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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Lego Rock Band though

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RPGlord95 posted...

Lego Rock Band though

Also good, because Lego Iggy Pop is the guide character

Trash song list though

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Rude

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Whiskey_Nick posted...

Rude

Whiskey Nick, noted fan of Korn, the All-American Rejects, and Good Charlotte

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The Undergrads theme I have a soft spot for.

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17. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998)

So many people have said and will say so much more substantial and eloquent things about this game than I could possibly hope to, but Ill try my best.

While it was evident fairly quickly that the Mario series would easily make the jump from 2D to 3D fairly easily - there was only a year between Yoshis Island and Super Mario 64, two of the series best regarded games - I dont know that it was ever a given that The Legend of Zelda would be able to make the jump from 2D to 3D as gracefully. Add in substantial delays - Ocarina of Time was intended to be a launch game - and I have to imagine there was some trepidation.

Fortunately, any concerns there might have been were washed away in November of 98.

Nintendo had assembled a team, and that team produced a masterpiece. I didnt play it until the following year, but I remember being awe-stricken by it. It felt like a movie. I didnt fully understand all the reasons why at the time, but as I later took an interest in film and photography, I came to realize that there was a great element of cinematic influence present in the game. Its an action adventure game, sure, but its also at times a western, a horror movie, a romance, and above all, a bildungsroman. The way the game uses music helps signal these shifts, too. Think about how the Kondos score changes not based on character, but on location. The idea of having video games shift their music based on each level wasnt new, but there were abrupt cues in the game that related to those changes - loading screens, changing levels, going indoors or coming outdoors, etc. Because of the function of Hyrules overworld and its vast continuousness, music in Ocarina of Time is often used to signal that you have arrived. In that way, and in the way the camera frames the action - both when its under your control and when the game has control of it - Ocarina of Time owes as much to the lineage of the movies as it does to the lineage of video games. There is a bonafide sense of the game being an epic that comes from the visual and musical direction of the game. (Except the Hyrule Castle Market, which feels like a failed attempt at German Expressionism)

I dont think I would have grown to love movies or video games as much as I did if I hadnt played this game at the time that I did. Certainly a great many games on this list would not be here if not for Ocarina of Time. Its justifiably considered one of the greatest games of all time, and it remains a personal favorite, though it is not ranked as highly as it once might have been. The emotional attachment I have to it may have faded some over the years, but the impact it had on my taste in video games and movies certainly hasnt.

16. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, 2018)


Super Smash Bros. has been a favorite series from jump street for me. Brawl and Wii U, while both very good games, felt a little underwhelming coming off of Melee, and came at a time in life where I didnt have many people to play with in person and Nintendos online was largely a fucking mess.

Ultimate, like the first two entries in the series, hit at a perfect juncture. I was in grad school. I had just adopted a puppy, which turned out to be much more stressful than I expected. I was working full time. My cars engine had exploded. I was in the midst of a prolonged breakup. It was a total nightmare of a time.

So I splurged on a Switch the weekend of Thanksgiving, knowing that Smash was out in a couple of weeks. And it was the right choice. With the exception of one particular night of playing with Board 8ers where a beer was spilled directly into my laptop, effectively cooking the entire SSD and almost nothing else, playing Smash Ultimate over the past 2+ years has been one of the routine joys of my life, especially amid this now yearlong pandemic. The people that I play with - many of whom are my friends in this very topic - are some of the most fun people to play with. No one is beholden to any particular characters or settings, everyone is happy to play by some silly character selection gimmick, and no one really gets truly pissy when they lose (though there is plenty of bullshitting and shit-talking and ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? moments). Its exactly what I love about Smash, and what I love about Board 8. Its like a peanut butter cup, but with two sets of ridiculous characters, one real, one fictional, coming together to make for a perfectly delightful experience.

15. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch, 2018)


Breath of the Wild was hyped mightily before I got to playing it in early 2019. I bought it as soon as I got my Switch, but that giant wave of praise had me a little hesitant. Could it really be that good? was a question I kept asking myself.

It turns out the answer was a resounding yes.

Much like its beloved predecessors, Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, Breath of the Wild redefines the scale and scope of what a Zelda game can be. Hyrule is as enormous, diverse, and majestic as it has ever been. The temples are massive, living puzzles. The cast of characters who support (and sometimes stymy you) on your way are perhaps the most colorful and interesting cast ever assembled in a Nintendo game, which is saying something. The game just oozes personality and style in a way that hadnt been the case in a Zelda game in a decade and a half. Its a beautiful game. Its maybe the most smoothly controlled adventure game Ive ever played. It is by all measures as close to technically perfect as it can be. And its easily the most fun, explorative Zelda, due to the amount of things to discover, to find, to experience, and due to the fact that for the first time in many many years, its basically entirely non-linear, in the tradition of early Zeldas, which is something that endeared it to me even more. And there are DOGS. Not enough versions of Hyrule have dogs. Or giant horses.

