This wonderful RPG blends golden-age Final Fantasy and Zelda gameplay to great effect.
Golden Sun? (Zelda like Dungeons, "Golden Age", Turn based RPG)
Bingo. I love Golden Sun. The battle system has a lot in common with FFVI, and using magic spells like action/adventure tools an obvious design decision that most other RPGs don't use for some reason.
If the intro wasn't so long and dull, I'd probably put Golden Sun in my top 25.
I'm going to say that I did once think about this game but this one hardly seems Zelda like. It's mostly normal dungeons with very light usage of the telekenesis skill.
Mr Khan said: A child who was born when the last 2D home-console game in this series came out would have been 18 years old when this, number 34, released as a "spinoff" of sorts as a New 2D home-console game.
Okay this might be incorrect and maybe I'm thinking too hard about it, but Super Mario World technically is thet last Super Mario Bros game. 18 years later New Super Mario Bros Wii released.
Mr Khan said: A child who was born when the last 2D home-console game in this series came out would have been 18 years old when this, number 34, released as a "spinoff" of sorts as a New 2D home-console game.
Would this be some sort of Sonic game? I recall reading that Sonic the Hedgehog has only aged 1 year (he's 5 on the Genesis and 6 years old now)
No. (that's also not true. Canonically, Sonic is 17)
Mr Khan said: A child who was born when the last 2D home-console game in this series came out would have been 18 years old when this, number 34, released as a "spinoff" of sorts as a New 2D home-console game.
Okay this might be incorrect and maybe I'm thinking too hard about it, but Super Mario World technically is thet last Super Mario Bros game. 18 years later New Super Mario Bros Wii released.
I've owned this g ame for both PSX and N64, came out later for the N64 but this is the first game I've played that the gameplay is now considered to be a God of War or Devil May Cry clone.
Nightmare Creatures is a stage based game, but each stage has very large and beautifully crafted areas. While each stage starts you off on a main path, the stages themselves are a bit open, having branching paths and secret areas. Combat in the game consisted of a weapon button and kick button with different preset combos for one of two playable characters. Ignatius the priest or Nadia the swordswoman. Movement was as good as they could do during this time, using behind the back camera with tank controls, butons to hop left, hop right and quiuck turn . Characters could also block when the need arised and the game has a decent amount of platforming, so jumping as well. Outside of the games combo system, the game also allows the character to use a lot of different one time use items you'd find hidden in boxes or windows. The game had a unique time limit set to it as well. You didn't have a specific time to beat the stage, but you had an adrenaline bar that was constantly draining and once it was empty, your HP level would start to reduce. If you killed an enemy, the adrenaline bar would fill back up, so it still gave you enough time to explore, but it pressured you into moving forward if you were too slow. Additionally, the developers added a password in the game that allows you to play through the game as different monsters within the game.
#36 - InFAMOUS (Kudos to Trucks for guessing this)
This was an impulse buy for me, but possibly one of the best I've ever made. It was sitting on a shelf in CEX for a few quid and I picked it up, liked the artwork on the box and thought "why not".
25+ hours later after a good and evil playthrough I can safely say that that "why not" was an excellent choice.
InFAMOUS is just pure fun. I loved faffing around with Cole and just doing stuff in Empire City was a blast. Cole's powers were really fun to mess around with, and the sense of exploration I got from the game was just insane. Scaling up the sides of buildings and grinding rails like no-one's business.
But inFAMOUS was full of heart, too. I really, really enjoyed the "superhero origin" story. And although certain characters really grated on me (STOP FUCKING MOANING TRISH), I enjoyed the journey from beginning to end. Particularly the final boss.
Surprisingly good cinematic experience too. Personally, I enjoy games that try to come across as interactive films, but some of them go way too hard on the "film" part and way too soft on the "interactive" part. I actually feel like InFAMOUS was a bit of an interactive movie, except with the focus heavily on the interactive part which made it great.
#35 - SimCity 3000 (Kudos to Salnax for guessing this)
Honestly, thinking about it now I could've done with putting this a bit higher. But it's certainly deserving of its spot on my top 50 - one of the best simulation games I've ever played.
Give me a game with some form of resources to manage and structures to build, and I'm pretty much guaranteed a good time. SimCity 3000 took both of these elements and ran with them to absolute extremes, which was fantastic. I had to manage my city's water pipes; their electricity; where they can build their houses and where they can build their factories. I felt like a true leader as people petitioned me to repeal this law or build that casino there. No, I can't afford to put a fire station on every street corner, silly civillian!
Add in a massive dose of that trademark Maxis humour (not as great as Bullfrog humour, but almost. It's weird - must be a genre thing; that's sorely lacking in all these imitators these days) such as the news ticker I mentioned in my clue, and you've got a recipe for a fantastic game. One that I feel like replaying right this minute, in fact.
Another game I'm going to highlight the fantastic soundtrack of in my ending video/image, too. Never has taking care of a city been to such relaxing elevator music; that fitted the tone of the game absolutely perfectly.
Clue for my #34 - first handheld-only entry in an incredibly long running JRPG series with patchy western localizations; up until last generation when the shit hit the fan and we seemed to get everything we desired thanks to XSeed.
My #35 was released at the start of the year and considered so good a game, that the main numbered entry in this franchise that was released near the end of that same year could only wish it was this game!
Resident Evil Revelations?
Also, does this appear as a reply to you on the VGChartz buddy since I added it into an edit? Just wondering if people are seeing the messages in these edits.
soulfly666 said: Nice I finally gave a vague enough clue that no one guessed mine instantly...My #35 was Descent 2. Clue for 34: The (superior) sequel to the game that popularized a mechanic that has been copied over and over to manipulate time to give players a reflex advantage in tight situations.
I suppose you're talking about the 'bullet time' mechanic? If so, I thought Max Payne (but not completely sure) did that first, so... Max Payne 2?