#39 - Timesplitters 2 (Kudos to Kupo for guessing this)

For all the steps that multi-player shooters have taken forward this generation, they all seem to be forgetting one crucial thing - local multiplayer.  Timesplitters 2 is arguably the best local multiplayer game I have ever played - more enjoyable than Halo 2 or 3; broken out among my friends more often than Mario Kart: Double Dash; better at parties than WarioWare and less "I AM GOING TO SMACK YOU IN THE FACE" frustrating than Mario Party.

With an online mode, the game would've been even higher in my list.

But even offline, splitscreen was just amazingly fun.  Virus mode running round the cramped corridors of hospital with nothing but a six-shooter to defend yourself.  Playing capture the bag on Ufopia with the sci-fi loadout; complete with sci-fi bots.  Running around Ice Station with monkey assistants on trying to best your friend.

God, I lost weeks of my life playing this.  And unlike the first Timesplitters, there was actually a pretty hefty and enjoyable single player game to go alongside this which was just the icing on the cake of this incredibly enjoyable package.  Again, another one to check out if you still have the Wii; 360 or PS2 lying around.

Oh, and the soundtrack was literally sublime:

Clue for my #38 - Take to the streets of LA and defend your base from the flying menace known as "Sky Captain". Tower defense before the genre existed.

Bingo.

A great game, marred by oft-terrible pacing and some lame mechanics. I still love it more than Majora's Mask though, because Twilight Princess pisses me off much less (still a remarkable game in its own right regardless). :/

From here on out, all of the games on my list absolutely deserve to be there. I can't imagine removing any of them. They're not on the bubble, per se.

39. Pokemon Stadium 2 (last year 43): First Impression 8, replay 8.5, technical 7.

Pros: A companion piece to what will end up the highest-rated Pokemon games on my list, so it gets spillover perks from Gold and Silver, it was basically "beyond the postgame" for that game, advanced Gold and Silver battling in the days before online could bring the competitive scene to you, it was endless gen 2 Poke-fun. The free mystery gift function and the minigames were also fun.

Cons: Like the Pokemon metagame, it could get downright, teeth-pullingly mean at times.

Number 38 had a clown for a final boss rather than the usual pirate as the final foe of this treasure-hungry anti-hero.

Hint for #37: Don't let its soft, squishy exterior fool you - the baby is the real hero.

Aww, never played that .

*ahem*Samestoryasyesterday,*ahem*needtopaymoreattention.*ahemahem*

#39

'Prince of Persia'

for the Apple II personal computer released in 1989 as played on the Macintosh personal computer released in 1992.

This early platform-adventure game immediately hit the mark. It was clever, exciting and addicting fun. 'Prince of Persia' was actually one of the forerunners of popular games today. The game mainly includes platforming elements, but also simple combat and puzzle solving. This made the game actually quite diverse, and kept you playing. The game could however get quite difficult. In fact, I've never even finished it! This is probably the only game on my list that you can finish, but I personally couldn't.

The story involves a so-called Grand Vizier named Jaffar, who curses the princess of Persia to force the Sultan to hand over power to him. You must defeat Jaffar to break the curse and save the princess. However, you only have 60 minutes to do so, or else it's too late and the princess dies. 60 minutes is a very short time, especially when this game can actually be quite long if you don't know what you're doing. The most memorable part is the section where the player's path is blocked by a mirror. An unbreakable mirror and there's no way around. After a long time of trail and error, we eventually found out that you simply have to jump through it (which creates a mirror-image of the prince that will hinder you further on)! Such time wasted.

I think we arguably had the best available version of the game. The first time I had this game was on the Macintosh, so it was the more advanced 1992 version. It features much improved graphics and sound and the prince actually looked like what he was supposed to be. Later, we tried the DOS version just because we could and I was sorely let down by how primitive that version was. Also, the Mac version included the second game, which was just as good as the first and looked even prettier. However, that game was even harder than the first, and after a frustrating level with flying heads, I gave up on the game and on the series altogether.

#38 Hint

A far cry from the genre of my #39 game, this game probably had the most realistic physics of any game involving this sport and was the quintessential next-gen game for it's time. It put the last console of a company now without hardware on the map.

40 - GTA: San Andreas

San Andreas was the first GTA game I completed and felt much different. In the past, I also played some Vice and 3, but only the sandbox part. SA just shat on them, the game was so big, there was many things to do and I was frankly overwhelmed by what I experienced. I don't play games like these often and don't enjoy them as much either, but this one made sure to make me enjoy it.

The story was also crazy fun for me, with the countryside being my favorite part of the game. I can't imagine another GTA topping this one for me, this one just clikced with me and from what I've played of the sequels, they didn't click with me as much.

38) Hitman: Blood Money (PC / 2006 / 82)

How did none of you except radish (in mod chat) get this from the clue? 38 + 9 = 47. The game stars Agent 47.

One of my favourite stealth games ever (there's another one coming a fair bit higher up, though). It was about hiding in plain sight, prioritising objectives and tricking people rather than just sneaking around in the shadows. The latter type of stealth game has its charms, but I thought it was a great shame that Absolution decided to completely abandon the Blood Money mechanic in favour of becoming a Splinter Cell clone.