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14. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Gamecube, 2004)


The perpetual letdowns of the good but not great Paper Marios that followed The Thousand Year Door are a testament to how good the first two games in the series are. Theyre the funniest, most charismatic Mario games, and in many ways the most memorable. TTYD really shines in this regard, with venues like the Glitz Pit, Rogueport, and Creepy Steeple, and characters like Doopliss and Pennington the Penguin. 3 Days of Excess might be the best chapter in either game. Its such a pitch perfect, madcap take on Murder on the Orient Express.

The inclusion of the Peach and Bowser interludes really bolsters TTYDs case as the better Paper Mario. Bowser in particular is in rare form; his scenes are reliably among the funniest in the game, and its always a treat to see how Bowser manages his kingdom, which the main Mario games never really get into.

TTYD is also, I think, the harder game. Theres legitimate challenges in the main story, and the Pit of 100 Trials is a hell of an optional dungeon. The only thing that ultimately (spoilers) keeps it a notch below its predecessor for me is that the companions are kind of underwhelming. Goombella is fine, and an improvement over Goombario, but you basically dont get another companion whos both likeable and usable until Vivian, and later Admiral Bobbery. And its entirely possible to not get Ms Mowz on your squad, which is a shame because she is a delight.

Still, The Thousand Year Door is an incredible experience that improves on Paper Mario in significant ways while retaining most of the charm and character that makes the series so damn joyful.

13. Banjo-Tooie (N64, 2000)


I might catch some heat for this ranking, but the more I thought about it, the more resolute I felt about it: Banjo-Tooie takes everything Banjo-Kazooie does and improves upon it. Full stop.

Its opening is memorable and remarkably tragic for such a colorful, ridiculous game: Gruntilda murders Bottles as she begins her rampaging revenge tour. Fortunately, Bottles sticks around as a ghost, in the hopes of being resurrected, while his brother, the drill sergeant Jamjars, takes his place guiding Banjo and Kazooie - who can split up and use individual skills, in addition to their tag-team skills - through the game.

From top to bottom, Banjo-Tooie is a bigger, funnier, more engaging game, while also having a darker undertone than B-K. The score is tremendous. The visuals are at the peak end of what the N64 was capable of, and a significant step up from the already-beautiful prequel. Mumbo becoming a playable character doesnt feel out of place or tacked on, which you might expect in a situation like this, and he acts as a great change of pace. Plus, his rivalry with the definitely problematic in retrospect Humba Wumba is a great source of comedy. The magical transformations in this game are absurd to the nth degree, but by and large all work. Also, finding musical notes 5 at a time instead of 1 at a time is not to be understated as an improvement.

The game also has what I would describe as surprisingly good multiplayer, which is not something I anticipated but nonetheless got a lot of value out of between my friends, my brother, and me.

I am dead sure Im in the vast minority in thinking that Banjo-Tooie is better than Banjo-Kazooie, but I stand by it. Go replay it. It deserves it.

12. Resident Evil 2 (PS, 1998)


I played this game with one of my best friends over the span of several sleep-overs when we were in third or fourth grade. Needless to say, there was not much sleeping to be done.

This was my first exposure to horror games, and it immediately hooked me. Raccoon City and its Police Department are iconic settings, and they remain etched in my memory despite the fact that I havent played RE2 in like 15 years (though I will be buying the remake for myself for my birthday next week, I think). That first licker? Hoo boy.

Going beyond that: Leon and Claire are the best duo in a Resident Evil game, and its not even especially close, I dont think. Leon of course became the face of the franchise for a time, while Claire has largely been shelved, which is a damn shame, because shes the more interesting Redfield. William Birkin is, despite Weskers best efforts, the most compelling villain in the series, and his family is perhaps the most tragic. And on top of all that, we get Ada and HUNK, two of the more intriguing and mysterious characters the series has offered.

Not to mention the single greatest playable character in gaming history.


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11. The Jackbox Party Packs (PC, 2014-present)


No explanation necessary.

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just keeping these onthe same bumpo schedule

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good work Wigsio

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wigsio did do a good work

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So people don't think that I'm dead, I'm going to post another entry since it was part of my 10+ that I had written well over a week ago.

31. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES, 1995)
30. Donkey Kong Country (SNES, 1994)




The SNES DKC trilogy is one of the more distinctive series out there. It plays like any other 2D platformer, but in what was maybe the height of the platforming era, the DKC games were so aesthetically, atmospherically, and tangibly different from anything else that it's hard not to be in awe of them regardless of how fun you found them to be. Now this isn't an indictment on DKC3 given it isn't on my list and how high I have the other two here. DKC3 is a great game, but the competition to make my Top 100 was too fierce.

While not first introduced in DKC, the series is probably what most people, or at least us, think of first regarding pre-rendered graphics. Several members of Rare have said that was the most difficult and time-consuming part of the developmental process, but their work certainly paid off. They are especially striking given the genre of platformer necessitating a more zoomed in camera to help show off all the details.

While the graphics and art played a major role, the most important piece to the series' excellent atmosphere was the work of David Wise (as well as Robin Beanleand and Eveline Fischer). From the tone-setting DK Island Swing to the chilling underwater tunes of Water World, the series provided hit after hit of songs that were as excellent in-context as they were out of it. As a kid, I would sometimes turn on the the first two games for the sole purpose of listening to Aquatic Ambience and Stickerbush Symphony, so when I quickly entered the VGM scene upon my arrival on B8, the board's affinity toward some of the more personal VGM of my childhood was a major reason why I stuck around.

