Board 8 > Leonhart Ranks 124 User Nominated Games

(+) Yeah! (+)

LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What is your favorite 3-D Sonic game?

Generations easily, though I enjoyed all except '06 and the Werehog sections of Unleashed

LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What was your favorite game in Wii Sports?

Probably tennis? Bowling was solid too
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I've never actually played a 3D Sonic game, other than a few minutes at the rental store back when the Dreamcast came out.
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101. Pokemon Snap (Anagram)


Ah, my favorite Pokemon game! I'm not a fan of Pokemon at all. I tried to get into it back in the day unsuccessfully since it was all the rage. It's kind of weird to say now considering there are people on this site in their 30s that are still diehard fanatics, but I think I was actually a little above the target audience at 12 or 13 years old when it came out. It was viewed by many as a little kids' game if you were in high school at the time or even in the last year of middle school (and apparently it still had that status on this site until around 2007). Still, I decided to give it a shot. I played and beat Pokemon Blue, and it was okay. Never got close to catching them all, but I'm not a completionist by any stretch of the imagination. I didn't care about training or evolving skills or anything like that. I just wrecked stuff with my Blastoise and Articuno, and I forget what other Pokemon I even had on my squad. I played some Stadium, too, but I got bored with it fairly quickly. Pokemon's battle system isn't very exciting to me.

Pokemon Snap, on the other hand, was actually kinda fun. It was the ideal "rent for a weekend from Blockbuster" type of game back in the day (Things kids these days will never understand). You can do everything there is to do in a handful of hours, and there's zero replay value once you've done everything. I actually enjoyed trying to get photos of all the Pokemon in the game, especially since some of them require some clever thinking to get them to appear. I don't mind doing everything a game offers as long as it's not tedious and/or time-consuming, and it isn't here. Plus, the game is super easy and there's no real punishment for failure. You can just take a leisurely ride through this Pokemon safari without ever having to worry about triggering random battles with Zubats or anything like that! It's like the Pokemon version of Mario is Missing, a game that's surprisingly sorta fun to play through once even though it probably shouldn't be. Gotta catch 'em all on camera is definitely the most fun way to play Pokemon!

Bonus Question: What is your favorite Pokemon game?
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Red I guess. Or Stadium.
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GSC
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I was definitely smackdab in the middle of the pokemon demographic.

Probably one of the best examples of a casual. I played Red, loved it, played all the other N64 spin offs, watched some of the first season of the anime, first three movies, played Silver, got into the tcg without really knowing how to play card games.

And then when Gen III came out I stopped and basically never touched new entries in the series.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What is your favorite Pokemon game?

Ruby

or Omega Ruby, either works
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pjbasis posted...

I was definitely smackdab in the middle of the pokemon demographic.

Probably one of the best examples of a casual. I played Red, loved it, played all the other N64 spin offs, watched some of the first season of the anime, first three movies, played Silver, got into the tcg without really knowing how to play card games.

And then when Gen III came out I stopped and basically never touched new entries in the series.

too bad since gen 3 is the best
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I've since played most of III and IV. I do like them.

Planning on playing the rest too. I'm not gonna enjoy the series the way I did as a kid, but there's definitely things like the overall improved battle system that would appeal to my adult sensibilities.
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100. Super Metroid (kateee)


I know some will object to this ranking, but I assure you it's not due to any animosity I have toward Super Metroid. I fully intend to give it another shot sometime soon on my SNES Classic. There's a lot to like about this game. It looks great, the controls are really solid, and the feeling of gradually getting stronger and stronger as you upgrade all your gear is pretty gratifying. The main drawback for me is that I'm not a fan of all the backtracking and aimless wandering I did trying to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to do next. I'm generally reluctant to use a guide on a first playthrough, too, so I just tried to keep toughing it out. Eventually, I got stuck, stopped playing, and haven't gone back to it since. I suppose this sort of thing is the nature of the beast when it comes to Metroidvanias, but I haven't played very many of those to begin with.

