Metagloria's 108 Greatest Games: A New Twist on the Traditional Best List!

Ranking your favorite – or in my case, the objectively best – games of all time seems to be a popular thing around these forums. It lets you get to know a user more deeply, as you share in their gaming experiences and learn their opinions and intricacies. An avid listmaker myself, I'm about ready to open myself up in that way.

However, the old-fashioned, tried-and-true "Here's a list of games I like from least-best to most-best" format is pretty played out (although I really like reading all of yours!), plus I don't have the energy or capability to fill my posts with images and descriptions like a good Pumpkin or Wolf Kanno would. On top of that, even for someone who loves ranking stuff as much as I do, sorting a hundred games from very diverse genres and eras by quality is a nigh-intractable task. So I devised a method to help myself, and then I decided it would more fun if you guys actually walked through that method with me!

INTRODUCING: THE POD SYSTEM!

I made a list of the 108 games I thought deserved a place among the all-time greats. Then I sorted them alphabetically, and randomly divided them into twelve pods (A through L) of nine games each. Putting 108 games into order from scratch might be absurd, but putting nine in order is pretty reasonable.

During Phase I of this process, I will reveal each pod one by one, first posting the nine games with minimal commentary, allowing my forum friends to discuss and debate the games for themselves (and perhaps even sway my opinion on some!). After sufficient discussion, I will then go through my thought process as I attempt to rank the nine games, eventually (hopefully) settling on a ranking. We'll do that 12 times, and that'll be the longest and most entertaining part of this journey.

Then comes Phase II: Once I have twelve ranked lists of 9, I will merge them into four lists of 27. This should be somewhat easier, because I'm only ever comparing three games at a time. Which is the best: Pod A #1, Pod B #1, or Pod C #1? Oh, the best of those three is B1. Now which is the best: A1, B2, or C1? And so on and so forth.

Phase III will be similar, as 4 lists of 27 become 2 lists of 54, culminating with Phase IV in which the two become one massive list of my top 108 games of all time!

ABOUT THE GAMES

• I like to think that I've played all the great games, and if I haven't played it, it's because it's not that good. But, sadly, I must be humble and confess that I have not in fact played every good game ever. I've only played one Pokémon game; I've only played one Suikoden game; I've only played three Tales games; I've never played LoZ: Wind Waker; I've never played PaRappa the Rapper. So as much as I will egotistically laud this as an objective list, it's only objective in the scope of games that I have played. (That said, I've never played Nintendogs, but I'm comfortable claiming all of these games are better than it.)
• I'm fiercely loyal to series – you'll be seeing the same titles a lot, just with different numbers or subtitles. If I like a series – like, say, Final Fantasy or Mega Man – even the "worst" titles in it are among the best games of all time for me.
• Every main Final Fantasy game is on the list except XI which is definitely one of the 108 best games ever, but I've never played it. Sorry. IV: The After Years (never played), XII: Revenant Wings (boring), and all the Tactics games (too hard, never played, never played) are not on here. All the other spinoffs are. Except Dissidia. I liked Dissidia, but it's...I don't know, it's something other than a game to me. Hard to explain. I enjoyed it at the time but I also kind of never want to pick it up ever again, you know?
• Along those lines, I just think RPGs are by and large better games than other genres – they're bigger, deeper, more involving, and more fun. You guys feel me on that, right? Look, if a platformer or shooter or goat simulator is AWESOME, then it deserves recognition as such. But a good-but-not-great RPG is still going to trump a great-but-not-excellent game of any other genre for me 9 times out of 10.
• Some games make this list by virtue of being an undeniable classic, even though I may not personally love them. I'll try to respect the legacies of great games and factor that into my rankings, but like I said above...RPGs are just better. It's like with music: maybe metal wouldn't exist without Led Zeppelin, but I'd still rather listen to a decent metal band than most Zep albums.
• And lastly, a confession: I lied. There are actually 111 games on the list, subject to change if I remember anything else awesome. I thought I had everything when I decided to go 12-by-9, but then I somehow missed one, and remembered one, and then saw another one on Pumpkin's list...so we're at 111. I'm just going to randomly assign the extra 3, and any other late comers, to other pods – so three pods will have 10 games.

ALL RIGHT LET'S DO THIS!


The first pod will be posted tomorrow!​

It's a shame you've only played 1 Suikoden game because I wanted to make the List of Destiny joke

I don't know if you get it though. Just pretend you get it

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Originally Posted by Pumpkin

It's a shame you've only played 1 Suikoden game because I wanted to make the List of Destiny joke

I don't know if you get it though. Just pretend you get it

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No I'm totally recruiting the 108 games of destiny

well im sure your HYPEello'd for this...you know cause your sig is a Hypello... idk

Okay I was a little delayed because of work stuff, but here we go. Let's kick things off with Pod A!

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General Themes: This Pod gives us an interesting mixture of game styles. We've got three Mario titles, all extremely different; four RPGs, again very different, none being legendarily great; and three games that are kinda low-commitment just-for-fun titles (Dave Mirra 2, Hyrule Warriors, Street Fighter II). Pokémon Yellow and SF2 are old-school classics, with SF2 having perhaps the biggest cultural legacy as it revolutionized fighting games – at least before Mortal Kombat burst onto the scene. Interestingly, there happen to be no Final Fantasy games in the first Pod! What a way to begin.

Marquee Matchup: Tough to pick out for this one, but I'll be interested to see how Mario Galaxy vs. Mario RPG shakes out.

Discuss these titles amongst yourselves and I'll be back later with my rankings!

I like Xenosaga III the mostest out of those

Super Mario RPG all the way. It's probably about time to break out the SNES for some squaretendo turtle-bopping fun.

Beyond SMRPGLOTSS (smerpglots, everyone, smerpglots!), I'd have a hard time ranking SMG, NSM, and SSF2.

I think I'd have a harder time making a bunch of pods than making a straight 100(+) list. Creating pods means you basically have to make multiple top-10(ish) lists, and that's the hardest part.

Pokemon Yellow, Street Fighter II, and Super Mario RPG are my favorites out of those.

They're also the only ones I played.

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Originally Posted by metagloria

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All right, let's tackle this first pod. I have to say, we're not really starting off with a bang. None of these games jump out to me as all-time greats; I'm not even immediately sure which one is the best out of the nine at first glance. But as I said earlier, there's a good way to split this into three sub-pods, so let's do that.

