My Top 115 Favorite Video Games (85-81)

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85. Super Mario Maker (Wii U)

Super Mario Maker nearly became a full-time job for me when it released exactly one year ago today. Prior to the game’s release, I was reasonably excited for it, but I figured I’d play around with it for a few weeks and then move on. I ended up completely losing myself in this bottomless toy-box as my imagination completely ran wild. Super Mario Maker is a childhood dream come true for me. All those imaginary Mario levels I’ve daydreamed about and played through in my head over the years could now be reality (well, somewhat). While the game has some frustrations and limitations (most of which have now been addressed through updates), this creative-tool/game hybrid is nonetheless a treasure. I spent hours and hours deep into the night toiling away on making every brick perfect in creations that I poured my heart into, from a massive airship to an underground sewer complex to a four-level ghost story, and this isn’t even taking into account all the other time I spent exploring all of the creative and wonderful levels from other users. Super Mario Maker even extended beyond the screen as I’d pen ideas down in a notebook and plan out future courses; I even had a whole game planned but I inevitably got burned out before realizing my full ambitions. Looking back, this game fired up my imagination in a way that I hadn’t felt in many years; it was invigorating, and I was always excited to jump back into the game to start creating and playing around again.  Super Mario Maker is a universe, an endless template for creating and playing, and if you are someone who can appreciate both aspects of the experience like me, than it is a truly magical experience indeed.

84. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess/Twilight Princess HD (GameCube/Wii U)

I’ve written about this before, but to this date, I have never in my life been more excited for an upcoming video game than The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I remember when it was announced, I remember each new trailer, I remember when Midna and Wolf Link were revealed (in what still stands as my favorite video game trailer of all time)…there was the delay, the inevitable porting to the Wii, and all the hype and speculation surrounding the game’s release. I remember finally beholding the game Christmas morning in 2006, having just gotten home for winter break from my first year at college. I unpackaged the game, absorbed the title cinematic, and experienced those opening moments with shaking hands.

I had never been so immensely thrilled to herd goats.

I’ve long had a rocky relationship with Twilight Princess and "mixed feelings" only begins to describe it. Twilight Princess represents a catering to fans and a safe return to form after the unhinged imagination present in Majora’s Mask and The Wind Waker, a facet which sours the title a bit for me to this day. Nevertheless, Twilight Princess is a beautiful, impeccably-designed, and memorable adventure. Its dungeons are some of the strongest in the series, with the haunting Arbiter’s Grounds and the charming Snowpeak Ruins being two especially memorable highlights. While it is lacking in terms of sidequests compared to other Zelda titles, TP’s main quest is mainly one engaging venture after another that takes Link to the dreary depths of a giant lake, to a moonlit desert encampment, and to the far reaches of an enchanted grove. There are thrilling horseback battles, sword duels with an undead knight, and even an old-West shoot-out…by the time the credits role, there are few games that can say they’ve delivered such a satisfying journey. It’s nothing too daring and it certainly apes a lot of material from previous Zelda adventures, but there’s something comforting and pristine about Twilight Princess’s traditional adventure, and the Wii U’s HD remaster only makes its creative art direction easier to appreciate.

83. The Legend of Zelda (NES)

I was surprised by how easily I became immersed in the original Legend of Zelda the first time I played it. I expected something that would be awkward and difficult to get into compared to the Zelda games that I’d played, and while perhaps in some ways this was true, The Legend of Zelda ended up being an absorbing adventure that not only contains many of the hallmarks that make later Zelda games so great, but also a unique charm that is all its own. It’s a satisfying challenge and there’s something about its minimalist pixel art, tiled dungeons, and satisfying sense of progression that I find very endearing. Coupled with its lovingly-detailed instruction manual and official old-school-anime-style artwork, there’s a very classic nature to this game that I adore. I was late to the party on this one, first playing the re-released Game Boy Advance version, but thanks to a close friend also playing through the same version at the same time, I was able to have that experience of sharing secrets and experiences just like people did with the NES version. And even though Level 6 is still a major pain in the ass, I still enjoy going through the original Zelda quite a bit today.

82. BioShock (PC)

I still remember the pre-release buzz for the original BioShock and thinking that the game looked fascinating. The concept of a mysterious, derelict city under the ocean full of hulking beings in diving suits immediately intrigued me. It did not take long at all to realize that the game was something special the summer that I finally dove into it and began exploring the halls of the city of Rapture. The environment, atmosphere, art design, and sound design in BioShock is all brilliantly done, and working my way through every flooded corridor and listening to every discarded audio log was truly a treat. There’s a potent sense of place in this game, and Rapture and its many colorful personalities is a beautifully-realized creation.

81. Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance)

Can you believe that back in the glorious year of 2002, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime both released on the same day in the US? I mean, what a time to be alive! Comparing that with the dark post-Other M times we live in today is bound to make a person a little wistful, especially since these two games were my very first experience with the Metroid series. While Prime admittedly left the bigger impact on me, Fusion is still a great experience. Taking Samus to a creepy space station overrun with mutants and a parasitic menace, Fusion is a polished and somber follow-up to Super Metroid, and is still currently the last Metroid story chronologically. While I prefer the more non-linear 2D Metroid titles over Fusion, it is nonetheless dripping with atmosphere and the encounters with Samus’s eerie doppelganger, the SA-X, are a tense highlight.

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Stop by again for #80-76!

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea (PC) Thoughts

Spoiler Warning: I’ve tried to avoid major spoilers and don’t go into specific detail about any plot points, but you still might want to be wary of some vague spoilers here and there if you have not yet played this game, especially in the second paragraph.

