Board 8 > The Board 8 Discord #sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective Games

(+) Yeah! (+)

Those participating will include Cokes, WhiskeyNick, Wigs, Nee, Arti, Naye, Bartz, Eddv, and myself. The idea came about because we had a discussion revolving around generally how old our favorite games are last night. Then, we started really looking into what exactly our favorite games are, and... well, it eventually turned into this.

So without further ado, here's a look at what to expect from my own personal list!

System breakdown:
NES: 1
SNES: 3
N64: 12
Gamecube: 9
Wii: 1
Wii U: 3
Switch: 2
GB/GBC: 4
GBA: 5
DS: 14
3DS: 3
PS2: 10
PS3: 5
PS4: 3
VITA: 4
360: 11
PC: 10

Decade Breakdown:
80's: 1
90's: 14
00's: 46
10's: 39

As you may have guessed, I grew up a massive Nintendo fanboy, owning only their consoles for the first 13 years of my life, and finally split off to other consoles at the turn of the millennium. Will Nintendo rule the top of my list? Stay tuned to find out!

But first, some games that didn't quite make the cut, that I would still like to go over.....

Honorable Mention - Ratchet & Clank (PS4, 2016)

Ratchet & Clank is a series near and dear to my heart, but I actually started the series with Going Commando. Afterwards, I jumped to Up Your Arsenal, and only after that did I ever try to jump back to the original. It was super hard to play, due to the lack of a strafe button that was added into the games I already loved.

Fast-forward about 12 years, and hey! A remake! Based off a movie! Based off the first game that I could never get into! And it's really good! As you will find out later (spoilers), it's not the best Ratchet & Clank game, but it's still very serviceable. Great weapons, funny characters, and a decent story, and you have yourself a great game.

Honorable Mention - Hitman: Blood Money (PS2, 2006)

Yet another series I really love! That said, I really don't remember which games had which missions, or even what the main differences were between the separate games, but there are two things I distinctly DO remember about Blood Money, and that's what spurns me to give it a mention.

1. The missions it had that I do remember are Mardi Gras, the birthday party, the opera, and the bayou wedding, and those are all super memorable.
2. The ending is fucking amazing. You wake up from a medically-induced fake death and start blasting everyone while Ave Maria plays in the background, like a total badass.

#2 alone is enough to at least warrant a quick blurb in my honorable mentions.

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already worried about how much stretch i'll need to take this to 100...

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I have 10 honorable mentions because cutting down to 100 was not going well.

Honorable Mention - Vectorman (Sega Genesis, 1995)

I remember this game coming out and no one noticing because Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 were out and got all the cool looking 90s pseudo 3D graphics attention. I was not a Sega kid, but my buddy had a Genesis and Vectorman was tons of fun. I wish Sega would try to revive this series.

Honorable Mention - Crash Commando (PS3, 2008)

The first PS3 game I got. Its a battle royal type game before those were big. Very similar to Worms Rumble which is out now and still free on PS+ for a week. (DL that, its fun) Basically you shoot other players with a variety of weapons and vehicle in a 2D view. I spent a ton of time with this as it was all I had on PS3 for a little.

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Vectorman is basically the original Knack
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I have a very generic honorable mention

Honorable Mention - All the games from franchises I generally enjoy that I didn't list as part of this list

I am a serial franchiser with the Alchemist games, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mega Man, Castlevania etc. It would be a really boring list if I simply sat here and listed 8 Mega Man games. So I'm not going to but that doesn't mean I love any of them any less. Franchises are safe and comfortable - you know you're probably going to get a game you at least like, until a Franchise goes and commits suicide like Breath of Fire or Mass Effect. They have shaped my gaming habits and deserve at least a mention.

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Oh man I saw #sports and thought this would be a top 100 sports matches

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Honorable Mention - Dungeons and Dragons: Shadows over Mystara (Arcade, 1996)

I originally played this on... well thats not important. It was an arcade game, later released on PSN. One of the best Beat Em Ups there is. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is another. And some other games that will feature later. If you ever want the full experience of this game, play with Pun. He knows every single secret.

Honorable Mention - WWF Smackdown Just Bring It (PS2, 2001)

There are better Smackdown games, but this is the one I had the most fun with. It was a glitchy mess leading to hilarious moments like eliminations in Royal Rumbles that made no sense.

