I have learnt this week that if you want to create utter havoc within a workplace, just ask everybody to narrow something down to their absolute favourites. Obviously in this case it was games, and I thought that as we’d reached the three hundredth edition of What We Played that I’d ask the team what their favourite game was insteadof what they’d been playing. I thought this was relatively simple, just a throwaway little bit of fun to close out the week, but no.
Thus commenced much handwringing, and many cries of “I couldn’t possibly”, “that’s ridiculous”, and “go away”. Then began the bargaining. “Can we have top fives?”, “Sure” I said, “if that’s going to make it easier”. This was then followed by the submission of a top nine, a top five, a top six, a top one, a top three and the sanctioning of a top zero for Tuffcub for being mean to Kris.
All in all I’ve learnt a valuable lesson today, besides that virtually no one here can count, and that that’s trying to get a group of games writers to a) pick their favourite game and b) follow any defined set of rules, is virtually impossible. Still, despite the hardships and mental torture they’ve suffered, I have in fact found out some of the best games they’ve ever played. But I’m going to go first.
My gut reaction to being asked what my favourite game is always comes back with the same answer; Guardian Heroes on the Sega Saturn. A side-scrolling beat em’ up from Treasure with great graphics, awesome music, branching paths, and an undead skeleton with a big sword that follows you around, makes sure that it remains my all time favourite. Probably. I could have stuck Advance Wars, Fire Emblem Awakening, Sega Rally, Fable, Valkyria Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles, Virtua Fighter 4, Soul Calibur or the whole Monster Hunter series in there and been fairly happy too.
Coming in with a top nine was Tuffcub, and it goes something like this: 1. Bubble Bobble, 2. All the Killzones, 3. R-Type, 4. Speedball 2, 5. Jeff Crammonds Stunt Car Racer, 6. Horizon Zero Dawn, 7. SWI,  8. Elite, and at 9. The Last of Us. He then also tried to commandeer Flashback from Peter to make a top ten, but he’s not allowed to share for being mean. A silver star for effort.
Back when I’d just asked for one game Dave was happy to oblige, opting for the classic Super Metroid. He said “There’s just something about how well crafted and revolutionary it was for the Super Nintendo era that resonates with me. I’ve played plenty of ‘better looking’ games in the genre since, but this still stands the test of time. It’s the only game that ever made me regret owning a Sega Mega Drive as a child, as I’d have loved to have played it on original hardware.” See? That’s lovely, and he managed to narrow it down to one single game. Then, when the goalposts were steadily moved down the pitch he was still on point, and followed it up with: 2. Streets of Rage 2, 3. Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver, 4. Persona 5 and for 5. Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Gold star to Dave.
Kris was also able to play by the rules, and his top game ever is Sonic The Hedgehog, but perhaps surprisingly it’s on the Master System. He was fair about it too, saying, “Yeah I know it’s not as good as the 16-bit version, but I still love it. Jungle Zone is super hard though. The 8-bit Sonic 2 is really good too, has a great mine cart bit in the first level.” Things fell apart a bit though when I asked him for a top five, but eventually he was able to pony up with: 2. Sonic 3 (or Sonic & Knuckles?), 3. Halo: Reach, 4. Total Annihilation and… er… 5. Dino Crisis maybe? 6. MGS? 7. Super Meat Boy? One and a quarter silver stars to Kris.
Jake loves Pokémon, but he was able to vaguely narrow it down to one particular generation. “My favourite games of all time are Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal and I loved this set of games so much that I remade Crystal when I was 14 for the Gameboy Advance to experience it with newer graphics. These Pokémon games feature two regions, the first being Johto and the second being Kanto from Red, Blue and Yellow. The game actually has double the space of a standard Gameboy Color game due to a compression method discovered and used by Satoru Iwata.”