I talked about how in awe I am of Super Mario Bros. as its excellent jumping physics was unlike any game that came before or after it, and in a way, the DKC games remind me of that. While not a physics/platformer, the series does have a distinguished feel to it that emphasize things like weight and momentum. Rare did an excellent job at designing the earlier levels to help the player get comfortable with it, and unlike other games that had a similar approach, the physics have aged superbly.

A few years back, I had a conversation with some B8ers on the series where I said that I felt that DKC2 designed its levels more around enemy placement while DKC1 is built more on pure-platforming. The supplementary stuff like the atmosphere/music favors DKC2, but the platforming core is where I prefer the original, so that is why I ultimately prefer the original above the rest.

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Earthbound is so sucks

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yee

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nee

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rank them roll them

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bump (for me)

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for real
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dot
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Bump...
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bump.......
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Bump...........
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bump.................
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Bump......
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Bump....
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It's July, so I am 100% vowing to get back to this, and possibly finish by the end of the month
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Bump
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Bump
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bump
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Bumpers
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Bump
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Bump
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29. Beyond Good & Evil (Xbox 360, 2011)


Michel Ancel really created something special here with his action/adventure game even if none of it is revolutionary.

Here you play as Jade, a young photojournalist and one of my favorite VG characters, as she is quickly pulled into a dire situation and eventually a large conspiracy that just gets stranger as it goes on. The game takes place in Hillys with its blend of industrial and natural, modern and almost futuristic locations and elements made it one of the more rich and vivid worlds of its time and one that I still mentally travel through from time to time given how much of an impression it made on me.

The bulk of the game has you exploring and solving environmental puzzles, usually with one of two companions that have their own unique abilities to add new, albeit limited, elements to the mix. The game does feature a simple, but fun and stylish in its own way, combat system that revolves around a staff melee weapon and disc-based long-range attacks. Toss in multiple scripted segments of other genres, such as stealth and racing, and you have some variety to keep things fresh and interesting.

I also found the side activities to be a lot of fun. They were somewhat mandatory because of late-game requirements, but using Jades camera to search out living things in all corners of the world was a great excursion, and Im not one who is typically a big fan of the degree of backtracking that undertaking these tasks require.

Like I said, none of this is revolutionary, but everything clicks and gels into a very special experience. It is rare for me to replay games, especially ones that take double-digit hours such as this, but I have beaten this five or six times now, starting way back on the Gamecube in 2005. It has been a few years now since my last visit, so maybe it is time for a return.

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28. PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate (Vita, 2014)


PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is a remastered version of PixelJunk Shooter 1 + 2, and given both are two halves of the same game, I don't feel like this is cheating.

There are many games in the PixelJunk franchise, but the Shooter games are the clear gems. This is slower and more methodical than your typical twin-stick shooter, but thats because I would argue this is just as much of a puzzle game as it is a shooter. You take control of a ship trying to rescue scientists in an underground area and find out what went wrong, along with grabbing gems to fulfill level-unlocking requirements.

I was immediately grabbed by the degree of control you have in your ship. It is much higher than I was accustomed to. In addition to being able to move a full 360, as well as being able to spin to deflect projectiles, the emphasis on physics in this game also has acceleration, momentum, and variable speed as key components that you will use in combat, puzzle-solving, and exploration. It definitely has a unique feel to it, and they didnt stop there to make the game stand out.

While the ships tools are pretty basic with a built-in gun, missiles, a claw, and maybe one or two more than I cant recall at this moment, they all have multiple uses for various scenarios. You might need a claw to extract survivors, rip a part off of an enemy, or use it to transport a sponge-filled water to cool down your ship or lava for you to reach the screens exit. They get a lot of mileage out of each tool, and it helps to have meticulously crafted and excellent level design.

Toss in some vibrant colors, beautiful animation (especially with liquids), and a surreal soundtrack by High Frequency Bandwidth that has long been one of my favorite VG OSTs, and you have quite the memorable experience on your hands.

While I try to push many games onto B8ers and in general try to bring awareness to them, PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate is one that I have put among the most effort (I think it has been my most gifted game in our B8 Steam Secret Santa), with many people enjoying their time with it. Success!

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Holy shit I wasn't expecting to see actual games.

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27. The Talos Principle (PC, 2014)


Like many puzzle games, The Talos Principle takes a central idea, light-refraction, and uses common puzzle objects like crates and barriers and finds a way to utilize them all in a myriad of ways to create a fulfilling puzzle experience, even tossing in a curveball idea or two. Its difficult to talk about the puzzle elements because I dont know what to say to give the game justice. More than most genres, I think you just have to play pure puzzle games because they will click almost immediately or not at all without much room for middle ground. I will say, and I mentioned this within the past week or so in another topic, that I like puzzle games that are, for lack of a better word, flat in their difficulty. Instead of making you go through progressively difficult puzzles, the puzzles are pretty consistent in their demands, even if the elements in play change. Theres something oddly satisfying about a game whose seventh puzzle might give you the most trouble of them all. The Talos Principle is a perfect example of this where random puzzles here and there caused me to work the hardest to solve.

