Board 8 > The Board 8 Discord Sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective VIDEO Games pt. 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

40. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GameCube, 2004)

Metroid is my favorite video game series. Here's a brief summary of the rest of my top five and their biggest strengths:
WarioWare - most creative
BEMANI rhythm games - most addictive
Mario platformers - most influential
F-Zero - most impressive
Metroid's best strengths are a little harder to pin down; I undoubtedly love "Metroidvania" style games but it's not the games' formula I find most appealing, it's their immersion. Metroid games (at their best) hit a great balance between the sci-fi/space themes and their sense of isolation - it's Samus against the world. I'd say most of the folks on this board probably got into the 2D games first, but I started with Metroid Prime and worked backwards. And it's the Prime series that still stands out as my favorite subset of the games, for reasons I'll go into over the course of their three entries. (Yep, all three made my top 40.)
Anyway, Prime 2 stands out as the biggest outlier in the trilogy, breaking away from a lot of the series' conventions in order to distinguish itself from the original. The game takes place on the planet Aether, split into two planes of existence due to some rift in space or whatever. Essentially this creates a Link to the Past-style Dark world version of the entire game world (helpfully named "Dark Aether") where Samus takes damage constantly, unless protected by the light of a safe zone. This also points out another big difference in Metroid Prime 2 - the game is hard and unforgiving. Many of the game's bosses are in Dark Aether, and demand some management of health and the safe zones (or in the case of the above-pictured Boost Guardian, there are literally no safe zones). There's also more complexity here, too - your individual beams have ammunition along with the usual missiles and power bombs - and in each of the main areas you've got multiple keys to track down and collect before gaining access to that area's boss.
On that note, Prime 2 is a much more linear game than the first, largely keeping you confined to each of its sub-areas in one period rather than demanding more complicated backtracking. There's an obnoxious key-gathering final quest that, unlike Prime 1, can't be completed in any way before the very end of the game. The difficulty can border on frustrating, and the ammo management isn't terrible, but also feels somewhat unnecessary. In a lot of ways, I like that they tried to experiment with breaking from convention with Prime 2, but because of that I also think it's the series' weakest entry. It has great highs, though: Sanctuary Fortress is one of the best video game areas ever designed; the Prime series' debut of the Screw Attack is possibly the coolest power-up in all of Metroid; and the entire game ending sequence is absolutely fantastic. Prime 2 isn't perfect, but it's still a masterpiece.

39. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii, 2007)

And hey, here's Metroid Prime 3. I had a tough time separating Prime 2 and 3 - they both don't quite live up to the original, but both have lots of unique strengths, and are fully satisfying games on their own. I actually didn't end up playing Metroid Prime 3 until this past year (I largely missed out on the Wii and Wii U eras of Nintendo) and despite expecting to be disappointed or underwhelmed, I absolutely loved it. I was impressed with how well the game holds up visually (all three of the trilogy do) - the team at Retro Studios consistently blows me away with their ability to craft both exceptionally compelling Sci-fi worlds that both feel at home in the Metroid universe and also feel good mechanically. I found myself just enjoying the process of checking out every new room, scanning around for places secrets might be buried and making notes of what items I'll need to come back with later - the kind of thing that is the hallmark for Metroidvania games in general, but rarely done as well or as immersively as in the Prime series.
MP3's biggest weaknesses are largely up front: the game starts with an overwrought sequence of Samus checking in with a Space Federation commander at the Valhalla spaceship, and there are lots of motion-control tutorials and weird dialogue sequences. Even the game's first "main" area in Norion is mostly an on-rails experience shuttling you through the core story beats. But once the plot is laid out to you and the game opens up it's a nonstop flood of Metroidy goodness - there's secrets to find, in-depth lore if you're interested in it, and lots of fun visual and gameplay bits to keep you compelled the whole way. Structurally, it's a lot like Prime 2 - you've got three main areas of the game, there's some backtracking involved (but not much), and you have a final key-collecting quest baked in at the end. That final quest is much cleverer this time around though; it's built into the floating wreckage of the Valhalla ship that you started the game on, and can be tackled in chunks (with several secrets hidden) from the middle of the game. The motion-controlled shooting also feels great and opens up the game for more complex aiming, though the game is definitely the easiest of the Prime trilogy. Overall it's a really satisfying experience, and made me really excited for what Prime 4 could be, whenever it comes around.

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Speaking of games that suck. Metroid Prime 2. What's the deal with poison miasma.

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nick's just mad he can't grind for 10 hours to get past the hard parts of metroid prime games

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Metroid jRPG

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#37 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo Wii, 2010)

Full disclosure: I never played Super Mario Galaxy. I somehow skipped over it and wound up playing the second game first, which is probably not something I would do today. I even bought the original game later, but never got around to it. Based on how much I liked Galaxy 2, I really should have probably done it.



So, without being able to speak to the quality of its direct predecessor, I really really like Super Mario Galaxy 2. The platforming and level of control is superb. It feels like the designers just focused on delivering the most entertaining levels regardless of any convention that you might normally see in a game like thislevels might be on a few consistently delivered planets, or they might take place on just a series of floating platforms. Whatever! It's all fine as long as it's fun to play.

Collecting all the stars and then the green stars could be difficult sometimes, but was never too challenging to overcome, although it took a long time. Having Luigi is another quaint little thing the game, although thankfully you are not forced to have to play him.


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#28. Kirby's Pinball Land (GB, 1993)

I have 4 Kirby games on my list, in 4 different genres. Kirby is the ultimate in flexible characters. He can be anything you want him to be. This time I want him to be a pinball. There is not a lot to this game really. 3 stages, a final boss and the same 4 songs OVER AND OVER AND OVER. But something about this game is just insanely fun. I can just sit down and play this for hours. Alongside Tetris, this game often got me all the way from Ottawa to Toronto on car rides or train rides in 1 life/game. If you know your timing in this dying is basically impossible. The soccer minigame is my absolute favorite part of the game, its so fun to ruin that squids life. Pokemon Pinball basically copied this formula 1 to 1 and is fine, but doesn't capture the same magic for me. Also I don't like pinball at all outside of this game. This is on 3DS Virtual Console I believe. Go get it!



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#44 - Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition (Vita, 2018)

Root Double follows a group of nine characters trapped in a nuclear facility with the radiation slowly seeping through the facility, and they have to hold out until help from outside arrives. Or at least, that's what it looks like from the beginning. The story really gets good when the plot finally unfolds, but it really takes a while to get there - and the B route could be shortened considerably with no real downside, as it's the worst part of the game and almost made me drop the game completely. Unlike other visual novels, the game has an unique way of making choices, via the Senses Sympathy System, which basically allows you to adjust the main character's impressions with the other characters. These cannot be adjusted at any time, but only at several predetermined points in the story. These have various outcomes and lead to completely different dialogue and scenes depending on the sense level - or can lead you right into a bad ending. Adjusting these also can lead to different endings on the route your character is on - I got the Route A Normal Ending the first time playing blind and had to make different choices to get the Good Ending later on to continue. I do feel that this might be higher because the final route and epilogue is one of the best I've seen in any game, but it suffers due to a mediocre required middle path. And this is not the only game that does this on my list. More on that when we get to the other game this same director worked on.

#43 - Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk (PS3, 2013)

The first game in the Atelier Dusk trilogy, which is the best trilogy in the Atelier series. This is the first Atelier game after Gust being acquired by Tecmo Koei, and it showed that they really tried to make this better than the other games. This game has the best soundtrack of the entire seventh generation of video gaming, and I completely mean this. Just take a listen to some of these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVcc16o0SaY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPuaHfnZ9D0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gthwkFJXVk

This is also the first game which uses the basic gameplay loop in the original games but also brings together an actual plot that spans throughout the trilogy, and actually makes the game more compelling as a result. Keithgriff is also one of the best characters in the entire series, and he really shines here in his first appearance. His ending is actually the canon one, even, which leads into what happens in the rest of the trilogy. The only complaint I have is the alchemy and battle systems are very simple and don't really evolve much throughout the game. That will change in the next game, though!

Also, the newer versions of the game have a Hard Mode added. I decided to unlock every ending possible in Hard Mode just because I could. It was a great challenge overall!

