EWB's Top 50 Video Games: The List

[DJ Ice]

In 50th place. SUPER MARIO 64

In 49th place. TECMO SUPER BOWL

In 48th place. WE LOVE KATAMARI

In 47th place. WORLD OF WARCRAFT

In 46th place. ALEX KIDD IN A MIRACLE WORLD

In 45th place. BIOSHOCK!

UP NEXT: 45-40

[Guest JukeboxHero]

Super Mario 64 being so low is a crime. I really wish I had remembered to vote now.

[DJ Ice]

In 44th place. DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS

In 43rd place. FOOTBALL MANAGER 2008

In 42nd place. GRAND THEFT AUTO III

In 41st place. GRAND THEFT AUTO IV

In 40th place. MARIO KART 64

NEXT TIME: 40-35

Edited October 2, 2010 by DJ Ice

[Ace]

GO MOBY GAMES GO!

[DJ Ice]

GO MOBY GAMES GO!

I take it you can't see the picture

[Meacon Keaton]

Moby Games being so low is a crime. You guys have horrible taste in games.

[Ace]

GO MOBY GAMES GO!

I take it you can't see the picture

Thats a negative (Y)

Alex Kidd being on the list is fantastic, as is the fact we've got 2 GTA's out of the way already. With any luck, there'll only be one more on this list.

[DJ Ice]

In 39th place. ROCK BAND 2

In 38th place. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

In 37th place. STREETS OF RAGE II

In 36th place. SUPER MARIO GALAXY

In 35th place. TEKKEN 3

NEXT TIME: 35-25

Edited October 2, 2010 by DJ Ice

[theburninator77]

Super Mario 64 being so low is a crime. I really wish I had remembered to vote now.

I liked the NES marios better, and I promised myself to try and only vote one game of a series.

[Skummy]

I honestly think Super Mario 64 has long been outdone - Super Mario Galaxy 2 is by far the finest 3D platformer ever made, and in fact I always found Super Mario 64 was clunky, and suffered from camera issues and a few other problems that plagued the majority of 3D platform games, as well as my innate hatred of the N64 controller. It's certainly not a bad game, but there are much better within the Mario series (speaks more for the quality of the series than anything else, I suppose), and I do think it gets overhyped.

I have never played Super Bowl.

We Love Katamari is one of the most joyful games ever made, and one of my all-time favourites - number one on my list and, if I remember correctly, one of only two games on there to come out this century. It's everything computer gaming should be - easy to just pick up and play, but with enough depth to reward repeat attempts, bright and colourful, a barrel of fun, absolutely hilarious and, most importantly, it's absolutely batshit mental. The King Of All Cosmos is one of the finest characters in gaming, and coupled with the general premise, and lines like "all my cows and bears have escaped from their paddock" - hell, the entire cow/bear level is inspired - and one of the most wonderful levels in all gaming with the finest version of the archetypal really fucking huge level rolling up everything you can find, that's been repeated throughout the series but never bettered, and this is honestly one of the most amazing games I've ever played. It's impossible not to enjoy it.

I can't stand World Of Warcraft. The gameplay is as tedious as any RPG I've ever played, its mythology is uninspired at best, and it's just typical of how bloody dull all MMORPGs inevitably become - it takes all the "role-playing" out of RPGs and encourages grinding and blatant statwhoring. Absolute fucking tosh.

Alex Kidd In Miracle World also made my list - it's one of the games that defined my childhood, as I grew up owning the Master System II that came with the game built-in. I've since played it on countless emulators and downloaded it for the Wii (in fact, it was the first game I ever played on the Wii, keeping up my habit of spending a fortune on brand new consoles, and using them to play the same games I've been playing for the past fifteen years). The Alex Kidd series, as a whole, was pretty terrible - Enchanted Castle was fucking awful on the Mega Drive - but with Miracle World, they got it oh-so-right. The first level remains one of the finest opening levels of any platform game, and I can't think of many gaming moments more enjoyable than the first time you get to ride the motorbike, or pilot a helicopter, and towards the end (and it is surprisingly long) it gets fiendishly difficult. The only criticisms I can think of are that I still have a hard time figuring out exactly what some of the power-ups actually do, and that some of the later puzzles give you an infuriating lack of information as to how you should go about solving them - though that's typical of games of the period. Also, Janken bosses are fucking bitching. You can take your 3D shootouts and active time events, I'm going to stick to killing my bad guys with rock-paper-scissors. And punching a bull in the fucking face.

Never played Bioshock, Dragon Age, or Football Manager 2008.

