#55: Trials Evolution
(RedLynx - Xbox 360, 2012)
Trials Evolution is an amazing racing game. Well, it's actually more of a platformer, and you just happen to use motorcycles to do the platforming. Then again, it's also a bit of a puzzle game. Fuck it, it doesn't matter.
I could go on and on about the subject, but I'll try to keep this short: I'm not blowing anybody's mind here, but movement is the centerpiece of racing games and platformers alike. It's what they live and die by. The smallest change in a jump's loftiness or the responsiveness of a movement can make the difference between engaging gameplay and total trash. It's easy to laugh at the fickleness of some Sonic fans, but they got one thing right: the inertia, momentum, and overall physics of movement is the cornerstone of that series, and games like Trials are no different.
Trials Evolution plays like a dream. It's easy to mistake the controls as squirrely, but you can't approach it like a standard racing game. Flooring it and jerking the stick back and forth like a caveman won't get you very far. Every single little movement you make, be it the amount of throttle you apply or how gently you lean back and forth, makes a difference. You're in complete control of your motorcycle, and the devilish level design is well aware of that. The early tracks are relatively simple, but by the final tier of challenges, you will be going "
wai-wai-wai-wait alright alright wait SHIT" for twenty minutes at a time. There is just as much focus in learning a track as there is in navigating it well: simply making it to the finish line of a particularly devious track is an incredible feeling, but going the extra mile and performing a quick, faultless run is unparalleled.
You'd think the high difficulty would make for an endlessly frustrating experience, but the Trials series does an immaculate job of managing the frustration that comes with constant failure. In most video games, the more you mess up, the more noticeable the gap of time between attempts goes on to be. Every little thing keeping you from starting over, whether it's a "game over" screen, a cutscene, or exclamations of having to "follow the damn train, CJ" can end up pissing you off more than the failure itself. Trials knows that, so none of those things are in the way. Restarting your run from the latest checkpoint is assigned to a face button, and it happens
instantly, saving you Christ knows how much time in the long run. It might sound like a small detail, but it makes Trials difficult in the best way. Every fault is on you, and you can pick yourself right back up without it being rubbed in your face. Hell, if this wasn't in the game, Trials Evolution may not have even ended up on this list.
I'm a sucker for games with level editors. Even if I'm no John Romero, just the act of creating a stage is entertainment in itself, and the track editor included in Evolution is excellent. It's easy to create a track, but the features available really test the limits of your imagination. You're not even bound to traditional Trials gameplay: in addition to the Skill Game Circus full of goofy official minigames, a cursory glance at the game's custom track hub will show you all sorts of impressive uses of the editor. They're not all winners, but it's crazy to see what people can pull off.
I also have to give a special mention to the soundtrack. From your very first moments with the game, you're treated with the
most stupid nonsense imaginable. The music that plays during gameplay isn't much better, with copious amounts of nu-metal and rap-rock that wrestler entrance music would break down laughing at. It's a masterful tribute to irony on RedLynx's part.
I loved Trials HD, but Evolution broke out of that game's warehouse and reached the pinnacle of what the series could achieve. Calling a game "addictive" is pretty overplayed, but I'll be goddamned if the poopsocks I filled while playing Evolution couldn't single-handedly support an entire ecosystem of houseflies. Seriously, it sinks its teeth into you until you load your piss jugs up enough to fill an army of Kool-Aid Men.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
#54: Wolfenstein: The New Order
(MachineGames - PC, 2014)
John Carmack once said a video game's story is like a porn film's: "It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." Fast-forward to 2017 and the only video game with a tasteful, well-made sex scene is a Wolfenstein game.
Think about that shit for a minute.
The developers at MachineGames (made up of Starbreeze veterans) have a history of narrative-driven games, but they really outdid themselves with this one. Their vision of a 1960 where the Third Reich is the leading global superpower is one of the best-realized worlds I've seen in a video game. Both sides of the war feature plenty of memorable, well-written characters, but the Nazi figureheads in particular have the kind of menacing presence that evoke shades of Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds. You see the rhetoric and outlandish technology of a Nazi-run Earth firsthand, but the New Order also answers questions that you wouldn't necessarily think of asking, giving you glimpses into the culture of the world surrounding the game. I won't spoil too much, but some of the game's best moments come from how real-world figures intersect with Wolfenstein's alternate reality.
The tone of the game in particular is a real marvel. The game regularly shifts from pulpy and over-the-top to grave and self-serious, but it earns every minute of it. Take protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz, for example. He'll rattle off the occasional action hero one-liner ("Wake up. You're dead."), but for the first time in the series' 20+ year history, he comes across as an actual human being. Over the course of the game, you're given a window into B.J.'s past as well as a clear picture of the kind of world he wants for himself through his inner monologue (superbly performed by Brian Bloom), and it goes a long way towards making him a sympathetic character while also giving weight to the storyline. The "fun" moments end up feeling like a necessary reprieve from the terrible shit happening all around you (the aforementioned sex scene very much applies here), and the game's darker moments are treated with the gravitas they deserve. You know you have something special when a chapter at a concentration camp is handled with grace.
