF7 is actually pretty mediocre. This isnt a shot at ATB because I love me some ATB. The battles just arent very fun and the bosses are surprisingly underwhelming. For a game that features such an interesting cast of characters, this game doesnt really have a standout boss fight, at least not in a good way. When I think of standout FF7 fights, I think of the Midgar Zolom and I think of Supernova. Everything inbetween just doesnt work that well.

This is why Im so damn enthralled by the upcoming FF7 remake. That game takes the best aspects of FF7 and amplifies them, especially on the cinematic side, and then rethinks all of the battle mechanics to make them seem more interesting. I might not love FF7 like others do, but the story beats, even the quiet little moments, are absolutely iconic in every way and I cant wait to see what they do with it. It is without a doubt my most anticipated game even though there are sequels to top 25 games coming out in the next 3 months.

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I think the Jenova fights are pretty iconic, even if they're all pretty easy.

Although honestly if I'm thinking of FFVII bosses, my mind usually goes to Guard Scorpion and Air Buster.

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the one that comes to my mind is the one where you equip a water ring or whatever and auto-win the fight, and the five form one at the end that isn't much fun at all. this is one of the 8 games I didn't replay in 2019 (waiting for the remake) so I'm not as up as FF7 right now.

I think my favourite fight in FF7 is probably the guy on mt. nibel - materia keeper, I think it was called? I couldn't tell you why I liked it, I just remember it being a good, interesting fight, and you get some monster skill that's good afterwards.

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73.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sz0mI_6tLQ

Super Hexagon is so pure. Its the most player vs. self game that I can think of, even moreso than other ultra-pure experiences like Tetris. Its because of how precise it is and how brief the experience is. The first time you jump in, you die so fast. Nobody survives for more than 10 seconds. A great run from a good player lasts maybe two minutes.

This game is an audiovisual assault. Its not the craziest thing youll ever see, but it spins and bumps enough to mess with you and it feels good when youre able to handle it.

Super Hexagon is the absolute perfect mobile game because the controls are so simple and the play sessions are so short. You can turn this thing on, get 5 games in 5-6 minutes, and most importantly, feel satisfied. Its easy to come back to Super Hexagon because you never forget how to handle those patterns once you figure it out. 10 minutes of playing and youre back where you were, trying to conquer this pure as hell game.


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Yeah, that's the Materia Keeper, and it teaches Trine, one of the better E. Skills in the game.

In terms of actual tough boss fights, I'd go with Schizo in the Icicle Cave or Carry Armor in the Underwater Reactor.

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72.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DWu_BVeg5E

1990
NES

It doesnt matter that much 30 years later, but Crystalis was way ahead of its time back when it came out. In the NES days, you had either a small-medium game world for an action game or a big overworld for an RPG. Crystalis goes big on both. The world sprawls while youre leveling up and getting better armor like an RPG, but youre also playing a top down, Zelda-like action system.

But being ahead of your time doesnt make you a good game. Crystalis still holds up outside of having to jump through some menus more often than youd like thanks to NES button limitations. The simple sword and shield gameplay works and the world feels expansive, but not so big that you get lost. Its fun to get new abilities and new swords that can deal different kinds of damage. Bosses can be pretty challenging and feel rewarding to defeat. Crystaliss progression is fun to trigger since the towns are ultra simple and the gameplay carries everything.

Oh, and lets not forget the music. Crystaliss overworld music is catchy as all hell and its got one of the best soundtracks on the NES. This game doesnt reach super high heights but its fun to jump back in and play just about any time.


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Crystalis is so good. How did a game that well made flop?

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Oh man I'm way behind, just commenting on the first page for now.

• I don't know how you managed to play close to a hundred games in a year, that's impressive. I probably played like 5 this year, maybe 10 if you count screwing around with RC Pro Am for an hour and stuff like that.
• Braid is great, I probably still rank it in my top 5. Although when I did replay that one (which might have even been this year) the impact was diminished a bit. The puzzles and mechanics are good but what really blew me away was the atmosphere, especially some of that licensed music you mentioned. The cryptic text stuff also really worked for me, even though in retrospect I think it's probably one of those things that means less than it seems to rather than more - I think it's written just to sound cool rather than to convey some meaningful message - but it's still cool
• JFA is good. Trials and Tribulations is still my favorite, guess I'll see if that makes this list.
• I love the description of Majora's Mask as a OOT romhack, and it makes me appreciate the game more too and the fact that Nintendo actually did it.

