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

[Big Hath]

back in the early 90's, there was a game show called Video Power where kids played video games for high scores to move on to trivia round, then they played another video game to get to a prize round.  The winner wore a velcro suit and ran around a maze of video games and accessories while picking some of them up and sticking them to their suit.  The ones that were still stuck to them at the end of the prize round were ones they kept.  I remember almost every kid would pick up that Batman game in the prize round.

[black_biff_stadler]

It was weird that it existed in two distinctly different formats since one was the game show you mentioned and the other was a cartoon with stock video game characters like a wrestler, basketball player, monster truck (with stilt abilities!), tomato, and an adversary whom could launch his own detachable fists as weapons. Long live Johnny Arcade.

[Big Hath]

yeah, that was pretty weird.  Complete overhaul from season 1 to season 2.

[Crow]

god, the blade runner adventure game is one I really need to get around to playing someday.

[Lynxo]

22. Worms: Armageddon



Stupidly fun. That's really the best way to describe this game.

Worms is an absurd turn-based strategy games where you take control of a team of worms, trying to kill the other team of worms. At your disposal, you have bazookas, grenades or even amazing weapons like the sheep bomb. It has to be seen. Imagine a non-offensive Michael Bay movie starring cartoon characters. 



The look of the game is entirely cartoonish and fits the mood greatly! The worms themselves all look the same but they have so much character that it really doesn't matter. And you can name them yourselves! Immature as I was when I was a kid, I spend way to much time coming up with different variations of dirty words to name them. I'm not sure they can be properly translated to english but needless to say - there were many variations of "fuck", "dick" and "poop".



There are several play options. You have tutorial levels to familiarize yourself with the many weapons at your disposal, there are a series of missions, deathmatches and, off course, multiplayer. I'm sorry Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but this game is the PERFECT PARTY GAME. You will laugh your ass off, cry like a baby and try to strangle your friend in your quest to kill your opponents worms.

Before I stop, I gotta mention the voices. Oh man, they are HILARIOUS! I get giggly just thinking about it.





21. Half-Life 2



I was a big fan of the first Half-Life. It broke so much new ground when it was first released and the level of immersion were something I had never experienced before. But...the second game is even better! It takes everything that was great about the first game and just rank it up so many notches, my mind hurts just thinking about it.



Just as in the original, you take control of the silent protagonist Gordon Freeman in a classic first person shooter. I'm not usually a fan of the silent protagonists but in this game, they really make it work superb. The game takes place several years after the original and instead of being confined to only labs, you get to explore an entire city after an alien race called the Combine has conquered the Earth in what is known as The Seven Hour War.



You have all the classic weapons at your disposal, including the crowbar from the original game. But the new big thing in this game (boy, Valve sure likes to innovate) is the Gravity Gun and the physics engine. Basically, you can pick up anything and throw it around. And the Gravity Gun allows you to pull objects to you and fire them at your enemies. It is so much fun to play around with! I remember the Ravenholm stage where you could pick up circular saw heads and fire them at the zombie like creatures!

The graphics were mindblowing for its time and I think it still holds up. The character animations and the voice acting makes for a truly immersive experience.






20. Diablo II



I never played the original, and still haven't. But when this game was released, my friends went completely insane over it and couldn't stop praising it. So naturally, I had to try it out. And boy, am I glad I did!



Diablo II is a hack and slash game. That's basically all you do - click on your enemies to attack them until they die, and then collect their loot. What makes this so great is Blizzard's ability to pull you in and not let you go. You always want to play "just five more minutes", and then you get another cool upgrade that makes you want to play just a little bit more, etc...



The story in itself is nothing out of the ordinary, but there's just something very intriguing about the dark and mysterious style of the game. And the kind of corny voice acting adds to it! I think that's something that was lost in the third game.



If you're gonna play this game, definitly get the expansion pack as well. It adds so much value to the game, I couldn't image playing it without it.

[Zydar]

Diablo

I played D2 and the expansion Lord Of Destruction a lot, must have been about 10 years ago now. Now I play nothing but D3, but D2 holds a lot of memories for me.

