McNum's Top 10 Best Games of the 6th Generation
1. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty ; No one was prepared for Metal Gear Solid 2. It is, in my opinion, one of the greatest examples of a video game ever made. This game couldn't be anything BUT a video game. From the very first trailer release, the game starts messing with your expectations. Slowly, it gets more and more "wrong", and makes less and less sense. Until it springs the twist on you: It was all on purpose. It was to show just how powerful a tool the manipulation of information and selective censorship really is. And you just got fooled, big-time, but don't feel bad, you were supposed to.
It is a masterstroke of video game story telling, even if it breaks the rules and plays the player for a fool, the "Raiden is the actual main character" twist was incredibly brave, and pulled off magnificently, no one saw it coming. This theme of censorship and information control remains relevant, even today, perhaps especially today with the reveal of just how much we are being monitored thanks to Snowden. And all of that is not even mentioning how the gameplay was a massive upgrade over the Playstation Metal Gear Solid. First person aiming, no-kill playthroughs, smarter enemy soldiers, sometimes dangerously so, and a ton of new moves for Snake and Raiden to do.
I cannot in good conscience, call any other game the game of the generation. This is THE game. Best ever? Probably not, a few of the others on the list play just as well or better, but it has to be Metal Gear Solid 2. It's not even a close contest for me.
2. Super Smash Bros. Melee ;
"Super Smash Brotheeeeersss MEEELEEE!!!" And this one actually DOES shout it out. As it SHOULD. An all out upgrade from Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64, it had more characters, more stages, more moves per character, a great soundtrack and a snappy movement engine, which has been broken to pieces by now, allowing for a super-fast paced game. It is broken, really. But it broke
right. When Melee gets going, it's amazing to watch. It's not my favorite to play in the series, but it is an amazing game, both by design and by accident. Melee is Melee. There was nothing like it, and there will never be another. You just can't do a game like that on purpose.
And it's at EVO again this year. A testament to just how stubborn this game is. Two sequels later, and it's still getting headlines, it's the Street Fighter 2 of its series.
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker ; Featuring the cutest Link ever, and a vast open sea full of dangers and treasure, the Wind Waker is a strange departure from the Zelda formula, but a fun one. The art style looked like a moving cartoon, the draw distance was extremely far, thanks to some clever trickery, and the story surprisingly dark compared to the cheery look. This is post-apocalyptic Hyrule, and you don't even get to save it. Some people don't care much for the sailing, but personally, I loved it. Pull out the spyglass, see a spot on the horizon, set sail and investigate. Such a wonderful exploration focused game.
It a divisive entry in the Zelda series (then again, which one isn't?) but I'm a fan of it. It still looks decent enough, the art style was so well chosen compared to the power available in the GameCube.
4. Metroid Prime ; When 3D began to become the thing in gaming, one Nintendo franchise seemed to just vanish. Metroid. A series so dependent on exploration and visual trickery to hide secret passages and items, it seemed like an insurmountable task to make one in full 3D. And then Metroid Prime blasted on to the scene, a first person 3D Metroid and we wondered why we never thought of it, because it just worked. A big interconnected area full of nooks and crannies, different visors to show sneakily hidden passages, different guns and tools to get through, and wonderfully designed boss fights to show off that Samus, while slowed down a bit from her Super Metroid self, was still a force to be reckoned with.
That it came from otherwise unknown new Nintendo acquisition Retro Studios, and looked, played, and sounded so well just added to the surprise. No one expected Metroid Prime, and especially not that it would be THAT good.
5. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance ; This game introduced me to Fire Emblem. And Ike, who is still my favorite Lord of the series. It's fairly standard coming-of-age, defeat the evil empire kind of story, but thanks to a whole host of likable characters it's an enjoyable ride there. Being introduced to Fire Emblem's harsh reality of permadeath the hard way was also quite the eye-opener. Fire Emblem does NOT mess around. Speaking of characters, there is the matter of the Black Knight, who is easily one of the most awesome antagonists in video game history. I mean he calls himself "The Black Knight" and people don't mock him for it. That's how you know he's legit. I actually failed to beat him the first time through, wasn't until a replay last year that I won that fight. Played the entire game just to power up Ike enough that he theoretically COULD win that fight.
Path of Radiance is a nice and simple game, it knows what it is, and uses that to its advantage. But for introducing me to Fire Emblem, it was a great game, and I'm glad I took a chance on it.
6. Skies of Arcadia Legends ; Airships, air pirates, oodles of optimism and fighting spirit enough to power the Gurren Lagann twice over. This is Skies of Arcadia. When most JRPGs took note of Final Fantasy 7 and steered towards more brooding and serious protagonists, Sega gave us Vyse.
"Impossible is a word people use to feel better about themselves when they quit." The man who broke out of an inescapable prison... twice. Following him is an endearing cast of characters, notable the Pippi Longstocking look-a-like Aika and the mysterious girl Fina. And it's really this dynamic that keeps the game rolling along, as mechanically the game isn't that interesting. the battle system is passable, but it's somewhat easy to break. Aika's Delta Shield nullifies all magic, which trivializes some fights (and is a requirement for a few optional bosses). the ship to ship fights are interesting, though, and despite you getting a nigh-invincible ship midway through the game, it's still fun to got up against the gigantic ships and monsters you face.