An appropriate tagline for BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea, the DLC follow-up to BioShock Infinite, might be “Irrational Games returns to what they do best”. They tried something similar but different with the sky-high action in the sunny city of Columbia, and while I’m glad BioShock’s successor took us to a new setting, I can’t deny that there’s nothing quite like the halls of the deep-sea city of Rapture. I love the opening section of Burial at Sea: Episode One because we get the rare chance to experience a small piece of a dystopian society when it was still a utopia. Stepping out of Booker’s office and exploring a Rapture that is bright, clean, and active with citizens who haven’t lost their minds is a treat, and I love the more open nature of this starting environment as well as the environments in Burial at Sea as a whole. Walking through the populated bars and shops of Rapture, with massive windows looking out on the city’s neon-lit skyscrapers (seascrapers?) made me reflect on how cool living in a city at the bottom of the ocean would be…before it all goes to hell, of course. The transition to shooting and violence also feels much more organic and less jarring than in Infinite proper, as Booker and Elizabeth are first attacked by the mad artist, Sander Cohen, and then sent on a one-way bathysphere trip to Frank Fontaine’s massive sunken department store turned prison, an incredibly hostile environment crawling with Splicers that resembles the Rapture we know and love from the original BioShock. This was a fairly smart way to have a game that takes place in Rapture before it fell and still have a first person shooter where you freeze people and shoot them with a shotgun. Exploring the derelict clothing departments of “Sub-Rapture”, feeling on edge every time a crazed Splicer lurking somewhere out of sight would ramble into my headphones, I felt a kind of tension that Infinite lacked. Perhaps it’s the closer quarters, or the often smaller groups of enemies, or the respawning enemies that kept me on edge, but something about the combat here just clicks with me more than in Infinite; it feels easier to manage but also more impactful somehow. It’s too bad Episode One seems to enjoy withholding resources such as plasmid-powering EVE and money from the player, because the episode’s short length means plasmids and weapons will mostly go without full upgrades and I felt like I was constantly running out of EVE and ammo in the middle of a fight, which limited my options in a brawl. I would have loved to have fully upgraded the Old Man Winter plasmid, which I had a blast combining with Bucking Bronco to freeze enemies in midair before they fell to the ground and shattered into icy bits. Also unfortunately: Episode One’s narrative starts out strong, but ends with a silly twist that only serves to muddle Infinite’s already muddled narrative even more. To be fair though, this is only part one of a two-part story…

Burial at Sea: Episode Two once again opens in a unique and interesting way, in a beautiful-looking and memorable sequence that is somehow simultaneously silly and inspiring. If there’s one thing Irrational seems to nail, it’s opening its games. Immediately after the opening, the narrative becomes even more messy and convoluted though. After making a shallow effort to explain the logic behind the twist at the end of Episode One, the story then throws an even more abstruse twist into the mix that feels like a contrived attempt to explain why Elizabeth can’t use her Tear powers anymore and that just raises more questions and injects more plot holes. Despite all this, once things got rolling I felt way more connected to Elizabeth as a playable character than I ever did to Booker (although I think much of me caring a lot about Elizabeth is owed to Courtnee Draper’s great voice performance as opposed to the game’s writing). I felt close to Elizabeth after playing Infinite and Episode One and cared about where her story went. By the end of Episode Two, however, Burial at Sea seems to be much more concerned with tying into the original BioShock in neat ways than delivering a satisfactory conclusion to Elizabeth’s story, which I found to be disrespectful to her character. While I think the tie-ins to the original are, as I said, neat, I wish the original BioShock had remained something separate and the links between it and Infinite had remained tenuous; instead, Burial at Sea ends up being a straight link to the original, shoving its overt connections in the player’s face and tying everything together in a neat bow. It’s an interquel, and ultimately little more than a prologue for the original game that overall cheapens Infinite as its own distinct entity and that doesn’t do justice to the character of Elizabeth, a character that I’ve been invested in this whole saga and whose ultimate fate basically amounts to being a catalyst for the events of the first game. It could’ve been worse and the story does do a fair job of linking Elizabeth’s story with the story of Jack and the Little Sisters, as well as overall connecting Infinite with the original, but I can’t help but feel Elizabeth as a character got cheated. I’m just a bit mixed on the whole affair; I’ll admit that having all the Irrational BioShock games being one big sealed up story does feel somewhat satisfying, but this overt link certainly wasn’t needed and I question whether or not it devalues the original, rather than adds to it.

Anyway, while the narrative  and the idea of Infinite, Burial at Sea, and the original BioShock all being one seamless, connected story is a point of contention for me, I actually quite like the other aspects of Episode Two’s design, even more than Episode One. Episode Two is a much lengthier and more complete and focused experience than Episode One, and makes that previous chapter feel like simply a warm-up. This time, the player finally takes on the playable role of Elizabeth, who has basically been the main character this whole story anyway (finally playing as her just feels right), and Episode Two places a large focus on stealth, on running and hiding and sneaking up on enemies. It accomplishes this in part by giving the player new plasmids and weapons, such the ability to turn invisible and see through walls and a crossbow equipped with tranquilizer darts and knockout gas, that encourage players to go about things in a quieter, and shockingly, non-lethal way. Players still have the ability to kill foes, but the game is principally designed around stealth and right from the outset, the narrative makes this clear (the more moral way of doing things is perhaps shoved a little too much in the player’s face early on). I’m disappointed that choosing to kill or not unfortunately doesn’t seem to have much significant impact on anything in the end, but I appreciate the new options and gameplay approach and like that the less violent combat choice suits Elizabeth, who isn’t a pathological killer like Booker. Stealthily creeping through huge environments crawling with Splicers, sneaking through vents, using sneak attacks and trying to use a limited amount of tranquilizer darts puts a whole new spin on the classic BioShock design and makes Episode Two feel like a whole new experience. Trying to survive with only the crossbow and non-lethal means, which is the way I played, also makes for a much more challenging and tense experience.  All this really pays off, as the game feels incredibly fresh, despite taking place in the familiar Rapture setting. I also love the environments in Episode Two, which feel varied and include a handful of creepy lab sections that focus on building atmosphere and story rather than combat, and quite frankly, I love that shit.

