My Top 101 Games - (Primarily Written) for HG101
Sept 10, 2009 3:45:49 GMT -5
Post by kitten on Sept 10, 2009 3:45:49 GMT -5
Please read this forward before reading any further.
Before I expect anyone to actually read through this list, I want to explain to them exactly what my idea of a "top games list" actually means. Many people have many ideas about what they are, and, even when given a description of what they mean to the author, often form their own ideas about them, anyway. Be that as it may, I still want to make it known that I don't think it's possible for anyone to come up with a truly (or perhaps even remotely) concrete list of favorite anything. This is the third time I'll have done such an expansive list for video games (I'm thinking about making it a somewhat annual thing), and it probably won't be the last, as there are always changes and shifts in the order of things.
People's opinions constantly change, and those opinions can grow in many different directions as time passes. I think it's nearly impossible to judge a game entirely objectively, and I think it's impossible for one's own subjective views to remain so constant that any arrangement of their "favorites" would ever be near permanent. Whether it be because I've played new games that I enjoyed, that I become fonder of a game after replaying it, or that I become less fond of a game because of finding fault in it I hadn't seen before, my list will never remain constant. On top of that, my list is coming straight from my experiences and perspective, so I don't expect people to agree with them, but I do hope to illustrate where I'm coming from in a way that they can understand.
So, what's the point of even making this list, you might ask? Well, I love games - always have, always will - and I love expressing my opinions. It only makes sense that I'd want to share my opinions on my favorite games and help spread the love. I really only got big into getting back into old school gaming a few short years ago, largely thanks to a certain Rob Strangman and Mike Plaskett, both of whom I really hope I express gratitude towards enough to let them know how much they've helped me develop my taste. I think everyone's taste in everything has some degree of outside influence, so I hope that, deep down, my love for games will help others love the games that I do, as well. Many of these games I would not have played without the suggestion of friends, and I owe them a lot for that.
In a sense, I suppose that I think by making these lists, and by trying to make them entertaining to read, I hope to give back to the gaming community in the same way that it gave to me. Rob's list on the OPCFG and both Rob's and Mike's constant encouragement to get me to play more older games have helped further my enthusiasm for games, so the idea that I could help encourage others to play more really gives me a bit of a sense of fulfillment. So, if you're uncomfortable with the title of the list being "My top 101 games," just think of it as "101 games I love, and hope other people will love, attemptedly arranged in an order of perceived quality."
A lot of different qualities go into the reasoning behind why I ordered the list the way that I did. Perhaps I was fond of it as a child and it left a profound impact on me (I have deliberately left out some games like this, however, as I acknowledge they're somewhat poor, today), perhaps I just finished it recently and found it to be a blast, perhaps I just loved the soundtrack and presentation - whatever the reason, I hope to detail it... So, if you do have intent on questioning why ______ was in X spot, please read the description of it, first. I wanted this to be more of an entertaining read than anything.
I don't mind debate or questioning of my ordering, though! It's through that kind of debate and discussion that I find deeper appreciation for certain games and learn to further develop my taste and how well I can judge. So, any comments are welcome, so long as they're not just blatantly derogatory.
(Notice that sometimes the publisher is listed if it was developed in-house, and sometimes the developer, if it wasn't, or if it was published by a studio I found notable. Also notice that I only list "various others" for the console the game was on if I played it on more than one of those).
(Also, this article is almost entirely spoiler-free, with the small number of spoilers present usually regarding endings to rather short games that have very little plot to begin with)
Please, please read them in order! It's written so that it is meant to be read that way... And here we go -
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101. Super Smash Bros. Melee
(GC) Nintendo
This was, in all honesty, one of the last, first-party Nintendo games that I really felt was a truly good game. The single-player adventure mode reeked of love for all Nintendo games past, and the frantic, fast-paced multiplayer was entertaining enough for me and my friends to gather around the Gamecube for several hours a week, every week. I did not feel that the game went out of its way to pander to any sort of demographic, and had a sort of universal appeal that I feel that most newer Nintendo games have been missing.
It's a darn shame that the sequel failed to improve on anything and ruined the single-player by failing to utilize loads of properties from Nintendo IP's that could have drastically improved the presentation... Though, the awful fighting-game-meets-platformer genre mix of the single-player probably meant nothing could save it, regardless of how well it was presented. I won't let that taint my memories of how much I enjoyed Melee, however.
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100. Shatterhand
(NES) Natsume
Shatterhand is an interesting title in that it differs greatly from its Japanese counterpart, which was a licensed game. Regardless of which version was planned first and modified for its release in the other territory, the NTSC version is the one I will always hold in high regard. Like many NES games, the story isn't anything truly amazing, but the presentation they managed to pull of for this one was highly impressive... It felt like everything that was right about that era of gaming. Not only was the style of it impressive, but the gameplay was incredibly solid, too - Great platforming, fun bosses, Mega Man-esque stage select, and a very short, but fulfilling ending.
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99. Revenge of Shinobi
(Genesis) Sega
I can remember back when I first played this game with my (at the time) best friend on his Genesis... It was nightmarishly difficult, to me, and we had to use a gameshark to get to the last stage - and, even then, we couldn't get the good ending. I thought it was a frustrating, poorly programmed game that mostly sold on account of something as cool as "Shinobi" being in the name, and didn't play it again for many years.
Coming back to it, I discovered the pacing was deliberate, and, when played as its own game, rather than comparing it to other games I felt it was trying to "copy," I discovered it was a real joy to play. Revenge of Shinobi is a game that I keep finding myself more and more fond of, over the years, and I often look to it as a reminder that I was once as ignorant and stubborn towards certain games as I feel most "casual" gamers are, today.
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98. Neo Contra
(PS2) Konami
Good ol' Neo Contra! You know, I think this particular title is criminally underrated by Contra enthusiasts. The difficulty is considerably easier, the view has now been switched to overhead, and the story has taken a turn for the parodical and ridiculous... But are any of these really bad things? The sense of humor I felt that Neo Contra carried with it was absolutely golden and despite the fact that the game was a bit of a pushover, especially compared to other Contra games, I felt that it was incredibly fun to play. When you managed to play with a second player, the game really improved, as well, which is admirable considering that Contra games since the NES era had lacked a bit in their co-operative modes.
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97. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
(XBLA) Capcom
In a move that might be considered unfortunate by some, this is actually the only strictly-puzzle game I have on the entire list (not counting a couple hybrids later on). Although I've enjoyed quite a few different puzzle games, I don't think that any of them ever quite gave me as much entertainment or left as much of a lasting impact on me as this one. Yes, I have very fond memories of playing Kirby's Avalanche with my brother, and playing Tetris on my Game Boy, taking turns with my mother, but this one blew them out of the water.
It's rare that my competitive nature takes over so much that I admire a game solely for its competitive merit, but this is one of those cases. The single-player is a somewhat boring distraction, but the competition you can squeeze out of this title when pit against another person is almost phenomenal. It's fast-paced, fun and easy to get into, but incredibly difficult to master. It also carries with it a rather cute style, which is icing on top of a pretty darn tasty cake.
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96. Halo Wars
(Xbox 360) Ensemble Studios
If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I'd ever see an RTS on a list of my top -anything-, you'd get a hearty laugh. However, after Halo Wars, my opinion on the genre lightened up quite a bit. Being a Halo enthusiast among more old school gamers has been difficult, and being a fan of an RTS spin-off of the Halo series hasn't proven any easier - but I do genuinely believe that this is a great game.
The simple controls, engaging story (which I loved, the Halo universe is considerably deeper than the 3 main games make it look) and streamlined user-interface really made this game easy for me to get into (both counting the single-player campaign and multiplayer) and dump a significant amount of time on. It's not the most sophisticated RTS out there, but it's perfect for RTS scrubs like me.
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95. The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
(XBLA) Ska Studios
Ever since the first Devil May Cry, I had found myself increasingly bored with games in (whatever you would call) that genre. Even the other blockbuster titles like Ninja Gaiden and God of War didn't really manage to grab me, so I was pretty skeptical that a 2D game would manage to handle it any more entertainingly than they had. All the games had ended up feeling like the same thing, and I thought that it was about time to just give up on the genre and maybe come back to it in a few years.
Fortunately, for me, I managed to look past that skepticism and give The Dishwasher an honest chance, and I found myself falling in love with it rather quickly. Despite being an incredibly solid game, enough so to earn it as a spot as my favorite game in the genre, it had some of the most impressive style I'd seen in nearly any game for quite a long time... I'm pretty confident that even if it weren't a well-crafted game, I would have played it through to the end just because of how "cool" it was.
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94. Earth Defense Force 2017
(Xbox 360) Sandlot
Ever play a game that seems like it should, within all logical reasoning, be a bad game, but you can't help but find yourself enjoying it more than that $60 game you got a couple of weeks ago? EDF was one of those games for me, and I ended up playing it so many more hours than I had anticipated that I felt it really earned a spot on this list.
It is not graphically impressive, the voice-acting is pretty crappy, and it is quite repetitive, but God damn is it fun. It's designed to be played for loads of hours on a budget price, and it nailed what it tried to do absolutely perfectly - the budget feel of the game even helps add to the quality of it, in a weird sort of way, as it makes it feel more like a B-movie you can't stop watching out of a sense of guilty pleasure. I've not played any other games in the series, as, to my knowledge, they haven't been released here, but if I see another EDF game available over here any time soon, you can bet I'll be picking it up the first day.
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93. Life Force
(NES) Konami
My first exposure to this game was not remotely kind. I played it in Middle School, after the NES had fallen out of the limelight, at the shop my mother worked at (her boss's kids didn't play their NES much anymore, so had left it there for anyone to play). I could not, no matter how many times I tried, beat the first stage. I must have played it for hours, but to no avail. Naturally, at that age and after that many attempts (that were spread out over a few months), I just called it crap and never planned on touching it again.
Fast-forwarding to more recent years, I'm at a stage where I'm trying to get back into "old-school" gaming. After repeated suggestions and discovering that I loved shmups, I decide to go back to the game, and I manage to handle it with relative ease. I found myself replaying it until I could beat it without continuing, and it's formed a rather respected place in my memory among NES games that I've played. Through my experiences with Life Force, I've learned that anyone, even someone who was as awful as I am, can get good at those "old-school" games with just a little practice and determination.
