Rllmuk Top 100 Games 2022 - It's over!

[Gotters]

can't recall if it was Amplitude or Frequency that had Lo Fidelity Allstars in, but I've had Lo Fi's In Ibiza in my head all morning now after reading this, mainly the funky synth line

 

 

[Benny]

50. WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgames!

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 48, up 43)

 

Take it away 2017 Benny:

 

“The basic concept: take hundreds of “micro” games that emulate the basic actions that you would perform to play any number of a multitude of other games from all history, distilled down into the very essence of minute to minute gameplay, and fire them at you constantly every few seconds, speeding up the requirement for your reactions the better you do at them, and wrap it all in Nintendo’s most whimsical and humorous presentation ever.

 

It’s so much more than the sum of its parts: both a celebration of Nintendo and general gaming history and a love letter to every single second of frustration and elation that has been experienced by every gamer, on both the most tedious and epic of tasks at the very core of the mechanics of every single game ever made.

 

It’s metatextual on more levels than nearly every other game could only dream of, and it’s an essential gaming artifact that should be remembered for decades.”

 

[Jolly pops his head round the door, chortling]: "Wario isn't an evil Mario. If Mario's your best friend, Wario is your drug-addled mate Mad Dave. Probably not the kind of person you want to live with, but fuck me he's a lot of fun to be around."

 

Wait, I thought I told you to leave?

 

 

 

49. Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 69, down 5)

 

I have still never actually played Uendan, but I know it’s always been a perennially popular game with the foru…

 

[Jolly wrestles the mic from 2017 Benny and launches into a review in the form of a song]

 

“One of my favourite things about Ouendan is how completely bloody lovely it is. This is a game about encouragement. About overcoming the insurmountable. About cheering someone on in their time of need, be that helping with their homework, gaining the romantic attention of a coworker or fighting off a fifty foot mouse. Being a member of a squad whose super power is to coax the ability dormant in others is so bloody life-affirming it makes me sigh contently whenever I think about it. Fortunately, the game that is attached to this beautiful thing is just as brilliantly conceived. I'm quite a fan of Dance Dance Revolution but have to admit that I still look bloody awful doing it; like an uncle staggering about ten drinks into a wedding. Ouendan makes me feel like I'm a fantastic dancer. I might only be dancing with my hands; swirling, skipping and pirouetting across the touchscreen with my stylus; but when it clicks you feel like a member of a perfectly synchronised crew. You'll begin to instinctively connect with the circles and paths as they plot their way through the music because they all just feel so right. It's choreographed perfectly (with the possible exception of the swirly-round-in-a-circle bits but we'll try to forget about them). I often feel it's (admittedly very charming) Japanese bonkersness overshadows what is a spectacular game. That we're all so busy talking about how sad the level Over the Distance is (where you play as a ghost trying to communicate with the love he's left behind) that we forget how great it is to play. But all these things are part of what is an amazing, lovable whole. I want to *be* an Ouendan. I need two more people, who's with me?”

 

Not me. Get out of my house!

 

 

 

48. The Witness

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 67, down 19)

 

[the quarantine cupboard door explodes open and 2020 Benny bursts forth]

 

“I occasionally found The Witness a frustrating experience. Not through any part of the design, but just because my own inability to solve what I was looking at sometimes made me feel really fucking stupid. Which was excellent, because it was entirely down to me and how I was approaching a problem. The game wants you to understand its unique “language”, and the journey to deciphering it rewards your lizard brain like few other gaming experiences can manage.

 

The Witness encourages you to go on a journey of discovery, perplexation, and revelation. It is like uncovering, piece by piece, a painting of a garden only you can see, where you slowly uncover its mysteries like prodding a gradually blooming cerebral flower in your mind.

 

It can lose its way a little towards the end, as timed puzzles threaten to disrupt the delicate balance of reward built up from the relaxed pace of progress. But much like the recent Outer Wilds, this is a world entirely without violence or competition, where the goal is simply knowledge or understanding for its own sake. It succeeds as an example of what is possible in the medium, that could not be done in any other art form, by playing to its unique strengths. 

 

Ultimately it teaches you that, sometimes, you cannot have your hand held for your head to fly.”

 

Excuse me while I send this wildman back into his cave with a sharp stick.

 

 

 

47. Advance Wars

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 47, down 27)

 

“A game that will stand the test of time, after all the Call of Dutys and Assassin’s Creeds of this world have long since crumbled to digital dust.

 

While I have my love for games produced by the Gollop brothers, I have to admit that on balance this is possibly the finest crafted turn-based strategy game that’s it’s possible to play on an electronic device.

Chess is rightly considered one of the world's most perfect boardgames, as the interaction of the pieces and the number of possibilities create incredible variations with just a few simple rules, and there is nothing that stands in the way of success than the player’s own skill.

 

In Advance wars this spirit of simplicity and purity makes for a game of unrivaled tactical depth: each unit is perfectly judged against the others and they are as close to specialized in their roles as those on a chessboard. There is no room for random chance or errors - unlike many strategy games every single action has a guaranteed outcome depending on unit used and its positioning on the battlefield. Randomness simply does not come into it, so you always know the outcome is entirely of your own making.

 

This actually extends into getting the highest rank on single player missions: to do this you often have to do a sequence of moved in virtually the exact way required to get just the right response from the computer opponent, which in many ways has more in common with a puzzle game, as it’s a case of finding just the right sequence, and finding this is an absolute pleasure.

 

That’s before even talking about the visual design, which is simple but not simplistic, eye-catching, and has some great characters.

 

The finest strategy game ever made? Well, if it was not for Tetris, this would certainly not have had much competition to be perhaps the best handheld game ever made at least.”

 

That was what I said in 2015, and honestly even today there hasn’t been anything to come close to it, with a few notable exceptions - one of which we may get to later... In the meantime we've got the eventual reboot to look forward to.

