Board 8 > Leonhart Ranks 100 Games with Writeups: The Top 40!

(+) Yeah! (+)

The list so far:

#41. Assassin's Creed II
#42. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
#43. Super Mario Odyssey
#44. Street Fighter II (All Versions)
#45. Star Fox 64
#46. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
#47. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
#48. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate/Brawl/Melee
#49. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
#50. Sonic Mania
#51. Tales of Symphonia
#52. Mortal Kombat II
#53. Brave Fencer Musashi
#54. ESPN Extreme Games
#55. Last Window: The Secret of Cape West
#56. Chrono Trigger
#57. Nier: Automata
#58. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
#59. Mega Man X2
#60. Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
#61. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Path
#62. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
#63. Steins;Gate
#64. Kingdom Hearts III
#65. Mega Man 9
#66. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
#67. The World Ends With You
#68. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
#69. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
#70. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
#71. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice
#72. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
#73. Shadow Hearts
#74. Super Mario Kart
#75. Mega Man 2
#76. Parasite Eve
#77. WWF No Mercy
#78. Mega Man 10
#79. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
#80. Zero Time Dilemma
#81. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
#82. Shadow of the Colossus
#83. Persona 5
#84. Street Fighter III: Third Strike
#85. Portal 2
#86. Sonic Colors
#87. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
#88. Streets of Rage 2
#89. Battle Arena Toshinden
#90. Jak II
#91. Kingdom Hearts
#92. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
#93. WCW/nWo Revenge
#94. Tecmo Super Bowl
#95. Mario Party 2
#96. Broken Age
#97. Final Fantasy XV
#98. X-Men: The Arcade Game/The Simpsons Arcade Game
#99. Tales of the Abyss
#100. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call
#101. Mortal Kombat Trilogy
#102. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project
#103. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
#104. Mario Superstar Baseball
#105. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
#106. Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
#107. Mario Tennis
#108. Mario Golf
#109. Aladdin
#110. Super Metroid
#111. 428 Shibuya Scramble
#112. Final Fantasy XIII
#113. Ultimate Mortal Kombat
#114. Final Fantasy VI
#115. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
#116. Halo: Combat Evolved
#117. Fighting Vipers
#118. Fatal Fury Special
#119. Super Smash Bros.
#120. Xenogears
#121. Trails in the Sky: First Chapter
#122. Umineko no Naku Koro ni
#123. What Remains of Edith Finch
#124. Marvel vs. Capcom 3
#125. Donkey Kong Country
#126. Ghost Trick
#127. Assassin's Creed: Revelations
#128. Clannad
#129. Arkanoid
#130. Hotel Dusk: Room 215
#131. Final Fight
#132. GoldenEye 007
#133. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha
#134. Super Mario Bros.
#135. Killer Instinct
#136. Sonic Adventure
#137. Mega Man X4
#138. Ori and the Blind Forest
#139. Paper Mario
#140. Persona 3
#141. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
#142. Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
#143. Hitman
#144. Mega Man X3
#145. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
#146. Destruction Derby
#147. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
#148. Braid
#149. Dust: An Elysian Tail
#150. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
#151. Final Fantasy X-2
#152. Metroid Prime
#153. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
#154. Jak 3
#155. Final Fantasy XII
#156. WWF Raw is War
#157. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
#158. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
#159. Street Fighter III: The New Generation
#160. VVVVVV
#161. Virtua Fighter
#162. Trails of Cold Steel II
#163. Trails of Cold Steel
#164. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All
#165. Mario Kart: Double Dash
#166. Trails in the Sky the 3rd
#167. The Bouncer
#168. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
#169. inFAMOUS
#170. Steins;Gate 0
#171. WWF Wrestlemania 2000
#172. Super Paper Mario
#173. Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney
#174. Super Mario 64
#175. Tales of Xillia
#176. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
#177. Rampage World Tour
#178. The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse
#179. Street Fighter Alpha 3
#180. Tetris Plus
#181. Mortal Kombat 3
#182. Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus
#183. WWE All Stars
#184. Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
#185. Ratchet & Clank
#186. Portal
#187. Tetris
#188. Sonic the Hedgehog
#189. The Last of Us
#190. Street Fighter Alpha
#191. Final Fight 2
#192. Saturday Night Slam Masters
#193. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2
#194. Super Mario Bros. 2
#195. Kirby's Dream Course
#196. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
#197. Marvel vs. Street Fighter
#198. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
#199. Mega Man 3
#200. WCW vs. nWo World Tour
#201. Super Mario 3D Land
#202. Super Dodge Ball
#203. Viewtiful Joe
#204. Sonic CD
#205. Mega Man 4
#206. Virtua Fighter V
#207. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
#208. Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball
#209. Mass Effect: Andromeda
#210. Metal Gear Solid V
#211. Persona 4 Arena
#212. Rampage
#213. Mega Man 7
#214. Life Is Strange
#215. Spanky's Quest
#216. Mario Kart 7
#217. Mega Man 6
#218. Mass Effect
#219. Beavis & Butt-head
#220. Bomberman Generations
#221. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
#222. Battletoads & Double Dragon
#223. Xenosaga Episode II
#224. Persona 4: Dancing All Night
#225. Killer Instinct Gold
#226. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
#227. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight
#228. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
#229. Streets of Rage
#230. Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
#231. Final Fantasy IV
#232. Chrono Cross
#233. Super Baseball Simulator 1.000
#234. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
#235. Street Fighter V
#236. Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
#237. Final Fantasy V
#238. Jak & Daxter
#239. Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels
#240. Diddy Kong Racing
#241. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixies Double Trouble
#242. King of the Monsters
#243. Duck Hunt
#244. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
#245. Animal Crossing
#246. Pac-Man
#247. Mario Party 3
#248. Mario Party
#249. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
#250. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
#251. Professor Layton and the Diaboli

