What system makes people the most nostalgic and featured the games people remember fondly the most? NES? SNES? Genesis? (Gen-A-Sissssss?)
Huh...sure for some. Me personally it was the Playstation that was "back in the day" for me. It featured the games that influenced me the most.
For this series of Playstation hits from #10-#1 (From bottom right to top left) we're going to do the 'One Per Series Rule.' Many of these games on this lis t had other sequels or trilogies. you will never find a system that changed my gaming perspective, story telling and artwork than this list.
#10. SILENT HILL - although I am more a fan of its sequel on the PS2, the original Silent Hill was a masterpiece in horror gaming that dealt with both physical and psychological horror while weaving a twisted tale with layered endings, skinned dogs and murderous moppets. The multiple endins will keep you coming back to figure out how to get them all as well as following the story to the game that launched a new branch of horror gaming. (As well as one of the few GOOD video game movie adaptations.)
#9. BREATH OF FIRE IV - With both great visuals and a very VERY deep soundtrack, Capcom's RPG series was probably at its peak when they made IV. (Although I hear III is among the best.) The artwork in particular interested me as there is scores of Eastern mythology and design that makes owning the art book a necessity for gaming artists. Interesting enough is the fact you can control the villain, who is more animated in vocabulary than the hero. (Who says nothing at all.) Fou Lou speaks an old english that verily adds flare and style to this game. The ending may have blown but the overall feel and look to it makes it one of my favorite RPGs.
#8. TOMB RAIDER II - The shameless bombshell fetishes can be traced back to the original Tomb Raider. These days if you want shameless T&A you put in a Dead or alive game. Lara Craft has recently undergone some reimagining, and we hope her latest outing will both be a breath of life into this aging series as well as a more empowering experiene for girl gamers. But for me, the best of the series was still Tomb Raider II. Granted the original had more stimulating places for her to visit. But the graphics and controls were more refined in this one as was the soundtrack. With a somewhat interesting story involving Chinese monks and the Italian mafia, it just seems Lara's exploits lead her from a casual animal gun toting experience to facing a super natural being at the end. (Although she DID fight a T Rex early in this game.) Forget the political correctness of how this game is sexist and encourages animal brutality. It was still fun for me.
#7. SPYRO THE DRAGON - Insomniac is rolling with Ratchet an Clank who so far hasn;t made a bad R&C game. (Deadlocked as mediocre at best.) So when the company sold Spyro off he had been going downhill ever since. 'Enter the Dragonly' still remains one of the worst reviewed games ever. And yet I can't care less because to me, the greatest Spyro game ever was clearly the original. The treasure hunting 3D romp along with catchy music put me in mind that on of the greatest eras for me being a PSOne owner was 1998. Spyro was sharing his stride with Crash Bandicoot 3: these two went together on PS1 like bread and butter. I never got that into the series, in fact I never played the sequel or anything beyond that. But I do love the original; because it's really just a fun game overall where playability is key.
#6. STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3 - I could never EVER put this game down when I got it for the system. I played every single mode and unlocked every single character an loved every minute of it. True this is the kind of game that OL gaming would have taken advantage of had it been on consoles back then. And while this was ported to Dreamcast, I don't know if they ever took advantage of that sine the system boasted few games that supported OL gameplay. But even solo I love the hell out of it. The number of characters and the great themes was enough to make me obsess over it for months and turned me into the hardcore Street Fighter fan that I am. I swear I don't recall playing a fighting game this much before or since. XD
#5. CRASH BANDICOOT 2: CORTEX STRIKES BACK - The next five here represent the most important games I EVER played. Let's start it off right with good ol' Crash. and I do mean GOOD OL' CRASH because the old Crash games are the best. And 2 is the best for me because it was a fine transaction between this and 1. Sure Warped was awesome; but some of its excessive quests were just downright insane. I like a game with balance and 2 seemed to have it. More importantly this was the game that introduced me to fanon. A year after playing it I would go onto Crashcorner and meet new friends and start creating what I do best these days: OCs. Some of my earliest OCs from Crash Bandicoot were Shen Lo Ken, Demona's bodyguards and Lord Demonarc. (Some I still use.) So this is an important entry. However it's not number 1 since Crash is no longer relevant in my life anymore. I pretty much consider him and the past I once knew DOA. Heck a lot of my closest friends I knew from the days of CC have moved on. But even so, the game was lots of fun and is still fun to play now an then. One of the first PS1 games I played: and the first intro to the wonderful world of OC making.
