50. Kid Icarus: Uprising, 3DS (2012) Nintendo/Sora (New)

The hard fight on here was whether this or Mario Kart 7 would make my bottom slot. Kart 7 did introduce a few refinements to the Mario Kart formula that were valuable, but ultimately Kid Icarus was packed with more content and a more original style, making a more actiony spin on the old Metroid-esque series, but pulling it off very well.

An OVA by Shaft certainly helped its chances

My #50 is Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, the best Castlevania game in my mind. Great graphics, tight play control, the tactical soul system is just amazing, and I appreciate the fact that Aria of Sorrow has more of an ensemble cast as opposed to previous games that focused almost exclusively on the protagonist.

It seems that my next entry will be a higly acclaimed multiplattform, plattformer game. Will be easy to guess though

So, I guess I'm technically 22 minutes late in posting for the first day (November 13th for me, now), so is it fine if I post again later today?

Anyway, my number 50 has to go to:
Fable II (Yes, it definitely had its set-backs, but I had a good time playing it).

It's not hard to get a top 10 banged out (or at least it wasn't for me), and then you just have to try to remember, balancing how you felt about a game with things that were objectively good and bad about it. It did take me a long time to get 11-50 in proper order last year. It was easier this year because it's very heavily based on my order this year, with only a few old entries changing spots relative to one another, and five new entries from late last year and this year to slot in (like Kid Icarus)

For me it was easier i guess because my collection is only some 125 strong (plus around 2 dozen or so digital games that i don't count in the tally), so my top 50 is basically the top 40% of any game i've ever owned.

My 50th game is Bioshock! I had a lot of fun playing it, going through Rapture killing the insane citizens. And the best part of the game to me was the Big Daddy, you could fight them when you wanted and they were actually fun to fight. Until near the end of the game where it's too easy to take them out.

50. Pokemon Ruby (GBA)



After they added colors but before I became sick to death of the Pokeymans... good times.

Aria of Sorrow is an amazing game for sure. Such an improvement over Harmony of Dissonance. And the soul capture system was great too. Just missed out of my top 50. :(

...But expect some Castlevania coming from me as well (and from BadGenome). ^_~

On a serious note, it's now been four years since the last Iga-vania.

50. Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
Last Year: New

When Batman: Arkham Asylum was first announced, I had to admit it looks pretty great. But I knew better. "Oh great, another Batman game! Can't wait to play it along with Batman: Dark Tomorrow, Batman: Vengeance and Batman Begins!". Pfft, yeah right.

And then the game released.

With Metroid influencing the game's structure (and that's never a bad thing), and a simple to use, hard to master (and always satisfying) fighting engine, this game broke the mold to not just be a great superhero game... but a great video game in general. It didn't hurt that RockSteady used some of the Dark Knight's impressive Rogue's gallery to inhance the experience, with amazing confrontations of Poison Ivy, Riddler, Bane (he looked dumb though), Killer Croc, and (especially) Scarecrow. Oh, and I can't forget the Joker, who was once again voiced masterfully by Mark Hamill (and Kevin Conroy as Batman). It's too bad the final act was such a letdown compared to the superb rest of the game, but I can't complain too much. The game is a blast to play and it reminded us all that at the end of the day, Batmat once again proves that he's the best superhero of them all.

As already revealed:

50) Tony Hawk's Underground (PS2/2003)

This was something of an impulse buy, quite a while after the original release. I remember hugely enjoying Pro Skater 1 and 2 on the PS1, but I felt that this was even better. It actually had a story mode with free-roam and a narrative that started somewhere and went somewhere! In between all of the skating, across multiple different environments and locales, something was happening. Top that off with a great offline multiplayer component, and I enjoyed Underground enough for it to make it into this exclusive list, if only just.