Number 41

Super Metroid

Aw yeah. This is the good stuff, right here, so good that some people will wish death on me for ranking it as low as I have. Still, I take nothing away from this game: it is a triumph of exploration-based gameplay, the product of fell alchemy that took great art, great music, great world design, and terrifying bosses and transmuted all of them into a wonder. Super Metroid is a game the mechanics of which border on flawless, remaining perfectly playable to this day, and the design of which is timeless. Few and rare are the games that age as perfectly as this one does.

One of the things I like best about Super Metroid is the narrative structure of the game; most of the plot is fleshed out only sparsely in the opening text scroll or in the manual, and then after that it grows without using any words at all. Ideas and concepts and emotions are conveyed through images, both explosive and muted, and the result is a game whose story - via pictures - burns itself into the recesses of your mind. The game blends horror, fear, exhiliration, and grief into an exquisite mix, and you will remember all of it.

I may go play it again after writing this post.

Number 40

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

This was actually my first Gamecube game. It kind of set the bar for the console in several ways, and in many ways it was never surpassed; to this day, it's my favorite game for flying around in an X-Wing or blowing up the Death Star or for playing the Battle of Hoth. It conveyed battles from and surrounding the movie trilogy in fantastic ways, and as a technical game it was never really surpassed within its own generation. Do you remember what it was like the first time you went to Bespin, or on the bombing run defending a train, or going toe-to-toe with two Star Destroyers at once? This game was filled with breath-taking moments, the apotheosis of all games that tried to portray what was great about the space battles in Star Wars.

More, it was hard, hard down to its bones. This game would kill you so fast it wasn't funny. But you know what? THat didn't matter. You could get past anything if you were good and knew when to run from your enemy, and its excellent gameplay concepts (fly an X-wing!) were tied to extremely responsive and tight controls.

I loved this game enough that I got every single medal you can possibly get in the game; I spent three hours beating the Endurance run to unlock Darth Vader's Advanced TIE. I don't regret a single moment of it. In terms of sheer fun and mechanical excellence, I don't know if I've ever played a better Star Wars game.

28. Grim Fandango

Grim Fandango is a Lucas Arts adventure game, although it uses 3D graphics unlike their earlier games. It was created by Tim Schafer, who of course is one of the men behind Monkey Island 1 & 2, and it's absolutely fantastic. It follows Manny Calavera, who works for the Department of Death as a travel agent who is responsible for helping souls along the way to the ninth underworld (basically he's the Grim Reaper). If you like the classic Lucas Arts adventure games, and you haven't played this, you owe it to yourself to hunt it down and give it a try.

Brilliant game, Khuutra. I would've ranked it WAY higher, though, But atleast it's in your list.

Since even Khuutra is catching up to me I'll post some more games in my Top 50.

#40. Portal (PC): I stuck with my old PC for much too long because of that I missed out on many good PC releases because my computer just couldn't play them. Portal was one of them, I only got around to playing it this year and after all the hype that surrounded this title I thought to myself I would inevitably be disappointed by it. Boy was I wrong, this is a game that is truely worthy of all the praise it got, one gun, challenging puzzles, the wonderful antagonist GlaDOS, a silent companion and no cake. Very good stuff but over a bit too quickly.

Number 39

Kirby Super Star Ultra

YEEEEEEAH! Let me tell you about Kirby Super Star Ultra. First, you take one of the best platformers ever made ever (Kirby Super Star is pretty much the height of the genre you guys). Now, add on several new game modes, the ability to play as Meta Knight, enhanced boss fights, an enhanced boss rush mode so hard I never actually got around to beating it, and super-cool Kirby FMV story sequences and what do you get?

You get hot liquid joy injected straight into your eyeballs! Your brain catches fire as you blast through Revenge of Meta Knight, tears of exuberance stream down your face as you kick Dynablade right in her beaked head, and the earth opens up beneath you in a joyous yawn as you play the role of Meta Knight himself. Kirby Super Star Ultra is pure fun, chock full of excellent music and timeless art, a game that you can play forever and never get sick of. There's so much content crammed in this game that I feel like I'm doing it a disservice by trying to talk about it in this small space, so I will leave it at this: if Kirby Super Star Ultra can't make you at least a little happy when you play it, you are probably dead.

*adds TrackOSaurus to my ignored users list*

My one defense is that I love a lot of games a lot. I would not bat an eye at anyone calling Super Metroid the best game ever, because I can see the qualities in it that could elevate it to that rank.

#39. Mario Kart Wii: There's plenty of reasons to like this game, first of all: it's Mario Kart and true to Mario Kart fashion it's fast, fun and exilarating. The newest entry of the franchise brought us the addition of bikes, tricks and most importantly the addition of online racing with up to 11 other players. It also features a great selection of tracks old and new which makes for great 32 races marathons when playing with friends. Sadly the game is not perfect and the game features the worst battle mode of the series, a mode I used to enjoy as much as the racing in past MK games.

Number 38

Conker's Bad Fur Day

On its surface, Conker's Bad Fur Day is intensely juvenile, full of poo jokes, pop culture references, extreme violence for the sake of comedy, and also some boobs. And you know what? For pure juvenile humor and fun, it's great. You will rarely or never find a game that looks this cutesy but will appeal so completely to the 13-year-old malcontent in your life (I would know), and the juxtaposition of the game's content against its visuals is worth praise in and of itself.

This game is more than just poo jokes, though. It's also full of rather smart humor, a satirical wink at the ills of society, and an ascerbic condemnation of greed for greed's own sake. There will be two distinct impressions of the themes of Conker, and they will depend entirely on how critical an eye the player has. Luckily, it manages to pull off both modes excellently, and the only people who can't enjoy it are bound to be humorless anyway.

But all that's beside the point, isn't it? Conker is funny. Conker is hard. Conker is fun to play. A platformer at heart, Conker's Bad Fur Day marries dozens of different gameplay types together almost effortlessly, from pure platforming to third-person shooting to driving around in a super powerful tank. The game throws new concepts at you over and over, nonstop, right up to the end. It's a testament to the game's design that no part of it is unfun, and the many gameplay modes it presents are well-put together, atmospheric or irreverent where appropriate, and constantly disarming. Your charge up the landing at Normandy (one of the earlier games to do this, I believe) will surprise you, as will the hellish march through the brutal halls of the Tediz base. Racing, shooting, jumping, fighting, hay-baling, all of it comes together in a beautiful but frothy mix that somehow manages to have its own cohesive identity.

And the multiplayer. This game had some of the best multiplayer modes ever, from deathmatch all the way down to the legendary Beach mode. If you can find something more fun than getting together a few friends, having some beers, and playing Beach, then I want to know what you're doing so I can tell you to stop doing it before it kills you.

Conker's Bad Fur Day is incredible, and too-often forgotten in these discussions.

Note: I know that the banner image is from the far inferior Xbox version. I can't find any decent art or screens of the N64 game at 650 pixels or wider to make a proper banner out of. Any help would be appreciated.