SUB-POD 1: Just-for-fun games (​Street Fighter II, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2, Hyrule Warriors)
These low-commitment titles come from three totally different eras of gaming. Street Fighter II really brought the fighting genre into the mainstream. It's a game I respected more than I played; as a kid, I spent hours poring over the special moves, memorizing their controls, and not understanding how you pull off Zangief's spinning pile driver since it involves rotating the joystick 360 degrees but that means you hit up and then he jumps so how do you do it when he's in the air I don't get it. (I still don't get it.) Eventually, I acquired the game I enjoyed so much in its Sega Genesis form, where I promptly played as E. Honda and used my turbo controller to spam hundred-hand slap all the way through the game. Fighting in SF2 was more pure, as the genre had not yet devolved into maximizing combo chains and filling special gauges to perform unblockable super moves. As such, going back and playing it now, the game feels sluggish and archaic, but I prefer that to the frenzied, almost impossible-to-follow flow of the later styles. So SF2 has a lot of legacy and nostalgia points with me, but as a game itself, its marks are not the highest. Spoiler alert – there are no other fighting games on my list.

The Dave Mirra games – originally for the PlayStation, its sequel for the PS2 – were really well-done action sports games at a time when I was a huge X games (and, specifically, Dave Mirra) fan. I always loved BMX, and never really appreciated skateboarding, so – spoiler alert number two – there are no Tony Hawk games on my list. Personally, I think the control scheme in Tony Hawk is a disaster, but that's probably because I'm biased from years of playing the Dave Mirra games. Motion, jumping, and tricks are very intuitive, so once you get going, it's easy to pull off a 720 nothing double backflip, barspin superman indian, or the elusive decade. DM2 mainly featured eight levels, alternating between skate-park designs (including Camp Woodward, an abandoned water park, and desert cliffs) and more real-world areas (including a trainyard and an airport/hangar). The levels are vastly larger than those in DM1, allowing you to get hugely creative with how you approach them. Free riding and completing the various challenges were a ton of fun, if nightmarishly difficult at times, but getting gold in competition is virtually impossible – a much more challenging endeavor than in the original. Still, I spent many hundreds of hours on this game and enjoyed it a ton.

I've only completed about 50-60% of Hyrule Warriors, just messing around with it at a friend's house. I have no experience with its inspiration, Dynasty Warriors, so I can't assess how it related to a game like that. But I can say it's a very enjoyable game with only modest difficulty, fun areas, and nice contours of a story to bind things together. It seems they build replayability in by suggesting that you repeat the same few maps over and over to acquire special items that unlock new skills and abilities, but that's not something I can see myself doing. It's artificial padding, but at least it's entirely optional, as I haven't found myself needing to "grind" to advance. It's fun, and I'll borrow and finish it someday, but it's not a life-changer or one I expect to be nostalgic about.

I would rank these three games: Dave Mirra 2, Street Fighter II, Hyrule Warriors.

SUB-POD B: Mario games (New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario RPG)
These games are linked by the presence of the legendary Nintendo plumber...aaaaand that's about it. NSMB is a modern-day throwback to old-school 2D Mario, the first of a successful wave of such titles that has spanned the DS, 3DS, Wii and Wii U. Galaxy, in contrast, is a fully modernized incarnation of Mario, building on the format of the universally-acclaimed Mario 64, but with new gravity mechanics and gameplay aspects that take platforming in a whole new direction. SMRPG is the famous foray of Square into Nintendo's world, combining familiar faces like Mario and Bowser with new ones like Mallow, Geno, and Smithy for a thoroughly unique take on the RPG genre.

SMRPG walks a fine line, because it needed to be accessible enough for Mario fans (who may have no RPG experience) but interesting enough for RPG fans – and I think it did that very successfully. It's simple but not dumbed down; it's varied, entertaining, and creative. That said, it's not one of the best RPGs of all time, and its legacy tends to slightly overstate its quality. Similarly, NSMB had to have old-school charm while still being an interesting modern game, and it did that brilliantly with crafty level design and hidden star coins, making it an enjoyable and replay-worthy experience. But it's not one of the best platformers of all time.

Super Mario Galaxy, however, IS one of the best platformers of all time. Nintendo's bread and butter is showing off the capabilities of their systems with a Mario flagship game and a Zelda flagship game. Galaxy was Nintendo's "Hey, look what our Wii can do" moment, and it is jaw-dropping. The level design is – pun semi-intended – out of this world. The mechanics are fluid, though some parts are challenging beyond belief. My only hesitation with praise for this game is that – spoiler alert number three – its sequel actually did it even better. The only thing Galaxy has on Galaxy 2 is that the home-world, where levels are accessed via the spaceship, is way cooler than just moving Mario's head (faceship, har har) around a linear map.

I rank these games: Galaxy, SMRPG, NSMB.

SUB-POD C: RPGs (Pokémon Yellow, Xenosaga Episode III, Tales of Graces f)
Okay, RPGs that aren't Super Mario RPG. And again, all very different. Pokémon Yellow, my only Pokémon title, is extremely hard for me to judge because while I remember it being a great game, I haven't played it at all in...probably fifteen years. I do, however, remember that it was a really solid video game in general, not just good because it was Pokémon. I'd love to give it another run sometime soon...I just re-discovered my Game Boy Color at my parents' house over Christmas!

My experiences with Xenosaga and Tales are much more recent. I've only played XE3 once, and from what I can remember, it had the coolest battle system of the trilogy. It was also very epic in scope, as it tried to put a bow on what was intended to be a six-game sequence that got cut short. Tales of Graces f was my second Tales game, and it felt extremely similar to Vesperia (my first), to the point that I found it very difficult to make a judgment on which one was better for a long time. In retrospect though, I liked the characters and overall storyline of Graces f better. (I'm actually only assessing part of the game, because I never bothered with the future arc, which as I understand is a ton of extra content.)

At the end of the day, none of these are top-tier RPGs, but all of them are extremely fun and have their place. Graces f is the biggest and most fun, though. Pokémon is awesome and I can't disregard that, so it gets second place, which leaves Xenosaga Ep. III, sadly, in third. An underrated game, still underrated here...

FINAL RANKINGS: POD A

A1. Tales of Graces f
A2. Super Mario Galaxy
A3. Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
A4. Pokémon Yellow
A5. Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra
A6. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
A7. Street Fighter II
A8. New Super Mario Bros.
A9. Hyrule Warriors

I want to try Tales of Graces eventually

Interesting format. I look forward to your pods! I don't think I've played any of the first lot. ^^;

I remember Dave Mirra 2. It was clunky, but fun.

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Originally Posted by Pumpkin

I want to try Tales of Graces eventually

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You totally have to, considering how much you like Tales in general. I loved Sophie and Pascal, but I bet you'll be more of a Cheria fan.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Interesting format. I look forward to your pods! I don't think I've played any of the first lot. ^^;

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Thanks! First pod was weird. But don't worry, the next six pods all have at least one Final Fantasy title!

