To celebrate our 10 year anniversary I think it's only fair that we do the exact same thing every video game magazine did whenever they reached a milestone... create a top 100 list. So that's what I'm going to do. I've spent the last couple weeks thinking this over and I have a list in front of me that I'm pretty happy with. No one else on earth will be happy with it, but as I always say, "fuck off it's my list and I don't give two shits what you think you little pissant." At least I think I say that.
Also, if you recall I did do a top 28 list a while back. However, that was 5 years ago and many great games have come out since, so even that top 28 has some changes in it. There's a few new games, a few games my opinions have changed on, and there was one really great one that I completely overlooked somehow when I made the list the first time. So rest assured there will be some very noticeable changes.
And it's going to go by fast. Since I've got that new job starting in just over a week, my free time may be reduced, so I'm going to try to get all 100 games posted within the next two weeks. I need to sharpen up my writing since this is a PR job so it's good practice. Writing about insurance benefits and filing medical claims is just like video games right?
100Sonic Adventure
99Kaboom
98Conquests of the Longbow
97Streets of Rage 2
96Lollipop Chainsaw
95Bloodborne
94 Crazy Taxi
93Bit.Trip.Beat
92Wii Ski & Snowboard
91RiverCity Ransom
90Dragon Quest Monsters
89Jones in the Fastlane
88Dark Cloud 2
87Professor Layton and the Curious Village
86MadWorld
85Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
84Torneko the Last Hope
83Crystal Castles
82Space Harrier
81Retro Game Challenge
80Final Fantasy VII
79Bulletstorm
78Rayman Legends
77Super Dodge Ball
76World of Goo
75The Magic of Scherazade
74Minecraft
73Fantasy Zone 2
72Golden Axe: Revege of Death Adder
71Final Fantasy Legend II
70Hotel Dusk
69Splatoon
68Pitfall
67Dragon Quest V
66SteamWorld Dig
65Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
64Order Up
63Hearthstone
62Monkey Island II: LeChuck's Revenge
61Bayonetta
60Galaga
59 Earthbound
58Super Mario Bros.
57Wii Sports Resort
56Pac-Man CE: DX
55Trauma Team
#18 Street Fighter Alpha 2
My freshman year of college, the original Street Fighter Alpha was pretty much responsible for me making every friend I had that year. We had it in our game room, and it was pretty much the way I got introduced to everyone I would ultimately hang out with. It was a great game, amazing action and packed with secrets, but there was no denying it was an unfinished product. It was a small roster, characters shared music and stages and extremely unbalanced. Sodom players for instance could break out a juggling combo that could take about 80% of an opponents health very quickly. So when Alpha 2 came out it was a fucking event for me and my friends. It also came out right around the time of the second when arcades were starting to close once and for all, so finding it was tough. Eventually we found one in a movie theater and for the next few weeks we'd go buy tickets to movies we'd ultimately never watch just so we could dump quarters in SFA2. And in retrospect, I probably didn't miss out on much by skipping The Fan starring Wesley Snipes and Robert Deniro.
Alpha 2 was also the best of the series. The 5 additional characters and 3 secret characters from the original made for a full roster. Perfectly balanced with the ridiculous juggling and combos from the original minimized. Amazing stage designs and great music to go along with it. Really I can't think of a single area where this game was lacking. Capcom put out some pretty incredible fighting games around this time, but I always found myself coming back to the Alpha 2. Just about as good as a fighting game can get in my mind.
Alpha 2 was and still is a fantastic fighting game.
You couldn't play their arcade games without purchasing film tickets?!
#17. Pokemon Snap
Pokemon Snap isn't exactly a ballbuster in the difficulty department, but that's kind of the point. This game was designed with one philosophy (aside from making more money off of the initial rush of Pokemania) - games should be fun. And god knows Snap provides oodles of it. 7 different lands to cruise through while you take pictures of different Pokemon, while they interact with one another. And if they're not quite doing what you want them to do, you can throw apples or stun balls at them to change up their behavior. The end result is the Pokemon tend to end up doing something mildly funny and at times outright disasterous. Poor Meowth...he got his ass kicked so many times thanks to my interferring.
Snap could have very easily been a half-assed cash-in like some of the other games in the series (I'm looking at you Pokemon Collosium). When it first came out, Nintendo announced a giant deal with Blockbuster video so that you could bring in your cartridge to one of their locations and print stickers of the pictures you took. It sounded like an utterly stupid idea, but I still gave it a shot and holy hell, for the weekend I had the game I couldn't tear myself away from it. I even bit the bullet and printed out my pictures (which were stolen by an ex-girlfriend along with a large collection of NES games in a very nasty breakup). It's since gone on to be one of those games that I've introduced to all my kids when I was getting them into gaming, and it's still one of those games I know I can turn on and enjoy for 30 minutes at any given moment.
Much better than the RPGs.
I have fond memories of Snap as well. It was just so relaxed while still being challenging. Getting that Lapras to line up for a perfect shot wasn't easy. I tried to introduce my son to the game a while ago, but he couldn't get into it. Kids these days...
No argument from me.
Really?? Is he at all interested in Pokemon?
A take a picture game?! At 17... I never played snap but you take pictures... pictures. I mean. Ok whatever. Continue.