Video Game Topsters

[To Far Away Times]

I found a website that lets you rank your favorite games and I thought it might be fun to see what other games are popular among the forum. The Shmups Top 25 list has a pretty eclectic selection of games, so I'm thinking we might see some pretty interesting lists for non-shmup games as well.

I thought I'd share my list, but it would be great if others could share theirs as well.

In no particular order:

[XoPachi]

Stuff like this is always fun. It's why I love Backloggd a lot. Hard though since there's a LOT of games for each platform.

EDIT: Toppers didn't have everything so I just used a top 20 list I already had on Backloggd.

Spoiler

[To Far Away Times]

Stuff like this is always fun. It's why I love Backloggd a lot. Hard though since there's a LOT of games for each platform.

EDIT: Toppers didn't have everything so I just used a top 20 list I already had on Backloggd.

Spoiler

Nice list. I love seeing a Tribes mention.

[BIL]

I always approach these as "oh shit motherfucker, ten years desert island solitary, assemble grab bag of your shit at gunpoint and get in this nice van." So a few different game types. Patched in a few missing from the site, corrected a few regions, assume all JP*. Also I suffer not Gimmick's NES boxart.

Kaettekita Makaimura could easily take Dai's place, and in fact, probably should, as I'm nowhere near competent at it from AC perspective. Just a scrappy Legend complete file, currently. But Dai's so infinitely replayable, and perfectly concise, it's impossible to leave off.



*Except for SOTN. Gotta have NA rev 2 for chain wing smash!

Alucard's Wuhan Escape

Spoiler

[Sengoku Strider]

That site doesn't have Super Castlevania IV. How.

No Space Megaforce. No Gunbird 2.

I can't.

[Lethe]

Yeah the site's crap. It seems to search IGDB so I have no idea why it's missing so much.



Tried to make it varied instead of 3/4ths shmups, and disregarded games that are only good under unusual circumstances. (Although Angband is very close to that line...)
My blind spots are still severe. Little attachment to R2RKMF for instance, and zero attachment to beltscrollers, but NG1 is such a pillar of wonderfully maniacal subtlety it ended up feeling inexcusable to leave out. I've never made time for Saigo, maybe it's got something a bit similar going on? There's got to be something.

[BIL]

Looking at my RE4 briefcase, the sublimely refined Technos-esque Crime Fighters 2 woulda edged out the immortally thunderous Final Fight for my beltscroller spot, if only it were a similarly tight 1ALL. tbh I gotta investigate if max diff 1ALL might equal the loop, ala certain other Konami AC titles like Super Contra. That would be perfection.

Good call on S&P, XoPachi! It was so hard choosing between it and Alien Soldier. I regard the N64 title as its sequel, nowadays; no "spiritual" caveat needed, one's as expertly, joyously furied a boss carnival as the other.

I've enjoyed Elden Ring a lot as a chillout title, maybe too much (many lazy wanderings ), and it ofc has some vast build variety and hellacious challenges to go with that. Could contest SH2, SOTN, or Bloodborne's spots handily. Ultimately went with their respective specialisations - moody chillout / sparkly toybox / hardcore killing battle garage of dreams - but I wouldn't complain if I discovered it in my luggage at Curiously Comfy Desert HellFortress. Incredible rustic horror atmosphere at times. Bower of Bounty is like something they stole out of my afternoon nightmares.

Little attachment to R2RKMF for instance, and zero attachment to beltscrollers, but NG1 is such a pillar of wonderfully maniacal subtlety it ended up feeling inexcusable to leave out.

NG1 was on my list too, and in hindsight, should've stayed. Being a basic bitch solo survivalist for the most part, I prize controlled chaos - Dai, Saigo, Gun.Smoke, TNWA, and TGM2, warm sunbeams of fiendy caprice. NG doesn't have much at all. (though BAXERs and Hammer Bros contribute mightily) But! As a bristling assault course, it is sublimely malleable to practiced shredding. Generating and maintaining explosive forward momentum is its own harrowing reward, topped off with a generous layer of *KTHWACK* feedback, artfully compact sprites, and pummelingly catchy BGM. There are bats I've exploded with a perfect backhand god knows how many times over the years, that I know I'll never, ever tire of contesting for safe landing.

