80. Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game (Interplay, 1997)
Drawing heavy inspiration from their earlier hit "Wasteland" (with the license having fallen to EA years prior), Fallout's creators set out to create a bleak post-apocalyptic landscape for the player to explore, and did so admirably, combining a grim atmosphere with a sly sense of humor throughout. What really sold the game, though, was the sheer amount of thought put into its story and design - rather than encourage the player to just mindlessly blast everything as so many RPGs of the time were wont to do, the player is given many choices to deal with every questline put before them - a combative approach, stealthy approach and even pure diplomacy will work in almost any situation. Hell, it's even possible to complete the game without firing a single shot or witnessing a single death. The first in a great series of games.
79. Lemmings (DMA Design, 1991)
A popular puzzle game that spawned a horde of rereleases, updates, sequels, expansions, clones and parodies, Lemmings is a simple concept - get a quota of the little rodents safely to the goal. To this end, one picks a few out of the crowd and assigns them jobs meant to help the others avoid danger or bypass obstacles - whether simply stopping and forcing them to go the other way, digging through dirt, climbing up walls, parachuting down long drops, or blowing themselves up to clear an obstacle from the others' path. Once enough are safely through the exit door, the next stage begins. Simple enough in concept, but many of the later stages get deviously difficult, requiring some very fast thinking to succeed. Given just how prolific and popular the series was, if you owned basically any game platform out in the early '90s, you probably played or at least saw Lemmings or one of its sequels/spinoffs/expansions at some point. And thankfully, most of them were pretty damn fun. Key word being "most"; skip Lemmings Paintball and All New World of Lemmings aka Lemmings Chronicles, they're really lame.
78. The Dig (LucasArts, 1995)
Another adventure title from the legendary LucasArts, though unlike most, The Dig doesn't have a lot in the way of the company's quirky humor, opting to tell a more somber, serious and high-concept science fiction story. Starring a team of scientists unexpectedly whisked away to an alien world devoid of intelligent life but full of advanced technology, they set out to uncover exactly what led it to its current state and discover a way home. The Dig was also a very high-end production for its time, having surprisingly well-known actors voicing the main characters and some incredible atmospheric music by Michael Land.
77. Cave Story (DÅkutsu Monogatari) (Pixel, 2004)
With the internet's explosion in popularity came an interest in indie games old and new, with sites like Newgrounds giving a lot of developers and fans a place to show off their talents and numerous abandonware sites archiving obscure and forgotten classics. Cave Story is one that came to peoples' attention not long after its initial release in 2004, garnering a lot of attention for its high quality Metroid-like design, presentation reminiscent of 8 and 16-bit retro titles, having a surprisingly engrossing story and being created over the course of five years by a single developer. Since then it's gotten tons of attention in the form of fan translations, ports to numerous platforms (official and otherwise), a slew of remakes, mods and source ports, and even a fan-created level editor.
76. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts, 1991)
Monkey Island was never Lucasarts' best selling franchise, but its irreverent humor, strong atmosphere and well-crafted puzzles gave it enough of a following to get several sequels over the years. Monkey Island 2 follows Guybrush Threepwood on his quest to find the lost treasure of Big Whoop, running afoul of his once-vanquished nemesis LeChuck on the way. With more clever design, hilarious dialog and plenty of jokes tied to creative puzzles and a strong narrative, it's another solid title. It would also be the last game in the series that Ron Gilbert would work on for nearly thirty years, eventually returning to the series with 2022's Return to Monkey Island.
