My
Top
10
Video games
10. Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Kirby’s Epic Yarn is a gorgeously designed 2D platformer and you can fight me all you want, but this is easily, without a doubt, the greatest Kirby game of all time in my opinion. And yes, I’ve played Kirby Super Star, Planet Robobot and Forgotten Land, but this game is just the most visually appealing in my opinion with it’s style from, you guessed it, yarn. The transformations that Kirby can partake in add to the unique nature, too. He can be a car, a helicopter and more to traverse the environment. This isn’t a difficult game by any means, but it sure provides the player with a lovely, fun filled afternoon that not a lot of games can provide. After playing a couple of hours of Counter-Strike or any other hardcore game, leaping into the world of Kirby’s Epic Yarn is so comforting and relaxing that it can please anyone. Seriously, do yourself a favor and dig out you old Wii and boot up this masterpiece. And if you have a 3DS, that’s even better! You can play this game portably and with extra additions that I haven’t experienced yet because I’ve never played the 3DS version but it seems to be the same old game with quality of life improvements. Overall, this is the most relaxing game I’ve ever played besides Animal Crossing that should satisfy most people.
9. DKC Returns
Donkey Kong Country Returns was matched with Kirby’s Epic Yarn while creating this list to determine my all time favorite platformer, and it was horrifically difficult, but overall I went with this one. But, if you asked me tomorrow which one I preferred, I’d probably say both. It either changes each day or becomes equal. Anyway, this game. This goddamn game. This is a reimagining of the initial Donkey Kong Country all the way back on the Super Nintendo, but it doesn’t heavily rely on being a remake, it’s an entirely different game. The level designs prioritize on quality and quantity, providing the player with a detailed environment and high budgeted effects that occur when Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong commit their mass destruction on their odysseys throughout the island. Riding the rhino and running down everything in your path is still unbelievably satisfying, destroying ships while leaping from platform to platform in pursuit is also still fantastic and that soundtrack… that soundtrack is literal gold. I’ll agree with you if you state that the classic score of the original Super Nintendo games were better, but the modern revival of music is just bliss and perfection for the ears. This is truly a masterful achievement for the Donkey Kong franchise that shouldn’t be overlooked. This and Kirby’s Epic Yarn are the greatest Wii games of all time in my opinion. Mario Galaxy is truly amazing too, but I never actually got around to beating it surprisingly. I will some day however.
8. Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil was a franchise from Capcom that focused on odd camera angles and awkward controls during the era of the initial three in my opinion, but Capcom decided to change their ways for the fourth installation with Resident Evil 4. RE4 can also be considered as good or even worse than the first three with cringeworthy voice acting and a dislikable companion, Ashley, who is admittedly annoying, but if you look past these two criticisms, you have an epic title. It can also be argued that the controls are horrible, but I’ll have to disagree, and I’ve never even played the Wii version, I played it on the Switch. Yep, I know I should play the Wii version, but the version I played was actually fine in the controls department, at least for me. But the real meat of the game is the inventory management, clever boss battles and intensity of traversing tightly edged areas and just any area in general in this game. While I wouldn’t say this is a scary game (in fact, I believe it’s more of an action title), this is still really intense, especially when one of those cultists grows a second head or shoots a spike at you from its skin. The soundtrack is also eerie and pleasing to the ears as well! My favorite theme is the typewriter theme, the music track that plays whenever you visit a safe location, which relieves the player cleverly. And finally, the satisfaction of the shotgun. Seriously, everyone must absolutely adore blasting down seven cultists at once and looting their items, possibly retrieving a green herb and crafting a healing item. This game was pure joy from start to finish and I recommend it to everyone! Unless you dislike the control scheme, which is understandable, but it is worth trying, especially nowadays when you can pick this up for next to nothing.