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92. Mischief Makers
(N64) Treasure
Although I do not consider myself a very big fan of Treasure (warning: there is no Ikaruga or Gunstar Heroes on this list), I have found a few of their titles to be incredibly charming, and this is one of those few that really managed to stand out to me. It had just the right doses of Treasure's signature quirky gameplay and quirky presentation to come out on top of most of their games when I played it. Despite my genuine enthusiasm for this game, that's all I really have to say about it... It's one of those games that's very difficult to describe to someone who hasn't played it, so, if you're curious, give it a shot!
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91. Halo 2
(Xbox) Bungie Studios
Ah, Halo 2. Somewhat of the black sheep in the trilogy, really. It wasn't finished properly, but, in my opinion, at least, it was still a pretty darn good game. It was also the first Halo game to have online multiplayer, which, as you might have already guessed, is what I spent most of my time on it playing. Perhaps it is because it is the first online multiplayer game I played that led me to have such fond memories of it, perhaps not, but, regardless of that, I still hold the game in high regards.
Although it was, competitively, a somewhat large step down from the original game, it was still a great deal of fun to play... It's just a shame the netcode wasn't that great, and benefitted the host too much, making smaller games (i.e. 4 or less players) almost unplayable (in that you were so handicapped fighting against the host) to people without powerful internet connections.
However, born between the lackluster netcode and somewhat unfinished nature of the game were glitches, which were honestly the fondest memories I have of the game. Getting outside of multiplayer maps, causing graphical screw-ups, and doing "super-jumps" are some of the fondest memories I have of any multiplayer game, and they mostly took place in Halo 2. My friends and I will often go back to Halo 2 just to drive a couple of tanks into each other and watch them fly across the map, and while it may have been accidentally developed fun, it doesn't stop it from having been (really) fun.
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90. Final Fantasy VII
(PS1) Squaresoft
Not only is FF7 on this list, but it is the ONLY Final Fantasy game on it! "Why?" You might be asking yourself right now, getting ready to skip down to the "reply" box and think of every derogatory term in the book to call me. Well, it was my first RPG that I really sat down and played all the way through, and I suppose that these fond memories may have biased me to a fair degree. That, and I just couldn't get into any of the Final Fantasy games before it. Something about most SNES RPGs has always driven me off before I could get deep enough into them to finish.
Perhaps my interest in RPGs, at the time, was shallow. Maybe the CG cutscenes piqued my interest in the evolution of video games, maybe the self-absorbed main character was something my tween mind could identify with, maybe the villain was just so "cool" to me that the game made me feel confident in myself that I had the courage to go up against him. I don't really know, exactly. But, what I do know for certain, is that I enjoy playing this game, I enjoy the cast of characters, I enjoy the story, I enjoy the music, and I enjoy the creativity that went into it. I hope to try more of the older Final Fantasy games out in the upcoming years, but my patience often runs thin, and I don't know when the next time I'll feel like conquering an RPG that isn't already in my backlog will come up.
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89. Castlevania
(NES) Konami
What a horrible night to have a curse. Wait, wrong game. Growing up, the only Castlevania game that I had ever played was the one that had been released on the Nintendo 64. Without many friends with diverse taste in gaming, and without much other outside influence, I ignored the series for quite a few years because of the somewhat mediocre experience I had with that game. When I joined The Third Moon and started to get back into old-school gaming, however, it was nearly unanimously decided by the gaming section's residents that Castlevania was a series I needed to get into.
After trying a few of the easier, "newer" titles out (like SotN), I decided to start at the beginning, and it was a gameplay experience I won't soon forget. While the game may not have aged as gracefully as some other NES games, and will feel too dated by many modern gamers' standards, I managed to enjoy the game, greatly, and it was really one of my "breaking in" titles towards the higher, more skill-intensive difficulty of older games. It frustrated me, sure, but it was that "good" frustration I had remembered and enjoyed from when I was addicted to the NES Mega Man games in my earlier years.
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88. Zack & Wiki: The Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
(Wii) Capcom
I'm not big on adventure games. I'm not too big on puzzle games. So, it might surprise some that I enjoyed this game quite as much as I did, considering that it is a pretty direct mixture of both genres. The puzzle aspect mixes perfectly with the adventuring aspect to create some incredibly rewarding puzzles, however. In fact, I don't think a game has made me feel quite as rewarded for solving its puzzles since Metroid 2, and I was quite a wee lass back then.
Each of the Wii-mote uses are rather intuitive, the story is delightful, the puzzles are intelligent and the cast of characters are very likeable and memorable. If you like either genre, Zack & Wiki is something you owe it to yourself to try, especially the low prices it's at, now. It's a genuinely charming game that I feel bad about having taken so long to buy, especially considering that it didn't quite perform as well as it should have in terms of sales.
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87. Knights in the Nightmare
(DS) Sting
Never once in my entire life have I had such a quick reversal of opinions on any game. The first day I played this game, I spent half of my time in the tutorial screen and the other half of that time awkwardly fumbling through the game's first stage with only the slightest idea of what I was doing. The next day, however, I couldn't put it down, and for several days after that I found myself completely engrossed in the game... Enough so to actually play it all the way through, not once, but twice, and even back-to-back (and I plan on more playthroughs in the possibly near-future).
On the recommendation of a friend, I bought the game and gave it a chance, and thought I was almost certainly going to hate it, but it ended up being one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played. Trying to describe the gameplay to someone would be like describing color to a person without sight, though, and it's certainly not a game for everyone... But if you get a chance to play it, do not pass it up. It's too much fun and far too engrossing to pass up.
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86. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
(NES) Tecmo
While I enjoyed the first and third Ninja Gaiden games quite a fair share, I don't think I enjoyed either of them nearly as much as I enjoyed the second entry in the series. Although, as far as the US releases are concerned, it was the easiest, I also found it to be the best developed. The game seemed to keep its fast pace up with few interruptions, the new power-ups were pretty darn cool and useful, and the story was just as interesting as the firsts', if not better.
It's really a shining example of how to make an NES game fun, and it's easy enough to recommend to someone who has never really given the NES a fair chance, before. Despite being considerably fonder of several of the other NES games you'll see on this list, this might be the first one I would recommend to someone getting into the console. That is, of course, under the assumption they've already played several of Nintendo's first-party efforts on the console.
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85. Garou: Mark of the Wolves
(XBLA) SNK
Not counting the very first entry on this list, this is the only "real" fighting game on the whole darn thing. It's not that I hate fighters, heck, it's not even that I dislike them... It's more that they're just not my cup of tea. I respect many aspects of them, but I just don't often find myself enjoying them too much. When I do, however, I'm most frequently drawn to SNK's interesting characters, and I felt that MotW has one of the best casts out of any fighting game I've ever played.
It's not just the cast and presentation that made me adore this game, though. The accessiblity to lower-tier fighting games made it a big draw. The moves list was simple enough for me to get a decent hang of, and it's one of those games that are easy to play, but infinitely difficult to master. This may be considered somewhat of a gateway title to me, and I hope that in coming years, I'm able to get into more fighting games.
It'd just be easier if they all had B. Jenet as a playable character. (:
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84. Mega Man X4
(PS1) Capcom
The first Mega Man game to grace this list, although very certainly not the last, we have one of the first games I ever got for my Playstation. Despite having been the game just before the (rather steep) decline in quality in the X series of games, it's still a great game, in its own right. It was one of the first Mega Man games to have a really fleshed out story, and it is often underrated in terms of how good the game actually looks, visually (when people compliment good looking 2D games from this era, MMX4 seems to frequently be left out).
It was also the first Mega Man X game to let you play from Zero from beginning to end, as well. He was implemented so well into the game that despite the fact he didn't use a ranged weapon, he seemed to fit in so naturally that I ended up playing as him even more than I played as X. From start to finish, Mega Man X4 was a great game, and it's disappointing that the series fell from such great heights as soon as the next release hit. To add insult to injury, the next two games also recycled a lot of resources from X4, making them look pretty sloppy.
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83. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
(PS1) Konami
Not quite the first Castlevania game to really borrow a few elements from the Metroid series, but it is often regarded as one of the best to have done so, and I can't say that I disagree with that sentiment. While a few other "Metroidvania" titles may have placed higher on the list than SotN, that's largely because I felt SotN was an experimental game. Although its atmosphere has yet to really be surpassed in the majority of the titles following after it, the gameplay has, largely, been rather refined. Even though the later titles have ended up a bit "samey," they still feel much more polished (albeit, in some cases, unpolished and unoriginal).
Despite the fact I believe some of its predecessors have exceeded it in quality, however, that doesn't mean I'm going to demerit the game and ignore its impact on gaming. It may not be the most refined Castlevania, and it might have had easily broken gameplay and difficulty, but it was very high-quality, nonetheless, and has some lasting appeal that you just won't get out of games like Dawn of Sorrow. Plus, you've got to give SotN credit for introducing Legion, the boss shaped like an enormous ball composed almost entirely out of human corpses.
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82. Resident Evil
(GC) Capcom
In good conscience, I couldn't make this list without at least one true survival horror, so I picked my favorite out of them (I don't count RE4 as a "survival horror" game). Although this series' original version of its first installment was largely memorable because of the hokey voice acting and somewhat campy, b-movie atmosphere, it still managed to capture some truly horrifying moments. The remake, on the other hand, manages to capture those elements of horror and multiply them exponentially.
Although I'm a bit too desensitized to video game horror to have been truly frightened by this game, I did tense up considerably more than I have with any other game in recent history, and I appreciated the macabre atmosphere greatly. Taking only the gameplay aspects of this game into review, you'd have a somewhat mediocre, clunkily controlled adventure game. Taking the visual and audio elements into review, however, and you have something truly memorable.
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81. F-Zero X
(N64) Nintendo
Of the few racing game series I've ever given a chance, F-Zero is the only one I believe I've ever really gotten into - and, yes, I have tried the WipEout series. If I had to guess, I'd say that a combination of several reasons are why I love the F-Zero series. The fast pace of the races, the futuristic design of the cars, the insane courses, the awesome music, the campy setting and characters... Really, it's just a great series, and I'm somewhat disappointed I couldn't fit GX onto this list.
