The Discussion Thread | The 12th Annual Greatest Games Event

[Runa216]

15 – Pokemon – 9.6/10 – GB, GBA, DS, 3DS, Switch

Gotta catch 'em all, am I right? Here, we have another entry that encapsulates an entire franchise rather than a single game because I feel that Pokemon works better as a collective whole than individual regions. This is due in large part to the growing roster of Pokemon and the slow but steady evolution of the game's mechanics. I know the latest game gets a lot of flack for not having the full 900-entry pokedex in the game, and I understand why that upsets a lot of people, but I knew it was coming multiple generations ago and I don't really see it as a problem. An unfortunate side effect of being such a huge franchise, but not unreasonable. Honestly, I felt that it made Sword and Shield better, and I'll explain why in a bit.

Some games are great because they tell a great story or have a deep and engrossing world to explore. Some games are great because they demand the world of the player and offer a sense of pride or ego.

Some games are great because they bring people together and are part of the social experience we share. Pokemon is great because it's the perfect balance of 'anyone can learn it' while 'only the best can master it'. They're games mostly for kids, but with enough depth and nuance and hidden gameplay mechanics that to this day I still don't fully understand all of them even though I've spent 1,000+ hours just on Sword and Shield. They're an 'easy to learn, tough to master' style game that not only is fun for all ages but knows exactly how to keep you hooked without feeling too tedious.

I separate the franchise into two distinct eras. The first Era was generations 1-5, the time when it was relatively simple and fun but focused more on getting your gym badges and finishing the game than anything else. Sure, the 'gotta catch em all' mantra was there from the beginning, but generations 1-5 were entirely enjoyable even without the quest to collect everything the game had to offer. Just beating them was satisfying enough. Generations 6-8 (X/Y, Sun/Moon, and Sword/Shield) shifted that focus to the completionists of the series. Beating those games was easy as can be, hardly demanding anything of the player. However, by this point the overall roster was massive and the game had drastically changed its focus to be more about the completionist aspect than just finishing.

And you know what? I love both eras. Capturing all the pokemon, having a living dex, and breeding competition-worthy pokemon is engaging and rewarding without being too demanding. It doesn't feel as rich as, say, finishing Dark Souls or something, but with as many pokemon as there are in the game, there's always something to be accomplished right around the corner. Do I wish that they married the two focuses into something truly great? Yeah! I'd love a game where just being it is hard and rewarding where the post game and completion challenges are just as engaging and rewarding, but I also acknowledge that such a feat is a LOT of work. The early gens were a bit too obtuse and inconvenient to complete but fun to beat, whereas the later gens were easy to beat and rewarding to complete.

I'm going back and forth. The point is, all these years later I still love Pokemon and still put hundreds of hours into each new game that comes out and I don't feel bad about it one bit. But with the recent re-release of Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl alongside Sword and Shield, I've come to compare and contrast and accept that there's room in this world for Pokemon games that are actually kinda hard and reward you for finishing the, (Diamond and Pearl), and room in this world for simpler games that aren't as obtuse and reward completionists (Sword and Shield.)

If anyone's asking, my favourite gens are Red/Blue for the nostalgia and purity of it all, Black/White because I feel that's the generation that blended the two ends of the spectrum the best, and Sword/Shield because it's the one I spent the most time on. My favourite of those was in fact Generation V, because it had a great story, 150 new pokemon that were engaging to catch and breed, and the ABILITY to get every pokemon up to this point, meaning it balanced simplicity with depth.

14 – Ratchet & Clank – 9.6/10 – PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, PSP

Not gonna lie, after that lengthy diatribe about Pokemon and how much I played it and how much I internally justified its flaws and weak points, I'm having a hard time putting Ratchet & Clank as a series ahead if it. I confess, it might just be recency bias because the best game in the series – Rift Apart – just came out on PS5 this year and I'm still riding a high off that. But then, I go back and I look at the series and realize there are no weak spots. Sure, there are ups and downs, but even the downs are great and the ups are slightly higher than Pokemon. While Pokemon is engaging and rewarding and compelling, Ratchet & Clank is more fun, even if it's not as long. I've not spent nearly as much time on this franchise, but the time I spent on it has always been fantastic.

While there are a handful of games in the Ratchet & Clank series that I feel are clearly superior, I do feel that it works better as a collective whole because I wouldn't want to mess everything up or make half my top 25 just Ratchet & Clank Games. When it comes to the score of 9.6/10, there are six Ratchet and Clank games that hit that mark for me, personally. Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, Tools of Destruction, A Crack in Time, the PS4 remake, and Rift Apart are all outstandingly amazingly fun titles to play that I can go back to any time and enjoy. And even outside of that, Deadlocked, the PS2 original, Quest for Booty, and Into the Nexus are all 9.5/10 and either bite-sized bits of brilliance or a nostalgic favourite. Of the games I've played, only Full Frontal Assault, All 4 One, Secret Agent Clank, and Size Matters would be outside my top 50 and even those were various levels of fun.

