40. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
It was a hard choice between this one and Crash 3. 3 adds more mechanics and different level design elements, but at times it feels too gimmicky. As such, I'll go with 2. As you might have guess from my anectodes, I love the Crash series. It's actually kind of hard for me to articulate why. They're just pure fun. A wacky, colorful art style with great graphics for its time surely helps. No other pure platformer has engrossed me like the Crash games. They have just the right balance of perfection platforming and spectacle. Some levels demand a lot from you, while others are just cinematic chase sequences or autoscrollers on a polar bear. I actually really love those levels. The first Crash game had a great formula, but it didn't really come into its own until the sequel where it was expanded with better controls, variety and just more polish overall.
Just like any platformer worth its salt, the real fun lies in trying to collecting everything. Since the game can be quite frantic, 100%ing every level can be challenging, especially in the chase levels. But it's worth it, as you get access to secret gems that transport you to secret levels. Again, the appeal of the game here lies in how balanced it is, it feels neither too tedious nor too trivial to collect everything. The new level designs in 2 like the sewer and the arctic area feel like natural extensions and they're all cool. I really love the medieval, great wall and other sections in 3 as well, but I felt like the formula had gotten stretched a bit thin there with all the jetski/jetpack/bike levels. That being said...
39: Crash Team Racing
This is my favorite racing game hands down. Actually, having just recently played MK8 Deluxe, I went back to this game briefly for this list to make sure I'm not taking crazy pills. And, I was able to confirm my suspicions. CTR is just better in so many aspects. What makes it better, you say? Well, one must consider that I prefer these games for their single player aspects. CTR's single player campaign is amazing. Featuring time trial levels (that change up the way you play by requiring you to collect time boxes), boss battles, and secret collectibles inside races, this game has a robust story mode that is unrivaled in the kart genre. Seriously, the campaign in CTR is awesome, and of course I painstakingly 100%d it.
Then we get to the level design. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Mario Kart and 8D is an incredibly beautiful game, but the level design is just so sterile. Not visually per se, but in terms of roads. Every level is basically a straight path with some curves, and maybe one or two secrets. Levels in CTR are much more complex. There are secret paths and shortcuts all over the place, along with various hazards, and the secrets force you to explore more of these as well. Additionally, the terrain is just rougher and the levels are more intricate. To me, the level design in CTR is still unmatched in the genre. Add to that a variety of characters, powerups that feel varied and different, and a great soundtrack, I'd say it's easy to see why I love CTR so much.
38. Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
I really like visual novels, and I love puzzle games, so obviously this is a good fit for me. Add to that the fact that time manipulation is my favorite plot device, we have a recipe for success. 999 was a really great game, and I was excited and surprised when a sequel was announced. Lo and behold, VLR turned out to be awesome. It's not as gory and scary as the original, but the detached vibe of it made it feel more mysterious. For the longest time through the game, I was wondering how it really connects to the previous game, and I was quite amazed in the end. It felt like they forgot some of the themes they explored in 999, but turns out, they didn't at all. It's hard to say much without spoiling, but the multiple playthroughs and how they branch out and come together is simply brilliant. In the end, this ended up being one of my favorite stories in gaming.
The sequel, Zero Time Dilemma, was pretty disappointing. I didn't mind the art style change at all, but the game felt contrived and the storytelling felt stilted. The puzzles were always kind of whatever in these games, but they were exceedingly unfun in ZTD. The characters were particularly unlikeable and the sense of mystery was replaced with a sense of confusion and tedium. In the end, it was still worth it to see the conclusion of the saga and I enjoyed it overall, but I love VLR so much that ZTD paled in comparison. VLR explores philosophy, physics, science fiction and more in really thought provoking ways, ZTD just has COMPLEX MOTIVES.