Overall, Burial at Sea is a mostly welcome return to Rapture, and despite my reservations about the narrative, I overall enjoyed it quite a lot, perhaps even more than Infinite proper. Episode Two is easily the star half of the package, not only because I’m a sucker for stealth games, but because of how well the stealth elements blend with the atmosphere and tenseness of the scenario. Elizabeth is alone, stranded without her reality-bending powers and with little to defend herself in a hellish deep-sea prison filled with ranting maniacs who will kill her on sight. She’s vulnerable, but also highly intelligent and extremely capable. All of this combined with Elizabeth’s heightened sense of humanity compared to Booker invested me in her character and the experience on a more serious level than anything in the Infinite saga prior, making me carefully consider every step I took and adding a sense of weight to the proceedings that flying around as Mr. DeWitt, sawing into people’s necks and electrocuting them until their heads popped off, before eating potato chips and chocolate bars off the floor seemed to lack (though some of that latter aspect is still present, admittedly). Episode Two also rarely felt repetitive and was never boring for me and some parts will probably stick out in my mind as notable moments in any game I’ve played, such as the unique opening and one late-game sequence that is notable for how uncomfortable it made me, which was definitely the intent.

As for my final thoughts on the whole “BioShock Infinite saga” as I’ve labeled it, having completed all of it now, I’ll say that it was an engaging ride, and one worth taking, but a flawed one. I think the original BioShock still stands on its own as a fantastic experience and while Infinite and Burial at Sea weren’t needed, they’re an…interesting follow-up. I admire the ambition of the developers, but the end result is a fun, engaging, pretty-looking, but messy experience. For more thoughts on BioShock Infinite proper, check out my previous post on the subject. The BioShock series as developed by Irrational Games is sealed up now, and it’s also sealed up when it comes to my capacity for it. Sure, 2K Games will likely continue to cash in on the series, and more stories could be told in a new city, or in Columbia or Rapture, but the narrative certainly doesn’t demand it and I most likely won’t be taking the trip if that day comes. Especially if it’s another trip to Rapture. Burial at Sea pretty much opened the lid on any remaining mysteries with the city, and its story feels told.

Some Thoughts on BioShock Infinite

I’ve been tossing BioShock Infinite around in my head for the past week or so since I completed it and I just can’t seem to decide whether I think the game is annoyingly overrated, something I actually enjoyed quite a lot, or something I overall liked, but was underwhelmed by in several ways. So I thought I’d hash it out with myself here for a few paragraphs and if the game is still relevant to you, maybe you’ll find some food for thought or perhaps want to add something after reading this. I mainly want to discuss the game’s atmosphere and narrative, as those are the points which I find myself thinking about the most.

Like its predecessor (the original BioShock), Infinite excels in world-building and saturating the player with its potent atmosphere and sense of place. The floating city of Columbia is a fully-realized world full of details and its sights and sounds would often stick in my mind long after I’d stopped playing the game. To put it simply: Infinite is an engrossing experience. The opening of Infinite is reflective of the original, except instead of descending below a dingy lighthouse to a grim, murky city beneath the sea, players ascend a dingy lighthouse to a beautiful, sunlit city above the clouds. This feeling of familiar yet contrasting themes is prevalent throughout the game. While this aspect works to the game’s benefit in several ways, it’s also somewhat of a double-edged sword because I believe that much of the reason why Infinite didn’t impress me as much as it could have is because the original BioShock impressed me years ago with similar material. That said, Infinite still stands on its own much more than BioShock 2, which felt redundant and unnecessary to me.

All that said, I find the ways Infinite does differentiate itself to be interesting. For example, protagonist Booker DeWitt’s first steps in Columbia proper are not spent fending off deranged maniacs with a wrench, but simply strolling through sunlit streets and a fairground lined with gift shops, carnival games, and people relaxing and chatting jovially. I find this to be a unique strength of Infinite that sets it apart from the original: that we arrive in Columbia when the city is still living and breathing, instead of after its downfall. Indeed, many of my favorite sections in the game are the ones where you can just walk around and take in the world around you without having to shoot at anything. I think one of the smartest sequences of events in the game follows Booker as he explores the mysterious Monument Island Tower, which concludes in a thrilling escape sequence, followed by Booker waking up in a beautiful beach environment. A rosy late afternoon sun, a self-sustained “ocean” that ends in waterfalls that tumble into the sky, a Ferris wheel off in the distance, and people wearing old-timey swimming trunks (the game is set in 1912) relaxing among the sand set the scene. I was free to walk up to people and get some amusing commentary, eat stray hot dogs and cotton candy, or focus on the main task at hand of searching for Elizabeth (who Booker was sent to Columbia to find), who happens to be gaily dancing at the end of a dock nearby. Later on, as the sun further sets, Booker and Elizabeth go for a twilit stroll around a boardwalk environment complete with an ice cream shop and a bookstore, and even though there were people sitting on a bench having a contest about who could be a more racist white person, the atmosphere and visuals (the game’s luscious, stylistic art direction definitely stands out) were lovely, and I was fully immersed in the world. In these moments, I thought about how I’d like to play a game like this, where I just walk around and talk to people and further a narrative. When soon after this same area is suddenly turned into a gunfight arena, with soldiers who yelled garbled insults at me before I electrocuted them and summoned a murder of crows to pick away at their flesh before blasting their head with a shotgun into a fountain of blood, I couldn’t help but sigh a bit, even if I was having fun. Often, it felt like the combat just gets in the way in BioShock Infinite.

