Games that left a lasting memory for me, or those I hope to play more of in the future.
These 16 games are absolutely not ranked by numerical order.
Showing 1-10 of 23 items
A Boy-yays joint. It's no Black Tiger, but isn't this how we want classic arcade games to be re-released? Other console collections have done pretty good emulating a room with a console hooked up to a TV; but for those that spent time in dingy arcades, there's a level of badassery that this title captures perfectly.
Viewers of Giant Bomb perhaps have more of an affinity to the hours of entertainment that Game Room has given them by proxy. Me, I've bought about 10 of the games. That's pretty disappointing in itself, but they do happen to be games I'm tremendously nostalgic for. (Except for that shitty Star Raiders downgrade.) But the point remains that if Game Room had all the factors in place to live up to its potential, it would have been one of the best things to happen to retro gamers in 2010. "Remember it not for what it was..."
Red Steel 2 with Motion Plus is what we thought the Wii would offer at launch. Even though I stood in line to buy a Wii on launch day, I didn't have a good feeling about Red Steel, and after renting it once I never finished it. I also didn't play much of the Wii during its first year, but like most consoles, it has come into its own as developers have figured it out. Much of the Wii's commercial success doesn't depend on Motion Plus, but for those that count motion control fidelity as a worthy game mechanic, Red Steel 2 delivers an experience worth playing. And doors. Lots of doors.
Not since Bureaucrat have the suit-wearing well-educated professions been so well represented as in the Phoenix Wright series. Linear as hell and textual as hell, they were confident enough to break off and stride in a whole new direction to make a proper adventure game. Miles Edgeworth is one of the most complicated and enjoyable characters in the series, and the affable Gumshoe as a sidekick makes the experience all the more appealing.
I admit it, I like more of a good thing. I also admit I haven't touched the multiplayer in Bioshock 2. As a sequel that didn't need to be made, it deserves a spot in the hall of cash-in fame. But as a bridge toward anticipating Bioshock Infinite, it stands on its own as a quintessentially "2K" game, derivative with strong production values.
Nobody knows throwbacks like Capcom, and they must have found it ironically disappointing for several of their full retail products to pale in comparison to whimsical noscons and fauxbacks (ahem).
The Bit.Trip franchise has been quirky up 'til now, when Gaijin dialed it up to batshit loco. Commander Video is a living embodiment of the old Activision logo, and is able to parkour his way into our hearts despite the fact he has never heard of a checkpoint system.
I don't like Westerns, but Rockstar makes really good games. Yeah, that's about it.
Fiery buses could not burn their way into my Top Ten, but S/S takes two old formulas that I like (NFS and Stuntman), and paves a new genre of destruction racing. Derby's are so 1980s, land that jetliner on the freeway again!
Even for my primitive level of play and hatred of not being able to see the chump I'm battling against, I did buy an arcade stick for this game. It's yet another example of Capcom really pulling off magic, when they know what the fanbase wants. Getting all hands-off mysterious and trying new mechanics for "broader markets" hasn't been working for them. At all. Involve the community, we'll tell ya what we want.