#42 and #41 - Pokemon Black/White (DS, 2011) and Pokemon Black/White 2 (DS, 2012)

These are lumped together because I feel the two games are very similar. I think B2/W2 are better, but it's only slightly ahead. Both games here are part of the fifth generation of Pokemon, and this is where the series hit its peak in quality and has been falling down a hill ever since. It's also the first time I only decided to play one game in the series - mainly because everyone around me was also playing this game while I was in college. (I played White, by the way.) The game had an actual plot added on (which no other game in the series really matched up to) and the new Pokemon are some of my favorites in the entire series, with standouts like Darmanitan, Chandelure, and Vanillish being some of the best. Black2/White 2 had me buy both games again, but with an added twist - I picked up Black 2 a day early at another one of the NYC events at Nintendo World, and played through the entire game. I then transferred over the Challenge Mode key to White 2, and played through the game again! It's a shame we've never really had much of a challenge since that in any Pokemon game, and it was stuck behind a key that requires one to beat the game first. I did eventually buy X and Moon and beat those, but neither was as good as these. I did eventually buy Omega Ruby and Ultra Sun but never even got past much in either, and did finally drop the entire series without buying Sword or Shield. It is quite the shame, but the games were the best back at this point and Game Freak is content with half-assing every entry from now on. Probably won't buy much from this series besides spinoffs, like the new Pokemon Snap looks good!

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#44. The Witness (PS4, 2016)
I honestly thought I would have this game higher, I still might on a different day but I think my list starts really kicking it in gear around here. I came in with a LOT I wanted to say about this game, but the more I realize, the less I say about it the better, because experiencing what this game has to offer on your own is a huge part of the intrigue and fun. So I mostly want to talk about the feel. I will say on a base level, it is a very simplistic puzzle game at its core. You walk around an island and solve grid puzzles. That is, the general gameplay is you have to move a white dot through a cross-array from point A to point B in the right way. The important part here is there is no direction at all. You are left to figure out everything for yourself. The game teaches you how to play by its own rules incredibly well, better than any game Ive ever played. For each puzzle segment, it will start you off simply, leaving you to figure out why that puzzle solution worked, probably through trial and error, and as you do more puzzles of that type, youll figure out how to do them properly just around the time they step up in difficulty.

Every discovery you make on your own feels fantastic. Because YOU did it, all by yourself. And the reward is generally you get to do more puzzles! Some of the especially difficult and more intricate puzzles are sort of located off on their own and have no reward at all, other than the satisfaction that you did it. It doesnt sound like this kind of thing appeals, but it really does, with how the game is laid out. The island itself has some other secrets to figure out besides the puzzles it supplies you with, but I dont want to go into too much detail there. Again, its best experienced on your own. The puzzle designs in this game are all intricate and very creative and I found myself really enjoying the process of solving them. If you get stuck, its easy to just walk around to a different section of the island, and try some other puzzles and come back later with a fresh mind or different perspective. Some sections felt more physically demanding than Id expect too. I really did start seeing that little white dot at the start of puzzles everywhere and I think you might too.

Thats all I really feel comfortable saying about it without giving anything away, even in spoiler text. At points it does feel a little pretentious, but the area you can explore after you beat the game was a very fun and very challenging puzzle sequence. I cannot recommend this game enough if you even slightly like puzzles or the rewards of self-satisfaction of figuring stuff out.



Next up: A game with a stalled-out truck.

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I came in with a LOT I wanted to say about this game, but the more I realize, the less I say about it the better, because experiencing what this game has to offer on your own is a huge part of the intrigue and fun. So I mostly want to talk about the feel

Today I realized The Witness is Myst twenty years later, and it makes me happy.

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#33 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (3DS, my GotY for 2016)


Hey, more Ace Attorney! This one is even better! Divination Seances are neat. I always appreciate more variety in the game, as long as it doesnt actively detract from the experience (Perceive), and seances are basically just as good as the core trial gameplay, so Im definitely on board with it. Anyway, thats about all I have to say about the game itself. This is board 8, lets talk about the cases!

Case 1 is standard Case 1 stuff. The villain is great, though, and has some of my favorite animations in the entire series.

Case 2 is solid, though not the best mystery. At least it focused on main characters and delved more into their past, which was cool. It also introduced the detective for the game, which made me fanboy squee a bit.

Case 3 is fantastic, and one of my favorite non-finale cases in the series. The old cast is great, the new cast is great, and the way it wraps up both trial days is pretty unique and fun.

Case 4 exists.

But Case 5 is the single greatest case in AA history. Better than 1-4. Better than 1-5. Better than 2-4 and 3-5. It easily has the greatest plot twist in the entire series, and Im not even talking about the one that comes right before the first trial day, which is still top 5, at least. It has two full trials in it, and both on their own would be top-tier. It takes poor, underdeveloped Apollo and immediately transforms him into the best AA character. Yeah, I said it, wanna fight about it? Alright so maybe the villains arent the best-written characters, but they kinda just take a backseat to Apollo anyway, so its forgivable. And it wraps up the second trilogy superbly, just like 3-5 did for the original.

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#41. Deadly Premonition (Xbox 360, 2007)



Ah, Deadly Premonition. A very special video game experience. It takes a lot of inspiration from Twin Peaks. Too much maybe? Or just enough? At times, it pretty much just is a Twin Peaks video game. The story gets weird, the characters get weird, the whole thing is weird. But then there is this seriousness to it all, and a very intriguing story behind everything. It goes wild places, but it's a fun ride.

Deadly Premonition also features the weirdest combination of features that feel janky and incomplete, contrasting with other features that are far more fleshed out than they have any right to be. The driving can be a mess, but don't worry, you have full control over the wipers and signals and in-depth conversation about cinema. You can shave or change your clothes at a whole bunch of locations, or you can grow a beard or have flies buzzing around you. Maybe you get too hungry? There's a hunger meter! But then you can fix that by eating a can of hollandaise sauce, or a can of pickles that just reads the pickles on it. People all run on unique time schedules and go to a variety of locations, but the locations have incredibly poor textures and characters will clip through walls to get there.

Every step of this game is an adventure of what thing will happen next, and whether it will make perfect sense or no sense at all. Everything mundane is unexpected and interesting, and most of this game, good parts and bad parts, suddenly turn into great parts.



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#36 Final Fantasy IV (Playstation, 2001)

The first Final Fantasy game for the SNES has gone through so many iterations over the years, but the version that I prefer most is the Playstation re-release. I played "Final Fantasy II" for the SNES, and that was great for the time, but it's very much the worst version of the game.



Final Fantasy IV was a step up from earlier games in most ways. It featured the most involved and interesting story so far (if a bit melodramatic), excellent colorful SNES graphics, a wide variety of characters, and most characters have something useful to do in battle besides just "Fight." The length and pace of the game is practically perfect; the places you visit rarely get old before you move onto something else. Uematsu took great advantage of the expanded set of SNES sound channels to create a soundtrack that is distinct and timeless.



The characters are archetypal now but this game helped make them so. Cecil is the series first truly great protagonist. His moral conflict is a great driver for the first act of the story, and his redemption early on sets up a similar conflict in Kain, and later, another character. Rosa spends some time as the typical "damsel" character before taking on a more active role in the party. The other dozen or so party members all have at least a moment to shine at one point or another.

In what is now pretty common for the series, there are many different worlds that are introduced just as you think you are running out of places to go in the last. What is not so common is the freedom that you have to explore random locations in these worlds and sometimes get in over your head. Kind of a relic of older games, but something that I very much enjoy when I get the chance.

I tried playing the DS version, but I really didn't like the style or the voices, so now I stick with the Playstation or GBA versions, which are both great. I have heard the PSP version is also worth playing. Maybe I'll try it next time I get back to this game.

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44.) Breath of Fire III (PSX, 1997)


Breath of Fire III aka the best fishing simulator that has a decent RPG attached to it. I really like games like this that have a major sense of progression. You begin the game when Ryu hatches and follow him through the years as he progresses and witnesses the unfolding of the evil plots being hatched around him.

The games animations and sounds end up reflecting Ryu's shifting confidence and competence. The soundtrack is a very fun sort of jazzy/swingy music and the cast overall is pretty strong.

But that fishing minigame....so damn satisfying

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43.) Seiken Densetsu III (SNES, 1995)


This was a really fun little Action RPG. I enjoyed the way that the different loadouts of 6 characters in lead and support roles could lead to major plot points that are different. My personal favorite is Kevin because he's just so...simple and stupid.

The plot itself is pretty simple but that's actually a point in its favor because the main draw here is the boss fights. They're fun and challenging - but in a fair way. Probably the best part is the way the entire world is connected by foot in seamless ways. The backgrounds are whimsical and the enemies are memorable. And the world feels complete and transitions from climate to climate. A few cannon-aided trips aside, you always walk everywhere.


