Two years ago this month, the Miramichi Leader hired one lone high schooler looking for a job. As of last week, that teenager has penned 99 columns. That’s right, this is the 100th /two year anniversary of my columns! I wanted something special for it, not just one single review. After careful consideration, and a lot of thought over the whole summer, I decided to mark this occasion with a list of my favorite games. Being a gamer for a large portion of my life, I have played a lot of amazing games (along with the other extreme, the worst games ever). If I haven’t played it, it won’t be on this list. Also, I had to narrow down the list to the best of the best, so some greats have not made it. Finally, these are my personal favorites. If they aren’t your favorites, that fine. Most of them have earned a lot of praise, but maybe the games I like aren’t your cup of tea. With that out of the way, enjoy the list!
The Orange Box
Talk about getting quality AND quantity. This is the most you’ll ever get out of a disc; it’s a great way to start this list. Orange Box consists of Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2.
The Half Life 2 trilogy is a simple first-person shooter, but the thing that mainly sets it apart is the Gravity Gun. It’s the perfect gun: one with almost limitless ammunition! Anything not bolted to the ground is a potential weapon: Chairs, barrels, dead bodies, you name it! That, with Valve amazing physics engine, really adds something to first-person shooters that can’t be matched. Not to mention the quality in the voice action and animations.
Portal is as perfect as puzzle games get. It’s fun, puzzling, has some humor, and is a great concept. It’s really short, but the pure quality of it combined with everything else on the disc, makes it alright.
Team Fortress 2 is a class-based team deathmatch. Every class is different, and has thousands of pros and cons. The super-fast Scout wields a powerful special shotgun, and can capture control points twice as fast as anyone else, but is extremely fragile and easily killed if you don’t use his speed. The opposite, however, is the human tank Heavy. He can take hits with his huge health, and deliver a lot of damage with his minigun, but his minigun needs time to spin before firing, and the Heavy himself is the slowest class in the game, often taking him a while to get around (not to mention he can’t dodge anything). Each class can help each other out in multiple ways, and it’s truly something to gather the whole team for one intense capture point rush, and tear apart enemy defences.
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time
Way back on the Nintendo 64, there was this gem. Being one of the first games to pretty much perfect 3-D gaming at the time; this was one of the games that paved the road for future 3-D games.
You play as a young Link, the only person in Kukiri Forest without a fairy. One day, The Great Deku Tree sends Navi, a small fairy, out to find Link and tell him of his fate to save the whole kingdom from demise. Next two sentences are major spoilers: Link will eventually find the “Master Sword”, a powerful sword that only an adult can wield, so Link passes his childhood to wake up again with the Master Sword in a new kingdom. In the time that passed, Link finds that the evil Ganondorf does in fact now rule the kingdom, so previous landmarks are now destroyed or altered. The contrast of the two worlds works great, and really immerses you in the story.
Other than the story, the combat is great fun, and the dungeon puzzles are puzzling, just as they should be! Also, some the themes and tunes will really stick to you well after you played it.
Super Smash Bros Melee / Super Smash Bros Brawl
I’m still undecided on which one of these great games should be listed, so I’ll just include both. On one hand, Brawl improved on most everything Melee had going for it, and added way too much to even start naming! On the other hand, it was a shock for me the first time I played Melee because it was like no other gaming experience. It was characters I knew well, in places I knew well, playing music I knew well, with controls that were rock solid. Everything about Melee was a vast improvement over its wonderfully simple predecessor Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. It’s the best fighting game ever, and one of, if not THE best multiplayer experience ever.
Earthbound
Not to beat a dead horse, because you already know I love Earthbound from my review of it, but I REALLY love this game. It’s simple, humorous turn-based RPG with multiple elements really make it different than anything else at the time. From the scrolling health bar (that offers a bit of time between living and dying, sometimes enough time to heal, offering intensely close moments), to its catchy theme, Earthbound is really something that should’ve been a hit, and continued past it’s equally amazing sequel (released in Japan only) Mother 3. Although Mother 3 had many great things, Earthbound takes the cake for a great RPG, and eats it whole.
Super Mario 64 DS
I don’t usually prefer remakes over originals, since it’s the original that really shined and the remake just sponges off its success, but this is different. Add 30 Stars (missions), minigames, Vs Mode, way better graphics, and have it be the first game on the best selling system ever? That’s when the line gets passed. Everything about the game remained the same, it just simply got more convenient to play (since the DS is a portable system), and there’s more to do (Minigames, new stars, and vs. mode)!
Oblivion
Although Earthbound eats the whole “best RPG game” cake, he could share some credit with Oblivion for being an experience you completely control, at all times. You can customize everything about your character: His appearance, his skills, his powers, his species type (all with different pros and cons), his birthsign (which offers different tricks your character can do), everything. Once you customize armor, weapons, and all that good stuff, you’re set to choose how you want to play the game. Want to be a famous hero? A notorious criminal? A sneaky drifter? A clever alchemist? A shy mage? Be anything, do want you want, when you want, and how you want. It’s great to have that kind of freedom. It’s often compared to Fallout 3, which is similar and was made by the same people. I prefer Oblivion for being less “empty”, although it does add to the style (it is a nuclear wasteland, after all); it’s still really pointlessly empty at some points. For me, Oblivion is slightly more enjoyable.
That’s all I have room for, really. Wow, 100 columns. I think my columns have improved over two years. At least, I hope so. If you haven’t checked out my reviews, I have a site with all of them posted: http://sites.google.com/site/gamerscorneronline. It’s up and running, and will be updated roughly every week with my newest reviews. Until next week, enjoy my columns and thanks for reading!