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
Isn't it crazy to think that there was a time when you needed a beefy PC to play a point and click adventure?
My uncle was always into building PC's back then, when it wasn't so simple. I bet he had this game. I used to love going over his house to see the latest stuff, but was more than happy to go home and enjoy the simplicities of my Snes and Mega Drive. It really is something how much easier it is today to build a beast PC. And how much more user friendly it is getting pretty much any game to run perfectly. The platform has come a long long way.
Of course, the PC and consoles today also have much less individual personality because everything is so standardized.
#48. Mario Kart DS
When I started this list I knew that a Mario Kart game was going to end up somewhere on it, but I wasn't entirely sure which one. The series is always great, but it doesn't make a lot of dramatic changes. We all know the mechanics of it. You drive around a track, try to knock your opponents around with a weapon or use one to defend yourself, and pray to whatever dieties you believe in that you won't get your run ruined by a blue shell. The graphics have gotten better, the tracks have gotten more plentiful, and more racers are included, but there's not many dramatic changes from installment to installment. So ultimately I decided to go with Mario Kart DS for a couple big reasons. It was the first with an online mode, which was probably the biggest one-time addtion and that added an entirely new level of competition to it (even if those fuckers who figured out snaking would always beat me). More importantly, it the first one that I actually enjoyed for more than a couple days.
My wife got me the Mario Kart DS bundle for Christmas in 2005. She was pregnant with our son and since I was determined to save every dime I had for his arrival I'd pretty much stopped buying games. So she figured she'd get me this and it would keep me occupied. I had my doubts because at that time I wasn't real impressed with the DS (lord knows I was wrong about that since it would go on to be arguably my favorite gaming system ever), and I didn't care too much about Mario Kart. But I gave it a chance, and it was a game changer for me. I was quickly addicted and always wondered if I missed out by not giving the earlier games a more series try. It was also the reason I finally figured out what the hell Wifi was. In order to race online I quickly familiarized myself with it and for a while I'd either go to McDonalds which was offering it or if I sat outside on my porch I could leach a signal from a neighbor. Not long afterwards I realized I actually had a wifi modem that an earlier internet provider gave me and I never took the time to figure out. So yeah, once that was set up this game was pure bliss.
#47. Punch Out (Wii)
I started making this list back in July, and once I settled on everything I really didn't make too many changes to it. Writing it all out has taken longer than I first anticipated (plus Dragon Quest 11 has filled up a lot of time I thought I'd use to write), and as a result sometimes I forget what games are on it. Case in a point, two weeks ago my wife had a friend over and they were having some girly feely emotional conversation, so I excused myself to my office where my Wii U and decided to boot up Punch Out since it's a great game to kill a short amount of time with. By the time I had gone against Great Tiger I was REALLY getting into it again and I started to wonder how I could have left it off of my list. So I double checked, and of course it was there. Why wouldn't it? This is one of the great pure video game experiences of all time.
Punch Out is about one thing - recognizing patterns. The controls are simple enough with just a few punches, dodges, and blocks, but it's all about how you use them and knowing when to break out the right move. Of course if that was the only thing Punch Out had it would get a little old, but the cast of fighters you go against is the perfect presentation for the controls. Each fighter has a distinct style and personality. Some you even feel a little bad that you have to give them a black eye. And Punch Out's greatest gift to us was of course Title Defense mode. Just when you thought you had the game beat, now you have to prove you can keep the championship and each fighter comes back with new moves and jacked up (possibly on steriods in Soda Popinski's case). It added a new level of fun and difficulty to an already great game.
#46. L.A. Noire
Ahhhh L.A. Noire, my imperfect masterpiece. Sure the interogations and questioning were flawed and became counter-intutive when the played already figured out where things were headed before Cole did. Yes, the final scavenger hunt homicide case was futile as hell. And it's tough to argue that the game's story didn't kind of collapse on itself at the end showing that things got very rushed at the end of development. All of that stuff is easy to overlook when you see all the other things that this game does so very right.
The mood and the setting of post-war LA is completely nailed to a tee. You can see the signs of properity all around while grime and crime fill in the cracks. The characters are interesting running the gamut from cops that just don't care to others that are genuinally corrupt. And even as flawed as some of them are, you always kind of regret getting moved on to other desk where you don't get to work with them again. The cases and investigations though. When they're good, and most of them genuinally are, they're amazing experiences. They feel like classic detective movies and tv shows from the 50's and 60's (hell they even borrow their names in some instances), but with a little more seediness added to them for modern audiences.
And the last thing to note is how sad I am that Team Bondi was run by a group of douchenozzles. I'd love nothing more than to play their follow-up title, Whore of the Orient, and see what they could have done with lessons learned from this title. Sadly, due to a myriad of poor management decisions that doesn't look like we'll see it. Then again, who knows? Maybe Rockstar will find someone else to make it. A man can dream.
Punch Out was really fun. One of my favorites on the Wii. L.A. Noire was cool too. I'd actually like to replay it one day.
I still have Punch-Out for the Wii sitting on the shelf yet to be played. I really should get to it one of these days. I loved the SNES game.
Punch out games are all great.
That might be the best one.
Punch out yes!
I even played MK DS with you guys.
#45. Kingdom Hearts
Disney and Final Fantasy... when the original Kingdom Hearts was announced everyone thought it was one of the worst ideas of all time, and everyone was wrong. The combination turned out one of the most amazing games we'd ever seen. It was so much better than it had any right to be. What could have been just a blow-off game that would have sold fine just due to the names involved turned out to be an absolute classic that spawned one of the most byzantine storylines of all time (that's another story entirely though). Now before I go completely overboard let me first say Kingdom Hearts 2 is by far a better game. The story did start to go off the rails, but the controls and camera which could get kind of nightmarish in the original were much better this time around. The original will still be my favorite for three big reasons.
That third point is pretty important here. When KH first came out I was going through one of the worst financial stresses of my life. From the second half of 2003 to the end of 2004 I was struggling to just keep the lights on and food on the table. There wasn't a lot of gaming going on for me at that time, and I sold off most of my games just to get by. But as that mess was coming to an end I was able to get my hands on an extra $20 which was enough for a used copy of Kingdom Hearts, and I played that fucker like nothing else. I'm rarely go the completionist route, but this game was rich in content so I completely dove in. I found every dalmation, fought every optional mini-boss, and build the most elaborate gummi ships the world has ever seen. Not only was it all but, but as an extra bonus I got that super kick-butt secret ending too. It definitely kept me occupied and pretty happy during a rough patch and for that the original Kingdom Hearts will always be a god-tier game to me.
Just recently played KH again, and shit, it may be a bit rough here and there, but that double dose of Square and Disney magic more than makes up for it. I still need to play KH2 before the sequel comes out.