Anyway, The Talos Principle does a few things that are really neat, even if I didnt truly take advantage of them. One is that you arent required to do every puzzle. How the game works is that it is somewhat open-world. It has been many years since I played this, so my memory is a little hazy as to the specifics. In the various areas of the open world are several puzzles that you can tackle in basically any order. The puzzles let you know this right away, but completing a puzzle rewards you with a certain tetromino. You use these tetrominos to unlock other areas, and the process repeats. The game has multiple endings, and I think one requires you to do all of the puzzles, but you arent forced to do them all to unlock all the puzzles in the game or reach an ending.

Another is that there are several, perhaps even more than I am aware of, puzzles that you can break using the tools at your disposal and even other puzzles. Croteam was pretty self aware of this as an intended system as some puzzles require you to use another puzzle area to solve or to reach an optional collectible, and I want to say there could even be an achievement tied to breaking a puzzle. While I did always try to solve a puzzle the normal way, sometimes I would try to get creative when I hit a wall or I was curious if I could circumvent a portion of the puzzle by doing a certain action. For the most part, I was denied, but once or twice, I got through clearly in a way that was not standard.

While you can basically ignore this, philosophy plays a major role in the game as it basically revolves around it while rarely being in the forefront. Prevalent in the eerily lonely environments are the voice of a disembodied god-like figure, audio logs of a woman, and an apparent real-time conversation with an unknown entity via computers that dole out various philosophical musings. One of these encounters using the computers cut me deep. They asked me a series of questions and came back with a detailed assessment of myself, and it just seemed like a dead ringer for me. I had to take a moment to process the realization. Im sure it was just the case of the Barnum Effect, but I was still blown away. It's not a selling point imo, but it is well-done to the point that it was the deciding factor in calling it my favorite puzzle game over Linelight and the Portals.

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26. Rayman Origins + Rayman Legends (PS3, 2011 and 2013 respectively)

Like 80% of Origins is contained in Legends, so I could just go with Legends, I want to also give credit for Origins in case someone else has just Origins (this was written up in like late February).

Both literally and figuratively, The UbiArt game engine was made for Rayman to unleash its full potential as both a platformer and a goofy and vibrant universe. Controlling Rayman is simple and sublime and probably the best non-Mario/Sly platforming character to maneuver with. Related, but possibly the best decision the game made was the flexibility of how to approach levels given the ease of use.

Whether you want to blaze through levels, take things slow, or some combo of the two, the choice is yours. You dont have to go through a level 10 times just so you know the layout ahead of time and when scripted events occur, and the camera is always perfectly positioned to present information in a reasonable time so that you are free to tackle the game how you wish from the get-go. There are various chase/escape sequences, but they give you ample opportunities to grab various collectibles/scout out secret areas during such situations. It is such an intuitive experience, and that is a remarkable achievement given how many new and fresh ideas they give you through both games.

I cant believe that it has been eight years since Legend, and with Michel Ancel having left the industry, I have to assume the franchise is dead or will have a tough time recapturing the magic that Origins and Legends provided. As long as they keep porting Legends though, I will still buy it.

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25. DiRT 2 (Xbox 360, 2009)


Prior to DiRT 2, I had never played a racing game with a presentation quite like this. As someone whose favorite genre is racing games, I never got into the real-life thing, only sometimes watching short-track off-road events. The point is that I wouldnt say I am part of the racing culture, but when I first started playing DiRT 2 over a decade ago, It had my attention, especially, as silly as it sounds, with its eye-catching fonts of many varieties.

You are plopped into a racing circuit area, lightly gated but within eye and earshot of various spectators/fans walking around as crews of other racers are hanging around. You head to your trailer, do some basic racing game stuff like pick a name, nationality, and beginning car, and off you go.

Functionally, DiRT 2, which is actually the 7th in the franchise because it used to be named after Colin McRae, is similar to a lot of racing games from that era and even before. You go through various events featuring several, distinct disciplines related to real-life rally racing. Its a loop that I have always found satisfying and felt a great sense of accomplishment from, but I think that the high quality of the courses and modes are what really set DiRT 2 apart from its peers.

DiRT 2 wasnt the first, nor was it technically the first I played, but it is the racing game that I most associate with rewinds. Racing games are one of the more demanding genres out there with the need of constant awareness of course design, driving physics, car physics, and more. For many racing games, races can average around 5 minutes each, so that can be a long 300 seconds with sometimes razor thin margins for error. While some games employ what is called rubberband AI (in a nutshell, they slow down when you are in the rear and speed up when you are in front), those are more prevalent in arcade-style racing games that are geared toward kids/all ages, and beyond that, I have complicated feelings toward the practice.

Anyway, DiRT 2 is more of a hybrid (sim-leaning but with arcade elements), so I can imagine how devastating it could be to lose a race after being nearly perfect for the first 97% and then in the final stretch, you took too wide of a turn or something common of that nature. Also, with there being a lot of off-road courses, sometimes things just get weird from a jump or turn that you seemingly had little control over, amplified if being on a new course or one that you are still getting used to.

