Well I've fallen a bit behind, so I'll just do a short summary on my top 13.
13. Advance Wars (GBA)
I bought this when I was a kid on vacation because I beat Kirby. Didn't know anything about it, and had no expectations for it. Shit, I played this all of my vacation and on the way home. This is an amazing game, with tons of content, and what's best is its perfect for molbile play. You can play a 10 minute map, or a 2 hour game, your choice. It's also difficult, back then I culdn't do Hard mode (damn Fog of War levels), not sure about now.
The story is paper thin, but the gameplay is what brings you back. This game honestly reminds me of Warcraft 3, and it's one of the few handheld games I played multiplayer with friends. Heck I got about 10 people addicted to this in elementary school back in the day. To this day the formula remains relatively unchanged, and being the first Advance (or Gameboy) Wars game released outside of Japan, it's definatly my favorite. AW2 got wonky with Neo tanks, they made matches too easy, Days of Ruin lacked content, and Dual Strike was nearly perfect, but it had some silly 2 screen levels.
12. Fire Emblem: Sacred Swords (GBA)
Definatly, the best Strategy JRPG I have ever played. I beat this game 3 times now, and it's just so damn fun playing it. Again perfect for handheld play because you can save anytime, and the missions are moderatly challenging (if you want to keep everyone alive). The story is also interesting, and has a lot of back stabing. This is by far the best Fire Emblem in the franchise, and I wish Nintendo made a proper new FE title for the DS. Let's hope Fire Emblem 3DS can mae up for this.
11. Resident Evil 4 (GCN)
Let's face it, gamecube lacked great games. However, that's not a bad thing. Before gamecube I was a hardcore Nintendo fanboy and would buy games just because Nintendo developed them. Then I played Resident Evil 1 (emake) and loved it. Then this came out, and blew me away. Honestly this was one of the most interesting games for the gamecube, had amazing bosses, twists, and mini missions (playing as Ashley), and was polished to no ends. Mercenaries mode was also a great post game feature.
10. Metroid Prime (GCN)
Samus always looked like the coolest most bad ass character on Super Smash Bros. However I never had Super Metroid as a kid, and N64 never got any Metroid Games. So when I heard of this, I though I must get this day 1, heck I bought my gamecube when I saw screenshots of this sick baby.
They say Halo: CE is the best rated FPS, but this isn't a FPS. It got the same metascore (97/100) and when you look at most credible reviews, Metroid is higher. This isn't surprising.
This is one of the few games where you actually care about the character. Exploring the world of Tallon IV, reading lores about the "extinct" alien race who created your suit, and finding out they were alive until fairly recently on that planet (after the extinction of the race on Zebes). You felt sad for Samus when you explored Pandora Drifts and the music was erie quiet, and the flashes of her face on her visor made it even more lonely.
Then after the sad, heart string tugging silent moments and scripts, you would engage with the best boss fights the gamecube has ever seen. Thardus is possibly my favorite boss in all video games (I just love Ice levels).
This game was unique, and inspiring. Retro Studios is Nintendo best studio, and this game glorifies that persona.
9. Golden Sun (GBA)
Wait..did I say Thardus was my favorite boss? No the boss of the game was in Golden Sun. You basically fight a dragon, and if you read my Golden Sun 2 write up, you will have known that I beat the boss of the game with 1 turn left. Well guess what, I did that in Golden Sun 1 as well. The graphics were insane for the GBA, and they reminded my of Super Mario RPG type graphics. To sum this up though, this game is like a mix between Pokemon and Final Fantasy X. It has a great turn based battle system, and Dijin, which are used for summoning and remind me of Pokemon. Great dungeons like in a Zelda game, and well. This is the perfect JRPG for handhelds, and one of my favorite JRPG's ever.
8. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Do I need to explain this one? Fun as hell, amazing co-op, and again, I just love the Ice levels. Working on DKCR now with my gf.
7. Pokemon Red/Blue (GB)
Yea, I'm tired, do I need to explain this one? This was the first handheld game with a solid amount of content (after Zelda), and well it was unique. I wish we had the Japanese name (Pocket Monsters), as it feels much more appropriate, but regardless. Like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, you can play this game in small intervals and the level of depth is excellent for a handheld game. It's not soo complicated where if you don't play for months you will be lost, but you do need to pick your party and think about what you do. A tad bit too easy IMO, but hey, at least you can catch all the legendaries on 1 version of the game, and you can always battle with friends.....oh man, remember link cables?
