Something went wrong. Try again later

timoneous

This user has not updated recently.

55 0 2 1
Forum Posts Wiki Points Following Followers

My Top 10 of All Time

I've been around this site since about 2008 and I haven't contributed much in that time, but I do believe it is important for everyone on a site like this to show their cards insofar as letting people know where they are coming from. I've been gaming since I was a toddler and continue to this day. What better way to get that across than a Top 10 list?

The oldest game on this list is from 1990 and the newest is from 2013, so clearly we've peaked. But really, this is a list of games that defined my tastes for a lifetime. If I did 20, we could expand the timeline immensely, but I'm sticking to important bits.

List items

  • This is the game that started my love affair with...let's call it "RPG Elements". Super Mario RPG was my very first RPG, thus it's my favorite. But it goes beyond that to a more fundamental lesson: Games can have a real story. And that story doesn't have to conform to what you've seen in the past. I mean, Bowser is in your party. He talks to you. And he's funny! This whole game is funny!

    The mechanics, the strategic leveling system, the characters, the ability to go back to previous areas and just talk to people as the story progressed. It's a crime that this game never had a proper sequel. The early Paper Mario games were still great in their own right, but they didn't hold a candle to the original.

    It was ahead of its time. I go back and play it almost every year. But I don't think I'll ever go back and land 100 super jumps. Just never got the timing down.

  • I came into the Souls world a little late. I remember Vinny, Jeff and Dave sitting in on the Demon's Souls Quick Look back in 2009 and listening to Vinny describe how the game worked, he almost didn't believe what he was saying...because I don't think he did.

    But really, the concepts weren't that different. The differences between these games and any other Action RPG of the time was that you couldn't just mash your way through them. You need skill. You need to learn. You have to slow down and pay attention. And if you didn't, you paid the price...and that price was high.

    I bought Dark Souls on sale for like $4 during some Black Friday sale in 2013 on the Xbox Marketplace. It was the best $4 I've ever spent on a game. In just the 360 game, I have over 200 hours logged through half a dozen characters. I also have a copy for PS3 and have 70 hours with two characters on that version. And most recently I have put in over 130 hours on the PS4 version of Dark Souls: Remastered over four characters and a platinum trophy.

    It's safe to say that this game changed my perceptions of what good game design can be. It teaches you to get better by kicking your ass over and over again until you do. There is no right way to play, but there are a million wrong ways to play. With over 400 hours played, I'm still trying to figure them out.

  • Gaming has always been a geeky/nerdy thing to do. Thankfully, gaming has trended more towards being something more on the cool spectrum in recent years. But one thing that will likely never be cool is Star Trek.

    When I was a kid, I barely knew what Star Trek was. I don't think any of my friends were into it. I saw that new episodes of The Next Generation were always coming out, but it always just looked boring to me. It wasn't until 2007 that I found my Star Trek.

    Mass Effect is a universe unto itself. There is so much lore and backstory presented in just one game that it pales in comparison to any other first entry of a franchise. I spent hours reading and listening to Codex entries. At night, I would fall asleep as that man's voice calmly described how omni-tools work.

    And I am going to cheat a little bit here and put the whole trilogy on my list as one entry, because they should be treated as a whole. As I am writing this, I am about half-way through ME3 during my first full playthrough of the trilogy included in the Legendary Edition on PS5. All three games hold up tremendously well to this day and the stories contained are just as compelling.

  • Before RE4, I had never played another RE game. I knew of them, for sure. But the fervor behind this game could not be ignored. Being that is was a big GameCube exclusive was also a big bonus for me because, at the time, it was the only console I had of that generation.

    To this day, I think the thing in this game that has stuck with me the most are the incremental upgrades you get by going to the best, damn shopkeeper in all of videogames. In what other game are you stoked when you come across a shopkeeper in a random spot in your travels? And I think the concept of the incremental upgrades has followed me through to other games that I might have fallen off of if they didn't have a similar mechanic.