He continues, “The game itself is set three years after the events of RBY and with 251 Pokémon and 16 badges to attain, it felt like an eternity before I completely finished the game. I particularly enjoyed beating the familiar gym leaders, but I loved battling the real champion of the game, which just so happens to be the protagonist from the Red, Blue and Yellow. It was the first and one of the only times Pokémon has felt like true sequel and a fully-fledged journey like the anime implied.”
Jake also managed a straight top five too, following up Crystal (see he was able to choose one in the end) with: 2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, 3. A Link to the Past, 4. Breath of the Wild, and at 5. Jak II: Renegade. Full marks for Jake.
We had a lovely visit from Blair this week, and as it was an anniversary edition of WWP I asked him to join in and have a good old knees up. Instead he told me his favourite games, beginning with a brace of Zeldas. He said, “About a month ago I’d have been able to answer this question no problem: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But then Breath of the Wild came along and it changed everything. While the highs of the story don’t quite match Ocarina, the freeform gameplay and sense of adventure is unrivalled in anything I’ve ever played.”
“It managed to capture that same sense of wonder as Ocarina – something I’d attribute to me being a child when I first played the N64 classic – so managing to evoke that sense of wonder from me, as an adult, is nothing short of incredible. I’ll have to wait till the dust settles to say for sure, but after barely playing any games substantially for the past year, it’s somehow brought back my love of gaming, just as OoT kicked off my love of gaming almost 20 years ago.”
Sadly though, Blair then lost count of how a top five worked, giving us a top three by adding in Portal 2 to the equation. So after a strong start, it’s just one silver star to Blair, and a biscuit for paying us an unexpected visit.
Jim just couldn’t do it. Too many games, too many of them beloved, so he opted instead to give us the latest addition to them which is PaRappa The Rapper, having just played it through again while looking at the remaster. He loved the bright cheerfulness of it – probably the complete antidote to everything else that’s come out lately! A star to Jim for being resourceful.
Steve took a decent bash at this week’s task – I make it five choices in his rambling – and he gave us some reasoning too, “Most played game would be FFVII but may have revisited it a few too many times. Gonna break the rules slightly and double up with Super Mario World and A Link to the Past. Got them for Christmas with the absurdly priced Street Fighter 2 and the latter didn’t get a look in for a while. […] Honourable mention to Super Mario Kart (has to include my brother as an opponent), and Heimdall on Amiga (training levels being the best game demo ever – and possibly the most misleading).” Gold star and a tick.
It was Aran’s turn to fall foul of the revised rules, and he started with just two “I’m going with Witcher 3 as my favourite game of all time. It’s the culmination of the best features of past games put into an incredible experience. Story telling is great, the characters are fantastic, and the world felt alive. I’m awarding second place to GTA: Vice City.” Then he came back with Streets of Rage, Uncharted 2, and Road Rash but then asked, “What about Skyrim & KOTOR?”. This, for fans of numbers, is a top seven, so it has to be a silver star for Aran, but a bonus half a star for putting KOTOR in there, because I’m being contrary.
I ruined Miguel’s day by asking this question. I think he was just about to go to sleep (living in the US of A as he does), but instead he had to start thinking about my inane question. “It’s hard for me to pick a favorite game of all time, but I feel like if I had to pick, it’d be Halo 3. I grew up on that game, playing it for hours and hours every day after class. I made friends through that game, and made existing friendships even stronger through it. I must have played the final campaign mission dozens of times on every difficulty and never gotten sick of it. There was some magic, some perfect sauce in that multiplayer and all the options and mindless fun it offered, that in our current world of exp and loot boxes and ranked seasons, just hasnt been repeated for me in the same way since.” However, after complaining he managed to come up with one in five minutes, and then got off to beddy-byes so it wasn’t all bad. Those other four are: 2.Metal Gear Solid 3, 3. Animal Crossing New Leaf, 4. Virtues Last Reward, and at 5. Nier Automata. One gold star though, despite the complaining.