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Oh, if JFA is on here, PW1 and PW3 should be on here, too. I'm just curious to see if AAI2 makes it, which I imagine it will.

speaking of which it's literally been 3 years since our AA rankings

when is AA7

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I didnt complete a hundred games, mind you. it depends on the game.

like, for FF9, I played most of disc 1, just to get a feel for moving around the towns, doing full dungeons and dealing with that battle system. I specifically wanted to get past Lindblum for that one because I remember that place being a monster to navigate. for Super Hexagon I played like 20-30 minutes of runs because thats all you need to know how it feels. I did about two thirds of Braids puzzles. Crystalis was only a couple of hours because I knew it wouldnt be super high and I was really focusing on my top 50.

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yeah AA7 is a real question mark thanks to the 3DS going away. I feel a strong sense of loss when it comes to dedicated sub-HD platforms because a lot of games were able to get by with low development budgets that kinda can't do that anymore, especially ones that took advantage of two screens. one game I'm getting to today is going to feel that particularly hard.

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Page 2 comments:

LOL, Dragon Warrior. It's such a basic and mediocre game, but I can totally understand the way you feel about it. I think it's probably kind of how I feel about the Bard's Tale or Adventure Construction Set. I got the free copy of Dragon Warrior for subscribing to Nintendo Power in like 1990 or so and by that time it already felt pretty dated.

Oh man, MM3 not good?? You might be right, I know I can't look at this game objectively, but I totally love it. Although it does seem like MM2 is the one I tend to go back and play even though I used to always say 3 was better, which might kind of confirm your theory.

Castlevania: DOS - I played like 5 or 6 of these mobile Castlevania games from like 2004-2007 and they've basically all blended together in my mind. Like, I remember DoS (I think it was DoS anyway) made you draw symbols because it was the first one on DS and they needed a gimmick for the touchscreen. But beyond that I don't remember a single thing about the game that was different from the other mobile ones. I guess Portrait of Ruin had the going into paintings thing which I do remember.

Your description of Nier: Automata sounds interesting to me - how long does it take to do the multiple playthroughs?

LttP surprisingly low! There are a lot of good games though, I can't definitively say it belongs higher. But it feels higher to me.

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Automata is probably 30-40 hours to see all the content? there's more there if you do sidequests, but I didn't really enjoy exploring the game world very much so I avoided a lot of that. that game is all about the narrative and atmosphere.

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71.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SoKbKOa6rg

1996
PS1

I love the first Suikodens simplicity and pace. Everything in Suikoden 1 moves quickly: fights, cutscenes and dungeons. Youre never stuck doing any one thing for more than a few minutes. This is an early PS1 JRPG that feels more like a SNES game with how brisk it feels. Some people might think this game feels a little immature thanks to how light everything is, but not me.

Thats because youre always building towards something. In Suikoden, you start out as a relative nobody, slowly building a resistance army, and by the end of it you feel super powerful as your army is mature and ready to crush the Empire. You get stronger, add new characters, your base gets bigger and everything reinforces each other in one giant happy feedback loop.

Its really fun to recruit guys. Well, it can be maddening because some guys have really specific requirements, and if youre going for 100% you can always find a way to screw something up. Dont accidentally step on Blackmans crops or you can kiss him goodbye. But overall, this is so much fun. Youll only use a very small percentage of them in battle, but sometimes you can use them in army fights for specific purposes, sometimes you can play minigames, or build an elevator in your base, or just any number of things.

That progression is what keeps me coming back to Suikoden 1. Later games have more nuanced plots and bigger moments, but the simplicity of the original along with the ease of play makes this game my clear favorite in the series.

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something something suikoden 2

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Yeah, you can probably play it in 40ish hours if you're just trying to beat the game. Just be mindful that the first two playthroughs are very similar.

