62. Chrono Trigger
The legendary Chrono Trigger, every best RPG list I came across had this game at or near the top. Due to not having an SNES nor caring for RPGs all that much I did not play this game back in the day. The first time I attempted to play it was when I bought it for the DS. I played for like 6 hours and got side tracked by some other game. It wasn't looking good for me and this game to ever come togther. A year or so ago once again this game appeared on the top of the best RPGs ever lists and I figured its time I fill that hole in my game history. So I got an emulator and decided to give it another go and man am I glad I did because this game absolutely lives up to the hype and it is easily the best RPG of the pre 32-bit era.
Chrono Trigger works because of its cast and story, it flows at such a great pace and keeps things frresh with its crazy time traveling mechanics. Again I love time travel stories, especially ones where I can decide where to go and this game lets you explore many eras of the same world. Go to prehistoric times and fight dinos with primitive warrior clans or jump into the future where there is a city in the clouds. I loved the cast which included Frog which is my favorite character in the game, every character gets a great arch that is fully explored. Where it excels is the incredible variety in events and moments that occur. Crazy bosses that fill the screen, side game moments which use the mode 7 graphics in great ways, racing in hover cars, finding secrets and optional enemies. There is so much to find and do, it's all interesting. The game is a series of great moments, a non stop thrill ride and SPOILER ALERT a game with the balls to kill its main character.
I was blown away playing it. It captured the essence of that 16 bit era where the limitations were just imagination as sprites were easy to make so no limits on giant game worlds. Its a blast with a fun combat system that encourages different combinations of characters, those epic effects on the screen when you do the biggest attacks are so cool. The art style is memorable, the music incredible, every aspect is top notch. Chrono Trigger today is still every bit as good as it was back in the 90s, clearly deserves it's praise.
61. Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel
In between MGS1 and MGS2 there was this overlooked Metal Gear Solid game for the Game Boy Color, which is a shame because it is an epic 2D version of the game we all fell in love with on the PS1 and in many ways its bigger and better. Yes the graphics and controls are limited, but if you enjoyed the Metal Gear games of the MSX then you know what to expect here with some upgrades. Snake has all the moves he has in MGS1 and weapons, it takes all the things learned from the PS game and mixes it with the old school game play that was so great in Metal Gear 2, this game surpasses those games to be the best 2D Metal Geat title.
The story is canon but not in the way you think. Snake is sent to a jungle to fight a rogue special forces team who have a metal gear, it all sounds familiar on purpose. The story has all the twists and turns you expect, great villains, great codec convos and those shocking moments that make this series so great. You will battle a tank, a hind D, a metal gear. You will infiltrate a huge base and navigate loads of rooms while stealthy avoiding guards. This is where this game really stood out, there are so many more screens in this game than MGS1. If you replay MGS1 now its shocking how small the world is, the core sneaking areas are limited to just a few areas. This game though is filled with different rooms to navigate. Not only that once you beat the game you can go back and through a database of each area replay these areas with new objectives and goals, plus its all ranked. Oh and it includes VR missions, over a 150 of them. THIS GAME IS STACKED WITH CONTENT. Trust me its the core MGS gameplay you love. I was dumbfounded that they managed to fit all this into a tiny Game boy cart.
If this was on a console it would be one of the greatest games ever made, it would probably surpass MGS1 but in its current state it doesn't because the storytelling elements and variety in gameplay you can do in 3D is so much more than in a limited 2D game. I would love for this game to get a remake of some sort so that it can be experienced by many more. Screw Peace Walker, this is the best portable Metal Gear game.
So the first 40 are done. Lets do a quick poll on what I have so far.
Here is the publisher breakdown so far:
- Sega 8
- Nintendo 6
- Sony 6
- Square Enix 6
- Konami 6
- Ubisoft 4
- Capcom 2
- EA 2
Nintendo started to show up big in this part of the list and now only one Sega published game in this 20, compared to 7 in the first 20. I had quite a few RPGs in there across different eras. Still no sonic games, only one Zelda, one Metal Gear, only two RE games, no marios. So a lot left still to cover.
Chrono Trigger at 62!?! George is getting upset!!!
Anyway yeah Chrono Trigger is an amazing game and probably my number one all time favourite game, it’s definitely my number one RPG. I absolutely loved its New Game + mode and played through it countless times to get all the different endings. The music is pretty awesome as well. I remember when this game first came out I paid like $115 Canadian for it and that was before taxes. Worth every penny.
