The single best video game ever made according to you ? (OP)

[Squire Grooktook]

Circle of The Moon is its own beast, doesn't really capture the immense scale, atmosphere, or gracefully floaty controls of SOTN.

I think the DS Trilogy are all superior games to SOTN as well (though still far from perfect), and have excellent atmosphere as well, but not on the utterly titanic level of SOTN.

It's just too easy unfortunately, and for me that sucks a lot of the emotion away from the strengths NTSC-J listed.

I think the same could be said about most Metroidvanias. Maybe Dark Souls is the only one to have truly exciting gameplay, if you count it as one.

But like I said, SOTN isn't a game I'd replay for excitement, like I would a shmup. It's a game to play when you don't care too much about what emotion your having, and just wanna get lost in the lovely atmosphere and mood of the game.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

There's a lot about Symphony of the Night I love - the fantastic art and music, the perfectly cheesy original English script (shame that all the voice actors except Dracula's are wholly inept, though), the opening scene with Richter, all the cool unlockable extras (especially the hilarious Richter mode), but the game really rubs me the wrong way. As "cool" as it is I think it just feels limp to play - despite its fantastic handling, it's a middling action game, and as an open-world adventure game it feels very half-baked compared to Super Metroid. I love Super Metroid, so I don't necessarily need my sidescrollers to all be arcade-tight, action-packed experiences, but I just can't abide by SotN's weaknesses, I guess.

Plus I guess the fact that it sort of marked an end to Castlevania's legendary run on the 8- and 16-bit consoles leaves a bad taste in my mouth, too.

[CStarFlare]

Ha ha, I know we're not a community representative of the broader 'gaming' population over the world, but that list's clearly giving the finger to the current forefront industry in a beautiful manner.

This post actually got me thinking - my childhood favorites like Super Metroid and Silent Hill 2 and Ie, Tatemasu (;3) sprang to mind when I read the OP, but the fact is I probably did more gaming as an adult than as a kid/teen. So with that in mind, I think I'll throw out a vote for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's rather easy, but exploration is compelling for its own sake and after over 200 hours and three full(ish) playthroughs I still like to wander and chase down map icons and quests. There's a good selection of high-quality mods to keep the hype going (OOO is a whole new game), too.

I didn't care for Skyrim nearly as much and Morrowind didn't seem to care for me. (I admit that I haven't given it the serious try it deserves) But Oblivion is Love.

I'd be tempted to say Beatmania IIDX, but that'd really be a series vote.

[Xyga]

Done!

[Blinge]

I would throw my vote into Tetris; whatever incarnation. It just doesn't get old.

However fuck it: Dark Souls! =]

Majora and melee are certainly good picks.
And Squire: portrait of ruin blows compared to other 'vanias, maynnn

[Satan]

Ghosts n'Goblins was the first game I 'learned.'

[Squire Grooktook]

And Squire: portrait of ruin blows compared to other 'vanias, maynnn

I disagree. I think it definitely has some rough spots, but also some unique strengths as well. It gets kind of a bad wrap, but I think it's not significantly lower tier then the other 3 ds trilogy games. A lot better then Aria or Harmony of Dissonance on GBA, for me at least.

Part of it might be that peoples expectations were set pretty high by Dawn of Sorrow (though it does lack SOTN's sense of vastness), which is IMO as polished and well designed a Metroidvania as Super Metroid is. Portrait and Eclessia tried to evolve the franchise a little, and as often happens with innovations, the first attempt was a bit rough. Still excellent though IMO.

[BIL]

Silent Hill 2.

Very roughly, I divide my game library into "active" and "passive." The former I enjoy performing, ideally sharing observations and techniques with other players. In the latter, the audience is me. The former are the lion's share, by choice - grappling with strong mechanics for sound play is the meat of my hobby. Nailing perilous jumps in Gimmick, nailing preposterous drifts in Rage Racer, nailing a Blade's face to the wall in DMC - ultimately it's all of the same meaty stock. There's hundreds more where those came from, possibly more than I can truly appreciate in my lifetime, and I love that. ^__^

Thing is, the other, smaller set is no less valued. Meat's great but so is booze! And I know I'm not the type to strive for absolute performance ceilings. Recorded a Contra Spirits Hard nomiss today, pitiably shaky by elite standards. Had a blast getting there though! By the same token of fleeting time, I'd rather get competent, then play/replay something else. And I've no qualms whatsoever about just kicking back occasionally.

