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

(+) Yeah! (+)

This seems like a good follow up to what cokes posted

#84. Raiden (series) (Arcade, 1990 + other years)



I'm cheating a bit here, ranking the overall series instead of individual games. But at its core, Raiden has always been a pretty similar experience, and I don't think I could place any of them really much higher or lower than the others.

I think Raiden games are just kind of like the video game version of comfort food. They are all solid games with a good difficulty curve, lots of stuff to shoot and to collect. There's a limited number of weapons, but they all feel good to use there's something special about getting that purple toothpaste gun to twist around the screen in every direction. The music is always kicking out the jams too.

The arcade I used to go had a Raiden Fighters game, and I would often play that between games of DDR to cool down. Raiden isn't a series I have to go out of my way to make time to play or master or whatever, but if you sit me down in front of one of these games, then hell yes, I am going to play it and have some fun.

#83. Ori and the Blind Forest (PC, 2015)



Ori and the Blind Forest is in a weird position on my list, as it is a game that I expected I would enjoy more than I actually did, and felt a little let down by the final product. What I heard from other people and what I built this to be in my mind, I expected something that would place in the top 20 of my list for sure, maybe even the top 10.

Don't get me wrong, Ori does a lot of things right, otherwise it wouldn't be on here. The storytelling it has was surprisingly touching. Areas are beautiful to look at and explore. There are some segments with good challenge that were fun to fail at until I could piece things together. Maybe the biggest downside was the pacing was a little slow, with no fast travel (I know the Definitive Edition was to fix that issue, but I haven't played that yet. Perhaps this would jump up more if/when I played that!) Overall, this game was really good to great in pretty much every area, but not the amazingly fantastic that I expected, and it's tough when something just gets overhyped like that.

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#91. Mega Man 2 (NES, 1989)
Oh boy its a Mega Man. I probably have this Mega Man game lower than those of you who have this game on their list; it's not my favorite Mega Man game (spoilers), but it's still one I greatly enjoy. I think this is the easiest Mega Man game, which is probably a good thing, because it's so accessible, and it's all thanks to the Metal Blade, one of the most broken weapons I know of. I do kind of wish it were a bit harder, but the fact this was the first Mega Man game to really put it all together and stick the landing is really easy to see. Fantastic music all around, I think the best in the series (though it doesn't have my favorite overall single Mega Man track). Also a very replayable game, I think it's a solid length in not being that long. Anyway, this, like all Mega Man games. Controls great. Solid weapons. Fun boss fights. The difference in making Mega Man 2 stand outisits approchability, its music, and its imba weapon, which is fun but feels a bit unfair.


Up next: Recently was announced with an HD Remaster

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#79. Super Mario World (SNES, 1990)

Man was I ever hyped to play this as a kid. I had an NES from birth basically because my dad wanted one and used the excuse of me wanting it. So having played a lot of Mario you can imagine what 4 year old me thought of this insanely colorful game on a new Nintendo. We did not get a SNES though. My friend did and we played this religiously. He also had Pilotwings which .... well it was turned on at some point. This is the first mainline Mario game to appear on my list but it certainly won't be the last. It always impresses me how crisp this game is. Nintendo really did and still does amazing work with platformers feeling great. So much stuff from the late 80's and much of the 90's just feels bad to play. Not Mario, they still feel amazing 30 years later.



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#78. Tales of Symphonia (GCN, 2003)

When I was majorly addicted to FFXI, there were only 2 games that broke me away and took my full attention. This and another game that appears later. I had played a little of Phantasia, but otherwise never really looked at the Tales series, and to this day have not enjoyed another one (Vesperia is on my to play pile). Something about this game just clicked with me. All of B8 was pretty high on it and has cooled over the years. It has slipped for me for sure, I think I had it top 30 at one point. The cast is very enjoyable, and the look of the game is awesome.



