39 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
The Castlevania that coined the term "Metroidvania" with how much it influenced both the series and the gaming culture itself. This is where they introduced stats, weapons and gaining new powers and characters throughout. The bosses are iconic, the gameplay is very fluid and visceral. Playing as Alucard is literally a game changer and they pulled out all of the stops. You have brand new creatures, as well as many returning monsters, like that jerk of a skeleton that throws femurs at you as you pass. The castle is a whirling maze that can get you lost until you find that one door that leads to a whole new environment with all new horrors to face. There are ways to play as a Belmont, but there are also plenty of other ways to change up the gameplay as you search for Dracula and end him!
38 Panzer Dragoon Saga
A change to the series that changed everything except how awesome your opponents are. The monsters are still unique, the blast from your Dragoon are still beautiful and the setting is vast and beautiful. Every single main boss has a quirk that forces you to change your strategy on how to kill them. Some of them need to be worn down with your smaller attacks before opening up for your ultimate attacks. Some of them force you to move around to avoid their attacks while taking advantage of their lowered defenses. It can get tense and you can find yourself frustrated with some of these flying horrors, but it makes you want to figure them out and destroy them! This is a beautiful RPG that came from a railshooter series, and they made it work in a big way! Panzer Dragoon reached a beautiful peak in awesomeness, and this isn't even my favorite in the series! That's just how awesome it is.
37 Sonic the Hedgehog CD
Arguably the greatest game on the Sega CD, which is not exactly glowing praise by comparison, but they made Sonic as beautiful in graphics as it is in gameplay. The levels can get long and whirling to the point where you get lost, but it's still an amazing Sonic game. With a sudden hike in play room, the devs took full advantage and brought you this master class in platforming. You're still fast, you're still awesome and it still has a Casino Night level, which is among the greatest praise. With the advent of Metal Sonic, this game brought about brand new Sonic lore that is still in the series to this very day. This is a milestone for the series and gave credence to Sega CD's existence, however small.
36 Virtua Cop
One of the most awesome railshooters and it came out in the greatest console! With sprawling criminal undergrounds needing some shooting to take down, this game brought you through warehouses, parking lots and skyscrapers in order to take down the big baddies that corrupt Virtua City. The shotgun, machine gun and even your starting pistol are all feel-good weapons that make you want to shoot and reload. Even when the criminals attack you from the bottom of the screen, it never feels overly cheap. You just need to pay attention and aim your crosshairs right between their eyes, or on their legs and limbs to get live arrests. They still disappear but at least they're still alive, right? Fight the big bosses with missile launchers and take down their empire of evil! Virtua Evil!
35 Quake III: Arena
An amazing way to impliment Deathmatching directly into your game. Could it have used a story or a deeper way to play? Maybe. However, going against your friends and fighting the computer to get to the top of the pyramid is still run and gun fun! Weapons introduced in this game have gone on to be staples in the Doom universe, including a Doomguy named Phobos! You'll recognize a lot of these characters from former ID Software titles, and you can even customize your own character to take them down. You need to learn where the good weapons are, including the BFG 10,000 that packs a nuclear punch, kicking like a mule. From the doublebarrel shotgun to the awesome plasmagun, this game has you covered on how to kill your opponents and get that ULTRAKILL!
34 Mortal Kombat 9
A return to form that put Mortal Kombat on the map after a very divisive plunge into 3D. Bringing the game back to its roots with 2D fighting in a 3D backdrop turned out to be the exact right move. The story mode kind of sucks but it still brings the fans the matchup they want. It acts out the first three Mortal Kombat titles with a new canon that was still destroyed in future titles, but the thought was there. Even with killing most of its main characters in an unspeakably terrible way, the gameplay and the combat on top of these awesome graphics brought this game to new heights! With character designs that will poke your eyes out and backdrops that give you a new look at the world they exist in, this game has the goods to keep you fighting and earning those Krypt goodies. Don't forget to get a look at Freddy Kruger and Kratos and make them crush each other!
