Virtua Neptune's Top 20 Playstation 4 Games

 While I always tended to favor Sega and began later consoles with the Xbox 360, I somehow ended up following the path of the Playstation, despite my favorite console being the Saturn. The Playstation 4 had a very strange life when it came to its competition with the Xbox ONE and people's impatience with the release of new games for the system. When you step back and look at the forest for the trees, Playstation 4 has had a fair amount of great games, but it also had an odd way of porting old games. 

For this reason, this game will only be for games that began life as a Playstation 4 game. This can include games that also began life as a PS5 game, though I doubt that will happen for this. This console has had its critical hits and serious duds, but overall, the PS4 came out on top, especially in sales against Microsoft. That is a story all its own, though. For now, on with the countdown!

#20. Resident Evil 2

You can count this choice as a cheat if you want, but this version of the game is vastly different from the original PS1 title. The Resident Evil 2 Remake hit the shelves in 2019 and showed a completely different way to play the game in almost every respect. It obviously isn't perfect, once you get grappled by zombies, they end up biting you regardless if you fight them or not. It's still a lot of fun to solve the puzzles and find the keys throughout the areas you're in. Unlocking secrets and getting scared by a giant guy in a trench coat, that's where it's at. This is a well done remake, it's just a shake the followup didn't live up to the expectations. 

#19. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

One of the first titles I purchased for the PS4. This was the one with the bone crunching, orc killing action I was longing for for so long. Lord of the Rings really makes you hate orcs and for good reason. Now, for therapy, they give you the simulator of killing orcs upon orcs upon orcs for all of the glee it will bring you with a sword and a dagger. Use stealth or just kill them in a hack and slash brawl for your blood-stained pleasure. 

#18. Persona 5

Persona has been one of the sleeper hits in my life when it comes to the PS2 and PS3 titles, so when Persona 5 came out for the PS4, you can imagine how well I set to the task. It is a deeply engrossing game, though it is a very, very long one as well. The worst part is getting through the very long dungeons and the ever expanding story that goes a bit deeper than is comfortable to some. It's a beautiful game, with wonderful characters, though, and definitely recommended for the system for anyone who loves JRPG's. 

#17. Bloodborne

One of the more difficult adventure games. I'm not a fan of Dark Souls, but I did find myself intirgued by the setting and the beautiful design of this game. The gameplay is extremely difficult with each encounter until you finally get used to the controls and find it easier to shoot and slash while dodging. Definitely one of the best when it comes to the Souls-like games and with an atmosphere that is undeniably grim and beautiful in its mystique.

#16. Hogwarts Legacy

This game could have gotten further up into this list if it had a better end game. The problem is, it can get a little grindy and the characters can get very annoying. It's hard to get invested when none of the characters seem all that sensible. Some of them are just flat out nauseating to talk to. It is, however, very good for anyone who is a Harry Potter fan and wants to explore Hogwarts for themselves. Don't bother getting to the O.W.L's, just beat the storyline with a few of the side quests and call it a night.

#15. Mortal Kombat 11

While not the best title in the MK storyline, it is a fun playthrough and a good way to let off some steam, as usual. The characters are a lot of fun to play with and the storyline is actually not terrible. It doesn't have the dropoff that MK9 had in the main story, but it does have its pitfalls in that area for sure. Overall, it's a good story with a decent ending. The only problem with the ending now is that they retroactively destroyed its potential benefits in later games. Oh well, At least 11 was good.

#14. Little Nightmares

A short but a horrifyingly inspiring puzzle platformer. The atmosphere of this very charming game cannot get be overstated. You don't even get much backstory, you just see what this world is all about and it is bleak. Dodging the dangers and seeing the horrors that go on in that terrible world is enough to drive anyone insane. It has a very engrossing gameplay and the overarching story breaks down before you, even with a few secrets you can discover for yourself. Highly recommended for horror fans.

