This is my Top 50 description archive for 2018.
Game: #50 Super Monkey Ball
A launch title for the GameCube and probably the last great new IP from the Golden Age of Sega. This game has you roll in a ball solving mazes to get to the end. It is like Marble Madness but with Monkeys and more crazy things. The game is simple to learn hard to master type of game. Because it is based on an Arcade game it is hard but fair. The game is very replayable as you want to keep playing to get better. As a kid and even as an adult I played this game through many times. It is one of those perfect games in which it is fun as a single and multiplayer game. It is hard not to play a few rounds with this game. This game will never age and neither will its gameplay. Just a timeless classic.
Game #49: The Legendary Starfy
A game series that only had one entry released in America and this is it. After playing this game I considered this a great tragedy. The game is incredibly charming and unique. The game somehow made water levels the best part of the game! In a matter of a fact, the land parts are the more boring ones! The game is a marine platformer so all you do is swim as a starfish. Only in this game, the starfish is a prince of an entire kingdom who must rescue an alien from losing his throne from a bunch of Space Pirates. It has been nine years since we got this game. Such a shame we never got a sequel. Maybe next year.
#48: Super Monkey Ball 2
We just had a Super Monkey Ball game 2 days ago! Well, this and Monkey Ball 1 are both equally amazing. This game improved a lot of the first game and had a lot more content. All the new minigames and returning ones are much improved in this one. It also has a story mode on the monkeys getting their stolen bananas back(A plot they ripped off of Donkey Kong Country). I got the game pretty much immediately as soon as I found out it existed. (No internet made me slow in finding out new games in 2003). I played this game even more than the original and it is also a timeless classic. Played to this day. Now if only Sega could release a worthy sequel.
#47: Donkey Kong Country
Another game about monkeys. This time it is Donkey Kong Country. Now I heard legends on this game, however, I didn't play this game until I got my SNES Mini this year. I was expecting an average platformer but what I got was a very well made platformer. The game is surprisingly hard but also fair. The game has amazing platform sequences and is very creative in some places. The music was amazing and probably the best platformer soundtrack outside of Super Mario Galaxy. I was incredibly surprised at how good this game was. I thought it was nostalgia talking for these people but no. This game is the real deal. I should get to the sequels in the future. Maybe in time for the top 50 of next year?
Game #46 Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
The first Castlevania on the list but certainly not the last. I only recently got heavily into the Castlevania games after watching the amazing Netflix series. My first impression is WHY HAS NO ONE TOLD ME HOW GOOD THESE GAMES WERE? Let's start with this game. The game expands on Castlevania 1 in pretty much every way. Even difficulty is jacked up. The game is to Castlevania 1 as Super Mario Bros 3 is to Super Mario Bros 1. The game has multiple paths and even multiple characters! This is awesome because the replayability is higher now. The game is also hard. Like very very hard. This game may be a prequel to Castlevania 1 but that does not mean you start here. You have to fight tooth and nail for every jump and enemy kill. You will get tons of game overs but I loved every second of it. Well with the exception of the final level of the game which is actually too hard to be enjoyable. One of the best games in the NES library. Probably the hardest game I have beaten but enjoyable almost the whole way through.
#45 Kid Icarus: Uprising
This game was the 2nd biggest reason I got the 3DS in 2013(After Pokemon Y). I am glad to say that it did not disappoint. The game is a sequel to the original game on the NES. Now when I say sequel keep in mind that it's only the story that continues. The gameplay is radically different. We go from a 2D platformer to 3D shooter. The game has you shooting around enemies in the on-rails flying sections to hitting the ground and melee attacking everyone. What's fun about this game is how tight the gameplay is. There is rarely a dull moment and the game constantly throws things at you. What makes the game so fun is that the difficulty scales with you. So the game can never be too hard or too easy unless you want it to. This is the type of games I like being made. It also does what I thought was impossible and makes a one player shooting game fun to me. I tend to not like shooters much but this one broke that stigma for me. The game is impressive for that. Did I also mention that the story and character dialogues are very entertaining? I can listen to them all day. This game also gives me such bitter feelings that we may never get another sequel to this for about 20 years. Ah oh well.
Game #44 Puyo Puyo Tetris
Tetris is one of the most famous games in existence. A game you can play on virtually every platform. I played Tetris on more platforms then I can count but I never owned it. That was until I got Puyo Puyo Tetris. Now I knew what I was getting into with Tetris but I never heard of Puyo Puyo until this game. Puyo Puyo is a like a puzzle fighting game. You stack combos so that your opponent loses. In most puzzle games you only worry about yourself but this game changes things up. Now you must counter and attack your opponent at the right time. The game also lets you have a Tetris battle like Puyo Puyo and even combines the two games. This game has so many ways to play Puyo Puyo Tetris that it is awesome It addicting and when combined with Tetris we got a two for one great game package. The game is also beyond perfect for handhelds. I play in short bursts and I still ended up with 100+ hours on this game. Don't get me started on the multiplayer. It is beyond amazing!
Game #43 Mega Man 3
While many people debate which is better, Mega man 2 or 3 I choose 3. Mega Man 3 is the best game in the original series of Mega Man and is one of the finest games you will ever play. The game is pure platformer heaven. The game is a tight experience in which no part feels wasted. Every moment.,every jump, every enemy and every soundtrack feels like it blends together so well it feels like a science. The game also does what other Mega Man games fail to do. Make unique awesome content. While other Mega Man games follow the basic Fire, Water, Air and Earth Robot Masters Mega Man 3 has none of them. Making this game feel so much fresher than the other ones. Mega Man 3 actually feels like the series was still progressing and getting better. It feels like the end of an amazing trilogy that kept getting better. Such a shame that it was downhill for the franchise after this.
