Carrying on with the top 160 some odd games of all time, we're going to be getting into a lot of the same genres as the first segment of the list. It's apparent that a lot of these franchises have been haunting me for my entire life, and you'll be seeing the games getting older and older as the list goes on. It's fairly obvious that Wolfenstein and Dragon Ball Z will be constant themes throughout. I did not include a lot of the titles in the genres for one reason or another, it's just that sometimes the first one didn't encapsulate me as much as the second or third in a series. Sometimes, it takes the transition to 3D for me to get interested in a series, that's not very common, but it happens to us all. Either way, as a great man once said, on with the count down!
#139 Wolfenstein (2009)
For some reason, many labeled this title as a bland first person shooter. It wasn't quite as good as other titles in the series, but this is still has more identity than a lot of slop that has been coming out recently. It mixes firearms and alien-like tech with supernatural powers coming from a talisman. This allows you to run faster, shoot more powerful bullets and shield yourself from enemy fire. Sometimes, the talisman is required to overcome obstacles or defeat enemies. It's not a stellar title, sometimes the enemies are pretty hard to see in the backgrounds while the boss battles are hit and miss. Still, if you're a fan of the FPS genre, this is not a bad title to end up with.
#138 Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2
Dragon Ball has always had room for a game where you can customize your character and see them go through the world of which it was created for. This title, sadly, is not quite as great as the first Xenoverse. Some of the story involves parts of the series that really weren't all that interesting, and Slug is far from one of the better badguys to get involved, don't even get me started on Turlus. Still, it is a lot of fun to be able to go Super Saiyan 3 now, even though the powers aren't quite as a awesome as they were in Xenoverse. Here, you're stronger and your attacks do more damage, but in the last game, you had infinite ki meter along with a limited Super Saiyan time limit. That is thoroughly absent from the sequel. It's hit and miss, but it is definitely awesome enough to be a followup to its predecessor.
#137 Persona 4
The Persona series has been an oddity for me throughout my gaming life. I started with Persona 4 on the PS2, but it has thankfully come out on Steam as well. This game follows a very strange story, much like the rest of the series, where a guy is going to school and starts to make friends. They find themselves in another dimension, fighting strange creatures under the instruction of a strange old man and a supernatural cat man. The roleplaying elements are well implemented and I can't help but love a lot of the characters you meet along the way, including the cat man. It's got a lot of laughs and there is a lot of fun to be had, even if the real world segments tend to drag here and there. It's slow to get going, but it goes once it builds up a good head of steam. At least you don't shoot yourself in this version.
#136 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
While the storymode in this game is good and has good sense of action, though not the greatest pacing, it's the Endless Mode that has me going with this game. Much like other versions of Call of Duty, it's not so much the main game, as it is the bonus games you get along with it that drew me into this title. The juggernauts, the helicoptors and the ever present suicide bombers are all on full display. There are also these huge super juggernauts that basically require a tactical airstrike to take down with any sense of speed. It's a fun game, though not the best source of substance. This is more mindless bang bang noise for when you feel like picking up the chain fed machine gun and having a ball.
#135 The House of the Dead: Overkill
Probably one of the funniest horror games I've ever played, and that's saying something. It's a fun little trip into the world of old grimy horror films of the 70's and 80's where they'd have a double feature of action and zombie flicks. There are movie mistakes and cheesy cop one-liners seen everywhere, as well as the charming duo of misfit cops trying to take down a mad scientist. It's a fun little railshooter, but it's also extremely easy. For another healthy dose of difficulty, you can get the Typing of the Dead version of this game, and it's also quite entertaining. Just hope your gaming and typist skills are up to the task.
#134 Grand Theft Auto V
A great followup to a great series, which seemed to have a tiny misstep with the fourth entry. While it does have its fanbase, it was also the most condensed and restrictive version. Five came out and gave you back everything and much more. Not only are there three main characters in the story mode, there are also countless mini games for you to cut your teeth on. The city is huge and very well detailed, and all of the great mechanics we know and love are here. You even get your own house. I mean, you get your own cars too, but that's not especially surprising.
