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Here we go again, as yet another way to commemorate the end of Nintendo Power magazine. This time, we're doing it right! Nothing will be listed that I barely or never did play (unlike with the first Top 50, at least as far as the good games go), nor will anything make this list based entirely on nostalgia.
25) Snowboard Kids (Nintendo 64): Before my discovery of Getter Love!!, whenever I had a few hours to kill, I would enjoy attempting to beat all the courses in one sitting (albeit multiple tries), only settling for money to buy new boards with if I won 1st place. Despite the still cartoony characters, it also feels slightly more mature than its sequel, with more realistic environments and board designs. The music kicked ass, too!
24) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super NES): While many enemies (and especially bosses) require you to defeat them in a particular way, rather than just letting you fight with whatever's convenient, this game is fun for those who like to have a whole world of stuff to collect while playing along. The graphics are also fun to look at, with lots of stuff compressed to take up no more than a tiny square of the screen, be they things you can pick up, stuff you obtain from treasure chests, or stuff that appears in the item select screen.
23) Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64): Three things worth mentioning about this game. One, like with A Link to the Past mentioned above, is the whole variety of items you can pick up throughout the game, which are compressed to mostly the same tiny size. A few of these are also special items exclusive to a certain world, which exist mainly as keys for getting a certain jigsaw piece in that world. Bonus points for the fact that the first of each item you collect talks. Moving on, there's also the scenery in the first few worlds, and admittedly, I also like the shiny, golden scenery in Gobi's Valley. But, as far as the gameplay goes, the best part of this game is Grunty's Furnace Fun, where you get to play all kinds of minigames and answer quizzes, and even get to make detours for extra lives (though that becomes a moot point if you decide to take a break from the game afterwards before fighting Gruntilda herself).
22) Snowboard Kids 2 (Nintendo 64): While the first game had its own merits over this one, I consider this the better of the two N64 games, for having more content and no cheating AI characters. While the first game only gives you a set of menus between races, this game is more creative by having a town full of different facilities which serve different purposes. Also more fun than the first game in multiplayer mode, if you unlock all the special boards through either the Expert mode or a cheat code.
21) Super Mario Bros. 3 (Super NES): What's the best thing about this game? Simple: The variety of items you can pick up, be they from Toad houses or elsewhere to use on the map screen or within the levels themselves to take effect immediately.
20) Super Mario World (Super NES): Okay, so not as many powerups as in SMB3, but there are still plenty of items, blocks, and other objects all compressed to the same cute little size, as well as some things new to that game (such as P-balloons, 3-up moons, and not least of all, Yoshi). Also better is that it's a lot less linear (especially with two special worlds), and you can now backtrack to levels or worlds that you've already cleared (except for Switch Palaces, which you can't even re-enter with L and R).
19) Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64): Everything that made A Link to the Past great, and then some! The concept of secret grottoes all over the place is one of various interesting things about this game that weren't present in ALttP.
18) Mahou Poipoi Poitto (Super Famicom): This is one of those few games which, no matter how many times I play it, I never know how far I'll actually get in each playthrough.
17) Contra IV (Nintendo DS): Nothing beats making short work of enemies (and especially bosses) with the machine gun! Make sure you don't lose it, especially during level 6!
16) Pokemon Crystal (Game Boy Color): For all the flaws the Pokemon series has, it sure was fun to have all kinds of Pokemon to make use of at different times to knock other Trainers' Pokemon out with. They set up the pins, you knock 'em down!
15) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES): While the gameplay is more different than others in the franchise are from one another, what's particularly fun about this game is determining whenever you gain enough experience whether to increase your life meter, magic meter, strength, or just retain your exp.
14) Sonic Adventure DX (GameCube): The actual story and levels were fun in their own right, but the best part of this game was the opportunity to raise Chao. Even though I already traded this game in at GameStop late in 2010, I would so buy it back if I ever see there or at Savers!
13) Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (GameCube): While the first game lets you explore freely and is more true to everything in the franchise prior, this game lets you alternate between characters (story mode notwithstanding) and has even more content as far as Chao are concerned.
12) Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen (Game Boy Advance): Just being an upgrade from Red and Blue would be enough to warrant a place here, but the Sevii Islands is also a nice addition to the adventure.
11) Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (Game Boy Advance): Just having upgraded graphics, sound, and everything else from the first two generations of Pokemon is enough to put this ahead on the list. Emerald in particular, though, introduces the concept of the Battle Frontier! That sure was fun while it lasted! (Too bad it becomes increasingly rigged the more battles you win in any given facility.)
