72. Castlevania Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow
Following SOTN 2D Castlevania found it's home on Nintendo portables. They could not reach the visual fidelity of SOTN but they more than made up for it with addictive gameplay systems that went deeper than SOTN. All the portable CV games are excellent but the standout games are the Sorrow duo. Taking place in modern day, this is the most up to date story in the CV timeline starring Soma Cruz and his soul absorbing powers. The souls become a sort of meta pokemon collectathon game within a game as you collect enemies powers throughout the castle. So not only is it a fantastic metroidvania with all the great bosses and battles you expect but this layer makes every encounter mean something as maybe the enemy will drop a cool new power. With so many skills at your disposal the combat does not get old.
Aria ends on a cliffhanger that is picked up on with its sequel Dawn of Sorrow which is the first CV game on the DS. Finally the graphics can live up to SOTN, better music and the nifty two screens allows to view the map as you play. Being an early DS game Iga tried some neat touch screen abilities that are used in creative ways throughout the game. The soul system was back and deeper than ever. Dawn is the complete package and second only to SOTN as the best Castlevania game.
Origins would have been my only platinum if my PS3 hadn't died.
Such a shitshow of a generation for hardware quality.
On a related note, I think Portrait of Ruin often gets overlooked. The dual combat modes really worked well and the portraits finally allowed them to take the series outside of the castle, which it was in dire need of at this point.
71. Crash Bandicoot 2
So I became a PS owner shortly after RE and I was all in on the PS library. But something was missing, that mascot flagship platformer, then Crash Bandicoot came out and it was a huge hit. Crash became the de facto mascot for the PS1 era. The 2.5d gameplay was unqiue enough to make the gameplay feel fresh and not just some old school platformer, it embraced enough 3D to feel like a 3D game. The first game was a challenging fun platformer but it was the second game that really allowd Crash to expand and become the classic franchise it is now.
The levels were more vaired with new locations that included something other than jungle! They realy expanded the secrets and side content which is one of the pillars of platforming. Yeah just beating the level was fun but the real mastery comes in breaking every box, finding the hidden gems and completing the challenges that come from those gems. The gem system is brillaint as earning gems in later levels allows you to go back to past levels where that gem activates the hidden path to earn a new gem and so on. These are so well hidden and have some great requirments to unlcok them, this is where I spent most of my time, mastering the levels to achieve 100%. And 100% I did get, one of my favorite platforming achievements, I loved this game. The third game was fantastic as well but lacked the innnovative secrets of the second, they sort of just through everything in the third game so it lost focus. Crash 2 though is a beautifully balanced, meaty platformer, one of the best ever made.
70. Silent Hill
It's 1999 and survival horror mania is in full bloom. Capcom has the flagship franchise but Konami wanted to make a rival in the survival horror space, a more psychological horror game. Silent Hill was a massive production for them, ads were all over and I was super excited to jump into this freaky town. It took all of 2 minutes to make me realize this is a whole different level of scary. Right away you lose your daughter, you search though the fog and see her run into an alley, you go deeper and deeper, it gets darker and darker. The alley begins to change, the chain fences have bodies now, guts and blood cover the floor, the music starts to pound and screech. Still you dont know where you are going and then darkness, and when you see light a dead body ripped open on a fence, demonic children coming at you with knives, you die. RE is baby stuff, SH will haunt you to the core, I was mortified after the start.
This game had me spooked in a way almost nothing had done before. I forced myself to play with the lights off, I admit sometimes I just turned them back on cause wtf. The school when you are in the patio and you just hear horrific growling of some creature that is who knows where, ahhhhh. And then after solving puzzles and exploring this abandoned school a pathway down into the basement opens up, the source of that noise... fuck you game. But down I went and I activated a generator or something, no monster, ok cool, lets go back out AHHH WHAT THE FUCKKKKK!!! The entire school is now a demonic hell version, all the halls and rooms morphed into nightmare fuel. My favorite moment in the school is remembring a creepy painting of a door (picture above) in the prinicpals office. Well when you go to the hell version the prinicpals office is now that painting, genius.
That's what Silent Hill does, play with your head, with your expectations. The gameplay was clunky, combat a step back from RE. The inventory management is not really a focus, this game is about exploring and surviving. It did have some good boss battles but what stands out are the locations and moments of fear. Like when you are in the hospital and you search all three floors, so where to next, you enter the elevator and magically a 4th floor button that was not there before is there. So you go to the 4th floor that doesn't exist and enter the hell version of the hospital, that sticks in my mind. Oh and the alternate endings and awesome secret UFO ending were so much fun to unlock. I played this game so many times, got every hidden weapon and ending. I don't care what people say, the sequel was a huge step back in level design, in moments as I described above. I would say the series never reached the heights of the first game. This is the scariest game I have ever played in my life.