[cramx3]

Well, HL2 is a solid pick, obviously. 

[Obfuscation]

It feels good to be back and am looking forward to this list and the next ones after this. Also keep me in the "Will Go in the Future" list for a bit while I for sure finish my roulette and have my list ready and done so I can have no excuse to take forever again and disappear.

[Lynxo]

19. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic



Here is where my love affair with Bioware started. Sure, I played around a bit with the Baldur's Gate games, but this is the first time I got obsessed. This game is like having sex with forty beautiful girls in a pool of chocolate.



The story takes place 4000 years before the movies, allowing the developers great freedom with the material. But don't get me wrong - this certainly feels like a true Star Wars entry! Especially the revelation halfway through the game, which I'm not going to spoil here.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of any Bioware game is the oppoturnity to play things any way you want, and that is avaliable here as well. You get to follow the Light Side or the Dark Side of the Force and choose for yourself how to tackle the events any way you want.



The combat is turn-based but masks so it looks real time. I would think it's somewhat dated now but I thought it was really cool back then, especially that you could pause and issue orders any time you wanted.



Are you a Star Wars fan? PLAY IT! Are you a RPG fan? PLAY IT! Are you neither? FUCKING PLAY IT AND LEARN TO APPRECIATE IT! Ahem...





18. Rollercoaster Tycoon 2



Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! That could sum up the game right there. Or as a great philosopher once said in a text about the joys of weekends: FUN FUN FUN FUN.



In this game, it's your job to build the theme park of your dreams. But that does not only include fun rides - you also have hungry people to feed, employees to hire, finances to track and land to buy. Just as in the original.



(Yeah yeah, I know, five sequels in a row now. What can I say? I just love the way some developers improve upon their games.)

As the name implies, it's the rollercoaster that's the star of the show. You get to design it all by yourself (or use an existing design) and just go crazy with loops as you see fit. Nothing gives me greater joy than seeing all my belowed guests at the end station of a ride, vomiting up every organ they have or didn't know they had.



The only thing lacking in this game is that is almost identical to the original. So it's not really recommended if you already have that. However, if you want to try out the series, definitly start from here!





17. Portal 2



I never could have imagined I would have this much fun with a puzzle game. But Portal is something really unique.



The first smash hit that came as sort of like a bonus game in The Orange Box turned out to be just as good as Half-Life 2. Perhaps a bit short and under-developed, we now get a proper sequel. And what a sequel it is!

I really don't want to spoil anything about the plot for those few people who haven't had the pleasure to play this yet, but needless to say - it is hilarious and awesome! The AI known as GLaDOS is back and this time, we get introduced to a new character called Wheatly, who turns out to be just as funny and a great addition to the cast.

As I mentioned, this is a puzzle game. You go through a series of rooms, completing puzzles and levels as you go. At your disposal, you have once again the portal gun that allows you to create portals on walls, allowing you to for example get up on a high ledge.



As great as the narrative is, the real genius lies in the way they set up the puzzles. Every new mechanic is introduced to you slowly and at just the right amount of speed, allowing you to feel that great sense of satisfaction whenever you discover how to solve one of the puzzles. Never frustrating enough for you to rage quit but never easy enough to get boring.

And the atmosphere! God, the characters may be hilarious and the voice actors brilliant but the thing that makes me really invested in the world is the amount of detail they put into the settings and the scenery. They tell just as much of the story as the character does.

There's really only thing I don't like about this game and that is the fact that it took so long for me to play it.

[Lucien]

The first smash hit that came as sort of like a bonus game in The Orange Box turned out to be just as good as Half-Life 2.

I very much disagree, however I won't argue the game's placement in the list 

[jingle.boy]

KOTR is a stellar game.  Talk about getting addicted - I sure as shit did.  There was one mission - the swoop-racing thing - that took me FOREVER to complete.  I was put off at first between the mix of real time and RPG, but ended up loving it

Great game.