let's get some STATS for the remaining games
---

SeabassDebeste posted...

let's get some STATS for the remaining games

well I gave a couple at the end of the last topic but uh sure I'll do some more

'90s games - 16
'00s games - 14
'10s games - 10

---

RIP 80's.

---

sorry I was a '90s kid

---

#40. Final Fantasy IX


Of all the demotivational posters for the Final Fantasy IX characters, Freyas is the most ironic because she does mostly get forgotten by the plot halfway through Disc 2! I feel like I spend a lot of time criticizing this game on Board 8 because it gets overrated here, so Im going to spend this writeup being positive about it (aside from that opening jab!). Final Fantasy IX was designed to be a tribute to the series as a whole and a throwback to the early days with a more medieval fantasy setting, as opposed to the more modern/steampunk settings of VI, VII, and VIII. Of course, when I first played the game, the only Final Fantasy games I had played were VII, VIII, and Tactics, so a lot of the references were initially lost on me, but I can appreciate them now. Final Fantasy IX appears to draw the most from IV, to the extent that Ive heard people say that its basically just a retread or a ripoff of that game. The commonalities between the two are apparent, but I wouldnt go that far. For one thing, FFIX is a much better game with a better told story!

Anyway, Final Fantasy IX has a solid cast of characters. I think the main party is a bit imbalanced, but I do love the main four of Zidane/Vivi/Steiner/Dagger (and yes, I do call her Dagger more than Garnet, because I voice Zidanes lines aloud when I play and he always calls her Dagger, so it stuck). The game also has a lot of fun NPCs, like the Tantalus crew, Beatrix, Cid, Stiltzkin, and the black mages. Kuja is also probably my favorite main antagonist in the series despite hisunique fashion sense. I like the way he progresses in his villainy and how his motivations change over time. Zidane is my favorite character in the game though. I think his whole You dont need a reason to help people thing is a bit overstated, but I think hes charismatic, funny, and interacts with pretty much every character well. Its cool watching how he gradually wins people over, even people who dont like him or dont trust him at first, which is one of my favorite tropes. One of the best things that Final Fantasy IX did that I wish the series would bring back is the Active Time Event, where you can cut away from whoever youre controlling and see stuff thats going on elsewhere. Most of the time it wasnt anything important, but it was cool to see what other characters were up to and seeing them interact apart from Zidane or the main party. Ill never say no to optional banter!

