Top 25 Video Games Lists! v. CableX's "Worse Than My Top25 VG Music" (pg. 62)

[Outcrier]

Well, you hinted at it with "And then, I found the sequel" in your Megaman Legends write up 

I have fond memories of playing the English version after many years of playing the Japanese one (Rockman Dash 2).
It was cool to finally be able to understand things and what was happening.

Personally, i think Megaman Legends 2 is a underrated PS1 gem. Great game to wrap up your list 

[adace]

Absolutely loved playing Megaman Legends 1 and 2 as a kid. Nice pick, enjoyed your list

[Cable]

But... Inafune left Capcom some months later. And some weeks after the split, in 2011, the project... was... canceled. I cried, or tried, because I felt so empty I doubted I had any tears left. My childhood dreams, broken, tore into freaking small pieces, turn into ash, and pissed by fucking japanese directives. Why Capcom? WHY? Nobody could give a precise answer.

This is a related tangent; I think this is the present, sad state of games from Japan. I, for not an active console gamer, am closely following this Hideo Kojima & Konami drama, and it seems like Capcom is not that far off of Konami. I mean, Kojima is rumored to be pulling some of the most crazy real life = fiction I have ever heard of (search "Head Transplant Metal Gear"), and Silent Hills was brilliant via P.T. + the people behind it. SHs was cancelled, and Konami wiped PT from the face of the earth basically. And MGS5 "seems" to be it from Kojima at Konami. But this stuff is brilliant IMO (even though Kojima tries too hard IMO to cram all his ideas in one series), plus his Phantom Pain stunt was cool. But one game is cancelled, and he has been forced out as Konami shifts to a mobile focus.

I never played the Legends series (wish I did based on your write-ups), I did however grow-up ripping through MegaMan1-4 on original hardware. So my respect, and lament for the gutting of the BlueBomber is similar. 

I guess there just isn't the revenue there anymore for Japan based game companies? I guess Sega is slipping too. Even SquareEnix is focusing on mobile more from what I read. That in itself is a merger of two former powerhouses. And even Nintendo is now apparently going to be developing for Android and iOS. Luckily Kickstarter seems to be supporting some of the developers doing spiritual successors. But it isn't the exact same, and the industry really is changing. 

[cramx3]

Hey guys so it would appear I am next, I just finished putting my whole list together but with no write ups yet.  I can start popping them out as I am not the most wordy anyway.  Depending how my work day goes today, either later today or this weekend I will start.

[Sacul]

Well, you hinted at it with "And then, I found the sequel" in your Megaman Legends write up 

I have fond memories of playing the English version after many years of playing the Japanese one (Rockman Dash 2).
It was cool to finally be able to understand things and what was happening.

Personally, i think Megaman Legends 2 is a underrated PS1 gem. Great game to wrap up your list 

How is that you played the Japanese version first? But yeah, it's a tragically ignored PS1 game - I just wished they release it on the PSN. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne is already there (for $6 is a total bargain), so I don't see why it can't make it to the store. Btw, I recommend you that one - you get to know the Bonnes deeper and how they relate to Glyde. And it's tons of fun and humour .

Absolutely loved playing Megaman Legends 1 and 2 as a kid. Nice pick, enjoyed your list

Wow, didn't think anyone else heard about this game - thanks for following

But... Inafune left Capcom some months later. And some weeks after the split, in 2011, the project... was... canceled. I cried, or tried, because I felt so empty I doubted I had any tears left. My childhood dreams, broken, tore into freaking small pieces, turn into ash, and pissed by fucking japanese directives. Why Capcom? WHY? Nobody could give a precise answer.

This is a related tangent; I think this is the present, sad state of games from Japan. I, for not an active console gamer, am closely following this Hideo Kojima & Konami drama, and it seems like Capcom is not that far off of Konami. I mean, Kojima is rumored to be pulling some of the most crazy real life = fiction I have ever heard of (search "Head Transplant Metal Gear"), and Silent Hills was brilliant via P.T. + the people behind it. SHs was cancelled, and Konami wiped PT from the face of the earth basically. And MGS5 "seems" to be it from Kojima at Konami. But this stuff is brilliant IMO (even though Kojima tries too hard IMO to cram all his ideas in one series), plus his Phantom Pain stunt was cool. But one game is cancelled, and he has been forced out as Konami shifts to a mobile focus.