SH2 is mechanically generic survival horror, artistically and narratively something of an affectionate pastiche. And by whatever fluke, utterly inimitable. A wistful Orphic flight away from yet rooted in hard, moving human experience. As a movie or book or album this wouldn't work nearly as well, and most certainly not as a longplay. Silently tagging along in Jimmy's troubled head is a uniquely personal trip.

One I've appreciated more with time and scrutiny - it's absolutely not a nostalgia pick. I've replayed the KCET quartet every couple winters since discovering them in 2004. I'll never go for 1337 ranks, but I'll always enjoy spotting/re-thinking things and checking up on the fanbase's savage forum nerdfights.

It's got fantastic-feeling player movement, a great lineup of enemies and bosses, fantastic hit reactions that make tearing up hordes of enemies feel great no matter how many times you do it, really solid level design with a lot of variety - everything I want from a game, pretty much.

Everything I look for in my action gaming. Finesse handling + visceral impact ala DOOM will always get my attention. That's one hell of a list you posted in the other topic too!

Regarding COTM and SOTN, I consider the former entirely within the "active" camp, the latter a middler leaning towards passive entertainment (again, that's no slight - I will never be without *~Magical Vacation Dracula~* starring DRACKY-KUN & MARNY-CHAN !). I pretty much only ever play COTM in single-session MAGICIAN mode, aiming for a sub-2hr clear time. It's fuckin intense I tell you. MARS/UNICORN sword deserved its own game, with a killer pointblank gorer mechanic at risk of getting blasted into bloody gristle by big bruisers for bad inputs! Artistically/atmospherically it's ehh at best. All about the razor sharp collision, relentless hordes and resultant glass cannon action. Wasn't surprised to see Shigeharu Umezaki, namesake of Konami's crack Famicom UMECHAN TEAM, had headed the production.

SOTN I just want to spend a week chilling out with, first a leisurely 200% clear, then lots of mucking about with exotic weapons and items. Like SH1-4 it's something I replay only every few years, a pleasure every time.

[Xyga]

Tidied up a bit.

[Ruldra]

Looking at the list, I see a number of genres are barely represented in there. Lots of action games, arcade, RPGs, fighting games...but barely any roguelikes or strategy games.

I can think of a number of titles worthy of being there but no one mentioned them: NetHack, ADOM, X-COM, Warcraft, Command & Conquer, Total Annihilation, Master of Orion, Advance Wars, Supreme Commander, Fire Emblem, Civilization...

I'm actually glad someone picked MechCommander (great game and also freeware now), but strategy games deserve more love.

[Xyga]

Maybe because most of the audience here is arcade/consoles-oriented ?

Huge dominance of japanese productions as well.

BTW: about 75 confirmed entries so far, we will never have 1,000 participants but it's still a nice sample.

[Obscura]

Doom II is the best game ever. Look inside yourself, you know it to be true.

Props to whoever mentioned Akumajo Dracula X68K, though.

[Xyga]

Doom II

Actually, Uddedude never confirmed but since he said Futari just to annoy SkyKid I'm going to go and add another vote for that fantastic game. :p

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Your answers so far;
R= Title & Voted R= Zelda 3: A Link to the [b]Pabst [/b]&

[Xyga]

the original hip game.

[LordHypnos]

Probably nobody is surprised that I'd select Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting. Specifically the Dreamcast version. I'm probably not super qualified, as I'm sure most of this forum has played more games than me, but at the same time it's hard to imagine something being more appealing to me.

[warning: a huge block of text approaches!!]

I love the depth that the game has in spite of an incredibly simple premise. I love the way that you control 4 weapons with just one button. I like that you score all of your points in stage 6 (pretty much), but all of the chaining happens in earlier stages (because chaining just increases the multiplier).

The pacing (in spite of some weird challenge distribution) is pretty much perfect for me, because the first 3 stages go by in a flash, and increase gradually in difficulty (although stage 3 gets a lot harder when trying to full chain); I ended up being pretty committed by the time I figured out how to get past them, and had to contend with the longest and most difficult stage (4), then after completing that It felt like it would only be a matter of time till I actually had the clear. Plus, 18ish minutes is about right for a game, lengthwise, IMO.

The gold cubes and shield mechanic are really genius (this is really where the coexisting simplicity and depth originates from). It's easy to understand what you have to do, and what you have to do to extend your chain, but there are like infinite different ways you could probably go about it. I like that you can use the shield as many times as you want unlike most bomb mechanics. I like that you have a very flexible shield gauge, so you have control over how long you can use it / how long it will take to recharge, but you can't spam it because you can only use it when fully charged (seems like the perfect way to do a shield, or really any of the manifold "get out of danger" mechanics in shmups, at least for me).