#13. Mortal Kombat X

While it falls short in many respects to MK9, it also brings about a lot of good DLC, as much as I hate to say it. The best way to get this game is Mortal Kombat XL, where you get Goro, along with Leatherface and several other guests to the roster. When it comes to fighting, this game shines. When it comes to story and characters, this game sinks like a stone. Not only was the entire plot nonsensical with so many holes, but it also wasted a lot of its more interesting characters and focused on aspects that were pretty boring like how Cassie Cage got her father's glowing powers and fought big baddy. There were aspects that could have been better, as well as the drastically different character models. Either way, it's a fun game to play with friends.

#12. TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

An amazing return to form when it comes to retro style games. The TMNT Cowabunga collection would be on this list if it wasn't a port of old arcade and NES/Gameboy games. There was a lot of care put into Shredder's Revenge to keep it in the old style beatem ups with some nice twists here and there. There are some good shaking up of gameplay. The ending and the extra badguy at the end is worth everything in this monument to greatness. 

#11. Saints Row 4

This was close enough to the PS4 era to be considered a PS4 starter. I honestly forgot this was a PS3 game first, but I'll make an exception here. As a part of the Saints Row games, this was not the greatest addition. As a stand-alone game, though, this game has a lot going for it. The super powers don't make you invincible, especially in the harder difficulties and there is a lot to do throughout the game. The extra games are actually fun and the story is just so crazy, it's hard not to love it when you view it as one single entity. It may have ended the Saints Row series to a very hard-to-top conclusion, but it at least did it with a bang.

#10. Dragon Quest XI

The Dragon Quest series is always going to be a favorite. Ever since Dragon Warrior, this series has shined very bright in the JRPG circles. This installment is no different. It is a long game, but it is also very rewarding. The quest you go on along with the friends that you meet and join your band, it's a delightful story that has some pitfalls of difficulty here and there. While the pacing can come to a bit of a crawl here and there, it's still a lot of fun to play through this entire story and fight familiar enemies with a beautiful soundtrack.

#9. South Park: Fractured But Whole

I love Superheroes, and it was a lot of fun to be able to customize my own superhero in the South Park world. The entire game is like one long South Park movie, and that is a lot of fun to be a part of. You come up with your own tactics to win scenarios and sometimes you really need to know which enemies to attack first. The whole concept of this being a child's game that is reaching so far into the depths of secrets in South Park is just hilarious. It is also awesome to see Mysterion back in action and you're even able to play with him in your party, along with all of the other characters. The story becomes rather long and nonsensical, even disgusting here and there, but this is still a strong recommendation to South Park fans.

#8. Red Dead Redemption 2

A wide world of the west and how you can become a cowboy with your spurs jingling and jangling. You play through a story and take on missions with your guns blazing. You steal money to help your community and you pull in bounties to get some money for yourself. This game has a lot of depth with a lot of mini games, as well as a very good gun mechanic. It's a lot of fun to play through and gain notoriety. If you're a fan of the western genre, then this will whet your appetite for robbing banks and riding horses. Just... don't step carelessly.

#7. Doom Eternal

Coming out at the beginning of 2020 was difficult enough, and it was well received because this game was very much needed at the time. Doom Eternal was one of the most anticipated titles of its age and it delivered a lot. The gore was better, the weapons were flashier and the monsters were far more ravenous. It had its problems, but throughout the game, you start to really get a feel for it, even being able to bare through the platforming segments. Doom Eternal is a proud addition to the Doom franchise and it's well worth getting the rewards and toys along with it. 

#6. Dragon Ball FighterZ

Few fighting games truly capture the feeling of Dragon Ball Z. While there have been some fair attempts and some great conquests, FighterZ is one that tops the charts in recent years. While the character DLC is questionable, the core game and the characters you get with it are more than enough to give you the full experience. The story is serviceable, but I wouldn't count it among one of their biggest conquests. The idea for an android that came after Cell is nothing new in the Dragon Ball community, but it is pulled off rather well here. The fighting mechanics and the graphics of this game give it a grand place in you game collection.

