Well that was fun

Happy new years everyone!

#30 Super Mario 64 (N64)

Can you spell system seller? I couldn't, not before I saw this in the local toy store. When the N64 had been released I had convinced myself it was time to put an end to my life as a gamer. It was time to become an adult, and adults don't play video games! Hah, that didn't go as planned (Hooray!) but it wasn't Super Mario 64 that actually saved me though; but that's another story.

I loved Mario on the NES and I loved Mario on the SNES. Now, it was time for Mario to conquer the 3rd dimension. He did conquer the 3rd dimension, and he did it with STYLE! He ultimately set the bar for 3D platformers, and in my honest opinion not many platformers have reached that bar, and even fewer have actually upped it.

#29 Resident Evil 4 (GC)

My first real experience with Resident Evil was on the Gamecube with Resident Evil Zero. Since then I've loved the series, and when RE4 was announced I was curious to see what Capcom would improve this time.

But Capcom didn't just improve. No no, that's way to easy. They changed the formula into something absolutely amazing. It kept the creepy atmosphere but vastly improved the gameplay. Resident Evil 4 isn't just a game that changed Resident Evil; it vastly upped the bar for TPS's in general.

This game is good on so many levels and has wowed me so many times. I was astonished, and totally horrified, by the intelligent enemies that would no longer peacefully wait outside if I closed the door in their face. No, they forced their way in. Going into a room and closing the door would not save. But, how about climbing? Yeah, that has to work, and I will even kick down the ladder! Hahahwhat the heck, the bloody bastard picked up the ladder!? He's climbing the ladder!? Hell no!

Resident Evil 4 also did something interesting with the cutscenes. Before you could safely put away the controller when watching a cutscene. Not this time. Capcom threw QTE's at you, and while I really don't like QTE's in general it felt like a fresh and interesting element in Resident Evil 4.

Oh, and those chainsaws really hurt alot.

#28 Chrono Cross (PS2)

This is another game that got my attention when I still was a Playstation virgin. Chrono Trigger was marvelous and this game was the (sort of) sequel. No wonder I felt an urge to play it. But, I didn't have a PSX, and that damn Squaresoft just hated Europe. I had to wait over five years before I finally got to play it. Heck, you could say I fell for a girl mainly because she owned this game and an American PSX. Yeah, that's kinda low but whatever.

So, was it worth it you ask? Was it worth it!? Hell yes, it was worth it! The game is amazing! Some of the best music ever, a great battle system, lots of different (and just weird) characters, different paths and endings and a wonderful story worthy of the franchise.

Chrono Cross is great! All you haters can eat my dirty socks! Hah!

#27 Professor Layton and the Curious Village (NDS)

I was very curious about this game the moment I saw a gameplay video from it. Puzzles, mystery, a nice setting and a lovely art style. Sounds like something for me! So I tried it and I couldn't stop playing. I messed up my circadian rythm (or whatever it's called in English ) quite badly but it was well worth it.

This is one of, if not the, greatest new franchise this gen. It's magical. The puzzles are great and there's plenty of them. Some of them probably took me over an hour to solve! I like that!

Go Layton!

9. Yakuza 3 (PS3)

A Japanese crime-dramedy sandbox game with the soul of a beat 'em up, Yakuza 3 is as good as its American boxart is bad. And that's pretty fucking bad, which means Yakuza 3 is pretty fucking good! Kazuma is a strong contender for the best protagonist of all time. His whole stoic former-gangster-with-a-heart-of-gold thing really gets my motor running, but I love it even more when he lets his hair down to sing karaoke or smash some dude in a Bill Cosby sweater in the face with a bicycle.

8. Age of Empires III (PC)

Fuck Starcraft. This is the epitome of RTS goodness to me. Age of Empires III is remarkably well balanced given how many factions there are to choose from, and the Home City feature gives a nice sense of persistence as well as allowing you access to a increasingly broader range of strategic options. It's also very easy on the eyes, both artistically and technically. The destruction is just beautiful, and few things in gaming are more comely than seeing a pretty little Dutch windmill blown to pieces in AoE3.

7. Rez (DC)

A game about hacking into... a supercomputer or the mind of God or something. I'm not really sure, but it's a total trip. Whenever people shit-talk rail shooters, I think about this game and laugh at their small-mindedness while reaching for my trance vibrator.