Kratos > Lloyd > Sheena > Presea > Zelos > Colette > Regal > Raine > Genis

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#80 - Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2, 2005)


This game came at a time when I was really starting to get my RPG legs under me. I had basically skipped the first three gens of my life when it came to them, and only after FFX did I really start to get a major appreciation for them. Both magazines I was subscribed to at the time gave glowing reviews of this game from this series I had never heard about (yes, I was 17 when this happened, shut up). I liked RPGs now, I should give this one a shot!

From the moment I popped this game into my PS2, I was hooked. I loved the vibrant world, the colorful characters, the lovely music, the fun enemies. While it wasnt anything new to the RPG genre, it was new to me, and I was floored. I always just expected stories to be kind of a heres your ultimate goal, now hop to it and maybe weird things will happen along the way kind of plot. Dragon Quests approach to story-telling, through several well-written, mostly contained subplots one after another was very fresh to me.

Spoilers I guess, but whos gonna be playing this for the first time in 2021..

Then you get toward the end and corner Dhoulmagus and its a fuckin super-tough fight. I looked up hints, and was told to grind for a few hours in the dungeon before him so one of the characters could learn a useful healing ability, I think? When I read that, I wondered why they gated such a good ability at such a late stage in the game, that some people may not even see. And then it turns out hes not actually the final boss. My mind was blown. There were several hours of game left!

(also, Jessica was one of my first video game crushes ever. va va voom indeed)

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86. The Oregon Trail (PC, 1993)

Is this too high on my list? Probably! It's the most renowned educational game of all time. The Oregon Trail smartly combines elements of action, long-term planning, decision-making, and resource management into a weird pseudo-simulation of 19th century wagon travel and adventure. The game stands out for me for two reasons; first, the game has a surprisingly effective use of narrative. You name your travelling party at the start; random encounters, events and illnesses shake up the core experience; and if/when you die you're even tasked with writing an epitaph for your character that sits on the trail for any future playthroughs. Each game takes on its own cadence - it's not exactly a roguelike or anything, but it's narratively memorable and a step up from both its educational and "standard" video game contemporaries.
And secondly, it's a solid high score game! In eighth grade, my homeroom had a handful of old Mac computers and I got into replaying this every day for a while. Once I was able to consistently finish the trail, I tried playing with harder and harder professions (less money, higher score multiplier) until I had a formula for crushing the top of the game's high score charts. And ultimately the whole experience was memorable and enjoyable enough that it snuck into my favorite games of all-time.

85. TimeSplitters 2 (Multiplatform, 2002)

It's the Saints Row of console FPS games. In an era when Halo ushered in a wave of tight and serious FPS entries, TimeSplitters 2 is light, silly, and arcadey as hell. With a multiplayer mode full of tons of different characters, game modes, and customization options, TS2 felt completely at home on GameCube, alongside other party hits like Smash Bros. And I had a complete blast in multiplayer sessions with this - like i said with Unreal Tournament, the arcade style of the game is such that you aren't spending too long after a death trying to get new weapons and kills and such again; it works exceptionally well for a casual player who has far less experience.
I don't really have any fondness for the game's ugly and dated character models and visual style, but I still love FPS games that have such a high pick-up-and-play quality to them and miss that era of my life when I would casually devote hours and days to those sessions with friends.

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#90. Ghosts 'n Goblins (NES, 1986)
First things first, I didn't beat this game legit, SORRY. But I played it mostly legit, I was trying to be sparse with my save states. I forget when I first played this game, butI kind of remember gravitating to it around the first time I had access to alternate ways to play it, and I liked it! The music, the setting, even the difficulty had the appeal to it. From the first time you fight the Red Devil, I wanted to beat the game, and lo and behold, it happened eventually. But it wasn't until much later. Anyway, I dunno. I'm struggling to findstuff to say about this game. I like difficult shooty platformers!



Next up: A game where I don't play with the main part of its functionality. This is also my first repeat so far on someone else's list.