#5. Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Among the Dragon Ball games that came out on the PS4, the Xenoverse games have to be counted as some of the best. While the second one shines pretty bright, it's the first game that takes its mantle on this list. The story isn't quite as tired and they use some of their better characters for you to face off against. While some of the mechanics can be considered broken, overall, it's a fun experience to be able to place yourself in classic Dragon Ball Z sagas. Creating your own character and fighting along side your old heroes is a grand experience.

#4. Wolfenstein The New Order

One of the earlier games to come out, at the end of the PS3/360 era, Wolfenstein created a game that captured the old style while bringing in something brand new to the franchise. Arguably in runnings for the greatest Wolfenstein games, though the story does drag on for a little bit and the ending is questionable. The story is solid, though, and the feeling of shooting down the Third Reich is still very fulfilling in many ways. The graphics still hold up and the progress of bringing your arsenal back to its former glory is just so wonderfully brought to some of the more recent systems.

#3. Spider-man

Few games have ever captured the wonderful story of Spider-man quite like their iteration in this title. The PS4 Spider-man has the webswinging down to a fine art, as well as bringing in a fighting style much like the Arkham series. This was their answer to the greatness of Spider-man 2 for the Gamecube. You not only fight all of the villains you could ever want, save for Venom, and you actually are quite the tragic hero with all of the heavy events of the story. The game is amazing with a full cityscape of New York City that you can swing around with no problems at all. You can get new spidey costumes, upgrades to devices and just have a grand old time with the callbacks to the comic books, movies, and TV shows of old. 

#2. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

One large disappointment in gaming history needs to be PT, or Silent Hills back in the early days of the PS4. With such a horrible letdown, it was lucky that Capcom answers the call. After a huge success with their game demo, they released RE7 to monumental success. The story is engaging, the characters are multi-faceted, and the gameplay is very engrossing. The atmosphere of the early game is exemplary, even when it drops off in the third quarter of the game, it still remains a solid title. The story has niggles here and there, and it's not especially great when you get to the ship. The game is engrossing to the point that you want to find the secrets, though, and finish the side missions. The game itself is well made enough to keep you wanting to reach the end. It's not perfect, but it's what we needed at the time.

1. Doom 

Never has there been such a monumental return to form when it comes to remakes. Doom needed a makeover and an identity it once had. The outlook was bleak when it looked like they were going to change it into a basic military shooter, but then they brought back ID like never before and they listened to the fans. From the first gameplay demo to its release, the hype for this game was like a mountain! The best part about this game is the levels, the monsters, the arsenal, and The Doom Slayer! Killing Cacodemons, Imps and Mancubi never felt so amazing. It doesn't replace the original Doom or Quake, but it is a beautiful melding of the two that brought about the new age of Doom that would be considered the official Modern Doom Games. It deserves the praise and it deserves to be on the top of this list. 

PS4 had a great run and while it won the console war by default of Xbox ONE's trip up, it kept its place as a solid entertainment system. This was a wonderful answer to an already great system, and while the PS3 and PS4 had their pitfalls, they still had a sturdy core of gaming libraries. PS4 is still having games released for it at the time of writing this article, but that is soon to change and it will be brought into the milestones of gaming before it may or may not go belly up. There were some real stinkers released for the PS4, don't have any delusions. This system also had a bit of a start time to gain traction, but once it picked up, we got a good collection of games out of the deal. Playstation 5 is looking decent for now, but we'll wait on counting them among the greats. Virtua Wait and See.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Orcicide!

Sometimes, the mixing of genres can mean absolute death for a game. Some gameplay styles do not mesh well with others. Sometimes a platformer just can't resemble what should be a fighting game and sometimes 3D just doesn't belong with certain controls. It really takes a lot of consideration and testing to come up with a formula that nails it quite so well as Shadow of Mordor. With Assassin's Creed mixed with Batman Arkham series while painted with Lord of the Rings. Whoever thought this up was a visionary, as it blends magical elements with stealth along with different ways to accomplish missions of assassinations and massive explosions involving flying orcs. 