Of course, as pretty as Columbia looks, through its white citizens’ racist, xenophobic mumblings and their troubling devotion to “the prophet”, among other details here and there, it’s clear that this city has something ugly bubbling beneath the surface ready to pop. Earlier on in the experience, Booker’s sunny stroll through the fairground comes to an abrupt end when he jams a guy’s face into a spinning hook-blade, followed by murdering the local police force in a hail of cartoonish blood. I’ll admit, this abrupt change to ridiculously over-the-top and unnecessary violence was incredibly jarring at first and it threatened to shatter my immersion completely. And while I’m still mixed on Infinite’s portrayal and use of violence, the more the experience went on, the more I found a grim appreciation for the contrast between the ridiculous mass murdering and the colorful, almost whimsical visuals. On some level, this combination of the cartoony art direction and absurd violence works and since our protagonist is a violent man who seems to solve all his problems by bashing someone’s skull in, at least it fits his personality (and also the theme of Columbia looking pretty on the outside, but being ugly underneath). The contrast between the more calm walks around populated areas of Columbia and the wild, chaotic combat sections also lends the game an entertaining pace, even if at times it feels like the game falls into a repetitive formula of “shoot a bunch of people, loot a bunch of trash cans, rinse and repeat”. At the same time, some sections are soiled by the game’s incessant need to throw chatty soldiers at Booker, such as one of my otherwise favorite parts of the game, which is the spooky, slow-paced Comstock House environment, which didn’t need the soldiers and would have done just fine with the creepy searchlight creatures and brainwashed inmates wearing pajamas and ceramic masks.

Full Narrative Spoilers Ahead (If you read on, I’m going to assume you’ve finished the game)

Unlike its predecessor, Infinite places a great focus on a compelling central narrative that everything else seems to revolve around. In BioShock, there is a central story and it’s quite interesting, but I remember the true focus of the experience being all the smaller stories and side characters that serve to flesh out the true star of the game, the incomparable setting of the undersea city of Rapture. In Infinite, it’s the opposite: the city of Columbia and its inhabitants serve the story of the game’s central characters, and the star here feels like Elizabeth and the personalities that surround her. For me, BioShock Infinite is ultimately an experience with a lot of fascinating elements that does well enough with what it has, but fails to truly live up to the potential of any of these elements. I feel so much more could have been done with Elizabeth’s jail-keeper, the Songbird, for instance, both from a gameplay standpoint and a narrative one, and that’s where BioShock mainly falls short of its potential for me: it’s narrative.

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of multiple realities and the idea that doorways could be opened between them, and Infinite does a decent enough job exploring the concept, but so much more could have been done outside of chasing a gunsmith around and making machine gun turrets appear out of nowhere. I was intrigued when the narrative first took Elizabeth and Booker into an alternate version of Columbia, but just when it really starts to have fun with the concept (introducing a reality where a different Booker DeWitt is a martyr of the Vox Populi), this idea sort of falls away. Later on, time travel of sorts is introduced into the mix as an older Elizabeth pulls Booker into a far future where Comstock succeeded in brainwashing her to be his successor, and the resulting Comstock House sequence, as I already mentioned, is one of my favorite sections in the game, but this event only served to remind me of how much more could have been done when the ability to traverse multiple realities and timelines is involved. Several of my favorite works of art have tackled time travel and multiple realities and took the concepts way further and in more interesting directions than Infinite; Chrono Cross and The Dark Tower novels to name a few.

But perhaps the reason I feel this area was underutilized has more to do with Infinite saving its most interesting concepts until the very end, and ultimately having a good story with fascinating ideas, but a messy delivery. Chrono Cross introduces the existence of two parallel realities where two versions of the same person can go down very different life paths at the very beginning of the game, and proceeds to explore the concept for the remainder. Infinite chooses to introduce us to such a concept in the last five minutes in order to produce the “gotcha!” effect and no doubt prompt the player to replay the whole thing to see how all this adds up. Perhaps there are merits to this approach, and perhaps if I do replay the game my feelings will change, but I can’t help but feel a bit cheated. I love the concept of basing a story around two versions of the same person from different realities who went down very different life paths, and who ultimately conflict with each other, but I feel that so much more could have been explored here. Furthermore, I question how much the revelation of Booker and Comstock being two different versions of the same person really adds to the story outside of “huh, well that’s interesting”. Perhaps one might argue that the multiple realities and all that jazz aren’t the focus, but just devices used to tell the heart of the story here, which is the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth. But in this regard, I feel the game also falls a bit short of its potential. I love Infinite’s themes of redemption and self-hate and the idea of Booker being a father trying to redeem himself for giving up Elizabeth puts a fascinating lens on their relationship, which given more time to sink in, may have left an incredible emotional impact. Maybe it would have been better if the revelations of Booker being Elizabeth’s father and also of Booker and Comstock being related came earlier and the narrative had some time to play with these ideas and build on them and use them to its advantage. I can think of another game (which I won’t spoil) that has a similar theme of someone with buried memories trying to redeem themselves for hurting a loved one that is much more emotionally resonate because not only is the relationship between the two parties clear from the outset, but after the big revelation the player has time to take in the weight of the truth and the ending lets it simmer, providing more emotional closure for both the game’s protagonist and the player.