I consider it a mark of its excellence that I still don't have it perfectly memorised after all these years, because I never needed to. All in the wrist. Look at this sweaty chump drop his cookies and somehow snatch every last one out of terminal velocity: "You brought what subweapon to 6-2 aka Edmans' Bane?!" All of my favourite 1LCs have come after months or even years away.

I've never made time for Saigo, maybe it's got something a bit similar going on? There's got to be something.

Saigo is a very rich game, mechanically and technically, and it puts this to work in a finely simmering controlled chaos I've only seen rivalled by Daimakaimura itself. Emphasis on "controlled!" It's sometimes mistaken for a slot machine, but to be blunt, if someone's praying for good RNG, they've got a long way to go. It's very carefully balanced towards deft tactical improv, there is no RNG an expert can't outplay. Possibly while saying "faaack that were close m8" under his breath. ;3

A rush every time. Like any good zankoku jidaigeki, there is a tragic twist, in the execrable Ninja Pit - but happily, we are the authors of our character's fate here, and so it can be neatly excised. Seriously, use my guide or similar and lance the fucker clean off - it's an ugly kusoge blemish that fades into a handsome scar / oasis of zen calm, once routed. The surrounding ten minutes are infinitely deadlier from master perspective.

SH1 is another fierce contender for luggage space - tbh, I would feel like SH2 was slightly incomplete without it. A seamless double acts, worlds of nightmarish delusion from the third and first-person, respectively... one inexplicably terrifying, the other intimately tormentous, though the line blurs. Ah man, that remake's out soon, IIRC? I can't quite slap it out of mind, knowing Ito's sounded happy to be working on it. No real hopes, just a little sentimental. I should play The Evil Within already, always heard great things, and Mikami's a true evergreen. RE4's yet another I could happily swap in, now I think about it. High Calibre Relax 'Em Up.

[XoPachi]

Nice list. I love seeing a Tribes mention.

Tribes was the first online game I ever put more than 300 hours on. Miss that game. Shame 3 is already going to shut down.

[it290]

Top 20 for me:

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

A little scuffed because that site's database is lacking so I had to edit some stuff in.



I could probably change out like a quarter of this if you asked me for a top 20 tomorrow. Too many games. For what it's worth, Doom 2 is here for amazing fan WADs like Back to Saturn X (maybe even specifically that one) more than for the great-but-flawed vanilla game.

Miscounted at first and had 25 jotted down before I had to narrow it down to the chart's amount, so JP Mario 2, Resident Evil GCN, Twinkle Tale (which wasn't even in this database), and Ninja Gaiden Black all had to get the boot, as far as honorable mentions go.

Looking at other lists and discussions...

BIL's - this reminds me that I need to give Strider 2 a try; I still haven't, even though it seems more appealing to me than the first game (which I still love). Hishouzame is something I wish clicked with me - I love the idea of meat-and-potatoes, epochal shooting, but in practice it feels like an incredibly strict pure memorization game that could really use the cathartic firepower of even the first Gradius. I want to give it another shot sometime though. I've made it up to the fifth boss on Gunsmoke but no farther, but that game is definitely amazing and worthy of investment; no other shooter like it.

Bloodborne is clearly essential and I've got to play it once I have the chance to. Falling-block puzzle games are something I think I will deeply love once I really click with them but I haven't attuned myself to them yet; Puyo feels like the most immediately exciting to me but I know based on watching TGM superplays that even attaining mildly competent play of those games would catapult them onto my favorites list, too.

Sin and Punishment 2 was pretty close to making my list (I love its bigger, more complicated boss fights even if it lacks the first game's brevity) but Gradius V more or less took its spot due to marrying that level of complexity with something closer to arcade runtime. I've played S&P2 more, though, so I could go either way...

Lethe's - versus fighters are broadly another blind spot for me. I love MvC2 and my time with it but I've got to play more; Jojo was a lot of fun a decade ago too though. Blood and Hellsinker are both games I need to check out too - Blood seems like the singular coolest old FPS I haven't yet played and I'm very curious about Hellsinker and its supposedly atypical setup.

Ninja Gaiden Black is a top-level masterpiece for sure, which only didn't make my list due to wanting a little more genre variety and because I only had 20 to roll with and not 25. I have trouble choosing between it and Ninja Gaiden II; I gravitate towards 2 just because I like its higher highs and more intense combat more despite its lack of thorough polish, but they and God Hand are at the peak of their genre for sure. (I love the first Devil May Cry but overall I really like NG and GH's do-or-die combat over later DMC's moveset exhibitions.)

