Board 8 > Epyo's Top 100 Games of All Time (with write-ups)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Oh! Page 5! Time for a recap:

100-Winigolf
99-Fall Guys
98-Desktop Tower Defense
97-Desert Golfing
96-Riven
95-Minesweeper
94-Unpacking
93-Doom 3
92-Golf Peaks
91-Hydro Thunder
90-Zelda: A Link to the Past
89-Dusk
88-Trials Evolution
87-Yoku's Island Express
86-Darwinia
85-Wii Sports Resort (Mostly Table Tennis)
84-Sonic Adventure 2
83-Day of the Tentacle
82-Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
81-Pac-Man Arrangement (Arcade Version)
80-Ristar (Genesis Version)
79-Stardew Valley
78-Forager
77-Splatoon
76-Duck Game
75-Super Mario Maker
74-San Francisco Rush 2049 (Dreamcast)
73-F-Zero GX
72-Trackmania (2020 Version)
71-Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
70-Resident Evil: VIIIage
69-World of Goo
68-Metroid Zero Mission
67-Metroid Fusion
66-Halo
65-Defense Grid: The Awakening
64-A Short Hike
63-Minecraft
62-Metroid Prime
61-Doom Eternal
60-Lords of Thunder (Turbografx CD Version)
59-Pokemon Snap
58-Diablo 3
57-Graceful Explosion Machine
56-WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgame$
55-Boktai: The Sun Is In Your Hand
54-Hearthstone
53-What Remains of Edith Finch
52-Super Mario World
51-Metal Gear Solid V
50-New Super Mario Bros. U
49-Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
48-Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
47-Golf Story
46-Sonic Mania
45-Into the Breach
44-Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
43-Resident Evil 4
42-Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
41-Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
40-Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
39-Overcooked!
38-Bubble Bobble (NES Version)
37-Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
36-Jackbox Party Pack (all)
35-Resident Evil 2 (2019)
34-Metal Gear Solid 2
33-Contradiction: Spot the Liar!
32-Steep
31-Rollercoaster Tycoon
30-Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil
29-Team Fortress 2
28-Castlevania III
27-Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
26-Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
25-Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
24-Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)
23-Shadowhand
22-Hades
21-We <3 Katamari
20-Tunic
19-Mini Motorways
18-Final Fantasy 7
17-Portal 2
16-Plants vs. Zombies

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A couple of boring picks are up next though:

#15 Super Mario Odyssey

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/7/6/AABIPnAADnH0.jpg

Mario Odyssey takes the idea of a childhood "easter egg hunt" and applies it to wide open mario playgrounds, but with SO many cleverly placed eggs, you start laughing by the end of the game, when you realize every 10 square feet had at least seven eggs.

I especially love how the game is structured like Tony Hawk's Underground: you globetrot across the world to various themed kingdoms, which are really just giant platforming playgrounds, where you accomplish minor challenges totally at your leisure, or just chill out and jump around on things.

And similar to Tony Hawk's Underground: crucially, you are NOT pulled out of the level after you do anything. Getting pulled out of levels all the time, was *starting* to make mario games unplayable, especially the Mario Galaxy ones.

Lastly, huge props to some of this game's climactic moments, such as the Jump Up Superstar part, which made me completely cry. It's not sad or anything, I just found it really beautiful. Maybe I just love a good heartfelt song at the right moment. It's a great celebration of video games, and so is the game as a whole.

BEST LEVEL: Lost Kingdom, it's cool how you're marooned there, and the slime is maroon. I know most people don't like it, but I like how packed and dense it is with stuff, almost like a Captain Toad level. And I love those accordion caterpillars!

I don't think of PvZ as a RTS. I mean, it *is*, by definition, but it kinda kicked off the whole tower defense thing. (Not literally, but they were pretty niche.) I've played quite a few TDS games since that probably wouldn't have existed without PvZ, even if I've never really played the original.

And SMO might be a "boring" pick, but considering I just watched somebody play through it for the first time, I'm happy to see it here.

I just like to think of Tower Defense as a sub-genre of RTS, that way I can say there are plenty of games I like in the RTS genre. ...'Cause without tower defense, it's hard to think of any :(

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#14 Final Fantasy 7: Remake

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/1/AABIPnAADnNX.jpg

I love remakes, and I'd probly say FF7R is the best remake ever. They made the best FF7 stuff bigger and better (Midgar), and threw out the rest (everything after Midgar).

