GB's 100 Games: 75-71

DOES EVERYBODY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?

VIDYA TIME!!

Okay yeah, on reflection I definitely ranked Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine too low. But it's not like Mario had trouble finding his way onto this list, so whatever. Away we go with yet another batch of five games in the ongoing GB's 100 Games series. Over a fourth done, folks...

75: Game Boy Donkey Kong
Genre: Puzzle Platformer
System: Game Boy
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: June 1994

At first glance, it looks like just a Game Boy remake of the original Donkey Kong, and given that some companies actually did release arcade home ports to Game Boy with little or no new content, maybe players who weren't paying attention got fooled into thinking that was all there was to Donkey Kong.

How wrong they were.

After finishing the fourth stage, DK still won't take no for an answer, grabbing Pauline and running away off the construction site and into the big city. Mario gives chase, and the adventure continues as DK runs from one place to another, including a jungle (where Donkey Kong Junior joins the chase), a desert, and even an airplane.

Gameplay is a heavily modified and expanded version of Donkey Kong, with focus on puzzle-solving and avoiding obstacles. Many of Mario's well-known 3D acrobatics got their start here, including the quick-turn high jump and the triple jump. Music and graphics are excellent by Game Boy standards and the whole thing clocks in at about four hours of game time. It's on the 3DS Virtual Console (that's how I played it) for a song and comes recommended.

74: Mortal Kombat Armageddon
Genre: Fighting
System: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Midway
Publisher: Midway
Released: May 29, 2007

It's certainly not the best fighting game out there, but I do applaud Midway for the very cool decision to include every Mortal Kombat character ever in this title. Sadly, such a cast (63 in all) meant a severe hampering of many things - only two fighting styles per character instead of Mortal Kombat Deceptions' three, a ton of near-identical characters with identical voices, removal of several of Deception's fun bonus modes (with only one new one to make up for it), and the removal of individual fatalities - a questionable decision indeed.

All that aside, Armageddon is still a great Big Dumb Vidya Game, with a bunch of unlockables and a very cool kreate-a-kharacter mode (that sadly only allows for a single fighter). I made a black mage, he was awesome.

73: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom
Genre: Fighting
System: Nintendo Wii
Developer: Eighting
Publisher: Capcom
Released: January 26, 2010

Although I regularly played fighting games back in my Genesis days, I've mostly avoided the genre more recently except for Smash Brothers and Mortal Kombat, the reason being fighting games seemed to become extremely complicated and technical in a way that intimidated me. I wouldn't have bought TvC due to these reservations, and didn't. However, my brother thought it looked like a fun game so he bought it. He quickly abandoned it, but I found it to be a lot of fun. I cleared the game with every single character and unlocked just about everything. I may not know who most of these characters are, but that doesn't mean some of them aren't cool as heck (Saki and PTX-40A are two characters I got attached to here that I'd never seen before). I played a few online matches, but I despise online gaming lag so I didn't get too into the unreliable connection. It didn't help that the "giant" characters had a terrible reputation in the community, so I couldn't use my beloved PTX even though I wasn't trying to be a scrub, I just wanted to play as the robot. :(

72: New Super Mario Brothers
Genre: Platformer
System: Nintendo DS
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: May 15, 2006

What? Jeez, I seriously DID rank 64 and Sunshine too low. Okay, for the record, I don't think NSMB is better than them. It's a perfectly competent side-scroller that is also totally generic and not very memorable to me at all aside from the catchy main theme ("BA"). As a game, it's great, but as a Mario title it doesn't do anything to stand out from the other games in the series, and I've yet to play any other NSMB games because of the unrelenting sameness of them all (the exact same plot I understand, but the exact same worlds in the exact same order? You can do better than that, Nintendo).

The tragedies and trials of ranking a hundred things rear their ugly head.

Oh, and why is playing as Luigi a secret code if it's got "brothers" right in the title? He's even on the box! Alas poor Weegee.

71: Toy Story
Genre: Platformer
System: Sega Genesis
Developer: Traveler's Tales
Publisher: Psygnosis
Released: April 25, 1996

YOU

ARE

A

VIDEO GAME! YOU'RE NOT THE REAL MOVIE, YOU'RE A- YOU'RE A GENESIS CARTRIDGE! YOU ARE A CHILD'S PLAYTHING!

One of the last Sega Genesis games of note, it's another surprisingly good licensed platformer. This game pushes the limits of the Genesis' capabilities, featuring Donkey Kong Country-style prerendered graphics and a wide variety of gameplay. Aside from the usual side-scrolling levels, there are also boss battle stages (each boss having a unique gimmick), autoscrolling levels where Woody rides on Rex and Roller Bob, top-down driving levels, a Mode 7-esque behind-the-car driving stage, a target-shooting bonus game, and even a first person dungeon crawling level halfway through that looks like Toy Story meets That Old Windows Screen Saver. New and interesting gameplay pops up from beginning to end, making every stage different and almost all of them memorable. It's also a pretty tough game considering the obvious target audience - it may take you several playthroughs before you see the ending.

The plot of the game mimics the film, and sees Woody visiting each of the main locales of the movie - the levels begin in Andy's house and move to Pizza Planet, then the action goes to Sid's house before reaching the game's climax on the highway. Since the movie's plot is followed, there's no final boss to worry about (and in fact the bosses stop showing up halfway through the game) but the last stage is still a fast-paced white-knuckle ride with Buzz. You'd better fall with some serious style if you want to make it to the end!