90. DOOM (Id Software, 1993)
DOOM was an amazing title at the time of its release for its realistic 3D environments, fast-paced action and varied gameplay, combining elements of puzzle-solving with run and gun action against hordes of enemies. But when you added on online deathmatches and the ability to create custom maps, the game's replay value rocketed through the roof, and even today it remains an incredibly fun experience, spawning hundreds of thousands of custom maps and countless player mods that remix the experience into something completely new. Surpassed in technology but still unmatched in gameplay, DOOM is a truly immortal game.
The debut title of Treasure (an independent company spun-off from industry giant Konami) and still one of their finest titles, showing the world that "
blast processing" wasn't just a marketing gimmick and that the Sega Genesis most definitely could tread ground that the SNES couldn't by providing incredibly fluid animation and fast-paced gameplay that its competitor simply could not match. All that and it was a pretty damn fun game too, having one or two players combine four different weapon types in any way they pleased (resulting in things like steerable firewalls, homing lasers and a short ranged beam of lightning) and blasting their way through hordes of enemies and countless over-the-top boss battles. This really was a game that made even the most die-hard of Nintendo fans just a
little green with envy, whether they admitted it or not.
88. Shantae: Half Genie Hero (WayForward, Wii U/PS4/Vita/Xbox One/PC)Shantae is a wonderful and charming series with a fun cast of characters, a strong sense of humor and polished metroidvania style gameplay. Half-Genie Hero revamps the format into something slightly more akin to Mega Man, having a relatively linear, stage-based format but granting the player new powers each time they complete a stage, which in turn allows them to revisit previous levels to find new secrets, greatly improving the overall feel and pace of the game. Then you add in some stellar music and fluid, gorgeous 2D animation, and you have my favorite game of the series by far.
87. The World Ends With You (Square Enix/Jupiter, 2008)
A unique and interesting action-RPG that set out to take advantage of the Nintendo DS console's unique capabilities in every way it could. It certainly succeeded in most fronts; the killer soundtrack aided by the DS's surprisingly good sound fidelity, gameplay that took advantage of touch-screen, microphone and even the DS's sleep feature to great effect. Combat was the prime example, with the player controlling two characters concurrently - one on the top screen with buttons, the other on the bottom screen using touch-screen gestures to evade attacks and activate 'pins' to attack in various ways - drawing lines, slashing through enemies, pressing down to set them ablaze, and so forth. Each time a character successfully landed a combo, they would pass a 'light puck' to the character on the other screen, enabling them to do more damage and rack up some enormous combos for extra combat rewards. A really fun take on RPG design and a modern rejuvenation for the genre.
86. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (Chunsoft, 1992)
Dragon Quest was never exactly a huge name in the west, but it still had a substantial following; not enough to get Enix to localize its two entries on the Super Famicom, however, which is a shame as its fifth entry is considered one of the best games in the franchise (and even the series' creator, Yuji Horii, has said it's his favorite). It certainly upends quite a few popular tropes - you're not the chosen hero of the story, but rather spend a good chunk of it searching for them, and it incorporates passage of time and multiple generations into its narrative, which is something still relatively few games attempt. It even incorporates a bit of Bard's Tale or Shin Megami Tensei into its design by letting you recruit monsters to your party, who can level up over time and become quite formidable allies themselves. A surprisingly ambitious and unusually dark entry in a series that normally prides itself so heavily on adhering to tradition.
85. Streets of Rage 2 (Sega AM7/Ancient, 1992)
Streets of Rage 2 is considered by many to be the greatest beat-em-up ever made. I don't know if I quite agree with that, but there's no denying that it is a very worthwhile addition to the genre. Take the usual beat-em-up formula, add in a huge variety of crazy enemies (including robots, jetpack guys and ninjas), and complete the package with challenging gameplay, detailed and well animated characters, and a fantastic soundtrack that pushed the Sega Genesis platform to its limits thanks to composer Yuzo Koshiro, and you've got one hell of a good time. A game which truly highlight Sega and the Genesis platform at their best in every respect.
