Duke Nukem 3D is a parody, isn't it?

Doom not in the top 10 is a travesty!

16. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

This is my list, my favorites. I know that while Sonic games are great they arent usually this high on any greatest list, but again my list. In my gaming history few games captured my love like Sonic 2. Its a game I can play at any time and feel completely at peace. Its a game I can finish in like an hour because I know it so well. If I ever need a short fix of happiness and joy, Sonic 2 is there for me. It is the best Sonic game, its pure in a way that Sonic 3 sort of lost, the levels are super fast paced, the game still that pefect balance of speed and learning routes. It has the best and most memorable collection of levels, the best music, and the pacing is impecable. It introduced the spin dash which is the equinticential sonic ability, a way to create momentum from nothing to keep Sonic moving. Tails makes his first appearance expanding the Sonic universe into one that will have a bevy of characters and personality. With Tails came a sort of coop and a small 2P mode that while basic was a fun way to play with your friend or in my case my sister. The first time Super Sonic makes an appearance giving us great incentive to get all chaos emeralds which are earned in the best mini game, the half pipe. Sonic 2 is one of those sequels, the one that expands on the first in every way.

Sonic 2 came out in 1992 to a huge promotional campaign that littered the airways with commericals to promote the big release date. I recived Sonic 2 on christmas of that year, Sonic 1 had become an all time favorite of mine and made me a Sega fanboy. Sonic 2 was the Genesis biggest weapon against the Nintendo, never had I been more hyped so it was the top of my christmas list. Good old Santa delivered me Sonic 2 with a t-shirt of Sonic 2, I was ecstatic. I had a poster of the giant 2 in my room, I had Sonic clothes, sonic pajamas, all the EGMs with sonic coverage. From the moment I put in that cart I was in love; that Emerald Hill music would come on and I was off and running. The speed was so noticable, Sonic 2 made Sonic 1 feel slow, the levels would just fly by but they were still filled with many paths and secrets. Then came chemical plant zone and its winding ramps and pipes, level design unhear of at the time. I remember being blown away when I went so fast down a slope that sonic flew off the screen, the game couldnbt keep up. The danger was always there though, slip up once and down you go into the slower water parts of the level. The trick is to stay high and stay fast, thats what I loved so much about it, mastering it took lots of repetition and training.

I love most all the levels, I cant even think of one I don't like. The joys of getting into a sonic slot machine in Casino night zone, the great colors and music of Hill Top zone. The great look and obstacles of Oil ocean. I guess mystic cave I have issues with, thats about it. I love the ramp up toward the end, getting a 3 act metropolis zone that really tests your sonic skills. Then taking flight in what maybe a gimmick level with the airplane but still at that time it felt like an epic adventure. All leading up to Sonic flying into space to do battle with the giant death egg robot, a perfect ending to an incredible game. As I mentioned before tails allowed for some 2P action. Sometimes my little sister would want to play so I let her be tails, a character that had no real bearing on the action as tails cant die nor advance the screen, but hey he was still super cool, he has two tails! I did greatly enjoy playing with my sister even if I was mean and always took the lead, she never complained cause she wasn't as good as me, though she did get good at those two player levels. It's one of those games that are a building block of your childhood, something that transports me right back to a great time. Sonic 2 has everything that made for a great 16bit platformer, its easily my favorite Genesis game and still my all time favorite Sonic game.

15. Super Metroid

There was an EGM top 100 greatest games of all time back at the turn of the millenium and the number 1 game was Super Metroid. That peaked my interest  greatly as Metroid was always that weird NES game to me. I never owned it but I borrowed or rented it quite a bit because I did play it but its bland repetitive environments and how its impossible to know where to go did not hold my interesting like Zelda. I didn't have an SNES so Super Metroid was off my radar. Really the first time I played a Super Metroid like game was SOTN which blew my mind. So when I got into emulators I wanted to play a lot of classics I missed on the SNES and Super Metroid was at the top of that list. I remember sitting in the PC room, late nights playing Super Metroid and being in complete awe of what a masterpiece this was. It was then that I understood why it was ranked the best in that issue and why its one of the most influential games of all time.