It's kinda hard to go back to other ARPG combat after FF7R. You're swapping between characters mid-battle, each with a vastly different fighting style and unique abilities; you're constantly refining your materia loadout between every battle; you're analyzing the best strategy for every new enemy type you encounter. It's hard, so it's worth diving into the systems!!

I didn't know it was possible to make characters in a video game *this likable*. The main characters' models are the best looking I've ever seen in a game, and their personalities are super lovable. They did a much better job bringing out Aerith's silly personality.

Most of all Barret, I thought was a lame charicature in the original; but here, I fist pumped whenever he'd give one of his environmentalist speeches (regardless of their corninesss or naivety). One of my favorite moments in the game is when Barret gives one of these speeches, alone, to the player really, before walking into the game's finale.

I also thought the story "changes" they made, away from the original, were 100% genius, but I don't want to spoil those.

BEST PART: Chapter 4, a brand new big sneaking mission, with just Cloud, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. They're a riot in this game, I love them.

OK let's finish off the day with an actual GOOD game

#13 Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/2/0/AABIPnAADnQU.jpg

The most insidious classic Castlevania enemy, is NOT the Medusa Head. It's the Crow. Crows follow some 500 IQ algorithm, that geniusly avoids your every attack.

But in Rondo of Blood... *every enemy acts like a Crow*!!! They all move and act by considering YOUR position, so they all feel galaxy brain at juking you and spacing you.

This makes the combat extra rewarding; you really can't play on auto-pilot, you have to watch the enemy, and keep re-positioning yourself, to juke them back. No janky gimmicks necessary, like lock-on, dodge rolls, invincibility frames. Just careful self positioning, and striking at the right moment.

So yeah the combat rocks, but then add one of the best soundtracks ever, some great cool pixel art, some godlike parallax (I looove me some parallax), some Castlevania atmosphere, and an astounding number of secrets (probably more than 50% of the game's content is "secret"), and you've got a masterpiece.

BEST LEVEL: Alternate Level 2, it's a long bridge level with lots of parallax, and the sun slowly sets while you play. Also there are TWO secret exits, what?? Also the song, "Cross a Fear", is awesome.

I tried FF7R at a friend's. I couldn't really get into it. Maybe if I had stuck with it longer, but I fought two bosses, both of which took an eternity, and the rest of the gameplay was...I guess it was okay? Certainly pretty and polished.

Yeah I've heard that a lot, maybe it's not for everyone!

I will say, I'm not 100% sure I necessarily LOVE the ff7r combat... But rather, I find the combat very engaging--like, easy to learn, really hard to master.

Even after playing through it twice, and watching a couple streamers play through as well (that's how I re-enjoy games I really like), I still walk out of half my battles, saying to myself "welp...that coulda gone better", and then diving into menus to see if I wanna tweak anything.

...Also Cloud's sword sound effect rocks IMO.

#12 Overwatch

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/7/AABIPnAADncx.jpg

In a vacuum, removing all context, and removing all other players, Overwatch should be around #5 on this list.

The characters are irresistably lovable, from their personalities, to their looks, and jaw droppingly cool cosmetic skins--and of course their really cool guns and abilities, which are strategically facsinating, super satisfying, and there are tons of 'em.

The superior engine make it very hard to go back to Team Fortress 2. OW at 240fps feels better than real life.

The maps are gorgeously detailed and very well-designed gameplay-wise, IMO even the worst OW maps, are better designs than the best TF2 maps, which were absurdly chokepointy.

(Exception: actually TF2's koth_harvest_final is still my fav KOTH map, of either game.)

However...we're not in that vacuum. The community takes the game way too seriously, and the obsession with "team composition" is so annoying (I blame the game's design itself); and there's this whole Overwatch 2 debacle, starving Overwatch 1 of content for years. (I do have extremely high hopes for OW2 PVE modes if they ever actually come out, though!!)

BEST LEVEL: So hard to choose!! But I will go with a free for all deathmatch map, "Chteau Guillard", a beautiful mansion at an autumnal lake. It's a surprisingly intricate house, and fun to learn how the various floors connect.