Final Fantasy IXs gameplay is probably the most hit or miss aspect of the game, even for people who really love the game. The battle system is notoriously slow, and the Trance system was an extreme overreaction in the other direction from Final Fantasy VIIIs Limit Break system. However, I honestly dont notice the speed that much when Im actually playing the game, and I dont spend a lot of time grinding or anything of that sort anyway. I like how each party member is locked into a unique class type, and they can learn their own set of unique abilities, as well as some shared ones. I liked learning stuff from your equipment, as well as synthesizing new stuff from your old stuff. The sidequests could be kinda rough, too, to the point where Ive barely touched some of them, like Hippaul Racing or Tetra Master. Im not a huge fan of Chocobo Hot & Cold, but it does provide some awesome rewards, so its at least worth doing. I personally loved stuff like the Mognet Central sidequest, and just delivering letters from moogle to moogle as you journeyed along.

I liked Final Fantasy IXs story a lot. I liked how it integrated the Eidolons themselves into the actual story, which I hadnt seen up to that point playing the series. I enjoyed exploring the ever-expanding world, as you move across the Mist Continent and then move out to unknown territory beyond (or at least stuff thats unknown to the characters). Part of it is that Final Fantasy IX just has a really great world. I loved Burmecia (rain makes everything better), Alexandria, Lindblum, Treno, Conde Petie, Madain Sari, and the Black Mage Village. Bran Bal Village was pretty solid, too. I think FFIX has one of the best soundtracks in the series, too, which really enhances the world around you. I havent played it in a long time, so maybe I ought to boot up the HD version and give it a go sometime soon!

---

So Super Mario Bros. 3 is ruled out?

---

American release dates only

---

If I were to dismiss Final Fantasy Syndrome as the reason why IC is my favorite, I would instead say that Zidane carries it hard. I love the dashing, charismatic rogue character archetype, and he embodies it well while still being a worthy protagonist for the series. The Youre not alone sequence would not have hit as hard if it had been any other series protagonist going through the same turmoil that Zidane was.

Vivi is phenomenal as well, of course, hes my boy, but the game doesnt work without Zidane leading the charge.

Sorry I am writing super poorly. I always struggle to express why I am so attached to IX. I fully recognize its flaws now. The back half of the cast is either disposable or actively atrocious; the gameplay could have been tightened up hard; the final boss is almost insulting in its presentation. Yet I keep coming back to it as my gem from the series.

Maybe it is just Final Fantasy Syndrome.

---

I mean Final Fantasy is my favorite series so you're preaching to the choir here!

---

14 is rising up through the ranks for me now, to my complete surprise from when I started it!

---

yeah I can't commit to something like FFXIV especially when I'm not even sure I'd like it to begin with

---

I understand. If you dont like MMO gameplay then I certainly wouldnt press you on it. However, the story and especially characters have impressed me such that I am on current content, and as a former WoW player, the combat system is way more intricate and fun.

But enough about that, we have a whole topic for that game. I am surprised I havent seen Quinton in there...

---

tag

---

FF9 top tier FF. And yeah, the first four party members are great.

Speaking of mini games I cant go a post about FF9 without bashing the worst minigame in the series: Hippaul racing. Button mashing is bad enough, but they combined that with the sin of making it only available for a short time window so you couldnt even put it off forever with the hypothetical ability to come back to it!

I should really replay the game; I never actually finished disc 4 back in the day, and all of my replay attempts ended early because my disc froze at the Alexander cutscene.

---

#39. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair


Danganronpa is another series I need to get back into! I enjoyed the first two games, and then I tried to play Ultra Despair Girls, which isnt necessarily outright bad. Its just mind-numbingly boring, and I couldnt bring myself to finish it. As such, I still havent worked up the motivation to play V3, despite all the good things Ive heard about it. The moral of the story here is, Dont play bad games in series you care about, especially if they arent essential to the canon!

Anyway, I think I liked the first Danganronpa game more as a concept than as an actual game. Not to say it was bad (because it is enjoyable), but its rough around the edges and the cast is hit or miss. The idea of a group of promising young people being trapped inside a location with seemingly little hope of escape and being forced to find ways to survive is very compelling and reminded me a lot of Lord of the Flies, which was a cool book I read in high school. I think Danganronpa 2 took some of those rough edges and smoothed them out, resulting in a generally improved experience (except for Improved Hangmans Gambit, which is the biggest misnomer in the series!). That being said, I think this game is a bit sillier and doesnt take itself as seriously as the first game, which can be good and bad. The first game is set inside a school building, which is a pretty sterilized environment and adds to the tense atmosphere. The second game is set on a tropical island, which sometimes feels at odds with the atmosphere the game is trying to convey. The characters tend to be a little wackier than the cast from the first game, too.