Time to reveal... POD B!

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General Themes: This pod is half classics (FF3, MM4, SMB3, Super Metroid, Zelda 2) and half big modern RPGs (FF12, The Last Remnant, Rogue Galaxy, Xenosaga 2). And also, Pokémon Snap.

Marquee Matchup: Sorry, is it "Mar-kwiss" matchup? Final Fantasy XII was awesome, but Rogue Galaxy emulated what it did well with a few different twists, so that'll be a fun comparison. Then again, any two of those four old-school Nintendo games make for an interesting pairing.

Go you games that I have played! *cheers*

yay FFXII, Xenosaga II, and Pokemon Snap!!

Ew, The Adventure of Link.

Yay Pokemon Snap and FFXII.

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Originally Posted by ToriJ

Ew, The Adventure of Link.

Yay Pokemon Snap and FFXII.

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You're gonna be disappointed, because I adore Zelda 2.

(Of course, I love FFXII more.)

Nice, XII is the awesomeness.

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Originally Posted by metagloria

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Tricky stuff going on here. I've pretty much mentally divided this into halves, so let's sift through them one at a time.

First, the RPGs. Let me go ahead and not surprise anyone by declaring Final Fantasy XII the immediate winner of this group. It's going to end up very high on this list, there's no mystery there. Of the remaining group, as I alluded to in the "marquee matchup", I think the closest contender is Rogue Galaxy, a thoroughly XII-like RPG that did an awful lot of things right. Sadly, one of the things it did wrong was exist on a dual-layer disc, making it impossible to complete in many PS2s – including mine. So, I'm judging a game I never even quite got to finish. And yet it's still an excellent game with all the things that make RPGs good – strong combat system, creative skill tree that uses items to fill out, diverse and explorable areas, solid story and characters. It's an underappreciated gem that should be considered among the best of its generation.

As much as I respect FFIII for what it did, massively expanding the class system from the original and allowing characters to switch classes, it's just not a game that's held up well over time, including in the DS remake (which is what I'm judging). It has its moments, but not nearly as many as other great RPGs. So it's going on the bottom of this pile.

That leaves The Last Remnant and Xenosaga Episode II to battle it out for the bronze medal among these RPGs, two games I've only finished one time. The first time I played Xe2, I got to a mech battle with Pilum and Scutum and couldn't win. I ended up quitting for many months before eventually restarting it and getting past that part (with some expanded knowledge of how mech piloting works). It's probably the weakest in the trilogy, though it does prominently feature the exceptional villain Albedo. In contrast, the first time I played The Last Remnant, I played it for probably 15-20 hours on a friend's Xbox 360 – and then discovered that I couldn't transfer that data to my own Xbox 360 because of idiotic profile locking. So I replayed the whole thing and loved every minute of it. There are very, very few games that I enjoyed more for the first 80% of the game that TLR. However, that game is severely marred in my memory because if you don't understand the underlying black box mechanics of party construction and progress, you can be severely unprepared for the endgame. There's no straightforward leveling; instead, the illusion of leveling comes in the form of "Battle Rank", but raising your Battle Rank is not always a good idea and may not at all make your party stronger. With the right build, you should be doing 100,000+ damage per turn toward the end. I was doing, um, about 15,000. I was still able to beat the game – barely – but taking on optional superbosses was a joke. Nevertheless, I can't discredit a game that entertained me that well too much.

On to the older titles. This was such a headache that I had to hash out my thoughts with a friend who's also a classic Mario, Zelda, etc. gamer. And we ended up pretty quickly settling on a perhaps-surprising conclusion: Super Metroid is by far the best game of this bunch. But before I lay out its merits, let me tell you a little bit about what Super Metroid means to me. As a young gamer, I purchased the strategy guide for Super Metroid and studied it intensely. Crateria, Brinstar, Norfair, Maridia...these areas captivated me with their mystery and complex, intertwined layouts. In an era when platformer games were all about stages, Super Metroid was a single, vibrant, interconnected world. Here's the catch: I bought the guide with owning Super Metroid...or a Super Nintendo. That's how good this game is.

Pokémon Snap is a fun game that sucks you in and can energize a late-night hangout, but it's over quickly, and it suffers from having only 63 of 151 Pokémon. To the bottom with it!

The truly challenging part is sifting through Super Mario Bros. 3 (THE classic video game), Mega Man 4 (the first Mega Buster title), and Zelda 2 (a totally unique action RPG that history, for some reason, does not smile on). I used to think Mega Man 4 was one of the more challenging NES Mega Man games, but that was back when I played all of them with Game Genie so I had a skewed concept of difficulty anyway. As it turns out, it's the one I played enough that I can pretty much tear through it on muscle memory now. It's fun, it has one of the best collections of robot masters, it has some really great stages, and it makes good use of Rush. I'm not sure where it'll end up on the Mega Man pantheon, but it's good enough to edge out SMB3 and Zelda 2 in a super tight race.

The final question: can I justify calling a maligned, misfit Zelda game better than Super Mario Bros. 3, a game with a legacy so huge I can't even think of proper adjectives to describe it? SMB3 is a massive Mario game, with like a hundred freaking stages over the standard eight worlds. It's pretty difficult later on, particularly if you're interested in completing every one of those stages. Of course, you can jump almost right to the end with the dual warp-whistle trick, but that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? I'm not judging a speed run of the game, I'm judging the full game. And the full game is a challenging, drawn-out adventure that ends up somewhat bloated and overstays its welcome. It's not like this game has cape feathers; the raccoon suit and frog suit are fun for a minute, but wear out their welcome pretty quickly. In fact, one of the unfortunate consequences of the success of the New Super Mario Bros. games is that, by improving on the formula of the classics, they've made us all aware of exactly how much there was to be improved upon. SMB3 has a legacy because it was great in the early 90s, but it doesn't hold up now. Zelda 2, on the other hand, holds up incredibly well in part because its uniqueness has never been duplicated or polished. It's actually one of my favorite Zelda titles! It's got a cross between action platforming and RPG elements, with a world map and leveling up system. It's also insanely difficult, though some combination of state saves and/or infinite lives (not life) make it pretty tolerable. That level of challenge, while not inappropriate for an NES game, certainly holds Zelda 2 back from contending with other games in the franchise that it might be better than. But I'm going to step out on a limb and say it's better than SMB3. I surprise even myself...

