finalark
SNORLAX
Link to original post: [drupal=1217]Best Games of Last Generation[/drupal]
EDIT AND NOTE: This list is bound to be rewritten multiple times, nothing is final. Especially the last part where I award the best game mechanic.
Well it's 2009 now and the current generation (the seventh generation if wikipedia is to be believed) is in full swing. I probably could have said that last year, but still. Gamecube and Xbox games are no longer being made and the flow of PS2 games is starting to come to a stop. So I decided (for my own entertainment, and hopefully others') to name what I consider to be the best games of last generation. Before I get onto the actual "awards" I would like to say that if I don't mention or award (insert game here) it's either because I didn't play it or I didn't really like it.
Best Platformer:
This was actually kind of a hard choice for me. There were a number of platformers that I liked. A few honorable mentions include Jak and Daxter, Super Mario Sunshine, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. It took me some thinking, but I choose Sly 2: Band of Thieves. The reason why I choose this one is because while Sly Cooper and the Theivious Ratcoonous was good, it kind of felt half-baked. The game was too short, the stealth felt like an after-thought and if I had a choice I wouldn't have done many of the mini-game levels. But Sly 2 fixed many of these these problems. It was lengthy, but didn't overstay it's welcome, there was a much bigger emphasis on stealth (as in you had to actually use it) and the mini-games disappeared. While yes, it still had it's problems, like how hacking was a pain in the ***, it was still good.
Best Third-Person Shooter:
I've always found Third-Person Shooters to be fun, but I really wish there was more of them. So it really boiled down to two games that I would like to give this award to but I'll be fair and only choose one. Okay, honorable mentions are Jak 3, Starfox Assault, Dirge Of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Ratchet and Clank, Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Ratchet Deadlocked and finally, Jak II. So my best Third-Person Shooter award goes to Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. It really was a hard choice to choose between Jak II and this, but on reflection I enjoyed R&C: UYA more than I enjoyed Jak II. I think it was the wide arsenal of interesting weapons that really did it for me. I know that the other R&C games and the spin-off Deadlocked has this too, but I enjoyed UYA's weapons the most. Plus the story is fun, with more emphasis on Captain Quark (one of my favorites) then any other game in the series, AND an evil robot who hates "Squishes" as the big bad. Now that I think about it, there's a lot I liked about this game. Although the Starship upgrades were kind of a waste of blots, though...
Best RPG:
I really didn't like many of the RPGs of last gen. So I'm just going to get this out of the way. Honorable mentions are Tales of Symponia, Xenosaga, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. And I choose Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door as my best RPG with Final Fantasy XII in close second and Kingdom Hearts II in third. The reason why is because I enjoyed playing it the most, the characters were fun and interesting, the episodic levels amusing and the battle system fun. And if any FF or KH fans are wonder why I mentioned them twice is because I really liked them. XII wasn't chosen because I really didn't like the battle system that much (loved the story though) and I found some of the dungeons to be... annoying. And the only reason why Kingdom Hearts II wasn't chosen was because it pulled that stupid game-play lengthening scheme where they make you play through the same levels twice to beat the game. But it does get bonus points for being the only game I've ever seen that does quick-time events well.
Best First-Person shooter:
Last gen basically marked the end of end of the overflow of RPGs and was the advent of the FPS. I really didn't play that many FPS' so there isn't much for me to pick from. Honorable mentions are Killzone and Halo. Right now I'm having a hard time choosing between TimeSplitters: Future Perfect and Metroid Prime. They were both **** good games, both of which were fun as hell to play... I'm really leaning toward TimeSplitters: Future Perfect but I have to say Metroid Prime by just a sliver. So Metroid Prime: One thing I want to point out is that it has really good graphics, and little subtle things that newer ones don't have. Like how your face will actually reflect on the inside of your visor, or how it actually looks like you're inside her armor. So yes, Metroid Prime wins but just barely.
Best Fighter:
When it comes to the fighting games of last gen the only ones I can say that are really worth pointing out are Soul Calibur II, Soul Calibur III and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Which one do you think wins this? Well Smash Bros. of course. While I liked the Soul Caliburs I have to say that Melee just stands out in particular. Sorry if this paragraph seems kind of slow, there's really not much you can say about the fighting games of last gen other then "they were mostly DBZ games."
Well that's all of the Genre's that I can really think of that stuck out for me. So now let's get on to other awards.
Best New Character:
There are a lot of new characters from last gen I liked. KOS-MOS, Jimmy Hawkins, Lloyd Irving, Sora, Balthier, the list goes on. But I have to give the the award for Best New Character to Cortez from TimeSplitters. I really like Cortez, he's funny, has a great personality and is just plain off awesome. Now it's onto the next award, so it's time to split!
Best New Game-mechanic:
Right off the bat, it's the Reaction Commands from Kingdom Hearts II. While it's more like a reinvention rather than a New Game-Mechanic it's still really good. I like how they took quick-time events (which were also invented last gen) and made them better, and intrastate them as a core part of game-play. Excellent job, Square.