I’ll admit it, the God of War reboot in 2018 was a brilliant game, but I believed it was still overrated. IMDb gave it a 9.5, Metacritic gave it a 94 and IGN gave it a 10! I thought it was a 9 at highest, 8.5 if I used decimals but that overcomplicates things. Still an amazing game, but there was still more they could’ve worked on… until Ragnarok came out at and fulfilled my desire. If I’m being honest, I never beat Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and don’t plan to because I disliked it, and since I love this game I should love Tears of the Kingdom but I don’t. Don’t ask me why, I just dislike that game (that was unrelated but… shut up this is my list). So… Ragnarok… It is a true legend in gaming. This is the first truly cinematic title on this list so far, with effects and graphics out of this world. Simply thrusting your axe feels more realistic than ever, and the gameplay is better too considering the fact that you have the blades of fire from the beginning of the game to fight enemies instead of waiting a long time for them in the previous game, there are more abilities and moves, and the fact you can play as Atreus as well, not just Kratos. Honestly, a missed opportunity was multiplayer. Also, bosses. There are so many of them throughout the game! Not to the point that they’re oversaturated, but to the extent that they’re exhilarating, intriguing and cinematic. Several of them involve clever catches and patterns and never leave you disappointed. But occasionally you’ll be frustrated. Yeah, I was rather frustrated occasionally, but when you endure the pain and attempt to appreciate the game, you’ll see the true beauty of the magic in this game. It’s very expensive now, but on sale or in a couple of years, you should pick it up and experience it. Especially if you love cinematic games with godly graphics (no pun intended).
7. God of War Ragnarok
The Walking Dead was a global phenomenon. It was so famous that the series was one of the most viewed each Sunday night, the comics were still selling and once the video games from Telltale began releasing, I think people underestimated how amazing these narrative titles would be. While The Wolf Among Us was a quality title with a genius artstyle, it just cannot compare to the beauty (and sadness and horror) of The Walking Dead Season One. The best aspect of this game is to your right in that image. The growing companionship between these two characters is so adorable it’s unbelievable. The surrogate daughter and father trope was likely taken up by The Last of Us and this inspired it. Lee, a man who committed murder, is being sent to prison before the zombies (or walkers as they’re referred to in this universe) prevent him from doing so and he is granted a second chance, and he meets a little girl named Clementine who accompanies him in the apocalypse and together they gain allies such as Kenny, a bearded, foul mouthed fisherman, Carley and Doug, a news reporter and computer nerd, and of course the cowardly, skinny dork, Ben. Each character in this game serve a purpose and affect the story. I played this game with my grandfather because he really likes The Walking Dead, and we played through three seasons of the games and he enjoyed them a lot, probably more than the show and all of the choices he made weren’t right nor wrong, and that’s what I appreciate about it. There are so, so many gut wrenching choices you need to make in this game and after finishing this game (after likely tearing up because that ending is depressing) and reflecting on your choices you’ll likely want to go back and see what the other outcomes were. The gameplay is not interesting to say the least, but that doesn’t matter to me because this game focuses on storytelling. So, in conclusion, this is a marvelously beautiful, but depressing, work of art that I’ll never get bored of replaying. Seriously, I’ve played it like, six times, help me.
6. The Walking Dead
Uncharted 2 is generally considered the greatest one in the franchise for it’s massive improvement in set pieces, gunplay, graphics and general enjoyability. However, I’m baffled that everyone singles 2 out and ignores 4, hell, I thought 3 was better. Yes, 4 gets lots of praise, but 2 is just more popular for some reason. Anyway, let’s get into this. The set pieces, music, characters, acting, gunplay, edge of your seat action, story and visuals have all been improved from the previous installments excessively and it still holds up graphically compared to all of the other amazingly beautiful AAA games today and will likely surpass or maintain the same beauty as graphics in the years to come. The physics and gameplay are also just pure gold. The gameplay is mostly identical from the previous games, but it is slightly improved with effects that make it more satisfying. Sure, the other games had great effects, but this game takes it to the next level. Especially in the chase scene when Nate is grasping onto a rope attached to a truck as he’s being shot at. The mud blasting from his body as he’s being dragged and the explosions that occur once Nate shoots and destroys incoming bikes and trucks while hanging on for dear life are so well made too. The set pieces are also visually gorgeous too and are basically playgrounds for the player to venture through perilously as pieces of stone and wood break when you’re climbing through them occasionally and sometimes enemies will be shooting at you. The gunfights are also amazing with the occasional massive battlefield that you can explore, adding new strategies for more adventurous players. A new tool which is my new favorite aspect in Uncharted’s gameplay is the grappling hook. It allows the player to swing around and you can even shoot your gun when you’re on it! I love swinging around in a circle and shooting my rifle onehanded at explosives and blowing up enemies, it’s truly awesome! The story is about Nate’s long lost brother, Sam, leading him into a brand new journey for treasure, and despite the fact that Nate determined he’d never go on such an odyssey again, he ignores it for Sam’s sake and accompanies his surrogate father, Sully, and towards the end, his wife, Elena. And finally, the voice acting. The voice acting in Naughty Dog’s games are almost always human and enjoyable to hear, but their most modern games have the best voice acting for the simple reason that sound capabilities are better nowadays, so obviously this game has brilliant voice acting. It sounds like the actors are genuinely having a great time voicing their respective characters instead of some other actors in other games who sound like they’re doing it for the money and or sound like they just woke up from a thousand year nap. Anyway, please play this masterpiece, you won’t regret it!
5. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s end
Open world is a genre I will love sometimes and hate other times. I love the Red Dead Redemption series, Death Stranding, The Elder Scrolls series, but didn’t really like The Witcher 3 and Assassin’s Creed IV. However, the first open world game I ever played and still one of my favorites to this day is Breath of the Wild. The sequel didn’t catch the same magic as this game for me and I’ve decided not to try beat it now. Anyway, let’s get to the main point here that most people will agree with: this game absolutely rules! This game’s dungeons aren’t traditionally designed and the story and voice acting aren’t at all good, but everything else is masterful. The gameplay is easily the greatest in the Zelda franchise, especially in the combat department. You can use several different abilities to progress through shrines, which are mini dungeons that contain smart puzzles that make you feel like a smartass every time you finish them. You can also use them to defeat enemies in smarter and occasionally more effective ways too! The weapon durability is slightly irritating, making weapons too easy to break and quickly too, but overall it is a strategic aspect that isn’t exactly a bad choice to me. The visual style is extremely unique and beautiful, and while I prefer more realistic graphics like The Last of Us Part II, Grand Theft Auto V, God of War Ragnarok etcetera, it cannot be more visible that these visuals are really pretty! The world design is another gorgeous aspect of this game, and it is heavily inspired by the initial Zelda game on the NES with its open world. Most Zelda games aren’t too open compared to other games, but this game disregards that and pushes the franchise into a different direction and creates something truly special. This is a one-of-a-kind title that deserves to be played by each person in existence and is an absolutely essential Switch game.
4. breath of the Wild
I really, really, REALLY wanted to include EarthBound on this list, in fact, if you asked me which game I’d put on this number three spot three weeks ago I’d say EarthBound, but after replaying parts of Omori and reflecting on my experience last year when I first played it, I realized that this is the greatest indie game I’ve ever played by a wide margin. This game is about a teenager named Sunny who becomes depressed after the death of his sister and begins dreaming vividly about a happy, charming land where him and his ex-best friends explore and go on adventures with the nickname Omori before awakening and realizing that his life is a pain without Mari, his sister. However, in the real world, he reunites with his best friends, Aubrey, a little, kind girl who is now a badass bully, Basil, a lame little boy who is now… a lame little boy who is bullied by Aubrey now who used to be his friend, Hero, Mari’s girlfriend who still manages to keep his cheerful and optimistic nature and Kel, an energetic and loyal basketball player. Once all four reunite, they check out their treehouse they used to play in and examine Mari’s grave. And I need to mention this before stopping the story segment: this game is really, really emotional and depressing and I don’t want to spoil it because most people haven’t played it and I’ve already said enough, so… PLAY THIS GODDAMN GAME IT’S AMAZING! So, another positive aspect is definitely the artstyle. Most of it is pixelated, but you’ll sometimes view the gorgeous hand drawn art that displays the characters and emotions so well! And once you’re in combat, you see your character icons are designed in the hand drawn artstyle, which leads us to the next segment: the combat. This is easily the best and most intriguing combat for any turn-based role playing game ever in my opinion! Each character in you party does damage against enemies and sometimes the enemies will cast spells which cause your party members to gain new emotions, thus causing advantages for you or disadvantages for you, and different strategies are opened too! This isn’t a difficult game, but it’s entertaining to fight enemies regardless. A smart reason for why you Omori can’t reach certain areas is that he has phobias of specific things like heights and spiders, so once he overcomes them, he can access new areas, like climbing really high ladders that lead to space and cutting spider infested webs that lead to dark forests. Without spoiling any more, I just want to say that this is truly one of my all time favorite video games period and that you should seriously try it out.