I never played the Legends series (wish I did based on your write-ups), I did however grow-up ripping through MegaMan1-4 on original hardware. So my respect, and lament for the gutting of the BlueBomber is similar. 

I guess there just isn't the revenue there anymore for Japan based game companies? I guess Sega is slipping too. Even SquareEnix is focusing on mobile more from what I read. That in itself is a merger of two former powerhouses. And even Nintendo is now apparently going to be developing for Android and iOS. Luckily Kickstarter seems to be supporting some of the developers doing spiritual successors. But it isn't the exact same, and the industry really is changing. 

I get that feel bro - honestly, I don't even know what will happen with the game industry in the following decade. It seems like it safer to make more and more titles of the same series (see AC, CoD, PES/FIFA, etc) rather than betting on new IPs. I'm even studying to work on the game industry in a few years, but with all that's going on, I really doubt if I'll find a place in a company where I don't have to design the next Mario or Modern Warfare. Maybe the future is on the indie community. Maybe it will happen as music, and all the great titles will go to the underground, while keeping a loyal fanbase.

Btw, the Legends games are totally playable on emulators, and since physical copies have gone crazy price-wise ($100 on eBay), it's the best way to play them - you can even tweak them so the internal resolution is higher, add anisotropic and Anti-Alias, and even texture filters. That way, the anime-looking textures look more gorgeous than ever. You should give them a try - the combats are addictive at least

[cramx3]

So to start....with the only two hand held games in my list (one old, one modern)

25
Tetris
Game Boy

So this game is pretty straight forward and simple, yet was I guess we can say the Candy Crush of the late 80s/early 90s in terms of addictiveness.  I was very young when I got my first gameboy and Tetris, but I recall playing it non stop.  My goal was always to make it to level 10 and THEN see how far I can go since just making it that far wasn't terribly difficult, it was how you did once the speed got very fast and you may have already built yourself some obstacles that prevented you from knocking out a line.  A simple classic game.  This is the oldest game on my list.

24
Angry Birds
IOS/Android

This was my first mobile game addiction.  This was another simply and addictive game.  What made the game fun to me, was learning the different birds and their abilities and using that to get three stars on each level.  The objective was simple, fling your birds to hit the pigs, but as the levels went on, more elements and obstacles got in the way and you needed to become more and more clever to not only pass the level, but you also needed to be very accurate to get the three stars.  There were a few follow up games (Seasons, Space, Rio, Star Wars) but the original was the best and had the most levels.  Whenever I had a moment to wait on something, I'd fling a few birds to pass the time.  Eventually I got ranked into the top %5 in total score, but then lost my Ipod touch and although I got it for my android phone later on, I fell out of playing it.  I guess I just got bored after time, but the game is still a fantastic simple mobile game.  This is the only mobile game on my list.

[ReaperKK]

I love tetris and it's my number 1 time killer when I'm flying somewhere or I have time to kill.

I really liked angry birds too but I quickly got over it.

[cramx3]

Well that's it for handheld gaming, the rest are all console or PC...

23
College Hoops 2K5
PS2

So this game is actually terrible.  The gameplay is really crap, the sound and announcers are terrible, the game had a huge bug that ruined my 8 seasons of playing, many other terrible bugs.... but I have played this game more than any other sports game.  This is a pure nostalgia pick and when choosing my games, it was really hard for me to not put this on my list even though I acknowledge how bad this game really is.  Basically, I bought this game because my college roommate and I wanted to play a basketball game together and somehow we ended up with this (I think my parents got it for me for christmas, but thats a foggy memory).  Anyway, we played the shit out of it. Started a career mode at a small school and worked our way to the big time school, winning national titles along the way.  We also liked to play against each other, we would similuate a 64 team tournament and the final game we would play.  We have a documented spreadsheet of over 100 matches with the scores and "memorable moments".  We still play a match and add it to the spreadsheet 10 years later.

