Happy Monday! We are so sorry for the huge delay between this series of posts, but as ever–we’ve been busy. We are now back with #16 Greatest Video Game of All Time brought to you by the video game brain trust. If you are new to this countdown, it’s just a top 25 list of our most favorite video games! These are the ones you’ve missed so far: #25, #24,#23, #22, #21, #20 #19, #18, #17, and #16.
#15
The last thing the world needs is one more app like every other. How many times have you heard yourself saying “if I get one more Candy Crush invite I swear I’m going to…” Nevertheless, we can’t help but check the app store, see what’s new, what’s cool, and what’s fun. Today, there is a new kid on the block that is looking to make its own unique impact on the market. It’s bringing back the enjoyment factor, but instead of telling you about it from our point of view… here’s one of the founding members and a Producer of Team Botan, Scott Polhemus (part of our video game brain trust), in an EXCLUSIVE Hungry & Fit interview!
First, a brief word about the game. Cafe Go-Go is a brand new app/game where the user plays as a worker taking orders at a cafe. As the orders come in, the barista must press the corresponding pictures for the items in the proper order. The faster you put a complete and accurate order in, the more points you get. It’s a game that is all about reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and focusing.
We are battling our way through the teens of the greatest video games of all time–according to us, of course! This has been a lengthy project brought to you by the video game brain trust. As an overview, it’s a group of five of us who put a list of our favorite 25 video games of all time. I know, pretty fun, huh? If you missed these, check them out: #25, #24, #23, #22, #21, #20 #19, and #18. Let us know what you think in the comments!
Kai – Mario Kart series– For those who haven’t heard of Mario Kart, it’s a casual racing game with 8 iterations. You race in a fantasy location as one of the Nintendo characters, picking up items and shooting them at fellow racers to get ahead. It’s one of my favorite split-screen multiplayer games, easy to learn but competitive. Each race is short, making it easy to let new people rotate in and play, so it also makes a fun party game.
Po – Toejam & Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron- The ultimate co-op chill sesh. Couple this with gunstar heroes and you’ve got the most balanced co-op gaming session on your hands.
Andrew – Mass Effect (Series) – [SPOILER ALERT FOR MASS EFFECT] “I’m Commander Shepard and this is my favorite entry on this list”. The game is legend. From the start of the series you have the Normandy, which is an absolute beast ship that you have to upgrade in order to make it through some suicide missions and save some of your friends lives. You have the beautiful intertwining plotlines that BioWare is fantastic at. The visuals are fantastic. Legion is fantastic. Thane is fantastic. Seth Green is fantastic. Mass Effect 3 came out the week of my birthday and my 360 had just broken so I just had to auto-buy a new one. Had to be done (like when the new Zelda and/or Metroid games come out, must auto-buy a Wii U) I romance Liara 100/100 times throughout all 3 games and am devastated every time Legion gives his life. You’ll see some BioWare games higher up on the list, Mass Effect is lower because – 1) some of the games are better 2) Mass Effect 3 had a bad ending. The lack of companion explanations killed it a lot. The fact that it was overall bad killed it a lot. 1st ending, 2nd ending…didn’t really matter, they were overall bad.
Fit – Call of Duty (1 and 2)– Call of Dutyyyyyyy! This is a long-time favorite. And I say 1 and 2 because I like the World War II Call of Duty, not this present day nonsense. My list is all about the memories that games bring me and Call of Duty is FULL of them. I really mean that. From pulling all nighters with my brother and friends, to pistol battles, to sniper wars, this game has provided hundreds of hours of fun and bonding time. It is such a fantastic game to play with others and have amazing fun. We would always all play in the same room and either go at each other or team up and try to beat the other team. It was always a blast. The game is a lot of fun–I was always a Kar98k gun kind of girl–a faster version of a sniper rifle. I would be patient with my prey, be silent in my positioning, and take them down! I’m a big believer in defense, so that’s what I always did in Capture the Flag games. Hungry – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3) – Oh man. Impending RANT. This was a pure gut instinct, change my list last moment kind of decision. There were a few games that were originally listed in a worse position that will now be higher because of my general frustration with the PS3 release, so this is very subjective. Another Elder Scrolls game, which I will not name yet, will appear VERY high on my list. Having experienced years and years of Elder Scrolls, my expectations for Skyrim were through the roof. The trailers were skin tingling and bone chilling. One of my favorite series ever plus dragons? It’s like a dream for me.
Unfortunately, Bethesda and Sony decided to not play nice and the fans suffered. It started well… we were there for the midnight launch, got the game and played immediately. I bought the game November 11th, 2011 and by mid December, 2011 I had piled up 284 hours of gameplay. The two main quests were completed and nearly every side quest that didn’t have a bug that wasn’t patched had been finished. I had every home, explored every cave, had almost every skill at 100 (except Illusion and Alteration), was at a very high level, had all the shouts, etc. The game was 99% done. I really actually enjoyed it a lot aside from the few minor glitches.