F-Zero X stands out to me, in particular, because of the soundtrack. While the graphics may be somewhat dull, even by N64 game standards, the music is just great - it's exactly the kind of music I would imagine would go with the game's setting, and it really gets me pumped whenever I play it. Sometimes one element of a game being excellent can raise the overall composition to a higher level than it would have been at, otherwise, and this is a good example of that.
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80. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
(PS1) Capcom
Considering Mega Man Legends' extremely minor connections to any other series of Mega Man games, it's hard to really classify this game as a Mega Man game at all, especially considering that it doesn't feature any characters named "Mega Man," and focuses on the family of pirates from the first Mega Man Legends game that alternated between antagonists and anti-heroes, instead. The game is essentially, and I will not lie, a heaping dose of fanservice to fans of Tron Bonne. Considering she's my favorite video game character of all time, it shouldn't surprise anyone to see this game on the list.
Just because it's fanservice doesn't make it a bad game, though, not by any means. It plays as a combination-genre game, mixing elements from many different genres into one large, satisfying whole. Each of the different sections of the game you can participate in are very fun, and the game follows a story that reaches a satisfying conclusion. It's often overlooked, but it is truly, at least in my eyes, a really treasured gem to be unearthed. I'm just glad I got to experience it when it first came out, so I didn't have to be disappointed that I spent so long adoring the Mega Man Legends games only to find out about this one years later.
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79. Super Mario Bros. 3
(NES) Nintendo
I may rant about how much I think Nintendo's first-party games have gone downhill in the recent years, but for something to have gone downhill, it needs to have once been uphill, correct? Super Mario Bros. 3 is a darn fine game that no amount of contempt for modern Nintendo could stop me from admitting. The amount of love that went into this game is almost undeniable, and nearly every part of the game really shows it. From the Tanuki Suit to the Kuribo Shoe, all of the power-ups in this game exhibited oodles of creativity and definitely left an impact on my young mind.
I'm not the biggest fan of straight-up platformers, though, and the game wasn't without its faults, but the good points far outweigh the bad ones, and I'm not going to retroactively decide I hate a good game just because I'm not happy with the Nintendo of today.
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78. Metroid 2: The Return of Samus
(GB) Nintendo
Of all the titles on this list, I would have to argue that this one has been the one to age least gracefully. In its prime, Metroid 2 would have seen a considerably higher place on this list, but its innovations are shadowed, somewhat, by it being a slightly unintuitive game to play. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, now, not by any means, I treasure every single game I've ranked on this list, Metroid 2 very much included, I just don't think it's quite as pleasing to play today as it was when I first put the cartridge in my Game Boy so many years ago.
I love so many things about this game, though, and it really meant a lot to me when I played it when I was younger. Discovering all of the secrets felt incredibly rewarding, and it was the first game I ever played where I'd really feel accomplished for my exploration. I still remember spider-balling to virtually every surface in the game to find secrets, and how I wouldn't find the Varia suit until the second time I played it - which, after having taken a long time to beat it the first time without it, was a very, very cool reward. It's a shame how many newer games fail to innovate like the Metroid series did.
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77. Portal
(PC) Valve Corporation
Although the idea of the Portal sounded interesting enough, I was actually so skeptical about how it would actually work that I didn't get around to playing it for quite a few months after its release. Once I had it installed, however, I was glued to the screen from beginning to end. Few modern games as short as Portal manage to reach the level of critical acclaim that Portal did, and that's a shame... Portal's length was perfect, and was one of its strongest qualities. By the time you finished it, you didn't feel it had gotten old, and you were ready to go back and try it again just to see if you could find some of the things you missed.
The humor in the game was also top-notch, and each new room was a lot of fun to solve. While the internet has definitely worn the game thin, and made some people so sick of its mention that they'll lash out the second they hear a "cake" joke, that doesn't make it any less of a fun, humorous game. Manchildren who worship Valve making cake jokes every day of their lives will still irritate me, but I'm not going to let them tarnish what I though was a genuinely great game. It was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success.
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76. Super C
(NES) Konami
Ever get the feeling that the last alien menace you thwarted just wasn't enough? Me too. Every day, in fact. Good thing the Contra series is always there to remedy that ache. While I don't think that Super C managed to do anything to really meet the original's quality, I still think it's a great game. Most of the entries in the Contra series are absolute staples in any run 'n gun fan's top game lists, and I'm definitely no exception to that. I might not have a great deal to say about Super C, but that's largely because it owes a great deal to its predecessor. But, just because a game is a bit derivative doesn't make it a bad game, especially if it's a bit derivative of one of the best games ever.
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75. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
(SNES) Rare
I have never, still do not and probably will never understand all of the criticism directed at the Donkey Kong Country series, nor will I understand all of the retroactive hate that seems to have popped up and been applied to it. I'm not a huge fan of platformers, but I loved this series. Great presentation, excellent music, solid platforming, lots of collectibles, and good doses of replayability all make the DKC trilogy shine, in my eyes, and I'm somewhat disappointed they aren't quite as sparkly to other people, hehe.
As for DKC2, in particular, I felt it offered the most well-rounded challenge of the series, had the best level design, and, most importantly, had the best music. I could gush significantly about how much I love the soundtrack, but I'll hope that you will just take my word for how much I truly like it. I'm not the best critic of music, so I don't think I'd be able to specifically state exactly what it is about DKC2's soundtrack that I like so much, but it just really appeals to me.
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74. Shadow Complex
(XBLA) ChAIR
Although not really a game in the Metroid series, I think I can comfortably say this is the best Metroid game I've played since Super Metroid on the SNES. After having finished the game, I realized how inappropriate the term "Metroidvania" really was, and am going to try and refrain from using it too much in this article. Sure, the Metroid games and later Castlevania games do share things in common, but they play very, very differently. Exploration is, largely, the only way they're really similar.
Anyway, Shadow Complex manages to take elements from the Metroid series (the earlier titles, anyway) and mix them with shooting mechanics borrowed from more modern series. Just the very idea of this was enough to make me buy it without even giving the trial a spin, and I do not even regret it in the least. Although the game is a bit derivative and the secrets and design are not as fleshed out as something as excellent as Super Metroid, that does not, by any means, make it a bad game. In fact, being able to even compare to the game to Super Metroid in a manner that I would not describe as condescending is incredibly merit-worthy.
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73. R-Type
(Arcade/Various others) Irem
One of the finest arcade games of all-time, R-Type is an incredibly solid shooter that no shmup fan with even a modicum of self-respect can say they haven't played. It has a wonderful atmosphere, excellently designed stages, a great learning curve, a commendable degree of challenge and anything else you could really want out of an arcade shooter released at that time. I believe that it's also one of the most gracefully aged shmups that I've ever played, as well. That's all I really have to say about it, but just because there isn't a lot to say about the game doesn't mean there's not a lot to experience.
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72. Mega Man 8
(PS1) Capcom
Now here's a title that has some really polarized opinions. Most Mega Man fans who have played MM8 seem to have decided they either love it or hate it - that it was a welcome addition to the series, or an alien-feeling disgrace. Considering you're looking at a "top games" list, I think you can deduce where I stand on the matter. Perhaps the somewhat "cute" designs of the characters in this game and the anime cutscenes turned some off, but for me, it was an added bonus. Mega Man's inspirations were drawn from Astro Boy, to a degree, and that really, really shows in this particular entry in the series.
Being a fan of Astro Boy, and stories about androids, in general, I was really pleased to see the direction Mega Man was taking with this entry, and more than disappointed to see that we wouldn't see another entry to the original series done in this style. The story for the game was really interesting, and I'd have liked to see it expanded upon. Everything else about the game was great, too, I felt that, despite the fact that it played "differently," the stages were designed incredibly well and that it was just a lot of fun.
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71. Gley Lancer
(Genesis) NCS Corp
I often have a hard time justifying to other people why I like Gley Lancer so much. It's typically looked at as one of those games that doesn't deserve any praise, but gets a great deal just because it's Japanese. I completely disagree with this, as I found Gley Lancer to be loads and loads of fun, and I despise shmup elitists who like to think they're "better" than other fans of the genre because of all the games they've played that don't get official releases over here or are only released in arcades (I especially despise them because of them are just emulation fiends).
It's not a very difficult game, as far as the genre goes, but it has a strong length, a neat power-up system, lots of cool bosses, an awesome soundtrack and a satisfying climax. Really, what more could you ask out of a shooter? Although I couldn't understand the story, as moon runes are impossible for someone like me to decipher, I did enjoy the character design for this game a lot (I have a soft spot for earlier anime aesthetics). I really wish there would be a translation patch, for it, as I don't imagine it would be a great deal of work and would really let me finally enjoy the story. Not too many shmups get cutscenes, you know?
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70. Halo 3
(Xbox 360) Bungie Studios
To many fans of competitive Halo, such as myself, Halo 3 was a massive disappointment, in that regard. Skill-intensiveness was drastically reduced in order to appeal to a wider audience, and the competitive community was pretty hit pretty hard. If I were like one of my best friends, I probably wouldn't even have this game on the list for that reason... But I appreciate the game outside of how competitive it is, too, so it still deserves this spot.
The 4-player co-op campaign is a blast to run through with a group of friends. The theater mode, which allows you to replay games from any camera angle you could imagine, is incredibly useful. The forge mode, which has recently become considerably better with the addition of the latest map pack, is an astonishing amount of fun to build maps in. And, of course, the custom games? Well, you're now given more options and freedom than ever before. It might not be as well-refined a competitive multiplayer experience as it should have been, but it manages to surpass its predecessor in just being fun to goof around in.
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69. Half-Life
(PC) Valve Corporation
I've got to have something on this list so that PC gaming enthusiasts don't kill me, right? Hehe, in all honesty, though, this game deserved its spot, and is by no means a pandering so that my list may look more well-rounded. Half-Life is a truly marvelous FPS in that it was one of the first of its kind to really just work well - It didn't revolve around finding the next enemy, pointing, and then shooting... It was considerably more complex than that.