What makes Super Metroid so special is how the game slowly opens in ways where you feel you are exploring but for the most part it keeps you in tracks until certain points of the game where it lets you make choices on how to proceed. All the game logic is presented in such a way that the game teaches you by example like the small animals that tech you advance techniques or smart traps that have you learn a new skill to get through the room. It's paced impecably, its a non stop ride of greatness, detailed engrossing environment one after another. A new skill just at the right moment that opens up all those possibilties that you made a mental note on to return to. A game that is simply a joy to play because of how smooth Samus controlls and how fast paced the combat can be. The boss battles, wow, gigantic screen filling battles, epic sequences that were top of the line for 16-bit. And then there is the music, just iconic track after iconic track.

In terms of sheer replabiility few games are as perfect to replay as Super Metroid. I find it far easier to replay than say SOTN, if I ever feel like I am in a rut with gaming I can start up Super Metroid and have a blast for 6 hours. It's all so memorable, I remember getting the screw attack and feeling that freedom to explore the surface and fly sky high. Entering a derelic space craft with freaking ghosts. There was one part that did drive me mad, it drove many mad, the glass tube, come on now. It is a near perfectly designed game when you first play it and it may feel even more perfect when you see sequence breaks and how this game practically started a whole style of game. This is easily one of the best 16-bit games ever made.

I had just gotten out of high school and went on a trip with some friends.  I picked up the new Stone Temple Pilots album and this game when I got back.  My family was gone for a week, so it was me playing STP while experiencing this game with no interruptions .  Yeah, I remember that time too well. Super Metroid was amazing, one of the best 2D experiences ever.

travo said:

As for Sonic, I was the opposite of Vader, a Nintendo fanboy.  I never ever played a Genesis game until the Virtual Console.

SupremeAC said:

Traitor to the Cause!

It's too late.  Nintendo won.

Foolz said:

As someone who considers Metroid Prime a contenter for greatest game ever, I should probably give Super Metroid a go. Metroid II didn't do it for me, though.

You should give it a shot. Metroid II really has very little in common with it. We can make it a community game and all play it. Everyone probably has it at this point.

Got it working nicely in Higan. Menu music is killer; Ridley fucking you up then flying off is a great opening, too.

Uh, so I'm ready to play it whenever.

14. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3

It is time for Souls. Yes there is one game missing from this grouping cause fuck DS2. These are all classics in their own way and worth talking about so lets begin with the original

Back in the late 2000s word was coming in about a new game that was unlike anything we had played. It was in Japan only and a few people imported it from there and started to tell tales of this wild game that will beat you down and yet have a sense of reward that is unmatched. For me it was ragnaar at GS who spread the gospel of Souls, he imported Demon's Souls and was hooked. He shared pictures and described a kind of game that left me super intrigued. Finally the game arrived state side, I was not prepared for what awaited me. A game that respects the player and expects them to figure out the game world on their own. No hand holding, no hour long tutorial. The game starts, you go, and you will die many times but each death is a learning lesson to get better. We were in the midst of a generation of lineararity, of automation. every game followed certain templates; Demon's Souls said to hell with all that and harkens back to a day when we games had no tutorials and you had no choice but to figure out what to do. That was the way Zelda was, the way Metroid was, the way the best old games were and here is this new game that drops you into a world figuratively and almost literaly naked and afraid. It was such a breath of fresh air.