 

 

 

46. Hades

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 61, New!)

 

I can still hear some quiet mumbling coming from 2020 Benny’s cupboard, hold on…

 

“I love dyin’, me. (Wait, what?)

 

Lockdown and working from home in perpetuity does strange things to a person. Wake up, eat, work, eat, sleep, wake up again... It’s an endless cycle of not entirely interesting events. If only there was some way that this cycle could actually be meaningful...

 

The endless death and rebirth of roguelikes has always been a bittersweet pill - every sting of failure is usually rewarded with a small unlockable or reward, a tiny carrot that dangles in front of the player as compensation for the sharpest of sticks being stuck in them time and time again.

 

Hades continues this tradition, but with one important proposition: what if, instead of a tiny carrot and a stick, it was ALL the carrots?

 

The first time you die in Hades, you might be forgiven for reacting much the same way as you would in any other game of this ilk: sighing with ignominious anticipation as you resign yourself to having to repeat the cycle all over again in exactly the same way... But wait... What’s this? Things are not quite as they were before…

 

The story of Hades is weaved into the very fabric of the cycle itself. Death and rebirth is not just a function of the gameplay genre here: it is an intrinsic part of the story and character development. Characters react with context to events, and each death brings you more dialogue as they react to your plight, blossoming relationships and deepening your connections across the cast. And what a cast: the denizens of the underworld are all so hot. Frustratingly hot. Why must they be so goddamn hot? As you slowly meet these lovely (occasionally suspect, but mostly wonderfully acted) creatures, your game death feels less like a punishment and more like the catalyst for getting to see and hear more of them.

 

The sheer quantity of dialogue in Hades is staggering. Every possible action and meeting in the game is met with beguiling responses, from boss battles that never seem to run out of amusing quips for the characters, to even little comments as you use certain abilities on some enemies - it makes the world feel alive. Though quantity is nothing without quality, and the writing shines here too: frequently hilarious, often touching, and always warm. There are hints of a real sensitivity deep within the interactions, enough so that I have not felt of characters in a game feeling this “real” since maybe Disco Elysium. Quite a feat in itself.

 

But Hades is not an RPG or Gods of Olympus dating game (though with these characters I would happily buy either), but rather all these elements are the backdrop to some of the most addictive one-run action gaming since maybe Dead Cells. All the usual elements are present and correct: upgradable skills, unlockable skills, synergistic abilities… Though the game really shines in the implementation of all of these. There is not an ounce of fat in there - every item and “boon” has a clear and obvious benefit on your play experience. It’s not usually just a little tweak to damage here or a little crit multiplier there: these stats are always tied to abilities that will significantly change how you fight on every run.

 

And it’s big. Really big. For such a straightforward game you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ll see all there is to see in a dozen hours or so. But it just keeps going, and going, and giving, and giving some more. Soon 120 hours will have flown by and you will still be finding different ways to play or boons to combine, and the dialogue will have been almost universally unique for all that time.

 

It’s an enormously polished, friendly, inclusive, and delightful piece of work, and deserves to be held up as one of the all time greats.

 

Not bad for a lockdown simulator eh?”

 

*shudder*

[Qazimod]

That's a great selection of games; shoutouts to everyone who correctly entered WarioWare's name after Titlegate.

 

Hades might have made my list if I had played it sooner - I only picked it up in the recent Steam summer sale.

[Wiper]

Not one game from that list that I wouldn't happily recommend to anyone. A fantastic selection.

[Benny]

45. Persona 4 (Golden)

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 42, down 15)

 

I’ve not yet been near any of the Persona games, but they seem to have an absolute legion of middle aged fans just waiting to jump me if I say anything vaguely facetious about anime bollocks, so please be upstanding for, Wiper:

 

“The little* JRPG that could. A genre I thought I would never truly love — some games had come close (Skies of Arcadia, Phantasy Star, Lost Odyssey) but even the best writing, most enjoyable stories, most enticing worlds to explore were ruined by the random battles, the grinding seemingly essential to the genre.

 

And then Persona 4: Golden appears, and blows those issues out of the water. Instead of grinding mindlessly between dungeons, here you get to drive your character's social life, affecting both their home life and their performance in battle as their social ties influence their world. Here we have a story that isn't about saving the world, or uncovering conspiracies, or other Big Significant Events, but instead about protecting a small town from a murderer, while helping your friends to get over their personal demons. And let's focus on that last part a little more: here's a game whose main moral message isn't that Might Makes Right, or that Tyrants Must Fall, or any variants on the typical Hero Saves The World fare, but rather that nobody is perfect, and that acknowledging the parts of ourselves that we don't like and learning to work with them is crucial to help us move on and improve as people. When was the last time you played a game that tried to touch on a theme like that?

 

Just an incredibly impressive game. The yellow colour scheme and snazzy music are pretty neat too.”

 

 

44. Shenmue II (and Shenmue)

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 41, up 29)

 

Thanks to some voters not following The Rules(^tm) to have their votes counted properly, the original Shenmue did not make the list this time around. BUT, lucky for them, I am a merciful lists god, and so I am allowing this entry to count for both games in the series. 

 

Not in terms of votes, mind you, this entry is still just for Shenmue II, but it’s so much better to talk about both games and the series as a whole. Does that include Shenmue III?

 

 

 

 

So let's start with Shenmue:

 

 

“The first Shenmue is sometimes more highly rated than the second game, perhaps it’s because of how low key everything is when Ryo’s journey first starts. He’s all set for REVENGE, but spends most of his time petting cats and chatting to his friends. In a way that just makes everything more believable: perhaps closer to how a real life teenager would have worked through his grief.

 

The sequel may have upped the pace, and tweaked a few things to improve the gameplay, and added many great new features, but at its core it is still borne of the brilliance of the original Shenmue.

