Board 8 > The Board 8 Discord Sports Chat Rank Their Top 100 Respective Video Games part 3

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Page List: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
MrSmartGuy
02/23/21 4:52:29 PM
#205:


Star Fox 64 was on my list for a while and ended up being a last-minute cut. It's a game that I kinda enjoyed back in the day, but somehow has gotten slightly better over time, which is one of the only games I've ever played that I can say that about.

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CherryCokes
02/23/21 5:32:14 PM
#206:


I have an actual cart of SF64 and I don't think I've ever played it.

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Whiskey_Nick
02/23/21 5:39:45 PM
#207:


Sounds like my Paper Mario TTYD disc. Day 1 purchase because I really enjoyed the original and love Mario RPG. Never touched it.

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Arti
02/23/21 5:48:47 PM
#208:


I have so many games that are like that

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WiggumFan267
02/23/21 7:09:16 PM
#209:


#15. Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
I dont really have a lot to say about this game. Its an extremely well-designed platformer, as most Metroid games are, with all the standard stuff youd expect out of a 2D Metroid game. Of course, its based around , and a remake of the original Metroid, but running on a more Super Metroid-like engine, and featuring a lot more in map, bosses, content, etc. It may be a remake of Metroid, but it spiritually is much more a relative of Super Metroid (by the way, Super Metroid is not on my list, because I havent really played it enough for me to feel fair in ranking it. However, from the bit I have played of it, its similar enough to this game that I cant see myself having it too far off from this game. I am looking forward though to potential others lists discussions of why SM is or isnt preferable to MZM). I love the Metroid style of 2D platformers, if this has not been apparent enough from my list-I can say the same things a million times. Exploring, finding powerups, getting to go to new areas previously closed off, etc. I think I prefer the Metroid style to the Castlevania style because its a little more based on your own prowess. Theres no RPG element like the more recent Castlevania games, which I do really like as well, but with the Metroid style its a more pure experience-you cant get stronger by grinding for stats or equipment. Sure, the major things can make you better-equipped to deal with stuff, but if you are tasked with a difficult section or room, that room probably needs to be progressed past now, and maybe at best you can find an E-Tank or something. Finding all the E-Tanks and Missile slots and such in getting 100% also always an enjoyable aspect. I think the map design is great (its easy to see where hidden stuff you missed was) and getting around between areas feels great also.





Samus progression of getting new abilities feels natural too. While you will wind up going back to old areas, you never feel overpowered- the game has a really great and consistent difficulty curve. The one curveball they throw in here is of course baked into the games namesake-the new Zero Suit part of the game at the end. I think some people didnt really like this part, or losing all your gear or whatever,I found it a fun , tense, and exciting new aspectto the Metroid games. It feels more like a Metal Gear/Lara Croft hybrid game at this point-sneaking around a temple, armed with nothing but a weak stun pistol, avoiding enemies too powerful for you, and avoiding detection that closes off shortcut doors, where pretty much everything kills you in 2 or 3 hits. That music sting when you are spotted is in my nightmares. Still, feels good to get your stuff back in this section. I love blowing up that glass tube with super bombs.



Just an extremely well-designed game that I have nothing bad to say about.
See you next mission!

Next up: A game featuring James Arnold Taylor.

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Eddv
02/23/21 10:54:34 PM
#210:


13.) Sengoku Basara 3 (PS3, 2010)


PUT YA GUNS ON!!

To me, when it comes to Dynasty Warriors-style games, the absolute most important thing is to have that killer sense of style. Dynasty Warriors has this in bits and pieces, but its too concerned with things like historical accuracy to produce a truly great Musuo game much of the time.

Never you fear though, Capcom got involved, grabbed the unification of japan rather than the romance of the three kingdoms and produced a trio of absolutely ludicrous and fun musuo games detailing the three stages of japanese unification.

Stage 3 - the struggle between Ieyatsu Tokugawa and the remainder of the forces who had been loyal to Toyotomi, led by Ishida Mitsunari and the various remainders of other factions. The gameplay is thus a mix between the conquest focused Empires musuo titles and the story-driven titles that make up the mainline of the other series and the results are great. The maps feel alive. This applies most especially to when you play either Ieyatsu or Mitsunari who are, after all, leading the two great factions. I love the stark visual contrast between the bright and golden and unarmed Ieyatsu counterbalanced with the pale and white and dismal Ishida armed with an especially long katana. It's fucking great stuff.

It can be a little disheartening to play as some of the lesser factions and find yourself merely second fiddle to the main conflict but there are enough twists and turns to keep things entertaining. For example, the hilariously unlucky Kuroda Kanbei, who is the imprisoned leader of a faction that wishes to have independence for the Kyushu region or really any region at all, as he is an opportunist through and through. He winds up interrupting the climactic final battle to try and take back the key to his giant prison ball that he uses as a weapon so he can walk free. Even as he defeats literally EVERYONE, a hawk steals the key and forces him to live a life of eternally bad luck.

These sorts of episodes play out all over the games cast and are all pretty damn fun.

And of course, it wouldn't be a Basara game without some convoluted way for Nobunaga to get involved!

All in all, this is the pinnacle. This is what a musuo can be and its difficult to go back to Dynasty Warriors after being exposed to THIS. To the point where when I jones for the genre, I don't buy a new DW - I just pop in Sengoku Basara 3 and play with a character I haven't played with in a while.

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Eddv
02/23/21 11:15:04 PM
#211:


12.) Gemfire (Genesis, 1992)




This game was accessible to me in ways other games of its sort during its era weren't. This is essentially the same concept as Nobunaga's ambition or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, except this was set in a fantasy setting with all the fantasy trappings turned up to 11. And like I said with Sengoku Basara above, the most important thing to me with this sort of game is a sense of style which this game had it spades.

The idea is simple - the kingdom is a magical land ruled by a king who wields the power of the 7 crown jewels, 6 of which hold powerful wizards and the center one holds a dragon. The king Eselred is a tyrant and his daughter, in a desperate plea to end his rule, free the wizards from the crown and they go off in search of worthy rulers to displace Eselred. The main two, who happen to get the two most powerful wizards, are the mountain people led by Erin Blanche and the coastal forest dwellers led by Anders Lyle. The other four go off to other rulers, my favorite of whom was Garth who is just a kind old man whos entire territory is just one island off on its own. He is neither a good warrior, nor a good administrator and he is cornered by the powerful Anders. Playing as him is the game's hard mode and it was one of my great sources of pride as a kid that I was eventually able to win the game playing with Garth Chrysalis. Finally the king, Eselred, kept the dragon's gem and has by far the most territory. Defeating him takes skill cunning and patience.

The game is broken down into 4 scenarios which outline the canon way the war is meant to have gone - I would honestly kill to have had this game remade a few years later where this narrative could have been fleshed out better, but as a result my brothers and I would spend hours crafting headcanon as to how things played out in certain ways. To my great shock, years later I would learn a great deal of lore for the game exists in the form of the japanese players guide and a good deal of our headcanon ended up being true. Anyway the earlier in the game, the more territory the king has and the less everyone else has. By the 4th scenario the king is actually at parity with Erin and Anders and it's actually the most challenging scenario to win because while the King is older and kind of a shitty ruler, Erin and Anders have stupid good stats and triumphing over them as either Tudoria (who have 3 territories and one of the weaker gems but at least youre situated in an easily defended corner of the map)) or Divas (who has no wizard and is smack dab in the middle of the map sandwiched between eselred, erin and anders.)) is a very hard task.

The game is pretty ambitious featuring a combination of simple economics, macro-war planning and micro-war battles its somewhat reminiscent of an early form of the Total War series, but I have always found it more enjoyable if I am being honest.

Anyway at the end, you win free the land and hook up with the princess, yes even if you won as the sole female character. Pretty cool game and one I return to periodically.

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TheKnightOfNee
02/23/21 11:56:47 PM
#212:


#17. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (PS1, 2000)





Growing up, I had video game magazines with ads for Lunar games on the Sega CD. I always thought they looked cool, with anime characters before I even knew what anime was. I didn't get to experience the Lunar games on the Sega CD, so the Playstation updates were where I eventually played the series. I enjoyed Lunar: Silver Star Story, so I was excited to try Lunar 2: Eternal Blue when I found out that would also come out for the PS1.

Eternal Blue starts with Hiro and his pet dragon Ruby finding a mysterious girl, Lucia. Lucia was sent to Lunar to prevent it from being destroyed by Zophar. They travel to find the power to stop Zophar, meeting other characters along the way, each of which go through some level of development on a personal level as well. Eternal Blue is set 1,000 years after the first Lunar game, so it is mostly a separate story from the original. There are still connections to the first game, through the world and seeing how it's changed in that time (and remained the same), along with some characters who still reappear due to plot reasons, like the dragons, and also my favorite character from the first game.

There are few improvements made form the first game to the sequel. Battles move a little faster, cutting out some of the downtime in basic moves and speeding up the simpler encounters. There are more cutscenes and more dialogue, which was a big deal at the time, when quantity of each was still a thing in RPGs people wanted more of. There is an epilogue added to the end, unlike with the first game, so even after wrapping up the main story, you can run around the world with your endgame setup and wrap up some more personal story to the characters. And of course the actual packaging of the game came with more stuff than the first, including the soundtrack, a making of documentary, a pendant like Lucia wore, a hardcover manual, and mini-character stands. It was like a collector's edition experience before collectors editions were even a thing, and it was every copy. I listened to that CD quite a bit back in the day.

Working Designs was the company in charge of bringing Lunar to the USA. They were very unique, which some people weren't so big on, but other people loved. I personally thought they were amazing. The packaging mentioned above was a big thing of theirs, as they tried to make all their games feel special to buy. They also went wild in their translations, filling them with jokes and pop culture references, generally when the original text was just kind of filler fluff from NPCs. Some people want literal translations, and that sure didn't happen, and I'm sure some of the references are very dated now. But in a game like this, it made it so fun to just talk to every townsperson and examine every thing. You never knew what kind of interaction or comment was coming up next.

I also bought the strategy guide for Eternal Blue. Working Designs made their own strategy guides for their games, rather than sending it out to BradyGames, Prima, etc. Because they wrote it themselves, it had the same kind of special care feeling as the game, coming in a hardcover book with a reversible dust cover and a ribbon bookmark attached. They were also able to fill it with more official artwork than you would normally get. It also was full of humor, dumb jokes and references and puns everywhere, even more than the game's localization contained. It was fun to just sit down and read sometimes, I found it so funny and it added to the experience of the game itself.





A long time ago (like 15+ years ago) I used to use the above picture of Lemina as a userpic for online forums and stuff. This game just holds a lot of fun memories from that time in my life. Seeing this picture, or clips of someone playing the game, or whatever just brings me back to very specific times and places.

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Bartzyx
02/24/21 11:21:18 AM
#213:


#14 SimCity 2000 (Microsoft Windows, 1995)

I'm kind of a creative person, but I also don't really have much artistic talent. I did like to play with LEGOs as a kid though. I liked to build things. SimCity lets you build things.



SimCity 2000 was a wonderful improvement over the first game and I think really delivered on the vision of making a city. All the changes to city-building provide flexibility and opportunities for creativity that were just not possible before. But it's also a game; it would not be nearly the same without the game elements, just like Minecraft is rather boring in the free-form creative mode (not sure if that made it to the finished game?). You have to play by the rules and make your city right or you'll run out of money. Unfortunately, the easiest way to do that is to make your city super homogeneous and boring, which sucks. It's important to find the right balance between playing the game and also being creative about it.



I was thinking about SimCity 2000 during the weekend when looking at the games I had left on my list, and on a whim decided to install it again to see if it still was magical for me in 2021. I think I ended up putting in around 10 hours between then and now, and it is still as addicting now as it was back then. Maybe even more so with what I know about real urban planning concepts as an adult. In those hours I was able to grow a somewhat realistic-looking city, as opposed to just mindlessly plopping down a grid trying to "win" the game. It's really neat that there are both sides to the game, depending on what interests you more.



Of course, it is very old now and I'm told that more recent games like Cities: Skylines have really changed things. I haven't given any a try, because no real reason. I guess maybe I'm intimidated? I don't know. SimCity 2000 is rather simple and it suits me.

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TheKnightOfNee
02/24/21 8:45:52 PM
#214:


It was interesting to read about Gemfire, that's a game I've only seen boxart of. I think I made an assumption about what the game was in my mind, and it seems that I was way off.

Also, there's something about those isometric detailed pixel images in SimCity 2000 that gives me a warm feeling to see (and I get the same feeling from Roller Coaster Tycoon, Age of Empires, etc).

