Board 8 > The Board 8 Discord Sports Chat Ranks Their Top 100 Respective VIDEO Games pt. 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

#70 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Playstation 3, 2013)

This is a really sweet game. Nee described how this game works in his entry (https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79208627/949116022), and he's definitely right in that it packs quite the emotional punch. The controls work well when you have the brothers on the same side as the control sticks, but when they cross paths, that always tripped me up. The environments are beautiful and varied and have a great style so I didn't mind lingering in them while I figured out how to move.



Without getting into too much detail, there are some emotional moments in the second half of the game that are set up well and don't feel cheap, which is a really astonishing feat in general, let alone in video games. Brothers is just the right length and does not overstay its welcome. In all, a very nice experience that I really should go back to someday.

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I replayed the first Max Payne game a few years ago and it did not quite hold up compared to 20 years ago, but it was still pretty good.

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#57 - Return of the Obra Dinn (PC, 2018)

The concept behind this game is maybe the most mundane videogame plot in history. You are a representative for an insurance company tasked with finding out how to handle paying out the proceeds for an abandoned ship that has been discovered just off the coast of England. But Return of the Obra Dinn is anything but mundane.

The objective of the game is to figure out the ultimate fate of each of the ships 60 crewmates and passengers. Some made it out alive.. but most died a horrible, horrible death. In order to accomplish this, you are given a magic stopwatch that can take you back to the moment of a persons death. When you use it, you are taken to a black screen, where you listen to the final 20-60 seconds of their life unfold. At the very moment of truth, it will show you a single freeze-frame shot of that person dying, and his surroundings. You can then wander around these still shots and try to find clues that you can use to put names to faces, and causes of death to people. The game really doesnt insult your intelligence, either. The game might show you someone dying, but you dont know their name, and a lot of times, their killers name. You will have to use context clues to figure it out, and in most cases, it forces you to utilize multiple scenes to do it.

This is where the visual aesthetic Lucas Pope used in the game comes in strong. I dont think any other game could use a monochromatic graphical style even close to the extent as Obra Dinn. Because he only had to render a single frame of animation, he could really emphasize the key moments. And since these moments are of people dying, they typically showcase some badass shit going on. Heres some examples of scenes you can see in the game:





These arent even my favorite scenes. There are several that are even cooler, but I dont want to showcase those, for spoiler reasons. Its sort of like Doki Doki Literature Club, in that you go into the game expecting one thing, and then at a very distinct moment, it takes those expectations and breaks them over its knee. The story is shown backwards, for the most part, and the first chapter you see is the final one chronologically. You see the fate of the last 4 people alive on the ship. Immediately after that, you go back a chapter and are immediately confronted with something that defies all expectations, and thats when the game truly opens up and becomes a lot of fun.

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#70. Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2, 2001)
(Roger Maris is famous for breaking the HR record with 61 yknow?)
I love stealth games. Sneaking around, being creative in how you might distract or subdue or just get an enemy is atype of game I enjoy and this. And you have Kojima, and I think of this game as peak Kojima, with all the weird humor, and stuff he does with this game. And plot. Lots and lots of plot that doesn't really make any sense whatsoever, but that's so much of this games charm. Starting from the whole opening sequence, where you play as Snake, before he "dies" and then you have the bulk of the game in tanker playing as Raiden of course. I am struggling again with stuff to say about this game. If you've played it you know. It's just so wonderfully weird. Iroquois Pliskin, grabbin some junk, a uh... fatman who skates around dropping bombs, living on through an arm, a slithery vampire, a woman who repels bullets but wants to die by bullets, a very odd brother-stepsister relationship, a fear of bugs, everyone's a simulation, everyone says weird shit, fighting like 30 gigantic fucking mechs all at once, a man who wishes to be Doc Ock, clones clones clones clones clones nanomachines clones, WHAT DAY IS IT WHAT DAY IS IT, LIKE A TON OF HOUR LONG CUTSCENES . Everything is just sensory overload but its great and I love it. But yeah, the gameplay in these are always great and creative and this one is no exception, though just going around the Strut can get a bit tiresome. The ending boss sequence is so memorable though,and that final cutscene sequence, and like everything with Emma, I know everyone hates her and I get it, but all this stuff is so Kojima. Also the MGS2 main theme slaps. Look I'm sorry this game is just batshit insane



Next up: A JRPG whose main theme reminds me a lot of Indiana Jones, and maybe slightly fitting for the game too

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#56 - Mario Golf (N64, 1999)

(best girl Maple pictured)

Mario Golf was the first time Id ever played a 3D golf video game. I imagine that is the case for a lot of people, if they were a Nintendo kid like me. And it was a hell of a way to start.

Nintendos ventures into sports-based video games starring their #1 mascot in the late 90s were very different from what they are now. These days, any time Mario is shoved into a sports or event-based game, it results in an ultra-arcady version of that sport/event, filled with power-ups, booby traps, and gimmicks. But not in the 90s. For some reason, they just decided to slap together some fairly realistic sports sims that just happen to use Nintendo characters to help sell copies.

And that was honestly perfect. As I alluded to in my Hot Shots Golf write-ups, I tend to prefer more realistic golf sims with a neat cartoony aesthetic. Thats exactly what Mario Golf provided. There are no items, no zany courses (OK well, one zany course), no ridiculous shots to pull off. Its just good ol golf at its finest. You aim at the hole and keep whackin until it goes in.

Just as a sidenote, believe it or not, Nintendo ran some online tournaments for this game. On the main menu, there was a secret button input you could do to bring up a code entry screen. On their official website and through Nintendo Power, there were codes you could type into this screen only once, and you could play a single round to try and get a high score. I remember playing one of the tournaments on the sandy dune course and got a -16, which was tied for the best score Id ever gotten in that course. It gave me a return code to input on the website and it was good for top 50 for that tournament. Id never felt more accomplished in my life so far than at the moment those results came back.