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42.) Grim Fandango (PC, 1998)


This game fucking rules. The sense of humor is right up my alley and while some of the puzzles are...well really, really stupid.

There are all sorts of great little scenes that don't relate to the plot or the main puzzles which always bring me to a chuckle when I remember them. That said for such an intensely plot based game I don't feel like there's a lot I can say without giving too much away.

I really think the cast of characters are great though even if they are all intensely flawed and the scope of the game and the way you have to shift back through the game at the end are all really memorable.

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41.) Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, 2009)


I always enjoyed Final Fantasy as a series quite a lot, and that actually includes this one. I think the battle system for this game is really nicely put together. It has the automated quality of FFXII but it's actually...good. It works it has a lot of strategic depth and it rewards your level of forethought and tinkering.

The game has very strong characters and in the early part of the game where the plot is character-driven is great. But as with all Final Fantasies not named IX or X the plot gets really stupid and silly when it abandons that and goes for the part where you have to beat up god on the moon or some shit.

But that's okay because the game is built like a swiss watch on the mechanical level and remained challenging and fun the entire way.


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40.) Outpost 2: Divided Destiny (PC, 1997)


This game blew me away at the time. It had a little bit of all my favorite games executed in a new and exciting way. Outpost 2 supposes a future where an ecological disaster has forced humanity to flee earth in search of a new home. They selected this planet - New Terra - a new planet that is similar enough to earth to be able to support human life.

However soon after arriving humanity splits in two groups. The main group, Eden, wanted to terraform the planet to make it more like Earth, while the splinter group, Plymouth, wants to adapt to live on this new planet. Each of them encounters major issues. The Plymouth group finds the planet tectonically unstable. The Eden groups terraforming has given birth to uncontrolled hostile growth that destroys their crops. In addition there is already wildlife on the planet which is hostile to both groups.

The two sides have different technologies and units to reflect their different resources and approaches but the plot goes the same way - the planet is impossible to live on and the group must escape New Terra. But there is only one vessel to get people off of New Terra which leads to the climax where volcanic activity and blighted growth converge and only one faction of humanity can survive.

Building up the game as well is a novella that you can read one chapter at a time as it relates to the scenario at hand.

The game is so delicate - you need to build a functioning city that keeps your citizens happy and healthy while at the same time building up a military to protect your people from the hostiles. Even the military units feel like they're gerry-rigged together. These were missions of peace after all and the necessity for weapons was not anticipated. The game ends up being a mish mash of sim city and command and conquer in space with a very melodramatic and interesting plot.

For the longest time it was abandonware, but now its back on GOG for like 5 bucks, if you wanna give it a whirl.

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39.) Infamous: Second Son (PS4, 2014)


The infamous games are ridiculous fun, but I can understand not everyone enjoyed Cole McGrath and his tragically super generic video game main character existence and the by then long in the tooth morality mechanics but I found Second Son to be really a huge improvement. It has the same fun gameplay as the original - the action feels smooth and satisfying, but Second Son just has a much improved sense of style.

Delsin Rowe is a native american who is into the alt-scene in and around Seattle. His graffiti tags and fashion shift depending on how ruthless you play Delsin but the plot remains mostly the same either way - Delsin is the one person capable of leading a resistance to an oppressive government agency that wants to imprison and enslave people with super powers. Its all very X Men and that's really quite alright with me. Along his way he meets a few solid allies whose powers he can take on for himself - though his base power is this smoke and flame power he accidentally absorbs from someone who got away from the government.

The variety of powers and the sense of style and smooth as hell gameplay combine to make Second Son one of my favorite games of the last gen.

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38.) Bucky O'Hare (NES, 1992)


You must stop the Toad Menace! Bucky O'Hare was a strange short lived franchise back in the animals with tude era, but this game is easily the best part of the franchise. You are captain Bucky O'Hare a Space Captain/Rabbit who leads the RIghteous Indignation in its assault against the imperialistic Toads. The game begins with your ship (naturally shaped like a rabbit) being attacked and your crew mates needing to eject and ending up captured by the toads. You end up needing to go visit the four planets to go get your crewmates back and then you move to take on the toads once and for all.

Gameplaywise, Bucky O'Hare is like a combo between Mega Man style platforming, with castlevania 3 style puzzle solving and party member switching mechanics. You end up saving Jenny (a sexy girl rabbit who has a psychic orb laser which you can control the path of), Blinky (a tiny robot whose shot flies in an arc that can destroy ice or stone and who can fly a little bit), Deadeye (A duck with a triple shot) and Willie (a human boy with a charge shot). Bucky for his part can jump really good.

And yeah it's just a really stupidly good platformer considering its origin - I think its level design and execution rivals even the best mega man and castlevania games and for good reason. The designer would go on to found Treasure immediately after creating this game.


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37.) Robotrek (SNES, 1994)


Robotrek is your standard silly ass Enix RPG but that doesn't mean it doesn't rule. Robotrek is set in a supposedly contemporary setting where the Main Character's dad has invented combat robots. The bad guys want him to make bad guy robots and he says no, so instead his 10 year old son goes on a mission to stop the bad guys.

In the process you end up building your own sets of robots which you can customize with the various parts you have available. You set what their four commands are and what their built in weapons and defenses are built from various component pieces. Much like later alchemy games there are secret parts and moves which you can discover by combining various pieces.

The game is called Slapstick in japan and I think that captures the sense of humor and gravity of this games plot pretty well. Its like pokemon with robots in that way and is one of the first RPGs structured like pokemon where the main character is merely the owner and controller of the things that actually do the fighting.

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36.) Dragon Age Origins (PC, 2009)


This is one of the best WRPGs ever. Bioware's always been to me the baby sister to what Bethesda has been up to, but DAO is one of the few places where they showed off their strengths. By far the best part of the game is the early section of the game where you play out your character's origins story picking between the various races and the sort of upbringing they might have had.

It was a roleplaying game that really encouraged you know...roleplaying. That definitely disappeared a bit down the stretch and is an aspect they completely abandoned in sequels but for 10 glorious hours this is the best RPG ever. Too bad the rest of the game is like...just okay.

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#32 - Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (GBA, 2003)


Yay, more Advance Wars time! AW2 is where the series peaked. It was the sequel to the game where 60% of the campaign was spent teaching you game mechanics and the prequel to the game where they threw all sense of CO balance completely out the window. The campaign was fantastic and pretty difficult, the amount of extra content afterward was staggering, and the new COs arent super fucking awful like Jake was. I already kinda went over why I love the series before, so now that Ive posted my favorite, heres my full series ranking:
2 > DS > AW1 = AW:DoR > Wargroove >>>>>> Battalion Wars

Alright look, I know Wargroove isnt an Advance Wars game but come on it really is actually. Anyway, Id give 2 a 10/10 and everything else but BW a 9. I guess Wargroove would get an 8. Every single game (above BW) is super solid and a worthy play for any TBS game fan. Would highly recommend.


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Typical board 8 list with Mario Tennis near the top

#1 Super Smash Bros. Melee: 566
#2 Final Fantasy IV: 466
#3 Final Fantasy VI: 462
#4 Mario Tennis: 441
#5 Jackbox Party Pack: 400
#6 Mega Man 3: 398
#7 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: 392
#8 Mario Kart 8: 366
#8 Rock Band 2: 366
#10 The Walking Dead: Season 1: 364
#11 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: 355
#11 Final Fantasy XIII: 355
#13 Tecmo Super Bowl: 347
#14 Snowboard Kids 2: 343
#15 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2: 341
#16 Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors: 322
#17 Pokemon BW: 314
#18 Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising: 313
#19 Elite Beat Agents: 296
#20 Super Mario Galaxy 2: 285
#21 Mega Man X: 282
#22 Diddy Kong Racing: 281
#23 Batman: Arkham Asylum: 280
#24 Chrono Trigger: 277
#25 Picross 3D: Round 2: 276
#26 The World Ends With You: 267
#26 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: 267
#28 Everybody's Golf: 266
#29 The Witness: 256
#30 Super Mario Bros.: 254
#31 Kirby's Pinball Land: 251
#32 Secret of Evermore: 250
#33 Donkey Kong (1994): 248
#34 Final Fantasy VII: 247
#35 Mario Party 2: 246
#35 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: 246
#37 Xenoblade Chronicles: 244
#38 Mario Kart 64: 242
#38 Kirby Air Ride: 242
#38 Metroid Fusion: 242
#41 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: 239
#42 Borderlands: 237
#43 Super Mario 64: 233
#44 Tetris Effect: 232
#45 Professor Layton and the Unwound Future: 230
#46 God of War II: 229
#47 Pokemon RBY: 227
#48 Cosmic Star Heroine: 224
#48 Fall Guys: 224
#48 Super Mario 3D Land: 224
#51 Shadow of the Colossus: 221
#52 Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception: 219
#53 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice: 218
#54 Mario Kart: Double Dash: 215
#55 Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes: 211
#56 Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: 209
#56 Pikmin: 209
#58 Dark Souls: 208
#58 RollerCoaster Tycoon: 208
#58 Pocket Card Jockey: 208

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#27. Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1, 1998)

When I first rented this, I hated it and dropped it quick. A few years later for some reason I came back to it and loved it. The story is fantastic and the jobs, skills, combination of them and so on make for such a deep and rich experience. You can play this game a million ways and none of them are wrong. The game does suffer from the Disgaea series being much better. FFT is very slow compared to Disgaea. Did not like Tactics Advance at all or Advance 2.