So yeah, this ranking probably isn't very fair to Super Metroid. This is more of an incomplete grade than anything, and it'll likely improve upon replaying and hopefully finishing it. I'm just going to bite the bullet and follow a guide whenever I get lost so I don't have to deal with that next time. For now, just forgive me and be patient. Or, to phrase it in the immortal words of Satoru Iwata: "Please understand."

Bonus Question: What's a game you never beat that you'd like to go back and finish someday?
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And that's two tiers down!

Maybe I shouldnt be saying thisBut he definitely did it. Murder. At least once. Maybe twice.

100. Super Metroid (kateee)
101. Pokemon Snap (Anagram)
102. Wii Sports (handsomeboy2012)
103. Sonic Adventure 2 (Johnbobb)
104. Connect Four (WhiteLens)
105. The Floor is Lava (Xeybozn)
106. Life is Strange (Robazoid)
107. Scrabble (Raka_Putra)
108. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (pjbasis)
109. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (Dragon66116)
110. Vagrant Story (Mac Arrowny)
111. Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City (AxemRedRanger)
112. Sonic Spinball (Drakeryn)
113. Donkey Kong 64 (AxemRedRanger)
114. The Simpsons: Barts Nightmare (Robazoid)
115. Hide-and-Seek (Xeybozn)
116. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (AxemRedRanger)

You look like I did after I mistakenly took a swig of Worcestershire sauce.

117. Charades (Raka_Putra)
118. Star Fox Adventures (NBIceman)
119. Musashi Samurai Legend (AxemRedRanger)
120. Tic-Tac-Toe (Xeybozn)
121. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (handsomeboy2012)
122. Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (Axl_Rose_85)
123. Shaq Fu (handsomeboy2012)
124. Monopoly (WhiteLens)
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LeonhartFour posted...

What is your favorite 3-D Sonic game?

SA1, but I haven't played any of the newer ones that are supposed to actually be good. Never got the love for SA2.

LeonhartFour posted...

What is your favorite Pokemon game?

GSC. RBY is way too primitive to go back to, and for some reason I just don't like most of the Pokemon designs from any generation after the second. Not a big fan of any of the non-main series games, but a lot of them are decent.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What's a game you never beat that you'd like to go back and finish someday?

Resident Evil 4
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Bonus Question: What's a game you never beat that you'd like to go back and finish someday?

There's almost too many. Fallout 3, New Vegas, KOTOR, Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime 3, Deus Ex, XCOM Enemy Unknown...
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On my most recent playthrough of Super Metroid, it turned out to be far more directed than I imagined. In a good way, there wasn't handholding but the game really guides you through most of the powerups and bosses until you get to like Maridia.
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With Super Metroid down, both my first and second favorite games are already out

Luckily nothing else from my top 10 was nominated so this is as far as the heresy will spread!

(Seriously though, getting lost is a fair reason for feeling iffy on SM. I sometimes wonder how I would feel about the game if I could play it for the first time today but I literally grew up with it do getting lost isn't even possible anymore.)
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I think at the endgame what I really wanted from SM was a way to warp around the world.

Maridia as a whole has that really annoying one way route structure too that if you go the wrong way you have to go a long way around to get back to where you were.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What's a game you never beat that you'd like to go back and finish someday?

well Donkey Kong Country comes to mind immediately

and I guess Mass Effect
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darn it Janus
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What's a game you never beat that you'd like to go back and finish someday?