#42 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
This is probably the only game that almost got me to buy an Xbox 360 so many years ago. When this came out I was incredibly impressed with it. A huge modern Open World game was entirely new and was something that wasn't being served on the Wii. I eventually decided I would get it on PC someday just not sure when. That was until the Switch version came out which I got day 1. The game is fun in that it is a lot more like Lord of the Rings than anything else. It really feels like you are in a fantasy world with books to read and mythos to learn. The gameplay was also very fun. Just going around and blasting things with spells, hitting things with axes and summoning monsters from Hell made this incredibly versatile. I pretty much came up with new ideas on how to kill enemies in more ways than one. My only complaint is that while the fantasy world is fun to be in the mythos are kinda boring. Compared to something like Zelda it does not have the same hook. Making me less interested in the sequel. One thing I want to note that if you played Ultima III you will notice that Skyrim feels like a big budget modern remake of it. I guess Western RPGs don't change that much. Still an amazing game.
Game #41 Super Mario Bros
This is the most famous game of all time. This is the earliest game I remember playing when I was about 5. Despite being born long after this game was released it was my first game that really left an impact on me. The game pretty much birthed my love for platformers and 17 years later I am still in love with platformers. I beat this game countless times on different systems. I probably beat this game more times than any other game I played. The game is so simple and so pure. There is no complex gameplay mechanics or crazy maps. It is as simple as it can get platformer. Yet even 30 years after its release it is still an amazing game and an experience I will never forget.
Game #40 Fire Emblem Fates
One could say I am cheating by putting all three games here and I say it's my list, not yours. To me, all 3 games are really just part of a bigger game. Anyway, this game is my 2nd Fire Emblem game. The game is unique in that you can choose to conquer a land or defend it. Now I did all the pats but the path I liked the most was Conquest. I don't know but conquering things is just much more interesting. Must be the Civilization nut in me coming out. In the 3rd path, you choose neither side and end up fighting both sides because you somehow betrayed both by not choosing a side. What's interesting about this game is that all three version have something unique about them that makes them different. Conquest is the hard mode. Birthright is the easy mode and Revelations is the gimmick mode. The gameplay is as fun as ever. The game has been tweaked so that it is less annoying like swords running out of ammo. Even though I can talk about this game for another hour I will leave it done here.
Game #39 Super Metroid
Initially, I didn't like this game that much. I thought it was incredibly overrated after my first playthrough I thought the game was too linear and easy it was. I later played it again and I was surprised at how wrong I was. My biggest mistake was trying to play the game like NES Metroid rather than its own thing. The game is like a Link to the Past where they sacrifice non-linear design for a more concentrated awesomeness in a linear design. The music and atmosphere make you feel like you are at an alien planet. The gameplay is also fast-paced and varied. It is fun just trying to figure where to go and how to do it. The game is short at about two hours but those two hours are so jam-packed of content and fun that it feels so fulfilling. It is like a bunch of games worth of fun in one game. Most games will struggle to make such a game with so little filler. It is endlessly replayable as well. The game should be played by anyone who likes platformers or Metroidvania games. I will call it borderline mandatory.
Game #38 Super Smash Bros Melee
The memories are strong with this one. This was my first Gamecube title way back in 2003 when I was about 8 years old. Back then I bought a game based on the cover since I didn't know any better. When I saw that Pikachu and Mario were on the cover I just had to have it. What I got was THE game for my childhood. I played this game more than anything else. It was the definitive party game when someone came over. It didn't matter who it was. This game was played. The game was simple to play but had so much depth that I could play it for years. Which I did all the way up to Brawl. Even when I was entering a gaming hiatus I still played Melee. It was that good to me. Melee is one of those special games to me. It always brings me to the past when I play it. Even though the game has long been surpassed I still find myself playing this game to this day because it still is good to this day.
Game #37 Xenoblade Chronicles X
This game was an impulse buy. After playing through Final Fantasy 1 for the first time I wanted to play another RPG so I went to the then newly released Xenoblade X. I did very little research and only knew that it was a spiritual successor (Not a sequel) to Xenoblade 1. Now I heard Xenoblade 1 was an amazing game so I got this game thinking it would be a safe purchased. I was more than right. While Final Fantasy 1 was a small game Xenoblade X was HUGE. I am talking about you need a flying robot to get anywhere huge. Yet the game felt so awesome to explore. I would explore the game to the absolute max until I had to do the story in order to unlock more things. I did that for every chapter. The world was such an interesting place to explore and it gave me LOST-like(The TV show) vibes of exploring the unknown. Since the game took place on an alien planet nothing was really discovered and you had no idea was out there. My favorite moment in the game was reaching the final area of the game far before I was allowed to based on my level. It was a blast to go from needing to play stealth to get through an area to absolutely destroying everything in my way after leveling up. While many people consider this game a disappointment I am not one of them. The game is awesome in its own way. I think it is best to say that Xenoblade X feels like its own thing and not a sequel to Xenoblade 1 at all. So much so that it really should be its own franchise.
Game #36 Octopath Traveler
Before the Switch came out my most anticipated game was not Zelda, Mario or even Xenoblade it was Octopath Traveler. The team behind this game was trying to make a classic Final Fantasy game (Which I adore almost all of them). They succeeded at doing that so well that I had full faith in this game and it met my expectations. It was an amazing game that really made me feel some real emotion. My favorite storyline was when you are a character who is a medic that wants to save everyone but ends up saving a murderer. So you end up putting someone else's life endanger by saving him. The character then asks if they have a right to choose who to save and who do not save. It was an interesting question and all of the other stories equally all interesting. It focuses a lot on actually role-playing and being the character. The job system is simple compared to other RPGs but it is still very fun and my favorite thing to do is to break the game. Why should I develop some strategy when I can do 10k damage and destroy everything in my path?