Peter also joined us for a WWP anniversary chinwag, but in his time away he’s acquired some ‘maverick’ tendencies, opting for a top six without any qualms. They were: 1. Flashback, 2. Elite, 3. Mass Effect 2, 4. GTA III Vice City, 5. Sensible World of Soccer, and 6. Football Manager (or champ man) from any year. Still, I’d best give him a gold star, a tick, and a biscuit, because he’s a lovely fellow and we like to hear from him occasionally.
Last and definitely least was Tef. He refused to play by the rules, repeatedly giving ridiculous lists of five before reverting to the original rules and picking a single game. Some of his nonsense included:
The best five games are Hide and Seek, I Spy, Rummy, Cluedo and Zelda II.
My top five video games are Myth, Myth 2, then GTA IV on PS3, GTA IV on X360 and GTA IV on PC.
Top five Nintendo games are Ocarina of Time on N64, Wii VC, Wii U VC, 3DS and Mario Party 8.
When he did finally settle on one game, that was Myth: The Fallen Lords (or Myth II: Soulblighter, because even when he’s behaving, he’s misbehaving). He explained “It’s a classic Bungie real time tactical game in a fantasy world with a heavy dose of inspiration from a series of books called The Black Company. One of the first fully 3D RTS games, had actual physics in it, etc. etc. It’s a good ’un and inspired me to dive into those books, which I really enjoyed reading as well.”
Now it’s over to you to share with us your own favourite video games of all time. Don’t forget to also tell us what you’ve been up to this week!
TSBonyman
Andromeda, 60 hours in, one planet 100%, one planet 98%, others between 40-70%, currently chipping away at the allies missions and i think i’m roughly halfway through the story missions but i haven’t even looked at those for the last 30 hours.
Also spent a whole minute playing 10 Second Hero, so that’s this months plus content out of the way.
TSBonyman
Sounds like everyone conspired to make your job more difficult this week Dom – Tef especially! :)
It’s a difficult ask though – i’d be hard-pressed to narrow it down to 15 or 20 favourites.. but i’ll just mention this one..
Jak & Daxter Precursor Legacy – this was a landmark open world game with no loading and you could go pretty much anywhere you could see in the world, gorgeous graphics for it’s time, a variety of different gameplay elements, tight and responsive controls and a great sense of humour between the main duo. Also, i remember the first time i ran across the first wooden bridge .. and it bounced… i was so surprised i spent a few minutes running and jumping back and forth along the bridge, delighting in the physics! :)
stonyk
Easy – Half Life 2……..or maybe Zelda OOT……or maybe The Last Of Us……
Actually, yes the Last of Us it is.
Or perhaps Half Life 2 – ARGHHH!!!!
DividSmythe
I find it hard to call my favourite game ever our even top 5. PES 5 or 6 would be there, Also GTA SA would too but so many others to choose. I forgot about Speedball 2 as well a true classic.
Also the 300th what we played was marked with my 100th platinum Virginia. I also had time to play PES and Destroy All Humans! Had I played that back in the day that would have been in my top 5, a true classic.
freezebug2
It has to be Burnout Paradise for me with a close running Super Mario 3D. The hours put into those guilty pleasures were nothing short of years.
Anyhoo, onto more recent capers, I’ve been playing through the magnificent Doom campaign, (bought in the DFS sale) absolutely top stuff, well impressed ;)
ron_mcphatty
Wow, what a WWP! Without a doubt mine is Metal Gear Solid 4, admittedly nothing without its predecessors but at the same time the pinnacle of its genre. The microwave corridor and final fight are the best bits of game I’ve ever played.
ron_mcphatty
Also, great to hear Stunt Car Racer and Total Annihilation get mentions. My personal 2 and 3 are X-Wing Alliance and Half-Life 2. Cracking feature.
ron_mcphatty
Balls, are we doing 4 and 5 too? Go on then, MechWarrior 3 and Rollercoaster Tycoon 2.
ron_mcphatty
And CounterStrike Source.
zb100
Stunt car racer was the bollocks
JR.
