Izulde's Most Loved 32 Games of All Time

[Izulde]

This list is not necessarily about the greatest games ever, though greatness will certainly play a role.

It is about those 32 games I love the most, even until now.

Like Anxiety's list, it takes into account arcade, console and PC games. Unlike Anxiety's list, it will be possible to have more than one representation from a series. As I'm still putting the finishing touches on the list, I probably won't start the 32 until sometime next week.

But, also taken from Anxiety, there will be something of an Honorable Mention category to kick things off tonight... only it's not *exactly* an HM listing, more a category of games that don't make the top 32, but fall into a special category anyway. You'll see what I mean.

Why 32? My favourite number in the entire world is 16, but 16 seemed too short a list to do, so I multiplied it by 2 and arrived at 32.

Hope you guys enjoy this as it rolls along at a likely somewhat slow pace. Anxiety's a lot better writer at this sort of thing than I am, but I think you'll find interest and value in how his list differs from mine and differ it will.

Edit: Added arcade games as a category

[Abe Sargent]

Yay!

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Anxiety

Yay!

I also forgot to mention, arcade games will be included as well. I'll edit the first post to reflect that.

[Izulde]

Games My Father and I Played

When I was a kid, my dad would often play a few of my video games. Unlike me, who played a bunch of different ones, he tended to stick to a single group of games he loved best. It's sad that he doesn't play anymore except for a game that will appear later in the countdown, but we certainly had some fun times playing the same games and talking about them.

There were four games that Dad played the most. Two of them make the top 32, including his favorite of all time, which is the only video game from that era he still plays. The other two did not and so they'll be the ones that kick off things.

Battle Chess (NES)



I think it was around the time Dad had to retire from the fire department due to an injury on the job that he first started really playing video games in earnest. Looking back on it now, I think games really helped to ease the pain of retirement for him. He loved being a firefighter and hated having to retire.

One of the ones he played most often was this one. Battle Chess is probably the most fun chess game ever made. In terms of gameplay, it's your standard variety chess game with two sides (Red vs. Blue), multiple levels of difficulty, etc.

But what really made it fun was the animations that you saw when one piece captured another piece. They were hilarious to see (I think my own personal favourite were the Rook ones going all Hulk on people) and I think brought a lot of people into the world of chess that might never have played it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an in-action screenshot of that, so you'll have to settle for this screen below. As you can see, the pieces literally moved when you moved them and animated then, too. You'd even have other pieces moving out of the way for the one that was moving and the sound effects were pretty cool for their time.


In this particular sequence, the Red Knight is moving to eat the middle Blue Pawn on the right and put the Blue King in check

Dad kicked ass at this game and frequently played the NES at the higher difficulty levels. He said he liked doing that, not only because of the challenge, but because it took so long for the computer to think and make its move. It allowed him to run errands, wash the dishes, etc. in between turns. While it worked for him, it'd have driven me crazy.

Good game and probably my father's #2 of all time, but not one of my faves.

Final Fantasy II/IV (SNES)



Final Fantasy is arguably the single greatest video game series of all time and 2/4 is no exception to the rule. While one of the weaker offerings in my opinion, it's still an engrossing, epic story with likeable characters.



This game represents Dad's crowning glory in the history of video games. Why?

He beat it before I did. In fact, he laughed at me when I played the end boss and lost the first time and asked me how I could lose when the guy was so easy to knock off.

There's one thing my dad hated about the game, though. To him, the end dungeons looked all too much alike and it was extremely easy to get lost and have no idea where in the heck you were going. From what I can remember, he was right and the truth is, even though I lost the first game, he was also right about the end boss being a cakewalk. That really tarnished a lot of the game's enjoyment for me, as I didn't really feel a sense of accomplishment when I kicked the end guy's tail a couple days later.

But, much like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle being marred by a cheesy ending, the bad taste in the mouth doesn't entirely ruin what was up to those final chapters a fun experience overall.

In this case, it just makes FF 2/4 not good enough to crack the 32.

[Izulde]

And here we go!

32. Shining Force (Sega Genesis)



One of the very earliest console versions of a tactical strategy game, it also remains, even to this day, one of the best ones.

You play the role of Max (or whatever you choose to call him), a swordsman from the Kingdom of Guardiana in the land of Rune. A country named Runefaust attacks and you're sent off to investigate enemy troops with a small corps of you and five other characters.