Game #35 Bravely Default
This game came out of nowhere for me. I was researching on what people thought of the old Final Fantasy games when I saw a Reddit thread asking why are people so excited for Bravely Default. Me being curious about why a game why so hyped I clicked on it. The answer was that Bravely Default was a game made in the style of the classic Final Fantasy titles. I quickly looked up the game and found out that I just HAD to buy the game. I did and I was amazed that such a game could not only exist but be so good. This game is basically a fancy sequel to Final Fantasy 3. It has jobs and it has crystals to save. (Final Fantasy 5 also does this). Only it is done much better than in Final Fantasy 3 and it is much more involved. All of the characters are much more involved in this game and the battle system is much more complex. The game was fun in that it allowed you to play in many different ways thanks to the extensive job system. The game was so fun I almost started a new game but then I realized that I had another game to play at the time. A game that is further up my top 50 list.
Game #34 Final Fantasy V
The prequel to Bravely Default. While I think the games are in similar in quality Final Fantasy V exceeds Bravely Default by having more interesting characters, world, and plot. This game was actually the last 2D Final Fantasy games that I played and I had to look hard for this one. I had to resort to an old GBA port to play this one and play it on a DS that I hadn't played in years. It was totally worth it. What makes this game so fun is that it took the good parts of Final Fantasy 1 to 4 and combined them to make this gem. The crazy plot and characters qualities from Final Fantasy V return to this game. The alternate worlds also return from Final Fantasy III. The Job system from Final Fantasy 1 and 3 also return. The game even has character deaths like in Final Fantasy II. The game somehow improves on the previous games in tons of ways. There is nothing to dislike here and there is so much to love. Exdeath is when Final Fantasy villains actually started to have some personality. He actually scared me every time he appeared on screen in the story. Also, Gilgamesh is awesome and his theme "Clash on the Big Bridge" is just as awesome as he is. The only reason this game has a harder time in facing up against Final Fantasy I, IV and VI is that it feels outdated but not in its an old game way. The game feels like its gameplay system has been completely surpassed by the Bravely series which ripped this game's job system into that franchise. Meaning gameplay wise it has been beaten but the story, characters, and the world keep this game high on my list.
Game #33 Fire Emblem Awakening
I got this as an impulse buy after beating Bravely Default. I was expecting a good game but what I got was an amazing game. A modern classic. Before I got this game Nintendo games were disappointing me left and right after 2010. What a turnaround. This is what I wanted from my Nintendo games. Actual effort and love poured into a title. This game felt like the ultimate Fire Emblem game. Its story was very amusing and full of twists and turns. The characters in this game were all good to amazing with few exceptions. The whole child aspect was actually very brilliant. Trying to put two characters to make the best child added more thought to how to advance the game. The gameplay and level design was something else. Every chapter was brilliantly designed. I really felt like I was at war at times. My favorite chapters are when I actually used some old strategy tactics from real life into this game and they worked! I even used some Civilization 2 war strategies as well. The class changes you can give to characters put a lot more replayability into this game. As in one playthrough, someone might be a knight and in another playthrough, they will be a swordsman. The game felt so deep and replayable. In a matter of a fact I beat this game 3 times since I got it in late 2016. I can see myself playing this game years from now.
Game #32 Super Mario Bros 3
As someone who played Super Mario Bros 1 throughout my life, I always wanted to play this one. Thing is that getting an NES in 2005 was not easy for someone my age. I didn't play it until Virtual Console. When I finally got the game I was amazed at how big of a jump it is. The game looked like a 16 bit game with the NES style. The controls were sublime and your moveset was greatly increased. The game also had a map and branching paths! What is this? This feels like I missed like 3 games worth of sequels. The amazingness never really stopped. The game starts off at some grassy fields and you eventually end up in some hell like area with an entire army fighting you. The game's worlds are all interesting in their own way and feel incredibly different from another. Making a replay more fun since you never feel like you are doing anything for a long time. The level design and the creative worlds are out of this world. Never have I seen the two things integrated so flawlessly. It really felt like I was in wonderland and freeing the world from an evil turtle. The game is considered the best Mario game for some and it definitely fights for that very well. I don't think that but this game is still amazing and a mandatory play for anyone into platformers.
#31 Super Castlevania IV
I actually had this game for years before I actually beat it. The darn game was too hard for me to beat in one sitting and screw passwords. So I held off until I got the SNES Mini and I finally beat it this year and wow. The game is a remake of Castlevania 1 but only much better. The game improves on everything that the 1st one did. The bosses are better. The stages are better and the world is more imaginative than ever. This Castlevania is amazing in that it has so much variety. You will visit forests, graveyards, rivers and a castle but honestly, I am only scratching the surface. The game just never stops surprising you with the type of things it throws at you. I had to fight man-eating tables! The gameplay is just as well designed as the content in the game. Controlling your jump and whip is something that the NES games only wished they could do. The music is also something else. Simon's Theme and Bloody Tears are absolutely amazing to hear. The game is just full packed of awesomeness and there is nothing that is done sub-par. It is absolutely the best of the first four Castlevania games and a game every Castlevania fan should play.
Game #30 Metroid Prime
I got this game as part of the Metroid Prime Trilogy. Before I got it I heard it was one of the best games of all time. Naturally, I had to try it. at first, I got motion sickness because I wasn't used to the 1st person view but I got over it and I am glad I did. The game is basically Super Metroid in 3D. It follows the same structure and everything. The game really felt like you were visiting an alien world and the exploration was top notched. The environments were kind of generic in some places but it was still very fun to explore. I beat this game multiple times and loved every playthrough. I played the other two Metroid Prime games but the quality was nowhere near as good. I guess Retro just ran out of ideas early.