33 Diablo II
The first Diablo was fun, but also pretty mediocre as games go. All of the problems I had with Diablo, the sequel fixed wholesale. Not only was Diablo more challengning as a main boss, but the game itself was just more fluid as a result. This game does have it downsides: Some of Episode 2 just looked like a desert or a sewer for the majority of it, and sometimes the travel gets rather monotonous. Other than that, grab a barbarian character or a necromancer character and introduce the demons to their entrails! The ability trees are vast and beautiful (after some of the abilities were a little broken before nerfing) and the hordes are nice and meaty with a good crunch with your axe cleaving into them. You fight Mephisto and thanks to the expansion, you also crush Baal between your fingers! This is a wild ride with a whole butt load of replayability. Fight Hell and have a ball!
32 Half-Life
Before this game came out, you really couldn't have known that an FPS game could have one of the best stories in all of gaming for years! This is all when your protagonist is silent and the scientists will not shut up! First, there are tons of creepy ass aliens that will jump out at you from the dark and scare the hell out of you! They even attach to the staff by the head and turn them into zombies with serious walking problems. They were never a threat, but they didn't need to be, because the military was right around the corner and adding all kinds of horrible challenge to the mix. Not only did the soldiers continuously shoot at you from every angle, but they also forced you into that HORRIBLE RAIL LEVEL. This game had one of the worst final levels, but that still did not tarnish its legacy because it was just that good. Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classics, Gary's Mod (original Sven Co-op) all have this game's DNA within it. That may sound uncomfortable, but it's true. This game's name is extremely ironic, unless you count the third game's nonexistence. Now I just made myself sad.
31 Life Force
Sometimes, the original games from your childhood just stick out in your mind like a sore thumb. This game has the fluid gameplay of flying through space in a jet. That may be nonsensical, but all of the illogic flies out the window when you get a taste of that beautiful soundtrack. This game is HARD from beginning to end, but you keep wanting to play it because it's just that damn good. There is bullet hell all over the place, random aliens flying at you from off-screen and protrusions of tentacles coming out of every wall! If you are anywhere behind a building up brick wall, you have lost a life! Some call this Salamander and call it that if you wish, but this will always be a Force of Life.
30 Mario Kart 64
There are times when a game just gets it right early. This was the second game in the series and I will die on the hill that it is the greatest of the bunch. This game is lean, free of unneeded fatty features with Mario characters and karts with a battle mode and 3D graphics, the end. There are not too many maps, not too many characters and it really didn't need anything more than that. It runs like a dream and it controls even better! This was the original game that people remember, as great as the SNES title was, it was just a great precursor to the main show! There are plenty of other gimmicks from the later titles, but this is where they truly got it right. If you disagree, then we will lose our friendship next time we indulge in this masterpiece! It's happened more than once.
29 Super Mario Bros 3
The very first game that was advertised at the very end of an entire movie. The movie had nothing to do with this game until the climax and the movie was absolute garbage, but it is also when gaming started to break into the mainstream media. Super Mario 3 introduced so many new powerups that became staples of the entire series. The feather and the tanuki suit have become iconic since then. The game can be skipped with the flutes, and often is, but playing it through all of the levels is a much more fulfilling experience. Out of the Super Mario World and Super Mario 3 argument, this is the title I covet the most. Though, Yoshi was another great staple, so World definitely has its place.
28 Alice: Madness Returns
If a game needs to go out, this is a good way to do it. It's not the greatest game of all time, but it definitely one of the better 3D platformers. The dark themes and the shock value bogged it down to some degree, but if you're able to stomach the material, this is the game for you. The imagery is very macabre and the landscape of the haunted Wonderland was some of the best you could... imagine. Alice herself has become much more of a somber character, stripped of her childlike wonder from the death of her family and aiming to set her mental state right. With a freakish looking Cheshire cat and a horrific cast of monsters to fight through terrorizing levels, it's just a shining example of what can be done with some of our favorite fairytales. Now, where's the Peter Pan horror lore?!
27 Burning Rangers
Some of the best games come out of nowhere and are found in the most unlikely of spaces. Burning Rangers is a bit of a unicorn in terms of Sega Saturn games. It's extremely expensive to buy physically, so emulating it is pretty much your best bet if you want to get some gaming experience on this beauty. The freeroaming, the gameplay of fighting fires with water lasers, and the natural 32 bit graphics that pushed the system to its limits, all of it is just fun to play. It can get rather hard to complete, especially if you're trying to rescue everyone and get all of the gameplay down, but it's a labor of love. Along with Panzer Dragoon Saga, this is considered one of the greatest titles on the console. This is for very good reason.