Upon returning, your homeland is destroyed and it's time to head off to fight Runefaust. The storyline does a good job of giving you an epic sense of things, in my opinion, as you travel from place to place, adding more people to your dun dun dun... Shining Force! I also found the original to have a much more engrossing storyline line than the second one.



What kinds of characters join you? Everything from your standard mages to fighters to knights (who are centaurs for some reason) to archers to a ninja to birdmen to a werewolf to robots, etc, etc. Your cast of characters in the Shining Force is quite broad as the list no doubt indicates.

In terms of balance and scaling, it does an excellent job. The battles get progressively harder as you go and the end battle is a superb challenge. Dad and I ended up renting this game for like two weeks during that summer of 1993 trying to beat it. I finally did and got the game some time later (Dad never could solve it, nor did he play it after I bought it, hence why I'm not including it in the for he played).

Graphically speaking, the character art superbly sets the mood and tone for each character. Every time I saw Kane, I'd get the sense that this dude qualified as a big time bad ass. That's the biggest thing that ticks me off about the GBA remake. They completely redid the character art and it looks damned ugly in the portable version. I really wish they would've left it alone.

The one problem with the game and it's a big one that keeps it from being ranked higher, is that you're locked in to the classes that your characters have. There's no way to change them, nor to make any decisions in the promotion system (which can occur anytime between levels 10 and 20, but it's advised to wait for as long as possible before promoting to get the maximum benefit). Hence, you don't have much control over how your team develops.

Still, Shining Force is a great gateway game into the world of tactical strategy, with a fine storyline, memorable cast of characters, and just all-around smooth, well-designed battles.

Note: The GBA remake makes things more complex, with the addition of a card system and a second, branching storyline to go with a few more characters. As I've mentioned, the character art turns absolutely atrocious, but that's balanced out by the fact that characters have much more background information about them that you uncover than in the original.

I still prefer the Genesis version, but if you've never played the game, the remake isn't a bad alternative.

[Izulde]

31. Breath of Fire II (SNES)



The Breath of Fire series is probably one of the most underrated RPG franchises in history. Even the Suikoden lineup has both more fans and more rabid fans.

In all of Breath of Fire games, including this one, you play Ryu, a blue-haired kid who is the last of the line of Light Dragons. Guess what this means? That's right, you get to transform into a dragon in battle! Pretty kickass, huh? You can also transform into different dragon forms as you acquire them throughout the game, but they cost AP (MP in most other games) to maintain the form each turn. This lends a strategic element to battles which is really nice to see.



You're not the only one who can transform, however. Just as in the original Breath of Fire, there's five shamans you can uncover and combine with your other party members to give them boosted stats and in some cases, transform them as radically as your own oh so cool dragon forms. They look pretty damn snazzy in their own right. Sadly, the original Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II are the only games in the series that feature shaman transformation. Breath of Fire III, IV, and Dragon Quarter (which is an entirely different beast from its four predecessors, if you'll pardon the pun), ditch the shamans. And that sucks, because the shaman combining is a lot of fun to play around with.

This second installment in the series also features something that wasn't in the first game, but carries over into the series after this (except for maybe Dragon Quarter, which I never played). That's creating your own town and being able to invite people to it! While it's a small town (I think the max is six houses), it's still a very nice touch to the game and what's more, you have to be careful who you invite. With such limited space, you have to make sure you invite people who are worth it to live in your town. If you do that, the best weapons and armor in the end game will be found there and so on and so forth.

So if it's got all this nifty stuff and is so underrated, how come it's not ranked higher? Well, to be honest, the plot is basically a straightforward good guys vs. bad guys setup. There's no surprises here and the characters aren't given all that much depth, except for Nina, one of the two main recurring characters in the series along with Ryu.

That being said, the game's still a delightful classic, with enough uniqueness in the dragon and shaman systems to make it a nice little RPG to play. Like Shining Force, there was a GBA remake of the game and though I haven't had the chance to play it yet, I believe it's more of a true straight port. That's a good thing.

[Izulde]

30. Legend of the Ghost Lion (NES)



Now I realize that maybe five people outside of me who are reading this have ever even *heard* of the game in the first place and maybe one other person's played it.

Simply put, this is one of the most unique, original, and unfortunately obscure RPGs in the history of video games.