Infinite ends with Booker deciding that drowning himself will wash away all his sins, but how exactly does that work again? And how exactly did Booker redeem himself? Initially, he felt guilt for committing atrocities as a Pinkerton agent and a soldier. Later, he feels crushing guilt for giving away his daughter to pay off a debt. So he atones for all this by…going to Columbia and committing even more violent atrocities and finally deciding to drown himself to cancel out Comstock’s existence (who he blames for the whole thing), but wouldn’t that also cancel out Elizabeth’s existence? And maybe I’m missing something here, but how is this one version of Booker DeWitt dying supposed to prevent other Bookers from becoming Comstocks again? Or does Booker know this won’t accomplish anything, and just wants to end his life due to his guilt and sorrow? Also, the coin flip instigated by the Luteces early in the game as well as the alternate Booker who became the martyr for the Vox Populi seem to suggest that the Luteces have recruited many other Bookers to rescue Elizabeth, but the Elizabeth that lost her finger is the daughter of only the Booker we play as, right? Are the Luteces recruiting different versions of Booker to rescue different versions of Elizabeth? And if there are other Comstocks who kidnapped other Elizabeths from other Bookers, that means there are other Luteces who created machines and if the Luteces we know are “scattered across the possibility space” then how do they reconcile with their infinite other number of selves? Or...wait! Did it ever explain why Elizabeth has reality manipulating powers? And what exactly was the Luteces’ goal again? For that matter, if they have the power to go anywhere and traverse time and space as they see fit, why do they need Booker’s help? Is doing things themselves against the “rules”? Are they just trying to help Booker? And if people get nosebleeds and remember dying in alternate realities, wouldn’t Booker have had a nosebleed in the other realities since he died in the one where he’s a martyr? How does that all work again? And what about that ghost? And what about…

Ok, I’m done now. You see, my final point is that I feel like BioShock Infinite has a compelling narrative that’s more concerned with telling an engaging story, a page-turner if you will, than it is with having any kind of consistency or holding up under scrutiny of all its rules (or lack thereof) and details. I’m not saying I’m against a story that makes me think, I’m just not sure Infinite’s narrative is worth all the thought. To the game’s credit, I was engaged all the way through and kept wanting to know what would happen next, especially during the game’s ending sequence, which I found to be both beautiful and captivating. The scene when Booker and Elizabeth are gazing out across an endless ocean at an infinite number of lighthouses with an infinite number of doors is a beautiful sight, and this coupled with the mystery and compulsion to keep wanting to know what was behind each consecutive door made me reflect on why I love video games and the unique things an interactive medium can do so much. Even still, when all was said and done, I couldn’t help but look back and think about how the game plays with several fascinating ideas, but doesn’t really go the mile with any one of them, instead gluing them all together and turning out something good, fine enough, but not great like it could have been and not, in my eyes, something truly special. I’m sure there are countless essays, videos and diagrams out there that will tell me how wrong I am, how all of Infinite’s many threads align perfectly and how its narrative is truly a work of genius, and I’m curious to check them out, but right now, all I see is an otherwise engaging narrative that fails to live up to its potential, both emotionally and intellectually.

In Conclusion (Narrative Spoilers End Here)

BioShock Infinite immersed me, entertained me, and engrossed me. I overall like it, but I don’t love it. It’s not an experience that I feel is absolute required playing, a glorious achievement for the medium, a triumph in interactive storytelling, or whatever other bombastic praise I’ve seen critics heap on it. If others consider Infinite a masterpiece on their own terms, that’s fine and I’d love to hear their thoughts, but for me it’s an overall good game with several strong points, but I guess I’ve either seen better or can imagine better or maybe both. Also, many of the game’s strong points owe a great deal to the original BioShock, which is the game that had a much greater impact on me. Perhaps it’s because Infinite followed that game six years later, and fails to really do anything as ambitious or “wow-ing” as its predecessor that I’m just a little underwhelmed by it. But perhaps it’s unfair to criticize this game so heavily based on expectations of what it could have been or might have been because Infinite is certainly worth playing and ultimately a good successor to the original that does a lot of things well; I just don’t think it’s worth peeing your pants over, and I don’t think it’s as spectacular and forward-thinking for video games as I’ve heard some claim (the original BioShock deserved such praise at the time, but what does Infinite add to that legacy that’s so significant? This is what I’m missing). Where Infinite does deserve praise, however, is in its ability to mostly successfully mix so many different components such as strong art direction, great world-building and atmosphere, a well-realized AI companion in Elizabeth who I did find myself quite attached to by the end, ambitious storytelling that is flawed but nonetheless engaging, and exciting (though repetitive) combat mechanics. Infinite does all of these things and admittedly does all of them well, just for me anyway, I suppose it ends up being an experience less than the sum of its parts.

My Favorite Summer Games

It’s a hot, sunny day in the middle of July right now and an air conditioner is blaring in my right ear. It’s summer. I have many fond memories tied to the summer season and unsurprisingly, many of these memories involve video games. There are several video games that are intrinsically tied with summer for me and always will be, mostly because it was during summer that I played them, but also for reasons involving the content and nature of the games themselves. What initially gave me the inspiration for this post was the recent release of Splatoon. Nintendo’s kid-squid simulator is a perfect summer game that I think was ingeniously released right at the beginning of the season. Splatoon is a game about a bunch of sea creatures splatting each other with ink-filled super-soakers by day and having rad, neon-lit dance parties by night. Sounds like summer to me.