Xenogears. I play it every so often, but it's so long that I lose interest. I have a save file where I got to a part where you fight Stone and I don't even know how far in I am.
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99. Jak 3 (Johnbobb)


Naughty Dog sure was inconsistent with the naming conventions for these games! First, you had Jak & Daxter. Then you had Jak II, followed by Jak 3. There was also a prequel named Daxter. Finally, they skipped all the way ahead to Jak X! What's the deal with all these titles (</Seinfeld voice>)? Jak 3 made some good improvements, like the addition of Light Jak powers to go along with the Dark Jak ones the second game introduced. It was also noticeably more generous with its checkpoints, something Jak II was notoriously bad about, so you were much less likely to get frustrated as you played. The gameplay is just plain better overall. Daxter finally got a pair of pants. However, I feel like it was a step back in other areas. I didn't really like the new hub city or the desert wastelands as much. They weren't as good as Haven City in terms of a setting, even if they were a little less annoying to traverse. I thought Jak II had much better bosses. Overall, Jak 3 felt a little more unmoored and not as tight of an experience.

Honestly, I think the area where Jak II beats 3 the most is story and characterization. I'm not hailing Jak II as some masterpiece of cinematic storytelling or anything, but it felt like they were really doing their best to sell the change in the game's direction. It had a darker mood, and it threw some neat twists at you. Jak 3 feels a bit more predictable by comparison, although it still maintained the series' trademark sense of humor. Also, the decision to bring back Errol as Cyber Errol to be the main antagonist still baffles me to this day. I honestly could not remember who the heck he was the entire time I was playing Jak 3, and I assume I'm not alone there because he was so minor in Jak II. It'd be like if Final Fantasy X-2 had brought back some random blitzball player to be the main villain. It honestly kinda took me out of Jak 3's endgame sequence. It's still a really fun game though! I guess I just felt the need to justify my choice of putting Jak II first since that apparently became a controversial opinion when I wasn't paying attention!

Bonus Question: What's the most bizarre decision you've seen a sequel make?

That's probably all for tonight.
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My favorite Pokmon game...I think it's...RSE or SM. FRLG is tons of fun too.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What's the most bizarre decision you've seen a sequel make?

God of War III's rhythm game section

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Eb352EUSg
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LeonhartFour posted...

I'm not hailing Jak II as some masterpiece of cinematic storytelling or anything

I don't see why not
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I miss the old Baron...

This war was over a long time ago...
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tazzyboyishere posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

I'm not hailing Jak II as some masterpiece of cinematic storytelling or anything

I don't see why not

Because that's reserved for the superior 3-D platforming duo's best game.
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LeonhartFour posted...

superior 3-D platforming duo

Ha
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tazzyboyishere posted...

LeonhartFour posted...

superior 3-D platforming duo

Ha

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good thing you guys aren't making this list
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Mario and Luigi?
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Mario & Luigi are rarely a platforming duo

very solid RPG duo though
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98. Portal (handsomeboy2012)


Portal is a fun game to mess around with and experiment with, even if you're not actively progressing through the game. The first game keeps it straightforward. You have a portal gun that can create two connecting portals on certain surfaces, and after that, you're on your own. Well, technically, GlaDOS is with you, too, but she's not exactly what you'd call helpful (or very funny, but that's just me). Portal's simplicity is actually refreshing because it doesn't try to be more than what it is. You know what you're getting from this game. That being said, I do like the sequel better because I thought the additions to the gameplay it made were really cool (but more on that later since it is on the list), but Portal's one of those games you can pick up and play for like 15-30 minutes if you're in the mood for it.

While I do like the gameplay quite a bit, I'm not so fond of GlaDOS, as I alluded to before, who provides most of the game's dialogue since Chell is a silent protagonist. Part of that may have been because the internet drove all the Portal memes into the ground before I ever got to play it. While I acknowledge that the writing is clever and witty, it doesn't ever really make me laugh, and I assume it was designed to do so. There are few things worse than the comic relief character who isn't funny. That was probably the area Portal 2 most improved upon, actually, but I'm getting ahead of myself again.

Anyway, Portal is one of the very few video games I've ever played on my PC (my Steam account has 17 games on it, only 7 of which have actually been played), and I think I only played it because someone gifted it to me on B8 for free. If I remember correctly, I think I signed up for a Steam account solely so I could get Portal for free. Looking at it, it is indeed the first game I owned on Steam, so my memory has served me well! I don't even remember who gave it to me. It might have been voltch, actually, but I don't recall for certain. Regardless, I'm glad I gave the game a chance despite my general avoidance of PC gaming.

