Leonhart Presents 30 for 30: 30 Characters, 30 Games, 30 Moments

30 for 30 was a ranking project created by Leonhart4 celebrating his 30th birthday on March 4th, 2016. He would rank his 30 favorite characters, games and moments one of each a day until the first places on his birthday.

The 30 Characters

30. Chun-Li (Street Fighter)

“No, I’ve never thrown any of my bracelets away. Why do you ask?”

The Good: The first lady of fighting games, Chun-Li has earned her place in fighting game legend. She has an iconic design and a couple of iconic moves in the Spinning Bird Kick and Lightning Legs. As one of the rare people who cares about Street Fighter lore, she probably won the Street Fighter II tournament if Urien’s pre-fight quote in Third Strike is any indication. Chun-Li probably has more connections to more characters in the series than anyone else, especially the bad guys, since she’s an Interpol agent constantly investigating (and eventually bringing down, again according to Third Strike) Shadaloo. She even occasionally has a few comic relief moments like trying to arrest Dan in Alpha 3. I hesitate to bring up the Street Fighter II anime since I know what a lot of people will go straight to when it comes to Chun-Li, but her fight against Vega in the anime was ridiculously good. Thunder Thighs is one girl you don’t want to mess with.

The Bad: With one exception (which I’ll get to in a minute), I’m generally not that good playing as Chun-Li. I’m usually not a fan of charge characters, although Chunners has mixed it up from time to time and not all of her specials are always charge moves. I like trying to play as her and I’m sure I’ll give her a shot when I get Street Fighter V in a couple weeks, but I’ll probably suck.

The Best: The one exception I alluded to earlier was Third Strike. I love playing as Chun-Li in Third Strike. She’s my go to character in that game (although I haven’t played it in forever). She’s so fast and fluid. I certainly don’t claim to be good at fighting games, but I love the heck out of them and Chun-Li in Third Strike is one of my favorites. I can rock people with her. She was also on the losing end of one of the greatest fighting game tournament moments of all time, simply known as Evo Moment #37. If you’ve never seen it before, behold!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS7hkwbKmBM

29. Yuna (Final Fantasy X)

“No matter what happens, I’ll see this through to the end. I promise.”

The Good: Yuna is a wonderful character. She has one of my favorite designs in the series. I generally don’t use summons or summoners much in Final Fantasy, but she’s the exception. I like the way FFX uses summons compared to other games, and I like her unique animations with how she interacts with her aeons. Plus, you can cheese a lot of storyline bosses by stacking up aeon Overdrives, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying in the post-game than hearing the “tink” of Yuna’s staff and seeing 5 digits of damage. She has a great relationship with Tidus, and they are easily the best couple in the series. ”Stay with me until the end. Please.” “Not until the end. Always.” So good.

The Bad: I actually like Final Fantasy X-2 more than most (I got the Perfect Ending, which requires a 100% file and was totally not worth all the time that took based on the quality of said ending), but Yuna is not a reason why. Whether she’s getting jealous over Lenne or somehow considering Rikku the role model of who she should aspire to be, it’s just hard to believe this is the same girl from FFX. I can almost forgive that aspect of it because maybe there’s a part of her that wants to be a “normal girl” now and she has no real idea of what being “normal” means, but the inexcusable part is at the end where she talks at length about how she regrets what she did at the end of FFX.

The Best: And this aspect of Yuna in Final Fantasy X is exactly why it’s inexcusable. The best part of Yuna’s character is her resolve to bring an end to Sin, no matter what it takes. There’s literally a song in the game called “Yuna’s Determination” for a reason (eat your heart out, Undertale). Even when everything she’s known and believed in crumbles around her, Yevon turns against her, and Tidus even offers her the easy way out, she won’t take it. When the time comes to make her choice about the Final Aeon, her speech to Yunalesca is so great. Everyone focuses on Auron’s speech before the battle (and for good reason), but Yuna’s speech is excellent because it puts her resolve on full display. Once again, she refuses to take the easy way out. “It would be so easy…to let my fate carry me away…following this same path my whole life through. But I know…I can’t. What I do, I do…with no regrets.”

28. Thane Krios (Mass Effect)

“I’ve taken many bad things out of the world. You were the only good thing I ever added to it.”