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TheKnightOfNee
02/24/21 9:18:15 PM
#215:


#16. Mega Man 9 (Xbox 360, 2008)



Mega Man games were kind of a big a deal to me growing up. I had been playing them since the NES days, and they had always been among my favorites. It was even around this time that I was starting to switch my online nickname over to a Mega Man-themed nickname (oops this old still exists here though). I still owned those old games and loved them. I was finding fun with newer Mega Man games as well, but really wanted more of the classic stuff I loved. Mega Man 9's announcement was a huge moment for a lot of people, and I was one of those people.

Mega Man 9 most heavily draws from Mega Man 2 as inspiration. There's no slide or charge buster, and several music tracks are just lifted straight from Mega Man 2. But that's okay, because Mega Man 2 is great!

There are a lot of smart design choices in this game that appeal to me and really make me enjoy each stage. One common thing people talk about is how the weapons seem to be balanced in strength, but it's not just that. They all have unique uses/properties, and often function in multiple ways, so that every weapon seems to have a purpose. The Hornet Chaser can pick up items, the Laser Trident breaks the barrier blocks, the Jewel Satellite reflects enemy bullets, the Tornado Blow allows for higher jumps, the Magma Bazooka can be charged up, the Black Hole Bomb can suck in surrounding enemies/projectiles, the Plug Ball travels along surfaces to hit in accessible enemies, and the Concrete Shot can create temporary platforms. The levels are designed such that each of these should be useful at some point, making your path easier and also more streamlined.

And that takes me to the second point, is that the levels flow so well. It takes some special weapon usage (and yes, bringing up the menu to switch), but stages can just be run through pretty continuously. There's very little stopping and waiting for an enemy to line up, or for an enemy to end yet another invulnerable cycle. With smart item usage, you can just kind of keep going. And it's not like, you just zip up some walls and skip whole chunks to move through quickly, there's still most of the game to navigate, you can just do it without feeling like you're wasting time for nothing.

As I mentioned before, there are a lot of callbacks to NES Mega Man, which are super fun, but there are a lot of things that are brand new, but feel entirely like what you would see on the NES. The whole game felt like a love letter to games of my childhood and slots in alongside the best of them.



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Bartzyx
02/25/21 10:00:24 AM
#216:


#13 Final Fantasy Tactics (Playstation, 1998)

I enjoy tactics and strategy games, and I also enjoy job systems. So Final Fantasy Tactics is a match made in heaven for me. And unlike Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, there are only a few l i t t l e. f l a w s. that counter the shining aspects of this game.



The game starts off in medias res, with an exciting and easy battle, that shows you some of the character abilities and gives you a feel for everything. After teasing you, it takes you back in time to the first chapter, which serves as an extended tutorial. This first chapter is pretty unforgiving, though. You have to quickly get the hang of the job system or you won't have much of a chance. The beginning jobs are very weak and the only way to make it through the early going is to aggressively move your characters into stronger jobs. Hard to do if you don't like making decisions, and I think this initial difficulty has thrown a ton of people off of the game.



The battles are on a 3D isometric grid and involve small skirmishes between a small subset of your party and a handful of enemies. Some are dictated by the story, but there are also random battles against monsters that you can use to grind if the next story mission is too hard. There are a wide variety of abilities to use, and throughout the game you will recruit story characters with their own unique skills. Some are a little too skilled, Orlandu.

The story is deep and engrossing, although the translation for the Playstation version is very very rough and inconsistent. The PSP version is told much better, if you don't mind the flowery Elizabethan English dialogue. Final Fantasy Tactics is presented as a historian telling of a war, although in typical Final Fantasy style, it verges to supernatural apocalyptic silliness by the end. But the characters are great, and Ramza and Delita's rivalry is one of the better Final Fantasy narratives.



What makes this game stand out for me, other than its very concept, is the endless replayability of it. There are so many ways to play, whether you want to just use the story characters, random recruits, captured monsters, and then all of the class combinations and possibilities. I don't know if I would ever get tired of this game if it was the only one left for the rest of my life. It's truly a special one.

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MrSmartGuy
02/25/21 7:40:41 PM
#217:


#11 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, my GotY for 2009)


I really do wish I could bother to give this game a proper once-over, because I still consider it action-game perfection, but I dont really have a choice but to place it with its perfect sequel brethren in Mass Effect 2, because theyre both what I consider best-of-genre games. However, its been a few handfuls of years since Ive played either, and several details about both are foggy. You may have noticed that my ME2 write-up read a lot like a review, and thats no coincidence; I literally had to read a review to get ideas, but Id be doing a disservice to both of these games if I didnt at least try to do something original here.

On that note, what I can relay to you is that Nathan Drake is a perfect protagonist for this kind of game, the action sequences are second-to-none to anything else in the industry, the game plays like an absolute dream (the level design is sooo much better than UC1 and probably 3 and 4 as well), and oh yeah, it had one of the most fun multiplayer modes Ive ever played. I cant believe this game is almost old enough to make its own GameFAQs account. This was so ahead of its time, its insane.

The supporting cast is awesome, too, and I dont recall there being anything out of left field, character development-wise. Like, there were plenty of twists and double-crossing to be had in the game, but everyones motives always made sense. Except the end of the game had a major twist that drastically changed up the gameplay and uh, pretty sure no one was really feeling that one, but it is what it is.

Still, given that UC2 single-player alone is a 9.5/10 game, and the multiplayer alone is a 9.5/10 game, this would rate the highest of my list as a 19/10 overall. Good on you, Uncharted 2.

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MrSmartGuy
02/25/21 7:51:57 PM
#218:


My full list so far:

HM. Nintendo World Cup
HM. Tecmo Super Bowl
HM. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
HM. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
HM. Burnout 3: Takedown
HM. The Urbz: Sims in the City
HM. Winning Eleven 9
HM. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
HM. Hitman: Blood Money
HM. Deadly Premonition
HM. Ratchet & Clank (PS4)
HM. NHL Hitz 20-02
HM. Hades
100. Earthbound
99. Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA
98. Mario Golf: Advance Tour
97. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle
96. FTL: Faster Than Light
95. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
94. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
93. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
92. Beat Saber
91. Pocket Card Jockey
90. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2006
89. Persona 5
88. Trauma Team
87. HITMAN
86. The World Ends With You
85. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
84. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
83. Pokemon Stadium 2
82. Mass Effect 3
81. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
80. NES Open Tournament Golf
79. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
78. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
77. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
76. Mario Party 2
75. The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain
74. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies
73. Saints Row: The Third
72. SSX3
71. Doki Doki Literature Club
70. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
69. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
68. Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds
67. WarioWare: Twisted!
66. TimeSplitters 2
65. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
64. Chrono Trigger
63. Tetris Effect
62. Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow Version
61. Dark Souls
60. Hot Shots Golf Fore!
59. Mario Kart 8
58. Return of the Obra Dinn
57. Mario Golf (N64)
56. Hotel Dusk: Room 215
55. Dark Souls III
54. Advance Wars: Dual Strike
53. Last Window: Secret of Cape West
52. Borderlands 2
51. the jackbox PARTY PACKs
50. Batman: Arkham Asylum
49. Pokemon Black/White Version
48. Fire Emblem
47. Paper Mario
46. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Path
45. SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs
44. Shadow of the Colossus
43. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
42. Rock Band 2
41. Mario Golf
40. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
39. Skate 3
38. Snowboard Kids 2
37. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
36. Mario Tennis
35. Diddy Kong Racing
34. Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
33. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice
32. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
31. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
30. Mario Tennis
29. SNATCHER
28. Pokemon Puzzle League
27. Horizon: Zero Dawn
26. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
25. Pokemon Gold/Silver Version
24. Elite Beat Agents
23. Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
22. Super Smash Bros. Melee
21. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
20. Fallout 3
19. Banjo-Kazooie
18. Inazuma Eleven
17. Super Mario Odyssey
16. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
15. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
14. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
13. Final Fantasy X
12. Mass Effect 2
11. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Oh boy oh boy, time for the reeeeeeally good stuff.

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Whiskey_Nick
02/25/21 8:14:46 PM
#219:


DISHONORABLE MENTION #4 AKA the Second Worst Game of All Time: Ico (PS2, 2001)

I hate you B8. Every game you recommend me is awful. This is why I will never play a Phoenix Wright game. B8 cannot be trusted. Mass Effect 2 is one of the most garbage experiences I ever had gaming. Thanks B8. Deus Ex? Trash. Thanks B8. Odin Sphere? Zzzzzzz. Thanks B8. Ratchet and Clank? Dear god hold my hair while I vomit. Thanks B8. Persona 3. Oh cool emo teens shooting themselves, or was that 4? It sucked too. Thanks B8.

Every game B8 recommends to me I have hated. As such I no longer take any B8 suggestions. If I want to play a game I will. The most horrible example of this is Ico. Why on earth would anyone willingly advertise this game to people they like? They take the single worst experience in games, escort quests, and make it the entire game!? And like many escort quests, the person you are escorting is so insanely stupid they run straight at death every chance they get. Why is every escort quest for a toddler in an adult body? Ico is an ugly game, all grey and brown. The music is boring and unremarkable. Both characters are terrible. The gameplay is slow, unresponsive and insanely dull. Even the times its supposed to feel frantic, its snails paced and you are like ... omg why is this so slow. The story is bad, I think you are meant to care about these two dopes but I just wanted them dead. Games are art, but some art sucks. Remember that the museum here in Ottawa paid 2 million for Voice of Fire.

<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/Voice_of_Fire.jpg">

That cost 2 million dollars. I have seen this piece of shit up close, you can see the tape marks. That is Ico. Ico is something you are told you are to like and look how well it is reviewed or something. You have to like it! You don't get it if you don't like it. No I get it, it sucks.



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Arti
02/25/21 8:43:48 PM
#220:


#12 - Muv-Luv Alternative (Vita, 2017)

Muv-Luv Alternative is a tricky game to both rank and talk about in a list like this, since it's the third (technically, second) game in a series where the other games are required to understand basically anything in it, as Muv-Luv Alternative starts off right where the previous visual novel ends. Those other games happen to be a terrible school life visual novel and an average futuristic mecha one, so they aren't anywhere close to being ranked anywhere near a top 100 list like this one. Makes it pretty hard to recommend when you have to slog through 25 hours of reading before getting to the actual good part.

But when you do, it easily is one of the more exciting visual novels on this list, and really hits its high points in both episode 7 and the final episode for very different reasons. I can't say anything more because anything I say about this game is a spoiler, but this game deserves one of the very few 10/10s I've given out on vndb.org, and I don't regret doing so at all.

The other two games that also got 10/10s on vndb.org will get better write-ups, at least!

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WiggumFan267
02/25/21 8:48:58 PM
#221:


Whiskey_Nick posted...
Thanks B8. Ratchet and Clank? Dear god hold my hair while I vomit.
who recommended the original Ratchet & clank to you

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Bartzyx
02/26/21 9:54:10 AM
#222:


#12 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Playstation 2, 2002)

Why is Vice City my favorite Grand Theft Auto game? The setting has a lot to do with it. 1980s "Miami" is one of the most 80s things out there, and I have a ton of nostalgia for the 80s. Vice City improves on Grand Theft Auto 3 in practically every way, and delivers a relatively focused and fun experience.



After the success of GTA3, Rockstar kind of went all-out for the follow-up. The basic engine is the same, but a higher level of care is immediately evident. They set up an actual story with distinct characters, brought in professional voice actors, and extended the length significantly. There are a greater variety of missions, the map is bigger, more vehicles, weapons, and so on. It's all very similar to my praise for San Andreas, but like I said, I can appreciate the setting a lot more.

Even in all its blocky Playstation 2 glory, I can appreciate how Vice City looks. The color palette, the buildings, it's all so very evocative. Rockstar splurged with a fantastic licensed soundtrack that defined how this type of game would do music going forward.

Now, here's a game that if they remade it, or made a new GTA game with its setting, well... I would go for that so hard. But until they do, Vice City is still a great experience that never gets old for me. I played it to 100% and then some and, if I had the time, would do it all over again.

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WiggumFan267
02/26/21 7:20:01 PM
#223:


#14. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2, 2004)
The last of the Ratchet & Clank games! This time, the 3rd one. Ive in my head found it actually pretty difficult to separate these. The gameplay is largely the same in most of the games with some new mechanics or other little differences in each one that make you want to keep playing, but maybe arent distinctive enough to really tell them apart. So why do I have this one the highest? Well, for one I simply just remember liking it the most. Getting at why might be more difficult, but what I do remember about it is having one of the best battle arenas (tied with the 2nd game), but it also had some obstacle courses beyond just the enemy gauntlets, so those were really fun. It also had these additional sort of ground battlefield missions where you were just holding your ground and staving off waves of enemies- basically like the arena but with access to some turrets, a small squadron of helper bots and some things to protect. Those would up pretty challenging sometimes and were fun to do all of them.