The PSP port is really good too. Again it's a tad too slow for me these days, but I can still appreciate what it is.



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#40. Cave Story (PC, 2004)



I downloaded Cave Story sometime after the translation patch released at the recommendation of... someone. I forget who. But it sat on my computer for a while, maybe a couple years? Then finally, at one point I moved and was without internet for a few days. Trying to fill the time, I finally gave this unknown Doukutsu Monogatari game sitting on my PC a try.

Cave Story hit that indie craze of the past decade before there really was a rush of indie games. It was wild that one person could make a game so well. It took enough cues from Metroid games to really appeal to me, while still being kind of linear and with a nice story. There's some neat characters and goofy ones too. The weapon experience system is very interesting, because it has really quick ups and downs, feels important while not really being essential at all, and avoids much grinding.

There's some well-hidden secrets, almost too well, but the reward is going through Hell. It is a very fun dungeon with fun boss fights, capping off a game full of interesting areas and fights. It's been a fun game to play through multiple times as it's popped up on other systems down the line.

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#35 Cannon Fodder (MS-DOS, 1993)

Being an American, I was not exposed at all to Remembrance Poppies as a kid. So the logo for this gamea poppy with a bullet lodged in the centerconfused me more than anything. But it's fitting for an arcade-style tactics game about the horrors of war.



You control a small team of soldiers as they travel to battlefields all over the world fighting against overwhelming odds. If your men survive a mission, they get promoted. If one of your men dies, there is a near-endless line of identical replacements waiting for their turn to fight and probably also die. Although the visual style and low resolution allows for little detail, the developers provided many different opportunities for your guys (or their enemy combatants) to be killed, and each new way has its own little dreadful animation that just makes you feel so bad for them. Sometimes (and I honestly do not know if this is a glitch or intended) wounded soldiers will get stuck in a perpetual state of screaming and bleeding until you put them out of their misery.



This game was super tough. Back to the whole overwhelming odds thing, your people are just as fragile as the enemiesone shot and you're dead. So you have to be very careful while you fight through levels where enemies spawn endlessly, all the while dodging traps and explosions and all sorts of things.

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#40 - Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (SNES, 1996)

Lufia II remains my favorite actual SNES game, which has never been topped (there's a SNES game up higher, but I played it based on another system). It's one of the few JRPGs that really implement puzzle solving into its dungeon exploration, and also has enemies that are visible and can be avoided with careful planning. The part about it being a prequel to the first Lufia kind of hurts its plot a bit; how it ends is already known, and the game is more about the journey that the characters take throughout the world. Of course we wouldn't get Dekar, the best character in the game, otherwise.

But enough about the actual game because who cares about that, the real reason this is so high is the ANCIENT CAVE. A 100-floor randomized dungeon tacked on in the middle of the adventure with some of the best loot in the entire game, and a whole sidequest revolving around it. While only blue weapons can be brought in and out and you start at level 1 every time you enter, it was a very big deal when I was a kid. I never did manage to finish it, though I spent many hours delving into that dungeon countless times. It's probably why I buy so many dungeon crawlers these days - but it all started with this game decades ago!

#39 - Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (Vita, 2016)

I was unemployed for the entirety of 2016, so I tended to stay with a few games longer than I might have done so normally. Cyber Sleuth was one of those games, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Sure, the translation is somewhat garbage, and could be a lot better. The game does require a good deal of grinding, especially if you want the platinum. But I had the time to do everything in it at the time. Nick and MSG have showcased some of its more ridiculous lines, so I won't get into that. Just note that the game's quests can range from the ridiculousness of those screenshots to some extremely dark themes that I was clearly not expecting from a game such as this one. One of my favorite moments though was going online to do so of the online trophies, and one of the number 1 guys from Japan was intentionally tanking matches with 3 baby digimon to give people wins towards their online trophy. I had no idea why he was doing this, but it was a big help since I got matched with him quite a few times. Thanks, whoever you were!

#38 - Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky (PS3, 2014)

This is the highest Atelier game on my list, and with good reason. Like i said in the Ayesha writeup that the next game would upgrade the alchemy and battle systems a good amount, this one really expands them to what I believe is the most fun of both systems in the series. It's really the alchemy system that I've enjoyed the most and was also extremely fun to break the game open with some of the most powerful attack items and equipment you can think of. Want to craft an item that's able to do a million damage? Sure, you can do that. No other Atelier is really capable of pushing the numbers as high as Escha & Logy can, not even its sequel!

Escha & Logy also was the first Atelier to explore the dual protagonist system. Escha is a typical Atelier lead and is boring as a result. Logy is the exact opposite of an Atelier lead; first off, he's a guy, and second of all, he actually has more than half of a brain and uses it often, which is a refreshing change of pace in the series. I get Atelier likes their ditzy female leads but the Dusk series needed someone like Logy lead a game due to how serious the plot is its trilogy.

#37 - Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4, 2018)

Dragon Quest XI is best left unspoiled. Coming in expecting a typical Dragon Quest game and you would probably be completely surprised, as it definitely starts out as one and stays that way for a while. However, it's a Dragon Quest game that doesn't require grinding - as EXP is pretty well distributed and you can craft any equipment upgrades that are needed. Being able to respec your skill list as much as needed allows you to use whatever loadout you are more comfortable with (I personally made my Luminary dual-wield for added damage). The trophy list had some of the most difficult challenges in the game added to it, including beating the bonus dungeon a good number of times, and clearing a number of pre-set battles within a turn limit with a limited party loadout.

Also I can't just rank Dragon Quest XI without mentioning THE GREAT SYLVANDO, the best party member in the game, and probably one of the best in the entire series. I even used him in battle most of the time!

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#43. Pokemon Red/Blue (Game Boy, 1998)
#42. Pokemon Gold/Silver (Game Boy Color, 1999)
I remember hearing of this game for the first time as a friend told me about it at lunch time in grade school. I wasnt super wild about it but I remember thinking it sounded neat enough that I wanted to try. Then for whatever reason, I remember the day I was going to get it, I was talking with a different friend after soccer practice and he got me really amped for it. So my mom took me to the store to get it. And the rest is history!

The game is programmatically a mess, but that hardly matters. It spurred on my initial love of RPGs, collecting things, and activated the completionist in me. Customizing your team exactly how you like i-. Wait no. What am I saying? I just used only my goddamn Charizard and got it as high level as possible and barely used a single other Pokemon, except when I needed to like early on for Brock (shoutout to actually reading the instruction manual telling me to catch another Pokemon to deal with him and Misty) and HMs and such. I find it pretty amusing that the best way to speedrun the game (glitchlessly) is the same strategy I bet most of use employed as kids. Of course, I did all the usual kid stuff. Trying to find Pikablu or Mew behind the truck, actually doing the Missingno trick, etc.

Anyway, Kanto is great. Laid out well and the progression is good. Back then, fighting tons of random battles and trainers never really got old and I tried to fight every person I could. Elite 4 was filled with so much hype, as well as them really making you hate your rival so beating his face in felt great (though, I struggled and it took me a while! I think I eventually leveled up someone else but not really sure). The first generation of Pokemon is classic too obviously.

And then you have the 2nd generation, which I loved more than the first. Its probably my overall favorite for Pokemon design. I thought the Day/Night and day of the week mechanics were nifty, if not annoying, the rival was way more intense, the innovation of Hold items was fun, and honestly the game was beautiful for the time. Plus what a surprise it was when you got to go back to Kanto a 2nd time, that blew my mind. Even if it was super watered down, it was still great. And of course, finding Red at the end to battle. What a great cap to these 2 games.

