Board 8 > Leonhart Ranks 100 Games with Writeups!

(+) Yeah! (+)

#45. Star Fox 64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0i_SI63I70

Do any of you guys remember getting that promotional video from Nintendo Power about Star Fox 64? I remember getting this one and the Donkey Kong Country one back in the day, but they were very different types of videos. The DKC one was basically a behind the scenes look, but the Star Fox 64 was basically a Nintendo dude being interrogated by Sony and Sega for the inside scoop about the game. I dont know if it actually got me hyped up to play the game, but I will certainly never forget about it! Plus, this was the game that introduced the Rumble Pak, which Nintendo promoted like it was this revolutionary idea. We basically take rumble features for granted in gaming today, and I dont know if theyve ever really enhanced a game for me, except maybe this one because I remember how over the top the rumbles would get whenever you blew up a boss. You could give someone a shiatsu massage with your Nintendo 64 controller at the end of every level! No game ever was as forceful with the rumble feature as Star Fox 64 was.

Star Fox 64 might be the king of campy dialogue. There are so many quotable cheesy lines that I dont even need to list any of them here for them to immediately start popping into your mind. Just about every character and boss in the game is memorable in some way because of the writing and the over the top delivery from pretty much every voice actor. Most of it is enjoyable, except for the frequent occasions when your squadmates are asking for you to get the bogey off their tail. I love the Star Wolf crew (the great Leon especially, naturally!), and the guest characters, Kat and Bill, are great, too. I usually play through the routes where at least one of them shows up. They tend to be the best levels anyway, too!

I really love the core gameplay. Flying the Arwing feels really good, and the Landmaster was a neat addition. The submarine is whatever, but at least you only have to use it for one level! I love the fact that there are multiple paths through each level and multiple routes to finish the game. My favorite levels are Katina, Zoness, Macbeth, Bolse, Fortuna, Area 6, and both Venom paths. They have a lot of action or special conditions for beating them. Katina is a deliberate homage to Independence Day, and I love it. The first time you get all the search lights in Zoness or hit all the switches in Macbeth to derail the train is super satisfying. Area 6 is just nonstop action with enemies everywhere, and it feels like the real last line of defense before Venom where Andross is pulling out all the stops to take you down. All the Star Wolf duels are really fun, too. I liked the challenge of getting gold medals on every stage to unlock expert mode and then doing it all over again. Star Fox 64 is short enough that it gives it a lot of replay value, too. I used to love doing multiple runs until I covered every level at least once because theyre all at least worthwhile. The individual level quality is just so high, and theres never really a low moment in the game.

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NO! HIT THE BRAAAAAAAKESSSSSSSSSS
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Aw yeah Macbeth

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Probably nothing until tonight

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Just a minute in but that video is hilarious.

I wonder what a 2020 version of ridiculous company sabotage would look like.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Katina is a deliberate homage to Independence Day, and I love it.

I never lost though

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No, I never lost either! There's plenty of time to do everything.

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#44. Street Fighter II (Every Version)


I combined every version of Street Fighter II here for obvious reasons. I know they have different mechanics and movesets (Super Turbo especially, which basically laid the foundation for the series gameplay going forward), but I enjoyed watching the gameplay evolve through the various upgrades, although I havent played any of the more recent versions like Ultra or the HD Remix. I know people got frustrated that they kept releasing so many versions, but I think they were all worthwhile in their own ways and I enjoyed the time I had with all of them. The funny thing is that Capcom sort of stumbled into good fortune with the original Street Fighter II because they didnt deliberately program combos into the game, but players eventually discovered them and completely changed fighting games forever. Its actually kind of a glitchy mess and borderline unplayable after they released the future versions, but its impact is undeniable. Thats why I thought Super Mario RPG > Street Fighter II was an obvious pick in 2004 because why would you vote for the original game when the upgraded versions were so much better!