22
Streets of Rage
Sega

I really loved this game as a kid.  It was a gift for getting good grades on a report card when I was really young, except my mom did not realize until much later that the picture on the box contained a girl with some cleavage.  As a youngin that was inappropriate according to my parents and they hid the game from me until I was old enough.... well I found where they hid it and I played it all the time.  Even though it didn't change or anything, I would havea  friend come over and we would play through and beat it for fun, and it was always fun.

[BlobVanDam]

Ooh yeah Streets of Rage. I used to play that game all the time on Master System (same basic game). I was always the chick because reasons.

[Big Hath]

College Hoops 2K5

oh dear . . .


the constant freezing in legacy mode killed this game for me.

[Cable]

I like Tetris, and actually this thread plus a podcast inspired me to play it a few days ago via NES (licensed copy).  I never understood the full craze, nor did I get how people were so killer at it. I actually preferred the Gameboy version, and some other versions are hit and miss. Mostly I feel that is a result of game modifications; drop full speed without movement, saving pieces etc.

[sneakyblueberry]

Fuck yeah streets of rage.  Good memories of that one, classic.

[cramx3]

College Hoops 2K5

oh dear . . .


the constant freezing in legacy mode killed this game for me.

lol I had always thought I was the only one who really experienced the bugs in that game since I played it to death.  BUt yea, the bugs really destroy the game, its on my list simply for nostalgia and hours spent playing (and still playing every few months).

[Big Hath]

I seem to remember the season calendar causing the most problems.  I think at one time I had figured out a way to enter/exit the calendar that lessened the amount of freezes, but even then it wasn't foolproof.  And the workaround took forever because you had to wait for menus to load, etc.  I don't know.  Just bad memories more than anything.

But hey, Streets of Rage!!!

[Dr. DTVT]

I preferred SoR2 personally.

[cramx3]

I preferred SoR2 personally.

Also a good game! 

[Phoenix87x]

I absolutely love the streets of rage series. Next to sonic, they were my favorite games on the Genesis.

[Sacul]

I came to appreciate Tetris just after playing the Android version. It's so addictive, yet hard. I would have made a higher score had the touchscreen not been so awful .

[cramx3]

21
Jet Moto
Playstation

I personally have never been a big fan of racing games.  There is one other on my list (and has been a standard on most if not all lists...), but this one is truly a standard racing game, but based around a slightly different type of vehicle.  Sort of a mix between a wave runner, motorcycle, and hovercraft.... Jet moto was so much fun because of how different and creative the race tracks were.  I guess I was also initially intrigued by the vehicles and speed of the racing.  Something about it just drew me in and I became very obsessed with this game.  The 2nd Jet Moto was also really fun, but its the first one that makes my list because it was the one that drew me in.

20
Counterstrike
PC

I was refered to this game by my friend and neighbor.  He was the first person I knew in the late 90s who had a cable modem and a nice PC for gaming (it was really his brothers who later on became a game designer) and it was him who introduced me to my first online multiplayer game.  I fell in love immediately with the pace and difficulty of playing against real people.  The action was so intense and the thrill at the time was so new for gaming.  You had to actually strategize and communicate to consistently win rounds.  I was never really good though, at the height of my CS gaming, I could say I was "decent" but one of my problems with coming back and playing the newer versions of the game, was that I am just not good enough to enjoy it anymore sadly.

[ReaperKK]

I love Counter-Strike! Some of my best gaming memories are playing back in middle school during the early beta, watching the game evolve.

[Big Hath]

almost put Jet Moto in my list.  Awesome game!  I worked for a church back in college and had access to our gym.  Me and my buddies would hook up the PS1 to a projector and play Jet Moto in life-size glory on one of the gym walls.

[Ben_Jamin]

Haha Jet Moto, I had a demo disc with that game on It. I remember using the turbo, at a specific spot where you can ramp up. There was a glitch which you use turbo at that spot, keep using it, and it'll take you higher than the stage which becomes a little dot.