I dont have Yellow specifically mentioned here because I thought it wasnt quite as good, I didnt really care for the Tamagotchi style mechanics with Pikachu, though I did appreciate the fact they tried to stick more faithfully to the show, with the character designs and especially with Team Rocket, so consider Pokemon Yellow close enough to being here but just slightly not as good enough for me to include it. I never played Crystal.





One story I like telling about my first time playing Pokemon Red was, I finally got to my grandmother's house where I was that day for some reason. I planned to pick Bulbasaur after reading the instruction guide, and the second I clicked on his ball and he made his growl I heard a ssssssssssssPOP! A battery exploded in the back of my brick game boy. And I had the clear one so you could clearly see the battery fluid all inside the back. I got some new batteries but I was afraid that me picking Bulbasaur somehow did something to my game, so I did not pick him again and instead went for Charmander.

Next up: A game on this page (use 50 per page, nubs)

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38. Mega Man 2 (NES, 1989)

The game that set all the standards for the Mega Man series: 8 robot masters, extra "movement items" (though they wouldn't be Rush until the next game), E-tanks, some sort of Dr. Wily fakeout at the end. I think you could pretty easily make the case that MM2 isn't the best of the NES Mega Mans, but to me it has the most charm. Its stages are distinct and satisfying, and its weapons probably the most memorable (and oft-repurposed; how many times have we seen some sort of time-stopper?) in the series as well. MM2 also has some really awkward stuff, too - Metal Blades are mega-OP, Wily Stage 4 is a trainwreck and can (essentially) softlock you out of your lives, and despite improvements from MM1 the game is still full of wonky glitches. Somehow, most of that still comes across as even more charming and gives the game a little more personality relative to, say, MM4.
The best quality of MM2, though is its legendary soundtrack. There's something about the experience of playing through a platformer game that has a varied and exceptional soundtrack - just a vibe about rolling through the game at a clip and rocking to all the tracks - that makes it truly stand out. There have been and are going to be a lot of these kind of games on the list; I like platformers and I like music games, so, no surprises there. But MM2 (and the Mega Man series as a whole) is near the top of any list in that regard. It's a great platformer, it's got good pacing, and the music takes it to another level. Wily Stage 1 is the tune that always gets the most love, but shout outs to Air Man (my fave track), Bubble Man, and Metal Man as well.

37. Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Genesis, 1994)

Speaking of games with killer soundtracks, here's my top Sonic game: the (perhaps cheating?) combined S3&K. Sonic 3 & Knuckles basically ups all of the previous games' features to 11; here's a laundry list of some of those best qualities: There's 12+ worlds worth of levels; both stages have a boss. There's two special stages: one found atop checkpoints to gain extra power-ups, another hidden in big rings across the various stages to get chaos emeralds; said bonus stage (Blue Spheres) is the best and most complete mini-game in the series. The game itself is a lot more cinematic: there are cute little Knuckles cutscenes in the stages, little transition scenes between the game's levels, and there's stuff like the snowboard bit at the beginning of Ice Cap Zone which basically flows like a cutscene. The levels are larger and feature more branching paths and hidden secrets. There's new power-ups (elemental shields!) and lots of new gadgets and gimmicks. I can see why someone would prefer either Sonic 1 or 2, but 3&K just feels like the complete package after two games trying to figure out how to get the most of the series - sort of like MM2 finding the series ground after the original (MM1's a much worse game though).
And of course, that soundtrack! Ice Cap Zone might be my favorite Sonic level solely due to its music. But Hydrocity is right up there, for basically the same reason. And Flying Battery, Launch Base, Lava Reef, Sky Sanctuary...even the Sonic 3 multiplayer stage music is absolutely killer. Sonic has always had good soundtracks, no doubt, but for a game that is all about going fast above all else, having the whole experience be a total vibe feels like exactly what Sonic is and should be. (I'd say it's a big part of why City Escape is remembered so fondly in SA2!)
S3&K goes bigger than the series even came close to before (I guess that's why it's in two actually separate cartridges) and sticks the landing gloriously. Maybe it's why we didn't get a good 2D Sonic for another two decades or so; they just couldn't top the series' perfection.

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WiggumFan267 posted...

#43. Pokemon Red/Blue (Game Boy, 1998)
#42. Pokemon Gold/Silver (Game Boy Color, 1999)
The game is programmatically a mess, but that hardly matters. It spurred on my initial love of RPGs, collecting things, and activated the completionist in me. Customizing your team exactly how you like i-. Wait no. What am I saying? I just used only my goddamn Charizard and got it as high level as possible and barely used a single other Pokemon, except when I needed to like early on for Brock (shoutout to actually reading the instruction manual telling me to catch another Pokemon to deal with him and Misty) and HMs and such. I find it pretty amusing that the best way to speedrun the game (glitchlessly) is the same strategy I bet most of use employed as kids. Of course, I did all the usual kid stuff. Trying to find Pikablu or Mew behind the truck, actually doing the Missingno trick, etc.

I think I was the one weird kid that tried to level all my Pokemon evenly, instead of just over-leveling my starter. It actually got out of control that every Pokemon I had caught was on the same level. When my team of 6 all gained a level, I'd go to the PC and swap them out for 6 new Pokemon, fight against wild Pokemon until they went up a level, then I'd swap in 6 more, etc. Around the time I got to Snorlax, I realized this was kind of silly and excessive, and just cut it down to a team of 6 (which I still leveled evenly through the whole game).

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#41. Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (3DS, 2016)
Ok so this game is actually kind of hard for me to talk about it because I only played it once, and Im actually working on replaying the Apollo Justice series now, but just sort on a brief level, this game finally delivered what I wanted out of the Apollo Justice series. It finally gives him ample time to shine as his own character, after being sort of shanghaid by Phoenix in the first game and sharing much of the spotlight with Athena in Dual Destinies, while Spirit of Justice isnt ENTIRELY to himself and Phoenix and Athena still have their portions Apollos story is the brunt, and they do a great job with it. Theres still I think some loose ends hanging over from AA4 that never get fully resolved, though they do play around with some possibilities and make you think about some of those connections, but the games story is still fantastic. The new characters are interesting (as are the familiar) and the case mechanics are fun and the name puns are out of this world and come back to me in like a month after I finish playing through this series and I might have more to say about it- I am going mostly from memory here, the memory of a murder.

But the point is I remember really enjoying this game, it had some good unexpected stuff, and some emotional moments, and was an all-around great Ace Attorney game.



Next up: Technically speaking, I'm cheating the most in listing this game than any other game on my list

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TheKnightOfNee posted...

I think I was the one weird kid that tried to level all my Pokemon evenly, instead of just over-leveling my starter. It actually got out of control that every Pokemon I had caught was on the same level. When my team of 6 all gained a level, I'd go to the PC and swap them out for 6 new Pokemon, fight against wild Pokemon until they went up a level, then I'd swap in 6 more, etc. Around the time I got to Snorlax, I realized this was kind of silly and excessive, and just cut it down to a team of 6 (which I still leveled evenly through the whole game).

I actually did a mini version of this I think in X/Y since it got so damn easy by then... I had 12pokemon I tried to keep even. No ExpAll on obviously. Even then, way too easy.

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My friends would just overlevel the starter pokemon, but i liked to have a balanced party. I think I also did the Nee thing of leveling up all the pokemon, except I think just one of each type, but stopped very early on when I realized I only needed 6.

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#40. The Jackbox Party Packs (Various, Various) (fine PC, 2014)
Heres 7 really 8 games in one since Drawful 2 counts. Really like what, 40-something games?

Most of yall know the deal here. If not, theyre a collection of games you can play using your phone as a controller, to input some sort of thing to the main screen where everyone can see it. So this might include drawing a prompt where everyone has to guess what it is, filling in the blank on a believe it or not style fact and try to make everyone pick your lie, or making a good joke given a prompt and hope people vote for yours. Theres other trivia, deduction, drawing, word games, etc that are all incredibly fun and usually can be played over and over again due to their short length. You can also stream it to Twitch, Zoom, Discord so its been fantastic in quarantine, but still great in real life too. What makes these games great is you yourself are supplying all the information, whether the goal is being funny, crafty, or correct. The games have fantastic game, graphic, and sound design for the most part, where each game is its own unique experience. We play somewhat often on Discord, so come join us as we voice chat and play these games together for several hours!

The games are based off of the OG game You Dont Know Jack, which you may remember as a nifty little set of trivia games, but the progress they have made sense has been outstanding.