Codemasters, the developers of the series and one of the premier racing game developers out there, had a game just before this called GRID where I was first introduced to their rewind system, which I believe are called flashbacks. Depending on the difficulty you play on, you get a certain amount of flashbacks that you can use to rewind the action for upwards of something like 5-10 seconds. Its simple, doesnt feel excessive or cheap, and is a very welcome feature to a genre that demands so much from its player.

I have played most of the DiRT games, and Codemasters racing games, since then, and while I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them, nothing has topped DiRT 2 yet for me.

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24. Hitman: Blood Money (PS3, 2013)


If I had to make a list of my favorite series, Hitman is definitely in the Top 10 and maybe Top 5. However, because of my requirement to play a game in full, if applicable, to be eligible for my list, only Blood Money will make an appearance. I have since gone back and played the final two episodes of the 2016 reboot that I hadnt played before, and it would have ranked as high or even higher on this list, but thems the rules that I made.

My friend had the first Hitman game, and while it was extremely rough, it showed promise to where I decided to keep an eye on the series. Silent Assassin was a great but flawed experience, my opinion of Contracts has improved over the years as a solid entry in the franchise, but Blood Money is where I/O interactive first hit it out of the park.

Blood Money is when the series really took off with the sandbox-y and flexibility that they had flirted with previously. With its abundance of intricately designed levels (A New Life and You Better Watch Out are my favorites) full of numerous fixed and moving parts (some of which have limited windows or no patterns), being able to successfully pull off your hit in the way that you want is immensely satisfying. Hell, its satisfying even if you have to make an audible or everything goes to hell, but it feels especially good to come up with a plan and have it come to fruition. It cant be understated how great it is that in a stealth game like Hitman, taking the guns blazing approach is an option and can be a lot of fun.

One thing that I dont think the game gets enough credit for is its outstanding in-game map. I cant say that I have given comparisons much thought, but it would certainly be in the running for one of my favorites in games. Silent Assassin and Contracts have very similar ones, but it is very sleek, almost like a blueprint aesthetically, uses excellent color and symbol choices so that everything is apparent, and they move in real time (that means that it doesnt pause the action). It is unfortunate that seeing it in all of its full glory can only be done on the easiest difficulty as they strip more features the harder the difficulty that you choose.

Im not one for remembering the final game I beat for each platform that I own, but I always remember that Blood Money was the final game that I beat for the PS2 because it ended up being one of my favorites for the system.

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23. Apex Legends (Xbox One, 2019)


Perhaps my extensive background in playing team sports is a major reason why I'm wired this way, but there's nothing quite like being a part of something great in a team-based multiplayer game. Not that there's anything wrong with single player games and solo-based online games, but accomplishing something gaming-related on my own isn't particularly special or memorable to me as it is something exclusive to me and can't celebrate with others. Furthermore, playing with others and beating other humans is even greater. I dont play every multiplayer game out there or anything like that, but there are a handful at any given time that I like to play semi-frequently now that there are so many quality options available.

I was skeptical of the rise of the battle royale. At the time, it was basically just slayer-based shooters, and being an objective game type fan, I wasnt sure how much I could enjoy it, especially with so many teams thrown in. My first foray was with the juggernaut Fortnite in 2018 I believe. While it was mildly entertaining, I wasnt a fan of the emphasis on crafting, and as a fan of shooters (more FPS than TPS), Im not sure if I am describing this well, but I was disappointed with the heft of guns and shooting them as well as the related sound design/effects. The game was clearly meant and marketed for people of all ages, so Im not surprised, but it just wasnt what I was looking for.

Then Respawn came along and surprise dropped Apex Legends, based on their Titanfall series, and I started playing it within the first week of its 2019 release. Im usually quick to acclimate to FPS to at least be decent, but I was not very good to begin. Kill/Death ratio isnt the most accurate way to gauge someones skill, especially in a more complicated game such as this, but there arent that many efficiency stats that can be and are collected, and during the intro period before seasons began, I had like a 0.5 K/D ratio. That being said, I had tons of fun. It isnt common for me to continue playing a game that I was struggling so much with individually (at least in terms of killing vs dying), but I could tell this was something special.

Over time, even as the game kept changing and trying out new things, I kept getting better even though I am getting older. Im no ace or anything, but Im pretty self-aware of my own strengths and weaknesses in the game, and Im a great teammate, and so I get satisfactory results more often than not. Im not someone who is win or bust. I want to have a good time and not go down with a whimper, so its pretty easy to please me here unlike other other multiplayer games.

Part of the reason why I stick around is because when I party up with strangers, which is more often these days as most of my friends have stopped playing it, Ive been teamed up with great people. I have played a couple thousand games, and the amount of obnoxious people that I have played with is miniscule.

I usually give at least some money to every free-to-play game that I play, even one that I dont stick with for long, but I have chipped in more for Apex Legends than any other. I hope Apex Legends will be around for a long time still to come, but the time and money investment that I have put into has been well worth it.

