My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (35-31)

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35. Paper Mario (N64)

Did you know that the only fanfiction I’ve ever written was a Paper Mario one? As I was eagerly anticipating the upcoming Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, I lamented the fact that I had never played the original N64 game, so I tracked down a copy and played Paper Mario in the summer of 2004. While playing the game, I began posting on the IGN Paper Mario forums, initially just asking for help. This soon spiraled into me becoming a full-time member of a gaming community and before I knew it I was writing a fanfiction. I have extremely fond memories of that time and can’t help but associate them with this game and its sequel. Paper Mario itself is a wonderful example of creativity; it features an inspired take on the familiar Mushroom Kingdom and I love its chapter format, diversity of lovable partner characters, and simple yet satisfying RPG mechanics. In this premier outing, the whole “paper” concept was just an aesthetic choice, and it made for a compelling art-style that still holds up well even on the aged N64 hardware.

34. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (Game Boy Advance)

Superstar Saga was the first Mario RPG I played and I instantly fell in love with it. It is zany, imaginative, and hilarious. It’s from a time when Nintendo wasn’t afraid to do whatever the hell they wanted with Mario and when the Mario RPGs in particular were a bastion of creativity and unique ideas. Unique ideas like an evil bean witch stealing Princess Peach’s dialogue (as in the text in her text boxes) and replacing it with explosives and sending Mario and Luigi on a quest to the Beanbean Kingdom, an all-new land where Bowser loses his memory and becomes a thief’s apprentice, the now infamous villain Fawful makes metaphors about sandwiches and mustard and doom, and Mario uses his brother as a surfboard I think? What I really love about the first Mario and Luigi compared to its successors is its open, interconnected, detailed world, which doesn’t feel like merely a handful of areas stapled together. It feels like a 2D Zelda overworld almost, with tons of secrets to find and interesting areas to explore and quirky characters to meet. The battle system and mechanics are engaging without being drawn-out or gimmicky and the humor is inspired. Superstar Saga isn’t bogged down with tutorials or repetitive, boring areas full of mundane fetch quests, and it’s not a mess of touch-screeny, motion-controlled mini-game gimmickry; it’s just a wonderfully creative, well-designed RPG. None of the games that followed in the still ongoing Mario and Luigi series have managed to capture the magic of the original for me, and quite frankly they don’t even come anywhere close.

33. Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

Let me get something out of the way right now: I’ve never finished Final Fantasy VII. I stopped playing at the very end of the game on disc three with only the big finale to go, so I did play through practically the whole thing, I just never actually finished it. It is one of my biggest gaming regrets, because I adore this game. Final Fantasy VII is tied with memories of a high school summer long gone by and even though I was quite late in playing the game, I still found myself engrossed in its extremely compelling world and complex narrative. For its time, FFVII was incredibly ambitious, and it’s one of those games where I can feel the passion of the developers in every facet of the experience. I unabashedly love this game’s atmosphere as well as its soundtrack. Composed by the great Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy VII’s score is a wonder, and easily one of my absolute favorites in video games. It also contains the greatest battle music in JRPG history that still gets me pumped up to this day. Someday, someday soon, I need to go back and re-experience this whole game complete with a proper conclusion.

32. Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

First off: another masterful soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu. It should be clear if you’ve read just about any one of these posts, but music is extremely important to me, in video games and otherwise. In fact, it is one of the most important elements in video games for me; it can set a mood, create an atmosphere, evoke emotions, and so much more. I think when it comes to Final Fantasy VI, “emotion” is a very key word. One of the first things I think about when I think about FFVI is its characters; their different stories, the way they grow, and how the narrative draws them together and progresses with a focus and a confidence that few other games can match. Unlike many other JRPGs, the narrative here is not convoluted or overly complex, but it is gripping stuff and does a great job of balancing humor and drama. FFVI is filled with powerful narrative moments that I won’t dare spoil, but suffice to say it’s an incredibly narratively ambitious game for its time and summons a heap of emotion using only pixels and sprites, which is actually quite similar to the next game on this list…