The basic storyline is that you are Maria, a young girl whose parents tell you the story about the Ghost Lion, a mighty white lion who attacked the village one day and was only driven off by a soldier who threw a spear at it. The lion fled to a cave and was never seen again.

Your parents go to solve this mystery, but they're never seen or heard from again, so at long last, the Village Elders agree to let you go out in search of your parents. To guide you on your journey, they give you the very same spear that chased off the Ghost Lion in the first place.

You enter the cave, the bridge beneath you breaks, and you fall into a river, carrying you to... the World of Dreams. It is here that you will uncover the answers you seek.

Those of you who have a passing familiarity with African literature may recognize some of the elements in this story and can probably predict how the combat mechanic works, which I'll get to in a second. First, I want to talk a little about the actual gameplay.



As the screenshot suggests, in terms of look and whatnot, it's very reminescent of Dragon Warrior. Hope is your level, Courage is your HP, and Dreams are your MP. It's a minor thing to change the names like that, but it really helps add to the uniqueness of this RPG.

Combat screens are like every Dragon Warrior game in existence, so I didn't post a screenshot of that.

Combat, is, however, very special in this game, or at least it was for its time. You don't get experience points in battles, you only get money. Furthermore, while Maria can fight with weapons, she has no spells of her own per se.

Instead what she has are spirits she can summon from items, the first of whom as you can no doubt guess is Moja, the warrior spirit in the spear who repelled the Ghost Lion all those many years ago. Each spirit in the game has different attributes and abilities that allow for strategy in battle. For example, Moja is a kick ass fighter, but has no magic, unlike other spirits in the game.

Leveling up is done by collecting Heart Fragments scattered throughout the game. These not only increase Maria's statistics, but also makes her spirit companions stronger and more capable, the magic-casters adding spells to their arsenal as things progress. It's a really innovative system that adds to the sense that you're in fact playing this very human character, one of the game's biggest strengths to me.

See, unlike in other RPGs, you're not some great hero and you don't have tons of buddies backing you up (at least in the traditional sense). You're just an ordinary person, not much of a fighter, who only has one special ability, the talent to communicate with those who have passed beyond. Sure they help you, but you really get the feeling that you're alone, on a quest to find what's really important to you, in Maria's case her parents. That's something that too few RPGs do, in my opinion. Even in the Elder Scrolls series, which recreates that sense of the lone, isolated adventurer, the fact of the matter is that you're still a badass mofo, able to handle ordinary people.

Now, with all this much going for it, there has to be a reason why it isn't ranked higher and there is. The range of enemies is pretty limited and from what I remember, the game isn't that long. Furthermore, this isn't a very complex offering. Everything's more or less straightforward.

But the things that Legend of the Ghost Lion does it does well. Its story still stands as one of the most unique and ingenious on the RPG market, maybe even in gaming history.

While the summoned spirits motif appeared in at least one other game of the era that didn't make the Top 32 (But it will be covered after I do #16 in a listing of those games that almost made the list but didn't quite make the cut) and later games expanded and elevated on the summoning concept (Final Fantasy, we're looking at you), in Ghost Lion's time, it was still a fresh and exciting approach to combat.

[Izulde]

29. Dynasty Warriors 5 Xtreme Legends



You either love or hate the Dynasty Warriors series. There is no other opinion, I've found. The basic premise of the series (from Dynasty Warriors 2 on; the original was a fighting game), is that you control a character from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story and race around a battlefield slaying hundreds of enemies, their commanders, etc. leveling up and getting stronger through a series of missions and unlocking more characters to play as you beat the game with each individual character.

Free Mode and Musou Modes are the consistents throughout the series. Free Mode involves selecting a character and map that you like and going to town. Any upgrades you get in that map, whether character, weapons, or items, can be transferred into Musou Mode, which is the structured story mode. Dynasty Warriors 5 and 5: Xtreme Legends (the standalone expansion that gets this slot) change up the prior version of the series by personalizing the stories of the characters.

Hence, not all the Shu generals will fight in the same battles, not all the Wei generals in the same battles, etc. This allows for a much more varied gameplay experience and a more personal connection with the characters.

But where the game really shines is when you're playing the Xtreme Legends version.

The 5 Xtreme Legends addon, which became standard policy for each iteration since 3, really ramps up from prior installments. It includes two modes, Xtreme Mode and Destiny Mode which are worth talking about.



