81. Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco Tides of Time

I doubt there is a more trippy game series on this list than Ecco the Dolphin. This is about a time traveling dolphin that battles aliens who come to destroy earth, how can you not love that premise. Back in the day I reneted a lot of games from a local store and thats where I fell in love with Ecco the Dolphin. I still remember the first time I started up the game and you are in a bay with your fellow dolphins just living the life, jumping and doing flips. Controlling ecco felt like a dream, the graphics stunning for its time and the music, oh god that incredible music. But nothing happened... I talked to everyone, so whats next. Eventually I simply jumped high and boom, alien abduction! And then your adventure begins into the depths of the sea. The sea creeps me out a lot, I am not into diving and the thought of weird shit being in darkness below you is terrifying, Ecco is like diving into your worst sea nightmares. The first area are some caverns where you have to solve push block puzzles while constantly going for air pockets while battling bad fish. Then you come across this giant octopus which for whatever reason just scared the crap out of me as a kid.

But I kept pushing, and kept renting the game. I have always loved puzzles, action and exploration; Ecco gives all of those in spades. Nothing controls like Ecco does, it's a joy to jet through the ocean and use his skills to solve the mysteries of the deep and atlantis. I remember being blown away at meeting a blue whale, the sense of scale was tremendous. The final level takes place in the alien mothership where you fight knock off Xenomorphs and a gigantic alien head final boss. Ecco is easily one of the best Genesis games and I was so hooked that when the sequel hit I made sure that I put it on my list of games I wanted to own.

A few years after the first came this excellent sequel that now takes Ecco through time. All the same elements of the first game is there and now there is the addition of these 3D time portal levels that play kind of like a sonic bonus level. There are new abillities including in certain levels the ability to morph into other sea creatures. But the best part of this sequel is the variety in environments due to the awesome time traveling story line. The best level has Ecco travel into the furture where floating beds of water hover over mountains and you must jump from one floating water bed to another. There are more aliens, prehistoric sea creatures, dinosaurs even, this game is so damn cool. Many years later a dreamcast sequel hit which sort of took the same concept and made it 3D. That game was a tad too clunky but it had some crazy almost zelda like levels and recreated the floating sea in incredible 3D graphics. This series needs to come back, the day I see a new Ecco is the day Sega of old returns.

Coming soon, slicing up babies, blood showers, and lots of friendship.

79. Blood Omen Legacy of Kain

Vay Victus!

This one holds a special place in my heart as it is the first PS1 game I personally owned. I had a saturn, my brother thankfully got a PS1, I thought I had the better console, that lasted all of 4 months until Resident Evil hit and I knew I made a horrible mistake. My brother was moving out so I wanted a PS of my own, come holiday time I was gifted one and the first game I got was Legacy of Kain. I subscribed to the magazine Gamefan (amazing magazine) and they had a cover story on this crazy vampire game that looked like a Zelda title. A mature giant sized Zelda game, hell yes I am so in. It was also the first PS game I got that came in a jewel case, before it PS1 was using giant plastic boxes (I still have my brothers OG Resident Evil 1 box). Back then CG cutscenes were still the most prolific way games told stories and Kain had some of the best I have ever seen at the time.

What really set it apart from any other was the incredible voice acting and writing, the best in the business at the time. Simon Templeman voiced Kain who was the games narrator allowing you to hear the inner thoughts of a man turned vampire and the thirst for power that came with it. Something as simple as the description of the abilities and items were done in such an eloquent and descriptive way, like a macabre Shakespearen play. The world was so rich in character, I play so many games these days that throw out names and locations and its all noise, I forget them as soon as the system turns off. Kain had a way world building that made every scene and location memorable. Nosgoth, the necromancer Mortanius, Vorador, Malek, the pillars and so much more are engraved in my mind because of how rich this world was.

The gameplay was fun, it was no Zelda but it's still a great top down action RPG. The load times were too frequent and some dungeons wore out their welcome but overall I greatly enjoyed playing it. The lenth truly made it feel like an epic, the world is large, lots of great story beats keeps the action moving along. It was challenging too at times, combat while a bit stiff was chalneging and required a good mastery of all of Kain's skills and weapons. They just don't make them like this anymore, such a great original world, compelling characters, and a fictional history that makes you want to stay and live in this world. Plus it was so damn cool, pressing a button and having blood fly from the throats of victims right into Kain's mouth never got old, and it refilled your health so it served a purpose. This is one of the key games that defined that magical era when games were becoming multifaceted products, not just a series of levels to play through. Part of me wants a sequel done in this top down style, shame it's the only one like it in the series.  

LOTS of Sonic.