Top 100 Games of All-Time: #43

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

Release Date: November 20, 1995

Platform Played On: SNES

2018 Placement: #31 (-12)

What It Is:

It’s DK. Diddy Kong. And Dixie Kong. The sequel to the platformer Donkey Kong Country, DKC2 puts DK in the damsel in distress scenario and puts Diddy and Dixie in the starring roles as they traverse Crocodile Isle to defeat K. Rool, who’s now a pirate. (Even though he had a pirate ship in the first game, he was a King then? K. Rool is weird about titles.) It’s a fairly standard platformer gameplay-wise, but many additions and refinements make DKC2 even more fun to play.

The pirate theme extends throughout all the game, so all the Kremlings have piratey gear and names now. The first world is an extension of the final level of the first game, Gangplank Galleon, and from there on you get to see a variety of biomes and levels, from swamps to beehives to haunted amusement park rides. There’s fantastic music and both Diddy and Dixie feel great to play as: Dixie’s hair twirl jump is a life-saver. It’s a wonderful refinement of the SNES-era platforming from start to finish.

Why It’s Important To Me:

The Donkey Kong Country series was one of the staples of my childhood. I 101%ed the original and 103%ed DKC3. DKC2 was the only one of the trilogy I didn’t get full completion on because it was the hardest to do. Stupid Klubba. But regardless of my actual completion percentage, DKC2 is the zenith of the SNES portion of the franchise. Level design is at its peak, the music by David Wise is at its peak, the feel of gameplay is at its peak – it’s just all good. There’s very few games I can think of no complaints about besides “why is Klubba such a bitch about the Kremkoins” but DKC2 is definitely one of them.

Listen to Lockjaw’s Saga. Feel that aquatic ambiance. Or maybe send a chill up your spine with Haunted Chase. There’s a reason everyone jumps when they hear David Wise is putting together a soundtrack and DKC2 is that reason. And yes, of course I’ll also link to Stickerbrush Symphony, which might rival Mega Man 2’s Wily Stage 1 as the most remixed video game song of all time. AND FOR GOOD REASON. This game is just a perfect platformer with perfect music, what more could I ask for as a kid?

My Strongest Memory:

Maybe the first time I heard Stickerbrush Symphony? Or the first time I got to the Lost World via Klubba and his Kremcoins? I also remember Black Ice Battle and that level being my absolute nemesis. Fuck that stupid level.

There’s the elevator level in the castle world where you have to ride Rambi (or become him, I don’t remember exactly) and that level was one of my favorites. Of course the Bramble levels and the roller coaster levels are also some of my favorites as well. Kleever is one of the more unique bosses in the DKC franchise and getting to beat the shit out of King Zing as Squawks never gets old. Look, the entire game is a good memory, okay?

Why It’s #43:

For a long time I fought against the rising tide of people always saying DKC2 was the best of the SNES games. I had a soft spot for Fear Factory (the DKC song, not the band) and the mine carts of the first game and Gangplank Galleon will always be a rip. But eventually I succumbed and agreed that DKC2 is just better. It’s one of those platformers that is still worth playing even 25 years later (ugh I can’t believe it’s been that long).

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #44

Persona 4

Release Date: July 10, 2008

Platform Played On: PS2

2018 Placement: #29 (-15)

persona-4-golden-pc

What It Is:

The fourth entry in the Shin Megami Tensei spinoff series Persona, and the one that could be argued that really put the game into the mainstream. If you’re not aware, the Persona games are JRPGs that fuse dungeon crawling with daily life sim/time management, where by day you’re a high schooler just trying to make it through the school year while at night you face weird demon shit and eventually kill God. You up your power by hanging out with your friends (boosting Social Links) or eating/exercising/studying (boosting your stats) and making sure you fit everything you want in is one of the main challenges of the game.

Persona 4 adds a level of mystery to the plot – the overall story involves a serial killer using something called the Midnight Channel to murder people. The “Investigation Team” aka the main characters led by your mute protagonist investigate at night by jumping into a television and exploring this weird foggy demon world where the victims get trapped. Each victim gets a personalized dungeon that is randomly generated every time you enter, adding layers to the strategy of exploration. The mystery investigation vibe really adds to the overall feel of the game and makes it a very solid plot from start to finish.

