GB's 100 Games: 55-51

We're all over the map in today's installment of GB's 100 Games! A game that everyone's heard of, a game that next to nobody's heard of, long entries, short entries, and everything in between.

And remember, U R MR GAY. And a hipster, as well.

55: Super Mario Galaxy
Genre: 3D Platformer
System: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: November 12, 2007

I must have been half-asleep when I ranked 64 and Sunshine, jesus. I liked both of those games more than Galaxy.

Super Mario Galaxy is a beautiful game with a fantastic soundtrack. I personally was not interested in playing after beating Bowser, though - getting every star felt like more of a chore than anything else, so I didn't bother. Pretty sure I'm in the minority there, though, as Galaxy was widely praised. Thing is, everyone already knows Galaxy is a good game - that's why I generally have shorter entries for the more popular stuff. 

So yeah. Like Mario? Don't give a damn about story? Here's a Mario game. It totally has Mario in it guys.

54: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Genre: Platformer
System: Game Boy Advance
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: September 24, 2002

Since I grew up with the Genesis, I loved the many GBA ports of SNES games as they allowed me to play titles I'd never gotten a chance to in the past. Yoshi's Island is one of those games. While I've seen a tremendous amount of love for this game, and it's certainly good, I'd never consider Yoshi's Island to be one of my favorite games ever.

As you probably know, Yoshi's Island has absolutely nothing to do with Super Mario World aside from both games being in the Mario universe and both being platformers. Everything about them is different otherwise, from the graphical style to the character you control to the flow of gameplay. Mario is only present here in his lame baby form, and Yoshi is the true main character.

As another game that's been discussed to death elsewhere by people who are much more passionate about it, I have little to add.

53: Seek and Destroy
Genre: Vehicle Combat
System: PlayStation 2
Developer: Barnhouse Effect
Publisher: Takara/Conspiracy Entertainment
Released: December 12, 2002

All right, now we're talking! *ahem*

Choro Q is a series of toy cars that are popular in Japan. They are sort of like Japanese Hot Wheels. Each toy in the line is a tiny pullback vehicle rendered in a cute, superdeformed style. The main gimmick of the toys is a slot on the back to insert a coin, which makes the cars pop a wheelie. As a United States penny could accomplish this effect, the toys were brought to America as "Penny Racers", then later as "Tonka Turbo Tricksters" under the familiar Tonka brand. The American versions were brightly painted and cartoon-like, but the Japanese ones are aimed at collectors moreso than children and feature meticulous detail and designs based on real-life cars and trucks. I actually had a couple Penny Racers myself back in the day, although they easily could have been knockoffs.

"Well that's nice, GB, but what do toy cars have to do with a tank combat game?" I'm getting to that, this is nuts, just wait.

Now, in Japan these little toys proved very popular with kids and collectors alike, so much so that toy company Takara thought they could be expanded in multiple ways. Say, non-car entries like trains, or jets. Or tanks. And maybe they could expand the world of the toy line with, oh, a video game. Or a dozen of them, released across many platforms.

And then someone decided to make a video game about tiny toy tanks and then bring it to the United States (And Europe, too!).

And that's how Seek and Destroy came to be. Now you might be thinking "but look at the cover! That's a REAL tank, and it's not superdeformed at all!" And you're correct, because this is a case of Angry American Kirby taken to the extreme. What was a cute and silly game about toy tanks was repackaged as a gritty, hard-edged, and all-American war game. Except they only changed the packaging, so the actual game still uses cute, goofy tanks (that talk) and extremely unrealistic weapons and bosses. All the playable tanks are based on real tanks from the history of war, though.