10)Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars (Game Boy Advance): The Interactive Action System in this game is kind of a challenge-killer, sure, but you can turn this off if you want a real, partially luck-based challenge. That's exactly what I do whenever playing this. The battle system is also unique, with a grid of squares for everyone to move around on, instead of everyone being confined to a certain position. Anyone's position in relation to their target on any given turn also determines what weapons they can use, depending on whether they stay put or close in on their enemy. It is kinda weird, though, that even attacks that should logically damage multiple enemies can still only hit one.
9) Earthbound (Super NES): More atmospheric than Earthbound Zero for the NES, enemies are shown on screen, and if you're in the right place, you could try to avoid enemies by walking around certain objects. The battles themselves are also better than in EB0 or Mother 3, in that there are two rows in which different numbers of enemies can be placed.
8) SMW2: Yoshi's Island (Super NES): Collecting all the red coins and bonus flowers in each level and completing them with 30 second on your Mario timer is a blast! Even better is when you enter a bonus game and get to see how many items or extra lives you get to take out with you (assuming you don't blow it by landing Kamek).
7) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super NES): A myriad of different items to use in battle and various minigames to play throughout the game!
6) Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Super NES): Nothing could be more fun than collecting all manner of items and weapons to decide which to use on what enemies or in which situations!
5) Mother 3 (Game Boy Advance): Well, no, it doesn't have the same flavor as either of its prequels. However, I can't really say what Earthbound has that this doesn't, as far as gameplay goes. Enemies do appear in fixed positions, and the battle system is kinda inferior if you ask me, but unlike in Earthbound, trying to complete the Battle Memory with each enemy's sprites provides a nice challenge in and of itself.
4) Chrono Trigger (Super NES): Seven playable characters in all to alternate with between battles. Lots of neat things to find and equip your characters with, too!
3) Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (Nintendo DS): Almost everything that all its prequels had to offer, and more! Lots of stuff to do after you beat the Elite Four! The Underground in its entirety is also a fun concept!
2) Pokemon SoulSilver (Nintendo DS): One of the best things about this game in particular is, by far, the PokeWalker! I sure enjoyed making good use of that whenever I was waiting for something to happen in the game or doing something that involved a lot of walking around. Even better is the new Battle Frontier, which is also much more consistent than the one in Emerald.
1) Take a guess! Getter Love!!, for the Nintendo 64! Seven girls to date, fifty topics to collect and bring up during dates with your girl of choice, 65 different cutscenes to save to your game pak (including all the different endings with each girl), and a myriad of different item cards with which to promote your relationships or fuck up those of your opponents'. I only wish that this game was in English, and that AI players would make better use of their resources than to attack only whoever has the biggest heart with any of the girls.
Now for five of the worst:
5) Pokemon Red (Game Boy): I've already described before, everything that's wrong with the main line of Pokemon games. Gen II is where the series really took off. The graphics are bland, even for Game Boy standards, the inventory is poorly designed, most attacks look nothing like what they're called, Rage is different from future games (and in a way that makes it not worth using), there are certain TMs that really shouldn't have been such (such as Water Gun and Softboiled), and so on. I'd rather play this, though, than any of the games listed below, and at least it and Blue have the excuse of being the very first installment in the franchise.
4) Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (Nintendo DS): Yes, one of the two games I just sold on Ebay. Hardly played it at all after buying it at GameStop, and that turned out to be for the better when I read some online reviews. From what I've read, there isn't nearly as much strategy involved as in the original PSX version, and there are also places you have to backtrack to, where the enemies are not any stronger than they were the first time you explored their habitats.
3) Death & Return of Superman (Super NES): That's right, there were two games worse that I've played than this; just that I had forgotten about them until more than a year ago. But anyway, I already have described before what actually is wrong with this game. Repetitive levels, fighting the same enemies over and over again (unlike in Final Fight or Turtles in Time), only the first two levels have anything you can pick up to throw at your enemies, certain stages share the same bosses, and whenever you pause the game, the music continually hums whichever note it stopped on. Probably for the better that I played a "trained" ROM copy of this, with infinite lives and superbombs; that way, I wouldn't have wasted time trying to get any kind of challenge out of this piece of shit.
2) The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare (Super NES): This was something Brian rented once during 1997, before I started keeping any track of time. Of the five levels this game has to offer, I only managed to beat Bartman, and the only other one I even came close to beating was Itchy & Scratchy. Never made it very far in Indiana Bart because it was too hard to tell which platforms would support your weight and which ones would collapse immediately. On the street you find yourself on between levels, trying to jump on a basketball to turn into a skateboard is awkward.
1) J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1 (Super NES): It's already listed on TV Tropes: So Bad It's Horrible: Video Games, but from my own experiences, I recall the characters you don't control wandering around like idiots, delayed attacks, a glitch that sometimes prevents you from seeing anything inside the first cave (and no, that wasn't the emulator), and me being owned in seconds by the very first boss. Oh, and I also noticed that in order to continue somewhere in the game, you have to enter an extremely long password, instead of being able to save your game. Played a few times during 2002, and never again. Frankly, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the sequels to this attempt at a game adaptation never were made.
