Top 25 Video Games Lists v2.0: Cable's NES Nostalgia 15 & 2 (starts pg32)

[ReaperKK]

NBA Jam! I spent so much time playing that game when I was young.

[Podaar]

If I did a list, it would primarily be PC, so seeing a shout out to Baldur's Gate is good. I think I played all the way through that game 4 or 5 times and each time was great. I assume the reason it didn't make your list is because it wasn't particularly difficult?

[Dr. DTVT]

No, I just liked my top 25 more.  Baldur's Gate also stands in for Icewind Dale, which had better gameplay but lacked the story quality.

[OpenYourEyes311]

NES
Super Mario Bros. 3
Faxanadu
Bionic Commando
Blaster Master
Castlevania
Dragon Warrior
Mike Tyson's Punchout
Contra
Strider
Shadowgate

Great list of NES games here. SMB3, Faxanadu, Blaster Master, Castlevania, Dragon Warrior, Contra, and Strider are among my favorites for the system. Although, CV and DW had sequels that were better than the original (for each, the final entry on the system were the best IMO), the originals stand up very well even today. I also get the love for Punch-Out!! and Bionic Commando, I was just never good at either. I'm not that familiar with Shadowgate, although I'm sure I've played it before. I'll have to boot up my NES PowerPak and check it out.

[cramx3]

Some love for Road Rash!  I was just talking to my buddy about that game, I used to love it as a kid and totally forgot about it until just recently.

[ReaperKK]

I played the shit out of road rash when I was younger. I completely forgot about the game.

[Evermind]

Lots of good stuff there Doc, especially Heavy Rain, Dragon Age: Origins and of course Baldur's Gate!

[Dr. DTVT]

Let's have a little fun.  I'll make a double update tomorrow.  In the mean time, I'll give you a list of how many games from each system made the list, and people can guess what made the cut.  You have my honorable mentions and some other information.  There are 15 that I think will be guessed (or at least the franchise), and ten that I will be surprised if anyone gets.

NES - 7 games
SNES - 1 game
Turbo Grafx 16 - 3 games
Sega Genesis - 4 games
PS1 - 1 game
PS2 - 2 games
PS3 - 1 game
PS4 - 2 games
PC - 4 games

[Crow]

sup maro bro

[jingle.boy]

Miner 2049r

[Dr. DTVT]

Miner 2049r

Damn, that should be an honorable mention.  I forgot about me friend's Apple 800 games.  Panther was also an awesome game.

[Bolsters]

sup maro bro

Metroid.

[Sacul]

I'll guess Super Metroid.

[soupytwist]

If I did a list, it would primarily be PC, so seeing a shout out to Baldur's Gate is good. I think I played all the way through that game 4 or 5 times and each time was great. I assume the reason it didn't make your list is because it wasn't particularly difficult?

Baldur's Gate 2 was better in my opinion and Jon Irenicus is the greatest villain in any game.

[Dr. DTVT]

OK, no one really wanted to play

25. Horizon: Zero Dawn



PlayStation 4 exclusive

No other games in franchise

This game just released about two months ago, but it made an immediate and deep impression on me based on how the story kept me engaged.  It is a post apocalyptic world where robotic animals that are made in the likeness of animals.  Humans are less dependent on technology and have formed smaller hunter gatherer tribes for the most part, and used to live in peace for the most part with the robot machines.  However, the machines are becoming more hostile.  The game centers around discovering what is making the machines more hostile and where they come from.  Gameplay can be challenging at first, but once you find what works for you against each machine it gets somewhat easy.  The game itself is pretty short, I got all the trophies in just under 62 hours of game play, and unlike games like Skyrim, there isn't a lot different you can do with a re-roll so I'm not sure the replayability is there.  However, the story was just THAT GOOD.  The best way to play it is to explore and try to get the side quests done, then do the bulk of the main quest, which I found gripping.

[jingle.boy]

I can't wait to get this game... but still have 4 others that I haven't started yet.

[Podaar]

I can't wait to get this game... but still have 4 others that I haven't started yet.

This is me exactly.