FINAL RANKINGS: POD B

B1. Final Fantasy XII
B2. Super Metroid
B3. Mega Man 4
B4. Rogue Galaxy
B5. The Last Remnant
B6. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
B7. Super Mario Bros. 3
B8. Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse
B9. Final Fantasy III
B10. Pokémon Snap

Saving FFIII for last is probably both a good and bad decision by me when it comes to completing the various FF's. xD

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Saving FFIII for last is probably both a good and bad decision by me when it comes to completing the various FF's. xD

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It's a good game. It's just...it plays like Hard Mode FFV. Hehe.

I'm glad FFXII did so well!

Time to keep the fun rolling with Pod C!

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General Themes: A big-time FF showdown, a spinoff, a couple of other RPGs, one of a large puzzle series, and two of the greatest platformers ever. Don't know if there's anything to generalize, though.

Marquee Matchup: Definitely VI vs. X-2, with an opening act of Mega Man 3 vs. Sonic 2.

I like several of those games

Go, go, Final Fantasy X-2!

Loving this format!

Another good batch of titles but Sonic 2 stands out to me as the most significant.

I inspired myself to start a new game of Pokémon Yellow because of this thread :dance:

...even though I'm still working on Dragon's Dogma and FF3.

Sooooo I'm gonna finally put down my Game Boy Color long enough to write up this pod. Holy crap Pokémon Yellow is addictive.

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Originally Posted by metagloria

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I'll save the FF series games for last. Let's start with the Professor Layton conversation. All five Professor Layton games that I've played (everything but Azran Legacy, which I own but haven't played yet) are on the list. Is that a bit much? Yeah, it does feel a bit screwy. But here's the thing: they're all the same dang game. Is any one of them good enough to be on the list? Yes. Therefore, how could I say Unwound Future deserves a spot but Diabolical Box doesn't when I can't remember anything that distinguishes them? The only substantive distinction between Professor Layton games is 1) the plotline, and 2) how many mandatory slide puzzles there are because ugh, slide puzzles. If memory serves – and it probably doesn't – Diabolical Box was the worst perpetrator of those offensive brain-melters. I seem to remember Unwound Future having a pretty good puzzle set and a very good story although the ending twist was a whole new level of ridiculous. (For those who know nothing about Layton, every game is based around a Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery where the plot is advanced by solving arbitrary puzzles and there's always a crazy reveal at the end.) Anyway, all that to say, there's a good chance that the five Layton titles wind up bunched between, like, 73 and 77 on my list, because as difficult as it is for me to tell them apart, it's going to be even harder for me to say that some random RPG is better than one Layton game but worse than another one.

Sticking in the realm of handheld gaming, we have the surprisingly robust Dragon Quest IX, a flagship title that found its way to the DS for some reason. This game has a unique trump card among all the games on this list, because while it is by no means the best RPG I've played, it holds my personal record for hours spent on a single playthrough at a staggering 178, which is almost 30 more than Skyrim. Think about that. I spent 20% more time grinding grottoes in a handheld game than I spent doing hundreds of quests in a massive, open-world console RPG. (Understandably, I have yet to play DQ9 a second time...) I actually got into RNG manipulation using some fancy websites and tools, something I've never bothered with on any other game before or since. And I didn't even do everything! There's a screenshot somewhere online of someone 100%-ing this game, and it took over seven hundred hours. What the. I just. No way dude. But I digress: the game itself is fantastic, the job system is really, REALLY well done, and it very well might be the best handheld RPG out there. It totally lives up to the Dragon Quest legacy.

Another RPG that might take hundreds of hours if you really wanted to do everything is Digimon World. I was a big Digimon fan during its run as a Saturday morning cartoon, so naturally I wanted this game to be awesome. It's actually extremely difficult if you play it normally, because your digimon live in a day cycle between 5 and 11 days, but you have to be training them so that they'll evolve properly, and you have to take them to the bathroom regularly, and feed them, and all that makes it difficult to ever actually go explore File Island. I eventually experienced a lot of the content of this game (and there is a lot!) using Gameshark. But it's slow-playing and doesn't feature a lot of music, which is kind of a downer. Good for nostalgia, but hard to recommend on its own merits.

Moving on to platformers, we have two absolute classics and one more modern entry. The latter is Jak & Daxter, which filled the void left when the Spyro team neglected to put out a good product for the PS2. It's made by the Crash Bandicoot people, and though I never played that series, their experience shines here. The lands are diverse and challenging, but not impossible (I did get every precursor orb on my second playthrough – with a strategy guide). Movement and combat are imperfect, but workable. (Also, literally while typing this paragraph, I remembered that Ty the Tasmanian Tiger exists, and that might have been just as good of a game.) Good game, nothing that special.

You want special? How about Magnet Man, Metal Sonic, and two eminently replayable games from hallowed franchises. Mega Man 3 is usually hailed as the peak of the series (or 2, for hardcore gamers who love difficulty). It brought Rush and Proto Man (here called Break Man) into our world. It had great stages, creative bosses, and perhaps the best Wily's Castle of any title. But it didn't yet have the mega buster. Sonic 2, on the other hand, was the first Sonic game to feature the spin dash. It also featured the lovable and iconic Miles "Tails" Prower, who strangles Rush in any showdown of sidekicks. It features one of the franchise's best songs (Chemical Plant Zone), the fantastic Casino Night zone, the monstrous Metropolis zone, and the epic Wing Fortress zone. To this day, if my friends and I are sitting around, at some point the idea of playing Sonic 2 will be floated – it might not happen, but it's always discussed. It has a level of timelessness that is hard to surpass. Mega Man will have its day, but Sonic and Tails take this round.

Lastly, let's set our eyes on Final Fantasy. (See what I did there? You guys see it, right?) You might be able to guess from my avatar and signature that I'm a X-2 fan. You just don't know how big a X-2 fan I really am. You guys, this game is almost perfect. The combat is the absolute best implementation of the ATB system, hands down; almost the best version of the job system; features simultaneous player and enemy action; breaks the mold of having characters on one side and enemies on another; and is just plain fun. Having the mythos of Spira already established by X allowed X-2 to do something incredible by using every area in every part of the game, be it for main story or supporting content, enabling a level of immersion no standalone title could possibly achieve. It's honestly an unfair advantage, something that only a sequel is capable of pulling off, and it is leveraged to excellent effect here. "Ugh, the game is too girly, and the plot is too light-hearted." I just think anyone who offers this half-butted argument has never seen all the Crimson Spheres or entered the Den of Woe. There are some goofy moments – like in, oh, every other FF title and most RPGs ever – but they are certainly balanced with heavy and emotional content. "Ugh, the soundtrack is J-Pop." Yeah, AWESOME J-POP. And not even half the tracks are full-on poppy tunes; there are plenty of brooding and melancholic offerings as well. In summary, I will hear no ill word spoken of X-2, and you will nod in agreement as I move it high up the list.