I’ve also played a few other games this summer thus far that also seem well-suited to this time of year: the Uncharted series is filled with action and adventure and is inspired by summer blockbusters, while The Secret of Monkey Island is a pirate-themed adventure through a fantastical version of the Caribbean. All of these games fit in nicely with my long history of summertime video game experiences, several of which I’d like to talk about right now. These games aren’t all necessarily among my favorite games ever (though most of them are), but these are all games that embody summer to me and it’s on these hot, air-conditioned midsummer days that I reflect on them fondly.

Sonic Adventure 2 (Dreamcast)

Sonic was a huge part of my childhood (I played the games, read the comics, watched the shows, and turned my living room into Marble Zone one time) and I was enamored with the original Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast. It’s not shocking then that I was awaiting Sonic Adventure 2 with bated breath, and I very clearly remember finally picking it up at the start of summer vacation in June of 2001, when it was released in North America. I remember reading the back of the case and eagerly pouring through the manual, carefully studying all of the character profiles in anticipation of the game (as anyone from my generation and before it can probably relate to, this “manual ritual” was mandatory back then). I specifically remember thinking something like “this is gonna be good” in an excited, awed sort of way. I put so many hours into Sonic Adventure 2 that summer, and spent so much time just replaying the levels over and over again just for fun, even the much-maligned treasure-hunting stages (hell, especially the treasure-hunting stages, which I loved exploring). Sonic Adventure 2 hasn’t aged as gracefully as I would have liked, but my fond, happy memories of playing it that summer are eternal.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64)

Exactly one year prior to my Sonic Adventure 2 summer, I was perhaps even more giddy for the arrival of Kirby’s long-awaited 3D outing on the Nintendo 64. This list isn’t intended to be ranked or anything, but Kirby 64 embodies summer for me perhaps more than any other game on this list. While this has much to do with the time in which I played it, Kirby 64 gave me such an amount of perfect bliss and excitement back then. It’s the kind of whimsical, imaginative platformer that I purposefully played slowly, taking in every unique level and sight and sound. I remember playing Kirby on the Fourth of July and thinking about playing Kirby while swimming in a friend’s pool. I remember fighting the whale boss at a friend’s house and searching tirelessly for the last crystal shard I needed. It’s a game that in my mind followed me all through that summer vacation, and remains not only one of my favorite games of all time, but one of my favorite summer gaming memories.

JRPGs: Final Fantasy VII (PS1), Lunar Legend (GBA), and Chrono Cross (PS1)

In one way or another, Japanese RPGs have always seemed to be largely associated with summer for me (and spring actually, but maybe that’s for another time). Whether it was watching my older brother play the Final Fantasy games long ago, or flirting with Final Fantasy VII when one of my childhood best friends came over one summer day, or of course, my own experiences playing them, JRPGs with all their adventure and beautiful, mysterious worlds and stories and spiky-blue-haired characters have often been summer games for me. Three JRPGs in particular stand out in my mind as cherished summer experiences.

Final Fantasy VII

I already mentioned playing it a bit with a friend one summer, but it wasn’t until years after that I sat down one summer to really get into Final Fantasy VII myself. This was years after the game’s prime and I already knew a fair bit about it, but it still intoxicated me with its now famous brilliant opening sequence, its unforgettable world that blended machinery and magic brought to life by detailed pre-rendered backgrounds and a poignant soundtrack, and its winding and intriguing narrative. All of this makes for a game brimming with an atmosphere that I can still feel. For me, much of my experience with FFVII is wound up in summertime. I fondly remembering visiting Cosmo Canyon for the first time and hearing that music start up, a moment that perfectly embodies that kind of wonder and adventure and freedom that the summer months brought when I was younger.  

Lunar Legend

For a couple of summers in a row when I was in high school, I worked at an auto-insurance agency for a few hours three days a week. I was actually working there the summer I started playing Final Fantasy VII and I was also working there the summer I picked up Lunar Legend for the Game Boy Advance on a friend’s recommendation. I vividly remember working at Curley Insurance in the morning, being home by noon and eating a delicious roast beef sandwich for lunch, and spending the rest of the day and evening playing Lunar Legend. Lunar Legend isn’t my favorite RPG ever (and I’ve since heard it’s one of the weaker versions of the original Lunar), but it’s a colorful, magical journey and just classic JRPG goodness.

Chrono Cross

The final JRPG I want to talk about is probably the most summer-y of them all for me, and easily one of my absolute fondest summertime video game experiences. I was in my second year of college at the time and decided to replay Chrono Trigger on a whim (it’s always a good time for Chrono Trigger). I played it for a good chunk of my second semester and ended up completing it right at the start of summer, when I suddenly realized that I’d never played its often overlooked sequel, Chrono Cross. I remembered watching my brother play some of it years ago, and decided to borrow it from him and give it a go myself finally, because hey whatta ya know, it was summer vacation. Chrono Cross is one of those games that I not only associate with summer because that’s when I played it (I specifically remember trotting through an underground river in one of the game’s many enchanting locales, with my screened windows open on a pleasantly warm summer night), but because the game’s content itself is very summer-y. The experience opens in a pristine fishing village and the first real “dungeon” is a beach. You explore a bunch of islands while sailing on a small boat, and your main character trots around in shorts and a bandana (and, for the record, also has blue hair). The game’s world is brought to life through beautiful hand-painted backgrounds and everything is just so colorful and rich with detail and natural beauty. The mesmerizing soundtrack is the entrancing garnish here that ties all this together, and getting lost in the depths of this enigmatic and beautifully melancholic adventure is one of my most cherished summer gaming experiences.

