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

[metagloria]

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!​

[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

[metagloria]

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

No I'm totally recruiting the 108 games of destiny

[Galuf]

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

[metagloria]

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

Pod-A.jpg

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!

[Pumpkin]

I like Xenosaga III the mostest out of those

[chionos]

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.

[Ayen]

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

They're also the only ones I played.

[metagloria]

Pod-A.jpg

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

[Pumpkin]

I want to try Tales of Graces eventually

[Loony BoB]

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

[Pete for President]

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

[metagloria]

I want to try Tales of Graces eventually

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.

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

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

[metagloria]

Time to reveal... POD B!

Pod B.jpg

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.

[Loony BoB]

Go you games that I have played! *cheers*