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oh it's Wigs favorite game

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22. Rocket League (Xbox One, 2015)


One day in the summer of '11, I went with some of my friends over to some guy's house that I didn't really know. He had a PS3, and we all played some game called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars (SARPBC). I hadn't played anything like it. It was a game with the abstract rules and visual flavor of soccer using ridiculous vehicles. I had such a blast in those few hours that I thought about it from time to time over the ensuing years. I had heard about Rocket League, but I didnt delve into it, so I never made the connection that it was the follow-up to SARPBC until I bought Rocket League in 2016. Since then, it has been one of my go-to multiplayer games.

RL expanded upon SARPBCs formula greatly, and while things have changed some since the developer Psyonix was purchased by Epic and later went free-to-play, most of what I love about the game has remained. The funny thing is that I barely play the standard soccer game that most available modes feature. I mostly stick to three modes: Rumble, Snow Day, and Drop Shot.

Rumble is the standard soccer game with powerups added to it. You can do things like freeze the ball, cover your vehicle with spikes so that you can literally carry the ball, a tornado that sweeps up the ball and opposing vehicles alike, and much more. I think that theres around 12 total, and they are all pretty unique from one another. The game can get absolutely bonkers, and its hard to take seriously.

Snow Day is basically hockey. I mean, theres a puck instead of a ball, and the field is covered in ice. This mode I feel plays to my personal strengths the best. Im not the best aerial player (timing is a problem for me), so a game like Snow Day where the puck stays mostly on a surface is something that I can excel at. Im also best as a facilitator (setting up goal opportunities for others and centering) and a non-goalie defender (blocking and ball clearing), and this mode is just perfect for taking advantage of my skill set.

Dropshot is definitely the most unique mode of them all. This one is I guess I would say volleyball? Each team has their own side, and your task is to damage the oppositions side by having the ball hit the ground there while you were the last team to touch it. The ball is color coded to make it clear who was the last team to touch it. A single tile takes two hits before the tile is removed, and that offers up goal opportunities for the opposing team. If you hit the ball and it lands on your side, there is no damage done, but if you hit it on your side where the floor was removed, then it will result in an own goal. Even though the aerial game is probably the most crucial here out of all the modes in the game, I still love this game to death. Im great with anticipation and have a knack for directional hitting that make me a great defender and sometimes sneaky and underrated source of offense. Sometimes I play one of the standard soccer games/tournaments or a limited time event, but I probably play Rumble/Snow Day/Dropshot 90% of the time.

If theres one thing that saddens me about the game is how lame other players are in terms of vehicle customization. You can customize a lot. You can choose a body, decal paint finish, color combination, wheels, boost smoke/form, topper and antenna. You can also select non-vehicle related areas like your nickname, player card background, goal celebration, and more. I go fully goofy and fun. Am I going to have an oversized 10 gallon hat topper with pizza wheels, a holiday sweater decal and a goal explosion that sends out a storm cloud with a face. You bet your ass I am! Whenever I play ranked mode, which sadly is most of the time because that is now the only way to play Rumble/Snow Day/Dropshot, I am met with people who go for an edgy or cool look and dont use toppers or antennas and seldom use crazy wheels or decals.

I know Games as a Service is something that I feel like B8 views negatively, but I honestly am glad they exist given the generally short lifespan of multiplayer games from generations ago. Rocket League has now been out for six years, and it is still going strong with no signs of slowing down even as hundreds or even thousands of online multiplayer games have come since to potentially wrestle players away from it.

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21. Beavis and Butt-Head (SNES, 1994)


I like the concept of beat 'em ups a lot, especially from a multiplayer perspective, but, and maybe it's because of the coin-op arcade origins, the majority of those that I have played are creatively limited. They can be fun yeah, but aside from bosses, it is roughly the same experience from start to finish. Lasting appeal is almost a foreign concept for the genre, almost being the operative word as Beavis and Butt-Head is unlike any beat 'em up that I've played that was equally fun solo or with a partner.

I've watched only a little of Beavis and Butt-Head, but I still feel like they nailed the aesthetic and tone of the series. The game is just wacky and dumb from start to finish. You are free to choose one of four levels to begin (a fifth one opens up after the first four are completed), and each one is highly distinct from the rest due to its level design, enemy variety, and scripted events. You might be pushing a medical stretcher through an x-ray room shooting IV bag liquid to avoid obstacles. You might be jumping from trampoline to trampoline to avoid vicious dogs using a boxing glove on a stick. You might be hopping on pogo sticks to attack tiny, aggressive insects. These are just samples of the absurd situations that you will take part in that you just dont see in beat em ups.

Playing just a portion of one level is all you need to see that a lot of thought went into crafting this game. The game was truly impossible to predict what they would throw at you next, and that was the beauty of it.

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20. AER: Memories of Old (PC, 2017)


When I was a kid, many of my gaming purchases were of games that I did extensive research on. As I started going to college and beyond, the more going into a game virtually blind appealed to me. Some series, like Super Mario and Hitman, I would completely ignore any articles about a new game and would just buy it because I was always going to and really wanted to be surprised by the series that I loved. For the vast majority of games though, I would typically just look at a gameplay trailer if available or head to Youtube and see if someone made a short gameplay video themselves just to give me a basic idea of what I can expect. If it jumped out to me, I would wishlist it on Steam or bookmark the developer/publishers game page. As someone who primarily plays indie games, my approach can make it easy for games to fall through the cracks, which makes it all the more special that AER did not.