The Good: Thane was fascinating as a character to me from the start. He has a fantastic introduction, as he puts his assassin skills on full display and then reveals right away that he’s dying of a terminal illness with only months to live. His perspectives on life are really interesting. It’s pretty rare to see deeply spiritual characters in video games whose beliefs aren’t portrayed negatively at all. His ability to perfectly recall virtually any memory in his life is really cool and the way he describes those memories is great. Then there’s his backstory with his family, which is really bittersweet. “I abandoned them. No, not all at once. Nothing dramatic, no sneaking out in the middle of the night. No final argument or slammed door. I just…did my job.” There aren’t many characters like Thane out there. Oh right, I would be remiss if I didn’t take the time to mention that the “interrogation” during his loyalty mission is so great, mostly because there are so many permutations of the scene.

The Bad: Commander Shepard pretty much hits the nail on the head himself when he states that Thane has the problem of occasionally delving into bouts of self-pity. It gets especially bad if you fail his loyalty mission, at which point he becomes pretty much inconsolable and there’s nothing more you can do for him (although “Entropy wins. Entropy always wins” is a great quote). Thankfully, the worst of it is completely avoidable by completing his loyalty mission successfully, but still, it can be pretty bad.

The Best: I’m not going to delve into explicit spoiler territory here, but Thane’s role in Mass Effect 3 was outstanding. Whenever a scene with him was available, I dropped whatever I was doing to go see him. Even with the full expectation of what would probably happen to him, considering what you know of him from Mass Effect 2, it still all hit me hard. Really hard. There are many valid criticisms of Mass Effect 3, but it really nailed moments like that, and it cemented Thane as my favorite Mass Effect squadmate.

27. Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII)

“I feel a draft…on my butt.”

The Good: Laguna is just a fun character. He provides a nice break and some comic relief into a game when it seems to need it. He’s basically meant to be the polar opposite of Squall. He’s not a particularly talented fighter, but he’s compassionate and likes to help people, and he never takes himself too seriously. Squall’s basically spot on when he calls him a moron, but he has this natural charisma to him that draws people to him anyway because everyone knows deep down, he’s got a good heart. I also enjoy his tendency to flub common clichés like saying “Killing two pigs with one stone” and his way of exaggerating their exploits to make them sound better than they really were, like calling it their “grand escape from Centra,” when they basically got chased out, Laguna threw Kiros and Ward off of a cliff, and he slipped off of the cliff trying to climb down himself. He’s silly and corny a lot, but it’s hard not to like the guy.

The Bad: Probably my least favorite Laguna sequence was filming the movie. If you grab the wrong Timber Maniacs, Ward can possibly not even be there at all, which is lame. Then the mini-game where you have to fight off the Ruby Dragon can get annoying because you only do slivers of damage to the thing per hit. Fun fact relating to that movie though: Remember how Seifer’s “romantic dream” is to become the sorceress’s knight? Where do you think he got the idea from? Why does he use the gunblade? Pay special attention to Laguna’s pose when he wields the gunblade. Yes, that’s right. Seifer is a Laguna fanboy, folks. Can’t exactly blame him though!

The Best: As much as I’ve talked about Laguna’s comic relief tendencies, probably my favorite aspect of him is his relationship with Raine and Ellone. That’s another one of the big contrasts between Squall and Laguna. Squall gets hurt and shuts himself off completely. Laguna gets hurt over and over again, but he doesn’t let it stop him from trusting and caring about people. It’s kind of a sad irony that he went all that way to Esthar to save Ellone, but because of that, he never got to see Raine again and didn’t see Ellone for another 17 years. Even so, he never let it break him. Speaking of Raine, I love the flashback scene in the ending where Laguna proposes to her, and she hugs him right as the music climaxes. Such a well done scene.

26. Guy (Final Fight)

“Every man must walk his own path. Are you certain you have found yours?”

The Good: I’ve been a big fan of Guy since Final Fight. He was always my favorite of the three to play as there, so I was thrilled when they put him in Street Fighter Alpha. I think his design is pretty cool. I mean, he’s a ninja who wears sneakers! I like his storylines with Cody in the Alpha games and Street Fighter IV as well because of Guy’s efforts to try to redeem him and bring him back to the path of the hero. It’s sort of a bittersweet relationship between them.

The Bad: Guy was one of my two Street Fighter IV mains (along with Cody), but I could never really get consistently good with him, sadly. I think probably his main drawback is that both of his Ultras are awful. One Ultra is easy to miss and the other is a grab that only works when you’re right next to the opponent and has an unusual motion input on top of that. I generally fared better in SFIV playing as Cody, but it didn’t deter me from playing as Guy a lot, too. Hopefully he gets put into Street Fighter V eventually.