I wondered if a Crash Bandicoot would make it. Glad one did!
Silent Hill should be much, much higher, though. 
69. Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite
Following in the footsteps of system shock 2 which I feel is a bad game with good ideas taken from Deus Ex, Bioshock modernized the Deus Ex formula into a story driven classic. Rapture is easily one of the most iconic video game locations, a fully realized underwater city turned house of horrors. Exploring rapture sort of unfolds a little like a Metroid game, levels open up when you gain a new ability, parts of the map connect to each other, but its done so seamlessly. From the botany area, to the theater district, every inch of this game has a personality. I was hooked from the gripping intro and engaged all the way through, especially when the big twist came which is an all time twist.
The gameplay was fantastic too taking elements of Deus Ex and mixing it with some cool powers. The biotics allow you to manipulate foces like electricty, fire, and ice and the game world has all kinds of systems in place to use these as environmental attacks against enemies. Or you can hack drones, sneak around and bash people in the head or just use guns. Battles could be planned out with mines and traps, it was not just a mindless shooter. All your best laid plans go to shit if you anger a Big Daddy which were like roaming bosses. The whole big daddy and little sister system was unique and a good way to make players have a moral choice with gameplay consequences. Bioshock is briliant game, oozing with atmosphere and is a meaty large adventure we don't see much from the FPS genre now.
I feel everyone lost their mind with this game, gets praised as a highly rated epic and then people decided to shit on it, they are wrong. Infinite is a classic, the story, setting and yes even gameplay is top notch. I am a sucker for time travel stories and sci fi and this was right up my alley with one hell of a time travel story. I loved the characters, Booker was excellent and this game made Troy Baker a star, Elizabeth is like a Disney princesss in a nightmare, the twins are the quirjy scientists. This game is a lot more linear than Bioshock but it works because the story has so many highs, its fast paced and goes to amazing places by the end. The alternate realities, the damn pinky, and the ultimate reveal at the end, so brilliant. All the action is highlighted by moments of peace and character building between Booker and Elizabeth, they feel like a true team and they form an emotional connection to the player.
Once again the setting is fully realized in ways most games do not achieve. The sky city of colombia is like an alternate segregated America, you see the inner workings of the politics and the class structure. You notice the weird issues with time, like how do they have covers of famous 80s music. Loved the mystery and being absorbed in the world. Then came the gameplay which is far more liberating and free than the first with the addiction of the railing skyhooks which allow you to swing through the air on a roller coaster of death. I love fast paced action and this game delivers it with all kinds of awesome powers. Most of the biotics from the first are here but now there is a whole layer of augments you can attach to your character which can create all kinds of crazy builds. You can become a cannonball of death that can dash through the battlefield colliding with enemies in a giant flame attack. you can become a jedi and hurl enemies off the blimps. I used the move controller with this game, one of the few major titles to support it so I was able to flick enemies around with my hand, play this wii style, I loved it. Infinite is a classic
This must mean the best Bioshock game is higher up? 
GG doesn’t comment on my list 
.
Why should he when he knows you didn't even give Endless Ocean a chance of making it?
Got me there.
Dvader said:GG doesn’t comment on my list
No one comments on my Anime or music posts. So there. Plus I'm too busy watching Anime and kpop.
gamingeek said:No one comments on my Anime or music posts. So there. Plus I'm too busy watching Anime and kpop.
Touché
Silent Hill make me feel genuinely uneasy....like I'd play it for a few hours and literally almost feel sick for awhile afterwards because it's such a disturbing atmosphere. SH2 had that vibe at times, but never close to SH1. And SH3 didn't really freak me out at all. If nothing else, SH1 is easily one of the most isolated, horrifying atmosphere's ever created in game form. Especially if you had a nice big CRT and decent stereo speakers hooked up, and you played at night.
Dvader said:gamingeek said:No one comments on my Anime or music posts. So there. Plus I'm too busy watching Anime and kpop.
Touché
Don't feel bad. I'm just too tired and/or busy to do much of anything these days.
68. Bayonetta 1 and 2
Kamiya, one of the greatest game directors of all timeleft capcom to make platinum games, but they needed a flagship title. So Kamiya returned to the genre he helped birth and created Bayonetta. Obviosuly I was all in on this, the master making a new DMC style game, partnered with Sega, looked so great. This series never reached the highs of DMC, I dont care for the combat system as much but it still adhears to all the tenets of DMC rules, be stylish to win. I rank the games in reverse order so lets start with 2 .