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I feel like I played Golden Tee before Mario Golf but not extensively or all that much earlier

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#65. Metroid Fusion (GBA, 2002)



I know Fusion can be divisive among Metroid fans, but it turns out I really enjoyed it. It's a little more linear, and doesn't really open up until later on, but it still has a fair amount of exploration and experimenting with paths within small contained areas. It kind of reminds me of Kraid and Ridley's lairs in the first Metroid, where you know the path is there, it's just not quite the way you want it to be (and also a little less frustrating than those). Fusion also has some fantastic atmosphere. It borders on survival horror at points in a 2D action game, which are very fun segments and something quite unexpected.

Fusion was also a big deal when it released, because it was the first 2D Metroid game in 8 years. I had wanted a new one for so long, so I went hard on playing this game, completing it many times. I know I was doing 1% collection runs within a couple months. I think this one ranks above Zero Mission mostly due to familiarity. Zero Mission is also a great game, but came out a couple years later at a busier time in my life and I didn't put nearly as much time into ZM.

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1% runs in Fusion are something special. The whole game feels much more survival horror-y when you only have 5 missiles and 99 health.

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KCF0107 posted...

HM: Coffee Talk (XB1, 2020)


Coffee Talk was unquestionably inspired by VA-11 Hall-A, but it firmly stands on its own two feet and depending on the day, I would say it is even the better game!

Coffee Talk takes place in a version of Seattle where common mythological creatures like werewolves and mermaids are anthropmorphized and live amongst the humans. No matter the species, they love to visit your late-night coffee shop. Making beverages is a little involving in this game as you have to pick out the ingredients, and in a specific order. They do provide you with an index of all the drinks once you properly make a particular one for the first time, so if that part of the game isn't your thing, things should go smoother as the game goes along. If you do enjoy making drinks, they even have a challenge mode where they test you on your knowledge in a race against the clock.

Like VA-11 Hall-A, Coffee Talk tells a slice-of-life tale, but there is an overarching aspect. They keep the cast small, but because of that, they allow all of the characters to have the spotlight at times and by having them interact with each other, the character arcs become intertwined. It is rare for me to get so hooked in a narrative game that I can't put it down, but with the quality of writing, brisk pace, and dreamy soundtrack, time just flew by. I finished the six or so hour game in less than two days.

I really enjoyed this one

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Oh ya more Metroid Fusion love

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#69 The Aethra Chronicles - Volume One: Celystra's Bane (MS-DOS, 1994)

This is another nice old indie DOS game, made mostly by a single person. The Aethra Chronicles is a 2D overhead view party-based RPG loosely based on the Rolemaster system. The game starts with a party of three custom-made characters from a variety of fantasy races and classes. It's all mostly the usual suspects (Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, etc.) although some of the classes are unique. The story begins with the mundaneyour character's father is accused of a crime and needs to clear his namebut predictably escalates with the discovery of conspiracies and demon cults and the like. It's pretty standard fantasy fare.



The game is played in a sprawling overworld with towns, caves, dungeons, and more. Encounters in the overworld are random but in dungeons are fixed. During battles, the game enters a turn-based instance based on the geography around where you are standing when the battle starts. So you can take advantage of the positioning of walls, trees, or other obstacles to protect yourself from ranged attacks. Like many old RPGs, the game is very open-ended and if you go to higher-level areas early on you can get instantly wiped. The initial party of three can be expanded to six by recruiting either story NPCs or mercenaries from towns.



The game is not perfect, certainly. There are balance issues at higher levels that can make certain classes into unstoppable killing machines, and the normal assortment of glitches that crop up. But as long as you make an effort to play fairly, the game has a decent amount of challenge throughout and the character progression is very satisfying. The title implies there would be sequels, but for some reason they were never made. But the one game is good enough to stand alone.



As for my time with The Aethra Chronicles, it was one of my earlier experiences with RPGs and stands out mostly because of this. It was really the only game of its kind that I played until Baldur's Gate came out a few years later, but it has several substantial differences that made it more enjoyable for me. To this day, I have not found a game that does what The Aethra Chronicles does better, although I must admit this is mostly from lack of trying.

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How did I get in that game!?

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Magic

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#69. Skies of Arcadia Legends (Gamecube, 2002)
I haven't played this game in probably 20 years and honestly I'm skeptical I might still have it in my top 200 if I replayed it, but I remember it fondly enough from my childhood that I'm comfortable enough to include it here. The things that stand out to me are the relatively simple but still engaging plot featuring some good twists, the likeable if not a bit boring characters, the graphics being pretty cool for the time, the music which was fantastic, and the battle system which I thought was pretty innovative at the time. The main one involving switching the element of your weapon on the fly to get the proper matchups and a Focus system involving when you can use your ultimate. It was simple but effective. The main draw were the ship battles where you had to plan out exactly when and how you were attacking several turns in advance, counter to what the other ships were doing.

The game itself has a large focus on discovery and adventure, like finding hidden islands with treasure and whatnot. I mean hey the whole game is pirates. So all this hit my kid senses. But honestly this should probably be much lower on my list but this is where I have it for now!



Next up: A game I dropped a lot of spots after replaying it recently

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#55 - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS, 2007)



Hotel Dusk is the fuckin (55th) best. It checks off so many boxes for what made DS games in particular great.

Fun uses of the touchscreen - check
Neat and unique art style - check
Engrossing story and characters - check

Hotel Dusk puts you in control of Kyle Hyde, a bitter, down-on-his-luck door-to-door salesman for a company called Red Crown in the late 1970s. He used to be a cop in Manhattan chasing down a massive criminal syndicate called Nile, until his partner, Bradley, went rogue and he was forced to chase him down, corner him, and shoot him. Bradley then falls into the river and is never seen again. This memory eats at Kyle and he has obsessed over Bradleys motives ever since. However, Red Crown isnt a normal sales company. Its run by Ed Vincent, a former LAPD officer who used to be buds with Kyles now-deceased father, who uses the company as a front to find things that dont want to be found. Kyle is Eds lackey for digging up all this dirt for his friends back on the force.

