DieHARD GamePOLL - Console Poll, vol. 3 - 5th Generation RESULTS

Hello again ILX! 24 ballots were received for this poll (one down from the last generations poll in 2016) but thanks to changing the upper limit on how many games can receive votes, we've got more than enough games to do the top 77! Current plan is to roll them out over the next three days -- Wed/Thu/Fri, but knowing me, something could come up and I'll miss a day. Just a warning!

While this quiz was going on, I found a PS1 memory card in my house, and I wrote my name on the label in one of those white-out pens. I also wrote "PS1 MC3" on it, I guess because it was my third memory card, and for some reason I needed to clarify that it was for the PS1? Very cool and normal, teen Will!

I hope you brought your challops! What is TOO LOW? What is not TOO LOW? Let's start with one that is definitely TOO LOW imo. (in a few minutes, I need to link this everywhere first)

WOOOOOOOOOOO

before we start:

does "TOO LOW!" = a high number on the countdown list (i.e., #75)
while "TOO HIGH!" = a low number on the countdown list (i.e., #6)

? this is always a point of confusion for me

imo -- too low means it should have ranked higher, e.g. "ILX has underrated this thing"
too high = "you are all basic, this game is not actually good"

ok, that is what i thought, thanks!

i am ready

https://i.imgur.com/BaLzRHp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/p1M5eWa.jpg
77 - Front Mission 3 - 103 points / 2 Votes

See? TOO LOW!!!!!! It should be on everyone's top 40 like it is mine!!

(also unlike previous polls i did not actually already set up all of my posts in a text file so this might take me slightly longer) D:

i didn't realize the front mission games were turn-based strategy?! i always pictured them as mechs tromping through the (extremely pixelated, low-poly) landscape

Someone explain the thread title pun to me?

Stoked for TOO LOW!

@Leee

I was going for something referencing this magazine from the era:
(except apparently I misremembered their capitalization?)

https://i.imgur.com/HGHjQYk.jpg

also i somehow picked one of the covers where it doesn't say diehard gamefan argh

anyway how about game number 76

https://i.imgur.com/7Hi65fS.png
https://i.imgur.com/8NDwVBr.jpg
76 - Driver - 106 points / 3 Votes

wow: quake 2, torment, alpha centauri, smash bros. not a street fighter connoisseur so don't know where that one falls but good month for first looks.

hyped!

xps o man i've never played this :(

YOU ARE THE FASTEST DRIVER IN THE ENTIRE CRIMINAL COMMUNITY.

driver was so much fun, one of the best car games of all time imo (although i am definitely biased towards ps1 car games because that's when i played the most car games. by the time ps2 came around i was old enough to drive and didn't play the games because they made me feel bad about the fact that i never got my license. they were no longer aspirational and just a reminder of my own laziness/inability to self-transport)

i voted for driver! to be honest, i think i spent >75% of the game in its cinematic make-your-own replay mode, which was actually pretty advanced and awesome for its time i think! you could put together a 70's chase movie style replay, placing the cameras wherever you want, selecting the length of clips from different angles, etc. now that i think of it, i think Driver 1 may have been the first "video editing software" i ever used, and certainly for that length of time

oh wow i forgot about that mode!!

i was just looking at the back of the box like "that mode looks cool"

Isn't Driver the one with the insanely hard and unskippable tutorial level?

I also wrote "PS1 MC3" on it, I guess because it was my third memory card, and for some reason I needed to clarify that it was for the PS1? Very cool and normal, teen Will!

relatable btw

Isn't Driver the one with the insanely hard and unskippable tutorial level?

― I want to luhbahguh babum gum (Leee)

it might be. i can vaguely remember it, but even in those days, the "extremely difficult and alienating early level" was something that still popped up in videogames from time to time, rather than the rarity that it is these days

https://i.imgur.com/msD3jc8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2Zxjw2a.jpg
75 - Daytona USA - 107 points / 2 Votes

Daytona USA was one of the games that i always salivated over in the game magazines, because i knew i'd never get a sega saturn. ruled in the arcades, tho

ah shit, forgot to vote. pretend that there was a #1 for majora's mask and another high vote for banjo kazooie

Hrm, what's the game I'm thinking of when I think of Driver? It had extremely realistic maps of London, while Driver apparently had not-very-realistic maps of Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York (and, via cheat code, Newcastle)

Sounds like Getaway on PS2

was surprised this one didn't place lower considering how many times it was referenced in the nom/voting threads...

err place higher dammit

https://i.imgur.com/zA5DSfu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NfZq92v.jpg
74 - Colony Wars - 110 points / 2 Votes

got hold of this specifically for this poll and didn't end up playing it enough to vote for it but def saw the appeal, a stripped down wing commander for consoles. it had already started to "branch" in the first fifteen minutes (i.e., i had already failed a mission in the first 15 minutes lol) which i thought was cool.

Colony Wars made my ballot! although, like Driver, the sequel is arguably better. but i went with the original because i figured it would find more support there (one other person voted for it, lol)

Colony Wars was a very, very good game, i thought. it was also intensely difficult, and there was this one mission about 10 hours that i never could beat, despite trying repeatedly for years. so my vote is for the first 10 hours of Colony Wars.

i voted for driver i think!

xp i was a lil bit disappointed by the physics, which seemed arcadey in a way that undercut the hard-mil-sf vibe the rest of the game was successfully going for. love a good cockpit view tho (star fox 64's just fundamentally doesn't work) and what i played of this already had some cool ones.

hi, it's me, the Saturn owner

daytona port doesn't hold a candle to the arcade version but still...

TOO LOW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv_GQNh9D68

xp (my gold standard 90s space dogfighting games are xwing/tie fighter-- never actually 100% clicked with a wing commander either tbh except for privateer, which is like a lego elite/frontier. it is a lot more fun to fly the spaceship in colony wars than it is in privateer tho.)

i wanted a saturn real bad lol, not even sure why. think i just like the word saturn.

(and the word sega.)

SEGA!

i believe all that about wing commander / tie fights, dlh - sadly, i never owned either one so Colony Wars was kind of my intro to the genre (unless Descent counts?)

descent counts cuz i need terminal velocity to count

https://i.imgur.com/37S2w5i.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4e6E5CC.jpg
72 - Diablo - 112 points / 2 Votes

aw nuts, i must have somehow cut the bottom off of that ad

wow daytona looks gorge in that video.

haven't played the port but diablo is a perfect game. "well except for not being able to run." nah.

you couldn't play online in PS1 diablo, i assume?

which i guess means you would miss the thrill of being murdered by crazy online PVP people as soon as you stepped outside of the town

a friend did a v good full-body impression of the rogue firing away like a machine-gunning legolas while stopping every five shots to heal herself to the sound of a choir

diablo was a LAN game, to me-- assume the ps1 versh has splitscreen which is not ideal but closer in spirit to my memory of the game than it is to the online maelstrom model, which i associate w diablo 2, even tho you're right, it was already there.

i never got a chance to play Diablo on LAN - you're right, that would have been MUCH better. and i ended up playing split screen with my parter on Diablo 3 (very different, of course) and it was a total blast. i could see that holding true the PS1 port of the original as well

a friend did a v good full-body impression of the rogue firing away like a machine-gunning legolas while stopping every five shots to heal herself to the sound of a choir

― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, November 11, 2020 2:15 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol this rules

i didn't vote for diablo but ps1 is the only way i ever played it! my computer would never have run it so i rented it a couple of times and thought it was very fun but kinda scary!

https://i.imgur.com/82gvuOi.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LiZ0YYc.jpg
72 - WWF Wrestlemania 2000 - 112 points / 2 Votes

sorry for the size of these images they are surprisingly tough to find sometimes!

kinda scary!

it is totally scary, which later ones are not (tho i also have had a blast or two w diablo 3).

(sounds like i'm just unaware i stopped being a child in the interim but no i swear d1 has atmosphere.)

i miss that batshit n64 controller. the d-pad was practically ornamental.

i also had one of these. manufactured by blockbuster! do not particularly recommend.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/TLcAAOSwXXxe67FL/s-l225.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PTkS3bn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9iXsbTt.jpg
71 - Heart of Darkness - 114 points / 2 Votes

A version for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was announced,[4] but the game spent so long in development that by the time it was finished, the 3DO (which was not even launched until a year after development on the game began) was no longer commercially viable.

I had no idea Diablo was nommed; I would have voted for it, but I never played it on PS

never heard of Heart of Darkness before... looking at footage online i dig the overall aesthetic, i would have probably into this as a good 2D platformer for the PSX. something about the way the character moves does remind me worrisomely of Flashback/Blackthorne/etc. --- that Prince of Persia school of platforming where having a smooth, rotoscopey animation meant your sprite just felt sluggish and unresponsive. but no way to tell without playing it.

having a smooth, rotoscopey animation meant your sprite just felt sluggish and unresponsive

my secret is i feel this way about another world.

https://i.imgur.com/f9eFFZm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/QvvM61b.jpg
70 - Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 115 points / 3 Votes

DLH OTM (xp)

tenchu almost my ballot. but i really couldn't remember much about it. must have been a wild weekend rental

DLH, the quality varied extremely widely on those controllers, because I had one that was my go-to (I loved the tension in the analog) and I never used the regular N64 controller if I could help it.

I remember seeing Wrestlemania 2K in action for the first time and getting wracked by lols, the character creation was revelatory at the time, and the WWF license elevated the game even more.

Another World is totally one of those games for me too! though a beautiful piece of digital art, etc.

i was going to say "was this a European developer? they really went in for that," but then I looked it up and Heart of Darkness "was supervised by game developer Éric Chahi, known for Another World, this time with a team of artists and developers."

https://i.imgur.com/MzyllZW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/AVSjswe.jpg
69 - Metal Slug - 119 points / 3 Votes

(couldn't find a decent ad for the original metal slug so you get this much later one for the anthology)

i can't believe i haven't even posted 10 of these yet lol

I had one that was my go-to (I loved the tension in the analog)

oh i mean it definitely makes more sense and you could reach the d-pad if you needed it. and yeah, completely different feel in the stick.

three way tie coming up!

https://i.imgur.com/TD8dzpu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Hj3tY2P.jpg
66 - Virtua Fighter 2 - 126 points / 2 Votes

Ok I voted for Colony Wars, despite it being a nearly impossible game that I never came close to finishing. I loved the Wing Commander games (although I probably never finished any of those either) and I was kinda into how uncompromising this one was, and the laser fx looked cool.

It's definitely one of the most memorable games of the era for me, even if it was eventually unplayable. Still waiting for a current gen update of this genre that's actually fun (maybe developers decided that 360' space combat is just too much of a UI challenge?).

many xp

metal slug is one of the many saturn games that were never localised but still made my ballot due to hype nostalgia (also one of the many that required a RAM cart expansion)

i played the sequel in the arcade and it was as good as i'd imagined the original was when all i had to go for were magazine articles

i still think VF2 looks good to this day, back then it was mind blowing for a saturn game, especially coming after the letterboxed 15fps daytona port

Also the (worst) thing about Colony Wars is that you'd often have to do escort missions, and then you'd get distracted by actually engaging with enemy fighters, or just get disoriented and lost in space, and the ship you were escorting would get blown up.

I remember Virtua Fighter being a go-to arcade game for me, don't remember playing the home versions though.

Tenchu seems sick, wish I would have played it at the time.

that Prince of Persia school of platforming where having a smooth, rotoscopey animation meant your sprite just felt sluggish and unresponsive. but no way to tell without playing it.