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I'll be taking a few days to make up the list as I have a few things to finish up before the new year starts. As you may know by my top 10 lists over the past few years that the list will be heavily slanted towards newer games and handheld games, which still make up the majority of what I currently play these days. I've also decided not to list any 2020 games here, so if you really need to know what I thought of Robotics;Notes that will be in my February topic as usual!

I won't have any honorable mentions here so I'll start posting once my list is finalized.

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tagging with my mobile alt, will probably do all my posting from main account, but this is just in case. Getting close to done with my list, then I can give the breakdown while everyone wonders what the hell I was thinking.

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Honorable Mention - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, 2006)

Let's preface this write-up with letting you all know that I do not like most Legend of Zelda games. I played some Link to the Past when I was younger, but then got lost whenever I made it to the Dark World. I really tried to keep going in Ocarina of Time, but mostly against my will. The time looping mechanic in Majora's Mask turned me off instantly. And Wind Waker was OK until the fuckin' Triforce pieces steered me away from the game for good.

In comes Twilight Princess. I legitimately don't know why I continued to give the series a chance. That said, what else am I gonna play on my brand new console that didn't have a single other good game on it yet? That probably helped the game out tremendously, because the first 3 or 4 hours of this game are so ungodly boring that it's a miracle I didn't quit on it. Afterwards, I was rewarded with some killer dungeons and boss fights, and that was enough for TP to become the first Zelda game I ever finished.

I've gone back since then, but I just can't get through those first few agonizing hours. Perhaps that's for the best, given that it might just ruin a game I, at least to this day, hold in high regard.

Honorable Mention - The Urbz: Sims in the City (DS, 2004)

NOW we're getting into some of the weird shit. You might see the title and think "what's so weird about a Sims game?" But this is no typical Sims game. Sure, it still had your needs gauges: hunger, hygiene, bladder, but those were actually things you didn't particularly have to worry about too much. You also had a house, but you would only spend maybe 10% of your time there.

No, the meat of this game was actually in its story and jobs. You work for a big corporation, but are fired for uncovering your boss's secret plot to take over the entire city and charge everyone for the air they breathe. He catches you and throws you in jail and you have to work your way back up from owning nothing to overthrowing your former boss and saving the city. To do this, there are several missions you must accomplish, like "Find a Cure for Vampirism", "Capture the Albino Alligator", and the final mission in the game, "Use the Time Machine". Over the course of the story, you make money by taking on jobs, like window cleaning and being a doctor, which all have their own accompanying minigames, which range from boring and repetitive to actually really fun. It's a very silly game that is not very Sims-like at all, and for that, it deserves a mention on my list.

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Can I leave this project after that last game?

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Whiskey_Nick posted...

Can I leave this project after that last game?

Based on what I know about MSG's list at least 10% of it will have equally weird write-ups


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Honorable Mention - Fat Princess (PS3, 2009)

Another of my early PS3 days games. Another battle royal before they were big. This game is charming and infuriating. Fantastic little time killer.

Honorable Mention - The Simpsons Arcade Game (Arcade, 1991)

This is an arcade game I actually did play a ton in arcades. This game always had 4 people at it, it was so awesome becoming random friends with people as a child in an arcade. The complete opposite of me now. I was so happy when it got a PSN release more recently. It holds up well but is not quite top 100 material.

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I couldnt possibly make a list of 100 games, but i wish i was invited.

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Of course when I say battle royal what I mean, is short games in rapid succession

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fat princess was excellent, i wish more "large-scale" online games were that degree of cute and acessible

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Aecioo posted...

Oh man I saw #sports and thought this would be a top 100 sports matches

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(that is not what a battle royale is, nick)

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if only we had a top 100 sports matches and i could lobby to have spain's euro 2012 victory over italy included in the list

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Honorable Mention - Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2, 2004)

Burnout is a fun series, but was definitely only a series I enjoyed from exactly 2002 to 2006. Burnout 2, 3, and Takedown were all really, really good, and then I was over it. Burnout 3 added the Crash mode where you run into something, then steer your blown-up car into traffic, and try to cause as much mayhem as possible. It's made all the more hilarious by the fact that cars will try to brake if they see something in front of them, except BRAKING MAKES THEM GO FASTER AND I'M NOT JOKING. Ah, what a hilarious game mode.