75. Wartales (Shiro Games, 2022)
A game seemingly inspired by the cult classic DOS RPG "Darklands", now with the benefit of technology that can actually handle what the original was attempting to create - a seamless low-fantasy sandbox RPG with tactical combat. Playing as a small band of mercenaries, your goal is pretty simple - keep your band happy, well-fed and paid. Which means taking on jobs to slay monsters, rout bandits, perform rescue missions, or if things get really tight, just rob people on the roadside and dodge the law for a while. Combat plays like a more polished Banner Saga, with turn-based action on a grid-based battlefield, and you can earn and spend "Valor Points" to perform special moves that allow you to damage multiple enemies, maneuver to a more advantageous position without triggering opportunity attacks, snipe enemies from afar, and so forth. As you explore the world you'll gradually unlock more perks and side-jobs to benefit your party, doing everything from making money and food stretch further to crafting new gear (weapons, armor, lockpicking tools and so forth) to gaining the ability to dash for short distances, which can help avoid some unwanted encounters. There's a bit of a narrative too and you're afforded the option to take sides in conflicts in the game's numerous regions, but these are by no means necessary to complete; you can explore, fight and train at your leisure with or without them. A delightful, engrossing and consistently challenging title, and a very fresh gaming experience for 2022.
74. Serious Sam (Croteam, 2001)
In the late '90s tiny Croatian studio Croteam decided that shooters had gotten too brown, gritty and slow-paced in recent years, and set out to rectify that with their debut game, Serious Sam. Not only did it look fantastic for the time, with enormous environments that were bright, colorful and intricately detailed, but it never lost a beat despite its action being downright manic. Even with the huge open areas, impressive visual effects and the fact that literally hundreds of enemies can be rushing you all at once, there's virtually no slowdown or framerate stutters. There's tons of hidden secrets in every level a la Doom or Wolfenstein, and the gameplay is reminiscent of classic arcade shooters like Smash TV - smooth-controlling, fast paced and uncomplicated, but certainly not easy. Learning enemy patterns, rationing pickups, using the right weapon in the right situation, prioritizing threats and of course circle-strafing constantly quickly become key to survival. A game where you somehow feel totally overwhelmed and completely in control at the same time, Serious Sam is a rush.
73. Beyond Shadowgate (Zojoi, 2024)
It took a decade to get done, but 2014's Shadowgate reboot finally got its sequel - Beyond Shadowgate. Bearing virtually no resemblance to the action-adventure Turbografx-CD title of the same name, this is based on the originally pitched design document is very much a callback to the point-and-click style titles of the '80s, even recreating the familiar interface, dry sense of humor and pixel art with very limited animation of the classic titles. There are also numerous callbacks to those titles, from lines of dialog to straight-up cameo locales returning, which I quite liked as a long-time fan. Thankfully they also avoid a lot of the annoying trappings of frustrating old '80s adventures, with logical puzzles and no ways to make the quest unwinnable (none that I could find at any rate). If you're a fan of the classic ICOM titles, this is one you don't want to miss.
72. Heretic II (Raven Software, 1998)
Most people know about Heretic, but not too many people know it had a sequel. Mostly because it didn't sell particularly well and owing to a dispute over rights to the game, it has not resurfaced on any digital distribution stores. Which is a shame, as it's quite a unique and fun experience in its own right. A third person action game that takes a few cues from Tomb Raider, with some polished platforming mechanics and a bit of focus on puzzle solving. It doesn't lose sight of what made the original popular, though - after all, it's built in the Quake II engine, which lends itself perfectly to fast-paced projectile-slinging action against hordes of monsters. Even melee brings some clever mechanics, with sweeping blows that deal heavy damage (and gory finishers) to enemies and even letting you use your staff to pole-vault, which both serves as a longer jump and a powerful mobile attack. Heretic II is far less famous than its predecessor, but no less fun.
71. Heretic (Raven Software, 1994)
As popular as Doom was, it was little surprise that it would get a number of spinoff games and engine licenses. Heretic is definitely one of the more memorable ones, taking the basic monster-blasting, puzzle-solving format of Doom and putting a coat of dark fantasy on everything. Golems, axe-throwing skeleton knights, sorcerers and demons, among many others, stand in your way, while you get several weapons like a magic staff, a triple-firing crossbow, a fireball-launching mace and my personal favorite, gauntlets that launch lightning at your enemies. More than that, though one could actually pick up many powerups and use them when needed, rather than being forced to activate and use them right then and there. From temporary flight to powering up all of one's weapons to simply restoring a bit of health on-demand, they were all quite handy to have.