I also love how hardcore it is. Only two extends in the entire length, and most people quit after stage two because they can't handle it. It makes me feel like an internet badass that I ALL'd it I don't know that I actually agree with it being as difficult as most people think, though. I mean I really am awful at every other game, so yeah... On a related note, it's as fair as any japanese designed arcade shooter with the possible exception of the final phase of the stage 5 boss, which as far as I can tell is RNG and too fast to react to, so you kinda need to get lucky or burn a few of the 5 total lives you're alotted during the course of the game, but I might just suck at dodging. It's all (probably including that boss) pretty well telegraphed AFAIR, but does realistically require memo due to speed.

I even like it Æsthetically, though most people don't. It's not so much that the music or art is good, but the music fits the mood perfectly, the color choice is much less offensive than a lot of shmups, and the explosions and weapons, and masses of gold cubes are extremely visceral, as are the obscenely high scores (though it's not exactly in Giga Wing 2 territory). Also the Forbidden Fruit music is really good, and the ship design and evolutions are cool (as are a few of the bosses, like the crab boss, the rose, etc.)

I like the Dreamcast version in particular because of the score attack mode (which is a lot of fun in its own right, as well as being a decent practice mode), the arrange mode (which I haven't even scratched the surface of, but seems pretty sick), and the fact that they took out the wimpy safe spot on the final boss (h4rdc0re!!!), getting rid of the counterstop (and also increasing the score potential to even sillier levels). I admit to also using the wimpy piercing cannon autofire .

Finally, it's a game that's almost entirely static, but somehow I still really enjoy it every time I play, even now after putting god knows how many hours into it, and having a route that I do the same every time. That's a sign of good design right there!

EDIT: also reading this thread makes me want to try lumines again (have the 360 version)

[Jonathan Ingram]

Your answers so far;
R= Title & Voted R= Zelda 3: A Link to the [b]Pabst [/b]&

Well, wasn't David Lynch's work a source of inspiration for at least one of the Zelda games? In that case, Miyamoto was probably like:

[Skykid]

Doom II

Actually, Uddedude never confirmed but since he said Futari just to annoy SkyKid I'm going to go and add another vote for that fantastic game. :p

Tut tut, full bias, and this is from the guy trying to ensure his top list is so carefully pruned!

Futari is a fantastic game, but it ain't no DOJ.

[Xyga]

Well from a perspective wanting to annoy someone with a choice does come from the heart, but it's no longer an entirely personal choice.
(his 'real' expressed choice was Doom 2, but he can still re-confirm)

More importantly; you are the most dishonest of us all ! because you said "I decline to answer" but mentioned Majoras's Mask immediately after...so I added it !

No seriously, that sounded exactly like the type of answer I'm seeking, but if you really don't want it i'll remove it from the list.

[Skykid]

More importantly; you are the most dishonest of us all ! because you said "I decline to answer" but mentioned Majoras's Mask immediately after...so I added it !

This is true, but I only wanted to give it a nod for its genius. I did expressly state I'm against proclaiming any one game as 'best ever' for reasons Grooktook stated.

[Xyga]

Well it's 'best ever' only in your eyes, by your own logic, your feelings, regardless of rationality and people's opinion, without overthinking it.
Anyway if you really can't think of one like that of course I won't add any, and I'm removing MM.

[qmish]

What a cruel topic

Well, if it was "what's your favourite" it would be more a problem with all my top-10 for each platform. But it's "what do you consider the best", so it's easier to choose, also because many games i love much are usually plagued with some minuses which i forgive.

For now, my pick would be Quake III (PC version, though console ports have some things on them). It's a bit ironic because for more than a decade i was more an Unreal Tournament '99 fan, if we speak about late 90s multiplayer fps. But i changed my mind when decided to give Q3 some more attention and had some online sessions with friends. And, man, that was a blast.

At first glance, Q3 is not that cool. Some may think "okay, it had nice graphics for time, and that's it. Cause UT has much much more stuff - mutators, huge variety of map thematics, weapons", but after actual playing Q3 with human opponents i started to understand why it's Q3 who is the real king.

Not so many weapons? Yet all of them has it's need for different situation (even saw). Maps are gothic/hell/space? Yep, the game has one style which without anything that don't fit (and you can have user made maps if u wanna Pac Man style labyrinth). Also, the thing with official Quake 3 maps is how well balanced and constructed for gameplay they are.