Other good stuff in this game- segments where you guise yourself as one of the enemy species and play a rhythm game to convince them to let you through their base, a Secret Agent Clank section where you play out a scene in a show as Clank (who is a big TV star in this game) with the director yelling production notes, a totally not dated reference in the Courtney Gears character, and a segment in the sewers- like the sand/ice area in the 2nd game- but even better here as you wander through the pipe-like maze, trying to find all 99 crystals, either laying around or of course, inside slime monsters.



This is also probably the most humorous game that I recall- with the first appearance of Lawrence and Dr. Nefarious, probably my favorite characters in the series (Nefarious short circuiting to play soap opera excepts somehow never gets old), and I think you also have Qwark at his best in this game. The Qwark comics are a particular delight, interjecting some classic 2D Platforming to break up the usual Ratchet & Clank game play, with some comic-style cutscenes.


This game really also fleshed out the weapon upgrade system. While the second game only letyou upgrade each weapon once (and one additional time on NG+), this let you go up to V5 (and V8 in NG+). My favorite weapons in this game are the Plasma Whip, the Suck Cannon, Flux Rifle, Annhilator, and Quack-O-Ray.

In the end, as Ive thought more about it, I think Crack in Time is probably overall the best of the bunch, but I hold the original 2 in the highest regard for introducing me to the series and just being all-around fantastic games.

Next up: Who knew praying mantises could be such assholes?


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Whiskey_Nick
02/26/21 7:39:43 PM
#224:


Guys plox get to 10 I have gams to pots

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wallmasterz
02/26/21 8:02:56 PM
#225:


Lets see those gams @Whiskey_Nick

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TheKnightOfNee
02/26/21 9:25:27 PM
#226:


#15. Persona 4 Arena (PS3, 2012)





Persona 4 Arena was a very weird creation. I'm not sure how this came to exist, but they took an RPG series that was gaining traction and gave it a fighting game spin-off. Arc System Works, who developed Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, stepped in to help Persona look like just as wild of an anime fighting game as those others. Sometimes weird things happen and they work out well.

The story of Persona 4 Arena is, uh, well, the characters from Persona 4 are here. And then some Persona 3 characters are here too, I guess because they are also popular. And then there's a character named Labrys. And also Shadow Labrys (and in Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax, every character has a shadow version of their main form, so there is a Labrys and a Shadow Labrys and also a shadow Labrys and wow it's every bit as confusing as you'd think). Anyways, don't ask me about stories in fighting games, I never know what's going on. The real story is that two characters are fighting to deplete the other's lifebar first.

Gameplay-wise, Persona 4 Arena intended to simplify the fighting game experience. There are just four attack buttons, so pad players could just use the face buttons. The game also introduced auto-combos, which have actually caught on fairly well since this game. You can just go A-A-A-A-A and do a full set of moves, right into a super, if there is enough meter. It's not the strongest combo, but it's good damage and helps people do the super moves that may have trouble with the standard motions.

But despite all the simplification, Persona 4 Arena is a very deep and complex fighter. Two of the attack buttons are for the character's light/heavy attacks, but the other two attack buttons call out their persona to do a light/heavy attack. It can look pretty chaotic out there with two characters and two personas. Each character has 4 cards under their life meter, and every time you hit the opponent's persona, it breaks one of their cards. If all 4 cards are gone, they can't use the persona for a period of time, taking away half their attack buttons, but also other functions like super attacks or bursts. Sometimes it can be more strategic when counterattacking to take away a persona instead of going for damage now. Or maybe when trying to rush in, using your persona can open up the opponent, but it also leaves the persona open to be broken. The personas add a neat additional layer of strategy to the fights.

Another interesting mechanic is that when a character gets low on life, they enter awakening and get a big boost to meter and defensive stats, and have access to a new super. It may be more advantageous to end a combo early at times to prevent the opponent from entering awakening, or on defense, purposely get hit by a stray fireball or something to enter awakening. There are also techniques available to extend combos to obscene anime fighter length, using bursts and One More Cancels.

One last gameplay mechanic to mention is that there are a bunch of status effects that incur from certain special moves. Poison slowly drains life, rage increases damage but disables blocking, mute temporarily locks out persona-based special moves, panic flips left/right directions on the controller, charm steals SP, and shock temporarily prevents movement. These help add that RPG flair to the fighting game.

Early on, I played quite often online with Theo72. He used Teddie, and I quickly felt like Teddie was also the character for me. Teddie wasn't my favorite character in Persona 4 by any means, but in Persona 4 Arena, he is maybe the most wild thing in the game. Teddie is what we call an item character. One of his persona's attack is to throw an item. There are over a dozen items, each very different. There's a smoke bomb that just makes it hard for everyone to see, there's a firecracker that bounces up off the floor and ceiling repeatedly until it hits, there's a plate of poisonous food, there's an oil drum that slowly rolls along the floor, etc. A big part of his game is just getting items out there, then using their madness to either start or continue combos. He also is very comical in his animations: swinging a giant baseball bat, throwing a fish along the ground, punching a giant boxing glove out of his mouth, turning into a 16t weight, flattening into a pancake, or turn into a circus clown on a giant ball. The circus ball is a super attack that is completely unblockable (the opponent needs to jump over it), but if you can lock down the opponent into blocking using items first, the super can become a truly unblockable attack.

When I first got into Persona 4 Arena, I had already started competing in Street Fighter tournaments. P4A was the first fighting game I competed in beyond the Street Fighter series, so it was important for me really learning to get good at the whole genre, and not just one game. It also helped me meet new groups of people, ones who weren't Street Fighter players but were still at the same event as me Now, I typically enter somewhere between like four to eight different games at a fighting game tournament. The first tourney I entered this was a local one, and I lost all my games. Then I entered it at Evo 2013, and I managed to go 2-2, which was very encouraging.

My drive to keep playing the game more and to get better at it was really helped when I found out I lived near one of the top P4A players in the USA (possibly the top player, depending on who you ask). I learned a lot about forming a game plan and correcting mistakes I had been making. I never became a truly top level player or anything, but I won some local events, and made top 8 at a couple larger tournaments, so Persona 4 Arena has been good to me in that regard.

I also need to point out that the updated version, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax was known in Japan as Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold, and it is such a shame we didn't get that amazing title over here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2E2hV9pFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-E8DVdgUOM

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Bartzyx
02/27/21 11:20:29 AM
#227:


#11 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Microsoft Windows, 2000)

If this was a ranking of best soundtrack, I think #11 would be too low for this game. And, considering the game as a whole, it's hard to believe that this did not make my top ten. But at least I got it right to the precipice.



It is really a bit of a wonder that I got into this series. As a kid, I had little interest in skateboarding or other extreme sports. My parents bought me a skateboard for Christmas when I was few years younger, and almost immediately my sister "borrowed" it and left it out to be stolen, so I never really had the chance to decide if it was for me. But one day, I went to my friend's house, and he was playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the N64. And I watched him play. And it looked fun. Then I played it. And it was fun!

We played a lot of the first game, but then the second game came out and was included on a PC Gamer demo disk. I played the shit out of that demo, and we quickly picked up the full game. Oh man, what a game. I spoke briefly to the soundtrack already. The first game was good, THPS2 is perfect in that respect. An incredible and iconic mix of music that defines skateboarding to me, it introduced me to many artists that became mainstays of my music collection for life. The levels are bigger and better than before, each with their own secrets that felt magical to unlock and use.

The scoring system got a bit more complicated with the addition of the manual, and this opened up the game a lot. It's fun to rack up points. THPS is more about the points than the skateboarding, really. The constant grind to get new high scores is incredibly addicting. I put in dozens and dozens of hours for this game, and I think I did and unlocked everything. And then I moved on to something else. But this game is still one of my favorites and the time I spent on it will always be something I cherish.

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WiggumFan267
02/27/21 1:37:12 PM
#228:


I changed my mind and switched my 13 and 12 games.

#13. Metroid Prime (Gamecube, 2002)
I love the Metroid games well I love Zero Mission and know Id love Super Metroid. And here we have t the extension of it to 3D, something thatdoes not sound like it should work at all. How can you take this backtracking platformer and make it work for a 3D environment, let alone in First Person? Consider how shit like Castlevania 64 didnt work whatsoever. Yet this plays exactly like a Metroid game in 3D should. The controls and platforming are tight and work great. Being a sort of FPS, while reducing that by being able to lock on enemies-or possibly different parts of enemies, and using your various weapons on that enemy is is a combat system that works great. Just like regular Metroid games, youve got areas you cant get to, beat bosses or do other room puzzles to get more and new weaponry to make you now able to unlock doors, kill enemies, or do puzzles in other rooms. The areas in this game are also nice and distinct- sure theres always a lava/fire world in Metroid games, but in this one for example, it just finally really FEELS like a fire world. And theres actually an Ice World too, amazing. The boss fights are great too, fighting Meta-Ridley in 3D is cool.

The addition of the scanners was good too- sometimes its just to open a door or elevator, but you can use it now too to get enemy detail or even lore, something greatly lacking from these games until now! The Heat visor looks neat too, though not a big fan of the X-Ray visor, as it just doesnt make the game look good and you need it for some areas, but not too often. The object of the game being to collect all the various doodads located in all corners of the world is a good mechanic to keep you exploring deep into areas, and backtracking where needed. Love the map system too in this game. I like how each room has an individual name.



Dont really have too much to say about this game. Its just great. Its Metroid in 3D, and really feels like a natural extension of the series to go in this direction-however, I wouldnt say no to either a new 3D or new 2D Metroid!

Next up: well it was my clue from before so use that

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TheKnightOfNee
02/27/21 3:16:05 PM
#229:


#14. La-Mulana 2 (PC, 2018)





I have kickstarted two games in my life. One was Mighty No. 9. Following the great success of the Mega Man's revival in Mega Man 9, I was eager to make that happen again. And then, uh, well, see... yeah, let's move on. The other kickstarter was for La-Mulana 2. I've also mentioned before how much I enjoyed La-Mulana, and knowing that it came from just a group of three guys, I was excited to help make it happen again. Or even, to get a game anywhere close to La-Mulana.

See, La-Mulana felt like a world crafted with such painstaking care to arrange it properly and make it cryptic enough to be hard, but still possible, I doubted they could actually hit that again. I had concerns that La-Mulana 2 would end up being too cryptic, or that hints might be too obvious and thus too easy, or that the world just might not connect up at all. There was also a long long wait from when I donated to kickstarter, and when La-Mulana 2 released. In that time, Mighty No. 9 came and went, and I had a lot of concerns about a kickstarter project turning out terribly.

I'm sure you can guess from its position on the list that La-Mulana 2 turned out decently well. The gameplay is largely the same as the first game. There are numerous areas to explore in a non-linear way, clues are hidden all over and fairly cryptic, but make sense with some thought. There's items to collect that grant new abilities and open new areas. The areas are new and interesting, and there are a lot of great songs, so that aspect is different. But it's largely the same stuff, and as I said above, I really didn't expect them to meet the same level. It's also a bigger and longer game than the first, so the epic exploration adventure seems even more intense this time around.

Like the gameplay, the The game stars Lumisa, daughter of the first game's protagonist Lemeza. The La-Mulana ruins were destroyed after the first game, but monsters are still coming out for some reason. It's discovered that there is an entrance to a second set of ruins, which Lumisa then goes and explores. The starting village is the same location (although it's a bit more of a tourist trap now) and some characters reappear. The story also works in the previous generations of people again as well. Both on the story and gameplay front, it ends being a lot like La-Mulana, just on a bit bigger of a scale.

It's worth going in to some specific events that helped make this game extra special for me. This game was released shortly after my daughter was born. I was on leave from work for a couple weeks. Now, taking care of a baby is a lot of work, very stressful and tiring, as they need a lot of attention and time, and you're on their sleep schedule. But in those early months, kids also can't go anywhere, and their sleep schedule includes lots of naps. So whenever there was that little bit of downtime for a nap, or because she was on the playmat, I would play La-Mulana 2. And then I'd have to stop to hold and walk around the room, or to change a diaper, or whatever, and I'd sometimes be mulling over these clues and puzzles. Then a nap would start, and I'd jump in to try some things. I think the La-Mulana games are tough to just rush through on a first play, and need some of that thinking time, and it worked out really well in that regard. I also get lots of thoughts back to those infant months when I think about or play La-Mulana 2, and it's a nice association to have.

I also decided with this game not to look up solutions to anything. I wanted to solve every puzzle on my own. A couple hours in, I got hopelessly stuck. So I turned to a strategy I hadn't used in decades, and I pulled out a pen and notebook. I drew maps of every area and diagrams and notes and ideas. I think again, being home more with a kid, I had some extra time at home to really devote myself to this. I went full old school with the game, and it was honestly a great time. There were a lot of a-ha! moments, a lot of struggles, a lot of moments where I felt like a genius. Writing everything out also helped me catch some nice design decisions, things that just added to the feel of the world. I think as a result of when that first play happened, and how I went about it, I'm always going to look a little more favorably on this sequel as compared to the original, even though they are both fantastic games.