[cramx3]

19
Bioshock
Xbox 360

Well this game or one of them has made many people's list and there's a reason for that.  The visuals and story telling along with the fun gameplay make for a great experience into Rapture.  My love for this game started before I ever bought the game, it started because the 360 was the first console I owned that you could download game demos.  I bought my 360 maybe 2 years after release and therefore quite some time after the release of Bioshock, but I remember the demo for Bioshock being a top download even at that time.  One late night, I finally decided to try it out.  You got to play the first 15 minutes or so of the game, and I was completely blown away.  That opening when you go down to Rapture and experience it for the first time was thrilling.  You actually felt freaked out by what you saw.  Well even though I was blown away, and played the demo many times, it wasn't until another year passed that a friend let me permanently borrow the game and then I finally played through and got to really experience it.  The amount of different ways to kill someone with the guns and plasmids made for a fun battleground.

18
Mortal Kombat
Sega

This was a revolutionary game in gore.  I was pretty young when this came out and it was fairly controversial due to the amount of blood and the finishing moves which were unlike anything I had ever seen in a video game.  These types of fighting games are not my favorite types to play, but this was the first one I had ever played and at the time, I was obsessed.  We would always have friends over and fight each other and see who could pull off the fatalities.  Everyone had a favorite character and would learn the moves and it was always a fun challenge to play.  I guess I could say that Mortal Kombat Trilogy was a better game with more characters and more finishing moves, but the first is a classic and it needed to be on my list.

[BlobVanDam]

I played the hell out of MK2 before ever trying the first, so I always found the first a bit crude by comparison. But it's a good franchise in general. Reptile was always my guy.
I bought the game second hand, and it game with a printed/photocopied page of all of the fatalities etc, which at that time when I didn't have internet was pretty awesome.

[cramx3]

Yea back in the day you had to get a magazine that listed the moves and fatalities and there was always one kid who had it and everyone wanted to borrow it to learn the moves.

I totally agree though that the games progressed and did get better, my list reflects more so on my nostalgia of the games vs. the actually good gameplay so MK1 has way more memories for me than the next ones, but MK2 and MK3 were definitely better games.

I should also note, my list does not have multiple titles of the same game.  So while MK2 and MK1 are both good games, I only chose MK1 for my list and same with Bioshock so while 2 and Infinite are awesome, they will not make my list because I am only choosing one game from each series.  There is one exception and it only counts cause that game series spans across mutliple gens of consoles.

[ReaperKK]

Two great games. I played BioShock after playing Infinite and I had a great time, the game aged really well. I remember playing MK2 in the arcade (maybe? I was in elementary school at the time) but MK3 was the first one I had at home.

[Randaran]

You can't go wrong with Bioshock. 

 I have never played a MK game, though.

[sneakyblueberry]

I've always wondered: how did people figure out fatalities before the internet?

[cramx3]

17
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Xbox 360

This was the first call of duty game I had played.  I must say that I actually enjoy the single player mode of these games.  Sure they are short and not really what you are buying the game for, but I always found them very fun to play through and they always felt like an action movie that you were playing through with all the craziness going on, but regardless, the meat is in the multiplayer.  The whole concept of creating a class with the perks was something new to me in online multiplayer games and created match up problems or solutions if you knew how to counter someone who was good at using a certain perk.  The kill cam was also something very enjoyable.  The game became something so addicting because it was so easy to get into a quick game and get that instant gratification of killing someone and leveling up and unlocking more stuff.  The call of duty line of games eventually got old to me, but this was my first and I probably spent the most time playing this one compared to the others.