That being said my top 5 are mostly the classic Jackbox games except Blather Round:
Fibbage/Enough About You > Drawful > YDKJ > Blather Round > Quiplash

Also top tier:
Patently Stupid > Push The Button > Trivia Murder Party > Tee KO > Joke Boat



Next up: This game calls my favorite character from it a "precious session commodity" in his bio.

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#39. Bioshock (Xbox 360, 2007)



First-person shooters are not a genre I get too excited about, and as I think I said in some writeup before, are generally not something I am good at. I tend to avoid multi-player modes unless I'm with really good friends. If an FPS is going to appeal to me, it needs to have a good single-player mode.

Bioshock came in with this amazing mixture of setting and atmosphere and story. The theme in the underwater city, the story behind it and playing inside it, and the way all the enemies work into this story is interesting all the way through. The levels are fairly non-linear (or hide linearity well enough) and reward all kinds of exploration into the minutiae. It became very rewarding just to move about the world. Big Daddies are of course a very interesting part of the game. All the old timey music, the Circus of Values, the use of plasmids and cameras to break away from using guns so much, all good stuff. In the small amount of FPS's I've played, this is far and away the most fun I've had with any of them.

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36. WarioWare Gold (3DS, 2018)

I've said it a few times already, but I love the WarioWare series. Each game carries over a unique control scheme, a boatload of new microgames, and a ton of quirkiness and offbeat humor. After the first few games, the series took some detours into a custom game maker (D.I.Y.) and a small Wii U Gamepad-themed minigame collection (Game & Wario), before returning to the classic formula with WarioWare Gold in 2018. Gold is a "greatest hits" compilation of sorts, with an even distribution of games between Standard, Touched, and Twisted controls. Cleverly, some games have been repurposed - a game from Twisted might be re-invented as a Touch-control scheme; a boss game from the original is reinvented as a short microgame; and a Game & Wario multiplayer game is reimagined as a Boss challenge here.
The game is also just a love letter to the entire series, chock full of fun references to all sorts of minor characters and critters from the entire series' run in both the games and the story cutscenes. All the main characters from the series get their own story sections, and there's a ton of extra content too: mini-games (like Pyoro) both new and revised from the whole series, and extra modes (like "Gamer" from Game & Wario) make an appearance. And there's a swath of neat endless challenge modes that are often playable in any of the three game styles or Ultra, which bounces between any of the three control schemes from game to game. The level of content is such a step up from prior series entries, with the same endlessly addictive gameplay.
The only real complaint is that the multiplayer option, while totally fine and enjoyable, is pretty bare-bones, especially relative to the whole compilation. But it's just such a satisfying game for a WarioWare lover and just a real treat for anyone who's ever enjoyed the series even a little bit. The only real shame here is that it came out so late in the 3DS run (and after the Switch dropped) that it didn't get nearly the attention and love it deserves.

35. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES, 1995)

Yoshi's Island may be Super Mario World's sequel by title (in the US, at least), but it really feels like it has more in common with Donkey Kong Country and other similar collection-heavy platformers than it does with the mainline Mario games. With beautiful graphics, unique gameplay, and a ton of hidden secrets and extra mini-games, Yoshi's Island really stands out relative to most of its platforming contemporaries, especially from the SNES (and prior) era. The levels feel distinct and often have some sort of unique gimmick or mechanic that helps them stand out from the core mechanics of eating enemies and tossing eggs. The structure is also super solid - you can plow through levels directly to reach the end, or spend time collecting every flower and red coin and unlocking the secret stages and mini-games.
It's also a game with an absolutely lovely soundtrack, which adds to the game's aesthetic perfectly. There's just something very relaxing and satisfying about playing through a Yoshi's Island stage - it's a game whose presentation invites you to leisurely explore and take in the new stuff the game is consistently throwing at you. That said, there are definitely some tricky levels and somewhat frustrating challenges (at least when going for 100%s and playing the secret levels) but especially for its time, it is rarely too punishing and there are plenty of in-game rewards to keep your lives up or give you extra power-ups.
Interestingly, I've never really gotten into its sequels (I played Yoshi's Island DS and the demo of Crafted World) - they were fine, but failed to live up to the charm and creativity of the original. And thus, it stands alone here as the top "Yoshi game" (whatever that really means) on this list.

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#31 - Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2, 2004)


There are a few more Ratchet & Clank games that came very close to making my list. Obviously, the PS4 remake made my honorable mentions, and Crack in Time was #92, but Going Commando and Tools of Destruction are also super solid titles in their own right. However, there was a single R&C game where they absolutely got everything in the formula perfectly right, and that was Up Your Arsenal.

The humor was at its best here. Captain Qwark brings his absolute A-game here. Every single mission briefing had me totally guffawing, and the little Qwark vidcomics are an amazing touch to give him a little extra screen time. Dr. Nefarious is 100% the best villain in the series, and all of his exchanges with Lawrence, his butler, are incredible. The Courtney Gears plotline may be a little dated now, but back in 2004, it was pretty great.

The weapons are the best the series have ever had. Youve got the most super-solid early arsenal of any game with the N60 and the Shock Cannon, but its the others that really steal the show later. The star of the game is definitely the Qwack-O-Ray, the best transformation gun ever. When upgraded, it makes your ducks explosive, and at max level, turns one into a massive fire-breathing dragon thing that flies by your side and tears enemies up. That said, I always found myself switching from a vast number of weapons that always felt amazing to use, mostly the Annihilator, Bouncer, Disc Blade Gun, Agents of Doom, Spitting Hydra, Plasma Whip, and Miniturret Glove.

But most importantly, I think, Up Your Arsenal had the absolute very best side-missions. Whenever I think of my fondest time playing any Ratchet & Clank game, my mind always goes straight to either Annihilation Nation or the Aquatos sewers. Annihilation Nation had 25 arena challenges that forced you to take on a number of waves of enemies with certain battle restrictions, like using only a certain weapon, or giving you a strict time limit. They also had unique boss fights here and every challenge could be replayed infinitely, which were all tons of fun.

But imo, the real superstar here was the sewers. In the main story, you have to go through a set of sewer pipes and clear out a bunch of these green slime creatures and collect a number of sewer crystals. The original area is pretty straightforward, and theres only a handful you can get to beat the original mission. Later in the game, you get gravity boots that let you walk up walls, and thats when the sewers completely open up and become this massive three-layered labyrinth. Then you can go back and find a total of 100 crystals throughout the entire thing. My favorite part of every playthrough is trying to keep track of where all I havent been on the different levels and methodically picking apart the whole area to get the crystals to sell for a massive amount of money.

Just writing this up makes me realize its been quite a few years since Ive played and Im really starting to get the itch to go back through it now. Thats the sign of a truly great game.

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#62 Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2007 and 2010)



I originally set out to avoid "cheating" and have it truly be 100 games, and while this won't be the only time that I combine entries, I feel like I had to here since they seem like two halves of the same game. I haven't played either in about a decade, but the only things that I recall being truly different between the two was that the first had a hub world and 2 had Yoshi.

The Wii was a bit of an odd console as it was built around the motion controls. However, a lot of games skirted around this by just having you use the Wiimote on its side, and a large amount of the games that did utilize motion controls either did so in a lazy, unengaging way or it ran into the sensor bar problems for a variety of reasons. The SMG games were among the few that the control scheme well, and that shouldn't come a shock as the series has always been the gold standard in that area.

While I obviously the 3D Land and World formula of small levels, I do prefer the typical 3D Mario open-area that they have primarily used since Super Mario 64, and the Galaxy games probably have the best levels in an open-area 3D Mario game. I have never really done a cross-comparison, but I feel like they would come out on top.

I had three Nintendo consoles with just one entry, and they were all Super Mario games.

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#61 WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! (Gamecube, 2003)


Since I previously mentioned that WarioWare is my #2 Nintendo series, it was bound to have more than one entry.

Most of the games in the series have a central gimmick. While they usually deal with controls, this one is all about the multiplayer where it may have my favorite local multiplayer on the system that was the primary multiplayer system among my friends growing up.

The pool of microgames from Mega Party Game$! is actually taken entirely from the first WW game. That is a bit of letdown sure, but that shows how excellent all the multiplayer modes were for them to pull off the lack originality elsewhere. Most of the modes are fun, but the two standout ones are Jimmy's Survival Fever and the one pictured, Kat and Anna's Wobbly Bobbly.

In Survival Fever, your character automatically dances in front of a crowd. When the RNG spotlight hits your character, you must play a microgame. If you win, nothing changes. If you lose, part of your crowd bails on you. You are eliminated when your crowd fully disipates. It begins fine, but it speeds up quickly and becomes a frantic fight for survival where everybody is audibly praying that the spotlight doesn't shine on them to give them a few extra seconds of reprieve. This is one of those uncommon instances of RNG being total bullshit at times but awesome because of it.