25) Snowboard Kids (Nintendo 64): Before my discovery of Getter Love!!, whenever I had a few hours to kill, I would enjoy attempting to beat all the courses in one sitting (albeit multiple tries), only settling for money to buy new boards with if I won 1st place. Despite the still cartoony characters, it also feels slightly more mature than its sequel, with more realistic environments and board designs. The music kicked ass, too!
24) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super NES): While many enemies (and especially bosses) require you to defeat them in a particular way, rather than just letting you fight with whatever's convenient, this game is fun for those who like to have a whole world of stuff to collect while playing along. The graphics are also fun to look at, with lots of stuff compressed to take up no more than a tiny square of the screen, be they things you can pick up, stuff you obtain from treasure chests, or stuff that appears in the item select screen.
23) Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64): Three things worth mentioning about this game. One, like with A Link to the Past mentioned above, is the whole variety of items you can pick up throughout the game, which are compressed to mostly the same tiny size. A few of these are also special items exclusive to a certain world, which exist mainly as keys for getting a certain jigsaw piece in that world. Bonus points for the fact that the first of each item you collect talks. Moving on, there's also the scenery in the first few worlds, and admittedly, I also like the shiny, golden scenery in Gobi's Valley. But, as far as the gameplay goes, the best part of this game is Grunty's Furnace Fun, where you get to play all kinds of minigames and answer quizzes, and even get to make detours for extra lives (though that becomes a moot point if you decide to take a break from the game afterwards before fighting Gruntilda herself).
22) Snowboard Kids 2 (Nintendo 64): While the first game had its own merits over this one, I consider this the better of the two N64 games, for having more content and no cheating AI characters. While the first game only gives you a set of menus between races, this game is more creative by having a town full of different facilities which serve different purposes. Also more fun than the first game in multiplayer mode, if you unlock all the special boards through either the Expert mode or a cheat code.
21) Super Mario Bros. 3 (Super NES): What's the best thing about this game? Simple: The variety of items you can pick up, be they from Toad houses or elsewhere to use on the map screen or within the levels themselves to take effect immediately.
20) Super Mario World (Super NES): Okay, so not as many powerups as in SMB3, but there are still plenty of items, blocks, and other objects all compressed to the same cute little size, as well as some things new to that game (such as P-balloons, 3-up moons, and not least of all, Yoshi). Also better is that it's a lot less linear (especially with two special worlds), and you can now backtrack to levels or worlds that you've already cleared (except for Switch Palaces, which you can't even re-enter with L and R).
19) Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64): Everything that made A Link to the Past great, and then some! The concept of secret grottoes all over the place is one of various interesting things about this game that weren't present in ALttP.
18) Mahou Poipoi Poitto (Super Famicom): This is one of those few games which, no matter how many times I play it, I never know how far I'll actually get in each playthrough.
17) Contra IV (Nintendo DS): Nothing beats making short work of enemies (and especially bosses) with the machine gun! Make sure you don't lose it, especially during level 6!
16) Pokemon Crystal (Game Boy Color): For all the flaws the Pokemon series has, it sure was fun to have all kinds of Pokemon to make use of at different times to knock other Trainers' Pokemon out with. They set up the pins, you knock 'em down!
15) Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES): While the gameplay is more different than others in the franchise are from one another, what's particularly fun about this game is determining whenever you gain enough experience whether to increase your life meter, magic meter, strength, or just retain your exp.
14) Sonic Adventure DX (GameCube): The actual story and levels were fun in their own right, but the best part of this game was the opportunity to raise Chao. Even though I already traded this game in at GameStop late in 2010, I would so buy it back if I ever see there or at Savers!
13) Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (GameCube): While the first game lets you explore freely and is more true to everything in the franchise prior, this game lets you alternate between characters (story mode notwithstanding) and has even more content as far as Chao are concerned.
12) Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen (Game Boy Advance): Just being an upgrade from Red and Blue would be enough to warrant a place here, but the Sevii Islands is also a nice addition to the adventure.
11) Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald (Game Boy Advance): Just having upgraded graphics, sound, and everything else from the first two generations of Pokemon is enough to put this ahead on the list. Emerald in particular, though, introduces the concept of the Battle Frontier! That sure was fun while it lasted! (Too bad it becomes increasingly rigged the more battles you win in any given facility.)
10)Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars (Game Boy Advance): The Interactive Action System in this game is kind of a challenge-killer, sure, but you can turn this off if you want a real, partially luck-based challenge. That's exactly what I do whenever playing this. The battle system is also unique, with a grid of squares for everyone to move around on, instead of everyone being confined to a certain position. Anyone's position in relation to their target on any given turn also determines what weapons they can use, depending on whether they stay put or close in on their enemy. It is kinda weird, though, that even attacks that should logically damage multiple enemies can still only hit one.
