The thirteenth and final part of my Top100 favorite games of all time.
Intro Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GC)
GET READY TO RAAWWWK.
You think you know cool? You don’t know Rawk!
Spend a day at Rawk’s gym and you’ll be a man!
Spend a year, and you’ll come out ready to RAWK!
I’m talking a badass mullet. I’m talking gnarly sunglasses. I’m talking a complexion fictitious ladies would DIE for!
You want ladies swooning when you Rawk into the room? You want dudes clambering for autographs?
THEN GET READY TO RAWK!
At Rawk’s gym. Not for the faint of heart or Italian plumbers. Bring sunglasses, headband, belt, speedo, and the willingness to go all the way for your one true God: Rawk Hawk.
Tiny little Mohawk Yoshis need not apply.
Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball (3DS)
*unfortunately, the ost isn't on youtube. Bust!
I have a thing for Baseball. It goes back a ways, to when my cousins and I would smack around a whiffle ball in my grandmother’s backyard, to when we would play, once a summer, on the beach at Balboa. We used to watch the world series as a family, each of us rooting for a different team, one of us (yours truly) usually far too bitter at a loss. We’d listen to games on the radio when we went camping, sitting at the edge of our seats, ignoring the bugs and the wind and the cackling fire and enjoying the drama of baseball.
Adachi Mitsuru was the man who took that thing for baseball and made it something of an obsession, and also took me away from MLB and fit my interest into a bucket labeled Japanese High School Baseball.
Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball isn’t exactly the baseball game of my dreams (it doesn’t exist), but what it did give me was ten hours of excellent baseball mini-games, each one taking something from baseball (the feel of the ball hitting the glove, the sound of the bat hitting the ball, etc.) and stripping it down to its core. Batting. Fielding. Batting at the cages. Umpiring. Making bats. I haven’t gotten all of the games, nor have I finished the story of my man Rusty, but I never felt like I had to. I wanted to smack around some baseballs at sunset, and I did.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Wii) - Top10 Awardee
We had a rule in the family, back when we all lived and played in the same room. Nobody could play passed the person who actually purchased the game. Unfortunately, it was my older brother who bought Radiant Dawn- an older brother who was infinitely busier than Steve and I, due to High School responsibilities and Cross Country training. Which meant that, in the beginning, Radiant Dawn was a slow experience.
It took a day for Steve and I to decide to break down the dam that withheld our progress and advance through the story. A fortunate thing we had our brother’s permission.
But having one Wii meant we still stifled our progress. We took turns, switching off on who played the newest stages so that each of us had a chance to see something new (instead of just playing catch-up).
This went on throughout the whole of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn’s first playthrough. And second. And fifth.
We spent weeks with one of Fire Emblem’s greatest stories, and none of the stages or story beats grew old the entire time. Especially the moment when the story returns to Ike and the rest of the Griel Mercenaries- when Shinon takes the shot and we see everyone return to form in a perilous rescue mission.
Though nothing is truly perilous for the Griel Mercenaries.
Radiant Dawn also introduced some Laguz I could crush on- Vika and Lyre- which meant I had an army of animal people including the old favorites Mordecai, Lethe, and Ulki. Combined with all of my Deadeye archers and my third-tiered units, there was nothing that could quite stand up to my army- least of all a goddess who turned almost everyone to stone.
It was a sequel that didn’t just tell a new story- a trapping of too many games and movies- but continued the one of Path of Radiance by raising the stakes and testing old and new alliances and characters.
Bouncing stories usually leave me wishing I was still in the shoes of another group, but Radiant Dawn’s various (and often at odds) factions were all as interesting, and seeing all the units I had been cultivating in different parts of the world come together for a final battle against the goddess herself was the height of hype-raising storytelling, the kind I hope more franchises would take a risk with, no matter their genre.
At the end of the day, Radiant Dawn featured the most interesting war story of all the Fire Emblem titles, thanks especially to the genius tactician, Soren, who kept even the player at the edge of his seat, unsure what pieces we hadn’t been told until the fake-out, distraction, or guerilla attack unfolded. This, compounded with the race themes that inhabit so many of my favorite story pieces, made Radiant Dawn a powerful adventure, and one I’ll never forget.
And too one of my Top10 Awardees.
Etrian Odyssey IV (3DS)
If you’ve learned anything reading my Top100, it’s that I like to make my own stories. I’m an author- it’s what I do.
Which makes it easy to love Etrian Odyssey, a game where story takes a backseat to mechanics and exploration. The player gets to make their entire party, gets to name their guild, and gets to tackle the world at their own pace, slowly working towards a second class and a full set of skills. With so little happening in the in-game text, Etrian Odyssey lets me maneuver my own narrative throughout the entire thing.