31. Cave Story (PC)

Cave Story speaks directly to my heart. It pulled me in, held me close, punched me in the gut, and left me deeply moved. It just does everything right. The detailed world-building, emotional storytelling, and level of imagination on display in Cave Story rivals any of my favorite games of all time. Also, I know I’m a fossilized record at this point, but I also adore this game’s pixel art and soundtrack. From its enigmatic beginnings to its multiple endings, Cave Story is an unforgettable and special journey that can be downright brutal in more ways than one. I really want to spoil as little as I can about the game as it’s something best experienced as blind as possible, but you have my word that Cave Story is easily one of the greatest video games I’ve ever played. It is also immensely inspirational, as the entire game, which was inspired by the likes of Metroid, was developed by a single person, Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, who did the art, writing, music, level design, and programming all by himself in a five year effort. An indie inspiration and simply an incredible game, Cave Story is a work of art in every way.

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Only 30 more games to go! The final stretch begins next time with #30-26!

My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (40-36)

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40. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (Game Boy Color)

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages are both great games when played on their own, but if want to get the most of them and see this grand adventure to its proper conclusion, than the two must be linked together. It is this combined adventure that occupies this spot on the list and it is easily the most overlooked and underappreciated Zelda game in the whole series (even Zelda II is at least well-known by the fans). This sprawling adventure has Link venturing outside Hyrule to new lands to control the seasons, travel through time, explore lost ruins and haunted crypts, help undead pirates escape the underworld, ride a flying bear, explore the depths of the ocean, and conquer a team of dastardly villains out to do the world harm. The season-controlling mechanic is one of my favorites in the series and both games, though particularly Ages, feature some of the trickiest puzzles and dungeons the Zelda series has ever seen. If you love top-down Zelda or old-school adventure and have avoided these treasures, you are doing yourself a huge disservice.

39. Silent Hill 3 (PS2)

Silent Hill 3 is basically the first Silent Hill on steroids, returning to a similar aesthetic except even more encrusted with fleshy, rusted horror that practically seeps out of your TV screen. Team Silent really outdid themselves with the environments, the scares, and the signature Otherworld in this one; the place truly comes to life here and almost every single room in the game is designed to fuck with you. From the more overt pulsating, bleeding walls to the more subtle barely glimpsed horrors beyond foggy windows, Silent Hill 3 is a master of horror and atmosphere. I am always astounded by the art direction in this game and just how remarkably well it has aged. The character animation, particularly facial animation, and voice acting have also aged well and lend a lot of emotion to the game’s memorable cast of characters, including protagonist Heather, who is one of the most likable and empathetic characters I’ve ever encountered in a game. The narrative also finds a nice balance between the more esoteric bizarreness of the first game’s plot and the grounded emotional center of the second’s. Both the original Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 definitely get their dues, and rightfully so, but Silent Hill 3 seems to have largely been ignored in the mainstream over the years, which is a true shame because in a way it is the quintessential Silent Hill experience and at the very least an absolutely brilliant one that stands toe to toe with its two predecessors. Just stay far away from the Silent Hill HD Collection, “remasters” of this game and Silent Hill 2 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that Konami vomited out a few years back; they are terrible, broken trash.

38. Silent Hill (PS1)

If the original Resident Evil defined survival horror, than the original Silent Hill showed the true potential of the genre, and the kind of unparalleled horror experience that only video games can deliver. Even though I am intimately familiar with the series that it spawned, Silent Hill still creeps me the fuck out to this day. It’s difficult to make such a call, but my heart still considers the original the scariest in the series. I was exposed to this game as a child, watching my older brother and his friends play it, and where I expected another Resident Evil, I got something far more sinister, far, far creepier, and something that bore its way into my subconscious and permanently took up residence there. A seed had been planted, and a genre I had mostly shied away from my entire childhood had finally revealed itself to be something right up my alley.

