43. Diddy Kong Racing
Nintendo 64, DS (1997)
Rare Ltd.

There's a few times where I've been wowed by a video game. That moment where you turn a console on and are immediately floored by what stands before you. Diddy Kong Racing was one of those games. How so? Well, back when I was a wee lad, my parents bought me a Nintendo 64 for my birthday in August 1998 (I was late to the party). The game that would accompany the system? Diddy Kong Racing. I quickly set up the system, put in the cartridge, and booted it up. What happened next was my first ever experience with 3D gaming. And it was glorious. But DKR isn't all fond memories, as it's a great game to boot. It's a unique take on the kart racing formula with a hint of classic adventure characteristics (exploring an overworld, objective based missions) that really give the game its own feel. That coupled with a fantastically addictive multiplayer mode and 3 ways to race (kart, hoverboard, plane) give this game such diversity in how you play. Diddy Kong Racing was one heck of a birthday present.

#46) Final Fantasy VI (Virtual Console)

Favorite BGM: Searching for Friends

It might seem a bit early to you to be putting Final Fantasy VI on the list, but to me, a traditional JRPG making the top 50 is actually a pretty big statement about the game’s quality. Final Fantasy VI is my favourite in the series (oh, uh, spoilers, I guess), as well as the only Square RPG I’ve ever played to the very end (*gasp*), and I think there are two major things that set it apart from the rest. A: the cast of playable characters that really feels like a group of equals (Barring Gau. Gau’s goddamn worthless), rather than satellites in orbit of the glorious protagonist, and B: the soundtrack. (I love how saying that doesn't need any elaboration when talking about FFVI.) Of course, there are a lot of other great things that could be said about Final Fantasy VI, but those two were primarily responsible for making the game engaging through and through, and allowing me to easily overlook the typical JRPG tropes that usually annoy me.

Hint for #42:

This was the debut of the greatest weasel of all time (and NintendoPie as well). :3

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.

Correct. ^_^

Speaking of which, Sneasel's stance in XY is pure bad-assery.

Correct!

I view KOTOR as sort of the best take on a license using the Dungeons and Dragons style RPG that I've ever played. It adds to and grows from its franchise, it has nice gameplay, interesting worlds, surprisingly good voice acting and characters, etc. Oh, and the plot twist was pretty well done too! The lack of any great boss fights, a piss-poor ending, and the game's failure to actually use its vast array of characters well in gameplay hold it back down in the 40's however.

I felt the combat in KOTOR was insanely unbalanced. It's not an issue of "lack" of boss fights, but that every single one-on-one boss fight almost required me to turn the difficulty down (a few of them, like the Wookiee chief, Bastila and Malak straight-up required a retreat to easy mode). If you didn't choose the melee jedi class, then the game just jabbed a giant middle finger in your eye and kept stabbing you repeatedly.

KOTOR II was so much nicer about it. Overall stability problems are what kept II out of my top 50.

43. Super Mario Bros 3 (New!), first impression 8, replayability 6, technical 9.

Pros: Branching paths, platformer perfection, what i would call hands-down the best final bowser fight almost across the franchise (with maybe the Galaxy games out ahead. Maybe). This game introduced power-up overload in the most delightful way as well, blazing the trail for those who followed.

Cons: Mostly that Nintendo chose to re-release it after Super Mario World (both games I played in their "Advance" forms). Mario Bros 3 is a great game on its own, but inferior in most metrics that count to Mario World, so having played it second, it felt like "been there, done that, but it was better in World." I wasn't the biggest fan of the airships, either.

I'll put my hint for my number 42!

"A simple game about a boy and a girl"