My favorite though is Wobbly Bobbly. In this game, everyone plays a multiplayer microgame, and those are some of the best in the series. My favorite is the one where you all have to avoid being caught in a snot drip. The winner of that game then plays a solo microgame, and the outcome of that is what truly affects the game. If they win, everyone else gets a turtle. If they lose, they alone get a turtle. Then everyone has to balance their wobbling turtle towers and avoid tipping over and being eliminated. Many times, these towers got to ridiculous heights and balancing them became such a physical exercise. It has been so long that I forget the details, but there were two turtle sizes that I forget what determined what size you received, and the composition of your tower could really make things difficult for you.

I wish more of the WarioWare games had such a fantastic multiplayer as this, but they're still great the way they are.

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#60 NFL Street 2 (Gamecube, 2004)


Arcade sports games to me typically pale in comparison to their sim counterparts. They can be super fun, but the novelty can wear pretty thin before long if it isn't robust enough, and they generally lack features I love like a franchise mode. That being said, arcade football games tend to have a higher floor since the speed and strength on display in the real thing translates well to an over-the-top experience.

The first NFL Street was great and better than Mutant League Football and NFL Blitz games that I played previously, but it was missing something to truly make it special. NFL Street 2 came along and showed me what they were.

The first was the expanded moves list that a ball carrier can do, chief among them being wall moves. As previous arcade football games were played in stadiums, they lacked the ability to do this, but here in urban wherever, you ball in areas with shipping containers, fences, and other objects that you can interact with. They were all so satisying, but none are better than a well-timed wall move where an incoming tackler eats dirt at the last second as you leap on and off the wall. It's even sweeter if you do that into the end zone.

The second was the single player modes. They brought back and refined the NFL Challenge mode where you take over the shittiest players with the goal of developing them to compete in a tournament with NFL teams. There's a time element involved where you can't just do every challenge there is and have to pick and choose which ones to do, with the rewards for successfully completing them known beforehand to help make your decision.

The new mode, and the better of the two is Own the City. You create a player who then is on a seemingly never-ending recruitment quest as you constantly are given the opportunity to swap out teammates for new ones of teams you beat. In the end, you get the opportunity to play against the one and only Xzibit. What an honor that was.

There's also some underrated multiplayer games here like a jump ball battle where a bunch of WRs jockey for thrown balls to earn points in an elimination style game.

There was a third NFL Street, but I never played it, and a few years ago, I played the Mutant Football League revival, but I still yearn for another game like NFL Street 2 more than 15 years later.

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#30 - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3, 2011)


Uncharted is a fantastic series. I think 1 is even a bit underrated. It didnt quite make my personal list, but I was still glad to see Bartz included it, so it could at least make it on the board. Seeing 3 here would make it pretty obvious 2 is going to come later, so Im not even going to try and be coy about it, because 2 is very obviously the zenith of the series to anyone thats played it. This way I can compare 2 and 3 easier.

In many ways, I actually think 3 is even better than 2. It has the single most memorable set piece with the sinking ship. The way the environment around you changes based on how tilted the ship gets is maybe unparalleled still in the genre. I like the background story better than 2s. It focuses more on Drakes upbringing, which is a nice change of pace.

But there are two specific areas where 3 falters. The pacing of the second half of the game is so bad. The desert section is almost nonsensical. Drake spends a day wandering the desert, without food or drink, to the point that hes about to collapse. Then some people find him and start shooting at him, so now hes able to roll around corners and run full-speed? It really blasts through any sense of consistency for the game.

And the very end may be even worse. There were rumors that they ran out of budget at the end. I dont know how founded those are in reality, but it sure checks out, in terms of how the game went. It just kinda ends with a thud. ENDGAME SPOILERS: The big bad just falls in a hole and dies without any recent build-up or immediate payoff. Uh.... OK.

But functionally, its just as good a game as 2, and wouldve been better if the second half held up its end of the bargain.

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4 > 2 > 3 > 1 as seen earlier on my list

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#39. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998)
#38. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Gamecube, 2002)
Firstly, I decided to move some games around so that hint I gave before is no longer viable oops!

Anyway, these are both games that having played neither game recently, I feel like I cant get into the specifcs too much. I know some of you can talk about the dungeons and such from these games in much detail. I cant do that at this point. But what I can tell you is how much I remember enjoying both of these games. Be it galloping around Hyrule Field on Epona or sailing around Lake Hylia in your friendly boat. That is what I think of the most when I think of these games and how much fun it was to just explore and find whatever secrets you may come across.

Ocarina has some great and memorable boss fights like Twinrova and Phantom Ganon. The setting of Hyrule Castle is unforgettable. The puzzles in the dungeons. How frustrating the Water Temple was but in a good way. I know some people tire of the Zelda formula, but to me, its always worked great. And OoT is no exception. Hyrule Field's music is also timeless.

Wind Waker winds up pretty similar for me, but I rank it a spot higher here for just being a more polished and unique/quirky game. The visuals are absolutely outstanding, be it in 2002, or be it in the Wii U HD Remaster. The music is the best in the series, especially the sailing music. From what I remember of the dungeon design, I liked it, especially the Forsaken Fortress and using the Deku Leaf in general. I always found sailing to be enjoyable (although I did not beat the game until the Wii U version, so maybe thats why)

I find it hard to get into the specifics of why I like Zelda games though. I just do, man! And the ones I like more, like these 2, I like because it's fun to move around and attack, have memorable moments or fights, have interesting items or ideas to explore, and have enjoyable modes of transportation, probably assisted by great music!



Next up: The most recent game in its series. My favorite character is different in each game (no, not Final Fantasy).

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#37. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, 2018)
Not really sure what I can say about Smash at this point! I think as the years had gone on I got more and more tired of it, though this one certainly rejuvenated me on it, so its on the list! The online is finally at a point where it MOSTLY works well, though the latency is still a major issue, Nintendo gonna Nintendo.

Putting pretty much everything from every game feels like Smashs natural conclusion, and its a good send off if it is, with the occasional DLC splattered in but Im sure theyll try to release a new one anyway in some amount of years.

Still, its a great sign that so many characters are fun to play as. Even the ones that arent are still fun to play. We can say yeah we dont like playing as Ryu or whatever, but its still fun! Its just clearly less fun than a lot of the other incredibly fun characters.

The game is so timeless, the concept has barely changed since 2001, just tweaks to the mechanics, adding more stages, characters, itemsmaybe give em some super moves. And yet it still remains fun to play after all this time. Its pretty much the ultimate party game, the ultimate game to play with friends I dont touch the competitive scene but I guess its there if you want it and has so much customization with music, or the Miis you want to make, or Amiibos, or item frequency, or whatever all of that. Good. By the way, I personally am a low or off item fan, if you werent already aware, because I think its more fun to explore each characters unique move set and using those is fun. Once you add in items, it makes all characters on more similar ground, since all characters have access to these items. But hey, to each their own!

This games single player mode was eh at best. Its neat to see their interpretation of how to represent historic video game characters using only Smash characters, colors, items, and rules, and they do a really good job with it. But ultimately it comes down to a massive ton of single player battles. Nothing wrong with Classic mode! Adventure Mode in Melee was great, and Subspace had fun cutscenes, and even the 3DS one had its fun platformer thing. Wii U and Ultimate here have been a dropoff in that regard.



Anyway. Its smash. Its great! Ok!

Next up: Overheard from me in this game more than any other game "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT????"

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#34 Borderlands 2 (Playstation 4, 2015)

This game would probably not be nearly so high on my list if it were not for the multiplayer aspect. But it's still even a blast to play alone! Borderlands is a series that is very compelling to me. I kind of get hooked on the loot grind and the numbers and all that stuff. The first game was initially known as "Diablo with guns" and yeah, Borderlands 2 is still that.



But it's so much better than the first game. It's more polished in every single way, more levels, more and bigger environments, greatly improved story and characters, smarter design, more interesting bosses, and I could go on and on! One of the biggest improvements is that the item storage isn't locked behind a crappy DLC. In fact, almost all the DLC is better than the best DLC from the first game.

Borderlands 2 is a really fun game to play. The shooting feels great, the visual style is unique, and the constant progression is enchanting. Because of the open-ended nature of the game, it's not going to match some of the best shooters in terms of well-crafted sequences, but it is certainly good enough for what it is. And of course, the ability to play with three friends is a huge draw. My first time, Wigs, MSG, Nick and I played this game all the way through together. And even though Wigs stopped to do nothing at every checkpoint and fast travel station, we still had an amazing time. If only the other Borderlands game we played together was that good...

