#74. Minecraft
It's not a game, it's a revolution. It infilitrated the gaming world on every level - PC, mobile, and console, and sold multiple millions on each. It achieved a mainstream presence that maybe only Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros has. Minecraft may very well be the most important video game the industry has seen in over 20 years. While that might be debatable what's not is that it is extremely fun. At it's core this game is Lego's come to life with one very key idea of its own. You have to work for your building blocks and pieces. That one idea gives whatever you create extra satisfaction that many games seem to miss.
At the end of the day though the main attraction is ultimately the freedom the game gives you to enjoy it any way you want. You're dropped into a world and you can create and design to your hearts content. If you just want to explore and see what already exists in the world, you're free to do so. If you want to go on a quest to destroy the Enderdragon you can do that. If you want to create a cities and castles in the sky with their own waterfalls that crash into a pit of lava, go for it! Play with a friend? You can do that. Maybe you just want to show off your world because your friends only know how to create square buildings and have no imagination whatsoever. Just invite them in after the fact. Personally I saw the game as pure therapy. Just play with legos while some soothing piano music plays in the background. As far as relaxing experiencing go, it's tough to top.
#73. Super Fantasy Zone
The original Cute'em Up is back with even more cuteness than before. Can you withstand the super cute challenge of Super Fantasy Zone? Probably not. It's basically a super Japanese'd up version of the Atari classic Defender with cute boss battles in place of rescuing civilians As cute as it may be the game is tough as old bubble gum. I suck at it, but this is an example of my love of awesome art styles outweighing a lot of other things. My meager skill aside this really is a fun game though, and it really does say a lot for a game where I repeatedly die and still smile.
#72. Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder
Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder is my favorite classic beat'em up, and one of the most confusing puzzles in the world of video games. Death Adder was the arcade only sequel to the original Golden Axe that was a pretty big hit in the arcades and on the Sega Genesis. A separate Golden Axe II was released on the Genesis, but even to this day the highly superior Death Adder never saw a port of any kind. And that's a damn shame because it really is an excellent game. 4 new fighters were added, and while the barbarian was similar to his original counterpart, the other three new characters were rather unique and included a centaur, a giant with the dwarf from the original riding on his back, and a tiny imp who acted as a healer which was a pretty original idea for the time. Additionally there were branching paths to travel through to offer up replay value, more enemies, more creatures to mount... more of everything. Maybe one day Sega will come to their senses and finally release some of their old arcade classics instead of just releasing new Genesis collections every other year. The world would be a better place for it.
Ok, I haven't heard of most of these, and the ones I have heard of, I haven't played. I'm still trying to recover from you putting Minecraft ahead of FF7. It made my brain go all Y2K.
edgecrusher said:Ok, I haven't heard of most of these, and the ones I have heard of, I haven't played. I'm still trying to recover from you putting Minecraft ahead of FF7. It made my brain go all Y2K.
Well here's the thing. I still enjoy Minecraft today. I will enjoy it tomorrow. Final Fantasy VII..... well not as much. It's not aging really well. It's still solid and I'd still recommend it, but some of it's issues are a little more glaring than they used to be. For instance the protect the reactor mini-game with the Phoenix egg?? Wow that's just awful today.
Playable on MAME, though, right? I'll definitely have to check it out; I loved the two Golden Axes that made it onto those Sega compilations.
Foolz said:Playable on MAME, though, right? I'll definitely have to check it out; I loved the two Golden Axes that made it onto those Sega compilations.
I've never gotten it to work on Mame, but if you want of those people who knows how to get all the right bios, settings, etc then yes it is available.
robio said:Years ago I think it was almost easier to find hidden gems and the like because you didn't have much to go on other than marketing and friend recommendations. The idea of only looking for games that got good reviews just didn't exist so you were open to trying moreI think. In fairness, I also played some of the worst games ever made because of that and bypassed a number of classics for years. Buying Rush'n'Attack over Mega Man was a bad idea. Buying Robocop over... well anything else in the store was a flat out terrible idea.