[Dr. DTVT]

24. The Legend of Zelda



NES

Lots of other games in franchise, but I am only familiar with Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link & A Link to the Past

I expect to get crap for my choice in the franchise.  I never owned a SNES, and didn't play it til much later in life.  However, the original Legend of Zelda holds a special place for me for many reasons.  First, it is the first game that I bought by earning the money on my own by collecting aluminum cans for recycling.  Also, it was special because in the winter of 4th grade is when my friends and I were playing this game...along with my favorite teacher.  With no internet to guide us, all of us would map out the overworld and the dungeons of the second quest since those resources didn't exist.  We compared maps, shared information, and talked about the game in home room period every morning.  I saw my teacher as an actual person and not an information and discipline dispenser.  The game, particularly the second quest was challenging at the time and required mapping to get through the higher level dungeons, which made it more than just a game, but also a learning experience.  The game still holds up today for me, and the music is quite impressive for the limited tech available at the time.

[Dr. DTVT]

I can't wait to get this game... but still have 4 others that I haven't started yet.

I'll let the cat out of the bag...I'm giving you my copy at RoSFest.  No questions asked, I'll explain there if you want.

[Dr. DTVT]

23. Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole



Sega Genesis

Other games, but not for North America

This game seemed to fly under the radar at the time of it's release, which is surprising because of the depth of the game and the fact that is was an early 3D adventure/action/RPG.  There is a lot to like in this game: a good enough story to keep you interested, interesting NPCs, sword fighting action, jumping/movement puzzles, and a character development that was incremental and not just "leveling up".  This is one of those games where everything works together real well and provides a fun, challenging adventure.

[jingle.boy]

I can't wait to get this game... but still have 4 others that I haven't started yet.

I'll let the cat out of the bag...I'm giving you my copy at RoSFest.  No questions asked, I'll explain there if you want.

Cool & a preemptive THANKS!  Still not sure when I'd be able to play it though. I'll explain there if you want. 

[Mr. Beale]

Oh geez Landstalker! There's a game I haven't thought of in a long time.

[Cable]

NES
Super Mario Bros. 3
Faxanadu
Bionic Commando
Blaster Master
Castlevania
Dragon Warrior
Mike Tyson's Punchout
Contra
Strider
Shadowgate

Great list of NES games here. SMB3, Faxanadu, Blaster Master, Castlevania, Dragon Warrior, Contra, and Strider are among my favorites for the system. Although, CV and DW had sequels that were better than the original (for each, the final entry on the system were the best IMO), the originals stand up very well even today. I also get the love for Punch-Out!! and Bionic Commando, I was just never good at either. I'm not that familiar with Shadowgate, although I'm sure I've played it before. I'll have to boot up my NES PowerPak and check it out.

Seconded the love for these exact games. I don't own Castlevania1, Bionic, or Shadowgate, but either own their siblings (Simons Quest & C3, & Deja Vu), or Bionic is on my to buy list. Own all the others, and love them all. Strider is a hidden gem, as is Faxanadu. Shadowgate creeped me out, and still kind of does. Love the music in the game too.

24. The Legend of Zelda



I expect to get crap for my choice in the franchise.  I never owned a SNES, and didn't play it til much later in life.  However, the original Legend of Zelda holds a special place for me for many reasons.  First, it is the first game that I bought by earning the money on my own by collecting aluminum cans for recycling.  Also, it was special because in the winter of 4th grade is when my friends and I were playing this game...along with my favorite teacher.  With no internet to guide us, all of us would map out the overworld and the dungeons of the second quest since those resources didn't exist.  We compared maps, shared information, and talked about the game in home room period every morning.  I saw my teacher as an actual person and not an information and discipline dispenser.  The game, particularly the second quest was challenging at the time and required mapping to get through the higher level dungeons, which made it more than just a game, but also a learning experience.  The game still holds up today for me, and the music is quite impressive for the limited tech available at the time.

No one should give any crap for Zelda. It's still a great game, and meant so much to us that were there with it pre-Link to the Past. Like a lot of things on SNES IMO, LTTP was a bells and whistles version of the original.

[Phoenix87x]

I expect to get crap for my choice in the franchise.  I never owned a SNES, and didn't play it til much later in life.  However, the original Legend of Zelda holds a special place for me for many reasons.  First, it is the first game that I bought by earning the money on my own by collecting aluminum cans for recycling.  Also, it was special because in the winter of 4th grade is when my friends and I were playing this game...along with my favorite teacher.  With no internet to guide us, all of us would map out the overworld and the dungeons of the second quest since those resources didn't exist.  We compared maps, shared information, and talked about the game in home room period every morning.  I saw my teacher as an actual person and not an information and discipline dispenser.  The game, particularly the second quest was challenging at the time and required mapping to get through the higher level dungeons, which made it more than just a game, but also a learning experience.  The game still holds up today for me, and the music is quite impressive for the limited tech available at the time.