Top 5: Tomb Raider (PS1), Resident Evil 2, Ratchet & Clank 2, God of War, Uncharted DF.
Special mentions: Spyro The Dragon (PS1), DINOcrisis 2, GTA Vice City, inFamous, Dead Space, Red Dead Redemption, Assassins Creed 4, The Last of Us, Dying Light, Horizon ZD.
All time favourite (if pressed): Tomb Raider (PS1).
MrYd
Favourite games ever? That’s probably impossible.
Red Dead Redemption was the best PS3 game. So that might be on the list.
A Final Fantasy. Probably 7.
I’d probably have to show my age and go right back to the original Elite (well, the Spectrum version at least – spent far too long with that)
And probably whatever I was currently playing at any point in the past 35 years.
As for this week, well there’s some PS+ stuff to check out. Sweary Childish Shooter is more fun than it should be. Stupid 10 seconds before you get frustrated game is not so fun.
And was there a Humble Bundle thing for anyone with a 90210 zip code? Hardly even started on those. That was worth it for the Book of Unwritten Tales 2, which would be terrible with it’s Reasonably Obscure Puzzles if it wasn’t so funny and full of references to everything.
I think this weekend might be finishing off TLoU remastered from the sale while avoiding buying anything in the April Egg-based Sale. Or whatever it’s called. I’m sure there’s a word for it.
zb100
I think there are shrink wrap marks around a few of us ;)
TSBonyman
I enjoyed Book of Unwritten Tales 2, very funny and a few retro treats for us “mature” gamers. There’s one particularly frustrating puzzle with a somewhat complicated machine – if anyone can solve it without looking up a guide i think you might, do let me know :P
MrYd
It had me at the Game of Thrones robot tutorial intro thing. Not got much further yet. Just escaped from the castle. I like spending so long wandering around just 4 rooms ;)
Steelhead
Not entirely sure of the positioning here, but this is definitely my top 5.
1. Persona 4: Golden
2. Final Fantasy XII
3. Mass Effect 2
4. Journey
5. BioShock
This week I finally got my hands on Breath of the Wild for the Switch after having two copies get lost in post and a third refunded for being out of stock.
Only a few hours in but I’m enjoying it a great deal more than I have any other Zelda game I’ve tried. Hunting down the shrines is fun and addictive and I find myself avoiding combat as much as I can to scurry of to the next shrine.
zb100
I think i actually love Tuffcub,
Apart from the hard dance version of Hardcore Uproar.
Just no, the original is timeless. X
zb100
Elite on the bee .
Played it a little on the PC.
Point blank refuse to buy it for ps4.
I’ve almost rehabilitated.
zb100
BBC micro
MrYd
You had to remind me the PS4 gets it at some point soon, didn’t you? I was trying to forget about it, because I know that may well lead to many, many hours of pretending it’s the mid-’80s again (a better looking mid-’80s, obviously).
zb100
Ha! You could build yourself a little cockpit den with the original A3 poster of the ships on 1 wall & a joystick to waggle between your legs as you lean into the turns because, you know, space gravity and lasers and stuff. Erm, yeah, something like that!
MrYd
I would, but I’ve got to spend about 3 hours staring through a stupid plastic lens failing to read 2 letters first.
zb100
Thankfully the developers either trusted the posh boys or that was a Firebird-specific thing. Acornsoft & Superior Software were the main port of call for Beeb games!
I’m curious now though as I’m pretty sure Firebird released Elite+ on the PC. I really can’t recall if it had any similar anti-piracy measures?
MrYd
One thing I vaguely remember is the crappy lens thing the Spectrum had didn’t work at all on the 128K Spectrums. The game had to be updated to remove it. Which in those days meant a cassette in the post.
And people complain about how long a PS4 game takes to update ;)