The design was genius in that it managed to make you feel afraid, or at least tense, in a genre that typically makes you feel like you're some sort of invincible God. It wasn't afraid to have significant portions of the game go by with little combat, it wasn't afraid to add in intuitive puzzles, and it wasn't afraid to keep the combat incredibly well-refined despite the focus on other, more immersive aspects. For that, I salute it.
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68. Yakuza 2
(PS2) Sega
Having not grown up being a big fan of beat-em-ups, when I first heard about the Yakuza series, I was less than enthused. "A Japanese GTA with a beat-em-up focus? Count me out." I thought to myself. After some repeated suggestion, however, and once the price had dropped significantly, I decided to give it shot. You know, after playing it, I really felt like putting my foot quite deeply into my mouth.
Now, while the first game was good, it was plagued by some issues that stopped it a few feet short of being as great as it could have been. The sequel, however, managed to do away with many of these faults and come up with an even more interesting story, to boot. Along with some of the other games Sega has released recently, I'm beginning to feel like they're making a comeback.
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67. Bangai-O
(DC) Treasure
The 2nd and last of the Treasure games you'll find on this list, we've got Bangai-O. Putting Bangai-O into a genre is slightly difficult - While it certainly has a fair share of shmup elements, it plays so uniquely that it's actually somewhat of a stretch to just call it one. The game has an emphasis on abusing the special move that you're capable of performing, which will put massive amounts of projectiles on the screen. While this sounds like a pretty simple system, Treasure (ab)uses the hell out of it to make a difficult and unique game built almost entirely around it.
This special really manages to use risk and reward in such a way that the more enemy projectiles that are near you when you unleash it, the more you'll be unleashing, yourself. It's a lot of fun... Quirky, but a lot of fun. If the premise of how to play the game wasn't strange enough, however, this game also features one of the most insane stories I've ever seen in a video game, and it's really poorly translated, too, which actually gives the game this peculiar appeal. Believe it or not, I was such a big fan of the translation that I was actually disappointed that the DS sequel was actually legible... And I strongly doubt I was the only Bangai-O fan who felt this way.
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66. Braid
(XBLA) Number None, Inc.
Braid is often met with tremendous fanfare or, seemingly about as often, an equal amount of disgust. Some people who played it found the presentation for the game to be so ripe with pretentiousness that they just couldn't stand it, while others found it to be an incredibly fun, unique, and well-designed game. Taking the presentation for Braid out of the equation, I think that you have an astoundingly well-designed platformer with a time control gimmick that is used very intelligently.
However, factoring in the presentation, it becomes a little bit more difficult to judge, although, in my opinion, it managed to enhance the game, overall. I will agree that I find John Blow to be somewhat of a pretentious person in how he designed the story for the game, but I also believe that accusations of something being pretentious often arise from the accusor's ignorance. Having read in-depth analyses of the story online, I have to say, I never got close to guessing what Braid was "really," about, despite finding it an emotionally moving story from what I could piece together.
As I said earlier, though, it's a good game underneath the presentation, whether you liked that or not. And, if you didn't, other elements of the presentation that don't aren't necessarily concretely tied to the story, such as the visuals and the music, are quite relaxing and a joy to observe.
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65. Gears of War
(Xbox 360) Epic Games
I will start by saying that I find Gears of War's premise to be among the most stupid in any game that I ever have played, and that I find the story to be almost offensively terrible. The characters are dislikeable, the music is generic, the competitive multiplayer is among the worst I've ever played and the game has about as much originality as Fred Phelps has sanity. I hate most of the fans of the game, too, and I'm almost ashamed to even admit I love the game. Almost.
The reason I love this game is because it was the first game since the SNES generation that I felt had really, really, really good co-operative play. I had not had so much fun co-operatively playing a game with a friend while playing Gears of War since playing Kirby Super Star for the first few times. The campaign is lovingly crafted around being meant to be played with your best buddies, and it shines because of that. Sure, you're still a bunch of macho morons on your quest to kill, kill, and kill, but it's so much fun to play that you just don't care what the game is about.
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64. Doom
(PC) iD Software
Just to be specific, Ultimate Doom, because that last chapter is so darn fun. To me, Doom will always be the father of the FPS genre to me. Sure, others came first, even some darn good ones (I still love me some Wolf3D), and others have come, since, and further developed the genre, but Doom will always stand tall as one of the most significant games in history, to me, and also one of the most enjoyable to play.
Although a bit lacking in enemy variety, each of the stages were incredibly well-designed and made full use of their resources. I never really came to appreciate Doom's level design until the more recent years, when I'd played its sequel and come across its mixed bag of stages, or played Final Doom and had to wade the filth of insanely designed WADs, but it really is fantastic. Doom is also a great reminder that no matter how complicated games can be, all the basics you really need to do to make one great are to give the protagonist a shotgun and stick some enemies to rip (and tear) apart into the mix.
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63. Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice
(DS) Capcom
Apollo Justice was a pretty bold game. Capcom had a really good IP going for them, with many established characters and adventures that could be had... And they decided to give the game an almost entirely new cast and make most of the older characters only referenced through obscure little things. Often times, when this kind of attempt is made, it flops. The fans will feel betrayed and not buy it, it'll fail to catch on with new consumers, etc. Not at all in this case, however.
Despite having adored each of the three original games, the third one even more than the second, I felt that this was a mighty good breath of fresh air. I'm not saying that the series had really gotten stale, but I think that a fourth title might have brought it down that alley. It really took some initiative to predict that outcome and move on - which is rather unusual for Capcom to do. As much as I love them, they're fans of milking their big IPs. The new cast is just as colorful as the last, though, and you're able to attach yourself to them without constantly pining for your old favorites to return to the limelight.
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62. MUSHA
(Genesis) Compile
It may or not be known that I'm not a huge fan of Compile. I like them, in fact, I like them quite a bit more than your average gamer, and I don't really think they're overrated... It's just I'm not a big fan of most of their games. MUSHA, however, I am definitely a big fan of. From the Compile games that I've played, I would consider it to be the pinnacle of their work, and one of the finest shooters that I've ever played.
What it is about MUSHA, exactly, that makes it so good, is kind-of hard for me to define. It was not a game that I initially enjoyed, but, rather, one that I would come back to a few times before I finally began to truly appreciate how great it is. I may lack clarity in describing the quality of this game, but I think that any shmup enthusiast who plays it will see for themselves what I'm talking about.
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61. Cybernator
(SNES) NCS Corp
(AKA: Assault Suits Valken) At first, I felt that Cybernator was a mediocre game, but the more I played it, the more I loved it. I think that, by and large, gamers have always been heavily deprived of sidescrollers with giant robots. Good ones, I mean. While the game may have a somewhat butchered localization, a clunky control scheme, and a difficult learning curve, it more than makes up for that in how fun it is to replay and how rewarding it is to get better at it.
The story is somewhat typical as far as stories involving giant robots go, but it still manages to pack an emotional punch you didn't get out of many SNES games that weren't RPGs. A lot of this story, including a suicide (in a SNES game!?), were taken out from the NTSC release, however. While it wasn't really anything groundbreaking, I can't help but lament that one of the few sidescrollers on the SNES with a good story was cut up when we got ahold of it.
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60. Super Mario World
(SNES) Nintendo
Thought this list might only have SMB3 on it, as far as the platforming Marios go, eh? While I definitely hold SMB3 in high regard, SMW is quite a decent a bit ahead of it, in my opinion. The game might have a notable jump down in difficulty (and considering most Mario games aren't very difficult in the first place, that is a legitimate point of criticism, to many), but it has a remarkably higher jump up in how fun it is to play, which is what is important.
The game is very vivid in how colorful it is, the music is, figuratively, just as colorful, the stage design is unique in how many multiple exits there are, the story is a little more fleshed out and whimsical (I love how Mario took down each Koopa castle), the platforming is just as solid and, overall, I just felt that it was the better game. It really is a shame that Mario so steeply declined for me after his SNES years were up, and perhaps and equally great shame that SMW never really got a sequel that played quite like it did.
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59. Tail Concerto
(PS1) CyberConnect2
You know, in all the years that I had been aware of this game, I had never once placed into the genre of "3D platformer." It wasn't that my dislike of 3D platformers had kept me from labeling it as one (I will admit I do strongly dislike most games in the genre), it had just never crossed my mind that it might be one. While looking at it in the light that it may be one, it is honestly the first 3D platformer I can think of that I actually enjoyed (and, boy, did I enjoy it). I still consider it more of an action-rpg, akin to the Mega Man Legends series of games, though.
Probably one of the simplest games on this list, Tail Concerto is a really charming little title on the PS1 that is often overlooked or unheard of. It is an easy, relatively short game focusing on the adventures of Officer Waffle, the policeman... er... dog, on his mission to break up the Black Cats gang. This gang is seemingly led by Waffle's childhood friend, Alicia (my second favorite game character, ever), who is a cat, and Waffle is really conflicted about bringing her in.
Everything about this game is rather cute, and the story (which is accompanied by anime cutscenes and voice acting) is predominately about dog people and cat people learning to live together in harmony. It's an "all ages" game if I've ever seen one, as it can be played and enjoyed by anyone, even "hardcore gamers." Although it's not in the higher-ranked half of this list, it's easily one of my most treasured games of all time for sentimental reasons.
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58. Soldier Blade
(TurboGrafx 16) Hudson Soft
Although I may be a bigger fan of horizontal shooters, the Star Soldier series is one that I'd rank up there almost alongside some of my favorite series of shmups. My favorite game in the Star Soldier series? Well, it's a pretty common answer among Star Soldier fans, and it is indeed Soldier Blade. I admittedly used to be slightly more fond of Super Star Soldier, but it's steep difficulty curve kinda shook me off. I'm still a big fan of it, mind you, and wish I had enough room on the top 100 to stick on here, but Soldier Blade just blows it out of the water.
This game excels in about every factor a shmup can excel in - great music, frantic gameplay, reasonably high difficulty, lots of stuff to blow up, the works. It's just a fun game, and, on the plus side, it's much more inviting to more casual gamers than some of the other entries in the series. It's easy to get into and doesn't force a lot of tedious memorization on you. Plus, it's just a awesome game, in general.