Why It’s Important To Me:

This game made me rediscover my love for JRPGs. I’d been a huge fan of the JRPG genre in my high school and early college years, from SNES to PS1. But in the PS2 era I sort of fell off of them if they didn’t include Final Fantasy in the title. I tried Persona 3 FES and while I enjoyed it when I played it, I thought it was just “fine” and not really memorable. Then at the end of the PS2 era Persona 4 came storming onto the scene and I absolutely fell in love.

When I completed this game I was living, breathing, and eating Persona 4 for a long while. Persona 4’s cast of characters are much more memorable (in my opinion) and the overall mystery plot is much more up my alley. While there are a lot of very questionable decisions regarding LGBTQ+ themes (specifically Kanji and Naoto) that date the game very quickly and make me wish it had taken a firmer stance, the overall game itself and the interactions between all the Investigation Team members make it well worth the 80-hour playthrough.

My Strongest Memory:

There’s a lot. Of course I’m going to talk about the music first. All of the dungeon themes are fire. When I first set foot into Yukiko’s Castle and this bop started playing I knew I would instantly love this game. Rise’s dungeon theme is also one of my favorites and has a very electronica feel to it. And then of course the boss music is legendary. And it’s not just the dungeon theme – all of the background music in Persona 4 sets the mood and tone of whatever is happening on your screen.

But then of course there’s the twists to the story that I can’t go into here. There’s several “OH SHIT” moments in the game that kept me absolutely riveted to my screen as every time I thought I had it all figured out, something else suddenly came to light. I’m not too proud to say that I knew there was a “true” ending before I got to the point of no return so I made sure I didn’t get a “bad” end, but man the mystery plot was probably one of the best framings of a JRPG plot, especially since it allowed most of the focus of the story to be on this one small town in the middle of nowhere.

Why It’s #44:

This used to be my go-to Persona recommendation and really high up there as a good “starter” RPG because it brought a lot to the table. I went back and finally played the Golden version for the first time when it was released on Steam last year, but unfortunately there are a lot of quality-of-life improvements from Persona 4 to Persona 5 that actually detract from the experience once you’ve played the latter. It’s still a great game, don’t get me wrong, and it deserves to be played. But some of the gameplay now is a little more frustrating than it was when it was fresh a decade ago. But it’s still absolutely worth your time if you’ve never played it.

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #45

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Release Date: June 6, 1993

Platform Played On: Game Boy

2018 Placement: #46 (+1)

linksawakening

What It Is:

The Legend of Zelda’s first foray into the portable console realm, Link’s Awakening was the first game to not even feature the titular princess. It plays much in the same style of the SNES Link to the Past, with the added bonus of a new item called the Roc’s Feather which gives Link the ability to jump for the first time. It’s a very typical Legend of Zelda gameplay-wise as you have eight dungeons and a decent-sized overworld to explore as you collect items and abilities to help get you further into the game.

What’s different about Link’s Awakening is the quiet, spooky weirdness of the Koholint Island locale. Everything feels just a little off and some of the characters are unique oddities. You’re unraveling a mystery as you progress through the game, and the conclusion isn’t just “beat Ganondorf and save Hyrule.” The narrative is much more compelling than “save the princess” and each Koholint resident’s personal story make for a sad and heartfelt game by the time you reach the ending.

Why It’s Important To Me:

My family would go on vacations regularly. Every summer my dad would plan a two-to-three week road trip to some new place we hadn’t gone yet. On spring and winter breaks we’d road trip to visit family. So I invested a lot of time into my Game Boy as a young child, and Link’s Awakening was the game I played and replayed the most. I ended up thinking I knew the game like the back of my hand, only to forget a key element and spend eons remembering which item went to which villager in the long chain of presents the game puts you through.