Gotta go Illios

I'm a Roadhog main and NOTHING in the game feels better than pulling someone into thepit

Overwatch in its prime is definitely one of the most fun games I've ever played.

The ilios pit level is totally genius, definitely a contender for best map. Just a hilarious time!!

I worked so hard to make this write-up not long, but it's still a bit long. I love this game too much!

#11 Hexen

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/5/2/AABIPnAADne4.jpg

Hexen is the combination of (1) Castlevania 3, (2) Metroid Prime, and (3) Doom.

(1) The aesthetic is very Castlevania 3: grim and gothic, with dark caves, ruins, gritty castles, magical weapons, and hordes of strange fantasy creatures to kill. It also has 3 different classes, for extra replay value--also very Castlevania 3!

(2) The exploring is like Metroid Prime. Each of the 5 acts, is its own little Metroidvania of like 4 or 5 interconnected levels. Reaching a new act is SUPER FUN, usually 1-2 hours of non-stop exploring, fighting, and gathering keys! THEN the annoying part, hunting for the last key you need to unlock the next act.

(3) Lastly, it's an FPS on the Doom engine, and I just love the way that engine looks and feels, especially modern high framerate versions like GZDoom.

Hexen has my favorite weapons of any shooter, period. The best example is the Cleric's "Wraithverge". It shoots out a group of violent screaming ghosts, which chase down hordes of enemies, pretty much one-shotting anything they pass through. It's ridiculous.

I hated this game first ~3 times I tried it, but I'm glad I kept trying, because now I play it like once a year!

BEST ACT: The expansion's first act, "Blight". It feels so huge! You're fighting and exploring for like 2.5 hours, totally directionless, without running out of threads to follow. What game does that?? There's also a cave level, and Hexen has great caves.

I remember when Heretic came out for shareware demo, and I just didn't get into it. I already couldn't run Doom on my computer and had an initial predilection against early FPS games. It did look pretty cool, though.

My parents didn't buy me commercial games, though, so I certainly was never going to play this one.

Well, TBH you didn't miss much with Heretic, I kinda hate Heretic. It's really just Doom but uglier, and with consumables, that make you feel bad if you hoard them and never use them, OR also make you feel bad if you use them and waste them.

----------------------------------

last castlevania of the list!

#10 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/3/3/AABIPnAADnuN.jpg

What's up with that telescope at the bottom of the Outer Wall? And the bird nest there, too? What's up with the chapel confessional? What the HECK is up with the Diplocephalus creatures in Marble Gallery? What in the world is a granfalloon?

Every room you enter, you have no idea what you're going to get. My hunch is that Konami gathered a handful of immensely passionate and creative artists+programmers, and pretty much said "I dunno, do whatever you want, have fun!" And with glee, they delivered a MESS of creativity, with seemingly no central leadership!

Just look at Alucard's walk animation. Somebody really, really, really, poured their heart and soul into that. That wasn't somebody just getting paid.

The soundtrack as well, it's all over the place--nobody was telling Michiru Yamane what to do, she just did wtf she wanted. AND IT OWNS. Another top 5 game soundtrack.

There are downsides too though. The game's balance is whack, and where to go next is never clear. The pause menus are a prototype, presumably because nobody cared to work on it. But the creative beauty of the game overpowers all of this!

BEST LEVEL: Impossible question...I will go with the Royal Chapel. Fighting up that 10-screen long staircase and up all those crow-infested towers, are interesting challenges.

#9 Celeste

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/7/7/AABIPnAADnwd.jpg

Throughout this list, I've been advocating (begging) for more high quality "action games without combat", and I reckon Celeste is the all-time champion of this genre.

Sure, gameplay-wise, it's basically another IWTBTG, Super Meat Boy, etc. But Celeste's level of polish, is what blows me away. The pixel art, the difficulty (high skill but forgiving!), the soundtrack, the story, the atmosphere...

...Not only are those elements 10/10 individually, but they synergize super well--the dynamic music changes almost every screen, the story twists are impressively well-represented in the gameplay and mechanics, the atmosphere matches the story beats and climaxes, etc. I've never seen a game so cohesive.

It might be my favorite video game story. You can say it's just another game about anxiety or something, but I say it's about ANY type of internal conflict. That's a hard thing to make a game about. I only love stories if they're highly relatable, and this one is.