 

People are sometimes down on a lot of games for using non interactive cut scenes and traditional storytelling devices, but Shenmue loses absolutely nothing for doing that, and is perhaps one of the finest examples of that tradition in gaming.

 

Right from the opening credits, you are transported to another time and place which will completely consume you. In classic martial arts movie style, you are set on a quest for vengeance, but in this case at a very very leisurely pace.

 

The world of Shenmue and the people inhabiting it feels like absolutely nothing comparable in other games. 80s Japan was for many a look into a new and beguiling place they would never see, and does something that is seen very rarely in gaming, if ever: it doesn’t just take you to another world, but to another culture.

 

Ryo taking his shoes off as he enters his house, the capsule collecting, rifling through drawers… The level of detail contained in Shenmue was for its time unprecedented, and still impresses today for how it doesn’t ram this down your throat: the interaction is just to make you feel more there, not to get any particular achievement.

 

Despite his quest for vengeance, Ryo as a main character comes across as incredibly polite, has a strong moral fibre, and cares about even minor characters. His interactions with the people he knows on his street makes you feel like you have somehow stumbled into suburban Japan and are looking through a window into a real community. It is refreshing to step into the shoes of a protagonist that is actually innocent, likable and kind of dorky.

 

The trials of Shenmue are those of the real world: needing money to buy a ticket and thus either needing a job or pocket money for it are things that come up naturally, and it is incredible how this never gets boring. It is the brilliance of what seems like a simple and realistic (kind of) tale that doesn’t need a fantasy world or space marines as window dressing, but just one boy, a small town, and some sailors.

 

And that is a story worth being involved in.”

 

As for Shenmue II itself:

 

 

“Shenmue II stands on its own merits and is everything a sequel should be: bigger and arguably better, with streamlined gameplay aspects that improve the pacing and story involvement.

 

The sedate nature of the original is changed with the ability to fast forward time, and story events unfold with much more urgency, almost encouraging the player to rush through to the end and ignore all the wonderful distractions in the game’s incredibly entertaining version of Hong Kong.

 

Many games in a series can be played and enjoyed without experiencing the first installment, such as even the Mass Effect series, but where Shenmue is a gloriously absorbing prologue, Shenmue II begins the story in earnest.

 

Full of brilliant, brilliant moments: learning Tai Chi from an old man in the park, catching leaves in a temple, chasing down street urchins, The Yellow Head building section, Lucky Hit, Disc 3…

 

The yearning gamers had for Shenmue III, more than just for the story to be finished, was perhaps if nothing else inspired by Shenmue II being something truly wonderful.”

 

 

There’s even an anime adaptation now, which is actually not at all bad! It manages to be faithful to the source material whilst still offering something new and adding enough to it to make it work as an adaptation.

 

 

 

And yes, I lied, let’s also talk about the third, rather divisive, game: 

 

 

“Shenmue III is a love letter to all those fans who had been keeping the dream alive for nearly two decades. It may have lost something of its original series magic in the process of being scaled back to meet its budget, but what has been achieved given those restrictions is nothing short of remarkable.

 

No other game does domesticity as well as Shenmue, and in the third instalment the pace is deliberately pared back from the second game a bit, with emphasis on pottering about and slowly improving your martial arts through repetition and graft.

 

On paper that sounds terrible, yet somehow this one central conceit of being gated from story progression, by having to have your own little training montages, somehow makes the process of levelling up actually feel like the gradual organic mastery of a martial art through patience and dedication. This really is the essence of what Yu Suzuki’s series is all about: the revelling in little details often at the expense of the larger picture or even concerns of narrative flow.

 

For what the game sets out to do, it’s very successful, quirks and all. It’s not for everyone, but then, not all art has to be."

 

Even Wiper loved it:

 

"An honest to god sequel to Shenmue II. And I don’t just mean that in the literal sense: this is a true sequel, perfectly adhering to the originals’ sense of pace, their aesthetic, their ideal of focus and depth rather than scale as the core components of an open world. Oh, and the dialogue is exactly as clunky as it ever was, as ever it must be.

 

Completely out of whack with modern expectations of the open world genre: no handy pop-ups to guide your steps, no omnipresent quest log, no snappy, to-the-point cutscenes; just a lot of meandering and chatting to people, relying on you actually bothering to listen to characters and learn where you can find things. It’s a true breath of fresh air, and shows just what we’ve lost in the move to ever more hand-holdy, self-guiding adventures across massive-but-vacuous environments.

 

A wonderful, unexpected gem."

[Qazimod]

Meh, 2005 PS2 game that's in the list because Vita pity vote  

 

At the risk of protesting too much, the anime stylings and high school setting can be some of P4's least interesting aspects (I mean, there's a reason I still haven't bothered with Q, Dancing All Night, etc.) Few other JRPGs can nail their pacing and challenge so consistently, or bother to put so much into the inter-character relationships, or have such a satisfying risk-reward aspect in the elemental weakness system, or even choose to adopt a grounded, modern-day framing (instead often going for more fantastical settings.) Leaving the weeby high school premise in but taking out everything good is how you end up with P1. Well, maybe.

[Wiper]

Beginning to feel like a top 41-50 entry is this forum's version of an Edge 6. Every game a delight so far.

[Benny]

And it should round off quite nicely, especially with the next HOTPICK.

[Benny]

43. Metal Gear Solid

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 39, up 4)

 

2015 Benny with the hot takes…

 

“The first in the legendary series, and still the best? (Metal Gear Solid 5 has only just been released, so we shall see…)

 

Unlike the later entries in the Solid series, The original Metal Gear Solid still feels like a much more restrained proposition, which is saying something, considering the plot revolves around clones, nukes, mechs, conspiracies and all those gloriously silly and playful things we have come to associate with Hideo Kojima titles.