[Phoenix87x]

Love roller coaster tycoon 2

Love KOTOR

God, I wish they would make KOTOR 3

[Lynxo]

Love roller coaster tycoon 2

Love KOTOR

God, I wish they would make KOTOR 3

I thought today about how AWESOME it would be if they would remake KOTOR 1 and 2. Give it to Obsidian so they can properly finish the second one while they're at it. (Since it was so rushed and so much content was cut.) I would buy and play the SHIT out of that!

Oh, and while Obsidian is busy with that, Bioware can make KOTOR 3 off course. 

[ReaperKK]

I'm ashamed to say I never played Kotor, my brother keeps giving me shit to play it but I just haven't gotten around to it.

[Sacul]

Not a fan of Star wars so I haven't played any of their games

Portal 2 is... 

[Lynxo]

Sorry about the lack of updates! The plan was to finish up the texts and post them on every lunch from work but it's been really stressful lately so I haven't even had time to even have lunch! But here are three new entries.

16. Pokemon Red/Blue



So yeah...do I even need to say anything about this one? I chose the originals since they're still the only ones I've played very much.



But they blew my little child mind when I finally got my hand on the blue version. I used to bring my Game Boy everywhere! And when I got home, I popped this fucker into my Super Game Boy and continued.

Unfortunally, I never knew anyone that had the link cable or had any interest in getting one, so I could never catch all Pokemons. However, I got as many as was possible. I think it's about 140 or something? I still have my save file, if I wasn't at work right now I could go check.



Anyway, the graphics may make it hard to go back to this one and I suspect the newer games improved on the formula so much it's really unneccessary. But I've had so much fun with this game!




15. Dragon Quest VIII



I've always been a huge Final Fantasy fan (at least the classic games) but I never really gave the Dragon Quest series much of a chance. When I bought this game for the PS2, it was my first exposure to the series and it was love at first sight.



First off, this is a true hardcore japanese style RPG. Everything that you associate with the genre is here. But it feels so polished that it doesn't really matter.

The first thing that striked me was the amazing visuals and sounds. The entire game is cel shaded and it looks beautiful. All people have so much character to them. When other games went more and more for the realistic look, this game went for a more cartoony look and because of this, the visuals still hold up very well. And the beautiful landscapes! There's nothing more peaceful and relaxing than being on the world map, looking out into the distance and listening to the symphony orchestra doing its job.



The gameplay is classic RPG - turn based battles, random encounters, big dungeons with a big bad boss at the end. You know the drill, nothing new. But as I said, it's very polished.



I also have to mention the voice acting. It's entirely british with very charming accents! It really contributes to the overall vibe of the game.




14. Super Castlevania IV



Time to go a little bit more retro with my favorite console of all time!

I have a confession to make - I've never played any of NES Castlevania games. And nowadays, they're incredibly expensive! Lucky for me, I got a hold off the first SNES sequel and man, it was NOT a bad way of getting introduced to the series.



Super Castlevanie IV is a sidescrolling action game. You play as Simon Belmont and it's your job to whip your way to Dracula and then whip his ass to eternity. Which sounds kinda erotic when you put it that way, but I digress!

This was released early in the console's life cycle but really, there's no way you could tell that! The graphics and sounds are awesome! There's so many little details that I've discovered only much later. Like in the first stage, in the background you can see little bats. They're hardly visibile but they're there!

And the soundtrack! Oh my God, I frigging LOVE the soundtrack! Simon's Theme made it's way to music player on my phone and I used to play it on the way to work in the morning. It got me so pumped!



The controls are perfect, and you really feel like you're in control. They're smooth but with a little bit of weight to it. You can attack with the whip in all possible directions. All this makes it so that every time you die, it's because you weren't good enough. And it motivates you to get even better!

I can't praise this game enough - it is so awesome and really show what the SNES were capable of.

[Outcrier]

Not my favorite from their franchises but really enjoy both Pokemon and Castlevania IV and their soundtracks, especially the latter (my favorite in the franchise along SOTN and Dracula's Curse OSTs).

Dragon Quest VIII is a game that i played sometimes but just for some minutes, don't know why. Maybe i was tired of playing RPGs.