The controls and combat do take a while to get used to but it eventually all makes sense. EVery action costs stamina, this one feature prevents the game from becoming a hack and slash extravaganza and instead gives us careful methodical combat that is very tense. Any enemy can kill you in a few hits, this makes every encounter matter. I traved through the first area in awe of the scale of the leveles and the intricate level design with hidden items throughout. This games structure is different from the rest as you go through 4 worlds which each have 4 levels in them in any order you want. It was a cool choice and each of the four worlds were quite different from each other. I remember going to prison just to check it out and saw one of those chuthulu guards and said NOPE then left. When I started world 1-2 and I entered an aren against this gigantic statue, I didnt even reach his knee and I am battling this thing while enemies are on walls shooting down, I couldn't believe it. It had a sense of scale I had not seen since SOTC but this game was doing so much more than SOTC did.

Demon's introduced all the key features of this franchise like the way online is handled. At the time it was completely orignal, you see others in your game almost as ghosts and the whole community can leave messages for one another. This made the experience feel so much more communal, you knew you were not alone and those tips many times saved my life. The way the game handles coop and PvP allowed those modes to exist but never really detract from the single player experience. Death was a new mechanic as well with you losing all your exp unless you touch your dead body. A simple concept that adds so much to the way the entire gameplay system works. It's been copied in ways by many games but the way this series handles online is great. One perfect example is in what I thought was the most clever boss battle in the game which was the monk. I realized what the game was doing, a stroke of genius, it would take a player from anywhere online and make them the boss,  it was a cool PvP boss battle. Demon's Souls has excellent level design despite not being an open interconnected worid like the next game...

This is the masterpiece. I talked earlier on the list about the perfect sequels well here is one of those. Dark Souls took all of what made Demon's great and expanded it into a metroid style interconnected world that is seemless as you explore from location to location and finding shortcuts that connect them all. This one change drastically effects the exploration and the overall feel of simply finding ones way. Here I am at firelink shrine and I can go up the path the game clearly wants me to go or head down into the caves and ... wtf is this giant skeleton AHHHH. But if you are good enough you ca get in and get a high level sword right away.  That is the freedome that Dark Souls gives and it made every decision on where to go feel meaningful.

I was infatuated with the online portions of this game mainly the covenants which took a far more defined role in this game.  Some covenants were designed with coop in mind, offering rewards for you aiding others in boss battles. Some were PvP focused like the excellent forest covenant where you would hunt other players as they explored the magical forest. I loved the pvp aspect, there is a whole meta game to building the best PvP builds that I sort of dabbled in later on after I finished the game once and ended up in many PvP battles in this games DLC arena. It all comes together, its a game I can play for the single player joy of combat and exploration or just go on a tangent battling players or aiding them.

Dark Souls has so many memorable moments. Anor Londo is awe inspiring when I first reached it. Those damn asshole archers on the rooftop, a rooftop you can get on with very careful skills at navigating tight spaces. Later on you find a painting and get sucked into a new world. Discover the home of an ancient dragon at a deep underground beach head that is almost dream like. Incredible boss battles, the best level design of the series, the most memorable moments all are in this one.

Dark Souls 3 is the culmination of all the Souls games that came before it. I argue this with some Zelda games game, in this situation I think if DS3 came out first ahead of DS1 we would be saying DS3 is the best one, it just so happens it came after 4 similiar games so the magic of that discovery of a new kind of game is gone.  Still DS3 offers the most polish, the combat is the best its been, the builds more varied than ever before. PVP and coop are well balanced. The game world is the most detailed and stunning to behold, there is this city at night that when you first enter I could not believe the vista, I wanted to make it a wallpaper. I love the way this game ties into Dark Souls for a little nostalgia and to tie the series up in neat bow.

We did get too many Souls like games back to back by the time DS3 hit so I get the need for a break after but man I'm ready for more. Sekiro was something too different, I want that true RPG experience of building a character. Of having weird covenants and wild secrets across a giantic game that is more methodical, creepy, and in a fantasy setting. This is a game made for my sensibilities and it blows me away at how popular this series has become, wow a game known for its difficulty actually does have a audience in this day and age. The Souls games are proof that the kinds of games I like will always have a place in this industry. I love these games so much, its not often you get a series that invents a whole subgenre of copy cats, still no one does it better than FROM with Souls.