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#77. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA, 2003)

My favorite of the Mario & Luigi series. They really nailed it with this game. Combat is tons of fun, bringing back the Koopa Kids was very cool. Love the look of this game and it has some great music. I wish the rest of the series had lived up to the original. Bowser's Inside Story was really good but the rest were fairly bad.



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90. Ghosts 'n Goblins
91. Mega Man 2
92. Ratchet & Clank PS4
93. Cuphead
94. Twisted Metal 2
95. Borderlands 2
96. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
97. Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
98. Kirby's Block Ball
99. Death Stranding
100. The Stanley Parable


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#82. Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (N64, 2000)



Here's the one N64 game on my list! The system had plenty of games that were decent to good for me, but early 3D is something I often have had trouble fully enjoying. Ogre Battle 64 was one of the few solid RPG attempts on the system, a genre that isn't as hampered by low quality 3D. The game also squeezed a lot of 2D graphics out of the N64, creating a look that still holds solid today.

Battles are composed of units of armies, and controlling where they wander across the map. Testing out different assortments of fighters, different arrangements, and earning new types of units is the bulk of the game, and it's loads of fun. I don't remember the story super well, but I remember it being surprisingly deep and interesting, and there's some branching paths and your characters have a measured amount morality that affect where the story goes and a couple different endings.

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OB64 is a game I always wanted to play but never got around to

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It was on .... Wii VC?

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also wii u vc

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what is..."wii u"?

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OB64 is one of my favorite games of all time. Super deep gameplay, the story is great with several endings and several minor variations within those endings, I love it. It'd be great on the Switch.

Naye745 posted...

what is..."wii u"?

a miserable pile of secrets

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but enough talk

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I for one would like more talk

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#85 Wolfenstein: The New Order (Playstation 4, 2014)

Alternate history stuff is cool. In Wolfenstein: The New Order, the Allies lose World War II and the world is overrun by Nazis. Years later, a resistance rises up to try to stop them. In this timeline, the Nazis have access to all sorts of strange technology due to their unethical experiments, and world culture has been corrupted by their influence. The result is a 1960s Europe that feels alien but also familiar.

That's the setting for the game, but the actual gameplay is also really satisfying. The New Order is a first-person shooter with a decent amount of stealth and exploration, and rather than running and gunning through each level, you are focused on solving a series of situations using a variety of techniques. So some stages are combat-heavy, but others are more about navigating areas or solving problems. The environments are varied and range from German castles and devastated cities to sewers and concentration camps to more outlandish environments like the moon or a bridge over the Strait of Gibraltar.



That's not to say that the combat itself isn't best-in-class. The shooting works well and there are a lot of different guns that mostly feel great to shoot. You have options for silent take-downs or more conventional approaches. Guns can be dual-wielded for double the firepower with reduced accuracy, although ammo conservation is a factor too. But you really can't call any bullets wasted when they are used on Nazis.

Another cool thing is the collection of original recordings you can pick up throughout the game inspired by 60s era pop songs, but with German lyrics that reflect the alternate history. I thought that was a really nice touch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJz4m07C77E


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#76. Super Blood Hockey (PS4, 2019)

Remember Ice Hockey on NES? This is that, except ultra violent. Basic gameplay is just hockey with tons of fighting and blood. You can choose thin, medium and fat players. What really makes this is the story mode that adds permanent injuries and even death. When a player dies you are shorthanded the rest of the game, so there is a ton of bonus to being as aggressive as possible. I had a player die from a dislocated toe thanks to the RNG. This is just a pure fun type of game. Very easy to pick up and play and be good at it right away.



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Oh no that man suffered an Alex Smith.

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Wigs, your clues are too hard for me ;_;

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Shoutout to The New Order for making BJ an actual likable character.

