Sunday, June 9, 2013

Raiden's Top Games List: 20-11

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.

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