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Whiskey_Nick
02/27/21 4:54:26 PM
#230:


THATS MEGA MAN! I see him

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Naye745
02/27/21 5:56:09 PM
#231:


16. Pop'n Music [series] (Arcade, 1998)

Pop'n music is probably one of the weirder rhythm games to have achieved a substantial amount of success. The rest of the series that got started in the first couple years of Bemani's existence had fairly straightforward concepts: DDR (dance simulation), beatmania (DJ simulation), and GuitarFreaks/DrumMania (guitar/drum simulation, of course). Pop'n music, though? A cartoony game with 9 big ol' hamburger-sized buttons to smack in time with music doesn't really attempt to be a simulation of anything we're humanly accustomed to. Despite this, pop'n music ended up being one of the most popular Bemani games (at least for a while), likely because it was so different. Before there were a swath of games devoted to vocaloid idols, pop'n was one of the main games to license popular anime themes and J-Pop tunes, and it put them in a colorful and attractive package for the folks who might've been a little more intimdated by something like beatmania.
Of course, pop'n itself is a deceivingly difficult game - at it's highest levels, it's on par with the most difficult rhythm games out there. Both reading the patterns of nine buttons on the screen, and handling the movement along the large controller, is a lot to handle.

The game's unique controller, though, makes the experience extra-satisfying. Smacking the large buttons around when you're racking up a big combo feels extremely good; it's one of my favorite tactile things in all of rhythm gaming.
Pop'n's other "thing" is its vast array of wildly different music. Outside of the aforementioned anime and J-Pop covers, pop'n has a ton of distinct tunes, all (up until pop'n 21, at least) labelled with a unique genre, starting with actual things (J-POP, TRANCE, LATIN), and quickly devolving into absolute nonsense (COWBOY? HYPER JAPANESQUE 2? DRM'N FRY??? SET'S BEAN?!??). Each song comes with its own unique character (okay, some are reused or recolored in later games, but still!) that has animations for winning, losing, reaching a full life bar. And it's all rendered in the very distinct pop'n music art style (that would basically have fans losing their minds after it was changed to a more anime-like style in pop'n 22 - so much that it's basically been completely reversed by this point, and that was like 5 years ago.) that is endlessly endearing and charming. The whole game, really, is just so lovely and compelling as a package, and it's a testament to how damn good the early Bemani stuff is that series as distinct as DDR, beatmania, and pop'n all got such a thorough level of attention to their aesthetic, theme, and structure, to make them into something iconic, and not just set dressing. Also, shoutouts to Koujirou, my absolute favorite pop'n character, the best birb of all time, who I will absolutely sift through the character select screen of every new release to find and choose.

My experience with the game was largely confined to a handful of plays at anime conventions and comparable events before a friend of mine picked up a full arcade cabinet around...2014 or 2015? The machine was a little old but still in good condition, and running pop'n music 16 PARTY (I didn't intentionally do this, but I'm glad this entry turned out to be #16 on the list for that reason, heh.) which he later upgraded into the most recent version, Sunny Park. (pop'n 21 - yes, every Bemani game must have an absurd name/subtitle now.) At that point I dove headfirst into the game and found myself continually surprised by the depth of gameplay, the satisfying variety of music, and the ever-present drive to get to the next level. I always find that feeling to sort of "top out" in rhythm games (I'm not obsessive enough in a certain way to care about being one of the best players in the world or anything), but I managed to get up to clearing quite a few level 46 songs (difficulty ranges from 1-50) before I just kind of moved onto other stuff. (I hadn't even totally plateaued at that point!) And per usual, sifting through this writeup made me immediately want to play the game a whole heck of a bunch.
I don't have a ton else to say - pop'n is a good rhythm game, and a cute rhythm game, and I like both of those things - so I'm just gonna throw a big wall of songs that I either love or that have super memorable charts.
Favorite song picks:
So good!! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdz9NaHyaE
[STAR HERO] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyN0-R9wAQE
Be Happy! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul1DiBVXuyc
Goofy charts/songs:
[Set's Bean] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xrBDCG3XWg
[Drm'n Fry] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RxNvlfbA7U
Favorite tunes:
7 Colors - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs1J3ouZXhM
Illumina - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95OFD0421ZA
[PATHETIC SKA] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4bR56jZiCY
the keel (Nu-Style Gabba mix) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL-dol-0KMU

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TheKnightOfNee
02/28/21 11:21:49 AM
#232:


#13. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, 1992)



This was the first Zelda game I played, and this has always felt like what Zelda should be. I missed out on the NES games when they were still new, but when I got my SNES, it was the Link to the Past bundle. I wasn't overly excited for this game or anything, but it was the included game with my new system, so of course I played it.

So, LTTP came with this Top Secrets guide in the box, and it gave various hints about dungeons in the game. It was probably a great idea, because there are a lot of places kids probably would get stuck in this game. Anyways, I was at school, telling kids I had this game now, and some kid told me it was a hard game or something, and I said, It's okay, the game came with this page of hints to help me through the tough puzzles. And then one of my friends said, Oh that thing? I just threw that away. I didn't need it. So when I got home, I threw the Top Secrets hint page away, because I was gonna get through the game without it too!

I probably could've used those hints, because I know it took me quite a while to get through the game. I think I ended up asking other kids for hints anyways down the line. I also drew up maps of dungeons with notes for treasures. But maybe all this extra struggling immersed me more in the Zelda experience, and is why I have such fond memories for the game.

Once I was able to beat Link to the Past, I ended up playing through it a lot. It has a lot of common elements with games I really like: It's well paced from start to finish; There are quick movement options, from the pegasus boots to the whirlpools to the flute; There are secrets to be found everywhere to reward exploring, some with important items, some with helpful items, and some with just unique characters or experiences. Also, the game still holds challenge even when you know what you're doing. Mothula is a special kind of jerk, for example. The game can be played trying to collect everything, trying for as little as possible, trying to take some weird out of order route, whatever. It's a game you can play in numerous ways to get many experiences out of just one product.

One summer, being really into some strategy guides I had received for games, I decided to make my own strategy guides for a couple games, which included Link to the Past. I drew maps of the overworld, the dungeons, labeled all the treasures and secrets, wrote step by step instructions for each area, made boss strategies. It was a pretty detailed project. It's long since gone now, but for the years I did have it, I was pretty proud of my work.

After Ocarina of Time, I had played the five main Zelda games up to that point. Even though OoT borrowed a lot of its structure and flow from LTTP, it just felt less fun in a lot of ways, and I didn't feel like 3D was the direction I wanted Zelda to go. I ended up not playing a single new Zelda game until A Link Between Worlds came out. The strong relation to LTTP was what finally got me to give the series another go. It was a fun game with a lot of nostalgia for LTTP, but once again, I found it hard not to compare and consider how much more I liked LTTP than the other game. And I'm okay with this. I've come back to the SNES classic a hundred times, and have always found enjoyment here, and probably always will.



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Bartzyx
02/28/21 3:08:20 PM
#233:


Still have 48 more games to go until everyone gets to the top 10! We can do it.

#1 Super Mario Odyssey: 1582 (=)
#2 Super Smash Bros. Melee: 1168 (+2)
#3 Borderlands 2: 1043 (+13)
#4 Mario Kart 8: 913 (-2)
#5 Pokemon RBY: 903 (-2)
#5 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: 903 (+23)
#7 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: 877 (+19)
#8 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: 845 (-3)
#9 Super Mario 3D World: 839 (-3)
#10 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: 834 (-3)
#11 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: 811 (-3)
#12 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End: 793 (+19)
#13 Final Fantasy X: 786 (+40)
#14 Final Fantasy Tactics: 772 (+43)
#15 Chrono Trigger: 769 (-6)
#16 The Last of Us: 760 (+446)
#17 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2: 741 (+56)
#18 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: 735 (+49)
#19 Kirby Super Star Ultra: 724 (-9)
#20 Final Fantasy VI: 713 (-9)
#21 Virtue's Last Reward: 698 (-9)
#22 Yoshi's Island: 690 (+29)
#23 Super Mario 64: 688 (+40)
#24 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice: 674 (-11)
#25 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations: 649 (-11)
#26 Rock Band 2: 647 (-11)
#27 Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal: 600 (+131)
#28 Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3: 594 (-11)
#29 Jackbox Party Pack: 580 (-11)
#30 Elite Beat Agents: 577 (-11)
#31 Bioshock: 575 (-11)
#32 Valkyria Chronicles: 567 (-11)
#33 Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising: 550 (-11)
#34 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: 547 (-11)
#35 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: 546 (+211)
#36 Chrono Cross: 541 (-12)
#37 Dance Dance Revolution: 540 (-12)
#38 Metroid: Zero Mission: 530 (+186)
#39 Mario Party 2: 527 (-12)
#40 Mega Man X: 519 (-12)
#41 Metroid Prime: 512 (+250)
#42 Portal 2: 510 (+37)
#43 Earthbound: 497 (-13)
#44 RollerCoaster Tycoon: 497 (+135)
#45 Sonic Adventure 2: 483 (+244)
#46 Mega Man 9: 480 (+247)
#47 Banjo-Kazooie: 479 (-15)
#48 Super Mario RPG: 467 (+383)
#49 Final Fantasy IV: 466 (-16)
#49 Metroid Fusion: 466 (-16)
#51 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: 462 (-16)
#52 Horizon Zero Dawn: 458 (-16)
#53 Super Monkey Ball 2: 457 (-16)
#54 Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception: 456 (-16)
#54 Diddy Kong Racing: 456 (-16)
#56 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: 455 (-16)
#57 SSX 3: 454 (+351)
#58 Super Mario World: 444 (-17)
#59 Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: 443 (-17)
#59 Pokemon GSC: 443 (-17)
#61 Final Fantasy VII Remake: 442 (-17)
#62 Mario Tennis: 441 (-17)
#63 Advance Wars: Dual Strike: 435 (-17)
#63 Castlevania III: 435 (-17)
#65 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: 431 (-17)
#66 Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland: 426 (-17)
#67 Pop'n Music: 425 (+368)
#68 Super Mario Bros.: 419 (-18)
#69 Star Fox 64: 409 (+509)
#70 Fallout 3: 408 (-18)
#70 Radiant Historia: 408 (+514)
#72 Mario Golf (N64): 403 (-18)
#73 Mega Man 3: 398 (-18)
#74 Super Castlevania IV: 395 (+421)
#75 Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: 392 (-19)
#76 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: 390 (-18)
#76 Mass Effect 2: 390 (NEW)
#76 Muv-Luv Alternative: 390 (NEW)
#79 Portal: 385 (+105)
#80 Dissidia: Final Fantasy: 380 (-21)
#80 Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor: 380 (NEW)
#80 Gemfire: 380 (NEW)
#83 Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time: 372 (-23)
#84 Super Mario Kart: 370 (-23)
#84 Sengoku Basara 3: 370 (NEW)
#84 SimCity 2000: 370 (NEW)
#84 La-Mulana 2: 370 (NEW)

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At least your mother tipped well
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Arti
02/28/21 4:54:15 PM
#234:


#11 - Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360, 2008)

Back on the GameCube I played through my first Tales game, Symphonia, and found it to be a very good game at the time I played it. And while the translation for GBA Phantasia was somewhat questionable, I still enjoyed the gameplay of that one as well.

Fast forward to 2008. The PS3 had barely any games to speak of at the time, and the 360 was collecting a good amount of jRPGs at the time that I was somewhat interested in, including this one. (This one would be the only 360 exclusive jRPG that I would actually play on the 360, though.) I got a 360 for Christmas at some point and this was the game I played the most on it, and is still the Tales game I think is the best.

Vesperia's main character is Yuri Lowell and he is one of the best jRPG protagonists around (and the Tales character polls show that Japan agrees, as they had to take him out just to give other characters a chance), as he's very different from the usual Tales protagonists who do nothing besides talk about friendship for 80 hours or so. Yuri is a true chaotic good protagonist and has mostly unique or altered artes, while his friend Flynn has most of the basic ones such as Demon Fang and Sword Rain - and he acts like you would expect a Tales main character to be. Following Yuri throughout the game is a much better Tales experience overall, and though the party isn't really the kind of friendship you would expect in a jRPG, they play off of each other very well. This is also one of the first Tales game to have voice acting in the skits as well as the cutscenes, which adds to the game a lot as well.