I think/hope that there's a game coming up that gets the plusses without the minuses!

https://i.imgur.com/FSGBX9b.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Uslo0lv.jpg
66 - NiGHTS into Dreams - 126 points / 2 Votes

Now Tenchu looks uncannily like lo-fi Sekiro

xp

the VF2 port was probably the major reason the saturn was a success in japan and until the release of mario & sonic at the 2008 olympics was the only sega published title to break the million sales mark

nights is the best sonic team game by far

https://i.imgur.com/hkLhL6e.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GgpTlfR.jpg
66 - No One Can Stop Mr. Domino - 126 points / 2 Votes

the heck is that ?!

ste already exhibiting signs of the first stage of mr. domino addiction

whatever it is, someone seems to like it about as much as i do NiD

That is some primo late-90s aesthetic in the cover art

i have never heard of this game, but good copy!

xp lol yes it looks like a backstreet-boys-branded alternative soda.

lol I didn't see that blurb on the box

i never played mr domino and i don't think i ever even saw it in the wild but the weird name and ads definitely had me interested for a while.

https://i.imgur.com/EuwZlkH.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rwqoApX.jpg
65 - F-Zero X - 130 points / 2 Votes

whatever it is, someone seems to like it about as much as i do NiD

hi!

Heck yeahhhhh. Until F-Zero X, I had no idea games could be THAT FAST

lol yes it looks like a backstreet-boys-branded alternative soda.

perfect

the "highway star" meets jean-luc ponty "mute city" song from f-zero x is one of the all-time video game bangers

https://i.imgur.com/kvdkSzr.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/SFt1DoW.jpg
64 - Tomb Raider 2 - 131 points / 4 Votes

Sounds like Getaway on PS2

Yes! A quick look and the first mission seems to pretty accurately take me from near my first office in London to near my second! And ends next to the protagonists' flat in Lock Stock, which is a nice touch.

Ah, Venice

LOL @ "Starring Lara Croft." I kinda love that conceit

Imagine "God of War: Starring Kratos"

Enemy Zero: Starring Laura

She was the brand!

https://i.imgur.com/bq99Cra.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rhTM5rD.jpg
63 - Die Hard Arcade - 132 points / 2 Votes

YESSSS

another saturn arcade port, a co-op brawler rebranded as a Die Hard game in the west for some reason (reason being money)

you can pick up pepper shakers from the ground and make the enemies sneeze

you can kick them in the bollocks for a free stun

they can also kick yours, usually right after begging for mercy while knocked down, then laugh at your character for being a sucker

also, thanks to the other voter who helped this make the cut, i only gave it 60 points as it's second tier, wasn't expecting it to place at all

(rubs eyes) Can't tell if that's a photo of Bruce Willis on the box or just an incredibly faithful illustration.

https://i.imgur.com/k4aq3Qu.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UXKiJhd.jpg
62 - Einhander - 132 points / 3 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/g6f35r4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GvVFGRi.jpg
61 - Dragon Force - 138 points / 2 Votes

a strategy (?) jrpg with field battles with hundreds of sprites on screen. could use some modern QoL stuff but, like NiD, still a very unique game afaik

again, the sequel is jp-exclusive but a translation patch was recently completed

Hi guys I just got here!

Front Mission 3: played the demo disc, it looked great! I hear that the story is decent too.

Daytona USA: I played it once in the arcade and then the PS3 port. Really fun, and a great soundtrack.

Heart of Darkness: one of my votes. People interested in it should really try it. It isn't as sluggish as earlier cinematic platformers. It's pretty short too. It's probably most famous today for its detailed death animations.

Mr. Domino: I am the other voter for this. It's a quirky experiment with auto-running.

Einhander: solid shmup. Too bad the English version took out the level select so you have to start from the beginning every time.

oh man, Driver! Somehow I had forgotten all about this one, seeing the name in the noms list didn't ring any bell but now that I see the cover I remember playing the shit out of it, I should have voted for it

https://i.imgur.com/MQfSeHK.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/26DpMev.jpg
60 - Alundra - 143 points / 3 Votes

I gave up on Driver after reaching the night city part. It was great up until that point. Also that muvaf**king initial carpark training section.

https://i.imgur.com/r9eg1LN.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ksYo1dI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/LbBsXsw.jpg
59 - Tekken 2 - 143 points / 4 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/Fto3JqA.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KDjEnau.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xz4Y7kJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wnKICha.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3tcVApi.jpg
58 - Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - 144 points / 3 Votes

I voted for Alundra - it's a very grim Zelda knockoff, sort of Link Awakening style open worlds and dungeons - so on the one hand it was my first exposure to you can go to a lot of places and you can see places you can't get to yet, but it's only plot-distributed items that are stopping you. On the other hand, the plot was extremely dark - you wash up on the island and have to enter the dreams of the villagers every night to get rid of their nightmares - but you can never do enough and every morning there's more dead villagers.

I am the other voter for this.

Sounds like three people voted for it then

Hah, I voted for the two next as well!

Tekken 2 was an improvement over the dog-rough visuals of the first one, and also included more characters and more fighting styles, including a thinly disguised Supercop-era Jackie Chan. It also built a little on the story from the first game.

that Prince of Persia school of platforming where having a smooth, rotoscopey animation meant your sprite just felt sluggish and unresponsive. but no way to tell without playing it.

I think/hope that there's a game coming up that gets the plusses without the minuses!

This was Abe's Oddysee - a good call on the part of the ads to foreground the characters, who were all vivid and well-animated.

https://i.imgur.com/ljWzQnv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OK7KHgK.jpg
57 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - 145 points / 3 Votes

^^^ best use of draw distance limitations in a video game, also some absolutely fantastic, gruesomely prolonged death animations from enemies both human and dinosaur. the criterion of a sociopath, to be sure, but it has to be said.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter: Starring Turok

I was in love with the art in Abe's Oddysee, and the cool 3d scene links were brilliant.

I am the other voter for this.
Sounds like three people voted for it then

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Wednesday, November 11, 2020 4:47 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

abanana, polyphonic... who is the mystery first voter?

Jordan, I think you mean Turok: Dinosaur Hunter: Staring Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Turok had such an *otherworldly* feeling to it, and that is what has stuck with me most of all..

yeah. excellent sound design too, think that’s a big part of the startling amount of atmosphere it manages.

(it was my highest-ranked fps.)

https://i.imgur.com/yaBvx1C.png
https://i.imgur.com/EnqGor0.jpg
56 - Crash Bandicoot - 147 points / 3 Votes

whatever it is, someone seems to like it about as much as i do NiD
hi!

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Wednesday, November 11, 2020 3:28 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

mystery solved. the three voters were
1. polyphonic
2. abanana
3. polyphonic

DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT I HAD TO GO THRU ALL OF THE BALLOTS AGAIN (and found that i didn't count one vote for one game, but thank god it would not have placed anyway)

Crash is Poochie, but the game itself is really good as regards you can make your way through most of it fairly easily, but 100% was incredibly difficult.

sorry i thought chihuahuau was saying they voted for it

https://i.imgur.com/KVkJ8Id.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/p5ZXxOD.jpg
55 - 1080º Snowboarding - 155 points / 3 Votes

voted for this cuz i was a nintendo kid and this was our consolation for not getting tony hawk.

I voted for it cuz it was rad

I like that "Ten Eighty" is written on the box in case somebody comes into Blockbuster asking for "One Thousand Eighty Snowboarding"

One Thousand Eighty Snowboarding Starring Ten Eighty

https://i.imgur.com/HN4Pfvh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Y43WNF1.jpg
54 - Twisted Metal 2 - 156 points / 3 Votes

nswf bukkake on the back of that 1080 box, yikes

three left today! one of which i will howl "too low" about for hours

i voted for OG twisted metal (although i've always heard 2 is better, i never played it), but put vigilante 8 above them both

One of my favorite Tim Rogers bits is where he describes the box art of Twisted Metal from memory

ha i’ve only played 2 so i voted for that with a sinking feeling cuz yeah a very vulnerable franchise to vote-splitting. don’t actually know which is the best iteration but an extremely durable concept, better if less murderously executed here than in carmageddon, and probably the second-funnest multiplayer experience i’ve had on ps1.

what is the modern-day twisted metal-like game? cars morphed into soccar-players in Rocket League, but an update on the old car-weapon genre would be so much fun

https://i.imgur.com/RsCKzg3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/8N0onxh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/V21MrZy.jpg
53 - Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus - 161 points / 3 Votes

never played this one, though i did vote for the first one (Oddysee)

they remade carmageddon semirecently; looked kinda shovelware. battle mode in various mariokarts has carried the torch i guess.

doing some dubious "vote-splitting" math right now which i will post at the end, and from initial glance, the oddworld duology suffered most harshly from votesplitting -- had people who only voted for oddyssey voted for exxodus instead, and those who ranked oddysssey over exxodus had flipped their votes, this game would be 31st!

also how many different ways can i spell that game's name wrong?

lol on top of the actual vote-splitting: i wanted to hunt down an oddysey before the poll but couldn’t decide which so didn’t. couldn’t remember which one a friend in middle school evangelized to me either. prob the first. looks great.

an oddworld, i mean

starring abe

hello

follow me

okay

They're all on Steam, along with Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath - separately or together for £9.99

*deep breath*

https://i.imgur.com/7K4vqg2.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WVgSna5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pHFMLYt.jpg
52 - Suikoden II - 162 points / 3 Votes

TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Jordan, I think you mean Turok: Dinosaur Hunter: Staring Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

lol

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Total Landscaping

re Abe + Steam, yeah i picked up the first one on Steam, just as hard as I remember.

I also still have my original ps1 disk which will still freeze all day long at the point where you first get that mount to ride, and when you do the first jump with it.

damn, i found space for Suikoden II and i've barely even played it! seriously what is wrong with you all

very nearly my number one and very nearly my favourite jrpg of all time. once i figure out how i am gonna do it, i am absolutely playing this game again in the near future. the best of trad jrpg + fire emblem style games + pokemon (gotta collect all 108 stars of destiny!)

theyre foolish karl malone

should play abe on steam but was on a strict original-hardware regimen for this poll (well, a fat ps2, so original-processor at least).

how am i supposed to keep up with all the jrpgs from this period. i couldn’t vote for xenogears either. sigh, making a note.

The more I think about them the fonder I become - the fully imagined world, the lovely (fsvo) visuals, the interesting mechanics (that indeed no other game wants) - I went back and checked and I'm glad that Odyssee is my highest-rated game so far, at 7. And I'm not surprised that they've recently largely just remastered them for modern consoles.

you can watch some Let's Plays and hold the old PS1 controller, pretending to grind through all the random encounters yourself. attack! attack! spell! heal!

xp

DLH i'll make you a list at the end of what you should play in descending order of "how dare you"

https://i.imgur.com/ZBAmpVQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4402ltU.png
51 - Guardian Heroes - 165 points / 3 Votes

yeah i couldn't find a real magazine ad for that one either sorry everyone!

RECAP DAY 1:

51 - Guardian Heroes - 165 points / 3 Votes
52 - Suikoden II - 162 points / 3 Votes
53 - Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus - 161 points / 3 Votes
54 - Twisted Metal 2 - 156 points / 3 Votes
55 - 1080º Snowboarding - 155 points / 3 Votes
56 - Crash Bandicoot - 147 points / 3 Votes
57 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - 145 points / 3 Votes
58 - Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - 144 points / 3 Votes
59 - Tekken 2 - 143 points / 4 Votes
60 - Alundra - 143 points / 3 Votes
61 - Dragon Force - 138 points / 2 Votes
62 - Einhander - 132 points / 3 Votes
63 - Die Hard Arcade - 132 points / 2 Votes
64 - Tomb Raider 2 - 131 points / 4 Votes
65 - F-Zero X - 130 points / 2 Votes
66 - NiGHTS into Dreams - 126 points / 2 Votes
66 - No One Can Stop Mr. Domino - 126 points / 2 Votes
66 - Virtua Fighter 2 - 126 points / 2 Votes
69 - Metal Slug - 119 points / 3 Votes
70 - Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 115 points / 3 Votes
71 - Heart of Darkness - 114 points / 2 Votes
72 - Diablo - 112 points / 2 Votes
72 - WWF Wrestlemania 2000 - 112 points / 2 Votes
74 - Colony Wars - 110 points / 2 Votes
75 - Daytona USA - 107 points / 2 Votes
76 - Driver - 106 points / 3 Votes
77 - Front Mission 3 - 103 points / 2 Votes

TOMORROW: 50-26
FRIDAY: 25-1

Splendid stuff!

yah highlight of my week will

Thanks Will!

yeah, good stuff!

