The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The best Legend of Zelda game, period. Nostalgia kind of helps me say that, but I still feel that Zelda was at it's best when it was a top-down game. Sure, adding the third dimension gave the world depth and made it much more accessible visually, but I can't help but feel that the games have also slowed down considerably since that transition. Zelda games used to have a much faster pace and really kept you on your toes. Plus, with two huge and very different worlds to explore, you never felt like there wasn't something to do, not to mention that there were dozens of secrets to find in the game world. Where this game ultimately fell down and doesn't make the list is probably an issue with the Zelda franchise in general, which is that after 25 years of Zelda, the formula has gotten kind of stale. That's probably not fair to knock down older games based on failures of later ones, but that's exactly what happens. A couple of bad movies can ruin a franchise, similar things can happen to games. If you asked me to build this list last year, this would've probably made the list, but time forever changes how you look at things.
Fallout
Fallout presented us with a bleak future, one in which the world as we know it has been horribly and irreversibly changed by nuclear war. The game had a deep story with a vast number of ways to play the game and required you to remember things that were said and be intelligent about how you approached situations in order succeed. This isn't a game where the most effective strategy is to shoot your way to victory, making friends with the right people or groups was critical. Ultimately, the reason this game couldn't crack the top ten is because of how many ways you could simply fail the game, leaving you in a situation where you couldn't complete it at all. I'm okay with being presented with a challenge, but having to repeat over 20 hours of gameplay because of one mistake is pretty brutal. Still a great game with a fantastic tactics-driven combat system.
Final Fantasy VI
This game comes really close to Final Fantasy IV whenever I'm asked what my favorite Final Fantasy game is, but never quite beats it. Which is shocking considering Final Fantasy VI had a story that truly invested you and presented you real thoughts that you might be in a battle you cannot win. No other Final Fantasy game before this raised the stakes to this level, and it was supported with challenging boss battles, an excellent antagonist, a great cast of characters, and a true WTF moment in the game's narrative. The reason it never quite eclipses IV, though, is that this is the first game in the series that basically took away each character's uniqueness. Most characters can use all the best weapons, any character can learn any magic or use any summon, and as a result, no matter who is in your team, you usually use the exact same strategy for how you fight. Also, the game does bog down a bit when you first get to the World of Ruin. Still a great game, just not on the top 10.
Super Metroid
I know I mentioned that Super Metroid basically laid the groundwork for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which probably makes it odd that this didn't make my list. Super Metroid took the concepts established in Metroid on the NES and added a map system, new abilities, and much larger areas. It presented a large world and did not hold your hand, you had to figure out where you needed to go on your own. The map system made that concept much easier than earlier games, but it still lead to several situations where you would revisit the same place multiple times until you found out the new area you could access with the most recent power you got. The game is still excellent, although it plods a lot more than Symphony of the Night did. I recommend playing this, however, if you are a fan of the more modern side-scrolling Castlevania's or games like them.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Blasphemy. I believe that's the word that popped into my wife's head when I listed my top ten. No Zelda? No Ocarina of Time? How many times have you beaten that game? The fact is, Ocarina of Time is a fantastic game. However, as I prefaced this post, trying to sift hundreds (and hundreds) of games into a top ten is not easy, and SOMETHING has to get left off. Ocarina of Time is a great game, but it's not even the best Zelda game, in my opinion, so it had no chance of making it to the actual Top Ten, but I'd easily say it was close. The first time that Link went into 3D to save Hyrule was Ocarina of Time, and the game gave a fantastic representation of the Zelda world. The visuals were great for their time and the story was actually quite well done. Ultimately, what holds this game back are some of the annoyances that really creep up on you when you've played the game multiple times. The biggest one is probably the Water Temple, but the Shadow Temple is up there as well. When I hit those two parts of the game, it just drags for me, because I don't want to be there. The rest of the game is fantastic, but that blemish stopped it from entering the top ten.