Honorable Mention - Nintendo World Cup (NES, 1990)

This was easily one of my favorite games growing up. It's a soccer game made by the River City Ransom people who used the same character sprites. You could tackle the other players and they'd go flying, and be out of commission for a while. It wasn't a deep game, but toddler me loved wreaking havoc on the players and watching their faces as they flew through the air.

Look at this shit.


How could you not love this sprite?!

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Honorable Mention - Gauntlet Legends (N64, 1998)

Played the hell out of this one summer with some friends. I rocked that red wizard so hard. Go my giant death skull! I wish they would do Gauntlet games more like this and Dark Legacy now, instead of that Slayer game we got a few years back. It was fine, but nothing special.

Honorable Mention - Mario Party (N64, 1998)

Mario Party 2 and 3 are both technically better, but MP1 is the one I and my friend spent the most time on. We got so insanely competitive over Slot Car Derby and Shy Guy Says. Bumper Ball anarchy. Cast Away, hope you are far right or you lose. And of course, destroying our palms of our hands and several controllers on Fly Guy trying to be the record holder. I still have a mark on the palm of my right hand shaped like an N64 analog stick.


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Two more honorable mentions coming from me later tonight and then I will wait to start my list when others are also ready

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Tag

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I'm joining in with some honorable mentions too!

Honorable Mention - Castlevania 64 (N64, 1999)

Okay, hold on, I know this game is not very good. I was not big on this when I first played it. But somehow this keeps growing on me over the years. It has a very unique style, even for Castlevania. The difficulty is also all over the place, with the hardest stretch coming midway through the game in level 5. You have to carry an explosive across several rooms without jumping or falling off a ledge, or you'll blow up. So of course the path is littered with ledges that are about knee-height, just high enough to require jumping, so you have to take a roundabout path of narrow ledges. It's so stupidly sadistic - and also outright stupid - that it loops back into genuinely entertaining. That's a also a fitting description for the rest of the game.

Honorable Mention - Minesweeper (PC, I think 1992?)

I used to play Minesweeper every day around 2001-2008. When doing homework on the computer, I would just casually open Minesweeper at a break, and play for like 10-15 minutes. I got pretty good at it after a while too, but also was playing more and more each day. I eventually broke the habit and stopped playing it every day, and I don't really feel a need to open the game ever now. There's not a ton of depth to the game, but I was addicted to this game long enough that it warrants mention here.

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So, you should not expect my top 100 to resemble a ranking of objective quality. I am not very good at ranking things in the first place, so trying to set up such a list would be incredibly difficult for me. And I have not played a lot of video games in general. To add to this, I decided to let nostalgia tinge my decisions, which means that you are going to see a lot of games that I played as a kid that probably do not hold up! But I am excited to share some of the games with you all that meant a lot to me, and I am sure there will be at least one or two that you have never heard of before.

The breakdown of my top 100 by platform will give you an idea of what kinds of games I grew up playing:

PC: 31
Playstion 3: 24
SNES: 10
Playstation 2: 9
Playstation 4: 6
Playstation: 4
Nintendo DS: 4
GBA: 4
Nintendo 64: 3
Wii: 2
Game Boy: 1
GameCube: 1
Xbox: 1

For games on multiple platforms, I listed the version that I preferred. I had a pretty effecient time cutting things down to 100 games, but there are a few games that did not quite make the cut that I want to each honor with a mention. But before I do, there is one game that I need to talk about first.

DISHONORABLE MENTION: Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (Nintendo GameCube, 2003)

Fuck Billy Hatcher and his chickenshit egg. This game is the biggest disappointment in my life, and I've gone through a divorce. You see, I grew up in a poor family with a father who, bless his heart, could not hold a job to save his life. And new video games cost quite a bit, especially back before the days of endless steam sales. The first console that my two teenage brothers and I bought with our own money was the GameCube, and after that initial outlay, we had to choose our games carefully. One of the first games we got was Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, which we really, really liked! So when we saw Sonic Team putting out another game exclusively for the GameCube, we were excited to buy it sight unseen.

What the fuck were we thinking? What a piece of shit game, and like, looking at the cover art, of course it was! Look at this fucking dingus.



What an asshole, and he's smirking because he knows he tricked you into paying $50 for a pile of rotting garbage. "Good morning!" my ass. I remember like yesterday playing the first few levels and getting that sinking feeling that we made a huge mistake. Realizing that some imbecile thought it would be fun to have a game where all you do is make this jackass shove around a rotten egg, but boy was he ever wrong! Experiencing the anguish of knowing that hours of manual labor, the scrimping and saving for weeks, all resulted in such fetid rubbish. Now I know better. Never pre-order anything, and especially if it's made by fucking Sonic Team.

