Top 10
Gamefaqs is currently holding an event where people vote for the 10 best games ever. Here's a post I wrote for a message board related to that - the ten best games I've played. (Disclaimer: I've never played System Shock 1 or 2.)
1. Starcraft - In my opinion, Starcraft is just about the perfect game. It has great multiplayer and great single player modes. The story and the voice acting were great, and the game was just fun. I eventually got tired of it, but not before spending at least twice as many hours on it as any other game I've ever played.
2. Suikoden II - My favorite RPG. The story is just so good, and the soundtrack is amazing. Just thinking about this game makes me feel emotional.
3. Master of Orion II - The first time I played this, I stayed up until late at night at a friend's house playing. I was so into the game that once I went to sleep, I dreamed like I was still in the game and I just had to wait a few turns for "sleep" to be complete so I could start playing again. That should tell you how addictive this game was for me. The idea of colonizing planets and conquering the galaxy really captured my imagination, and the game was so well done.
4. Final Fantasy IV - I think it's hard for people now to understand just how amazing this game was in 1991. For a while, Final Fantasy was my favorite game, and there was one guy at school I talked about it with all the time. Then Nintendo Power had a screenshot of Final Fantasy "II", and for months I looked at that screenshot and thought about how great it was going to be. When I finally got to play it, it blew me away - it was an early SNES game, so the graphics seemed great for the time, the music was outstanding, and the story... the story was way more intricate than any other game I had played at that point. I would say it was a revelation, but at the time I was too young to realize what a shift it really was... I just knew that I loved it.
5. Phantasy Star IV - The second game I got for my Genesis after Sonic the Hedgehog was Phantasy Star III. A lot of people dislike that one because it's a departure from the first two, but it was the first PS I had played an I loved it. Later I got Phantasy Star II and liked that one too. But for some reason, I didn't get PS IV when it came out... I didn't play it until years later when I was in college. By that time, 3d RPGs were in, and at first I didn't like them. PS IV was exactly the kind of game I wanted to play - good story, decent gameplay, and just plain fun. One of the best things about the Phantasy Star series is that the different games are actually tied together, and this one was the best of them all, bringing together little familiar pieces of the first three games (even down to some party members).
6. Link to the Past - In my opinion, this basically took the feeling of Zelda 1 and perfected it, much like SMB3 compared to SMB1. You have the same type of gameplay, but with more items, better graphics, better music, and more of a story. It's hard to say very much about this game, but since most people have played it I don't think I have to.
7. Chrono Trigger - You may start to notice a trend in what I like: good stories, good music, and games that don't take themselves too seriously but just emphasize being fun. Everyone loves time travel, and Chrono Trigger delivered that along with a likeable cast, some interesting locales (especially 12000BC), and lots of different endings to uncover.
8. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Another futuristic empire building game. I've never been that into the Civilization games, but put me in the future and I just love researching amazing futuristic technologies and crushing my opponents with super advanced weaponry. One of the things that really set SMAC apart from the Civ games were the great faction leaders, with their awesome quotations and outstanding voice actors. Some of the faction leader quotes seem just as profound as the quotes from Plato and Nietzsche, while others just demonstrate why I always end up fighting against certain factions (the Believers).
9. Final Fantasy VI - I liked FF IV more, but this is still an outstanding game. FF VI was the most expensive game I ever bought, at $80 plus tax on October 3, 1994, and it was easily worth every dollar of my mom's money. One thing that I really liked about this game was the point early on where you divide into three separate parties and get to decide which order you want to go through their stories in. That was always something I wished other games would do, and I was sad that section of FF VI was so short. Overall FF VI had good characters, good music, and a good story (although it flagged in the World of Ruin), and was a great game.
10. Super Metroid - From the moment the spooky title screen music starts to play, this game has a ton of atmosphere. I don't know of any other game like it that captures the feeling of exploring a strange planet all alone the way this one does. I didn't play this game until 10 years after it came out, and thus I didn't have as much fun with it as I have with some games, but I think it deserves mention just for what they accomplished with it.