And for this line.

https://youtu.be/1Ptk8ClEZ1M

85. StarCraft II (PC, 2010-2015)


StarCraft II is another game, like Twilight Princess, that suffered under the weight of expectations. Unlike Twilight Princess, it also had the burden of being made by Blizzard. Despite this, the game, especially once the expansion packs were released, is pretty enjoyable. The plot is entirely over the top, but the missions are largely satisfying and the game's presentation is characteristically strong. The new units for each race are by and large interesting and contribute well to gameplay without throwing competitiveness off. The multiplayer is more or less StarCraft as you know it, just bigger and flashier than ever. I may never play this again - Blizzard's response to pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong was especially distasteful - but the StarCraft II experience was satisfying for more than long enough to earn a spot on this list.

84. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Gamecube, 2004)

The debate over whether the PlayStation original or the Gamecube overhaul of Metal Gear Solid is better presumably rages on in some quarters. I had tried the original at a friend's place in '99, and it didn't do anything for me, but when we learned of The Twin Snakes, I found myself intrigued, in part because the game's graphical upgrade was so significant, but also because I'd played Metal Gear Solid 2 in the interim and rather enjoyed it (spoilers for the future of this list). That TTS controlled similarly to the game I had enjoyed undoubtedly increased my enjoyment of it. Ultimately, though, what does it is that the MGS series is an inherently cinematic experience, and I think the Twin Snakes so far exceeds the original in that way.

83. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade, 1989)


This might be a surprising choice, because it notably is not Turtles in Time. Truthfully, I've never even seen a Turtles in Time arcade machine, nor played it on SNES. This game was Konami's first TMNT effort, and it was later (less successfully) ported to NES. But as an arcade cabinet, it was and remains an absolute joy to play. Shredder kidnaps April, the turtles pursue. You pick your favorite turtle, or maybe the most useful (Leo and Don have better reach), and mow down the Foot, Bebop, Rocksteady, Krang, Baxter, and other various bosses across a number of vibrant, pizza-filled levels. It presents a moderate challenge, but doesn't eat your whole cup of quarters. It's just a classic, well-made beat-em up.

82. Guitar Hero II (PS2, 2006/XBOX 360 2007)


Guitar Hero I was a revelation, but Guitar Hero II was the peak of the series. It has a much better soundtrack, by far, featuring the series' first main setlist master recordings, courtesy of Primus and Jane's Addiction, and ridiculous bonus tracks like "Trogdor" and "Jordan." The plastic guitars were as finely tuned as they ever got, to the extent that the 360 Explorer controller remained the go-to instrument for competitive GH/RB players for years afterward. The mechanics and visuals of the games were refined to near perfection, especially by the time the 360 version came out. For me, it was the game that took my love of music and turned it into an at times fanatical and obsessive amount of gaming, and it was something that reliably brought me joy when other things didn't, a trend which continued with Harmonix's next several games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGDw2t9bI6U

81. Mario Party 2 (N64, 2000)


Much in the same way that I think of Civ IV when I think of Civ, when I think of Mario Party, I think of Mario Party 2. It is, I think, the most memorable and iconic of the series, with each character having a specific matching costume for each board's theme, and a collection of mini-games that reverberates through the entire rest of the series to date. Gone are the palm-blisterers from the first game, replaced with some of the series' most notable and favorite mini-games. There's only six playable characters, but you don't really need more than that, even if you're playing with four players (which you absolutely should be). I don't think the Mario Party series has come close to its platonic ideal yet, but if Nintendo wants to make a game that approaches the perfect Mario Party, this is the game they should crib from the most.

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Mario Party 2 best Mario Party.

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#79 - NES Open Tournament Golf (NES, my GotY for 1987, GotD for 1980s)

Hey guys, news flash, I like golf games. I started playing golf games when I was 3 years old. I have enjoyed playing golf games for 90% of my life. This was, by far, my favorite console video game until I got my N64. I would spend full days with it. I would dare to say it was the only video game I was actually good at, growing up. I could actually hang with the hardest CPUs in my elementary school days, and this is 100% the only game I could say that about.

And that enjoyment transcends the generations, because I literally still enjoy playing this game. When Nintendo Switch Online came out with their NES titles, this is the one I immediately went back to playing, and its just as fun now as it was back then. I had completely forgotten that there was a feature to rename all the leaderboard names, so I did this.