And if any of you even think about putting Billy Hatcher in your top 100, you can go fuck yourself. I'm pretty sure that this game is the reason my grandfather died an early and painful death.

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Well, now that we have that unfortunate negativity out of the way, here is something a little more uplifting.

Honorable Mention: Half-Life (Microsoft Windows, 1998)

Half-Life was a watershed moment in video games. It was the first game I played where I felt truly "immersed" in the world. A truly first-person game where you never take a look at your character from the outside, and a compelling shooter besides. The game established a formula that other story-driven shooters attempted to copy for years and years. My brother and I would take turns playing every night, and I can still remember the chills that the alien enemies gave me.

Looking back while making this list reminds me that I need to go try out the fully updated Black Mesa at some point. Would be a good way to experience it all again after 20 years.


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Honorable Mention - Octopath Traveler (Switch, 2018)

A charming old school jRPG. The characters are not great, but the look and music and battles are tons of fun. They had the right idea here.

Honorable Mention - Radiant Historia (DS, 2010)

So Octopath, this and what is 100th were a 3 way tie for me basically. Couldn't really decide which of them I didn't want to mention. Enter honorable mentions. Radiant Historia handles time travel in a fun way. Any time Shimomura is the composer you get great music. Love the graphics too.

That is all my honorable mentions. My list will start when others do.

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Honorable Mention - Full Tilt! Pinball (PC, 1995)

I absolutely could have rejiggered my list to get this in, but when I thought about it, I figured including it as an HM would get a little more nostalgia flowing, because this is a game damn near everyone has played, but no one ever talks about.

Most people played one of the 3 tables, Space Cadet, as it was bundled with Windows 95 as a freebie, I think. And it was an excellent freebie (so was the particular weirdness of Hover!, but Hover! doesn't hold up very well). It was a solid pinball table, visually appealing and intuitive to play, but not easy. Everything you want from a good table.

The lesser known tables, Skulduggery and Dragon's Keep, are solid too, though they feel a little squishier on the physics than Space Cadet. You could easily play any of the three today and enjoy them, still, even if you don't have any particular affinity or experience with them from the 90s. That's the mark of a good game. That it turned me and presumably many other kids into lifelong fans of pinball is just a bonus.

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Honorable Mention - Rock Band 4 (Xbox One, et al, 2014-present)

Rhythm games have largely returned to the niche from which Harmonix elevated them in the mid-2000s, which is understandable. That level of popularity was unsustainable.

All the same, Rock Band 4, and its Rivals add-on, are the most technically sound and robust version of the the full band genre. Playing it which I do from time to time, even now is still satisfying, and their efforts to keep the platform going with periodic free songs and so on is an impressive commitment, six years on.

The problem is that these days especially in the pandemic it's usually a one- or two-player affair. The magic is diminished. The instruments are decaying. Will there be another Rock Band, now that we are entering a new console generation? Who can tell. I hope so, but if this is the last one, it's a damn fine entry to go out on.

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I should return to RB4 at some point. I barely gave it a shot
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Honorable Mention - Gran Turismo 3 A-spec (PS2, 2001)

My only foray into racing games pre-PS2 era were either really wacky (kart racers) or crazy fast (F-Zero), and the idea of a realistic racing sim didn't seem all that fun for me. But man was GT3 waaaay ahead of its time. That game looks great for 2001, and plays like a dream. Also, that soundtrack is ridiculous. Lenny Kravitz, Motley Crue, Jimi Hendrix, Goldfinger, The Cult. God that's all so good.

It also had some crazy races. I recall one of them being a 24 hour marathon of Nurburgring, but the game also had a feature where you could set an AI to drive for you if you gave it commands for how risky to drive, and how often to pitstop. I played one night for like 7 hours, built up a 3 1/2 lap lead (each lap was like over 2 seconds), and then set my AI to be fairly safe and pitstop often, hoping it could at least hold on to that until I woke up and finished the race 7 hours later. Lo and behold, I turn on my TV and my AI is behind last place by 10 laps. I gave up.

Ah, good times.

