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
#44. Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V was for a while my biggest video game obsession. Maybe the biggest I've ever had. The first time I got on the internet was the end of 1995 and being a Squaresoft fanboy at the time the first thing I did an Infoseek search for was Final Fantasy. After clicking a few links it didn't take long before I discovered that I had been lied to for the past 5 years. There were in fact 6 Final Fantasy games, and not 3. The one that caught my eye though was Final Fantasy V. After seeing that there were like 18 different character classes to choose from, I was sold. I needed it. The chances of it coming to America were slim though. Over the next two years a rumor about it being released in the US as "Final Fantasy Extreme" came and went. And I tried playing a very poor early fan translation on an early version of SNES9x, the choice SNES emulator of the time. That barely ran on my PC though. So in 1997 I finally broke down and found an import game store that would send me the game for $90.00. And it was worth every penny.
Playing the game was an adventure. It was in Japanese so I had to track down and print a translation of the script. I also had the game shipped right before spring break so I could play it during my week off from college. Funny story about that too. My girlfriend and I had rented a cabin to spend the week in, and you'd think two college age kids would more or less spend it having sex, but unfortunately she was a virgin and was set on holding onto it like.... a virgin holding onto her virginity?? Fuck it, it's late and I'm stuck for a metaphor. Point is I didn't have sex that week so with an english script in hand I tackled FFV, and just about beat it before the week was over. It was a fun but difficult experience. Years later, I got the GBA version that had a good translation and conquored that, all the while having sex with my wife...who wasn't a virgin. Anyway it all worked out, and the game is probably still my favorite Final Fantasy game to this day.
I wanted to like Kingdom Hearts, but it really only seemed to have fan service going for it. At some point I gave up. Maybe I'll try it again someday.
I think that's a completely legitimate opinion if you only play the first one, and particularly only part of it. The first half of Kingdom Hearts is a very uneven experience. Very much like the developers were still trying to figure out what to do with the game. Particularly in Wonderland, Tarzan's Jungle and parts of Agrabah, it really feels like you're just wandering around trying to trigger events to make the plot move forward. The second half of the game is a much smoother experience.
if you ever wanted to give it a second try though, I would probably suggest just skip the first and go straight into Kingdom Hearts 2.5. As I said before it is the better game for a number of reasons. It just didn't have the same impact as the original.
#43. Ms. Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man wasn't the first game I ever played, but it was the first game I played a lot of. When I was four years old, Christopher, my new best friend moved into the neighborhood. I wouldn't figure it all out until years later but Christopher's family was a little different than everyone else in the neighborhood because his dad (or step-dad rather) worked for the local mob. He seemed fairly high up too. As a fringe benefit of being in the mob, they always had a lot of cool stuff in their house including a pool table, Space Invader's pinball, and a couple stand-up arcade game including Ms. Pac-Man. Pac-Man fever was still running high so this was always the go-to game for us. We'd have to stand up on chairs to see the screen, but that didn't stop us. Neither of us was particularly good. Once in a blue moon we'd make it to the 3rd level (the banana and pear level) and then speculate what color the future levels would be and what kind of fruit Ms. Pac-Man would get to eat.
It's also been an omnipresent game. I don't think there's ever been a time where I went more than a year without seeing it show up somewhere. And for good reason. It was an excellent game, even better than the original. Any time I come across it I'll still toss in a quarter and play it. Even played just over a week ago at a local comic book shop as a matter of fact. It's just as good as ever, even if I'm not quite as good as I was back in the day.
Yeah the first few hours of Kingdom Hearts are brutal. Back in the early 00's I didn't mind though. Starts slow as hell.
It's funny you mention that, because that was the only part of KH2.5 I played before switching to Persona 5. But I think I got past it so when I go back to the game, hopefully that's where the real shit starts.
God, Wonderland and Tarzan’s Jungle were awful. I think I probably quit the game about five times during those stages. Thank goodness the rest is better.
Man if these games in the 40s mean that much to you I wonder what we will get in the next bunch.