Though Iwata was one of them, and I couldnt bring myself to take him out. RIP you wonderful man you.

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Yeah I think Mario Party 2 is the definitive Mario Party game, for better or worse.

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Nice work Shad, DP, Wigs, Digi and Boko

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#81. Mega Man Legends (PS1, 1998)



Okay, so last game I posted about early 3D games being something I wasn't very big on, but then, uh, here we, umm

So this has a few things working in its favor. The obvious thing being the inclusion of Mega Man in this. That character is kind of a big deal to me. But then it turns out, this game had other cool characters! The whole Bonne family is amazing and charming. I'm glad Tron Bonne pops up in other stuff, like Marvel vs Capcom games, from time to time. The Servbots are equally amusing. The Kattelox Island world isn't huge, but it has tons of personality. I think a big part of why I'm so high on this game is that it took just enough of something familiar that I loved, and added enough new things to make it a full new experience. If it was still mostly old Mega Man, with just some small twists, I might be mad that it wasn't like old Mega Man.

The way the game splits up the action helps keep it all fresh. There's exploring segments and boss fight segments and the casual things around town. The control is a little primitive, especially Mega Man's rotational turn speed, but the game is designed well enough with all that in mind anyway, so it's not as big an issue as it could be. The sequel is fun too, but I find the characters/interactions & areas to explore a little more enjoyable in the first game.

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And with that, I'm 20 games in!

100. Ninja Gaiden
99. Dragon Ball FighterZ
98. Outland
97. Out of the Park Baseball 21
96. The Binding of Isaac
95. Kirby's Dream Land 3
94. RollerCoaster Tycoon
93. Shadows of the Damned
92. The King of Fighters XIII
91. Strider
90. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
89. Kamui
88. Gain Ground
87. Resident Evil
86. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
85. Solstice
84. Raiden (series)
83. Ori and the Blind Forest
82. Ogre Battle 64
81. Mega Man Legends

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84. Fat Princess (PS3, 2009)

I think this might be the only MOBA game I've ever played, which says a lot about both me and MOBA games, quite frankly. For a couple months in 2009/10, my friend (who owned the PS3) and I played the snot out of this game, getting pretty damn great at it. The lighthearted aesthetic and the ease of play hide a decent amount of depth and skill, but also keep it from being as exhaustingly sweaty as most popular multiplayer online games. There was a neat mechanic where you could actively switch to the losing team if there was an imbalance in teams, and I found that once I got pretty good I could jump over to the bad side and still be competitive.
Unfortunately all good things have to end - I think there were a few good updates but after we stopped playing it felt like this one pretty much dropped off the map. There's another game up on this list that is another strong example of a popular online game genre getting a cute theme and a lot of lighthearted charm that is a good 2021 counterpart to Fat Princess, so I'll save the rest of those kinds of comments for then.

83. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS, 2007)

Hotel Dusk is a really neat game from a time when it seems like developers were finally figuring out exactly how to best utilize the DS. A game where you spend the whole experience by holding the system sideways, like a book, telling a noir story with black-and-white hand drawn characters is very novel and gimmicky, but absolutely works here to perfection. Each of the game's chapters sees the main protagonist reveal more about his past while uncovering the truth about one of the many colorful characters in the Hotel on a very long evening - the gruff hotel manager, the lazy screw-up busboy, a popular writer, a mysterious one-eyed woman with a rad eyepatch, etc.
Its storytelling is lovely even if the gameplay is sometimes a bit too obtuse and clunky (I think there was a puzzle or two where I looked up the solution or at least some sort of hint) but the overall pay-off is worth it. It's hard for me to feel SO strongly to place this much higher, but it's a must-play for anyone who owns a DS and really exemplifies the kind of original content that console had to offer.

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MOBA, not Battle Royal as I stupidly labelled it earlier. Also good game. A new Fat Princess is in order I think.