#4. RESIDENT EVIL 2 - the original is indeed a great game: but good lord is it flawed beyond recognition. I'm not just talking about the infamously clunky dialogue, I mean the graphics and controls. Hey it's still a grade A game, but it still had lots of problems. (Same thing with the original Legend of Zelda.) The sequel is much better and cleaned up a lot of those flaws. the graphics were smoother, the action more intense, and the whole story arc was done better. the two campaigns seem to overlap each more smoothly than the original. Hey when you come out with an original that is hard to top: I can't think of any better example than Resident Evil 2. There was a happy balance between the gory and the suspenseful. the dialogue was more crisp too. Yeah people love the cheesy RE 1 dialogue. But I found RE 2's more engaging. And it should since this time it was a whole city infested with zombies not just a house. There was a right balance of challenge with both action and puzzle solving. I still think this had the happiest medium. RE 1 and 3 were too puzzle heavy and RE 4 was too focused on action. RE 2 had the perfect balance of those two and I still consider it the best in the series.
#3. METAL GEAR SOLID - When you want a sophisticated story with cool and clear cut dialogue, mixed in with hard gritty graphics and an amazing score: you HAVE to play Metal Gear solid. If you owned a Playstation back then and didn't have it you were either A.) too young or B.) too stupid. One of the finest games ever made, it's a non-stop thrill a minute as you play Solid snake sneaking through a near impossible situation to rescue hostages, only to be soon caught up in a web of conspiracy and plot twists no normal human could mentally prepare for. Granted many of snake's situations do not mimic RL spy espinage. A mission like this is virtually suicidal. Nevertheless it made you wanna be a badass like Snake. And there's a subtely in what made being a secret agent cool. That's why I detest its remake Twin Snakes. they defeated the purpose by having the characters hot dog it with matrix style moves, and the prettier graphics took away the grittiness of a raw stealth mission in Alaska. For some reason the original is just more memorable. It's also one of the few instances where the use of FMV in a game enriched the story with real world politics and events. It's almost criminal to put it simply at #3; but the next two games had a n even bigger impact on my life.
#2. FINAL FANTASY VII - Remember: on game per series. A close contender would have been Final Fantasy IX. Yet there is something about VII that still holds true to this day for me. Over the years I heard VI was the superior title. In terms of characters and story, in many ways it is sine I too have played it. But in terms of gameplay, it wasn't anything truly revolutionary. It was basically following the number of previous installments. although using Espers with different characters was a sign of things to come in terms of customization. Maybe this is why for me FF VII was more addicting; customization. the ability to equip any member with certain materia allowed for different and endless posibilities. It also allowed for people to try and beat the game repeatedly with different ones: with one exception. (For obvious reasons.) There was also great variety in side quests. Yeah in VI there were monsters, additional espers and all these dragons to kill. In VII there was the Gold Saucer and the American Weapons. (Which I have beaten.) I also raised the infamous gold chocobo and enjoyed the Chocobo Races. So there was plenty here for me to work on and enjoy doing so. Of course what really brought me into this game was its story. One of the best angles it offered: how the main villain you go after isn't the main villain at all. The real villain rears its ugly head shortly into the game. What started out as just an attack on Shinra Elec soon leads to an evenbigger threat: Sephiroth. Of course another aspect about this game was the final boss music: One Winged Angel. It is truly part of video game history. Graphics may be dated, but they complimented each other well back then. Some call it overrated: for me personally...it was one of the best experiences I ever had.
This number 1 entry still remains the most inspirational game I EVER played. It's not just my favorite PS1 game: it's my all-time favorite game PERIOD.
#1. CASTLEVANIA SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT - There will be no other game that truly left as a huge an impact on me as this one. Many won't understand why but I do. It's horror themed haunted castle exploration with 2D action RPG element side scrolling at its finest. The rich backgrounds, well designd enemies and of course: one of the best soundtracks from a game EVER!! It's now available for download on many consoles. I personally still play it despite knowing every inch of the castle by hand. Nowadays its terribly unbalanced and it does get too easy. But for what it's worth it still has inspired me. Especially in terms of level design, adding character to enemies and the importance of a soundtrack in gaming. For those who know my OC Lady Malmsteen: she never would have existed if this game never was made. Castlevania was a huge inspiration behind her, her castle and Petsylvania itself. It also had one of gaming's best secret endings. You may think you "beat" the game when fighting the "final" boss in the "normal" castle. With the right conditions, you learn there is a reverse castle where the true end boss lives. Whatta bonus!! OK like RE1 it doe shave infamously cheesy dialogue. "What is a man...a miserable pile of secrets..." (Yeah yeah yeah...) But there are many elemens to it that more than made up for it. One of my dream projects is to make a fan made game that pays homage to Symphony of the Night.. the earliest inpiration I had was back in the OC making days of Crash Bandicoot when I made Lord Demonarc. Now it's LAdy Malmsteen, and making a fanbased game where you go through Petsylvania like Symphony of the Night is a dream project of mine. I hope to make it reality one day. Because in terms of games, none have had as big an influence as Castlevani SOTN. My all time favorite game ever!
