It's been about 5 and a half years since I did my last Top 100 list. Due to my OCD and compulsion to constantly create lists in my head I think it's time for an all new Top 100.
My first thought was to reevaluate the old top 100, but fuck it, it's easier to pick 100 new games that I didn't have on the list last time. In the past 5 and a half years I've played more than I usually have, largely due to COVID. And in that time I've played a lot of new great games.
Plus, when I made the last list, I avoided adding multiple games from the same franchises. So I can dip back into the Dragon Quest pool and a few others.
Anyway stay tuned. Starting tomorrow we're doing this shit again.
My first thought was to reevaluate the old top 100, but fuck it, it's easier to pick 100 new games that I didn't have on the list last time. In the past 5 and a half years I've played more than I usually have, largely due to COVID. And in that time I've played a lot of new great games.
Plus, when I made the last list, I avoided adding multiple games from the same franchises. So I can dip back into the Dragon Quest pool and a few others.
Anyway stay tuned. Starting tomorrow we're doing this shit again.
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
As someone with very little dignity, I'm not too proud to admit I loved playing Fortnite. I certainly won't fault anyone who rolls their eyes at the in-game dancing and the general vibe that this Coachella inspired Battle Royal shooter oozes. God knows I certainly did. But underneath its cringy candy coating, there's a remarkably fun game here. And best of all, the game is free.
It took a long time before I finally sat down and played it. I watched my son and his friends play it for about a year before I finally said, "I'm drunk as shit, I'll go ahead and give this a shot."
Okay, I probably wasn't drunk when I played it. What really Drew me in was one of the limited time skins that they offer the characters. They were doing a Marvel theme, with a final battle leading up to Galactus. Say what you will about those skins, they keep the game interesting even if you're not buying them.
And on occasion they really affect the game. Darth Vader showed up at one point during a Star wars event and the dude wrecked havoc on anyone who got close to him. Of course, if you did manage to beat him with a bunch of your friends, you'd get his lightsaber. And then you were mowing down all the other 8-year-olds who were playing. And that's fun stuff.
I pretty much lost a summer of gaming to fortnite a couple years ago because this was all I was playing. No regrets either. Whether or not the free-to-play model ruins a lot of the big budget gaming that our generation has become accustomed to is a separate question. But if you want a quality shooter with some absolutely bizarre weapons and moments, fortnite is worth spending a few months with.
Just a little disclosure here, when I put this list together Mega Man 2 was going to be in the #21 slot. However, I had a bit of bad family news recently. A couple days ago a cousin of mine died from cancer. My initial days playing this game were with him and because of that I wanted to do a little tribute to him.
So Christmas of 1989, my parents took me to visit the rest of our family in Texas. Generally, this was not an exciting time for me because it meant even if I got a good video game. I wouldn't be able to play it because I was 800 miles away from my Nintendo. The one loophole to all this was my cousin Jerry. He was the only cousin who was close to my age, and he liked two things. Video games and football. That worked out well, because that Christmas he scored big. He got Mega Man 2 and Tecmo Bowl.
Despite not caring about football, I still enjoyed Tecmo Bowl, but the big excitement was definitely around Mega Man 2. I had seen some screenshots in Gamepro magazine was pretty damn impressed by the graphics, but it was even better in person playing it. I hadn't seen many games where a monster or robot or whatever took up half the screen, at that point in time, but Mega Man had a lot of them. They were big, colorful, and looked exactly like they were supposed to.
Visually the game was amazing, but the soundtrack was what was particularly impressive. There's no question that the game has one of the great soundtracks of all time. To this day, I think the Flash man stage has the single best bit of 8-bit music I've ever heard.
Anyway, for the next couple days, Jerry and I played that nearly non-stop, with occasional breaks for Tecmo Bowl, of course. But the two of us doing whatever we could to make it to an end boss. And then trying to guess what weapon would be the right one for the fight. Sometimes it made sense. Metal saw blades for Woodman? Seems logical. Air Man's tornado gun for Crash Man? Well that's a little less obvious. And on that note, what is a Crash man anyway?
Oh, but one bizarre thing that is stuck in my head even to this day, 35 years later, is that when you get the Crash Man weapon it's listed as C. Bomber. That one random point while playing, we looked at the list of weapons we'd collected and we're trying to remember what the C. bomber was supposed to be. Also for that Christmas someone else in the family got a book about an Apache chief named Cochise. For some reason we found that name hilarious, so the rest of the time we played, we referred to the C Bomber as the Cochise Bomber. Just one of those random things that kids do, but for this day that's how I still think of the weapon.
Anyway, it was a legendary game and probably the best in the series. Anyway, I've got good memories of the game and playing it with my cousin. It may have been ages since I've last seen the guy, but I'll always carry that memory of him.
Sorry for your loss, Robio.
I don't know about Crash Man, but Vince and Larry are the ultimate Crash Men.
Sorry for your loss, Rob.
Sorry for your loss Robio.
Mega Man 2 was a fantastic game indeed. Still is really.
Nintendo, like most other game developers has really embraced the idea of remaking and remastering their old titles. So my question is, why the hell haven't they done that yet with Kid Icarus Uprising?
Uprising was designed to be a marquee title, and it did not disappoint. When the 3DS was announced at E3, this was the title that they showed off to demonstrate how the system and the 3D effects would work. 3-D development was ultimately abandoned by Nintendo, but this game was always an amazing example of how it could look. And the game's story was absolute batshit crazy in the best possible way. Really, the only complaint anyone had for it was the controls, and yeah those were kind of a pain in the butt. A shooter like this needs 2 analog sticks which the 3DS sadly lacked. And that brings me back to my original question.
I don't think anything could have saved the Wii U, but if Uprising had been ported to it, I think you would have seen at least a temporary demand for the system. And if not the Wii U, well there's the Switch just sitting there. There's no shortage of 3DS ports, so what's one more? Are they waiting for the Switch 2?
Kid Icarus: Uprising was a really good game and I really enjoyed it, except for the controls. I’d totally day one purchase a Switch port.