The BEST GAMES EVER!! To me anyway...

A lot of magazines and other publications will do special "lists of the greatest (insert things here) of all time" when they reach some determined landmark, like their 50th year or their 100th issue, or the 100th anniversary of the thing they're making the list for. But are these things ever accurate? Saying that one film is the greatest of all time is really a matter of opinion; and do you know why these lists are REALLY made? They're made to tick people off who disagree. Therefore, I've decided to tick people off today by picking the GREATEST GAMES OF ALL TIME from the small list of games I have actually played. In no particular order, here's what I recommend....

EarthBound is the game that dares to rise above it all. Why do people keep playing it? It's certainly not for the mediocre battle system, or all the walking around. It's because the rest of the game is so freakin' brilliant in terms of narrative, everything else is forgivable. Nintendo had never released a game like EarthBound before, and apparently never will again...at least for Americans. For some insane reason, "EarthBound 1+2" was the only Japanese game Nintendo made that they wouldn't translate in 2003. I guess I'll take what I can get, but Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga isn't a bad consolation prize. This game is just as funny as EarthBound if not even funnier. I haven't enjoyed a Mario tale so much since the "Super Mario Adventures" manga in Nintendo Power.

The best platform game I ever played was Yoshi's Island. So therefore, it's the best platform game, period. The thing is awesome. You might not think so, but...
1)Yoshi can EAT MONKEYS;
2)the "marker" graphics actually look refreshing for a period of time when everything on the SNES had to be in fuzzy CGI...and on a side note those things only accomplished fake 3D on this system. This game actually DID it in some scenes like doors opening;
4)Yoshi doesn't make his gibberish talk because the sound chip couldn't allow it(another good thing);
5)The whole egg-throwing option adds a whole new depth to the game that few other platformers have. There are more reasons, but I'll stop there and move on.

THE UNREAD STORIES

Vagrant Story came out shortly before Chrono Cross, and everybody bought that stupid game instead of this one. Big mistake...Vagrant Story is one of the best games ever. Same goes for Star Ocean: The Second Story. SO:SS has more flaws than Vagrant, but most of the faults were caused by the translators(Sony themselves...they're directly responsible for that famous phrase, "This guy are sick.") Star Ocean is supposed to be a "sci-fi RPG," as far as I know it's alone in that category. By the way, if I hadn't read that's what it was, I would never have guessed it, because the game takes place entirely on two medieval planets only. Maybe if Sony had gone with the Japanese box, to the right...nah, getting sued by several parties isn't good.

The best personality and dialogue material I've seen in a game comes from Banjo-Tooie. I was so sick of the vapid baby sentences I had to read in a lot of games; this one turned that all upside down and even managed to make fun of that sort of thing! Man, I wanted this one a year before it came out but never realized it.
"You cannot pass into the stone arena!"
"What if we ask nicely?"
"Forget it."
*Kazooie thinks* "Would you accept a bribe?"
And there's more where that came from. Add to the great humor the spoof of Doom where you use Kazooie as a gun(ha!) and you got one of my favorite games. The only downside is, to get some portion of the humor within, you have to have played the game this is a sequel to, Banjo-Kazooie. That one's not nearly as fun, I'm sorry. It's anyone's guess when we'll see a third game on the X-Box. Or X-Box 2.

THE MANA BUNCH

What Square did with Final Fantasy Adventure was amazing. This game had a very limited ROM memory; the same tiles are used for every room and hillside. And every dungeon room looks exactly the same, except for a few changing elements. What makes it amazing is, you get totally into this one and forget how cheesy it is. The music is very good. The story is once again badly translated but very involving. It's one of my favorite Game Boy titles of all time. One problem though...it's not a Final Fantasy game.
It was just renamed "Final Fantasy Adventure" because they feared it wouldn't sell under an unknown brand. It's called the demon of localization...just like when Mega Man was remade into a middle-aged, growling Chuck Norris in a robot suit. It lessed in power over the years, and it couldn't keep its grip on the SNES sequel...

SECRET OF MANA. A real worthy sequel to "Final Fantasy Adventure," I didn't get to play it until nearly a decade after its release. But it quickly became just as big a favorite of mine as the Game Boy version. The music is beautiful, the graphics are serene, the plot is...okay, there is no plot, but who needs it? I also got to see all my favorite old enemies from the Game Boy game, and learn their real names. So it's a "Mushboom"...

Secret of Mana 2 was planned for release, but then dropped and replaced with an American "sequel" called Secret of Evermore. This is the point where the Mana series likely lost all of its audience. After this came Legend of Mana for the PS1, the worst game in the whole series. I've never played either, so in my mind the Mana series is spotless and deserves more attention. Then the news of my dreams came...

SWORD OF MANA, a remake of FFA with SNES graphics...meaning I was going to get a game that COMBINED FFA and SOM. Joyous rapture!! The critics hit it hard for some things the developers refused to change, but those things(like bad AI)are only nostalgia to me. Let's hear it for the real Mana games!

Why is Link's Awakening the best Zelda game? Because I said so. Also, the dialogue is well-written and for the first(and apparently only) time most of it is hilarious. For the first time, they made different music for every dungeon--and this was on Game Boy in 1993! Add to that the plot twist midway through the game; the best Zelda twist ever. This is a game you don't forget; and it used to be pretty much all I had when I just owned a Game Boy and an Apple II.

And there you have it. I have played many games, but these stand out to me, each in their own special way. And if you don't like my picks, buy the rights to a magazine and print your own list and say it's the truth.

HONORABLE MENTION(I might have included these if not for some circumstances):
SUPER METROID The ending was spoiled; and I kept getting stuck too much.
CHRONO TRIGGER Some fool told me what happens to Crono over a year before I actually played the title. I'll get HIM....
SUPER MARIO 64 I can't play it at all. The camera makes me sick every time I try. Games should do many things, but getting you sick isn't one of them.