Shaun's Top 100 Video Games of All-Time (2016 Edition) 80-71
Shaun Cordingley
We're back with yet another 10 of my Top 100 Video Games of All-Time! Today I get to talk about a crazy variety of games, plus: an appearance by one of the genres I play the least!
If you have missed the previous lists, check them out here:
You know me (I hope...by now), I do not like preambles, so let's talk games!
80 - Base Wars
As anyone who listens to the {PODCAST} is aware, I am not the biggest baseball fan...case in point, I think I watched...two games in full this season (the first game of the year when it was snowing in Milwaukee, and Game 7 of the World Series). I do, however, love robot baseball where you have laser swords to fight out contested calls on the base paths, and it's played in space (for reasons: it's the 24th Century, and people got tired of paying outrageous salaries to professional players, so we replaced them with robots).
Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars is still my favourite baseball video game of all-time: it was just a weird little NES game where you could play a season, or exhibition baseball between random robot teams representing cities (or if you're in season mode, you could actually build and outfit your team). Outside of the crazy fights, the game is just baseball: you are focused on pitching, batting, fielding, and running, and playing baseball...you're just four different types of robots doing it.
That homerun music still makes me really happy too, because lord knows I did not hit many of them when I was younger...
79- Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War is essentially serving as a stand-in for the entire COD series for me, but I probably put the most time into World at War, and honestly like it the best--I am a historical shooter fan (versus the modern shooters that have been coming out forever), and while I do acknowledge the fact that it does get a little bit "monster closet-y", but I still love it.
Call of Duty has always been the best of the best when it comes to First-Person Shooter mechanics, and the split between the Pacific theater (with an American Marine Private) and the Eastern front (with a Soviet private) was very enjoyable--it was nice to split the feeling, and the equipment between two different armies to keep the game feeling fresh as I went through it a few times (and did take a shot at the hardest difficulty, but got stalled at the Reichstag...because it was...impossible?).
OH! I never touched the multiplayer; I am only referring to single-player content, because multiplayer and I are...rarely friends...but I do enjoy a good Call of Duty campaign.
78) Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit outside of North America)
David Cage and his studio Quantic Dream makes it's first appearance on this list with Indigo Prophecy. am interactive drama (essentially a playable film) wherein you are trying to solve a supernatural mystery, with the player taking control of a few different characters in the process. The plot revolves around a set of murders in New York City that all have seem to have similar circumstances: ordinary people are seemingly 'possessed' and murder absolute strangers in public. The player largely controls Lucas Kane, a man who during a horrible snowstorm, stabs a man to death in a diner restroom, and then is forced on the run, desperate to try and figure out what happened to him, why it keeps happening, and why it is so darn cold.
I don't want to say much else about the plot, as Indigo Prophecy was just re-released on PS4, and I know there are a pile of people who did not play it, but it is a very interesting "game", where you are mostly just making conversational/situational decisions that will butterfly out into one of three endings. If you haven't played it before, and you like the idea of an "interactive movie", give it a shot; any game where you can get drunk waiting for your ex-girlfriend to pick up her stuff and listen to "Santa Monica" - Theory of a Deadman (in game) is worth at least a little bit of your time...
77) The 7th Saga
No trailers for this little SNES gem, so here's the box art
The 7th Saga is a JRPG for SNES that released in 1993, but I did not play it until quite a bit later. I can acknowledge the fact that there are a lot of people who, when I mention 7th Saga, only seem to talk about how grinding and repetitive the combat is or it's unforgiving (and often insanely punishing difficulty spikes), but for me, this is a game that innovated on a lot of the SNES role-playing tropes, and I played the hell out of it.
While the RPG minute-to-minute was largely similar to other games of it's ilk (towns/cities with shops and no monsters, dangerous areas outside of towns with "random" encounters, and a turn-based battle screen), but there were some really cool things layered on top of that: you chose from seven (diverse) playable characters, and then you would meet, fight, or team up with the other six over the course of the adventure, plus there was a 'crystal ball' radar system that allowed you to see monsters approaching, making it feel a little less random. The plot was also quite excellent: basically you are tasked with getting seven runes to help defeat evil, but then there are massive twists throughout that turn the plot on it's head, and a whole lot of time travel.
If you are a hardcore RPG fan, and you haven't seen any of The 7th Saga, I definitely suggest you give it a look...I mean I obviously understand that it is really dated at this point, and there are a few sections that do not hold up as well as others, but it really is a good, grind-y time.
76) Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country was the first game that I ever played on my SNES, and that experience has always stuck with me. The game is a rendered-16 bit side-scrolling platformer where you take the Donkey Kong (and his nephew Diddy Kong) around "Donkey Kong Island" in search of their stolen banana horde (taken, obviously by King K. Rool, some sort of angry lizard who...also...likes bananas?). The gameplay was a lot of fun, even if there were occasionally some problems in figuring out spacing due to the really cool, but not perfect for gameplay, graphics, and while the game was not super long, it had enough in it to make it fun to replay over an over again.
I have DKC on my virtual console, and even remembered the "50 lives" code when I first turned it back on again oh-so-many years later, and while it is way easier than I remember (...or I am way better at video games at this point), I still love it.
Plus the game gave me my go-to Mario Kart character: Funky Kong.
75) Injustice: Gods Among Us
I am not a big fighting game fan. I dabbled a little bit with Street Fighter when I was younger, and a few of my friends had some Mortal Kombat games here and there, but I was never one to buy, sit down, and play a fighting game. On PS Plus one month, they gave us Injustice and, as I try everything that they give us (because why not? Free game!) I gave it a shot, and I got hooked on Injustice.
A DC Universe fighting game (meaning I can get my Aquaman on) where the story of an alternate Earth where Superman has become an out-and-out dictator made sense, and made the fights make sense as well--there were reasons for all of the story-mode fights that clicked for me, in an alternate universe for these characters that I actually got excited to read about. From a fighting game. It helped that the combat felt excellent, it was easy (enough) to teach my friends the controls, it was hard enough to master to make going back at higher difficulties (or the challenges) entertaining, the set-pieces were cool, the "super moves" were all awesome, and the environmental transitions were always a treat when I got them to work...so I found myself repeatedly going back to play it, if only for a half an hour here and there...
...until the network ate my save, and I lost all of my 'fighting card' progress for...some reason. While I have not gone back to restart (as that just feels like a pain) I am actually excited for the forthcoming sequel, and will be buying it...especially as it adds more characters (Atrocitius and Dex-Starr? sold).
74) South Park: The Stick of Truth
South Park: The Stick of Truth is an amazing love-letter to fans of the South Park series, which in terms of story, and the weird little references throughout the game, was one of the funnest times I have had in a long time. They nailed the feeling, the animation, the story, and made me feel like, as 'the new kid' in South Park, the show was interactive.
As an RPG, The Stick of Truth is not all that special; the combat was very simple, and I think that the only fight I had to consider my actions, and plan for was against Al Gore (Excelsior!), and the systems were a little weird when it came to finances and equipment--I never sold a thing, because I did not have to...I literally was able to find enough money, and got enough upgraded equipment for everyone that I never felt I needed to. This, however, just...did not matter...
The Stick of Truth is a game that actually made me laugh out loud, that I read the descriptions of every item, that I never got tired of, and when I finished it, I knew that there was a very good chance that while I might not play it again (though you never know), I will always remember wandering into 8-bit Canada, learning how to get Butters to go full Professor Chaos (I love Butters so much), or a myriad of other moments from one of the best games I played this year.
Can't wait for Fractured But Whole next year, as I expect more of the same awesomeness, but moving on from Lord of the Rings into Superheroes.
73) The Walking Dead: Season One
The Walking Dead: Season One came out of nowhere to become one of the most (critically) successful games of the last 10 years, winning over 80 Game of the Year Awards in 2012, thanks in large part to their innovative storytelling, the character work, and the fact that they actually made a zombie game that felt like its' source material. The Walking Dead is a game that is mostly played through conversations and making key decisions with a time-limit to decide in (with the occasional piece of action to take care of), and thanks to this setup, it means that over the course of the episodic game (5 episodes released sporadically from April to November) you really came to connect with the two main characters of Lee and Clementine, as well as develop attachments to members of your group.
This is easily one of the most compelling stories on this entire list, and it is thanks to this game that I will always check out any Telltale game they release (as long as I'm interested in the IP), and it has become my go-to when it comes to The Walking Dead anything at this point, and with the third season starting at the end of this year, I am super excited to see where the story continues to go (no spoilers, because as it is so narrative driven, if you're thinking about playing it, I don't want to wreck anything if you're thinking of finally starting them).
72) Hitman: Blood Money
When it comes to stealth-action games, I have always been a Hitman guy; there's just something about the intricate puzzle like nature of figuring out how to execute (you're welcome) your mission within the parameters you are given, but then being forced to improvise when things (sadly, quite often) go horribly awry. In the end, I chose Blood Money out of the series (indeed, to represent the others) as it was the game I spent the most time with.
The thing with Hitman games is that I do not really remember overall missions, or even the story arcs (they're usually about people trying to stop Agent 47...or find out about him...or whatever), but what I remember are the moments. Every Hitman game has a few moments in it where something goes incredibly smoothly, or something ridiculous happens, or I figure out a plan that just feels complete, and that is what I love about these games. Blood Money added a lot of things I take for granted in later Hitman games, including the ability to hide bodies in things (saves so much worry), but again, it's the moments...and in Blood Money, it's either down to the church, or "A Dance with the Devil" in the Las Vegas club...
I have been playing Hitman (2016) recently, and while I have been enjoying it, the way equipment is locked off to get you to replay things is a little bit weird, but as of this writing, I had my first few memorable moments while playing "The Icon", which made me really feel that Hitman vibe again.
71) Earthworm Jim
Earthworm Jim was one of my favourite cartoons when I was growing up, and this run and gun platformer from Shiny Entertainment was a really great time, and a great reflection of the show in video game form: it had the same warped sense of humour and the same feel, all wrapped up into a really excellent platformer. If you take a look at the "New Junk City" level above, you see a whole mess of platforming mechanics working together to create a very intricate and fun level, and that is just level one. The music was great, the hand-drawn style was great...it's just a great game from my childhood.
I also love the fact that there was an HD remaster for PlayStation Network, as sometimes, you just want to fight Professor Monkey-For-A-Head again...
That is all for today, so I will see you again tomrorow with the next 10 games in my Top 100 Video Games of All-Time
-S (@Shauncord)