Game #29 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
The Sonic game that made me realize that Sonic games can not only be good but amazing. Before this game, I only knew of Sonic as that franchise they keep making bad games for. As a person born after the 16-bit wars, I never understood why he was so loved. When I played this game I now understood why. This game was amazing in the sense that it is a lot more different than other platformers then and even now. The game focuses on speed. The game is about finishing the level as fast as possible with as much loot as possible. Making this game insanely replayable. I played through this game many times just to see if I could do better and get the Chaos Emeralds(I never got the Choas Emeralds in any playthrough. Too hard!) What amazes me as well is that the 2-player mode is just as entertaining. The mode where you can race was always fun to do back in the day. Co-op was abused so I can beat the bosses in the game more easily. After playing this game I realized Sega had some serious talent back in the day. Too bad they declined ever since.
Game #28 Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
"Where was I when this game came out?" I kept asking myself that while playing this amazing game. In late 2008 the Wii was having a massive software drought and this game would have definitely made it a whole lot easier to get through. The game combines Metroid, Zelda 2 and Castlevania 2 all in one package and it was done really well. The platforming was incredible and fighting enemies was one of the most fun things to do in this game. The enemies all had specific patterns that needed to be exploited to beat them. The best thing about this game is that you get Glyphs which are basically weapons and magic. So now you can exploit the enemies' pattern in multiple ways. Not only is fighting very fun but exploring and getting through is as well. The game is hard and chances are you will have to have hard-fought battle after hard-fought battle while exploring. Getting to a new region felt like a huge achievement because you didn't just walk through to get there but fought really hard and tough enemies to get there. The music is also amazing and so is the gothic world you play in. The only complaint I have is that the story is incredibly barebones. Castlevania games aren't known for their story but the one they tried to tell here was lackluster. Otherwise, this game was a pure joy to play. Now excuse me while I go back in time to smack past me for missing this the first time.
Game #27 Bravely Second: End Layer
After playing through Bravely Default I just HAD to get this game. Bravely Default ended with was one hell of a cliffhanger that this game would continue. This game is pretty much better than the 1st game in pretty much every way except for music. The gameplay has been expanded upon to be even more amazing. There are new jobs and a lot of theminteresting things like the Gunner job. What makes this game so entertaining is the final 3rd of the game. The first 2/3 of the game is fun and definitely worth getting through the final 3rd is nuts. You are fighting weird ghost glass skeleton riding a horse. You find an ancient civilization that has a giant cannon to shoot you to the moon. This part of the game is so entertaining that words fail to express how I feel. The game also had me caring for the characters a lot more this time around. By the time you beat this game you have spent about 200+ hours across both games to see them go through hell. I just wanted the game to give them a happy ending and you get that by the end of this one. That is until you realize that there is another cliffhanger. Oh, how I cannot wait for the next game in the series!
Game #26 The Legend of Zelda
When I first played this back in 2004 I had no idea how to play it. I thought the whole point of the game was to beat the dungeons and that's it and I also played with the Gamecube controller joystick. Not the greatest first impression. However, I did play it later with a much more better approach. I played the game like an open world game and my experience increased dramatically. This is that this game is incredibly open-ended. You can do the dungeons out of order which is awesome! It feels awesome beating a dungeon before you should. Getting over such a challenge makes victory so sweet. I also like to do the first dungeon last that way I can steamroll everything for the lolz. The game has many ways to play through. I love just exploring the overworld and I never get tired of it no matter how many times I replay the game. A classic that stands the test of time.
Game #25 Metroid
The best Metroid game ever for me. Many people will call this outdated or unfair but I call this game a challenge of which few people can handle. This game is not like newer Metroids. One thing about it is that Metroid is an open world platformer. You only have to beat two bosses to get to the final area of the game. How you do it is all up to you. What makes this game so fun is that you are exploring a world with no real restraints. Future Metroid titles always have a "sequence" to go through. Some people think its fun to break the sequence as well. Metroid has no sequence to break. It completely open-ended. This makes exploring much more interesting because the only thing that blocks your path is your skill. Because of that, the game becomes about survival. Exploring a new room isn't fun just because you discovered it but because you had to overcome a hard challenge to get there. The game is HARD but it is a good kind of hard. The game never kills you in a cheap way and every death feels deserved. The game is also littered with secrets like bombable walls and secret power-ups. I played through this game many times and it is always fun. The game is a masterpiece.
Game #24 Paper Mario: Thousand Year Old Door
This was one of the last Gamecube games I got when it was still new. I do not remember why I bought but I believe it was an impulse buy either way I made the right choice. This was my first Non-Pokemon RPG and it was a crazy time. This game is very very fun. The battle system is super simple but it is very satisfying. The game has you input action commands rather than mashing the A button. This means that in order to do an attack effectively you must time the attack correctly. This makes every battle engaging and makes you WANT to get into battles. The story is something else. What seems like a typical Mario story of princess get kidnapped turns into a game where you fight Dragons and become a wrestling champion with a gold belt. Every chapter is crazy different from all the others. I haven't seen such creativity from an RPG from Nintendo like this. It will be until the Xenoblade series that they do something like this again. The characters are also very unique and all are interesting. You can have a trash-talking Yoshi to the sweet-talking Vivian. The game oozes with charm and it worth playing even today. I played through this game probably in double-digit times. Will we ever get a worthy Paper Mario sequel? Sadly I think that train has long left that station.
