Every February on whatever message board I'm hanging out on, I try to have a little stupid fun and do a theme month. Didn't pull it off last month, but usually it works out. Anyway this year, I'd like to present my Top 28 games of all time. This is a list I've been thinking about during a lot of down time at work for the past week, and I'm actually pretty proud of it. It's just my list of favorites, so there will be several games you've never heard of or at least never played. And there will likely be some that you'll go, "seriously? you like that turd?" Well, fuck you in advance. It's my list and I love it.
Anyway, I'll be posting one game a day with a blurb about why I love it so until the month is over, with my number 1 game being presented on Feb 28. Before we begin here is a semi-sorta sneak preview. Just a quick list of the honorable mentions. The ones that came so close and yet..... not good enough.
- Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
- Fortune Street
- NiGHTS Into Dreams
- Final Fantasy Legend II
- Lemmings
The top 28:
28. Super Mario Bros. 2
27. Dig-Dug
26. Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory: So You Want To Be A Hero
25. Scorched Earth
24. The Saboteur
23. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
22. Azure Dreams
21. Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant
20. Legend of Mana
19. Harvest Moon: Magical Melody
18. EverQuest
17. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
16. Rune Factory Frontier
15. Street Fighter Alpha 2
14. The World Ends With You
13. Pokemon Snap
12. Mother 3
11. Heroes of Might and Magic III
10. SimCity
9. Super Mario World
8. Chrono Trigger
7. Tetris
6. Red Dead Redemption
5. Persona 3
4. Resident Evil 4
3. Final Fantasy Tactics:
2. Valkyria Chronicles
1. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
#5. Persona 3 FES
Have you ever completely missed out on a game when it was originally released only to discover it years later and then want to kick your ass for missing it in the first place? That's how I feel about Persona 3. This game takes gaming elements and genres from so many things I love; jRPGs, dungeon crawlers, social sims, and monster training. It takes all of these things and then seemlessly blends them into something all its own. It takes all this and wraps it up with a surprisingly dark story, but then again how surprisingly dark can it be when all the characters trigger their personas by essentially shooting themselves in the head with a gun? Okay, so dark subject matter and completely and delightfully Japanese in its own fucked-upness right down to its j-hip-hop soundtrack. It's really tough to go wrong with that. It even does an amazing job with taking a 60+ hour game and doing a pretty damned good job of keeping it compelling throughout the entire game. Classic game in so many respects, and a must-play.
I never played a Persona game before but you make it sound good, now I want to lol. Was this game ever re-released to the PSP or anything?
Yes Persona 3 was released for the PSP and it's arguably the best version. Because it's a big game a lot of the visuals had to be sacrificed so the cut-screens are far and few inbetween. The result is, the drama of a lot of the scenes is lessened because there's no body language or movement to accompany it. Just talking heads/profiles that show up on the screen. It doesn't allow for your character to walk around either. Instead everything is shown as a map with hotspots and you move your cursor from one to another to go to different places, and some people find that a little irritating. And of course since its a PSP game the graphics do take a hit (music is still intact though and that's awesome).
However there are some great additions to the game that I think work more to the game's favor. The menus, which were pretty rough in the PS2 version are completely streamlined, and are night and day easier to use. They add the option to choose your gender, and if you play as the female character the entire social ladder social structure of the game changes (and actually gets a lot fucking creepier). They add a few features that make leveling up your personality traits easier, which can kind of be brutal in the original version, as well as a few new quests/objectives that keep provide some extra goals to keep things moving gamewise. And then finally there are a lot of little tweaks to the storyline to help it make a bit more sense, as well as a few additions that help tie the game more into Persona 4 and a slightly to Catherine as well.
#4. Resident Evil 4
Before any development team makes a game, they all need to play Resident Evil 4 to learn what the word "pacing" means. RE4 does it better than any other game, period. Every scene is either there to build suspense, lull you into a false sense of security, make you fear for your life, or flat out scare the crap out of you. No moment is wasted or ever feels like filler. That's not to say it's the only thing of merit in the game though. For the time it was a visual treat and even holds up well today. The action is great. Fantastic boss battles. And the Mercenaries is possibly the best side-game of all time. Really it's all just amazing. Remarkably enough I've never cared about another RE game before or since, but this one... it's just magic. One of those amazing games that as soon as you finish it, you just want to start it up again. Not much of a better compliment you can pay a game than that.
After finishing RE6 yesterday, I was wondering if Capcom would ever reclaim the magic of 4 ever again. It's just pure gaming bliss.
That's one reason why I may never play another RE game. I tried RE5 and loathed it. Revelations was okay, but I put it aside after a couple hours and never went back. I think I may be best off just enjoying RE4 and pretending the rest of the series doesn't exist.
I'd give the RE series another chance if it goes back to being survival horror again. If not, then I'm done with the series.
I would also have to say RE4 would be in my top games of all time as well. At a point where I was ready to give up on games and was bored with them this came out and floored me. I got a Gamecube just for this game (and then moved on to find the other good games on the system too) but man this game..... I must have played it like six times now it is just that good.
Greatest game ever not names Zelda.