The game's story does kind of drag on a bit - I think it would have been much better overall to have it end at the end of part 2 rather than adding a whole new chapter to the game - especially since practically the whole map had already been explored by that time. The gameplay is not as good as some of the Tales games I've played since Vesperia, as I've noted in my writeups for both Graces f and Xillia, but it's still solid enough to hold up today, unlike Symphonia which I really can't go back to after playing some of the later titles.

I haven't played the remastered version that came out more recently, and I feel without Troy Baker voicing Yuri the whole way through and adding Patty to the party will just ruin my enjoyment of how great I felt this game was overall. I will eventually, though finding time to fit another 100 hour RPG is definitely more difficult these days than back when I was in college instead. Still, my memories of playing this through my first year of college definitely place this game all the way up at #11.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!
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TheKnightOfNee
02/28/21 8:18:32 PM
#235:


#12. Mother 3 (GBA, 2006)



Like many other people, I didn't play Earthbound when it first came out, but many years later. I finally played it around 2005-ish. I appreciated the humor, the quirks, the music, and many big chunks of it, but overall, Earthbound was... decent. The pacing of the game was all over, with some segments way longer than needed, and some stretches not so fun.

When I heard about Mother 3, I was a little interested to at least try it and see if it was better than the previous game. And then there was the eternal wait. Finally, the fan translation happened. I was familiar with fan translations from a few games, like Cave Story and La-Mulana, which appeared earlier on my list. Reading the updates from the people working on the translation actually made me a lot more excited for this game, so I ended up playing it from day 1 of that patch.

Mother 3 is broken into chapters, which I think really helped the pacing feel for how they wanted to tell the story. The first few chapters all focus on different characters, as sort of a prologue to the main adventure, and allow time to lay several different strands of story. The first chapter comes in strong with all the goofy and weird things you'd expect, but then it just hits with such a blast of emotion too. It really sets the tone for how this game wants to be goofier, but also tell a very touching and engaging story. The later chapters pull together to one larger story involving all the characters. There are also ties to Earthbound that happen later on, so it really helped that I had played that before to fully appreciate what was happening here.

For the battle system, Mother 3 brought back the best thing about Earthbound, the rolling HP counter, but also added a fantastic new feature. You can tap along with the rhythm of the battle song to turn a single attack into a combo, up to as many as 16 hits. Some battles have a simple beat and let you rack up the hits, but boss battles can pull out all the stops weird syncopation, odd time signatures or changing tempos. As someone who played tons of rhythm games and loves that genre, the merge here was entirely up my alley. Trying to score 16 combos in every battle, or even in every attack was exciting, along with listening to the variety of songs and styles, which Mother 3 certainly has plenty of.

I loved Mother 3 so much that I went and bought a copy of the strategy guide that Fangamer put out (Pork Army Survival Manual), even though I didn't really need it after playing the game. I just wanted more of this game, and it was a fun book that was a great companion to go with the game experience.



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WiggumFan267
02/28/21 11:36:39 PM
#236:


#12. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (& Knuckles) (Sega Genesis, 1992)
Let me set the record straight here. The Genesis Sonic games never have been games about going fast. Sure there are some segments where you do that, and if you get good at the levels ,you can do them even faster and more swiftly. But the point isnt plowing through a level willy-nilly not worrying about obstacles and shit. If thats more your bag the more recent 3D games like Unleashed or Generations is probably more yourspeed. No, the 2D Genesis Sonic games are about some speed, but platforming, Multiple paths, collecting rings to get to special stages, jumping OR ROLLING through enemies, and precision jumping. So when you people start crying because you have to stop and slow down in water sections, or have to climb staircases while some purple ooze rises on you- THIS is the essence of Sonic. And its fantastically designed platforming the way it should be.



Its going to be a little difficult for me to talk about this game without talking about some other Sonic games, but Ill see what I can do here. As Ive said multiple times in my writeups for some games, and the bit ofSonic Ive discussed so far-multiple pathing in games is my jam. It makes each time you play a pretty different experience, but each path is well-designed unlike something procedurally-generated where you may get a unique experience each time but who knows if its well-designed? The controls and feel of all Sonic games have always been top tier. Here is no exception. The game looks absolutely fantastic. The balance of blazing thru levels vs stopping to consider how to tackle an enemy or path, vs making some split-second decisions on when you get launched through the air, which way to go. For me, for every Sonic game, its a seamless experience of going through a level the way YOU want to do it. Yes, sometimes there will be obstacles. You gotta deal with them. You have to avoid the spikes, jump on the tiny moving platforms, use the flippers to launch you through the air, take a flying leap and bounce off some enemies, move tensely and quickly enough through the water to get a bubble while THAT music is playing, avoid getting crushed by pillars, or take on a robot version of yourself followed by a giant mech with no rings. Start to end, fantastic platforming.



The game does have some minor shortcomings for me that make it not quite top 10. Sorry for spoilers here for one, but it pales in comparison for me to some other Sonic games and that keeps it back a bit. You have Miles TAILS Prower, but he cant fly except for show. Youre urged to get all the Chaos Emeralds, but you come out of the checkpoints with 0 rings (hello checkpoint at the end of Mystic Cave 2 that you cant go back and get rings from and the boss is right after). The special stages themselves are kinda bullshit with CPU Tails-he will lose all your rings. And, while the music in this game is obviously great, the music DESIGN and sound mixing/design has always been a bit lacking for me. I think most of the song tracks have a bit of a tinny quality to it- like it was recorded inside a can, and the sound effects, like Sonic jumping, sound like they have had their volume artificially turned up so it kind of sounds a bit unnatural. Sky Chase is the worst level in a Sonic game. Some of the bosses kind of suck and arent fun to fight like Aquatic Ruins or Casino Nights. These are all very minor complaints that dont really hurt at all what I think of an amazing game, but like I said maybe make it stand out a bit less. In theory, this is a top 5 game for me, but I did want to pay some other games I love their proper respect so this winds up here. Anyway back to more things I love about this game.



Despite what I just said, the music is still great- Mystic Cave always spooked me in a good way (also love the death pit), Chemical Plant and the boss theme are iconic as fuck, and Oil Ocean is rad. Love hopping across the oil too and doing the slides. Air Fortress is great in general. I love Metropolis throws a random Act 3 at you (and for the record, I love how much of a troll that stage is, with the most hilariously annoying enemies in Sonic games- the mantises, crabs, and exploding starfish). Fighting Silver Sonic (NOT METAL SONIC scrubs) as Robotnik peeks in through his little window. And an actually really solid 2 player race mode, with a bit of a gambling mindset to it, with the ? item boxes that can possibly swap spots with your opponent. And of course, the introduction of the spindash, always has felt perfect.





Next Up: I wish I had never played this game, so I could play it for the first time again.

Sonic 2 stage ranks:
Metropolis > Oil Ocean > Chemical Plant > Casino Night > Wing Fortress > Mystic Cave > Aquatic Ruin > Hill Top > Emerald Hill > Death Egg > Sky Chase

Music Ranks:
Metropolis > Chemical Plant > Aquatic Ruin > Oil Ocean > Mystic Cave > Casino Night > Sky Chase > Emerald Hill > Wing Fortress > Death Egg > Hill Top

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Naye745
03/01/21 12:53:20 AM
#237:


15. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB, 1993)

Link's Awakening is one of my favorite games in a series that I have all sorts of varying feelings about. I don't pretend that Zelda is one of my favorite series; there are some games I absolutely hate, there are plenty I found fine but forgettable, and I still haven't played some of its biggest entries. (I'll get around to Breath of the Wild some day...) My "favorite" changes depending on what I'm in the mood for, and what strikes my fancy (at least, among a few that I really like), but Link's Awakening always manages to end up in that conversation, which still manages to impress me for an original-release Game Boy game (and one that doesn't even have Zelda in it at all).
What always impresses me about Link's Awakening is just how much better it is at being a Zelda game than most of its contemporary Game Boy games were at pulling off versions of their series. Metroid 2 is a decent game but really struggles to perform on the hardware, and both Super Mario Lands (especially the original) weren't really up to the standard of the NES Marios. But Link's Awakening, on the first try, nails both what makes Zelda great AND how to handle (and maximize) the Game Boy system itself. Going back to the single-screen rooms and map squares of Zelda 1, but retaining the comprehensive story and world-building of A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening loses very little relative to its console counterparts.
Because it's a Game Boy game, it definitely has to get creative to maximize the amount of stuff in game, but it does a pretty solid job: there's eight full dungeons that don't feel like they had to cheapen their difficulty or limit their size to be fully realized. There's a handful of unique mini-games that were expanded upon in the Switch remake, but still feel good on the Game Boy. You've got a pretty robust set of items and collectibles that may be a little short of A Link to the Past but feels close enough. Plus, there's a lot of unique things that make it stand out, too: its main item, Roc's Feather, which lets you jump around like Mario, but in a Zelda game; a pet dog you get to follow you and gobble up baddies (but only for a brief time); an in-game store that you could actually swipe items from (as long as you don't mind being called a THIEF). Gameplay never feels like it's too much of a struggle, even with the Game Boy's limitations, because the designers structured the game around those limitations, and gave the player enough options and space to handle what's going on.
But look, there's one real reason why Link's Awakening is here, and while all of the above stuff is relevant, it's all about the story. Sincerely, I think Link's Awakening, a cute, relatively short, black-and-white-dot-matrix-Game Boy game, has the best story of any video game I've ever played. It's not the deepest or the most complicated, but it's extraordinarily moving; I have failed to play through Link's Awakening without being brought to tears at one or more points during the game. I think there's something absolutely brilliant about the way that the game's designers made the story so intimate and personal - swapping the epic grandeur of the console games for a quaint little island - for a game that most players would be playing in the palm of their hands. For those not familiar, here's the summary: Link gets caught in a big ol' thunderstorm, his ramshackle raft capsizes, and he ends up washing ashore on a mysterious island where everything is not as it seems. From there, you encounter all sorts of charming characters, notable among them Marin, the girl who finds you washed up on the beach. From there, you're doing all sorts of fun Zelda stuff, beating up monsters and solving puzzles in dungeons, to collect a series of musical instruments in order to wake the Wind Fish. See, the monsters haven't always been here, but have been showing up recently, and apparently waking up said fish (who resides in a big ol' Yoshi egg at the top of a mountain, of course) will solve that problem.
(BIG OL' UGLY SPOILER BARS incoming:)
What unfolds from here basically flips the conventions and expectations of the series: you're actually stuck in a dream - one that is somehow shared with the Wind Fish itself - and the farther you progress the game toward the ending means you're pushing ahead the demise of the dreamland's residents, who you've grown closer to over the course of the game. So instead of pursuing the game's end via some noble resolve to vanquish evil (okay, there's some of that), you're actively confronting the melancholy and bittersweet nature of having to end something that you don't want to end. It's simple, it's sweet, and it's magical - as I said earlier, that it managed to be pulled off by a Game Boy game, of all things, maybe makes it even a little more special.
And for possibly all of this, it's why this is always a tough one to rank for me - gameplay-wise, it's very good, but I'd have a hard time saying it's any better than A Link Between Worlds, something I placed almost 50 spots below. But it call comes together amazingly; it's just such an exceptional experience whenever I pull this one out for the second, third, fifth, tenth playthrough, that I still feel like I'm shortchanging it by putting it only in 15th. Anyway, basically every game left on my lists is an absolute all-timer; it's probably why I've had such a miserable time trying to write everything from here out without feeling like I've missed something important. Only three more to go (since I skipped to do 3DW) to the top 10!

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Eddv
03/01/21 1:47:37 AM
#238:


11) Final Fantasy X (PS2, 2001)




"Listen to my story. This may be our last chance"

The cinematic style of video games was still in its infancy when Final Fantasy X came out but square immediately had a very strong grasp on how to use that style to great effect. Instantly, that stinger grabs your attention. To Xanarkand plays in the background, somber and moody and Tidus tone betrays that this story is a tragedy.

This is immediately juxtaposed by Tidus's happy go lucky attitude and the action of the first blitzball scene and the first scene with Sin. Mix in Auron's introduction and everything else and you've all but forgotten that opening until Tidus narration checks back in and his tone is still the same somber tone as it began with.

The handling of Yuna and Tidus is the only actually well told love story in the entire franchise but the whole cast, small as it is, gets to shine and play their role. Each one holds the key to unveiling some other part of the setting - and the setting itself is probably the most major character. Having Tidus slowly learn the secrets (and not-so-secrets) of Spira and his emotional reaction to them is just incredible stuff. Toss in a handful of memorable recurring NPCs and stories that interweave with Tidus' and it's just an incredibly well told story and game.

Toss in some legitimately clever mechanics with the dynamic party swapping and initiative systems and realize FFX sent JRPGs barreling into the future.