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Huh...sure for some. Me personally it was the Playstation that was "back in the day" for me. It featured the games that influenced me the most.
For this series of Playstation hits from #10-#1 (From bottom right to top left) we're going to do the 'One Per Series Rule.' Many of these games on this lis t had other sequels or trilogies. you will never find a system that changed my gaming perspective, story telling and artwork than this list.
#10. SILENT HILL - although I am more a fan of its sequel on the PS2, the original Silent Hill was a masterpiece in horror gaming that dealt with both physical and psychological horror while weaving a twisted tale with layered endings, skinned dogs and murderous moppets. The multiple endins will keep you coming back to figure out how to get them all as well as following the story to the game that launched a new branch of horror gaming. (As well as one of the few GOOD video game movie adaptations.)
#9. BREATH OF FIRE IV - With both great visuals and a very VERY deep soundtrack, Capcom's RPG series was probably at its peak when they made IV. (Although I hear III is among the best.) The artwork in particular interested me as there is scores of Eastern mythology and design that makes owning the art book a necessity for gaming artists. Interesting enough is the fact you can control the villain, who is more animated in vocabulary than the hero. (Who says nothing at all.) Fou Lou speaks an old english that verily adds flare and style to this game. The ending may have blown but the overall feel and look to it makes it one of my favorite RPGs.
#8. TOMB RAIDER II - The shameless bombshell fetishes can be traced back to the original Tomb Raider. These days if you want shameless T&A you put in a Dead or alive game. Lara Craft has recently undergone some reimagining, and we hope her latest outing will both be a breath of life into this aging series as well as a more empowering experiene for girl gamers. But for me, the best of the series was still Tomb Raider II. Granted the original had more stimulating places for her to visit. But the graphics and controls were more refined in this one as was the soundtrack. With a somewhat interesting story involving Chinese monks and the Italian mafia, it just seems Lara's exploits lead her from a casual animal gun toting experience to facing a super natural being at the end. (Although she DID fight a T Rex early in this game.) Forget the political correctness of how this game is sexist and encourages animal brutality. It was still fun for me.
#7. SPYRO THE DRAGON - Insomniac is rolling with Ratchet an Clank who so far hasn;t made a bad R&C game. (Deadlocked as mediocre at best.) So when the company sold Spyro off he had been going downhill ever since. 'Enter the Dragonly' still remains one of the worst reviewed games ever. And yet I can't care less because to me, the greatest Spyro game ever was clearly the original. The treasure hunting 3D romp along with catchy music put me in mind that on of the greatest eras for me being a PSOne owner was 1998. Spyro was sharing his stride with Crash Bandicoot 3: these two went together on PS1 like bread and butter. I never got that into the series, in fact I never played the sequel or anything beyond that. But I do love the original; because it's really just a fun game overall where playability is key.
#6. STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3 - I could never EVER put this game down when I got it for the system. I played every single mode and unlocked every single character an loved every minute of it. True this is the kind of game that OL gaming would have taken advantage of had it been on consoles back then. And while this was ported to Dreamcast, I don't know if they ever took advantage of that sine the system boasted few games that supported OL gameplay. But even solo I love the hell out of it. The number of characters and the great themes was enough to make me obsess over it for months and turned me into the hardcore Street Fighter fan that I am. I swear I don't recall playing a fighting game this much before or since. XD
#5. CRASH BANDICOOT 2: CORTEX STRIKES BACK - The next five here represent the most important games I EVER played. Let's start it off right with good ol' Crash. and I do mean GOOD OL' CRASH because the old Crash games are the best. And 2 is the best for me because it was a fine transaction between this and 1. Sure Warped was awesome; but some of its excessive quests were just downright insane. I like a game with balance and 2 seemed to have it. More importantly this was the game that introduced me to fanon. A year after playing it I would go onto Crashcorner and meet new friends and start creating what I do best these days: OCs. Some of my earliest OCs from Crash Bandicoot were Shen Lo Ken, Demona's bodyguards and Lord Demonarc. (Some I still use.) So this is an important entry. However it's not number 1 since Crash is no longer relevant in my life anymore. I pretty much consider him and the past I once knew DOA. Heck a lot of my closest friends I knew from the days of CC have moved on. But even so, the game was lots of fun and is still fun to play now an then. One of the first PS1 games I played: and the first intro to the wonderful world of OC making.