Skies of Arcadia was a sorely needed dose of a high adventure in the skies, it might not be the greatest JRPG, but it was the right game at the right time.
7. The Sims 2 ; The Sims was never supposed to be big, but it was and its sequel took the concept of an everyday life simulator and expanded heavily on it (pun intended). Sims now lived a full life, the got born, they grew up, the had children themselves, they grew old and they died. Sometimes of old age, too. The Sims 2 was a dramatic improvement over its predecessor, more stuff to do, a fully customizable neighborhood (even if you had to make the terrain in SimCity 4) and you were free to try to play the perfect lives, be a cruel god, or make the craziest soap opera plot you could think of. It was your wide open playground, and the lives of these little computer people were yours to make or ruin. All in all, a fun quirky game.
It's just a shame about that inevitable save corrupting bug that never got fixed. Free tip: Do NOT under any circumstance move a Sim from one neighborhood to another.
8. Final Fantasy X ; Honestly, Final Fantasy X is one of m favorite Final Fantasies of the entire series. I just love the world of Spira. I know the common complaints about this one, it's linear, the voice acting could be better, Tidus is annoying in general and so on, but it just does so much right, too, that I'm willing to look past that. Besides, I've heard MUCH worse voice acting. I like the battle system, it's rigid enough to know what's coming, but flexible enough to be creative with it, which a few bosses nearly require you to be, the Sphere Grid is a nice way to level up, and can make your characters super-powerful as well, and the game looked really pretty for its time. The soundtrack was also pretty good, but back then, Final Fantasy soundtracks were always pretty good.
It did suffer from a horrible PAL conversion, though. Like all the Squaresoft games before the Squre-Enix merger did. That Final Fantasy X is STILL in the top ten despite this just shows how good it is.
9. Civilization IV ; Civilization IV is a fantastic 4X game, and the Civ game that finally made the whole 4X thing click for me. It also came with a wonderful manual, as thick as the DVD case, which is just not done anymore. I could go on and on about the depth, the wonderful scope of it all, and how getting nuked by Gandhi never gets old, but to be honest, the biggest reason this game gets the spot over so many worthy candidates vying for these last few spots... is a song. The first Grammy awarded to a video game soundtrack. You all know it, you all love it! All together now:
The Lord's Prayer in Swahili was an inspired choice for a theme song, especially considering Civilization IV's big new feature: Religion.
10. City of Heroes ; Welcome to Paragon City, where YOU are a hero. I had to include this, I spent so much time in Paragon City before the game was shut down. It was a flawed game, but it did a lot of awesome things that was unheard of in MMOs at the time. The sidekick system was a big one, letting players play together despite big level differences by temporarily letting the lower level player have the stats (but not the powers) of a character one level lower than the high level one. Later additions had "Create a story" mode, casual friendly raids, and lots of new powersets. I miss City of Heroes, I would most likely still be playing it if it was still there. I miss my characters, I miss the few vs. many style of combat, I miss the community... and I miss flying.
City of Heroes is not the best game of that generation, but it's the one I miss the most. And that's why it gets the 10th spot here.
Honorable mentions
x. Half-Life 2 ; Does it even need an introduction? You all know Half-Life 2, it's one of the greatest singleplayer FPS games ever... but that was only still enough for an honorable mention.
x. Dragon Quest VIII ; Soooo pretty. This game looked so good, had a great soundtrack, and is a perfected classic JRPG.
x. Viewtiful Joe ; JUST GO FOR IT!!! Sorry, Joe, despite all your Viewtiful-ness, I can't give you more than an honorable mention.
x. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader ; Could it be one of the best looking games in the generation was actually a launch title? Why, yes, indeed. And that's why it's getting an honorable mention... it STILL looks pretty good.
x. Kingdom Hearts ; Disney crossed with Final Fantasy in one heck of a strange mix. But it just missed the list. Sorry, Donald and Goofy. Might have made it onto the top ten if it had a decent PAL version, but nope.
x. Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast ; Best Jedi game ever. Also a decent shooter, but the lightsaber steals the show.
x. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City ; It opens with a Commodore 64 load screen. How can you not love that?
x. SimCity 4 ; The last great SimCity. What a shame it never got a proper sequel since there was so much promise.
x. Rome: Total War ; Honestly, it's here because I loved the pre-fight speeches the generals did. From the crazy
"I want to see blood! I want to BATHE in their blood! I wanted to bathe in their blood for a WEEK!!!" to the smugly confident
"I have never lost a defensive fight and I do not intend to start today." it was all good fun.
x. Pokémon Emerald Version ; My first real Pokémon game. I actually still have a few of the Emerald Pokémon on their way from Emerald and into the latest generation. Gardevior lives on!
And I think that's it. Ten entries, ten honorable mentions. I could most likely add another ten honorable mentions to this list, but there has to be a cut-off point somewhere. This was not easy to narrow down this much, though, but here it is. I almost felt bad having to give Half-Life 2 an x, but it came 11th after sorting, so... too bad Gordon.
, I keep juggling across the last 2 spots of my top ten. lol