[Arino]

Top tier:

1. BIL's list - Straight up good games that only real men and pumped up action heroes like myself can appreciate. Nothing here that I see losers or fools playing. Turning a blind eye to Silent Hill 2.

2. Sir Ilpalazzo - Very good list, I love it! Only Japanese games with only one gaijin title, but it's the one we all love: DOOM II! Seeing this list made me very happy!


Mid tier:

3. it290's list - Great selection but two western games and I don't like both of them.

4. XoPachi's list - Mostly good games, but two Zeldas? It's okay if you like these games, but no need to make a big deal out of it. It won't get you any respect from the tough guys like myself And Turok? Back then yeah, but that game has aged like the batteries of the PSP (not that well). And Tribes something? I don't even know that game!


Low tier:

5. Lethe's list - Your list contains many great games but also a few games I haven't even played yet or never heard about so I have to move it to the bottom, sorry about that. Nice to see Blood and UT though.

6. To Far Away Times's list - Rocket League? Seriously? I would turn a blind eye to Mario 64 and what not, but this game...turns your list into a crime!

Spoiler

Please take it light hearted, I don't mean to offend anybody

[Lethe]

NG1 was on my list too, and in hindsight, should've stayed. Being a basic bitch solo survivalist for the most part, I prize controlled chaos - Dai, Saigo, Gun.Smoke, TNWA, and TGM2, warm sunbeams of fiendy caprice. NG doesn't have much at all. (though BAXERs and Hammer Bros contribute mightily) But! As a bristling assault course, it is sublimely malleable to practiced shredding. Generating and maintaining explosive forward momentum is its own harrowing reward, topped off with a generous layer of *KTHWACK* feedback, artfully compact sprites, and pummelingly catchy BGM. There are bats I've exploded with a perfect backhand god knows how many times over the years, that I know I'll never, ever tire of contesting for safe landing.

I consider it a mark of its excellence that I still don't have it perfectly memorised after all these years, because I never needed to. All in the wrist. Look at this sweaty chump drop his cookies and somehow snatch every last one out of terminal velocity: "You brought what subweapon to 6-2 aka Edmans' Bane?!" All of my favourite 1LCs have come after months or even years away.

Yeah, I think that's what leaps out about it to me too, the straightforward prominence of the pseudo-time-attack aspect, while also featuring a capacity for tiny little bits of educated improv and showmanship, in opposition to the more commonly seen grueling approach of the so-called survival game subspecies.
I'm convinced that the different ways randomness is used, down to extreme detail, is the single most vital and most challenging connective tissue of all game design. Or maybe it's better expressed as the relationship between randomness (or lack thereof) with complexity, intensity, pacing... ludicrously complex subject, the kind of thing one'd have to write a paper on to analyze properly. The games I picked run pretty much the entire gamut from overcomplicated determinism to schematized chaos to entertaining bullshit. For me it's gotten increasingly difficult to make big generalizations about stuff like this. NGB is probably the boringest game I listed from a design ethos, which is quite funny in perspective.

I just realized the hypocrisy of excluding "special circumstances" games and picking 3 fighting games when the reason I stopped paying much attention to fighting games was that they were too circumstantial... oh well.

[Sima Tuna]

I tried to pick representative games for each franchise/genre that I could remember. Some games were inevitably shafted. I love Lumines and Rez but puzzling isn't really "my" genre, so they couldn't make the list. I play a ton of strategy and rpgs, so I tried to only select a couple from each genre that I think stand above all the rest. I chose only one character action game instead of a ton. Tried to select games based on how much I play and enjoy them still, and how much I liked them as a kid, if applicable. I did neglect Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure, which was probably THE game I played the most on my GBA aside from Aria of Sorrow. If there was one more slot available, Dragon Ball: AA would have gone there. It's an action-platformer with beat em up elements.



Some notes:

-Ninja Warriors is meant to be the Once Again version.
-I limited myself on genres like beat em ups.
-Ninja Gaiden Black ranks just below God Hand, so I left it off.
-Same for souls games, only one was allowed.
-Warband, Don't Starve, Saints Row 2, Way of the Samurai all get in based on hours played, otherwise I'd be hypocritically selecting games I SHOULD like more than games I DO like.
-not many arcade games because I didn't have arcade access growing up and still am new to most of them.
-Shadow Tactics could have been replaced by Hitman: Blood Money, and probably should have been.