Xtreme Mode I haven't really fiddled with, but it appears that it involves taking over China and is for the hardcore in that your health will not automatically regenerate. You have to buy food in between missions to restore your health. The nice thing is that you can customize your weapon in between missions as well, rather than be restricted to whatever you happen to find in the other modes.

Destiny Mode is where things *really* get fun, though, in my opinion.



In Destiny Mode, you play the role of a common soldier that you've created. You start off with a very limited set of attacks and abilities, including no Musou attack!

Although there's only eight missions, it's a blast going through them as a grunt and working your way up the ranks, earning abilities by buying them with points you get from the missions. It gives you a real sense of accomplishment.

There's two ways to earn points, first from the standard mission solving and enemy stomping, etc and secondly from optional goals that you can choose to take on before the mission, if you manage to fulfill them. But be forewarned, if you select an optional goal and don't fulfill it, you lose points in the end. Furthermore, if you keep going to the same type of additional goal to try and get more points, you'll find that the degree of difficulty goes up each time you try the same sort of goal (i.e. collect a certain number of enemy messages, kill a certain number of enemies in a set amount of time, etc).

With eight missions, you won't be able to learn all the skills. This involves strategizing and tradeoff as you're upgrading your Destiny Mode character as you have to decide what's most important and what you can leave by the wayside. It's the most challenging and rewarding mode ever in a Dynasty Warriors game and it's one I hope Koei continues to expand on throughout the series.

In short, if you've ever been curious about the Dynasty Warriors series but haven't tried it, this is the version to either buy or rent. If you're a Dynasty Warriors fan, then you probably already have this game and a great one it is.

[TRO]

:clap: Shining Force :clap:

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by TRO

:clap: Shining Force :clap:

A great game and one of the ones that started a terrific genre.

[Izulde]

28. Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)



This game really needs no introduction to the overwhelming majority of these boards and I think that factor alone is a testament to its enduring greatness and legacy.

While it's come to show its age and hence the reason why it's not higher on the list, all of us have memories associated with it, some of the exploits of which have been covered in a thread in General Discussions (title was Bo Knows 5 Minute Runs if I remember right)



I always liked that image of the injured guys running out of the hospital and the touchdown celebration montages were graphically brilliant for their day.

Yes, the playoff AI was coked up and it was fairly easy to get a good regular season record, even with a terrible team like the Atlanta Falcons (who I went 12-4 with and won the NFC West by a game over the potent San Francisco 49ers). Money plays were there for the taking with the right teams (We all know Bo and Marcus and let's also not forget the Pro T Flare C I think it was called for my beloved Dolphins, where Marino could throw to Clayton, Duper, or the highly overrated Ferrell Edmunds in the flat and be guaranteed of a completion most times)

But for its time, it was the most advanced console football game we'd played, particularly in the most important factor: Fun.

And that's really what lies behind all the memories, in spite of how today's games have blown it by in just about every area, how much fun it was to play. I still remember the hours and hours I put into this game, particularly one holiday season when my sister yelled at me to stop playing because company was over and I was being rude by playing while they were there.

Tecmo Super Bowl had that oh so addictive quality to it. Family and schoolwork could wait. Friends were fine, so long as they were willing to throw down with you in a game.

And they so often did, creating stories and legends that will last our whole lifetimes. That, my friends, is a beautiful thing and all from this little video game.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by TRO

:clap: Shining Force :clap:

good posting

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

good posting

I concur

[Abe Sargent]

I mentioned this in my thread as well, but I couldn't even get into Tecmo Bowl it was so easy to cheese, so until later versions of Madden, or maybe FPS, I would say IntelliVision's NFL Football was the best football game for two decades.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Anxiety

I mentioned this in my thread as well, but I couldn't even get into Tecmo Bowl it was so easy to cheese, so until later versions of Madden, or maybe FPS, I would say IntelliVision's NFL Football was the best football game for two decades.

I've never played that one so unfortunately I have no basis for judgement. Now, of course, I'm sure much like Tecmo Super Bowl, it's been far surpassed.

[Izulde]

27. Super Mario World (SNES)



Remember the good old days when there were actually launch titles that kicked major ass?

There is perhaps no greater launch title for any video game system in the history of gaming than Super Mario World for the Super NES.