As part of this job, Ed gets a tip that theres something to be found in this rundown place called Hotel Dusk. Kyle is to report there for the night and receive a package with further instructions. While there, he runs into about a dozen characters also staying the night there, for various reasons. Over the course of the game, as you start digging deeper and deeper into the secrets of the hotel, you figure out that, by chance, almost everyone there has some kind of connection to Nile, Bradley, or his past in some way or another. Its up to Kyle to piece it all together and come to terms with what happened between him and Bradley all those years ago.

Kyle Hyde is legitimately one of my favorite protagonists of any kind of media ever. Because of his bitterness, and his tendencies as a cop, he tends to be very blunt and stick his nose into everyone elses business. Hes smarmy, crass, and yet has just about the most adorable smiling face ever.

However, deep down, he truly does enjoy helping people, and he finds ways to do just that to everyone he meets in this hotel. Figuring out what happened to Bradley, why he decided to betray Kyle, and how everyone in this game is connected to all these events leads to one of the most engrossing stories in gaming.

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#68. Super Mario 64 (N64, 1996)
Look I still love this game, it definitely used to be in my top 25 on my list I didn't really have. Replaying it recently in 3D All Stars though made me realize it definitely had its share of issues. I don't think it will ever leave my top 100 games. The control is really unforgivably bad at some points. The camera is also terrible, when it locks out and won't go certain directions (Hi Volcano). That's really it though, beyond that this game is delightful. Obviously. I love the open world mission-based Mario game design more than the standard world after world one as a general formula. Exploring the overworld and all its secrets, finding and getting to the different worlds, and then the non-linear design of all the actual levels is great. Replaying it removed some of the nostalgia aspect (which is still an important aspect to my list!) as I think some of the levels get a little tired after a bit, but the levels are still imaginative and have enough variety in level design and star placement to make it fun. Music too, a standout. I do think there are a lot of bad stars, I did a list of these in discord at some point and there were a lot more than I thought there were. Like half of the 100 coin ones, some ones are unintuitive unless you know what you're doing like Blast Away the Wall (which wall????), and like anything involving the volcano or water levels (usually I don't automatically dislike water levels, but don't think they're particularly fun in this game). Oh and the Wing Cap sucks, and those chests that shock you if you go out of order. I could go through so many of the stars I hate but I don't want to be negative anymore since I like this game so....

Ok but now stuff I do like!
-All the bowser levels
-The Penguin race (or anything on Cool Cool Mountain except for the Snowman's head)
-Traversing around the lava world (not the volcano)
-Exploring the pyramid, and riding the shell around that level
-Climbing up tall tall mountain, and finding the secret slide

I have a list of all the stars I hate too though so ask me and I'll gladly share those too- but it really says a lot how much there are things I don't like at all about this game and yet still like it so much, on its own merits, even all this time later. The fact it was so important to me as a child is still valuable!

Also check out the blindfolded 16 star run of this from GDQ because it was incredible



Next up: A game where you play as the bad guy from the previous game in the series

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#64. The Witness (PC, 2016)



I don't want to talk too much about how The Witness works, because it's best to figure things out on your own. I will say this is a game of puzzles. You find a puzzle, and then you solve it. Does a thing look like a puzzle? It's a puzzle. The puzzles start very simple, but the game does a great job slowly introducing mechanics. If you reach a new area with a new mechanic, they'll introduce it slowly, then add in the twists.

The Witness just naturally creates so many aha! moments for the player with how little it tells you, but also how much it tells you at the same time. For what the game tries to do, it's really well designed and very rewarding to play.

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#68 The Lost Vikings (MS-DOS, 1993)

I did not know for years after playing The Lost Vikings and subsequent Blizzard games that they shared the same developer, because why would I think that a charming puzzle platformer and a fantasy RTS should be made by the same folks?



I think everyone is pretty familiar with this game, but in short, you control three Vikings who travel throughout time to a bunch of wacky environments while solving puzzles in order to not die. Each Viking has unique abilities that are needed to get through the stage. The game benefits from a really colorful and crisp aesthetic that still looks great, and a very catchy soundtrack.

I did not play the second game... is it any good?

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Bartzyx posted...

I did not play the second game... is it any good?

I haven't played much of either, but I get the impression that the second is basically more of the same as the first, except maybe a bit easier/more unbalanced since new characters kind of overlap/combine the old ones in utility (like the werewolf overlaps erik somewhat, but can attack too and there's a winged dragon who can also breathe fire. the old characters do get some new abilities/powerups though).

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64. Metroid Fusion (GBA, 2002)

Only one off of a true crossover with Nee here for same game, same spot. Metroid Fusion is probably the most divergent Metroid game from the standard formula outside of Hunters (which sucks) or the spin-offs. Fusion has you progressively obtaining power-ups that let you travel to new places, yes, but actively blocks off large portions of the world map at a single time and has you following the instructions of a spaceship computer on where to go and what to do. It's fairly linear outside of a few sections that require you to find a hidden door the game refuses to tell you about, or the hidden pathways between spaceship sectors that you can use to get powerups in old areas that you'll never even encounter if you're just following along with the game. There are a wide array of boss fights, most of em pretty good, though the final couple boss encounters are pretty straightforward and underwhelming.
The main unique selling point of Fusion is its narrative, which starts with Samus tracking unexplained disturbances and explosions on an abandoned spaceship, building up to being actively hunted by a full-powered Samus clone (SA-X) across the ship. This plays out over a handful of "chase scenes" where you're suddenly dropped into an area with the SA-X's presence and have to hide or run away. These help add to the sense of tension and pseudo-horror-game fear that is unlike any other Metroid game, and they're excellent.
The game is super solid, has tight controls, a lot of hard replayability options (like 1% item runs) and is a fluid and engaging experience. It just never hits the highs for me of the best Metroid games and is far more linear and restrictive than most, which knocks it down a little bit. Still an excellent game, and representative of a really clever way to twist the series' formula.

