To celebrate our 10 year anniversary I think it's only fair that we do the exact same thing every video game magazine did whenever they reached a milestone... create a top 100 list. So that's what I'm going to do. I've spent the last couple weeks thinking this over and I have a list in front of me that I'm pretty happy with. No one else on earth will be happy with it, but as I always say, "fuck off it's my list and I don't give two shits what you think you little pissant." At least I think I say that.
Also, if you recall I did do a top 28 list a while back. However, that was 5 years ago and many great games have come out since, so even that top 28 has some changes in it. There's a few new games, a few games my opinions have changed on, and there was one really great one that I completely overlooked somehow when I made the list the first time. So rest assured there will be some very noticeable changes.
And it's going to go by fast. Since I've got that new job starting in just over a week, my free time may be reduced, so I'm going to try to get all 100 games posted within the next two weeks. I need to sharpen up my writing since this is a PR job so it's good practice. Writing about insurance benefits and filing medical claims is just like video games right?
100Sonic Adventure
99Kaboom
98Conquests of the Longbow
97Streets of Rage 2
96Lollipop Chainsaw
95Bloodborne
94 Crazy Taxi
93Bit.Trip.Beat
92Wii Ski & Snowboard
91RiverCity Ransom
90Dragon Quest Monsters
89Jones in the Fastlane
88Dark Cloud 2
87Professor Layton and the Curious Village
86MadWorld
85Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
84Torneko the Last Hope
83Crystal Castles
82Space Harrier
81Retro Game Challenge
80Final Fantasy VII
79Bulletstorm
78Rayman Legends
77Super Dodge Ball
76World of Goo
75The Magic of Scherazade
74Minecraft
73Fantasy Zone 2
72Golden Axe: Revege of Death Adder
71Final Fantasy Legend II
70Hotel Dusk
69Splatoon
68Pitfall
67Dragon Quest V
66SteamWorld Dig
65Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
64Order Up
63Hearthstone
62Monkey Island II: LeChuck's Revenge
61Bayonetta
60Galaga
59 Earthbound
58Super Mario Bros.
57Wii Sports Resort
56Pac-Man CE: DX
55Trauma Team
Surprised to see Bulletstorm on here. It was a fun game, I'd like to see another one. But not something I was expecting to see on Manpretty's top 100, for sure.
Apples and oranges. You're comparing the battle system of a 100 hour game to a single three minute level of a platformer that's played to one of the greatest rock songs of the past 40 years.
Yep it surprised me too. Honestly I don't even remember why I decided to try it but I'm glad I did. It was batshit stupid fun.
fair point. Now go play Xenoblade Chronicles 2.DO IT!!!
Anyway yeah Bulletstorm was a hell of a lot of fun. Had a great time with the game myself as well.
#77. Super Dodge Ball
Super Dodge Ball is a constant reminder that I probably could be a sports fan if televised sports actually appealed to me. If there was a real Super Dodge Ball league (that was available to watch on something other than ESPN 3 at 1 in the morning) I'd probably be glued to it. Alas there is not, but the video game is a pretty good substitute. From the arcade to the NES to the GBA and all the Japanese only versions that have showed up on other systems, every version of the game has been a blast to play. Discovering each teammates' super throws, and building your team around them is all well and good, but even at its barebones level with the games that went light with the super throws or other frills, Super Dodge Ball has a great simple strategy that requires you to figure out what the best plan of attack is while not getting beaned by the opposing team. Direct attack? Tossing it around to members outside the square? Tricking the opponents into crossing the line? It's cliche as hell, but this is one of those classics that easy to pick up, but hard to master. If only we could get a few of the newer version into the West, all would be good for this franchise.
#76. World of Goo
When WiiWare first launched it was home to some of the most innovative games on consoles. The first generation of it saw S-E turn Final Fantasy into an adventure management sim called My Life as a King. Tell Tale brought out early internet icon Strong Bad over to his first adventure game,Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Frontier Developments took a break from making sims, and created Lost Winds, a platformer where you controlled the atmosphere as much as the character. But my favorite was without question, was a dark little physics puzzler from a new indie studio called 2D Boy. World of Goo.
You spend the game using the IR controls on the Wiimote to stretch and arrange cute little goo blobs into ladders and bridges in order to get them from point A to point B. The game starts out cute and happy, but things darken up quickly and after a while the levels look like something Tim Burton would create when the lithium REALLY isn't working. A PC version would later allow you much tighter controls by using the mouse to arrange the goo blobs, but I've always thought the imprecise controls of the WiiMote made the game more fun and challenging. Like a good game of Jenga, if your hand isn't steady you're going to pay the price. There's also a really cool free-play mode where your only goal is to create the highest tower you can make without it falling to pieces. I showed this to an engineer friend of mine years ago. He wasn't much of a gamer, but when he saw this his head exploded and he pretty much spent the next day in front of the TV trying to set a record and get on whatever kind of leader board they created.
2D Boy (later known as the Tomorrow Corporation) has since gone on to frustrate me with their later games. Their subsequent games never seemed as ambitious, with games like Little Inferno and Human Resource Machine. Hopefully they'll come up with a more grand idea soon and we can see what other great games they can make.
#75. The Magic of Scheherazade
Behold, The Magic of Scheherazade, aka the greatest game you probably never played on the NES. If The Legend of Zelda and Chrono Trigger had a baby that was raised on the Arabian pennisula 1000 years ago, this would be it. I originally rented this game at Blockbuster on a whim which is pretty remarkable considering how unappealing the box art is, but it proved to be one of the great uninformed decisions of my life. This game took all the overworld exploration fun of Zelda and flipped it just a bit. Unlike Zelda you didn't use items to overcome puzzles, but The Magic of Scheherazade gave you other ways to solve your puzzles. You'd travel back and forth through time looking for a way to overcome a challenge, make allies who would join your quest in order to further your adventure, or perhaps change your character class. The game would also on occasion interrupt your traditional 2-D adventure and throw you into a turn based RPG type battle where your new allies would join you and occasionally create combos that would give them huge advantages in battle. It could be a little jarring at times, but it was a neat idea and was actually my first taste of turn based RPG games.
The game also had one of the most infamously bad translations I've ever seen. A magic spell that could open hidden doors was called "oprin." A multi-armed boss that looks very much like the Hindu goddess Kali was named "Curly." The list goes on, and while it was mind boggling bad at times, it never managed to be so bad that it broke the game. At the end of the day it added a little unintended personality to the game. Anyway if anyone was dying for an NES game to play this one gets just about the highest accolades I can give one.
Very interesting. Where do you find this stuff.
Years ago I think it was almost easier to find hidden gems and the like because you didn't have much to go on other than marketing and friend recommendations. The idea of only looking for games that got good reviews just didn't exist so you were open to trying moreI think. In fairness, I also played some of the worst games ever made because of that and bypassed a number of classics for years. Buying Rush'n'Attack over Mega Man was a bad idea. Buying Robocop over... well anything else in the store was a flat out terrible idea.
BTW Vader, if you ever feel like trying out an old 8-bit game that you never played before, I would suggest giving The Magic of Scheherazade a try. It's old so it's naturally flawed as hell, but I do think you'd get a kick out of for at least a couple hours.