30. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Seems hard to believe that it was twenty-five years ago that I picked up a controller and tried this game called Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo. I wasn't raised on PC or Atari, but I had seen them before. My parents had a few friends who owned a Nintendo back in the day--we did not. Going to their house to play Super Mario was a special privilage. Soon after (maybe a year or two?), my parents bought a Nintendo as well. This entire time in my life was very exciting, and Super Mario Bros. will always be representative of that fact. Growing up with Nintendo has been a lifelong bond, and they will be hard pressed to not have my allegiance. I never beat this game as a kid. True story. In fact, it was only three or four years ago that I played through this and Super Mario Bros. 2. Finally, the princess is, for me, not in another damn castle. :)29. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GC)
First off, a big shame on you for those of you who haven't played this gem. I was tempted to make this game quite a bit higher for the mere awesomeness of the design, but it ended up at the 29 spot. Eternal Darkness was a new stab at Survival Horror, which was becoming big business at the time due to successes like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Fatal Frame. Eternal Darkness was quite a bit different though, more of an action game than actual survival horror, the qualities added to this game were many. First off, we had an engaging storyline. Not only did you play in a creepy house as young woman trying to uncover a family mystery, you also went back in time for 13 stages at various periods in the earth's history. The idea that evil kept being reincarnated throughout history was a deeply engrossing storyline that tied all of the characters together. You could find weapons to attack the undead legions, but the game was also magic based. You could learn something like 12 spells and each spell had a red, blue, and green variation which counteracted the enemies strengths and weaknesses. This alone would have been enough for a kick ass game, but they didn't stop there. 
See this blue screen of death? This actually happened to your television while you were playing. You see, in addition to your character having a life and magic meter, they also had a "sanity" meter. If your character became startled, jumpy, or scared, the meter would increase. If the meter maxed out (and sometimes you would do it just for fun) weird effects would begin to happen to your game. Perhaps you'd cut to this blue screen of death. Maybe your television would falsely turn off. A fly might appear "on" the screen, a la the movie The Ring. Sometimes your characters head would simply explode and game over would appear on the the screen. Maybe you'd begin to suddenly walk through the floor, continuing to sink further and further into the floor. There were more than that, but those were some of my favorites. Always an adventure to play, i'm shocked this game never spawned a sequel. It was fabulous. "This...can't...be...happening!"28. Resident Evil 2 (N64)
Resident Evil 2. What's your favorite Resident Evil? This game will always be special to me for it introduced me to the series. I found the game at a game store once used for the Nintendo 64. Those of you who played games during the 64 v. PS days know that Nintendo did not release the Resident Evil games. To find this, the sole entry on a big "N" console was a treat. Then I played the game. My first survival horror experience. I was hooked. Management of resources, changing storylines, and above all a dark, depressive atmosphere, it was a wonderful time. This showed me that games can make you jump--and no matter what anyone says, a game is a much scarier endeavor than a movie anyday. Plus this game had Mr. X, the Tyrant. If you ever played a game, you know how scary that statement is.UP NEXT: The leather spectacular! Leather balls! Leather armor! Leather whips! Leather lions, leather tigers, and leather bears, oh my!
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4 comments:
Too bad I don't know half of these games you're listing. And, as far as your CD list...I wouldn't even bother with Chinese Democracy. I've read the reviews. It's supposed to be really horrible. And I can't even imagine why in the world you would want Kanye West. :)
Kudos on including Eternal Darkness; that game was actually the reason I got a Gamecube. (Of course, the Metroid Prime series certainly didn't hurt either. ;p ) My only quibble about it is, once you got some of the higher-level spells, it got way too easy. Great story, but the gameplay always felt a little lacking to me. :(
I actually found the super strong spells at the end to take a really long time to cast, hence it was harder to do so against bosses, but yes...it wasn't perfect. It was damn good though!
Also, I just remembered: there are four colors of spells. In that one jungle/temple area (I think), there's a fake wall that moves, and behind it is the purple rune/glyph, that's strong against every color of monster. THAT is what makes the game really easy, sadly. :(
But yes, still an awesome game that did Lovecraftian horror right for a change. :)
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