see brooks I told you!!! literally everything
1 Like
So I think I may have blacked out at some point and had an out-of-body experience where I traveled back in time to meet my 12 year old self in a Porterās newsagent.
I had just noticed he was holding open a page from an issue of gamesā¢ with some column waxing lyrical about the historical importance of Jet Set Willy when, all of sudden, I regained consciousness and discovered the list below typed up in front of me, complete with screenshots and paragraphs of text for each gameā¦ Enjoy?
(drumroll)
VIDEOGAMES I CANNOT FORGET
(from the 21st century)
ALIENATION: Flower, Sun and Rain (2001/2008)
Thereās something very funny about the idea of paradise as an adventure game that gives you all the puzzle solutions in its own included guide book. Thereās also something very tragic about the idea of paradise as a groundhog day looping scenario, where the events of the day change ever so slightly but the catastrophic end (an exploding airplane) never really gets resolved.
All of this is accompanied by a soundtrack with sorta spacey elevator music interpretations of classical standards, like youāve been permanently left on hold by a call center, and a blurry abstract visual style like a vague memory or crude approximation of what a holiday is supposed to be.
The protagonist, Sumio Mondo, serves as a fitting symbol for the end of the 20th century. A man in a suit meant to fix any problem the world can throw at him just by entering some numerical data into his magical briefcase.
Thereās an intense feeling of ambivalence that runs throughout Flower, Sun and Rain, towards its characters, plotlines, the ideas it touches upon and videogames themselvesā¦
Never has the mood of a game captured me so totally before. While I may not always remember all its specific plot points (or the details of its slightly awkward ending that ties it to a game that hadnāt yet been localised into english when I first played it), Iāll always remember the feeling of it. An all too familiar sense of barely contained alienation.
FARCE: Chulip (2002/2007)
Chulip purports itself to be a game about love, but the truth, as always, is much more complexā¦
The prescribed narrative that the game initially doles out to you, player and impoverished protagonist, is one of a conventional romance, the kind you may already recognise as having been passed down throughout history time and again, re-enforced here by your notably single father and a failing institutional educatorā¦
But as you progress along the path set out for you, it soon becomes apparent that something doesnāt feel quite rightā¦ Many in town seem to look down on you, including the girl of your dreams. On top of that, your romantic ambitions quickly get intercepted by the far more pressing struggles of others you cross paths with along the way, each of whom find themselves tormented by uncertainties of employment, economic precarity and deep-seated unhappiness (among other problemsā¦).
You also make acquaintances with those most ignored by this society ā rarely seen, highly avoidant individuals, with unconventional passions and appearances, who have chosen to spend most of their life, quite literally, underground. And all this before even getting into the main conceit of the game: trying to earn a kiss from anyone who dares offer.
Chulip is a game that uses humour and absurdity to shine a light on the very real issues that plague societies around the world. It does this with a deft hand, hampered only by a somewhat botched English localisation that interferes with some of the particulars of its design, exacerbating aspects of its deliberate trial-and-error approach in unfortunate ways. It is a game that both rewards and punishes close inspection in equal measure, imparting the true cost of love in a world full of contradictions.
To this day, there is nothing else Iāve played quite like it and it remains absolutely unforgettable.
FANTASY: Outrun 2 (2003)
So fanciful is Outrun 2ās interpretation of what driving a car should feel like that it makes both its predecessor and real world cars feel redundant by comparison. The laws of physics be damned as you forever drift into the sunset while occasionally fulfilling increasingly strange requests from your excited-sounding virtual girlfriend as the horizon line impossibly morphs, entire mountain ranges forming in an instant to transport you halfway across the world at a moments notice.
Remember that Drive Club marketing guy who was intensely horny about all those obsessively recreated car details? He should play this, if only just to remind himself to think outside of the box car and into the great beyond of oneās own imagination where anything is possible.