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Naye745
03/01/21 4:21:34 AM
#239:


14. Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA, 2004)

It's the game on this list I've beaten more than any other, the expansive remake and reimagining of the original Metroid. Zero Mission has to be one of the most breezy and enjoyable games to play through - basically every time I go through it, I just want to start over and go again. For a game that's only gonna be 5 to 10 hours tops on your first playthrough, that's almost a necessity, but like I said, I've gone through it a multitude of times (I want to say at least 40-50), so it's well worth its value.
Zero Mission really isn't reinventing the wheel as far as a Metroid game goes - it uses roughly the same controls as Fusion, which are a streamlined version of Super Metroid's - but instead of pivoting in a different direction like Fusion, it safely steers into standard conventions. Zero Mission's got the usual array of powerups, bosses, and moves - wall jumps, bomb jumps, and shinesparks are all included, and they're easier to pull off than ever. And sequence breaking is not only somewhat encouraged here, it's actively built into the design in a lot of places to skip big items or segments of the game on replays. As a remake of Metroid 1, you've got pretty standard boss fights - there's a couple of alien baddies added here and there, but mostly you've got souped up versions of Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain.
Of course, I'm burying the lede a bit - the game turns significantly after you reach the Metroid 1 ending (blow up Mother Brain and escape the planet). There's a lengthy stealth section where you infiltrate the Space Pirate base in the now-iconic blue zero suit, regaining your suit and all your powers, and take down the true final boss. It's certainly very distinct and a jarring departure from everything up until that point. I do enjoy it, and though it's probably my least favorite section of the game, I do appreciate the attempt to try something different with the remake and its structure. And hey, it's only a short segment before you're back to rolling in a ball and blasting away enemies with beams and missiles and collecting power-ups and such.
The game's difficulty is pretty friendly, but it has a built-in time attack mode which keeps your best records for both any% and 100%. (This was before most of us even knew what a speedrun was!) There's also unlockable "endings" with unique pictures for a bunch of conditions; you can beat the game with as low as 9% of items, and doing so with 15% of less on both normal and hard mode gets you a unique picture. The difficulty is definitely there if you're looking for it; on my last playthroughs a year ago, I went through all the different picture-unlocking categories, and 15% hard was absolutely brutal.
But that's really it - unlike Link's Awakening, which was so heavily about the intangibles and the power of its story and themes, Zero Mission is just an incredibly satisfying and pleasant game to run through. It's got a really solid soundtrack, of course, and nails the Metroid atmosphere totally well (I still adore the game's cute reference at the end credits), but it's up here this high because it's a game I never get sick of playing through. The aforementioned runs I did last year - I think I did 9 relatively casual completions of the game in all its different difficulties and completion states - happened in the span of just over a week. There was a point when I had broken this out after a while, where I would wake up and literally beat the game in a couple hours before going to work. I can't think of any game, even the ones ahead on the list, that has brought me that kind of addictive start-to-finish playability, and Zero Mission is always going to feel a certain kind of special just because of that.

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TheKnightOfNee
03/01/21 4:50:13 AM
#240:


#11. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES, 1996)



The first RPG I ever played was Dragon Warrior on the NES. It was kind of fun at the time, but then I went back years later, and it definitely felt dated, even though I had no other RPG experience to compare it to. The second RPG I played was Final Fantasy Legend 2, which I borrowed from someone for a bit. That didn't exactly feel groundbreaking either. When Mario RPG came out, I put it on my birthday list, but very apprehensively. It was a Mario game, so I surely needed to give it a try, because every Mario game had been great. It also had those cool 3D-ish graphics that Donkey Kong Country used. But it seemed darker in tone, especially on the boxart. And I think I liked RPGs, but I wasn't sure how much I really did?

Super Mario RPG ends up merging that colorful, exciting, fun adventure feel of Super Mario games with an interesting story, world, and battle system that you would hope to find in an RPG. Area maps are more than just wandering until you find battles, as some try to straight up mimic Mario levels. They have enemies to avoid, hidden treasures in the air, moving blocks to jump on, and pipes to go down. Battles opted for a selection of A/B/X/Y options that are clearly visible, instead of bogging down fights in menus. They also have timed hits, which make every battle interesting to some degree. I also like that weapons all have different animations and timings, and spells have different inputs even (rotating d pad, holding a button, etc.).

Mario RPG also has loads of mini-games and side events to keep things fresh. Music composing, barrel jumping, paratroopa climbing, mine cart riding, Yoshi racing, ghost flag hunting, statue polishing, wedding accessory gathering, a casino; There are loads of things to do, and many of the dungeons have interesting ways to go about them and make each one special from the rest.

Many classic Mario characters and enemies appear, some fleshed out way more than ever before. Bowser is an especially big one, as he grapples with wanting to hate Mario, but needing to work towards a common cause. Toad and Princess Peach fit right in to what you'd expect, but also add more to those characters.

But Mario RPG also has a whole cast of new characters, and they felt very memorable to me. Geno was obviously a huge new one that stuck with a lot of people, as his high demand to appear in Smash Bros would indicate. I thought he had super cool style as a kid, and liked how they explained him coming in as an outsider to the Mario world. Mallow's a little goofy but fun. Croco and Johnny and Valentina and the Axem Rangers and others all make for really interesting villains along the way. Mario also uses its wide variety of designs to help make NPCs unique and memorable, and less about just filling in info for the character. Like the trio of Snifits could be anything, but being Snifits helps make them so memorable. Oh, and then there's Booster

Humor and charm is another area Mario RPG shines. There's lots of sarcasm and off-hand comments. Some fun things include Frogfucious using a lakitu to appear as if he flies, Mario's weird acting segments, the strange folks in Seaside Town, Garro's statue description, the dreams from the Dream Cushion, the Star Hill wishes, and going into debt at the Marrymore suite. Booster's Tower and the Snifits is a huge source of fun moments, with the curtain game playing so well. The wedding/cake segment might be tops though. It's just like a rapidfire series of wacky moments. The thought of boiling a cake or eating it whole is still funny to me.

Mario RPG is also not a long RPG, but it does a lot of things. It fit well in that measurement of pacing that I've described in other writeups, if it can be measured. When I was younger, I could beat the game from start to finish over a weekend. I love how quick I can get from fun moment to fun moment.

Also, much like with Zelda: Link to the Past, I spent a bunch of my free time making a whole personal strategy guide for this game. I drew maps (which was a bit of work, being isometric view) for the whole game, tried to include every secret (though I know I was unaware of the casino entrance at the time), wrote up step-by-step instructions, and enemy names with best guesses at HP. I was pretty into this game too. I've tried some other Mario RPG games since this, and none of them close to capturing all the high feelings I got here. Maybe in some ways, but it's hard to check all the boxes and do it as successfully as Super Mario RPG did.

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ONLY FIVE CAN LADDER.
Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nippon-ichi...
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TheKnightOfNee
03/01/21 4:53:29 AM
#241:


And that leaves me with just 10 games to go! Quick recap post! What will the remaining 10 be?!

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 (2014)
90. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
89. Kamui
88. Gain Ground
87. Resident Evil (2002 REmake)
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

80. Rez
79. Punch-Out!!
78. G-Darius
77. Pop'n Music (series)
76. Shovel Knight
75. Thunder Force V
74. Final Fantasy Tactics
73. Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late
72. VA-11 Hall-A
71. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
70. Spelunky 2
69. The Legend of Zelda
68. Brave Fencer Musashi
67. Lumines
66. Final Fantasy VII
65. Metroid Fusion
64. The Witness
63. Street Fighter V
62. Hotline Miami
61. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

60. F-Zero GX
59. Undertale
58. Everybody's Golf
57. Tecmo Super Bowl
56. Donkey Kong (1994)
55. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
54. Mega Man X
53. Super Smash Bros. Melee
52. The World Ends With You
51. Metroid Prime
50. Windjammers
49. VVVVVV
48. Samurai Shodown (2019)
47. Groove Coaster
46. Space Invaders Extreme
45. Shinobi 3
44. Mega Man 3
43. Mega Man X4
42. Street Fighter 2
41. Deadly Premonition

40. Cave Story
39. Bioshock
38. We Love Katamari
37. Chrono Trigger
36. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
35. Silent Hill 2
34. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
33. Steins;Gate
32. Wild Arms 3
31. Dragon Quest V
30. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
29. Sleeping Dogs
28. Dance Dance Revolution (series)
27. Cuphead
26. Ys 1
25. La-Mulana
24. Final Fantasy V
23. Guilty Gear Xrd
22. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
21. Elevator Action Returns

20. Silent Hill
19. Eastside Hockey Manager
18. Super Castlevania IV
17. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue
16. Mega Man 9
15. Persona 4 Arena
14. La-Mulana 2
13. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
12. Mother 3
11. Super Mario RPG

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Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nippon-ichi...
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Naye745
03/01/21 8:56:16 PM
#242:


13. Pokmon Puzzle League (N64, 2000)

I've teased a "favorite puzzle game" in a few prior writeups, and here it is. In Puzzle League, or Tetris Attack, or Panel de Pon, or whichever incarnation of this game, you're attempting to line up three (or more) or the same icon in a row, vertically or horizontally, to clear blocks off of the screen. Doing so will send some amount of garbage to the top of your opponent's screen. Cleared space will cause the blocks above it to drop, potentially creating more lined up icons, resulting in a big chain of cleared blocks if you're either clever enough to set it up in advance or quick enough to react to what's about to fall. Your cursor is only limited to swapping two blocks horizontally adjacent to each other, so there's a bit of a learning curve in what kind of options are possible, but it's still quite easy to pick up.
While games like Tetris and Dr. Mario are largely built on single-player endless play, with multiplayer modes kind of built up around the existing structure, Panel de Pon feels truly designed for head-to-head versus matches. At any point, you can manually rise another row of blocks from the bottom; also, any garbage blocks you receive will turn into normal single-square icons once you clear anything touching them. This means that you can, and will, have a giant wall of blocks across your screen at some point in a versus match, and unlike Tetris, having an ugly stack near the top is not a death sentence. The game's built to engage in a back-and-forth war of attrition until one player makes a crucial mistake or is overwhelmed. While it absolutely helps to be able to make big chains and combos, a scrappy player can go a long way by just moving quickly and keeping themselves alive. I feel like the dynamic of the game - both balancing big-scoring moves and short-term threats - is like a very basic fighting game, but of course with the charm and inherent challenge of being a puzzle game.
Pokmon Puzzle League is probably the best version; at least, it's the one most easily suited to multiplayer play. There's a unique 3D mode where your 6x12 grid becomes an 18x12 cylinder, which never showed up in any of the later GBA or DS ports. There's a whole host of modes - endless mode for practice; puzzle mode to solve fixed challenges in a set number of moves; story mode to face off against cpu opponents; and line clear mode to race to clear out a section of blocks as fast as possible. The game's theming itself is a weird one too, as it's based solely on the Pokmon anime, and was first released in North America, featuring songs from the U.S.-produced 2.B.A. Master soundtrack rendered in MIDI form. It also has a boatload of memorable sound clips from the playable trainers/Pokmon themselves. (Good battle! When you're hot, you're hot! Aww, poor baby!)
But man, it's all about that core gameplay. Wigs and I had a bunch of close matches against each other at Magfest one year. I have a friend who always plays me very close when we break this (or Tetris Attack) out. When the Switch Online release of the original Panel de Pon came out last year, I was playing it daily for months. There's something about puzzle games that when they click, and you're playing just right, nothing in the world feels quite like it. (Honestly, it's kind of comparable to nailing a song in a rhythm game, but I digress...) If Nintendo ever gets around to bringing over a new version, or maybe (now I'm dreaming) in a PuyoPuyo Tetris-style compilation, it'd be an instant day 1 purchase without a doubt. For now, this N64 gem will have to stand as the definitive version of the best puzzle game ever made.

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it's an underwater adventure ride
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WiggumFan267
03/01/21 10:46:04 PM
#243:


#11. Return of the Obra Dinn (PC, 2018)
Company man woke me up. Said youd need ferry to the Obra Dinn.

You all really should, if youre into puzzle/mystery games at all, play this. This is one of the best Ive ever played. Ill mostly stick to how its played. There will be no spoilers here, but a lot of what I love about this game comes in the way you figure things out, and Im not gonna go into specifics there, not to mention some of the story reveals. IF YOU PLAN ON PLAYING THIS PLEASE DO NOT LOOK UP ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Beyond what I wrote here, and MSG in his.

I adore so much about this game. Its sort of a whodunnit, but not quite. If you enjoyed doing those sort of logic-based X/O grid puzzles (ie, Sandy, whose favorite color is not blue, finished ahead of Mr Roberts but before the pet foxs owner in the footrace and then you mark off everything with an X they cant be in a grid those puzzles), this game will be directly up your alley. And even if not, the way you solve stuff in this game, the way you explore the story, and the mechanics of how youre verified in how youre doing are brilliant.