I had forgotten how much the game meant to me until I played the remake recently for the Switch. As soon as I stepped onto Koholint with the cute new graphics, though, I was instantly transported to a nostalgic blanket of warmth and happiness. All the puzzle solutions immediately came back to me, and the ones that didn’t, well, now I had the internet to remember things for me. Link’s Awakening was my portable childhood and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My Strongest Memory:

Well, THIEF, obviously. As a kid, I don’t think I ever had a single save file that wasn’t named THIEF because who the hell was actually gonna pay 980 rupees for the bow? I ran out of that store with the bow every single time and I didn’t care what the villagers called me. It was probably my biggest act of insignificant rebellion as a child.

The other strongest memory was the stupid seventh dungeon. There’s a mechanic in the dungeon where you have to bring an iron ball around and knock over four pillars, which makes the different floors fall and combine. It’s a really cool idea and I love the result but I swear to God every time I play the game I spent half an hour trying to navigate the ball around to the pillars because I always get lost and can’t for the life of me remember the order of where to go. AHHHHHH.

Why It’s #45:

Because it’s the second-best Zelda game. Suck it Breath of the Wild, you wish you were cool as Link’s Awakening.

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #46

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Release Date: July 26, 2019

Platform Played On: Switch

2018 Placement: Unranked

What It Is:

Fire Emblem at its core is a turn-based strategy tactics game series where you move units around a battlefield and take out enemies. Each unit has its own skills and weaponry and placing your units in the right place can pretty much determine whether a battle is won or lost. But each unit in FE games is a specific character, and over time you get attached to said characters. For the majority of the series the units also have had permadeath – meaning if you lose a unit they’re gone for good – but newer entries including Three Houses gives you an option to not have that on.

Three Houses adds a second layer to the strategy battlefield: in between the main chapter fights you’re a teacher at a school, and your units are your students. You can level up their skills by what they teach you, form social bonds by talking to them between classes, have lunch to boost their stats in the next fight, and so on. It adds a delightful Persona-esque day-to-day pursuit to the game and gives you a chance to fall even more in love with your characters that you’re sending out to die on the battlefield later. On top of that, as the title suggests there are three separate Houses to choose from at the beginning of the game, and while you can recruit some students if you want, each House has its own story so the game has a lot of replayability.

Why It’s Important To Me:

Three Houses is the perfect evolution of the franchise for me. While I have enjoyed all the FE games I’ve played, the fusion of the actual tactical battles with the social sections in the academy make this the top tier entry in my opinion. It also moves slightly away from the romance angles of both Awakening and Fates where you were pairing up every character to get their kids. There is still pairing up of characters here and you get to see a lot of fun interactions, but the actual romance is mostly saved for your specific player character and whoever you choose to pursue. All the characters are delightful, either in a love-to-love them or a love-to-hate them way.

The battle system itself is the most fun it’s been in any Fire Emblem as well. The addition of the “Divine Pulse” gives you a set amount of time rewinds that allow you to fix mistakes in battle. Instead of having to restart the entire fight like in previous FEs, you only need to go back a turn and choose a different tactic. Getting to choose how each character levels up between battles makes it more personal as well. There are just so many quality-of-life updates to the series that make it harder to go back to the more “hardcore” Fire Emblems.

My Strongest Memory:

I think part of why I love this game so much is how it got HarveyZ back into gaming. The true turning the corner of the Make Me A Gamer podcast was when Harvey bought a Switch just to play this game, and then ended up just as obsessed with it as I did. It was fun arguing over whether the Blue Lions or Black Eagles were better (I still insist the Blue Lions are underrated and I loved their entire story) and comparing notes on how the story was progressing for both of us.

It’s also a testament to how strong this game is that as soon as I finished it I booted up a second run-through of the Golden Deer. I didn’t make it all the way to the end with it (in fact I didn’t even get halfway) but I was so enamored with the characters and gameplay that I dove right back in after rolling credits – something I hardly ever do with any game. Also Dorothea is the best girl and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

Why It’s #46:

In 2018 the only Fire Emblem on this list was Awakening, because at the time it was my favorite FE and really breathed new life into the series. Three Houses then came out and blew Awakening out of the water so hard it disappeared from the list and now Three Houses is the only entry. This is a must-have game if you like the strategy/tactics genre even a little: it’s also the best Fire Emblem to start with if you’ve never played the franchise. Play it!