63. Pikmin 3 Deluxe (Switch, 2020)

Almost undoubtedly the premier Pikmin experience. Game #3 streamlines the controls by making it easy to sort out Pikmin by color, lock onto enemies, and manage tasks by automating movement of your trio of captains. The cute and enjoyable storyline provides you with clear gameplay objectives while giving you the freedom to explore the multiple huge regions to find secrets. Fighting enemies and bosses has never been more satisfying - the aforementioned control options make it a lot easier to avoid catastrophic mistakes destroying your Pikmin horde. And the main bosses are quite varied, testing different kinds of management skills from chucking bomb-rocks to whistling Pikmin to safety to chucking the appropriate color Pikmin on a boss's weak spot. And the Pikmin colors themselves are easily best-balanced here, there are no colors that feel almost entirely pointless or way too overpowered.
Basically everything about Pikmin 3 was really good; it's a game that's incredibly easy to jump back into and play through for a few hours. I didn't end up playing this one until the Switch release, so I'm just including that version, which includes some extra missions and side-modes and consolidates the Wii U touch-pad controls into the on-screen interface. Ultimately, for whatever reason, I never found myself totally engrossed in the experience the way I was with the original when it first came out. I think all three Pikmin games absolutely have their merits and weaknesses, and while 3 is the most balanced and the strongest of the bunch, it didn't end up quite being the highest on this list.

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We all keep saying Fusion is so divisive, yet its the only one that keeps appearing.... well so far

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of course it keeps appearing when you look for it, it also doesn't appear on a lot of lists (I haven't played it)

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WiggumFan267 posted...

it also doesn't appear on a lot of lists (I haven't played it)

WOW spoilers

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#99 Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (DS, 2009)


I took a lot of purchasing risks with the DS. Sure I got burned a few times with games like Touch Detective and Lunar Dragon Song, but more often than not, I was rewarded for taking the plunge, and Henry Hatsworth is one of the best examples. I am always intrigued by games that have unique hybrid genre gameplay (platformer and puzzle for Henry), but I think what ultimately got me to purchase this was that it was quite the departure from EA Tiburon who are mostly known for developing the Madden games since the mid-90s.

While the platformer portion of the game that plays on the top screen is pretty standard on its own with your basic attacks and going through the usual environments, it is the puzzle element that takes place on the bottom screen that makes the game memorable. It is a color-based match three puzzle, but there are a wide variety of block effects that when activated affect the top screen. There are good effects like healing Henry or powering up his attacks, but there are also detrimental ones such as reviving defeated enemies. With the game already being on the challenging side given the amount of enemies and damage they do, it heightens the importance of effectively balancing both the platforming and puzzle aspects.

It has its own shortcomings, but its uniqueness, endearing goofiness, and consistently engaging and rewarding gameplay more than make up for it, and it became one of my favorite DS games as a result.

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#98 Backyard Baseball 2001 (PC, 2000)


I owned A LOT of the Backyard sports titles growing up, and I liked pretty much all of them, but Baseball 2001 rose above them all. Between my love of baseball, their inclusion of some of my favorite MLB players (Frank Thomas and Randy Johnson), the variety of baseball fields with unique features, and the zaniness of the franchise, there wasn't any doubt that I would become addicted to it.

Made for children, it was of course quite accessible. You could leave a game and pick up where you left off at any point. There were options to show where the ball was landing if you were batting, you could have players auto-hit if you selected a location using the bat cursor, pitching showed you the range where a ball would land before you committed to it, and much more. I'm sure if I played now, it would be a little boring as innings would never end if I was batting, and I would send the opposing team down 1-2-3 if I was pitching, but when I was a kid, I lived in the moment and didn't care about the score so much.

While I made like 30 different teams, my main one was of course the White Sox. For some reason, I made my home field Tin Can Alley, whose main feature is that it is incredibly hard to hit an outside-the-park home run. I can actually remember some of my lineup:

Dante Robinson
Pablo Sanchez
Randy Johnson
Frank Thomas
Ken Griffey Jr.
Larry Walker

Maybe the rest will come back to me some day.

Anyway, there wasn't much of a payoff to the main season mode. I never particular felt like I accomplished something great by winning the World Series, or whatever they called it. It probably didn't help that the stadium that they held it in was nothing special. However, I didn't need to be reward that way. I just loved playing baseball games, and this delivered. I do have one regret with this game, and it is that I don't think that I ever ended up playing its online mode (we didn't have internet until a few years later).

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Now that we are 35% of the way through, here is a "scoring" update on the top 35 games so far! Maybe this will resemble games 66-100 at the end of all this (it won't).

#1 The Walking Dead: Season 1: 254
#2 Mario Kart 64: 242
#2 Metroid Fusion: 242
#4 Tetris Effect: 232
#5 Professor Layton and the Unwound Future: 230
#6 Pokemon RBY: 227
#7 Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception: 219
#8 Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: 206
#9 Hotel Dusk: Room 215: 187
#10 Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies: 182
#11 Simpsons Arcade: 178
#12 Pokemon HG/SS: 173
#13 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4: 171
#14 Ogre Battle 64: 169
#15 NHL '94: 165
#16 The Legend of Zelda: 164
#17 Pokemon Stadium 2: 161
#18 Timesplitters 2: 160
#19 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2: 156
#20 Final Fantasy VII: 155
#21 Perfect Dark: 154
#22 Punch-Out!!: 153
#23 Elite Beat Agents: 152
#23 Shovel Knight: 152
#25 Mario Party 2: 148
#25 Snowboard Kids 2: 148
#27 WarioWare: Smooth Moves: 148
#28 Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons: 145
#28 Hitman (2016): 145
#30 Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: 143
#31 Mega Man 5: 142
#32 Metal Gear Solid 2: 141
#33 Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors: 140
#33 Sonic the Hedgehog 2: 140
#35 Guitar Hero II: 139

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Naye745 posted...

And the Pikmin colors themselves are easily best-balanced here, there are no colors that feel almost entirely pointless or way too overpowered.