That's a good rollout, thanks!

7 of my ballot has shown up so far, I am not at this point worried that any of rest won't place. By this time tomorrow - that will change!

don't thank me yet -- you might get REAL MAD AT THE LATER RESULTS (although i suppose that's only 4% my fault and 96% your collective faults)!

hehe colour me intrigued

#1 Superman 64

Actually I take that back - it may be a hostage to fortune but I'll be amazed if Tekken outdoes its prodigy.

great stuff so far Will, thanks!

yes, great rollout so far!

the inclusion of ads is a great choice. god, so much "attitude" copy.

trying to figure out if "for temporary relief of Dragon's breath, Monster pains, or Battle fatigue" is a multi-pronged attack on competitors

relatedly, crash's "my trip to seattle" is a real masterpiece of poochie. for nintendo, a harsh realm indeed.

I will stan for all the Tekkens but of course each one was more polished - and more hilarious - than the last (up to #4 anyway). I played enough f-zero x but as a playstation and wipeout fanboy I refused to vote for it.

ha we should players club the winner (if it's tech feasible)

Emulating these systems on Retroarch or etc is pretty easy imo

i keep wanting to put emus for this era on my SNES Classic but then I realize the controller doesn't have the buttons for it, and the system probably doesn't have the storage for even a basic PSX game.

New batch starts soon!

Just need a few minutes to make sure my links are ok and a few more minutes to moan loudly about suikoden ii being too low

https://i.imgur.com/wO62OBb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/deOz7Wl.jpg
50 - Um Jammer Lammy - 171 points / 3 Votes

My guitar is in my MIND!

https://i.imgur.com/U5wbJyo.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nu4d1Sd.jpg
49 - Colin MacRae Rally - 174 points / 4 Votes

i like how the front of the MacRae Rally case highly resembles the function-first, ugly as hell, cluttered with advertisements from the trucks themselves

VALUE SERIES DO NOT CROSS

Guardian Heroes and Dragon Force both WAY TOO LOW

https://i.imgur.com/9S4e7Os.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/f4Jgib7.jpg
48 - Chrono Cross - 178 points / 4 Votes

look is chrono cross flawed? sure

but STILL TOO LOW

I played the hell out of Lammy and even drew her on the whiteboard on my door, the first week of moving into the dorms (big dork alert). I hadn't seriously played PaRappa at that time but when I later did, I found the staccato syllables a lot harder to enjoy "jamming" or improvising with, which the game secretly wants to do. Whereas noodling around with weird guitar sounds and riffs just kinda works as a game mechanic or a toy to play with.

I also think the songs are really good (except the island/Hell one) - the firefighter one gets stuck in my head a lot!

starting to fear what's going to appear in the top 20 if these are so low

Chrono Cross! made my list at #20. I've never played it again, since. Has anyone else? i'm curious how it holds up. at the time, having never played chrono trigger when chrono cross came out, I was very impressed by all the different characters you could play as, the interweaving stories and time-travel elements - basically all the things people love about Chrono Trigger

I'm wondering just how normcore I was (or am!) if I've only played like 2-3 of these games so far and voted only for one!

xp Karl did you play Chrono Cross for an hour?

lol

Never played this, but then I never even played Chrono Trigger until this year

lol, yes that was a very bad description of chrono cross. someone else do it! i have a job ok!!!

never forget: I just played Chrono Trigger for over an hour.

https://i.imgur.com/fMTeqy9.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MzAXUfA.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bueS7UO.jpg
47 - Panzer Dragoon Saga - 180 points / 1 First-place vote / 3 Votes

Guardian Heroes and Dragon Force both WAY TOO LOW

they're saturn exclusives. at least guardian heroes is available on the 360 and BC with the bone/series

speaking of, my #1, not even breaking the top 20 as expected

i defy anyone to find a good full sized box art for that game lol i spent 20 minutes looking for that one alone!!!

this is the one that is inexplicably an rpg in a series of rail shooters right? i think the insert credit pod was talknig abt this one recently

yes, a very short and easy jrpg but the best thing ever for 98 me

like daytona usa, source code lost forever

ugh sad :( how long is it? maybe i should try to emu, i never got to even touch a saturn in my life (idk if they even emu well?)

I played a few Saturn games in my research and they just seemed so much shabbier than the N64/PS games.

fp

https://i.imgur.com/WIZHtiv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DiXbXuw.png
46 - Shining Force III - 181 points / 3 Votes

that's what mr domino wants you to think, polyphonic. you must resist his evil influence

never forget: I just played Chrono Trigger for over an hour.

*slaps forehead*

obviously i haven't read that thread enough!

xp well, looks like my ballot will all place below 30, dunnit?

the first tactics game i ever played, dunno how it compares to contemporaneous fire emblem games, probably not as good? don't care, i loved it and even imported and played scenarios 2 and 3 in the mid 00s using a fan translation

PDS is about 20 hours i think? it dind't seem short at the time because it's was the first jrpg i ever played, and it's not like being 80+ hours is an advantage. its only real fault is being too easy

https://i.imgur.com/kaKBqSp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ODS3UuB.jpg
44 - Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - 181 points / 4 Votes

RE3 ratcheted up the dread so much with the possibility of nemesis showing up whenever that i don't think i ever finished it due to stress

that was a really weird time in the mid-to-late 90s, when 3D graphics allowed for more "sexy" characters, and then all the games started trying to get sexy, and the ads started to get sexy...but they all looked like...that

"that" as in the various games throughout this thread, not about the zombie on the back cover above.

What are you talking about Karl, Nemesis is plenty sexy

never forget: I just played Chrono Trigger for over an hour.

*slaps forehead*

obviously i haven't read that thread enough!

lol tbf I've never read past the thread title.

https://i.imgur.com/9hu4rGR.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gfyC8Y7.jpg
44 - Ape Escape - 181 points / 4 Votes

SHINING FORCE III TOO LOW

the ads of this era really speak to not only what karl is talking about but also the overwhelming idea that kids with SNESes grew up into teens with PS1s and they went hard in the paint on edgy/sexy/violent/etc. i can't remember if any have come up yet but i know some are coming up where even kid-friendly NINTENDO answered the siren's call of edgy.

https://i.imgur.com/XgcelEf.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ZlXmmzz.jpg
43 - Grandia - 182 points / 5 Votes

TOO LOW

the quintessential "i want to play this, bring it to europe already sega" game.

played it this year on the switch, the port is less than ideal but the game still owns, reminded me a lot of skies of arcadia but with a much better battle system, albeit too easy

btw is there vote splitting by platform on this, Will? or are those 5 voters combined sat + ps1?

Votes were platform-agnostic unless specified by voters (which did not happen -- idk if there were any games with serious different versions over platforms this generation?)

like snes/genesis shadowrun or aladdin were entirely different games, afaik ps1 and saturn grandia were more or less the same game with better/worse performance and more/less content (iirc)

that's all from something i maybe read 20 years ago in a magazine tho so i can't really say

https://i.imgur.com/Cxu18oF.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MNyE0gZ.jpg
42 - Xenogears - 184 points / 3 Votes

for those counting at home that is 6 underrated rpgs in the past 10 reveals

i mean the thing with xenogears is once you get to that final disc (can't remember if it was two or three discs, but either way the last disc is less than half of the game) it gets extremely texty and weird and just not as novel and exciting and thrilling as everything before it, but to a 14 year old kid that was just a shotgun blast of ~ p h i l o s o p h y ~ that frankly some friends of mine never recovered from

Xenogears is the prototypical JRPG in my mind, I only watched it once at a friend's house (same friend who had the VHS Evangelion subbed versions, obv) but it seemed completely inscrutable and twee, with very impressive looking giant robots.

hahaha it is definitely inscrutable but i for sure do not remember it as twee!!

only two other people voted for xenogears?!?!?!!?!?!!

did tomboto vote in this poll btw?

no tomboto :(

i am one of the other xenogears voters and i put it pretty dang high (8th on my ballot)! which is more of a function of how much of an effect it had on me vs how "good" it was (that's pretty common for my ballots for these things and this generation in particular)

yay dragoon saga, a lotta love for that one.

I remember playing it whilst my mates were getting stoned, and after about an hour one of them said "what's this swimming game you're playing?"

https://pdsoasis.github.io/finalpic2.jpg

the mid-game of xenogears, like hours 20-70, was some of the most interesting RPG stories i've ever played.

one of my most painful gamer moments of all time: i got to the very end of the game, just before the last boss fight(s), and some sort of weird game ruining glitch happened where i couldn't progress, but also had no previous saved game to go back to. i just got stuck. it was up in the clouds, somewhere. i remember spending several hours walking around the same patch, talking to people, trying to figure out wtf to do, eventually giving up. i don't think gamefaqs was a thing yet

which is more of a function of how much of an effect it had on me vs how "good" it was

this is 100% how i made my ballot, which a generous sprinkling of import only games i never played and never will

https://i.imgur.com/GvtldiQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PDSkIUV.jpg
41 - Blast Corps - 187 points / 5 Votes

This was a weird generation, wasn't it? (I didn't vote)

this is 100% how i made my ballot, which a generous sprinkling of import only games i never played and never will

actually this is kind of interesting now that i am looking at it but this generation may be the one that is the most influential on my tastes as a game liker? what this generation did (ps1 in particular) is it introduced games-as-experience in a way that the previous generation only did occasionally (final fantasy vi springs to mind) with big moments and novel inputs/outputs (and that said i didn't play FF6 until i had already played a lot of ps1 stone-cold classics). looking at my ballot now, the top 10 totally falls into this category -- games that i thought about long after playing them, even if it wasn't the best moment-to-moment experience. this has kinda stayed with me over time and i find myself doing things like playing all of persona 5 in two weeks while avoiding every dark souls game ever made.

hah xp but appropriate re: me navel gazing abt this gen

BLAST CORPS made the lower stretches of my ballot, even though i didn't get to play it much myself. i watched a friend of mine play it for many hours, though, and it takes the demolition thrill of something like Rampage and updated it to a city scale with 3D graphics. I'm not sure how it would stand up today, but at the time it was mesmerizing to watch

https://i.imgur.com/CtaEm2K.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/s0e0zrb.jpg
40 - Bust a Groove - 189 points / 4 Votes

LOL how many ads did the belly tat thing I wonder

yes it's a bust a groove 2 advertisement but (a) i couldn't find one for bust a groove 1 and (b) i thought it was funny that it was literally the exact same ad as um jammer lammy

xp lol yep

I know this is the most basic observation about this generation, but it's still remarkable how futuristic it felt at the time, while also having aged the worst out of any video game generation ever. 8 bit & 16 bit is evergreen, and lots of PS2/Xbox games still look great to me, but these are just so fantastically ugly for the most part.

xp omg these ads

I enjoy the weirdness and colorfulness of this gen, 3D was still new tech and there it seems like there were a lot of devs trying throwing ideas against the wall to see what would stick. It seems like gaming became more conservative in the ps2/xbox era (I could be wrong about this, because that was the start of my basically 10-15 year hiatus from gaming)

It's true that a lot of these games are ugly, but they're ugly in such an *interesting* way

There's another ad that I sadly have no memory of what game it was from but it was some kind of fighting game featuring a woman with like, mostly white/orange/blue clothes? Possibly a backwards baseball cap and a bandage on her nose? And the add for that one definitely heavily focused on her midriff, and it was the first time in my life I had ever seen what I have heard described as "Australian cleavage"

The game was probably trash, but that ad was frozen in my mind forever

PDS, PD zwei and grandia are still beautiful

dreamcast was when 3d graphics crossed the threshold to good enough

speaking of horny ad campaigns

https://i.imgur.com/om6T4it.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kxg6ftc.jpg
39 - Tomb Raider - 193 points / 5 Votes

i didn't pick any of them but the most egregious ads i saw while going through were the ones that essentially sold the gameshark as "we don't have he nude code yet but we're working on it"!!!

phwoar!