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #47

Minecraft

Release Date: November 18, 2011

Platform Played On: XBox 360, PC

2018 Placement: Unranked

2020-11-08_22.42.50

What It Is:

It’s Minecraft. Have you been living under a rock for the last decade? Do I really need to explain this to you? Ugh, okay fine. Minecraft is an open world survival game set in a pixelated, blocky world that has been updated constantly with content over the last decade. The main goal of the game is to survive and build things, but there is a final “boss” called the Ender Dragon that is considered the finale of the game. But a player can spend years in the game without even trying to fight the Dragon and still have a good time.

The premise is simple: you collect resources (wood, stone, gold, iron, coal, etc.) to build tools for yourself which make it easier to make things like weapons and armor, which in turn make it easier to collect more resources until you’ve built yourself a nice little pixelated home. Every new world is randomly generated so you can find some wonderful vistas created by the generator as you explore. And there’s a peaceful AND creative mode for people who are more interested in the building than the survival aspect.

Why It’s Important To Me:

Minecraft has gone through many iterations in my life. I’ve been a part of several servers on both the 360 and the PC (and I think I even own it on PS4 too although I never really got into a specific world on that one). Early on me and a few online friends tried to recreate Achievement Hunter Let’s Play contests in Minecraft – that’s how I got into the game in the first place. Later I joined another server with some real life friends and we all created our own different settlements – HarveyZ made a supervillain lair while I built a house with a glass floor over a ravine, and then put a giant smiley face on top of it.

The most recent Minecraft explosion for me was at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic last year: me and my girlfriend joined a new server with friends, my roommate was talked into joining as well, and it basically became the game of the pandemic for all of us. We’ve spent a ton of time building farms and castles and exploring woodland mansions and caverns while screaming at Creepers. It’s the first game my girlfriend truly got into as a co-op experience and playing it with her has made this game very important to me. (The picture is a photo of our collection of Minecraft dogs, because we always need more dogs.)

My Strongest Memory:

Oh there’s a lot. When we were first starting in the current server, I was building a house on a mountaintop and there was a massive cavern underneath the mountain that me and a few others tried to explore. Needless to say we found a gigantic cave that enemies just poured out of, I ended up dying because the one high level person shot me with an arrow and killed me in the confusion, and then half my stuff was lost because a person that picked it up fell into lava. (They then built a giant “SORRY” at the base of the mountain so I could see it from my mountaintop chateau.) It was a fun clown fiesta of an introduction to the server.

Then there was the time me and my roommate tried to further explore said cave, got ambushed in a mine and my roommate died, so we spent a good half hour lost in the caverns trying to get him back to his stuff because he’d only been playing for a few days and didn’t have as good a grasp on exploration yet. Or the time me and my roommate were in the middle of nowhere looking for a woodland mansion, I left my PC for ten seconds to check on a noise outside our apartment door, and when I came back I had somehow drowned despite not leaving my character in water. So I had to trek all the way back across the world just to get my stuff back (the first time I tried going through the nether and failed about twenty feet from the objective – I could see it but couldn’t cross the lava pool due to mobs and ended up dying and having to start over).

There’s also the time I made a special, secret area for my girlfriend for her birthday and gave her some neat items in-game. And then there’s the time she turned the tables on me and gave me a special, secret area for Valentine’s Day and gave me some netherite. Or all the time we’ve spent together building farms and taking care of dogs and goofing around in game. It allowed us to build something constructive together while we were stuck inside for a year. Minecraft has a ton of memories now. It’s special.

Why It’s #47:

Like I said at the beginning, it’s Minecraft. If you think this isn’t one of the greatest games of all-time, you’re living in a bubble. The game is whatever you want it to be, and to me it’s an escape and a fun time to spend with friends.