6. EarthBound (SNES)

One day in the summer of 1995, I received in the mail a scratch 'n' sniff card that was supposed to smell like pickles or farts or something. It had something to do with some new Nintendo game, although they were kind enough to warn me in advance that, "This game stinks." So I shrugged and tossed this smelly thing in the garbage. When I finally got around to playing EarthBound some years later, I was shocked to find that it was actually a loveably quirky and startlingly original RPG, the likes of which I'd never seen before. Thank you so much, Nintendo, for making such an awesome game, and fuck you very much for mishandling it  (and the whole Mother series) to such a phenomenal degree.

5. Front Mission (DS)

Speaking of mishandled franchises... I give you Front Mission, ladies and gentlemen! Originally released in 1995 but didn't make it out of Japan until 2007, proving that Squaresoft was quite capable of fucking us around long before they merged with Enix. I love strategy RPGs, and I looooove mechs, so this is pretty much video game heaven for me. Oh! And Yoshitaka Amano was the character designer! Hat trick! (Plus it looks like they're fighting in SimCity, which is undeniably rad.)

4. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)

With Symphony of the Night, the venerable Castlevania series moved away from its rock hard platforming roots to Metroid-inspired level design with RPG elements. That was bad news if your idea of fun is the kind of difficulty that induces players to hurl their controllers, but it was very good news if your idea of fun is... fun. Aside from the shift in styles, SOTN is also memorable for its gorgeous 2D art, the best soundtrack in Castlevania to this very day, and best of all, its epically cheeseball voice acting.

3. Flower (PS3)

Surprising, I know, since I typically like to keep my love of this game on the down-low.

2. Final Fantasy IV (SNES)

I'm not sure exactly why this boxart called out to me in the video store (which always smelled like a barn, btw). I had never played the first Final Fantasy, so the name really meant nothing to me, but I was quite taken with this simple red box. Maybe it was the promise of "8 Meg Memory", I don't know. Whatever it was that compelled my 12-year-old self to bring it home, Final Fantasy II (as we called it back then) was a total epiphany for me. I'd never really thought of video games as a vehicle for storytelling, but that was irrevocably changed as I was totally spellbound for the next few days, playing night and day just to find out what happened next. FFIV also set the standard for what I expected in terms of art and music, and the holy trinity of Sakaguchi/Uematsu/Amano pretty much ruined me for a long, long time. I adamantly defended this game as the best of all time for many years, and it still comes very close for me, but I now recognize the superiority of...

1. Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

It took me a long time to admit it, probably because I "discovered" Final Fantasy first but my friend played FFVI before I did and I was a stubborn little bastard like that. But FFVI is basically everything I liked about FFIV, only better. Kefka is surely a much better villain than the not-really-a-villain Golbez, the World of Balance/World of Ruin thing is a much bigger mindfuck than going to the moon, and the entire ensemble cast is superbly well developed. Okay, maybe Mog isn't, but even Gau is. Hell, especially Gau! I always get a little misty during his story arc. "Gau... ha-ppy..." And he should be happy; he's in the best game ever.

7.Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty/Substance(PS2)

Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty is an Awesome Stealth Action Game from Kojims Hideo and Published by Konami released in 2001. Metal Gear Solid 2 /Substance was released in 2003.

Tanker chapter

in 2007, two years after the Shadow Moses incident that was described in the original Metal Gear Solid. Solid Snake and Otacon, now members of the non-governmental organization Philanthropy, are investigating the development of a new Metal Gear described as an amphibious counter Metal Gear. the new Metal Gear was constructed in response to the multiple Metal Gears that had been built since Metal Gear REX's design was Leaked Shortly after Snake's arrival on the disguised oil tanker U.S.S. Discovery via bungee jumping from the bridge while using stealth camouflage which busted from landing impact, a group of Russian ex-military terrorists under the command of Russian nationalist Sergei Gurlukovich attack the Ship After sneaking up to the bridge, Snake encounters Olga, Sergei's daughter, who has refused to leave the tanker despite being pregnant. A gun battle ensues between Snake and Olga.

