GB's 100 Games: 100-96

Welcome to the first installment of GB's 100 Games!

I have been gaming for two decades this year - ever since I was old enough to hold a controller. Over the course of the last twenty years, I've played a ton of different video games on a wide variety of systems - not as many as some, but enough to have a good grasp on what I like and what I don't like. Here, I have assembled 100 games to offer my thoughts on. First, a few important notes.

1: Only games I have beaten as of today will appear on this list, with the exception of a few arcade games that have no ending.
2: In order to cover a wide variety of games (and because I sometimes have difficulty choosing one game in a series to rank above others), I have grouped some games that are similar together.
3: This is not a definitive ranking. Games from different genres - and especially from different eras of gaming - are difficult for me to compare solidly against each other. There is a vague progression from "games I liked" leading up to "games I absolutely cherish", however, and the top fifteen or so is full of what I consider to be AAA titles.
4: For release dates, I use the American date, as that is where I live. Many games release earlier or later in different territories. Some older games may not have full release info.
5: For systems, I use the system I played the game on (unless it was part of a compilation).

With that settled, let's get started with Number 100...

100: Endless Ocean
Genre: Nongame/Casual/Exploration
System: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Arika
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: January 21, 2008

If you're looking for a pleasant, relaxing game, Endless Ocean fits the bill. This low-action title offers a simple and calming gameplay experience, with plenty of real-life animals to observe and learn about. It also has a lot of hard-to-find hidden content, like secret animals and buried treasure. You can also bring along a second player, and you can even recruit a friendly dolphin to help out and perform tricks. It's possible to get pretty absorbed in this game's world when things are going right.

It's not all good news, though. The human characters are kind of ugly and the graphics overall aren't the best, which is bad news for a game running on realism and immersion. Also, some of the hidden animals are ludicrously difficult to find, and are sure to cause frustration for anyone trying to get 100% completion. There's also a bug where a couple of the music tracks don't loop, leaving you diving in silence.

99: Feeding Frenzy
Genre: Arcade-Style Action
System: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: PopCap
Publisher: PopCap
Released: November 16, 2005 (360 version)

And here we have the polar opposite in ocean-themed games, an arcadey, cartoony thing that is light on realism and heavy on gameplay. In Feeding Frenzy, you control a fish. Your fish must eat smaller fish and avoid bigger fish, and will grow as it eats, allowing it to eat larger prey but making it more vulnerable to predators due to its' larger body.

If you've ever played the XGenStudios classic Flash game Fishy, this may sound familiar. But Fishy was not the first game in the fish-gobbling genre - that honor goes to an Intellivision game called Shark Shark, and all later fish-eat-fish games owe Shark Shark for inventing the idea.

Feeding Frenzy offers powerups, special moves (a dash and a vacuum inhale) and multiple playable characters and levels, but it's the same old fish-chomper at heart. It also can be completed in just a couple of hours, which is good as a game as simple as this can wear out its welcome if it takes too long to beat.

98: Super Columns
Genre: Puzzle
System: Sega Game Gear
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Released: June 5, 1995

The Columns series is frequently compared to the more successful Puyo Puyo (which you may know as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine or perhaps Kirby's Avalanche). The games play similarly, but Columns is stiffer, with blocks hanging over holes like in Tetris or Dr. Mario instead of filling the gaps like in Puyo Puyo.

Most of the older games in the Columns series are Arabian-flavored, with a Middle East aesthetic in the graphics and music. Super Columns is no exception, and the story mode features an evil (and effeminate) merchant who has stolen an ancient treasure, which can apparently only be recovered by beating him at Columns. Puzzle game storylines, am I right folks?

Super Columns doesn't really do anything wrong, but the standard Columns gameplay is a bit less fun and frantic than a good round of Puyo Puyo.

97: Dig Dug
Genre: Arcade-Style Action
System: Arcade
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Atari
Released: April 19, 1982

I long considered Dig Dug to be my favorite classic arcade game. I'm not sure if that's still the case - my opinions can be hard to make concrete. It's a good game in any case - as the eponymous Dig Dug, you fight cute little monsters by pumping air into them until they explode. You know, for kids.

Also that digging music. Damn that digging music.

96: ExciteBike World Rally
Genre: Racing
System: Nintendo Wii (WiiWare)
Developer: Monster Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: November 9, 2009

Here's a game I think a lot of people missed. ExciteBike World Rally is an enjoyable mash-up of the original ExciteBike (a very solid game) with the modern Excite games Excite Truck and Excitebots. Gameplay is similar to the NES classic, but the modern Excite staples of racing around the world and aiming for high ranks are present as well. The track editor from the NES makes a return as well. A simple, solid, and fun classic racer.