37. Metroid Prime Trilogy
Metroid is one of my favorite franchises of all time. You haven't seen much of it yet, but we'll get to it. Translating it to 3D is no small task, but Retro totally nailed it here. The prime games almost don't feel like 3D games and more like extensions of normal Metroid. The sense of isolation is preserved, first person platforming works, everything just... works. Metroid Prime is one of those games where it's just way better than it has any right being. I like the sequels a lot too, and parts of them more than the original. 2 has a lot of backtracking, but it's also darker and more interesting lore-wise. 3 is a good conclusion to the series and feels more refined in ways. It's hard to pick favorites, but I guess 1 deserves it for the novelty factor and achievement.
Why isn't this higher on my list? It really should be. However I just can't fully love these games. The control scheme is just bizarre. On GCN it feels too limiting, and the Wii controls are clearly not what the games are designed around (except for 3 obviously). They both end up being clunky. I just want more control of both my character and aiming. Secondly, there's a lot of backtracking that can get pretty tedious. Sure, Metroid games use backtracking in principle, but it's just a lot smoother and less time consuming in the 2D games since navigation is easier in those. Since it doesn't feel great to control my character, it doesn't feel great to backtrack either. I'd love for a remaster of these with more modern controls, really. But still, they're fantastic games that are unparalleled.
36. Garry's Mod/Gmod
I originally wanted to include Overwatch in this list, as it was my GOTY last year. Then I realized that, even if I would rather play OW today, I've spent an absurd time in Team Fortress 2, both in regular game modes and in dumb gimmick modes like prop hunt and surf, to not include it. Then I realized that the real multiplayer FPS GOAT for me is Gmod, and I just didn't want to devote 3 slots to games that scratch a similar itch especially when Gmod is so superior, so I went "screw it" and cut the other two for Gmod. I really didn't want to rank the other two against each other anyway. So what the hell is Gmod? It's a Half Life 2 multiplayer mod later released as a standalone that offers scripting and construction tools that lets you host and play in custom gametypes. For example, there's the RP or DarkRP gametype, where the playing field is a couple blocks of a city, and about 10-20 players persist in this block, with each person having a job. Like cop, trader, mob boss, hitman, politician, etc. Each role has a salary and certain duties they must complete, and certain laws they are obliged to follow (usually set partially by the politician, who can get elected to the position). Throw that into a physics sandbox, give players an economy with which they can buy stuff and build their own makeshift buildings and traps with, and you get total chaos. It was ridiculous, and clearly a precursor to early access survival games, but it was super fun.
But for me, the real draw of Gmod was Trouble In Terrorist Town. Are you familiar with the social/party games mafia or werewolf? This is basically that. All players are terrorists, and they spawn in a large map. a small amount of players are secretly traitors, and they must kill all other players without getting discovered. They can buy gadgets or activate traps in the level to help them, but they must hide their presence and git in with the normal terrorists. We also have one or two detectives, who can find evidence and are supposed to track down the traitors. Thing is, very few things are actually enforced by the rules. It's all about social engineering. If you act too suspicious, people will try to quarantine or kill you. Maybe you were innocent though, and they just lost a teammate. One's affiliation is only revealed after their body is examined post mortem. So as the traitor you can try to trick other players into killing someone innocent, but that might draw suspicion on you. It's all about sowing distrust and carefully planning things but also being able to react when it all goes crazy. It gets even better when you play many rounds on the same server or even get on a community server and get to know people, because then you can really start to work people.
Glad to see Dual Destinies that high up. These days it seems to be one of the least well-liked games in the series despite being generally well-liked at launch. I consider myself a huge fan of the series, to the point wherein managed to play AAI2 before the fan translation came out with a lot of work, and I honestly think DD is definitely the best game in the series, for all the reasons you said.
I played AAI2 with the fan translation, and it was great. Love the series as well, and DD is so much better than anything else in it that I'm surprised people don't love it as much. I feel like there's a lot of nostalgia towards 3 that is hard to beat for people.
I'm loving your list so far, many of the games you picked I'd have probably picked them myself, and some that I haven't played yet you're making me want to play them (Shovel Knight has been on my backlog for too long).
Thanks! Hopefully you find more to enjoy.