Honorable Mention - Tecmo Super Bowl (NES, 1991)

I'll be honest, this game is not on here because I have crazy nostalgia for it or anything. I didn't actually play this much as a kid, because I didn't understand or even care about the rules of football until I was in my teens. It's actually because there's a super dedicated community for it that manipulates the game's files to update the league for every year's rosters. Keep in mind that they also had to change the number of teams and divisions from what there was in 1991.

Because of this, I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of Tecmo Super Bowl 2016. And Tecmo Super Bowl 2017. And Tecmo Super Bowl 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, the fansite's owner decided to shut it all down this year, but it wasn't before I got literal years of enjoyment out of this nearly 30 year old game.

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Ok I think I am pretty close to my top 100, I am going to finalize up and make sure the order is good over the next couple days, but I'll tide y'all over with some Honorables in the meantime, a pair of N64 games.

Honorable Mention - Mario Tennis (N64, 2000)
With the bad taste left in my mouth by Mario Tennis Aces, I've been thinking ofthis game a bit recently, how great and smooth it always felt, how fun and modestly different each of the characters felt, the different modes, courts, styles, etc... and I wasn't really sure why Aces was so much worse, but it just is. I remember enjoying the Bowser court alot, and played as Mario as a ton because it was fun to control him after he won a point, when he runs around a ton.

Honorable Mention - Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64, 2000)
This game feels a bit sluggish at times, but gets a ton of points for the wonderful feeling of combining powers, which provides a bunch of fun in trying all the different ones. The game itself is kind of flat, and having to keep certain powers throughout a whole level to open up a secret at the end is kind of annoying- it limits your ability to be creative. Still, it has a great and creepy final boss fight, true to most kirby games, has enough secrets to be interesting, and has a few good minigames.

My favorite powerups are:
The Electric Tether Rock (Stone+Spark),
The Fridge that spawns food - fun if not kinda useless (Ice+Spark),
Swiss Army Kirby (Spike+Spike),
Exploding Snowman (Bomb+Ice), and
Curling Stone (Ice+Stone)

really I could keep going, they're all great fun. Just wish the game was a little more interesting!

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Fire+Bomb and break the game with the Fireworks. Just hold right and mash B to destroy everything.

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I suspect it will not be the last time either of those two games shows up. Possibly multiple times.

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greengravy294 posted...

I couldnt possibly make a list of 100 games, but i wish i was invited.

just start posting games nobody will notice

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Another list preview and a couple mentions. My top 100 by genre:

JRPG: 15
Action-Adventure: 14
Platformer: 12
Strategy: 9
Metroidvania: 7
First-Person Shooter: 7
Third-Person Shooter: 6
Arcade: 6
WRPG: 5
Survival Horror: 5
Adventure: 5
Open World: 4
Space Sim: 2
Competitive Multiplayer: 2
Rhythm: 1

I simplified the categories a bit to keep some of the mystery in there, but I was a little surprised to see this is how it turned out. I probably have the fewest Japanese games on my list out of anyone here and JRPG still took the top spot.

HONORABLE MENTION: The Operative: No One Lives Forever (Microsoft Windows, 2000)

Before they were acquired by WB and forever sentenced to develop Lord of the Rings games (including Guardians of Middle-earth, which is Nick's favorite MOBA), the folks at Monolith Productions were known for producing a ton of first-person shooter (FPS) games. No One Lives Forever is probably the biggest standout. The game is a cheeky tribute to 1960s spy stories and incorporates a mix of action and stealth gameplay, which gave me some options for how to solve each level. There is also a bunch of silly spy gadgets to use, which really resonanted with me at a time in my life when I was big into James Bond. It was a really fresh and cool game at a time when most shooters were still inspired by Quake and Doom.

HONORABLE MENTION: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64, 1998)

What can I say about this game that has not already been said? This was the biggest game of the Nintendo 64 and will always be the game that all console Zelda games are compared to. It was also my first Zelda, as I had managed to miss the earlier entries somehow despite my love for the SNES. Getting to Hyrule Field for the first time is still an all-time moment in games. And that was just the first of so many many memorable moments for me in that game. At the time, the atmosphere in places like the temples was unmatched by anything else. And at this same time when I was not using the internet much yet, the large open world seemed full of all kinds of mysteries and secrets just waiting to be discovered and shared with my friends.