Edit: SHIT! I missed RE4 and Metal Slug. Not going to change the list now. Consider RE4 under the God Hand umbrella of 3d action games and Metal Slug is holding Huntdown's jockstrap.

[Arino]

My list is the best, only the best of the best games ever!

[BIL]

BIL's - this reminds me that I need to give Strider 2 a try; I still haven't, even though it seems more appealing to me than the first game (which I still love).

It's a very good momentum game, with Hiryu's speed and aerial mobility balanced by just the right hint of inertia; itself counterable via the command barrage's "air brake." A full-blast sprinting, somersaulting doublejump across a preposterous expanse, slammed to a halt over safe ground via bullseye aerial rave, before rocketing off again... that cannonballing peril ensured its place in my heart. And my theoretical suitcase!

Rastan accomplishes similar, in a slower, heavier, but also more striking-intensive model; could easily contest this spot. I'm not a speedrunner per se, but I do love figuring out how to really tear through my action games.

Hishouzame is something I wish clicked with me - I love the idea of meat-and-potatoes, epochal shooting, but in practice it feels like an incredibly strict pure memorization game that could really use the cathartic firepower of even the first Gradius. I want to give it another shot sometime though.

Yeah, it's a shameless vibes pick for me. The quintessential Sniper Tank vert, comfily archetypal. Despite DX's unmistakable debt to it, they don't remotely remind me of one another. Particularly in a desert island list, I might've complemented DX's towering rigour, GS's immortal RNG hydra, Garegga's mad depths, and Dangun's singular purity with a longtime aspiration like Dragon Blaze or Ketsui. But tbh, I think even coinop STGs can make for good unwinding, after a certain fashion.

Bloodborne is clearly essential and I've got to play it once I have the chance to.

Ah man, it's great. I just returned to it after ungodly hours on DS3 and Elden Ring. I'd wondered if it might feel limited, next to their refinements of its engine; the same way I'd wondered, upon returning from DS1, if that game's soaring interlocked world might make it feel small.

In both cases, it was like walking into a revving buzzsaw. This streamlined beast still cuts juuust fine, no sympathies needed nor asked for. I've held off on that 60fps hack going about, partially for fear of boning my PS5 with games yet to play, but also because I know it'll eat the rest of my year up.

Falling-block puzzle games are something I think I will deeply love once I really click with them but I haven't attuned myself to them yet; Puyo feels like the most immediately exciting to me but I know based on watching TGM superplays that even attaining mildly competent play of those games would catapult them onto my favorites list, too.

It's a genre I've long admired, but only ever dabbled in. I suspect there's dozens of other good candidates - Teki Paki instantly springs to mind - but what I like about the TGMs is their taking of a simple concept to its mythic extreme. Sort blocks, at God Velocity, that's it.

Turning a blind eye to Silent Hill 2.

<-- mfw SH2

this game...turns your list into a crime!

[Daytime Waitress]

My list is the best, only the best of the best games ever!

No Imagine: Babyz? Off the Christmas card list.

-Shadow Tactics could have been replaced by Hitman: Blood Money, and probably should have been.

Fair, though it got a pop out of me to see ST on any list.
Never completed it, but it instantly transported me back to the fin de siecle and too many hours spent with the Commando series.
I wanted to like Shadow Gambit, but never got past the demo - I can see what they were trying to do, but all the abilities felt like a hat on a hat.

[To Far Away Times]

6. To Far Away Times's list - Rocket League? Seriously? I would turn a blind eye to Mario 64 and what not, but this game...turns your list into a crime!

Spoiler

Please take it light hearted, I don't mean to offend anybody

Mario 64 gets the nod both for being a fun game, but also no game was more impressionable for 10 year old me. That game blew my mind at the time.

Rocket League is everything a competitive multiplayer game should be. Although it's a fictitious sport, it plays closer to the way playing sports feels than any other game I've played. It is 100% about player skill and has an unlimited skill ceiling. There's a world of difference in the quality of game play and player control in something like Rocket League compared to Madden or NBA 2K. I have 330 hours in it. It's a brilliant game.

