Again, my top 30 or my favorite series list would be heavily tilted toward 1989-1995, but this is about single entries. My favorite gaming year is 1995, but there's no entry from that year. 2008 is certainly not my favorite year of video games, either (2000's at the podium). My taste is a little more eclectic than is represented here, but I'm not going to deny a worthy entry just because other people know and love it. That said, given my genre and style preferences, these are somewhat predictable. As always, Hardcore Gaming 101 and Action Button are great English-language resources. My previous list is here, and only 1 changed:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18297789&postcount=292
The tallying list and unpretentious English titles are at the bottom.
10: Strider Hiryu 2 (2000)
There is no video game more transformed from novice to expert play. I'm convinced. What was once shrugged at by credit-feeding games writers turned out to be an appreciation of video game movement. Let me put it this way: it didn't take a future-cyber-secret-agent-Communist-battling-space-ninja in the lead to convince me that Strider was cool.
09: Galactic Civilizations II (2006)
My ideal strategy game is a tactical R.P.G. that matches or surpasses all of the inspired design of my existing favorites with none of the drawbacks or incomplete design present in all of them. Until then, I'll have to content myself with bottom-to-top attentiveness not to what I thought I wanted from the game, but from what I never knew I did. The developer gets my appreciation for respecting my personal views and my respect for stretching my gaming ones. Oh, and its customization makes me giddy to this day.
08: Panel Pon Gamecube (2003)
Let's say you're tasked with adding an extended story mode, remixes and classic music, pastel aesthetics, charming intra-generational design, a puzzle-solving mode, an edit mode, a training mode, a 3-d mode, and a 4-player versus mode on top of an existing famous puzzle game. On what do you build your foundation? Oh, right. Panel Pon.
07: Bangaio Spirits (2008)
The constancy of shoot-'em-ups is unmatched by any other genre, so it figures that my favorite loops awkwardly around the standard entries. Other famous series offer the joys of comedy, pure geometry, religious mysticism, and arcade amazement. Bangaio Spirits offers puzzles. I adore it for that.
06: Devil's Castle Dracula: The Stolen Glyphs (2008)
I expressed embarrassment about picking a new and untested video game on my last iteration of my list, but no more. It's not a "hazard," but a joy to defend a title of such obvious quality. My favorite protagonist and story in the series lead a game combining the best environmental, combat, role-playing, and difficulty design of entries past. That it so far exceeded a disastrous amalgamation refutes, I think, those who'd dismiss the handheld entries as unimaginatively constructed.
05: Bakumatsu Romance, Act 1: Swordsmen Of The Moonlight; Bakumatsu Romance, Act 2: A Glowing Moon Waxes, A Petal Falls And Flutters (1998; 1999)
In a genre known for its unabashed (some would say pathetic) gaudiness, I turn toward a series with class. I'm not ashamed of cat girl nuns, poorly voiced relics of an earlier 3-d age, or the nadir of anime, butt-rock, and cheese electronica, but who wouldn't rather dash, parry, and strike at Japan's pivot to "modernity" and the West? It's expertly rendered and finely tuned. Quit cycling baby combos and embrace it.
04: Super Mario World (1990)
Few things irritate me more than a defence that, implicitly or explicitly, amounts to, "This evokes pure, childlike joy in me!" It implies developers are cashing in on past glory. Sorry, Nintendo fanboys, but they EARNED this one. I couldn't expect a better welcome to my favorite era than the definitive gleeful platform adventure. The oddness, the addition of exploration, and the Yoshi are just bonuses.
03: Final Fantasy IX (2000)
It doesn't take 1 of GhaleonQ's hallmark Pretentious Nerd Theories to appreciate the lovely bookends or stellar medieval/baroque aesthetics. There's nothing postmodern about the best ability system in any R.P.G. The flawlessly charming cast do work on 2 levels, after all. Such things make the game my 3rd favorite ever, however.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=24130286&postcount=197
02: King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992)
I've written before that I don't believe games age. If anything convinced me otherwise, it would be LucasArts. Yes, I started with and preferred Sierra since I started playing video games, but Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, and Sam And Max nearly matched Sierra's efforts. Perhaps it's the spans of clever graphic adventure games from Asia and Europe or the development of my comedic sense or the lack of dramatic tension or the sad decline of all of LucasArts' developers afterward, but all but Monkey Island have lost much esteem from me. Sierra, especially King's Quest VI, delivers the harsh rule of discipline, the warm familiarity of video game and fairytale convention, and lovely, thrilling originality to this day. SIERRA FOREVER. HERE I STAND. I CAN DO NO OTHER.
01: Moon: Remix R.P.G. Adventure (1997)
I quote myself: "How good is this, the pinnacle of games-as-art? I love Team Ico, but I'm unable to read all of the 'Ico' and 'Shadow Of The Colossus' picks without thinking the vast majority are obligatory 'art game' picks. Try the real thing, folks. Moon makes Ico look like Gears Of War.
You could read my essay here:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376513
or just play it if you like:
Team Ico's philosophical approach
Games that make fun of RPGs
Games that celebrate RPGs
The Last Express' 'real-time world'
In-game customizable soundtracks
Japanese, American, or European adventure games
Mother 3's tone
Watercolor
Dragon Quest III as the archetypal video game
Games that make fun of video games
Games that make fun of you for playing them
“Weird stuff” in Super Mario R.P.G., Outrageous Crisis, or Grasshopper Manufacture’s work
Vanpool, Skip, and Punchline
Crying like a widdwe tyke
Games-as-art
I'm going to say it's EASILY the greatest game ever made. You should play it."
You still ought to do so.
01: Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
02: King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
03: Final Fantasy IX
04: Super Mario World
05: The Last Blade 2
06: Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia
07: Bangai-O Spirits
08: Panel De Pon Gamecube
09: Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords/Dark Avatar/Twilight Of The Arnor
10: Strider 2