There was no spooky mansion in Silent Hill, there was an empty elementary school, there were no zombies, there were pale, maggot-headed children that slinked out of the darkness. The atmosphere in Silent Hill, created through a masterful mix of gritty art direction that still holds up well for a PS1 game, haunting sound design and music by Akira Yamaoka, and one increasingly bizarre and twisted scenario after the next is nearly indescribable at its core, but it is perhaps best summed up by the word “dread”. It’s an experience that constantly feels out of the player’s control as they are toyed with and manipulated throughout the course of the game. More recently, I’ve heard people look back on and criticize this game’s stilted and often hilariously awkward voice acting and at times immensely cryptic dialogue, but I still admire the game’s narrative ambition and love its core concept; at the very least, there are a handful of scenes that I still find to be absolutely brilliant and unforgettable to this day. Silent Hill isn’t just monsters and guns; there’s real emotion here, there’s something poetic about the whole thing. I was fascinated with this game as a kid and it left a huge impact on me, and even though I wouldn’t play through it entirely myself and get hugely into the series until I was in college, I credit this game and the Silent Hill series at large as one of the prime reasons for my love of psychological horror today.

37. Animal Crossing (GameCube)

When I first rented Animal Crossing back in 2002, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. But after only playing it for a few days, I knew this was something that was for me. I’ve always been a great appreciator of “downtime” in games. Time to just hang around a village in an RPG, or enjoy a beautiful piece of scenery or a special moment. Animal Crossing is sort of like “RPG Village Downtime: The Game” but it’s also so much more than that. Quite frankly, I had never played anything like it back then (well actually, there was one other game sort of like it that I had played previously, but I’ll get to that later…) and it absorbed me with its simplistic visual presentation, lively cast of characters that felt like real people despite being anthropomorphic cartoon animals, soothing music and atmosphere, and surprising amount of depth and variety of things to do. There was a reason to play every day, and every day I did…for months. I have so many fond memories tied to this game. I remember a cool autumn day, my Mom baking cookies, me playing Animal Crossing. I remember how my friends moved into my town and would exchange letters, and how I would set up scavenger hunts for them. I remember how satisfying it felt to arrange my little virtual home, how I was so proud of my video game corner and boxing ring in my basement. I remember how exciting winter felt, all the little ways the game changed on a daily basis and all the little surprises, like igloos, snowmen, and finding a particularly exciting piece of furniture. I recall how crestfallen I was when beloved villagers left my town. My dear town of Foresta, how I cherish the time I spent living there. To date, the GameCube original (original in the U.S. anyway) is the only Animal Crossing game I’ve played, and while I’m not against playing another one someday, I feel like I had my fill with this one.

36. Jet Grind Radio (Dreamcast)

Similar to the GameCube, the Dreamcast was home to many creative, original games that were just…different, and in some ways changed my expectations of what a game could be. Jet Grind Radio (or Jet Set Radio, its original title that it’s called by everywhere but the initial U.S. release) was an artistic revelation. I had never seen a cel-shaded video game before, and although this wasn’t technically the first one released, it was one of them. The cel-shaded art isn’t just a pretty aesthetic though, but rather an artistic choice that informs the whole experience. Jet Set Radio transcends being a game and is actually more of a “style”. This funky fresh experience involves rollerblading around urban Japanese environments and painting graffiti at select locations while evading the fuzz, battling other rival gangs, and listening to blazin’ hot tunes…I’m really bad at trying to sound cool, aren’t I? Regardless, as a young teen in love with video games and just getting into anime and learning about how all of this stuff that I loved came from Japan, I was completely enthralled with the Shibuya-infused vibe and setting of this game. There aren’t a ton of them, but each location in Jet Set Radio is huge and detailed, with more areas of each one becoming unlocked as the game goes on, and I had a blast simply exploring every corner of them. I’m pretty sure this game is the reason I appreciate graffiti art so much today and when I was in middle school, I frequently doodled in a graffiti style and drew characters based on the ones in the game. Of course, the game itself also featured on option to create one’s own graffiti tags, a welcome feature in this mesmerizing work of audio-visual interactive art.

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Five more fantastic favorites next time in #35-31!

