#12 Greatest Video Game of All Time

I know we are one day late, but hey, we are still in the same week! Three weeks in a row–yes!! This countdown is on a roll and dangerously close to the top 10. As a refresher, this is the video game brain trust’s list of the top 25 greatest video games of all time and we are now down to #12! These are the ones you’ve missed so far: #25, #24,#23, #22, #21, #20, #19, #18, #17, #16, #15, #14, and #13.

Kai – Master of Orion II – In my opinion, Masters of Orion II is the best space-based 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) ever made. I love science fiction and this game really makes you feel like you’re running an alien empire, but doesn’t overwhelm you with options. There’s lore, multiple victory conditions, colonization, building, and space battles. You design your ships, decide which technologies to research, and can even create your own alien species.

It’s a turn-based game like Civilization and definitely shares that “one more turn” compulsion. It still holds up today as nothing in the genre has really come close (the sequel was probably the most disappointing game of all time for me). If you’re looking to conquer the galaxy in an afternoon, I can’t recommend anything other than Masters of Orion II.

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Aug182014

#21 Greatest Video Game of All Time

Finally, #21 is here! We apologize for the hiatus, we’ve been busy with the move and settling in. However, we are now back on track! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, look at this post here. Please meet our Video Game Brain Trust before you continue on. We put this together as a somewhat weekly display of what our favorite video games are. What we love about it is the variety between all of us and what we prefer. If you missed it, please see #25, #24, #23, and #22! Let’s get started..

#21 Best Video Games of All Time

Kai — Gunpoint – A much more recent game than those I’ve listed so far, Gunpoint is a stealth puzzle game with great atmosphere. You play a private detective in a noire style adventure. Although short, the story is really interesting and ties in great with the gameplay. It doesn’t feel like you’re figuring out puzzles, it feels like you’re trying to move the plot forward. The difficulty curve is very good, challenging but not overwhelming, unveiling various mechanics and techniques as time goes on. My only real complaint is that the game is short and not very replayable, but definitely worth the price ($10). If you’re looking for a game to while away a rainy day, I’d recommend Gunpoint.

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Po — Super Mario 64 (N64) – Brought 3-D gaming to the mainstream. I’ll never forget the first time I walked through a door and entered a new room — it blew my mind.

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Andrew — Ninja Crusaders (NES) – Really nothing much to say here other than that I spent countless hours playing this with my brother. YOU COULD TURN INTO A DRAGON. Top 5 NES Game.

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Alana (Fit) — Yoda Stories – For me, this is an absolute classic. It’s a LucasArts game not many know about, but it holds a very special place in my heart. Released in the 90s, this game has no ultimate goal. It’s simply a collection of various levels you have to play through. So when you start the game, you could be doing one of the various Hoth levels, Endor levels, Death Star levels, Tatooine levels, and so forth. There were tons of different “levels” aka scenarios, each one with different surroundings and plots. Sometimes you’d meet Boba Fett, sometimes Vader, sometimes the Wampa. I remember my cousins, brother and I would always crowd around the computer playing and laughing at the subtly funny LucasArts writing characters said.

You usually played as Luke Skywalker, out to save the day or escape or something of that nature. You also could gain other weapons like a lightsaber and find hidden things behind boxes. It’s really a puzzle game in order to find the objective. This game was basically just the arrow keys and that’s all it really needed. It was a blast to play any of the levels over and over. I think I will play it again today.

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Chris — Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) – Vice City is close behind on my list of favorite GTA games. While I typically enjoy some of the earlier entries in a franchise, the expansiveness and ability to do so many ridiculous things makes San Andreas my favorite. I might have enjoyed the story in Vice City a little bit more, the game based on Los Angeles takes the cake over the game based in Miami. However, San Andreas really is one of those games that I put on that highest level of near perfection.

Simply, the graphics, soundtrack, and controls were all top-notch at the time. The story was what you would expect from a GTA and as I mentioned before, they expanded on what the player could do a million fold. One example is the ability to get in a plane, jump out, and go skydiving. Every vehicle was an option and if you had the money, you could customize your really fast cars however you wanted.

But this is a favorite list and not a list of the best games, so what really makes San Andreas stand so tall. Completion. This game truly had an RPG feel to it and I put in hundred of hours in order to get to a 99.9% completion rating. I never got to 100% but it always offered enough mini-games and side quests to keep my attention and that replay value in a game like this is untouchable.

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That wraps up our picks for #21 Greatest Video Game of All Time. Stay tuned for next week’s #20 and read up on the previous ones if you haven’t already! We are having a blast doing this. I hope you’re having fun as well looking at what we have to bring to the table. And as always, stay hungry and fit!

*Question of the Day: Have you played any of these games? Do you like them?