16
Banjo and Kazooie Nuts and Bolts
Xbox 360

Not sure how many people have played this one or have even heard of it.  This game came free with my xbox 360 and was advertised as a children's game.  I had let the game sit for years in the seals disc holder it came in because I didn't know what it was and it was a kids game so it clearly couldn't be fun.... well I don't know what made me one day finally pop it into my xbox, but I did and I was very surprised.  I had played the original Banjo and Kazooie game on the N64 and I thought it was a solid platform game, but I was never crazy about it.  Well this game is still somewhat of a platform game, has the same feel of a super mario 64 or the original in that you you have your main world and then you go into sub worlds to complete missions to gain puzzle pieces to unlock more levels and so on until you have enough to fight the boss at the end.  THe difference here is that every mission required a vehicle to use to complete, could be a car, boat, chopper, plane, wagon... could be many options and that's what made this game unique and amazing.  You got to build whatever vehicle you wanted!  You could create one that does all of the above if you had earned and collected enough parts.  The creativity was amazing.  I felt compelled to complete every single mission in this one and design a custom vehicle for each one's unique task.  By the time I was done, my arsenal of vehicles was staggering, but I always had so much fun thinking of the way to build each vehicle.  I really thought that this might be a difficult game for a little kid because it helps to understand physics, but I ended up giving the game away to a coworkers young boy because I thought it would be a good game to play and learn something,  Anyway, I put a lot of hours into this one and it was gratifying.

[BlobVanDam]

As a big fan of Banjo Kazooie, I wanted to like Nuts and Bolts, but it was such a muddle of a game. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a racing game or a platformer, and doesn't do either one well. The best part of the game for me was the hilarious opening sequence, which was classic Rare, but from there it just becomes a confusing mess. I finished the first vehicle task, then spent an hour exploring trying to find the next thing in the level to do only to find that there was nothing else to do there. I had to leave the level and unlock the next task which is accessed through a separate door despite being the same level. I still don't really get the game, as it explains things very poorly, but I managed several more of the tasks in that level.
I unlocked another level where I was supposed to save some workers or something, but that's where I gave up on it and never touched it again.

[Randaran]

I do not like MW2 nearly as much as most. The single player was fun, though even Veteran difficulty was really easy. The multiplayer is a mess of balancing issues, and I just do not like playing games where everyone dies in 2-3 hits. Spec Ops was, by far, the best part of the game. I had a lot of fun getting 3 stars on every mission in the game (even the ones that require two players, as I just controlled both), many of which were rather difficult. I personally think that the first Black Ops is the best CoD game, though I will get to that when I post my own list.

[cramx3]

As a big fan of Banjo Kazooie, I wanted to like Nuts and Bolts, but it was such a muddle of a game. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a racing game or a platformer, and doesn't do either one well. The best part of the game for me was the hilarious opening sequence, which was classic Rare, but from there it just becomes a confusing mess. I finished the first vehicle task, then spent an hour exploring trying to find the next thing in the level to do only to find that there was nothing else to do there. I had to leave the level and unlock the next task which is accessed through a separate door despite being the same level. I still don't really get the game, as it explains things very poorly, but I managed several more of the tasks in that level.
I unlocked another level where I was supposed to save some workers or something, but that's where I gave up on it and never touched it again.

The game was not an easy one to play.  It took awhile to understand the world and to also master how to use your vehicle.

[BlobVanDam]

As a big fan of Banjo Kazooie, I wanted to like Nuts and Bolts, but it was such a muddle of a game. It couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a racing game or a platformer, and doesn't do either one well. The best part of the game for me was the hilarious opening sequence, which was classic Rare, but from there it just becomes a confusing mess. I finished the first vehicle task, then spent an hour exploring trying to find the next thing in the level to do only to find that there was nothing else to do there. I had to leave the level and unlock the next task which is accessed through a separate door despite being the same level. I still don't really get the game, as it explains things very poorly, but I managed several more of the tasks in that level.
I unlocked another level where I was supposed to save some workers or something, but that's where I gave up on it and never touched it again.

The game was not an easy one to play.  It took awhile to understand the world and to also master how to use your vehicle.

I did decide at the time that if I did ever give it another shot, I'd be using a walkthrough at least somewhat.

[Lucien]

In regards to the Banjo Kazooie game, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l69BP1uhlMs is all I have to say

[adace]

I remember playing a demo of that Banjo Kazooie game and not liking it. The first two games blow it clear out of the water imo.

MW2 is great, can't go wrong there.