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#84 Binary Domain (Playstation 3, 2012)

During the early parts of the last decade, there were a lot of third-person shooters coming out of Japan. Binary Domain was one of the last games in that wave, and I think the best one that I played. Mostly because of its engaging story.



You play this near-future game as a guy named Dan who, with his childhood friend Big Bo (pictured above), takes a trip to Tokyo that goes terribly wrong. Not having seen each other since college, the two Americans reunite just before Big Bo's wedding. What should have been a week of sightseeing and irresponsible sex takes a hard left turn when Japan is overrun by killer robots.

They find themselves drafted into a rag-tag resistance movement led by a French combat android named Cain. Big Bo is eager to help out (his soon-to-be in-laws are from Japan), but Dan, whose parents were killed in a freak android malfunction accident, is unwilling to report to another android. So unknown to Dan, Big Bo outfits Cain in a female fleshsuit and introduces Cain to Dan as "Faye." You can guess what happens next, yup, big wartime romance story and Dan then eventually has to decide if he wants to fuck a robot.



But the gameplay part of Binary Domain is fun too. The gimmick with this game is the artificial intelligence that uses a microphone to let you issue commands to the other characters. Well, I didn't try that so I can't tell you if it's any goodyou can just use the controller for commands instead. There is a lot of banter during combat and people let you know if they need help and you can ask for help and so on. There are crazy moments and big explosions and stuff. Also the way you treat and talk to your allies affects the story and the ending.

I don't know, the gameplay isn't deep or anything. It was good enough to get me through the incredibly wacky story.

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#75. Darksiders (PS3, 2010)

This game does 3D Zelda better than Zelda does. I am not the biggest Zelda fan in the world, despite playing almost all of them. Just never really loved the formula or feel. Ocarina is a good game, but I never saw the all time #1 stuff everyone else does. Darksiders though, man talk about fun. Combat is very pleasing and the puzzles and world are excellent. As Bartz said previously, the series sorta goes off the rails later by jumping all over the timeline and changing genres every game. 2 is a diablo style get tons of loot with the Darksiders combat in a more open world. 3 is closer to what we see in Souls type games. Genesis is top down Diablo clone. I am hoping we get Darksiders 4 with gameplay like the original eventually. Would really like to finish the story.



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#74. Mario Kart Wii (Wii, 2008)

I was in a tough spot, if I include all the MK games in my top 100, I was gonna have a lot, but they would be ranked like back to back to back. So I cut a few and will just mention them in the write ups of others. 64 and Double Dash are not on my list, I love them, but something had to be cut. Similarly, while I love Super Circuit, DS and 7. They aren't gonna be on this list as the handheld ones didn't get as much of my time. Wii is taking the spot of games I played excessively with my friends in real life. The addition of online that actually worked, made this game our go to Wii game for years. It has been surpassed since, but I have to acknowledge Nintendo getting online right for once and so long ago. So yeah spoilers, Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 8/Deluxe will be appearing later.

Also I love the motorcycles. Coconut Mall sucks. Dry Bowser main.



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#73. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! (NES, 1987)

A game I spent a lot of time with as a kid. Looking back this is a cruel game to let a 4 year old play, its brutally difficult very quickly. After you stomp Glass Joe, Von Kaiser and scrubs like Don Flamenco, you get to Bald Bull who now is a joke, but as a kid man was that intimidating. Soda Popinski was my biggest challenge most of the time. Of course the second fight with Don Flamenco is for my money the hardest in the game. After how easy he was the first time, he just comes right at you. Super Macho Man is far easier somehow and Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream is the second hardest fight in the game. Never liked Super Punch Out. The Wii game is excellent though.

Also how is Little Mac in the same weight class as guys 17 feet tall?



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#78 - Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 (DS, 2011)


My first delve into any SMT game was Persona 3. I wasnt too impressed, so I never really looked into any other games in the series. For some reason, I gave them another chance when Persona 4 came out, and boy am I glad I did. Afterwards, I thought, hmm, I wonder if the other series are just as good? Then a new DS game came out, and I had read that it was mostly unrelated to DS1, so yeah OK, Ill try it out. What I experienced was.. pretty wild. I went from a game where the main cast was trying to stop a murderer in a small town to a game where the entire fucking universe was disappearing at a rapid rate, and this little region in Tokyo was the last Devil Survivor standing.