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #48

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Release Date: February 28, 2017

Platform Played On: PS4

2018 Placement: #48 (=)

Horizon Zero Dawn™_20170302214601

What It Is:

You play as Aloy in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi action-adventure where robot dinosaurs roam the world and you have to fight them and scavenge parts to upgrade your weapons. From your trusty bow and arrow to slings to all sorts of different traps, you have a wide array of tools to take down the robots. While the smaller ones are fairly easy to take on as you progress, the largest enemies like the Thunderjaw and Stormbird require careful planning to take down without any mistakes.

The gameplay is stellar – each type of robot you come across has specific strategies associated with it and are unique in their attacks and how you deal with them. And with a ton of options at your disposal you can make full use of any arena you find yourself fighting them in. Its open world is large, but not oversaturated to the point that it feels tedious or overwhelming. And on top of that, Horizon: Zero Dawn has an awesome sci-fi story that is doled out to you slowly over the course of the game where you not only find out the history of the current world, but how it came to be like this (and has one of the most hateable characters in gaming, even if you only interact with him through holograms).

Why It’s Important To Me:

Whenever I get a Platinum on a game, it is a testament to the quality of it and how I regard it. Horizon: Zero Dawn is another one of the few in the upper echelon of modern gaming for me, where after beating the game I still felt compelled to run through the open world and finish all the collecting I missed during my main playthrough. Every sidequest was fun to tackle, and while I hoped the final boss would have a little more oomph or uniqueness to it, it was still a challenge and the story beats of the ending were still satisfying.

I love this world. I love all the dinosaur designs. I love how the combat feels strategically and how all the tools are used in each fight. I love Aloy as a character, especially how the game treats romance and some of the people who are interested in her. She is on a mission and while there are a few suitors (and suitresses?) she doesn’t have time for that shit and is confident in shutting it down. Aloy is a refreshing protagonist in a lot of ways and is one of my favorites of all-time.

My Strongest Memory:

I think my biggest wow moment is when the big reveal for what happened in the past occurs in the story. You get all these little crumbs and seedlings as you progress through the game, learning a little more about Aloy and the people who lived before the apocalypse with each area you explore. Then the big bombshell is dropped and you’re like “oh shit” and “what a despicable piece of shit that guy is.” And it’s made all the more frustrating because you’re learning about the past so there’s really nothing you can do about it.

Honestly all the story beats were what kept me going in this game. I was glued to my seat every time I learned something new about the world and how it works. I’m a sucker for good world-building and Horizon: Zero Dawn has it in spades. How everything is explained is just wonderful and there’s a decent bit of environmental storytelling as well. The narrative and world is just so finely crafted I couldn’t get enough of it.

Why It’s #48:

There’s not much more I can say other than continue my glowing praise for Horizon: Zero Dawn. It’s post-apocalyptic robot dinosaurs, what more can you ask for? It’s the best open-world game where you can climb on things and explore a vast space and hunt things that came out the week of February 28 in 2017. Yes, I’m aware of the other game that came out that week. No, my opinion IS correct and Horizon: Zero Dawn is definitely the better game. Thank you for your time.

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #49

Rock Band 2

Release Date: September 14, 2008

Platform Played On: PS3

2018 Placement: #44 (-5)

screenlg11

What It Is:

The sequel to Harmonix’s perfection of the plastic music instrument genre – Rock Band 2 was a little bit of an advancement as the guitar and drum controllers were better and there were some extra modes added to the game. The game used the same rhythm controls set up by the previous games of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, where you have to hit notes on musical instruments in time with the music. You get score modifiers based on how long you go without mistakes and at the end of each song you get a star rating.

The fun, of course, comes from getting to jam out with your friends locally. Setting up impromptu band sessions with buddies and putting on playlists of your favorite songs was just an absolute blast, even if the peripherals took up a ton of space when they weren’t in use. The Rock Band store allowed for more songs to be downloaded and added to your set lists and gave the game infinite replayability.