6. Super Mario 64 (N64)
This is the best Mario game. Simple. Super Mario Sunshine was a joke, and the reason why Super Mario Galaxy is so good is because it's an immitation of this game (with cornier boss fights). I still have yet to beat Galaxy (hence it's not on my list), but hey Bowser looks diabolic in this game, like he should. Levels are excellent, and the idea of mini worlds is great. You can have so muc fun in this game by just exploring worlds and looking for things to discover.
Also the depth, quality, graphics, and polish to the gameplay were unheard of at this time. Galaxy does not compare to HD games, where this smoked PS1 games, and even most N64 games (despite being a launch title).
5. Mario Party 2 (N64)
Best local multiplayer. On my cartridge there have been over 2,000 hour long games played. Half probably due to my sister, but still. Best mini games and maps in a Mario Party game, best single player, best end game scenarios with Bowser, this was just a fun as hell game to play with friends. I really should throw a Mario Party Party some day with pizza, beer, and shots (for landing on red spaces or something).
4. Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)
For a long long time, this was my favorite video game of all time, and my favorite RPG. It was Final Fantasy Quality, with Super Mario Quarky. Funny, and fun, and it had one of the most in depth stories for a Mario game. Plus having Bowser on your team is fun as hell, and damn, I want Gino back!
3. Mass Effect 2 (360)
You probably wouldn't think this, but I actually turned down Mass Effect 1 because I thought it looked silly, too focused on dialog. A friend reccommended that I play ME1, and I only did so because just before ME2's release the DLC was on sale. Man I am happy I did. Mass Effect 1 had a great story, but it didn't pick up until halfway through the game and lacked polish. In Mass Effect 2, every decision you make feels important, and decisions you made from ME1 make a difference to the game. What's best is that unlike Catherine, Fable, or InFamous, decisions aren't so Black and White. An example would be in ME1, when your attacked by the Reapers. If Sovergn (the 1 Reaper) reaches the Citadel and sends out a special signal, all civilizations will become excint like they have for possibly missions of years. However, the Council (similar to the UN) are on a ship and in trouble. Do you risk making all human and aien life extinct to send a portion of your army and save the Council, or do you hold out and protect the Citadel? They also say there is a good chance you won't stop Sovergn if you protect the council.
Anyway, the atmosphere in this game is the most believable I have ever encountered in a video game. Peoples behaviors and personalities seem more real in this game then any other, and your interactions with them feel like actual conversations. There is so much depth to this game it's insane.
The pacing is perfect, the gameplay is the funnest I have ever played for an RPG (it's basically a 30 hour long shooter with a deep story), and the missions are all interesting enough to be their own games. Best game this gen by far.
2. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Now this is definatly the best JRPG ever made. Screw Final Fantasy, no other Squaresoft or Square Enix game matches the quality of Chrono Trigger. At this point I'm too tired to explain why I love it so much, but I will say it's damn good. What I really like is that unlike most games, your actions all seem to have effects in this game, and it's really interesting to see how a simple accidental trip back in time to a kingdom with a princess who looks like a twin to the girl who got kidnapped (why you went back in time) can eventually lead to the discovery of the end of the world in 1999 by a creature called Lavos. It's a great game, with a nearly perfect battle system (which was used in many Final Fantasy's on the NES-PS1), and a really interesting story. What I like most is being able to play the game again and end it whenever you feel like to see different endings for your game, had you messed around with the past too much (you could accidently make lizards rule the world). Amazing game.
1. Mario Kart 64 (N64)
Best Mario Kart. 2 Player GP, no locked tracks, some of the best tracks in Mario Kart History (Wario Stadium, Best Bowser Castle, Best Rainbow Road, Yoshi's Valley, etc) and the most balanced set of items. Since MK64, Nintendo has blotched the MK franchise on all but the DS. DD has 2 racers which is stupid, MKWii feels a lot like MK64 with inferior battle maps (why did they ruin Skyscraper? It's suppose to be hard!), corny track maps, and locked tracks. Ontop of that the interduction of the pow block, and the far too frequent lightning prize really dampen the gameplay.
Also can Yoshi stick out his tongue in any other MK? (I dunno, but it's cool that he can in MK64). Best Mario Kart ever. Ever since then all Nintendo has tried to do is make a similar Mario Kart (MKWii and DS), and introduce 2 new good items (Blue Shell Bomb and Tentacle Ink thing) and a handful of cool maps (Delfino Square). MK64's only drawback was the rubbrbank AI, but if you were good enough, this was never an issue. Best maps, best gameplay, no slowdown (unlike MKWii) and ridiculous graphics for the time.
I have put in over 1,000 hours into this game, and I still play it regularly. It's beautiful to play.
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