GTAIII was fantastic at the time, though, to be honest I preferred the old 2D games, they just had more charm to them. In GTAIII I don't think I ever made it to the end, because I just used to sit and stick on "Chatterbox" radio and listen to that for ages, and then go off on a random killing spree. The 3D parts of the series never engaged me as much as the 2D ones and, as such, I never really got all that much enjoyment out of them for too long - in Vice City I just used to put on cheesy 80s pop and go on murder sprees, and stopped playing after about a fortnight, and in San Andreas I just used to stick on either a funk or country station and drive as far as I could manage. Really, though, GTAIII was bettered by its successors, but they also added a lot of needless fluff that just bogs the game down and makes it far less fun than it could have been. I prefer by GTA to be top down, full of swearing, and with the option of mowing down a row of Hare Krishnas, thank you very much.

I only ever played GTAIV at a friend's house, and was never especially good at it, so I can't speak for the story, or any sense of progression whatsoever. Again, I just drove around fooling around a bit - this time round, though, I wasn't even that fussed about crime or killing or anything, I was just utterly blown away by the physics engine. I don't think I've ever enjoyed getting injured in a game as much as I did in this. The gameplay was barely relevant, it was just seeing the different ways the character models could react to the same situations. Is the physics engine a bit of a geeky thing to be the sole reason I enjoyed a game? Sure, but I can't think of anything else remarkable about it.

I never played Mario Kart 64. I'm reliably informed that it's one of the best games in the series but, again, innate hatred of the N64 controller.

[DJ Ice]

In 34th place. LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK TO THE PAST

In 33rd position. THE SIMS 2

In 32nd place. UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES

In 31nd place. WWF NO MERCY

In 30th place. DONKEY KONG COUNTRY

In 29th place. FINAL FANTASY VIII

In 28th place. HEAVY RAIN

In 27th place. METAL GEAR SOLID

In 26th place. THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION

In 25th. POKÉMON RED/BLUE

UP NEXT: 24-20

Edited October 2, 2010 by DJ Ice

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

I was wondering when you'd realize you were promising numbers you'd already given. (Y)

[VerbalPuke]

Tecmo Super Bowl, Streets of Rage 2, and Metal Gear Solid making it make me happy. Three games that were on different platforms, that remind me of different periods of my life. Good times with those three.

Edited October 3, 2010 by VerbalPuke

[Sousa]

EWB's taste in video games is much, much better than its taste in music. Also, Skummy and I need to work harder to get We <3 Katamari to the top of this list.

Tecmo Super Bowl being on this list actually makes me feel better about that fucking Slipknot guy on the other list. Just a very pure, fun game. The only sports game I've ever really liked. READY. DOWN. HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT!

[METALMAN]

I have played the Grand Theft Auto games. I have also played Pokemon Blue (but not Red) and the Sims 2. I liked the first three games an awful lot, though I found the Sims 2 a little tedious.

[New Damage]

EWB's taste in video games is much, much better than its taste in music. Also, Skummy and I need to work harder to get We <3 Katamari to the top of this list.

Tecmo Super Bowl being on this list actually makes me feel better about that fucking Slipknot guy on the other list. Just a very pure, fun game. The only sports game I've ever really liked. READY. DOWN. HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT HUT!

What you don't realise is that that Journey video game is going to be number one.

[Skummy]

I've just realised there was a whole list I've not commented on. Onwards!

I don't like the Rock Band games. At all. I have had one or two drunken gatherings in which I've sung horribly on them, but for the most part they and their ilk are fucking dreadful - people slate "casual" games all the time, yet these seem to get off lightly, despite being horribly overpriced tat. Imagine this game without the guitar peripheral, just pressing Square at the right time...it would be like charging nearly £100 or whatever to play Parappa The Rapper. And Parappa The Rapper was at least amusing, Rock Band and Guitar Hero and all the rest of it are soul-less pap. And I'm terrible at them. And, really, is there anything less rock and roll than sticking rigidly to the criteria presented before you?

Unsurprisingly, I'm a big fan of Sonic The Hedgehog. As much of a Nintendo fanboy as I am nowadays, I'm a relatively recent convert - I was a diehard Sega supporter as a kid. We had the Master System at home, and my Mum ran a youth club that had a Mega Drive, which after some games got nicked would stay at my house on nights that the youth club wasn't going on. And Sonic The Hedgehog was, obviously, the game. I played it at my friend's flat recently, and everyone watching was amazed at how I just knew where all the little hidden rooms were in the Marble Zone and Spring Yard Zone, and just how effortlessly I could breeze through it. I could probably play through half of this game with my eyes closed, I just know it back to front, and I never get tired of it, it's an absolute classic. Even the Special Stages fill me with joy. Last I checked, I can complete the whole thing in just under twenty minutes. That's how I roll.

Streets Of Rage 2? Oh, fucking glorious. Another of my absolute favourites, and another one I played the hell out of on the Mega Drive and have been recently re-visiting. Sure, it's simplistic, and you can (and I do) pretty much beat all but two or three enemies effortlessly just by spamming Axel's "Grand Upper", but the whole thing is fantastic. Great fun to play, brilliant character design, one of the best soundtracks of any game on the Mega Drive, and some great nonsensical Engrish signs that make me chuckle to this day. "Do! Baseball". "It's like Boo!". One of my favourites of all time, and absolutely fucking brilliant, no question about it. One of the defining console games of my childhood.