But overall, Danganronpa 2 blows the first game out of the water. I do like the cast a lot better. It replaced a thoroughly uninteresting protagonist in Makoto with Hajime, whos a bit more cynical and sarcastic. You also had some really good supporting cast members, with Chiaki, Sonia, Gundham, and Fuyuhiko being my favorites. Even the characters who arent that great still serve their purpose well, such as Mikan and Nagito. Monokuma is still largely annoying, but at this point, Ive just learned to accept that he isnt going away! I think the cases are much better than the original, too, especially the last two. The ending of Case 5 was such a gut punch, and the presentation and the atmosphere combined to maximize the effect. I feel like opinions on the ending are pretty split, but I loved it. Then again, Im usually a big fan of over the top stuff like that, so it worked for me!

---

oh right there was a Danganronpa anime, wasn't there?

do I need to watch that before I play V3?

---

heck yeah Gundham

The anime is completely unrelated to V3.

---

Janus5k posted...

heck yeah Gundham

The anime is completely unrelated to V3.

Is it good or at least worth watching?

---

LeonhartFour posted...

Is it good or at least worth watching?

DR1 adaptation is abysmal.

Future Arc is worthless.

Despair arc starts out real great, but gets kinda bad by the end and retcons some of the better parts of 2. I still liked it overall.

I would recommend against watching any of the anime.
---

Oh, I'm not worried about the DR1 adaptation. I tried to watch a couple episodes of it but it moves way too fast to be good.

---

LeonhartFour posted...

I feel like I spend a lot of time criticizing this game on Board 8 because it gets overrated here

ain't that the truth

ffix worst ff and just not a good game in general imhotbqh

exept chocobo hot and cold. that is a treasure.

LeonhartFour posted...

Anyway, I think I liked the first Danganronpa game more as a concept than as an actual game. Not to say it was bad (because it is enjoyable), but its rough around the edges and the cast is hit or miss. The idea of a group of promising young people being trapped inside a location with seemingly little hope of escape and being forced to find ways to survive is very compelling and reminded me a lot of Lord of the Flies, which was a cool book I read in high school. I think Danganronpa 2 took some of those rough edges and smoothed them out, resulting in a generally improved experience

Totally agree with you here. DR1's strength is the concept - once you get past that it's a lot shakier. DR2 is a much more well-rounded experience.

LeonhartFour posted...

Even the characters who arent that great still serve their purpose well, such as Mikan and Nagito.

NO THAT'S WRONG!

Not gonna rehash this because I think we both know each other's thoughts on this by now lol.

---

I watched the DR1 anime without having played the game. It sort of felt like I was watching a Let's Play on fast forward. During the trials the answers would be given before I could even start to think about the questions.
---

DR1's finale carries it for me. The final case is a lot stronger than DR2's (which is still a good final case)!

Plus I had an irrational hatred for case 5 in DR2. That probably hurt it quite a bit. I doubtless wouldn't have had so many problems with it if I wasn't reading it extremely slowly in Japanese...
---

I don't get the hype for Chocobo Hunt and Peck

I only like to hunt and peck on my keyboard

---

I liked DR1's finale, and I thought Case 4 was also really good.

---

#38. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies


Its hard to remember now, but there was a time when it seemed like the Ace Attorney series was on the brink of ruin. Apollo Justice had put the main series into a cold sleep, and we didnt even get an official English localization of the second Ace Attorney Investigations game. There were rumors that Ace Attorney 5 was happening, but that was all they were. We had yet to see any official information about the game itself. We feared we may never get another Ace Attorney game (which is why I make it a point to buy Ace Attorney stuff whenever I can, so we can avoid this situation again in the future), so when we saw that first trailer with Phoenix Wright in his familiar blue suit and his name leading the title again, it was cause for great excitement, even as someone who was a fan of Apollo in his own game. The main thing was that they needed to get rid of Hobonix and undo the damage it did to his character, and thats what Dual Destinies set out to accomplish.

