Forums > Contributor Zone > Top Five

I'm drinking and thinking, and so: let's hear your top five. Since the number is so small, these have to be your absolute favourite games, games that were amazing when you played them and are still amazing now. It's tough to say that of most games -- even great ones -- so let's have at it.

In no particular order:

Unreal Tournament
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Silent Hill
Street Fighter II
The Legendary Axe

What say you?

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

Good list. Mine contains stuff I love so much I find myself coming back to them every few years or so. Like an unbreakable cycle.

Silent Hill
X-COM (original)
Sonic The Hedgehog
Phantasy Star II
Dungeon Keeper

My only note is that I find it completely impossible to pick between Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2. My heart says 1 and my head says 2, but neither are stronger then the other. It's weird.

For us. For them. For you.

Chrono Trigger
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Dark Souls
Ocarina of Time
Final Fantasy VI

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

Joe with an INSTANTANEOUS response. Is that FF3 here?

I don't know about you guys, but my fifth spot choice always rotates. Like, the first four are absolute locks, and the fifth limps into its spot.

Gary: I feel the same with Silent Hill 1 and 2, but ultimately 1 takes it because it started the whole weird thing.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

Mine are in no order at all. There's games that I feel should make the list (DOOM, Shining Force, Wipeout), but I don't replay them as regularly as the five I listed.

For us. For them. For you.

I guess that's what it comes down to eh? A lot of the time you have games in mind that you THINK you should be holding up, but you never return to those. It's about the games that stand the test of time. And there's no telling which ones are going to do it. I should say, mine aren't in any order either; what I meant was that I name four easy, and the fifth seems to be a struggle.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

I half expect Ruder to show up and berate you for DARING to question the legitimacy of The Legendary Axe

For us. For them. For you.

His love for the game was equaled only by Zig's trolling, dissenting view. But I do love Axe, and still play it. Super Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania III, Symphony of the Night, R-Type, Street Fighter Alpha 3 -- they could all fight for that final spot.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

I haven't really thought about my top 5 in a long time. Probably not in this decade. So here goes...

Final Fantasy X (played the HD remake recently, and it's as good as I remember)
Mass Effect 2 (One of these games was going to make my list, and 2 is the best of them)
Persona 5 (Best RPG I've played in this console generation)
Witcher 3 (The game that just kept on giving, so much to do, and without resorting to Skyrim-like generated quests)
Grim Fandango (still my favourite of the Lucasarts Adventures, the HD remake reconfirmed this)

Ocarina of Time used to always make my list, but I find it hasn't aged quite so well, and none of the other Zelda games have really stepped up to take its place.

I can avoid death by not having a life.

In no order:

Shinobi III
Sonic & Knuckles (with Sonic 3 attached)
Metal Slug X (I played this so much in the arcades, I got to the last stage boss on one quarter)
God Hand
OutRun 2 (Xbox version)

I head spaceshit noises.

I'll have to think more on this. Off the top of my head, I can come up with three definites:

Doom 2
Chrono Trigger
Skyrim

Between Doom 2 and online wads, I've played it for ages. Chrono Trigger is my personal all-time favorite JRPG. I've beaten Skyrim twice and put over 500 hours into it easily with very little of that time involving me feeling like I'm going through the motions.

But it'll take a while to figure out how to whittle the list down to only two more. Like, a part of me feels that a Mario and/or Zelda game SHOULD be there, but when it comes down to an individual top 5, those series almost are "sum greater than the parts" where I love them because virtually every game is really good, as opposed to one particular game being that killer app.

Okay, my fourth is Tecmo Super Bowl. Hard to leave that off considering I've put a million or two hours into it and won the Super Bowl with all 28 teams, most more than once. Now, the fifth...that's gonna be tough to narrow things down. Castlevania something? Dark Souls? Alundra? I dunno...

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

Lunar: Eternal Blue (SEGA CD! NOT PLAYSTATION!)
Super Mario 64
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Resident Evil 2

These aren't games I replay every day. I don't want to wear 'em out. These games are more like old neighborhoods. I don't want 'em to change, and I want to always have the option to return to them.

JOSEPH VALENCIA was able to build this sig IN A CAVE…… WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!

A lot of love for Sonic in general, Sonic 3 w/Knuckles in particular. I don't think I've played that one. I think I played 2 with Knuckles, and liked it a bit. At one point, I seem to recall everyone saying Sonic 2 was the best Sonic game, but I guess that's changed.