9) Earthbound (Super NES): More atmospheric than Earthbound Zero for the NES, enemies are shown on screen, and if you're in the right place, you could try to avoid enemies by walking around certain objects. The battles themselves are also better than in EB0 or Mother 3, in that there are two rows in which different numbers of enemies can be placed.
8) SMW2: Yoshi's Island (Super NES): Collecting all the red coins and bonus flowers in each level and completing them with 30 second on your Mario timer is a blast! Even better is when you enter a bonus game and get to see how many items or extra lives you get to take out with you (assuming you don't blow it by landing Kamek).
7) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super NES): A myriad of different items to use in battle and various minigames to play throughout the game!
6) Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Super NES): Nothing could be more fun than collecting all manner of items and weapons to decide which to use on what enemies or in which situations!
5) Mother 3 (Game Boy Advance): Well, no, it doesn't have the same flavor as either of its prequels. However, I can't really say what Earthbound has that this doesn't, as far as gameplay goes. Enemies do appear in fixed positions, and the battle system is kinda inferior if you ask me, but unlike in Earthbound, trying to complete the Battle Memory with each enemy's sprites provides a nice challenge in and of itself.
4) Chrono Trigger (Super NES): Seven playable characters in all to alternate with between battles. Lots of neat things to find and equip your characters with, too!
3) Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (Nintendo DS): Almost everything that all its prequels had to offer, and more! Lots of stuff to do after you beat the Elite Four! The Underground in its entirety is also a fun concept!
2) Pokemon SoulSilver (Nintendo DS): One of the best things about this game in particular is, by far, the PokeWalker! I sure enjoyed making good use of that whenever I was waiting for something to happen in the game or doing something that involved a lot of walking around. Even better is the new Battle Frontier, which is also much more consistent than the one in Emerald.
1) Take a guess! Getter Love!!, for the Nintendo 64! Seven girls to date, fifty topics to collect and bring up during dates with your girl of choice, 65 different cutscenes to save to your game pak (including all the different endings with each girl), and a myriad of different item cards with which to promote your relationships or fuck up those of your opponents'. I only wish that this game was in English, and that AI players would make better use of their resources than to attack only whoever has the biggest heart with any of the girls.
Now for five of the worst:
5) Pokemon Red (Game Boy): I've already described before, everything that's wrong with the main line of Pokemon games. Gen II is where the series really took off. The graphics are bland, even for Game Boy standards, the inventory is poorly designed, most attacks look nothing like what they're called, Rage is different from future games (and in a way that makes it not worth using), there are certain TMs that really shouldn't have been such (such as Water Gun and Softboiled), and so on. I'd rather play this, though, than any of the games listed below, and at least it and Blue have the excuse of being the very first installment in the franchise.
4) Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (Nintendo DS): Yes, one of the two games I just sold on Ebay. Hardly played it at all after buying it at GameStop, and that turned out to be for the better when I read some online reviews. From what I've read, there isn't nearly as much strategy involved as in the original PSX version, and there are also places you have to backtrack to, where the enemies are not any stronger than they were the first time you explored their habitats.
3) Death & Return of Superman (Super NES): That's right, there were two games worse that I've played than this; just that I had forgotten about them until more than a year ago. But anyway, I already have described before what actually is wrong with this game. Repetitive levels, fighting the same enemies over and over again (unlike in Final Fight or Turtles in Time), only the first two levels have anything you can pick up to throw at your enemies, certain stages share the same bosses, and whenever you pause the game, the music continually hums whichever note it stopped on. Probably for the better that I played a "trained" ROM copy of this, with infinite lives and superbombs; that way, I wouldn't have wasted time trying to get any kind of challenge out of this piece of shit.
2) The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare (Super NES): This was something Brian rented once during 1997, before I started keeping any track of time. Of the five levels this game has to offer, I only managed to beat Bartman, and the only other one I even came close to beating was Itchy & Scratchy. Never made it very far in Indiana Bart because it was too hard to tell which platforms would support your weight and which ones would collapse immediately. On the street you find yourself on between levels, trying to jump on a basketball to turn into a skateboard is awkward.
1) J.R.R. Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings, Volume 1 (Super NES): It's already listed on TV Tropes: So Bad It's Horrible: Video Games, but from my own experiences, I recall the characters you don't control wandering around like idiots, delayed attacks, a glitch that sometimes prevents you from seeing anything inside the first cave (and no, that wasn't the emulator), and me being owned in seconds by the very first boss. Oh, and I also noticed that in order to continue somewhere in the game, you have to enter an extremely long password, instead of being able to save your game. Played a few times during 2002, and never again. Frankly, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the sequels to this attempt at a game adaptation never were made.