26 The Legend of Zelda
The original has to truly great in order for its franchise to flourish. Nowhere is this more prominent than with Legend of Zelda. It may be cryptic in its progression, and there are some difficulty spikes with the amount of enemies you need to fight all at once, but it's just so much fun. The soundtrack itself is legendary, as are its dungeons that you need to traverse. You know, those dungeons with the puzzles and secret entrances. The triforce is now a staple in gaming, and Ganon continues to be one of the most recognizable villains in the culture. Just remember, his name is Link, not Zelda. Yes, this was a common miconception for a long, long time.
25 Virtua Fighter 2
One of the greatest fighting games in my library and I will never give it up. Virtua Fighter was good, but the sequel was when the franchise peaked. They rose to heights of quality that is seldom seen in fighting games and it went hand to hand against Tekken on every single front. Even if it is not as popular, the game is still awesome. The characters are charming, even if the boss battle is less-so. You just can't help but love Jeffry's craziness and Shun's very unhealthy drinking habit. Either way, the fighting mechanics are solid and the 32 bit graphics are beautiful.
24 Master of Magic
It is very hard to learn a game with extremely deep mechanics. Unlike some strategy games, Master of Magic is not quite as complex, but it is extremely fun to learn and play. The game can get a little frustrating, especially when it has monsters constantly attacking you early in the game when you're getting everything set up and building your armies. You need to learn as many spells as you can and produce as many armies as you can in order to get more and more cities to get more and more units, both magical and regular. The 5 type magical system and the weird A.I. of your allies and opponents just keeps things interesting and unique with every play through, especially with a map that is always unique to each new game.
23 Nights into Dreams
Very few times have games truly met and exceeded expectations. When I first saw Nights on commercials, my dreams of it were very real. I wanted this game more than anything. When I got my Sega Saturn in Christmas of 1996, that was the game I bought immediately after, along with a second controller. This game blew my mind with its beauty and high flying gameplay. It pushed the system to its limits because Sonic Team knew how to use both platforms of 3D and 2D, using both to make the game's background and foreground without lag or drops in frames. It is HARD to meet expectations to get at least a C average in order to get to the last level, but it is well worth it. Nights became the Sega Saturn's most recognizable title for a very good reason.
22 TMNT
One of the greatest beat'em ups in gaming, bar none. This is just beautiful gaming that coencides with the hit TV show that was still going strong upon its release. Whichever turtle you play has slightly different play style, but everyone has their own favorite. These graphics were beautiful and even translated very well into TMNT 2 for the NES. The levels are vibrant and the different types of foot ninja are plentiful. The first fight with Rocksteady in the burning building is iconic, as was the sewer levels where you face the Killer Pizzas from one of the best episodes in the show. Fighting your way to Shredder and Krang cost you an entire week's allowance but it was money well spent for one of the Triforce of beat'em up awesomeness. Heroes in a Halfshell, indeed.
21 Castlevania
If you want dark, gothic horror in 8-bit beauty, this is your go-to. The graphics are simple, but the gameplay is HARD. When you get hit, you fall backward. This could make you fall into a death trap or just fall into another monster that does immense damage. The level designs play into this hardship amazingly, even if it can get rather frustrating. The music goes with all of it so well, and it's just so much fun to see what sort of castles and catacombs you're getting into next. With creatures flying into you and big hulking monsters coming out of the woodworks, you won't get bored, but you will most likely die. Die, you will, but with a cringing smile on your face.
20 Team Fortress Classics
Live service games were not always the pitfall many of them are now. Back when games were great and made with the Halflife engine, it was just as simple as logging in and choosing a character. Heavy Weapons Guys are the most fun, but they are also one of the cheaper and easiest to play. They are also the weakest against snipers with weak long range and slow running speeds. There's also pyros, spies, medics, demolition, all of them have their quirks and awesome mechanics that add to the experience. Engineers building turrets and ammo stations aid players in killing and protecting their flags. All of its culminates in an all out war with simple maps that keep you running into opponents to fight. It's just a lot of fun and you can still play it to this day as there are several dedicated servers, bots and people who will play it even when it has a perfectly good sequel. This is worth celebrating and checking out for yourself. Kill well and remember to drink water.