My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (45-41)

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45. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Game Boy)

Another Game Boy game from my childhood that’s bursting with creativity and that signature oddness that defined first-party Nintendo games for the system in the 90s, Wario Land is not only a fantastic sequel to the already excellent Super Mario Land 2, but it’s also one of my favorite platformers of all time. This was Wario’s first game all to himself so Nintendo really had complete freedom in what they could do with the adventure, and it really shows. The Wario Land series is appropriately like some bizarro inversion of the Mario series, and what I love so much about it is that it’s not chained down by all of the conventions and tired staples of the latter. With nothing holding him back, Wario journeys to Kitchen Island to steal the treasure of the Brown Sugar Pirates and explores memorable locales such as Mt. Teapot and Parsley Woods, hunting down hidden treasures and finding secret paths. The game features a world map similar to its predecessor, but the world is even more dynamic. For example, the first time you venture through the first world, Rice Beach, it will be low tide. Later on, however, one can revisit the beach when the tide has come in and has flooded previously explored levels, which allows access to new areas. Wario Land also has a very strange and memorable atmosphere and much of its soundtrack is decidedly mysterious, culminating in a presentation that brings to mind The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening in ways.

44. Super Metroid (SNES)

Haunting. If there’s one word to describe Super Metroid, it’s "haunting". Another word might be "brilliant". The opening title screen immediately sets a mood that is completely absorbing and the rest of the game follows suit. Super Metroid is a master of atmosphere, exploration, game design, sound design, music composition, 2D pixel art, and hell the game even succeeds wonderfully at minimalist narrative, with subtle examples of great in-game storytelling and a world littered with details and little moments that tell the story without words or without ever removing interactivity, including one of the most memorable finales in video game history. I waited years to finally play this classic on the Wii Virtual Console and it did not disappoint. Super Metroid is one of those games that represents just about everything I love about the medium and is basically just an experience extremely catered to my own personal tastes.

43. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Game Boy Advance)

Bloodlines was my first Castlevania game, but Circle of the Moon is the game that made me fall in love with the series. After constantly reading about how great this Symphony of the Night game was and then how great its immediate successor Circle of the Moon was in Electronic Gaming Monthly (which I subscribed to for years and have just about as many fond memories with as I do with the games on this list), I finally decided to give Circle of the Moon a shot. It instantly made me nostalgic for the Castlevania games I played as a child and I soon found myself addicted to exploring Dracula’s dark abode. I played Circle of the Moon for a long time, mainly because it can be a very difficult game with very little hand-holding, but I have fond memories of waking up early to play it during the summer and also of playing it around October. I remember finally finishing the game feeling truly triumphant. Circle of the Moon might have my favorite atmosphere of the Metroidvania games; it perhaps feels closest of them all to the classic Castlevanias in this regard and has a very classically gothic appeal. Its soundtrack is mainly comprised of remixes of old tunes, but besides them all being terrific arrangements, at the time I didn’t know they were recycled works. Also, the protagonist’s name is Nathan and although it may be a bit silly, it just heightens my connection to this game even more.

42. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Game Boy Advance)

Aria of Sorrow rounded out the GBA Castlevania trilogy beautifully. By this time, Koji Igarashi and company had just about perfected the Metroidvania formula and Aria built on and refined just about everything in the previous games from a mechanical standpoint. After experimenting with different magic and ability systems with each new release, the developers finally arrived at the Tactical Soul system, which is my favorite ability system in the series by far. Not only was collecting the soul of every creature addicting and a lot of fun, but trying out each unique new ability was exciting and lent so much variety to the game. This was only compounded by the wide variety of weapons that Soma Cruz, the game’s protagonist, could wield, which all featured unique visual designs and mechanical properties. One of the most memorable aspects of Aria of Sorrow though it its colorful cast of characters and bonkers narrative, which took the Castlevania mythos to an interesting new place and an interesting new time period: the future year of 2035! That said, the narrative does some really bold and intriguing things with the well-established Castlevania canon.

41. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Game Boy Advance)

One of the more overlooked Zelda titles, The Minish Cap is a true gem. It is easily the most visually gorgeous of the 2D Zeldas, and I long for the series to make a return to something akin to this game’s lovingly-drawn spritework and artistically-painted environments. This lovely art-style only enhances the game’s inventive central theme of shrinking down to explore the nooks and crannies of Hyrule hidden in cracks in the wall, on top of rafters, in patches of tall grass, and beneath stones. I love this premise and I love how much detail was put into the Minish society and the little secretive places that they call home. The Minish Cap also has a wonderful cast of characters including Ezlo the talking hat and the devious villain Vaati, a huge and bustling Hyrule Castle Town that is one of the best communities in the series, and it’s one of my favorite games, so of course the soundtrack is great too. The Minish Cap is a delight and one of the most underappreciated entries in the long-running Zelda series, which is a shame since it is also one of the best.

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More to come in #40-36! We're getting close! 

My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (50-46)

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50. Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)

Streets of Rage 2 is my favorite co-op game of all time. I don’t even have to think about that one; nothing else even comes close. I have countless great memories of playing through Streets 2 over and over again with family and friends over the years, from childhood to adulthood. It's the ultimate chill-out, talk about life, and beat up some thugs kind of game. As far as beat ‘em ups go, they simply don’t come any better. Its stages are huge and detailed, encompassing a wide variety of different sections, and each one seems to flow into one another naturally, forming the kind of progression and silent storytelling that I dig. Tying the whole experience together is the divine soundtrack largely composed by Yuzo Koshiro (with some help from Motohiro Kawashima). The music is so good that it’s the only video game I know of (besides the other two Streets of Rage games) that credits the music composer on the title screen right underneath the Sega copyright.

49. Resident Evil (GameCube)

Originally released for the GameCube in 2002, the Resident Evil remake is a masterpiece of atmosphere. There’s an HD remaster of the game out now, but even the original version still looks great because of its intricately detailed pre-rendered environments. Every frame, every moment, every screen of this game was purposely constructed and fixed to provide a certain mood, and every shot could be a beautifully macabre painting. Candles flickering in the foreground, creepy shadows dancing on the wall, ominous hallways stretching into the darkness…this game has it all. The labyrinthine and looping Spencer Mansion is a master class in level and environmental design and one of my favorite settings in video game history. I have an affinity for relatively small but richly detailed spaces in video games and perhaps nothing encapsulates this principle better than Resident Evil’s residence, which doesn’t look that big when you look at a map of it, but feels like a universe when you are lost in its dark recesses. Countless esoteric riddles, memorable creatures, and weird hidden documents all contribute to an unparalleled interactive horror experience here. Many call the “REmake” the example to follow to do a remake right, and while I think the best approach varies depending on the game, there’s no denying the remarkable achievement the developers pulled off here.

This may sound odd, but there’s also something strangely comforting about this game for me. Maybe it’s all the time I spent watching my brother play the original PS1 version (as well as Resident Evil 2) as a kid, or just something about the atmosphere, but I find myself drawn back to this game again and again. I’ve only played through it twice myself, but I never tire of watching others play it and have found myself watching Let’s Plays, Twitch streams, and friends playing it over the years and am always strangely entranced by this hauntingly hypnotizing experience.

48. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a really good Super Mario game. In one sense, it might even be the greatest Super Mario game Nintendo has ever created. Stripped of almost anything that gets in the way of you jumping around through one colorful, imaginative level after the next, Galaxy 2 is pure, unrestrained joy from beginning to end; it is very much the original Super Mario Galaxy streamlined. It overall has a more “fun” vibe that its predecessor; it’s a brighter, more jubilant game in a way, and pretty much does whatever it wants with its levels without worrying too much about strictly adhering to the space theme. That said, Galaxy 2 still has some of those more contemplative, peaceful moments that the first game is full of, and also like the first Galaxy, it’s simply a thrill discovering each new galaxy and launching into them to see what new adventures await. Galaxy 2 really captures a feeling of cosmic adventure as Mario and friends sail through space on a starship shaped like the plumber’s head. Yoshi’s back as well and this game is perhaps the most fun I’ve ever had controlling him; his mechanics feel bouncy and fluid, using pointer controls for his tongue is a smart idea, and there are also a lot of fun Yoshi-centric power-ups to use. Unlike the New Super Mario Bros. games, Yoshi doesn’t just feel thrown in for nostalgia's sake, but instead his inclusion feels inspired and he features heavily throughout the game. Super Mario Galaxy 2 unfortunately broke the trend of each new 3D Super Mario game being a major event and something truly unique and exciting, but this is a game where the immense enjoyableness of the experience seems to overshadow everything else.

47. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Believe it or not, I was a bit disappointed with Super Mario Galaxy at first. It’s hard to articulate why, but I think it comes down to a mix of expectations, a handful of nitpicks, and perhaps simply becoming a little jaded as I got older. Simply put, Galaxy did not initially have as much of an impact on me as it seems to have had on many other people. After the stardust settled, however, I grew to appreciate and respect this game a lot more over time. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t immensely enjoy the game when I first played it even with those feelings of disappointment, and similar to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, few games capture the joy of Christmas morning as much as Super Mario Galaxy for me. There’s also just something special about this game. I don’t mean that it’s personally particularly special to me in this case, but rather that there’s something inherently special about Galaxy. When I think of Super Mario Galaxy, I think of that tranquil moment early in the game when Mario wakes up on a small planetoid and has to chase some star bunnies around. But I also think of that epic opening that precedes it with Bowser and his army invading Toad Town with their fleet of airships. It’s grandiose set-pieces backed by sweeping orchestrated music like this one mixed with more atmospheric, reflective moments like the former one that give this game a very unique appeal. Unlike its sequel, this game also feels more cohesive and has a stronger identity as it uses the space theme more effectively. Super Mario Galaxy succeeds on many levels: it adds a new dimension to Mario’s familiar platforming, it tastefully calls back to the series’ classic roots by bringing back elements such as Bowser’s airships and the iconic fire flower power-up (a trend that would unfortunately all but become the downfall of the series in my eyes in subsequent years), and it features a narrative with both a sense of weight as well as a surprisingly touching undertone. The character of Rosalina and her Little Prince-esque backstory brings a lot of emotion and personality to this game that the sequel definitely lacks. I said I was initially a bit disappointed with Super Mario Galaxy, but now nearly a decade after its release I long for another Super Mario game in its spirit; not a Galaxy 3, no I actually mean the exact opposite. I mean a truly new Super Mario game (and not, you know, another New Super Mario game either...). With its inspiring orchestrated score, distinct narrative center, and new cosmic setting, Galaxy is to date the most recent Super Mario game that truly felt wholly new in my eyes. I can only hope that whatever Nintendo is cooking up right now for the most famous character in video games, it’s something worth getting excited about again.

46. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)

By the end of world one, I was impressed. By the end of world two, I was in love. By the end of level one of world three, I was in tears. Tropical Freeze is outstanding. It’s my favorite pure platformer of the last decade plus and a masterwork of the genre. I don’t even know where to begin because this game just wins on so many levels: its imaginative and lushly-realized worlds break away from stale genre clichés, its levels were painstakingly crafted piece by crumbling/growing/burning/spinning/flying piece and every single one of them is memorable, its mechanics are razor sharp, it is a colorful, beautiful-looking game, and its soundtrack, composed by returning master David Wise (with some help), is just sublime; it’s catchy, atmospheric, grand, creative, joyful, wonderful, and is simply one of the best OSTs in gaming period. In addition, the sense of progression and narrative framing is executed wonderfully. The attention to detail in Tropical Freeze is almost alarming: every single platform, every trap, every obstacle has a purpose and a context; platforms don’t just float in the air, they are attached to trees or get carved out and thrown in front of you by gigantic saw blades, they don’t simply move about on their own, but are tilted by falling streams of water in a leaky cavern or are part of an intricate fruit harvesting mechanism in the middle of a dense jungle. This game is alive; it’s dancing, it’s grooving and moving, and it is just gosh darn amazing. Where Donkey Kong Country Returns felt largely chained to the past, Tropical Freeze is more in the spirit of Donkey Kong Country 2 but surpasses that classic with an original adventure that is not afraid to break away and proudly be an experience that evokes nostalgia for a bygone era by not simply recycling or winking and nudging and saying “hey, remember that?”, but instead by simply being an experience every bit as wonderful, special, and imaginative as those classic platformers I fell in love with in the 90s are. Tropical Freeze captured my heart in a way that a game hasn’t in a long time and I have no hesitation in saying it is one of the finest platformers ever created.