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Before I expect anyone to actually read through this list, I want to explain to them exactly what my idea of a "top games list" actually means. Many people have many ideas about what they are, and, even when given a description of what they mean to the author, often form their own ideas about them, anyway. Be that as it may, I still want to make it known that I don't think it's possible for anyone to come up with a truly (or perhaps even remotely) concrete list of favorite anything. This is the third time I'll have done such an expansive list for video games (I'm thinking about making it a somewhat annual thing), and it probably won't be the last, as there are always changes and shifts in the order of things.
People's opinions constantly change, and those opinions can grow in many different directions as time passes. I think it's nearly impossible to judge a game entirely objectively, and I think it's impossible for one's own subjective views to remain so constant that any arrangement of their "favorites" would ever be near permanent. Whether it be because I've played new games that I enjoyed, that I become fonder of a game after replaying it, or that I become less fond of a game because of finding fault in it I hadn't seen before, my list will never remain constant. On top of that, my list is coming straight from my experiences and perspective, so I don't expect people to agree with them, but I do hope to illustrate where I'm coming from in a way that they can understand.
So, what's the point of even making this list, you might ask? Well, I love games - always have, always will - and I love expressing my opinions. It only makes sense that I'd want to share my opinions on my favorite games and help spread the love. I really only got big into getting back into old school gaming a few short years ago, largely thanks to a certain Rob Strangman and Mike Plaskett, both of whom I really hope I express gratitude towards enough to let them know how much they've helped me develop my taste. I think everyone's taste in everything has some degree of outside influence, so I hope that, deep down, my love for games will help others love the games that I do, as well. Many of these games I would not have played without the suggestion of friends, and I owe them a lot for that.
In a sense, I suppose that I think by making these lists, and by trying to make them entertaining to read, I hope to give back to the gaming community in the same way that it gave to me. Rob's list on the OPCFG and both Rob's and Mike's constant encouragement to get me to play more older games have helped further my enthusiasm for games, so the idea that I could help encourage others to play more really gives me a bit of a sense of fulfillment. So, if you're uncomfortable with the title of the list being "My top 101 games," just think of it as "101 games I love, and hope other people will love, attemptedly arranged in an order of perceived quality."
A lot of different qualities go into the reasoning behind why I ordered the list the way that I did. Perhaps I was fond of it as a child and it left a profound impact on me (I have deliberately left out some games like this, however, as I acknowledge they're somewhat poor, today), perhaps I just finished it recently and found it to be a blast, perhaps I just loved the soundtrack and presentation - whatever the reason, I hope to detail it... So, if you do have intent on questioning why ______ was in X spot, please read the description of it, first. I wanted this to be more of an entertaining read than anything.
I don't mind debate or questioning of my ordering, though! It's through that kind of debate and discussion that I find deeper appreciation for certain games and learn to further develop my taste and how well I can judge. So, any comments are welcome, so long as they're not just blatantly derogatory.
(Notice that sometimes the publisher is listed if it was developed in-house, and sometimes the developer, if it wasn't, or if it was published by a studio I found notable. Also notice that I only list "various others" for the console the game was on if I played it on more than one of those).
(Also, this article is almost entirely spoiler-free, with the small number of spoilers present usually regarding endings to rather short games that have very little plot to begin with)
Please, please read them in order! It's written so that it is meant to be read that way... And here we go -
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101. Super Smash Bros. Melee
(GC) Nintendo
This was, in all honesty, one of the last, first-party Nintendo games that I really felt was a truly good game. The single-player adventure mode reeked of love for all Nintendo games past, and the frantic, fast-paced multiplayer was entertaining enough for me and my friends to gather around the Gamecube for several hours a week, every week. I did not feel that the game went out of its way to pander to any sort of demographic, and had a sort of universal appeal that I feel that most newer Nintendo games have been missing.
It's a darn shame that the sequel failed to improve on anything and ruined the single-player by failing to utilize loads of properties from Nintendo IP's that could have drastically improved the presentation... Though, the awful fighting-game-meets-platformer genre mix of the single-player probably meant nothing could save it, regardless of how well it was presented. I won't let that taint my memories of how much I enjoyed Melee, however.
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100. Shatterhand
(NES) Natsume
Shatterhand is an interesting title in that it differs greatly from its Japanese counterpart, which was a licensed game. Regardless of which version was planned first and modified for its release in the other territory, the NTSC version is the one I will always hold in high regard. Like many NES games, the story isn't anything truly amazing, but the presentation they managed to pull of for this one was highly impressive... It felt like everything that was right about that era of gaming. Not only was the style of it impressive, but the gameplay was incredibly solid, too - Great platforming, fun bosses, Mega Man-esque stage select, and a very short, but fulfilling ending.
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99. Revenge of Shinobi
(Genesis) Sega
I can remember back when I first played this game with my (at the time) best friend on his Genesis... It was nightmarishly difficult, to me, and we had to use a gameshark to get to the last stage - and, even then, we couldn't get the good ending. I thought it was a frustrating, poorly programmed game that mostly sold on account of something as cool as "Shinobi" being in the name, and didn't play it again for many years.
Coming back to it, I discovered the pacing was deliberate, and, when played as its own game, rather than comparing it to other games I felt it was trying to "copy," I discovered it was a real joy to play. Revenge of Shinobi is a game that I keep finding myself more and more fond of, over the years, and I often look to it as a reminder that I was once as ignorant and stubborn towards certain games as I feel most "casual" gamers are, today.
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98. Neo Contra
(PS2) Konami
Good ol' Neo Contra! You know, I think this particular title is criminally underrated by Contra enthusiasts. The difficulty is considerably easier, the view has now been switched to overhead, and the story has taken a turn for the parodical and ridiculous... But are any of these really bad things? The sense of humor I felt that Neo Contra carried with it was absolutely golden and despite the fact that the game was a bit of a pushover, especially compared to other Contra games, I felt that it was incredibly fun to play. When you managed to play with a second player, the game really improved, as well, which is admirable considering that Contra games since the NES era had lacked a bit in their co-operative modes.
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97. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
(XBLA) Capcom
In a move that might be considered unfortunate by some, this is actually the only strictly-puzzle game I have on the entire list (not counting a couple hybrids later on). Although I've enjoyed quite a few different puzzle games, I don't think that any of them ever quite gave me as much entertainment or left as much of a lasting impact on me as this one. Yes, I have very fond memories of playing Kirby's Avalanche with my brother, and playing Tetris on my Game Boy, taking turns with my mother, but this one blew them out of the water.
It's rare that my competitive nature takes over so much that I admire a game solely for its competitive merit, but this is one of those cases. The single-player is a somewhat boring distraction, but the competition you can squeeze out of this title when pit against another person is almost phenomenal. It's fast-paced, fun and easy to get into, but incredibly difficult to master. It also carries with it a rather cute style, which is icing on top of a pretty darn tasty cake.
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96. Halo Wars
(Xbox 360) Ensemble Studios
If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I'd ever see an RTS on a list of my top -anything-, you'd get a hearty laugh. However, after Halo Wars, my opinion on the genre lightened up quite a bit. Being a Halo enthusiast among more old school gamers has been difficult, and being a fan of an RTS spin-off of the Halo series hasn't proven any easier - but I do genuinely believe that this is a great game.
The simple controls, engaging story (which I loved, the Halo universe is considerably deeper than the 3 main games make it look) and streamlined user-interface really made this game easy for me to get into (both counting the single-player campaign and multiplayer) and dump a significant amount of time on. It's not the most sophisticated RTS out there, but it's perfect for RTS scrubs like me.
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95. The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
(XBLA) Ska Studios
Ever since the first Devil May Cry, I had found myself increasingly bored with games in (whatever you would call) that genre. Even the other blockbuster titles like Ninja Gaiden and God of War didn't really manage to grab me, so I was pretty skeptical that a 2D game would manage to handle it any more entertainingly than they had. All the games had ended up feeling like the same thing, and I thought that it was about time to just give up on the genre and maybe come back to it in a few years.
Fortunately, for me, I managed to look past that skepticism and give The Dishwasher an honest chance, and I found myself falling in love with it rather quickly. Despite being an incredibly solid game, enough so to earn it as a spot as my favorite game in the genre, it had some of the most impressive style I'd seen in nearly any game for quite a long time... I'm pretty confident that even if it weren't a well-crafted game, I would have played it through to the end just because of how "cool" it was.
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94. Earth Defense Force 2017
(Xbox 360) Sandlot
Ever play a game that seems like it should, within all logical reasoning, be a bad game, but you can't help but find yourself enjoying it more than that $60 game you got a couple of weeks ago? EDF was one of those games for me, and I ended up playing it so many more hours than I had anticipated that I felt it really earned a spot on this list.
It is not graphically impressive, the voice-acting is pretty crappy, and it is quite repetitive, but God damn is it fun. It's designed to be played for loads of hours on a budget price, and it nailed what it tried to do absolutely perfectly - the budget feel of the game even helps add to the quality of it, in a weird sort of way, as it makes it feel more like a B-movie you can't stop watching out of a sense of guilty pleasure. I've not played any other games in the series, as, to my knowledge, they haven't been released here, but if I see another EDF game available over here any time soon, you can bet I'll be picking it up the first day.
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93. Life Force
(NES) Konami
My first exposure to this game was not remotely kind. I played it in Middle School, after the NES had fallen out of the limelight, at the shop my mother worked at (her boss's kids didn't play their NES much anymore, so had left it there for anyone to play). I could not, no matter how many times I tried, beat the first stage. I must have played it for hours, but to no avail. Naturally, at that age and after that many attempts (that were spread out over a few months), I just called it crap and never planned on touching it again.
Fast-forwarding to more recent years, I'm at a stage where I'm trying to get back into "old-school" gaming. After repeated suggestions and discovering that I loved shmups, I decide to go back to the game, and I manage to handle it with relative ease. I found myself replaying it until I could beat it without continuing, and it's formed a rather respected place in my memory among NES games that I've played. Through my experiences with Life Force, I've learned that anyone, even someone who was as awful as I am, can get good at those "old-school" games with just a little practice and determination.
