Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Best Ever Games

With the release of Star Wars: Battlefront II, the sequel to one of my all time favorite games, I started thinking back on the best of the best video games. From the Arcade to the Atari 2600, NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genensis, N64, Playstation, PS2, and of course Xbox, there have been countless hours with a controller that would have been better spent on getting to know girls, making home improvements, studying, being a better husband, or learning a skill.

So here are my nominations for the best ever video games... (I guess I'll include PC games as well, so as to not offend our resident computer geek)

Arcade: Star Wars, Gauntlet, Rampage, Street Fighter 2

Atari 2600: Pitfall

NES: Super Mario Bros., Contra, Metroid, Mega Man, Punch-Out

Super Nintendo: Streetfighter 2

Sega Genensis: Madden

Playstation: NCAA Gamebreaker

N64: Goldeneye, Battletank, Knockout Kings, Mario Kart, Shadows of the Empire

PS2: Madden

Xbox: HALO, HALO 2 (online), NCAA Football 06, Star Wars: Battlefront, NBA 2k3, Soul Calibur

PC: Age of Empires, X-wing

I'm sure I've left off some good ones, but based on my scientific polling of myself, it seems clear that the NES, N64, and the Xbox produced the best games.

Strangely, I'm not in any hurry to get a Xbox 360 or PS3. I think they will be mediocre systems like the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis that don't make the big leaps in technology and gameplay like the NES, N64, and Xbox. My guess is that the next big thing is a few years away.

8 comments:

Gunslinger said...

What was the thing you deleted Jake?

You missed three of the best games of all time for the Genesis...Altered beast, Golden Axe, and Shinobi Shadow Dancer

Hello, Gauntlet for arcade...

Sega master system (also left out in your 8 bit war) would probably be either Zillion 2, Shinobi, or Action Fighter.

Super nintendo. Super Street Fighter 2. Which Is the only game I think I owned for SNES.

I never had a 64, but the hands down best game for it was Golden Eye, which is perhaps my favorite game of all time. And battle tanks sucks ass.

The original PS had Twisted metal. and the First Tony Hawk game.

Ps2 Has Gran Turismo 2-4, and SOCOM, other than that it sucks.

XBOX, Halo, is the game for sure. Halo 2 for expanding LIVE, but Counterstrike for starting LIVE. Forza Motorsports is incredible. The newest iteration, FARCRY, is cool mostly because of the map editor.

I will wait a while on the 360X, and wont even bother with the PS3. Mostly wait because I cant afford the damn thing.

For computer games, Half -life, and the counterstrike mod. Delta force, and the original Doom.

For the Atari, Joust, pitfall, and off road.

everyday.wonder said...

Atari 2600: Yar's Revenge, Vanguard

NES: Battle Toads, Ninja Kid, Legend of Kage, Karnov, Athena, Castlevania, Gradius, Rygar

PC: Empire (this one goes back to the 286 days), Omega/Angband, Descent I, Dungeon Siege

Tim said...

One of my favorite fighting games:
Sega Genesis: Eternal Champions

and also for Sega Genesis: Streets of Rage

I really liked the Twisted Metal games for PS and PS2

I'm still playing Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 for PC

Most people would claim "Grand Theft Auto 3 should be on there" for any system, but I thought it was boring.

Oh yeah...you forgot Gamecube. It has...uh...hmm...never mind.

Just remember, anything PS2 can do Xbox can do better.

Jake Shore said...

You're right about Altered Beast and Shinobi Eric. Although, I liked them best in the arcade. By the way, I did mention Gauntlet for arcade. Who can forget hours of it at JCs Pizza.

Jason mentioned two good ones for NES. Karnov and Castlevania.

Ted, the PS2 game was Armored Core 2, only I have a vastly different recollection of how that played out --

Ted creates a fearsome looking mech (all black), gives it a scary name, then loads it down with so many weapons that it can barely turn, let alone move.

Enter the Mallard, raining death from all sides in the blink of an eye. All that is left is a smoldering husk of Ted's creation.

I seem to remember giving you the same treatment at Street Fighter 2 when you played Nikolai Volkov with a beard and Mohawk. What about all the whippings I gave you at Pietro's playing Killer Instinct? (OK, nevermind).

Double Dragon was awesome. And thank you Tim for mentioning Streets of Rage. There's nothing better than going street by street beating people up with pipes, 50-gallon drums and chains.

Jake Shore said...

By the way, I'm glad Ted mentioned Chuckie Cheese. That was a defining time in the lives all kids who lived in Salem during the 80s. Does anybody remember that flight simulator game with the real live video that cost like 8 tokens to play?

Gunslinger said...

Mach 2. Was the name of the flight sim, or some level of Mach flight.

Streets of Rage... That game really kicked a ton of ass. Pipes, beer bottles, knives, garbage cans, and I think you could get a pistol too. Pure total fun!

The game Ted speaks of is Forgotten Worlds. there is a white guy and a black guy who kick ass wll over, and get money for taking out the aliens. It is a shooter/scroller. Ted and I played HOURS maybe even WEEKS worth of this game.

We also played a lot of a game called TRUXTON. It is one of the scrolling top down view shooters where you play as some form of spacecraft.

I somehow forgot to mention Descent as a PC game. that was the first game I ever LAN played (Thanks Jason) And played it a lot. Command & Conquer is another good PC game.

I also cannot remember the name of the dungeon crawler game, it was made by EA games. Melissa might remember this game, as she spent more hours than either Ted or I one summer.

Gunslinger said...

The mallard was a homo.

Matthew said...

Tetris, Mario 64 and Zelda 64 should be on there too. Take a look at my personal top 10 for comparison.

http://20thcenturyhistorian.blogspot.com/