BEST LEVEL: Chapter 6, Reflection. The 3 threads of story, gameplay, and music, all come together with perfect synergy, for one of the most thrilling climaxes I can think of in video games.

I need to go back and actually play Celeste. I had one session and never picked it back up again for whatever reason.

You should try again!! The main story campaign is quite short, and the later chapters are really neato.

UltimaterializerX posted...

What a write up. Nicely said.

You always, always know when a game was made with love.

Thanks, I appreciate it! Uggg these are really hard to write.

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#8 The Outer Wilds (and DLC)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/4/AABIPnAADnyc.jpg

Admittedly, Outer Wilds is NOT for everyone. It's self-directed exploration, to a fault. You have to WANT to like it, to WANT to crash your ship and die over and over, to WANT to decide what to investigate next.

But, most people who do want those things, usually end up agreeing, "yep, that might be the best game ever made."

Outer Wilds fixes the "Myst" genre, by having a mystery that is awesome. Like awe-inspiring. Many pieces of the story you uncover are eureka moments, and then they miraculously make it all of it fit together, to 100% perfect satisfaction.

But who cares if the story is good if you're not having fun right away? Well luckily, the game's planets are breathtaking FEATS of imagination and programming. This game gave me the shivers far more often than any horror genre game, just using the astonishing power of nature and physics (and music?).

The DLC is a great addition, maybe even better than the main game. It has some unique tricks up its sleeve that are pretty mind-blowing! Unfortunately, it's common to get stuck, and also the gameplay loop can be annoying. But that's worth looking past, IMO!

BEST PART: My worst goosebumps came from ||spacewalking at the sun station||. It was fundamentally scary, like a fear of heights, or a fear of the bottom of the ocean.

Outer Wilds is probably the game I've recommended to the most people over the last year; it's just incredible in every way

I played Outer Wilds for 2.7 hours, which is enough to get past the initial getting-used-to-it phase, but I found the game's controls annoying to work with and stopped having interest in repiloting my ship out to places to see what they were about. I absolutely hated Myst in 1993 when I was a 13yo trying to figure out what it was after getting sucked in by the graphics, and had hoped that a game that was supposed to be better -- exposed to a version of me with hopefully a bit more maturity and reasoning skills -- would have a more positive outcome. And while I suppose it did, it wasn't enough for me to want to stick it out.

Well then you probably didn't like THIS myst-like either!

#7 The Witness

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/9/AABIPnAADn8N.jpg

Humanity's had a fascination with mazes for a long time, and as a kid I was really into maze books. The problem is, mazes are kinda dumb! But The Witness finally found a way to make mazes actually good puzzles.

I don't really have much to say about the Witness. It's here because of its ~600 really good little bite-sized logic puzzles, that use maze puzzle mechanics I found very unique and satisfying. If you have a good puzzle, your game rules. And if you have, say, 600, your game is an all-time classic.

This does solve a different slight problem with Myst-like games: in those games, there is no consistent interface for puzzles, so you never quite know if you're looking at a puzzle, or what all the inputs are. Not a problem here: if there is a square panel, then there is a puzzle. Simple as that. It is the fairest point and click adventure ever.

There's a secret optional gameplay mechanic (no spoilers), and it's one of my favorite game mechanics ever... But once again, I don't think the game even needed it! It's very cool and legendary though. Especially the fact that you might never find it!

BEST LEVEL: "The Challenge", featuring In the Hall of the Mountain King. A clever climactic last boss.

Oh, I was wondering where the Outer Wilds discussion came from. You must've quoted a certain someone in your #8 post and some people can't see it.

MrSmartGuy posted...

Oh, I was wondering where the Outer Wilds discussion came from. You must've quoted a certain someone in your #8 post and some people can't see it.

lol yep

Woops! well here's outer wilds again. it deserves two posts anyways

#8 The Outer Wilds (and DLC)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/4/AABIPnAADnyc.jpg

Admittedly, Outer Wilds is NOT for everyone. It's self-directed exploration, to a fault. You have to WANT to like it, to WANT to crash your ship and die over and over, to WANT to decide what to investigate next.

But, most people who do want those things, usually end up agreeing, "yep, that might be the best game ever made."

Outer Wilds fixes the "Myst" genre, by having a mystery that is awesome. Like awe-inspiring. Many pieces of the story you uncover are eureka moments, and then they miraculously make it all of it fit together, to 100% perfect satisfaction.