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The games continue next time with #45-41!

My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (55-51)

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55. Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of my three earliest video game memories and possibly the first game I ever played. Therefore, its music, its sound effects, its visuals, its slopes, and its loops are etched into my mind in a way that few games are. Sonic is one of the primary reasons I love games as much as I do. While I’m incapable of being completely impartial about this game, I recognize its flaws yet still find much to be impressed by in Sonic’s debut adventure. Compared to later games in the series, the original Sonic feels lonelier and more foreboding, especially in the final level. Just listen to the menacing boss theme; it really captures the idea of a little rodent going up against a megalomaniacal industrialist. The whole nature vs. technology theme that is present throughout the Sonic series, especially in the older games, as well as the focus on playing as and rescuing animals has always spoken to me directly. While they contain some annoying designs, I find Sonic the Hedgehog’s levels or “zones” unforgettable and inspired, even so many years later. This game began a trend in the Sonic series of taking Sonic to imaginative locations such as a surreal city park filled with pinball equipment, a dreamy starlit highway, and a treacherous polluted factory, giving it a unique identity that set it apart from many other common platformer clichés in the 90s. Beyond the locations themselves though, Sonic’s worlds are largely so memorable because of the game’s distinctive art direction and musical score, both of which were quite unlike anything else at the time. It’s easy to look at the original Sonic the Hedgehog now and compare it to its sequels and other games and dismiss it as archaic and awkward, but at the time it was new and exciting and unique, and I applaud its developers for having an inspired vision instead of just blatantly copying what Mario was doing.

54. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

Order of Ecclesia has a very fond place in my heart for several reasons. For starters, it was the final Metroidvania* produced by Koji Igarashi, and although I would have gladly accepted more explorative Castlevania, in my opinion Order of Ecclesia was at the very least a glorious note to go out on. It combines several different elements from throughout the Metroidvania series such as the multiple area approach of Portrait of Ruin and a similar ability system to the Tactical Soul system from the Sorrow games, and it even incorporates a hub town full of eccentric villagers that brings Castlevania II to mind. To top it all off, it all culminates in one of the most climactic final battles the series has ever seen. The soundtrack is of course also glorious and the 2D art is at its absolute best; what’s more, Ecclesia also features a beautiful painterly art style for character portraits and official art, a welcome return to form after the garish anime look of the past two DS Castlevania titles. Perhaps my favorite aspect of Ecclesia though is its narrative and its protagonist, Shanoa. In Order of Ecclesia, the Belmonts are nowhere to be found, there’s no legendary Vampire Killer whip, no contrived tie-ins to past games or cameos, there’s just Shanoa, an ordinary woman who decides to stand up and fight evil because no one else will. Ok, so there’s a little more to it than that and Shanoa technically isn’t entirely alone in her quest, but I just love this game’s basic premise and Shanoa is my favorite protagonist in the series. Castlevania isn’t exactly known for its great storytelling, but there are actually some pretty touching moments here and the way in which the adventure progresses feels very inspiring in a way and almost like Igarashi and company knew this would be the last one. If I had a hat, I’d tip it to those folks, and I eagerly await this game’s long-awaited spiritual successor, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

*Just a side note: when I say “Metroidvania”, I am not referring to the whole subgenre, but rather just using the term as shorthand for the seven Symphony of the Night-style Castlevania games. Speaking of which...

53. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)

I didn’t really get super into the Castlevania series until 2001’s Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and I waited years to finally play 1997’s Symphony of the Night when it was re-released on PSN. While I don’t quite hold the game in as high regard as many others mainly because I feel many of its successors improved on it mechanically and also because I’m not exactly a fan of the game’s “second half”, Symphony of the Night is nonetheless a masterful creation, especially for its time. It has perhaps the most well-designed version of Dracula’s castle in the series and almost every nook of this obsessively-detailed gothic mausoleum is etched into my brain…besides the recesses I’ve likely still yet to discover. Symphony of the Night is also a brilliant work of 2D video game art and is wholly embossed with its own distinct atmosphere. Its soundtrack by Michiru Yamane combines hard rock, chapel hymns, gothic anthems, and funky electronica to produce something extraordinary. Symphony is special, it is timeless, and nothing can ever replace dialogue like “What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.”

52. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

I actually didn’t care too much for A Link to the Past at first. I certainly liked it to an extent, but I kind of struggled through it difficulty-wise and overall didn’t think the adventure was as inspired as Link’s Awakening, the only 2D Zelda game I’d previously played. I didn’t really start appreciating A Link to the Past until I had more Zelda experience in me and returned to replay it over and over again. Each time I did, I seemed to enjoy the game more and nowadays it may not be my favorite Zelda game but it sits neatly in the middle or so. It’s a quintessential-feeling game in many ways through its structure, its level of polish, and its overall completeness. There’s just something very satisfying about finishing A Link to the Past. This game also has a charmingly classic feeling and distinctly magical atmosphere about it and for as much as it established for the series as a whole, A Link to the Past still feels unique among its peers. It has one of my favorite soundtracks in the series (the ending credits theme is profound and makes me tear up every time I finish the game), its mechanics feel great, and its art is colorful and pleasing. I also dig ALttP’s storytelling, which I don’t think gets enough credit. While there’s a wonderfully written and illustrated backstory in the original SNES instruction manual and certainly quite a few exposition dumps throughout the game, I love how details about its world and its lore are fleshed out by NPCs hiding in caves and whatnot throughout both the Light and Dark World. Speaking of the Dark World, it’s both an interesting concept narrative-wise and design-wise and while the whole “dual world” idea has been completely beaten into the ground by Nintendo today, A Link to the Past still stands as one of its best examples. From its expertly-constructed opening to its satisfying, climactic finale, A Link to the Past is a great game that’s easy to just jump into and have an adventure with.

51. Kirby’s Adventure/Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land (NES/Game Boy Advance)

My first experience with Kirby’s Adventure was the Game Boy Advance remake, Nightmare in Dream Land, which I’m pretty sure I didn’t even know was a remake of the NES classic at the time. Which is amusing, because Adventure is yet another game I longed to play for years. I grew up with the Game Boy Kirby games and Adventure released at a time when I did not have access to a NES. I remember the boxart alone making my imagination run wild about the wonderful Kirby adventure I was missing out on. While I of course eventually played the original Kirby’s Adventure and think it’s great, my preferred version is Nightmare in Dream Land, which features new visuals, enhanced music, new modes, and so on. Having missed the original version and Kirby Super Star as a kid, NiDL was the first Kirby game I played with such a large set of wacky copy abilities. It was a joy discovering them all as well as making my way through imaginative and colorful lands such as “Ice Cream Island” and “Butter Building”. You can’t go wrong with a level called “Butter Building”. Kirby’s Adventure/Nightmare in Dream Land is also probably what I would call the quintessential Kirby game; it’s kind of like the “A Link to the Past” of the series. It was the second game in the series and built on the template of the original Kirby’s Dream Land in numerous ways. Not only did this game introduce Kirby’s signature copy ability, but several boss concepts and characters (such as series mainstay Meta Knight) also originated here, in addition to an overall game structure and many conventions that would go on to greatly influence the series. No matter which version you play, Kirby’s Adventure is a great time sure to put a smile on your face.

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We get ever closer to the big finale next time with #50-46!