The controls in combat come from the Arkham series, without a single doubt and it was so well utilized that you really just noticed it and moved along with it. You were too busy slicing and dicing horrible orcs while stabbing and shooting them with magical arrows. You have an arsenal of magical elements, such as shooting an arrow into campfires and making them explode, again, involving flying orcs on FIRE! You need to fight your way through their ranks and go after the Captains, and then go after their Commanders before you need to reach Sauron's Generals.

You don't know satisfaction before you cut down an entire army of orcs. It's a bit more satisfying than Dynasty Warrior, because it feels a bit more meaty and visceral. The realism of the gameplay comes through a lot more clearly since you can only fight them one at a time, but there are ways around that. It's also great when you get the skill to block the attack of two foes at once using your dead elf friend. That's right, you shadow a body with a dead elf, since you are a dead human who was killed but continuously comes back. 

Now, from a story standpoint, an immortal warrior who is able to take down an entire army of orcs and can't be actually killed is a terrible element. From a gameplay standpoint, that just means you don't need to hit continue and run out of continues only to restart the whole game after a number of deaths. What this also means, is that the orc that kills you get promoted. That's right, they literally have a ranking system of orcs that rise up through them as they kill more things. Everyone that kills you gets an up in power and ability. 

The military ranking system with the stronger commanders is one of the best elements of this game, and that is saying something. With such a great combat system and beautiful graphics, the ranking system where you need to learn about ranking orcish members. Some of them are indestructible against things like range or death strikes. Some of them are enraged by beasts or even afraid of beasts. There are even nests of bugs and some commanders will run away if they drop on them. It takes trial and error and as you learn about these commanders, you start to learn how to test their limitations. The higher ranking commanders or the Warlords, are the strongest of them and there are just so many ways to find satisfaction in bringing a plan together to kill them. Test out all of your weapons and your death moves and find ways to kill them as quickly as possible and you are rewarded with weapon upgrades that will help you immensely down the line. 

Even one of the smaller game elements of this game is very entertaining, when you gain the ability to brainwash the orcs into your own army. Then you start to brainwash commanders after you soften them up with stabbing and even infiltrate their ranks in the story mode with a spy of your own. It's really awesome to see your own horde of orcs go against another horde of orcs and watch them fight and kill each other. It's just one of those things about this game that makes it endlessly replayable. Even the beast taming elements are fun, though perhaps not with as big of a dose as they gave us with the beardless dwarf. It was a useful thing to bring, especially when you can use them to kill the commanders with their fears.

It is something to say that this game is far superior to its sequel, Shadow of War. That game is literally unbeatable unless you grind endlessly or buy content in order to upgrade your own orc army. They took one of their best elements of the first game and used it to try and sell microtransactions. The game itself is, otherwise, the same basic game as Shadow of Mordor. It's just a good thing that they focused on making the first game awesome before they unleashed that horrible blight upon it. It is one of the best PS4 games and it still is very entertaining to replay and use old abilities to kill many orcs and even make your own little makeshift posse of orcs with mindcontrol and raid an entire orc village with them. It's all on the table, but you just need to remember to check your drinking skin. One of them is water, but the other is orc blood. Virtua Responsibly.

Super Mario Bros The Movie (2023) - Almost Smashed It

 Anyone who has seen the rise of the Video Game Movie Mediocrity will tell you that the 1993 Super Mario Brothers movie was a fumble at the start of a game. It was the precursor to how video games would be treated in films, for the most part, for the foeseeable future. The movie starring Bob Hoskins and John Liguizamo was not well beloved by critics and failed to land with audiences. There is a small fanbase for the movie, as it didn't lack charm or actual good material, it was just not the right movie for Mario. Given a different title and different character names, it would actually be looked at as a charismatic action comedy. No, though, this pretty much put a curse on the video game genre as a whole. 

Could the 2023 movie make up for everything that went wrong with the original movie? Well, yes and no. There were certainly vast improvements on pretty much everything. It used the original initial plot from the original movie, which is honestly a good thing, as it gives an homage to the first film, while giving it the real game feel. It also has some amazing effects.