BTW Vader, if you ever feel like trying out an old 8-bit game that you never played before, I would suggest giving The Magic of Scheherazade a try. It's old so it's naturally flawed as hell, but I do think you'd get a kick out of for at least a couple hours.
Yeah I'm curious about it. Keep it up, I'm loving these.
robio said:
I've never gotten it to work on Mame, but if you want of those people who knows how to get all the right bios, settings, etc then yes it is available.
I'm not, but I'm willing to try and fail.
#71. Final Fantasy Legend II
Not every game on this list is going to hold up well to the test of time. Final Fantasy Legend II is one of them. It's a pretty old RPG, with a lot of the trappings of those games. Way too many random battles and the infamous SaGa individual stat leveling system make this a tough game to get into. But I don't care. For many years, this game meant the world to me. If I did this list in the early to mid 90's I would have made this a top 5 game. I probably spent more times playing and replaying it than anything Square ever released. I was so obsessed with this game I even tried to create my own monster transformation chart/FAQ (though that sort of burned out once I ran out of notebook space.
There was lots of love about this game, and it's good points still make it remarkable in my eyes. You travel through different lands with your friends, trying to find your father, and collecting pieces of crystal that together assemble the statue of a goddess. Along the way you fight other people who've used these crystals to become gods. The bosses in this game are Odin, Apollo, Venus, Ashura amongst others. And to keep things from getting a little too predictable at times you'll pick up a 5th member of your party who will sometimes be massively overpowered compared to your group, or very underpowered and you'll need to protect them. Most amazingly was this huge epic adventure was all on a little Gameboy cartridge. It made me curse the fact that the Gameboy wasn't backlit, and eventually I'd have to quit playing at night.
#70. Hotel Dusk: Room 215
I love classic point-and-click adventure games, but interest in the genre really faded after the mid-90's and good ones have become a lot more few and far inbetween. Good ones outside of the PC are even more rare. Fortunately, for a brief span of time, the developers at Cing changed that with a handful of games for the DS and Wii. Their best work was on display with Hotel Dusk: Room 215. It's a pretty good noir story, filled with broken characters who've made lost of mistakes in their lives including the main character, a former detective who is now a 3rd rate salesman. The art style fits the game's story like the glove. It's like a slightly animated sketch book, very reminiscient of old indie pulp comics. It's even echoed by the way play the game with the DS on it's side, like you're holding a book. It might turn some people off, but I really can't image anything else working better. Plus the game features some of most innovative use of the Nintendo DS' controls. Cing did some really interesting things that no one else, ever did, and for the most part they worked really well. I'm hesitant to say too much else about the game, as its really something that needs to be experienced and I'd hate to ruin any aspect of it. Anyway if you can find it, give it a play. There aren't many other games like this, and it's worth the effort of finding it.
Hotel Dusk might have had some of the most creative use of
I have it on my PC. One day, I'll play it.
I have it on DS and enjoyed it a lot. That is, untill I got stuck on a puzzle that I couldn't solve, involving being trapped somewhere and a telephone. Never managed to get beyond that point and haven't touched the game since.
I also enjoyed it.
Cing also made the greatest game of its generation: Little King's Story. Will it make this list?
^shit really? Must be same publisher surely, not developer?
On the contrary, apparently Nintendo published Hotel Dusk, and there were three different publishers for Little King's Story: Rising Star Games for Australia and Europe, XSeed Games for America, and Marvelous Entertainment for Japan.
Yeah, would love a switch remaster of lks. I never gave it much of a chance.
Years ago I think it was almost easier to find hidden gems and the like because you didn't have much to go on other than marketing and friend recommendations. The idea of only looking for games that got good reviews just didn't exist so you were open to trying moreI think. In fairness, I also played some of the worst games ever made because of that and bypassed a number of classics for years. Buying Rush'n'Attack over Mega Man was a bad idea. Buying Robocop over... well anything else in the store was a flat out terrible idea.
BTW Vader, if you ever feel like trying out an old 8-bit game that you never played before, I would suggest giving The Magic of Scheherazade a try. It's old so it's naturally flawed as hell, but I do think you'd get a kick out of for at least a couple hours.