I felt like Winged Pikmin really trivialized the game, but maybe it was just easy to begin with. Rest of the colors felt pretty balanced.

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winged pikmin are very good in some spots but get overrun in others. they might be a little too good if you know what you're doing but i'd argue that you're already totally fine in general if you're at that point

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#97 Boxing (Atari 2600, 1980)


I love all sorts of approaches to multiplayer. The modern multiplayer is all about deep customization to offer freedom of choice to fit the player's personal skillset and general interests. There's something about the old school multiplayer experience though that I am fascinated by, and I feel like Boxing is the best example of that.

Here you have two boxers facing off against each other. Other than a color scheme difference (one is white, the other is black), they have the exact same moves (long and short range punch). There is a fixed perspective that encompasses a single screen, so both players see the exact the same thing as the other. This then becomes a tense psychological battle as you are absolutely fixated on the screen trying to interpret as much about your opponent's overall and moment-to-moment approach to the match through their simple movements, and they are doing the same with you.

It's so basic but impressively thrilling. My parents owned like 15 games for the Atari 2600, but Boxing was always my go-to game. I don't remember how I generally fared in the game, but I do know that I always had a blast!

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#67 Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995)

Forgive me Nick for having this game even lower than MrSmartGuy did. But the competition is getting fierce and it just so happens that there are 66 games that I love more than I love Chrono Trigger.



But I do love Chrono Trigger. It is such a technical step above pretty much any other JRPG that had come out to that point. If I had played it when it was new, I'm sure that I would have been blown away. But for whatever reason, I actually didn't play until I think the early 2000s, so it was not quite so impressive to me.

I can still recognize how well designed the game is, and it handles the time travel story concept as well as pretty much any game has. The characters are mostly really endearing, even if I really do not like silent protagonists. Crono might be boring and mostly blank, but the cast around him more than makes up for that. The game avoids random battles which is a huge plus for me, and the actual battles are really fun with a lot of techniques that encourage you to do more than just spam "attack" all the time.

Oh yeah and fuck Magus, I kill him almost every time.

Ayla > Robo > Lucca > Frog > Crono > Marle > Magus

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#63. Street Fighter V (PC, 2016)

(match starts like 2 minutes in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0qFRmbXgBI

Street Fighter V is game with a lot of well-documented flaws, both in the original release and with updates. Despite that, it's still a Street Fighter game. It falls short of previous games, especially in single player content, but there's a lot I enjoy here as a competitive game.

SFV feels like a very calculated fighting game. It can get wild and fast, sure, but there are definitely good buttons, and seemingly meaningless exchanges can be huge for swinging the momentum. Success seems to come more from making good decisions than it is from learning long strings or complicated inputs or endless vortex situations (though it still has some of all those things). And that style of play fits in more with how I play fighting games, so SFV's style has worked well with me.

It probably helps too that I've done a lot of competing in SFV and found success. I've definitely won more money from this game than from any other game. I also have trophies and medals from tournaments, which is something that just feels really cool to have still and gives me the warm fuzzies when I think back to certain times with Street Fighter V.



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#96 Mu Cartographer (PC, 2016)


This is one of the coolest, strangest games that I have ever played. I bought this on a whim in 2016 when it was on sale for a dollar or two, and boy was it it worth it!

As the screenshot suggests, there is a lot to take in when you play. You are given a 3D landscape and tasked to maniupulate the environment to find various secrets within. To manipulate the environment, you tinker around with the various devices you see plastered across the screen. There are knobs to turn, buttons to press, sliders to, uh slide, and much more. While the general effect of each device is consistent across the game's collection of environments, you have absolutely no idea what anything will specifically do to a particular landscape until you try it, so you are essentially learning on the fly each time.

This is not a game for the impatient. Trial and error doesn't quite cut it as a description for this game. The very first landscape took me around 45 minutes to find everything. The second was emotionally deflating as the first hour I spent yielded nothing. It goes on like that for the duration of the game as there is technically a story and an end.

Due to the nature of the game, it is hard for me to rank it too high when it is common to come away feeling like you wasted your time after spending quite a bit of it to find a lone secret, but this is definitely a game every open-minded gamer should try, and I knew that I had to include it on my list.

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I tried Mu Cartographer for about 30 minutes and made seemingly zero progress, then I gave up. So basically:

KCF0107 posted...

This is not a game for the impatient.

It's me, I'm the impatient.

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Kenri posted...

I felt like Winged Pikmin really trivialized the game, but maybe it was just easy to begin with. Rest of the colors felt pretty balanced.

I feel like the game design mitigates this a lot through a couple of things: spiderwebs and forcing you to pair the pinks with the blues a lot

There's only a couple of fruits or enemies that are totally busted by the Pinks (Snagret and Mireclops, mostly, since in Deluxe they fixed the Scornet Maestro glitch)

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#68 - Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995)

ranking it lower than both MSG and Bartz, oh no now Nick is disappointed

In all seriousness, Chrono Trigger is a very solid SNES RPG that still plays well today. While I do find the initial 2300 AD portion to be very long (and have had several replays die there) the game itself is very well presented, and explores time travel in a way that makes some sense unlike some other games that use it. The game having the enemies visible to fight and having multiple tech attacks between party members still leads into great gameplay today. It's why many games try to copy from Chrono Trigger and few seem to actually succeed due to various reasons (though Cosmic Star Heroine did fine! That's why it's on my list as well.)

#67 - Tales of Xillia (PS3, 2013)

This has always been one of the lower points of the series, was definitely unfinished and had to rush to an ending somewhere, and yet I still think of it as my second favorite Tales title, The battle system being a mix between the more classic titles and Graces f (the best combat in the series) was definitely a factor, plus having a battle system where every character is actually fun to play. Most Tales games have only a few of the characters be actually usable by the player. The plot is sometimes laughable even when it isn't rushing ahead and the characters can be frustrating at times, but the overall game is very fun to just keep playing through the end. It's also nice to have a lead that isn't dumb as rocks, and while Jude fits that mold, Milla definitely does not.