The basic premise is you are an insurance claims adjuster in the 1800s (I know but this game is legitimately engaging and fascinating) checking out an old ship, the Obra Dinn, thats mysteriously shown up that had previously thought to be lost, and all the crew and passengers have vanished. Armed with a logbook that contains a drawing of everyone on board, a separate list of each name and their job/status, some basic ship info, and a bunch of blank pages- your job is to determine for each person on board, who they were (Ie, match a face to a name) and their fate. So you may have to say This is John Doe. He was shot by Greg Smith. Or This is Jane Doe, Johns sister. She fell overboard. How are you supposed to do this? Well, you have been equipped with a magic stopwatch. When you find someones remains, or something else representative of such, you can use the stopwatch and you are presented the 30 seconds or so of audio/dialogue leading up to their demise punctuated by the still moment in time in which that person perished (accompanied excellently by the soundtrack. Even if you dont like the music in this game, which I do, the way the music is used against these moments is phenomenal). And since its a still moment, you are usually presented with some awesome still frame of a death moment. Here, you can walk around and examine for any clues or whatever might help you.



I guess I need to mention the graphics at this point. There is (almost) NO animation at all in this game, with the dioramas being the main focus. Its old Vector DOS dithering-style graphics really make this feel like one of those ancient PC games, but it works perfectly well for the diorama style settings you explore, and it makes stuff looks really awesome in it. The whole way these death scenes are presented with the music and such are incredible. The voice acting is top-notch as well.

Anyway, it will not always be simple, because not everyone is going to be like Hey its me! Greg Smith! Prepare to die, John Doe! *BLAM*. You have to use the full powers of your deduction to determine these fates and most of the time, youre not going to be able to tell from just the one scene you saw. You might to have to use stuff you found out from other scenes to help you in this scene, maybe some process of elimination, maybe some other stuff. As you view scenes, they fill in in your book, and begin to tell the story of what happened, though you may not have a full understanding unless you solve everyones fates. Part of what makes this cool too, is the story starts at the end (the first few scenes fill out the last chapter) and from there, it becomes less linear and the story fills out in the order you explore it in.



In order to avoid complete guessing, your completed fates are verified in groups of 3. So once you completely fill out 3 different peoples complete fates, if you got all 3 right, the game will cut away and print them in your book. If you filled in 3 and this hasnt happened, you can wait, and figure out a 4th one, and then if 3 of them complete, you know which is wrong and to come back to it later. You can try to fix one you think is wrong, but since you were wrong to start with, youd probably be guessing, which you NEVER have to do in this game (which is a HUGE point in its favor, that everything is figure-out-able through deduction, never trial and error, but some of them can be very hard). If you play this, I definitely recommend avoiding trial-and-error except as a last resort, as its way more fun to figure stuff out.



This game simply is the best figure it out kind of game Ive ever played, and I absolutely loved solving everything and putting it together, and figuring shit out, and watching the story unfold, and trying to figure out based on the fates, the different character motivations and such (ie, you may know why John killed Greg, but youd like to know WHY). Youll be calling people by pet names for a while until you figure out who they are (oh yeah, shirtless guy). The story is pretty compelling and has a lot of twists, interesting characters, and WHOA!!! moments. And, just man. The way this game makes you think and the rewarding feeling you feel for solving it is unparalleled in any other game Ive ever played. I can never play this for the first time ever again, and I wish I could, but I love watching people play this for the first time, so if you ever do, please let me know and I would love to watch.



Also I think MSG used the perfect set of pictures, and I dont want to give any additional ones to avoid spoilers, so excuse me for just re-using his!

Oh and also this game was made by one person. Wild!

Next up: A game that I am in the minority of liking more than its much more popular sequel.

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~Wigs~ 3-Time Consecutive Fantasy B8 Baseball Champion
2015 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPION NEW YORK METS
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KCF0107
03/02/21 12:03:03 AM
#244:


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


I tried my best not to make it obvious that the first Kyle Hyde game was going to be on my list in my Last Window write-up, but I don't know how I fared in that endeavor.

The game introduces Kyle Hyde, a former detective turned salesman, as he checks into the titular location while chasing the past. He converses/grills with the employees and patrons as their interconnected stories weave into his own. While Last Window was a more grandoise and interesting narrative full of twists and turns and irregular pacing, I was drawn more toward Hotel Dusk's structured plot and smaller cast. You can debate whether this or the sequel is more personal for Kyle, but it was definitely more intimate for me given the isolated, compact location and greater focus on characters.

I knew about this game when it came out, but despite loving noir stories and the art style, this was during an era when point-and-click adventures didn't appeal to me like they did in the 90s and 10s-present. However, when I went to college in the fall of 08, I decided that I wanted to buy a bunch of DS games as I did not to bring my Xbox 360 the first semester. I recall that one of the characters, Louis DeNonno, was named the best new character of the year or something in Nintendo Power (yes I was still a suscriber then), so this was one of a few games that I decided to grab. Who knew that I would ultimately view it as my favorite DS game?

I seldom replay games whose narrative is its main or sole appeal. Subsequent playthroughs would only serve to demonstrate the law of diminishing returns. The fact that I used to replay this every other year (I haven't since 2016 sadly) is a testament to how strong I felt the script was and how little the game depended on twists or shock value.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu
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KCF0107
03/02/21 12:04:16 AM
#245:


36. God of War III (PS3, 2010)


Before they made a prequel and then reboot in another land with a different mythological background, this was to be the conclusion of Kratos' epic, pulling out all the stops in the process.

I have long viewed the Ageaen Sea from God of War as being one of the best opening levels for a game, but III is similiarly impressive, albeit in a different way. While the first two God of War games looked great on the PS2, the technological leap from PS2 to PS3 was perfect for the series as it was absolutely stunning watching the opening in motion. Santa Monica Studios were maybe a little too ambitious in the beginning as you hitched a ride on top of a titan climbing its way up to Olympus. They showed off increased graphical fidelity and framerate while they messed with the camera to show how small Kratos was while in the brightest light the series. Oh, and you had to fight waves of enemies and a boss. It was overwhelming but spectacular as well and immedately set a high bar that the game never fell below.

This was truly a proper finale with all the insane boss fights and weaving Greek tale that one would expect from the series. Maybe I'm being selfish, but I sort of wish the series ended after this because an incredible finale is something that I value highly as it can really cement a sense of accomplishment, especially in a multi-game series that I poured in dozens of hours into. One day, I will delve into the Norse reboot, but for now, I choose to cling onto my memories from III (let's ignore that I played Acension after).

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu
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KCF0107
03/02/21 12:08:34 AM
#246:


35. Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild (PS2, 2003)


The jet ski racing game doesn't have many reps, and while I am not surprised, I do love the potential of such games. Wave Race is the most popular series, but I feel like it peaked with its first game on the Game Boy as the later games had their struggles with wave physics, especially in regards to requiring players to pass through buoys (while also not requiring the AI to do the same). I've played one-off games like Carve and Wave Rally that didn't have any lasting appeal. The Riptide games are pretty good but are an uneven experience. I also own Aqua Moto Racing Utopia but have yet to play it. Luckily, Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild exists as it is head and shoulders above anything else in the sub-genre.

It is the follow-up to Splashdown but with a cartoony, over-the-top flair. You have your goofy characters, silly courses that include a spooky castle, a gold mine, and a prehistoric waterway, and you race with an emphasis on tricks and boosting while largely ignore water physics. There is a ton of content here with championship events that take place on the aformentioned silly world courses, stadium races that take place in indoor arenas, freestyle events that have you doing tricks on additional indoor courses, and multiple versions of time trials that include some of their own courses. There's also an unlock system for characters and such that keeps you coming back for more. It's all a ton of fun, but the main reason why it is all the way up here is because of the game's efforts to make every lap unique on the world courses.

The concept of multi-lap courses offering wildly different experiences depending on the map is something that I wish more games would explore. Games like Beetle Adventure Racing and Snowboard kids offered a lot of shortcuts and branching paths, but that isn't quite the same thing. Black Rock Studio's (makers of my #90 game, Pure) final game was Split/Second which allowed the player, and even the AI, to trigger various course effects that could yield substantial changes on future laps, so that's close to what I am looking for. However, nothing that I have tried has come close to Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild. Here, scripted events occur throughout your race that make things more exciting. Each race has several unique events, and if you are in the lead or in view of it, you get to see it all unfold in real time. Pirate ships use cannons to alter the layout, high-speed chases going on around you create obstacles to shift your path, and so much more. It's really a novel thing, but it's something that I always adored and wished was used in more games.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu
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KCF0107
03/02/21 12:09:08 AM
#247:


34. Biker Mice From Mars (SNES, 1994)


Biker Mice From Mars in general is so ridiculous. I mean, anthropomorphic rodents with feelers on their heads coming from Mars to Earth and quickly adapting to motocycles and getting into the biker gang culture is just so damn dumb and silly. I admit that I didn't watch the show until last year when I watched a single episode and was content with stopping there. My introduction to the franchise was with this game when I played it over at one of my mom's clients' houses (she is a home-based speech/language pathologist) before I started kindergarten. I loved it so much that when I found a used copy at some local video game store a few years later, I didn't even look at the price tag and just bought it (I want to say it was between $10-15).

This isometric racer is rad as hell. You can choose one of six characters (heroes Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie or villains Karbunkle, Grease Pit, or Limburger). While the heroes have similar vehicles, the villains have some pretty cool vehicle designs with Karbunkle riding a mechanical spider and Limburger has a hovercraft. Each course is your standard three-lap race, but combat plays a heavy role. Each character has their own weapon that can be used a finite amount of times in a lap, and it gets recharged once you start a new lap. Wrestling with racing and combat is quite the fascinating risk/reward. Do you potentially cost yourself seconds by lining yourself up with opponents to shoot a projectile in front or drop something behind or do you go straight for the fastest lap and make yourself vulnerable to enemy attacks? I liked this system a lot because I never stuck to any single idealogy. Context dictated what I would do, and that makes things more fun and interesting to me.

Further enhancing the racing/combat combo was its battle mode. It has a main mode and a battle mode (as well as time trials), and they are both set up the same. The difficulty setting not only affects the AI but also the courses that you play. If you wish to play all the courses, you need to play on the highest difficulty. While there are only a few themes for courses (city, sewer, coastal, etc...), the lack of theme variety belies the great course design that helps each of them feel unique while also doing a great job at getting the player aclimated with its many twists and turns.

In main mode, if you lose all of your health (you can normally take three hits), you get back up again, but in battle mode, the star of the game, if you lose all of your health, you aren't getting back in the race, and that applies to all racers. Given the general aggressiveness of the AI, it isn't uncommon for a race to end before someone crosses the finish line. Depending on where you finish, you earn money in both modes that can be used to upgrade your ride. It's pretty basic but something that rarely existed back then and adds yet another wrinkle to the racing/combat dynamic.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu
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KCF0107
03/02/21 12:16:43 AM
#248:


33. Killer7 (Gamecube, 2005)


This is a difficult game to describe and even want to describe, but I think it can be summed as being greater than the sum of its parts. A FPS/horror/adventure hybrid from the mind of peak Suda51, this is one hell of a trip.

You control a group of assassins, all with unique weapons and abilities like a silent man who uses a knife and can turn invisible and a luchador who wields two grenade launchers and can bust through obstacles, who get assigned targets across the world by the US government. You run around the environment on-rails in third-person solving adventure-game puzzles through objects you find or through character abilities, but whenever you hear unsettling cackle, that means enemies called Heaven Smiles are around. You have to stop, go in first-person view, scan for them, and then use your character's weapon on their weakpoints. Well, you can just blast them with whatever you have on you, but hitting their weakpoints will give you the maxiumum amount of blood, which is the currency you use to upgrade characters. It sounds tedious, and my friends hated when I scanned for enemies as it makes a beeping sound, yet it worked for me. Depending on the situation, things can get pretty intense and startling (especially with a certain boss fight), but the whole situation is also just kind of goofy, so it has this weird comedy-horror vibe at times.

The plot is inscrutible, and the dialogue and characters are as bizarre as can be, but it was all so fascinating to me as a high schooler. I have seldom been as engaged in something that I had little understanding of what was going on. There are some fan theories out there, all of which I have completely ignored. I love just taking it at face value as a totally bonkers spectacle, and I have no desire to read other people's interpretations of it to ruin that image.

Killer7 ultimately had a ton of content cut from the game, which is why some targets seem pointless and why they delved into some playable characters' backgrounds and not others. While it is highly unlikely that we will ever see the full, intended experience, I feel like in a way this was for the best as it being more of a disjointed mess makes it all the more endearing.