Phoenixs return to the spotlight was an overwhelming success for the series, as we now see with Ace Attorney being spread far and wide to practically every platform nowadays, as well as getting a sequel, a crossover game with Professor Layton, two seasons of an anime, and being a playable character in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Ive seen this comparison made on this board a few times recently, and I agree with it. Dual Destinies was to Ace Attorney what The Force Awakens was to Star Wars. For the most part, both entries played it safe, hitting a lot of familiar story beats and feeding on the nostalgia of the fanbase, but that was honestly what each series needed to undo the poor reception of Apollo Justice and the prequel trilogy, respectively. The fanbases needed to know that the series still had it, so to speak, and they could branch off and take risks from there in the sequels. Its not a stretch to call Dual Destinies the most important Ace Attorney game in the series because its future largely depended on how well this game did.

The reason I rank Dual Destinies as highly as I do is because the average case quality is superb. 5-1 is the only case Id rank as below average, and even then, I dont think its that bad. 5-2 is a really strong introduction to the important new characters in the game, Athena, Blackquill, and Fulbright. I thought it was really smart to have Apollo take the lead for this one because he has great chemistry with Athena, and hes the perfect opponent to make Blackquill come across as threatening as possible. 5-3 is such a fun case and takes advantage of the transition to 3-D really well. I wasnt sure if Athena could carry a case as the lead attorney, but she absolutely nailed it here. 5-4 has a really unique format and a twist ending that floored me. Its one of the rare times the series has elicited a verbal Whaaaaaaaat? from me. While I dont think 5-5 reached the heights of the epic cases of the original trilogy, I really enjoyed it. It had the right amount of fanservice callbacks to previous games, and while I know some people didnt like the ending, I thought it turned out to be pretty cool, with a twist that I didnt see coming at all until the game forced me to make a choice. 5-6 is the first DLC case the series attempted, and I thought they did a good job of taking the extra development time to give it some special touches. It also has probably the best classic Phoenix Wright turnabout moment in the game.

As far as the characters go, Phoenix is still the classic Phoenix, who acts without thinking and somehow comes up with the right solutions that no one else even considered from the smallest clues. He continues to believe against all evidence, but I think they use that to great effect to play him off of Apollo, who has a more skeptical and objective sense of reality. He's really more like Edgeworth than Phoenix. One of my biggest complaints about Hobonix is that he never makes even the smallest effort to be a mentor to Apollo, so I was glad that they turned that around here. Blackquill is an amazing prosecutor and quickly became a top ten character in the series for me. I thought Dual Destinies had a good cast of defendants (highlighted by Damien Tenma) and witnesses (highlighted by Robin Newman and Yuri Cosmos), as well as a solid set of culprits (whose names I wont list here for the sake of spoilers, naturally). Overall, Dual Destinies was a great return to form that may not have taken many risks with its story but did exactly what it needed to do.

---

Watch the beginning of the first case. When you first play it seems like Tonate is saying "The good thing about bombs is that they erase all evidence. Now I just need to pin this on the little girl", but it's the Phantom. It blew my mind (no pun intended).

---

After finishing AA1 totally blind, I was like "well that was fun, but I probably need a few months off before the next one."

Now I'm already itching for it. There was something so comforting about the game. Like even with giant anime boobs, it just seemed so oddly innocent and wholesome. It's nice to have an intelligent piece of art that doesn't try to show the world in shades of gray.

What are the odds Dual Destinies and the other entries get ported like the original trilogy? Or do their mechanics preclude that?

---

I think all of the games are available on mobile (except for AAI2 since it still doesn't have an official localization). There's nothing stopping the 3DS ones from getting ported to other consoles. They just haven't done it yet. It'd be nice if they'd bundle up AA4-6 the way they did AA1-3.

---

yeah dr2>>>>>>dr2 because of the cast. the core gameplay mechanic is also improved with consent. v3 improves the gameplay a little further, but it's not a strict/comprehensive upgrade the way dr2 is.

aa5 lower than i expected
---

Ace Attorney games are hard to rank on an individual basis!