Now everyone has their favorite Street Fighter II version. I think most people go with Turbo or Super Turbo for the speed, but I was never a fan of the top end speed those games provided. It was a bit TOO fast for me as a little kid. I could probably handle it now, but my reflexes back then couldnt adjust to it. Im also not a fan of Super Turbo either because I think future Street Fighter games just do what it does better, but I absolutely respect the changes it made because it helped make the series what it is now. My personal favorite was Super Street Fighter II because of the four new fighters it added (Cammy especially), and this is where a lot of characters gained signature moves and/or move properties that theyve kept in the series ever since. Most characters gained at least one new move, and this is where Ryu and Ken really started being their own characters instead of clones. Ryu gained the flaming Hadouken and Ken gained the flaming Shoryuken, among other things. I could give a lot more technical details, but I dont really have the space for it!

One of the strange things about Street Fighter II is that Capcom has never definitively stated who canonically won the tournament. I think most assume that either Chun-Li (based on some things Urien says about her in Street Fighter III) or Guile won, but theres no clear answer. However, one thing they have said it that Ryu didnt win it, and the thing in Super Turbo where Akuma dashes in and hits Bison with the Raging Demon did happen. Speaking of Akuma, you can unlock him with a code in Super Turbo and hes incredibly broken because that game wasnt designed to handle air fireballs. Anyway, the point is that Street Fighter canon is weird sometimes. Street Fighter II is still probably the most popular iteration of the series, and we dont even know how it actually played out canonically. Also, the picture I posted at the top there is probably the first comic I ever read. It was an 8-issue mini-series that covered the Street Fighter II tournament, and it was really cool. I think it's part of what cemented Ryu as my favorite character in the series because he's super cool throughout the whole thing. The Street Fighter II anime even borrowed a few story beats from it, too, like brainwashed Ken! I bought the whole series off of Amazon a few years back to re-read it, and it holds up if you're interested in checking it out!

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Tatsumaki senpuu kyaku

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#43. Super Mario Odyssey


I feel like Super Mario Odyssey solves some of the problems I have with this style of 3-D Mario. I like Mario 64 and I tolerate Mario Sunshine, but I feel like theyre low on platforming and higher on exploration since each area is so big. Yet I feel like theres so little to actually find, especially in Sunshine where youre largely locked in to finding only one given Shine at a time. At least you can sequence break a bit in Mario 64 and the Galaxy games! I also didnt like that the game literally spit you out after collecting a Star/Shine and made you jump back in rather than letting you move on to the next objective. I know people find other things in those games to entertain themselves, but Im more interested in what the core gameplay is and so I tend to lean more toward the Galaxy games (list spoilers).

Well, Super Mario Odyssey has no shortage of Moons for you to find, and you can find them literally anywhere. I suppose it can make it feel less special to find them when there are so many of them and you dont have to accomplish some big objective to do so, but the fact that you really can find them anywhere actually gives you the incentive to thoroughly explore each level. Ive managed to get every Star/Shine/Moon in the major console Mario platformers, so I do enjoy the satisfaction of finding every single one of them regardless, but I appreciate the fact that Odyssey somehow never got old despite how many there were to find. I think it manages to find that fine balance between having a good amount of collectibles without it getting tedious or just giving you collectibles for the sake of having them.

The game also gave you other things to find, like all the Cappy powers. I thought that was a pretty fun gameplay mechanic, figuring out how to acquire and then effectively use each power the game afforded you. It really enhanced the gameplay and provided more options and strategy for how to navigate an area. I also think Odyssey has some beautifully designed worlds. My personal favorites were the Wooded Kingdom, the Lost Kingdom, Bowsers Kingdom, and, of course, New Donk City. Theres just something cool about running around a New York City-esque world as Mario. Thats really Odyssey in a nutshell though. The game just feels like a joy to play, so its easy to see where its popularity comes from.

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#184. Street Fighter II: Champion Edition

#44. Street Fighter II (Every Version)


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I did rank every version individually initially but then I decided to just combine them all into one anyway so I didn't have multiple versions in the top 100 like Smash did.

I meant to go back and delete all the versions outside the top 100 but I missed that one!

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I started playing Odyssey a week ago, and your writeup is practically identical to my feelings toward it.

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Maybe something tonight.

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I started playing Super Mario Odyssey and didn't immediately fall in love with it but I'm hoping that it picks up at some point. Just beat the Sand Kingdom and moved onto the Lake Kingdom.