Game #23 Super Mario World
I actually borrowed this game a lot as a kid from my nephews but never bought it. It wouldn't be until the Wii that I actually got my own copy. As a kid, I was crazy addicted to this game. I played this for HOURS. I tried to find every secret and every pathway. The game just amazed me with its creativity and complexity. There is so much more I can do now! I can ground pound and pick enemies up and throw them around! I can fly and chat the game! Screw those pesky jumps! The secret passages were awesome because it felt like I could make my own path to Bowser's castle. I eventually learned how to beat the game in 10 minutes which was a crazy find. The game felt endless in many ways. My only Mario game before this was Super Mario Bros so the game was a huge jump. Even as I grew up and replayed it as a teenager I still found it massively fun. Years later when I played it again just last year it is still a masterpiece. I practically played this game to the point where I know every secret by heart. If I were to play it today I would still beat this game andget all the secrets in one go.
Game #22 Pikmin 3
My most anticipated Wii U game and one of the two reasons I got a Wii U. (Other being Smash 4). Now if anyone who know of me on this site long enough I used to be a huge Pikmin fan. After playing through Pikmin 1 & 2 I could not wait to play through this game. It took 5 years from announcement to release. A painful wait. Playing through this game in 2015 (When I first got my Wii U) it felt bittersweet to finally play it. It was an amazing experience and I played through many times in a row but it didn't feel as good as the 1st two games. Despite that, I think this game is worth a playthrough every once in a while. Having a Time Limit in this game always felt pointless as the game was so easy you could beat it easily. I really like the fact that the game is more like the first one in that actual strategy is involved again. The game is much more story based compared to the other two but that's only because the other two barely had a story.
Game #21 Zelda II: Advanture of Link.
A side-scroller platformer Zelda with a level up system will always sound weird. Despite that this pulls this well. The game is just amazing! You start off with boring environments like a sand castle and gradually move up to tombs and island ruins. You also get to fight a dragon! (A Dragon that fights dirty) The dungeons are also very well done. They aren't linear but are like mazes. This makes exploring them so fun because you never really know where you are going. Also, the game is HARD. Ok, it is not Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania hard but it is definitely harder than most modern games. Exploring a dungeon is also about surviving the dungeon. Everything wants to kill you even stuff like Bubbles. The bosses are also are all unique and interesting. In one of the Dungeons, the boss is a knight on a hovering horse. The final dungeons is just crazy with secret holes and bird warriors. The game is so fun to play through that I did it multiple times. So worth playing over and over again.
Game #20 Pokemon Black
Between Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Black. I was in an anti-Pokemon mood. I hated where the franchise was going and it felt like they were just doing things WRONG. I pretty much skipped Platinum and Soul Silver at the time. I got Black because I was willing to give them one more chance. I played through the game and I felt like an idiot. This game was much much better than both Ruby and Diamond. Now I was kinda mad that skipped Soul Silver. I am also mad that I avoided all the Pokemon games during that time as well. Pokemon Black was amazing in that it felt so fresh. You never meet a Pokemon you know until after the Elite Four. The game actually had a plot that was actually interesting. The battle mechanics were so much better. The world was more interesting and the post-game content was plentiful. I actually like a lot of the Pokemon in Black as well. I even like the Ice Cream Pokemon. (Don't look at me like that Reader! ) . I even got the entire Unova Pokedex filled up minus some event legendaries. This game was such a quality jump from the last that is still amazes me. From this point on I bought every mainline Pokemon game. (Ok, I skipped out on Let's Go! Pikachu but I am tired of Kanto remakes).
Game #19 Final Fantasy IV
The game is bliss. Final Fantasy IV was one big emotional journey from beginning to end but I am getting ahead of myself. After playing Final Fantasy 1 I jumped straight into this game and what I got was an amazing intro and from there it only gets better. In the 1st town, you visit you find out that the box you carry is actually a firebomb and burns down a whole village. Then you find a little girl who summons an earthquake monster that throws you down a hole and that's only the first 20 minutes. The game gets more insane from there. What makes this game so awesome is that NOTHING is wasted. Every town, every person, every conservation and every plot point FEELS important and is equally entertaining. The game's content feels so concentrated yet so well done that is does not FEEL long at all. Yet the plot of this game feels like 3 games into one. Nowadays JRPGs will still be in the tutorial by the time you finish Final Fantasy IV. The game moves fast and it is awesome. It is like reading a 1000 page book in one sitting. The game is definitely a contrast to the now common 100+ RPGs of today. Final Fantasy IV will never feel outdated for this reason for me. (Oh, I forgot to talk about the Characters! They are all awesome minus, Edward! Rydia is my favorite! Also the music is amazing!)
Game #18 Xenoblade
I skipped this game when it came out. I was in no mood to get more Wii games in 2012. I later got it in 2017 to prepare for Xenoblade 2. This game was a huge surprise for me. I heard many good things about this game but I thought everyone was overexaggerating again. When I got this game I was expecting a good game but nothing crazy. Boy did I feel stupid once I played through the game. This game is amazing! The game felt exactly like how I felt with Final Fantasy IV. A concentrated crazy awesome plot. The game just keeps surprising me as Final Fantasy IV did and in a good way. The plot does not merely twist. It twists, turns, bent, turned inside out and then just burnt with fire. What happens in the beginning of the game, is just a percentage of a taste of what's to come. What surprises me is that it really changes the villain and hero dynamic. You don't feel like a hero after a certain point in the game but not because you turn evil but rather from a difference of beliefs. This game was a roller coaster ride when I first played through it.