Bonus Question: What was the first game you owned on Steam?
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What was the first game you owned on Steam?

I got Steam because a friend on another forum was really pushing Mount and Blade: Warband. It looked "okay" but I didn't think I'd like it that much. Gave it a shot anyway, and well... (400 hours later).
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Team Fortress 2
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Civ V. I bought a hard copy in stores but it needed Steam to fully download it or something.
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97. Metroid Prime (Mac Arrowny)


This is the closest I've come to beating a Metroid game. I got all the way up to right before the Meta Ridley fight and dropped it. I think what happened was that I felt like I didn't have enough health or missiles, but at the same time, I didn't feel like scouring all over the place trying to find more. With everything at an impasse, I just stopped playing and never went back to it. I guess I should've just given the boss fight a try to see what would've happened, but what's done is done. Prime has a lot of the same strengths that Super Metroid does. The game's aesthetics are stunning. It feels like a fully realized world with a wide variety of area types. I think Magmoor Caverns might have been my favorite location. The music there was really catchy, and I still remember it even though it's been years since the last time I played Prime. I'm normally not a fan of FPS games, but they made that first-person perspective really work with nice visual touches (like rain drops and steam on Samus's visor), as well as the scanner to give you more information about the world around you. That feeling of gradually getting stronger as you gain new powerups is still immensely satisfying. Prime has some really solid boss fights, too.

However, like how Prime shares a lot of Super Metroid's strengths, it also shares many of its weaknesses. I was mostly able to push through it and figure it all out along the way in Prime, but I still didn't enjoy the feeling of aimlessness and all the backtracking trying to discern what my next objective was. As I said before, it's ultimately what hindered me from beating the game, since I didn't feel like doing all sorts of hunting to find what I needed. I thought about using a guide, but I realized it wouldn't be very helpful because I'd have no way of knowing which ones I'd found and which ones I hadn't. Maybe if my Super Metroid replay goes well, I might give this game another shot and finally beat it, too. Then maybe I'll beat the other Prime games and be ready for Prime 4! Who knows!

Bonus Question: What's the closest you've come to beating a game before dropping it?
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That gif is gold.

Bonus Question: What's the closest you've come to beating a game before dropping it?

Terraria. I was already pretty fed up with expert mode by the time I got to the final boss, so when he killed me in 30 seconds with some screen filling attack I gave up on it.
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Ive gotten to the final boss of a few games before giving up. Shadow Hearts 1 and Xenosaga 2 are ones that come to mind immediately.
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oh hey you and SaveEstelle are in the same boat (for now) on Shadow Hearts 1

I'm trying to figure out if there's any other game I got all the way to the end before I quit.

Oh right, I did get up to the last boss of Mega Man Zero 1 before I quit. I'm trying to remember if I actually beat the last boss of MMX3, too, now that I think about it. I'm not sure.
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To be fair to XS2 it was because the disc was busted and kept freezing on the cutscene between the final bosss first and second forms.

But also XS2 sucks.
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Depending on the definition of 'beaten', Hollow Knight:

I beat the game with the bad ending. I fought the boss for the true ending once (and was completely destroyed) and then gave up as soon as I realized I would have to beat the fake final boss again every time I died.
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Disgaea. Got up to the last boss, but he could one-shot all my party members. I checked out some strategies, but the ones I saw required being at a high enough level not to be one-shotted, so I gave up there since I didn't feel like grinding.