#66 - Final Fantasy VII (PS1, 1997)

While Final Fantasy VII is definitely overrated, I still like it even though I only finished it many, many years after it was initially released. I still enjoyed myself as the Materia system still works and it's definitely satisfying taking out some of the harder bosses like Carry Armor. It's weird that there's so much talk about that one spoiler when other Final Fantasy characters have done the same in much better scenes, and that there's an even bigger spoiler when you get midway through disc two. There's a huge amount of side content here but I never managed to finish it all, and I never did get Knights of the Round either. Still, I expect I'll finally do it someday when I play through the PS4 port.

I do also like Final Fantasy VII Remake, but that seems to be carving out its own path. More on that when I post my top 10 for 2020 in a separate topic!

#65 - Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007)

Galaxy has always been my favorite of the Mario platformers, so no surprise that it is the highest one on my list. It is the only one of the 3D platformers where I've actually collected all of the base game's stars, something I haven't done in any of the others (I didn't really do much as Luigi, didn't feel like playing through the entire game again.) The game still holds up today as I played a bit of it in the 3D All-Stars remaster and I still found it fun, unlike the other two games in the collection. I don't think another game will ever unseat Galaxy here as I've generally moved farther away from platforming games since, only playing a few titles like Super Mario Odyssey. It definitely isn't my genre so Galaxy being this high is quite an accomplishment.

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#62. Hotline Miami (PC, 2012)



Hotline Miami is trippy and digs in hard to the '80s aesthetic, which is a style that I personally very appealing. I'm sure it has to do with being born in the '80s with just enough experience to reminisce and be fond of it, but not enough to have gained the full experience. It kind of hits with a sensory overload at times, but it's a fun and confusing ride.

The speed at which Hotline Miami moves is one of the best parts to me. You open the door, there's deaths and blood and guns, weaving in and out of a hallway, and you either die or move up a floor, and it's all happened in 15 seconds. If you die, well, you'd already be back at it by the time you finished this sentence. It's tough, and almost like a puzzle game in some rooms, but one that moves with twitchy reactions and split second choices, and there's multiple ways you can get through all of it. The speed and design really reward encourge you to just attempt things and experiment, because you're not wasting much time and you're likely to learn something new. It lets the player kind of take their own personal playstyle through areas too.

The sequel is a great game as well, and has bigger levels and more characters. But they tried to up the difficulty, and some of those levels feel more linear and require things to be done in a specific order. I think I preferred the flow of the first game a bit more.

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#54 - Dark Souls III (2016)

Dark Souls 1 is awesome. Its on my list. Dark Souls 2 felt bad for me to play, but it was almost like a rubber band for the series. It stretched backwards, just so it could shoot forward in quality by a substantial amount for the next game.

Lets talk a bit more about Dark Souls 1 first. The groundwork for an incredible game was laid, but there are some really bad design decisions along the way that hinder the experience here and there. A lot of close-quarter hallways ruin your day if youre using a big weapon. The Capra Demon sucks. Pinwheel is a total pushover. The Bed of Chaos is an abomination of a boss. Honestly, the bosses that arent Sif, O&S, Priscilla, and the Four Kings are really unmemorable. A lot of areas just arent interesting. More of them are an absolute pain to traverse. These all sound like the makings of a bad game, but its so solid underneath that its still an incredible game.

Now lets discuss Dark Souls 3. It basically fixes all of these problems. The bosses are way cooler and even more varied. The Abyss Watchers in particular are one of the coolest fucking bosses in any video game ever made. Areas are way more open and fun to play through (most of them anyway, fuck the Consumed Kings Garden). Theyre also way more pleasing to the eyes. Take any screencap of Dark Souls 1 and youre gonna get a dull, depressing landscape no matter where you are. Take a screencap of Dark Souls 3, and you might get this.


Or this.

Or this.

This last one is the god damn tutorial area, and its gorgeous. Nothing in Dark Souls 1 ever compares to this. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the areas are still pretty dreary, but theres still much more variety in DS3.

And the game feels really good again. I honestly cant explain why Dark Souls 2 feels so bad, but something is just. off, and I cant explain why. But Dark Souls 3 is back to having exquisite combat, some of the best in any game ever. And thats really all you need to know to get why its such a great game. The only reason its only nominally above the first Dark Souls is because that game really opened Pandoras Box for me in luring me into the Soulsborne genre.

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#66 Resident Evil 4 (Wii, 2007)

Yeah, I will admit here that the Wii version of RE4 is the only one that I ever played. I really liked the control scheme with the Wii remote for aiming. Since you already cannot aim while moving, the lack of two sticks doesn't really matter. When I ever get around for playing on a more traditional controller, it will probably feel very weird to me. But maybe I will like it better.



Resident Evil 4 is often near the top of a lot of all-time lists and I know why that is. It took the Survival Horror genre to a new level by making the combat much more accessible and exciting while still retaining a high level of tension. Every third-person shooter that came afterward owes at least a little something to Resident Evil 4 and that's a huge deal.

Leon Kennedy is great and so is every other character in this game. The English localization hits the perfect mix of professional voice acting and "B-movie" quality scriptwriting. I still take every chance I can to say "Hey, it's that dog!" or literally any of Luis Sera's lines. And who can forget "Your right hand comes off?"

The enemies in Resident Evil 4 range from the typical slow-moving "zombie" types to frightening agile monsters and everything in-between. Like other survival horror games, there are all sorts of gruesome ways for Leon or Ashley to die if you mess up. The game strikes the perfect balance of first-time difficulty and replayability that provides for a lengthy initial experience but also the ability to fly through the game in a few hours on subsequent playthroughs. Like other RE games, there are variations on "New Game +" that let you take overpowered weapons in which can be fun. I could probably play through the game again right now and have a fantastic time, and that's one of the reasons why I love Resident Evil 4 so much.



So, um, after you take me back to my place, how about we do some "overtime?"