And yeah, I'm not huge on the world of either Nier game. They're both small, but it makes sense for them to be small. The sidequests are hit or miss, but there are some gems in there.

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I actually saw the small worlds as both a backhanded positive and a negative in Automata (I only played a few minutes of the original Nier). I was glad it wasn't too big because exploring it was painful due to the really poor map, but I also disliked it because humanity has packed up and gone to the moon and machines have taken over the planet but you only explore like a city block and a desert and a forest and that's kind of it.

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crystalis is one of the first games i remember really standing out to me when i was a kid. the scope of the game, combined with its relatively simple controls and feel, still holds up super well 30 years later

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Honestly I think Punch Out is more of a rhythm game with some puzzle and memory elements. I don't know if it would make my top 100 (one hundred games is a lot) but I played it a fair amount. I was good enough to reach Tyson but not good enough to ever beat him.

I do kind of love the mascot and celebration of video games aspect of Smash even though I disliked the gameplay of Melee so much I've never even played the newer games in the series.

FF7! You're totally right, great atmosphere and characters, kinda weak gameplay. I will take a shot at ATB, personally I think it (and most menu driven JRPG combat) is just bad. Usually there's almost no strategy and there are way too many battles. And from the Playstation era onward the battles almost always take too long. Ironically by far the best implementation of ATB I've played is in the mobile game Final Fantasy Record Keeper. Oh also the snowboarding minigame is still the best Final Fantasy minigame ever.

Oh man, Suikoden! As you know, 2 is the one I love. They are similar in a lot of ways but 2 is just more polished and bigger. I played 2 first so 1 could never compete but it was still pretty good.

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Sorry for spamming your topic so much, I also wanted to say I only got to play I the first 2 cases of AA5 and never played AA6 at all because I lost my 2DS, which still makes me sad. I wish I could just play them on my PC.

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Crystalis is so good

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no, feel free! I can't go down the snowboarding path with you. that minigame is awful. FF7 goes way out of its way to add minigames to spice up its combat and almost all of them are just bad. I could do a ranking topic of FF7 minigames but dolphin jumping, the shinra stealth sequence, the sub, snowboarding, squats, chocobo racing -- it's so bad. I do like ft. condor but I'm a sucker for that stuff.

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69.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoXXIgPRMos

Theres a lot you can say about the Etrian Odyssey series. On the surface, its the dungeon crawler series where you draw a map on the touch screen, but the real sneaky appeal is in its character builds and how they can best help you survive what is a pretty challenging game. Growing a set of characters is much better here than other games of its ilk.

The challenge here is key - if the dungeons werent hard, you wouldnt be so focused on building out your characters, and you quite honestly wouldnt care that much about mapping out a dungeon. But you need every advantage you can get in this game and so you draw a goddamn perfect map. You remember enemy weaknesses and you learn how to use your guys together. You can spend more time making a decision about which classes and skills to go with than playing entire floors.

All of this so far exists in just about every Etrian Odyssey game. EO5 brings a ton of quality of life improvements that bump it over earlier games in the series. For once, the game seems to be working with you. You move faster, fight faster, map faster and more accurately, can come and go from each floor entrance, etc. The game is streamlining all of the hassle and giving you the real challenge 100% of the time.

EO5 decides to scale back and stick to the basics rather than introducing quirky new gimmicks, which 3 and 4 certainly had. Its also the hardest of those games. When it comes strictly to player vs. dungeon, its tough to get much better than EO5.


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transience posted...

no, feel free! I can't go down the snowboarding path with you. that minigame is awful. FF7 goes way out of its way to add minigames to spice up its combat and almost all of them are just bad. I could do a ranking topic of FF7 minigames but dolphin jumping, the shinra stealth sequence, the sub, snowboarding, squats, chocobo racing -- it's so bad. I do like ft. condor but I'm a sucker for that stuff.

And FFVIIR looks like it's going to add even more!

who's ready for darts

please give me pushups with Barret

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transience posted...

yeah AA7 is a real question mark thanks to the 3DS going away. I feel a strong sense of loss when it comes to dedicated sub-HD platforms because a lot of games were able to get by with low development budgets that kinda can't do that anymore, especially ones that took advantage of two screens. one game I'm getting to today is going to feel that particularly hard.