#133 Counter-Strike
Another star of the LAN party scene back in the day. In the 2000's Counter-Strike was in its hayday and you had people quoting "Fire in the hole!" Something so simple as Counter Terrorists vs Terrorists shouldn't be so fun, but with a fairly interesting artillary that you can choose from, it has a good edge of personalization. This wasn't nearly as common as it is today. Today, you can customize your own loadout every time in several games, but back then, choosing your own guns and what works best for you while you fight opponents time and time again, that was quite the oddity.
#132 Left 4 Dead
Another off-shoot from Half-life, along with Counter-Strike. This one, however, introduced another use of the engine. With random zombie numbers showing up, along with several different types of special zombies, they came up with a different type of zombie horde game. Instead of staying in one place, you and three companions, which can be A.I. or multiplayer, explore the city. You find safe places while you head to a point where you can be rescued or escape the city in one way or another. This is another game that was overcome by its own sequel for several reasons. So, there will be more on this later in the list.
#131 Bloodborne
Souls games are one of the big industry genres that never got me all that interested. Bloodborne is the exception. While it is not a big love of mine, this game was a lot of fun to explore while creating my own character. It's just fun to hunt in the night and these old dark fantasy towns. It's a long game, mostly because it's also pretty difficult. It has an entire barrage of awesome weapons and cool looking outfits to change into as you go throughout the game. It takes some getting used to, but after some trial and error, this game can get very engrossing.
#130 Street Fighter IV
A ridiculously graceful, if late, change to 3D. It went full three dimensions, but it stuck with the left and right fighting arenas. It stuck to the Street Fighter origins, where Mortal Kombat went full three dimensional Virtua Fighter style arenas for a very long time. Well MK learned from Street Fighter IV that you can look damn good while sticking to your roots. The fourth installment, strangely enough was canonically won by Juri. This is especially strange because she's my favorite character to play. Her kicks are awesome and her style is very dynamic. There are other characters that are fun to play, while also being very strange in many areas. You know, strange like a scarlet red man pouring oil all over himself for the slide effect SERIOUSLY THAT IS WEIRD!!!
#129 Contra
A very long and complicated path came for this series, along with the complicated path Konami took in general. Contra was part of their humble beginnings, where platformers jumping and shooting was quite awesome along with powerups. The concept is so basic, but so brilliantly pulled off with superior controls and dynamic gameplay styles. While the gameplay does change and it is very difficult, it is not impossible and all you really need to do is dodge and shoot the bullets as much as you can. Health pickups and awesome powerups can be quite rare, but the deeper you get into the levels, the more alien the designs look, giving you a feel of some horror elements. Do not pass up the opportunity to try this game, if you want a good challenge.
#128 Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
Rarely does a game survive diverging from its original genre. Then you stop an realize that this was, in fact, the original genre for Duke Nukem. While many mistake Duke Nukem 3D as the first game in the series, he actually was a 2D platformer game from Apogee. This game takes this idea and puts it into a more 2.5D game and it does so to great results. Duke is back and he's kicking alien scum out of Manhattan in an effort to save the babes once again. This game is challenging without being downright overly frustrating, while also bringing about the great Duke Nukem flavor as you gun down your foes and college nuclear power cells. It still takes precision and puzzle solving while having you wield an awesome Golden Desert Eagle along the way. Fantastic title.
#127 X-men vs Street Fighter
While not sporting the most extensive roster, this title brought two of our favorite intellectual properties together to amazing effect. Now, we can see Ryu fight against Wolverine and Cyclops against M. Bison. This was a 2D fighter released in arcades and the Sega Saturn to amazing effect. It is also the title that proved the Saturn could do things better than the PS1, so it holds a very special place here on Planet Virtua. The animation, pixels and controls are iconic while also being a great amount of fun. Even when it's up against Marvel vs Capcom, it can hold its own and you can find yourself in two worlds of awesome and awesome!