84. Portal 2 (Valve, 2011)
Portal was a surprise hit when it was included with the Orange Box collection - a short action-puzzler where you use the titular portal gun to move about, avoid hazards and take advantage of physics to clear various rooms and obstacles. All with an underpinned sense of dry humor and a snowballing feeling of dread as you slowly discovered what was really going on. A sequel seemed unnecessary, but Valve managed to make it work, adding in new mechanics like lasers, tractor beams, light bridges and "repulsion gel" (which makes any surface it's painted on springy) to add new layers of challenge to the puzzles. The storytelling is just as outlandish as ever, now with the comically deranged CEO of Aperture, Cave Johnson, taking the central role in the narrative, and a two-player co-op mode and easy to use custom map-builder add tons of replayability. Valve may not take the shot often, but they always hit when they do.
83. Scorched Earth (Wendell Hicken, 1991)
While I never was a huge PC gamer, Scorched Earth is one of those games that really managed to captivate me. Not only was it a fun title with its relatively simple premise (blow up all the other tanks) and its wide variety of weaponry and power-ups (from ground-tunneling warheads to enormous nukes to numerous homing systems), but the sheer amount of customization it offered was amazing. Changing winds, lightning storms, destroyable terrain, air viscosity, walls that can be set to wrap around or reflect shots, and so forth. Hell, the retail version even lets you scan in your own mountains than you can blow up during matches. The game really could be customized to the last detail, and provides endless fun as a result, especially when you have friends to battle with. The only real letdown is that it lacks online functionality.
82. Resident Evil 4 (Capcom, 2005)
Admittedly, I've never been much for horror games, survival ones in particular; their attempts to be intense and scary mostly just come off as contrived and their gameplay is so one-note and slow that they generally bore me straight to sleep. But Resident Evil 4 is definitely an exception, taking the puzzle-based gameplay of the earlier entries and kicking the action up to eleven. The slow, lurching hordes of enemies, satisfying gun and melee combat make the action both tense and extremely satisfying, and some grotesque boss monsters add variety to the proceedings too. That, plus some extra campaign content and the ever-fun Mercenaries mode, make it a game that simply never gets old to play. It may be a divisive entry among long-time franchise fans, but regardless, it's a game you can start up at any time and have a blast playing.
81. Maniac Mansion (Lucasfilm Games, 1987)
Point-and-click adventure games were a pretty huge genre in the 80s, but began to fall off around the time the mid 90's rolled around. Solving puzzles and following their storylines was fun, but once you'd figured out all the puzzles and gotten to the end, that was basically it; the game wouldn't be any different the next time through. Maniac Mansion is definitely an exception, though, letting the player pick a team of three characters (Dave and two others), each with their own talents and ways to bypass certain obstacles, which in turn lent itself to eleven different endings. That, plus a consistently hilarious sense of humor, a lack of cheap deaths (you can still get characters killed, but it generally requires doing something
really dumb) and a lot of nods to cheesy horror movies and the tropes thereof, made Maniac Mansion a great time that's still fun today.
Shantae is a wonderful and charming series with a fun cast of characters, a strong sense of humor and polished metroidvania style gameplay. Half-Genie Hero revamps the format into something slightly more akin to Mega Man, having a relatively linear, stage-based format but granting the player new powers each time they complete a stage, which in turn allows them to revisit previous levels to find new secrets, greatly improving the overall feel and pace of the game. Then you add in some stellar music and fluid, gorgeous 2D animation, and you have my favorite game of the series by far.
While I never was a huge PC gamer, Scorched Earth is one of those games that really managed to captivate me. Not only was it a fun title with its relatively simple premise (blow up all the other tanks) and its wide variety of weaponry and power-ups (from ground-tunneling warheads to enormous nukes to numerous homing systems), but the sheer amount of customization it offered was amazing. Changing winds, lightning storms, destroyable terrain, air viscosity, walls that can be set to wrap around or reflect shots, and so forth. Hell, the retail version even lets you scan in your own mountains than you can blow up during matches. The game really could be customized to the last detail, and provides endless fun as a result, especially when you have friends to battle with. The only real letdown is that it lacks online functionality.
Admittedly, I've never been much for horror games, survival ones in particular; their attempts to be intense and scary mostly just come off as contrived and their gameplay is so one-note and slow that they generally bore me straight to sleep. But Resident Evil 4 is definitely an exception, taking the puzzle-based gameplay of the earlier entries and kicking the action up to eleven. The slow, lurching hordes of enemies, satisfying gun and melee combat make the action both tense and extremely satisfying, and some grotesque boss monsters add variety to the proceedings too. That, plus some extra campaign content and the ever-fun Mercenaries mode, make it a game that simply never gets old to play. It may be a divisive entry among long-time franchise fans, but regardless, it's a game you can start up at any time and have a blast playing.