That leaves us to weigh VI against Crisis Core – a closer battle than some might imagine, but ultimately one decided by the flaws inherent in the excellent VII prequel. VI is far from perfect, but it is a main series game, which means it has a lot of things Crisis Core deviated from, such as an actual party, consistent leveling, and a world map. Crisis Core was a blast to play (and replay), and the missions were loads of fun. But the mediocre main story (up until the last few chapters and the ending, which is without question the greatest ending in ANY Final Fantasy game), repetitive combat, and being shuttled around between maps with lots of right angles ultimately derail this valiant attempt at extending the VII universe. I also didn't much care for Ishimoto's soundtrack, relative to most others, particularly the transcendent work of Uematsu on VI which is widely regarded as some of his best. I have no nostalgic attachment to VI, I think the graphics are pretty ugly (in every version – MAN this game screams for a legitimate remake), espers are worthless aside from being spell-teachers...there are plenty of flaws. But I couldn't rate the bungled-yet-entertaining Crisis Core above it.

FINAL RANKINGS: POD C

C1. Final Fantasy X-2
C2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
C3. Mega Man 3
C4. Dragon Quest IX
C5. Final Fantasy VI
C6. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
C7. Jak & Daxter
C8. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
C9. Digimon World

Someday. Someday, I'll play FFX-2.

Hmmm, X-2...I held back from playing it back when it was released as I never quite felt drawn to it's style, at least what I was seeing and hearing during the time. I came to play it only after I got the X/X2 HD Remaster. I'm rather luckwarm towards it to be honest, don't hate it nor love it; granted the battle system is nice but for the rest I felt there was a lot of potential to do something better and more in sycn, as far as tone goes, with the original game.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Someday. Someday, I'll play FFX-2.

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Originally Posted by Egami

Hmmm, X-2...I held back from playing it back when it was released as I never quite felt drawn to it's style, at least what I was seeing and hearing during the time. I came to play it only after I got the X/X2 HD Remaster. I'm rather luckwarm towards it to be honest, don't hate it nor love it; granted the battle system is nice but for the rest I felt there was a lot of potential to do something better and more in sycn, as far as tone goes, with the original game.

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I actually wasn't going to play it either. Instead, I bought FFXI and attempted to install it on my PC so I could play it with 56k dial-up internet. Before I even got to attempt that horrible idea, the game wouldn't actually install; once I had to switch discs, the second disc started spinning wildly in the CD-Rom drive. So I returned it and said, well, I'll give X-2 a shot. Then once I started playing it I was just like :jawdrop:

Also, we should have a jawdrop smiley.

Like this.
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We used to have one but it was only used once or twice. Probably still on the server somewhere.

Pod D, another weird one...a couple of really, really great games in here though.

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General Themes: Four RPGs from various eras – the bright, playful Eternal Sonata; black sheep Final Fantasy II; dark, complex Xenogears; and open, action-filled Dragon's Dogma. If you're just looking for fun, there's another Layton title (Miracle Mask) or the amazing and trendsetting Super Mario Kart. If you're up for an adventure, Tomba! is one of the most delightful PS1 platformers. But the real legends here – pun intended – are...

Marquee Matchup: Mega Man Legends vs. Sonic & Knuckles. One took a classic platforming series to its ultimate 2D conclusion, another shattered the realm of 2D and brought its hero into three glorious dimensions in a Zelda-meets-Metroid romp for the ages.

Oh Xenogears and Mario Kart!

I have to try and finish Dragon's Dogma...have it on my PS3 with the expansion and all but got derailed with other games.

Go Eternal Sonata!

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Originally Posted by metagloria

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I'll begin with the clear outcasts of the group. Tomba! is a game I don't actually own, but a friend and I played it together one summer over a decade ago. It's a really unique 2d platformer with levels that "turn" in a kinda-3d way, lots of exploration and secrets to discover, and we had a good time adventuring and learning all of that stuff. But aside from that it's not super memorable. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask is another Layton game, the most recent one on this list, and gets its unique character by vacillating between present time and flashbacks to Layton's youth. The story is really engrossing, the flashback puzzle-dungeons are a nice addition, and overall this may be the strongest Layton entry – certainly very close with Unwound Future.

Final Fantasy II is my least favorite of the FF series, but it still has so much charm. It has far and away the best story of the NES generation, great music, and one of the most interesting overworlds – which is set up as a single landmass! But it also has self-flagellation, magic grinding, and atrocious dungeon design. The better Square product on this list is Xenogears, a cult-classic PS1 RPG with a fascinating and complex storyline. While the gameplay is a little draggy, the sequencing is sometimes disorienting, and the inclusion of platforming elements is a bit awkward, the characters are great, the gears add an interesting dimension, and that story is among the best in gaming history. This could've been a true all-time RPG titan were it not for the totally botched second disc, which was clearly intended to be fully fleshed out. Never in any other game – especially not one so dungeon-oriented at times – have I seen a game literally warp you to the final chamber of a dungeon where the MacGuffin rests just to narrate "We went to place X and got thing Y..." It literally shifts completely from a game to a movie in the latter part, and while the emphasis on story (and the added clarity) is refreshing, the gear-shift (hehe) is jarring and ultimately drags the game down immensely.

On the newer side, we have the very JRPG Eternal Sonata and the very WRPG Dragon's Dogma (which I am currently in the process of completing). Both of these are a lot of fun, but not at the pinnacle of their genre. Eternal Sonata has good combat, great characters, and engaging story, but ends up feeling somehow empty – despite having a good time playing it, I remember terribly little about it – and the conclusion of the story is way out of left field and confusing. Dragon's Dogma is one of only three WRPGs I've played, and it doesn't do any one thing excellently. The combat is good, with a broad skill system and job classes (though I wish there were a bit more cross-class ability carryover), but the selection of enemies is pretty limited. The world seems immense at first, but it doesn't take terribly long to reach every corner of it – it's not half as large as Skyrim, and made artificially larger by the slowness of foot travel. The number and quality of dungeons is incredibly low for a game of this scope. Unless it blows me away going forward, I don't see it as a classic.