 

However, this is still an extremely solid (geddit) game underneath all the craziness, and despite refinements to the formulae over the years there is still something indefinable about the gameplay that feels perfectly judged and paced, introducing new elements and set pieces gradually and at just the right moments in a way that sometimes feels a bit metroidvania esque.

 

The cut scenes and dialog sequences, while still long in comparison to other games, do not seem to have the same interminable frequency or duration of those in nearly every other title in the franchise. The pace of the game is vastly better for the action and cut scenes having this more considered balance too.

 

And that is something the original Metal Gear Solid has in spades: stand out moment after stand out moment, whether it’s a new story revelation or a ridiculous boss battle, and they are delivered with such panache that the later games had a very tough act to follow, and in trying to one-up themselves every time, including the overblown Gamecube remake, seem to have lost the brilliant essence of the more restrained original in so many ways.

 

It could be argued that technical limitations limits the scope of Metal Gear Solid enough that the game doesn’t necessarily reach the dizzying heights of stealth cleverness that can be found in not just later MGS games but other more recent games such as the Hitman series, but sometimes simple (not simplistic) is truly golden.”

 

So yeah, best in the series? Well, hold that thought…

 

 

 

42. Returnal

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 51, New!)

 

One of the disadvantages of seeing a game I really want to play come out on a format that doesn’t actually exist, is there’s basically no chance I’m going to be able to review it for the top 100. How it even got here is anybody’s guess, as I don’t think anyone else has played it either - I can only assume all of these following words from the 2021 Rllmuk awards are lies:

 

 

SpagMasterSwift:

 

“In 2017 the Finnish video game developer Housemarque, who have championed arcade coin-op inspired games for more than 20 years with such classics as Super Stardust HD, Resogun and Dead Nation, suddenly declared that “Arcade is dead”. And lo, from its corpse crawled their first AAA title. Addictive gameplay and the essence of second to second excitement very much intact, this certainly was a new, bigger creature, which had mutated into something horribly dark, yet burning with beautiful light.

 

You crash on an alien world. You are killed, but time loops. Each cycle rooms are shuffled, item locations rearranged, yet every unique puzzle piece fits back together perfectly, the combinations so cleverly planned out you convince yourself that this can’t be random. Something must be watching beyond the tentacled enemies spewing out eye-searing projectiles, past the memories that hide in the corners of that house, far off at the game’s seemingly unreachable conclusion. Heart pounding in your chest, adrenaline levels at maximum, you become the hunter. Dodging waves of bullet hell, parasites crawl across you as your ears eagerly listen out for the rising synth crunch of your weapons alt-fire. The mantra repeating in your head, one more run. 

 

I must admit this game nearly broke me. As I shared my progress (or lack thereof) with friends, they looked at me as if I were mad. At times I thought myself to be mad. How could I have devoted so much time and energy to the first level of a game? How have I not beaten the first boss, I’ve been playing games forever?! I’ve been playing this game forever! But here we have something special, a game that is Arcade hard, never unfair, or cheap in the punishment it deals out, and can be mastered, utterly and completely. It runs lightning fast, looks and sounds incredible and manages to tell a powerfully haunting tale almost as a sidenote. Truly one of the most confident games I’ve ever played. Taking advantage of all the tricks the PS5 has to offer, Returnal sits way up high in its Next Gen tower waiting for everything else to find a way to catch up. Long live the new Arcade.”

 

 

imp: 

 

“An extremely satisfying combat system which unfortunately doesn’t hold up to the promise of its rogue-lite structure because of the extraordinarily wonky difficulty curve, which just drops off a cliff once you make it far enough. Don’t get me wrong, it feels incredible making progress through the game the first time, but I was hoping for more replayability considering the genre, and even the sublime-feeling combat fails to keep you engaged once victory begins to feel more like an expectation than a hope.”

 

Alan Stock: 

 

“What a game. Intense action, atmospheric as hell, intriguing narrative, and looks and sounds amazing too. For me this is the first game that really sells what next-gen consoles are capable of and makes the most of what PS5 has to offer.

 

A roguelike that follows the best rules of time loop games, where it's knowledge and your own improving skill that helps you progress more than permanent upgrades. The devs were brave enough to just dump you into the game and go through the same experience as protagonist Selene as you slowly make sense of the world, the game mechanics, the weaponry and the upgrade systems all by yourself.

 

I could go on, but this was the game that really blew me away this year. I look forward to it getting more recognition as a stone-cold classic once it's in more hands over the next year or two.”

 

 

Vemsie: 

 

“Returnal is many things. A bleak as hell cosmic horror story. A treatise on grief and guilt. The most fluid third person console shooter ever. A ballet of bullets. A neon fireworks display. The best showcase for the DualSense and 3D audio yet.”

 

All a fabrication.

 

 

 

 

 

41.  Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 44, up 5)

 

It’s funny how the placement of the Metal Gear Solid games has ebbed and flowed over the years. It seems this, for now, is the one rated the most highly since 2015:

 

“I’m going to go against popular consensus on this one and say I don’t rate it as highly as seems to be the case nearly everywhere else, but it’s still absolutely a great game that breaks the Metal Gear Solid mold almost as significantly as perhaps Resident Evil 4 did for that series.

 

You may not get this impression from the Prologue, which felt a lot closer to less interactive bits of the fourth game in the series in terms of having an essentially on rails section where control was constantly wrenched away from the player, as events played out or where it wants to draw your attention to something. It still felt very “Metal Gear Solid” to have these scenes, and it doesn’t really prepare you for what the rest of the game is going to be like.

 

Once into the game proper and you are given the freedom to pick and choose missions, the real meat of the game becomes apparent. You are dropped into essentially a giant Metal Gear sandbox, where you can approach objectives or challenges in any way you see fit. The game rewards patience and careful planning though, and a good recon of an area before charging ahead can mean the difference between success and failure. You genuinely feel like a lone, elite commando using everything in the environment to your advantage.

