But no matter how many times I had to start the game over, it was just too much fun to stop. I never got tired of it, and even now Tetris remains one of my favorite games of all time. This was the game that stripped the Metal Gear formula down to its very core and proved that it could still function even outside our expectations.
It forced us to take what we knew about espionage and infiltration and learn how to apply it in a new, unfamiliar environment, and it did so with a bold and elegant understanding of its own systems. You could have all the stealth know-how and military training in the world, but out there in the unpredictable jungle of the Russian wilderness, you were exposed, vulnerable… a Naked Snake.
And it worked. Snake Eater is arguably one of the most interesting love stories ever told in a game, one of the strangest and most exciting Cold War-era adventures, and one of the first games to truly make me reflect on my actions as a player. It manages to be tragic, sometimes devastatingly so, and yet still maintain that absurd comedic flair that I admire about this series.
Any game that can make you emotional about climbing a ladder deserves some kind of recognition. VR is still a relatively young medium, and while plenty of games had already showed off its exciting potential, none of them had actually harnessed it so completely before Half-Life: Alyx.
It raised the bar to astronomical heights — for what a VR campaign could look like, what VR shooting could feel like, and how a VR story could move you. But while that masterful design unequivocally positions it as the best VR game ever game, its incredible world, story, and encounters and the way they set the stage for the future of Half-Life make it a truly impressive FPS regardless of platform.
God of War didn't just pull off the impressive feat of reinvigorating and reinventing a franchise that had seemingly run cold, but it also smartly subverted what came before to create an adventure that both played to its past and stood on its own as one of the finest games of its generation.
Nearly every facet of Sony Santa Monica's Norse epic is working in concert with one another to craft a thrilling, memorable, and engrossing adventure. From its haunting score, to the beautifully written and acted story of Kratos and Atreus, to the incredible feel of the Leviathan Axe, God of War's impressive craftsmanship shines through at every step, honoring the past while forging its own path.
Chrono Trigger is widely regarded as the greatest RPG of all time, and for good reason. There's a reason first-person puzzle games far and wide are constantly compared to Portal — though a brief adventure, its gameplay, tone, writing, and structure so cohesively work together to create one of the most memorable, challenging, and fascinating puzzle games around. Arming players with the now-iconic Portal gun and the devastating - and lethal - wit of Glad0s, Valve guided players through a fantastically orchestrated and escalating set of physics-based puzzles that ended with one of the most memorable end-credits songs of all time.
But for as great as its puzzles are, and the way they take the simplicity of two portals you can shoot almost anywhere into such fascinating territory, it's also Portal's world-building that equally makes the game such a memorable touchstone.
What can you say about the definitive fighting game, the game that has spawned countless imitators, acolytes, and sequels? While exceptionally balanced, the imaginative design and high-end graphics for its time helped set it apart. Street Fighter II became perhaps the first fighting game global arcade smash and it is still celebrated today. Mario's move out of arcades and into the Mushroom Kingdom changed our hobby and our industry as we know it, setting off a chain of events that shaped gaming as we know it today.
Super Mario Bros. Its influence cannot be overstated. Example: literally everyone reading this can hum its theme song, right now, from memory. Now it's playing in your head again. You're welcome. A small child falls into the world of monsters and suddenly finds themselves the target of an ancient grudge that calls for their death. Undertale puts the player in a unique situation; where you'd usually kill everything in your way, Undertale gives you the option to spare every monster you meet, though it never requires it.
Every monster killed or spared alters something in the world, whether it be another monster wondering what happened to their friend, an opportunity for a hilarious date, or a slightly easier time with a specific monster's bullet hell battle. Undertale is jam-packed with emotion, charm, and determination to show that your actions make a difference, no matter how small you think they may be. But its ambitious story — of religious and scientific schisms, of dreams and reality, of idiot gods and nightmare newborns — is told not in the overwritten prose favoured by Lovecraft but by an exceptionally savage third-person action game.
Director Hidetaka Miyazaki wanted every slash inflicted by its arsenal of gruesome weapons to feel as if you were fighting for your life. As is usually the case, his design works flawlessly. So much story is embedded in the dilapidated hallways and shuttered rooms of Rapture, a decaying underwater labyrinth that demands to be investigated. I still think about three moments in The Last of Us at least once a week. That dissonance struck me, but made so much sense. The Last of Us marries its storytelling with its gameplay, and nothing made me feel more than that last moment.
That sense of reality is what helps you empathise with Geralt, understand the world, and really understand how bad things have gotten when the crazy shit starts popping off. An RPG with enough complexity to satisfy the urge to tinker, but enough character never to feel impersonal, Wild Hunt is a staggering achievement no matter how you look at it.
Its story deftly balances cosmic threat and family drama, its choices feel truly meaningful and world-changingly effective, and it looks gorgeous in its own grubby way. Even its two DLC expansions are among the best ever released. Few games had more of a buildup prior to their release than Halo 2, and even fewer managed to live up to them in the way that Halo 2 did.