Paratroopa1 posted...

I started playing Super Mario Odyssey and didn't immediately fall in love with it but I'm hoping that it picks up at some point. Just beat the Sand Kingdom and moved onto the Lake Kingdom.

I think the first couple worlds are just breaking you in to the gameplay. It starts to open up a bit more where you are and once you really start hunting for Moons.

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Yeah, nothing tonight. Just no time to churn anything out, but we'll get back at it tomorrow.

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tag

bold move tagging in the last 30 posts

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Leon is Leon

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#42. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time


This is a fitting time for this writeup because I stumbled upon the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie on Netflix the other day and decided to rewatch it. It still holds up! I think that was the very first movie I ever saw in theaters, or at least its the first one I remember seeing. I was obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid. I had so many toys, accessories, costumes, etc. I remember getting the Technodrome (LETS KICK SHELL) for Christmas when I was 5 or 6, and it was the best thing ever. I watched all three movies, cartoon show, played just about all the games that came out during the late 80s and the 90s. I could never get enough Ninja Turtles. I havent really kept up with anything theyve done since then because none of it looked particularly interesting, but maybe that was just my nostalgia telling me it couldnt be as good as the stuff I knew.

Of all the Ninja Turtles related games, Turtles in Time was definitely the best. It hit all the right fanservice notes if you were a big fan of the cartoon and the movies. It had all the right bosses and enemies. It had really cool stages (with my favorites being the prehistoric stage and the pirate stage), as well as memorable music to go along with it. You also got some different types of stages to mix things up, like the sewer surfing stage or the futuristic one where youre on the hoverboard. You also had some really fun bosses that could be pretty tough, too. My favorites were Slash, Krang, Super Shredder, and the Shredder where you have to throw Foot Soldiers into the screen.

Speaking of which, I think the combat in Turtles in Time is really solid. Each turtle feels sufficiently unique and viable, and you have enough moves at your disposal so you dont feel like youre just doing the same thing over and over again. I like being able to throw enemies into the screen. I like the special powerup that makes you invincible and take down enemies in a single hit, too. I think the game is short enough to give it some good replay value as well. I enjoy playing through it as all the different turtles. Its a fun multiplayer game, too, if you can get a friend to play with you, as pretty much all beat-em-ups are. I never played the HD version they came out with several years ago. I heard it was decent but not as good as the original.

And since no discussion of Ninja Turtles is complete without an inequality, Leo > Mikey > Don > Raph!

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I want to have children solely to have someone to co-op Turtles in Time with me

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#41. Assassin's Creed II


Assassins Creed is one of those series I need to try to get back into one of these days. I played the original game and liked it but didnt love it. I thought it had some good ideas and cool concepts, but Altair was a total bore. Then the Ezio trilogy came along and solved that problem. However, I havent touched the series since Revelations. I just got burned out when the series was an annual occurrence and havent picked it back up. I already own 3 and 4, but I kinda lost the motivation once they started becoming glitchy messes like Unity and Syndicate since I realized I probably wouldnt want to play every single game. Strangely enough, my fiance (who isnt a big gamer) loves the Assassins Creed series (as well as Uncharted), but shes also a history teacher, so it makes sense!

As for Assassins Creed II itself, I really loved watching Ezios journey as an assassin. He just has so much personality (in contrast to Altair, who has all the personality of a wall Squall might talk to), and hes one of those rare characters you get to see grow up (literally the first time you see Ezio is the moment of his birth) and grow old. You get personally invested in his journey as he goes from this hotblooded kid who wants to avenge his family (seeing him just repeatedly stab a dude over and over again who was responsible for getting them put to death was just so raw, not cool and calculating at all) to a leader of an assassin clan. I love the Italian Renaissance setting, too. It provides for some really cool historical figures, like Leonardo da Vinci and Rodrigo Borgia. The fictional characters you meet prove to be pretty charming, too. Its still super satisfying just to parkour, climb, and leap of faith on and off of everything. I enjoy the additional weapons and gadgets Assassins Creed II provides, too, like the dual assassins blades and the poison blade. The combat was a big upgrade over the original, too, since you can now disarm your opponent, steal their weapon, and kill them with a counterattack. If youre good enough, it feels like its almost impossible to get killed, even when youre fighting huge mobs. Theres just something inherently satisfying about the way the game controls all around.