1. Starcraft - In my opinion, Starcraft is just about the perfect game. It has great multiplayer and great single player modes. The story and the voice acting were great, and the game was just fun. I eventually got tired of it, but not before spending at least twice as many hours on it as any other game I've ever played.
2. Suikoden II - My favorite RPG. The story is just so good, and the soundtrack is amazing. Just thinking about this game makes me feel emotional.
3. Master of Orion II - The first time I played this, I stayed up until late at night at a friend's house playing. I was so into the game that once I went to sleep, I dreamed like I was still in the game and I just had to wait a few turns for "sleep" to be complete so I could start playing again. That should tell you how addictive this game was for me. The idea of colonizing planets and conquering the galaxy really captured my imagination, and the game was so well done.
4. Final Fantasy IV - I think it's hard for people now to understand just how amazing this game was in 1991. For a while, Final Fantasy was my favorite game, and there was one guy at school I talked about it with all the time. Then Nintendo Power had a screenshot of Final Fantasy "II", and for months I looked at that screenshot and thought about how great it was going to be. When I finally got to play it, it blew me away - it was an early SNES game, so the graphics seemed great for the time, the music was outstanding, and the story... the story was way more intricate than any other game I had played at that point. I would say it was a revelation, but at the time I was too young to realize what a shift it really was... I just knew that I loved it.
5. Phantasy Star IV - The second game I got for my Genesis after Sonic the Hedgehog was Phantasy Star III. A lot of people dislike that one because it's a departure from the first two, but it was the first PS I had played an I loved it. Later I got Phantasy Star II and liked that one too. But for some reason, I didn't get PS IV when it came out... I didn't play it until years later when I was in college. By that time, 3d RPGs were in, and at first I didn't like them. PS IV was exactly the kind of game I wanted to play - good story, decent gameplay, and just plain fun. One of the best things about the Phantasy Star series is that the different games are actually tied together, and this one was the best of them all, bringing together little familiar pieces of the first three games (even down to some party members).
6. Link to the Past - In my opinion, this basically took the feeling of Zelda 1 and perfected it, much like SMB3 compared to SMB1. You have the same type of gameplay, but with more items, better graphics, better music, and more of a story. It's hard to say very much about this game, but since most people have played it I don't think I have to.
7. Chrono Trigger - You may start to notice a trend in what I like: good stories, good music, and games that don't take themselves too seriously but just emphasize being fun. Everyone loves time travel, and Chrono Trigger delivered that along with a likeable cast, some interesting locales (especially 12000BC), and lots of different endings to uncover.
8. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Another futuristic empire building game. I've never been that into the Civilization games, but put me in the future and I just love researching amazing futuristic technologies and crushing my opponents with super advanced weaponry. One of the things that really set SMAC apart from the Civ games were the great faction leaders, with their awesome quotations and outstanding voice actors. Some of the faction leader quotes seem just as profound as the quotes from Plato and Nietzsche, while others just demonstrate why I always end up fighting against certain factions (the Believers).
9. Final Fantasy VI - I liked FF IV more, but this is still an outstanding game. FF VI was the most expensive game I ever bought, at $80 plus tax on October 3, 1994, and it was easily worth every dollar of my mom's money. One thing that I really liked about this game was the point early on where you divide into three separate parties and get to decide which order you want to go through their stories in. That was always something I wished other games would do, and I was sad that section of FF VI was so short. Overall FF VI had good characters, good music, and a good story (although it flagged in the World of Ruin), and was a great game.
10. Super Metroid - From the moment the spooky title screen music starts to play, this game has a ton of atmosphere. I don't know of any other game like it that captures the feeling of exploring a strange planet all alone the way this one does. I didn't play this game until 10 years after it came out, and thus I didn't have as much fun with it as I have with some games, but I think it deserves mention just for what they accomplished with it.