The Best: KP once made a flowchart that described my SFIV playstyle. Flips  And flips  and flips  PRESS ALL THE BUTTONS  Repeat. That summed it up pretty well! I really like his moveset a lot. I tend to play aggressively (probably too aggressively) when I play fighting games, and I love the fact that Guy’s speed and moveset makes it easy to stay on the offensive and constantly rush down the opponent, whether it’s with flips, dashes, wall jumps, or what have you. He has a pretty unique playstyle, and I really enjoy it.

25. Protoman (Mega Man)

“I live as I wish. That is all. My life is none of your business.”

The Good: Protoman just looks so cool. The red color scheme, the shades, the scarf, the shield, his Buster Cannon shooting white shots instead of Mega Man’s lame yellow shots, it’s a fantastic design. The whistle is a cool gimmick, too. I kind of like the mysterious aura he has about him, too, always showing up in the nick of time to help out Mega Man. He’s also a weird exception for me in that he’s the only robot whose name I spell as one word because I think “Proto Man” looks dumb, while “Megaman” looks dumb to me, too. Go figure.

The Bad: The series doesn’t do enough with him. Protoman has this cool potential storyline about how he’s malfunctioning and might only have just a little time to live because of the way Dr. Light made him, but they never do anything with it. As such, he’s just a really cool looking character, but not much else (although as you can see, just being really cool can go a long way). I’m glad they finally made him playable in MM9 and MM10, at least.

The Best: I might take some heat for this, but I honestly loved Protoman’s portrayal in the ‘90s Mega Man cartoon. Man, he was just such a fantastic heel and troll in that show. The voice and his campiness certainly contributed to his greatness, too. “Ha, I knew you’d sacrifice yourself for Mr. Lincoln!” It’s kind of weird that these two portrayals of Protoman are so vastly different that they may as well be considered different characters and yet they both contribute to how much I like him, but there it is!

24. Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)

“Death is more honor than you deserve.”

The Good: Sub-Zero is the coolest (pun intended) Mortal Kombat character (kharacter?). First of all, he wears blue, which is the best color. I love his ice powers, whether it’s freezing someone in place and giving yourself a free shot or just freezing the floor and watching the other character flail around helplessly for comedic effect, Subby is just fun to play as. He probably has one of the more iconic Fatalities with the spine rip, too. I didn’t play any of the MKs after 4 and before 9, so I’m kind of confused about how his design evolved into him becoming Shredder, but I can still dig it. Plus, he’s voiced by Steve Blum now! Can’t top that. He has lots of cool pre-battle quips in the new games, too!

The Bad: Okay, I know there are technically two Sub-Zeroes, and the one we see the most is the younger brother. The older brother (who eventually becomes Noob Saibot after Scorpion kills him in MK1) only appears primarily as Sub-Zero in the first game and…Mythologies, which is one of the worst games I’ve ever played. This might have marked the beginning of MK’s downward spiral. You’d think a game centered on the best MK character would be great, but you’d be wrong!

The Best: I like Sub-Zero’s rivalries with Scorpion and with Noob Saibot. Younger Sub-Zero and Scorpion basically now have this “Don’t mess with me and I won’t mess with you” truce between their clans, and they’ll occasionally come together to fight a bigger threat. It’s a pretty cool dynamic they have now. It’s a Spider-Man/Venom situation in a way. It’s also kind of interesting how different the two brothers are to the point that they don’t even really consider each other brothers anymore. Noob Saibot had no problem going over to the dark side after he died (and he probably wasn’t that good of a guy when he was alive, based on what we know), while Sub-Zero has gone through a lot of effort trying to reform the Lin Kuei and trying to make amends for their past transgressions. Mortal Kombat makes a big deal out of their blood rivalries, and Sub-Zero has two of the best ones.

23. Auron (Final Fantasy X)

“This is your world now.”

The Good: Auron set the standard for being cool in the Final Fantasy series. He has one of the best designs and he’s a fount of excellent quotes and one-liners. He has a lot of really cool-looking and powerful moves, including one that can literally eject really big monsters from battle in one shot. He has a reputation of being Spira’s legendary guardian, and he exudes this aura of mystery about him. While that sounds like a bunch of clichés, I don’t particularly care because it’s executed extremely well. Clichés exist for a reason, after all, and Auron is perhaps the best of that archetype I’ve encountered in a video game. Plus, there’s a lot more to him than what you see on the surface. He’s so great.

