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
#40. Pokemon Crystal
Choosing between Pokemon generation 1 and 2 was a tough call, but I had great times with both of them and there's no question that Crystal was pretty much the pinnacle of old school Pokemon. The funny thing is I almost didn't play it. The first time I played it I spent a few hours with it, but I just wasn't in the frame of mind to be playing Pokemon. I wasn't ready to spend dozens of hours singularly focused on catching them all. So I popped it back into its box, and put it back on my game shelf....for about four years. In that time Ruby and Sapphire had come and gone, and I never gave them a thought. But something made me finally give it a shot, and god I'm glad I did. It was just like the original, but on steroids. It eventually became my lunch hour game. I would sit there with an old horizontal GBA in a back corner of my company's break room trying to catch a few more Pokemon, while an asshole coworker would snicker and tell me about the new Nintendo DS he just got (yeah I really was behind the times when started playing it). Oh well fuck him. The DS literally had nothing but shit on it for the first year, so congrats on getting to play Mario 64 without and analog stick you douche....I digress.
Anyway, yes, Pokemon Crystal was the original on steroids. There were 100 additional Pokemon, bringing the total up to 251! Who could possibly catch that many? There was a day/night cycle that was actually in-synch with real world time. And the most amazing thing was the post-game content. You got to go back to the original land, Kanto, and fight all the original trainers. And if you kept at it, eventually you could challenge the man himself, Ash. It was one of the most mind blowing moments in gaming at the time, and really still is to this day. So sure I was late to the party, but it was an amazing fucking party and it was still going on and I'm glad I checked it out.
From now on I will just think "you think X is better than Mario Galaxy?!"
Galaxy was pretty much a Triumph on every level, but it was never the kind of game I can lose an entire day to. I loved it, but I can only play so much of it at a given time. Not really uncommon with action games and me.
Actraiser was amazing. One of the best games from that era easily.
#39. Persona 5
Okay I'm breaking one of my own rules by putting Person 5 on this list. Whenever I do one of these lists I make sure that its been at least a year since I've played the game so I can properly reflect on the quality of the game to make sure I don't rank it too high. When I made this list I was only about 6 or 7 months since my playthrough of the game, but the way I look at it is this is ultimately this game is going to ranked a lot higher than 39. I loved this game. Every complaint I had about Persona 3 and 4 was addressed in this game and nothing was compromised along the way. Better combat. Better laid out dungeons (and they still found a way to keep the randomly generated dungeons). More interesting city centers to explore. Just more of everything. And the art style... holy crap. This game is pretty much on its own level when it comes to that. I could gush over every aspect of this game, but I will spare you. I'll just say that if I played this game 20 years ago, I probably would have ended up writing fan fic about it.
Persona 5, let's say I'm half way there. Whether it would make my top 100 is livin' on a prayer.
Will the rule be broken again for the new Dragon Quest?
#38. NiGHTS into Dreams
It's not often that I'm immediately sold on a game just by the box art, but the second I saw NiGHTS into Dreams I wanted it. That would prove difficult because nothing else about the Sega Saturn appealed to me. All the good games seemed to be stuck in Japan and the system was too expensive for a broke-ass college kid to get one. Still, everytime I was renting a game at Blockbuster or at a game store I'd inevitably see NiGHTS and drool. So many years later, after the Dreamcast had come and gone, I found a bundle on eBay for a Saturn and 6 games including NiGHTS for a mere $30 (because the guy listing it spelled it as Satern). And NiGHTS turned out to be everything I hoped it would be.
NiGHTS had the sense of whimsy that so many early Sega and Nintendo had and seemed to be dropped by every developer in favor of realism. Bright, colorful, and complete fantasy. You got to fly in a world a dreams, and was trippy as hell. Truth be told, to this day I more or less suck at the game. If I practice enough, I can usually get a B score, but it's rare I do better than that. That doesn't matter though. I'm content to just fly around listen to the music and take in the sights (at least until the timer expires).
#37. The Saboteur
The Saboteur may very well be the greatest "this is the only game I can afford" kind of game I've ever bought. I had a couple dollars in cash and a few more in Gamestop store credit, and there just wasn't much else to chose from, but the cover art seemed interesting enough even if the reviews had generally been so-so. Well I'm happy to say everyone who gave it a poor review can fuck right off. The Saboteur was an amazing game with a fun story and one of the great leading characters of all time. I suppose I should also thank you them because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford it.
You play as Sean Devlin, foul-mouth Irishman and members of the French Resistance. You travel an occupied France blowing up stuff the Nazi's would rather you leave alone. It was a unique take on open-world games, and while the gameplay might not have been quite as varied as a Grand Theft Auto the setting and atmosphere trumped anything Rockstar had made at the time. Whether you were setting up a bomb to take out a fuel depot in Paris or you were running through the French countryside (probably becase you got caught setting up a bomb to take out a fuel depot in Paris), the game enchanted me. I eventually got so caught up in the game that I'd break out a bottle of red wine and a baquette when I played it. Seriously, The Saboteur actually nutured my love of pinot noir. Before then I more or less stayed away from most wine. It made me the fancy pants that I am today.