I dont think thats where the name comes from, but I was going to use the word survivor anyway, so I couldnt resist.

Anyway, the game checks off a lot of the same boxes as the Persona series: equipping crazy demons that you buy/recruit on human characters that have different abilities to best swiftly defeat other characters demons. Its a tried-and-true formula that never gets old, even after the 60 hours or so needed to beat the game. Then, depending on some achievement-like objectives you complete during your first playthrough, you can select bonuses to bring into a NG+, to make you even more OP, so you can take on optional superbosses along the way to get some extra story for yourself. I put in well over 100 hours to this game and I dont regret a second of it.

In fact, after beating the game, it came out that they would be re-releasing the first Devil Survivor for 3DS with some bonus content. I bought that game on release day and played through the whole thing in a matter of weeks. While its story is, in my opinion, a bit more engaging, with more interesting characters, it was a bit hard for me to go from THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS GOING TO DIE to some demons are taking over this one city oh nooo. So I prefer 2 over 1.

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#89. Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch, 2019)
The half of this game's functionality I don't play of course is building stages cuz ain't nobody got time for that. But hey, if you're 100x more creative than me, maybe you've made some good levels I enjoy playing. The story mode in this was a welcome addition over Mario Maker 1 (and the fact it's on Switch, not Wii U), plus all the new mechanics they added and still continued to add to make levels feel great. For me, I love going into search and finding medium or expert difficulty levels and just playing the best ones and you can always find some great stuff. I don'tlike the ultra hard kaizo stuff, but setting it to expert gives you around a 5-10% difficulty completion level which I think is about perfect for a challenge, and medium a bit higher if you want something easier but not a joke level. All the new mechanics like playing as Link is fantastic also (and no, not Amiibo link from Mario Maker 1, though them taking out the amiibo skins was one thing the first game had up on this one). All the physics in this feel like they work exactly like they should, and there's always new tricks to discover.

Mostly it's just fun to mess around and play lots of creative levels, be they just well-designed tough ones, puzzle levels, creative ones involving movement or quizzes... the "hold right to win" levels and ones that just make music don't appeal as much and it takes a bit of effort to avoid the pure meme levels... but hey I even enjoy going into Endless mode, or anything full random and just playing peoples complete random crap. Just something appealing even with the terribly made levels. It also made the earlier Mario games "feel" good on par with the newer ones which is neat, and the mix and matching of mechanics always makes this feel fresh. I can always pick this game up and play a couple of popular levels... just make sure to avoid those dumb autoplayers. Thank god for advanced search mode.

Also sometimes you just want to fight like 50 tiny flying cat bowsers at once.



Next up: Playing this game's sequel first provided a unique perspective probably not many other people have had. For both the first game and the sequel (this entry is the first one).

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#80. Rez (PS2, 2002)



When Rez first came out, it was such a completely unique experience. It's just a simple rail shooter with a lock-on mechanic, but everything leans hard into the graphical and musical style. The music is all very good, always pulsing, often trance-y, and all your actions create sound effects that are a part of the song. The visuals are abstract, shapes and wires, full of contrast and color. Many games have taken ideas from here over the years, but Rez is still a great game to just get immersed in.

There's not a whole lot more to say about this. Some games are just fun to turn on every now and then, give a quick play, and then come back to when the mood strikes again. Rez is one those games that can just feel like it just needs to be played on a random evening and doesn't disappoint.

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#83 Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES, 1995)

Another game that I think you all know about. It is easily the best of the Donkey Kong Country games, and my favorite. The pirate setting is a lot of fun and Dixie is more fun to play than Donkey anyway.