So yeah, I'll keep it simple and say that when it comes to pure fun and consistency, few franchises reach the same heights as Ratchet & Clank. They've got fun if rudimentary platforming, they've got toony and stylized violence, they've got humour to spare, and have added increasingly rewarding RPG elements as the franchise went on. It's probably the most 'video game' a series has ever been incorporating elements from multiple genres and marrying them together nearly flawlessly. If I am ever asked to present a single game to a random stranger, this would be the game series I'd recommend. If I ever need to show how purely fun games can be, literally any game in this series is eligible and a great show of not only its own time but all time.

My favourite actually is the most recent one, Rift Apart. Rivet is a cutie, the dimension hopping is new and interesting, the Audio and Visual fidelity are on a whole new level, and the DualSense controller functionality is head and shoulders above the crowd. Like I said, Ratchet & Clank games are basically the entire ambassador for the medium, as far as I'm concerned. Any new Playstation Console, I guide people towards whatever is the most recent Ratchet & Clank game; they've never been disappointed. That said, with each new number ranking (9.5, 9.6. 9.7. etc.), the entries within that rank are all interchangeable. Some days I might prefer Dark Souls to Pokemon, or God of War to Wind Waker. So while this is what my heart is telling me now, that might change when Pokemon Generation 9 arrives.

13 – Super Smash Bros. - 9.7/10 – N64, GCN, Wii, WiiU, Switch, 3DS

Now we're getting into the heavy hitters. I've loved every game on this list (obviously), and they all have a special place in my heart (Also obviously), but everything from here on out is what I'd call, definitively, my favourites list. Anything 9.7 and up is a masterpiece, nearly flawless in my eyes. I've been gaming since the 80s and these are the games that I feel are either transcendent or otherwise outstanding in their field or genre. The perfect blend of being a game that you can pick up to play virtually any time and get something out of it or spend hundreds of hours mastering the mechanics and replaying it infinitely. For me, personally, all of the remaining games fill that niche.

Smash Bros is and always has been my most played game on any Nintendo console. I make no qualms about the fact that I'm not a huge fan of the 5^th generation (PS1 and N64), but I still spend hundreds of hours of Super Smash Bros. My buddy Chris and I would sit in his room, 50% damage and 99 stock, just him vs me all afternoon, most afternoons. My buddy Lethias and I could do similar things in Melee or Brawl. I was at one point so good I only lost a tournament at my college because I had to forfeit due to having to do an exam. Some of my favourite and best memories of all time were when I played for 15 hours straight completing the Subspace Emissary in Brawl or unlocking as many characters as I could on day 1 in Ultimate.

To this day, this is really the only game that I don't mind playing competitively aside from Mario Kart. Sort of. I don't play Call of Duty or Halo or anything because it pits me against someone else and I don't like losing. So, as time went on, I preferred cooperative games. Stuff like Rock Band or Dark Souls. I don't do a lot of multiplayer in general, but if I am, it's either Smash or Rock Band or Soulslikes or Mario Kart. Because it's fun. Smash is a game that anyone can pick up, anyone can play, and anyone can enjoy. You can put all the stage hazards on and crank up the item drops for anarchy and chaos or you could do Final Destination, Fox Only purity and the games regularly cater to both ends of the spectrum and everywhere in between.

There are few games that give so many options and can still feel fresh and fun and great for parties. Like I said, the balance between the hardcore and casual is basically perfect; That makes it fun for just about anyone. 20+ years later and I'm still playing these games regularly. I actually wish I was playing them more! Honestly, the only thing keeping me from playing Ultimate – the best in the series – is that Nintendo Online is not as good as it needs to be. Sure, it's MOSTLY fine, and if you get multiple people with great connections it's almost like playing local, but it's not quite the same. I personally prefer playing with all items, all levels, timed, because I just like playing for fun. However, a lot of people I pair up with online like stock, no items, final destination. I'm not playing for glory, I'm playing for fun. That's great for them, but I just wish I could control who I played with more.

With me being an introvert and this darned plague making social interaction difficult, my ability to play Smash has been compromised. Yet, despite those setbacks, I'm always down to play. As a franchise over the course of every generation, I've put thousands of hours in and I'd be more than happy to keep playing if anyone wants to. No game has balanced casual and hardcore so well, and the replay value is off the charts. There's a reason this game is ranked so high for me.

12 – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 9.7/10 – Switch

The Legend of Zelda series is an odd one. Like my experience with the original Dark Souls, I found that with Zelda I either love it or hate it. More specifically, it's either an outstanding game I love and replay multiple times or one I resent or think is overrated. There's little room for middle-ground with this franchise. But, the games I do like are very highly regarded by me, with three on this list (one comes far later) and multiple more within my top 50, but Zelda as a franchise also has a game on my 'games I hate in franchises I otherwise love' list, alongside Final Fantasy XIII and Grand Theft Auto IV and Mega Man X7. I also don't care much for Ocarina of Time, but I think that's less about the game itself and more a side effect of it coming out on the N64 and not being as polished as I'd like while also gathering resentment that comes from genuinely disliking a game that everyone else thinks is a masterpiece and one of the best of all times. I promise I'm not bitter.