BioShock (PC)

Like many in my culture, when I think of summer, I think of beaches and the ocean. Perhaps less common is how I think of a decaying art deco city at the bottom of the ocean, crawling with deranged and deformed people scavenging its leaky corridors and hulking diving suits escorting little girls with gigantic syringes that feed on the aforementioned mutated peoples’ corpses. It’s summer! Actually, it’s BioShock, a groundbreaking title that I first began one summer years ago. I recall going to the beach one day, and that night, still sandy and sunburned, exploring the haunting halls of the city of Rapture. The game’s deep ocean setting and immersive adventure captivated me that summer and I still associate BioShock with the season today. Perhaps it is no accident then that I am currently playing through BioShock Infinite for the first time.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube)

I’d be making a huge omission if I failed to mention this one. I don’t remember if it was just one summer in particular or several in a row, but back in high school my friends and I would hang out and go swimming in my friend’s pool what feels like almost every day and afterwards we’d smash and smash for hours. I have many memories of those times and many in-jokes arose, such as “NO!” and “BOP!”. Unless you are one of the four of us, you have no idea what those mean, but that’s fine; what’s important is that summer nights are all about Super Smash Bros. Melee and a duel taking place at the Fountain of Dreams as Marth, Link, Captain Falcon, and Sheik fiercely duke it out to that kickass Gourmet Race remix.

PC Games

Doom 3

This is a bit of a weird entry, but I have a lot of memories with playing and watching other people play PC games during the summer. See, I grew up playing games on consoles and handhelds and PC games have mostly throughout my life been a kind of special, exotic commodity, something I’d mostly tangentially experience through friends, but not something I got to experience myself often (listen to my podcast for more details on my PC gaming history). It just happens that a lot of those memories with PC games come from the summer months. I played the aforementioned BioShock on PC actually, but I also began one of my most beloved titles, Half-Life 2, during late summer (though Half-Life 2 is also very much tied to fall and my first semester of college). Then there are cases of memories where I was often bored at the time, such as watching my friend play the Command & Conquer games and Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast during the summer to no end (hi, Dan), but that I strangely look back on fondly now. I also played a good chunk of Doom 3 on PC with that same friend one summer. I’m sure there are other memories lost to time (here’s another one: playing around with emulators way back when during the summer), but those are a few that I have with PC games.

Pikmin 3 (Wii U)

This is a more recent memory; last summer actually. I also wrote a review of Pikmin 3 as well as a spoiler-heavy follow-up post about its finale that hopefully sum up a lot of what makes the game so special to me, so give those a look for more details. I wrote another piece about playing the original Pikmin and at least starting Pikmin 2 one summer, but Pikmin 3 is the one I really associate with summertime. See, it was late summer and I was on the verge of leaving a crappy job I had been doing for three years. I knew I only had a few weeks left there, so coming home at night to immerse myself in Pikmin 3 somehow felt all the sweeter. Pikmin 3 seemed like a game perfectly tailored for cool, late summer nights. Its lush, nature-rich setting and picturesque environments suited the season well, and when out and about during the day, even when on my break at work, I would stare at plants and small patches of flowers and vegetation and imagine little Pikmin running around and try to think of how different environments could be a level in the game. I mention it in the review, but this spark of imagination I got from Pikmin 3 is often a trait many of my favorite video games share.

Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube)

Even though Super Mario Sunshine actually released at the very tail end of summer in North America and a good chunk of my initial experience with the game came in early fall, I still remember sinking my teeth into it the last week or so of my summer vacation that year. Surfing around on bloopers, collecting coins, hovering about with my water pump jetpack…good times. Do I really need to explain this one? It’s Super Mario Sunshine; everything about the game embodies summer and it’s also one of my favorite games of all time. It was a requirement that I put this one on the list, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have fantastic memories playing it late summer.

Game Boy Games

The best Mario game you've never played

When I say “Game Boy games”, I’m mainly thinking about classic, original Game Boy games, but this category also extends to the Game Boy Advance and even the DS. I just have loads and loads of awesome memories playing Game Boy/handheld games during summer. In fact, when I was really young, my Game Boy was my game machine of choice and I’d even say most of my early gaming probably took place there. I brought Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins with me everywhere, but also when I went to Cape Cod several summers in a row. I remember playing Wario Land II on a boat trip around a Maine harbor and playing Game Boy Advance games like The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Astro Boy: Omega Factor (an underrated gem) at my grandfather’s house in Maine (to be honest, I'm not exactly sure if these three were all during the summer, but I think they all were). Waking up early one summer to play Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and finally finishing it one summer night. So many car trips and family trips over the years, of swapping carts with friends and trying random Game Boy games I’d never heard of and can’t possibly recall the names of. I also can’t neglect to give a shout-out to the Sega Game Gear, and my fond memories of playing Sonic games on it. Then there was another more recent (though still years gone now) car trip to Maine involving the original New Super Mario Bros. (yes, for all the shade I throw at that series, I do have some nostalgic memories tied with it…some) and many more memories of many more games. I could write another whole post about Game Boy memories specifically, and maybe I will, but plenty of those memories are tied with summer.

Other Miscellaneous Games and Rented Games

I’m running out of room here, but I wanted to call out a few more specific games and also all the random games I’ve rented during the summer. Summer months have always been a dry spell when it comes to game releases, and when I was younger and hadn’t built up a backlog three miles long, I would often rent games during the summer, either with friend or on my own. A few of these have become fond memories of mine, such as the summer I rented and played through the game based on the original Spider-Man movie (probably on GameCube). I later bought the Spider-Man 2 movie tie-in game and played that during the summer (also on GameCube), maybe that same summer actually, and both of these were to my recollection a surprisingly solid good time, Spider-Man 2 especially. I also have good memories of renting and soon after buying the original Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, and also of sneaking around in its sequel, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, both on GameCube once again and during the summer from what I remember. I think I also played Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for PS2, twice in a row (the second time being the Subsistence version), during the summer, so apparently stealth games that may or may not involve sneaking through jungles are a summer thing for me as well (and the Uncharted series adds to this tradition somewhat actually).