Now for some real classics. Super Mario Kart for the SNES was one of those Nintendo masterstrokes that changed gaming forever, basically inventing the kart racing genre and spawning a side-franchise currently eight titles deep. This is the only one on my list though because it is the best. Later Mario Karts got all weird and overcomplicated; let's stick with simple courses, red shells, fun battle modes, and classic courses. It's a great game! But at the end of the day, it's a kart racer, and that can't hold a candle to the amazing action of Sonic & Knuckles, the pinnacle of the Sonic series. With eight levels, including the unimpeachable Lava Reef zone, and the addition of Knuckles the gliding echidna as a playable character, this game sucked up a major chunk of my childhood. It's hard to judge this game just by itself, because it also featured lock-on capability with Sonic 3 (where you could play through all 14 combined levels together) and Sonic 2 (where you play that game as Knuckles). All of those things are awesome. But even just on its own, it's awesome.

With all that praise heaped on Sonic & Knuckles, we move on to Mega Man Legends.

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You ever have one of those games that you love so irrationally you can't even talk about it with coherent sentences? That's me and Mega Man Legends. I love this game SO MUCH and I try to tell my friends about it and I just come off like crazy cat lady. It's like Zelda, except better than any Zelda game. It takes place on this island with a massive intertwined network of underground ruins that are progressively revealed and connected as the game progresses. The story and voice acting are spectacular (characters with real voices! are you listening, Zelda franchise???). The setting is sublime. It's loaded with weapon upgrades, interesting sidequests, and creative and memorable bosses. It's got a little bit of a difficulty curve (I quit at the Feldynaught for over six months my first time!), but once you master it, it's smooth as butter. The only bad thing I could possibly say about it is that it's short – by doing every possible thing in the game, you could stretch it out to about 20 hours, but you could also totally speedrun it in under 2 (I did it in 2:18 – and think I can do better! I was rusty!). This is one of the handful of games I can play by muscle memory. I can beat the final boss without taking damage. But none of that explains why it's so good guys it's seriously so good.

FINAL RANKINGS: POD D

D1. Mega Man Legends
D2. Sonic & Knuckles
D3. Xenogears
D4. Super Mario Kart
D5. Eternal Sonata
D6. Dragon's Dogma
D7. Final Fantasy II
D8. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
D9. Tomba!

Heh, now that you mention it...I remember Tomba! from playing the demo disc back when I first got the PSX and was waiting for my copy of VII to arrive. One of the guys at the store gave it to me for free when I bought the system there. I think I spent about a week playing that and the disc of demos the Playstation came with while waiting.

It's been so long since I last played FF II that I barely remember any of it. It always seems as if III is the worst of the NES era by consensus, not sure if I'd find either worst than XIII (which is my least favorite FF game at the moment). Will need to try and revisit them someday. I found Dragon's Dogma very hit and miss, some of the combat mechanics are nice and I like how things change at night but overall it felt a bit "chorish" to play through and there is a lot of going through the same areas over and over again. The map isn't as big as it seem as first as you noted and soon you'll find that there really isn't much to it. I also didn't like armor/clothing selection much, never felt like I could look badass as I can in other western RPGs and while you have plenty of options to tweak your character's appearance I found it annoying that most of the time what you see while you are creating/customising the character is not quite what you get in game.

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Originally Posted by Egami

I found Dragon's Dogma very hit and miss, some of the combat mechanics are nice and I like how things change at night but overall it felt a bit "chorish" to play through and there is a lot of going through the same areas over and over again. The map isn't as big as it seem as first as you noted and soon you'll find that there really isn't much to it. I also didn't like armor/clothing selection much, never felt like I could look badass as I can in other western RPGs and while you have plenty of options to tweak your character's appearance I found it annoying that most of the time what you see while you are creating/customising the character is not quite what you get in game.

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Good points, and I got distracted and also forgot to mention the pain-in-the-butt inventory limits. About 20 hours in it started morphing into Inventory Management: The Game aka "What can I drop/shove onto a pawn to get myself 0.01 under 40 pounds?" I've sort of learned that I carry too many curatives, though. That criticism said, I do really appreciate how you can upgrade using items directly from storage instead of having to go get them out and put into your character inventory first – that would be an absolute nightmare, so good on them for circumventing that.

Here's a pod that I'm actually really, really excited about. Time for the fifth entry in our list!

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General Themes: Big-name RPGs here, folks. Two-thirds of the maligned XIII trilogy, the gorgeous Ni no Kuni, and the extraordinary Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. A couple of beloved Mega Man titles appear, pitting classic 8-bit Mega Man against his 16-bit cousin. Plus three handheld titles, including two of the greatest games available for the 3DS.

Marquee Matchup: Neither one is going to win the Pod, but the matchup of interest is clearly XIII-2 going against XIII-3. Which of these incredibly different sequels will come out on top? Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, please share your thoughts on these games! Especially if you want to weigh in on XIII-2 vs. LR or MM2 vs. MMX.

Thoughts on XIII-2 and LR, eh? Personally I think the entire XIII saga is a massive disappointment and XIII itself is my least favorite FF title (more on it here). XIII-2 and LR sought to fix or backtrack on the huge missteps that SE took with XIII but really all they tried to do and didn't quite achieve was to kind of dial things back to what we had in XII which XIII had scrapped for no justifiable reason. Which is why I feel that XV looks so far like what SE should have followed up XII with as opposed to what we got in XIII.

So, XIII-2 gave you a bit more freedom to jump around the different areas, gave you a bit more to do than just running forward in narrow corridors fighting monsters, included npcs, made some adjustments to the battle system such as you being gable to change the party leader (which XII had already implemented years before and XIII took away for no reason), etc. But it still inherited a lot of the things that made XIII bad and added a few of it's own bad things along the way. I did like Caius as a villain tho.

LR gave you a more open world feel (again in response to criticism and the demand for such among gamers and again which XII had already done years before and XIII took away for no reason) and more customisation with it's schema system; but then it mitigates against the exploration of said world with it's time limit/mechanic making you feel rushed and cutting you off from certain areas at different times of the day. It also has what is perhaps the most annoying aspect in a FF game done no less by who is probably the most annoying character in FF history: Hope. I hate games that treat me as if I am too stupid to figure things out or as if I have a ridiculously short attention span. Hope is nearly always pointing out the obvious or is constantly reminding you of things you already know and he does this over and over again to the point where it becomes annoying and distracting. I already KNOW I will be teleported back at 6:00, I KNOW there is a ladder there I can use or that I only need another number for the passcode, so pretty please...with sugar on top...shut the hell up. It is as if the game doesn't trusts the capability of the player to figure things out on his own and goes out of it's way to hand hold you in a rather abrasive manner. It is really distracting and immersion breaking.

Anyway, while I do like both games more than XIII, that isn't saying much, really...hopefully we have seen the last of Motomu Toriyama's directional efforts on FF titles.