After successfully tranquilizing Olga in combat, Snake sneaks down to the hold in order to record pictures of the new Metal Gear RAY Matters rapidly escalate as Revolver Ocelot and Sergei Gurlukovich sneak into the holds and hold marine commander Scott Dolph at gunpoint. Revolver Ocelot and Sergei Gurlukovich have different motives, with Sergei wanting to sell Metal Gear RAY to the highest bidder and Ocelot saying he is "taking it back". Revolver Ocelot then betrays and murders Sergei Gurlukovich along with Scott Dolph, as well as the GRU in the hold It is revealed that Ocelot has received a new hand after he lost one in Shadow Moses by the cyborg ninja Gray Fox in the orginal Metal Gear Solid Liquid Snake, Solid Snake's twin brother who died back in Shadow Moses. takes over Ocelot.
Plant chapter

The game moves to the present, and the player finds themself in control of Raiden, supposedly operating under a reformed FOXHOUND two years after the Tanker Chapter on April 29, 2009 Initially referred to as Snake Raiden has orders to rescue hostages, including the US president, from the terrorist group Sons of Liberty, backed up by the rogue anti-terror training unit, Dead Cell, who are also threatening to destroy the Big Shell clean-up facility they have seized Raiden infiltrates the Shell via sea while SEAL Team 10 enters by air The SEAL team manages to rescue the President, but before they are able to extract him, all of the SEALS except for Lieutenant Junior Grade Iroquois Pliskin are killed by Dead Cell members Vamp and Fortune. Raiden joins forces with Pliskin and bomb specialist Peter Stillman to disable explosives planted on the Shell by Stillman's former pupil, Fatman, now a terrorist.

Metal Gear Solid 2 was the First Metal Gear Solid Game I payed and I loved from the first moment and fell in love wit the series soon after I played Metal Gear Solid and then Meal Gear Solid 3 and then Metal Gear Solid 4 like all other Metal Gear Solid Games Metal Gear Solid  2 is truly epic from start to finish one of the said points about Metal Gear Solid 2 is that some players felt like Kojima san had betrayed them with the Raiden change-up even though he is an awesome character in Metal Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4.   

6.Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater/Subsistence(PS2)

Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater is an awesome Stealth Action Game from Kojima Hideo and Published by KONAMI released in 2004. Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence was one of the First Games from Kojima Hideo's new Kojima Productions Studio and Published by KONAMI was released in 2005.

Virtuous Mission
During the Cold War in 1964, a CIA agent, codenamed Naked Snake, is sent to the jungles of Tselinoyarsk, in the USSR. Aided over radio by Major Zero, Para-Medic, and his former mentor The Boss, his mission is to rescue a defecting Soviet scientist named Sokolov who is secretly developing an advanced nuclear-equipped tank called the Shagohod The mission goes smoothly until The Boss defects and provides her new benefactor, Colonel Volgin, with two Davy Crockett miniature nuclear shells. Sokolov is captured by Cobra Unit and Snake is heavily injured in combat by The Boss, allowing Volgin and his cohorts to escape with Sokolov. Volgin detonates one of the nuclear shells to cover up its theft, which is subsequently blamed on The Boss.
Operation Snake Eater
Having detected the U.S. aircraft which deployed Snake flying over Soviet soil, the Soviet Union declares the United States responsible for the nuclear attack, tipping both nations to the edge of a nuclear war. In a secret conference between U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, a deal is hatched to prove the U.S.'s innocence and restore peace The United States agrees to stop Volgin's renegade faction, destroy the stolen Shagohod and eliminate the American defector, The Boss.

Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater is one truly Amazing Game everything from the cool setting to the awesome characters to the awesome music to the epic and beautiful cinematics. Playing as Naked Snack AKA BIG BOSS on on his first infiltration Mission back in the 1960s was awesome the members of Cobra Unit are awesome, meting The young Ocelot for the first time was awesome The BOSS was awesome and the final battle with the BOSS was was EPIC.

   

I just accidently deleted my #23-26 This year starts well.....

#26 Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

I got this wonderful game for my somethingth birthday! Oh, what a birthday that was.

I don't feel like telling you why this is awsome, because you should already know why this is awsome and if you don't know why this is awsome then you did something wrong.

#25 Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (WII)

Apart from being one of my very first Wii games and one amazing Zelda game, it also features Midna! I love Midna! She's the best sidekick ever! She is so good she deserves her own game! Legend of Midna. Nintendo, make it happen!

Edit:

The mere thought about Samus made me forget about Baldur's Gate II...