3. OMORI
2. Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar is a company I definitely haven’t experienced to the fullest, considering I’ve never played GTA V and IV and San Andreas, but I can say for certain that I will be playing those games as soon as I can because Red Dead Redemption II is literally the greatest open world game, hell, greatest RPG (if you count it as one). First, I’d like to state the negatives. A large percentage of this game is about waiting and exploring the landscape on you horse to travel from place to place without fast travel, which can sometimes be annoying and tedious, but I actually believe that that adds more realism to the game and the conversations between characters you have while riding on your horse with them can be extremely interesting. The shootouts aren’t amazing to control, but they are good, especially alongside the lifelike visuals and effects that stand out perfectly. The character interactions and the way they act are the most humane in any video game ever, and that’s impressive. The open world is likely the greatest and most realistic, with gorgeously designed towns, railways and creepy travelers that you can encounter, like the eerie incestual siblings who poison you and throw you into a skeleton infested mud hole. The heists are epic and heavily enjoyable too, including robbing a train near the beginning of the game by leaping onto it after a failed explosion attempt and the bank robbing where sadly two of your gang members die. Speaking of death, the story of this game is all about the main gang splitting up slowly from the decline in care from Dutch, the ex-leader of the group who dives into a dark desire for pure power. The main character, Arthur, loves Dutch like a surrogate father, and as the game progresses, it is noticeable that their relationship is slowly declining but Arthur tries to hold onto hope, which is such a major effect that hits me really hard. The increase in care for John from Arthur is also loveable too. They seem like they tolerate each other at the beginning of the game, but Arthur becomes more and more concerned about his safety and his family’s safety, especially when Arthur gets lethally sick and Arthur eventually sacrifices his life for John which is a tearjerker every time. And seeing what John becomes in the first game just proves that Arthur’s sacrifice was worth it. Overall, this is one of the closest games to being perfect, and honestly, I think that the narrative is perfect.
During February last year, I wasn’t playing any video game’s story mode at the time. I liked them a lot, but didn’t invest my time too heavily into them. Then I came across The Last of Us, which I never played but decided to play because it was made by Naughty Dog, my favorite game developer. Little did I know I’d be in for a ride I’d never regret or forget. Where do I even start… Listen, I know some people find this game “overrated”, and that’s pretty fair, I can see why people wouldn’t like the fact that it utilizes many mechanics from other Naughty Dog games, but I disagree respectfully. You can’t just change the formula for a shooting game by Naughty Dog! Anyway, the story. Have you ever looked at a diamond? That doesn’t even compare to the beauty of this game’s story and characters. It’s about a man who loses his daughter to a soldier who shoots her after assuming she’s infecting and that causes the father (Joel) to become a broken, depressed man with only one friend, Tess, but they seem to be more like colleagues than friends. They need to smuggle a girl named Ellie out of the quarantine zone and bring her to a group named the Fireflies who claim that she is the hope for the future of humanity’s safety. After Tess sadly sacrifices herself to save Joel and Ellie, the two venture through America to provide the Fireflies, but after meeting new people and getting into many, many perilous situations, they eventually get to their destination. However, once Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, states that to provide the world with a cure they need to take out a huge part of Ellie’s brain out, which would cause her to die obviously. And, after evolving from tolerating Ellie at best to loving her like a surrogate daughter, he slaughters each doctor and soldier at the Fireflies settlement, he successfully retrieves Ellie and lies to her about what he did. The chemistry between these two characters are the best in any video game, no doubt about it. And also, yes, that narrative is pretty much perfect too. The growing relationship between the protagonists is so unbelievably powerful and emotional compared to massive television series with dozens and dozens of hours to build good relationships, and almost none of them compare to the relationship in this ten to fifteen hour game. The whole scavenging and crafting idea is basic for a survival game, but it feels extremely well done and creating molotovs to thrust at enemies, crafting shivs to sneakily slit a clicker’s neck and upgrading your melee weapon with nails and spikes fills me with satisfaction and I feel prepared to gain an advantage and defeat enemies in a more satisfying way.
I’ve spoken about this game long enough now I think. I’ll almost certainly write a review on it eventually. I don’t think any game will come close to this ever again in my opinion. But hey, that’s the greatest thing about video games. There will always be a new one to play that have the chance to surpass your all time favorite, and that always brings me joy. Thanks for reading!