Too high?

here are a few cheat-code-device ads from the era and in my memory they were ALL LIKE THIS

too high. i need to give the more modern tomb raider series a chance, maybe (although...is it like Uncharted? because i didn't enjoy that), but i stopped playing after 2 because i just wasn't having much fun.

signed,

harshly critical prepubescent 15-year-old me

I enjoy the weirdness and colorfulness of this gen, 3D was still new tech and there it seems like there were a lot of devs trying throwing ideas against the wall to see what would stick. It seems like gaming became more conservative in the ps2/xbox era (I could be wrong about this, because that was the start of my basically 10-15 year hiatus from gaming)

― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Thursday, November 12, 2020 10:44 AM bookmarkflaglink

It's true that a lot of these games are ugly, but they're ugly in such an *interesting* way

― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Thursday, November 12, 2020 10:44 AM bookmarkflaglink

strongly agree w this but also think the flagshippy brown-and-grey "realism" stuff has aged the worst-- like resident evil and tomb raider tbh.

It's true that a lot of these games are ugly, but they're ugly in such an *interesting* way

― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Thursday, November 12, 2020 3:44 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is almost certainly a "correlation does not equal causation" thing but i always felt that the PS2 era had a console that tried to looked like a sleek, adult stereo hifi device and software that attempted to look like sleek, adult hifi stereo video games

i need to give the more modern tomb raider series a chance, maybe (although...is it like Uncharted? because i didn't enjoy that)

it definitely shares a lot of dna with the uncharted games but includes more open world stuff? the only modern tomb raider i beat was the first one and i found it more appealing than uncharted but i think the reason was because i liked lara's growth vs drake's lack thereof. but also the entire game is pretty much protagonist torture porn which was pretty offputting

https://i.imgur.com/bYnWQe4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/h2FRpTx.jpg
38 - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - 194 points / 3 Votes

most of those gameshark/related ads are about what you'd expect from the fin de siècle 13yo-boy-directed marketing of a product whose slogan is "abuse the power", but the condom one doesn't even make sense.

holy shit idk why i didn't look this up before but there are a bunch of high quality scans of pretty much every issue of gamepro just... available for download on the internet. awesome

I definitely binged BLAST CORPS when my brother’s N64 was home for a summer. Such a great and satisfying concept for a game, amazing it’s never been re-done. There were a few hitches in it – one of the vehicles is nigh impossible to reliably control IIRC – but man: “you’ve got to go knock down everything in the path of this runaway truck” is such a great stupid idea.

BUST-A-GROOVE was a one-weekend rental with a buddy when I was staying over at his place, we just rocked it. I’m pretty sure it’s the most basic rhythm game imaginable, you just have to follow the moves at the exact right times, nothing else to it – but the soundtrack was fun enough that I ended up downloading MP3s and burning a CD of it. The hamburger guy’s “very very very very very very good!” song cracked us up at the time.

The other funny thing with the ads is how teeny tiny the screenshots are in so many of them. Like so much space given to some dumb photo shoot, and loud edgy “your parents won’t like THIS” ad copy, and then only the barest hint of what playing the thing would be like.

It’s interesting thinking about the experimental vs. ugly aspects of the period’s aesthetics --- 99% Invisible just did a podcast about Geocities and had people talking about the pink on yellow palettes and all of that, I think there was a willingness to be loud in 90s digital aesthetics which would have been great if the games could only just look a little more polished. Some titles in the next generation pull this off a lot better, like Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi.

most of those gameshark/related ads are about what you'd expect from the fin de siècle 13yo-boy-directed marketing of a product whose slogan is "abuse the power", but the condom one doesn't even make sense.

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, November 12, 2020 4:04 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

what are you talking about?! only a gameshark can prevent STDs (sword-transmitted dismemberment)!

my god if i went back in time and worked for gameshark's marketing department i'd be making hundreds of dollars

https://www.outofprintarchive.com/

I didn't vote for TOMB RAIDER because I only played it on PC, which I gather is different mainly in terms of the save-point system? The PC one is a really great game; Life and Times of Video Games has a nice 2-part episode about the history and the game-design philosophy, and how the 3D grid, though somewhat clunky, meant you could basically do a fair old-school puzzle game, like Lolo or something - your move set is clear, your options are clear. Some of it has probably aged better than other aspects but I think they really did hit on something in this title, and we have to remember that along with Mario 64 it was basically the first convincing attempt at a 3D platformer and what that might be like.

SOUL REAVER I played the shit out of my freshman year of college. I really liked the exploration/environment aspect of it. Even bad 3D games of this era, like ULTIMA IX, could satisfy me if I got to go wandering around and find a sunken city with a tower rising up out of a grotto into a shadowy canyon, and figure out how to jump and climb up to the top. That kinda thing. I don't remember as many specific encounters/locations/events in Soul Reaver so it ended up not doing quite so hot on my ballot, but it definitely had atmosphere.

https://i.imgur.com/JBfkkHp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oMb54qJ.jpg
37 - Street Fighter Alpha 3 - 196 points / 4 Votes

best announcer voice in video game history

READY FIGHTERS GO FOR BROKE
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3

i have never once played this one in arcade but i definitely spent plenty of time on the ps1 version getting destroyed by my friend who actually owned it

in fact it wasn't until playing SFIII third strike on the PS2 that i actually decided to "main" someone (iirc it was yang and ken)

IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOUR SKILL!

i have never reallllly kept up with the competitive fighting-game scene but am i correct in remembering that this game was kind of not really held up to the same degree as SF2, SF3, SF4 etc.? why was that? was it grossly unbalanced or something? i absolutely remember loving it, maybe more than any other fighter, but that was largely due to the art and animation and the fact that i could beat the computer sometimes

Internet Archive is always a good place for old computer mags
https://archive.org/search.php?query=gamepro

misheard announcer lines: basic strength! hey come on, santa!

https://i.imgur.com/PnoE7lc.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dWyfQLc.jpg
36 - Tekken 3 - 197 points / 4 Votes

TEKKEN 3 was a tough last minute cut from my ballot (especially in favor of stuff like BLAST CORPS which i barely played), but i will always fondly remember my time spent playing that game.

https://i.imgur.com/cIxXsCS.jpg

the combination of a standard issue ripped wrestler man template with the photorealistic head of a surprised jaguar

what is King

i feel like i remember reading the backstory for king and he was just like, a lucha libre dude with a mask, and they made no reference to the fact that it was like literally a jaguar's head that could move

i could be misremembering though!

https://i.imgur.com/Us2eY5V.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Rfi7Kou.jpg
35 - Wipeout 3 aka Wip3out - 200 points / 1 First-place vote / 4 Votes

(once again i have opted for the wrong game's ad due to how iconic it was, this ad caused a lot of controversy!!)

apologies if at some point i forget to post for several minutes at a time, i am going down a 90s game mag rabbit hole

I was a high voter for Tekken 3 and SF Alpha, both of which I've been playing a bunch the last few weeks.

https://i.imgur.com/1H6JZVU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UuOxz1q.png
34 - Vib Ribbon - 207 points / 6 Votes

i think this is the first game i ever saw on a chipped PS1. i wonder how much a working chipped ps1 would run me these days!

https://i.imgur.com/MwKfOpU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/OaCGQ0f.jpg
33 - Star Control II - 216 points / 1 First-place vote / 3 Votes

TOO LOW

fgti to thread! :)

i am sorry, captain. if i told you more, you would look where you could not look before. and while looking, you can and will be seen. you do not want to be seen. the androsynth went looking, and something saw them.

what a coincidence, captain. i had itchy pods this morning, and now here you are.

i have never reallllly kept up with the competitive fighting-game scene but am i correct in remembering that this game was kind of not really held up to the same degree as SF2, SF3, SF4 etc.? why was that? was it grossly unbalanced or something? i absolutely remember loving it, maybe more than any other fighter, but that was largely due to the art and animation and the fact that i could beat the computer sometimes

IIRC this was correct? One of the newer characters was completely unbeatable in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing but I can't remember who it was (probably Ryu/Ken)

https://i.imgur.com/2fp124f.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mhp1gmB.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VYdPGYR.jpg
32 - Resident Evil (incl. Director's Cut) - 218 points / 6 Votes

^voted for this very fucking difficult game

it barely made the end of my list and i have very dim memories of it, but i definitely rented it a couple of times and DEFINITELY didn't beat it for that reason

I never beat it, either. But damn this game is a vibe

too high

never was a fan of the original RE or code veronica

i get that's part of the experience but the fixed camera angles and dodgy aiming really grated

i'm on a straight corridor, i can hear the enemy, i even have enough ammo to kill it but i need to wait until it's actually on screen to shoot it because despite my character being able to see where it is the player can't due to the camera angle of the pre-rendered scenery

i think the furthest i ever actually got in it was the gamecube remake? much stronger memories of my parents going out of town and me inviting several of my nerd friends over to marathon it on my buddy kevin's gamecube all night. i was an extremely cool teen

xp i actually liked these set-camera REs more than i ever liked RE4 and beyond!

wait, is RE supposed to be really difficult? because let me tell you, i suck at playing video games where twitch reflexes or execution skill are important but i beat both re1 and cv and while they weren't easy they didn't feel notably hard either

i didn't mind the camera limitation (especially because it created some really cinematic (for ps1) shots). my problem with it had to do with the very basic and essential mechanic of trying to do headshots. wait until they get within an inch of you, aim high. sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. it was frustrating, but since ammo was so limited, you had to try

https://i.imgur.com/GH5txdX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PtgV9iC.jpg
31 - Bushido Blade - 235 points / 5 Votes

for me they were also difficult because i'm terrible at the genre of games where you have to find the mystery key #4 and bring it to the outhouse to get the purple jewel, which lets you rotate the waterwheel in the sewers, opening the

xp

were you playing chris? i played jill because that's easy mode according to the manual, never did chris because i just didn't like the game enough and found it too stressful for the wrong reasons

KM otm re aiming frustration

bushido blade! came in at #40 on my ballot. anyone ever try it with multiplayer? i only played against the AI, and something always seemed a bit off. but i could imagine it being a blast with a friend

xp definitely almost always as jill in RE1 - doesn't she get a free key or knife or something? i forget

my terrible non-secret is that i suck at almost all games. i think it would take me 4 months to beat resident evil 1 without using a guide

that's called value for money

i liked the puzzle and exploration elements, exhumed/powerslave is one of my generation and all time faves

CV was especially annoying because it was a dreamcast game, it used realtime 3d for the levels but still insisted on the fixed camera. infuriating

I can confirm Bushido Blade is fun w/ a friend, the only way I ever played it

most of my bushido blade time was multi at first, until i eventually borrowed one of them (bushido blade 2 iirc, this game was a minor victim of vote-split). i can't remember if it was this one or BB2, but in story mode you had to fight someone with a gun and it was one of the most controller-smashingly cheap battles ever

https://i.imgur.com/CNaTG6J.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xKdFX6x.jpg
29 - Grand Theft Auto - 237 points / 5 Votes

that's called value for money

i still go arcade standards, which is that a quarter gets you maybe 2 minutes with a game. that's $7.50 per hour. so if a $60 game can hold my attention for more than 8 hours, it's already getting into the realm of profitable enjoyment for me

i voted for GTA. very different from III and on, of course, but if you haven't tried it but have any fondness at all for NES Micro Machines, check it out!

i originally played this one on my friend's pc but later rented the london one for PS1. a hell of a lot of fun but man in my memory this was so much more psychotic/antisocial/sicko-brain than any of the 3D iterations were later on. bonuses for killing an entire religious group? what was that bonus called? all i can think is "gonzaga" but that can't be right. i only learned that was a university years later when i was working as a video game tester (lol) on an ncaa basketball game (lol lol) and i was like "did they really name that bonus after a college" (lol no they did not)

oh was it GOURANGA? GOURAGA?