#126 Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
Many consider this the true follow-up to X-men vs Street Figther. Not only is the roster beyond amazing with so many to choose from, but the backgrounds, music and controls set this apart from a lot of fighting games. You can choose from Doctor Doom, Juggernaut, Mega Man and Akuma, putting three of them on a team and fighting through an entire entourage of similar trios. This game still stands as a golden standard for other games in the genre, even when it came out in the year 2000! They've ported this recently and you would behoove yourselves by trying it out.
#125 Star Fox: Assault
This is a more controversial selection on this list. Because it's not as good as Star Fox 64, a lot of people sleep on this title. It's still a lot of fun and a good flight game for the Gamecube. To me, it's a good followup to its N64 predecessor and it's still got the split screen fighting mechanics that we knew and loved. It's still high flying adventures with our favorite characters in the franchise. This is something we should all learn to appreciate because the subsequent titles were not so great. Both Star Fox Adventure and the WiiU title were not nearly as good. If you were not a fan of Assault, that's up to you, but I very much enjoyed it.
#124 Silent Hill 2
This is a game that truly gave me the chills with its horror antics. It made you fear going into the next room and it didn't just jumpscare you, calling it horror. This was truly scary. The creatures you encounter are so uncanny and sometimes they move so slowly, it's the same as facing a giant spider and not knowing what to do. Sometimes, you stand and fight, but sometimes it's just better to run. You need to put clues together and figure out problems to get your way through this creepy silent town. This is an iconic game in the survival horror genre and you should do yourself a favor and play it in any of its iterations.
#123 Virtua Fighter 5
It's rare that so many games in a franchise are upheld to such high standards. Virtua Fighter did not dip below a certain point in any of its titles and many of them are still among the favorites in old school gaming. The fifth title is still awesome. The fighting mechanics are still there and you have a lot of the old characters to choose from. While I wasn't as taken by the new characters, it doesn't take away from the game as a whole. The single player game is fun to get through and earn the ranks as you go, but it's even more fun to play against a player 2. The graphics are improved and you still get the great controls and fighting styles you are accustomed to with this whole franchise.
#122 Spawn: In the Demon's Hand
At first, I did not like this title. To me, it looked like a cheap knockoff arena fighter that did nothing but fanny about. Then, once I accepted it for what it was, I started to truly enjoy fannying about and fighting people aimlessly in an arena fighter. You'll see that each character has their own endearing way of fighting from Klown's chainsaw to Spawn's machine gun. The game is an underrated Capcom classic that is just pure fun. You don't need to give it much thought, but I suggest you give it some.
#121 Wario Land
This is a perfect example of a spinoff being done right. This is one of the capital titles in the original Gameboy handheld that came out as a result of Super Mario World. It reintroduced a character that is still popular to this day and it did so with its own mechanics that are distinctive to it alone. Instead of jumping onto enemies, it encourages you to charge into them to beat them. You are encouraged to explore levels so you can find secrets and coins that give you bonuses and allow you to keep going. It's a way to play a villain that is taking on a worse villain and sometimes, that's just a lot of fun. This is a spinoff of the Mario franchise that is most certainly worth a look.
#120 DUSK
The Quake style first person shooter was once a landmark in the genre. It took a moment for the industry to catch on, but now we have a title from 2018 that seems to understand it to the very minute detail. It tells its own story of a very powerful man being forced into a fight with a cult that are trying to bring about their god to fight the powers that be. It's a little vague as to the actual story, but we know that Dusk Guy lost his family and now he's going to fight through the cultists and their horrific beasts. This takes inspiration from not only Quake, but Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You feel like you're in rural areas going into industrial zones filled with enemies trying to kill you. Using your arsenal against their magic and evil powers, you blast them into the next world to meet their god in pieces. This game does the FPS genre right and the retro feel is captured to a wonderful degree.