I am sure this game is on multiple other lists, so hopefully they will have something more interesting to say about it than I do. To me, it's just a good solid 2D platformer and probably the best thing Rare has ever done. No, not Diddy Kong Racing, which sucks total ass.

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WiggumFan267 posted...

Next up: Playing this game's sequel first provided a unique perspective probably not many other people have had. For both the first game and the sequel (this entry is the first one).

Uhhhh Phoenix Wright 2?

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Diddy Kong Racing does suck.

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#72. Perfect Dark (N64, 2000)

This is a weird one for me. I don't really like FPS games, and I didn't really like Goldeneye. Yet for some reason my friend group was all about playing this game split 4 screen on a 27 inch TV... my god those days. The weapons are the best part of this I guess. Laptop Sentry is my favorite.



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#88. Final Fantasy VII (PS1, 1997)
FF7R is a "Sequel" yeah.
I played FF7R first, and then this, and like I said, that gave me a completely unique perspective, on both games really. So I played this in 2020, long after the idea of the jRPG has burnt out on me, and it still have. I played a lot of this game on multiple speed, and most of the optional superbosses with the invincibility cheat on (I did all the main game stuff legit). It's a jRPG, the gameplay is fine and runs dry. The story intrigued me and I enjoyed it enough though for me to make it on the list. After learning a lot more in-depth about the characters in remake, seeing them fleshed out in this setting, was enjoyable. Plus, it sort of built on the different ending of Remake for me, having not known anything that comes after Midgar. There was so much I didn't know about this story, and I really had no knowledge of it at all besides, yknow, that one obvious thing. The characters are all well-developed. The story is a bit confusing and meandering, but the narrative on the whole is good. And the presence of Sephiroth, plus Cloud's inner struggles are presented in a cool format. If I played this game back in the day, it would probably be a top 25 game for me, and the fact I can still like a jRPG even now says a lot. Also I love the 5 minute animation of Supernova.

Also yeah, people I betloved the animation and stuff at the time. The cutscenes look good for a game from its era, and some of it is still not bad. But obviously not why it's here.

Oh right the music is good too! obviously.

Can't wait to see our Zolomy friend in HD in Remake 2!



Next up: A platformer where the objective, and the collectibles, are fruit.

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Now Im wondering if Wiggum likes DK64

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Donkey Kong Country ???

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#87 - Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (3DS, 2014)

A very unlikely crossover gives a pretty great game! It's not as good as the better games of either franchise (you'll see more from both of these later in the list), but it does a good job of combining the gameplay of both series very well. The plot twist at the end is such a ridiculous twist right out of the Layton series and I still liked it. I never went back and did the extra DLC chapters in this one though, for some reason. Not much to say about this without delving too much into spoiler territory, though!

#86 - Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (DS, 2010)

The first Pokemon game, and it's the remake of the generation 2 games. Generation 2 was one of the best games that missed my list, and the remakes improve on it in practically every way. So much of the additions in HG/SS have never returned in the series (as Game Freak tends to do) such as the toggable Running Shoes and the Pokeathlon, which I can admit I spent way too much time enjoying my time with. I also really enjoyed Voltorb Flip much better than any of the slot machines - shame that it was taken out of any future titles.

#85 - Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version (Vita, 2015 (JP))

The first game on this list that was not released in NA. This was my first game in the Taiko series and I still haven't played a version with the drum controller, but this was a good game to playa round with and a very difficult challenge to get the platinum with the need to go very far in its adventure mode (when I couldn't understand what was going on) as well as completing 25 songs on Oni difficulty (though I did use shin-uchi mode to cut that in half). Looking forward to playing the Switch version of the DS adventure games since they seem similar to this one.

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

Yeah I prefer this to Mario World. The art, the music, the collectables, this game tried some bold stuff and nailed all of it. Baby Mario is annoying yeah, but everything else here hits. Those dancing singing Shy Guys are too good. I wish touch fuzzy get dizzy would be added as an assist trophy in Smash Bros. Warp the stage and music, make everyone move all drunk.



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