    And with all the jokes about Skyrim being on everything, I think this has it beat. I owned this one the GameCube, 360, PS3 and PS4 and it's come to at least 6 other platforms that I can think of off the top of my head.

  • What the other modern Rogue-lites/likes like Dark Souls have in technical prowess, Rogue Legacy has in its simplicity.

    You have one main weapon in Rogue Legacy...your comically large sword that you hold out in front of you while running like you're out of Monty Python. It takes you through the whole game. Then you add in sub-weapons and mods to make it slightly more complicated while still allowing you to just use your sword.

    Then you add in the "Legacy" part of the game whereby when you die (and you will die), your descendants take up the mantle of their dearly departed father/mother and set out on a quest of their own while inheriting all of the upgrades the previous generation had acquired. But that's not all. Your descendants also inherit certain "traits" of yours such as, oh, let's say gigantism...or dwarfism...or constant flatulence, among many others.

    The charm and simplicity of this game has gotten me to go back to it so many times over the years and it keeps with my love for incremental upgrades (i.e. the numbers going up) and with the skill and knowledge I as a player gain along the way. I'm very much looking forward to the sequel.

  • Mega Man is one of the greatest game franchises of all time in general, but I'm only going to choose one for this list because I have to settle a debate. MM3 > MM2 in *most* ways. It introduced the slide mechanic. It introduced your robot companion Rush. It didn't have a completely over-powered weapon like the Metal Blade. It also actually includes a reasonable facsimile of each of the MM2 bosses in the middle and end of the four bonus stages you have to complete after you beat the initial 8 bosses...so really, it has the best of both games in one package.

    Mega Man 2 still has the best music, though.

  • I'll admit that that I never owned a Playstation, so I never played the original MGS. My introduction to the series was Twin Snakes. Yes, I know, you don't have to tell me. But after I played that, I went out and bought a PS2 just so I could play MGS2 and continue the story...and what a story it was.

    But it wasn't until MGS3 that I really understood what Kojima had going on here. It told a plausible story set in the real world during a real time of crisis for two very real countries. It's the semi-grounded nature of it that sold me the most. Thankfully, by the time I got to MGS3, its more refined version Subsistence was out and I was able to play it as it should have been presented in the first place.

  • You're not gonna see a lot of competitive games in my history and certainly not on my list of top games, but this one has stuck with me for almost 30 years, so it's gotta find a spot on my Top 10.

    While it may not have been the first, it certainly has become the most popular offshoot from the Mario series where characters go off and do something else other than what they are known for like. I think Mario was in the Golf and Tennis games before there ever was Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, so it's at least been in the minds of the creators at Nintendo for going on 40 years.

    I played so much of this as a kid and I had fun whether I was playing by myself or playing with friends and family. It was one of the first games where I developed a strategy around the risk/reward you took by taking certain routes and when to use items.

    And like with most things in a long running series, your first one is your favorite one. This is the one for me and it will forever be the best.

  • Super Meat Boy is a game I love to hate. It kept beating me down and I kept coming back for more. Other than beating Smough and Ornstein by myself in NG+, I don't think I've had a swing of emotion from intense frustration to absolute elation than when I finally hit 100% completion in Super Meat Boy. It is my proudest gaming achievement...and having the Golden Boy Achievement forever on my profile proves that.

    Also, the original music in the 360 game is one of the best soundtracks of any game. It's a real shame they had to change it for subsequent releases.

  • Say what you will about the story and the characters of these games; I'm not here for that. What I'm here for is the gameplay. The guns feel so good. The skills are all balanced and useful. And the constant positive reinforcement I get from picking up new gear whether I use it or not is infatuating.

    This is yet another game I have put in close to 400 hours in over its various releases. I have never played a Diablo game and I probably never will because the action I get from this will never be matched by just clicking on enemies. I want to pull the trigger and see numbers flying off of enemies' faces and hear my character say something utterly ridiculous. That's why I'm here for these games and the first one is by far the best.
Load Comments