I feel like a word needs to be said about Assassins Creed IIs ending because its straight up nuts. You might think it couldnt get any crazier than who you fight as the last boss, but youd be wrong! The ending is so out there that even Ezio is left completely befuddled by it and spends the next two games trying to figure out what the heck it meant. Ive heard the series aborted that entire arc after Assassins Creed III, which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to seeing what they did with that! Still, Assassins Creed II remains my favorite of the ones Ive played because I believe it does tell the most cohesive story despite that ending (or perhaps because of), and I think it strikes a really good balance between the stories its trying to tell and connecting them with the core gameplay. It doesnt sound like the series has been able to create something quite like it since, but maybe someday Ill find out for myself!

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Assassin's Creed is a series I've never played but it feels like I probably should have because it sounds like I would have had some fun with it.

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if you're an RPG fan then the top 40 is for you

I just counted it up and 18 of the top 40 games are RPGs

We also have 10 platformers

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LeonhartFour posted...

if you're an RPG fan then the top 40 is for you

I just counted it up and 18 of the top 40 games are RPGs

We also have 10 platformers

Sounds like a good list to me.

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LeonhartFour posted...

if you're an RPG fan then the top 40 is for you

I just counted it up and 18 of the top 40 games are RPGs

We also have 10 platformers

And the rest are probably MGS. I can support this.

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well there aren't 12 MGS games to my knowledge

in any event I should probably do some various statistics once I actually finish the list to see how imbalanced it is

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Hmm, wonder how many of my top 40 would be RPGs? Probably a solid half. When I did my top 20 of the decade, 9 or 10 were RPGs (depending if you count Theatrhythm as an RPG or not).
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LeonhartFour posted...

well there aren't 12 MGS games to my knowledge

I think 7 "serious" ones (1-5, Peace Walker, Portable Ops) and then like 3 mobile games? Damn, just 2 away.

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xp1337 posted...

I think 7 "serious" ones (1-5, Peace Walker, Portable Ops) and then like 3 mobile games? Damn, just 2 away.

forgot ghost babel smh
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Mac Arrowny posted...

forgot ghost babel smh

only got the "solid" attached to it overseas. i assume leon would dq it for that reason if included

it's why the best metal gear, revengeance, is not listed.

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xp1337 posted...

only got the "solid" attached to it overseas. i assume leon would dq it for that reason if included

it's why the best metal gear, revengeance, is not listed.

The game officially titled Metal Gear Solid: Rising, you mean?

http://puu.sh/FbOd6/4e3dca3fbd.jpg
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maybe one of these days I will give REVENGEANCE another chance

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Mac Arrowny posted...

The game officially titled Metal Gear Solid: Rising, you mean?

http://puu.sh/FbOd6/4e3dca3fbd.jpg

The game officially titled Metal Gear Solid: Rising never came out and the prototype's name was changed to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance when Platinum took over the project

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I'll make a new topic for the top 40 tomorrow sometime.

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Leon if you wanna watch a new turtles thing. Turtles Forever. It was a TV Movie a few years back in which all the iterations of the Turtles interact. Seeing the goofy 80s ones I love interact with the more edgy ones was amazing.

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Yeah, I remember seeing stuff about that and it seemed kinda interesting, but I never got around to seeing it.

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So Tifa's theme in FF7 remake starts with Eyes on me.... Thoughts Leon?

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Tifa's theme in the original FFVII sucks so it's a vast improvement

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New topic:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78415064

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RPGlord95 posted...

Leon if you wanna watch a new turtles thing. Turtles Forever. It was a TV Movie a few years back in which all the iterations of the Turtles interact. Seeing the goofy 80s ones I love interact with the more edgy ones was amazing.

I watched that, it was good fun.

You should also check out The Toys That Made Us episode about TMNT on Netflix.

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I wonder how many of those toys I would have owned.

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Save.

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Another save.

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Almost done!

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Earthbound sucks

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Ico too

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Play Ratchet & Clank

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