Don't think I forgot that I'm talking about a Wolfenstein game, though. There's some grade A Nazi devastation going on in this game, too. Even if you weren't brutalizing members of the Third Reich, combat would still be an exhilarating power fantasy. The game isn't a total pushover, but you
feel really powerful, thanks to the gore and the weaponry of the game. Your weapons look, sound and fire like they can strike the fear of God into just about any enemy you come across, and you can dual-wield almost all of them. Movement is just as satisfying, since your equipment doesn't really slow you down that much, letting you slide around as you go "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM" with two gigantic shotguns into Nazis' kneecaps. Most of the game takes a guns blazing approach, but there are also moments where you can employ stealth. It's not as fun as going Rambo, but it's still a nice change of pace to sneak around with a silenced pistol (or two) and throw knives at Nazis' throats. The frustration that comes with blowing your cover isn't even a problem, since getting caught just means you're right back to playing "Gallagher with guns instead of a mallet" with some Nazi scum.
It's not often you come across a game that's as engaging for its narrative as it is its gameplay. There's shooters with better combat and games with better stories out there, but Wolfenstein: The New Order is one of the best mixes of the two. Here's hoping the New Colossus turns this game into #55.
#53: Crackdown
(Realtime Worlds - Xbox 360, 2007)
Some of you guys are real idiots, you know that? "Crackdown would flop without the Halo 3 beta," they said. "The multiplayer beta for Halo 3 comes with a free game," they said. Joke's on those dopes, though, since Crackdown is better than any lousy Halo game is.
Crackdown takes the "sandbox" part of sandbox games to heart. The game all but literally drops you into the metropolis of Pacific City and says "go." Unlike creator David Jones' previous work, Grand Theft Auto, the entire world is available to you from the start. Landmasses aren't unlocked based on story progression, encouraging you to do whatever you want from the moment you pick up the game. This freedom extends to the campaign, where you can take down the city's various gangs in any fashion you please. The game suggests you eliminate the lower-ranking generals before you take out each gang's boss (since every general's death makes attacking the capo easier), but you could beeline it straight to the bosses if you wanted. You'd probably get your ass handed to you, but it's the thought that counts, right?
It's probably a given that the game's superpowers are the star of the show, but the progression system is what really makes it special. Crackdown lets you do some
really cool shit, but it takes quite some time to max out any of the various abilities you have, which makes leveling up feel like a huge deal. The powers themselves are fun at the start, but they only get better. After all, it's plenty fun to throw a car door at a goon, but it's a whole other level throwing the car itself. Even your driving skill undergoes game-changing improvements with each rank: Agency vehicles transform based on your driving level, turning supercars into gun-mounted Batmobiles that can fling other vehicles into the air Fast & Furious 6 style, and SUVs into monsters that can literally
climb buildings and jump into the air. The restrained approach to progression is truly commendable, as it would've been all too easy for Realtime Worlds to let the player gorge on the coolest stuff as soon as possible. Instead, the slow yet steady leveling makes the moment-to-moment gameplay gradually redefine itself, getting better with each iteration.
Crackdown's also a fun game to just screw around in. It supports 2-player online coop (a rarity for sandbox games at the time) as well as an endlessly fun cheat mode (a rarity, well,
now). Some time after release, the free "Keys to the City" DLC dropped, which grants a god mode plus the ability to control your skill levels, city population, and spawn all sorts of objects and vehicles into the world. If you're creative, you can set up a domino effect of explosives, stack cars on top of each other, and do all sorts of goofy things. My personal favorite diversion was spawning ramp trucks ahead of me as I drove, making huge jumps wherever I wanted. Between this and the plethora of side-activities, there's a lot to do in the game, and all of it's a great time.
One of the game's qualities that I think often gets left out of discussion is how stylish it all is. There's no shortage of little touches that serve no purpose beyond just being cool. As you level up your agent, his appearance changes to show growth, including characters aging (my favorite being one agent's buzz cut having streaks of grey) or sporting better equipment. Each faction's territory has its own portion of the soundtrack associated to it (for example, the South American cartel's area will play music from
Molotov and
Kinky), giving their locations a distinct feeling. A stern, anonymous Agency leader narrates the game's storyline and will comment during gameplay from the shadows. There's just the slightest hint of cel-shading, giving characters a bit of a comic book look to them. Each play session begins in the monolithic Agency Tower, where players barrel down flashy tunnels that look ripped from an F-Zero game, shooting out into the city. There's plenty more, but the point is that Crackdown takes every opportunity it can to sell its slick, futuristic aesthetic. Hell, the
main menu is a cinematic time-lapse panorama of Pacific City set to DJ Krush's "Paradise Bird Theory," and even the
loading screen oozes style, using a breakdown from the same song.