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#53 - Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS, 2005)


When I was a wee 13 year old boy, living in rural Kansas, I got most of my gaming news from various gaming magazines I was subscribed to. There was this neat looking cartoony Nintendo war game for GBA that had just come out and got good reviews, and everything those reviews talked about screamed I MUST HAVE THIS GAME to me. I ran out to my parents in the other room after reading about it and screamed I MUST HAVE THIS GAME to them. My dad went out and bought it for me that day, and Ive been hooked on the series ever since.

Advance Wars is a series about a kid who commands an army and doesnt know what an airport is.


He then goes on to destroy entire armies to save the world. None of this is an exaggeration. Where Dual Strike in particular excels is in its single-player content. No other Advance Wars game incentivizes playing by yourself quite as much as DS does. It has literally every single Battle Map from the previous game, plus more of its own, and has more flexibility in its CO swapping mechanic. OK, so maybe a few of the combinations of COs are slightly completely and totally broken, but who needs balance anyway when your game is this god damn fun?

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62. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS, 2013)

After two gimmicky DS Zeldas that used extensive touchscreen controls and novel settings, Nintendo went with a far more traditional route with the first new 3DS Zelda game, returning to the Hyrule of A Link to the Past. ALBW's overworld is a near-perfect copy of A Link to the Past, though the game's items, dungeons, gimmicks, and story are vastly different. Most interestingly, you have the option to rent any of a large chunk of major items at any point: boomerang, bow, fire rod, etc., for a handful of rupees (you can also purchase 'em later on for a large chunk of change). It's a gimmick that works pretty well, though it's especially buoyed by a game design that largely lets you go wherever you feel like going next. A relatively open-world Zelda with modern design sensibilities is a very fun experience - I like heavily-gated-progression games (there's a reason why I have a boatload of Metroidvanias on the list) but I also really appreciate games that give the user lots of different options in their play experience.
On the other hand, the 2D-walls-Link gimmick is good, but rarely used in particularly exciting ways. There are some clever puzzles but it never stood out as a central part of the experience. It's probably the least compelling plot-point in the surprisingly deep and excellent story, which twists the ALttP Dark World as Lorule, an alternate-universe counterpart to Hyrule. Groan-inducing name aside, there are satisfying twists to what and who the people there appear to be.
ALBW is a lot like the previously-listed Pikmin 3 to me: it's a really satisfying sequel, really good to play through, but also did not speak to me in any exceptional way. Thus right around the cusp of the Top 50 seems the most appropriate place to put it. I ended up only going through this in 2018, and I could stand to replay it again; I could definitely see it bumping up some spots on re-reflection.

61. FIFA 98: Road to World Cup (PC, 1997)

This one's gonna be tinged with a whole lotta nostalgia, so buckle up. As a kid growing up, my two biggest interests were probably sports and geography. I used to be super into learning about countries of the world and flags and capitals and such - I was a big ol' nerd, to say the least. On the other hand? Wasn't really grabbed by video games at that point, or at least more standard fare such as Final Fantasy and Zelda. FIFA 98 was probably the most ambitious soccer game EA had put out at that point - its core conceit is that you can take the helm of literally any of the 200+ qualifying countries and try to qualify for (and win) the 1998 World Cup. To say the least, that's the thing that made my geography/sports brain explode with anticipation. But, was it good?
Well, clearly, yes. This dated-as-heck intro video featuring Blur's Song 2 blasting in your face over flashing country flags, ugly polygonal gameplay footage, and not-terrible 3D stadium renders is a testament to the kind of excitement this game brought me in the late-90s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN0fLiun-bY
The Road to World Cup mode is legit as hell; playing as tiny countries like Tahiti or San Marino was both challenging and engaging. Later FIFA games ended up porting the World Cup qualifying mode into its own game, but it's mixed in here with the "main" game, which also has 11 world leagues - the standard English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, etc., with a couple goofy ones like Malaysia (?) and a fake US league.
The team/player editor was pretty great too, there were a lot of uniform options and rad hairstyles to give your players. I remember making-over the not-real US league into one of my own and playing some seasons through that too. There was also a novelty indoor-soccer feature that made for ridiculous games.
The soccer itself is pretty good but arcadey - it's outpaced by later games but was absolutely good for its day and is still very playable. But the experience of the game itself - the soundtrack of Song 2 and a whole bunch of Crystal Method songs, the extensive amount of teams and game modes, and the novelty and quality of its World Cup 98 licensing - makes it my favorite and most nostalgically satisfying soccer video game experience ever. I couldn't not mention this rad game and its place among my favorite ever sports games on this list.

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#50. Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten (PS3, 2011)

And so begins the onslaught of RPGs. My top 50 has 25 of them. Disgaea 4 is a very polished game. This series does a lot while looking like it hasn't done much each game as far as gameplay. The story in this game also is strong unlike some other entries in the series. Valvatorez is one of the stronger main characters in the series. The supporting cast is very silly, not much serious to be found here. While many sRPGs feel like they drag and are slow as anything, Disgaea is a series that moves quickly and embraces that you need to do a ton of battles. After you have seen an animation I highly recommend turning them off though, there are some very cool ones, but they just add meaningless time.



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#52 - Last Window: Secret of Cape West (DS, 2010)


So. you remember Kyle Hyde? Well, he gets fired from Red Crown for being a useless, downtrodden twit in the intro to this sequel, and now he has to go back home to his shitty little apartment in Manhattan. He hasnt been there in weeks, and finds out upon entering the building that everyones moving out, because the landlord is selling the building to be demolished in a matter of weeks. As he digs into his full mailbox to find the eviction notice, he stumbles across a strange letter, telling him to locate the Scarlet Star. He calls Ed, the manager of Red Crown, to see if this was a job sent directly to him that he just now found, and Ed clarifies that this isnt how the business operates, and that this has nothing to do with Red Crown. Perplexed, Kyle spends the duration of this game discovering the motive behind the landlords sudden decision to sell, what the Scarlet Star is, who wants him to locate it, and why?