Master Chief taking the fight with the Covenant to Earth was epic, action-packed, and visually stunning on the original Xbox. Sure, the campaign didn't so much end as much as stopped, but the shocking reveal of the playable Arbiter and his story that mirrored the Chief's was a twist no one saw coming. Furthermore, and perhaps even more importantly, Halo 2 was the killer app for Xbox Live.
It brought the party system and matchmaking hopper concept to consoles, instantly making every other online console game look archaic in its infrastructure by comparison. Of course, it helped that the multiplayer gameplay was, well, legendary. It has devilish new enemy patterns, new bosses, and fantastic new equipment. Symphony of the Night is much more than just a fun side-scroller with an awesome twist, though.
Art, animation, sound, gameplay, design… even replay value, thanks to multiple playable characters, all come together perfectly for one unforgettable experience that hits every note it needs to. Supergiant has released a string of incredible action games since its foundation, but Hades is all at once its best game, one of the finest takes on and best introductions to the roguelike genre, and a fresh, vibrant, and beautiful take on Greek mythology.
As the son of the titular Hades, Zagreus, you'll try escaping the underworld again and again and again, and Hades makes that Sisyphean task constantly rewarding and not just because Sisyphus is actually a character. Hades places as much an emphasis on the wide array of powers you earn every run, which allows for so much variety in how you approach a run, as it does on permanent progression, either in unlocking weapons, overarching stats, and more.
But it doubles down on those rewards, with new bits of story, character development, and lore being just as important to every death and rebirth as the mechanical knowledge and upgrades you unlock.
That's bolstered by a suite of incredible voice performances, fun twists on Greek myth, and a fantastic soundtrack that makes each attempt at breaking free memorable.
Turn it on and pick a street. Analyse it. Look at the asphalt, worn and cracked; punished by the millions of cars that have hypothetically passed over it. Look at the litter, the graffiti. No game sells over million copies by accident. Mario 3 earned a place on my list of favorite games way back in , and 25 years of gaming progress have yet to dislodge it. So much of what we consider so quintessentially Mario — the suits, the boos, the overworld — all actually originated here.
Its twisting plot, a cast of memorable characters, and sheer depth of choice combine to create an experience that begs to be savored in a world riddled with crime, poverty, and violence. And, somehow, it manages to make all of this fun and, surprisingly often, funny.
A gorgeously designed isometric RPG that makes you think at every turn of its richly detailed streets, Disco Elysium is truly a unique experience, and one that will surely live long in the memory of any who have, for many years to come. Half-Life 2 forever changed our expectations for what a first-person shooter could be. Its richly imagined world and wonderfully paced gameplay is a delight, never letting up and brimming with invention. We get to set Antlions on our enemies and in which we play fetch with a robot Dog.
In short, it is a truly memorable piece of game design. Its slower pace allows us to binge on the world like a virtual museum but, when the lead starts flying, it puts the wild back in the west and then some.
Few games manage the level of uncompromising detail as Red Dead Redemption 2 does. Do we need to discuss the horse balls again? Mario games are synonymous with fun and innovation, and perhaps Mario 64 is the best example of the latter.
It was still recognisably Mario — he collected mushrooms and ran and jumped his way to success, but he was forever changed. He could now long jump, triple jump, and backflip. While the underlying challenge remained the same and the locations were reassuringly familiar, the shift in perspective changed everything. Mario 64 might now look a little blocky but it remains bold and brilliant, too.
Where Mass Effect set the stage for a futuristic Milky Way, Mass Effect 2 let you explore and experience so much more of it. As Commander Shepard, I traveled the galaxy on the best recruitment trip I could have wished for, and experienced possibly one of the most heart-wrenching stories — but whether or not the game ends in tears is entirely up to you.
The planet Zebes is atmospheric, oppressive, and extremely lethal. But then you start to look more closely. The parasite-riddled dead soldier outside of an early boss room. The crashed, half-submerged alien spaceship that may or may not be haunted. What makes it truly special is its genius combination of puzzle-solving, atmosphere, storytelling, exploration, game design, and gameplay.
This iteration of Hyrule was more than just moving between enemy-filled screens, it encompassed everything an immersive experience should be: a vast open world that teased you with secrets hiding just beyond your reach, begging you to come back with new and inventive tools.
Portal undoubtedly came out of nowhere and shattered the mold, but Portal 2 took that raw and incredible concept and managed to shape it into a more polished and impressive package. It cranked the dials up on just about everything that made the original so special. The mind-bending puzzles, the surprisingly dark story, and the ridiculous humor that balanced it out - each piece of that picture was refined and refreshed to build a sequel that actually surpassed the ambition of an already extremely ambitious game, making something both familiar and altogether new.
It gave us a deeper look into the wonderful world of Aperture Science without completely dragging all of its mysteries out into the light. Couple that with a seriously good co-op campaign and even a full-on custom level builder and sharing systems added post-launch and Portal 2 has stayed the high bar by which all first-person puzzle games should be measured, even nearly a decade later.