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92. Mischief Makers
(N64) Treasure
Although I do not consider myself a very big fan of Treasure (warning: there is no Ikaruga or Gunstar Heroes on this list), I have found a few of their titles to be incredibly charming, and this is one of those few that really managed to stand out to me. It had just the right doses of Treasure's signature quirky gameplay and quirky presentation to come out on top of most of their games when I played it. Despite my genuine enthusiasm for this game, that's all I really have to say about it... It's one of those games that's very difficult to describe to someone who hasn't played it, so, if you're curious, give it a shot!
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91. Halo 2
(Xbox) Bungie Studios
Ah, Halo 2. Somewhat of the black sheep in the trilogy, really. It wasn't finished properly, but, in my opinion, at least, it was still a pretty darn good game. It was also the first Halo game to have online multiplayer, which, as you might have already guessed, is what I spent most of my time on it playing. Perhaps it is because it is the first online multiplayer game I played that led me to have such fond memories of it, perhaps not, but, regardless of that, I still hold the game in high regards.
Although it was, competitively, a somewhat large step down from the original game, it was still a great deal of fun to play... It's just a shame the netcode wasn't that great, and benefitted the host too much, making smaller games (i.e. 4 or less players) almost unplayable (in that you were so handicapped fighting against the host) to people without powerful internet connections.
However, born between the lackluster netcode and somewhat unfinished nature of the game were glitches, which were honestly the fondest memories I have of the game. Getting outside of multiplayer maps, causing graphical screw-ups, and doing "super-jumps" are some of the fondest memories I have of any multiplayer game, and they mostly took place in Halo 2. My friends and I will often go back to Halo 2 just to drive a couple of tanks into each other and watch them fly across the map, and while it may have been accidentally developed fun, it doesn't stop it from having been (really) fun.
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90. Final Fantasy VII
(PS1) Squaresoft
Not only is FF7 on this list, but it is the ONLY Final Fantasy game on it! "Why?" You might be asking yourself right now, getting ready to skip down to the "reply" box and think of every derogatory term in the book to call me. Well, it was my first RPG that I really sat down and played all the way through, and I suppose that these fond memories may have biased me to a fair degree. That, and I just couldn't get into any of the Final Fantasy games before it. Something about most SNES RPGs has always driven me off before I could get deep enough into them to finish.
Perhaps my interest in RPGs, at the time, was shallow. Maybe the CG cutscenes piqued my interest in the evolution of video games, maybe the self-absorbed main character was something my tween mind could identify with, maybe the villain was just so "cool" to me that the game made me feel confident in myself that I had the courage to go up against him. I don't really know, exactly. But, what I do know for certain, is that I enjoy playing this game, I enjoy the cast of characters, I enjoy the story, I enjoy the music, and I enjoy the creativity that went into it. I hope to try more of the older Final Fantasy games out in the upcoming years, but my patience often runs thin, and I don't know when the next time I'll feel like conquering an RPG that isn't already in my backlog will come up.
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89. Castlevania
(NES) Konami
What a horrible night to have a curse. Wait, wrong game. Growing up, the only Castlevania game that I had ever played was the one that had been released on the Nintendo 64. Without many friends with diverse taste in gaming, and without much other outside influence, I ignored the series for quite a few years because of the somewhat mediocre experience I had with that game. When I joined The Third Moon and started to get back into old-school gaming, however, it was nearly unanimously decided by the gaming section's residents that Castlevania was a series I needed to get into.
After trying a few of the easier, "newer" titles out (like SotN), I decided to start at the beginning, and it was a gameplay experience I won't soon forget. While the game may not have aged as gracefully as some other NES games, and will feel too dated by many modern gamers' standards, I managed to enjoy the game, greatly, and it was really one of my "breaking in" titles towards the higher, more skill-intensive difficulty of older games. It frustrated me, sure, but it was that "good" frustration I had remembered and enjoyed from when I was addicted to the NES Mega Man games in my earlier years.
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88. Zack & Wiki: The Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
(Wii) Capcom
I'm not big on adventure games. I'm not too big on puzzle games. So, it might surprise some that I enjoyed this game quite as much as I did, considering that it is a pretty direct mixture of both genres. The puzzle aspect mixes perfectly with the adventuring aspect to create some incredibly rewarding puzzles, however. In fact, I don't think a game has made me feel quite as rewarded for solving its puzzles since Metroid 2, and I was quite a wee lass back then.
Each of the Wii-mote uses are rather intuitive, the story is delightful, the puzzles are intelligent and the cast of characters are very likeable and memorable. If you like either genre, Zack & Wiki is something you owe it to yourself to try, especially the low prices it's at, now. It's a genuinely charming game that I feel bad about having taken so long to buy, especially considering that it didn't quite perform as well as it should have in terms of sales.
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87. Knights in the Nightmare
(DS) Sting
Never once in my entire life have I had such a quick reversal of opinions on any game. The first day I played this game, I spent half of my time in the tutorial screen and the other half of that time awkwardly fumbling through the game's first stage with only the slightest idea of what I was doing. The next day, however, I couldn't put it down, and for several days after that I found myself completely engrossed in the game... Enough so to actually play it all the way through, not once, but twice, and even back-to-back (and I plan on more playthroughs in the possibly near-future).
On the recommendation of a friend, I bought the game and gave it a chance, and thought I was almost certainly going to hate it, but it ended up being one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played. Trying to describe the gameplay to someone would be like describing color to a person without sight, though, and it's certainly not a game for everyone... But if you get a chance to play it, do not pass it up. It's too much fun and far too engrossing to pass up.
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86. Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
(NES) Tecmo
While I enjoyed the first and third Ninja Gaiden games quite a fair share, I don't think I enjoyed either of them nearly as much as I enjoyed the second entry in the series. Although, as far as the US releases are concerned, it was the easiest, I also found it to be the best developed. The game seemed to keep its fast pace up with few interruptions, the new power-ups were pretty darn cool and useful, and the story was just as interesting as the firsts', if not better.
It's really a shining example of how to make an NES game fun, and it's easy enough to recommend to someone who has never really given the NES a fair chance, before. Despite being considerably fonder of several of the other NES games you'll see on this list, this might be the first one I would recommend to someone getting into the console. That is, of course, under the assumption they've already played several of Nintendo's first-party efforts on the console.
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85. Garou: Mark of the Wolves
(XBLA) SNK
Not counting the very first entry on this list, this is the only "real" fighting game on the whole darn thing. It's not that I hate fighters, heck, it's not even that I dislike them... It's more that they're just not my cup of tea. I respect many aspects of them, but I just don't often find myself enjoying them too much. When I do, however, I'm most frequently drawn to SNK's interesting characters, and I felt that MotW has one of the best casts out of any fighting game I've ever played.
It's not just the cast and presentation that made me adore this game, though. The accessiblity to lower-tier fighting games made it a big draw. The moves list was simple enough for me to get a decent hang of, and it's one of those games that are easy to play, but infinitely difficult to master. This may be considered somewhat of a gateway title to me, and I hope that in coming years, I'm able to get into more fighting games.
It'd just be easier if they all had B. Jenet as a playable character. (:
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84. Mega Man X4
(PS1) Capcom
The first Mega Man game to grace this list, although very certainly not the last, we have one of the first games I ever got for my Playstation. Despite having been the game just before the (rather steep) decline in quality in the X series of games, it's still a great game, in its own right. It was one of the first Mega Man games to have a really fleshed out story, and it is often underrated in terms of how good the game actually looks, visually (when people compliment good looking 2D games from this era, MMX4 seems to frequently be left out).
It was also the first Mega Man X game to let you play from Zero from beginning to end, as well. He was implemented so well into the game that despite the fact he didn't use a ranged weapon, he seemed to fit in so naturally that I ended up playing as him even more than I played as X. From start to finish, Mega Man X4 was a great game, and it's disappointing that the series fell from such great heights as soon as the next release hit. To add insult to injury, the next two games also recycled a lot of resources from X4, making them look pretty sloppy.
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83. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
(PS1) Konami
Not quite the first Castlevania game to really borrow a few elements from the Metroid series, but it is often regarded as one of the best to have done so, and I can't say that I disagree with that sentiment. While a few other "Metroidvania" titles may have placed higher on the list than SotN, that's largely because I felt SotN was an experimental game. Although its atmosphere has yet to really be surpassed in the majority of the titles following after it, the gameplay has, largely, been rather refined. Even though the later titles have ended up a bit "samey," they still feel much more polished (albeit, in some cases, unpolished and unoriginal).
Despite the fact I believe some of its predecessors have exceeded it in quality, however, that doesn't mean I'm going to demerit the game and ignore its impact on gaming. It may not be the most refined Castlevania, and it might have had easily broken gameplay and difficulty, but it was very high-quality, nonetheless, and has some lasting appeal that you just won't get out of games like Dawn of Sorrow. Plus, you've got to give SotN credit for introducing Legion, the boss shaped like an enormous ball composed almost entirely out of human corpses.
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82. Resident Evil
(GC) Capcom
In good conscience, I couldn't make this list without at least one true survival horror, so I picked my favorite out of them (I don't count RE4 as a "survival horror" game). Although this series' original version of its first installment was largely memorable because of the hokey voice acting and somewhat campy, b-movie atmosphere, it still managed to capture some truly horrifying moments. The remake, on the other hand, manages to capture those elements of horror and multiply them exponentially.
Although I'm a bit too desensitized to video game horror to have been truly frightened by this game, I did tense up considerably more than I have with any other game in recent history, and I appreciated the macabre atmosphere greatly. Taking only the gameplay aspects of this game into review, you'd have a somewhat mediocre, clunkily controlled adventure game. Taking the visual and audio elements into review, however, and you have something truly memorable.
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81. F-Zero X
(N64) Nintendo
Of the few racing game series I've ever given a chance, F-Zero is the only one I believe I've ever really gotten into - and, yes, I have tried the WipEout series. If I had to guess, I'd say that a combination of several reasons are why I love the F-Zero series. The fast pace of the races, the futuristic design of the cars, the insane courses, the awesome music, the campy setting and characters... Really, it's just a great series, and I'm somewhat disappointed I couldn't fit GX onto this list.