Game #17 Civilization IV
Where do I begin with this one? I am a big history fan. People in real life are always astonished on how much I know about history. I can never want to stop learning from it. (Now if I only I can make that a profitable venture!). I also love playing games. So a game about history is the perfect combination for me and what a perfect combination it is! I have played 1500+ hours on this game. I had days where I would play 12+ hours straight! Addiction was a thing for this game. What makes this game so fun compared to the Civilization V is that you can actually build an empire that spans the entire globe and get this. Having more cities means a better empire. Civilization 5 did the opposite of that. I played on tons of maps. I colonized the new world. Became a seafaring nation with tons of islands under my empire. I also did a Pangea map and just conquered everyone. (I am a very bad neighbor in this game.) The only flaw for this game is how slow it moves compared to older Civilizations. It could take a long time to play through and it can feel like a slog at times. Still, it is a fun slog and declaring war has never been so fun.
Game #16 Super Smash Bros Brawl
The game that made me buy a Wii back in the day. Super Smash Bros Melee left a big impact on me as a younger person so naturally, I wanted a new game in the series. So I was incredibly hyped for this game. This was my first Day 1 purchase and it lived up to the hype for me. This game was bigger and better than the last game. There were more characters, more stages more everything really. I played this game all the time and was a multiplayer staple for when I go anywhere. I have about 1000+ hours on this game and I played it well beyond 2008 and into 2015. This game lasted a really long time for me. The only reason I don't play it anymore is that the game has been surpassed.
Game #15 Pokemon Black 2
Just when I thought the last game was a big quality jump. This game made the first one feel like a prototype. This game was pure awesome. I never had so much fun with a pokemon game that had you go through the same region twice. Yet they did it anyway. The game is not a reimagining like Crystal or Emerald, no it is a TRUE sequel and that is just amazing. You can actually see what happens after the events of the last game from a new trainer's perspective. Giving you more layers to the world you are in. Also, the game lets you have pokemon beyond the Unova pokemon and let me say there are a lot of choices. I remember having a tough time trying to figure out which Pokemon to use. They were all soooooogood. I eventually decided to have a pokemon from each generation to make it easier to pick. (It was still hard to pick) The post-game was something else. Even after you beat the Elite Four there was still stuff to do like the Pokemon Tournaments where you fight past gym leaders. Honestly, this game was so good that it spoiled me of the future entries. Never did I get a Pokemon game that felt this complete since.
Game #14 New Super Mario Bros Wii
This was a surprise hit for me. When I got NSMB on DS I played that game a ton. Yet something felt "off" about it at the time. This game pretty much destroys that game in quality. The levels, music, and power-ups were all better. We even got the Kooplings back! Nowadays they are over-represented but back then it was such an amazing thing. The Kooplings were much better villains than Bowser Jr. ever was. This made beating every world more special as you fought a Koopling in every stage. The level design was also much better this time around. You can tell that Nintendo made levels that the SNES and NES wish they could do. The levels were all done well despite it needing to be good 4 player and 1 player modes. The 4 player mode was awesome. I played that mode as much as the single-player mode even though we can get very competitive in a co-op mode.
Game #13 Kirby Super Star Ultra
There is no such thing as a bad Kirby game. Sure there are spin-offs that try to test that theory but all the Kirby platformers are gaming bliss. Despite that, the games are usually in the 7-8 score region for me. Not enough to make it into the top 50 greatest games of all time except for one: Kirby Super Star. This game is easily the best Kirby game and my favorite platformer on the DS (The DS had tons of platformers too). Super Star is unique in that it really is more like 10 smaller games rather than one big game. That's just perfect for handheld gaming. I can easily finish a game in one handheld session and I love to replay them over and over again. When I was younger I replayed Kirby Super Star countless times. My favorite game was Revenge of the King. Which was a Kirby's Dreamland Remake/Sequel. This Kirby game is so good that it honestly feels like a fluke compared to the other Kirby games. If you just have to pick one Kirby game to play make it this one. You will not regret it.
Game #12 Punch Out (2009)
I remember when this game was first announced with Sin and Punishment 2. I watched the trailer over and over again as the game looked to entertaining. Then I watched gameplay videos over and over again as well. That's when I realized I should probably buy this game and I did for $20 under the Nintendo Selects line. Wow. I knew this game was fun but not THIS much fun. This game was incredibly fast-paced. I was always on the edge on whether I would beat my opponent. Most of the time I would lose because some fights are really hard. The Soda Russian dude who I know had to be censored from drinking Vodka was really hard. Same goes for Mr.Sandman and Bald Bull. However, when you finally knock them out and the crowd is cheering for you I feel so accomplished. The game is so satisfying and getting better at this game feels amazing. You will go from being knocked out in the first round to destroying your opponent without getting hit. I replayed this game many times and the game is so timeless. The cell shaded graphics really bring the boxers to life who are all very memorable and interesting.
Game #11 Final Fantasy
The only RPGs I played before this game were simplified versions of them like Paper Mario and Pokemon. I didn't think such a genre was so good. I did play Tales of Symphonia 2 but I thought that the game was boring and never finished it. However, after hearing how amazing the Final Fantasy series was I decided to give the franchise a shot. So I went with the cheapest option: Final Fantasy 1 on the Wii Virtual Console for $5. I also purchased Final Fantasy IV since I had extra. After playing for a bit being very very confused on how to play the game hit me with a mighty boom. The fun came and it only got better from there. The game was so much fun to me because the game's world was so interesting. You would fight vampires, poisonous snakes, the Kraken, birds that turn you to stone and much much more. I have never seen such crafted fantasy like this. The greatest plot twist was realizing that an ancient civilization had robots AND a flying city. Not only do you see ruins of this destroyed civilization but you also see it and go to the flying city. Then you fight a mecha laser robot that can kill you easily. Then there is a ROBOT DRAGON with three heads that you had to kill. The game blew me away with its imagination. I went in expecting some Lord of the Rings Fantasy but I got that and Star Wars mixed in. The craziest part was that you find out that the first boss you fight was actually the main bad guy the entire time. Apparently, he kept destroying the world in an endless cycle. You kill him and the cycle stops but no one knows that heroes did that. So the heroes tell their tale anyway. I can go on for much longer but I won't This game introduced me to JRPGs and RPGs in general. I would go on to play all sorts of RPGs from Ultima 1, Dragon Quest, Xenoblade and Skyrim. I have this game to thank for that. The game was such a surprise as I first played this game in 2015.
