My Top 100 Video Games (26 – 30)
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 26 – 30.
This is episode 15 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.
30. The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is a first person, narrative driven, comedy game developed by Davey Wrenden and originally released in July 2011 as a Half-Life 2 mod, and then later commercially released in 2013. The game doesn’t really ask much from the player. In that way, it’s barely a game at all. It’s mostly a string of scenarios that allow Wrenden to offer clever commentary on office life and video games. I don’t know if it ever truly rises above just being clever, but I can say the experience is very entertaining.
When I first played this game, I was just getting back into gaming. This was 7 or 8 years after graduating college, and in those intervening years I spent most of my time writing. I wrote some books (check them out here if you are interested), I got an adult job, I went on lots of walks. Basically, I did everything except play video games. But something, I don’t remember what, gave me an itch that only video games could scratch. That itch was probably getting a new computer and so I needed something to justify the expense. Again, I was mostly writing, and you don’t need a good PC for that. I’ve heard you can even write with just paper and a pencil. I don’t know that I believe that, though. Sounds crazy.
So The Stanley Parable came into my life. I played it. I didn’t get it. I didn’t like it. So I forgot about it. But years later I played Davey Wreden’s follow up game, The Beginner’s Guide (which you’ll see later on this list, so subscribe so you don’t miss it). Now, The Beginner’s Guide, it really clicked for me. So much so that I went back to The Stanley Parable, figuring I must have missed something. And you know, even though The Beginner’s Guide is much different than The Stanley Parable–it’s not really funny, it’s much more serious in tone–I do think being primed by The Beginner’s Guide helped me appreciate what a truly interesting game The Stanley Parable is.
Question for the comments: Do you have an office job? Tell me about it.
29. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was developed by Nintendo and originally released in November 1991 in Japan and the following year in the US.
A Link to the Past is the first Zelda game I gave any craps about. I played the two NES games and, honestly, I enjoyed watching other people play those games more than I enjoyed playing them myself. But A Link to the Past had something more to offer, even beyond the enhanced visuals and the bigger size of the game world, A Link to the Past evoked mood with its level and sound design in a way I had never experienced prior. The guttural gulp sound when Link is attacked, the tense dungeon music, the Dark World theme, it all feels so cohesive and therefore it creates immersion and mood in a way that’s still impressive today even when compared against modern games.
I try to replay this game every few years, the latest time being with my young son. I was on edge as he explored the outside of Hyrule Castle at the beginning, and when he found that secret entrance, underneath the bush, man, his face, I’ll never forget it. I saw my entire childhood flash during his brief moment of awakening.
Speaking of awakening, “Where’s Link’s Awakening” you may be asking yourself. Well, if you are shame on you for not being a subscriber and devoted viewer. That was way back at number 56. Go back and watch that, you disrespectful bum!
Question for the comments: What’s your video game awakening moment?
28 & 27. SteamWorld Dig 2 and SteamWorld Dig
SteamWorld Dig 2 was developed by Image & Form Games and released in September 2017 while the first SteamWorld Dig was released in August 2013. I love the SteamWorld games. Well, I love SteamWorld Dig 1 and 2, really enjoyed SteamWorld Heist, the first game, a tower defense game doesn’t really interest me at all so I never played that, and I have SteamWorld Quest sitting on my shelf ready to be played [PROOF]. It will likely be the next game I start. I have no reason to suspect I won’t love it.
The Dig games are the perfect balance of risk vs. reward. All games have this risk vs. reward tension, but far too often the risks feel too great and the reward too little. This is one of my problems with hard-as-nails Dark Souls games. Feeling good after hours of angry stress is not a reward. It’s just a return to normal. Why force your anger beyond normal to begin with. It makes no sense to me personally. But the Dig games are perfect. Dig down too far for too long and your light goes out or you run into impenetrable strata, requiring upgrades to your toolset. But if your light goes out, you aren’t dead. You can get out. It’s harder, but you can.
There’s also an almost tactile satisfaction with the momentary pause between your character hitting the ground just before digging a block further. It’s like Mario’s stomp on a goomba. Mario doesn’t simply flatten the enemy to the ground. The enemy has mass, it responds to being squished. The dirt does the same in the SteamWorld Dig games. Even at full power, your tools aren’t enough to push your through the dirt layers without at least a frame of hesitation, a little bit of resistance. The Dig games perfectly exemplify the term game feel, to me.
I like SteamWorld Dig 2 more than SteamWorld Dig, but only just barely, which is why they are alongside each other on the list. They are both unmissable games for 2D platformer fans.
Question for the comments: Favorite vertical platformer?
26. Okami HD
Okami HD was released in 2017, while the original non-HD version was released in April 2006. I played the HD version because I’m better than you.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this game when I first started playing it. I knew it was a 3D action game with platformer elements and I knew it looked beautiful, but considering most reviews of the game start with the reviewer gasping and muttering barely intelligible fragments of praise I could have been getting into a game that could be described at either end of a spectrum ranging from “weird game only gaming obsessed gamers could love” all the way to “this is the 26th best game ever!” And here we are, at number 26. That’s scary coincidental.
You play as a dog who is also a god and I think this setup is tied into Japanese folklore, and truly don’t want to dismiss all that because it seems pretty interesting, but I’m way too lazy to dig into it all. Also, you don’t need to know all that, so why even mention it in this supposed-to-be short justification of the game’s placement on a list of my top 100 video games? That’s a really good question. You just need to know that this game is full of action, quite funny, and when you think it’s over, it’s not. You are only halfway through.
Also, this is a great game to play with a pet. I played it with my cat. Check out that video here. It’s kinda funny.
Question for the comments: Do you play games with your pet?