F-Zero X stands out to me, in particular, because of the soundtrack. While the graphics may be somewhat dull, even by N64 game standards, the music is just great - it's exactly the kind of music I would imagine would go with the game's setting, and it really gets me pumped whenever I play it. Sometimes one element of a game being excellent can raise the overall composition to a higher level than it would have been at, otherwise, and this is a good example of that.
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80. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
(PS1) Capcom
Considering Mega Man Legends' extremely minor connections to any other series of Mega Man games, it's hard to really classify this game as a Mega Man game at all, especially considering that it doesn't feature any characters named "Mega Man," and focuses on the family of pirates from the first Mega Man Legends game that alternated between antagonists and anti-heroes, instead. The game is essentially, and I will not lie, a heaping dose of fanservice to fans of Tron Bonne. Considering she's my favorite video game character of all time, it shouldn't surprise anyone to see this game on the list.
Just because it's fanservice doesn't make it a bad game, though, not by any means. It plays as a combination-genre game, mixing elements from many different genres into one large, satisfying whole. Each of the different sections of the game you can participate in are very fun, and the game follows a story that reaches a satisfying conclusion. It's often overlooked, but it is truly, at least in my eyes, a really treasured gem to be unearthed. I'm just glad I got to experience it when it first came out, so I didn't have to be disappointed that I spent so long adoring the Mega Man Legends games only to find out about this one years later.
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79. Super Mario Bros. 3
(NES) Nintendo
I may rant about how much I think Nintendo's first-party games have gone downhill in the recent years, but for something to have gone downhill, it needs to have once been uphill, correct? Super Mario Bros. 3 is a darn fine game that no amount of contempt for modern Nintendo could stop me from admitting. The amount of love that went into this game is almost undeniable, and nearly every part of the game really shows it. From the Tanuki Suit to the Kuribo Shoe, all of the power-ups in this game exhibited oodles of creativity and definitely left an impact on my young mind.
I'm not the biggest fan of straight-up platformers, though, and the game wasn't without its faults, but the good points far outweigh the bad ones, and I'm not going to retroactively decide I hate a good game just because I'm not happy with the Nintendo of today.
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78. Metroid 2: The Return of Samus
(GB) Nintendo
Of all the titles on this list, I would have to argue that this one has been the one to age least gracefully. In its prime, Metroid 2 would have seen a considerably higher place on this list, but its innovations are shadowed, somewhat, by it being a slightly unintuitive game to play. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, now, not by any means, I treasure every single game I've ranked on this list, Metroid 2 very much included, I just don't think it's quite as pleasing to play today as it was when I first put the cartridge in my Game Boy so many years ago.
I love so many things about this game, though, and it really meant a lot to me when I played it when I was younger. Discovering all of the secrets felt incredibly rewarding, and it was the first game I ever played where I'd really feel accomplished for my exploration. I still remember spider-balling to virtually every surface in the game to find secrets, and how I wouldn't find the Varia suit until the second time I played it - which, after having taken a long time to beat it the first time without it, was a very, very cool reward. It's a shame how many newer games fail to innovate like the Metroid series did.
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77. Portal
(PC) Valve Corporation
Although the idea of the Portal sounded interesting enough, I was actually so skeptical about how it would actually work that I didn't get around to playing it for quite a few months after its release. Once I had it installed, however, I was glued to the screen from beginning to end. Few modern games as short as Portal manage to reach the level of critical acclaim that Portal did, and that's a shame... Portal's length was perfect, and was one of its strongest qualities. By the time you finished it, you didn't feel it had gotten old, and you were ready to go back and try it again just to see if you could find some of the things you missed.
The humor in the game was also top-notch, and each new room was a lot of fun to solve. While the internet has definitely worn the game thin, and made some people so sick of its mention that they'll lash out the second they hear a "cake" joke, that doesn't make it any less of a fun, humorous game. Manchildren who worship Valve making cake jokes every day of their lives will still irritate me, but I'm not going to let them tarnish what I though was a genuinely great game. It was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success.
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76. Super C
(NES) Konami
Ever get the feeling that the last alien menace you thwarted just wasn't enough? Me too. Every day, in fact. Good thing the Contra series is always there to remedy that ache. While I don't think that Super C managed to do anything to really meet the original's quality, I still think it's a great game. Most of the entries in the Contra series are absolute staples in any run 'n gun fan's top game lists, and I'm definitely no exception to that. I might not have a great deal to say about Super C, but that's largely because it owes a great deal to its predecessor. But, just because a game is a bit derivative doesn't make it a bad game, especially if it's a bit derivative of one of the best games ever.
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75. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
(SNES) Rare
I have never, still do not and probably will never understand all of the criticism directed at the Donkey Kong Country series, nor will I understand all of the retroactive hate that seems to have popped up and been applied to it. I'm not a huge fan of platformers, but I loved this series. Great presentation, excellent music, solid platforming, lots of collectibles, and good doses of replayability all make the DKC trilogy shine, in my eyes, and I'm somewhat disappointed they aren't quite as sparkly to other people, hehe.
As for DKC2, in particular, I felt it offered the most well-rounded challenge of the series, had the best level design, and, most importantly, had the best music. I could gush significantly about how much I love the soundtrack, but I'll hope that you will just take my word for how much I truly like it. I'm not the best critic of music, so I don't think I'd be able to specifically state exactly what it is about DKC2's soundtrack that I like so much, but it just really appeals to me.
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74. Shadow Complex
(XBLA) ChAIR
Although not really a game in the Metroid series, I think I can comfortably say this is the best Metroid game I've played since Super Metroid on the SNES. After having finished the game, I realized how inappropriate the term "Metroidvania" really was, and am going to try and refrain from using it too much in this article. Sure, the Metroid games and later Castlevania games do share things in common, but they play very, very differently. Exploration is, largely, the only way they're really similar.
Anyway, Shadow Complex manages to take elements from the Metroid series (the earlier titles, anyway) and mix them with shooting mechanics borrowed from more modern series. Just the very idea of this was enough to make me buy it without even giving the trial a spin, and I do not even regret it in the least. Although the game is a bit derivative and the secrets and design are not as fleshed out as something as excellent as Super Metroid, that does not, by any means, make it a bad game. In fact, being able to even compare to the game to Super Metroid in a manner that I would not describe as condescending is incredibly merit-worthy.
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73. R-Type
(Arcade/Various others) Irem
One of the finest arcade games of all-time, R-Type is an incredibly solid shooter that no shmup fan with even a modicum of self-respect can say they haven't played. It has a wonderful atmosphere, excellently designed stages, a great learning curve, a commendable degree of challenge and anything else you could really want out of an arcade shooter released at that time. I believe that it's also one of the most gracefully aged shmups that I've ever played, as well. That's all I really have to say about it, but just because there isn't a lot to say about the game doesn't mean there's not a lot to experience.
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72. Mega Man 8
(PS1) Capcom
Now here's a title that has some really polarized opinions. Most Mega Man fans who have played MM8 seem to have decided they either love it or hate it - that it was a welcome addition to the series, or an alien-feeling disgrace. Considering you're looking at a "top games" list, I think you can deduce where I stand on the matter. Perhaps the somewhat "cute" designs of the characters in this game and the anime cutscenes turned some off, but for me, it was an added bonus. Mega Man's inspirations were drawn from Astro Boy, to a degree, and that really, really shows in this particular entry in the series.
Being a fan of Astro Boy, and stories about androids, in general, I was really pleased to see the direction Mega Man was taking with this entry, and more than disappointed to see that we wouldn't see another entry to the original series done in this style. The story for the game was really interesting, and I'd have liked to see it expanded upon. Everything else about the game was great, too, I felt that, despite the fact that it played "differently," the stages were designed incredibly well and that it was just a lot of fun.
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71. Gley Lancer
(Genesis) NCS Corp
I often have a hard time justifying to other people why I like Gley Lancer so much. It's typically looked at as one of those games that doesn't deserve any praise, but gets a great deal just because it's Japanese. I completely disagree with this, as I found Gley Lancer to be loads and loads of fun, and I despise shmup elitists who like to think they're "better" than other fans of the genre because of all the games they've played that don't get official releases over here or are only released in arcades (I especially despise them because of them are just emulation fiends).
It's not a very difficult game, as far as the genre goes, but it has a strong length, a neat power-up system, lots of cool bosses, an awesome soundtrack and a satisfying climax. Really, what more could you ask out of a shooter? Although I couldn't understand the story, as moon runes are impossible for someone like me to decipher, I did enjoy the character design for this game a lot (I have a soft spot for earlier anime aesthetics). I really wish there would be a translation patch, for it, as I don't imagine it would be a great deal of work and would really let me finally enjoy the story. Not too many shmups get cutscenes, you know?
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70. Halo 3
(Xbox 360) Bungie Studios
To many fans of competitive Halo, such as myself, Halo 3 was a massive disappointment, in that regard. Skill-intensiveness was drastically reduced in order to appeal to a wider audience, and the competitive community was pretty hit pretty hard. If I were like one of my best friends, I probably wouldn't even have this game on the list for that reason... But I appreciate the game outside of how competitive it is, too, so it still deserves this spot.
The 4-player co-op campaign is a blast to run through with a group of friends. The theater mode, which allows you to replay games from any camera angle you could imagine, is incredibly useful. The forge mode, which has recently become considerably better with the addition of the latest map pack, is an astonishing amount of fun to build maps in. And, of course, the custom games? Well, you're now given more options and freedom than ever before. It might not be as well-refined a competitive multiplayer experience as it should have been, but it manages to surpass its predecessor in just being fun to goof around in.
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69. Half-Life
(PC) Valve Corporation
I've got to have something on this list so that PC gaming enthusiasts don't kill me, right? Hehe, in all honesty, though, this game deserved its spot, and is by no means a pandering so that my list may look more well-rounded. Half-Life is a truly marvelous FPS in that it was one of the first of its kind to really just work well - It didn't revolve around finding the next enemy, pointing, and then shooting... It was considerably more complex than that.