[Chino]

For me, Pokemon peaked at Silver. I bought a 3DS to play the new X and Y games and quit after the first three gym leaders.

[Lucien]

Platinum is still my favorite pokemon game, but nobody can deny how awesome the originals are

[Cable]

Oh yes some Castlevania action!

I'm so mixed about C4 at times. On one hand it is fantastic, smooth, has great music and graphics for the time as you mentioned. On the other, it is way too easy IMO compared to the first 3. A lot of that comes down to the improved controls- stuff like altering direction in air and stair jumping. But overall, fighting Death/Grim Reaper in C4 is much easier to me than in C3.

[Ruba]

I prefer Half-Life to Half-Life 2. The first has so much better athmosphere, sorta claustrophobic at times. And Half-Life 2's plot is kinda, well, incomplete. Luckily there are two episodes that broaden the story and if we count them as the same game, the two games are pretty much even in my books.

Ravenholm, whoo. That is one nasty level. Especially if you're trying to get that once achievement, where you only use Gravity Gun. Fast zombies are nasty motherfuckers if you aren't allowed to use a shotgun.

I recently bought Portal 2 and I haven't finished it yet. So far I've liked the first one better. Well, probably only because of Still Alive. And I do know that Portal 2 ends with a song as well.

[ariich]

I prefer Half-Life to Half-Life 2. The first has so much better athmosphere, sorta claustrophobic at times. And Half-Life 2's plot is kinda, well, incomplete. Luckily there are two episodes that broaden the story and if we count them as the same game, the two games are pretty much even in my books.

I feel that way much more about the first Half-Life. The narrative is pretty thin in the main game, and it's only really by playing the expansions and seeing the story from those other viewpoints that it feels more rounded. I would say Half-Life 2 is vastly superior, both narratively and in terms of how fun it is to play.

[Randaran]

I suspect the newer games improved on the formula so much it's really unneccessary.

Yes, they did. While every generation has some lazy designs, there are still enough great ones in every new game. The gameplay mechanics, especially in regards to competitive play and in-game team building, have been greatly improved.

[Lynxo]

13. Duke Nukem 3D



"I'm here to kick ass and chew bubble gum! And I'm all out of gum!"

This is a ridicolous game. : This is a game for the people who enjoy those cheezy, stupid but oh so fun Arnold movies of the 80s. It's a first person shooter where you go around killing alien invaders and saving babes.



What set it apart from other shooters from its time were its (really immature) humor. It never took itself seriously and never set out to be anything other than fun. But it was also really polished and well made - every weapon you found felt useful and nice to use, every monster were fun to gun down and every environment just had FUN written all over it!



Duke's cheezy oneliners...oh dear god. Not to mention those pixelated boobies. This is a game that could not have been made in any other time period. The gaming industry were young enough and the society had still not become socially aware of difficult issues. Not to mention the 80's were still fresh in the developer's minds.



However, if there's one thing the sequel Duke Nukem Forever showed, it is that the gaming industry has matured A LOT over the years and started tackling really difficult issues. Duke Nukem just seems like a cartoon character, aimed to appeal at horny teenagers. So while I love this game for what it is, I don't think a new Duke Nukem will ever feel as fun again.




12. Duck Tales



Time to go retro again! And this time with a music theme that's so catchy, it'll drive you insane!

Capcom really were the Disney masters. All their games based on Disney property were awesome and that's because they were allowed some freedom with their games. The gameplay mechanic always seems to have developed first, with the Disney character being put in later.



In this game, you play as Uncle Scrooge. It's an action platformer where you travel around the world, collecting treasures. Scrooge has his cane as a weapon and as a means of transport - you can smash enemies and objects with it and you can bounce with it. And let me tell you - bouncing is fun!



The levels are really fun to explore, thanks to the many secrets and the great graphics! And you could play them in any order and even revisit them to access new areas after collecting certain items.



I haven't played the remastered edition but it's supposedly really good. So I'm probably gonna pick that up.





11. Mass Effect Trilogy



Oh man, these games...oh man oh man...