Never did play Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel but would really like to one of these days.
Ghost Babe is it cool choice. I remember the reviewers at EGM going crazy for it when it came out. It might have been the game of the month, but I can't recall for sure. I just know that they absolutely loved it.
60. Dragon Age: Origins
Coming off of KOTOR series I was a big Bioware fan. Those were my first two WRPGs and of course the Star Wars flavor helped me ease into them, Dragon Age was the deeper full fledged RPG. Complete with an original fantasy world filled with memorable and well written characters, the world of Dragon Age captivated me for many many hours. At the start you get to pick your origin, I went with the most boring human noble origin, yes I am human supremisist in games. From there I began my journey as the warden off to save the world from the blight. This is pre Game of thrones and looking back now this probably would have been really popular if they released it right now.
Remember when Bioware made great games, yeah those were the days. The reason their games were so great was the way the characters were written and the adventures they go on. Characters grow in different ways depending on how your choices affect them, your bond with them is the core of the game as well as intrecate story and side content. The cast of Dragon Age was one of the best in any RPG. Morrigan is an all time great female character, Alistar tiyr han solo type, Leliana my personal pick for best girlfriend, Oghren playing the Gimli dwarf role, Zevran the horny assassin that will have sex with a tree, and I enjoyed Shane the sarcastic rock golem. Bioware were experts in creating colorful casts that compliment one another well, they knocked it out of the park with this crew. I loved the fantasy setting because it allows for some creazy scenarios, one of my favorites was being stuck in the fade and needed to take multiple forms to free your friends from a demon.
Combat was very good making use of many skills and combined powers between teamates. It was KOTOR style but a little deeper with more options during combat. I was never bored, the game kept giving new bosses scenarios and enemies. The world variety helped make exploration a joy. From the dark swamp with a witch to the drawf city that dwarfs Moria in scale, I loved getting soaked into the cultures of these lands, seeing how the different species interact with one another. Dragon Age is brilliance from start to finish, choices still mattered in this game as some characters can live or die depending on those choices. The epilogue stories showing the results of your actions was a great touch which made even the most simple of choices have some representation in the outcome of your story.
59. Sonic Adventure, Sonic Unleahsed, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Adventure 2
The 3D Sonic's, how I love thee. These hold a special place in my heart, not just cause they are modern day versions of my childhood favorite Sonic series but because they offer unqiue style of skill based gameplay you don't see in most platformers. It's half racing game, half platforming and many times lots of extra fluff. There really isnt much like it. Now you won't find Generations here, I know its one of the best ones and it had Genesis levels remade in 3D! But for some reason it didn't click for me, it was too easy, the scoring was dumbed down from unleashed and the levels were not as interesting. It just didn't hold my attention like it should have. So here are my favs from least to most favorite, we start with the beginning.
9/9/99 that was the day the Dreamcast hit America and the day the first 3D Sonic finally came out. The Saturn came and went, no Sonic. We were promised Sonic X-Treme and it never happend. Not having their flagship franchise left a massive hole in the Saturn's library, Sega made sure to not repeat those mistakes by making Sonic THE launch game for the Dreamcast. The most state of the art graphics for it's time, when that damn whale breaks throuh the docks it was a jaw dropping moment. Sonic was fast, zooming through these huge level, bouncing off speed pads that would launch him into loops or across great distances. He would run down buildings as missles chased him. He would navigate the outside of a massive airship as it traveled with dangerous winds gusting. There was great level diversity, some hitting all the right notes for Sonic nostalgia like the Ice level. Great boss battles against Robotnik robots capped the levels. In between stages you had the Adventure half of the game where you explored areas and found hidden secrets or advanced the story. It wasn't Zelda, it wasn't an RPG, but it was weird and quirky which is what Sonic should be,
It would be all good if it were just Sonic but instead he brought his friends. This made the game a massive adventure with five playable characters, all with their own campaigns and stories. Sadly non come close to the quality of the Sonic levels. Tails was mostlt a retread of Sonic. Knuckles had werid scavenging missions. EV was just a poor shooter. And then there was Big... oh Big... wtf. At the time I loved it all, more content meant more time in this beautiful world Sega made. I was fully engrossed in the story and lore of Sonic. I vividly remember the day I beat the full game, it was at night around dinner time and I was being called to go eat. But I was there at the end, time to fight Chaos so I screamed "I'll be there in a minute!". That battle hyped me up like few things in gaming ever has. Sonic goes Super! The theme song starts to blast " Cant hold on much longer, but I will never let go!!!" All the people are chanting SONIC SONIC SONIC! YYYYEEEEAAAAHHH!!! Sonic speeds ahead to fight the giant Super Chaos in an epic battle. Just the best, Sonic does drama in a way Mario can never match.