But who cares if the story is good if you're not having fun right away? Well luckily, the game's planets are breathtaking FEATS of imagination and programming. This game gave me the shivers far more often than any horror genre game, just using the astonishing power of nature and physics (and music?).

The DLC is a great addition, maybe even better than the main game. It has some unique tricks up its sleeve that are pretty mind-blowing! Unfortunately, it's common to get stuck, and also the gameplay loop can be annoying. But that's worth looking past, IMO!

BEST PART: My worst goosebumps came from ||spacewalking at the sun station||. It was fundamentally scary, like a fear of heights, or a fear of the bottom of the ocean.

#6 Peggle Nights

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/4/3/AABIPnAADn_j.jpg

Not sure if I've ever heard of someone not liking Peggle.

My first time through Adventure Mode was a casual game delight. I liked the art, the presentation, the sounds (like Ode to Joy, and how the peg sound effects keep going up in pitch, during a combo!!). I liked the ways to get free balls, especially balls from the excellent scoring system.

But it's when I tried out the game's more difficult content, that I really fell in love. Finishing the game's 60 "challenge levels", is one of my favorite video game achievements. I shed a tear when it gave me a giant in-game trophy for it. I really needed that trophy.

You can't just look up a solution to solve the game's harder content, since it's all semi-procedurally generated. Even guides are barely helpful. You just have to have the skill at "eyeballin' it", and making the right mildly strategic decisions.

It is a strategic and skill-based game, BUT, without all the learning and knowledge need to play most strategy games. AND, without all the dexterity needed for skill-based action games! It's an "easy to learn, lifetime to master" casual game masterpiece. (With no time pressure!! Yesss.)

CRAP I didn't have time to talk about how cool the owl's Zen Ball ability is!!!

BEST CHALLENGE LEVEL: The final one, The Decathlon, which hands you 10 random levels, and you must beat them all without failing any of them. It's like a shorter, permadeath version of Adventure Mode. Heckin exciting.

#5 Doom (2016)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/6/5/AABIPnAADoK1.jpg

FPS should be the greatest genre, but designers are so bad at making them. Over the 90s and 00s, they kept getting slower and slower, introducing reloading, headshots, no dodging projectiles, a lot of turtling and sniping from far behind cover.

Doom 2016 completely threw away the playbook and fixed everything about the FPS genre. Speed is BACK, dodging projectiles is BACK, fighting hordes is kinda BACK, secrets are BACK, monster variety is EXTREMELY BACK. And unexpectedly great innovations like glory kills, push forward gameplay, and chainsawing for ammo!

But the #1 reason this is up here, is the synergy of the music and gameplay. The big arena fights are as thrilling as the climactic part of Celeste, but it happens every 10 minutes! This is some SICK METAL, and I love how it dynamically resolves as you finish off the last enemy.

Also I like the story a lot, the opening shoving of the monitor, and other similar bits, really speak to me, and my feelings towards too much story in games.

BEST LEVEL: Level 3, the Foundry, a big cool non-linear 3 dimensional building of catwalks and lava, to explore and conquer in any order you want.

I've meant to try Peggle

#4 Infantry Online

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/5/AABIPnAADoNB.jpg

(Sadly, the official servers were taken down, so you cannot play this game anymore. It is a genuine source of depression for me =/)

This was a top-down isometric class-based shooter, online-only, but with HUGE player counts. We're talking on the scale of 50v50 per match, all on one huge map. And yet, it was made in 1999! It's a mystery of life, how perfectly the game played, despite all of us playing on 56k modems.

It had the only "CTF" game mode rules I've ever enjoyed: your team has to collect the 4 flags, bring them together, then drop them and defend them while they're on the ground for ~3 full minutes, to win. So inevitably you'd drop 'em in any ol' random building, summon everybody, build some turrets, and let the huge battle begin!

OK, now listen to the "CTFX" game mode's rules: same as "CTF", but like 10 teams, with like 8 people each. SO COOL.

The "Gravball" game mode was soccer, with guns...and also you're all on motorcycles??? There were like 15 such awesome game modes.

Meanwhile, each game mode had its own RPG progression between rounds: you'd unlock new classes, buy consumables, and buy and equip weapons. There were like, hundreds of weapons per game mode.