I tried to be as general as I could because this, maybe more than any other video game, is one that you should experience as blind as possible. I absolutely cannot guarantee to anyone that they would like it, but it will definitely be memorable.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu
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KCF0107
03/02/21 12:18:27 AM
#249:


32. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (SNES, 1993)


For almost 20 years, I assumed that everybody loved this game as much or more than the original. I am sad that is apparently far from the case, but it is better, crazier (damn do I love those Cheep Cheep levels), and more robust than its predecessor, and seeing how highly I think of the original, it should come as no surprise that this was going to rank pretty high with me.

As an aside, I used to think that Bloopers were pink dresses. In my defense, I was like five, and why would I think that there were floating pink squids (let's not bring up their underwater appearances or debate why it would make sense for there being a sentient floating dress)?

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu
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Eddv
03/02/21 12:58:22 AM
#250:


You can do it KCF

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Board 8's Voice of Reason
https://imgur.com/AWY4xHy
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Naye745
03/02/21 4:08:28 AM
#251:


11. Pokmon Red/Blue (GB, 1998)
A world of dreams and adventures with Pokmon awaits! Let's go!

I have to credit Pokmon for getting me into video games as a hobby. Unlike most of the rest of the users in this topic, I was not super into video games as a kid; I liked some sports titles, sim games, and Mario Kart, but wasn't really into platformers and RPGs like my brother was. But Pokmon basically turned that around single-handedly - the allure of collecting a bunch of things got me addicted to the video game, which got me into the card game, at which point it had devolved into an obsession that has lasted in some capacity for the rest of my life.
Red/Blue are probably the simplest of all the games in the series, but they still have a nice structural arc: up through the first few gyms, you're basically traveling along a linear path, but around arriving in Celadon City and getting the Flute, things start to branch out. By the time you get the Surf HM, you have a few different routes to go and some optional side-areas, before it starts to converge at the end. Despite all the graphical enhancements of later games, and it's relative visual blandness, Kanto is still one of my favorite Pokmon regions simply due to its simplicity, solid design, and noteworthy landmarks.
There's always the question of how well they stand up compared to modern games; the originals lack a lot of quality of life features that make later titles (especially the most recent Let's Go remakes) a lot easier to jump into. But I think the originals still hold up pretty solidly - HMs still kind of suck, for sure, and having a hard item cap on your inventory that includes key items and TMs makes you take extra trips to the PC, which is a hassle. Still, the games themselves are simple enough and all of the core mechanics shine through and are still engaging - you can replay trying to use a challenging set of monsters, or rotate with a team of creatures you've never used before, or try to get through with one type of Pokmon, and all of that is still a great time. And it's also got one of the better randomizers out there - going through a remixed game with a wild assortment of monsters and moves is just a blast.
There's not a lot I can add about Pokmon Blue (that's the version I owned) that hasn't been said by everyone else and is not part of the collective experience we all kind of had as kids when these games came out. (I know some of you are younger, but most of us Board 8ers are 30ish now, heh.) Red/Blue might not be the best games, and the nostalgia goggles sure do carry things a long way, but they're also games I've played and replayed over and over; I've done randomizers, speedruns, bingo battles, and challenge playthroughs, from the early 2000s until today, and the game still totally holds up for me. There's something about the classic formula of the Game Boy Pokmon games, with their minimalist sprite artwork, their bare-bones combat menus, and their actually-reasonable-to-do Pokdex size, that still stands head and shoulders above the rest. (And I've played and enjoyed every mainline game in the series to this day!) Of course, Red and Blue aren't the only Game Boy-era games, and there's one that just manages to eke it out...
Top 5 Favorite Kanto (Original 151) Pokmon: Farfetch'd - Venusaur - Ninetales - Haunter - Fearow

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it's an underwater adventure ride
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CherryCokes
03/03/21 8:11:05 AM
#252:


time for the injured guy to catch up a bit

3 games coming up

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The Thighmaster
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CherryCokes
03/03/21 8:33:39 AM
#253:


20. Super Mario Galaxy / Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2007 / 2010)

As others have noted, separating these games just feels wrong. Theyre both so incredibly good and inextricably tied together that any arguing which is better feels like an exercise in preference, rather than anything substantial.

Unlike most of Nintendos flagship series in the Wii era, which either faltered, held pat, or remained on the bench, the Galaxies represent one giant leap for Mariokind. Perhaps we should have seen it coming: the progression was there - we went from Bros. to Land to World to Sunshine - to tell us that space would be the next frontier for the iconic plumber. What we didnt know, coming off Sunshine, was that Galaxy and Galaxy 2 would be world-beaters. Galaxy sold as much as Brawl did; Galaxy 2 sold as much as Twilight Princess. Both were critically acclaimed across the board, and rightfully so.

What puts the Galaxies far, far, away from the rest of the Mario series to me is the intelligent design at the core of each game. Galaxy, utilizing the Wiimote and nunchuk more adroitly than any game to that point, was filled with a dizzying array of planets and objectives that were as beautiful as they were clever. It introduced some outlandish new power-ups - Bee Mario most notably, but the underappreciated Boo and Spring Marios are equally great, I think - that add wrinkles and puzzle-solving elements that really deepen the enjoyment of the game. It brought back the Fire Flower, which had been absent since Super Mario World, and it introduced the Ice Flower. Then it throws you into these various galaxies and planets, each with unique attributes, residents, even their own gravity. Comets occasionally appear, forcing you to undertake specific objectives that offer some of the series hardest challenges. Its breathtaking, the breadth and depth of experiences that Super Mario Galaxy throws at you.

Then, three years later, Super Mario Galaxy 2 came around and turned it all to eleven. Bowser is now the size of a damn planet himself, and he re-kidnaps the perpetually recently-rescued Princess Peach. This time, Mario sets off in pursuit using a planet-like vessel made in his image, the Starship Mario.



Galaxy 2s design presupposes that youve played Galaxy, and its better for it. All of Galaxys power-ups return, and you get Rock Mario (the greatest), Cloud Mario (the weirdest, at least to that point), and the space drill item (the most useful) added on top. Then, of course, the game does what everyone wanted its predecessor to do: it brings Yoshi to space, with a host of fruit-inspired power-ups of his own. Theres a massive 240 stars to collect over 7 increasingly bonkers levels, including one galaxy that is, for some reason, a reimagining of Whomp's Fortress from Super Mario 64. Galaxy 2 is full of iconic elements of the series making their returns, like the Hammer Bros. and checkpoint flags. In many ways you can see Galaxy 2, and not NSMBU or 3D World - good as they both are - as the dress rehearsal for Super Mario Odyssey, which took many of the ideas present here, new and old alike, and pushed them in as far an innovative direction as they could. I cant say for certain whether Odyssey eclipses the stratospheric heights reached by the twin Galaxies, but theres no doubt that this duo is an out of this world pairing that dramatically shifted the Mario series for the better.

19. Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, 2008)

From what I understand, theres a small, zealous enclave of gamers who view the modern Fallouts as sacrilege, a total anathema to the principles of the series. They decry the shift from isometric turn-based combat to the FPS-ARPG hybrid the series has become known for.

Fuck those guys.

Within the first 15 after you create your character, Fallout 3 achieves something its PC forebears couldnt: a sense of the grand scale of death, destruction, and chaos that nuclear war wrought on the world. Your introduction to, and subsequent explorations of, the Capital Wasteland are awe-inspiring and horrifying. So too, is the path you take as the Lone Wanderer. Almost every choice you make has karmic ripples throughout the Wasteland, changing how characters react and respond to you, and altering your course through the game. The cast of characters you meet along the way, from the residents of Megaton to robo-founding father Button Gwinnett to President John Henry Eden to Alistair Tenpenny to the ripped-out-of time abductees aboard Mothership Zeta and so on and so on, are each fascinating in their own right. The battles you fight as you progress through the story are some of the most memorable. The Super Mutant Behemoth in the Capitol Rotunda was, until very recently, the most transfixing and horrifying thing to happen on the Hill in any medium. And of course, no one forgets their first Deathclaw.

The Capital Wasteland is a stunning partial recreation of the greater DC area from which Bethesda Softworks hails. Given the circumstances, it can be a little drab in areas, but as an open world it is staggering in comparison to everything else its contemporaries put forth, with few exceptions. Getting to explore the DC Metro, the halls of power, decommissioned aircraft carriers, etc, much of which is roughly analogous to the real world, was an absolute thrill. The DLC expanded the universe to the shores of Maryland, the fiery, dire rust belt remnants of Pittsburgh, and a simulation of Alaska during its liberation from China. To that point in my gaming life, I had never played a game with such an enormous scope and such an engrossing world.

The plot of Fallout 3 is important, but it also isnt. You either side with the good guys, the Brotherhood of Steel, or the bad guys, the Enclave. You purify the waters of the Potomac or you kill off every mutated being in the Wasteland in a multispecies genocide. It matters, but it also doesnt, in that the real story is the good-natured Super Mutants and Ghouls you made friends with along the way.

Bonus fun fact: The specific bodily damage by your weapons in VATS was inspired by Burnout's crash mode!

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The Thighmaster
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CherryCokes
03/03/21 8:41:26 AM
#254:


18. The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360, 2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbe5mpI16KA

We jokingly say stuff like its a miracle this movie/game/album/book even exists but in the case of The Beatles: Rock Band, it is unequivocally true. There are a million reasons this game shouldnt exist.

Heres a short, non-exhaustive list of hurdles:

*Beatles music is incredibly cost-prohibitive to use. It cost Mad Men $250,000 to use Tomorrow Never Knows in a 2012 episode!
*Michael Jackson owned 50% of the publishing rights to the Beatles music. You may recall that he died in early 2009, during the production of the game.
*There was a global recession, which prompted the sale of Harmonix by its brief parent company, Viacom/MTV, shortly after the release of the game.
*Harmonix had to convince the remaining Beatles, aged 69 and 67 when the game came out, as well as Yoko, aged 76, to participate in the creation of a video game with plastic instruments.
*Those same people, once convinced, then had to approve every single creative decision that went into the game.
*Oh, and so did Apple Corps.
*The first half or so of the Beatles career was recorded to two-track and four-track equipment, which meant that you had multiple instruments and/or vocal parts on the same track, rather than a separate track for each part, as became common in the later 60s to present. A great number of engineers headed by George Martins son, Giles, took months to create usable stems.

Somehow, all those pieces fell into place and stayed in place for three years, starting shortly after Viacom/MTV bought Harmonix in 2006, in the wake of Guitar Heros success. Dhani Harrison, son of George, happened to be familiar with Guitar Hero, and happened to have a conversation with the head of MTV at the time at a Christmas party, and happened to suggest a Beatles video game. This conversation led to a discussion with Alex Rigopulos, which led to Dhani talking to Apple Corps, Yoko, Paul, Ringo, and his mother Olivia. Eventually, Harmonix and Dhani presented a prototype of the game to all of the above parties, and got them all on board. Dhani Harrison was the lynchpin to getting this game in production.

But it was a challenge, even once they had the approvals they needed. They had a hard deadline: September 9, 2009, the day the entire Beatles catalogue was to be released in remastered form. They had to get the aforementioned Giles Martin working on the master recordings of the early works to make them usable. They programmed and tracked songs based on low fidelity versions of the upcoming remasters, because Apple Corps, still reeling from Danger Mouses Grey Album, was terrified of hi-fi leaks getting out ahead of the release of the remastered catalogue. They brought in some of the creative minds behind several Gorillaz music videos (including Feel Good Inc, I believe) and the opening title sequence to Quantum of Solace (you know the one) to work on the dreamy animatics. The game was first publicly shown off at Coachella, of all places, as Sir Paul used elements from the game in the visuals of his headlining set. They created an entirely new three-part harmony vocal system to accurately represent the Beatles vocals, which has remained in the series to date. They had Rock Band controllers that were replicas of the Beatles' iconic instruments (one of my greatest gaming regrets is not getting one of these). It was the largest project the relatively small Harmonix had ever undertaken, and the margins were smaller than ever.

And then, finally, the game came out.



And it was incredible. It was an ethereal, stunning game to experience. The gameplay was sharper than Rock Band 2, and not as overcooked as Rock Bands 3 and 4 would turn out. On the loading screens, bits of studio chatter or audience noise, all pulled from the actual recordings, bridged one song to the next. The venues, both real and imagined, are captivating enough that you want to watch them even while youre playing. The Beatles themselves appear through the various eras, in a sort of heightened, idyllic way that glosses over some of the strife of the later years, but still suits the music they produced during each period. It was a staggering homage and monument to one of the most important bands of all time, and Harmonix hit every mark.

The rhythm game market waned along with the global economy not long after The Beatles: Rock Band was released, but this game was an absolute high water mark for the genre as an artistic and commercial force, and Im not sure another game could have matched it, even if the conditions had been equally favorable. It was a magnificent miracle, a confluence of every right person being in the right places at the right times.

---
The Thighmaster
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