Number 13

ICO

Precious few games have ever touched me like ICO did. I am not of a mood where I can pontificate effectively; I will summarize it quickly.

ICO is a game that relies on the ability of the player to become engaged in its world; I do not pretend that this game is for everyone, because it isn't. THere are two characters in this game: Ico, the boy, and Yorda, the girl. You play Ico, and you interact with Yorda by leading her through a haunted castle. Most of the time you will hold her hand, and she reacts to the way you pull her, stumbling if you change directions too quickly, giving a sense of real weight in spite of the fact that she doesn't slow you down.

Almost immediately Yorda begins to feel very real. All of a sudden you are not just a boy leading out a girl; you are a boy leading a damsel in distress. And it is very real, if you can get into it. You care about Yorda as you might care about any person who you desperately want to help, because you do want to help her. A word is never spoken between thse two characters, and the most interaction they have is the holding of hands while Ico leads, but you will come to care.

The word in which they exist is a stark land of ghosts, both in actuality and in design. The castle is immense and bathed in light that eats away at its edges, or else in fog that has a more somber achievement of the same effect. Danger seems to lurk everywhere, even though combat is both rare and easy. THe castle itself is enormous, like the entirety of a world, and it imposes itself on you, ancient and unyielding and uncaring for your plight, a series of barriers through which you must pass to gain your freedom.

The environments are excellently designed and puzzles are neatly and fluidly integrated, but that doesn't mean much except that it adds to the way the world feels.

There is a sequence near the end of the game which merges into a cutscene after a frantic leap - and when it happened I was on my feet, having jumped out of my chair in the thrill of panic and fear and dread and hope. "HOLD ON!" I said to my television set.

I invested a great deal of myself in this game, and when it was over I cried. My wife played it some years later, before we were married - when she finished it she was inconsolable, so heartbroken that I could not calm her down for half an hour.

ICO is not a game of universal power, but when that power touches you it borders on incomparable.

Awesome

Number 12

Final Fantasy VI

This game was the first Final Fantasy I bought after beating Final Fantasy IV; in fact it may have been the next game I bought altogether. I did some cursory research; I was not sure what to expect out of it, but the size of the cast made me wary. I was sure that most of them wouldn't be properly developed, and that was something I cared about a lot at the time.

Then the game came in the mail, and I played it, and it destroyed all of the assumptions i had made about the genre.

Thirteen characters, ten of whom had literally hours devoted to the character development and the other three of whom (Mog, Umaro, and Gogo) were either funny enough to support themselves or can be forgiven for being easter eggs of a sort. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in a game before, and to this day I still manage to be impressed by how much content they managed to cram into that little cart. For many years, this had the best cast of any Final Fantasy.

The game is huge, expansive, beautiful, painstakingly crafted, a labor of love so obvious in its devotion that it is embarrassing to look at, as if you are staring into the secret heart of someone you do not know. I could go on for hours (and have before) about the ways in which this game is wonderful, but one in particular bears mention above all the others: the music.

This is far and away the best soundtrack in the series, if not the genre, if not the medium. If you don't like this game's soundtrack then it's pretty easy to say that I don't seriously consider a thing you have to say about music in games.

It's something I appreciat emore as I get older and understand more about music; the more I look at it, the more the soundtrack gives the impression of being an aural tapestry, a single piece, the disparate elements of which contain traces of each other. No other game has so cleanly and easily woven music into its narrative, into the progression of characters and the world and the story itself, opening and closing on musical cues that reach out and grab you with their sameness, an exultation of theme and continuity. The liet motif applied to every character of import results in music that evokes imagery whenever it is heard, so that when character themes are eluded to in later songs one is made to remember the scenes to which those themes have been connected. It is still Uematsu's masterwork, an achievement of such scope as to beggar the abilities of lesser artists, and I hate to think how much less powerful this game would be without it.

Of all the 2-D Final Fantasies, this is the best one. It has to be played, no matter who you are, whether you like the genre or not; there is something here for everyone, even if you like nothing but the music.

38. Mega Man X (SNES)

A hard game for the little boy I was back then. But I loved watching people play the game. The atmosphere was unique and the enemies were very original. Also, the game aged very well.

37. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of that game is, oddly, the sound made by Link when he would get hurt. A Link to the Past had a lot of these epic elements that made the game memorable and amazing.

36. Rayman 2: The Great Escape (N64)

This game is in the same league as Mario and Donkey Kong. It felt fresh and very different. I can only curse at Ubisoft for snubbing such an amazing franchise.

35. Skies of Arcadia Legends (GC)

Just a great JRPG with a great combat system. Very classic with many clichés. Awesome.

34. Left 4 Dead (PC)

First time I played this game, I was petrified. The sequel was a disappointment for me as I think it got rid of the amazing atmosphere of the first game.

33. Secret of Mana (SNES)

Probably the best co-op game ever, this game was amazing.

32. Mirror's Edge (PS3)

This game took me by surprised. I knew a bit what to expect from the game before buying it but I never expected it to feel so great gameplay-wise. Yeah the story was very uninspired but the gameplay and the visuals win me over. One of my most requested sequel.

31. inFamous (PS3)

Again, amazing gameplay. The atmosphere was very cool as well as the visuals. It had some bugs and felt clunky sometimes but hopefully the sequel will fix these issues.

30. GoldenEye 007 (N64)

GoldenEye is the precursor of the FPS genre as we know it. A very addictive and fun online mode is mostly what made the game so innovative. This game won't be equalled.

Where are your entries people? Aren't you supposed to reveal your number 1 on Christmas Eve (or maybe the 25th depending on the tradition in ur country)?

I love this thread and idea (but I dropped off early myself).

No. You're supposed to reveal it on December 31st.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

My favourite N64 game, my favourite Zelda game and my favourite game of 5th gen. All this is well deserved. The boss battles were simply great, the presentation surpassed all other games on the N64, and the gameplay and controls worked perfectly fine. I finished it many times and I will surely play it again (probably when the 3DS remake is out).