Why It’s Important To Me:

Rock Band was a fundamental fixture in hanging out with my friends during the late 2000s and early 2010s. Rock Band 2 was my favorite game of the series with my favorite base playlist – Almost Easy by Avenged Sevenfold, Ace of Spaces by Motorhead, and Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran amongst others. More importantly, it doesn’t have Creep, Say It Ain’t So, or Maps.

As has been evident by nearly every other entry in this list, music is very important to me. So of course a game based around music AND hanging out with friends would obviously end up being a game I loved very much. I was extremely sad when the genre was scuttled due to oversaturation – while I mostly blame fucking Bobby Kotick, some of the blame was also on Harmonix – Rock Band: Beatles? Rock Band: Green Day? C’mon. Still, this was karaoke combined with air guitar, except you were actually playing something on the air guitar. It was just an absolute blast and I still love bringing out the old plastic instruments on occasion.

My Strongest Memory:

There’s a lot I could go for here. There’s the first time I got my first complete gold star 100% on Hungry Like The Wolf. There’s the time and effort I put into mastering Almost Easy and nailing a near 100% on it – being able to hit the hammer-ons was so satisfying. There’s also getting up the courage to actually sing some of the rock songs in front of friends (I’m petrified of singing in front of other people because I can’t sing). There’s the times of laughter when my friends tried to rap through Beastie Boys or trying to hit the high notes of Judas Priest.

There’s just so much good music in this game and the joy of getting the rhythm down and nailing five stars as a foursome is unmatched. It’s one of my favorite local gaming activities of all-time.

Why It’s #49:

Look, it’s Rock Band 2. If you played games in the late 2000s this was a part of your life. Do I really need to elaborate any more than that? It was a phenomenon unlike any other and it deserved it because it was pure fun. It deserves it spots on the top 100 because it’s an iconic game that will always live on in my heart and memory.

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #50

Danganronpa 1/2/V3

Release Date: Nov 25, 2010/July 26, 2012/Jan 12, 2017

Platform Played On: PS4

2018 Placement: #53 (+3)

What It Is:

The Danganronpa series is part visual novel, part murder mystery, part point-and-click adventure, and all fun. The premise of the game is 16 students, each with a special skill that they have world-class talent in, are locked together in a game where they must kill each other. Each chapter of the game involved a murder and a class trial where the group has to come together and figure out who the culprit is, otherwise they’re all killed except the murderer, who gets to walk free. The time before each murder is mostly visual novel-esque, where some story beats happen but you also get to spend time with other students and learn more of their backstory. Investigating the murder itself is a point-and-click investigation where you find all the clues before heading into the trial.

But the trials aren’t just present your evidence like Ace Attorney: no, your evidence is loaded up into bullets and you have to shoot at contradictions in statements that the other students make. This, along with many other mini-games peppered in, makes the trials part revelatory and part frenetic action. It wouldn’t be as gripping if the characters weren’t amazing: each game has character you love, characters you hate, and characters you love to hate. And these characters are truly what make the games worth playing, as the entire premise lives or dies with the cast. Thankfully, Danganronpa nails it in that department three times over.

Why It’s Important To Me:

For my 2018 ranking I only had V3 listed. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized you can’t have V3 being such an excellent game without its two predecessors. Really, the reason V3 left such an impression on me can’t be disconnected from the other two. So as I said before with the Nonary Games listing: my countdown, my rules. And the Danganronpa series as a whole gets the first spot in the top 50 because they’re all awesome.

While V3 I think is the overall best game in the series (and has a perfect finale), 2 has two of my favorite characters of all-time: Gundham Tanaka and Nagito Komaeda. Gundham is just perfect in every way and Komaeda is the greatest, most lovable complete asshole in gaming history. The original also has one of my favorite moments in the entire series (Chapter 5’s ending, if you know, you know) so it’s just impossible for me to separate each of these games into distilled entries because the love I have for the series is intertwined with moments shared across all the games. You can’t have V3 without 1 and 2, you can’t have 2 without 1, and 1 is just plain awesome on its own.

The anime kinda sucked though.

My Strongest Memory:

Danganronpa originally wasn’t available in the U.S. It gained popularity, though, partly due to a Something Awful let’s playthrough where a poster played through the game and posted translations of the game on the board, allowing the board members to vote on who to spend time with between murders and adding cliffhangers and suspense to all the proceedings. I read through these and instantly fell in love with the characters and setting. The added bonus of seeing the highs and lows with other people as they also read through what was happening just enhanced the experience.

When I finally played them myself when 1+2 Reload was available on PS4, even though I already knew the story I was still blown away by the characters and fell in love with the series all over again. And playing V3 without having already been spoiled about who the murderers were was even better. I can’t even begin to get into the ending of V3 because I don’t want to give it away for anyone, but my favorite moment of the entire series is the final trial of V3. It’s just balls to the wall bonkers that had me on the edge of my seat grinning from ear to ear the entire time. It’s three games worth of build-up, but by god the finale knocks it out of the park. It’s basically the antithesis of how the Nonary Games ended and why this series gets all three games together instead of just the first two.

Also, again, fucking Nagito Komaeda. What a shitlord. I love him. I hate him. He’s been my profile pic on Steam for years. Fucking Komaeda. What a dickhead. I love him.

Why It’s #50:

There’s a certain type of movie my friends like to call the “Atma Movie” where everything takes place in one location, the people are pitted against one another and lots of people die. Danganronpa is that but a video game, so of course I’m going to love it. But add in quirky characters, weird-ass shit going down between murders, and the murders themselves being complicated as hell and an absolute blast to solve…well, you’ve got a recipe for Ultimate Success in my book.

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #51

Super Mario Bros. 3

Release Date: October 23, 1988

Platform Played On: NES

2018 Placement: #39 (-12)

31691-super-mario-bros-3-nes-screenshot-spitting-plant

What It Is:

The third(fourth?) game in the Mario Bros. series. One of the classic, genre-defining platformers on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. From warp whistles to tanooki suits, from ducking on the white block to P-Wings enabling you to fly through hard levels, this game has a long, established legacy in the video game world.

After the single-player only Mario Bros 2, this game brought back multiplayer and allowed both players to explore the overworld. It added an item storage system as well, allowing you to store power-ups like raccoon leaves and hammer bro suits and use them when you needed a boost with a level. Toad Houses gave you random power-ups from chests and this game also introduced some of the best Mario characters ever: that’s right, the Koopalings. All hail Lemmy Koopa!

Why It’s Important To Me:

Super Mario Bros. 3 always had the forbidden fruit quality to me as a kid. I didn’t own the actual game myself (until I got Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES), only the first and second games. So whenever I got to play 3 it felt like a treat and a new world opening up in my eyes. I loved the overworld aspect of the game and how enemies would move around on the map. The fortress and airship levels were so cool and the theme of each world was even cooler.

It was the defining platformer for me growing up – I always considered it my favorite mainline Mario game for a long time. There was just something about the simplistic sprite work that drove me into nostalgia overdrive. And when I think long enough, I can even conjure up a distinct smell and memory of my grandfather’s old store, where we used to visit whenever I saw my extended family. My cousin had SMB3 and when I brought my Nintendo on Christmas vacations I would always be eager to borrow the game and get as far as I could while I was on vacation.

My Strongest Memory:

I fucking loved the Hammer Bros suit. The Hammer Bros were my favorite enemy from the original game, and the Hammer Bro Suit was like the holy grail of items. It was a “break only in case of emergency” kind of deal because I didn’t want to waste it. That shit was pure gold and I got excited every time I got one. I still think it’s the best power-up of any Mario game and am still personally offended it never came back in other games. And no, Mario just carrying a hammer in some RPGs does NOT count. It’s just not the same.

The other big memory was probably the same memory every child had playing this game: the fucking sun. That stupid angry-faced ball of gas was my absolute nemesis and I hated him with the fire of a thousand hims. Scared me half to death the first time I encountered him and my blood pressure still rises a bit thinking about him. And on the other end of the spectrum, Big Bertha scared the shit out of me too. A giant fish that eats you up in one gulp? NO THANK YOU.