I gave a hint of that when I last wrote about Etrian Odyssey IV.
Sometimes I’ll be walking through the forest, enjoying the scenery, the sounds, the music. The serenity of it all. And the dialogue of my party members, whether between Michael and Lia-Rhi, or Dr. Studd and Allura and King-mun, begins to write itself in my head with every step.
WorkBane’s exploits hearken back to the first Etrian Odyssey on the DS, and I use the term “exploits” loosely. In the first, I never made it past the second floor. In the second, the third. It wasn’t until Etrian Odyssey III that my team made something of themselves. A nuisance, mostly. A promising group that made a promise to save the world.
And didn’t.
It would almost feel wrong for me to actually beat an Etrian Odyssey game. Like it would go against everything that WorkBane ever stood for.
Story driven RPGs never deal with this problem, because they never give me a chance to develop the characters myself. Most of the time, that’s just fine. I enjoy a good story just as much as I enjoy writing one. But every once in a while, I enjoy a game that lets me decide what becomes of Michael and company. Even if it’s nothing much at all.
Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
I have a history with Persona 3, one that date backs some way. The game first released during a time I couldn’t play M games. Which broke my heart, especially when my older brother purchased the game for PS2, soundtrack and art book included. I spent hours listening to the OST. Spent hours sifting through the art book, crushing on Mitsuru and Yukari both. I read the entirety of the manga, watched my brother play much of the beginning of the game.
I craved Persona 3, and eventually my older brother told me to go ahead and play it- our parents wouldn’t know it was rated M just by walking in and seeing what was on the screen. I saw the sense in his reasoning. So I played it.
But after three hours- three hours I enjoyed dearly- I felt dirty. Betraying my parents' trust. And I didn’t want to feel dirty playing a video game. So I stopped.
Fast forward a few years and I bought Persona 3 Portable after beating Persona 4 Golden. Needing more, and remembering the friends I had read about but whose story I had never been a part of. Until now.
I couldn’t decide who to romance. Yukari or Mitsuru? I was attracted to both, either, whichever. It both mattered and didn’t. Of course, in the end, I was with Yuko Nishiwaki.
I’m not really sure how it happened. I was flirting, sure, but it was early. We were barely anywhere into our social link, and in P4G I hadn’t had to make tough decisions until the 6th or 7th conversation. So I figured I was just messing around.
Of course, P3P did it a little differently, and before I knew it, Yuko was coming over to my house, and we were a thing.
And I was okay with it. She’d snuck her way into my heart. Admittedly the last person I expected to end up with, but you know, love is surprising.
Tales of Symphonia (GC, PS3) - Top10 Awardee
We were at the top of the Tower of Salvation. Everything had been leading to this. Every day spent in bathrooms, family rooms, or grinding on drives to the grocery store came down to this last fight. We fought Remiel. We fought Kratos.
And then we discovered the game wasn’t anywhere near finished.
Tethe’alla presented an entire new game world, a set of new characters, and a series of completely reversed and betrayed expectations. A second Chosen. The truth of our party members’ past, parents, and heritage.
Nothing we knew about Tales of Symphonia remained.
And not since then has a game blown our minds in the same way. Games end when you expect them to. And whether because of the internet or experience, the surprises are fewer and farther between. Future installments in legendary franchises stripped away the pieces that made them so enormous- Sticker Star lost the story that made A Thousand Year Door so incredible. Xillia and Graces took out the puzzles and, especially in the former case, fantastic writing to create games that were mere shells of the great goliaths that were Tales of Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia.
When my brother and I think of game worlds and stories that were larger than life, we think of the Gamecube and Playstation 2 eras, when JRPGs had to do more to standout than actually exist. When Link had an entire ocean to explore. When Sky Pirates had the entire atmosphere. Everything seems to have shrunk since then. Everything is within our reach. Right beside us. We can see the mountains from where we stand. We can see the world laid out before us.
That used to be half the story, a quarter of the picture. Tales of Symphonia showed the best games hid their secrets, and not behind a paywall.
My brother and I have started Tales of Symphonia’s PS3 remake, and I’m constantly astonished by how much I remember not only every story scene, not only every line of dialogue, but the exact manner in which every line is spoken. The pauses, the cadence, the stress and tone- from main protagonist speeches to minor characters one-liners. I remember all of it, which is more than can be said for almost every game I’ve ever played.