 

This extends to the weather itself. There may be many times when you are approaching a heavily guarded base with no clear method of entry, only for a sandstorm to whip up and give you the perfect cover to walk in the front door. But wait too long and the opportunity to use it will be gone.

 

The freedom to drop supplies and weapons onto the battlefield also means that if you are having trouble with a section you can always mix it up a bit and try different tools.

 

The game encourages experimentation constantly, and it has perhaps more detail in terms of mechanics in a sandbox game than is even attempted by something like the Grand Theft Auto series, as here you are given the chance to approach every mission in multiple ways and it never funnels you down a specific path to succeed. If you fail a mission you will always usually blame your own failings as a soldier, rather than some bullshit arbitrary thing you failed because it wasn’t what the game wanted you to do.

 

I say usually, because this is where my frustration with the game come in: it’s sometimes brutally hard. If you have not researched the right items or picked the right tools in some cases, some missions can feel like an absolute slog, and it has some similarities with GTA in the sense that the sandbox will sometimes conspire against you and a truck you had to steal blows up while you're trying not to be killed by enemies that seemingly are only killable with explosives.

 

It may be that these moments are simply player failings and there were other ways to approach them, but it is not at all forgiving in some cases, and often failure will mean starting a checkpoint that was many minutes of horse riding away before you can even attempt it again. (This is one area where recent GTA games improved with sensible checkpointing.) It can sometimes just be easier to kill everyone in a big firefight rather than try to stealth around and get caught out, but the important thing is, a least the game allows you to do that and make that choice for yourself.

 

I don’t believe the game is by any means perfect, as it has many little rough edges, but it will get you hooked despite that, just because when you go down into the field, it’s all up to you.”

 

Shame about all the pervy stuff though, eh, Hideo?

[Vemsie]

Lovely to see Returnal up there. Easily my game of the gen so far.
And good news, the PC version seems really close.

[Keiths_Dad]

Returnal should have been much higher, but then I forgot to vote so I've no real right to complain. It would have been my number 1 pick, perhaps due to recency bias, but it's probably done more than any other game in the last decade to remind me why I play video games. It felt like something completely new, which is becoming an increasing rarity in the identikit world of mainstream gaming.

 

Shenmue was one of my previous best games ever, and still would have been a shoo-in for my top 5. Having played it fairly recently, I can appreciate why those who came to it late struggle to understand why some of us hold it in such high regard, but I still love it.

 

Throw in the original MGS and P4G, 41-50 has been a knockout. I'm going to have to get around to playing Hades, and give MGSV a proper go, because clearly right here is where true gaming taste is showing through.

[Benny]

The HOTPICK should knock it out of the park.

 

It's a pity a few voters made some little boo-boos with their votes for Returnal, or it might have ranked even higher...

 

Spoiler

32nd to be exact. 10 whole ranks left on the table.

 

 

[Wiper]

Ouch! If it hadn't been for that then I'd likely have played all ten games in the decile. Either way, given my... Robust tastes, the fact that I love eight games in this section is a rare pleasure; only really MGS1 letting the side down from my perspective.

 

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Phantom Pain keeping its reputation (though I do still think Ground Zeroes is the series' magnum opus); I did worry that exposure to further explorations courtesy of Nintendo and From of the genre* might diminish its allure somewhat.

 

* i.e. big budget open world games that aren't icon-em-ups or Hollywood tribute acts

[the_debaser]

Grounds zeroes is just brilliant, perfect little playground to explore, with the sneaking / murdering balance finally mastered. 

[BitterToad]

Phantom Pain is scandalously low. One of the best action games ever made and certainly the best combat sandbox. As much as I loved Death Stranding (and I really did love it) I'd love to see Kojima go back to making a big evolving stealth game in an open world again. 

 

Lovely to see Returnal so high though! By some distance the best thing released this gen.

[Timmo]

I’m fond of Returnal but I agree with everything Imp says - once I finished it once I had no desire to keep going. In that respect I think it succeeded as a straight action game - I was addicted until I finished it - but failed as a rogue lite, with each run being too similar to the last. 

[imp]

Yeah, I think Returnal's a wicked game, but probably shouldn't have really expected it to be a roguelite mainstay like Slay the Spire or Nuclear Throne. It was a lot of fun while the ride felt fresh though. It's funny, I think it's similar to Deathloop in a way, in that it's really fun to make progress when the game is full of unknown quantities, but as the possibility space narrows as you reach the end I found the spell had been broken. I was left a little disappointed, wondering what could have been if the experience managed to finish as strongly as it began. The sense of wonder and discovery in these games is such a strong driver at the start, it must be extremely tough to avoid enjoyment falling off when you're basing your gameplay around repeating content.

[BitterToad]

I think there's two games to Returnal though. One is the creep around discovering things working out what's going on and then there's this incredible Neo moment around the end of Biome 1 where everything clicks into place and you're an absolute beast flying round destroying everything in your path in the most arcade shit imaginable. This then repeats itself with each new biome albeit less and less due to learning a few of the game's tricks and working out which power ups work/are useless. 

 

For me that second play through after the credits was an absolute power trip of smashing around all 6 biomes knowing exactly what I was doing. It may lack the intrigue of that first "discovery" game but it's an amazing example of the "arcade" game in there and a real sign of how far the player has come on their journey. 

 

God Returnal was really really good wasn't it?

[Vemsie]

Returnal gained a lot of replayability with the (free) Endless Mode too, which basically distills it into a beautful score-based combat loop. Even though the Tower has some really cool optional story stuff too. I find it more replayable than say Hades, mainly because I feel it's the superior game mechanically and I prefer its awesome atmosphere. And yeah, the Tower is just really cool to blast through and have a blast with when you want to blow off some steam.