#4. RESIDENT EVIL 2 - the original is indeed a great game: but good lord is it flawed beyond recognition. I'm not just talking about the infamously clunky dialogue, I mean the graphics and controls. Hey it's still a grade A game, but it still had lots of problems. (Same thing with the original Legend of Zelda.) The sequel is much better and cleaned up a lot of those flaws. the graphics were smoother, the action more intense, and the whole story arc was done better. the two campaigns seem to overlap each more smoothly than the original. Hey when you come out with an original that is hard to top: I can't think of any better example than Resident Evil 2. There was a happy balance between the gory and the suspenseful. the dialogue was more crisp too. Yeah people love the cheesy RE 1 dialogue. But I found RE 2's more engaging. And it should since this time it was a whole city infested with zombies not just a house. There was a right balance of challenge with both action and puzzle solving. I still think this had the happiest medium. RE 1 and 3 were too puzzle heavy and RE 4 was too focused on action. RE 2 had the perfect balance of those two and I still consider it the best in the series.
#3. METAL GEAR SOLID - When you want a sophisticated story with cool and clear cut dialogue, mixed in with hard gritty graphics and an amazing score: you HAVE to play Metal Gear solid. If you owned a Playstation back then and didn't have it you were either A.) too young or B.) too stupid. One of the finest games ever made, it's a non-stop thrill a minute as you play Solid snake sneaking through a near impossible situation to rescue hostages, only to be soon caught up in a web of conspiracy and plot twists no normal human could mentally prepare for. Granted many of snake's situations do not mimic RL spy espinage. A mission like this is virtually suicidal. Nevertheless it made you wanna be a badass like Snake. And there's a subtely in what made being a secret agent cool. That's why I detest its remake Twin Snakes. they defeated the purpose by having the characters hot dog it with matrix style moves, and the prettier graphics took away the grittiness of a raw stealth mission in Alaska. For some reason the original is just more memorable. It's also one of the few instances where the use of FMV in a game enriched the story with real world politics and events. It's almost criminal to put it simply at #3; but the next two games had a n even bigger impact on my life.
#2. FINAL FANTASY VII - Remember: on game per series. A close contender would have been Final Fantasy IX. Yet there is something about VII that still holds true to this day for me. Over the years I heard VI was the superior title. In terms of characters and story, in many ways it is sine I too have played it. But in terms of gameplay, it wasn't anything truly revolutionary. It was basically following the number of previous installments. although using Espers with different characters was a sign of things to come in terms of customization. Maybe this is why for me FF VII was more addicting; customization. the ability to equip any member with certain materia allowed for different and endless posibilities. It also allowed for people to try and beat the game repeatedly with different ones: with one exception. (For obvious reasons.) There was also great variety in side quests. Yeah in VI there were monsters, additional espers and all these dragons to kill. In VII there was the Gold Saucer and the American Weapons. (Which I have beaten.) I also raised the infamous gold chocobo and enjoyed the Chocobo Races. So there was plenty here for me to work on and enjoy doing so. Of course what really brought me into this game was its story. One of the best angles it offered: how the main villain you go after isn't the main villain at all. The real villain rears its ugly head shortly into the game. What started out as just an attack on Shinra Elec soon leads to an evenbigger threat: Sephiroth. Of course another aspect about this game was the final boss music: One Winged Angel. It is truly part of video game history. Graphics may be dated, but they complimented each other well back then. Some call it overrated: for me personally...it was one of the best experiences I ever had.
This number 1 entry still remains the most inspirational game I EVER played. It's not just my favorite PS1 game: it's my all-time favorite game PERIOD.
#1. CASTLEVANIA SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT - There will be no other game that truly left as a huge an impact on me as this one. Many won't understand why but I do. It's horror themed haunted castle exploration with 2D action RPG element side scrolling at its finest. The rich backgrounds, well designd enemies and of course: one of the best soundtracks from a game EVER!! It's now available for download on many consoles. I personally still play it despite knowing every inch of the castle by hand. Nowadays its terribly unbalanced and it does get too easy. But for what it's worth it still has inspired me. Especially in terms of level design, adding character to enemies and the importance of a soundtrack in gaming. For those who know my OC Lady Malmsteen: she never would have existed if this game never was made. Castlevania was a huge inspiration behind her, her castle and Petsylvania itself. It also had one of gaming's best secret endings. You may think you "beat" the game when fighting the "final" boss in the "normal" castle. With the right conditions, you learn there is a reverse castle where the true end boss lives. Whatta bonus!! OK like RE1 it doe shave infamously cheesy dialogue. "What is a man...a miserable pile of secrets..." (Yeah yeah yeah...) But there are many elemens to it that more than made up for it. One of my dream projects is to make a fan made game that pays homage to Symphony of the Night.. the earliest inpiration I had was back in the OC making days of Crash Bandicoot when I made Lord Demonarc. Now it's LAdy Malmsteen, and making a fanbased game where you go through Petsylvania like Symphony of the Night is a dream project of mine. I hope to make it reality one day. Because in terms of games, none have had as big an influence as Castlevani SOTN. My all time favorite game ever!
