This is my ever updating list of my favorite games. I will be periodically updating this list with little blurbs as well as gifs from each game. As well as links to where to buy these games if they are available on modern platforms
Kaboom is arguably the simplest game on this list. It is an arcade styled game where you control a stack of buckets and you catch bombs. Developed by Larry Kaplan in 1981, it is incredibly fun. Fun enough to the point where it is the only game on the 2600 I occasionally really get a craving to play. Check it out! Though, it kind of sucks if you can't play it with an Atari Paddle controler (or equivalent, I'm sure you could configure a modern analog dial to work as a paddle on an emulator.
This game is great! I did a review on it you can see on my yt channel. I think that I did it the best justice I could have done it at the time, though I wish I touched more on all the items.
X and Y is, in this humble girl of the internet's opinon, the last really good Pokemon game. Topping the highest highs of the Black and White duology was going to be incredibly difficult, and it's something I think only the extremely dedicated fan community is going to be capable of. X and Y is nowhere near the quality of those previous two entries, but it adds a lot of customization that the series was in absolutely dire need of. It's not excellent customization, but allowing your character to actually resemble you even vaguely, is a big step for the series. It is also has the best-worst villain in the franchise in Lysandre. I find him hilarious, especially when compared to literally every villain previously. He's like a cartoon character. Not to say people like "literally blow up the planet" Cyrus or "Godfather for kids" Giovanni weren't. But his obsession with beauty while he has this obnoxious spiky red hair and isn't even trying to hide his evil intentions while everyone around him is just like, "Yeah that Lysandre, what a wacky goofball" There's more to discuss, a lot more. Like, how the route designs are pretty good even if some of them are upscaled reimaginings of Generation 1 areas. Speaking of Gen. 1, this is the first game to obsess over the first game in a, "Hey parents, remember Charizard?" kind of way. It's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, as in truth the most obsessing it does in this is getting to choose a gen. 1 starter, and Mewtwo is in the game. That's it. It's a solid RPG for kids. Far more solid than the games after it.
Animal Crossing New Horizons is easily the worst non-spinoff in the Animal Crossing series. Despite this, and all of my complaints with it, it still manages to make my top 100. New Horizons lacks a lot of the content from previous games, but adds a fresh HD coat of paint, (Something long-time fans had been anticipating since the Wii U's Entry, "Amiibo Festival") and the ability to (finally) edit the landscape of your village without being limited to public works projects or secret unlockables like in previous games. This alone should have made it the best in the series hands down. However, due to the lack of a lot of features that were staples of the franchise (Gyroids and Brewster, mainly) not being available until a full YEAR after release, as well as the addition of a durability system which completely makes the additional inventory space less appealing; Since if you intend on getting any serious gardening or landscaping done, you will need to have multiple shovels and axes crammed into your pockets. It's not helped by Nintendo seemingly abandoning the game despite their promise of long-term support. Who knows, maybe right before the end of the Switch's lifespan, they'll drop a massive update a la what they did with New Leaf that transformed that game into the best life-sim ever made.
I don't know if there is an original thought left when it comes to discussing Doom 2. I think it is wildly inferior in terms of level design when compared to the original, and the sole reason it is on the list is because modern sourceports and wads mean that Doom 2 is all you need for potentially infinite demon shooting action. It also helps that the game could probably run on a waffle iron if you tried hard enough. But in all seriousness Doom 2 is still excellent, and will probably remain a cultural touchstone forever.
PopCap's passion project turned corporate money vaccum, Plants vs Zombies is a fantastic little puzzle game. It is also where the greater issue of creating a list of "the best of all time" begins to rear its ugly head, as to compare a top-down-puzzler like PvZ to Doom 2 or the soon-to-be-discussed Mega Man, is a little unfair, in my opinion. When chronicling this list it is difficult to exactly pin down what exactly makes it necessarily better than base game Doom 2 or Mega Man. I enjoy all three of these games greatly, but placing them down in a list like this is quite difficult. I think for the sake of my own sanity, we'll say that up until the top 25, these are all interchangable.
Mega Man 1 is a great little game. It gets a bad rap for its janky presentation and slippery controls, but I love it. Yes the later titles are far superior in almost every other way, but the difficulty of Mega Man 1 strikes this balance in difficulty that is unmatched in later games. Particularly, the emphasis on combining platforming elements with combat encounters. It becomes unbelievably satisfying to be able to cruise through the bomb section of Cut Man's segment or the 8 directional shooting robots of Bomb Man's stage without getting a scratch. Mega Man 1 demands precision from the player. That's kind of lost in the later games with the addition of things like E tanks and other aides. Not to say they are cakewalks in comparison, the later games are incredibly hard (save for maybe 2). Mega Man 1 proves that the core concept of Mega Man at its bare essentials works really well.
Lost Levels gets a bad rap. Partially deserved, mine you, as I think omiting two-player mode is kind of stupid. However, at the same time I really love the feeling of the first two SMB games. The movement has a unique jankiness to it that no game has been able to quite replicate, and Lost Levels improves upon the first games controls by allowing you to hold the jump button to get a little extra height off of enemies, you also can get what I believe is sometimes referred to as a "super bounce" and get some major height that way. It's really satisfying and the far more challenging levels make for a game I really appreciate.
