#34. Scorched Earth
Scorched Earth was a simple turn-based artillery game. Choose your weapon, aim, set your range, and unleash hell on the other players. It was brilliant. There were so many types of weapons and armor, and when you coupled that with randomly generated landscape and changing weather conditions, this simple game ended up having very serious depth to it. It also got me into trouble like no other game, and why wouldn't it? It was my first time at a multi-player game that had more than 4 players. Scorched Earth supported 10 players!! Put this game in front of ten highschool freshmen and well.... you get banned from the school library. Where the hell else could I play with 10 people though. School was the only option. I give the librarians credit. They gave us warnings, but after a few days of playing and really learning the techniques and strategies all we could do is get excited and talk smack and volumes that really would only be appropriate for a sporting event. We were banned for the rest of the semester, and my school passed a new rule banning video games from the school library that summer. It is my greatest legacy. Truth is, I could still kill hours of playing this today though. Scorched is that that perfect simple game offers something for gamers of all level and makes the time fly by.
So simple, and yet so good. The graphics were mesmerising, too. Like a psychadelic Worms.
Also, my school law reform legacy is the banning of footballs, but also the introduction of a sports day.
One of the ultimate school games (Oregon Trail is the king). Why did every school have this game? Are they secretly training us for the eventual nuclear war? Anyway spent many hours in computer class with this awesome game.
They didn't have Scorched Earth at the two schools I briefly attended. One had Doom, the other Sim City, Tetris and another strategy game I've forgotten the name of. But I'm not 50 years old. 
#33. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Legacy of Kain couldn't have come around at a more pefect time in my life. I was going through my college goth phase (truth be told it was more about trying to have sex with goth girls while in college, but that's just too wordy), and lo and behold what do I find? The Playstation's answer to the Legend of Zelda starring a vampire. It's practically like the video game gods wanted me to keep dressing in black.
Ridiculous phases aside, Legacy of Kain is one hell of a brilliant game. It was hard as hell and the loading times were obnoxious, but Kain's adventure in learning how to vampire while exploring Nosgoth makes those things feel like small trade-offs. The combat was strong, with lots of customization thanks to the different types of weapons and armor. Nosgoth itself was a really impressive world to explore, though definitely depressing at times, particularly due to the actions you can take as Kain (sometimes out of necessity and sometimes just for fun). And it probably had the best video game voice acting up until that point. Really Simon Templeton's portrayl of Kain may still be one of the great VO performances in gaming to date. And as much as I love this game, of all the games on my list I think this would be the most improved with an updated remake.
robio said:#33. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Fucking amazing game. Yeah it was basically A Link To The Past: The Adult Version. Pretty edgy for the time. Almost like the videogame equivalent of Death Metal. Best game Silicon Knights ever made (sorry, Eternal Darkness). Hell, even Soul Reaver was basically the adult version of Ocarina Of Time....they were riding Zelda's coattails and I loved them for it. The voice work was indeed what set the stage for MGS and all games to follow.
You're lucky you went to college when you did. Today instead of hot goth girls you'd be surrounded by pink hairs and being told you're a bad person because you're of Euro descent. And the goth girls were fucking hot back then...good lord were they smokin'.
edgecrusher said:You're lucky you went to college when you did. Today instead of hot goth girls you'd be surrounded by pink hairs and being told you're a bad person because you're of Euro descent. And the goth girls were fucking hot back then...good lord were they smokin'.
The key word in that sentence was "trying" to have sex with goth girls in college. Back then I was not the smooth lothario that you all know and love now, and most of my tries were failures. I did land two though, so that's something. 
#32. Super Mario Bros 2
I don't think I'll ever be as hyped up and as excited for a game as I was for Super Mario Bros. 2. A sequel to Super Mario Bros was rumored for years. So many kids had mysterious uncles who worked for Nintendo that told them about an upcoming sequel. They were all full of shit, but every once in a while a golden nugget of corn would be found, usually in an obscure early video game magazine, that suggested the sequel was real in kids in Japan were playing it. Thank god Nintendo had the good sense not to release it, and instead gave us this bad ass Mario skinned version of Doki Doki Panic instead. I ended up getting the game as a Christmas present when I was in 7th grade, and it's pretty much gone down in history as one of my favorite presents of all time.
I loved that the game was drastically different from the original, but it still had all the familiarity that I needed. The original cast was back (with their own unique abilities this time). Mushrooms made you bigger. Warp zones let you skip levels. Everything else though from the worlds, to the monsters, to the music were all new. Everything felt fresh and was insanely fun. And god, the ending... holy crap that ending. I was in jaw dropping awe when I saw Mario wake up from a dream. Video game graphics should never be able to look that good, and yet here it was. I probably beat SMB2 more than any other NES game (and possibly every other game) simply so I could see that ending one more time.
That game had the best ending of any Mario game. I’ve been waiting for years for Wart to return to the Mario series.
Kain is a hell yes! Mario 2, eh. The music in Mario 2 was incredible.
travo said:That game had the best ending of any Mario game. I’ve been waiting for years for Wart to return to the Mario series.