I love Star Ocean 3. :D

Between MMX and MM2, I am in the vast minority here but I don't especially LIKE MM2, while MMX is one of the best in the X series, soooo . . . I like X a lot more than 2. :)

I'm interested to see how the new Zelda game I haven't played is going to do

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Originally Posted by metagloria

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Let's knock off the Layton title first. It's the third one you've seen in this list, but the first game in the Layton series. As such, it's charming, but also lacks some of the pleasant refinements that entered the series as it went on. It's not my least favorite Layton game, but it's at the bottom of this very stacked pod. Just above it is the delightful, if eventually nightmarishly repetitive, Theatrhythm. I regret that I haven't played Curtain Call, as I'm 100% sure it's an even better game, but I'm only judging the original. I have no other experience with rhythm games (except Michael Jackson: The Experience for Wii, which, brb moving that to #1 on this list because Michael Jackson), but there is no bigger fan of FF music than myself, so I knew I'd be into it. I sank many hours into getting much rhythmia, and enjoyed it for a while until my sole purpose in life became to acquire every single dark note. Not worth it. (I think I had about 60 unique ones.) I played it a ton until one day I just stopped; that's kind of my experience with every Square-Enix handheld title. Speaking of handhelds...but nah, let me save that one for a bit later.

Instead, let's have the Mega Man conversation. Mega Man 2 is legendary – both for its innovation (first game with eight robot masters, the three special items) and its difficulty (omg you guys that dragon, and also the room where you're completely screwed if you didn't save your Crash Bombs what the heck). I appreciate that difficulty...but I don't really enjoy it. I'd rather play a game with the Mega Buster available, or even roll the dice with Mega Man 3 as far as the early titles go. In contrast, Mega Man X juiced up the traditional platformer for the SNES, spawning its own franchise that in some ways endured longer than the original (until the recent throwback titles, 9 and 10). I never owned Mega Man X, and still don't, but have admired it from afar and gotten some experience playing it recently. Even with my limited exposure, that experience combined with its legacy makes me comfortable putting it above MM2.

As for the RPGs in this pod, I highly recommend them all, but have the most reservations about Ni no Kuni. It's a brilliant and unique story with breathtaking graphics, a fantastically fleshed-out world, and good old-fashioned monster capturing. But the combat is painful at times, greatly limiting player control and supplementing it with less-than-desirable AI. With a bit more action and some way to better set up support characters' skills (has the world learned nothing from FFXII?), this could be a much more lovable game. Sometimes the fetch quests get a bit tedious until you have a decent way to fast travel (namely, a dragon you can fly on!), but the world is so richly explorable that it doesn't get old. The final boss is insane, though. I never beat it.

At the other end of the spectrum, Star Ocean 3 is a game I have zero reservations about. It holds my unofficial record for most hours played in a single week (56, between Christmas and New Year's back in, oh...2005? 2006?), and my friend's undisputed record because I watched him beat the game in 84 hours of playtime over six days when we lived together for a year. That doesn't explain why the game is great, but a game has to be of a certain caliber to suck people in like that. Let's start with the single best soundtrack ever put to a video game, combined with gorgeous sound mixing that balances the voice acting and music to a degree I've never heard in any other game. Next, amazingly fun combat, and I swear if I hear one more person complain about MP death I'm going to do unkind things to them until they scream "Glory to Airyglyph!" Yes, you die if your MP hits zero in this game. You know how much that happens to me? About once per playthrough. Get over it, folks. What else? Oh, how about a freaking awesome storyline that takes a couple of dramatic and unexpected turns. Could there be more space exploration in a game called "Star Ocean"? You could make that argument. But I actually really enjoy the way it plays out. The locations are diverse and gorgeous, and this was the first game I'd ever played with rewards for map completion. (However, they weren't very generous with the exposure window, leaving you with a random 0.1% missed until you ran around the edge of the area another time or two.) I have nothing bad to say about this game, and now I want to play it and I can't. Thanks a lot, forums.

Now, let's turn our attention to two games that tried to course-correct some of the perceived and loudly vocalized missteps of Final Fantasy XIII. XIII-2 kept the basic combat system intact, but expanded and simplified the leveling up process, added monster capturing, and completely blew apart the linear sequencing by provided a massive universe of open areas loaded with quests and plenty of player choices. I thought these improvements were fantastic, and enjoyed XIII-2 a lot more than XIII, as it retained the basic strengths of the game while at the same time giving us a full-game experience roughly comparable to the openness of Gran Pulse. Sure, the areas were disconnected, both spatially and temporally, but they fit together smoothly, and the story weaved through this spacetime fabric was truly one for the ages. In contrast to the just-there, little-understood prerogative of Barthandelus in XIII, XIII-2 gave us an all-time foil of a villain in Caius; in contrast to the arcane lore of fal'Cie, it told a tragic tale of a young seeress named Yeul. It also made Hope not a miserable brat. I didn't like the game's treatment of Snow (cold and distant) or Lightning (absent, apart from the cover), but Serah and Noel were captivating enough as protagonists.

So like I said, XIII-2 tried to polish and refine XIII into something a bit better. Lightning Returns absolutely demolished that paradigm and presented a completely distinct gaming experience. Combat changed from a party with paradigms to Lightning alone with schema customizable with different attacks and defense, and from traditional RPG style to a more active hybrid system. It was such a huge left turn and took a lot of getting used to, but it's incredibly addictive and could easily be the foundation of a future FF main title. The other truly jarring change was the introduction of the infamous countdown clock, which gives you 13 days (and not even that at first, you have to do quests to extend the time you have) to complete your various tasks. This mechanic, like MP Death in Star Ocean 3, gets a terrible rap relative to how minor it is – it really doesn't detract from the game at all. I was scared of it too. Trust me, it's fine. And speaking of tasks, wow did they ever cater to the sidequest crowd with this baby. Where XIII-2 gave you slightly more open areas, a looser sequence, and several more quests, Lightning Returns gave you GIGANTIC areas, virtually no sequencing (well, four independently sequenced areas), and a bajillion quests. In fact, quests were so integrated into this game that they actually served as the game's growth system! There was no formal leveling up, just stat boosts from quest completion. There's a lot more to say about this game, like how it brought back and utilized the whole cast of XIII, plus introduced Lumina as a lighthearted contrast to callous Lightning, plus enemy extinction...it was a bold, devil-may-care move for Square-Enix, and it paid off. This game is absolutely wonderful, and is the only game I've ever played that I started a New Game Plus immediately after completing for the first time. Yep, I gave this game two straight complete run-throughs, and loved every minute of it.