Where is Venter with his Nintendo-only list? ^_^

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

My top 5 list doesn't tend to be the same from hour to hour. There are a few top titles that I think of quite frequently with overwhelming fondness: Super Mario Kart, Super Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy VI, The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man 2... and for newer stuff, there is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, Chrono Cross, Dark Souls, Yakuza 5... But no, I don't really have a top 5 anymore, nor do I go back and replay a lot of games because there's too much new stuff I haven't played but need to experience. When I do go back to older games, though, there's a good chance the games in question are in this post.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

Your Mario love was needed to balance out all the Sonic raving going on in here.

In other news, as Switch spokesperson, you'll be interested to know that I'm thinking of getting one.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

I'm about to get a PS4; don't know when I'll pull the trigger, but I have the itch right now and when I get the itch, I usually just cave and buy the damn thing so I don't think about it constantly.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum: I'm tiring of my PS4 and might sell/trade it while it's worth more than peanuts. Maybe for value towards the aforementioned Switch, we'll see. What games excite you about the PS4? I bought it cuz I've had every Sony system thus far, and cuz I wanted to keep playing Uncharted. With the Uncharted series essentially behind us, my PS4 is gathering dust (though I did break it out to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider a few weeks back, that could have been accomplished on Steam).

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

Steam has really come into its own in the last few years, with more developers--including, finally, a lot of the Japanese developers large and small that I care about--showing support for the platform in ways that still surprise me when I think about them. So a lot of what once would have been exclusive to PS4 hits Steam two or three weeks later and sometimes with improvements. Though I still vastly prefer playing games on console to PC.

The PS4 still has exclusives I care about, though. The God of War reboot is supposed to be fantastic (we reviewed it very well here, too), and everyone seems to love Insomniac's take on Spider-Man. I'm happy to have a PS4, and will continue to buy games there rather than on PC as long as it is feasible. But PS4 domination is definitely being tested by PC and Switch. The latter is where I spend most of my time, and it's getting better all the time. For a long-time Nintendo fan like me, Switch is a dream come true.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

Let's see, while I don't know how many of these game are exclusives beyond Bloodborne, there's that, Dark Souls 3, Dragon Quest XI, DOOM and a bunch of other ones like...

Games I gotta beat stuff I currently have to really get into like Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Stuff that I want that's a bit too powerful for my Mac so I can't play through Steam like Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Pillars of Eternity. A couple newer Tales Of games. Oh, and I thought I was done with Kingdom Hearts after finishing that game, but then saw a couple trailers for KH 3, so the fact every single KH game is available on the PS4 via various compilations (with all being in 1 single one by the end of the month) is appealing, too, since those trailers single-handedly got me interested in the series again. And a couple other ones like NieR: Automata and Ni No Kuni II that seem like intriguing possibilities.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

So... RPGs. Dumb question! What attracts me most about Switch is the ability to take the small screen to the bathroom with you in a pinch, do your business, then come back to playing it on the TV.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

There's no order here, just ones that I immediately think of when people say "Gimme some of your best games".

Morrowind and Skyrim. Oblivion has a place and got me through some tough times but Skyrim sticks out more in my head and I think I played both Morrowind and Skyrim a lot more than Oblivion.

Fallout 3-4.

Assassin's Creed 2+Brotherhood and Black Flag. One of the first franchises that I've been with since the beginning. Played the first but AC2 really captured me.

Fable. All of them, for different reasons.

The Mass Effect franchise, but I enjoyed 3 the most.

Yes I know that's more than "five" technically but I included some in the same franchise as they've had similar effects throughout my life.

Honorable mentions from my youth:

Starcraft
World of Warcraft (which I still dive into every now and then)
Burnout Paradise
Final Fantasy X
Unreal and Tournament
Quake 2
Jade Empire
Knights of the Old Republic

Honorable mentions in recent years:

Conan Exiles
Monster Hunter World
Shadow of Mordor
Divinity Original Sin 2
Sniper Elite 3-4
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Life is Strange

All good stuff but just don't immediately come to mind when people ask.

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Yep, the only real difference is that I've gradually over the years shifted from JRPGs to ones with more a western style as I prefer having at least the illusion of "choice" (even if it just comes down to character customization and being able to do things in a non-linear way) to being led on rails. And it doesn't help the JRPG cause that those games really have struggled for the most part in going from the NES/SNES/Genesis era of 20-40 hours to becoming 80+ hour quests, as they just seem to be more bloated instead of better for the most part.