Super Mario World is a relatively simple game to describe. Super Mario World is the crescendo to the slow build in technology and game design that started with Super Mario Bros. We dare you to make a better game: Puzzling, but not opaque; tough but not intimidating; beautiful, funny, joyful, and universally recognizable. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild eschewed the semi-linear, borderline predictable path of the 3D Zelda games before it in favor of a bold, crazy new approach: let players do what they want, how they want, and in whatever order they decide.
By marrying an open-ended approach to quest structure with the ability to freely explore a vast, beautiful, intriguing world with little specific regulation, the 3D Zelda game template was shattered about as fast as the average breakable weapon in Breath of the Wild.
Portal 2. Super Mario World. Zelda: A Link to the Past. Zelda: Breath of the Wild. They tried again in January of in their th issue and with some shifting and a few additions the list is kind of similar. I won't give you both lists completely, but below are the top ten so you can compare and contrast. Call me a youngin but I kind of like the one better.
So long EGM. Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News. And the games that got 10s? Few and far between. The list of Platinum Award winners from is a short list of the best games of their generation. Along with their tight game review hallmark for excellence, their Game of the Year was easily the most interesting and compelling award of its type. It always seemed like EGM got it right, or — at least — they had really thought it through and could defend their choice.
But you know what? Those were the reasons I liked and admired EGM. No, of course not. You could tell that the writers liked each other and hung out playing games with each other in their spare time.
You could tell that the staff was a great bunch of people to shoot the shit with, that the editors hired people with interesting personalities and passions as much as they did for writing skill. I used to know the names and personalities of most of the writers, but a few people come to mind.
Seanbaby still a prominent Internet comedian wrote an absolutely hysterical back-pages comedy column. I also seem to remember a guy named Crispin being the butt of a bunch of jokes. The first issue was fairly forgettable, but I distinctly remember buying the second issue at Crown Books.
The cover featured the Genesis, TurboGrafx , and Super Famicom , as well as the Game Boy, apparently flying through the air, heralding the coming of the bit era. It was actually some Metroid codes that convinced me that I had to buy the magazine, but after I took it home and read it cover-to-cover, it taught me that there was so much more to this hobby than I had ever realized! During its early years, it was essentially the Time Magazine of gaming.
It also influenced me as a writer; when I look back at the gaming articles I wrote for a fanzine circulated among my friends! As I got older and became serious about being a games writer, EGM looked like the kind of publication that would be my dream job, but due to its geographic location Chicago at the time , it wasn't something I actively pursued. Over the years I did, however, make several cameo appearances in its pages -including in the high-score charts, letters column, and a random E3 photo -further cementing its place as one of my favorite magazines.
I didn't agree with or enjoy everything the magazine did, of course, but I did read every single issue thoroughly and still have the entire collection threatening to crush my closet shelves. If that's not a magazine that inspires dedication, I don't know what is. Chris Antista Associate Editor, GamesRadar US As much as folks complain about console forum fanboys , we must remember that schoolyard discourse was just as vicious pre- interwebz.
In the early '90s, debating Genesis and Super NES could turn brother against brother faster than you could pop an ill-timed erection while dressing out for PE. And since Nintendo wasn't yet the legacy it is today, I was constantly taking heat for standing by Mario while the Genesis was hosing my friends down with fleeting Baditude.
So by , Sonic the Hedgehog was upon us, every bit as awesome as it was exclusive, a fact my dipshit friends couldn't stop reminding me of.
Their console had Blast Processing, mine didn't, and there was no denying it. Above: In hindsight Bubsy was kind of an asshole. I memorized every word of that two-page preview and frequently recited the Clinton-era hyperbole, like "16 MEG of topnotch sights and sounds! So what if it was coming out on the Genesis too!? Bubsy's visual might was evident right there on the page - so as long as the Bubster could move as fast as Sonic, in the words of the immortal bobcat, "What could possibly go wrong?
Above: No one spoiled death animations like the folks at EGM. Every day I brought that issue to school, using the abundant character art found across EGM's two-page spread as a reference for drawing Bubsy kicking the shit out of Sonic on all my notebooks, thus tormenting the Sega sect even when we weren't permitted to speak.
And it worked! Of course, time has shown that EGM and I were fighting a losing battle in a greater console war far beyond our understanding. But that was all part of the fun of living in that moment intime -truly one of the most exciting and passionate eras gaming has ever seen -and EGM was with me every step of the way. They will be missed. The real loss this week is the people behind the publication -without a doubt, some of the most enthusiastic, authoritative and entertaining voices to ever talk about videogames.
And you know what? They're super nice, too. I'll always remember meeting and hanging out with Shane Bettenhausen in Las Vegas for a Midway convention. Although I had been writing about games for less than six months at that time, and he was the Shane from the EGM, he treated me as an equal. Forget experience or celebrity Above: Some of the people formerly behind the publication Image ganked from here.
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