BEST LEVEL: "Mechanized Skirmish at Kliest's Ridge". It used a variant of the above CTF rules, but only immovable flags. Also featured really fun ridable tanks and mechs!

While it doesn't sound like a game I'd enjoy, the epic scale of what they were doing in the early days of the internet makes that sound absolutely ridiculous.

Oh yeah, since you've hit upon another game in my top 10, I get to shamelessly link to the write-up I did for it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79323228?page=1#100

If you have any interest in watching someone else's experience going through Outer Wilds, Vinny from Vinesauce has an incredibly entertaining playthrough of it, and Materwelonz's is very thought-provoking and insightful. Would highly recommend.

Poor Batman Japan will never be him

MrSmartGuy posted...

Oh yeah, since you've hit upon another game in my top 10, I get to shamelessly link to the write-up I did for it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79323228?page=1#100

If you have any interest in watching someone else's experience going through Outer Wilds, Vinny from Vinesauce has an incredibly entertaining playthrough of it, and Materwelonz's is very thought-provoking and insightful. Would highly recommend.

Oh yeah, I've watched 3-ish streamers play through outer wilds, it's almost as fun as playing it! That's how I get my continued enjoyment of games after I've beaten um. Not a fan of vinesauce, but maybe I'd like the other one. Maybe it's about time for another watchthrough.

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warning: my last 3 picks are pretty boring

#3 World of Warcraft

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/3/9/AABIPnAADoYf.jpg

So hard to make a write-up for this game, since it's by far my most played game, at 5,030 hours by my last check, over the last 18 years. I guess I'll try to pick just 3 things!

1: The timelessly beautiful art design, of the zones and characters. It's like a pixar movie but better. Over the years, the self-hating fanbase has denounced (fairly) pretty much every aspect of the game, EXCEPT, the art. Nobody ever has a bad word to say about the art! And it just gets better and better!

2: The zone/map system... I loooove entering a new WoW zone for the first time, seeing all the cool sights, and slowly uncovering its beautiful illustrated map as I devour the content.

3: The classes. The devs talk about how important the "Class Fantasy" is to the game's ongoing success, and they're so right. All the classes feel lovable and unique, and there's basically an impressive ~40 of them, now that each class is divided into 2-4 "specs" each of which might as well be a separate class!

BEST LOOKING LEVEL: "Best level" is too hard, so I'll instead choose "best looking", which is definitely "Revendreth" from the latest Shadowlands expansion. It's a zone made entirely out of castles. Instead of terrain...it's castles. How did they do it???

18 years. Good lord, has WoW really been out that long? (Spoilers: it has.)

The scarier part is that I had more hours /played on EverQuest in TWO years than that. And then I moved on to WoW at launch...albeit I played far less than 12 hours per day.

WoW was great to play when it started. I came back just to play a character to level 15 for some Hearthstone promotion, and I had no idea what I was doing. They screwed up all the classes, the starting areas I knew were destroyed from Cataclysm. Maybe it was still good to the people playing it then, but it absolutely ruined my nostalgia. Y'know, until WoW classic came out. I rushed levels and got to cap ahead of everyone else on my server except one dude who literally didn't sleep.

TBF, the game you've played the most of is probably not going to be your #1. It's just the most replayable game you enjoy or the game that has the highest time commitment.

azuarc posted...

18 years. Good lord, has WoW really been out that long? (Spoilers: it has.)

The scarier part is that I had more hours /played on EverQuest in TWO years than that. And then I moved on to WoW at launch...albeit I played far less than 12 hours per day.

Lolllllll OMG that is a lot. Man, something about EQ seems really dangerous. My brother also had a pretty outrageous amount of EQ hours in the times before WoW, dunno if it was as much as yours though. But indeed a scary amount.

They screwed up all the classes, the starting areas I knew were destroyed from Cataclysm. Maybe it was still good to the people playing it then, but it absolutely ruined my nostalgia.

Yeah I definitely felt like a piece of my soul was taken away, when they reworked my favorite zones in cataclysm. E.g. barrens, silverpine, stv.

Now that I think about it, I half-heartedly played all those mid-era WoW expansions, but I didn't really start loving modern WoW again, until Classic came out. Maybe I was finally able to forgive them after that. (These days I play both classic and modern wow, I'm fully onboard with both.)

DragonGargoyle posted...

I've only played the game a little bit like a decade ago, but I still remember the atmosphere/aesthetics/character designs. I was mostly playing as a Draenei during MoP, idk if that's one the stronger places aesthetically, but I loved it

If you got to the actual Pandaria continent in MoP, yeah that was really popular aesthetically, all the cool east asian architecture and landscape.

I wonder what #2 and #1 games are, that are able to top something like that lol

Yeah it's interesting that my #2 and #1 I haven't played as much. But I bet that's true of most people's lists huh!!

And just for fun, I decided to think about my most-played games and where they are on the list:

I think my 2nd most-played game is Team Fortress 2 (29th on the list), around 2300 hours

I think my 3rd most-played game is probably Minecraft (63rd on the list), but only if we count how much I've watched it on Youtube, which is a LOT.

I think my 4rd most-played is be the #1 game on the list, no idea how many hours though.

I think my 5th most-played game is Overwatch (12th on the list) at around 600 hours. Although hmmmm, I've watched hundreds of hours of streams, and Overwatch League... this might actually add up to more than TF2.

I think my 6th most played game is #2 on the list, at around 300 hours (plus probably ~150 hours of streams watched).

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#2 Zelda: Breath of the Wild

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/0/AABIPnAADoca.jpg

We're all sick of talking about Breath of the Wild, so I'll make this brief.

Most of my life, I've fantasized about the idea of 3D Zelda games (or any 3D sword adventure, like Skyrim!!), until I actually sit down to play them, then I despise pretty much everything about them. The slow starts, the hand holding, the dialogue, the chests with only rupees and trash. And #1 most of all, the invisible walls.

Not literally invisible walls, but the exploration blockers. You can't sail over there yet, there's a strange wind. You can't cross that gap, you don't have the hookshot. You can't find anything in that cave yet, you don't have the QUEST. Come back later.

That's the magic of Breath of the Wild, it never tells you to "Come back later". I can finally truly WANDER.

The game design may have been punished in other ways because of this design choice...but this is the only design choice that actually mattered to me. I want to walk in the woods and find cool things, by my own self-direction!!!

BEST PART: The optional underground areas of Hyrule Castle. Lots of rad secrets to find, it's like a little castlevania game down there, complete with crazy good castlevania-worthy music.

I don't own a switch, so I had limited access to begin with, but I got to try BotW and...it was okay for a little bit? I got to the end of the tutorial area, glided down off the plateau, and proceeded to get owned by every moblin I encountered. I had 3 hearts and everything that hit me did 2. I didn't have enough command of the controls to not get hit during combat. Tremendously offputting. Plus, I will swear up and down until the day that I die that the worst part of any game with weapon durability is the weapon durability. That is a mechanic that I detest in every iteration and incarnation I have ever encountered, and BotW does not earn a pass there. Spending the opening hours fighting with 6 different tree branches unless I decide to break out my "good" weapon -- a lumberjack axe -- is just not appealing.

Ironically, BotW and a desire for what it could have been is the reason I started playing Genshin Impact...which is a gacha game, for chrissakes. So clearly there was something here I wanted. But I didn't get it from Zelda.

Yeah it's not a game about combat, IMO, not for me anyway. It's a reset on what an action adventure is. In a real adventure, you wouldn't want to fight every enemy you see, it's dangerous and a drain on resources. ...But this is not how most video games have trained us.

okay time to end it

#1 Doom (Classic)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/2/5/AABIPnAADon5.jpg

FPS games really only got worse after Doom. Games gave you fewer and fewer enemies to fight at once. Monster variety got much worse, infighting removed. Dodging projectiles went away. Looking up and down is actually bad--it inspired devs to introduce skill/precision mechanics, like headshots, that are overpowered compared to pure player tactics and wit!

I believe, in a list like this, you can't pick a #1 for its story, or its graphics, or its addictive RPG stat-building, etc. Those are all fun things, and can get a game high on a list! But #1's gotta be all about the gameplay, because that's what makes gaming special. Preferrably juicy action gameplay.

Yep, I really think it's the best playing FPS that exists, right now!! (Ehh maybe only in a modern port of the game, like "GZDoom", in software rendering mode, 144+ fps, jumping disabled, no looking up/down.)