Super Meat Boy is, ultimately, just a REALLY solid platformer. I find it particularly special because of the good that it did for the indie game scene. It was one of the first notable indie releases to recieve the same critcal acclaim as big titles at the time.
The most innovative first person shooter I have played in years.
Final Fantasy 3 is, in terms of content, easily the best of the original NES trilogy. The job system from the first game has been reworked into a system where you get to choose your party's class whenever you want. This level of flexibilty in building a character or team was still very much a new concept at the time and Final Fantasy 3 almost hits the mark perfectly. There are some boss fights and areas where you are required to have at least one or all of your party be a specific class. If you aren't already aware of this, you may find yourself in a predicament like I was, where you don't have the proper equipment to fully have a team of say, dragoons or scholars. So one or multiple party members will have to be meat shields or white mages while you spam healing on the only party member who can deal any meaningful damage to the enemy. It can become a slog, but for almost 90% of the game it is a blast. The spritework is really cute for the party members, and the bosses and monsters look great too! (though I'm hesitant to call the final boss cute, it is a very impressive sprite.) Damn shame we never got it here in the states until the DS. Though, I still recommend a fan translation of the original famicom release, as I have heard that the DS port is actually somehow harder than the famicom original
F-Zero's first outing on the SNES was a wonderful experience. Soundtrack was great and the gameplay was incredibly addictive. This has all been cranked up to 11 for its sequel. F-Zero X has a larger roster of not only stages but a number of different characters that are now playable. Highly Recommended if you are ever in the mood for a ridiculous, fast-paced racer and you've had your fill of the latest Mario Kart.
Fuck Nicalis. But this game is pretty damn good. Easily the best Rouge-like ever made and it's not close. There is so much content crammed into this game that it easily is one that I think most people will play for hours and hours and never see the bottom of.
Have you ever noticed that the sequel to famous trilogies is often either the best one or the worst one? I think Justice for all gets too much flak from the AA community. I really liked all of the cases! I liked the weird sitcom-like/not taking itself so seriously tone of the game. Plus, Von Karma is introduced in this one! And she, unlike Manfred, is a villain that is actually fun to hate. That's not to say Manfred was a bad antagonist, far from it. I just think that Von Karma fits the tone of the series going forward far better.
Blood Gulch deathmatch lan parties in the high school computer labs. Great times. Campaign sucks though.
It's kind of saddening that Phantasy Star 1 is so often left out of discussion of great classic RPGs. Typically it's overshadowed by it's cooler older sisters: Final Fantasy, Ultima and Dragon Quest. This is likely because it came out on the extremely...mediocre...Master System. As far as I am concerned Phantasy Star is the only master system game actually worth checking out. and I wouldn't even recomend the original release. Check out M2's Sega Ages release of it on most modern consoles. It adds a minimap of dungeons, and doubles the exp for a more modern playing experience. Highly recommeneded.
I blame this game for making me find out what furries were and then subsequently leading to me making my own fursona. It's also a masterclass in design and one of the best life-sims ever made.
These last couple entries are going to be really hard to explain. You might think, with these games being as important to me as they are, I would have a lot more to say about them. But no. Starting at around 10th place on this list I firmly believe that all of these games speak for themselves. In Yume Nikki's case, all I can really say is that you should play it, and that it is free.
4th place and we're doing a double feature. One is, I admit, purely a nostalgia pick. Zelda 2 was one of the first video games I ever played, and Link's Awakening is just so cute and charming it has completely floored me.
Oh, Nocturne. It is incredibly difficult for me to put into words just how much this game clicks with me. The occult themes, the character designs, the actually pretty good voice acting of the HD Remaster, and of course the tough as nails gameplay that is easy to learn but very hard to master...it all culminates in this incredible experience that only it can pull off as well as it does.
Ocarina of Time is a game that is hard to really talk about without retreading the ground of decades worth of praise. I am going to continue this trend of prattling on about its greatness. While on repeat playthroughs the first 3 dungeons are pretty unremarkable, every single time i've replayed the game the moment you hit the forest temple it instantly clicks, and to quote one journalist I spoke with about the game, "The game becomes extremely hard to put down after that point." and I have to agree. Every single dungeon following it is incredible. Even the often mocked water temple is still very good! I enjoy the atmosphere of it, and I never found the boot switching tedious, as when you unpause the game, the last menu you had switched to stays open, so you can quickly pause, switch boots, and then unpause. But, If I keep letting my thoughts pour out on this game this blurb will be unreasonably long. Point is, Ocarina of Time is very much as good as people claim it is.
I very vividly remember the first time I beat Earthbound. I was emulating the game using a now very inaccurate version of Snes9X at my Grandparent's house. I had the laptop propped up on a coffee table next to a window by the front door. I remember feeling satisfied, but confused by the game. I was maybe 11 or 12. I would go back and replay it in high school and that's when it clicked with me. I was a little too young to understand all the coming of age stuff the game was trying to put down and found myself gravitating towards the more comforting Charlie Brown-esque feeling of Mother 1. As I have aged I have made it a point to replay Earthbound whenever I am about to enter a new major segment of my life. I played it before I started college, and I played it with a now ex partner while using my new name. I cried at the end of both of those playthroughs. Like it does for so many other people, Earthbound means a lot to me.