It was hard not to put this one in my list, but I actually did not spend as much time with Ocarina of Time as many others and ultimately, I think other games just stand out to me more. But you don't need me to tell you why this game is great; this is the internet, after all. I'm sure it's going to show up on many other lists here.

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Here is the distribution by decade. Pretty even count!

1990s: 39
2000s: 35
2010s: 26

Fun fact: There is at least one game in my top 100 from each year from 1990 to 2017. But nothing from the last 3 years. You might wonder why there is no 1980s representation here. Well, I never owned the NES, and although I played plenty of Atari 2600, I do not think any of those games are particularly good. It also so happens that during the 80s I was very very young, if you can believe that.

HONORABLE MENTION: Frog Fractions (Adobe Flash, 2012)

You either know why this game is here, or you don't. Fitting that I post this here since Flash is dead as of today, but if you do not know what the game is, stop reading this and go download it for free from Steam.

Frog Fractions was a really neat subversive distraction when it was first put out on the internet, and although the concept I think is now a bit old hat, when I first tried it I was pleasantly surprised at how far the joke ended up going. It ended up being one of those online cultural moments where everyone was talking about it and you had to play it to see why. Since I am pretty cheap these days, this only really happens for me when the game is free. Fall Guys was another one of those moments for me this year, but unlike Fall Guys, I still look back fondly on Frog Fractions.

HONORABLE MENTION: Betrayal at Krondor (MS-DOS, 1993)

One of my hobbies in the mid-nineties was reading fantasy novels, and at some point my older brothers introduced me to Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar series. Betrayal at Krondor is a Western RPG set in that same world, and featured a vivid graphical interface that allowed you to explore much of that open world in first-person. Although very primitive by today's standards, the 3D-rendered landscapes made a big impression on me, and the recorded CD audio sounded incredible. The story was standard fantasy fare and I struggle to recall any of it, but the gameplay was unusually complex, and featured beautiful combat sequences on a tactical grid. I think these days I would detest a lot of the game mechanics, such as weapon/armor durability, hunger, et cetera, but this was all OK with me back when I played, and I dealt with it.

I remember the length of the game being forever long, but this might be due to my low skill level as a kid. If I went back and played it today, maybe my playtime would be much more manageable. But I probably would not have the patience to deal with it either. So it remains a fond nostalgic experience from my youth.


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Oh wait is Frog Fractions about to be gone?
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The Steam version was ported to Unity

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Here is my console breakdown:

PS3 - 17
PS4 - 16
SNES - 12
PS2 - 10
NES - 7
PS1 - 6
DS - 4
GCN - 4
N64 - 4
Wii - 4
GBA - 4
Switch - 3
Wii U - 2
GB - 2
3DS - 2
PSP - 1
Android - 1
Genesis - 1

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and by decade:

1980's - 4
1990's - 25
2000's - 36
2010's - 32
2020's - 3

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MrSmartGuy posted...

Honorable Mention - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, 2006)

I think your thoughts specific to this game sum up mine pretty well. The first several hours of TP are really dreadful, aren't they? But the last few dungeons are actually really great! Save the best for last I guess.

They probably remastered it at some point, right? My other main complaint about this game was how blurry it looked during a time of HD video games. I would be willing to try it again in HD, although after reading your comments, I am in no hurry.

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They did in fact remaster it for the Wii U

Well more specifically they remastered the Gamecube version.

Would bet money that its coming to the Switch in 2021
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i only played through the first couple hours of twilight princess (just didn't get around to carrying on for whatever reason) and dear god, the first hour or so where you're fetchquesting your way through the town is nigh-unbearable

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Here are breakdowns of my list, along with two final honorable mentions!

By decade
1980s: 5
1990s: 40
2000s: 22
2010s: 31
2020s: 2

By system
Arcade: 10
NES: 9
SNES: 11
Nintendo 64: 1
Gamecube: 4
GB/GB Color: 3
GBA: 2
DS: 4
Genesis: 2
PS1: 10
PS2: 5
PS3: 4
PS4: 5
PSP: 1
Vita: 1
Xbox 360: 9
PC: 19

I grew up a Nintendo kid, but then I never owned a Wii/Wii U, and only bought a Switch two months ago, if that helps explain my system distribution. For multi-system games, I mostly kept them listed to the system I played the game on. Some games were re-released much later on other systems, so for those I tried to go with the original year. But then there was one game made in the 1980s, but then re-released in the 2000s, and again in the 2010s, but the versions were updated/enhanced, so I went with the 2010s version. In short, just expect that I wasn't 100% consistent with how I identified years and systems for my games.