 

Returnal is a triumph in so many ways. A pretty bold new IP with an unconventional lead character, very ambiguous storytelling and razor-sharp mechanics that is unlike any other game in Sony's line-up. Was so happy when it won GotY at the BAFTAS (and other places) because it deserves the recognition. Really hope it does well on PC too.

 

God, I love it so much.

[Benny]

HOTPICK #5

 

Quake III: Arena

 

 

(voted for by: Lyrical Donut)

 

The original Quake didn’t hit the top 100, because I can only assume most of the forum were smoking their little hipster crack pipes and were too busy falling asleep while aiming down their sights in the latest CODBLOPSARMYWANK4 to remember who their daddy is.

 

But, legendary status aside, apart from the incredibly fast movement, mouselook, complex 3D engine, ingenious levels and eerily oppressive atmosphere, what has Quake ever done for us?

 

Kickstarted a goddamn First Person Shooter multiplayer revolution, that’s what.

 

Back in ‘99, you were either a Quaker, or a UTer. But of course being a fully payed up PC nerd, naturally, I sampled the delights of both.

 

Unreal Tournament might have had the team modes, and instagib was enormous fun, but Quake III took that fast, refined, balletic, operatic deathmatch gameplay of the first Quake and turned it into performance art.

 

Rocket jumping, spinning 720 degrees in an instant, one-shotting people across the map… Places like The Longest Yard captivated for days. 

 

Impressive. Excellent. You have taken the lead. The announcer, the guns, the sounds, the gibs, the mastery. Each level was a tightly designed dance of death, with a balanced arsenal that keeps you going while you look for the rocket launcher or railgun.

 

It was fast, it was addictive, it was gorgeous.

 

There were no “perk” systems. No “seasons”. No “ranked mode”. You played because it was fun, for hours and hours and hours. Because all you wanted was to get the most kills. Topping the scoreboard and beating some prick called D34th4ng31 was all that mattered.

 

I played Quake Champions recently but it was like Quake III had become a shadow of its former self. Modern interface aspects and all sorts of guff just slathered over it. Oh how they had massacred my boy.

 

But still, deep within the heart of Quake is a true FPS demon just struggling to burst out, and as the remastered Quake demonstrated recently, sometimes a simple, no frills deathmatch is all a body needs.

 

We had all we needed for a good time in 1999. And it was GLORIOUS.

[Down by Law]

Great Shenmue series write up. It is such a unique and interesting series with an incredible atmosphere. It's got that kind of dense quality that there's always something new to discover no matter how many times you've previously gone through it, like a good TV boxset. I get the same kind of good feelings as rewatching a show like Twin Peaks. I'm not going to play anything else with that vibe, that musical score, that sense of mystery etc. Hope there's some announcement of what's next for the series soon. 

3 hours ago, Vemsie said:

Returnal is a triumph in so many ways. 

 

Agreed with everything you said but also I'd say it has one of the best uses of a licensed song too. Not only is the original track placed at perfect moments in the game but also remixed into an incredibly atmospheric piece throughout an entire stage, and then again as the main musical theme of a crazy good, musician based boss fight. You've got to admire how a developer known for quick arcade action could nail a section like that in every aspect like it's been their bread and butter for years. 

[Mawdlin]

53 minutes ago, Benny said:

HOTPICK #5

 

Quake III: Arena

 

 

(voted for by: Lyrical Donut)

 

The original Quake didn’t hit the top 100, because I can only assume most of the forum were smoking their little hipster crack pipes and were too busy falling asleep while aiming down their sights in the latest CODBLOPSARMYWANK4 to remember who their daddy is.

 

But, legendary status aside, apart from the incredibly fast movement, mouselook, complex 3D engine, ingenious levels and eerily oppressive atmosphere, what has Quake ever done for us?

 

Kickstarted a goddamn First Person Shooter multiplayer revolution, that’s what.

 

Back in ‘99, you were either a Quaker, or a UTer. But of course being a fully payed up PC nerd, naturally, I sampled the delights of both.

 

Unreal Tournament might have had the team modes, and instagib was enormous fun, but Quake III took that fast, refined, balletic, operatic deathmatch gameplay of the first Quake and turned it into performance art.

 

Rocket jumping, spinning 720 degrees in an instant, one-shotting people across the map… Places like The Longest Yard captivated for days. 

 

Impressive. Excellent. You have taken the lead. The announcer, the guns, the sounds, the gibs, the mastery. Each level was a tightly designed dance of death, with a balanced arsenal that keeps you going while you look for the rocket launcher or railgun.

 

It was fast, it was addictive, it was gorgeous.

 

There were no “perk” systems. No “seasons”. No “ranked mode”. You played because it was fun, for hours and hours and hours. Because all you wanted was to get the most kills. Topping the scoreboard and beating some prick called D34th4ng31 was all that mattered.

 

I played Quake Champions recently but it was like Quake III had become a shadow of its former self. Modern interface aspects and all sorts of guff just slathered over it. Oh how they had massacred my boy.

 

But still, deep within the heart of Quake is a true FPS demon just struggling to burst out, and as the remastered Quake demonstrated recently, sometimes a simple, no frills deathmatch is all a body needs.

 

We had all we needed for a good time in 1999. And it was GLORIOUS.

This reminds me how many hours I played the Dreamcast version in those early days of console online gaming. Sega's 6 billion players and all that.

 

Fun times.

[SeanR]

17 minutes ago, Mawdlin said:

This reminds me how many hours I played the Dreamcast version in those early days of console online gaming. Sega's 6 billion players and all that.

 

Fun times.

with the kb&m, pissing all over the pad players.

 

good times…

 

 

[Qazimod]

Incidentally, I nominated Q3A in our 2015 top 100 but it missed out on my vote this time. For shame.