This game also had a large impact on my life as I gained a life long friend from it. In my high school one day my best friend told me some guy in his class one the Sonic tournament, a national Sonic Adventure tournament where he won $15000. What?! First there was a tournament I couldn have entered?! And then the winner so happens to go to my little school (it was a dual enrollment program of 100 students), WHAT?! So we hit it off and we have been friends ever since. We haven't done it lately but many years we would have a sonic adventure challenge, he would always win in Sonic Adventure 1 but I would win Sonic Adventure 2.
Sonic Unleashed gets a bad rap deseverd in some respects as half the game is a poor beat em up but the 3D levels are the best in the series. Unleashed perfected how Sonic should feel in 3D, the boost button, the way you can switch lanes quickly and the way the levels are designed make for a visual and skill based feast. The world tour style levels were a great change up for sonic, traveling through what is clearly beautiful Greece is a sight to behold. I spent so many hours mastering these levels, finding every shortcut, nailing every enemy for max combos. Platinuming Unleashed is one of my greatest trophy accomplishments, it was a long difficult process as this game has an ubsurd amount of content. I loved that adventure elements returned, kind of felt like the Sonic Adventure 3 we never got. Also werehog wasn't that bad, it was just average which is better than some of the side characters these games make you play as.
Sonic Colors is the odd one here because it's not a standard 3D Sonic, instead this one is actually a great true platformer. In terms of quality this is the best 3D Sonic game ever because it takes cues from Mario to focus on platforming and fun gameplay mechanics. Here Sonic can absorb wisps which grant him temporary powers, like how Mario can get powerups. These powers can change the routes sonic can take and adds much gameplay variety. He can attach to walls, he can turn to a rocket and burst into the air, he can drill through dirt and more. The best part is how these powerups all keep the momentum going, this game strikes such a great balance between speed and proper platforming. Levels are very well designed with plenty of 2D sections for that more traditional platforming challenge and transitions to 3D for that 3D Sonic gameplay. I don't have to be a Sonic apologist to recommend this game, this is simply a great Wii platformer, one of the best.
And then there is my favorite Sonic Adventure 2. While the first was a good experience to play through, I didn't master it. SA2 gave me the kind of levels and gameplay that hooked me in ways few games do. If you look at my save file it will say something like 75 hours and EVERY EMBLEM. I got the amazing Green Hill level unlocked, which is seriousy the greatest reward for 100% a game ever. The scoring system in this game is genius, its why I kept playing over and over, You don't just finish a level fast. You don't just finish a level without losing rings. No, here you need to learn every inch of these levels as many aspects contribute to your score. If you find a railing and grind it quickly you get a bonus. The longer the enemy hit combo you get the higher a multiplier goes. Hit that level specific action, get some points, go down a secret route, get points. So to get the highest score finding the route that still gets you the highest speed bonus but gets you the most of these points is key. The quest for better level scores is what kept me going for so long.
Yeah the game has a Tails and Knuckles and the villain flip side of them. There levels weren't terrible, they each had their own way to master them but nothing compares to the Sonic and Shadow levels. They kept getting more and more interesting, the forests, grinding down the golden gate bridge and then going into SPACE with gravity switches well before mario did it. This game consumed my soul. It was also a blast to play with my girl friend at the time who was every bit as good as me in some levels, we would take turns beating each others scores. I just love this game so much, it sucks that the camera is a mess and many aspects don't hold up but in its day it was amazing.
And Colors was a lot of fun. The wisps made for a really great formula. Great level design too. I will forever associate this game with cheeseburgers.
Not gonna lie, I actually kinda liked Adventure. But it was indeed mainly cause of good it looked. There was also a Sonic cartoon (or anime?) that looked surprisingly good, but I have no idea what it was.
58. Mega Man 2
In the year 200X... that intro with that song sets off the best action game on the NES. I never owned the first Mega Man game, my expeirences with it came from a friend of my brother who would lend it to me (along with Metal Gear). Lending games was really special back in the day. Remember no internet, no online storefronts with massive libraries to look through. All knowledge of games came from looking at game covers in stores, word of mouth or game mags, thats it. So I borrow this game with the terrible artwork and had a blast with it but wow is it hard. Cool game but it wasn't until the much refined and improved sequel when Mega Man became super famous for NES owners. I don't remember how I ended up with Mega Man 2, I rented it a bunch of times. I might have borrowed it and never returned it. I don't know exactly but I played the game a ton because its so perfectly designed.
Mega Man 2 is 8-bit perfection, incredible responsive controls. Varied and interesting level design with stunning art work for all the enemies. Great bosses and even better music. It hits every category of what makes a great old school game. It also nailed the difficulty, sure now many view it as the easiest Mega Man but I will say its more that its accesable than easy. Obviously there are many Mega Man games, by 5 it was getting ridiculous already and 6 was overkill. MM3 is legit as one of the best NES games and I love me some Snake Man but it never hit me the way MM2 does. When I replay a Mega Man game its 2. Hell when I just need a great old school action game to play I play Mega Man 2.
From Wood Man to Air Man, to Crash Man to Bubble Man and all the others the game has such a memorable cast. Metal Man's power is the GOAT Mega Man power. Wily stage 1-1 music is the best track of the series. I love the final levels how they test not only combat skills but make use of all your abilities with puzzles and more. Who can forget the final battle with an ALIEN?! lol, great final boss. These games are short, they maybe simple but they capture the essence of 8-bit gaming perfectly and MM2 is the best to do it.
Hell yes, Mega Man 2! My cousin got it for Christmas one year and we could not stop playing it. We'd get to each boss and then think hard before the battle trying to figure out which weapon he'd be weak against. We did surprisingly well until we got to Wiley's Castle and proceeded to having nothing but trouble. But god that was an excellent game, and one of the god-tier 8-bit soundtracks. Flashman's stage is still probably my favorite song of the entire NES era. Great pick.
Mega Man 2 was my introduction to the franchise and what an introduction it was. Fantastic game and is my favourite of the Mega Man series. Like Robio said the soundtrack was god-tier.
Trying to juggle work, watching shows, reading books, playing new games. I’ll get back to this shortly. Next up is a mega franchise.
57. Halo 1 and 2
The dawn of the internet age, PC gaming was doing online deathmatch for many years now but on consoles it was still a new thing. Like the DC the Xbox had a built in modem so it was ready to play out the box but they wanted to provide a service and make us pay for something THAT WAS FREE. Anyway they tricked everyone and now we all pay for online cause hey its the way things are... im not bitter. Halo 2 was the big selling point, with Halo 2 MS was going to show why their service was worth it and revolutionize online gaming forever, and the bastards did it. Matchmaking was a revelation, no longer did you have to search ugly pages of rooms with limited spaces to join. Pick a kind of game, press a button and boom you are matched with people in a minute.
It changed the way online games would be played forever and it was so easy to use and such an excellent pvp experience that even I paid for xbox live to get on. Halo 2 had its share of excellent maps like Lockout and Beaver Creek. The sword was the best powerup of any FPS game, the race to get the sword was always so much fun. Then the community started to get creative and make custom game modes and from that zombie mode was born. My friends and I would play so many of these modes for hours on end. It's the most fun I would have with an online shooter. The campaign mode didn't live up to the first one, and I would say 3 is better in that regard. But the third one I bought many years after it came out, I never really played online, that comradery I had with my friends playing online was dissipated. Still Halo 2 remains one of my most played games of that generation.
