Click here for the introduction!
105. Resident Evil 4 (GameCube)
I do not have the religious reverence for Resident Evil 4 that many have, but I
definitely recognize the game’s impact and it’s certainly a memorable experience.
RE4 was a huge deal back when it
first released in 2005 as a GameCube exclusive (yeah, remember that?). Many of
my friends were playing it and talking about at the time, so much so that I
kind of…got sick of it. Also, a good chunk of the game was spoiled for me as
well because of my constant exposure to it before playing it myself. Despite
all this, I still remember my first time with the early village sequence as one
of the tensest and most harrowing sections in a game I’d ever experienced. I love
the game’s atmosphere, its environments, its self-aware camp, and its ridiculous characters and varied
bosses. RE4 is a game that just keeps
one-upping itself and surprising the player with one exciting, nail-biting,
interesting sequence after the next. Just when you get comfortable with a
certain scenario and think you know the rules, the game throws a wacky
curveball at you, or perhaps a chainsaw.
104. Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii)
Epic
Yarn is my favorite of the “experimental” Kirby games, which include a game where you control a spherical Kirby
with magic paintbrush strokes (actually there are two of those) and one where the pink cream-puff is split into a
swarm of ten mini-Kirbys. I like Epic
Yarn because unlike these other alterna-Kirbys,
it’s still a traditional platformer; it just gives Kirby a new aesthetic and set of mechanics within its fabric
framework to play around with. The word that always comes to mind when I think
of Epic Yarn is “delightful”. It will
charm the pants right off of you…which Kirby will probably then unravel and
turn into a sled or something.
103. Yoshi’s Woolly World (Wii U)
The third and final title on this list from
the booming “yarn genre” is Yoshi’s
Woolly World, a special game that surprised me with not only its creative
level design, but also an intimate and emotional adventure that I could feel
was created with a lot of love and
effort. There’s something inherently nostalgic about Woolly World. Simply put, it is the video game equivalent of
wrapping myself up in one of my Nana’s hand-knitted blankets and sipping a cup
of tea on a cool autumn night.
102. Pikmin 2 (GameCube)
Pikmin 2,
which I actually played on Wii, is special to me because it helped bring me fulfillment
during a time when all I felt like doing was lying in bed in the dark, but it’s
also a delightfully unique experience with an indescribable atmosphere. There’s
something about venturing further and further down into the depths of one of Pikmin 2’s many underground labyrinths,
not really knowing what’s going to be on each new floor, that’s intoxicating. This
is only compounded by the game’s uniquely bizarre soundtrack, which drew me
into a world that felt like a dream. The main goal of Pikmin 2 is to discover and collect “treasures”, a bunch of human
junk ranging from Duracell batteries to bottle caps to references to Nintendo’s
history, in order to pay off a debt. Discovering each treasure and seeing what extravagant
name Olimar and Louie’s wonderfully characterized spaceship comes up with for
these mundane objects is simply a delight and one of my favorite aspects of the
experience. If you seek to complete it thoroughly, Pikmin 2 is a long game, and it can be both challenging and
exhausting, but while it’s not a game I’m likely to return to that often or at
all, it is a treasured experience for me and one that felt immensely gratifying
to journey through and complete.
101. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land (Wii)
I fondly remember the day that Kirby’s Return to Dream Land released in late October of 2011. After getting out of work and visiting two different
GameStops before I was able to buy the game, I brought it home and found myself
transported back to being a little kid with a Game Boy, playing Kirby’s Dream Land for the first time; back
to the summer of 2000 when I first played Kirby
64. The so appropriately-titled Return
to Dream Land, the first traditional Kirby
game on a home console since Kirby
64, was a very welcome return to form for the series. This game is just
good. It feels so artfully and perfectly traditional in so many ways, yet
doesn’t feel stale or recycle too many old staples. In fact, I sort of wish one
or two more classic bosses showed up even, as most are brand new. Even only
five years later, I already find myself feeling a bit nostalgic when I listen
to the soundtrack. Return to Dream Land
is simply a joyful video game, elegant in its traditional design, and nearly
unmatched in its level of polish.
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Check back again next time for #100-96!
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