Board 8 > Maniac64's Top 125 games list

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been wanting to a post a top games list for ages but never felt like I had the time to do all the write-ups. Aria's list topic inspired me so I'm just going to copy her method and post the full list at once. Honestly there should probably be some more yearly sports titles in this but I basically limited it to my favorites for each sport/extra noteworthy ones (and I can't remember what years some were) in order to make it a better list.

This is not a best games list, just a favorites. Behold, my weird tastes!

1. Skyrim
2. Witcher 3
3. Final Fantasy X
4. WWF No Mercy
5. Fire Emblem Path of Radience
6. Timesplitters 2
7. Civilization 5
8. Batman: Arkham City
9. Marvel Ultimate Alliance
10. Super Mario World
11. Super Smash Brothers Melee
12. Madden NFL 2003
13. Soul Calibur 2
14. Skies of Arcadia
15. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
16. Tales of Vesperia
17. Dragon Age: Origins
18. Final Fantasy Tactics
19. Fallout 3
20. Final Fantasy 7
21. Kirby Superstar Saga
22. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
23. Starcraft
24. Dynasty Warriors 8
25. Age of Empires 2
26. Super Smash Brothers Brawl
27. Dragon Age 2
28. LEGO Marvel Superheroes
29. Tactics Ogre: TKoL
30. Marvel vs Capcom 2
31. Divinity: Original Sin II
32. Dragon Age Inquisition
33. Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber
34. WWE Day of Reckoning 2
35. One Piece Pirate Warriors 3
36. One Piece Pirate Warriors
37. Triple Play 2000
38. Sonic 2
39. Super Mario Bros 3
40. Goldeneye
41. Dynasty Warriors 4
42. Fire Emblem (GBA)
43. Dragon Quest 8
44. Batman: Arkham Asylum
45. Final Fantasy 5
46. Final Fantasy 6
47. Star Wars Battlefront 2
48. Borderlands
49. Borderlands 2
50. LEGO Lord of the Rings
51. Gauntlet Legends 64
52. Shadows of Mordor
53. Starfox 64
54. Army of Two
55. Tekken Tag Tourney 2
56. NBA 2k11
57. Donkey Kong Country 2
58. Donkey Kong Country
59. Assassins Creed Black Flag
60. Fable 3
61. Viva Pinata
62. Fable 2
63. Mario Kart Double Dash
64. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
65. Vigilante 8
66. Divinity Original Sin
67. Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires
68. Tales of Symphonia
69. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
70. Mario Tennis
71. Spyro 3
72. Spyro 2
73. Spyro
74. Sims 3
75. Super Mega Baseball 2
76. Kirby 64
77. Mario Party 2
78. Mario Party 4
79. Paper Mario: TTYD
80. NBA Street V2
81. Spider-man 2
82. My Time in Portia
83. Halo 3
84. Killer instinct
85. Mortal Kombat 2
86. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
87. Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
88. Stardew Valley
89. Blitz the League
90. Marvel vs Capcom 3
91. Morrowind
92. Uncharted 2
93. Super Mario RPG
94. Paper Mario
95. NBA Jam TE
96. Orcs Must Die 2
97. Wolf Among Us
98. Kirby Return to Dreamland
99. It Takes two
100. Mario Power Tennis
101. Kirbys Dream Land 2
102. Super Mario Kart
103. Sonic All-Star Racing: Transformed
104. Saints Row the Third
105. Assassins Creed Syndicate
106. Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic
107. Simpsons Arcade
108. Castle Crashers
109. NFL Blitz 2000
110. Winning Eleven Pro Evolution 8
111. Halo
112. Soul Calibur VI
113. Super Punch Out!!
114. Witcher 2
115. Majora's Mask
116. Advance Wars
117. Animal Crossing
118. NFL Quarterback Club 99
119. Olympic Hockey 98
120. Mario All Star Baseball
121. Kirbys Dream Course
122. Odell Lake
123. X-men Arcade
124. Contra
125. Never Alone

Honorable Mentions
Zoo Tycoon UAE
Slime Rancher
Diddy Kong Racing
The Simpsons: Bart vs the World
Sonic Triple Trouble
Sonic Blastman 2
SimCity 2000
Sim Ant
Xcom Enemy Unkown
Infamous
No More Heroes
Pokemon Fire Red
Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2
Earthbound
Paperboy
Cave Story
Looney Tunes B-Ball

If anyone wants me to do a write-up or talk about why something made the list/its placement/didn't make the list I am happy to do so.

Heck yeah No Mercy

No Mercy at 4, good list no notes

TheRainandFire posted...

4. WWF No Mercy

Respect.

