It's absolutely impossible for me to choose a game that goes on top. I can't even give you a top ten list! I've played thousands of games in the last 22 years that I have been a gamer, and to proclaim one above the other, is an absolute travesty.
The NES era gave us tons of fantastic games, that can never be forgot.
-Super Mario Bro. 3. The first game I ever played, and still holds a spot in my heart. It was a great platformer, and was chock full of secrets.
-Little Samsom. Another fantastic platformer, in which after playing through their original levels, you could at will switch between: An Elf, who could climb walls, and hang on ceilings. A mouse that could run along walls, and fit into tiny crevasses and just HAUL ASS. A dragon which could shoot fireballs, and Hover across the battlefield. And a Golem who had tons of health, and dealt massive damage, but was slow and couldn't jump very well.
-Heavy Barrel. The very first top down, shooty game I ever played. Tons of different weapons, you had to be careful with your treasure keys, and eventually you could piece together the Heavy Barrel to cause massive damage to everyone and everything.
-Contra. This game was the first game to show me what challenge was. And by god did I ever rise up to it. After beating it many times, I challenged myself to see if I could loop the game so many times, without dying that I got 30 lives without the Konami code. I was the happiest camper alive when I pulled that off finally.
-Castlevania 3. Allowing you to choose multiple paths through the world, and finding other party members that had different abilities was stellar.
Then we got the 16 bit era, that was full of such wonderful games like:
-Super Mario World. Oh god, this game was a sprawling game full of secrets, hard levels, easy levels, and then THEN you beat the star road levels, and somehow all the turtles were wearing hats and mustaches. Wha-??
-Final Fantasy 6. My favorit in the series. Each character had a personality, and back stories. The death of General Leo sucked more than Aeris (I still want that ************ on my party) and the way that the linear storyline branches off into a huge open world game, with tons of optional things to do after the halfway point was absolutely incredible!
-Firestriker. This game was deeply flawed in many ways, but in the end it was a marvelous take on the good old paddle and ball games. Adding much heavier action elements to the game. I can't play Wizorb without wanting to go back and play Firestriker.
-Super Metroid. The first Metroid game I really played, exploration was perfect, the difficulty scaled well, and there was nothing quite like finding hard to reach areas and scoring the upgrades inside.
-The sonic games. The speed of platforming, the level of mastery. The annoyance of water levels. The original Sonic games had it all.
I'm getting tired of listing these in any chronological order, so I'm just gonna throw them at you as I recall them.
-Cave Story. This game actually made me stop playing midway through, and question what the hell kind of person I was that I would be willing to do something comparatively horrible rather than run away and solve it. I don't think a moment in a game has ever made me stop playing, and look at the world around me.
-The World Ends With You. The action RPG elements made this a fast paced game. The story elements were great, there were tons of different ways to customize your character, and replaying the game, to unlock the mysteries of the events in the game, was only more fun than the first play through. I was so mad when I accidentally erased my save file.
-Final Fantasy 7. It may not have held up over the years, but when I was younger I was obsessed with this game. I could quote damn near everything in the game, I played it through multiple times. I mastered the hell out of it.
-Asura's Wrath. Spectacle badass beat 'em ups started to become something a bit more common with games like Bayonetta, the Devil May Cry series, and God Of War. And whereas God Of War was a bit over the top at times, nothing at all that it did could come ever CLOSE to being as amazingly over the top and epic (Yes, I said epic, and I mean it in context) situations the game presents.
-Dark Souls. The gameplay was slow, and purposeful. The traps were deadly. The world was sprawling. There's so much heart in this game. If there was ever a game that made me feel like I was actually a fantasy character, this would be it. From sword swings clinging off the wall if you are in a narrow passage, to paying attention to your enemies movements, the optional areas, the ability to bypass areas if you were clever, and so much to explore and do just made this game wonderful.
-Monster Tale. I just played this game on the DS and it's a fantastic Metroidvania game, even though it does have a bit of a backtracking issue. The music is ambient, the gameplay is incredibly smooth, and the RPG elements are a nice touch without being in your face. DreamRelic did great with this game, and I recommend anyone with a DS to pick it up.
-The Front Mission Series (Minus Evolved). From Mission 4 still remains the game that got away from me, as I have owned it no less than 3 times, and had to start it over over 7 times due to losing my save, or the cards. It was afantastic strategy game, where tactics came heavily into play, and when you finally built the amazing unstoppable Wanzer there was not much more satisfying than mowing down your enemies.
-Pokemon. Because it was the original game that did what it did. An RPG the had you leveling up not just 1-6 characters, but a whole barrage of 150 (Now over 500) monsters, all with unique abilities, and stat layouts. There is no perfect build in Pokemon, as another well formed build can take the previous one out.
And so, so, so many more great games that have come before and will come. To put one above the other is a travesty. Each game is a unique experience, they may be inspired by one another at points, but the all have their different ways to play. Their own unique charm. It's far and above impossible for me to decide. If you had a gun to my head and told me to pick, you can be damn sure I ain't going down without a fight!