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie took the platforming 3D that Super Mario 64 started and expanded on it greatly. The game took some of the things that frustrated people about Mario 64 and sought to fix them, while also creating a fun game world with an interesting story, entertaining characters, and some really creative level design. Banjo-Kazooie is a game that really stands out today, showing you don't need hyper-realistic graphics, fantastic CGI cutscenes, or even multiplayer to make a really fun game. I was ecstatic when this game got re-released through the Xbox Live marketplace, because when it comes to 3D platforming, it's hard to find a more enjoyable game than this. The reason it didn't make the list? 3D platformers are fun and all, but they don't rank high enough on my gaming list to get this into the top ten. Also, this game suffers from the same problem pretty much all 3D platformers do: the camera is actively trying to kill you.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Well, yeah. This game HAD to be close, because while I said that Super Mario World is the best 2D Platformer and the best Mario game, Super Mario 3 is just a hair beneath it. However, I didn't feel right having both Mario 3 and Mario World on my list when there were so many other great games that I felt belonged. I don't think I need to spend any real time here explaining why Mario 3 is so great, so I'll just say that if you've either forgotte
n or don't know how good it is, go and play it immediately.
Final Fantasy VII
I know, blasphemy to have this as my 3rd favorite Final Fantasy, but that's how I feel. Final Fantasy VII was a huge step forward from Final Fantasy VI, taking the idea of a more futuristic environment even further, adding guns, huge machinery, and evil corporations into the mix. Once again you had a very good antagonist in Sephiroth, and you had another WTF moment with one of the biggest video game character deaths ever. Final Fantasy VII makes a very strong case for itself, but ultimately it gets held back by a couple of different factors. One, the game goes even further down the path that Final Fantasy VI started, and characters as a result have no unique characteristics in battle besides their "Limit Breaks," which aren't very frequent, especially in the end game. Since characters can equip almost any armor and accessory, and weapons only control attack power and how many "materia" you can equip, all characters a built the same, generally. Also, while Sephiroth is good, he's not as good as either Kefka (FFVI) or Golbez (FFIV). Ultimately, as great as VII was, it just didn't quite measure up to it's predecessors.
Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Another game that my childhood nostalgia probably moves higher up than most people would expect. Wario Land was (and actually still is) probably my favorite Game Boy game. Considering the time when this came out, it was one of the largest games on the system, and also featured a multitude of secrets to find within the levels. Hell, there was an entire hidden world in this game! Plus you had levels that would be changed as you finished other levels, which was pretty unique at the time. You could shut down the water flow on a mountain, which would open up a hidden path in an earlier stage. That kind of creativity was really cool, and finding all the secrets when I was younger (well before the internet was available) really makes this game stand out. It also established Wario as a Nintendo franchise and led to several great games, including the WarioWare series and the Wario Land sequels, plus the fun 3D romp of Wario World on the Gamecube. Overall, a great game that ultimately didn't make the list because, as I said before, not every great game can make the list. I didn't have anything specific that held this one off, I just didn't rank it in my top 10. Hopefully they'll release this on the 3DS Virtual Console soon so that I can relive my nostalgia again.
Red Dead Redemption
Leaving this game off was tough, since I had it between this and Deus Ex Human Revolution. I have never played a game that captured an era quite like Red Dead Redemption captured the wild west (although L.A. Noire also shines at this.) This game learned a lot of really good lessons from Grand Theft Auto IV, the game the preceded it. This game presented you with a huge open western world complete with all the perils you'd expect. It also presented you with tons of side-missions, activities, and plenty of beautiful landscape to check out. The activities could range from playing poker, to capturing bounties, to collecting herbs, to skinning animals. The game had an incredibly engaging story with fun characters. Hell, the game even managed to include an expansion based around a Zombie apocalypse, which ended up being more fun than I would've ever expected. The game if phenomenal, and is probably Rockstar's best game (with Grand Theft Auto Vice City right there with it). I would recommend this game to anyone who likes the wild west, because you won't find anything that will immerse you in it's world quite like this.
Alright, that about covers everything, I think. I'm not going to do any more supplemental lists, but I think my next project will be to do the 10 worst games I've ever played. So, that should be something. Until next time!
-Justin
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