Lastly, I didn't forget my promise to come back to the newest title in the historic Zelda franchise, A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS. This little gem plays like an enhanced remake of A Link to the Past, with some very interesting changes like tool rental/purchase replacing the time-tested sequence of Temple X giving a key item that will grant access to Temple X+1. The story is fun, and the challenge level is tough without often being frustrating. There are plenty of things to do on the side, like finding the 100 Maiamais. There are loads of player-friendly characteristics, such as the map being divided into sections to make Maiamai location easier. And unlike a lot of handheld games (*coughbysquarecough*), it doesn't get old and boring as its goes on. Despite being a handheld title, this is one of the most entertaining entries in the whole Zelda series. This game could very well stake its claim as the finest 3DS game available.

FINAL RANKINGS: POD E

E1. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
E2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
E3. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
E4. Final Fantasy XIII-2
E5. Mega Man X
E6. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
E7. Mega Man 2
E8. Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy
E9. Professor Layton and the Curious Village

I still need to try the new Zelda game

It's been my experience that a lot of people on this forum hit their gaming stride well after the NES era. Well, that's going to make dialogue about this next pod a little difficult, considering there are FIVE NES titles in it, although everyone here should be familiar with two of them...

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General Themes: As I said, NES galore. A few other strong RPGs, as usual. A pair of Ninja Turtles games, very similar in gameplay.

Marquee Matchup: Come on! This is one of the all-time great head-to-head battles: Final Fantasy versus The Legend of Zelda. The opening overtures of two of the most iconic franchises in video game history.

There are some of my favorite NES games here. :D
Kirbeh! <3

YAY DARK CLOUD AND FFV

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Hey remember this thread? Took a couple of snow days off, but I'm back and ready to talk classics.

Let's begin with perhaps the most difficult call on the pod, although one that will end up near the bottom regardless of how it shakes out. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games are, with the notable exception of the first title, pretty much side-scrolling beat-em-ups in the vein of TMNT 2 for the arcade and NES. TMNT 2 had some awesome levels, like wintry Central Park and the Shogun Dojo. It was challenging, but also a blast to play with a friend. Hyperstone Heist was basically a variation on the theme of Turtles in Time (the SNES entry) for the Genesis. It had fewer stages, though each had multiple parts, and the gameplay is a bit more refined by the simple virtue of later development. By that token, it should clearly be the better game...but it also wasn't as memorable as TMNT 2, nor did it have the legacy or influence. In retrospect, it does play a bit like a knock-off of Turtles in Time. So I think the original Arcade Game gets the nod here.

Kirby's Adventure is a fun and legendary NES title, riding the success of the handheld Dream Land game, adding color and ability copying via enemy consumption. This wildly entertaining mechanic kept young gamers occupied for many hours, navigating through a surprisingly large world of complex and varied levels full of secrets and minibosses. It's difficult at times, but also not terribly annoying for a game of its generation. Reminiscing about it actually caused me to move it up a couple of spots; this is a really good, classic game. But "classic NES game" evokes one name above all others: Mario. The second title featuring the plucky plumber is, as we all now know, not really a Mario game – it's another weird platformer called Doki Doki Panic with Mario and company shoehorned in – but the psychedelic trip of a world that it brought us to was beyond imagination. As quickly as they had appeared and taken over our lives, gone were goombas, koopas, and Bowser in favor of shyguys, snifits, and Birdo. Suddenly we were yanking vegetables from the earth, floating on whalespouts, and creating doors with potions. And yes, this is all explained away by a classic trope of an ending, but who cares? You're not playing Mario for the story. You're playing it for the game, and this was a crazily entertaining game. Its weirdness gives it an aura of mystery, an enchantment that perseveres even to this day. Why Nintendo hasn't turned their eyes back toward this game during their 2D renaissance is baffling.

Skipping ahead a few console generations to the PS2, we have Dark Cloud and Kingdom Hearts II. I have nothing to say about Dark Cloud that Pumpkin didn't already say. I've played it one and a half times, with the half being me giving up because I couldn't figure out the first major boss. But once I got over that hurdle, I found a really interesting, creative, and deep game. Random dungeons, city building, and multiple characters incorporated (and balanced) very well all make for a fun game. But it was also lacking a certain charm, so it's not one of the top-tier games from its era. Kingdom Hearts II, however, is. They polished the great experiment of FF-meets-Disney into a near-perfect shining gem with this title. While the first thing I think of when I remember KH2 is the negatives – painfully long intro section, Tron, Pirates of the Caribbean – that doesn't outshine the awesome levels and addictive nature found throughout the game. Like I said, almost everything that made KH great is just greater in this game. It's been a long time since I played it, but I'm greatly anticipating getting my hands on 2.5 HD Remix so I can experience the magic again.

Three games left: Zelda, FF, and FF5. Let me surprise nobody by rating Zelda as the least-best of these. Yes, it launched one of the greatest franchises in gaming history. But it's hard to overlook the flaws, difficulty, and antiqueness of this game. Don't get me wrong, it's still incredible for what it is; a plethora of puzzles, mysteries, and complex dungeons, situated in a massive open world (what a crazy concept!). Nothing gets the eyes wider than exploring that fascinating map. But speaking of fascinating maps, Final Fantasy V had three of them. You know I love some overworlds, and the SNES era of FF indulged that affection by putting multiple worlds in each entry. Plus FF5 had the first truly great incarnation of the job system, a beautiful storyline, memorable characters, awesome dungeons, outstanding music...I can't say enough good things about it. It sucks me back in regularly, and is easily my favorite FF of the 16-bit era.

But my heart beats for 8 bits. I've been playing Final Fantasy since I was 4 years old. I devoured the supplementary materials that the game gave you: a world map, equipment chart, partial dungeon maps, bestiary, and half-strategy guide in the form of an 80-page instruction manual. I played with Game Genie for a decade, so I never really got the full experience, but now I know better (and the game is actually easier because of it). But man...that world...those quests...discovering Lefein and how to enter the Mirage Tower for the first time...almost brings a tear to the eye just thinking about it. The myriad remakes are decent, because they make the game more fun and replayable, but you really don't understand if you haven't played the original in all its glory. I kept the nostalgia high for many years, and called this my all-time favorite game, until one day I had to finally concede that another had surpassed it...but I'll never move it down very far. You can't convince me that nearly three decades of graphical improvements, deeper stories, bigger worlds, and better mechanics have improved on this cornerstone. Final Fantasy. Whatever that may mean to you, it means everything to me.

FINAL RANKINGS: POD F

F1. Final Fantasy
F2. Kingdom Hearts II
F3. Final Fantasy V
F4. The Legend of Zelda
F5. Super Mario Bros. 2
F6. Dark Cloud
F7. Kirby's Adventure
F8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
F9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist