After seeing Jen Lee post about her top 10 games, with explanations, I decided to make my own. Be warned, the explanations are long winded so you can just browse the titles if you like. 10. Batman Arkham Asylum - PS3/PC Ive played many Batman games in my life. Some good (Batman Returns on SNES, Caped Crusader on C64) and some bad (Dark Tomorrow, Batman Returns on Mega Drive/Genesis). This game was the very first time I believed I was playing as Batman. The gadgets, the game play, the mechanics and the story all drew me in and made this one of my most memorable games. The MetroidVania style of game meant the story could be told in a nice logical timely order too. It really felt like playing in a Batman story. I still play the demo even though I have finished the game multiple times. The demo was a lot of fun. Arkham City then turned it up to 11 though I have to admit the story doesnt flow as well with the open world setting. Arkham Origins was a let down. Basically just Arkham City with poor mechanics and a larger city. Arkham Knight is out soon and while I will get it, it looks like yet another open world game. The first game in the series is a game I go back to now and again to see how fast I can get 100% of items. 9. Star Wars Rogue Leader - GCN The first game I played on a Gamecube was this one. I was standing in a branch of Game in Dundees Debenhams at the time. I played the first level, the Death Star Attack and just fell in love. The sounds were right out of the movie, the stage looked like the Death Star and sound bites like He switched his computer off and The Force is strong with this one just made me internally squee with delight. The game then continued with so many awesomly designed levels. Going up against my first Star Destroyer was bliss. What a shame that the sequel wasnt as good and that Factor 5 is no longer around. 8. Mortal Kombat 2 - SNES The first mature game that I ever owned was purchased from Kinross Sunday Market. I used to go to a youth club and this game would get played a lot. I remember having to beg my mom to buy it for me. I was too young of course. She relented and I got to beat people to a pulp for the first time. It didnt matter the Mega Drive had better blood settings, I loved the game. I also followed the story very closely and know the intricate plots that weave its way through the series. I have played every iteration of the game and it is the only series, besides Subspace Emissary in Smash Bros that has a good flowing story. 7. Lylat Wars/Star Fox 64 - N64 Virgin Megastores, Dundee. They had a demo of this playing and I was hooked right away. I had played Starwing/Star Fox and while good, it wasnt that great. This one, well, it was a hundred times better. The graphics, the characters, the dialogue, the level design, it all worked. When I played it, I imagined what it would be like to play a Star Wars game like it, especially after Shadows of the Empire failed to impress me (except Hoth). I remember having to be dragged away from the demo kiosk. I remember dreaming about a device that let you see through the eyes of the characters while piloting the ships (like Oculus and the Oculus rip off, Morpheus). I still want a Star Fox game with that technology. Star Fox Assualt was probably the best follow up title in the series, the rest have been a bit of a let down. 6. Super Mario World - SNES I won my SNES in a Weetabix competition with Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, the Jurassic Park game was not released at the time of closing so the game I got with the SNES was Super Mario World. Going from a Commodore 64 with its 8 bit graphics to the bright colourful world of Super Mario World was breath taking. Everything was so detailed, the characters moved fluidly, the sprites were large and amazing. Then, the secrets. A friend of mine told me about the secret Star Road and then the secret road inside Star Road. I spent so long trying to find them. Now, of course, I know where all the secrets are but I still remember hunting for that last damn hidden exit that took you to the top of Star Road mountain. So many levels, so many secrets and the massive visual upgrade, that is a game I will never forget. 5. Super Smash Bros - N64, GCN, Wii, 3DS Where to start? As a Nintendo fan, this is the ultimate fanservice series. I first saw screenshots in a Nintendo magazine and at that time, the N64 game wasnt even slated for a UK release. It was actually looking like it wouldnt get a release and we UK gamers know all about that (Super Mario RPG). The characters looked ok, by the early polygon years of gaming but that didnt matter. Hacking and slashing with characters I loved in the ultimate cross over was a dream come true. Melee was a game I played so much on the day I got it that when I went to sleep, I was dreaming I was playing it. The characters looked so much better and the stages were bigger. The mechanics were improved and the game was packed full of content and challenges. Brawl is the same and I am waiting with bated breath for the 3DS and Wii U titles. 