Outrun 2 is the uncanniness of 3D virtual space weaponised against reality itself. Forget about real cars, they are grossly inefficient and actively harmful to the planet and other living creatures. Remember when you could actually walk around real places without having to regularly risk your life crossing roads, fearing today may finally be the day some brazen idiot behind a wheel decides to carelessly mow you down? Of course you canāt! Thatās how long weāve been living with real cars when instead we could have just been playing Outrun 2!!
TRAGEDY: Chibi-Robo! (2005)
Chibi-Robo! tries to juggle a lot of ideas all at once. Simultaneously a character study of a family falling apart, a reflection on technological obsolescence and even somewhat of an interrogation of the average adult manās obsession with childhood nostalgia, it may on paper seem like a lot to swallow. In practise, however, it is so well executed it may even make you cry!
As Chibi-Robo, you try to improve the lives of the Sanderson family but, despite your best efforts to tidy and keep things organised, much deeper problems remain unresolved. The routine gameplay of cleaning up after the familyās messes quickly gets sidetracked by much more serious interpersonal issues as your little robot accidentally eavesdrops on a coupleās arguments, an ignored childās distress and the worries of discarded toys that wander around at night when no oneās looking.
And no, for those worried that this might be some kind of propaganda for automationās supposed ability to solve any possible problem in the midst of our current AI hellscape, I can assure you that the resolution is a lot more nuanced than that. Itās only through stepping outside of your robotic programming and the game-ified loop of experience points and empty rewards that you are able to finally discover the true heart of the matter and what is really at stake.
In some ways, Chibi-Robo! is also the story of what happens when a promising developer gets exploited by a big company like Nintendo, forced instead to make endless less-inspired sequels for smaller consoles with zero advertising until eventually being disappeared into obscurity.
It is a tragedy more people havenāt played this game.
MISCHIEF: Gravity Bone (2008)
The great pleasure of Gravity Bone is in how it takes familiar videogame concepts or setups and ever so slightly twists them for profound comedic effect.
In such a short length of time, it transports you away to a world of campy spy intrigue and repurposes its Quake II engine by having you deliver dubious drinks, hammer frozen locks and even partake in a bit of covert photography instead of just predictably shooting bad guys 100 times in the face.
Then, before you know it, the rug gets pulled and all sense of a familiar videogame structure gets thrown out the window in exchange for something far more thrilling. Given itās freeware, I insist you give it a go yourself if you havenāt already, rather than have me spoil what comes next.
Yes, maybe it could have done without that one awkward first person platforming section in the middle, but it still largely remains a blast to experience, even all these years later, and serves as one of many possible blueprints for where videogames could still go with a bit of creative thinking.
CHAOS: Noby Noby Boy (2009)
The worldās most expensive interactive screensaver (when taking into account how much a PS3 cost at the time of its releaseā¦) and maybe also the worldās first virtual stim toy? This āgameā tends to blur definitions and logicā¦
What is a āNoby Noby Boyā? Who is āGirlā? Why is that photorealistic parrot gyrating in the corner? Is the creature Iām controlling a monster terrorising the local population by consuming their bodies and shitting them back out at high velocity? Or a convenient sentient means of transport that they just like to hop on and ride around for a laugh? Can a global initiative of simple stretch-based exercise really help us to travel across the solar system and visit other planets? Better to give up on trying to rationalise and instead give in to the playfulness of being a long stretchy fellaā¦
If youāre still confused, try your best to find the in-game manual and in the process accidentally discover a bastardised version of the music from Metro-cross repurposed as this games theme tune instead. Pure anarchic glee!
TRASH: Deadly Premonition (2010)
Probably the most representative 21st century videogame, warts n all. Deadly Premonition takes everything, the āgoodā and the ābadā, high and lowbrow, the best and the worst tendencies of the entire modern videogame form.
Like many of its contemporaries, its narrative framing is also almost entirely plagiarised from another medium (in this case tv show Twin Peaks) and its gameplay structure is a bloated and confused combination of far too many poorly executed genres awkwardly crammed into an open world.