It may be a copout to include an entire series but the truth is that I bought the trilogy set for the Playstation3 and played them all in succession. It took a lot of time but man, did I have a blast!



The Mass Effect games certainly needs no introduction - who hasn't heard about Bioware's epic space opera? The epic scope of the saga and the stakes of your mission is just mindblowing - I have saved the world on many occassions in many different types of games, but I have never, EVER saved an entire galaxy from mass destruction before.

It's the presentation, the environments, the plot and the voice acting that provides the appropriate tone. They're all excellent and really well made! Not a single character in the entire franschise feels underdeveloped or uninteresting. You'll happily spend hours upon hours just going around your ship talking to your crew.

And the entire universe is just a really interesting one. It's history and previous wars and political turmoils provide just enough context for the actions that drives its current population forward. You want to know the history of its people because it explains why they look and act they way they do today. It feels so wellwritten!



The battle mechanics were slightly changed between all games, Bioware kept refining and making improvements as they went along. If I were hardpressed to pick one thing I didn't like about any of its games, it was probably changed for the better for its sequel. Like the inventory system of the first one, that got a complete rehaul for the second one.



Many cried about the ending to the entire franschise and on some levels, I agree with the critism. But how the entire thing played were in my mind really interesting - can you imagine a movie maker getting negative feedback on the ending of a movie and a few months later realease a new version with a slightly changed ending? On one hand, it's exciting that game developers get to communicate directly with their audience. But on the other hand, should the loud mothed, butt hurt trolls really have the power to make a company change that piece of art that they worked so hard on and probably really believes in?

It's a double edge sword and a different topic altogheter. But I think it's so interesting! Gaming really is an unique medium in so many ways. And so is this game!

(Also, PLAY AS A FEMALE! Jennifer Hale is so awesome as the voice actor and makes the experience much more emotional rather than the wooden male actor they've got.)

[ariich]

I've been meaning to go back and play the ME series as the female Shep - agree that the male voice actor is pretty wooden, especially compared with, well, pretty much the whole rest of the cast.

But yes, incredible series.

[cramx3]

Duck tales woohoo!

[Cyclopssss]

Duke Nukem!  Great game, but I didn't think that Duke Nukem Forever was that bad at all. I had a fun ride with it!

[cramx3]

Duke Nukem!  Great game, but I didn't think that Duke Nukem Forever was that bad at all. I had a fun ride with it!

I was pleasantly surprised with Forever.  Got such terrible reviews and I got it free, but I enjoyed it enough to play through the enitre game.  Thought it was better than the reviews.

[Cable]

"Your face, your ass, what's the difference?"

"Come get some!"

"Damn, I'm looking good!"

Never really played Ducktales. Which is a giant shame, because I'm aware of its legacy. I also watched Ducktales as a good, and one of my cats is named Launchpad. It's on my buy list thou for NES.

[OpenYourEyes311]

Capcom made some great games for the NES. Duck Tales is definitely up there. I would even venture to say that the Remastered Version is even better, as it has few modifications that makes the game a bit easier (and you can turn them off for anyone who likes the NES-hard type of challenge).

[Phoenix87x]

Mass effect 1 was really cool and I really liked it

Mass effect 2 is one of my favorite games every made

Mass effect 3 I made it a couple hours in and didn't make it any farther than that

[Randaran]

I never played the original ME, as it had not yet been released on PS3 when I tried playing the series. ME2 was okay, and I consequently never bothered to try 3.

[ariich]

Mass effect 1 was really cool and I really liked it

Mass effect 2 is one of my favorite games every made

Mass effect 3 I made it a couple hours in and didn't make it any farther than that

Bwuh?

I mean, I get why some people didn't like the ending and all, but the game itself I thought was terrific and very much carried on where the second one left off.

[Lynxo]

I'm sorry for the lack of updates everyone! I got sick and all my writeups were stashed away in my work computer. But now I'm back on my feet so here it goes! We're now down to the top tens.

