robio said:
Really?? Is he at all interested in Pokemon?
very much so. I too thought he'd be all over it.
#16. Mother 3
For fuck's sake Nintendo, bring this game to the West already. Mother 3 is one of the greatest jRPGs of all time, and arguably the greatest game that's never gotten a proper Western release. Fortunately a number of talented people, including game and anime translator Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin, translated the game and made it available. When I first heard about it, it was on a best games of the 2000's list on Destructiod, and the writer ranked it #3. I called bullshit, thinking it was just a controversial addition to mix up the list, but once I played it I realized I was completely wrong. This is a brilliant game.
The story hits with some interesting themes about the nature of happiness, and gets pretty tragic at times. The game's tagline of, "no crying until the end" isn't just talk. It's got some pretty heavy stuff for a GBA game. But it's a Mother game so there's plenty of lightheartedness and straight up weirdness to help keep things balanced. That said, as weird as the game gets at times it always seems to make sense, which isn't something I can say for its predecessors. It can be tough to describe the game, but I'm pretty sure that if David Lynch made a video game, it would be Mother 3.
Rumors have floated around for over a decade about Nintendo translating Mother 3, with some saying it's been done for 3 years and Nintendo is just sitting on it. At this point, I doubt any of that's true so I would like to take a moment and urge everyone to get the translated patch one way or another and try it out for yourself. It's something no one should be miss out on.
I would love to add that game to my collection and never play it.
Dvader said:I would love to add that game to my collection and never play it.
That's a horrible opinion to have, but I will say people have made their own GBA compatible cartridges with the translated game in them and sell it on Etsy. So... add away.
#15. The Binding of Isaac
I'm not sure I've ever loved a more twisted and fucked up game than The Binding of Isaac. The story starts out dark enough with a little boy escaping from his overly religious mother who believes god wants her to kill her son. And really it only goes downhill from there as Isaac fights his way (with his tears) throught their basement, the sewers, her womb, and eventually the afterlife. It's too god damned weird for words at times, but at least it kind of has cute graphics to help you forget just how truly messed up it is. Oh yes, and as an additional distraction the gameplay is absolutely god tier. It uses that classic SMASH TV system of using one controller to move the character and the other controller to aim and shoot (or buttons if you prefer). You'll find power-ups in treasure chests and occasionally shops, and they usually make you stronger, but it's not uncommon for them to actually make the gameplay more difficult. And since there's roughly half a billion different power-ups it can be kind of hard to keep track of what all of them do. Add those to the randomly generated dungeons, and a variety of mini-bosses that rotate around, each time you play you can have a drastically different experience. It makes the game very hard to put down and very easy to go back to.
What's almost as much fun as the game is other people's reactions to it. My son won't be in the same room with me as I play. My wife will keep asking me what the fuck is wrong with me when I play it. When the game came out for the Wii U a couple years ago, I actually would record myself playing it on Periscope (a random real-time video based social media app that never quite took off), and random strangers would be appauled but unable to look away when I played it. The Binding of Isaac has made for some very interesting conversations and that's something not many other games can say.
I imagine that your bowels feel just like how The Binding of Isaac looks after eating at The Olive Garden. 
Honestly, after how disgusting I'd heard it supposedly was, I was expecting something much more icky.
The actual game itself was pretty great, though.
robio said:Yeah, I think the art style prevented the game from really crossing the line into looking disgusting. Otherwise, poop monsters and babies with spiders living in their heads might have been too much.
Conker's Bad Fur Day was much worse.
#14. SimCity
Good ole' SimCity. God only knows how many hours I've spent with this series. I've enjoyed the hell out of plenty many of the games in the series, from the SNES port to SimCity 2000 and even SimCity 3000 (though I've never really liked any of the other games in the Sim series). But for my money, the original was still the most fun. All the extra bells and whistles that the later installments had were nice, but I've always appreciated the simple balancing act of the original. Don't get me wrong though, there was nothing simple about the "simple balancing act" of trying to keep your industry, commercial, and residential buildings in harmony, and the game threw constant curve balls at you just to make sure that was the case. Earthquakes, fire, nuclear meltdowns, an invasion by Godzilla (or Bowser in the SNES version) always kept things lively and ultimately ruined a lot of the progress you had made. And who couldn't love that?