Game #9 Civilization II
You ever heard of the Eternal War? It is actually a really cool story about someone playing a game of Civilization II for 10 years. It resulted in a hellish landscape. When I read it I was intrigued and that I must try this Civilization game out. This game is awesome and crazy. The game is super simplistic in terms of strategy games yet it feels so deep. The game just oozes with options to give. Every time I finish a game in Civilization 2 I always felt I could have done it differently. Even if I played the same map twice the results could be much more different. It always amazes me on how many ways you can play this game. Sometimes I want to turtle and sometimes I want to go all out. No matter what I always enjoy what I am doing in this game. I can never stop enjoying this game. It is one of the most addicting games I ever played. One advantage this game has over say Civilization IV is that this game gives you options. In later Civilization games, it always feels like there is one way to victory. Despite Civilization II only having a Conquest victory there are many ways to get there.
Game #10 Xenoblade 2
My 2nd most hyped game on the Switch before buying it. This game completely exceeded my expectations. I was actually expecting the game to be as good as Xenoblade 1 but instead, it blew me away. The game was so much more fun this time around! The game reminded me of how Final Fantasy I unfolded to me. You start at a dinky small scaled village that is typical of fantasy games to fighting Robots far more advanced than the world you were in. There is actually a lot to spoil here so I won't go further than that. The characters are all lovable in their own way. I like them all a lot better than to Xenoblade 1 cast who felt a bit boring in comparison. What surprises me is that they somehow made all the characters so good while also having a ton of them. The gameplay was beyond amazing. The combat is more simple than the first two games but it is much more satisfying than both. It is sorta like Pokemon in how you get teammates but with a battle system similar to Xenoblade 1. Which is the best of both worlds. When I finished this game I started a new game right away and finished it in about the same time as I did the first playthrough. All in all, this is an amazing game and it will be played for years to come.
Game #9 Civilization II
You ever heard of the Eternal War? It is actually a really cool story about someone playing a game of Civilization II for 10 years. It resulted in a hellish landscape. When I read it I was intrigued and that I must try this Civilization game out. This game is awesome and crazy. The game is super simplistic in terms of strategy games yet it feels so deep. The game just oozes with options to give. Every time I finish a game in Civilization 2 I always felt I could have done it differently. Even if I played the same map twice the results could be much more different. It always amazes me on how many ways you can play this game. Sometimes I want to turtle and sometimes I want to go all out. No matter what I always enjoy what I am doing in this game. I can never stop enjoying this game. It is one of the most addicting games I ever played. One advantage this game has over say Civilization IV is that this game gives you options. In later Civilization games, it always feels like there is one way to victory. Despite Civilization II only having a Conquest victory there are many ways to get there.
Game #8 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This game took forever to come out. I remember the first trailer in 2014 and the countless delays. Lucky for me I was not hyped for this at all. Skyward Sword pretty much drained whatever goodwill this franchise had with me. Despite that, I was intrigued by this game and I needed something to go along with my launch day Switch so I got the game. Never have I been so wrong on a game. To say I was surprised is an understatement. I was shell-shocked on how much better this game was compared to the last 3D Zelda games. It was like they tore down a statue and built a better one with this game. Nothing about this game feels like the 3D Zelda games from before. Everything felt so different and yet it was all for the better. Breath of the Wild finally gave us the open world we needed since the original. The game just feels like a modern remake of Zelda 1 and it just destroys pretty much all Zelda games except for one. Honestly, if you disliked 3D Zelda games like I did give this game a shot. Chances are that this game will show you it was the game, not your tastes that caused you not to like previous Zelda games. I replayed this game 3 times since it came out. Chances are I will play it more times as well. One of the few games that lived up to the hype.
Game #7 Final Fantasy VI
After finishing Final Fantasy I and IV I took a break from the series. I didn't want to go too fast through them. When I finally got to this game I was astonished. The game was just pure epic fun. The game takes you through a JOURNEY and you feel it. When the opening credits show up that's why you realize that this is not a normal Final Fantasy JRPG. The game has the typical evil empire but it is done well here. The villain Kefka is the culmination of all the villains from the past games and he is awesome. When you make a story the bad guy has to really good at his job in order for you to feel like a hero. They nailed it so hard that I was pretty much in the best of moods once I did beat him. The gameplay is also evolved as well. The job system is gone but everyone is unique in that everyone is basically their own kind of job. This also extends to the story as everyone is important in it. When I finished the game I realized that this game was just something else. I never felt so much joy when I finished it. It really is the best Final Fantasy game I played from the first 7 I experienced. I can talk about this game for an hour but let's move on.