Bayonetta 2 was a miracle as the first game didnt sell all that much and out of nowhere it was Nintendo who funded it, Nintendo?! This time Kamiya was just an overseer and I am not going to say it shows but the sequel clearly didn't have the personality and total zanyness of the original. It did provide insane setpieces, massive bosses and non stop thrilling action. This is without a doubt one of the best Wii U exclusives and its nice it got further life on Switch and we are lucky to have the third game coming. I loved the online integration of this, coop modes added lots of replayability to an already replayable game. The boss fights were huge highlights, no matter how insane the action got the frame rate stayed steady, it was a gorgeous game. Bayo 2 was a great sequel, it didn't add much, it was rather safe but still a great time.
The first game I adored for it's variety and Sega call backs. In the middle of this action game a space harrier game breaks out with space harrier music. I never knew what was coming and I loved it. The action was a unique take on the DMC system, it was just as fluid, lots of cancels and combos that can lead to one another. The big change was the witch time which is a dedicated dodge that freezes time and the finishing moves which lead to QTE button press mini games to get the most out of it. It was deep and viseral but all those stops to the action is why I don't put this series on the level of DMC. Still this first game is an action game hall of famer, I loved how well structured it was with every battle having a separate score so you can easily see where you can improve. I played this game on the PS3 which had a well documented terrible port. Frame rate issues and all I fought through it and loved this game. I bought it again when I got a 360 and played the new Nintendo version that came with Bayonetta 2. I cannot wait to see what Platinum does with the third game, Bayonetta is the queen of action games.
67. Donkey Kong Country Returns
I didnt have an SNES, remember I was team Genesis so DKC was something I was kind of jealous of. It was a massive game, it looked stunning and everyone was talking about it. Eventually I did get to play it and well it was ok, I agree with Miyamoto that they were simple platformers with amazing art style and music. So DKCR gets announced and I am a bit hesitant but its Retro so it has to be good right, WOAH I didn't know it was going to be that good. This game blew my mind, I only rented it thinking its something I wont care to play much, well I was wrong.
This game is platforming bliss. Every level can be played the straight careful way or completed barreling through enemies at high speeds in a crazy speed run. The two player mechanic was handled so well, an elegant system that tied to health and finding secrets, a reward for playing well. Like all the best platformers it is chock full of secrets and every level has multiple objectives to complete. Most of the praise has to go to the impecable level design which never falters and keeps delivering new impressive setpieces and twists to the gameplay. When the game wants to get hard to gets damn hard with some of the most sweaty hand indusing levels I ever played. This along with Rayman were the gold standards of the 2D platforming resurgance that NSMB brought back and I believe both series surpassed those NSMB games. This one though is the best of the bunch, even with its odd wiimote controls it all works perfectly. Tropical Freeze is good but something just didn't click with me, maybe it was just too much of the same, so I wont add that to this list. But DKCR earned it's place as one of the best platformers ever, something that can't be said of the originals (Sonic is better).
73. Rayman Origins and Legends
My history with Rayman goes back to the early PS1 days, being a platformer junkie I rented the OG rayman and enjoyed it for what it was. A few years later is when I really fell in love with Rayman 2 on the Dreamcast, one of the stand out 3D platformers of it's day. Years go by and Rayman is dormant until one E3 there is this trailer for a sick looking Rayman 2D adventure that looks way faster than the original and the art style is stunning. Origins is one of the best platformers of the 2D platformer resurgence begun by NSMB. Incredible level design with new ideas and gameplay mechanics constantly being introduced. I love games with multiple goals and scoring in the levels so speed running these levels was where I really put most of my time. I 100% this bad boy, loved every second of it, huge game with amazing bosses and a perfect challenge level.
A sequel was an obvious choice but the surprising thing was that it was to be a Wii U exclsuive launch game. One delay came and then the news hit, the game would be delayed half a year so it can go multiplatform, ahhhhh. The wait was terrible but so worth it, and the Wii U version remained the best one with its awesome touch screen levels. Those were just a bonus, the true star was the excellent platforming found in Origins pushed to its limits with more mechancis, crazier levels and time attack leaderboards and challenges. I spent so many hours trying to reach the top 10 in the dialy challenges, watching other players do impossible feats to achieve crazy scores. Who can forget the badass rock and roll levels where the entire stage flows with the mussic, black betty level is iconic to me.
These Rayman games can hang with the best of them, they are brilliant 2D games and we need more.