And then THE EXPANSIONS DID NOT COME OUT FOR PLAYSTATION. If they never made them, Skyrim would be VERY high on this list as well. Unfortunately, I downloaded all of them when they were released for PS3 at the same time and it actually corrupted my main file to the point I couldn’t even play it after deleting the DLCs and Sony couldn’t help me fix the problem. Well, to this day, I haven’t really played Skyrim since December 2011, they haven’t fixed my problem, and I might eventually start a new file on the PC, when I get time. It was just so disappointing and the game had so much potential for me. If that whole fiasco with Sony and Bethesda only never happened and the DLC came out on time without bugs… I can only imagine how high Skyrim would be on this list. But that’s just me. Those first 284 hours were magic though, pure magic strong enough to save this game’s place on this list and I am sure I don’t need to tell you why! FUS RO DAH!
That sums up our #17 greatest video games of all time! We hope you enjoyed reading as much as we enjoyed writing. Be sure to be on the look out for #16. We are sneaking closer to our top 10! Have a wonderful Monday and as always, stay hungry and fit!
BONUS KITTY PIC
Down from #25, we are up to #23 in our Top #25 Video Games of All Time! I’m excited to reveal the variety in our video game brain trust for this week’s picks. Check out #24 if you haven’t already and brace yourself for #23! Comment below if you have something to say!
Kai – System Shock 2 – A deeply unsettling, atmospheric FPS sci-fi horror game with RPG elements. The story of the corrupted starship Von Braun is fantastically told through diary entries and FPS encounters. Great voice acting makes the world of System Shock 2 really come alive, including one of the best villians in-game history: SHODAN. The game brings all these elements together to deliver a powerful, scary experience, and paved the way for impactful storytelling in games like Half-life and Bioshock.
Scott (Po) – Donkey Kong Country 2 – Endlessly lovable and replayable. The perfect platformer.
Andrew – Mario Kart(SNES/N64 + forward) – (Diddy Kong Racing was excluded for this one) I am normally one of those people who harps on playing campaign and avoiding multiplayer(don’t get me wrong I play multiplayer I just love campaign first and often) but this is a pure party game. Nothing better than the thrill of firing that spikey shell and watching it pound into the first place lead (or firing three perfectly aimed green shells to dispatch 3 opponents[or getting lightning and running all over your opponents{I could probably do this for forever}]). Racing was fun but Battle Mode was the ultimate test, everyone enters with 3 balloons and only one person gets to leave. Plenty of fun times were had but most people complained because sometimes if you got hit with 2 shells you would lose 2 balloons and sometimes you would lose 1 but that’s what happens when you race in the high stakes world of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Alana – SimTower – Where do you start with SimTower? A “Sim” game where you are in charge of building up a tower with commercial and residential blocks to get as many stars as you can. You get to start with floor 1 and build your way upwards and downwards. It’s a game that I’ve played and watched my brother play thousands of times. The replay value of this is off the charts. You can completely customize your “Tower” in whichever way you’d like. However, this will affect your rating, how much money you get, and how popular you become. You have to manage the economy, wait times, cockroaches, and more. Santa Clause will even stop by in the fourth quarter of the year! You could follow certain families in the building as well as restaurants or offices. The excitement of seeing your product grow is palpable as the months continue and the economy kicks off. There’s the need of juggling stress of the people in the tower. I always remember the elevator problems and needing to build more and more to keep the tenants happy. The only sad part is that I can’t get the sound to play anymore because it’s that old. I still don’t think I ever got that 5-star rating.
Chris – Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr. (N64) – The third of four Ken Griffey Jr baseball installments for the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64, this game is my favorite sports game of all time. Although Madden 2004, NBA Live 2001, and RedCard 20-03 round out my final 4 for team sports games (Mario Tennis for individual sports games) I will spoil a part of my list and let you know that no more sports games will appear. I am so story-based that the insane number of hours logged on these and untouchable replay value are simply not enough to get a spot on the list.
That sums up #23 for our video game trust. Do you agree or disagree with our various views? Let us know in the comments below! And as always…stay hungry and fit!
It is time to bring you #24 of our “Top 25 Video Games of All Time“! I’ve been looking forward to this since last week! Make sure you check out our video game brain trust before reading further. If you missed last week’s #25 games, read here to update yourself. Ready, get set, go #24!
#24 Favorite/Best Video Game
Kai – Worms Armageddon – One of the few multiplayer PC games that could be played on a single computer. An amazing party game, full of humor and customization as well as tactical depth and variety. I spent countless hours at home and at friends’ houses trying to master the art of the ninja rope or the exploding sheep. A great game that perfectly captures the idea that games are about fun and shouldn’t take themselves too seriously.