[XoPachi]

Live service stuff aside, Rocket League is an excellent little game, you're right. It's just solid driving and boost management. There's no feature bloat or hero abilities or game swinging ultimate abilities. No "matchups" or tiers. It's that nice classic arena gameplay that's just an even playing field and the winners are the ones who are great at the core mechanics.

[Sengoku Strider]

I need to give Strider 2 a try

It's so good. It plays like you kind of figure games from the 80s/90s should have always played - including the first Strider - except didn't. It's one of the few regrets I have from selling off my PS1 collection back in the 00s.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Bloodborne is clearly essential and I've got to play it once I have the chance to.

Same, something I need to rectify. I'm not playing any more From stuff online though because I hate the pvp, the poor way coop is implemented, and I especially hate seeing half naked people running around as ghosts in Dark Souls all the time. Like seriously, why can't I see their armor, why do they always have to be naked like that? Kills the lonely, grim vibe I otherwise enjoy.

Falling-block puzzle games are something I think I will deeply love once I really click with them but I haven't attuned myself to them yet

Try Aqua Rush; it's mechanically not as complex as Tetris TGM and recovery isn't as punishing, with more of a focus on reflexes and speed than piece management. It's also got a ridiculously good soundtrack, never got a western release or console port... ;w;

Rocket League is everything a competitive multiplayer game should be. Although it's a fictitious sport, it plays closer to the way playing sports feels than any other game I've played. It is 100% about player skill and has an unlimited skill ceiling. There's a world of difference in the quality of game play and player control in something like Rocket League compared to Madden or NBA 2K. I have 330 hours in it. It's a brilliant game.

As much as I generally hate team sports games, kudos to you for selling it in a way that makes it sound more interesting than most of the sports games out there.

[To Far Away Times]

Rocket League is everything a competitive multiplayer game should be. Although it's a fictitious sport, it plays closer to the way playing sports feels than any other game I've played. It is 100% about player skill and has an unlimited skill ceiling. There's a world of difference in the quality of game play and player control in something like Rocket League compared to Madden or NBA 2K. I have 330 hours in it. It's a brilliant game.

As much as I generally hate team sports games, kudos to you for selling it in a way that makes it sound more interesting than most of the sports games out there.

Thanks. It's the only sports game that I really love, unless you count the old Tony Hawk games as sports games.

[Lemnear]

No particular order



UPDATED

EDIT: Crash Bandicoot actually includes 2 and 3 but I couldn't give it all those slots.
Yes, it's 25 instead of 20

They are either things that never bore me, or things that have left a deep impression on me, and I've certainly forgotten some of them.

Honorable mention for:
Bubble Bobble+Rainbow Island
RodLand (Amiga)
Jim Power in the Mutant Planet (Amiga)
Apidya (Amiga)
The Chaos Engine (Amiga)
Theme Park World (PS1)
Age Of Empire II (PC)
Project Zero 1/2/3
Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana
Nomad Souls & The World Eater
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Samurai Shodown V Special
DarkStalkers
Shadow of the Colossus
Music 2000

[NYN]

I can't.

Ninja Gaiden available goes only to II, not III NA. Which would be my pick. Half-coked, indeed. 20 years back there would be nerd-honour to get it right the first time, huh?
Typing in MEGA MAN gets a chuckle. 0y vey for all the missing.

Since the web consist mostly of hey-dude-come-lookit-my-whatever-list, this could be an exercise to communicate some paste without much words. Getting THE NOD, or updating the active ignore list accordingly.
I guess I would stray from modern mass-consumption without diving into the unknown. It would change every some bump. Games stay defined, though we don't.

[Lethe]

There's no excuse. Just look at the sheer variety on offer. You wouldn't be having a problem if you stopped being such a plebeian and could appreciate these timeless classics.

[Lemnear]

Well these were the lists of your favorites.
What would your list of 20 Must-Plays look like instead?

There's no excuse. Just look at the sheer variety on offer. You wouldn't be having a problem if you stopped being such a plebeian and could appreciate these timeless classics.

some arouse curiosity, others are just scary... D:

I updated the list and used a better site :v

[Some-Mist]

I should probably have more arcade games in here, but this is either games I've sunk the most time into or those that have far exceeded my expectations that I've still gone back to play multiple times (not necessarily most played)