Raiden's Top Games List: 40-31

40.) Little Ninja Brothers (NES)

One of the first RPGs I ever played, long before I even knew that RPG was a genre. Random battles weren’t the same as you’d find in Dragon Warrior/Quest or Final Fantasy either, they were action scenes! You had to fight the various monsters in a Kung Fu Heroes style battle screen, and if you killed enough of them you’d get your exp and money. There were a lot of amusing little puns as well (such as the shop that says “Welcome to McRonald’s, would you like fries with that?”). I had to resort to ebay to find this game as well, but it was well worth the wait.

39.) The Legend of Zelda (NES)

The game that started one of the best series ever. I still remember opening this at my Grandparents house on Christmas, I was so excited to get home and play it, since it was mine, and not a copy that the babysitter or a friend brought over. I could save my own game and not have to keep replaying the early parts of it over and over again. The hour long car ride home never seemed longer than it did that day.

38.) Gauntlet Legends (Arcade)

Red Wizard needs food badly! With the N64 version, I ended up buying that memory expansion just to be able to play this with more people. As far as the Arcade version goes, I’ll still drop a dollar into it when I see it and we’re trying to pass the time. Steve, Espy, and I must have spent at least $100 each playing this game at Laser Quest the summer we were members there, but it was a smart financial decision! If you were able to beat the forest level you got a free game (normally $5), but we were able to finish the forest level by spending about $3. Good deal in my book!

37.) Aerobiz (SNES)

This is a game that I’m guessing most people haven’t heard of. If it wasn’t for a friend of mine in elementary school I wouldn’t know it existed either. You manage an airline and have to buy planes, open routes, and link all of the major cities in the world. Becoming the number one airline shouldn’t be that much fun.

36.) Twisted Metal 2 (Playstation)

I’ve played almost all of the entries in the Twisted Metal series, but none of them can even begin to compare to this one in my book. The levels were great, the controls were excellent, there were so many different cars to play as (though Grasshopper and Hammerhead were pretty much useless, they made for a great challenge). The different ways Calypso would generally end up screwing over the drivers in the end were also very entertaining.

35.) Super Mario World (SNES)

The first time I played this game at Ben’s, I knew I had to get a SNES at some point. It wasn’t the same straightforward Mario game we were used to at that point. There were all sorts of secrets, keys, second exits to ghost houses, branching paths to get across the world, star road, the special zone, etc. It also introduced Yoshi, who added an extra element to the game.

34.) Parasite Eve (Playstation)

A RPG where you can freely run around while in battle? Sign me up! This game made me interested in science class for the first time in my life, when we were learning about mitochondria. Even though I knew they didn’t cause people to spontaneously combust, I still wanted to hear the teacher start referencing them in the same way they were discussed in the game.

33.) Contra (NES)

When I was younger I would only play this game after using the famous Konami Code since I thought there was no possible way to finish the game without it. Then the day came where I entered the code and didn’t realize until the end credits that I went through the entire thing without dying. I haven’t used the Konami code since.

32.) Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)

I played through and really enjoyed Trace Memory, so when I heard Cing was making another similar game I couldn’t wait to play it.  Hotel Dusk was worth the wait. The art style and character sketches were something I wasn’t used to seeing but fit the atmosphere perfectly. The cast was great (Kyle is still a favorite of mine), and the story was excellent.  Seeing how all the smaller pieces combined to complete the bigger puzzle was a great experience, and while the magic was slightly diminished in future playthroughs, it’s still fun to relive again and again. Well, not all of it. I still can’t get the hang of that bowling mini game. Dunning would be pretty upset if he saw how many dents I put in his walls.

31.) Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2 (Gameboy Advance)

Tip of the hat to Restless for introducing me to this series. The gameplay in this series is pretty much the same as Fire Emblem, only there’s no permadeath and the units are giant robots. What really sets this game apart in my eyes though, is the cast. There aren’t many games that I can think of that have a better group of characters. The game doesn’t TROMBE INTURRUPT take itself too seriously (Episode 30?!, Mystery Gourmet?, etc). I found myself rooting for the characters to succeed, not just because I wanted to complete the game, but because I wanted to see them overcome the odds. This game also has one of the saddest moments I’ve encountered in a game (end of disc 1 has nothing on this), but I don’t want to say anything more.