That said, something about Breath of the Wild clicked with me. Like the other games this high on the list, it's a game I can pick up and play and enjoy without any sense of obligation, but it's also a game I can focus on for months, dropping hundreds of hours at a time and still feel compelled to finish. After Skyward Sword's strict linearity and focused story and characters, it was nice for Nintendo to go in the opposite direction and give its players near-endless freedom. While I usually prefer the more curated experience, Breath of the Wild was so well made and its world so well-developed that it didn't matter.

It's so impressive to have a game go back to its roots while still modernizing those elements. It's so fresh to see a game that gives you a simple tutorial area, then just says 'go for it'. You can literally go fight the final boss as the first thing you do after finishing the tutorial, and while I'll never do that personally, it's a great option for speed-runners and it's a great show of how open the game actually is. There are collectibles and mini-dungeons everywhere you go, there are countless side quests and things to do, and all of it is glued together with some of the best physics and game mechanics ever seen in an open-world game. Sure, you only have a handful of special items in the form of your sheikah slate, but those abilities are so perfectly woven into the experience it gives you near-limitless options.

Seriously, there's truly something special about this game. One that has more content than any other Zelda game by a wide margin and yet never grows old or stale. Like the Pokemon games, there's so much to do and collect that you're never far from accomplishing something new. You're always just a few shrines away from expanding your health or stamina. You're always just a few koroks away from expanding your weapon and shield slots. You're never far from a new piece of specialized armor and the natural progression of fighting enemies and collecting monster parts means you're never far from another upgrade.

The survival elements like cooking and potion making give you freedom and creativity. The different elements and environments mean you will have to be adapting your use of armour and status buffs. The many mini-bosses and enemies are constantly challenging you as you grow stronger. And all of this is on one of the prettiest and most expansive world maps ever seen in the medium that simultaneously feels packed with content and serene in its emptiness. This game is an experience from top to bottom.

11 – Red Dead Redemption II – 9.7/10 - PS4

Likewise, Red Dead Redemption II is an atmospheric experience along with the best of them. One that is as much about its world building and cowboy simulation aspects as it is the gameplay and story. I confess, upon first playing Red Dead Redemption II, I didn't love it. I liked it, sure, but I felt that it wasn't as fun or as engaging as its predecessor. It was too weighty, it focused too much on being realistic. There were dozens upon dozens of gameplay mechanics and I regularly got confused and felt that this game was a perfect reminder of why I like gamey games, not realistic games. Little things like how your character wouldn't stiffly move to where you wanted but would instead take an actual step and you had to adjust accordingly made sense in real life but not in a game.

But then I kept playing. It took a long time, but I eventually came to appreciate the game's dozens of interwoven mechanics. I began to enjoy that there's a whole 'minigame' where you....just watch and observe birds (Seriously, a huge part of the game's collectibles just involves 'studying' the various forms of wildlife you see throughout the game). I enjoyed just riding my horse around. I enjoyed cooking and doing stuff for my buddies at camp. All those things that made the game feel less fun from a gameplay perspective slowly drew me into what has probably become the best and most detailed game world ever. And yeah, once it clicks, even the gameplay feels good. It takes a long time to get there, but once you do there's nothing quite as immersive.

I got about halfway through the game, feeling that its predecessor was better and feeling that John Marston was a more interesting protagonist than Arthur Morgan. But then, when I realized I at least liked the game enough to want to TRY and get the platinum trophy, I fell in love with it. Because I hated getting that trophy and yet I persisted. Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 is immersive. Experiencing the story is emotional. Living within that world is relaxing and stressful in perfect balance. Everything about the game just playing it is rewarding and fun, but getting 100% on it and getting 70 gold medals is one of the hardest and most time-consuming things I've ever done. And yet, despite finding it tedious and frustrating, it's what made me like the game.

Because it wasn't until I went for that platinum that I learned the games systems and learned to appreciate the fine balance of gameplay and world. It wasn't until I got those gold medals that I mastered the shooting mechanics. It wasn't until I got all the various in-game tasks and goals that I Realized just how fleshed out the world was. It wasn't until I finished the campaign that I came to fall in love with Arthur Morgan. It wasn't until I played the online mode (which I hated grinding through but would love to return to) that I realized that all the sluggish controls and realistic style was on purpose. The more I played the more I enjoyed just existing in this world. I spent over 500 hours on my first play-through of this game and I could see myself easily putting another 500 in once it inevitably gets a PS5 remake.

Like so many other games this high on the list, it doesn't matter if I'm riding my horse to Saint Denis to wave to the random passerby to raise my Karma or if I'm hijacking a train or hunting for a perfect rabbit pelt, it doesn't matter if I'm using my binoculars to zoom in really close on a fleeing snake just so I can study it and add to my compendium, there's always something to do and all of it feels real, all of it feels like it's contributing to your progress. While this game is just out of my top ten, it feels like it could be higher once I go through it again. And yeah, I'd be happy to play online again now that I don't HAVE to grind in it to get the trophies. But like Dark Souls I'm really only interested it if's cooperative.