20.) Heavy Rain (Playstation 3)
If there was a single game that I
could have made into a movie, it’d be this one. When I first read about it in
Game Informer I was surprised by all of the hype it was being given, and how it
was a genre unlike any other so there was really nothing to accurately compare
it to. As the game neared release I kept reading more about it, and every word
made me want to play it that much more. I ended up preordering it, and it was
worth every penny. There are so many different ways you can go with the story
and your decision making as you switch between four characters trying to track
down the Origami Killer and save Ethan’s son before it’s too late. The story
was amazing and the action sequences were very well done. I’d still love to see
a proper sequel to this one, even though it’s pretty obvious that won’t be
happening.
19.) Metroid Fusion (Gameboy
Advance)
I waited for such a long time to
see a proper 2d follow up to Super Metroid, and while there was very little
hope in it surpassing Super Metroid, it was still a damn good game. Samus being
given the Metroid vaccine at the start was an interesting touch, and while I
was worried that exploring a space station wasn’t going to be anywhere near as
good as exploring a planet, it turned out to be a pretty similar experience.
While I did miss seeing Kraid (he tends to be one of my favorite boss fights),
they did bring back Ridley which is always good. There was also the
introduction of the SA-X, which was great. The intensity of being chased and
stalked by something you can’t even scratch added a new level of excitement,
especially when you had no way to avoid the battle and had to try to escape. It
reminded me a little bit of Nemesis from Resident Evil 3. Giving Samus a little
more character development was new to the series as well, as was the addition
of Adam since she had to follow orders from someone else, but it was really
just a way to keep people going in the right direction, instead of letting them
go wherever like they did in earlier games in the series.
18.) Lunar: Silver Star Story
Complete (Playstation)
This was another series that I
kept hearing people talk about but never played for myself. I don’t even
remember what made me end up trying it in the first place, but somehow I ended
up with the collector’s edition. I must have watched the Making of Lunar Disc a
dozen times in the early days. Having the anime scenes with real voice acting
was a big change in what I was used to. This game has everything, a good story,
a great cast, funny moments, random cultural references (like the kid who said
he ate his Wheaties). Plus, there’s always MAGIC EMPEROR GHALEON.
17.) Phoenix Wright: Trials and
Tribulations (DS)
What a way to finish up an
outstanding trilogy. Usually when the basics stay the same, the third
installment of a game tends to slow down but that wasn’t the case here. They
went back to the Maya-in-peril card in 3-5, but somehow managed to make the
fourth time a charm with regards to that underlying story within the case. Plus there's the comedy (see the picture!)
16.) Megaman X3 (SNES)
When I first read that Zero would
be a playable character I went nuts. I actually found how to get the beam saber
with X on one of my first playthroughs, since I just HAD to use Zero against a
boss. Taking down Sigma’s final form was a lot easier with the beam saber, but
if you did that Zero wasn’t with X at the end of the game, which is
unacceptable. The levels were a lot longer, and they nearly doubled the amount
of hidden stuff you could find with the ride armors and the enhancement chips,
plus the Golden Armor (since the beam saber just wasn’t enough).
15.) Friday the 13th
(NES)
There is a very good chance that
I’m the only person alive that likes this game. I was so surprised the first
time I read reviews of it online, since the scores it was being given were
horrible. I can’t remember what issues the other reviewers had with it, but for
me it’s one of my favorites. The music is pretty bland (aside from the
cabin/title theme, which is so awesome that it makes up for everything else),
but the gameplay is great. Each of the six counselors have different abilities
(walking speed, rowing speed, and jumping height), and even though Mark edges
out Crissy overall by his rowing ability, Crissy will always be my favorite. I
have no idea why (other than the fact that I really like her name), but she was
always my go to character dating back to when I first played this game when I
was 7 or 8. For a game released in 1989, there were a lot of extra things you
could do. Yeah, you could just try to take out Jason head on, or you could
light the fireplaces and collect torches (or use the quicktorch method) to hit
Jason really hard. There was the cave, taking down Jason’s mom to get things
like the Sweater and Pitchfork on days 2 and 3, you could explore the forest
and try to find the hidden cabins (I mapped those out when I was younger, how
cool was I?!), and you could have the torch and jump, only to fly right into a
knife and trade the second best weapon in the game in for the second worst
weapon in the game. If I ever have a daughter and she has the nickname Crissy,
this game is what gave me that idea. Who says you have to look in baby books to
find good names for kids anyway?
14.) Megaman 2 (NES)
This game has it all. Amazing
level design, even better music (Wily’s Castle, Flashman, Metalman, Woodman,
Bubbleman), great bosses, and a solid difficulty factor (at least until you’ve
played it several hundred times and everything becomes easy), but how many
people spent that much time playing video games when they were younger? There’s
something about the conclusion of this game that makes it stand out to me as
one of my favorite endings of all, and I wish I knew what it was.
13.) Final Fantasy X (Playstation
2)
I played this one for about a
half hour and wasn’t having too much fun with it, so I put it down and nearly
forgot about it. About six months later I decided to give it another go since I
like to give a game a decent chance before writing it off, and I’m glad I did.
The good moments (everything but the damn laughing scene) outweigh the bad
moments (the damn laughing scene). I’ll never forget the moment when I was
playing the lightning dodging minigame, where you have to dodge 200 lightning
bolts in a row, and I was at 194. Suddenly, a cat jumps onto my shoulders and
makes me lose focus, and ZAP, back to the beginning. That hurt more than the
claw marks on my back from said cat trying to keep from falling off when she
realized she put a little too much oomph into her leap. To Zanarkand is also
one of the best pieces of music I've ever heard.
12.) Tales of Symphonia
(Gamecube)
This was my first entry into the
Tales series. The battle system in this series is outstanding, and it helps to
make things like level grinding a lot more fun. Where most RPGs tend to have a
few good characters and a lot of dull fodder, the cast in this only had one
real miss in my book.
11.) Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last
Reward (3DS)
If you like visual novels, this
game (and the first entry in the series, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, and while
you’re at it, get Time Hollow, Hotel Dusk, and Trace Memory as well) is an
absolute must. They took the only thing I didn’t like about the first game
(having to keep replaying the puzzle rooms) and gave you the ability to skip
those once you completed them the first time. With all of the different
endings, the characters, and the volume of great plot twists, this one had me
looking forward to the third entry in the series as soon as I finished it.
No comments:
Post a Comment