I was so sure he was going to show up in Super Mario 3D World. That was as close to a sequel as we've ever seen to SMB2 and I swore up and down he was going to be a secret boss or something.
I really enjoyed Super Mario Bros. 2. Back in the day I legitimately thought that it was a true sequel to Super Mario Bros. and didn’t hear about it being a reskinned different game until many years later. I would totally be down with Nintendo revisiting this game someway somehow. It would be awesome if Wart was to be a dlc character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
robio said:The key word in that sentence was "trying" to have sex with goth girls in college. Back then I was not the smooth lothario that you all know and love now, and most of my tries were failures. I did land two though, so that's something.
Good for you man. Two is better than none. Hopefully you had on some "Christian Woman" by Type O Negative to get them in the mood.
I don't remember much of Mario Bros 2. I'd love to play it again just to bring back memories. I remember the first game and the 3rd game much more vividly. Just like with the Zelda series, actually.
#31. Dig-Dug
I love classic arcade games. There's an elegant simplicity to them, that make them easy to learn, tough to master and addictive as hell. Dig-Dug though will always be the king though.You dig, you fight Dragons and balloon monsters, you get bonus points for finding vegetables, and level ups are represented by flowers. Does gameplay even matter when you have all of that? Well I suppose you do, but Dig-Dug still works. Limited space and lots of monsters mean you have to have to develop a plan for beating the level quickly, and in the later levels that means you have about 5 seconds. Fast, dangerous, and cute balloon monsters and dragons.... yay!
Plus, I hate to brag, but I am widely considered one of the greatest in the world. It's true. On the Playstation 3 version of the Namco Classic Collection my top score for Dig-Dug put me at 79 worldwide. It's awe inspiring I know. But it's a good reminder that you if you put hundreds of hours into game with repetitive play, you get good.
#30. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Monster Hunter was a series I never thought I'd give a damn about, but when Monster Hunter Tri came out for the Wii I gave it a shot. It was okay, but after around 20 hours I found it too hard to be fun and gave up on it. When it was remade for the Wii U and 3DS, once again I didn't think I'd give it a shot, but due to the Wii U's ridiculous dry spells early on (and during it's entire run if we're being accurate), I found myself in a position where I was willing to try it out again. This time something clicked, and about 90 hours later once I had finished the main game and had dived into the post-game content I was satisfied that I found a series that would be one of my all-time favorites.
The incremental experience and progress is certainly addictive and makes you want to keep going back for one last hunt, but that's only a small part of why I love it and the series as a whole. You hunt through beautiful landscapes looking for these giant ferious beasts, study them, and then hope you don't get your ass handed too you too badly as you try to kill them for new weapons and armor. Solo was fun enough, but finding that right hunting party online was something truly special. Sure a lof of times you'll end up grouped with some dumbasses (and in some instances you are that dumbass), but when you find that balanced group where everyone knows what's going on and knows how to do their part.... god it's amazing fun. You feel like you could go against anything in the world. And even with all the QoL changes the recent MH World brought us, I still think 3U is slightly better with it's variety of monsters an slightly harder difficulty. At any rate, great game, and a marvelous series.
MH Tri also introduced me to the series. Such a great game. A lot of people didn't like the swimming segments, but personally I think they provide a welcome break from the normal hunting. I think I spent about 150 hours on Tri, and got it again on WiiU for free thanks to some loyalty scheme Nintendo had running at the time. While a lot was added, I got stuck on the first 'new' monster and couldn't be arsed to play any further because over half I would have done before anyway. Since then I've played 4 and MH:W. Out of all those I think 4 is my favorite though, as it has a lot of different 'types' of beats to fight, ranging from dragons, to frogs and monkeys.
#29. Duck Tales
How many games can you say were amazing twice? When Duck Tales first came out on the NES it was mind bogglingly good. Capcom threw down in the biggest way and made one of the greatest licensed game of all time, which was especially amazing when you consider some of the licensed trash that was out there during the 8-bit era. It was a great non-linear adventure game that had you traveling the globe looking for treasure. It even had different endings depending on how much loot you found. And then 25 years later Wayforward comes along, remakes it with cartoon perfect graphics and the original actors doing VO work. It was incredible all over again. Honestly I couldn't tell you which one I liked more.
But let's talk about the most amazing feature of both games. The soundtrack. Duck Tales was a freaking god-tier level soundtrack. The original 8-bit soundtrack did an outstanding job of recreating the cartoon's theme song, but took things many steps further with an incredible OST. And then Wayforward came along and did something even more amazing. They created arrangements of those 8-bit tunes and turned them into something that was completely true to the original song, but still fully brought them into the modern era. My son who also enjoyed the game would hum along to these tunes even when not playing them, just like I did back in the day. Even my wife was impressed. During the end credits a piano version of the Moon's theme song played and she started asking me what I was listening to, not realize I was playing a game and thinking it was much better than the usual crap I like. So the game is a great accomplishment, and it's genuinally hard to think of another game that pulled that off twice.
Yes but have you ever boofed?