WEMas
For those of you who don't know, Winter-Een-Mas is a holiday for gamers. A week long celebration for people from all over to get together, play games, and be thankful for those games that have so influenced our lives.
So, in celebration of this wondrous holiday, Im going to rank the top seven games I've played in my lifetime.
1) In all my life, nothing has obsessed me to the point that Pokemon has. From games, to cards, to stickers, to books, to movies, and everything inbetween, pokemon made my life. But nothing exemplified pokemon like Blue. An extensive RPG that let you take control of your choice of six out of 150 monsters, let you level them up, and battle a multitude of villians, this game had just about anything you could want. More characters than Suikoden, a great battle system where attacks and hit points didn't necessarilly mean everything, and the need/ability to trade between players in order to "Catch'em All", few people really accepted or respected it as what it really was, the most popular and possibly best RPG of its time. You could wow over your friends with your recently evolved Blastoise, your masterfully caught Mewtwo (Anyone get the pun there?), or your whole slew of level 100s that could own the best of the elite four. And this game wasn't childsplay either. Some gym leaders took days of battling just to make headway. And then you had to level up in the grass until you could take out a whole field in one hit. This game, along with its red counterpart, began a revolution in gaming, and spawned a million copies. I even went to a tournament in King of Prussia. I lost in my first battle, which sucked, but I got a tournament sanctioned Mew. I had 147 out of 151 possible pokemon. Unfortunately I was stupid and let my friend borrow it, telling him not to save it. Instead he switched boxes in the pokemon center, and it saved automatically.
2) Super Mario World. The year was 1991 and Nintendo dropped a bomb on us. Not only did they release their best system...well, EVER, but they also released one of the best games the system would ever see. With addictive gameplay, excellent graphics for its time, and the adding of one of the most popular Mario World characters ever, Yoshi, this game had everything the Mario World could ask for. Pretty much anyone who owned an SNES back then had this game, and probably still does today. Plus, we got to use the cape. With the ability to basically fly, and to come crashing down in a sheer force that shook the screen, it closely resembled the raccoon tail of Super Mario Bros. 3. The graphics took a step up, with the addition of 3D looking sprites, utilizing the ability to shade the characters to look three dimensional. The game had 72 levels in all of seven lands, creating an extensive path to be laid out. Not all the levels had to be completed to beat the game, but it was always fun to try. In the 72 levels, however, there were 93 exits. Secret exits led to alternate routes, or even to the famed Star World. To this day it holds a top spot in the best selling games of all time, and the GBA remake holds the top selling GBA title to date.
3) The Legend of Mana. When the world fell under an ancient peril, it was saved by locking locations and events inside artifacts. As the hero, you are able to find those artifacts and arrange them in the world as you please, opening locations and the ability to explore them. Like any other RPG, you go through worlds facing many enemies and leveling up, finding friends along the way. This game had a great real time based battle system, much like Star Ocean 2. With the ability to create robotic counterparts called Golems, monsters as pets, and magic and weapons, this was one of the more customizeable games of its day, and the ONLY one that actually got me into the making of these things. I remembered loving to mix and match different items to create more powerful Golems, and breeding different pets to create new ones. One of the more attractive elements of the game was the fairly nonlinear system to it. Instead of going from one place to another, you carved your own path, creating worlds and participating in one of up to 60 available quests. Much like many games with sidequests, you can skip some and take others, but the most fun is in playing them all. This wasnt just one of the best games Ive ever played, but one of the ones that got me the most dedicated in just having overall fun with it.
4) Final Fantasy Tactics. A strategy game like no other, FFT truly captured the grand scale and excellent story lines of Final Fantasy and mixed it with the turned based tactics style. Not only did this game have great characters, a great story line, but the available 20 different classes in which you can choose from. From Mime to Bard to Ninja to Samurai, FFT covers them all. One of my favorite parts of this game is the tactics style gameplay. Moving characters square by square and positioning them perfectly around your enemies to strike for the kill is so much fun. And the great graphics make it even more so. Beautifully rendered 3D battlegrounds, great looking sprites and attack animations, and the amaaaaaazing magic graphics, from Thunder Soul to Bahumut, you'll be begging for more. The gameplay isnt where it's all at. Treachery, backstabbing, romance, civil war, and personal struggles shape your world and your character as he ages. With the ability to create an army of soldiers, shaping them in whatever class or image you wish, and picking and choosing which ones to take on the opponent, this game has incredible replay value, and a copy sits on my shelf today.
5) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Arguably the best of its franchise, OOT is unarguably the best of its time. Winning the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Game of the Year Award in 1999, this game brought it, and brought it hard. You start as in any other of the Zelda games, as a young boy who figures out that a Princess is in danger. Eventually this leads you to become the Hero of Time, with the ability to use the Master Sword, a sword, which when used with the proper skill, and coordinated with the Ocarina of Time, can allow you to travel through time, balancing yourself between the sunshine and lollipops days of yore, and the dark times of the future, where Ganon has taken the lands and scarred its people. Battling the old fashioned way, with sword slashing, and beating baddies for everything from rupees to heart containers, Link grows from mini trouble maker, to full grown Hero. One of the trademarks of the Zelda franchise is its well thought out bosses, and OOT doesnt break that tradition. From King Dodongo to Twinrova, it produces some of the most memorable as well. The graphics are ridiculous, and the control scheme is the best of the system. This game is one of the best. Ever. Period.