It combined the spectacular map elements of Super Mario Bros. 3 with excellent level variety, fun mini-games and secret routes and passageways to discover that have long been a hallmark of Super Mario Bros. fame. The game also introduced what is Mario's coolest sidekick ever (sorry Luigi) in Yoshi the dinosaur.


Mario on Yoshi in one of the early stages of the game

Yoshi could take several different forms later in the game a la Mario's different suits in Super Mario 3 and loved to eat everything in sight, from gophers to apples to Koopa shells and so on. Running around eating everything with Yoshi was probably one of the coolest elements of the game.

Super Mario World also highlighted the new system's graphical capabilities right out of the gate. From the moment the game began, we knew we'd leapt into the then next-gen world and it was a beautiful thing.

And I realize this write-up isn't as in-depth as the others, but that's because I never got all that far in it. I've always sucked at platformers and normally avoid them.

But this one is quite possibly the greatest of all time and only edges its cousin Super Mario 3 out for its landmark status in gaming history.

[Groundhog]

Nice pick with Super Mario World. That game rocked my world when it was released.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Nice pick with Super Mario World. That game rocked my world when it was released.

Thank you It did mine too!

[PackerFanatic]

Very good pick, although it should be higher (jk)

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by PackerFanatic

Very good pick, although it should be higher (jk)

If I was a fan of platformers and/or any good at them, it would doubtlessly be higher and Super Mario 3 would've made the cut as well.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I demand to see more cover art of people holding swords.

[MikeVic]

I still play Super Mario World every year or so... at all 96 goals for the game, then put it down again.

[Izulde]

Pumpy: I scrolled back through after that comment and realized there *are* an awful lot of game covers where people are holding swords. Good eye! And I'm sure there's more sword holding cover art coming up later in the countdown.

MikeVic: I bow to your Super Mario World greatness.. and admire your annual revisit of it.

[KWhit]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Pumpy: I scrolled back through after that comment and realized there *are* an awful lot of game covers where people are holding swords.

Hehe. Yeah. 6 out of the first 8 boxes have swords on them.

[WVUFAN]

Good pick with Tecmo Super Bowl. I remember it being so much a cut above and beyond anything the consoles were offering at the time.

I do hope you (or others who may be a Best of list) put in Front Page Sports Football 95/96 in there somewhere.

[Izulde]

KWhit: Wow, 75% of the covers! I don't *think* that sword rate will hold up when all is said and done, but we'll see.

WVUFan: Thanks. FPS FBPro is one I briefly considered, but from what I remember the stats were wildly inconsistent from game to game and year to year and that really bothered me, so it didn't make the list.

[aran]

Dynasty Warriors 5 XL!

Good choice. Underrated and shuffled aside because it's a DW game, but really awesome nonetheless. DW6 is going to be amazing.

I can't even come close to telling you how much time I spent last year playing DW5 and DW5XL with a friend of mine at college.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by aran

Dynasty Warriors 5 XL!

Good choice. Underrated and shuffled aside because it's a DW game, but really awesome nonetheless. DW6 is going to be amazing.

I can't even come close to telling you how much time I spent last year playing DW5 and DW5XL with a friend of mine at college.

Thank you!

I agree it's highly underrated, but not on this list.

I haven't heard anything about DW6, but I'm sure I'll pick it up. Unlike a certain other Koei series that keeps going down the toilet (it'll get a mention later on), the DW series keeps making incremental improvements with each version.

And I'll try to update this dynasty probably Wednesday. Tomorrow I once again have little to no free time.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I demand to see more cover art of people holding swords.

LMAO...

[Izulde]

I think I lost my original list in a hard drive crash, so I'll have to re-create it.

I may leave 27-32 as they are, though. Not sure. I'll have to think about it. It was over 3 years ago that I made the list and some games have come along that certainly change things.

[Ramzavail]

I'm putting in a vote to getting this revived. I loved reading this years ago and I loved re-reading it now. Loved the stories about your father. As a tactical whore, I loved Shining Force as well, and really at the time, I thought I was the only one who loved/played it. I remember that all my friends at the time had never heard of it.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Ramzavail

I'm putting in a vote to getting this revived. I loved reading this years ago and I loved re-reading it now. Loved the stories about your father. As a tactical whore, I loved Shining Force as well, and really at the time, I thought I was the only one who loved/played it. I remember that all my friends at the time had never heard of it.

I actually thought this was a new thread until I read this post (never looked as the dates and didn't see it originally).