To this day, I still worship the first Zelda. So many of the NES games were super strait forward, and limited in a way (mainly due to the technology of the console), but not Zelda 1. Hot damn, this thing is expansive, challenging and so intriguing.

A I came to the first zelda after playing Link to the past and ocarina. Despite seeing more technologically advanced versions, I still fell in love with zelda 1 and played it for hours upon hours. It was just so cool being thrown into this massive open world and the game being like "figure it out bitch". I like when a game respects my ability to figure things out on my own rather than holding my hand to an absurd level (twilight princess)


Now I'm currently playing through breath of the wild, which has really revitalized my love for the series. Didn't like skyward sword and Twilight but I loved windwaker, and it is long overdue to have a zelda that I can fall in love with all over again. Too early to tell where it falls in the ranking, but its pretty damn incredible.

[Dr. DTVT]

22. Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger



PC and PS1

WC, WC2, WC4, and other spin off games

The Wing Commander series always pushed the envelope, and the third installment was one of, if not the first game to film real actors (and name actors like Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davis, and others) to film cut scenes.  The series is basically dog fighting space ships.  The game had some challenge to it, and a good story that changed depending on the choices you made.  What I really remember about the game is the ending, and how it was the one time I actually felt bad about beating a completely fictional game. *ancient spoilers ahead*  The game centers around a thirty year war between humans and a race of cat-like Chewbacca creatures called the Kilrathi.  The game has you flying various missions with different wingmen, and you get to make dialog and action choices in between flight missions that effect various story lines.  The final mission, however, is a mission of genocide, where you drop a tectonic bomb on the Kilrathi homeworld, killing millions of innocents.  While there were some surviving Kilrathi, your character (and I as the player) felt remorse for going "too far" to end the war.  I'm not sure how well the game would hold up today, but the Wing Commander series will always be special to me, and the gut punch of an ending made WC3 the most memorable to me.

[Dr. DTVT]

21.  Asheron's Call



PC only

Asheron's Call 2 existed, but I never played it

So here is the one game you can no longer play, as the servers went offline for good in January.  Asheron's Call was part of the first wave of massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG).  Asheron's Call went live in Nov. 1999, and while it didn't have the popularity of EverQuest, it had many charms that kept me from looking into competing games.  The first months in the game were magical as we explored the world and learned about our alien land/  It had a vibrant community, lots of great quests for soloing as well as ones that required a large coordinated group to complete, and my favorite part, an engaging server wide story that progressed every month in 18 month story arcs where player decisions affected how the developers took the story.  All the races and almost all of the enemies were original creations, so there were no hackneyed fantasy tropes like goblins, orcs, and the like.  The original magic system had a global component spells had to be researched and every character had a slightly different recipe for higher level spells, and research was required to discover exactly how your level 3 flaming missile was cast.  If a particular spell was used a lot across the server, it became globally less effective, and spells that weren't being used became stronger, so research methods were initially kept secret.  Eventually, it was eased.  A wide range of character archetypes were viable, so it was easy to play the type of character you wanted.  They eventually added player housing, guild halls, and vendor halls for players who used bots to sell and trade goods amongst players.

What really made this game special was the community.  Much like here at DTF, the friends I made there bled into the real world.  Although I stopped playing in 2008, I was really bummed when the final closing of the servers was announced, knowing that such a great game died.

[Dr. DTVT]

I'll be at RoSFest, so no updates until Monday.  Sorry folks, the park is closed.  The moose out front should have told you.

[Cool Chris]

NES - Kid Icarus, Super C, Nobunaga's Ambition, Commando, Kirby's Adventure, Double Dragon, Ghosts n Goblins
SNES - Super Metroid
Turbo Grafx 16 - I couldn't name 3 games for this system!
PS1 - Symphony of the Night

[OpenYourEyes311]

24. The Legend of Zelda

I expect to get crap for my choice in the franchise.  I never owned a SNES, and didn't play it til much later in life.  However, the original Legend of Zelda holds a special place for me for many reasons.  First, it is the first game that I bought by earning the money on my own by collecting aluminum cans for recycling.  Also, it was special because in the winter of 4th grade is when my friends and I were playing this game...along with my favorite teacher.  With no internet to guide us, all of us would map out the overworld and the dungeons of the second quest since those resources didn't exist.  We compared maps, shared information, and talked about the game in home room period every morning.  I saw my teacher as an actual person and not an information and discipline dispenser.  The game, particularly the second quest was challenging at the time and required mapping to get through the higher level dungeons, which made it more than just a game, but also a learning experience.  The game still holds up today for me, and the music is quite impressive for the limited tech available at the time.