The world of the Mushroom Kingdom looks amazing. The different dimensions and the different places you see, even including New York City, look very good from a visual standpoint. It has a vast number of callbacks to things such as Gamecube, Duck Hunt, Donkey Kong Country and MarioKart! When it comes to Easter eggs, this movie is stuffed with them, no pun intended. 

I could even look over the different choices for the voices. Seth Rogan and Chris Pratt wouldn't have been my first choices by any means, but they did bring in the real Mario voice for a cameo as Jump Man in the beginning. Again, with the references. One of the best voices in the movie, though, is another cameo from another reference. Anyone who has played Mario Galaxy will recognize the type of star that was in the dungeon with Luigi. That was one of the greatest laughs in the entire film and it's pretty exciting to think that they could give the movie treatment to Galaxy. Done correctly, that has the potential to be huge. Jack Black makes for a great Bowser, though this movie seems to mark his last great performance for at least a solid year after. His scenes are hilarious, though, especially with his wizard henchman. 

Some things that didn't work, though, was I would have liked to see more of Mario and Luigi working together in this adventure. If there is a sequel, which there probably will be, they should definitely have them working as a duo. Another problem this movie had was with the gathering of Donkey Kong's army, only for all of that to crumble within the next scene. These easy wins and copouts just get lazy after a while and they could have had a much better Mariokart battle than that. 

Mario and Donkey Kong worked fairly decently as a duo, but again, Luigi would have been better. Princess Peach is a good character, who is strong in her own right and commands respect while also being a genuinely nice person. She actually shares some decent story time with Mario and they form a good bond. Even Toad isn't completely hacked up and annoying as hell as he was in the Super Mario Brothers Super Show. Believe me, we'll get to that as soon as I feel like watching it again. 

The ending and the rest of the film is fairly well done, though. This is a clear improvement over the 1993 movie and it is a long drink of water after a very dry desert of a box office. To see that they give Mario the Sonic treatment is a very good step forward for both video games and movies. May the Virtua Mushroom Kingdom reign supreme!

Bioshock Infinite - Defiant of Gaming Logic

When you think of the third in a series, normally you think that the sanctity and the purity of the first one would always shine through. Well, much like Captain America: Civil War or The Exorcist III, sometimes, there comes a game that defies that logic to its fullest. Bioshock Infinite looked like a very strange title when just the first promo came out years before. Fans didn't really know what to think, but they did like the overall look and graphics. What was born was a game that was so unlike the first game, but just like the first game that it seemed to bring itself out of a cocoon. 

This game is not perfect, but it is so beautiful and glorious to play that you forgive it for its shortcomings. Where Bioshock was grimy, dark and under the water with dark shadowy spaces, most of Infinite is spent out in the sunlight and the clouds as you speed your way across railings to jump off and attack new enemies. The gameplay with the gunfighting is improved in many ways, the powers are just as interesting, if not more. A lot of people liked the bees better than the ravens you use in Infinite, but honestly, they are both awesome in their own right. 

The plot revolving around Elizabeth is gripping, for certain. You know that you're not going to be taking her to Paris, but she is adamant to the point where she straight up tries to leave you. Even though you need to escort her, it doesn't turn into an escort mission game. She is able to hide and throw you items as you need them, even money. She also has the power to RIP OPEN PORTALS TO NEW TIMELINES! Did I forget to mention that? Yes, the storyline is one of the flaws of this game because of just how jank these missions get with the portals opening and closing. Sometimes, its used to bring in items from other dimensions, but sometimes, it can straight up screw you completely over. 

Beyond that, there is a bit of misdirection when it comes to the maps you need to traverse and the paths you need to go to. It can get a bit confusing because some of the maps are rather samey. The feeling of going on the rails is amazing, though, and leaping off to attack enemies directly is a very good strategy to win some of the areas. This game's enemies can become something of bullet sponges. This is especially true when you get to the metal golems and the Presidents of the United States replicas. Yes, I said that as well. You fight Washington with a gigantic machinegun. 