During the initial few months after I was introduced to SimCity, it was my immediate go-to game after schoool. I would spend a couple hours every day creating a new city, usually named after a prowrestler I was a fan of (Piperville in particular was a thriving metropolis). Inevitably within 30 or so years of in-game time I'd realize I'd made serious mistakes that could never be overcome, and I'd immediately delete the city and start up a new one again. I can't honestly say I was ever good at the game. I don't think I ever had a town last more than 100 years before going wildly bankrupt. Still, something kept me coming back to it, and I suppose that's the sign of a good game. To suck at and it and still enjoy.
I only played this at school, and I don't think it was really built for intermittent, short sessions.
I had some really good times with the SimCity games myself. I remember the time I was playing one and.......Zzzzzzzzzz
#13. Super Mario World
When Nintendo first announced the Super Nintendo and they would soon stop supporting the NES I pitched a fit. "Why the fuck would they force people to buy a new system? I should be playing the NES for the rest of my life! Fuck those assholes for trying to steal my money." In retrospect it wasn't the most rational thinking I ever displayed, but I was 13 or 14 so what are you going to do? But after seeing picture of Super Mario World, I backed off my stance. And the day I finally got to play it at a SNES kiosk at Target, well.... I stopped bitched all together. That first fortress level where you climbed the fence and then hit the door to start climbing from the other side?!?! Holy sweet Jesus. That was the most next-generation moment I think I've ever seen.
As far as Mario games go, World has been my number one for about as long as the game has been out, no matter if you're talking 2-D or 3-D. 100 levels of pure genius and fun. It might have forgone some of the cool suits from SMB3, but it more than made up for it with the Yoshi's, and more importantly with all the secret levels. After you got past the first island, you couldn't just play a Super Mario World level and then move on. There could be a secret exit. There could be a new level awaiting you. There could be another entrace to Star Road. This was serious shit, and there was just no room for filthy casuals or newbs who were satisfied with going straight thru the main levels. You play Super Mario World to experience THE ENTIRE WORLD DAMMIT!!!! So yeah, fucking genius game.
Super Mario World is such a perfect Mario game, it’s definitely my favourite 2D Mario game and stands toe to toe with the best 3D ones as well. The SNES was the golden age of video gaming for me and a large part of the reason why is because of SMW.
Archangel3371 said:Super Mario World is such a perfect Mario game, it’s definitely my favourite 2D Mario game and stands toe to toe with the best 3D ones as well. The SNES was the golden age of video gaming for me and a large part of the reason why is because of SMW.
Yep, the best 2D Mario and it really isn’t close. I loved everything about SMW.
Finally something I can get behind. A masterpiece of a game!
#12. Chrono Trigger
It's a jRPG that's over 20 years old, and yet in that time very few games in the genre even come close to being as good, let alone surpassing it. For a lot of people this game is the game others are measured up against, and I can't find much fault in that. Chrono Trigger is excellent in every way. I got it on Christmas break during my freshman year of college, and playing that game is pretty much the only thing I did for the rest of my vacation. That Christmas we were actually visiting my sister who lived in New Jersey, and on the flight back home to Atlanta the airline lost our luggage. Needless to say I was miserable. I had read the previews in EGM, and I was pretty sure I was missing an amazing experience. Fortunately the next day the bags were found, I got my game back, and didn't stop playing it for about two weeks. I played through the first time in just a matter of three or four days, but then I saw New Game + mode, so I went again.... and again.... I think in total I got 4 of the endings in that time period. And if anything EGM undersold it. It was a life changingly good game. I'd later go on to buy the 3 disc soundtrack for $50 through some sketchy Japanese music website, and some other merch for the game where I could find it. It wasn't just a game. It was a lifestyle.
When it comes to Chrono Trigger I don't know if it's a crime that we never got a full franchise out of it, or if the only crime was Chrono Cross (not that it's a bad game). It totally stands on its own and Cross didn't really do anything better and if anything kind of made the original cast look kind of weak. It's a tough game to follow though, and it's just as likely we could never get something that good again, so as much as I'd like more, maybe it's for the best.
A take a picture game?! At 17... I never played snap but you take pictures... pictures. I mean. Ok whatever. Continue.