10. Super Metroid



THIS GAME USED TO FREAK ME THE FUCK OUT! Seriously! I played it with the lights turned off and it felt worse than playing a survival horror game.

Super Metroid perfected the formula set up by its predecessors. You play as bounty hunter Samus Aran and rather than going in a straight line from start to finish like most games of its time, you get access to a huge map with many paths closed off. You open them up as you go along, collecting various power ups and weapons allowing you access.



It may seem like any other genre today but back then, its world felt huge and full of endless secrets. This game genre was combined almost perfectly with its visual style, atmosphere and music. You just felt lonely, isolated and by yourself.

But sometimes, yo go into a long tunnel, full of paths, only to arrive at a place you've already been too and that's the key moment when that feeling of being lost is replaced with an "aha" moment! And you know how it all connects and how to proceed. It's like solving a Rubic's cube (without a guide, I might add) - you feel like you just accomplished something huge and get a fulfilling sense of purpose.
And...then you get lost again.



Released late in the Super Nintendo's life span, the game took absolute control of the little grey machine - spitting out incredible detailed graphics and environments. And I just have to mention the soundtrack - it's unlike anything Nintendo had ever done before. So creepy and atmospheric.

All Alien rip-off moments aside, this is a great game and a Super Nintendo classic. BUT...it's not my favorite SNES game.




9. Dragon Age: Origins



This game reignited my love for RPGs. This was a time when I had grown tired of the JRPG formula and I hadn't really played any of the western style RPG yet. I remember thinking Baldur's Gate looked way to nerdy for me, not knowing that I would someday out-nerd it myself!



Anyway, I remember seeing the Dragon Age trailer and thinking it looked terrific and really LOTR-like. And it didn't disappoint! I had never experienced the Bioware dialogue tree's before and I was just amazed at the level of interaction you had with the world and its characters. It felt huge and amazing! (That's what she said.)

I also really, really like the setting. I love the way that Bioware take the usual fantasy formula and shake things up quite a bit. It feels familiar, yet new.



The game was however quite buggy, especially the PS3 version that I have. About a year ago when I replayed it, it still felt really slow at times when it shouldn't and quite unstable. This is something that was fixed to the sequel but yeah...that game had other problems.

Anyway, I love this game!






8. Suikoden II



One of the most underrated JRPG's of all time. From time to time, I see people rave about it (most recently when they finally released this fucker on the PSN) but for the most part, most people seems to write this game off. Which is a shame, because if you can look past the dated graphics, you've got one of the most heartfelt games of all time!



This game takes place shortly after the short one (but playing that is not really neccessary). The story focuses on two youths during a violent civil war and how they both end up in completely different places. I really don't want to say any more about the plot but suffice it to say - it's got a LOT of interesting characters and cool settings. Not to mention, one of the best villains ever in Luca Blight! This guy could even rival Sephiroth and Kefka if you ask me. You really do grown to hate that guy so much!



Just like every other game in the franchise, you get to collect a total 108 characters and build your castle and your army. Its plot is a lot more focused on political turmoil and character interactions than the usual fantasy elements.

The combat is smooth, fast-paced and fluid, if perhaps a little easy. You get the feeling that this game's focus was always on the plot side of things.



I cannot stress this enough - this game is one of the most heartfelt games I've ever played! The feelings, man, the feelings! Go download this fucker right now, because you don't need to hunt down an expensive copy anymore! (Unless you're me and you love this game so much, you want to cuddle with the CD case, telling the game that it's all right.)

[OpenYourEyes311]

Oh man, Super Metroid and Suikoden II... absolute favorites of mine.

Grew up on the original Metroid and played Super soon after it came out. I just remember being in awe that some of my favorite places in the original were still intact in the 16-bit version (some complete with the original music!) What a joy it is to play that game, even today after beating it so many times.

Suikoden 1 was another game I grew up on and loved. Didn't get around to finishing it, however, until recently when I saw they were finally bringing SII to the PSN. Now, I still haven't finished it yet (I'm geting there), but even without knowing how it ends, the gameplay and story is just as good, if not better, than the first.

Great update!