 

It's still one of the best shooters for allowing (almost) nothing to stand in the way of what you wanted to do:

 

On 25/05/2004 at 20:26, Qazimod said:

Quake III offered an experience that was made extremely playable by the fact that there were few limitations to your performance. It offers a brilliant amount of control - witness the way in which a deft flick of the mouse can turn you a perfect 180 degrees - characteristic weapons that are not too complex and create player strategies such as the infamous rocket jump, a pace that is continuous thanks to the absence of ladders and lifts in favour of bounce pads and accelerator pads, and above all, great fun. And you don't need a ninja PC to run it.

 

...but I imagine the spirit of the game lives on in Ultrakill, etc.

 

E: and no, 2004 me wasn't saying that Q3A pioneered the rocket jump or anything.

[dataDave]

A few of us from here managed to set up a Q3A evening once back in 2017, thanks to IO Quake. It was amazing fun. I’m up for more of that at any time.

[Benny]

40. Minecraft

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 38, up 8 )

 

A monolithic presence in the great gaming firmament. Entire civilisations have risen and fallen since its release, and yet here it still stands, a monument to player freedom and creativity that will probably still survive on a server somewhere on Alpha Centauri long after the Sun swallows the earth

 

“I'm not really sure where to start with Minecraft. Other than that, despite its placing on the list, I think it might legitimately be described as the greatest game ever made. This doesn't account for taste of course but, objectively, it represents so much about what is great about games and gaming, and is so pure a creation, it literally is peerless.

 

Many games attempts to ape other mediums, for example the interactive movie elements in so many modern games, the roller coaster rides that are full of set pieces that in fact ape, well, rollercoasters. Music games attempt to replicate for players the experience of playing a musical instrument with the accompanying high. Shooting games have virtual replications of firing guns. Simulators try to literally simulate driving, flying, farming and so on. Even RPGs could be accused of being glorified choose-you-own-adventures. Minecraft however, is the pure essence of game. You are given complete, 100% total freedom in a world that is made up of blocks that you can interact with and manipulate in any way you see fit, to mould in your image. No GTA game, despite being the high bar for this kind of thing, gives the same level of freedom. Many other games give you this kind of God like power, but not to such a sheer micro level. Digital Lego is as apt as you can be to describe it.

 

This is still very much a game though in Survival mode, which sets it apart from simply being a creation tool. The enemies that populate the worlds serve as prompts and incentives to construct the dwellings that you will use to both shelter from them and as your bases of operations. As you make further forays into the underground for materials and resources, the process of discovery as you uncover the secrets of your own personally generated world is beyond that in even the greatest Zelda game, as even the finest minds at Nintendo cannot create designed levels as incredible as those that are moulded by chance with emergent behaviour and through the wonder of intelligently interacting ecosystems. And with the random level seed generation this can be a unique world never before explored by any other human being.

 

I could go on and on and on about how great Minecraft is and what it represents for gaming, but I will close by saying it stands as a beacon of sheer perfection, and as an example of an experience that is uniquely GAME, that cannot be replicated, or even barely represented, by any other medium.”

 

Someone even tried to sell digital land in it recently, which has hilariously gone about as well as you would expect.

 

 

 

39. Portal 2

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 50, down 14)

 

I’ve never quite understood why Portal 2 always gets so high on lists like this. It’s bigger, and more of a “feature” than the original, but it loses some charm in the process. The big set pieces, as cool as they are, just makes the game feel like it was doing what a lot of other first person action games were all doing then in some ways, after the Half Life 2 influence had changed everything. It’s definitely more “Valve” like than the original game, as they attached more of their signature “style” to it. As I said in 2015:

 

“How do you improve upon perfection? Well, Valve might be the best served to answer this question, as Portal 2 expands upon the original to create a fully fledged, big budget brain teasing experience. The additions to the mechanics involving fluids complement rather than over complicate the design, and the narrative has been deftly expanded without losing too much of the whimsically dark and subtle humour that made the original so brilliant.

 

Bigger, not necessarily better, but very damn close.”

 

It is of course excellent, without question, but sometimes less really is more... Speaking of which:

 

 

 

38. Ico

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 43, down 9)

 

The next Ueda game to appear - I wonder what could be next?! 

 

The influence and legacy of Ico reverberates through gaming history even now, with so many indie games taking up and carrying the torch for that specific blend of puzzling, platforming, and stylised visuals in its wake. 

 

But very few manage to capture the sheer sense of presence evoked by the environment and structures of Ico. I still think it’s a timeless masterpiece, as I wrote in 2015:

 

“Are games art? I honestly don’t have the time and space to answer that question here, but Ico is regularly held up as a champion to prove gaming’s credentials, and it’s easy to see why.

 

The stark and ageless visual design makes for perhaps one of the most bewitching fantasy landscapes in not just games, but any medium. The vast castles of moss and stone stretch from end to end of every area, and the towers soar skywards with a majesty that is nearly unmatched in gaming - the Assassin's Creed series that have towering real world monuments actually feel fake and unimpressive by comparison, as the ease of traversal in some ways ruins the mystery and awe of these structures.

 

In Ico every stone and every crag is felt, and scaling these foreboding castle walls feels like a privilege rather than a right. Rather than being able to free run roughshod over historical monuments, here it feels like the castle itself is a watchful guardian over the land, that has been, and always will be here, and your presence is thus tolerated rather than welcomed. Every new area you reach is a hard won battle against the castle itself.

 

The environments are a pleasure to traverse, and the requirement for helping your companion as you progress through each area can be at times frustrating, but every step of the journey has a great feeling of accomplishment. The simple but logical puzzles are spaced evenly throughout, and it is rare to get too stuck, which goes a long way to keep you absorbed in the game’s world.

 

Ico tells its story with virtually no dialogue or understanding of the characters, and above all else feels like stepping into a fairytale like no other, and would stand alone as a unique artifact of the medium in so many ways, were it not for the team having created another, even more impressive title…”

  

 

37. Return of the Obra Dinn

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 37, New!)

