just played this for the first time (i remember digging Tricky back when though) and it really is something else. it’s almost open world! great menus, great style. loved the first race starting with the corny EA DJ saying “you can’t board without Yellowcard”. Pharrell saying “See you on the mountain, you’re listening to Radio BIG”. Incredibly charming and totally of the era. This is great.
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yeah consider yourself shat
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I feel like I literally cannot read this topic, a third of it is lists of dozens of random game name and my eyes glaze over but yet we are also supposed to discuss them here so there is random write-ups interspersed throughout and it’s a real mess in a way that sets me off I’m sorry.
I’m nominating Ski Free as tribute to the great before and 999 for having the funniest ending to a game ever.
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I mean it is an easy way to grab wiki blurbs.
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I love this thread because it keeps reminding me of games I should absolutely try but haven’t gotten around to it, or games that I should replay to remember if they are really that good or not. working on my list
I see a lot of Elite Beat Agents love but I wish all of those votes went instead to Moero Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii (aka Osu Tatakae Ouendan 2) because the tracklist is so good!! It’s really EBA but a bigger, better game with more bangers, please trust me!!! 
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I’m trying to read other lists to poach some games, but my it’s not really working for some reason.
Anyhow…
Alley Cat (DOS) — Jump around clotheslines, eat mice out of a giant wedge of cheese, take a dive in a fishbowl, knock items off of tables and bookcases, run away from angry dogs and phantom brooms, all to make love with a whole neighborhood’s worth of your fellow felines. As good as any arcade game of its genre, and perhaps the best use of the CGA palette.
Sonic Adventure — Few games have as admirably reached so far, far beyond their grasp.
Katamari Damacy — Why in the world do I have Weird Al’s I Remember Larry in the folder where I keep the soundtrack? Like, seriously, this is not a joke:
Windows Freecell — I always liked this better than Windows Solitare.
Full Tilt! 2 Pinball — *pushes glasses up nose* Did you know that the Space Cadet pinball game that was included with Windows XP was actually taken from a pinball game by Maxis that had two other tables (that kinda sucked in comparison)??? Anyhow, they made a sequel to that and all three of the tables were good.
Ouendan — My brother imported a copy of this and I played it having no idea what it was going to be and I highly recommend that experience to everybody.
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Arcade games only, to bring out some of the Insert Credit spirit:
Metal Slug X
The Simpsons
Golden Axe 2
Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker
Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Guwange
Dodonpachi Resurrection
Mushihimesama Futari
Dance Dance Revolution 7th mix
DJ Maxx Technika
Jubeat
Taiko Drum Master
The BISHI-BASHI
Time Gal
Magical Drop 3
Puzzle Bobble 2
Starsweep
Twinkle Star Sprites
4-player Pac-Man
Street Fighter 2
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Guilty Gear XX
Warzaid
Typing of the Dead
And the game which is at once the most Blue Skies and the most “what were the beancounters smoking when they greenlit this enormous, noisy, rickety contraption???”
Magical Truck Adventure
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Dang it, am I gonna have to switch my Metal Slug 3 to X just to ensure some slug love gets on the list? I’ve only played Metal Slug X a few times and 3 quite a bit. Why is the former better?
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I respect Metal Slug 3 for being an all-out showcase of crazy art concepts, but it starts to forget about the game part. Every enemy in the game is a damage sponge, even the crabs at the very beginning. It is very easy to end up in impossible situations of facing a boss with only a pistol. In emulator I always reach a point of credit feeding just to see the next part of the “movie”; in an actual arcade context I wonder how much people persisted
Metal Slug 2/X retains the original satisfaction of mowing down lots of little soldiers coming at you from all directions, and starts to introduce the wacky fantasy elements while remaining grounded. Like all the best arcade games, it’s satisfying to get as far as you can on a credit budget of say 5 credits then start over – it’s fair and predictable enough to allow steady improvement.
I noticed as I was writing the list that a lot of these arcade games are very debatable as to which one is the best among their slightly different variants. Like in the case of Guilty Gear XX I honestly don’t know where it stands relative to the other ones, it’s just the one I played the most.
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OK, I’ve just acquired the Metal Slug Anthology so I’m gonna play through X (which I did love, but never owned). I’m ready to be converted.
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my favorite thing about metal slug 3 is that there was a version of it at an arcade cab in sunnyvale golfland called METAL SLUG 6 (metal slug 6 wasnt out yet) and the only thing they changed was that EVERYTHING, including the bosses died in one hit
and it fucking ruled
so
fake metal slug six - goes on my list too
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I̶’̶m̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶v̶e̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶u̶n̶n̶y̶v̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶l̶f̶l̶a̶n̶d̶,̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶v̶e̶r̶t̶e̶d̶.̶ That’s awesome.
I cosign everything Broco said about X vs 3. 3 is so much stuff and excess but dying feels bad and it is mostly a slog.
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Bad Cat (C64) for the absolutely incredible menu music and grotesque art
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Mushihimesama (Original/1.5)
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i want to add fake sunnyvale metal slug 6, though i have never played it. it sounds like it solves all the problems of metal slug 3 tbh
shame you have to avoid vampires to play it though
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Starting to do writeups on my entries. I noticed if I cut a game I will have 64 games on my list. Not that it matters since we could all probably throw out multiple sets of 64 games if we wanted but I like that I got to the mid-60s without even trying just by listing games I’d had a great time with as they came to me.
Anyway here are a few blurbs from the top:
Doom – What more needs to be said? Almost 30 years later Doom is still the revolution. We’re still building off of it so let its current carry you and build something out of it yourself.
GTA III – The first and greatest of the 3D GTAs. Successfully merged driving and third person action genres while proving expansive game spaces were possible on PS2. While later games crafted ever more accurate facsimiles of specific real world locations GTA III was a blend of the most recognizable parts of major cities in New York, New Jersey and Maine. This gives the game’s Liberty City a sense of familiarity while still being able to maintain its own distinct identity. The game’s design is still the most open ended in the series, allowing for players to come up with more creative solutions to some of the game’s missions rather than force the player down the specified path through excessive fail states. Much like Royce da 5’9 on the in-game radio station GTA III is The King. Long live the King.
Dragon Quest 3 – Amazing game. While the next three games after this one would solidify the mold of the series this one was the second refinement to the culmination of an experiment in game design by Enix to produce a deep, complex RPG like Wizardry and Ultima on a home console with limited memory compared to PCs at the time and without the need for a keyboard to enter commands. In accomplishing this they formed a new genre and expanded the audience for RPGs in general. That the series still has its creator managing it after all these years is also amazing.
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Arguably Metal Slug 3 belongs on the list if only for the optional path leading to the underground lair of the Imperial Japanese Army holdovers
So put in my vote for fake Metal Slug 6 too
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every game should have a mishima break where you mow down imperial japanese army holdouts for a stage or so
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