R#09's Top 25 Video Games of All Time! (25-21)

Follow all of my favorite video games right here!

This is by no means a definitive list of the greatest video games of all time. No, not by a long shot. These are simply the games that I, personally, enjoy playing the most. Many of them are games I grew up playing, some I still play regularly today — and still others are more recent favorites. But rest assured, these are some of the greats — the games that have no equals.

I compiled this list out of boredom, mostly, but also because I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while. I’ve been reminiscing a lot lately about the classics and about the games of my early life. I suppose that was the inspiration for this.

I will be posting this as a series of entries, tackling five games a day for the next week or so. The final post will be my favorite game of all time, along with a lengthy list of honorable mentions. Check back often for updates!

Enjoy and, please, by all means, discuss!

No. 25 — Columns

Genre: Puzzle

Release: 1990

Platforms: Arcade, TurboGrafx-16, Sega Master System, Mega Drive / Genesis, Sega CD, Game Gear, Super Nintendo, Game Boy Color, Virtual Console, NEC PC-9801, MSX 2, iPhone OS

Tetris? Screw Tetris! Alright, so that might be a bit harsh. But seriously, when I was a wee lad, I never played Tetris. Columns was where it was at. I was raised on Genesis, you see. I wasn’t an SNES kid like everyone else on my block. So when it came to puzzle games, Columns reigned supreme. Besides, Columns was faster, more difficult, and just downright more intense than Tetris or many of the other puzzle games popular at the time. I still play this classic puzzler from time to time, and I’m always amazed by how unfailingly intricate it is. This is a tough one to beat, but a classic nonetheless.

No. 24 — Final Fantasy VII

Genre: Role-Playing Game

Release: 1997

Platforms: PlayStation, Windows, PlayStation Network

Of course this is on here. Could I even pretend to call myself an RPG fan and not include FFVII? I mean, yeah, its reputation is a little bloated, and people do tend to go a little gaga over it, but the hard fact remains: FFVII is a genre-definer. It’s one of the first games I remember with truly stunning cinematics, and definitely set the stage for the future of storytelling in video games. Nothing like FFVII had been done before — the plot was intricate and beautiful, and there were very real stakes placed on the player’s shoulders. One of my fondest memories as a kid was staying up for almost two days straight playing this game over at a friends house on his PlayStation.

No. 23 — Star Wars: TIE Fighter

Genre: Space Flight Simulator

Release: 1994

Platforms: DOS, Macintosh

You know, back in the day, LucasArts knew how to make a damn good game. In 1994, they released probably the best space flight simulator of all time, a little game called Star Wars: TIE Fighter. The sequel to Star Wars: X-Wing, TIE Fighter revolutionized flight sims and put you smack dab in the cockpit of the Galactic Empire’s most infamous spacecraft. The graphics at the time were fairly mind-blowing as well, and the game still holds its own against more modern flight sims. It’s successors, X-Wing v.s. TIE-Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, weren’t too bad either, and got plenty of hours of play on my computer.

No. 22 — Shenmue

Genre: Adventure

Release: 1999

Platforms: Dreamcast

The Dreamcast, bless its heart, died a needless and early death. Let’s be honest — the console freakin’ rocked, but nobody knew that because they were too busy drooling over their PlayStations and high-fiving each other about Grand Turismo. Not to knock the PlayStation, but it did overshadow the defenseless Dreamcast, and ultimately spelled doom for Sega as a console-designer. In any case, I owned a Dreamcast, believe it or not, and amongst its killer titles was an innovative adventure game called Shenmue. In the game, you took the role of Ryo, a young martial artist, who is searching for the truth behind his father’s murder (a tale that would eventually span two games). The game was akin to the old point-and-click adventure games, such as Day of the Tentacle, with Ryo traveling around his hometown, picking up clues, doing odd-jobs, and delving deeper and deeper into the mysteries of his father’s murder. Cheesy voice-acting aside, this one is easily a genre classic.

No. 21 — StarCraft

Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Release: 1998

Platforms: Windows, Mac OS, Nintendo 64

Before Blizzard hit the jackpot with World of Warcraft, they were busy punching babies and making kickass games like Warcraft II, Diablo, and one of my personal favorites, StarCraft. I’m a huge RTS fan, and StarCraft was one of the first to introduce drastically different armies that were somehow completely balanced with one another. The Zerg were fast and brutal; the Protoss were methodical, thorough, and powerful; while the Terrans floated somewhere in between with their gruff marines and hoverbikes. I’m rubbish at the game — truly terrible. I just get wrecked on BattleNet. But the game is still enjoyable as hell, and I can’t wait for StarCraft II.

Follow all of my favorite video games right here!