---

SeabassDebeste posted...

dr2>>>>>>dr2

agreed
---

#37. NBA Jam/NHL '94/NFL Blitz


It was honestly impossible for me to separate these three games from one another when I was ranking them for this list, so I decided to combine them into one entry. These are my three favorite traditional sports games ever. Well, I say traditional, but two of them clearly go above and beyond the normal rules and limits of real live sports. What I mean is that they use real athletes instead of fictional ones. Regardless, I spent tons of time playing all three of these games. Theyre all fun to play by yourself, against someone, or even co-op with someone. I have so many memories of crazy games and wild finishes playing with or against my friends growing up.

Lets tackle these in the order theyre listed at the top, so well start with NBA Jam (Im considering both the original and Tournament Edition a single entity here for the sake of convenience). The first time I saw this game in action, it completely blew my mind. The players were jumping all the way to the top of the screen and coming down with these absolutely ferocious dunks. You had a turbo mode so the players moved up and down the court at lightning speed. You could shove players halfway across the floor with no consequences. You could catch fire to the point that nearly every shot you made would go in, and you could goaltend with impunity. To top it all off, you had a super campy announcer making over the top proclamations like BOOMSHAKALAKA. Heck, in the Arcade version, you could even enter codes to play as Mortal Kombat characters and even Bill friggin Clinton. The only thing NBA Jam was really missing was Michael Jordan since he never consented to allowing his likeness be used for any of the games, which is a real shame because he was my favorite player growing up.

Im not sure how I got into NHL 94 in the first place. Im not a hockey fan by any stretch of the imagination. It was probably just a random rental, but my best friend and I poured so many hours into this game. Whenever we played co-op, we always picked the Chicago Blackhawks, for whatever the reason. Im not sure what drew us to them, other than the fact that they were really good! He would always control Chris Chelios, and I would always control Jeremy Roenick. He would usually be the scorer, and I would be the enforcer who would go around knocking everyone into the stands or the glass. I was always looking to take someone out, even after the plays were over. I remember one time, we injured Wayne Gretzky on the opening faceoff of the game because I wouldnt go for the puck. Id just immediately charge into the guy across from me. We didnt play against each other too often, but he usually won when we did because he was better at scoring than I was. We would occasionally play with no goalies just for the heck of it to see how many goals we could score. It was a lot of fun. The little songs that played after you scored goals were really catchy, too.

NFL Blitz is what the XFL aspires to be. Its full of big plays, lots of scoring, no penalties, and incredibly powerful hits. I always loved running around and destroying the stationary players after every play. For the record, like NBA Jam, Im treating every version of the game as a single entity. This is a game with some family history for me. I played this game regularly with my stepbrother and stepdad, and we always played 1-on-2. In all the years they teamed up against me, they never beat me. Not once. At first, I would dominate them, but as they got used to the game, they gradually got closer and closer. I still remember the time they came the closest to beating me. They were on the final drive of the game down by 4, and they had gotten down inside the 10-yard line with time for one more play. They completed a swing pass down the sideline and looked like they had a clear path to the end zone, but I miraculously managed to dive from out of nowhere and tackle them at the 1-yard line as time expired to preserve my perfect record. I wish Midway still made sports games like this because Id much rather play these than the latest Madden or NBA 2K game!

---

The DR3 anime is okay

---

Play NHL Hitz and Blitz the League II

---

RPGlord95 posted...

Play NHL Hitz and Blitz the League II

I rented NHL Hitz once! It was fine, but I didn't like it as much. I played the baseball version, too, whatever that one's called.

---

There was an Olympic Hockey game that had an over the top play mode. Pucks could light on fire, goalies turn into literal brick walls, and you could perform finishers in fight like burrowing a player into the ice.

It was a lot of fun.

---

NFL Blitz is hands down the greatest sports series of all time. Followed by NBA Jam. Although, I never played the PS3/360 version of NFL Blitz. Was that one any good?

---

cyko posted...

NFL Blitz is hands down the greatest sports series of all time. Followed by NBA Jam. Although, I never played the PS3/360 version of NFL Blitz. Was that one any good?

Eh, I rented it. They made it too realistic. That wasn't why I wanted to play NFL Blitz! Same thing with later iterations of NBA Jam. If I'm playing this, I don't want to play a normal sports game!