Love the choice. Both this and Zelda II were on my list. Both are fantastic games that hold up better than some of the newer ones. Now that I see this and the fact that you have 3 TurboGrafx16 games on the list, I'm hoping for Neutopia to be on your list! (and if you don't know what that game is, stop whatever you're doing and go play it! You can get it for Wii Virtual Console, or whatever...)

[Cable]

22. Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger



PC and PS1

WC, WC2, WC4, and other spin off games

The Wing Commander series always pushed the envelope, and the third installment was one of, if not the first game to film real actors (and name actors like Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davis, and others) to film cut scenes.  The series is basically dog fighting space ships.  The game had some challenge to it, and a good story that changed depending on the choices you made.  What I really remember about the game is the ending, and how it was the one time I actually felt bad about beating a completely fictional game. *ancient spoilers ahead*  The game centers around a thirty year war between humans and a race of cat-like Chewbacca creatures called the Kilrathi.  The game has you flying various missions with different wingmen, and you get to make dialog and action choices in between flight missions that effect various story lines.  The final mission, however, is a mission of genocide, where you drop a tectonic bomb on the Kilrathi homeworld, killing millions of innocents.  While there were some surviving Kilrathi, your character (and I as the player) felt remorse for going "too far" to end the war.  I'm not sure how well the game would hold up today, but the Wing Commander series will always be special to me, and the gut punch of an ending made WC3 the most memorable to me.

Woo WC3! I lean WC4 as it was #2 on my list, and then Prophecy. Especially with Prophecy, as it has the most polish. But I will concede that out of the last three main games, WC3 probably has the best story.  Considering it ended the war in the game universe, and has parallels to WW2.

[Dr. DTVT]

20. Warsong



Sega Genesis

sequel Japanese only

Warsong is a turn based wargame set in a fantasy setting utilizing a square grid.  I love war games (more to come), and Warsong featured several different types of basic units with strengths and weaknesses, commanders with unique battle powers and some commanders can cast spells.  The game featured a 20 scenario campaign with a fairly basic good versus evil story, but the scenarios had goals that went beyond the generic "kill all the enemies".  Sometimes it was securing a fortress, or moving your main character to a certain position, surviving so many turns against a strong enemy until reinforcements arrive, and there was one scenario that required you to fight your way through enemy lines to retrieve an artifact that you need to defeat a dragon that attacks both you and your enemy creating a three way battle.  At the beginning of a scenario, you had to purchase your units, which made it more than just loading up with the best unit.  You could also assign artifacts and legendary weapons to your commanders, changing their stats or altering their abilities for the battle.

[Dr. DTVT]

Leaving town for a job interview, but I'll try to get a bunch done starting Friday.

[black_biff_stadler]

Fuck that. No one has ever delayed this thread.

[Dr. DTVT]

Well, if no one knew about a Genesis game, I doubt this will get any discussion either...

19. Blazing Lazers



Turbo Grafx-16

Some games are great because they are inventive, others for breaking barriers, and some games just take what has already been done and execute it perfectly.  Blazing Lazers falls into the last category.  Blazing Lazers is just a simple shooting platform game in which you control a ship that has to fight through alien forces.  Again, the plot isn't important.  The gameplay is crisp and responsive, and plays fast and smooth.  Hit boxes of both your ship and enemy targets are tight.  You had access to four different main weapons that upgrade, along with cluster bombs, and various secondary weapons.  If you've been following what I've said about what I like in games, then you can probably guess the last reason I like this game.  It is freaking hard.  There are nine stages, and if you die in the later stages, it can almost impossible to come back from since you go back to the most basic weapon and lose all upgrades, and working your way back is difficult, which has made the game one in which you have to beat it without dying.  And try as I might, I've only managed to beat the game once.  I'm sure if I had an emulator with a save state I probably would have cracked the last stage more than once, but that's not my style.  I'm not even a big fan of shooter games, but this one has been a favorite for over 25 years.

[Cable]

I only know about this one due to listening to a podcast with two TurboGrafx/PC Engine fans & collectors. Heard it was the cream of the crop for the system!