The design was genius in that it managed to make you feel afraid, or at least tense, in a genre that typically makes you feel like you're some sort of invincible God. It wasn't afraid to have significant portions of the game go by with little combat, it wasn't afraid to add in intuitive puzzles, and it wasn't afraid to keep the combat incredibly well-refined despite the focus on other, more immersive aspects. For that, I salute it.
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68. Yakuza 2
(PS2) Sega
Having not grown up being a big fan of beat-em-ups, when I first heard about the Yakuza series, I was less than enthused. "A Japanese GTA with a beat-em-up focus? Count me out." I thought to myself. After some repeated suggestion, however, and once the price had dropped significantly, I decided to give it shot. You know, after playing it, I really felt like putting my foot quite deeply into my mouth.
Now, while the first game was good, it was plagued by some issues that stopped it a few feet short of being as great as it could have been. The sequel, however, managed to do away with many of these faults and come up with an even more interesting story, to boot. Along with some of the other games Sega has released recently, I'm beginning to feel like they're making a comeback.
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67. Bangai-O
(DC) Treasure
The 2nd and last of the Treasure games you'll find on this list, we've got Bangai-O. Putting Bangai-O into a genre is slightly difficult - While it certainly has a fair share of shmup elements, it plays so uniquely that it's actually somewhat of a stretch to just call it one. The game has an emphasis on abusing the special move that you're capable of performing, which will put massive amounts of projectiles on the screen. While this sounds like a pretty simple system, Treasure (ab)uses the hell out of it to make a difficult and unique game built almost entirely around it.
This special really manages to use risk and reward in such a way that the more enemy projectiles that are near you when you unleash it, the more you'll be unleashing, yourself. It's a lot of fun... Quirky, but a lot of fun. If the premise of how to play the game wasn't strange enough, however, this game also features one of the most insane stories I've ever seen in a video game, and it's really poorly translated, too, which actually gives the game this peculiar appeal. Believe it or not, I was such a big fan of the translation that I was actually disappointed that the DS sequel was actually legible... And I strongly doubt I was the only Bangai-O fan who felt this way.
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66. Braid
(XBLA) Number None, Inc.
Braid is often met with tremendous fanfare or, seemingly about as often, an equal amount of disgust. Some people who played it found the presentation for the game to be so ripe with pretentiousness that they just couldn't stand it, while others found it to be an incredibly fun, unique, and well-designed game. Taking the presentation for Braid out of the equation, I think that you have an astoundingly well-designed platformer with a time control gimmick that is used very intelligently.
However, factoring in the presentation, it becomes a little bit more difficult to judge, although, in my opinion, it managed to enhance the game, overall. I will agree that I find John Blow to be somewhat of a pretentious person in how he designed the story for the game, but I also believe that accusations of something being pretentious often arise from the accusor's ignorance. Having read in-depth analyses of the story online, I have to say, I never got close to guessing what Braid was "really," about, despite finding it an emotionally moving story from what I could piece together.
As I said earlier, though, it's a good game underneath the presentation, whether you liked that or not. And, if you didn't, other elements of the presentation that don't aren't necessarily concretely tied to the story, such as the visuals and the music, are quite relaxing and a joy to observe.
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65. Gears of War
(Xbox 360) Epic Games
I will start by saying that I find Gears of War's premise to be among the most stupid in any game that I ever have played, and that I find the story to be almost offensively terrible. The characters are dislikeable, the music is generic, the competitive multiplayer is among the worst I've ever played and the game has about as much originality as Fred Phelps has sanity. I hate most of the fans of the game, too, and I'm almost ashamed to even admit I love the game. Almost.
The reason I love this game is because it was the first game since the SNES generation that I felt had really, really, really good co-operative play. I had not had so much fun co-operatively playing a game with a friend while playing Gears of War since playing Kirby Super Star for the first few times. The campaign is lovingly crafted around being meant to be played with your best buddies, and it shines because of that. Sure, you're still a bunch of macho morons on your quest to kill, kill, and kill, but it's so much fun to play that you just don't care what the game is about.
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64. Doom
(PC) iD Software
Just to be specific, Ultimate Doom, because that last chapter is so darn fun. To me, Doom will always be the father of the FPS genre to me. Sure, others came first, even some darn good ones (I still love me some Wolf3D), and others have come, since, and further developed the genre, but Doom will always stand tall as one of the most significant games in history, to me, and also one of the most enjoyable to play.
Although a bit lacking in enemy variety, each of the stages were incredibly well-designed and made full use of their resources. I never really came to appreciate Doom's level design until the more recent years, when I'd played its sequel and come across its mixed bag of stages, or played Final Doom and had to wade the filth of insanely designed WADs, but it really is fantastic. Doom is also a great reminder that no matter how complicated games can be, all the basics you really need to do to make one great are to give the protagonist a shotgun and stick some enemies to rip (and tear) apart into the mix.
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63. Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice
(DS) Capcom
Apollo Justice was a pretty bold game. Capcom had a really good IP going for them, with many established characters and adventures that could be had... And they decided to give the game an almost entirely new cast and make most of the older characters only referenced through obscure little things. Often times, when this kind of attempt is made, it flops. The fans will feel betrayed and not buy it, it'll fail to catch on with new consumers, etc. Not at all in this case, however.
Despite having adored each of the three original games, the third one even more than the second, I felt that this was a mighty good breath of fresh air. I'm not saying that the series had really gotten stale, but I think that a fourth title might have brought it down that alley. It really took some initiative to predict that outcome and move on - which is rather unusual for Capcom to do. As much as I love them, they're fans of milking their big IPs. The new cast is just as colorful as the last, though, and you're able to attach yourself to them without constantly pining for your old favorites to return to the limelight.
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62. MUSHA
(Genesis) Compile
It may or not be known that I'm not a huge fan of Compile. I like them, in fact, I like them quite a bit more than your average gamer, and I don't really think they're overrated... It's just I'm not a big fan of most of their games. MUSHA, however, I am definitely a big fan of. From the Compile games that I've played, I would consider it to be the pinnacle of their work, and one of the finest shooters that I've ever played.
What it is about MUSHA, exactly, that makes it so good, is kind-of hard for me to define. It was not a game that I initially enjoyed, but, rather, one that I would come back to a few times before I finally began to truly appreciate how great it is. I may lack clarity in describing the quality of this game, but I think that any shmup enthusiast who plays it will see for themselves what I'm talking about.
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61. Cybernator
(SNES) NCS Corp
(AKA: Assault Suits Valken) At first, I felt that Cybernator was a mediocre game, but the more I played it, the more I loved it. I think that, by and large, gamers have always been heavily deprived of sidescrollers with giant robots. Good ones, I mean. While the game may have a somewhat butchered localization, a clunky control scheme, and a difficult learning curve, it more than makes up for that in how fun it is to replay and how rewarding it is to get better at it.
The story is somewhat typical as far as stories involving giant robots go, but it still manages to pack an emotional punch you didn't get out of many SNES games that weren't RPGs. A lot of this story, including a suicide (in a SNES game!?), were taken out from the NTSC release, however. While it wasn't really anything groundbreaking, I can't help but lament that one of the few sidescrollers on the SNES with a good story was cut up when we got ahold of it.
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60. Super Mario World
(SNES) Nintendo
Thought this list might only have SMB3 on it, as far as the platforming Marios go, eh? While I definitely hold SMB3 in high regard, SMW is quite a decent a bit ahead of it, in my opinion. The game might have a notable jump down in difficulty (and considering most Mario games aren't very difficult in the first place, that is a legitimate point of criticism, to many), but it has a remarkably higher jump up in how fun it is to play, which is what is important.
The game is very vivid in how colorful it is, the music is, figuratively, just as colorful, the stage design is unique in how many multiple exits there are, the story is a little more fleshed out and whimsical (I love how Mario took down each Koopa castle), the platforming is just as solid and, overall, I just felt that it was the better game. It really is a shame that Mario so steeply declined for me after his SNES years were up, and perhaps and equally great shame that SMW never really got a sequel that played quite like it did.
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59. Tail Concerto
(PS1) CyberConnect2
You know, in all the years that I had been aware of this game, I had never once placed into the genre of "3D platformer." It wasn't that my dislike of 3D platformers had kept me from labeling it as one (I will admit I do strongly dislike most games in the genre), it had just never crossed my mind that it might be one. While looking at it in the light that it may be one, it is honestly the first 3D platformer I can think of that I actually enjoyed (and, boy, did I enjoy it). I still consider it more of an action-rpg, akin to the Mega Man Legends series of games, though.
Probably one of the simplest games on this list, Tail Concerto is a really charming little title on the PS1 that is often overlooked or unheard of. It is an easy, relatively short game focusing on the adventures of Officer Waffle, the policeman... er... dog, on his mission to break up the Black Cats gang. This gang is seemingly led by Waffle's childhood friend, Alicia (my second favorite game character, ever), who is a cat, and Waffle is really conflicted about bringing her in.
Everything about this game is rather cute, and the story (which is accompanied by anime cutscenes and voice acting) is predominately about dog people and cat people learning to live together in harmony. It's an "all ages" game if I've ever seen one, as it can be played and enjoyed by anyone, even "hardcore gamers." Although it's not in the higher-ranked half of this list, it's easily one of my most treasured games of all time for sentimental reasons.
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58. Soldier Blade
(TurboGrafx 16) Hudson Soft
Although I may be a bigger fan of horizontal shooters, the Star Soldier series is one that I'd rank up there almost alongside some of my favorite series of shmups. My favorite game in the Star Soldier series? Well, it's a pretty common answer among Star Soldier fans, and it is indeed Soldier Blade. I admittedly used to be slightly more fond of Super Star Soldier, but it's steep difficulty curve kinda shook me off. I'm still a big fan of it, mind you, and wish I had enough room on the top 100 to stick on here, but Soldier Blade just blows it out of the water.
This game excels in about every factor a shmup can excel in - great music, frantic gameplay, reasonably high difficulty, lots of stuff to blow up, the works. It's just a fun game, and, on the plus side, it's much more inviting to more casual gamers than some of the other entries in the series. It's easy to get into and doesn't force a lot of tedious memorization on you. Plus, it's just a awesome game, in general.
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