The powers system and a lot of the weapons are basically the same as the first game, which is very easy to learn but hard to master when you're discovering new Adam and getting through some of the trickier parts. Some of the boss battles can also get rather challenging, especially the last one. It not only throws a gigantic robotic bird at you, but you're also fighting off a mob, including Mr. Washington. 

The story takes a rather unexpected turn at the very end and I can't help but fall in love with it. I hated it at first, but it has aged like fine wine and the game itself holds up today. This game went far beyond the second one and met with the first game. While I love this game more, Bioshock will forever hold a place in gaming greatness. These two games went above and beyond expectations and are remnants of an era where gaming greatness was sadly fading away in the AAA sector. Still, I'm grateful to have this one, especially since Bioshock 2 was such a major disappointment. That's right, no I don't want to play as a Big Daddy! It was the worst part of the first game and yes I will die on that hill. Virtua Attack!!!!

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Stab into the Past!

 

If there was any other game that set the grand scale for the conversion to 3D, it had to be the Legend of Zelda series. Ocarina of Time couldn't have come at a better time as console power was on the rise and expectations for new games was skyrocketing. Control and movement in these games were stellar, and when it came to expectations for movement in this title, that was really saying something. 

Ocarina of Time was another example of why platformers need precision in their movement, as well as a good targeting system when it came to sword fighting and archery. If you're not facing the right way when it came time to throw those bombs, it could result in catastrophe! The game is an adventure in its purest sense. Where Mario stays pretty much the same throughout his games, Link goes through many changes as he goes on his journey. You start with a low level sword and shield, as well as very few hearts. You can collect rupees no problem, thanks to the pottery respawning when you leve and go back into buildings, so buying the initial shield is no problem. 

The enemies range from spiders to mummies and the dungeons you face become more and more dangerous as the game goes on. Visiting villages and castles throughout the entire world as well as the ranch in Hyrule where you ride the horse, all of it is a beautiful experience, even with just 64 bits. Going through the temples of the elements is also one of the bigger parts of this game, along with the shifting from past to present in order to finish missions in a timely manner. Yes, timely manner, I said it! 

Getting the new costumes and upgrading your equipment has to be some of the most rewarding parts of the entire game. Find new locations and discovering new and exciting magical items can be some of the highlights of playing. Saving Zelda and defeating Ganon is actually some of the easier parts, as his boss battle is just an extended version of another boss battle with a few twists and turns mixed in. 

While it is not really the longest game there is, especially if you know exactly where to go and what to do, but that doesn't stop it from being a beautiful piece of art. Ocarina of Time is among the best in its genre and while Majora's Mask is often seen as equal in terms of quality, this is the piece of the pie I'd prefer. It even got a much better 3DS port, when compared to Mario 64 on the regular DS. Another feather in this title's hat is the Master Edition released on the Gamecube. While it is rare, it is worth finding for the different experience it provides to a fantastic game. Defeating Ganon can be very difficult after the longrun, but always remember to lead your horse to water.

A Minecraft Movie - Why Writing Truly Matters

I have stated that I am a huge fan of Tenacious D. I love that movie, The Pick of Destiny, and I have bought all of their mainline albums. I have listened to their first two albums countless times. I also hated Gulliver's Travels, as well as Borderlands and now I have to say I am completely unimpressed with A Minecraft Movie. Jack Black just bursting into song, going crazy while he cranks everything up to 11, just doesn't make this a watchable film. 

Jason Momoa also puts on a terrible performance, along with everyone else in this film! Where was the direction here? Did the director seriously just go to every single actor in this film and tell them to not try? Jason is an outright insufferable bully and chews the scenery every chance he gets. The characters either add too much to the film, or nothing at all. 

The green screen and the effects in this movie are ATROCIOUS! I could see the green screen in every scene and I just keep asking myself, why? Why did they not make it completely animated? The fact that it is a Minecraft world seems to add nothing but memes and references. This could have been a completely original cartoon in a completely different world and all of it could have been the same, storywise. That's considering it even has a story. 