OK, Doom 1 & 2's level design, is not always amazing. However, I'm including custom level packs and mods in this #1 ranking (since the devs designed the game to support these!). And Doom's community has produced 30 years of masterful level design--a community that is stronger than ever, even today!!

OK, nostalgia MIGHT be at play here--from age like 6 to 14, Doom was pretty much all I thought about, every day, all day. When we first got the internet when I was ~12, the first thing I wanted to do was download custom doom levels.

In fact, I think I owe my adult career in software development, to doom. I learned how to write code, when I was learning to make custom doom levels when I was 12-14 years old, and I wanted to use zdoom's scripting language to improve my levels!

BEST LEVEL: Limiting myself to just Doom 1, I'll go with E3M6, Mt. Erebus. It's a really interesting design, just a very wide open, non-linear level, of islands and buildings, in a lava lake. Big fights against hordes! And the first ever rocket jump secret.

This was an excellent thread, good job

Loved this ranking too, excellent work! I love the original DOOM.

Excellent list

Any HMs youd care to mention?

Ohhh thanks for the nice words and thanks for reading everyone!

And please do make more lists like this, anyone reading this--it is my favorite part of Board 8. I think the first one I read, was one by Not Dave like 10 years ago, probably NES only, and I think Metal Storm was at the top, which was such a weird pick, was very fun.

Anyway sure, I've got some honorable mentions bonus content!

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These first 2 probably would have made the list if I had thought of them in time, but I didn't:

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain (Switch) (Just really good solo short minigames that are fun to get better at.)

Wiz 'n' Liz (Genesis Version) (Super weird game, love the feature where you mix any two fruits together, and something crazy happens for each combination, like you get to play "SPLAT THOSE DUDES" minigame.)

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This honorable mention probably would have made the list, but I haven't played it in like 12 years because my PS2s never can read the disc, so I can't confirm it's as good as I remember:

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (PS2) (I'm pretty sure I love this Day of the Tentacle esque time travel action game, especially the Mont-Saint-Michel level.)

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And these honorable mentions I had in the list at some point, but just missed the #100 mark:

Warlords (Arcade Version) (Really underrated classic local-multiplayer competitive pong-like game.)

Lethal League (PC) (The closest thing to a fighting game I've ever liked.)

Super Meat Boy (Used to like it, but after [#9] Celeste, I will never go back.)

Blazing Lazers (Turbografx) (Another favorite vertical shmup of mine, but not quite as good as [#60] Lords of Thunder.)

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And here is the lost Mario Galaxy 2 write-up that I finished writing when it was #75 or whatever it was, and then I changed my mind and removed it from the list entirely:

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Visually, it's a masterpiece. They made outer space look even cooler than it already is. The gravity mechanics are so brilliant, that it's hard to be interested in other 3d platformers after playing this one.

I adore the game, but... the game never keeps me interested for super long. The levels feel pretty linear. Which could be fine if there are really interesting obstacles to overcome...but there rarely are. And if there *is* something difficult, well, if you fail, you're gonna get sent back to a checkpoint, which can be pretty far away! Suddenly I wanna take a break and never come back.

Which I think is a big recurring problem with the game--there are too many opportunities to quit playing. After every star, you get sent back to the hub, which takes forever, then from there you get sent to the map, then *finally* you're back in a level...but a lot of the levels are like 2 minutes long! Now you have to do it all again!! (Galaxy 1 was even worse about this, i HATE that Galaxy 1 hub.)

Also the bee suit just SUCKS. Kinda ruins the game with how boring it is.

Masterpiece anyway tho.

oh whoa haha, was not expecting that mention

this was a fun read - some really neat games

Good topic -- DOOM was a classic and I don't expect it to be many people's #1 nowadays, but it did carry an intensity few games can match.

Epyo posted...

Super Meat Boy (Used to like it, but after [#9] Celeste, I will never go back.)

Both are great, but I can always go back to SMB and still prefer it. The End Is Nigh is good too if you haven't tried it yet.

notdave posted...

oh whoa haha, was not expecting that mention

this was a fun read - some really neat games

Very on brand

This topic definitely made me consider doing one

bump

Great list, fun to read. Shame Onimusha 3 didn't make the list - if ever a game needed a remake/re-release, that's one.