So, in celebration of this wondrous holiday, Im going to rank the top seven games I've played in my lifetime.
1) In all my life, nothing has obsessed me to the point that Pokemon has. From games, to cards, to stickers, to books, to movies, and everything inbetween, pokemon made my life. But nothing exemplified pokemon like Blue. An extensive RPG that let you take control of your choice of six out of 150 monsters, let you level them up, and battle a multitude of villians, this game had just about anything you could want. More characters than Suikoden, a great battle system where attacks and hit points didn't necessarilly mean everything, and the need/ability to trade between players in order to "Catch'em All", few people really accepted or respected it as what it really was, the most popular and possibly best RPG of its time. You could wow over your friends with your recently evolved Blastoise, your masterfully caught Mewtwo (Anyone get the pun there?), or your whole slew of level 100s that could own the best of the elite four. And this game wasn't childsplay either. Some gym leaders took days of battling just to make headway. And then you had to level up in the grass until you could take out a whole field in one hit. This game, along with its red counterpart, began a revolution in gaming, and spawned a million copies. I even went to a tournament in King of Prussia. I lost in my first battle, which sucked, but I got a tournament sanctioned Mew. I had 147 out of 151 possible pokemon. Unfortunately I was stupid and let my friend borrow it, telling him not to save it. Instead he switched boxes in the pokemon center, and it saved automatically.
2) Super Mario World. The year was 1991 and Nintendo dropped a bomb on us. Not only did they release their best system...well, EVER, but they also released one of the best games the system would ever see. With addictive gameplay, excellent graphics for its time, and the adding of one of the most popular Mario World characters ever, Yoshi, this game had everything the Mario World could ask for. Pretty much anyone who owned an SNES back then had this game, and probably still does today. Plus, we got to use the cape. With the ability to basically fly, and to come crashing down in a sheer force that shook the screen, it closely resembled the raccoon tail of Super Mario Bros. 3. The graphics took a step up, with the addition of 3D looking sprites, utilizing the ability to shade the characters to look three dimensional. The game had 72 levels in all of seven lands, creating an extensive path to be laid out. Not all the levels had to be completed to beat the game, but it was always fun to try. In the 72 levels, however, there were 93 exits. Secret exits led to alternate routes, or even to the famed Star World. To this day it holds a top spot in the best selling games of all time, and the GBA remake holds the top selling GBA title to date.
3) The Legend of Mana. When the world fell under an ancient peril, it was saved by locking locations and events inside artifacts. As the hero, you are able to find those artifacts and arrange them in the world as you please, opening locations and the ability to explore them. Like any other RPG, you go through worlds facing many enemies and leveling up, finding friends along the way. This game had a great real time based battle system, much like Star Ocean 2. With the ability to create robotic counterparts called Golems, monsters as pets, and magic and weapons, this was one of the more customizeable games of its day, and the ONLY one that actually got me into the making of these things. I remembered loving to mix and match different items to create more powerful Golems, and breeding different pets to create new ones. One of the more attractive elements of the game was the fairly nonlinear system to it. Instead of going from one place to another, you carved your own path, creating worlds and participating in one of up to 60 available quests. Much like many games with sidequests, you can skip some and take others, but the most fun is in playing them all. This wasnt just one of the best games Ive ever played, but one of the ones that got me the most dedicated in just having overall fun with it.
4) Final Fantasy Tactics. A strategy game like no other, FFT truly captured the grand scale and excellent story lines of Final Fantasy and mixed it with the turned based tactics style. Not only did this game have great characters, a great story line, but the available 20 different classes in which you can choose from. From Mime to Bard to Ninja to Samurai, FFT covers them all. One of my favorite parts of this game is the tactics style gameplay. Moving characters square by square and positioning them perfectly around your enemies to strike for the kill is so much fun. And the great graphics make it even more so. Beautifully rendered 3D battlegrounds, great looking sprites and attack animations, and the amaaaaaazing magic graphics, from Thunder Soul to Bahumut, you'll be begging for more. The gameplay isnt where it's all at. Treachery, backstabbing, romance, civil war, and personal struggles shape your world and your character as he ages. With the ability to create an army of soldiers, shaping them in whatever class or image you wish, and picking and choosing which ones to take on the opponent, this game has incredible replay value, and a copy sits on my shelf today.
5) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Arguably the best of its franchise, OOT is unarguably the best of its time. Winning the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Game of the Year Award in 1999, this game brought it, and brought it hard. You start as in any other of the Zelda games, as a young boy who figures out that a Princess is in danger. Eventually this leads you to become the Hero of Time, with the ability to use the Master Sword, a sword, which when used with the proper skill, and coordinated with the Ocarina of Time, can allow you to travel through time, balancing yourself between the sunshine and lollipops days of yore, and the dark times of the future, where Ganon has taken the lands and scarred its people. Battling the old fashioned way, with sword slashing, and beating baddies for everything from rupees to heart containers, Link grows from mini trouble maker, to full grown Hero. One of the trademarks of the Zelda franchise is its well thought out bosses, and OOT doesnt break that tradition. From King Dodongo to Twinrova, it produces some of the most memorable as well. The graphics are ridiculous, and the control scheme is the best of the system. This game is one of the best. Ever. Period.