Well, that all I could think of. I hoped whoever reads this enjoyed it.
EDIT AND NOTE: This list is bound to be rewritten multiple times, nothing is final. Especially the last part where I award the best game mechanic.
Well it's 2009 now and the current generation (the seventh generation if wikipedia is to be believed) is in full swing. I probably could have said that last year, but still. Gamecube and Xbox games are no longer being made and the flow of PS2 games is starting to come to a stop. So I decided (for my own entertainment, and hopefully others') to name what I consider to be the best games of last generation. Before I get onto the actual "awards" I would like to say that if I don't mention or award (insert game here) it's either because I didn't play it or I didn't really like it.
Best Platformer:
This was actually kind of a hard choice for me. There were a number of platformers that I liked. A few honorable mentions include Jak and Daxter, Super Mario Sunshine, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. It took me some thinking, but I choose Sly 2: Band of Thieves. The reason why I choose this one is because while Sly Cooper and the Theivious Ratcoonous was good, it kind of felt half-baked. The game was too short, the stealth felt like an after-thought and if I had a choice I wouldn't have done many of the mini-game levels. But Sly 2 fixed many of these these problems. It was lengthy, but didn't overstay it's welcome, there was a much bigger emphasis on stealth (as in you had to actually use it) and the mini-games disappeared. While yes, it still had it's problems, like how hacking was a pain in the ***, it was still good.
Best Third-Person Shooter:
I've always found Third-Person Shooters to be fun, but I really wish there was more of them. So it really boiled down to two games that I would like to give this award to but I'll be fair and only choose one. Okay, honorable mentions are Jak 3, Starfox Assault, Dirge Of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Ratchet and Clank, Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Ratchet Deadlocked and finally, Jak II. So my best Third-Person Shooter award goes to Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. It really was a hard choice to choose between Jak II and this, but on reflection I enjoyed R&C: UYA more than I enjoyed Jak II. I think it was the wide arsenal of interesting weapons that really did it for me. I know that the other R&C games and the spin-off Deadlocked has this too, but I enjoyed UYA's weapons the most. Plus the story is fun, with more emphasis on Captain Quark (one of my favorites) then any other game in the series, AND an evil robot who hates "Squishes" as the big bad. Now that I think about it, there's a lot I liked about this game. Although the Starship upgrades were kind of a waste of blots, though...
Best RPG:
I really didn't like many of the RPGs of last gen. So I'm just going to get this out of the way. Honorable mentions are Tales of Symponia, Xenosaga, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. And I choose Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door as my best RPG with Final Fantasy XII in close second and Kingdom Hearts II in third. The reason why is because I enjoyed playing it the most, the characters were fun and interesting, the episodic levels amusing and the battle system fun. And if any FF or KH fans are wonder why I mentioned them twice is because I really liked them. XII wasn't chosen because I really didn't like the battle system that much (loved the story though) and I found some of the dungeons to be... annoying. And the only reason why Kingdom Hearts II wasn't chosen was because it pulled that stupid game-play lengthening scheme where they make you play through the same levels twice to beat the game. But it does get bonus points for being the only game I've ever seen that does quick-time events well.
Best First-Person shooter:
Last gen basically marked the end of end of the overflow of RPGs and was the advent of the FPS. I really didn't play that many FPS' so there isn't much for me to pick from. Honorable mentions are Killzone and Halo. Right now I'm having a hard time choosing between TimeSplitters: Future Perfect and Metroid Prime. They were both **** good games, both of which were fun as hell to play... I'm really leaning toward TimeSplitters: Future Perfect but I have to say Metroid Prime by just a sliver. So Metroid Prime: One thing I want to point out is that it has really good graphics, and little subtle things that newer ones don't have. Like how your face will actually reflect on the inside of your visor, or how it actually looks like you're inside her armor. So yes, Metroid Prime wins but just barely.
Best Fighter:
When it comes to the fighting games of last gen the only ones I can say that are really worth pointing out are Soul Calibur II, Soul Calibur III and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Which one do you think wins this? Well Smash Bros. of course. While I liked the Soul Caliburs I have to say that Melee just stands out in particular. Sorry if this paragraph seems kind of slow, there's really not much you can say about the fighting games of last gen other then "they were mostly DBZ games."
Well that's all of the Genre's that I can really think of that stuck out for me. So now let's get on to other awards.
Best New Character:
There are a lot of new characters from last gen I liked. KOS-MOS, Jimmy Hawkins, Lloyd Irving, Sora, Balthier, the list goes on. But I have to give the the award for Best New Character to Cortez from TimeSplitters. I really like Cortez, he's funny, has a great personality and is just plain off awesome. Now it's onto the next award, so it's time to split!
Best New Game-mechanic:
Right off the bat, it's the Reaction Commands from Kingdom Hearts II. While it's more like a reinvention rather than a New Game-Mechanic it's still really good. I like how they took quick-time events (which were also invented last gen) and made them better, and intrastate them as a core part of game-play. Excellent job, Square.
Well, that all I could think of. I hoped whoever reads this enjoyed it.
.