We're no longer talking about games that were just fun, or engrossing. We're talking about games that had significant influence on my childhood and teen years. Games I bonded with people over, games that I've memorized up and down, games that have implanted themselves into my subconscious. These are THE video games.
It's the first half of the final ten.
10: Sonic the Hedgehog 2Genre: Platformer
System: Sega Genesis
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Released: November 24, 1992
When I first got my Sega Genesis, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the pack-in game. And I've never seen a better pack-in. I played Sonic 2 regularly for years. It was my first video game that wasn't on an Atari, and you can imagine the cosmic upgrade. Sonic 2 features in the background of multiple home movies - you can hear the sounds of Hill Top Zone wafting from the next room as my mom films my infant brother.
Just yesterday I decided to try and beat the first game in the series, since I'd never actually done it. However, the first Sonic game simply pales in comparison to the sequel - the level designs are iffy and full of blind spots and copy-paste obstacles. Sonic 2 vastly improves on the original with the additions of a two-player mode, the Spin Dash attack, more and better levels, and a better soundtrack. I grew uninterested and stopped playing at Labyrinth Zone after several cheap deaths. Give me the second and third games any day.
Sonic 2 is notorious for missing a lot of content - while the final game is very complete, there were half a dozen levels that got scrapped in development to meet the Christmas Rush. Enterprising hackers have made enhanced versions of Sonic 2 that include their personal versions of the lost levels. The designs vary from hacker to hacker but some of the restorations are pretty good. Worth checking out if you really like this game.
Sonic 2 is a platforming classic and can be found on almost every modern system known to man - the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox 1 have Sonic Mega Collection and Sega Genesis Collection and the Xbox 360 and PS3 have Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. It's also on DS with a sadly cropped screen.
9: Banjo-KazooieGenre: 3D Platformer
System: Nintendo 64
Developer: Rareware
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: June 29, 1998
The highest-ranked 3D platformer on the list! After carefully weighing the two back and forth in my head, I finally decided I slightly preferred the less cluttered but still lengthy and fun Kazooie over Tooie. There's lots to do without being overwhelmed, and the enemies don't respawn until you leave a world, which is nice.
In Banjo-Kazooie, you adventure through nine worlds collecting as many things as possible - the most important are Jiggies, puzzle pieces that unlock new worlds, and musical notes, which open doors in the overworld to allow further progress. You'll also learn new techniques from Bottles the mole as you hunt for shiny stuff.
This game is beautifully designed with a fantastic aesthetic, but the real standout is the unforgettable soundtrack, which dynamically changes depending on the situation you're in to fit the mood. Nearly every song in the game comes in multiple flavors, like an underwater version or a boss battle version. Gruntilda's lair and the main Banjo-Kazooie theme are the most frequently heard.
I'll always remember Banjo-Kazooie as one of the greatest games on N64 - second best, according to this here ranking...
8: Disgaea DSGenre: Turn-based Tactical RPG
System: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nippon Ichi
Publisher:Nippon Ichi
Released: September 23, 2008
Next up, the highest-rated tactical RPG. This game follows the young (over 1400 years old, which is young by demon standards) demon prince Laharl, who awakens from a long sleep to find his father dead and kingdom without a ruler. Hordes of high-ranked demons are fighting over who will be the next Overlord, and despite his bloodline making him the automatic next in line Laharl gets no respect or acknowledgement. He's going to have to prove he's the strongest if he wants the throne - but his completely uncooperative assistant Etna and the ditzy visitor from heaven Flonne the angel aren't helping much.
It's a game where you can pick up and throw your characters to make them travel further across the map in one turn. It's a game where you can hurl penguins at your foes - penguins that explode on contact. It's a game where you can appeal to the demon version of the United States Senate for character powerups - and they accept bribes. It's a game where the protagonists' only fears are flowery diabetes language and large-breasted women, to the point that his stats drop if he's in contact with them. It's a game where you can equip an item called a "Horse Wiener".
It is one weird game, and it is addictive as hell.
There's a very good reason the original Disgaea has scored so much higher than its sequel here. This is a rare case of a game made much better by being on a certain system - especially a portable one. Normally a game being on a portable system just means that happens be the system I play it on - I don't take them places because I can't get immersed in a game's world very well if I can't focus on it completely, especially for music and sound. But in Disgaea, the postgame content is very repetitive and grind-heavy, and no longer relies on music and story - making said postgame an absolutely perfect timesink for long trips. I cannot tell you how many times I've pulled out Disgaea DS to keep me occupied when far from home. It is the perfect travel game. To this day, over four years after buying it, Disgaea DS is still my first pick when I want to bring a game with me on an excursion outside the house. The DS's Sleep Mode is also a major boon, allowing for instant pausing and resuming of the game, which can happen often on the road.
And aside from bringing Final Fantasy 1 a couple times, only one other series has managed to sometimes beat Disgaea DS as my travel game.
7: The Pokemon SeriesGenre: RPG
System: Game Boy/Game Boy Advance/Nintendo DS
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: October 14, 2000 (Gold Version)
All the Pokemon games share this spot, but Pokemon Gold gets top billing. It was my first Pokemon game, and my most memorable. Other games in the series have since hugely improved on Pokemon's graphics and mechanics, but the original Gold will always hold a special place in my heart.
Pokemon sunk its hooks into me in 1999 and didn't loosen up until the mid-2000s, and every so often another main game comes out and I lose another hundred hours or more to the Pokebehemoth. Chances are good you know all about this series so I need not go into details, but the gameplay is killer despite Game Freak's reluctance to truly improve their product.
Fun Fact: I totally screwed up my initial run of Pokemon Gold. I killed the Red Gyarados and the Legendary Beasts, used my Master Ball on a Mantine when I ran out of Pokeballs and didn't feel like running away and buying more, and I got hopelessly stuck in the Ice Cave and had to get a classmate to help me through it. I also trained only my Totodile (and Togepi to a much lesser extent) until postgame when I raised a Tyranitar. So my best team was a level 100 Feraligatr, a level 100 Tyranitar, a Dragonite in the seventies, a Togetic in the low fifties, Ho-Oh, and a random sixth pogey.
6: Sonic 3 and KnucklesGenre: Platformer
System: Sega Genesis
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: February 2, 1994/October 18, 1994
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles were meant to be a single game. Instead of cutting half the levels like they did with Sonic 2, Sonic Team instead split the game in half and gave Sonic and Knuckles the unique Lock-On feature that combines the two games back into the enormous adventure they were meant to be. Said adventure is the best Sonic game I've ever played, featuring three playable characters and tons of content.
S3K has a slightly higher emphasis on story than previous Sonic games, something later games latched onto. Cutscenes are frequent, but short and without dialogue. They generally feature Knuckles interfering with Sonic's progress, but other cutscenes - some interactive - go into detail about other things like Robotnik stealing the Master Emerald or one of his elite badniks setting Angel Island Zone on fire.
One of the things I like about this game is the diversity among the three characters. Sonic has an "insta-shield" ability that grants him a split second of invincibility, and he can also run faster than everyone else and use special moves when equipped with one of the three shield powerups. Tails can fly and swim to reach places other characters can't go, and if he and Sonic are together Tails will give him a lift. Knuckles can smash through certain walls and climb up others, and he can glide. This means each of the three characters can take different routes through the games' enormous stages.
As always, the music is great, and the graphics are better than ever. Together with Sonic 2, S3K is my definitive Sonic experience and the highest-rated platform game.
The next installment of 100 Games will be the last. What are GB's five favorite games of all time? You'll see soon...
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