Love GTA but only ever played it on PC so didn't feel I could vote for it here

BUST-A-GROOVE was a one-weekend rental with a buddy when I was staying over at his place, we just rocked it. I’m pretty sure it’s the most basic rhythm game imaginable, you just have to follow the moves at the exact right times, nothing else to it – but the soundtrack was fun enough that I ended up downloading MP3s and burning a CD of it. The hamburger guy’s “very very very very very very good!” song cracked us up at the time.

Very similar situation here, except that my friend straight up bought it, we definitely had a blast playing it. It was my first rhythm game, and even though I was adamantly anti-dance (shades of Footloose I guess), the character designs and music drew me in. Kitty-N in retrospect probably explains certain elements of my contemporary aesthetics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcLox-o5GKU

https://i.imgur.com/y5myfDk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tNAeYZV.jpg
29 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 237 points / 5 Votes

Bishops Blade should be top 10, fucking beautiful game and incredible in a PvP setting

Fuck you, phone: BUSHIDO

i think that's the last actual tie (there's one more tie-on-points, but such ties are broken by total #1 votes and number of votes in that order)

https://i.imgur.com/y5myfDk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tNAeYZV.jpg
29 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 237 points / 5 Votes

― Kompakt Total Landscaping (Will M.), Thursday, November 12, 2020 2:41 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I should've voted for this! my brother and I played it a bunch on an emulator in the 00s. he always kicked my ass at it but it was so damn good

i originally played this one on my friend's pc but later rented the london one for PS1. a hell of a lot of fun but man in my memory this was so much more psychotic/antisocial/sicko-brain than any of the 3D iterations were later on. bonuses for killing an entire religious group? what was that bonus called? all i can think is "gonzaga" but that can't be right. i only learned that was a university years later when i was working as a video game tester (lol) on an ncaa basketball game (lol lol) and i was like "did they really name that bonus after a college" (lol no they did not)

oh was it GOURANGA? GOURAGA?

― Kompakt Total Landscaping (Will M.), Thursday, November 12, 2020 2:35 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it was gouranga! when you drove over all the Hare Krishnas

29 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 237 points / 5 Votes

bottom of my ballot because i never played this but i am sold on the conceit of fighting characters pulling out special and supers based on your performance on the puzzle game

kinda hoping this isn't the single appearance of darkstalkers in this thread but it probably is. also probably the last of my picks to place unless mischief makers somehow pulls through like it deserves

xps would def play Bishop's Blade though

29 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 237 points / 5 Votes

― Kompakt Total Landscaping (Will M.), Thursday, November 12, 2020 2:41 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I should've voted for this!

same here. i don't know how i didn't actually!

lol @ puzzle games just developed an attitude

only played gta1 (on PC) a handful of times at (cooler, i guess) friends' houses, but yah it was immediately fully formed and i'd play it now over whichever of the 3D gtas i'd pull out of a hat and say i prefer (bully?)

Star Control II is one of my favorite games ever but LOOOOOOLLLLL who here actually played it on 3D0?

only reason i didn't vote for it is because i didn't play it until... i wanna say xbox 360 arcade? i sure did feel like i missed out!

for some insane reason though i did own POCKET FIGHTER for the ps1, which is the... fighting game with puzzle fighter sprites? the video game equivalent of reading the movie novelization of jurassic park (something i also did in grade school)

xp i did bizarrely! as covered in noms thread. it was the definitive version until the recent freeware remake because unlike the text-only pc version it was surprisingly well-voiced. (i do prefer the PC slideshow cutscenes to the showily rendered stuff on the 3DO.)

I voted for puzzle fighter but to be honest i played it on dreamcast

https://i.imgur.com/ysAdTpT.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Gk8sdA2.jpg
28 - Crash Bandicoot 2 - 238 points / 5 Votes

kinda hoping this isn't the single appearance of darkstalkers in this thread but it probably is. also probably the last of my picks to place unless mischief makers somehow pulls through like it deserves

If a certain other poster voted (and I'm guessing he did!), I'm pretty certain a proper Darkstalkers game will show up later.

(neighborhood kids-- this was a two-year period that was the only time i ever lived on a street with kids my age-- would vote for star control 2's SUPER MELEE! more often than for mariokart tbh, high praise.)

(we didn't actually pay for this 3DO btw. need to stress this every time it comes up only because it's a 3DO. i am not a plutocrat.)

It's really weird to me, a gamer in 2020, to think of prestige AAA developer Naughty Dog as having a weird platforming marsupial in its back catalog.

if you think that's a weird game for naughty dog's back catalogue, i highly recommend looking up Way Of The Warrior

I kinda knew you someone would mention that! I remember at the time, reading whatever gaming mag at the time (Gamepro??), about how awesome WOW (I guess I should abbreviate that as WOTW) was, with a soundtrack by Rob Zombie!!!!!(WHO?????), but also I have memories of seeing it in action, though it must've been at an Electronics Boutique demo 3DO, and being entirely entranced by it.

That first GTA game I got nowhere in, probably finished like two missions, but spent hours on it!

we are not yet out of chihauhau picks

https://i.imgur.com/gIXzQqn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/AiVjTOa.jpg
27 - Sega Rally - 256 points / 5 Votes

are we out of chihauhau picks now? i'll never tell

good lord could i ahve spelled that more poorly

lol like i'd ever notice if you didn't bring it up

i personally prefer the daytona port, warts and all, but sega rally is ace

Game over, yeeeaaahhh!

is that what game over yeah is from?!

yep! the ic podcast ending jingle

haha i always wondered what it was from! but clearly didn't wonder hard enough to figure it out

https://i.imgur.com/Aud6p2G.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/g3aTSCX.png
26 - Perfect Dark - 259 points / 6 Votes

i think i am actually gonna go all the way up to 21 tonight, and do only the top 20 tomorrow

okay i like this game a lot. i voted for it instead of goldeneye, even though the n64 could not actually run it. it was so fun and funny.

Great game!

it was goldeneye, but with the graphics turned up so it couldn't run, and freed of the bond license so it could give you a plucky roswell grey as a sidekick.

the office-block elevators in the first level are still in my dreams tbh. glass and steel. the night outside. v black mirror. haven't seen black mirror.

found this relevant old post of mine by searching "correctly destroyed observatory"

perfect dark's comparative obscurity is natural because a lot of goldeneye's stature is that of a successful tech demo-- you can make a successful multiplayer shooter on a one-stick console-- and perfect dark was a total mechanical retread coming out the same year as a wave of two-stick consoles (and a year before halo).

but quick list of things perfect dark has: a female protagonist; a sassy roswell grey; a lock-on submachine gun (real treasure in this degenerate hintergenre); a gun that shoots across levels and through walls (lol); some darkly lovely glass-and-chrome art design that puts you in a good cyberpunk headspace (i wish unatco or versalife, in deus ex, had the office block elevators perfect dark's evil corp flaunts as opening-level spectacle in appreciation of your expansion-pak dollar); a remote-controlled spy drone that causes enemies who sight it to exclaim "it's a spy!" while firing wildly; and a villain who at one point threatens a subordinate in words that caused my friend's dad, who like mine was a software engineer at an astronomical observatory, and who came thru the front door at just this moment, to laugh really caustically in a way that haunted me for years whenever i thought of adulthood: "so, the devices we gave you are working correctly? good. because WE believe that anything that does NOT work correctly SHOULD BE DESTROYED!!!"

I really wanted to like PD (I may have voted it all the same), but never could convince my GoldenEye friends to play multiplayer with me.

PD is a real fever stew of a videogame, especially with all the multiplayer options and the sniper rifle that sees thru walls

https://i.imgur.com/3lCXsHa.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/FVGphk2.jpg
25 - Gran Turismo 2 - 260 points / 5 Votes

(gt1 ad sorry!)

xxp-- by turning the entire architecture of the level into a superimposed psychedelic blur thru which you dreamily track yr twitching friends; meanwhile they have looked at your screen and are screaming FARSIGHT at each other

Ah GT2. Remember one of the CD's smelling of diesel?

or was it tyre rubber?

xps The psychedelia hightened further by the fact that the game is probably running at like 12 fps at that point

lol otm

Ah GT2. Remember one of the CD's smelling of diesel? or was it tyre rubber?

lol is this real? i ahve no memory of this

here comes one that i won't yell "too low" about bc i never got far in it, but i imagine there'll be a few "too low" calls in the thread

https://i.imgur.com/d1Yb1Rd.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/k9cYeOh.jpg
24 - Final Fantasy IX - 260 points / 1 First-place vote / 6 Votes

"in 1999, as part of a rather bizarre marketing ploy, Sony released Gran Turismo 2 with a scratch and sniff disc. The original game came as a two-disc set, and it was claimed that the second disc in the set, a blue and white disc with extra game content, had a “real racing pit smell”"

btw I still have mine, I am in bed now but tomorrow I will grab it and tell you if it still smells

ok that was worded terribly

i look forward to it lol

Disc 2 of GT2 smelled like burning rubber yep xps

Other thing about that game I have vivid memory of is that Cardigans song on the soundtrack

Did I vote for IX? I don't remember, only that I though the dialogue was naff and it did best boi Vivi dirty.

whenever i read about this one i'm like, oh, can't wait to decide this is the best PSX final fantasy! but i think i literally fell asleep last time i tried it. it was very late.

otoh i think i've fallen asleep playing both of the other two as well.

Did I vote for IX?

you did not!

https://i.imgur.com/zJDadwY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NjTaiJR.jpg
23 - Star Fox 64 - 268 points / 4 Votes

SO YOU'RE GOING TO ATTACK THE ENEMY BASE? GREAT IDEA, FOX!

For some reason* I bought the art book for FFIX, even though I didn't have a Playstation.

*because that art was real good iirc

wait... holy shit

is this ad the genesis of the adjective "bigly"

I can't imagine DJTs tiny hands holding an N64 controller, tbh

Star Fox is a good time though, don't know what else to say about it

yeah i will never stop having 45 minutes here or there to play thru the entirety of star fox 64. not challenging, but a joy.