The Xbox and I have a strange relationship in that I hated the idea of it and still bought one. I viewed MS as the ones who replaced Sega. They were not Japanese, focused on PC games, it was not a great fit for me but their impact on this industry has been huge and for the better. It all started with their launch mega hit Halo. It being a FPS I basically didn't give a crap, I did read the reviews, it sounded like a great game but outside Doom the genre never struck a cord with me. My friends bought the Xbox and Halo and this was still back in the time where you had to travel to your friends house to physically sit next to them to play a 2-player game, barbaric I know. Almost all my FPS deathmatch experience came from playing at my best friends house, we ran the gamut of Goldeneye, Turok, perfect dark, you know the N64 stuff. Then came Halo and it clicked instantly, there is something about the feel of this game and every Bungie game really (as Destiny has transfered the feel into the GaaS model) that makes shooting and movement feel so damn perfect. There was the legendary announcer "double kill!", the shield sound effect, sticky grenades, the overpowered pistols (god I loved those) and some of the best maps ever like Hang em' high. But Halo was more than just a standard FPS as we had vehicles, warthogs, banshees, and wraiths oh my. Blood Gultch lead to epic battles of CTF where we actually hooked up 2 xboxs and had two tvs for 8 player madness! Halo LAN parties were some of the most fun gaming experiences I ever had and no stupid internet connection will ever replicate that.
So eventually I caved and bought an Xbox with Halo (and KOTOR). There was also the entire campaign that I wanted to play, from the opening theme it had me. Dun Dun Dun DUUN Dun dun dun DUUN, best theme song of that generation. Then you arrive on the beach head and its an entire battlefiield where you drive around with your AI squadmates and it feels like being in an intergalactic space war! Excellent AI, great variety of weapons and powers, great set pieces, Halo had it all. The story was tight and kept things moving constantly. New enemies and situations would arise, like the controversal flood in the library, yes that level was tedious but what comes after is so damn awesome. Three way wars, flood jumping around causing chaos with the covenant while you fight anything that gets in your way. Halo felt like being in a living war in a way no Halo game replicated since. And so I feel Halo 1 is still the best in the franchise.
Without sticky grenade-only matches, Halo 2's multiplayer just can't compete with the OG. 
56. Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga and Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door
Mario RPGs, such a joy. I had never played one until I got Mario and Luigi for the GBA and fell in love. Remember I was not an RPG fan, hardly played any, the lack of quick paced action was usually why I didn't bother with them but these games were different. The fights had a skill based component to them. I was hitting buttons with perfect timing to get maximum damage, I was dodging attacks.I was learning super moves and how to pull them off. It wasnt just picking an attack and being done with it. The game world was brilliant as well with Mario and Luigi combining to use skills to get to new areas or find secret items. Its an RPG that has all the elements of an action adventure and that is why these games work so well.
The secret sauce though is the hilarious and brilliant writing. This one in partcular was so well done, poking fun at the world of Mario and Nintendo as a whole. It's smart and self aware of what it is all while having a coat of charm that makes you love these characters. I always get a chuckle when they speak in italian jibberish. Mario's world has always been colorful and full of iconic design but it never really had personality until these games. Superstar saga remains my favorite, Partners in Time was a bit of a let down and Bowsers Inside Story while brilliant was succumbing to the usual franchise fatigue. Superstar though was one of the best GBA games.
A year later came the sequel to the beloved Paper Mario which I never played, so the sequel was my first Paper game and what I game it is. It shares the same sort of action packed DNA, fights are active with timing beingh key. The game world unfolds as you develop skills to fold and turn mario into various paper objects which leads to some really great moments. Paper Mario 2 is filled with great characters and an incredible world to explore. The writing like Mario and Luigi is sharp and funny all the time. The art style is so great, what a vibrant joyful world they created, you want to explore every inch of it because it is so inviting. Everything about this game is extremely well done, for an RPG light kind of game it sure does nail the leveling and strategy needed to beat big bosses. I eventually went back and played the original game which I loved as well but the sequel was clearly the better game. The last Paper Mario game I played was Super Paper Mario which on paper (ha) sounds like my perfect game, but going half action game half RPG made it lose its focus. Paper Mario 2 remains the corwn jewel for Mario RPGs and shows that Nintendo first party can excel at any genre.
I've only played Super Star Saga, Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door. All the other games seemd to rely too heavily on gimmicks, which I felt pointed to a sense of genre fatigue which kept me from trying them out. The games I did play I enjoyed immensely however. I'm still considering getting the 3DS version of SSS one day for my son, as it has been fully translated. However, now with Switch he hardly ever touches his 2DS anymore, so it'd be a great game wasted I fear.
Took me awhile to get into The Thousand Year Door, but once I did I was hooked. Until the moon area, which was a bit of a lull. Still loved it.