My Top 100 Video Games (21 – 25)
I hit a video game milestone recently: I have beaten 100 games! I thought it would be fun to rank all 100 of the games in a series of videos. Here’s the next video, ranking games 21 – 25.
This is episode 16 of 20 in my top 100 Videogame series. Check out the full Top 100 Video Games playlist for a bit more about the rest of the videos, specifically check out video #1 to learn about the qualifications for this top 100 list, the main qualification being that I must have beaten the game for it to make this list.
Questions will pop up throughout this video. Please use the comments section to answer these. I respond to pretty much everything.
25. Hyper Light Drifter was developed by Heart Machine and originally released in 2016. I’ve said many times that I don’t like difficult games. I like my games adequately encouraging, like a when a parent wants her child to succeed but knows that the world is an awful place and that she won’t be there to protect her son from harm forever so she timidly gives in to the advice of other, harsher parents, who say “you’ve got to quit babying him. You’ve got to teach him to live on his own.” So this adequately encouraging parent..who is the video game in this analogy, in case I’ve lost you…says to her child, “hey, I know it can be scary out there, but you can do it. There’s plenty of power ups out there. If you get hurt, you can start over from the beginning of the level. And you know what, if it ever gets to be too much, just give me a call and I’ll come to the rescue with an easy mode that I’ll gladly use to smash the faces of all the mean kids who’ve hurt hurt. Yeah. I like a game like that.
So it probably surprises you that a notoriously difficult game like Hyper Light Drifter ranks so high on this list. Well, it surprises me too. When I think about this dissonance, I at times imagine that I’m a much more driven gamer than I claim to be. But that thought is always followed by my fear that justifying rage-driven goals not only compromises my cool, calm, and collected stance but also validates the high-heart rate gaming that I disavow. It’s not fun for me to get angry and then be presented as a reward for victory a return to the non-angry state the game forced me into.
But Hyper Light Drifter is good despite its difficulty. The character controls wonderfully. The world encourages exploration. Powerups are consistent and worthwhile. And the game looks beautiful. AAAND this game comes from someone who, to put it mildly, had more pressing things than game development on his mind.
Director and lead designer Alex Preston was born with congenital heart disease and has been hospitalized throughout his life with various complications associated with his condition. So, the game is way better than it needs to be. It manages to pull together so many good elements from good games when all it really had to do was be a game made by a guy who could possibly die at any moment.
Question for the comments: If you were dying, what game would you make?
24. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was developed by Ubisoft and released in August 2017. This game was a surprise to everyone. When it was originally revealed, people paid attention because the idea sounded absurd. Take some relatively unknown characters (at least outside of France) whose defining characteristic is that they are super annoying and let them romp around with the entire Super Mario squad, you know, the group of characters that are emblematic of the entire multi-billion dollar video game industry. This is like welcoming ants to your picnic. This is like adding curdled milk to your cereal, except that even fresh milk in cereal is gross. Yeah, Mario + Rabbids seemed like it would be milk in cereal. Ugh.
It seemed suicidal. Why would Nintendo hand over their most iconic characters to a developer who wanted to pair them with video game milk in a turn-based, tactical shooter cereal bowl. Oh yeah, shooter. Mario has a gun in this game. And I think every gamer in the world was eager to crap all over it. YouTubers surely broke out their stash of tired snark, pre-writing reactions before the game was even released, just so they could have an early video live, ready for the views. They were seething, ready to pontificate on the collapse of Nintendo. Goodbye video games.
But Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle ended up being absolutely amazing. The rabbids here are more funny than annoying. The turn-based battle system is intricate without being complex. This game was such a surprise that it makes me want to give milk + cereal another shot. I’m not going to do that. But it makes me want to.
Question for the comments: Who else should Mario team up with?
23. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was developed by Ninja Theory and originally released in August 2017.
This game comes with a lot of underdog baggage. It’s an independent game that looks better than most AAA games, so it’s got to fight back the graphics obsessed-crowd to prove its more than just pretty. It explores mental illness, so its got to fight against players who just want guns. It stars an unknown talent, which is more acceptable in video games than other forms of entertainment, but even still it’s got to fight against the industry vets who need the work. Also, it’s not fun, so it’s got to fight against gamers who want fun.
What’s that, Caleb. It isn’t fun? That’s right. It’s absolutely amazing, but it’s not fun. It’s not fun to be in the head of someone with schizophrenia. It’s not fun to question your own sanity every moment of your life. The game make you feel bad. But it’s amazing, and well deserving of its place in this list.
Question for the comments: What illness would you like to explore in a game?
22 & 21. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus was developed by MachineGames and originally released in October 2017 with its predecessor, Wolfenstein: The New Order originally releasing in 2014 and was also developed by MachineGames.
I played Wolfenstein: The New Order three years after it was released.
I consider myself one who stays connected to the video game world. I read video game news blogs, I watch a lot of video game commentary on dozens of YouTube channels. So when a game like Wolfenstein: The New Order avoids me for as long as it did, I question the reliability of my conscious integration lifestyle. What corners of the internet have I failed to explore? And this isn’t about the algorithms failing me. I can understand that. I look up so much disparate stuff online that any sane algorithm would understandably be confused. I’d be assigned the re-marketing demographic of “Guy who probably collects and names bread bag twist ties.”
When I finally played the game, I felt so disconnected from the gaming world. This was a game that seemed to have been made just for me. The game humanizes a franchise that has been historically a laughable exploit. I love when creatives show that anything can be successfully emotive. Hell, that’s why Thomas Was Alone is on this list.
At least I wouldn’t be subjected to ignorance again. I played the follow-up mainline entry day one. And it was even better than its predecessor, which is why it is just one better on this list.
Question for the comments: What game made you feel feelings the most?