(well, "the entirety"-- one of the several paths thru.)

i like that your final score is also your bill, and if it's a high score then after the credits general pepper says "this is one steep bill! *sigh* but it's worth it." and if it's a really high score general pepper says "WHAAAAAAAAAAAT????" these lil touches ykno.

https://i.imgur.com/ZyTaqfL.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/WC8acxQ.jpg
22 - Gran Turismo - 279 points / 1 First-place vote / 5 Votes

(one more today! sorry for running so late)

https://i.imgur.com/nvaEMko.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/n8k6qfD.jpg
21 - Wave Race 64 - 298 points / 1 First-place vote / 5 Votes

DAY 2 RECAP

21 - Wave Race 64 - 298 points / 1 First-place vote / 5 Votes
22 - Gran Turismo - 279 points / 1 First-place vote / 5 Votes
23 - Star Fox 64 - 268 points / 4 Votes
24 - Final Fantasy IX - 260 points / 1 First-place vote / 6 Votes
25 - Gran Turismo 2 - 260 points / 5 Votes
26 - Perfect Dark - 259 points / 6 Votes
27 - Sega Rally - 256 points / 5 Votes
28 - Crash Bandicoot 2 - 238 points / 5 Votes
29 - Grand Theft Auto - 237 points / 5 Votes
29 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 237 points / 5 Votes
31 - Bushido Blade - 235 points / 5 Votes
32 - Resident Evil (incl. Director's Cut) - 218 points / 6 Votes
33 - Star Control II - 216 points / 1 First-place vote / 3 Votes
34 - Vib Ribbon - 207 points / 6 Votes
35 - Wipeout 3 aka Wip3out - 200 points / 1 First-place vote / 4 Votes
36 - Tekken 3 - 197 points / 4 Votes
37 - Street Fighter Alpha 3 - 196 points / 4 Votes
38 - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - 194 points / 3 Votes
39 - Tomb Raider - 193 points / 5 Votes
40 - Bust a Groove - 189 points / 4 Votes
41 - Blast Corps - 187 points / 5 Votes
42 - Xenogears - 184 points / 3 Votes
43 - Grandia - 182 points / 5 Votes
44 - Ape Escape - 181 points / 4 Votes
44 - Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - 181 points / 4 Votes
46 - Shining Force III - 181 points / 3 Votes
47 - Panzer Dragoon Saga - 180 points / 1 First-place vote / 3 Votes
48 - Chrono Cross - 178 points / 4 Votes
49 - Colin MacRae Rally - 174 points / 4 Votes
50 - Um Jammer Lammy - 171 points / 3 Votes

ON THE DOCKET FOR TOMORROW:
a) Games ranked 20-4
b) a silly obvious fakeout for games 1-3
c) the real 1-3
d) a complete list of everything that got a single point with arbitrary "tiers"

GT1 was my number 1. It is just awesome.

notable vote splits:

Gran Turismo could've been #13 if GT2 voters had instead voted for it (and both-voters swapped so that GT1 was their higher pick)
Crash Bandicoot Series could've been #16 with the same help (this counts 1, 2 and Warped which I think is 3?)
Bushido Blade could've been 23rd
Tekken series could've been 25th
Tomb Raider 33rd
And finally, because it came up here and I don't want to lead anyone on -- Darkstalkers could've been 53rd if votes weren't split between Vampire Saviour and Night Warriors
There are a couple of other ones where vote splitting was notable but I don't think they would've cracked the top 77 either way-- i'll post the full list tomorrow of everything that got votes

note: the "new" numbers includes all of the vote splits i calculated at once, so some of them may have moved up even more if they were te *only* game that got the gameshark code for "not splitting their votes"

hey vote splitters: YA FUCKED UP

WTF re: Night Warriors

loving the rollout, Will!

this is why i kindly ask that we do videogame polls every single month, every year

Homework for everyone on this thread is to track down an emulation of that game because it is by FAR the best 2D fighter ever made

just a lil test for tomorrow bc i cant remember the last time i used code markup

Daytona USA                                     |  107 | 0 |  2 | 
Driver                                          |  106 | 0 |  3 | 
Front Mission 3                                 |  103 | 0 |  2 | 

sick ok

siiiick

i'm the vote-splitting vampire saviour voter, DJP, and it gets worse: i originally had night warriors on the ballot but subbed it out thinking vsav was probably better and one of these is enough representation

I also only voted for Vampire Savior. It's the one that tournament players like.

starfox 64 way too low! it is indeed a near-perfect one-sitting challenge - maybe just a little TOO long for a completely casual session but still just a sweet, satisfying, largely fluid experience. my siblings and i also played the shit out of the multiplayer, which isn't a patch on Mario 64 but made a nice alternative if we wanted something more confrontational and it was too late at night to get loud upstairs by playing multiplayer Duke 3D.

i guess top 25 is pretty good tho. i just love that silly game.

NEVER GIVE UP! TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!

Wip3out: my #1. Best racing franchise ever, it was a toss up between this and 2097 but the clean graphics and the orbital and chem bros tracks just edged it.
Um Jammer Lammy: I lost my dojo, but it still remains in my mind... It even has a casino. Dojo. Casino. It's all in the mind.
Vib Ribbon: my #6, lol. Maybe not the best for replayability but a unique take on rhytham games and great quirky songs - Laugh and Peace - Vib-Ribbon OST
Bust a Groove: Everything is fine with me if I'm with my E-Z mouse
Tekken 3: surely the best of this generation's Tekkens
Gran Turismo: at the time this looked amazing - the reflections on the car, the way it wobbled and bumped when you went off the track. Easy to judge it as pretty ropey by today's standards but TV from back then looks pretty rubbish too but you'd never have thought that at the time. Loved how you could tune the cars suspension to ridiculous levels and have it bounce all over like it was racing on a trampoline.
Perfect Dark: played a lot of this, single and multiplayer, didn't vote for it as it's a pale shadow of Goldeneye. My main memory is of the single player, wandering around lost in a building being followed by that stupid flying laptop saying "Haven't been round here before!" every two minutes.

Tekken 3: surely the best of this generation's Tekkens

May I present my evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9rGtt0gmZg

^ just watched those, it all came flooding back. hard lols at gon, mokujin, kuma/panda :((( and heihachi world.

Now I want a WaveRace remake that looks like the art in that ad

that's a really good idea!

Puzzle Fighter was another one where I can't say for sure how great of a puzzle game it was, but I gave it votes for memories of having a blast playing it --- maybe saw it for the first time at Anime Weekend Atlanta in the late 90s, was spellbound by the colors and the animation of it, all the crystal shards smashing everywhere. Later, two of my best college gal pals had a copy, at a spot that was sort of a dinky duplex but also the first off-campus apartment anyone in my circle got, so a key locus of laid-back hangout times, and Puzzle Fighter slotted in really perfectly to that as well. One of those where I'd love to play it again, but would hate to discover it wasn't as special anymore.

“zoness” in starfox kinda pulled off that endless summer vibe for me (aside from yr wingmen deploring the pollution)

(xp)

i can hear the shock in Falco's voice as he proclaims "This is horrible."

lol, it hits cuz his mask of callousness drops! very vividly done broad character strokes for a shmup.

totally!!

Big catchup post energy!

Resident Evil 3 had some solid embedding of level design in the dread - at one point you see Nemesis inside a room, and you run away, but just as you (I) realise from the map that your path takes you alongside the room you saw him in, he bursts through the wall.

(on Grandia) the quintessential "i want to play this, bring it to europe already sega" game. They did - for the Playstation.

It seems like gaming became more conservative in the ps2/xbox era (I could be wrong about this, because that was the start of my basically 10-15 year hiatus from gaming)

An argument for the next poll, but one of those a lot more than the other imho.

Tomb Raider way too low for me - Doctor Casino OTM about how keeping some formalism in the jump (sorry) to 3D was key. It's impossible to 'get' this a second time, but just running around in 3D and banking when you turned, and the jump AND turn AND take out your pistols AND start firing - man!

but also the entire game is pretty much protagonist torture porn which was pretty offputting

otm, though the sequels improve on this.

DC also OTM about Soul Reaver (also pretty blocky) - I also liked the "This is a sequel to Blood Omen in that it takes place 1500 years later".

It's interesting what difference a story can make to a game - obviously story driven ones like RPGs, but I definitely wouldn't have played through the rest of the Kain series (which were frequently pretty ropey) without some attraction to this massively goth backstory and the hints of it that came through in cutscenes (is lore basically just "story that you don't play"?)

Tekken 3 is a great example of that, they only went 20 years forwards but it was enough for a new generation - literally so in the case of Jin, son of Kazuya and Jun from Tekken 2. I think it's striking that they're up to 7 now and have never felt the need for another large jump - they've gone the other direction, and added his great grandpa, Heihachi's father! Bryan Fury, Eddy Gordo, Hwoarang - and my girl Ling Xiaoyu! And as Ledge posted above, a LOT of lore :)

Wipeout (3, but also the rest) and Bushido Blade are definitely the opposite, I'm pretty certain there's no story in Wip3out and if there is any in Bushido Blade then I don't remember it, but the simple joy of hacking at your friends / dropping a rake of mines in front of them never gets old.

FFIX is the one with the 'throwback' characters and the terrible cardgame, yes?

There's still 10 of my ranked games left, of which I think nearly all of them will place (though one is a non-Square PS RPG, on which the odds are surely lengthening). On the list of unranked ones, I've kind of given up hope for Gex, Fear Effect, and Worms Armageddon.

Woah, was Worms Armageddon in this era? I never feel like I've played enough games to vote in polls like this but that would be my #1.

Bushido Blade definitely made a big impression on me, playing it at a friend's house. Eventually I played the single player and don't think I got very far (maybe because of that stupid gun fight), and also had the sense that there was a lot more depth to the combat than I was getting into. Also loved that you could just run away from fights, unless I'm misremembering?

worms armageddon is an all time top five but i’ve only played it on pc.

ughhh that cardgame in FFIX... yes... never had the slightest idea what I was doing or what was happening IIRC. the straw that broke the chocobo''s back for me was getting stuck at some point, checking a walkthrough, and accidentally discovering whole side areas and subplots that were earlier in the game and now *completely inaccessible* because they'd been blown up in the course of plot events. so i'd have to either start over or commit to a replay of this gigantic game that i already felt a little silly about playing... sigh.

but again: those beautiful environments!

good to know if i ever pick it up, to get a spoiler-free walkthrough...

There absolutely was a story in Bushido Blade:

Despite characters, themes and weapons similar to samurai cinema set in Feudal Japan, Bushido Blade takes place during the modern era (this is shown, for example, when the player reaches a helicopter landing pad phase set in a large city).

A fictional 500-year-old dojo known as Meikyokan lies within this region, and teaches the disciplines of the master Narukagami Shinto. A society of assassins known as Kage ("Shadow") also resides within the dojo. Once led by the honorable swordsman Utsusemi, he lost his position to Hanzaki, another skilled member of the dojo, in a fierce battle. Hanzaki gained respect as the Kage leader, until he discovered a cursed sword known as Yugiri. He began to change, disregarding the group's honor and the traditions held by its students.[6]

One day, a Kage member escapes the confines of the dojo with its secrets. Several other members of the society, under penalty of death, are sent to dispatch the defector, only catching up to him (or her) within the ruins of the surrounding Yin and Yang Labyrinth Castle. In single player mode the players take on the role of the escaped assassin (independent of whatever character they choose), fighting their way out by killing their comrades one by one. Elements of the game story differ with each character selected.

Prepping the last leg! Number 20 soon!

https://i.imgur.com/Xyb4jl1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9OKHaiG.jpg
20 - Banjo-Kazooie - 305 points / 6 Votes

too high

lol never played it but speak on that

too many collectibles, too much dialogue, too many locked moves. i was frantic for mario64 methadone at the time (i bought “glover”) and this felt so earthbound in comparison (remember that sm64 gives you its entire move set upfront unless you count the caps), so much stricter about letting you careen thru the environments. prob better than glover tho.

https://i.imgur.com/JA4X0rz.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/u7JAGIy.jpg
19 - Vagrant Story - 313 points / 6 Votes

i'd say "too low" but like... wow 19 is pretty damn good for this weird little game. fond but vague memories of this one. it's linked in my head to the square fighting game with cloud, ehrgeiz -- maybe one came with a demo for the other? and also, ehrgeiz had a mode in te game that was vagrant story but dumb?