Last Window, as a game, functions pretty much the exact same as Hotel Dusk. You wander around, talk to people, get information, do some snooping, and then interrogate people until they break and tell you their darkest secrets. I prefer Last Window to Hotel Dusk for several reasons. Its a bit more focused, and not quite as drawn out as its predecessor. Some of the characters involved arent quite as memorable, but a few of the more important ones stories are bigger standouts than Hotel Dusks cast. Along with the same art style as before (if it aint broke, dont fix it), it also has a killer soundtrack to boot. This track plays when youve broken someone down and are telling their sad life story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcUsTxfMLoU

I should probably mention some place in here that this game never made it stateside. Cing went bankrupt before they could bring it over here. Fortunately, for us statesmen, Nintendo DS is not a region-locked console, and they did manage to release it in PAL. If you have ever considered importing it, but wasnt sure if it would work, or never even knew there was a Hotel Dusk sequel, I would super duper recommend getting it; its incredible.

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#67. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy, 1994)
If you ask me to name a song from a Game Boy game, the song from the first level in Wario Land is going to be immediately what I think of. This game to me is as classic 8 bit platforming goodness as it gets. Playing as the villain, or at least the villain of the prior game, was a fun concept. Then exploring levels, this is one of the very first games I played that has a ton of secrets and alt exits and stuff to hidden within its platforming. Finding the hidden treasures throughout the game required a bit of creativity and semi-puzzle solving. In some cases, some levels change after you beat them, opening up new areas, andallowing you to discover these hidden keys/treasures, or alternate exits, (leading of course to more treasures). These were always the most satisfying to find as it felt cool to accomplish AND the more you found, the better ending you'd get (Basically Wario gets a better castle at the end the more you find)!

The powerups in this game are unique and well-designed. Wario's main attack is his dash attack, but he powers up with GARLIC of course, instead of Mushrooms. Then you have the Bull power up which allows to smash down on blocks, and also gives longer and more powerful dashes. The Dragon Hate, giving flamethrower power, and the best hat, the Rocket Wing hat, making Wario faster and allowing rocket propulsion through stages (aka the speedrunners best friend). Often you'd need one of the specific powerups to get to the secret bits of the game.

Another cool aspect to the game was how it used coins... you could press up and A to generate a + coin from what you've collected in the level, worth 10 coins, and use that as a weapon, to activate checkpoints, or sometimes the end of the level. At the end of each level you could also gamble your collected coins in chance games to get more (the coins, like the treasures, assist in getting a better ending).

The final boss is Captain Syrup, someone who has made a decent bit of Wario appearances, usually as the final baddie, who has summoned a genie to kill you. When you win, you get the genie, and Wario wishes for a BIG CASTLE, but this is when the genie asks you to literally pay him, and this is where the treasure and coins you've collected comes into play, what kind of asshole genie makes you pay him what the fuck. Also you bomb the final tower you fought Syrup in to find a HUGE gold statue of Peach, that Mario comes by and just airlifts out of the sky while Wario watches helplessly, what a jerk. If you get all the treasures and max out your coins you get your face on the moon though!

All in all, a great little platformer, with a bunch of hidden secrets that are fun to find, levels that alter a bit as you beat them or other levels, so you can go back and discover more, including a whole optional world (!!!), neat powerups, and a weirdo ending all make for a great game!



Next up: A simplistic puzzle game featuring a shape

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WiggumFan267 posted...

Next up: A simplistic puzzle game featuring a shape

Tetris!!!

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Dr. Mario

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#65 Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox, 2001)

I never owned any of the Xbox consoles. But when the first Xbox came out, several of my friends got one, and we played Halo to the exclusion of most other games. Whether it was the cooperative campaign or deathmatch (splitscreen or via LAN), I must have put well over a thousand hours into this game. And despite not owning it, I managed to get in enough solo time to play through the campaign a few times by myself.

Halo was revolutionary. The second stick on the controller was so important for making shooters on console work, and Halo would be worth memorializing just for making that control scheme the standard. But it also brought an open-ended gameplay that was not really seen at the time, along with recharging shields, weapon management, vehicles, and other innovations that were closely imitated for years.



For me though, this game was mostly about multiplayer. I know that LAN parties were a thing on PC for years prior, but none of my friends played PC games, so this was my first experience with loading up TVs and consoles and taking them to someone's house for a weekend of 4 vs 4 or 8 vs 8 team deathmatch. Games would be intense and even the times where it was just 2 vs 2 over LAN, it was such an improvement over the standard splitscreen deathmatch experience that it became absolutely impossible for me to go back.



So Halo changed my relationship with and expectations for video games forever, really. Such a huge release and for a year or two it was the biggest game I played socially with my friends. It may be #65 on my list, but it's certainly one of the very top games when it comes to impact on my life.

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I remember gathering TVs and Xboxs for Halo, fun times as an also never owner an Xbox person

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halo in video game club in high school ,i was bad but it was fun

also an underrated banger of a song

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#49. Final Fantasy 4 (SNES, 1991)

I played a ton of RPGs starting in 1996, just one after another for years. Somehow I missed this one til it came out as part of a collection on PS1. Despite being nearly a decade old at that point, this game was still great. Near as I can tell this was the first RPG to actually have a story with some depth to it. Also gorgeous in 1991. Like look at what stuff like Dragon Warrior looked like at the time. There is a lot of great classic FF music in here, tons of cool characters, and some bad ones. I didn't enjoy the DS remake as much, I think because of how it looked. Weird chibi polygon people. I also own 3 copies of this game, which given its many releases I guess isn't so bad. PS1, GBA, DS.



Decil > Rydia > Edge > Kain > Pecil > FuSoYa > Tellah > Rosa > Palom > Yang > Cid > Porom > Edward

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Halo hit when I was in my third year of college

My friends and I ran an unauthorized ethernet cable between our two Xboxes in our dorm rooms down the hall from each other, hidden amongst the regular cable lines, just so we could do (up to) 8-player Halo.
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