4. The Curse of Monkey Island - PC When we got our second PC, this game was on it. It was the funniest game I had ever played. No other game had made me laugh so much. The simple point and click adventure game captured my heart with the wit and skill of the writers at LucasArts. If you have played it, Im sure you will remember the constant string of jokes from Murray, the talking Skull. They even left him talking when not currently talking to him. I would leave the main character, Guybrush Threepwood, on the screen just letting Murray idly talk to no one. The puzzles were intuitive and at times so hard to figure out. 3. Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk - Commodore 64 This is my favorite series of games from my youth. Dizzy was a simple adventure game where you collect items, drop them in the right place and so on and so on until you beat the game. Not only were they fun, but they were HARD. Some games only had one life and this was before the time of save games and checkpoints. If you die on the way to the end of the game, it was right back to the start. Prince of the Yolkfolk was the first Dizzy game I ever finished myself (I have finished them all now). It recently got remade on iOS but they nerfed the difficulty by giving players infinite lives. Unfortunately, the creators have been trying but failing to bring him back. Codemasters still own the rights and refuse to do anything with him. Think Mega Man but worse. They recently tried a kickstarter which also unfortunately failed. If you have never played these games, check out yolkfolk to see them. You will also find fan made games using the Dizzyage game engine which includes remakes of the classic games exactly as they appeared in the 80s. 2. Pokemon -GB, GBA, DS, 3DS, N64, GCN, Wii, Wii U Ok, anyone who knows me will know my top two. I have decided to go for the series as a whole so my list isnt full of games from the same series. I got my first Pokemon game (Pokemon Red) the day after it was released and have never stopped playing them since. I even remember my first playthrough when I didnt really know how to manage my team. I totally over levelled my Dugtrio since I used Dig in all battles. When it came to the Elite 4, I couldnt win with that one over levelled Pokemon. These days, I still hold on to a bit of the old when I play. Charizard is one of my regulars along with Tyranitar. The main series is where its at but I honestly wasnt a fan of the Black/White games. I didnt like the story or many of the new Pokemon. Luckily Black 2 and White 2 came out and had a really rich game full of Pokemon, content and after story content. Then there are the other games like Pokemon Snap, Stadium, Colloseum 1 and 2 and Mystery Dungeon. So many games using the license and so many great hits. Pokemon Snap definitely needs a sequel either on 3DS or Wii U. Im a Pokemaniac and Im here to stay. BTW, he may deny this but my brother also liked Pokemon Red. He borrowed my Gameboy one visit to our grandparents and I didnt get it back all day. 1. The Legend of Zelda - NES, SNES, GB, N64, GBA, GCN, Wii, DS, 3DS No surprises here if you have talked to me about games for more than one minute. If I listed all my favourite Zelda games, it would be longer than a top 10 list so I narrowed it down to the series as a whole. My first experience with Legend of Zelda was in 1993. As I said before, I won my SNES but instead of getting Mario and Jurassic Park, I only got Mario and had to wait for Jurassic Park. In the mean time, my parents took me to a long gone game store in Kirkaldy to buy me another game for it. I need a rocking chair for my next sentence, maybe a cane too. In those days, game stores used to let you play games before you bought them. The first game I tried was Ultraman, boring. The second was Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past, my favorite series. My initial reaction... boring. I only played the very intro and nothing happens until you get to the castle. I didnt get that far. I forget what game I left the store with but it wasnt Zelda. I later had it gifted to me and the seed was sewn. It was like nothing I had ever played before. The world drew me in and I loved every second of it. Never before had a game told that captivating a story. Others followed then there was the massively long wait for the best game ever made (at that time) Ocarina of Time. The game was a masterpiece and only recently have they bested it with A Link Between Worlds, ironically a sequel to A Link to the Past. What I love about Zelda is while the plot does normally follow the same structure (one of the best things about A Link Between Worlds is it didnt follow that structure), the games never feel like a cookie cut game. They try something new with every game. It keeps it fresh and exciting. The stories are some of the best I have ever encountered, my personal favorite being Twilight Princess, though, the game as a whole was a bit lacking. Midna, from Twilight Princess, is my favourite character in the whole series. Nintendo put so much love and effort into its flagship adventure game and I cant think of a bad game in the series. I even love Zelda 2 Adventures of Link on the NES which is generally considered the black sheep of the family (the Phillips CDI games do NOT exist). Ok, so thats my list. I dont like to nominate people to repost so Ill say if you do want to post your list, please tag me in it so I can read it, if you want me to read it of course.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 05:49:16 +0000