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
Robio, I’m out of town, but will gladly play with you this weekend.
I wanted to play the online, but whenever I tried I failed to find anyone playing it at all.
Finally finished my more than top 100 games list. Will start when you end Robin.
Damn, Travo beat me to it....
And I'll try to finish it this week. I said to myself I was going to put it on hold until Valkyria Chronicles 4 was finished, but this game is dragging in a major way and now I'm just trying to force myself to finish it. Disappointing to say the least. It started out so good too.
#6. Persona 3 and 4
All right, if you want to go ahead and call me a bitch for not being able to pick just one and or placing them in two different spots, go ahead. I don't feel bad about it. I was late to the party, but when I finally got around to playing these games, I was pretty well knocked out. They were amazing, and the series has stepped up to become one of my favorite franchises. They are jRPGs in a modern day highschool setting, but what makes them cool is the juggling act you have to do in order to level up several different sets of skills. You have to work on personal traits, social links (inter-personal connections), and good old fashioned combat level ups in order keep progressing with the story. And there are time constrictions so you have to really think about how you'll spend your limited time each day. It's a rare idea in any genre, let along jRPGs and I'll be damned if I can't decide which is better. Persona 3 was the originator of the formula, but Persona 4 definitely refined it. P3 has a better story, but P4 has the better characters. The soundtracks are both a kind of weird mix of J-Pop and more traditional music, and they have beautiful and usually twisted artwork of Shigenori Soejima, master of the penis and vagina monsters. So fuck it, I say they're equally good.
When it comes to RPGs, I typically lose interest after the 40 hour mark, but with the Persona games I actually enjoy for being long. Years ago while doing a podcast with Yoda I mentioned I was playing Persona 4 and asked him if he remembered the in-game end date, as I felt the story was starting to wrap up, but it seemed a little too early. Persona 3 ended in the early Spring, and I was anticipating something similar, but the final day of the game was actually Christmas. Anyway I was disappointed. I had only played it for about 65 hours and I just felt like there should have been more. Lord knows Atlus addressed that complaint with the near 100 hours Persona 5 so I don't hold too much of grudge.
#5. Resident Evil 4
How god damn good is Resident Evil 4, even 10 years after it was originally released? It's mechanics are a bit on the slow side and the graphics are a touch dated, but everything else is still better anything other horror/action/survival game puts out. I won't go into all the details of it since everyone here is pretty damn familiar with RE4, and we pretty much have one of the world's leading authorities on it, so I'll just say it's excellent. I will still happily play this anytime its put in front of me.
The funny thing about it is how close I came to never playing it. When it came out at the start of 2005, I looked at it but put it down since I wasn't a fan of the earlier RE games. I ended up buying a copy of the flash game turned into a console game, Alien Hominid. Ugghhhhhh....About a month later I traded it in at Gamestop, and they had a kiosk set up with RE4, so I gave it a shot. I killed a crow and thought that was kind of cool. Then I kept playing and got to that first rush of villagers and was amazed. That sold me, and I bought the game right there, to which the Gamestop employee/asshole said, "wow...how do you not have this yet???" Sure fuckhead.... remind me again that I bought Alien Hominid.