Game #6 Super Mario Galaxy
The game's quality is out of this world. Talk about a huge quality jump from the last game. Sunshine feels so lame when compared to Super Mario Galaxy. In this game, you are to travel throughout the cosmos in order to chase Bowser to the center of the universe. This is awesome. You don't just go through standard levels anymore. You also don't just traverse a flat plain as well. No, you go through entire planets. Each planet has its own theme and there are a lot of themes. This makes every level of the game incredibly unique. You are never doing the same thing for long and every part of this game feels so fresh. There is no Mario game like this except for Galaxy 2 and even that is its own thing. The game has quality, variety, and quantity. 100%ing this game is incredibly fun and I did it at least four times. No doubt it is the best Mario game for me and no doubt it belongs as one of the greatest game I ever played. If you have a Wii and like platformers, especially 3D platformers get this game.
Game #5 Pokemon Soul Silver
A long long time ago I played my first Pokemon game which was Gold. I loved it. One day the game's battery died and I could no longer save. I was very sad. Many years later I got Soul Silver and I loved the game all over again. Soul Silver is such a great Pokemon game in that it pretty much spoils me out of the rest of the franchise. Black 2 did the same but this one did it to an even bigger degree. The game is just fun. This game has some of my favorite Pokemon ever. This game has some of the most memorable Gym Battles ever. Everyone knows about Whitney's Miltank but I also remember the Ghost guy and that darn Dream Eater Strategy. I also remember the Dragon Gym which always made a huge impression on me with all the dragons and lava. Though what makes this game so amazing is that it EXPANDS on the Pokemon mythos more than any other Pokemon game. This was not a standalone game but rather an extension of the last. You even visit the last game's area and fight all the gym leaders there. You even fight yourself from the previous game as the final boss! Soul Silver felt awesome because it was always expanding on what came before. Every game outside of this always felt like a reset button minus Black 2. Pokemon never felt like the franchise to me after the original Gold and Silver minus the remake. I think Generation 2 is the proper way to make a new Pokemon game. Maybe one-day Game Freak will do that.
Game #4 Super Smash Bros for Wii U
Super Smash Bros is a very special series to me. They represent so many memories for me. It is like everytime one is released for me it is a new era. Smash 4 is no exception. This game adds so many characters and stages it is absolutely crazy. I have played this game an insane amount of times with friends and family and myself. I played this game to the max. This game single handily turned on my Wii U (Which I and my friends like to call "The Smash Machine"). The game offers so many ways to play that it really is only limited by your imagination. 8 player smash led to hectic battles. 4 player matches would always go in unexpected ways. 2 player matches were always serious but yet so much fun. Smash is ageless in many ways. Smash 4 will always be my favorite Smash game(Until the next one comes out. Which just happened a few weeks ago. Hmm.)
Game #3 Pikmin
This game came out of nowhere for me. I actually borrowed this game from my friend 's cousin(Whom I barely knew. I don't think he cared for this game much). Now I knew what Pikmin was since the GameCube era but it wasn't until the Wii era did I play it. I never became so addicted to a game like this in a long time. I replayed the game multiple time straight. I COULD NOT STOP playing. I just replayed it to see if I can get better. I got so good at the game that I eventually beat the game in 9 days. The absolute shortest time one can beat Pikmin. Eventually, I had to give the game back and I bought my own copy when New Play Control Pikmin came out. I played that version like crazy as well. It was also the better version. I am the #1 Pikmin fan on this site. I won from a voting poll after all. Honestly, that was a long time ago but I still love the series. Even if it has weathered over the years. The game has suffered from "Played to death syndrome." I probably beat the game 30+ time by now.
Game #2 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Another game that came out of nowhere to me. The story on how I got to play this one is different from most. My school gave everyone Macs (Yes the Apple ones!) for schoolwork. Now it being a school device in high school meant everything was blocked. However, there was a way to glitch the system to make it do anything you want.l I took advantage of that many times. One of my acquaintances (Not really a friend but someone I talked to so I didn't get bored) showed me playing Donkey Kong Country on the Mac. Me being curious decided to get the Rom and the emulator so that I could play while in school. Now, this program had pretty much every SNES game on there. Nothing was missing. Even crappy Shaq Fu was on there. I naturally played through a lot of them but the one that captured my attention the most was A Link to the Past. Before I wasn't a huge fan of Zelda. I thought pretty much the entire Post Ocarina games were all heavily overrated. A Link to the Past was different, WAY different. I was addicted, I was having lots of fun but most importantly I felt like I was having an adventure. From beginning to end, it felt like a magical experience. I just never felt like this from a video game. I could not get over it. I played the game again and again. Eventually, I got it on the Wii and played it again and again. Then I got it on Wii U where I unsurprisingly played it again and again. Eventually, I got it on the SNES Mini where I played it again but only one time. Beating this game was like an annual tradition to me. The year was never complete until I beat A Link to the Past that year. A Link to the Past is one of those special games that come once a decade for a person. I would not feel like a game will be this special again until Breath of the Wild and Final Fantasy VI. It will probably be in the late 2020s until I feel it again.
Game #1 Pikmin 2
The wait was long for this one. For some reason, the North American version of Pikmin 2 on Wii took 3 years to get America. I thought this game was never coming but when it did I got it day one. Never did I think something could beat Pikmin yet the sequel did it so easily. The game is pretty much better in every way except for fairness. Purple Pikmin are overpowered and will destroy everything but like one or two enemies. They even destroy the final boss from the first game in like 5 seconds! What I love about this game is that it is a lot more crazy. We can have simple creatures like Bulborbs to machine gunning spiders. It was awesome. The had a strange dungeon crawling element that never got old. I beat this game many times. Honestly, when the American Version of Pikmin 2 Wii came out I was in a sorta of gaming hiatus. Pikmin 2 was pretty much the only game I was playing that year. It showed that Pikmin really was amazing enough to even pull me out of a gaming drought when nothing else interested me. Good job Pikmin 2!