TheRainandFire posted...

12. Madden NFL 2003

Ouch. ESPN NFL 2k5 all day.

Madden NFL 2003 is my most played game of all time. I still own it and play it at least once a year.

Bump

Please talk about Dynasty Warriors 8 (and why it's higher than Empires) and Dragon Age 2 being so high since I believe it is often maligned within its series

If StarCraft is on your list because of battle.net, please tell me your favorite UMS game.

What was your favorite team combo in Looney Tunes B-Ball?

Play Outer Wilds

I'll start with the Dynasty warriors question.

The thing that sets Dynasty Warriors 8 apart for me is full local coop for the story mode.

I was able to play through it with my wife and we had a blast. None of the newer ones have that and I'm not sure any of the older ones do either.

The way they did the story mode overall was well done. I liked how it had a small handful of relevant officers that you picked from for each battle. Jin was a good final kingdom to add as well. It's my favorite DW story mode.

It was also just a really well done version of the game. I did not like the direction it went in 6/7 with outfits and weapons. 8 felt like a return to form. It also had some nice gameplay tweaks.

Then you get the bonus alt-timeline battles from DW4 back in it for changing history in the main story battles.

As for why it's higher than Empires, it's just a better game. Empires is a fun side game but it's basically just a big mini game rather than a full DW game. That said I love playing it and keep going back to it. I have over a dozen CAWs and two full custom campaign modes. Done over a dozen runs for sure.

Path of Radiance + Timesplitters top 10 = A+

I'll talk about Dragon Age 2 later cause I want a keyboard rather than a phone to type up that one. It's definitely not a popular opinion but I do feel strongly about it.

ZaziGuado posted...

If StarCraft is on your list because of battle.net, please tell me your favorite UMS game.

What was your favorite team combo in Looney Tunes B-Ball?

I actually didn't do battle.net for Starcraft. Just lots of the single player.

I don't remember many details of Looney Tunes B-Ball (which is why it's an HM). I feel like I remember Taz and Marvil the Martian being my favorites.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Play Outer Wilds

I plan to at some point lol.

I for one stand by dragon age 2. Games got a lot of problems, but the plot, characters, and player choices were solid. Overall not a great game, but decent enough

Path of Radiance top 5, Tales and Spyro representation, plenty of other good stuff sprinkled in - great list as far as I'm concerned!

Curious about no Tales of the Abyss given that you've got some experience with the series - haven't played it or just didn't care for it much?

we need to talk about knights of lodis.

NBIceman posted...

Curious about no Tales of the Abyss given that you've got some experience with the series - haven't played it or just didn't care for it much?

Watched a friend play a bunch of it and the story didn't make me want to play it myself.

transcience posted...

we need to talk about knights of lodis.

It's a really fun Tactics game and I enjoyed the story and gameplay immensely. I'm not great at completing games but I had no issue completing that one!

Is that not a popular opinion?

how about let us cling together?

Haven't played it unfortunately.

Borderlands 1 above 2??,

I struggled a bit with that one but I just like the PC options in the first game more.

oh you should play LUCT then. its FFTa daddy after all. having KOL and not LUCT is like having FFTA and not FFT.

Wasn't it an SNES game? I think by the time I got into TRPGs I know longer had access to it.

its been remade twice since and ported as well. its kinda crazy how much theyve done with it compared to what theyve done to FFT

I will look in to if any system I have can play it.

Maniac64 posted...

Madden NFL 2003 is my most played game of all time. I still own it and play it at least once a year.

Madden 2003 had a ballin' soundtrack, that I clearly remember

TheRainandFire posted...

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Ellen was right!

Quite a few games on here that stick out to me. Nice to see another Dynasty Warriors fan, even if you played different entries from me (2, 5, 7).

Excellent list! Want to see Aria's too but cannot find.

We have similar tastes, fellow Llympian Demigod!

I feel like the only wrassle fan of my generation that isn't a big No Mercy mark >_> WCW 4 life baybeee

o ya go my Civ and Soul Calibur II and FFT

I really gotta do Ogre Battle at some point

dang I think I HAD Triple Play 2000, I get a sports game itch every few years

heck yea Looney Tunes B-Ball

Maniac64 posted...

I struggled a bit with that one but I just like the PC options in the first game more.

This is why I have the controversial opinion of Pre-Sequel as my favorite. Is Borderlands 2 the better game and better story with better maps? Of course, but that doesn't matter much if I don't really like playing anyone except Maya.

I'm attempting this and have come up with about 200 games to rank, but with how uncategorized my Steam library is in my mind, I don't know if I can do much until I get home. Like, how do I only remember Life is Strange this deep in?!