It can range from being deeply offensive to unexpectedly hilarious to oddly touching to almost entirely incoherent. It is also a love letter to low-budget schlock, because thatās what it is! Its most intimate moments come from when you find yourself lost in its clumsy recreation of the pacific northwest, driving on some indistinguishable backroad while listening to protagonist Francis York Morganās musings on old B-movies.
Without intending to be, it is maybe one of the most honest modern videogames out there.
INSPIRATION: 50 Short Games (2014)
This thing reminded me of the reason why I ever made anything in the first place ā for the sheer hell of it! It deprogrammed my Indie Game: The Movie/Game Makerās Toolkit inspired brain-washing and made clear the arbitrary standards that had infected my creative thinking for so many years.
Who cares about making things that look professional? Take a photo of your pencil and crayon drawings and make those the sprites! Have an intrusive thought floating around your head? That could be a whole game in itself! And you know what? 5 minutes is actually a perfectly reasonable length for a videogameā¦ NOW LETāS MAKE ANOTHER ONE!!!
There are no rules so long as you are having a good time making things! Anyone can make games. Anyone can be an artist. Donāt let anyone else tell you otherwise!!
Maybe the most inspiring videogame Iāve ever played.
MYSTERY: Tarotica Voo Doo (2017)
A game that exists out of time. Cryptic and mysterious like your favourite 80s microcomputer game and yet technically a modern release despite only being playable through an MSX emulator.
A cumbersome interactive floorplan composed of a bunch of pixelated scribbles and hard to parse interactive sequences divorced of any kind of linear narrative justification or sense.
A kind of point n click adventure where every interaction is its own unique minigame.
Like if navigating the mansion map from Resident Evil brought with it the same risk as using an internet browser without adblock installed, except each pop-up also had a slightly confusing puzzle to solve.
A fake videogame that you might have heard someone describe in the playground once or in a dreamā¦ only it actually exists!
DESIRE: Beautycopter (2020)
Absurdly comedic and unexpectedly poignant, Beautycopter meshes together visual and audio collage to dizzying effect. It sets you off-balance before hitting you with some surprisingly earnest observations on the relationship between work, leisure, mundane misery and abstract pleasure.
It conveys both the humour and horror of providing customer service through having you use an oversimplified, less-than-functional speak n spell to talk to other characters.
It is also a flight simulator.
It takes about a half hour from beginning to end and is entirely free. Words do not do it justice. Please, if you get the chance, play it for yourself.
ADDENDUM: Goodbye Videogames? (2025)
Is it a silly idea to propose making a āTop 10 Greatest Videogames of The 21st Centuryā list only 25 years in? I guess with the way the industry side of things has been going, it may be hard for some to picture much of a future for commercial videogames by the time 2026 rolls around.
In the wake of mass layoffs across the AAA space and considering, even well before all of this started to happen, that sector was already flooded with a seemingly endless wave of remakes, remasters and unimaginative sequels to long-running franchises, itās not hard to understand why some might see this as the end of the road, and thatās not even taking into account the continued gouging of indie developers by Valve through Steam while the cost of living across countries continues to skyrocketā¦ Not to mention on-going war and genocide totally eclipsing the comparitively trivial nature of it all.
I think this is maybe the kinda headspace the staff at Giant Bomb were in when putting forth the idea of this list. āItās all over anyway, might as well do the best a site like us can do in these trying times by totting up all the results and assigning some kind of numerical value to these things before itās all gone foreverā¦ā
I think if there is a kind of silver lining I can take away from having engaged in this exercise of cherry-picking games from the last 25 years, itās that each of my picks in one way or another mostly flew in the face of industry standards at the time of their release, whether that be freeware like Gravity Bone or Beautycopter that exist almost entirely outside of the industryās infrastructure or even the seemingly quite mainstream and commercial Outrun 2 with its passionate commitment to arcade absurdity just as arcades themselves were on a downward trajectory towards becoming almost entirely nonexistent.