---

I couldnt stand DR in any of its iterations. Everything about it grates on me, from the art style to the humor to the plot that I know I shouldnt take seriously but still has me rolling my eyes so hard I nearly go blind. It hits all the wrong notes for me in a somewhat similar way to Kingdom Hearts, although I dont loathe its existence the way I do the latter series.

I played those same sports games growing up! Have you played Pyre yet, Leon? Its gameplay is best summed up as Fantasy NBA Jam with a light stat and equipment system.

---

Nope, never played Pyre! I don't really know anything about it other than what you just told me.

---

Its by the guys who did Bastion and Transistor, and its basically a visual novel in its storytelling and makes you think youre playing an action RPG when in reality theyre tricking you into playing a fantastical sports game. I loved it and have a feeling you will enjoy it as well.

---

Speaking of Bastion, I need to go back and try to play that again someday. One of the conditions of getting Bastion from Digi is that I play it to completion.

---

Oh for sure. Im a mark for anything Supergiant touches at this point since I am 3-for-3 on loving their released games.

I know they had a new one, Hades, in early access, but I dont buy early access games on principle even from my favorite studios, and I dont know if it got its full release yet.

---

#36. Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals


Lufia II is what The Legend of Zelda would be like if it were actually a turn-based JRPG (and if Link could talk and had a cool personality). It also has a similar system to Final Fantasy IX in that you can use certain abilities depending on what you have equipped (although you cant permanently learn them here, unfortunately). It even kinda has Limit Breaks! The battle system is generally pretty simple, but it implemented some ideas that you didnt see in many JRPGs in that time period. Lufia II combines a bunch of different ideas into a single game (it even briefly becomes a reality sim at one point!) to provide a really fun experience.

I think one of my favorite things is how Lufia II tackles dungeons. Each dungeon is filled with puzzles you have to solve, and youre given a unique item that you have to use to solve those puzzles. There are no random encounters inside a dungeon (they do exist when youre on the world map), and every enemy is visible on the map. Theyre also linked to your movement, so they dont move unless you do, which means it is possible to completely avoid any battle you dont want to fight. You can even use your items to temporarily paralyze the enemy to enable you to get around them if theyre in a narrow area. Its one of the few JRPGs where I actually kinda look forward to dungeons!

Lufia II also has a charming cast of characters and an interesting story. Maxim is a cool protagonist, and I really like Dekar, Guy, and Selan, too. The main antagonists are the Sinistrals, a group of giant (and seemingly unkillable) beings, which adds to the tension and drama of the plot as you try to figure out how to stop the unstoppable. Lufia II also has one of the greatest boss themes ever when you fight a Sinistral, which ramps up the atmosphere and makes each fight even more memorable. Ive also got to give a shoutout to the final dungeon and the ending, which was super cool. I didnt even realize exactly what was happening until a specific moment made it clear, and it floored me. I was really impressed with how they handled it. Maybe that was all pretty obvious if you played Lufia and the Fortress of Doom before this one, but I tried to play that game after beating Lufia II and its borderline unplayable! Also, I never tried playing the DS remake because it just didnt look very good. Thats an example of a remake that makes too many unnecessary changes and turns off the fanbase its attempting to appeal to in the first place. Oh right, heres the aforementioned Sinistral battle theme, which youve probably heard if youre a VGMC person because its a retiree!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBnYGYa6l3M

---

Yesssss

Lufia 2 is so good

---

Now this is a game I really shouldve finished.

---

LeonhartFour posted...

#39. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

I generally preferred the cast from 1 to 2. I seem to be in the minority on that. Hajime is a marginal improvement over Makoto, and there weren't any characters that I especially liked. Yeah, the median is probably higher, but the mean is not because the highs are higher in 1. Kyoko, Byakuya and Sakura are too good for anything 2 has to offer. (Then again, I thought Gundham was obnoxiously annoying, and everyone else here adores him, so what do I know?)

Improved Hangman's Gambit is super easy if you're playing with (keyboard and) mouse, but you know what isn't? The stupid swords rebuttal game.

But yes, 2-5 is amazing and game 3 is worth playing. The cases start off kicking your ass even from the beginning.

---

Asahina was probably my favorite DR1 character. Byayuka is unlikable for large chunks of the game. Kyoko and Sakura are good. I just think the bad characters are really bad.

---