AER is an exploration adventure game you play as Auk who is tasked with discovering what is happening to the world. You will ultimately go through a simple and familiar path of finding, gaining access, and going through various ruins, complete a bunch of intuitive platforming and puzzle challenges, and see the end of your quest. It was an effective loop but not what made the game so special to me.

It begins with Auk who has a contract with a bird deity that allows her to transform into a bird at will. Flying around is such a joy. Its easy to change speeds, elevation, and turn. It may be difficult for precision landing when going at fast speeds, but theres no real risk of failure because even though the events of the game are serious and ominous, theres no chance of dying (there is no combat in the game). This encouraged me to play around. Going through clouds gives this neat visual effect, and I liked doing silly stuff like flying really fast and then transforming back into human form to skydive before transforming again to pull back up.

The game utilizes a minimalist, low-poly visual style. Its a style that Ive seen pop up more frequently in the past five or so years, and it is one that I love. Developers Forgotten Key maximized the potential of it in terms of pure aesthetics and character and environmental animations to create a truly breathtaking world that you want to explore.

The game takes place entirely in the sky. I mean, you do go inside ruins, and you can walk around on land, but the world is made up of continents suspended in the sky. Unknown events caused those continents to break apart, so you will come across dozens, maybe even hundreds of islands you can land on. I loved going around to various regions of the world, going to each island and seeing if I could piece together how the continent used to look.

The world-building in this game is incredible, giving you just enough to get a solid base grasp but ambiguous enough to allow you to come up with your own thoughts, feelings, and conclusions. Theres few characters in the game and not much dialogue. They give some exposition, while the environment does the bulk of it. This is a carefully crafted world, and it is chock full of landmarks, dwellings, cultural objects, scrolls, images of the past, and more to give you some insights of the world and its history. Exploring is one of my favorite things to do in a game, and you can be sure that I went through every square inch that I could find. If that isnt your kind of thing, that is okay because most of the world is optional, and you can just do what is required and still get a satisfactory idea of what you experienced based on what you found out about the world.

This was sadly the only game released by Forgotten Key, though I have downloaded the demos of their unreleased games. It is very tough to describe why and how much I love this game. I dont know that I ever will. I just know that I came into this game knowing very little about it and was blown away every step of the way.

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19. Project Gotham Racing 2 (Xbox, 2003)


When I got an Xbox for Christmas in 2004, I was interested in Xbox Live. I decided to go to Best Buy, and they had starter kits available. For around $50, they gave you a year long subscription to XBL, a disc for access to retro games in the original Xbox Live Arcade, a mic, and a game. My choices were Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and Project Gotham Racing 2. I knew that Crimson Skies was well-received, and I was very intrigued with the concept of an online dogfighter. With racing being my favorite genre though, PGR2 was so enticing even though I knew nothing about the game or series. I went with my gut, and I made an excellent decision as PGR2 was one of the defining games of my high school years.

It isn't set up like most racing games from that era. You go through a series of challenges across its three modes, many of which require you to use a certain classification of vehicle. Sometimes you race other drivers, but you just as often do one-lap time trials, drive through cones, keep your speed above a certain mark at certain points in a track, and more along those lines. It's somewhat similar to license tests from Gran Turismo but more complex and meatier thanks to its Kudos system. There's no money in the game, so instead, you purchase things (as well as unlock challenges) through Kudos. As its name suggests, you earn Kudos through remarkable performance, whether that is doing well in the challenges or on-track things like drifting through corners and overtaking opponents. I like simple things that add interesting, non-frustrating elements to a game, and Kudos was just that to me.

Single player was a nice change of pace, but multiplayer is where it's at as the community was phenomenal with its custom modes. Among my favorites was Cat and Mouse almost always played at the famous Nurburgring, the longest course in the game. Here, you played in pairs. One would be a slow vehicle (mouse) that focused on racing. The other would be a fast vehicle (cat) whose sole purpose was to thwart every other team's chances at victory, whether that means purposely crashing into other cats/mice, becoming a well-placed obstacle at inconvenient spots, or whatever tricks you had up your sleeve. The winner was the team whose mouse crossed the finish line first.

My all-time favorite custom game we played was Last Man Standing, usually played on Moscow's KGB Corner. Here, everyone chose the same slow vehicle (Pontiac GTO and Mini Cooper were the most commonly used cars). The very first race was a standard race. At the end of it, the person who came in last was eliminated, and they would become a fast vehicle in subsequent races whose purpose was to attack the racer that is currently in first place. As more people get eliminated, the crazier it gets as you have a bunch of fast cars wreaking havoc on Mini Coopers, or what have you, in the front. With a maximum of eight players in a game, having six fast cars and two slow cars at the end made for one intense finale, especially if you were one of the two competing for victory.