Thereās a certain comfort in realising that the aspects of these things that I love most arenāt actually intrinsically tied to the industry that they just so happened to sometimes find themselves a part of. That the most fascinating bits of them can in fact live on without having to rely on the decaying bloated corpse that is (and perhaps always was) the videogame industry.
However it all shakes out, I think I can confidently say that I am personally ready to move on, content in the knowledge that there will probably be people out in the margins somewhere, like always, creating something far stranger than any economic power could ever fully controlā¦
26 Likes
I should have known it would be Chazumaru on the other end of that link. One of the best forum posters Iāve ever seen.
3 Likes
I donāt know but
demons souls
shin megami tensei nocturne
thread has reminded me to replay mother 3 at some point to see how it holds up
4 Likes
off the dome, in no order (though the stream-of-consciousness nature of this list suggests certain priorities), with the usual caveat that lists create an illusion of objectivity and critical authority that masks the fact that weāre all just stupid babies. trying to focus on either innovation, impact, or perfection and avoiding redundancies that would necessitate including a handful of similar/related games that are basically just as good. also i consider the ps3/360 era to basically be a low point in gaming history but this is largely because i was disgusted with the idea of video games at this point in my life and wasnāt really paying attention.
- katamari damacy
- shadow of the colossus
- bloodborne
- flappy bird
- tears of the kingdom
- divinity: original sin 2 (but will probably be replaced by bg 3 when i finally get around to playing it)
- marvel vs capcom 2 (2000 counts, right?)
- dragon quest xi
- tetris friends
- idk metroid prime or some shit
13 Likes
oh i almost included this too, maybe it should take the tenth spot. historic. i just felt i had to include at least 1 fps but if iām being honest i donāt really care about those.
1 Like
every time im like āoh i should include somethingā its in ten other peoples lists anyway
flappy bird is a big one i almost picked too
2 Likes
I was able to quickly toss off a list of movies but this one is proving impossible. It must be a little of what it was like to make a top ten greatest films of the 20th century in 1925. just an incredibly wide spray of barely realized stuff
5 Likes
I thought about putting Metroid Prime on my list for this reason, but intellectually and emotionally I just couldnāt bring myself to do it.
3 Likes
In no particular order:
Steamboat Chronicles
Deathsmiles
Dragon Quest VII
Killer 7
Death Stranding
Shadow of the Colossus
La La Land 1-5
Trails of Cold Steel I+II*
Silent Hill 2
FZero GX
*: like Ys 1 and 2 , just basically two halves of one game.
This is hard. I left some stuff off. I will want to revise this I know.
9 Likes
Flappy Bird and Cookie Clicker are basically a distillation of everything the medium has to offer
2 Likes
if i was going for one of these i would probably pick Universal Paperclips
not the same genre really but i could have put A Dark Room
2 Likes
I feel like the powerups in jetpack joyride offer something significant to the genre by varying the pacing, giving you moments to breath or forcing you to lock in for a timer.
2 Likes
- Katamari Damacy
- Gears of War
- God Hand
- Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
- Katana ZERO
- Severed Steel
- Videoball
- Luftrausers
- Oh, Deer! Alpha
- Hyper Gunsport
7 Likes
GOD DAMMIT I WAS THINKING āwould I put VIDEOBALL?ā And immediately read your post.
2 Likes
Iām not qualified in any way to make such a list because I play too little and most of it is not good, but I wanna say that I enjoyed the EDF and Yakuza series the most in this quarter century of video games.
10 Likes
yeah! like āthe yakuza seriesā has become so influential this century! and āthe edf seriesā probably understands the idea of what a videogame is better than anyone this century!!
I was thinking about similar lists to this one, like, how much would my list change if the prompt was āmost importantā
5 Likes
for the sake of variety, maybe we could make lists of āgames you hate but which you begrudgingly recognize were importantā
your calladoodys, your skyrimps, etc
1 Like
youād have to put a pretty fuckin big asterisk on the word important for me to call skyrimp that
5 Likes
would it not be oblivion instead because thats what kinda turned tes into the series that can have a skyrim
2 Likes