I have incredibly fond memories of this game, and maybe someday we will play it again. We came back together to play the free Borderlands 3 preview DLC thing, and it was still fun, even if that DLC wasn't great. I don't know if Gearbox will ever strike gold again like they did with this one.

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#26. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch, 2017)

This game just captures the feeling of pure joy you get playing a game as a kid. It is fun and doesn't throw too much or too little at you. It can be as difficult or easy as you want it to be. I don't really have a lot to say about Odyssey. It is a perfect game. The first one on my list I would qualify a 10/10.



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Updates coming from yours truly

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But not on this page because that's dumb

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34. Pokmon Platinum (DS, 2009)

The first Pokmon mainline entry in the top 100! (And yes, not the last.) If I were to split the different generations into eras, I'd throw 3rd, 4th, and 5th together as the "prime" of the series. Starting with Ruby/Sapphire, natures, abilities, and the modern form of IVs and EVs were introduced; all three gens have improved graphics that really allow them to create comprehensive game worlds while retaining the charm of sprite-based battles; and all three have a ton of extra content and features that are (sadly) missing from the more recent games. But atop the heap from that era, for me, is Platinum, a game with lots of personal charm and a ton of stuff I just absolutely love.
Let's just dump a bunch of reasons why I love Platinum! I think Sinnoh is the most interesting and enjoyable region of the series. It's got very good "Metroidy" design from the outset - a lot of areas that you can see but can't get to, and directions you can't go for a while to get excited about. There are a bunch of optional caves and challenges you can dig into if you like or avoid entirely. And there's the huge mountain plonked in the middle, criscrossed a couple times as you progress; flanked on the north by a beautiful snowscape (and a bop of a music track); and finally climbed near the end of the storyline to face off against Dialga/Palkia/Giratina (in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum respectively). The underground is almost unnecessarily huge but is full of mazey tunnels and feels like an ambitious and memorable spin on the Secret Bases from Ruby/Sapphire. I love the 4th gen Pokdex; there's a ton of personal favorites there along with a lot of neat evolutions to older mons. And man, there are some of the absolute best Battle themes in the entire series here, led by the Team Galactic theme and Cynthia's battle.
Platinum itself also adds awesome content and fixes a lot of its predecessors' issues. There's the return of Battle Frontier from Emerald, a little more streamlined this time but still challenging and worth the investment if you're into the battling stuff. The regional Pokdex actually has all of the new evolutions obtainable within the main story and not bafflingly thrown into the postgame. The Distortion World is a weird and interesting "final boss challenge" (?) for lack of a better word, thrown at you between the final fight against Team Galactic and the challenge against Giratina. The pace-of-play issues from Diamond/Pearl are much improved here as well, though it's still a little slow, relative to the first two gens at least. There's a lot of other little improvements, too - extra postgame content like Gym Leader rematches and Tutor moves are welcome additions.
Ranking Pokmon games relies a lot on personal preference and the timeframe in which you played them, so it's kind of hard to feel like there's any significant amount of objectivity here. But I do think Platinum really upped the ante on what could be expected from a "third" game, and really worked to both improve its predecessors' experience while reinforcing its strengths. And hey, I have to do something to take down the abundance of Black/White love in this topic. :)
Top 5 4th Gen Pokmon: Bronzong - Carnivine - Drapion - Glaceon - Mismagius

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45. Banjo-Kazooie (N64, 1998)

Banjo-Kazooie was really the first RARE game since Battletoads to make an enormous, successful splash with an original IP, and it's undoubtedly the most original, unique IP in their glistening pre-Microsoft body of work. Banjo-Kazooie, and its titular characters, ooze with charm and creativity. The game is whimsical and weird and wonderful. The music is an utter delight. The characters all have personality in a way that was - if you'll pardon the pun = rare at the time. It's just a game that makes you feel good playing it.

44. Bioshock (Xbox 360, 2007)

Undoubtedly the greatest game based on the Objectivist writings of Ayn Rand, Bioshock also represents one of the most unsettling and immersive (again, pardon the pun) games in recent history. There are few moments in my gaming history that have gripped me like the opening of Bioshock, from the crash to the lighthouse, down beneath the depths and into the bathysphere, while Andrew Ryan delivers the iconic monologue about Rapture, all while you get inklings of the horrors that await you. Just a magnificent presentation, and a great game.

43. Mario Golf (N64, 1999)

Unlike MSG, I don't feel a particular affinity for golf games. They're fine, usually. Good as a minigame in some things (Super Monkey Ball, for one). It's just hard to make the mechanics of golf and the setting of golf interesting to me. Mario Golf is the one exception to that, and the way they did it is pretty ingenious. From a gameplay perspective, Mario Golf is as straight a golf sim as it gets. You have to consider the elements, pick your club, have good aim, good distance, good timing. There's no power-ups or anything kooky. Your initial playable characters aren't even Mario characters, that's how straight they play it. But as you progress through the game, unlocking Mario & friends, all of whom play like otherwise normal golfers, the courses get more and more outlandish and Mario-inspired. They aren't unfair, but they are increasingly ridiculous and force you to really consider your strategic approach to each hole as the margins for error get smaller. If real live golf had course designs that challenged players mentally the way Boo Valley does, golf would be infinitely more entertaining (but still ethically and morally suspect).

42. Left 4 Dead 2 Xbox (360/PC, 2009)

I don't know if it's been clear at all from this list but I love survival horror games. Typically, of course, these games operate in a reliable way: you are alone, you are isolated, bad things you don't fully understand are happening, death is imminent, get out. It's the formula of choice for the genre because it's generally very effective. I alluded to this a bit in my Pikmin writeup, as it follows the same conventions, albeit in a different setting and format that hooked me immediately.

Left 4 Dead and its largely superior sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, also follow some of the same conventions, but present them in a radically different way, and it also hooked me immediately. The conceit here is that you're not alone, you're stuck with a small group of survivors, and you have to work as a team to survive. It's a concept that is familiar to anyone who's watched a horror movie, or who's played a squad-based shooter, but for whatever reason, the connection between those two things had never really been made until L4D arrived on the scene.

Couple that with an AI "Director" who, in a roguelike fashion, scrambles the level and the types of enemies you can expect every time you play through, and you have a recipe for hours and hours of tense, thrilling fun, trying to navigate your way through the immersive environs of the American South to safety.

Ultimately, while the first game introduced the core ideas into play, the second game expands on both the scope and the gameplay so significantly that it basically makes the first game unnecessary. The multiplayer, which features two teams, alternating sides as powerful zombies and the human survivors they're chasing, was broadened and deepened immensely through the addition of new weapons and new Special Infected. I'm not sure there's a multiplayer game on my list (or possibly any other) that creates tension and camaraderie the way L4D2 does.

Incidentally, it just got a significant update at the end of last year, after 8 years, if anyone wants to get some 8 player games going on Steam >_>

41. Diddy Kong Racing (N64, 1997)

I alluded to this in the Discord chat, but Diddy Kong Racing is probably the best game that exists almost entirely out of desperation.

In 1996 and 1997, RARE were working on Banjo-Kazooie a racing game called Pro-Am 64, a spiritual successor to RC Pro-Am, starring a cute tiger named Timber. In '97, it became clear that B-K, their next major major game, was going to be delayed, leaving them with nothing for the holiday release window. Thinking that Pro-Am 64 didn't have enough cache on its own, they added Diddy (and Banjo and Conker, who also had a game on the horizon for GBC) and friends and adapted the game's colorful, beautiful presentation from there, and added a soundtrack by none other than David Wise. The result was one of the most effortlessly fun kart racers of all time. It's equal parts Mario Kart, Wave Race, and Pilotwings, as the enormously satisfying campaign asks you to choose between kart, hovercraft, and plane across some of the most creatively designed and challenging courses in the genre in pursuit of the dastardly Wizpig.

It's also worth noting that there's an element of strategy present in DKR that other kart racers lack. Not only is there the question of what vehicle is the best option, but the power-ups on the course are color-coded based on what they do: red balloons to attack, blue balloons for a speed boost, yellow balloons to defend, green balloons for traps, and rainbow balloons for the magnet powerup, which acts both like drafting and a short-term rubber band. Picking the right balloon at the right time can make a world of difference in some of the more notoriously challenging races, especially in Future Fun Land, the space themed final world.

In sum: DKR is great, fuck you Nick.

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