No such thing as too many collectibles, Banjo-Kazooie was great (if occasionally let down by segments that relied on accuracy with the shitty N64 'Mushroom')

Ah Vagrant Story though, what a great game (and I must try to properly start FFXII at some point)

i kinda agree with too many collectibles but i loved how unserious and just-plain-weird banjo kazooie was. and there was so much imagination packed into each world.

and i grudgingly respect the fact that the final boss fight is a game show where you try to remember earlier nonsense from the game

https://i.imgur.com/LeRhq2x.png
https://i.imgur.com/yRULYlC.jpg
18 - Super Smash Bros - 316 points / 6 Votes

unserious and just-plain-weird banjo kazooie was

yeah these are strengths for sure, and i find the title pairing charming enough. just didn’t feel enough like play.

i had fun with smash bros, never felt too strongly about it tho because i only ever played it at uhhhhh ahem cough anime club LOOK OVER THERE

kinda expected it to be higher than 18 tho!

i didn’t vote for it cuz i sucked at it lol and never owned a copy but it was certainly The multiplayer n64 game for the latter part of the console’s life, brought out at more parties than even mariokart. (a strange interregnum with conker’s bad fur day tho, or maybe that was just my friends.)

YESSSSS Vagrant Story! That it came out in the same year as FFIX probably didn't help its sales, but the dialogue and weeeeird creepy vibes were so much better than what FFIX featured.

I looked at videos recently that talk a little bit about it and I have no idea what the stats mean anymore -- but I do remember that I played it so much that character was virtually untouchable by common enemies and maybe even the end boss because I built his agility up so much.

super smash bros was my favorite game when i was 10, and gotta say that 10-year-old me was otm

prided myself on being able to beat my friends with any character (even jigglypuff!). i resented that link had a weak recovery, but he really didn't do much jumping in those original zelda games did he?

big fan of both FFT and (not that it rly has a lot to do w anything) FFXII so i bet VS is gr8, glad it made it up here

https://i.imgur.com/Onac2eP.png
https://i.imgur.com/ye44hED.jpg
17 - Dance Dance Revolution - 320 points / 6 Votes

pre-ocarina (when he still could not jump on command), link could jump only in black sheep zelda 2 and link’s awakening iirc.

xp to ddr i didn't vote for it but i absolutely only played it on ps1 for a long time before i saw it in an arcade (a certain cough ugh uhhhh group i hung out with got dance pad controllers and moddede them onto plywood for maximum danceitude. that place fucking STUNK of feet every week)

ddr's end of the century aka the rave mix of beethoven's ode to joy was my jam.

https://i.imgur.com/p1B4Som.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/RjZmrhi.jpg
16 - Wipeout 2097 (AKA Wipeout XL) - 327 points / 7 Votes

haha

I voted Wipeout 2097 entirely because of the soundtrack

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Wipeout-XL/release/53416

i recently dled every single wipeout soundtrack and lemme tell ya that's a real good playlist to hit shuffle on. even including the later ones!

don't sleep on that original wipeout soundtrack that's mostly by cOLD sTORAGE

Design, gameplay and soundtrack about as cool as possible.

my #2 (after wip3out). don't remember those orbital & leftfield tracks though, were they xl (usa) only or on a separate soundtrack album?

whenever i could be heard from the street shouting obscenities at the screen i was probably playing wipeout. i got quite into it.

every Wipeout has an amazing soundtrack

https://i.imgur.com/Ks3K6at.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PPkcpkz.jpg
15 - PaRappa the Rapper - 364 points / 8 Votes

run on games w banging soundtracks

https://i.imgur.com/pXoINq2.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/QuKrWlk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sLIzjqr.jpg
14 - Tony Hawk Pro Skater - 393 points / 6 Votes

too low

https://i.imgur.com/rJrosA3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CxLa1FN.jpg
13 - Silent Hill - 405 points / 8 Votes

As I expected, this poll is making me realize I really messed up not getting a PSX...

So many Important Classics that I will probably now never play, having aged poorly (the games, I mean, not me. Though maybe I could be aging better, IDK)

sorry if inconsistent post speed kinda distracted :/

anyway here's one that someone will definitely say is too low

https://i.imgur.com/V3TjoUC.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5AGnEmL.jpg
12 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - 430 points / 2 First-place votes / 6 Votes

wow, too low

i wonder how many games will have more than 1 first-place vote

in the alternate, no vote splitting universe wipeout wouldve beaten majora's mask and been jsut behind this upcoming one, which i will say in advance, is Too Low

Query - was this going to be the number one during the "If we went with the ballots I have it would be SHOCKING"?

https://i.imgur.com/QzhOZA0.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/liqisMq.jpg
11 - Final Fantasy Tactics - 440 points / 2 First-place votes / 6 Votes

majora's mask too low

sorry for not voting, would've been my number one

majora's mask too low

sorry for not voting, would've been my number one

argh I forgot! I got a lot of back posts to read...........

i posted, played the song of time, then posted again

high five
on the side
mustadio
TOO LOW

majora’s was my #1, have talked about it elsewhere enough prob but a genuine piece of melancholy art that makes its recycled character assets into an uncanny virtue exceeding the virtue of their originality

FFT a masterpiece mechanical sandbox and high on my ballot tho i’ve never finished it.

ftr the only games listed so far that I would accept as potentially superior to Night Warriors are Wipeout and Bushido Blade

silent hill doesn’t use draw distance as well as turok but i did vote for it, of all things because i kinda like the controls.

Never played FFT, and I'm secretly terrible at all turn-based strategy/RTS games :(

Never really played Silent Hill either (except for a demo on one of those magazine discs, remember those?), but it seems dope

silent hill doesn’t use draw distance as well as turok

well it is very foggy there.

i voted for silent hill but suddenly can't remember if i played i and ii or just ii.

ftr the only games listed so far that I would accept as potentially superior to Night Warriors are Wipeout and Bushido Blade

― DJP, Friday, November 13, 2020 3:56 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

get ready to up that list to 3

https://i.imgur.com/RmvjdBO.jpg
Marvel Puzzle Quest - 441 points / 1 First-place vote / 1 Vote (DJP)

just a fun impromptu fakeout because djp was in the thread enjoy that bonus fakeout everyone! on the hosue

it’s v foggy in both, that’s what i mean; they’re both using the same sleight-of-hand. it’s not actually a fair comparison tho given the hardware+chronology.

Also never played a Zelda game after the 16 bit era because I didn't have the systems, I'm sure they're great though

i wasnt gonna do a marvel puzzle quest joke becase ive done it so many times but lets be real. similar to the hunger games movie my gf is watching this joke is katniss evergreen

https://i.imgur.com/pOtfw9K.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VCN7OhD.jpg
10 - Final Fantasy VIII - 465 points / 9 Votes

a rare TOO HIGH!

FFT was my #1, and i'm violently angry that it didn't make the top 10, and that without my #1 vote may have sunk to even further levels of unjustified indignity

SHAME ON YOU. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU

xp

got beat by fucking FFVIII COME ON

you think this is all a game?!

(i really enjoyed ffviii and honestly may even rank it about vii in my mind but it beating FFT and, let's be fucking real, suikoden ii is some bullshit)

Even *I* know this is a weird choice.

i tried to help karl i really did it was #3 on my ballot

yeah FFT was #2 on mine!

i will say that every single FFT ranking was higher than every single FF8 ranking but 9 notes is a lot of votes!

9 votes* is a lot of votes wtf

FFT was my #3, but i did vote for VIII instead of VII.

anyway for those watching the point values this is where the jumps start getting big

triple triad + the demented, uh, elegance of the junction system.

ftr I greatly appreciated the Marvel Puzzle Quest joke

i quit

fuck this

i am NEVER. POSTING. ON ILX. AGAIN

https://i.imgur.com/rMZM0cp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xYZzy2D.jpg
9 - Mario Kart 64 - 547 points / 10 Votes

classic game of course

fucking banshee boardwalk!

mario was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me. i did play a hell of a lot of mario kart 64 though.

FFT is astrology for gamers

mario kart 64 seems to have been reevaluated as being the worst mario kart in recent years which, i dunno if i agree but the gamecube one is definitely way better

FFT is astrology for gamers

― ciderpress, Friday, November 13, 2020 4:16 PM (fifty-eight seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow SOMEBODY'S arithmetician is in retrograde am i right fellow g*mers

When compiling my ballot I had to weigh "good for it's time" with "something I would still play today." Mario Kart 64 definitely skews toward the former; this is especially tricky with entries in series that only were refined over time

Huh, I only have 5 definites left - starting to think that Spyro and Breath of Fire III might not make it.

(Also tricky with games that I haven't actually played since they were still new-ish)

his Calculator probably can't didn't even have Prime Number leveled up, lol

fellow REAL g*mers

Doom 64 definitely isn't gonna make it *frowning cacodemon face*

seems unlikely to me that breath of fire 3 would be on here without 4 showing up

https://i.imgur.com/hsFFGis.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ChvNttj.jpg
8 - Resident Evil 2 - 629 points / 12 Votes

that ad could be its own minipoll

"EVEN MORE GORE."
"THE GAMING EVENT OF 1998. NOTHING ELSE EVEN COMES CLOSE."
"AN INTENSE AND HORRIFIC ADVENTURE THAT CHILLS THE SPINE."
"SOMEBODY PINCH ME, I THINK I'M IN HEAVEN."

Hmm...I was on the fence, but PSM Magazine says it has even *more* gore...

doesnt sound like what i think of heaven as being like

https://i.imgur.com/a2vgMZk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/AGubYm7.jpg
7 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - 692 points / 2 First-place votes / 10 Votes

ive never been a zelda fan (altho ive never played majora's mask and i imagine that would absolutely be in my wheelhouse if i played it) and while i recognize this is a definite "TOO LOW" i would be lying if i said i didn't take a sick kind of pleasure in its placement

good game that is secretly a harem dating sim

OK it's my turn to shout TOO LOW

first game i ever saw a commercial for in a movie theater

this seems too high for paper mario to show up but if it missed the list then that's a massive snub

not that it is necessarily fair to compare majora's mask and ocarina as votesplit candidates but had their fans rallied around ocarina, it'd be #6 (so... not much of a move tbh, most oot voters also voted for mm)

votesplit victim i forgot to mention: wipeout xl could've finished in 11th, just shy of fft

MM and OoT are such different beasts and I voted for them both. Trying to organize my thoughts & feelings about OoT is difficult. Also, it is like the video game equivalent of The Beatles in having been discussed to death; it's hard to know what else there is to say. That the title screen forgoes heroic fanfare in favor of Satie-esque melancholy was pretty unusual for the time and is sort of a microcosm of what this game does well.

otm, as is MM’s title screen forgoing music at all in favor of an ominous whoosh and inscrutable giggle

https://i.imgur.com/crRqous.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/RbBXwGH.jpg
6 - Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 - 743 points / 1 First-place vote / 13 Votes

^^^ now this is vote splitting imo

Also too low, dammit!

if theres actually people who think 1 is better than 2 then they deserve the vote split

mario kart 64 seems to have been reevaluated as being the worst mario kart in recent years which, i dunno if i agree but the gamecube one is definitely way better

― ciderpress, Friday, November 13, 2020 4:17 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

all the other mario karts have way too much going on, things flying across the screen willy nilly. 64 also has the best soundtrack.

so our top 5 is 1 nintendo game, 1 squaresoft game, 1 rareware game, and 2 konami games?

if not then there's an even bigger snub than paper mario in here

https://i.imgur.com/9NyRksm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fTKjPq3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XZxDyS1.png
5 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 772 points / 1 First-place vote / 11 Votes

lol was just about to post "what's the 2nd konami game?" thanks Will

curious to know what ciderpress's snub is now bc they've def locked down the finalists

I think I voted for the first tony hawk jus because the second is just a refinement and better maps. second is a better game mind you, ho hum

nah i can't really complain about snubs since i didn't vote

https://i.imgur.com/0GlMHOD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/kk6xesJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/IBeFHUV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/2zHpFy8.jpg
4 - Final Fantasy VII - 828 points / 3 First-place votes / 12 Votes

if we ever do the ps2 gen i promise to submit a ballot that has 0 games in common with anyone else's ballot and then cry when they don't place