Why It’s #51:

Super Mario Bros 3 coasts a lot on nostalgia. It was absolutely a formative game of my childhood and was one of the prime examples of awesome games that made me a platformer aficionado. The variety in power-up abilities is still unmatched (in my opinion) as Super Mario World shirked variety for a few specific ones and also got rid of the storage. While I know Nintendo doesn’t like to retread often, I wish they would drink from the Super Mario Bros 3 well a little more often: the New Super Mario Bros games almost got there but were missing the magic. A true SMB3 successor on modern consoles could be a game-changer.

Top 100 Games of All-Time: #52

The Messenger

Release Date: August 30, 2018

Platform Played On: Switch

2018 Placement: Unranked

What It Is:

A 2D side-scrolling action platformer that hearkens back to the days of Ninja Gaiden and other games in that style. As the titular messenger, you progress through stages, acquiring new abilities that help you fight the enemies and bosses at the end of each level. The cloudstep is a unique traversal mechanic that gives you an extra jump after you attack something while you’re in the air. If you’re skilled you can use the ability to attack enemies from all directions and it makes for some fun and challenging platforming sections.

At the halfway point is when the game decides to blow all your expectations out of the water: a twist in gameplay changes the format from stage-based to an entirely connected world and it turns into more of a Metroidvania. From that point forward you have to explore all the nooks and crannies of the world to unlock new items and abilities, which allow you to get to even more new areas. It blew me away when it happened and instantly cemented it as one of my top games in recent memory.

Why It’s Important To Me:

Some games are just special from the outset and this one grabbed me almost immediately. First, the music is absolutely stellar. The background track of the first level was instantly catchy. The third level, though, is where I became enamored with the game’s soundtrack as it is an absolute bop. And then the theme to Searing Crags is just chef’s kiss. But wait! There’s more! After the mid-game twist, the two different time periods you can go between are made distinctive through not just a change in 8-bit to 16-bit sprites, but in 8-bit to 16-bit music. You get remixes of every track in the game: here’s Searing Crags’ 16-bit as an example! The seameless transitions between the different music styles made The Messenger’s soundtrack jump to an all-timer immediately.

The game itself is fantastic on top of the amazing soundtrack. All the bosses are fun and it has some of the tightest 2D platforming traversal of the modern era. While not completely focused on platforming as a game like Celeste, it still puts some decent challenges on the table. Also did I mention how great the humor is in the game? The character of the shopkeeper is an absolute blast and the relationship between the shopkeeper and the messenger is wonderful. Also you must give a listen to all of the stories the shopkeeper offers to tell you – you’re missing out if you skip them.

My Strongest Memory:

I played this game for the first time while on vacation with my girlfriend. It was my first time in NYC and we were staying in a tiny little AirBnB apartment. The days were filled with awesome sights and touristy travels while during my down time I rested my feet and pulled The Messenger up on my Switch. My finish of the game coincided with the end of the trip as I beat the final boss while we were riding the train home. I had an absolute blast in NYC and will forever associate this game with those good memories because the two are inexorably linked in my mind.

As for the game itself, I can’t oversell how great the soundtrack is. This soundtrack is probably one of the most played albums on my phone at this point. It’s an absolute chiptune masterpiece that never lets up. It’s perfectly exemplified by the final boss, which is probably my favorite moment of the game: one of the best songs on the soundtrack accompanying the best fight in the game.

Why It’s #52:

I dare say that The Messenger is a modern classic. It’s a tight, fun experience that isn’t too long and lends itself to replayability. The DLC is also fantastic (here’s a sample of the DLC’s music – it keeps up the fire) and worthy additional content. And it was free!!! The Messenger was such a solid game that I instantly backed the studio’s Kickstarter for their next game – Sea of Stars – and cannot wait to see them knock that one out of the park too. If you have any nostalgia or interest in platformers/Metroidvanias/cool sprite-based games, you are doing yourself a disservice until you play The Messenger. It’s grand.