Honorable Mention: Super Mario 64 (N64, 1996)

Well, time to cross this game off the "which game will be on everybody's list?" betting pool! Super Mario 64 was a big deal when it came out, and still is a big deal today. Nintendo solidly hit it right with this game, at a time when 3D games were more often missing the mark. The tons of movement options are cool, if only I ever could do them all as smoothly as I wanted to. I just never quite enjoyed this as much as the 2D games. I also never collected all 120 stars. I think to some degree, the big wave of collect-a-thon games with hub worlds that followed this were not as enjoyable for me and maybe eventually brought Super Mario 64 down a peg in my mind.

I do have a brief story to go with this game. After getting the SNES, my parents told me while games were fine, consoles were too expensive to get for birthday/Christmas presents. When the N64 came out and I was 12/13 years old, I was getting an allowance of like $2 or $3 per week. I really wanted one, so I saved the allowance and any money I got as gifts from relatives for about a year and a half. I then went and bought a Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 (because the N64 didn't have a game bundle at the time). After that long wait, the first night with Mario 64 was one of the most exciting video game experiences of my life, and I will always have a fond memory of this game in that way.

Honorable Mention: Mega Man X6 (PS1, 2001)

This honorable mention is really similar to my Castlevania 64 one. Both games are very flawed, and moronically difficult at times. X6 has moments that aren't clear if they were designed to be brutally hard, or if lazy programming resulted in sections that were frustrating, yet still possible. It feels great to overcome hurdles in this game, and it's still a Mega Man X game, so zipping around and using abilities is always fun. I enjoy this game way more than I should, but it is also still a very rough experience.

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oh right... we are in the 20's

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imo, the deluge of varying quality collect-a-thon games with hub worlds that came after sm64 are just a testament to how good sm64 is, especially considering how the less-good of those games took all the wrong lessons from mario 64's design

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To this day I somehow avoided playing most of those games. I played Banjo Kazooie and I think a little bit of Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, and that's it.

Spoiler: Croc did not make it onto my list.

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TheKnightOfNee posted...

I think to some degree, the big wave of collect-a-thon games with hub worlds that followed this were not as enjoyable for me and maybe eventually brought Super Mario 64 down a peg in my mind.

Hey its not SM64s fault that game designers played it and thought the 100 coin Stars were the best parts of the game
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Honorable Mention - Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (Gamecube, 2003)

"MSG what is this, how are you not even including the best Mario Golf game in your list?! You're the golf guy!"
First off, this is my list, how did you manage to get a question into my write-up?
Second, no it's not, shut up. Uh..... spoilers, I guess.

I honestly don't remember why I have such middling feelings about this game. I vaguely remember something about it just not feeling right? Something about the physics were really wonky. I also think I didn't care about the courses that much? I looked up the courses and I literally don't remember any of these. Many of the later courses had Mario-themed hazards, like Thwomps, Piranha Plants, and Bob-ombs, which makes me think I was irked by the lack of realistic golf at the time. Teenager me was weird.

I had wondered about whether I actually had disdain about this game, or whether I'm totally misremembering, and thought about picking the game back up years ago, but my niece stole my copy over a decade ago, and I never cared enough to bother buying a new one or something something something Dolphin. Anyway, I'm gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and at least HM it.

Honorable Mention - Winning Eleven 9 (PS2, 2005)

For a decently long period from about 2003 to 2010, I was a HUGE fan of soccer video games. FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer, and even Football Manager (though that one was a one-off, because it just wasn't for me). I think overall, I actually enjoy FIFA more as a series, but I don't think I had quite as much fun with any of their individual games as I did with the PES entry, Winning Eleven 9.

Picking up some lower class club in League One or League Two and shooting them up the leagues by buying into some cheaper, younger talents and hoping they work out was a ton of fun. I distinctly remember Samuel Eto'o taking the soccer world by storm in my games. I always made sure that guy was someone I transferred in, because he always turned into a star. I remember I'd be hanging out at a friend's house and several of us would be there, doing our own thing, and I'd just be sitting in a room writing down potential transfers I'd want to bring in. They'd go outside and do something and come back and I've got this big sheet of paper with stats on it and they were just like "what the fuck are you doing, dude". Those were the days.....

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