Like the game itself, the story is all about being creative. Minecraft being a creative center for kids and adults would be a great part of the story, but it is not so great as ALL of the story. Having random scenes being tied together all in the name of saving "creativity" is like Bowser going to save Mario. This movie is nothing but a Minecraft movie to advertise Minecraft. In that sense, it succeeds. 

It's an ad, plain and simple. This movie makes you want to play Minecraft. As in, get up out of the theater and walk out, get in your car and go home to play it. This game is a great source off creativity for so many people, but they couldn't put an ounce of creativity in the movie itself? The villain just outright hates creativity because her creativity was taken away. It's pretty much just as simple as that. It was a cookie cutter plot put in place to serve all of the random BS they wanted to shove into each and every scene. 

There was hardly a joke that landed in this film. It's really hard to get involved with a world that just looks so fake, has Jack Black going 200% and all of the other random kids just can't get up the energy to put in any sort of performance. They were there for wallpaper, you could take them out of the film and it would probably benefit. Their sad past, their chemistry, none of it works. 

We're still on the lookout for some actual work put into an actual good movie. Even the subplot with the woman dating the villager did not get any real good laughs. This was not a laugh-out-loud movie, this was a chuckle or two at best. This is just another dead flop of a movie that will get some people to watch it and then it will be long forgotten because I can't even remember a single character's name, save for Steve. Even the Minecraft Stories made by Telltale Games was better written and had better characters than this. It looked better because it had actual Minecraft characters in it and it used the mechanics of the game in its storytelling. Go play that game, it's far better than anything you'll get from this. Jack, please, you won us over with Bowser in the Mario Bros movie, but this is just sad. Take a breather and get back on tour with Kyle! Virtua Rock on!!  

Super Mario 64 - 3D Mario in STEREO!

Mario needs no introduction. If you know gaming, you know this red overalled plumber and at least some of his escapades. Everyone has their favorite Mario game, it seems. Whether it be Super Mario Brothers 3 or Super Mario World, a lot of people can give you a whole spectrum ranging from the WiiU gamees to the Gamecube games. One game that has grown more and more of a following throughout the years is the Nintendo 64 main release that brought him into the 3D world. To many, that Mushroom Castle is as familiar as one's childhood home and they know all of the secrets, as well as all of the entrances with the paintings throughout its structure. 

This game, from its amazing soundtrack to its level design, remains the basis for many 3D platformers of the time. If you weren't this good, your quality was called into question. The first level has you climbing an entire hill to face off with the King Bobomb. The ghost level has you going through a full dimensional version of the Mario Land Boo Mansion. You run into Boos of all sizes, as well as a piano with razor sharp teeth coming at you! 

Every single time you face off against Bowser, you're going to need to face off against his castles first! These castles are some of the hardest levels in the game, some exceptions of course, but they are also the most fun. The traps and the fire pits they face you off with are some of the most inventive parts and it will take some serious hand-eye coordination. Some people have these levels down to a fine art with how much they have played them. 

This game, to no one's great surprise, was a target for speedrunners who have found glitches and shortcuts through the entire game. The numbers that these guys pull off are amazing, but there are many who would rather just go through the entire game al naturale for the full experience. Mario 64 is one of those games that has aged like fine wine and there are so many people who hardly ever game who have fond memories of this title, as it was very common in households. 

Along with MarioKart 64, this is one of those games that never seems to get old. Even the water levels are looked upon fondly with this title and that is an accomplishment. Where many first outings into the 3D territory has met with disaster, Super Mario 64 came along and showed people what the standard should be. Even with the challenges, this game is one of the most popular titles, especially when it was released on Super Mario 3D All Star. Even when it was ported to Nintendo DS, as frowned upon as that version was, has a lot of charm along with it. At least in that game, you can play as Yoshi and Luigi. You still heal with water, much like you do in real life. Virtua Water.