Definitely agree with this (also the regular Switch is not actually portable, and from what Ive read about account sharing with a Switch Lite it seems... less than ideal)

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yeah I have zero interest in the Switch Lite

and I barely use the handheld mode for the regular Switch unless I want to keep playing while I take a bathroom break

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I actually have grown to dislike playing games on a TV so I mostly play games on my PC or on Switch in handheld mode. I like being able to move as I play.

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I don't know that I've even touched my 3DS or Vita this year, and I've never been a PC gamer unless absolutely necessary.

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Im very big on portable gaming and am mourning the loss of the DS line

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Oh, don't get me wrong. I've loved my 3DS and Vita. There just hasn't been a reason for me to play them this year (I tried playing AA on the PS4 just to support the franchise and for the trophies, although I haven't finished that yet either), and I haven't had the urge to replay something.

I guess I should get back to the Layton games one of these days. I finished the original trilogy about a year ago and I started Last Spectre, but I think I stopped like an hour in.

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100% agree with Ff7s gameplay being pretty whatever

Lots of people complain about remake and outside the multi release thing just about everything shown so far looks what I woulda wanted original ff7 to look and play

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Last Spectre is decent

Miracle Mask is probably the second best Layton, though

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You jumped from game # 71 to 69 there.

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There's definitely a quality vs quantity tradeoff for minigames. But it also depends how it's used. Like the squatting minigame is objectively bad but the way it's used is great because you only do it once and it's hilarious. Fort Condor in my opinion is kind of bad because it's so involved and takes a while but it's not actually that deep and it's a big time commitment with no payoff basically. Personally I liked snowboarding because it was simple but the controls are basic and you're moving fast which is fun. Chocobo Racing is the worst just because the amount of time you're forced to spend on it is so far beyond the depth that the minigame actually supports. Of course it's been like 14 years since I've actually played any of these so my memory could be off.

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whoops, thanks for catching that, I did skip one:

70.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cBUlKndLWo

3DS/Mobile
2013

I can go both ways on this game depending on my mood. Undoubtedly, AA5 is the least consequential AA game in the series, and it can be kind of forgettable because of it. The plot of this game seems bombastic (no pun intended) with the exploding courtroom and the DARK AGE OF THE LAW but its actually a very safe, by the numbers kind of game. The two main characters, Phoenix Wright and Apollo Justice, dont really grow in any meaningful way, especially Apollo who just seems sidelined now that Phoenix is here.

The main point of the game is to introduce Athena. Athena isnt my favorite character but shes an interesting wrinkle to the standard brofest we usually get with our lawyers. Unfortunately, her main mechanic is the mood matrix which is a heartbeat away from the perceive stuff that drew so many negative reactions in AA4.

But I think all of this negative stuff is burying the lede here. This game is a massive return to form after the tragedy of AA4. That game wasnt just a bad game with lots of plot inconsistencies, it threatened to destroy the canon of the series. They made two spinoffs with Edgeworth solely because they had aborted the main Phoenix arc and that was all they had to go with. With this game, they managed to right the ship and introduce some new characters. Yeah, its fairly safe, but thats exactly what the series needed at this point when it seemed like AA was just over.

Speaking of new characters, its also worth mentioning that on top of trying to right the canon, this is the first 3DS game after years on the DS. That transition to a higher fidelity worried me from a budget standpoint and also because they might try to do something in real time that was beyond the scope of the DS. Instead, they made some great looking new characters with some really good animations, and those animations really popped when the game came out in 2013 after almost a decade on the DS.

And despite being safe, there are some good cases here. Im a major fan of the DLC case, probably the best in the game for how unique and surprising it was. I like case 3 a lot too. AA5s climax case isnt my cup of tea due to how weak and goofy the final villain ends up being, but its still a fun case with a lot of good reveals. AA5 isnt as good as AA1 or AA3, but its a really good game.

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While you're probably right that Apollo didn't have any super meaningful growth in AA5, the game nevertheless managed the absolute miracle of turning him into a character I like, so it deserves quite a bit of credit for that IMO!

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