For me, my problem with the Switch is simply that I was underwhelmed by my last two Nintendo purchases for reasons not related to the actual games. I was not a fan of the Wii motion controls (Xenoblade Chronicles was my favorite that I've played to date and, surprise, it doesn't use motion). I'll be playing a Super Mario Galaxy or Twilight Princess and constantly have to remind myself what I have to do in order to do this move or that because when you do things one way for 25-30 years, it's not intuitive to switch over to a completely different way. With the 3DS, I pretty much have to play it with the 3D turned off because every time I move a bit, I have to re-adjust my grip to get back to the "sweet spot" where the graphics work and don't get out of focus. With some games, they do look really sweet with the 3D effects, but every time I try it, I have to switch back to normal after a few minutes because I keep moving my hands a bit and things just don't work so well then.

I respect what they're doing and can understand their appeal, but their stuff just doesn't work for me to the degree that I'd not want to drop the cash on their systems when I know I'll have a great time with a system that uses the old-style "tried-and-true" controls and graphical stuff.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

1. Thief: The Dark Project
2. Thief II: The Metal Age
3. The Sims 3
4. Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters
5. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Arranged in order of which games had the most impact on me, which were the most memorable or brought me the most joy.

placid like acid

Your issues with the past two Nintendo devices don't really apply to Switch, Overdrive. The hardware is terrific this time around (though if you want to wait until the rumored/likely Switch hardware revision comes out a year or so from now, it'll probably be even better).

I use a Pro Controller when I play most games, and I would say conservatively that 95% of games support that input. It's just like playing games on any other platform, except if you prefer to, you can lift the Switch out of its cradle--with Joy-Cons attached--and play on the go. Switching back and forth is near-instantaneous, and while playing on the go isn't as comfortable for me as playing the old-fashioned way with the system docked, it's very nice anyway. I don't like playing with a Joy-Con held sideways like an NES controller much at all, but almost no games require that. It's also a neat option, because it allows impromptu gaming sessions. One time, a coworker brought her Nintendo Switch to work, and we played a couple of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe races on break. That potential is very cool, even though I can't see myself ever taking advantage of it again

I have to admit, though, that I didn't have a lot of trouble with Wii once I had played it a few dozen hours. The Wii Remote with Nunchuck pair actually is basically just a standard controller without plastic attaching the left and right halves of the controller, and in some respects can be played more comfortably for that reason. A lot of games play just fine without requiring the player to adapt new skills. 3DS games can be played without 3D on just fine, and the newer releases--even from Nintendo--typically don't even support 3D. I almost always play with it disabled.

In my opinion, the optional Pro Controller for Switch is one of the most comfortable conventional controllers ever made. It's in tight competition with the PS4 controller for best controller of the generation and maybe all time. The best argument against buying a Switch that I've seen is that a person can't afford it (that's always a good argument against buying anything), or strictly wants to play AAA stuff like Madden and Call of Duty (neither of which is available yet on Switch, though third-party support for the Nintendo Switch is the best it has been since basically the SNES) and isn't interested in indie games, arcade classics or AA and Nintendo stuff.

The Switch is well on its way to becoming my favorite game console of all time. By the time 2018 ends, it's looking like 1000+ games will have released in this calendar year alone, and a better than usual portion of them are good or even great. There's a reason almost every gamer I know who has tried playing a Nintendo Switch has wound up buying one.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

The Switch certainly has potential, but to date Nintendo has not capitalized on it. I greatly enjoyed Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade 2 and I'm looking forward to Smash Ultimate and Torna, but beyond that there isn't much else that's exclusive to the console that warrants my interest. I suspect that will change in 2019, but at the moment I can safely say that my Switch is getting less action than my 3DS was as this stage of its lifespan. In fact, I'm currently spending more time with my six year old 3DS than I am with my new Switch.

EDIT:

Turning off 3D is pretty much mandatory for enjoying 3DS games, as far as I'm concerned. Very few games make truly good use of the gimmick, and even successful 3D isn't worth the hassle of dealing with the "viewing angle" problem. Otherwise, the 3DS might just be my favorite console since the Genesis. I'm secretly rooting for Nintendo to keep it alive well into the Switch's lifespan, or at least long enough the port the last remaining Mario & Luigi game to it.

JOSEPH VALENCIA was able to build this sig IN A CAVE…… WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!