Oh, what's this one about?

i'm playing this game currently so i don't have a take prepared yet

no spoilers please

yuffie dies

i do not think i will ever play it again but i sure do ahve fond memories of playing all the way to the end, going to my friend's house, getting his save file at the same spot except grinded up to 99, beating the weapons and the game

I was one of the 1st place voters. I know it’s a basic pick and most people seem to think it’s aged horribly but the nostalgia of this one is so strong for me, along with one of the presumed top 3. Also it earns its place for the music during the final battle alone

can you play psx emulators with speed boosts? if you could compress that grinding i think it'd still be playable!

the art direction in its environments -- midgar, that weird casino, the place red xiii was from, was legitimately mind-boggling at the time. i don't think any other game ever felt more like The Future

ok ok ok so

who is ready for the top 3 games

these are extremely real

https://i.imgur.com/zVPA9Sy.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wsV46wx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/smc4N5W.jpg
3 - Vs. - 829 points / 3 First-place votes / 12 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/WxTpm1o.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/asIKZ53.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MsPSjjM.jpg
2 - Way Of The Warrior - 876 points / 3 First-place votes / 12 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/je6zeYL.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/m2yjNMJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6I6HdYE.jpg
1 - Bubsy 3D - 111,023 points / 98 First-place votes / 6823 Votes

where's Iggy's Reckin Balls

aw man i should've done four

ok for real here is number 3

https://i.imgur.com/1cvD2PZ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JNO4wxV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6YKFl3F.jpg
3 - Super Mario 64 - 907 points / 2 First-place votes / 13 Votes

TOO LOW.

the rare game where i’d say the objective is just to move around in it until you have to go to bed.

no one has ever managed to make another game that feels like Mario 64 to play. it is truly singular

much like Iggy's Reckin Balls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTszj4iZUMw

true peace

the rare game

― difficult listening hour,

no that hasnb't come up yet

So much for either of the Fear Effects making it. :\

I voted for FF8, which was my first RPG, full stop, and this OTM * 1000:

triple triad + the demented, uh, elegance of the junction system.

I think I played the whole game with a walkthrough just because of how intimidated I was, but damn, junctioning Ultima to your stats was a heady feeling.

RE2 was the only RE game I've ever played, it was definitely fun but for someone who LOATHES horror and jump scares, I never felt compelled to try any others. And FTR, the scene where the licker jumps out at you the first time STILL scares the marbles out of me.

in that one the objective is to crouch and convince your friends you got “the big version” of your gun

(xp)

also appreciate that FF8 settles on a character art style. looks kinda like a sierra adventure.

but damn, junctioning Ultima to your stats was a heady feeling.

otm otm otm, my most lingering memory of this game is literally getting like 50 ultimas and junctioning it to myself (i didn't even remember the term until now lol)

ok here we go games number 2 and number 1 back to back

https://i.imgur.com/E5qzqQj.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DIqs9Fz.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/XOraHnf.jpg
2 - GoldenEye - 958 points / 2 First-place votes / 15 Votes

https://i.imgur.com/2RqjSH4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Z9AJ2DV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/4lID4eq.jpg
1 - Metal Gear Solid - 1022 points / 2 First-place votes / 15 Votes

A HIND D

my number 1 is the number 1 no i did not cheat to make this happen ilx is just correct FOR ONCE AM I RIGHT FELLOW G*MERS

i ride dog sleds. i’m a musher.

GOLDENEYE TOO LOW!

wow majora's mask shockingly low

https://i.imgur.com/5I4EH4a.jpg

valkyrie profile was the other snub i was thinking of though i guess thats more of a cult classic so less surprising than paper mario or spyro

SUPER SMASH BROS. i didn't play until about five years ago when my ex and i got her old N64 hooked up, so i got to experience it really through her eyes, as this delightful mess of chaos and going after your friends with wild button mashing. right around the same time i was present when she tried bumper cars for the first time and she had an absolute blast in the same way, so i think of it as kinda the video game version of bumper cars - just wildly bonking into whoever's there and cracking up if you can send them flying in some awkward and unexpected way. very different from the way i enjoy most games, even head-to-head ones. what's cool is most of that is in the mechanics and not even in the main gimmick of it being a bunch of beloved characters! fun game.

DDR i cheated and voted for even if i'm not sure i ever played the console version, or even much of the arcade version. but it's obviously a really special and important game. an old high school buddy of mine got into it at the local tournament level, i went once to see him play at some combination arcade-and-go-cart place... it was really fun!

TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER i'm sure i've posted about enough... what a great concept, what a blast. i can remember my roommate pinning down the idea that it let you live out a "skater fantasy" and as a non-skater i can't speak to that but it really had a wonderful sense of momentum and defying gravity without it ever feeling weightless or meaningless. you were always in danger of pitching off the edge but instead you kept it going. the sequel is all-around "better" but i ranked this one higher because A, it was first, and B, the sequel dropped the linear downhill levels which i really appreciated, especially the one at the dam/canyon. this was THE game on my freshman year dorm floor, apart from a period when one guy's room was the center of Conker activity and a shorter spell of SOTN.

MAJORA'S MASK i never completely played through by myself - it was actually a collaborative, handing-off-the-controller-between-sessions game with the same aforementioned roommate. that seems insane to me given how complex a lot of the puzzles turn out to be, but it could be that it was really primarily him playing it, and me coming in for some of the dungeons and stuff. but jesus how do you not stan for this bonkers gimmick, and them actually pulling off the ballet of timed NPC encounters that let you figure out, and then execute, incredibly complicated payoffs late in the game as you know where everybody is and figure out what masks you'll need to use? this game is all about that gradual "dawning" moment of putting together in your head what will work, and it's sooooo satisfying as that. i can remember the night my roommate did the big Zora musical puzzle and the exact smile that came across his face as he realized "i'm gonna have to get the band back together!!" great.

MARIO KART 64 is the real "too low" for me, and #9 is a great place to be! i've played the Gamecube and Wii versions and IMO they were both subtly, inexplicably worse though they looked amazing. see Tony Hawk - it's all about NAILING the weight and control, and the later ones just felt too floaty or slippery or smooth, or something. this game is a fucking jam, the only problem is a couple of the courses are kinda boring. i'm stunned to hear that anybody considers it the worst!

it’s-a bond, james bond

GOLDENEYE is wayyyy too high but i totally get why it's there and i can't begrudge that. way way back in ILX history i ruffled some feathers by complaining about its numerous and very obvious faults, but a few years back in the same wave as that discovery of Super Smash Bros., i put a lot more hours into it, single- and multiplayer, and now i finally have at least some of the happy fun couch times memories that made it iconic for so many others.

(that was to stretchy face goldeneye box)

Goldeneye is perhaps too high, but I'll say this for it: it made hanging out with the neighbor kids not just bearable, but an actual good time.

still a pc shooter snob about goldeneye tbh, feels like a dog on its hind legs. those cabins in the snow are an iconic space tho.

xp yeah it was that game, until smash bros came out and became that game for the rest of eternity

yeah dlh i'm with you

I just typed an offensive amount of commentary on the list so I hid it in case people don't want the speed bump, hope it works:

1 - Metal Gear Solid

Well, I guess I need to replay it. I wish these games came with an option to just "remove all plot" and make it strictly about gameplay. My favourite in the series (so far) is MG2, the MSX one, I played it via emulation and it's just as inventive and interesting as MGS (and isn't cancered with a garbage novel)

2 - Goldeneye

Some of these 1-player levels are really aggravating but on my recent replay I've been surprised at how awesome so many other levels are/were. 25 years ago it took me forever to painstakingly work through the Train, now I blow through it in no time at all. Love this game

3 - Super Mario 64

This game is spectacular, and remains my 2nd favourite in the series behind SMB3. I can't think of anything bad to say about it. Highlights: the surprise inner-pyramid boss fight, every Bowser level, the difficulty of those final worlds...

4 - Final Fantasy VII

Any time I have an urge to play this again I just re-read the script, and think "no"

I realize that the text is vastly condensed from the Japanese (in order to maintain the same number of text bubbles) but it doesn't make the story at all comprehensible

I like Final Fantasy VI

5 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

So happy to see this perfect game so high, I've played it through to completion twice and it was exceptionally rewarding both times

7 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Can't decide if this game is over- or under-rated but it'd definitely not in my top 4 Zelda games

8 - Resident Evil 2

Still need to play this-- I enjoyed RE1 (no desire to replay) and loved RE4 (replayed it in early stages of lockdown). I have it for N64 but I haven't played it (the switching of resolutions makes my HDMI converter lock up)

9 - Mario Kart 64

This game is BULLSHIT. I adore SNES Kart and the latest one like no other, but I remember my older brother bringing this home and feeling like the 5min+ races were interminable, I have never been so tested by a game. Battle mode is garbage. Way too high. Diddy Kong Racing was a much more fun racer (despite the garish graphics)

12 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

This is an amazing game, the dungeons are spectacular and I'm looking forward to getting a "must stay in bed" illness so I can do a walkthrough-free replay and just drift around

13 - Silent Hill

I have never been so scared by a game but I don't remember much about the latter-half. I feel like I'd just be more inclined to replay Dark Souls for whatever reason

18 - Super Smash Bros

This game is great. I have the same complaint about the Switch Smash as I do about Mario Odyssey-- making the game Extremely Large kind of makes it get tedious really quickly. My ex played through Switch Smash to completion but I can't imagine ever having that kind of commitment. This N64 version, on the other end, was great

19 - Vagrant Story

I played this and sold it recently for not a small amount of money

20 - Banjo-Kazooie

Rare are the most overrated developers of this era, it's like they deliberately chose a troll-y colour palette and garbage characters to punish their children, but I do love the design of this and would be excited to play it again. Tooie is on my list of "haven't played yet" carts that I'm excited to get to

21 - Wave Race 64

This game is super fun, still my favourite "water" from this generation

23 - Star Fox 64

Classic classic classic. This format of game is too spectacular and I'm so frustrated that there are not a bevy of sequels and knockoffs. I read recently somebody ranked the Wii U Starfox as "the worst game for the system" and I couldn't agree more-- despite there being at least three levels on it that captured the thrill of this and its SNES predecessor

24 - Final Fantasy IX

I'm an adult and I have adult things to do and do not have time for games like these any more

26 - Perfect Dark

The Flying Mum laptop and Elvis The Alien really ruined this game for me. I need to replay it I guess but I remember it all feeling clunky in its over-ambitiousness

33 - Star Control II

Was this my #1? It was either this or SOTN. It's the best game. I've never felt such a complex emotion as the one I felt when the Slave-y Ur-Quan kept trying to argue that they were just trying to protect you from the Genocide-y Ur-Quan

41 - Blast Corps

I have this on my Everdrive and I've always wanted to finish it

51 - Guardian Heroes

Didn't vote for this one, probably should've, Treasure is my favourite developer-- I just restarted Sin & Punishment 2 for the Wii yesterday and it's better even than I remember. No Sin & Punishment on this list is no surprise, but if it'd gotten a NA release it'd be listed here. The plot is, well, bad, like a condensed Neon Genesis Evangelion with awful characters. Still one of my favourite games ever

55 - 1080º Snowboarding

My younger brother was at one point an Olympic track skier and he'd bring his ski friends over and I'd thrash them on this game and say shit like "watch your line" when they fell behind and it would drive all those future cokeheads nuts

57 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

Is this game good? or is it just a bloody soup

62 - Einhander

Surprisingly amazing and highly, highly recommended to anybody who likes Treasure-style shooters, I like this as much as Radiant Silvergun tbh

65 - F-Zero X

Headaches for days bc of this game

69 - Metal Slug

Another blind spot I gotta check out

76 - Driver