MMX3's final boss is a major challenge. I remember having a sleepover with some friends and we all took turns trying to beat him for a few hours when I was a kid before finally succeeding. I think I had an easier time of it when I played the game again on the MMX Collection though.
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You know now that I think about it I don't think I actually beat the last boss of Jak 3, so I guess that one for me.
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I never beat the final boss of Superstar Saga for some reason.
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96. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Snake5555555555)


I have a lot of mixed feelings about MGSV. When it wants to be a really good MGS game, it's capable of being one (The mission inside the quarantine tent being the prime example). It just seems like it doesn't always want to be one. Now there were all sorts of behind the scenes issues between Kojima and Konami that probably undermined the full potential of this game, which is a shame, but it doesn't excuse or change the fact that it's just not as good as the other mainline games in the series. Many people laud MGSV's gameplay, and that's certainly warranted. The action and the controls are as good as they've ever been, and there's no shortage of things to do in this game. I actually did complete every mission in MGSV, which took quite a while. The game gives you plenty of options on how to tackle any given objective, and you can basically play it any way you want. Being able to listen to old '80s songs as you traverse the map is pretty rad. There's tons of other stuff to do, like building up your bases, recruiting for MSF, all the weapon customization and development, but that stuff doesn't really appeal to me much.

Here's the thing though: I don't just play MGS for the gameplay. I play it for the story, too, as well as seeing how Kojima often interweaves the two together. While many of the tapes contained some really cool stuff (the ones you unlock after you beat the game in particular are excellent), I wish they didn't feel so disconnected from the game's story. I'm pretty sure there's more dialogue in those tapes than in the cutscenes. Plus, it'd be so great if we could actually see some of these conversations instead of just hearing them. I get why you do it for something like Peace Walker since it was a PSP game, but MGSV is a AAA+ game with a budget to match. You can do more with it. The execution just feels so botched at times. There are some plotlines and sequences that have potential, but nearly all of them fizzle out before the end and feel anticlimactic or lacking in some way. That's to say nothing of the fact that the game itself is blatantly unfinished.

Metal Gear Solid is also a series noted for its complex characters, but you'd never know it from playing Metal Gear Solid V. I'm not sure how many times I heard Ocelot say, "That's a Soviet soldier" or "So this is raven territory," but it was far too many. It breaks the immersion hearing the exact same lines ad infinitum. In MGS3, I can literally spend an hour on the radio as soon as the game begins without ever getting into repeating conversations, and that's not an exaggeration. In MGSV, you're done with all there is to hear for the entire game via the radio within 10 minutes. Punished "Venom" Snake is woefully underdeveloped, which makes him an apt avatar for this game. Now I'm not like Quinton, who didn't get very far into Metal Gear Solid V before he dropped it altogether. I finished what there was to finish, and I enjoyed myself, but Metal Gear Solid is one of my favorite series, so it's hard not to feel a little disappointed in all the ways it fell short of the standard.

Bonus Question: What is your least favorite Metal Gear Solid game?

That's it for tonight.
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I guess Portable Ops, with Peacewalker next.

I don't really like the recruiting soldiers for your base and stuff, but in V it didn't feel as central to the gameplay as the PSP entries.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What's the closest you've come to beating a game before dropping it?

I stopped right before the final dungeon in both FFVI and FFVII. I didn't feel prepared for FFVII (even though I had KOTR - I was young okay) and FFVI I just lost interest in.

actually this is probably also Donkey Kong Country because I got to the final boss once and then got owned by the credits
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man you were way more prepared for FFVII's endgame than I was when I first played it!

I think I ran away from nearly every random battle I could for the whole game (don't ask me why because I never did it for any other RPG), so I'd gain like 3-5 levels after every boss fight! I think Cloud was only level 40-something, and he was the only one who even had a Level 2 Limit Break. I definitely hadn't done any of the major sidequests either.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Bonus Question: What's the closest you've come to beating a game before dropping it?

It was actually FF8. I was playing it on an emulator and my only save got corrupted at Esthar. Few months later I gave it another try and got to Ultimecia's Castle before somehow deciding I didn't like the game after all and deleted the whole thing.

On the other hand I did finish FF7 and 9.

I feel like at that point you might as well finish it
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