#24 Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (PC)

(Lack of banner makes me sad. )

So why is this Timestealer on my list? Because this Timestealer sucks up time faster than Excel talks (which is indeed quite the feat), and it converts time into awsometime. Awsometime is one particularly good kind of time. Baldur's Gate II gave me lots of awsometime.

#23 Super Metroid (SNES)

In the involuntary prequel to Metroid the Movie, Samus Aran once again shows why she is the greatest video game character ever!

The game is quite good as well.

#22 Metroid Fusion (GBA)

This is sortof the training stage before the big Metroid the Movie. A little bit more talking than previous games but still filled to the brink with sweet Metroidsauce.

#21 Okami (PS2)

#20 Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (PC)

#19 Super Mario World (SNES)

#18 Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)

#17 Metroid: Other M (WII)

#16 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

#15 Eternal Darkness (GC)

#14 Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (PS2)

#13 Rome: Total War (PC)

#12 Super Mario Galaxy (WII)

#11 Final Fantasy IV (SNES)

I'll add more comments tomorrow when I hopefully have less of a fever...damn snow...

Anyway, here's 2-10:

#10 Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC)

#9 Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)

#8 Valkyrie Profile (PS2)

#7 Metroid Prime (GC)

#6 Metroid Prime 3 (WII)

#5 Xenogears (PS2)

#4 Terranigma (SNES)

#3 Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

#2 Chrono Trigger (SNES)

Number 1

EarthBound

I spent a long time considering whether I woudl put this or Mother 3 as my number one.

I have little to say about it that hasn't been said more eloquently in other places. It's always strange, often funny, and whenever people ask me what's my favorite JRPG to play, I will point to this one, no questions asked.

It is great in all ways.

#1 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

Oh, Ocarina of Time, how fond I am of the memories you have given me. The first time I inserted the cartridge into my 1 day old Nintendo 64 I didn't know what to expect at all.

My first moments actually playing the game was far from glorious. Being a complete 3D amateur my first achievement was running three laps around my treehouse before I understood where the heck I was. It took days until I could travel through Kokiri Forest without getting lost. That sounds ridiculous today but it's a true story. Needless top say, my adventure went on quite slowly. I managed to buy a shield without too much of a problem but the sword...sword? Where's the sword!? It took me hours to finally find the sword, and it felt great.

Absolutely nothing went smoothly during the fist part of the game. I died, got lost, got lost again, somehow managed to beat a dungeon, died some more, etc.

The game was absolutely amazing though. Absolutely amazing. Having finally been able to enter the Temple of Time I was stunned by the fact that I had now grown into an adult! Wow! I slowly realised that I still had so much left to explore, and thought about what the game would throw at me next.

Getting Epona is one of my favourite moments in a game ever. Strangely enough I didn't understand that you would get a horse to ride through Hyrule Field with so when I, after many failures, finally beat Ingo and escaped the Lon Lon Ranch I couldn't find any words to express my joy. I had a horse!

My adventure in Ocarina of Time continued like this to the very end. One amazing moment after another.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is more than just my number 1 game of all time though. Ocarina of Time gave me back my interest in gaming, in a time where I thought about leaving completely. Ocarina of Time is also responsible for who I am today and has greatly changed my path through life, a much fitting role for this game I'd say.

When I got my Nintendo 64 in the Winter of '98 I got myself a copy of Mario Kart 64 in addition to the bundled Super Mario 64. Then, for some reason I chose to get Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a newly released game for the platform. I don't know why I chosed it, really. The only Zelda game I'd played before was Zelda II. I had never played the first one and I had only read about A Link to the Past.

So, my only experience with Zelda was Zelda II, a game that I hadn't even beaten the second boss of at the time. Why did I chose Ocarina of Time that day? I really don't know. Maybe it was destiny? Maybe I was chosen. I will never know why Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time became my third N64 game, but I know this: I'm very glad that it happened.

And there you have it, my Top 50. I must say it was very fun doing this even though it felt like a totally impossible task at first. I also feel sorry for all the great games that couldn't fit into my Top 50, wonderful titles such as Metroid: Zero Mission or Final Fantasy X.

I will edit my list later to include comments for every game. I will explain why Metroid: Other M sits above Super Metroid, why Metroid Prime 3 is the best Metroid experience ever, why Valkyrie Profile 1 & 2 are among the best games ever made and more.

Have a wonderful 2011!