Jul082014

#22 Greatest Video Game of All Time

After a slight hiatus, we are back on our series of the Top 25 Greatest Video Games of All Time! Don’t forget to check out our video game brain trust as well as #25, #24, and #23! This week we are rolling into #22. We all come from different backgrounds and video game tastes which makes this list so interesting! See below for our picks for #22.

Kai Powell – Soul Calibur – One of the few fighting games I really played, but boy did I play it. Junior year of high school, I’d basically play everyday at lunch with a random group in the back of our biology teacher’s classroom. It was really approachable, but also clearly had tiers of skill, with the best players almost always beating the worse players. It had a group of memorable and distinct characters (I played as Lizardman) and straightforward, comprehensible mechanics. Soul Calibur was the perfect lunch time distraction.

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Scott (Po) – Super Metroid – The premiere mix of horror and gameplay. I’ve yet to play a game that mixed mood, puzzle, and overall playability so well since.

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Andrew – Mega Man 4/series(NES + forward) – Same thing, should be higher. Series needs to be refreshed. It didn’t matter whether gameplay was the same, whether it was Mega Man or Mega Man X, you had a new map and different colored enemies and that was pretty much all you needed. The music was always fantastic. You had upgrades! Mega Man 4 had one of the best intros of all time. For anything. Period. Heartbreaking. Emotional. Legendary. The TV show was phenomenal (it’s a tie in so it counts). Mega Man X was probably the last good game in the series , Mega Man 64(Legends) was pretty disappointing all around but this game could play just like Metroid Prime if it was given another chance. Hell, make it a rail shooter…just give it another shot. Give a new generation of gamers the chance.

Alana (Fit) – Battlefield 1942 – I’m not talking about the whole series here, I’m talking just the original Battlefield 1942. For way longer than we should have, my brother and I just played the demo. The only level in this demo was Wake Island, north of the Marshall Islands. I loved this game and I find it astonishing now that we never got bored of playing that one level over and over and over and over. Multiplayer, of course, so that it would never be the same. You could play as the Japanese or the Americans on this specific level. We played tons of Call of Duty, but what made this stand out was that you could use vehicles! And oh what fun that was.

We eventually bought the game and got the rest of the levels as well as the ability to play as Germans, English, etc. We would have jeep wars, where we would race each other in jeeps, which always resulted in a fiery crash of doom. Learning how to fly airplanes was certainly interesting as well as I would usually run into the building before I could get my tail in the air. All of the different classes you could play really made it special to me. I would always play as a medic and make it my duty to heal anyone out there. It highlighted teamwork, which I absolutely loved. We always played the scenarios where you would try to capture as much flags (aka land) as possible so that you would win with the highest points. The variety of ways to play really made this a fun one for me and I would still play it today. And you bet you would find my in the front seat of a jeep, nearing a cliff’s edge. This first-person shooter was truly a blast to play. I tend to stick to the original.

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Chris (Hungry) – Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000, Arcade) – Yes, I also had it for PS2, Dreamcast, and later for the iPhone but nothing lives up to the arcade console. This game will most likely be the only game in the fighting genre on this list although some Mortal Kombat installments were extremely enjoyable. I was also a big fan of Gundam Battle Assault and other games that provided the opportunity to use your favorite characters from various other sources, but I’ll get back on track. This game makes my list because not only was it one of the best fighting games of all time, it also led to hours of great times at various arcades throughout the Jersey Shore. It’s huge cast of characters from two of my favorite entities of all time presented so many combinations for arcade and versus mode. The one down side is the story, because I love a good story. That is what makes some of the newer Mortal Kombats so good… a little extra on the story. (Marvel Super Heroes crushed this category by using Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet arc as the basis of the game.) This was a classic save the world by beating the final boss… (SPOILER) Abyss. His background and three forms make for a solid enemy, add the fact that he’s unplayable and it makes him even better. Maybe not quite as good as Onslaught in the first game, but still solid.

As for my team, it was relatively standard with some variations when I was having a hard time defeating an opponent. First, either Cable or War Machine. Cable had some cheap projectile attacks that kept your opponents at distance. War Machine had some amazing special attacks that hit often and added to your combo a lot. Second, either Ryu or Akuma. They would typically be my close combat character for dealing with some of the bigger and slower enemies like Hulk and Blackheart. They were usually my best bet in any pinch due to my playing style. Finally, Captain America. No alternate there. Obviously I played with every character at some point but these were my competitive ones. The Captain was always one of my favorites and as much as Wolverine if my favorite character, I just couldn’t get much done with him. Captain and myself worked perfectly together, using the shield as an extension of ourselves and creating distractions to bring in aid attacks and rush the enemy. Final Justice will always be my favorite special in the game. With that team, I had a blast and set a ton of high scores in arcades throughout NJ only to have my brother take some of those records back. I will play this game anywhere, anytime. It’s replay value is unmatched. Who was your go to team? Could it take down Cable, Akuma, and Captain America?