No idea what Uncharted 2 is.

Am I the only one who thinks No Mercy was over-rated? Sure, it was customisable, but it didn't have too much more going for it than that - the gameplay was kind of clunky, it's aged horribly, and the much-vaunted season mode is flawed to hell - if I remember correctly, it pretty much demands that you lose certain matches in order to progress differently, while some matches are a lose or it's all over affair, with little rhyme or reason. Plus, it makes you fight Andre The Giant at one point. The fuck? See also, my innate hatred of the N64 controller.

Donkey Kong Country...I never actually played it on the SNES, but fucking hell did it look fantastic. Really stretched the limits of the console, graphically. The Game Boy equivalent was nice too, I seem to remember.

Final Fantasy VIII? Excuse me while my fucking head explodes. This was the beginning of the inexorable fall into complete fucking dross of the Final Fantasy series. There was some hope when IX managed to be a likeable, charming, detailed and enjoyable game, but apparently that was a freak occurrence, as ever since then Squeenix seem to have forgotten what made the first seven Final Fantasy games actually worth playing, and VIII was the start of it all. I appreciate bringing in new ideas, but throwing in a needlessly complex "junctioning" and drawing system in favour of the tried-and-tested MP/equipped spells/whatever system, barely explaining how it works for most of the game, and the only way it can work well is blatant statwhoring (again, taking out the "role playing" in favour of the "game")...UGH! One of the worst combat systems in the series, combined with the least likeable central characters, the most flawed, nonsensical and downright awful plot of any Final Fantasy game, with more gaping plotholes than any RPG I have ever played. The entire plot just feels like it was made up as they went along - if you all knew each other as kids, why don't you remember? Oh...erm, GFs, obviously. So why do you keep using them? And if Irvine remembers, how come? Wasn't he using GFs too? And if he remembered, why the fuck didn't he tell you? Why did he agree to try and kill Edea? When he is trying to kill her, and he claims he's never actually shot anyone before, is he forgetting every single battle you've used him in, in which he repeatedly shoots people and animals in the face? What relevance does Laguna have to anything? Oh, he's Squall's dad...so fucking what? Does that even affect the plot at all? Would it matter if he wasn't there at all? No. Compressing time? What the fuck? There is NOTHING about this plot that doesn't feel pulled out of thin fucking air. It would be unforgivable in any RPG, but coming off the back of Final Fantasy VII, which gave us a genuinely fascinating story, which worked on multiple levels, and genuinely felt well thought out and in-depth, it's just a kick in the fucking balls and an insult to our intelligence in the process. And, frankly, I think I'd prefer the kick in the balls. On top of that, there are secret quests/hidden items etc. that are downright impossible to find without a strategy guide...the only redeeming features of the whole game are the FMVs, and the card game, and even that is bogged down by bullshit rule changes and aforementioned strategy guide requiring secrets - to get a specific card, you have to lose a different, entirely unrelated card, to some NPC or other, and then win the new card from an entirely unrelated NPC, and then get your original card back from yet another entirely unrelated NPC. This game makes my fucking blood boil.

I don't know what Heavy Rain is.

Metal Gear Solid was an absolute classic for its time. Suitably ridiculous, but not as over-the-top as the following games, Solid Snake being a bad-ass, Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot being fantastic villains, an absolutely brilliant plot, great gameplay...just an all-round brilliant game, one of the best on the console. Also, one of the all-time great video game cinematics, and all-time great "death" scenes with Gray Fox's "a cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal" showdown with Metal Gear.

Never played Oblivion.

The Pokémon games are, obviously, classics. I'm not as into them as some people, and they'd never make my top list, but I can see why they deserve to be up here. I can't think of another RPG that can be so popular with barely a hint of a storyline, yet still be accessible to casual gamers and to hardcore gamers who really get into learning the stats of each 'mon and want to explore every nuance of the game. It can be a bit of fun for ten minutes, or it can be a time-killing monster. Which is always a good indication of quality.

[DJ Ice]

I'm sorry for not getting any updates today. More tomorrow

[Gongsun Zan]

Personally, I really think Oblivion is overrated. As someone who loved Morrowind, Oblivion was pretty much a step back in almost every direction save the prettier graphics. Morrowind was a game that drew you in slowly, whereas Oblivion just bashes you over the head with its presentation. Instead of a blip on your compass, the people in Morrowind gave you directions based on landmarks. Unlike the cookie-cutter fantasy landscape in Oblivion, Morrowind had what really felt like a fantasy world, with it's giant mushrooms and bizarre architecture. It had a more interesting and personal story. It had better writing. At the end, you actually felt like a god. In Oblivion, I dreaded leveling up, because each level just makes fights with monsters pointlessly longer. Bleh.

[rocksta]

Fuck yah Zan +a million.

I enjoyed Oblivion but Morrowind was just amazing.