What made this special was that none of these custom games were official or had settings that helped in a variety of ways. It was completely community-driven, and almost everybody was on the same page. If one entered a race on KGB Corner and saw multiple people with GTOs, you just knew it was probably Last Man Standing and knew to select a fast car. Most people had mics in that game though, so someone would generally speak up to let someone who just joined know what was going on. Like a lot of racing games back then, a significant portion of the online players that I came across were in Europe. Even if I joined an Italian, German, or any other group where English wasn't being spoken, I could quickly tell if they were playing any of the famous games and knew what the appropriate action to take given the situation. I always look back on this fondly thinking how special that was.

I also have a vivid memory of some British man telling me that he liked my voice. This was at a point in my life when my self-esteem and body image were at an all-time low because of people making fun of my voice online. This man said that I sounded like John Malkovich. I took that as a compliment then. I'm not sure how I feel about that now.

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18. Banjo-Kazooie (N64, 1998)


For about a decade, Rare was one of the premier developers in the industry and had one of the better transitions into the 3D era. Rares fourth and final game on my ranking is Banjo-Kazooie.

Following in Super Mario 64s path of providing a platformer with a sprawling hub world full of secrets and distinct, open-ended sub-worlds that test you in a myriad of ways to acquire pieces toward your end goal. While not as polished as its inspiration, Banjo-Kazooie went above and beyond and in crafting its own identity in the process, they created one special experience.

I didnt really know what to expect after leaving the intro world, Spiral Mountain, as I entered a mountain head shaped like the fantastic antagonist Gruntilda, but Gruntildas Lair might be the best platforming hub world? I feel like there arent that many platformers that even have one, especially now, but Rare totally knocked it out of the park. It wasnt merely a connector to all worlds, but it was treated as its own world, offering its own Jiggies, platforming challenges, and puzzles. Most, if not all, the sub-worlds even have an effect on Gruntildas Lair. I will never forget being blown away as an 8 or 9-year-old as one of the sub-worlds contained a button that raised Gruntildas eyes in her floor mural back in the lair, and by forcing them back down resulted, I got a Jiggy. BK had a ton of little touches like that I look back at quite fondly.

The sub-worlds are lively and the environments were crafted with a lot of care to fit the theme. Perhaps its collect-a-thon nature enhances this, but theres something about exploring the boundaries of places like Treasure Trove Cove and Bubblegloop Swamp just to see whats out there since they meticulously crafted them from end to end. There may be nothing, a few small trinkets, a Jiggy (comparable to SM64s stars for those unaware) or even danger. No matter the outcome, I didnt come away disappointed as I found an answer to my curiosity.

Who can talk about Banjo-Kazooie without mentioning the kooky characters that reside in this charmingly bizarre universe? In most games, having a bunch of dimwitted, callous, and/or disgusting characters might be a major turnoff, but not here, and their humorous gibberish speak (I sort of regret revealing what was behind the curtain when they gave interviews in Rare Replay) goes a long way to make them likable and memorable as each character has a unique voice.

While the rest of the series ended up being good games, and I commend Rare for not playing it safe and just going for it, none of them held a candle to the original. Because Jiggies are one-shot, meaning you cant go through obtaining them again, you have to replay the game in order to re-experience the parts that you loved the most. For Banjo-Kazooie, I would, and have, gladly do it all again.

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17. The Saboteur (Xbox 360, 2009)


Pandemic Studios was quite the underrated developer in its 11 year history. Most notable for the Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans, and Star Wars Battlefront series, their swan song, The Saboteur, was their finest work.

The Saboteur is an action-adventure game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto that takes place in WWII-era occupied France. You play as Sean, an Irish race car driver, as the consequences of his actions and the events around him force him to become the titular role. I am a huge sucker for 2000s-era open-world games, and The Saboteurs World War II-occupied France was a great one. It was the perfect size and featured a lot of urban and rural environments. In the beginning, most of the world was in a striking black-and-white art style. Sure it can actually lead to some unnecessary hecticness in combat, but it was a small price to pay. True to its period are the weapons and vehicles at your disposal. Like many games from that era, they copied and made the climbing style mimic Assassin's Creed. Not as good as the real thing, but it was one of the better efforts out there.

While it is pretty standard stuff, the game is a lot of fun to play, and an experience I like to go back to every few years. However, there is one real reason why my feelings toward this game keep rising and rising over time, all the way to a Top 20 ranking here: This is probably the most satisfying Nazi-destroying game. There are plenty of games/series, most notably Wolfenstein, about giving Nazis what they deserve, but it is underwhelming that while you tend to kill a ton of Nazis, they will always come back and you dont seem to be putting a dent in their numbers/operations. The Saboteur to me was a godsend. While the Nazis do have a seemingly endless supply of them, that isnt the focus here. You are a saboteur! Around Paris and the French countryside are hundreds and hundreds of opportunities to screw over the Nazis efforts, reduce their influence, and eventually drive them out. Theres propaganda objects to destroy like speakers and statues, military efforts to blow up like AA guns, radar stations, and armored vehicles, as well as VIPs to assassinate like generals.

That shit doesnt return. If you destroy a fuel station, it isnt coming back. Finally, I could give the middle finger to the Nazis hundreds of times and see the fruit of my labor whenever I wanted.

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It has already been two weeks since my last update? Looks like I need to make another push soon
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