The thing i love in Q3 the most, maybe, is flow, speed, movement of game. It's crazy fast and it requires you mastering some stuff. Movement. You should be able to use bunny hop, circle strafing and other techniques for advancing your speed but dont use it where you can be trapped. And - surprise - don't forget to walk. Because when you re walking you're not making noise for opponents. So, combining all that depending on what's going on is important. Then, you gotta learn maps you are playing on. The thing with Quake 3 that it's actually tactic despite being on high speed because player should plan in head all possible routes where he can go, where his opponent can go, which items/weapons to take or ignore, controlling situation as much as could.

I also finally understood how i damn like Q3's art direction. Not that it is encountered often in modern games nowodays, mix of demons, technoindustrial and gothic; + a bit of sci fi. And player models, they're really well made like characters - they have big attention for details.
Music is also awesome, though most pretend it doesnt exist here.

Some may say that "okay multiplayer is fine, but what about playing with bots - they are stupid comparing to UT". Hm. That's position of some guys, they can stick to that if they want. Sure, as i said, you only start seeing q3's awesomeness when playing with someone - like in fighting games, captain obvious - but sure you can have some fun with bots, too; even sometimes they are "cheap bastard" on high difficulties. Or try some unofficial AI mods.

edit:
alsp, Defrag. Awesome thing about parkour in Q3.

[Stevens]

Lots of stuff about Mars Matrix

Ha. No surprises here. Regardless of my love for UD I think MM is the best shooter on the DC.

[Tarma]

The Last of Us

[CptRansom]

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Aside from the Apex mechanic being obnoxious, the game is perfect for what I enjoy. It can be played in long stretches, or you can do a quick hunt in 10-15 minutes, or even just a 5 minute gathering run. Grinding doesn't feel terribly repetitive for the most part, as even in ridiculously scripted hame/lockdown runs, something can go wrong, forcing players to react and adapt. There are 14 different weapon classes that all play differently, and there are sub-classes that add further variation (wide, long, and normal gunlances are handled quite differently; sword-and-shield can be support or a bomber or an elemental whirlwind; so on and so forth). Enemies follow patterns, but it can take a while to learn them, and even then the best players get caught off guard. Low rank and village quests are simple enough for newbs, and that curve continues up to trying to solo ridiculously difficult guild quests at max level. Charm and relic weapon/armor provide near-infinite combinations of skills that can be used to cater to any player's particular style. The environments are a bit repetitive, but no more so than any shmup or platformer or whatever, and mastering them by knowing where ledges are, what is breakable, etc. adds more strategy to each hunt. Combat is methodical, precise, and personal skill based more than grinding out levels or equipment (though the latter makes a huge difference). For me, it just encompasses everything I love about video games, and I'll be playing it for a long time (or until MHX comes out at least).

[broken harbour]

I never get tired of Yoshi's Island, it's the perfect platformer.

I love the art direction, the music, but above all, I think it has the best level design seen in a 2D platformer, it was just so creative.

Been playing it for 20 years and I haven't gotten tired of it yet, probably never will.

[Rob]

I also love how hardcore it is. Only two extends in the entire length,

Mars Matrix is pretty close to my #1, but this is one of the few criticisms I have. I think it'd be better if there was an extend every 1 million exp so I could complete more games.

Also, if more of the bosses had more interesting chaining possibilities, since they aren't particularly exciting (like a Psikyo boss) on their own.

But, yeah, I like stage 2 more than almost any other complete game.

[BrianC]

I never get tired of Yoshi's Island, it's the perfect platformer.

I love the art direction, the music, but above all, I think it has the best level design seen in a 2D platformer, it was just so creative.

Been playing it for 20 years and I haven't gotten tired of it yet, probably never will.

Not to mention in all these years, none of the sequels/follow ups come close (though I heard good things about Woolly World).

[Immryr]

Yoshi's island is a weird one for me, it's basically a 3d platformer but in 2d. what I mean by that is, it's more about finding hidden collectables than it is actual platforming.

[LordHypnos]

I also love how hardcore it is. Only two extends in the entire length,

Mars Matrix is pretty close to my #1, but this is one of the few criticisms I have. I think it'd be better if there was an extend every 1 million exp so I could complete more games.

Also, if more of the bosses had more interesting chaining possibilities, since they aren't particularly exciting (like a Psikyo boss) on their own.

But, yeah, I like stage 2 more than almost any other complete game.

Yeah, good points all. I pretty much never actually clear when playing, for that reason. Also it would be nice if all stages were chainable through the boss. I imagine that your knocking it down a few pegs compared to me probably has a lot to do with you having taken it significantly farther than I have in terms of trying to max out scoring potential. For me though, nothing else has exceeded it yet, or held my interest nearly as long.