Seek and Destroy follows your tank as the greatest hope of a fictional country (Proton) that is trying to hold off another fictional country (Q-Stein) from completely overtaking the continent (Quewar). After a long and brutal war that sees every other country and region fall to Q-Stein, Proton manages to force Q-Stein into a stalemate. However, as the war drags on, Q-Stein slowly begins to overwhelm the smaller Proton forces, eventually growing bold enough to invade the heart of Proton territory. Suddenly, your tank arrives on the scene and helps drive off the invaders. With new confidence (and a little help from a third party, the island of Nibelia), Proton's top commander Major Rodeschild readies a comeback to end the war for good.

The cast consisting entirely of talking (but not anthropomorphized at all) tanks is a charming idea, and the poor translation makes everything even funnier. Most importantly, Seek and Destroy is surprisingly fun. The quest is lengthy and fairly challenging without getting stale or cruel, there's dozens of upgrades and customizations to unlock, and there are some minigames to play that offer more stuff as unlockable rewards. Seek and Destroy is more than just a Big Dumb Vidya Game. It's a true bargain bin surprise that gave me a great time.

52: Vectorman
Genre: Platformer
System: Sega Genesis
Developer: BlueSky
Publisher: Sega
Released: October 24, 1995

In this beautiful platform shooter, you control Vectorman, a green robot who, along with others of his kind (the Orbots, they're called), is tasked with cleaning up Earth after it falls to pollution and ruin while the humans escape into space.

But then he falls in love with an Apple product But then, while Vectorman is out in space disposing of trash, another high-ranked commander Orbot named Raster is mistakenly fused with an old nuke while trying to dispose of it. The radiation drives him insane and turns him into Warhead, who declares supreme authority and uses his network of technology to hijack the minds of every robot on the planet and turn it into a deathtrap for the soon-to-return humans. Vectorman returns to find he is the only robot on the planet not controlled by Warhead, which means he must blast his way to Warhead's command center and destroy him to save the planet and humanity.

Vectorman is equipped with a Mega Buster-style gun and jump jets built into his feet that provide both a boost and a powerful attack, and he can collect weapon upgrades that last for a limited time. He's also got the ability to morph into other forms if he grabs the appropriate power-up. While similar in some respects to Mega Man, Vectorman's true origin is as Sega's answer to the blockbuster Donkey Kong Country - Vectorman uses a similar graphical technique. Every few stages there is a weird extra stage consisting of solely a one-on-one duel with Warhead while Vectorman is in a special form - for instance, the first such stage features Vectorman as a train on tracks high above the ground, with Warhead crawling along the tracks hand over hand in front of him. This happens twice more before the real final fight with Warhead in the last level.

Vectorman is a fun game with personality and variety, and it frequently shows up on compilation discs and downloadable services. There's also a sequel featuring a race of alien insects descending upon the planet, but I haven't played that one much.

Vectorman was going to get a third game for the PlayStation 2, but they gave him a dark and edgy Bomberman Act Zero-style makeover and made him look a little too much like Master Chief, and the game was eventually quietly cancelled.

51: Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Genre: Beat-em-up
System: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Released: August 25, 2010

And here we have another game my brother bought and abandoned only for me to find. He noted the difficulty seemed ludicrously high, but at the same time felt it was SO hard that he was missing something. Missing something indeed - he overlooked the shop system, which allows you to upgrade your stats and makes the game totally playable. Derp.

As Scott or one of his friends (I picked the perpetually-unimpressed Kim Pine), your job is to take out the seven evil exes of Scott's squeeze Ramona Flowers. Exactly why doesn't seem particularly important, nor is Ramona questioned for having fallen in love with evil no less than seven times.

The graphics and soundtrack are beautiful retro-style sprites and chiptunes, with catchy tunes and fantastic animation and backgrounds. Gameplay can best be compared to River City Ransom due to the light RPG elements and shop system.

The game is lengthy for a beat-em-up and encourages replay with some unlockables. There's also two DLC packs that add new characters and minigames if you're into microtransactions.

Take it from me, you don't need to have read the comics or seen the movie to enjoy this game - although I'm certain I missed a ton of in-jokes.