And though I remember every moment, the surprises spoiled, there’s a new fun to be had. Reliving “That’s Lord Magnius to you, Vermin!” and Colette’s decay into angelhood. Appreciating just how inventive the game’s puzzles were, a reminder that a decade of fond memories tell no lies. And the writing, especially in comparison to the most recent entry in the series. The characters- everyone who is there has their own story that extends beyond being the protagonist’s side squeeze. There’s not a wasted moment, no bad puzzles (though some can be frustrating), and the combat is as smooth and enjoyable as it’s ever been.
Tales of Symphonia was one of my favorite games of all time. Replaying it has shown me that I was a fool.
The game is even better than I remembered, and is easily and proudly one of my Top10 Awardees.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
I was weaned on books like Lord of the Rings and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Books that took their time in getting started because they understood the importance of establishing a universe and characters we cared about, and with them lives to which we could better relate. The ones I write are very similar, despite readers and publishers pushing for books that start faster and waste less time with the humanity of everything.
Gamers seek, often, the same thing. Which is fair- it’s a different thing entirely when a section is played rather than read.
But I don’t mind a beginning that drags. I rather like them- even if they’re put- in Zelda’s case- into the game to serve as tutorials. Because they build the world that you care about, and fill it with characters you care about. The developer doesn’t tell you to care, based simply on your empathy for other human beings. It gives you the reasons to first, and lets you figure out the rest on your own.
Twilight Princess had arguably the slowest opening of every Zelda game. It also had one of my favorites. Because it built Link and his relationships with the town’s populace. With Ilia. With Colin and the other kids. With the rancher and parents and everyone else in the town. So when Ilia goes missing- when Colin is kidnapped- when Malo opens up Malo Mart- I care.
Ilia also presents the first acceptable shipping mate for Link aside from Zelda (seeing as Tetra was Zelda). That is, until we see Zelda in her cloak. It’s a shame we haven’t seen her in that outfit since.
It’s the slow beginnings that make my battles against Ganondorf more than just a personal challenge, a personal vendetta. It’s the slow beginnings that make me go out and explore everything the world has to offer. Because it’s the slow beginnings that make me care.
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I fight for my friends.
Towerfall (PS4)
“I found them.”
My partner sneaks up behind me in the shadows of the trees. I greet him with a glance, but otherwise focus my eyes on the forest in front of me. On the chokepoint beyond where I know our enemies lie in wait.
“Arsenal?”
“Four arrows each. One has Bramble Arrows.”
A magical sort that springs up deadly plants where they touch the dirt, tipped perhaps in some sort of miracle grow solution. Problematic. I look to my quiver. One arrow. My partner has five. He hands me one.
“They’re tough to see,” he says. “One’s crouched. Practically invisible. The other is bait.”
“Plan?”
“I was hoping you would have one.”
I nod, and pull back my hood. Useful for camouflage. Not so much when I’m trying to shoot an arrow at an opposing archer. “You take point,” I say. He had arrows enough to deflect their shots. A luxury I wished for.
He slips in front of me, between the trees, his feet whisper quiet as he bounds a dozen yards in a single leap. They have Bramble arrows. We have skill.
Time to see which one would win.
Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS)
The Ore Club is a legend among my circle of friends.
By which I mean no one remembers it but me. Not to worry though- I remember it enough for all of us.
It was my go-to weapon for the multiplayer and single-player both. An enormous rock with a handle that NO ONE could stand against. It swept foes away with whirlwinds and all the strength of a raging fire and a great typhoon. It made men out of boys everywhere.
I dominated thousands of peasants online and off, doing what only the Ore Club could do. Destroy. There was no one in the world who knew how to handle me, until a band of a million heroes united together to try and defeat me.
It was a battle that took place over a course of six days, and on the eighth day I rested. That’s why to this day there isn’t a seventh day on any calendar.
My triumphs are the stuff of legend, and I owe it all to the most powerful weapon on the planet earth, and all the hells and heavens therein: The Ore Club.
Huh? What’s that?
I never used the Ore Club?
Then what the hell did I use?
…
Ahem.
The Black Club is a legend among my circle of friends.
By which I mean no one remembers it but me. Not to worry though….
Digimon World 4 (GC)
Scorpions. It’s a single word that captures the essence of our hundreds of hours of Digimon World 4. Not so odd when you consider much of our play time took place in the desert. But the scorpions that define Digimon World 4 were all found in game.
And they were never-ending.
The game features a myriad of collectables, key-chains and collectible cards the most prized among them. And hounding them down means battling the RNGs for hours under the hot sun with nothing but your closest friends. When all story progress counted only for a single player, it was only natural we fell to collecting and grinding for our fun.