It pains me to think about how there are probably some Halo fans out there who never even touched Crackdown despite owning it. If they had bothered with it, they'd have found out that the multiplayer beta for Halo 3 came with a free copy of one of the best sandbox games ever made.
#52: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
(Konami - PC Engine Super CD-ROM², 1993)
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is the Castlevania game that gets it all right. It expands upon what worked in previous games while fixing what didn't, and makes huge improvements to the level design and overall structure of the game. It's the best of the series, bar none.
The gameplay is a mix of III and IV with some additional improvements. Similar to IV, you're not married to your jumps and have a degree of in-air control as long as you keep the jump button held down. However, combat feels more like the first and third games since your whip has reverted to the one-directional version seen in those entries (although thankfully the whip power-ups have been nixed, making it a viable weapon regardless of the situation). In addition to this, Richter Belmont's got a stylish backflip that can be tricky to pull off (similar to Revenge of Shinobi's double jump) but is a useful evasive maneuver, especially in boss fights. Finally, this is the first game in the series to feature the Item Crash mechanic, which rewards players conservative with hearts with a super move using your current sub-weapon. These mechanics are a perfect balance of making the player capable enough to avoid the frustration of the earlier games without being outright overpowered, making this the best gameplay in the series.
Of course, some people may prefer to be overpowered, which is where Maria comes in. Hidden in the second stage, Maria's one of the many ways that the game adds replay value, and also scratches that Super Castlevania IV itch when you want to keep it relatively casual. She has a double jump, a slide, a projectile weapon, and a secret move that makes a joke out of pretty much any boss. Compared to a Richter playthrough, the game is a damn cakewalk, but I have to admit that it's pretty fun, and you'll probably want to play through as her anyway since she has her own cutscenes and ending. Her scenes take on a decidedly lighter tone, which even extends to the
game over screen.
The game's structure takes the branching approach introduced in Dracula's Curse and perfects it. With the PC Engine CD's backup capabilities guaranteeing that all players would be able to save their progress, Konami was able to get more ambitious with both the structure and the levels themselves. Not only are individual stages
sizable with multiple paths through each of them, these paths often lead to alternate exits which can have unique bosses guarding them and, more importantly, grant access to completely different stages. Instead of being a cut-and-dry decision to make like in Dracula's Curse, the alternate stages of the game are hidden, which encourages exploration and boosts replay value greatly. You'll want to play through each stage multiple times to see everything it has to offer, and it's very easy to do just that. You're no longer committed to a single path through the game like in Dracula's Curse: if you want to find an alternate route right away, you can simply go to the
stage select and pick the stage you want to explore. Having a stage select may not seem like a big deal, but it makes a world of difference compared to having to start the game from scratch to see a different route. The game's level design is perhaps Rondo of Blood's greatest asset, and it paved the way for open-ended design of its direct sequel, Symphony of the Night.
Rondo's got a slightly more over-the-top aesthetic compared to previous games. You still have the classic horror tropes and imagery, but that's offset by the
more bombastic soundtrack (it was the first Castlevania game to have CD audio, so I can't exactly blame them there) as well as the anime-style cutscenes, where Richter straight-up looks like Ryu. Hell, this ridiculous bent bleeds into the gameplay at times. For example, one of my favorite moments in the game occurs when you're fighting Death on the top of a ghost ship's mast. Halfway through the battle, he retreats to the background and
spits to the ground, as if to say "we could've handled this like gentlemen, but now we're getting into some gangsta shit." After that, he throws his cloak away, revealing a God damn samurai robe underneath as he equips his signature scythe. I don't even know how a skeleton could possess salivary glands, but I don't give a shit: it's fucking spectacular. I suppose you could argue that this more outrageous inclination is a little incongruous with the rest of the series, but personally it just makes the game stand out more from its brethren.
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is the traditional Castlevania style at its absolute zenith. It's highly recommended, especially if you're one of those shitheads that likes to compare everything to Dark Souls.
#51: Trackmania 2
(Nadeo - PC, Episodic: 2011-2017)
No matter how hard I try
You keep pushing me aside
And I can't break through
There's no talking to you
It's so sad that you're leaving
It takes time to believe it
But after all is said and done
You're gonna be the lonely one, oh
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no
What am I supposed to do?
Sit around and wait for you
Well, I can't do that
And there's no turning back
I need time to move on
I need a love to feel strong
'Cause I've had time to think it through
And maybe I'm too good for you, oh
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no
Well, I know that I'll get through this
'Cause I know that I am strong
And I don't need you anymore
Oh, I don't need you anymore
Oh, I don't need you anymore
No, I don't need you anymore
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no
Do you believe in life after love? (After love, after love, after love)
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough, no