Scott (Po) – Skies of Arcadia – I’m a sucker for sky pirates and RPGs. I fell in love at first sight.
Andrew – Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey, Jr. (N64) – Call, call, call me Junior. Pretty sure that reticle size never, ever made any difference at all here. Pretty sure that Scott Rolen + anyone else was an absolute trading machine and other teams would drop him pretty much right away for rinse and repeat. This is my most played sports game after Madden and I just felt like I could replay the season mode over and over again. The music, the pageantry, the dynamics were just so fun (only thing holding this game back was that overthrows didn’t happen – if they did, absolute surprise to me). Naturally Mark McGwire shouldn’t be used in game. …with all this said, I tried to play whatever 2K Baseball or whatever people play now a days and I had like 0 outs with 3 runs against me in the top of the 1st so…yeah…
Alana (Fit) – FIFA World Cup Series – What a perfect way to continue the list as the actual World Cup 2014 approaches. FIFA games are all great, but I specified World Cup so that I could play as those famous countries. For me, it’s a timeless game that I can return to over and over. Soundtracks from that game will forever populate my mind. I started playing around 2000, I believe, and Kai and I would play tons of it. I would love to go through the whole World Cup process–it didn’t matter how bad the graphics were. There’s something about that game that gives you that addiction. Even when I start to play real life soccer, I say, “Let’s play FIFA!” It’s a great game for multiplayer and solo, especially for those who love the game. FIFA will always have a special place in my heart and I will continue to play it time and time again. Definitely my most favorite sports video game series.
Chris (Hungry) – House of the Dead III (ARCADE) – There will be a few arcade games that will make my list. The reason I am choosing the arcade version rather than the console release one is the pump-action shotgun that you get to whip around like Arnold in that mall scene in Terminator II. House of the Dead III is by far my favorite arcade shooting game, although there are tons of top choices including: Revolution X, Time Crisis II, Virtua Cop, The Ocean Hunter, etc., mainly because of the memories it produced. It also was one of the few that I beat in the arcade over and over again, along with all the ones listed earlier. It was a money issue, typically, but I couldn’t hold my quarters back for this one. The continuing story throughout the series, the decent graphics, the presence of voice acting, and the ability to choose your stages made this game better than most of its competition. Plus, the fact that it was released for multiple consoles made it even more accessible for in-home gamers. It might have been released in 2002 but it is a game I will still throw quarters into over 16 years later. If I have an arcade in my home one day, this will be one of the first three machines in it.
And with that ends our #24 greatest video game of all time. Keep your eyes ready for next week’s #23! Looking forward to what everyone lists! Let us know what you think with comments below! And as always…stay hungry and fit!
WARNING: Nerd alert! If you aren’t into games and stuff, you probably won’t love this post.
You’ll have to blame my brother for this one, it’s all his fault! He told me about this game and pestered me to play it. And I did. Big mistake. I’m hooked! As you guys should know, we are nerds and love video games and such. This game is very simple, yet very addictive. It has this element that keeps dragging you back in for more. I almost didn’t write a post today because I wanted to play instead (yeah, it’s that bad).
Hearthstone is almost (but not really) a sub-game of World of Warcraft (the massively multiplayer online game that thousands of people play). It’s in open beta right now (which means it’s open to the public to play and it’s in beta stage of testing, meaning the game is free, but it may be bugged). The main point of that last sentence is that it is free right now. All you have to do is register for a Battle.net account (also free) and you’re good. If you have played Starcraft, Diablo, WoW, or other Blizzard games, you will most likely already have an account.
I say it is a “sub-game” of WoW because it is based in the Warcraft world with all the classes from WoW and such. It is a card game. Kind of like Magic: The Gathering for World of Warcraft…but it’s free…and online! It combines strategy, timing, luck, and skill to best your adversaries whether they be computer characters or real people. Just like in WoW, you level up your characters (you play as a certain class and the more you play with that class, the better you and your deck gets) and try to beat all the classes in order to unlock all of them. As you level up, you get more packs and more cards to add to your deck. The game also gives you quests to usher you along in your playing. You can play casual or ranked matches against real people. Once you unlock all the classes, you can try your turn in the “Arena,” a place where you go as long as you can until you are beat three times. I’m just highlighting all the different aspects of the game, there is much more to it!
This game makes you think (and curse) and always challenges you to do better. It is in the familiar world of Warcraft, which I enjoy, and you can focus on the class you like the most (a Druid, for myself). It is absolutely worth giving a go, and if you do, add me! My user is Ewoky (was my username I chose growing up). It’s perfect for some weekend relaxation. Click here to download, and no, Blizzard is not paying me (but I wouldn’t mind if they did!). And as always…stay hungry and fit!
*Question of the Day: What game are you addicted to?
BONUS KITTY PIC
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