And so it was that the collecting and grinding never stopped. We killed more scorpions than I’ve played hours of video games in my lifetime.
And that’s saying something.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii) - Top10 Awardee
How does one simply write about his favorite game of all time?
First you must make yourself comfortable. That means a chair with plenty of cushioning. Some air-conditioning. And a playlist featuring songs by BONNIE PINK, May J, and SPYAIR.
Okay. Good. Everything is in place.
So where do I begin?
On the first day, there was darkness.
But before that, there were the years Before Brawl.
The years of the Dojo, when every day returned from school was a day to witness what news awaited. King Dedede. Captain Falcon. A sticky bomb. A soundtrack featuring arrangements from gaming’s iconic composers.
And before that, the E3 reveal, one of the first E3s we ever witnessed in my house. An E3 featuring a plethora of games for Wii and DS both, when Wii and DS were the hot new products on the market. The prophet E3 delivered then the greatest trailer of all time. Brawl’s reveal. Wario’s, Pit’s, Zero Suit Samus’, Metaknight’s, Snake’s reveal. The first days of the future.
So where do I begin?
On the first day, there was darkness. But we did not wait in it alone, seeking the grace of our Lord Brawl. We stood beside our father- who begrudgingly drove us to the midnight release- and dozens of like-minded disciples. Waiting those final minutes until the presence of the Lord.
Then the doors to the new world opened, and with a great passionate fervor, preorders were snatched from the shelves and the disciples dispatched, to spread the teachings of Brawl to the farthest corners of the globe.
Our mission sent us to our home, where we had to wait until morning to play. They were hours long, but we knew Brawl was with us. And it brought us sleep and dreams of what was to come.
On the first day, there was light. The sun rose to herald the coming of the new Smash, and we flung sheets from bodies and ran to the television, turning on the Wii to hear at last the voice of our savior.
(Insert Brawl Starting Sound)
Ah. Ah. Again. Again, we pleaded, bathe us again in your voice. We backed to the menu, then clicked Smash again. Yes. This was what we had been waiting for.
And the game began. The opening showed us everything that was to come. And then we played.
Year One we knew all of what Brawl told us, but we knew it on the surface only.
Year Two we mastered the Targets and swung beyond the stands, shaving seconds and adding meters with hours and days and weeks of practice.
Year Three we shared grace with the disciples around the world, taking on friends we had never met in battles that would heat the blood and hurt the ears.
Year Four we learned that two versus two matches made one versus one battles look like children wrestling in the sandbox.
Year Five was the year of competition, when roommates challenged this loyal disciple with threats of (altogether too much) alcohol, when the stakes were raised and the play raised with it.
Year Six was the year our savior was questioned, challenged by heathens and pagans of the Melee Sect. Those of us who had given our lives to the great Brawl were labeled as Casual, and the methodical and defensive play that gave Brawl its identity was decried
Year Seven their cries were silenced. Not that they stopped- Brawl does not quiet those that do not want a piece of its heaven. It is merciful and loving of all that live on its earth. They simply fell on deaf ears. It did not matter what the heathens sputtered. It mattered only that we loved Brawl with all our souls.
Year Eight we will be shown a new face of our Father Smash, in twin sons Wii U and 3DS, and we will relish in its radiance. Because in these late hours of Brawl- never waning- we look forward to the future. To all that Father Smash has to show us.
And if the signs are any indication, it will be glorious.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl is my favorite game of all time, a gift that keeps on giving even when we thought we’ve exhausted everything it had to offer over a course of thousands of hours. Four Player Free For All has seen no downtime. One versus One battles to the death continue to entertain bloodthirsty spectators. Eight Player Brawls test players abilities to read each other’s minds while Two Versus Two tests the tightest bonds. Fox Only B Only questions players’ ability to position while Falcon Punch only questions their timing. Subspace Emissary presents a fan service of incredible cinematics, and Cooperative and competitive Target Smashes and Homerun Contests. And if all of that was to get old (which it hasn’t, even in seven years of play time)? Then there’s still Taunt only battles, Bomb only battles, Grenade only, Low Stamina Healing Items only, Soccer Balls only, Pokeballs only, Sing Off Battles, King of the Rock, Godzilla Jiggly, Spaceship, Custom Races, Sudden Death Wall Jumping, and an infinite number of ways to play we simply haven’t discovered yet.
Super Smash Brothers is never ending. The world could go on forever more and never see another installment, and we would never stop playing. It’s made friends, enemies, and families closer. And it’s shown me the light. It’s shown me the way.
Intro Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13