There are still many more games I have great memories of playing during the summer, so let’s name a few more notables here. Think of this as the “honorable mentions” list: Kingdom Hearts II (PS2), Watch Dogs (PC), Mario Kart 8 (Wii U), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii), Paper Mario (N64), The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GameCube), and still more games and memories, not even including great memories of replaying old favorites during the summer months.

Summer is a special time. It’s something that has been conditioned in me to be associated with good times throughout my life thanks to its status as a break from school and its focus on fun activities, both outdoors and indoors and of course for me with plenty of video games. These are some of my favorite summer gaming memories. What are some of yours?

My Top 100 Favorite Video Games of All Time (2013)

This list was very difficult to create and is by no means final. New games can of course be added to this list and the ordering of the current games may also change around in the future. Also, there are even more games that I’m quite fond of that missed the cut and maybe I’ll change my mind and include them in the future. This is my personal list of my 100 favorite video games of all time (and is ranked accordingly) and not necessarily a list of the 100 “best” video games of all time, although I obviously feel all of these games are worthy of praise to some degree. 

Compiling this list and reflecting on all of the wonderful experiences therein has brought back some amazing memories and has reminded me just how important this medium is to me. Every single one of these video games is special to me and all of them have had an enormous impact on my life and have contributed to who I am in some way. I hope that as you peruse this list you will reflect on your own unique experiences with your own most-beloved video games and maybe you'll even see some or many of those personal favorites here.

            And if you’re wondering where the likes of Uncharted, Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption, Ni no Kuni, etc. are, I haven’t played them yet. In fact, there are many modern classics I have yet to get around to playing (even though I actually own many of them, such as the four listed above), and I’m sure they’ll sit somewhere on this list when I finally do play them (granted they’re as special as I hear they are).

Note: These games are labeled with the first console they appeared on, to the best of my knowledge. In cases where games were released on multiple platforms simultaneously, I labeled the game with the console that I first played it on.

Key: NES=Nintendo Entertainment System, SNES=Super Nintendo Entertainment System, N64=Nintendo 64, GCN=Nintendo GameCube, Wii=Nintendo Wii, SG=Sega Genesis, DC=Sega Dreamcast, PS1=Sony PlayStation, PS2=Sony PlayStation 2, PS3=Sony PlayStation 3, PC=Personal Computer, GB=Nintendo Game Boy, GBC=Nintendo Game Boy Color, GBA=Nintendo Game Boy Advance, DS=Nintendo DS

The List

100. Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii)

 

99. Sonic Colors (Wii)

98. Half-Life (PC)

97. Soul Calibur II (GCN)

 96. Portal 2 (PS3)

 95. Lunar Legend (GBA)

94. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) 

93. Heavy Rain (PS3)

92. Pikmin 2 (GCN)

91. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GCN)

90. God of War II (PS2)

89. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)

88. Gunstar Heroes (SG)

87. Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA (N64)

86. Beyond Good and Evil (GCN)

85. Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)

84. Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening (PS2)

83. Super Paper Mario (Wii)

82. Mega Man 2 (NES)

 

81. Pokemon: Sapphire Version (GBA)

80. God of War (PS2)

79. Resident Evil 4 (GCN)

78. Super Castlevania IV (SNES)

77. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

76. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest (SNES)

75. Metroid Fusion (GBA)

74. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (GB)

73. Golden Sun (GBA)

72. Chrono Cross (PS1)

71. Tales of Symphonia (GCN)

70. The Legend of Zelda (NES)

69. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

68. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1)

67. Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)

66. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)

65. Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)

64. Kirby’s Nightmare in Dream Land (GBA)

63. Kirby’s Dream Land (GB)

62. Sonic Adventure 2 (DC)

61. Sonic Adventure (DC)

60. Sonic the Hedgehog (SG)

59. Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN)

58. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

57. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)

56. Super Mario World (SNES)

55. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

 

 

54. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

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

52. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA)

51. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (GCN)

50. Resident Evil (GCN)

49. Silent Hill 3 (PS2)

48. BioShock (PC)

47. Viewtiful Joe (GCN)

 46. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64)

45. Jet Grind Radio (DC)

44. Pokemon: Silver Version (GBC)

43. Pokemon: Blue Version (GB)

42. Metal Gear Solid (PS1)

41. Silent Hill (PS1)

40. Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

39. Streets of Rage 2 (SG)

 38. Portal (PC)

37. Super Metroid (SNES)

36. Kirby’s Dream Land 2 (GB)

35. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)

34. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)

33. Animal Crossing (GCN)

32. Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

31. Journey (PS3)

 

30. Paper Mario (N64)

29. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN)

28. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)

27. Cave Story (PC)

26. World of Goo (Wii)

25. GoldenEye 007 (N64)

24. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)

23. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GCN)

22. Super Mario 64 (N64)

21. Super Mario Bros. (NES)

20. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SG)

19. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2)

18. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2)

17. Metroid Prime (GCN)

16. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

15. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC)

14. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC)

13. Okami (PS2)

12. Half-Life 2 (PC)

11. Shenmue (DC)

10. Silent Hill 2 (PS2)

9. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

8. Chrono Trigger (SNES)

7. Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA)

6. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles (SG)

5. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN)

4. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX (GBC)

3. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

2. Skies of Arcadia Legends (GCN) 

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (N64)