 

One of the fun things about doing this, is you sometimes discover there are games that were much much more well loved than you had first realised. I haven’t got round to it yet, but It’s obviously going straight onto the backlog of games to get round to, eventually.

 

Papers, Please was a fantastic game and a real showcase with how a story can be told in the medium, and it seems Obra Dinn continues that tradition.

 

A few of you agree:

 

 

Mawdlin:

 

“Shows that new ideas are possible in this brilliant art form of ours. I was absorbed and impressed from the first moment to the last. Outstanding music too.”

 

 

Jamie John:

 

“An astonishing work of artistic vision. Completely unique and wholly satisfying.

 

I'm glad this is getting some more love at the moment in the dedicated thread because it truly is a complete 10/10 masterpiece, one of those rare games where you wish your memories of it could be wiped so you could experience it all over for the first time once again. I'm not sure why I didn't play it for so long as I also thought that Papers, Please, Lucas Pope's earlier game, was brilliant, but this was even better. What starts off feeling wholly impenetrable slowly becomes transparent as you unravel more and more of the mystery. It makes you feel like a genius without ever becoming overwhelming and will have you regularly fist-pumping in triumph. Funny, horrifying, unique and profoundly fulfilling. Go and play it immediately.”

 

 

Cheyenne:

 

“Up there with VVVVVV for the immediate impact it left on me. Unlike aything I have ever played, a true delight from start to finish, I hope that the memory loss that runs in my family can hit me a bit sooner so I can experience this fresh again within this decade.”

 

36. Super Mario Kart

 

 

(Relative position and change based on 2017 scoring: 33, down 3)

 

So we can all agree this is better than Mario Kart 64, right?

 

It’s funny really, because to be brutally honest I don’t enjoy Super Mario Kart all that much. I was introduced to the Mario Kart series with 64, and when I eventually ended up trying the SNES Super Mario Kart I just couldn’t get on with what now seemed like primitive digital controls.

 

The game felt too tight, too bouncy, too unfair. Yes I realise this is Mario Kart we’re talking about here. I did really enjoy the Game Boy Advance game however, which kind of felt like an improved version of Super Mario Kart. If you put both games in front of me right now… I’d go for Super Circuit.

But this game does have the nostalgia going for it, and much like Mario Kart 64, a lot of it might come down to which one you played first…

 

“Still the best version of Mario Kart? Many would say so. I never actually played the SNES original back in the day, and when I have tried to play it more recently I was struck by how utterly unforgivingly difficult it is, with characters cheating more blatantly than any computer controlled characters have any right to. 

 

However, this takes nothing away from the sheer brilliance of Super Mario Kart: courses are tightly designed and have a kind of twisted genius about them that makes for a steep but steady learning curve, that in my opinion was not matched in terms of track design until F-Zero X. 

 

There is also a certain purity to the first Mario Kart that seems to have maybe been lost in the newer titles, with their abundance of tracks, characters, items and vehicles. It could be partly nostalgia that has placed it higher than all others on the list, but I like to think it is also down to a hankering for a simpler time, where all you needed was one kart, one road, and some green shells. And a vicious masochistic streak.”

[Vemsie]

I think one of the reasons many people prefer Portal 2 is because of its absolutely superb co-op mode.

[mjf]

4 hours ago, Benny said:

So we can all agree this is better than Mario Kart 64, right?

I prefer Mario Kart 64, but Super Mario Kart is my 2nd favorite.  I should add a disclaimer that I mainly play time trials mode, so I don't care about the AI.

 

I think Mario Kart 64 improved several things.  Mario Kart 64 added the "mini-turbo" technique, which adds a lot of depth to the game in terms of figuring out the best places to do mini-turbos.  Super Mario Kart has something similar called NBT (short for new boosting technique), but it's annoying (and tiring) to do because it requires constant zigzagging, and it also requires modifying your controller.  Mario Kart 64 also added height to the tracks, so there's more variety (in Super Mario Kart, everything is flat).  On the other hand, I like that Super Mario Kart is almost entirely skill, and requires precise driving, with few luck elements.

 

Mario Kart Super Circuit has almost the same physics as Super Mario Kart, but I think Super Mario Kart looks better visually.

 

Most of the later games added mechanics that I find annoying.  For example, Mario Kart Double Dash has A-tech and R-tech, Mario Kart DS has PRB (short for prolonged rocket boost), and Mario Kart 8 has fire hopping.  In Mario Kart Wii, I'm not a fan of the bikes and the wheelies, and I don't like how you slow down so much if you turn in the middle of a wheelie.  The first 2 games, Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64, have fewer mechanics that I find annoying, so I find them more fun to play.

 

If you play casually, most of these things will be irrelevant to you, because it's not like you have to use these techniques.  But if you play competitively, then you don't have a choice.

[phillv85]

3 hours ago, Vemsie said:

I think one of the reasons many people prefer Portal 2 is because of its absolutely superb co-op mode.

Yeah if you can rope someone in to play 2p then it’s another incredible experience on top of the single player game.

[mjf]

On 25/07/2022 at 13:55, Benny said:

54. Chrono Trigger

I was expecting Chrono Trigger to do better.  I've seen a few polls on other websites where Chrono Trigger was in the top 5.

 

I played it for the first time a few years ago, and it's still my favorite JRPG.  It ruined the genre for me a little bit, because now every time I play a JRPG, I compare it to Chrono Trigger and think about the things that Chrono Trigger did better, although Final Fantasy 6 (my 2nd favorite JRPG) comes pretty close.

 

I liked Persona 4, but some parts seemed a little repetitive to me.  I think I would've liked it more if it was a little shorter.

 

Ico reminded me of Zelda, because the whole game feels like one big Zelda dungeon.  Overall I liked the game, but I wish I had more control over the camera.

 

I see several other games on the list that I'm interested in playing, but haven't gotten around to yet (Shenmue, Hades, The Witness).