My Top 100 Video Games of All Time (31 – 35)
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 31 – 35.
This is episode 14 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.
35. Thomas Was Alone
Thomas Was Alone was developed by Mike Bithell of Bithell Games and was originally released in June 2012.
This game is proof that personality, gameplay, and tight controls trumps visuals. You play as rectangles. Seven rectangles. I got bored only once. I’m obviously kidding. I actually didn’t get bored at all.
Thomas Was Alone is incredibly simple in presentation and execution but delivers most by using humor to flesh out lives for these rectangles. They have names. They have backstories. They have worries, doubts, hopes, and insecurities. The deadpan narration reminds me of the type that helped make The Stanley Parable so interesting.
The creator of the game, Mike Bithell, has made other games, with most being vastly different than the others. I would love for him to return to the Thomas Was Alone format, though. This is one of his earlier games, so given that he’s grown as a creator and likely has more money and clout to push projects through, he could probably expand upon Thomas Was Alone quite a bit. Not that it needs it. I’d just like to see it.
Question for the comments: What shape makes the best hero?
34. The Swapper
The Swapper was developed by Facepalm Games and was originally released in May 2013.
This is a hidden gem that should have been on everyone’s top 10 list in 2013. The early game threw me, though. When trying to figure out the story (it’s intentionally vague), some background dressings appear to be props from a kitchen trash can. Seriously, tin cans and paper plates made to look like space stuff. I thought we were playing a transcendent Toy Story. But no. I actually reached out to Facepalm Games about this and they confirmed that yes, they used various household items for the set. Combine this with the claymation aesthetic and the game gives off a very creepy vibe that perfectly matches the theme itself, a theme that includes body snatching and soul switching to solve puzzles in a side-scrolling presentation. Perhaps the most visceral element here is the decision not to romanticize the soul-swapping mechanic. Rather than cloud the reality with magic or particle effects, the now soulless body simply flops to the ground and remains. The first time you see this, you know you’re in for a game that has a few twists in store.
Question for the comments: What other games feature soul-swapping?
33. Psychonauts
Psychonauts was developed by Double Fine and originally released in April 2005.
Wow. I’m sad I didn’t play this earlier. I would have loved it as a young college student. Though, I’m happy I didn’t wait any longer to play this game. The difficulty spike at the end would kill me as an old man. And honestly, even if the spike would have taken me down, the genuine humor this game offers until that moment is absolutely worth the experience. I wish more games would be as creative as Psychonauts.
Though the game is fantastic, there is one unfortunate side-effect to playing this game so far after its original release. The controls are somehow simultaneously unresponsive and overly sensitive. Had I played this game when it was originally released, I would have been comfortably ignorant to how good 3d platformer controls would later get, but playing this game over a decade later really highlights these flaws. But this game is still a favorite. How?
Perhaps it’s the humor of Psychonauts that lets me overlook the hard platformer controls. This game is funny. Genuinely funny. People cite humor as a positive of a lot of Double Fine games, but I’ve played, and simply not liked, many of them. Not Grim Fandango. Not Day of the Tentacle. The Cave was neat. Half of Brutal Legend made me smile. But Psychonauts is simply a more entertaining game than the aforementioned. I know Double Fine has made a lot of games, and I should give more of them a chance, but so far the ratio I’ve experienced is not in their favor.
Question for the comments: Are you excited for Psychonauts 2?
32. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood was developed by MachineGames and originally released in May 2015.
The only reason I played The Old Blood is because the base game, The New Order is so great. And if I’m being honest, one of the primary reasons I am not disappointed by The Old Blood is because The New Order is so great. Had I played The Old Blood in a vacuum I might be turned away by its comparatively–comparative to its predecessor–straightforward first person shooter mechanics. Where The New Order is a brilliantly effective story with strong cinematic set pieces woven into the first person shooter mechanics, The Old Blood tells a moderately effective story with baseline cinematics subdued even further by the first person shooter mechanics.
But what must be mentioned above all else is what The Old Blood doesn’t mention until almost all else has been said. Nazi Zombies. About 80% into the game, the story attempts to acclimate itself into the world of zombies. This is contextually appropriate considering the historical presence of zombies in Wolfenstein games, but the old blood specifically didn’t mention it until later in the game, and remember, Wolfenstein: The New Order was meant to be a reboot of the series, and considering that game was sans-zombie, it’s a surprise that this game is with-zombie. That sounds like it’s pregnant with a zombie.
And as jarring as this seems at first, Wolfenstein–by way of MachineGames and Bethesda–can get away with this. An incredibly affecting, rebooted story that doesn’t lose its way no matter how many mech-piloting Nazis and giant mechanical dogs get thrown into the mix will need more than a surprise zombie Nazi expansion to bring it down. Besides, the pattern since this game has been games with “new” in the title are core games (The New Order, The New Colossus) while games with “blood” in the title are offshoots (The Old Blood, Youngbood) meaning I forgive the offshoots because that’s what they are meant to be.
This zombie motif that’s been so popular over the last few years is just the sort of art-diluting pop culture reference that I don’t want a great series to reduce itself to. I wanted the rebooted Wolfenstein to back away from zombies. But I think that very aversion is why MachineGames embraced it, and that conscious intent, that unstated but understood use of the absurd is what separates simple products from works of art. It’s hokey but not enough to be unintentionally laughable.
Question for the comments: Where do you want the Wolfenstein series to go next?
31. DOOM (2016)
DOOM (2016) was developed by id Software and originally released in November 2017.
DOOM is a lot of things to a lot of people. To fans of the original PC game, DOOM is a beautiful rendition of a game that likely defined them as gamers (it seems to have impacted most everyone who played it). To fans of first person shooters, DOOM is a fast-paced entry into a genre that’s lately been dominated by duck-and-cover shooters. To casual fans of pretty much any video game, DOOM is a refreshing change of pace, one that doesn’t require extensive knowledge of a specific genre and its conventions to enjoy. With such wide-ranging appeal, DOOM obviously has a lot going for it. But what surprised me the most is how well this game uses line similar to, believe it or not, the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Your movement throughout a level is logical and satisfying and always pressing forward.
Great level design coupled with player control and character mechanics that make perfect use of the level design means every bit of forward progress is met with obvious visual next-step anchor points. Rush in for a glory kill, then look up to see a ledge, upon which is another enemy to glory kill followed for a few more. It often feels like you are teleporting from one enemy to the next to a ledge to another enemy. So often the game feels like it’s playing itself. Few games are this satisfying.
Question for the comments: Are you looking forward to DOOM Eternal?