I had this list going for over a year and didn't remember either Borderlands until last week lol.

Why are Kirby Super Star and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga combined in the 21st spot?

Haha because I apparently forgot the name of the Kirby game.

DragonGargoyle posted...

btw who's your favorite Path of Radiance character?

Ike. It's boring but true.

After that Gatrie, Nephenee, and Soren.

@ZaziGuado Alright, lets talk about Dragon Age 2

I fully get why people dont like/have issues with this game. It was clearly made with cost cutting in mind. The number of areas is extremely limited and you just are constantly going back through the same areas. Outside of the city of Kirkwall there are like three main areas, a mine and two outdoor areas. It's very repetitive and definitely a huge flaw in the game. I will say the one time they break this and go to the deep roads is a great section. And the game does take advantage of its bottle episode nature to do some interesting things plot wise by really focusing on the city of Kirkwall. Years pass in the game and you, your companions, and your places in the city all change as time passes.

You also lose the choice of race and background that people loved in the first game. Instead you just pick male/female and class, and the only change that makes is which of your siblings survives the opening (which really just comes down to mage or not mage).

The other big issue to me is Anders/Justice. I played the Dragon Age games in order in about a year or two so Awakening was very fresh in my mind when going to DA2. Anders was a favorite from the game and Justice was really interesting. They were among my most used party members, and they were my least used in DA2 (even below Sebastian). This is essentially a pure character assassination. All the things that made the character fun are gone, Justice is used as an excuse to turn him into a violent amoral freedom fighter/terrorist. Just awful.

But outside of Anders (and Sebastian who was a DLC addition and is basically just there to represent the opposite side of Anders) the cast is great. I think the companions here are the best in the series, which is a big statement cause all the games have good casts. They are unique, interesting, and fun to have around. And the dynamics between them are the best without a doubt. The party members have their relationships with each other, completely independent of the party leader. Every combination has its own unique dynamics and its just great. My biggest disappointment going from DA2 to DAI was how much less the party members talked to each other. Its a very frequent thing in DA2, with 2, 3, and even 4 person conversations happening regularly. It felt like if I wasnt fighting I would never go more than 5 minutes without some unique conversation. I loved it and it is part of what makes the cast so strong. My favorite party was Varric, Isabela, Merrill just for their conversations or Isabela and Aveline for their rivalry. The game also takes advantage of the time skips to give everyone stronger connections and give you the chance to really see your companions grow and their relationships with each other develop from strangers to close friends. Its much more natural than in some games and everyone really feels connected.

Speaking of companions, I love the change in how the affection system works in this game. Rather than just gaining/losing affection like most games do, DA2 uses a Friend/Rival spectrum. Positive interactions move the person towards friend, and negative towards rival, but neither is inherently bad. Rivals wont just leave your party or hate you, instead your relationship is built on challenging each others views and actions. You can even have your love interest be a full Rival. The dialogue and personal quests between your character and the companion change based on which end of the spectrum they are on. This is such a good idea and I was so sad to see it gone in DA:I. Please bring it back. It makes for more natural relationships and interactions where you can actually do/say what fits your character without worrying about pissing your companion off.

One last mechanic that I love but can see others not liking is how they handle equipment. Only your MC can equip armor you find, everyone else has set armor they wear. Upgrades for their equipment can be found, it gets stronger as they level, and their outfits can change based on what happens in the story/their personal quests. I honestly liked this. It was nice not having to worry about figuring out the best equipment for everyone and made inventory management much faster. Even with the things that can be changed, weapons, accessories, Hawkes stuff, it is common to have the items get stronger as you level. This means if you have a weapon or item that is important to that character story wise they can actually use/wear it the entire game without making you weaker. Everyone basically ends up equipped with things that are meaningful to them or with some special/legendary option. Again it just made inventory a much smaller part of the game, which I really liked. Imagine if in FFX Tidus is able to use Chappus sword the entire game without being a handicap, or Cloud with the Buster sword. It also means you can do something like give Varric a truly unique weapon without figuring out what to do with finding new ones for him. It carried over a bit in DA:I with Varrics weapon working the same way along with a few key items, but I wish they used more stuff that improved with you so you dont need to replace them. In most RPGs I end up with a chest full of out of date weapons/armor/accessories because I want to keep ones that had story importance or would be meaningful to the character. This was a change that was perfect for me.

Overall for me the good of the plot, characters, and mechanics more than makes up for the games limitations. My wife and I had a blast with this game. We loved the characters, we cared about Kirkwall and its fate. Dragon Age is one time where I can be confident in my rankings of the series because of how I played through the series all together.

Bump

One last bump