The Bad: While Auron is really useful in battle at first because of his piercing weapons and various breaks and stuff, but I feel like those things gradually become less and less useful as the game goes along. Plus, his Overdrives get outclassed by about half the characters and aren’t particularly useful against tough bosses. He’s still a great damage dealer throughout and he’s great for tanking damage with Sentinel, so it’s not like he becomes useless or anything, but his special abilities aren’t as good as many of the other characters’ abilities.

The Best: Auron is at his best in Zanarkand because he finally drops the veil of mystery and starts revealing the truth to the party and his own personal feelings. He has that quote before the Yunalesca fight that he’s probably most well-known for, but he has several moments like that throughout Zanarkand. You start seeing the intricacies of his relationship with Tidus, Jecht, and Braska, and you see what really motivated him this time around, including a lot of personal regret. Probably my favorite Auron quote is right when you first get to Zanarkand (and it’s a noticeable shift in tone for him): “Legendary guardian? I was just a boy. A boy about your age, actually. I wanted to change the world, too. But I changed nothing. That is my story.”

22. Kyle Hyde (Hotel Dusk/Last Window)

“Forgive me. I’ve been somewhat inundated with puzzles lately. You’ll have to be more specific.”

http://kylehydedoingthings.tumblr.com/

The Good: First of all, if you’re a fan of Kyle Hyde (or even if you’re not. There are no spoilers and the lack of context is part of what makes it hilarious) and you’ve never visited that Tumblr page before, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It’s so great. If you’re a fan of snarky and sarcastic characters, then Kyle Hyde is right up your alley. No matter who you’re talking to or what you’re examining, Kyle probably has a snarky comment or two about it (I read that a lot of the comments from examining items was added by the localization team and his dialogue was a lot more generic in the Japanese version, so good work, team!). He also has some great animations due to the game’s great art style, as well as classic reactions to things like smiling about the fact he found a paper clip. Kyle also establishes a lot of good relationships throughout both games, so it’s fun to follow his journeys.

The Bad: As much as I generally enjoy Kyle’s snark, there are times when he can be a bit too harsh and cynical toward people. Probably the biggest victim of this is Martin Summers in the first game. Kyle grills Summer until he cracks and reveals everything, and then pretty much has nothing nice to say about him whenever he shows up the rest of the game. Some of the people he deals with are basically exposition machines to him, and then he wants nothing more to do with them. In some cases, it’s for good reason, but still, he might go a bit overboard at times.

The Best: It’s a shame Last Window never came out in America because Kyle Hyde is really good in this game (If you’re interested, it did come out in Europe and the DS is region free, so you can import it, but it probably won’t be cheap at this point). He’s still as sarcastic as ever, but they have toned back his attitude a bit so he’s not quite as harsh toward people. They also upgraded his design so now he wears a cool suit and tie instead of that Red Crown jacket all the time. Plus, you get to delve into his own personal backstory, something you didn’t get to do much of in Hotel Dusk. It’s fun to get to see some of the characters from the first game come back, too. The resolution to his character arc in this game is really poignant, so it’s good to see a character like Kyle Hyde go out on a high note.

21. Balthier (Final Fantasy XII)

“I’m only here to see how the story unfolds. Any self-respecting leading man would do the same.”

The Good: His self-proclaimed “leading man” gimmick is great, leading to many cool quotes from him, especially when coupled with Gideon Emery’s outstanding voice work. He’s basically the closest thing the Final Fantasy universe has to Han Solo, with a dash of Captain Jack Sparrow thrown in for good measure. You combine those two things together, and it’s hard not to come out with a great character. He’s always calm and collected, no matter how bad things get, because he knows he’s capable of using his wit to find a way out. Balthier is also very perceptive and can easily see through other people’s facades, probably because he’s been putting on a façade for so long himself.

The Bad: It’s too bad Balthier is relegated to being in Final Fantasy XII, which is a decent game, but it left things to be desired, both in terms of gameplay and story. He’s already a great character as is, but maybe he could’ve been even better in a different game. Maybe Balthier could’ve gained some bonus points from having some cool gameplay moments or special moves or something, but alas, it was not meant to be. Also, I’m honestly not a fan of Balthier’s design. Something about it just isn’t very appealing to me, although I can’t quite pinpoint what it is. I know he’s supposed to be “stylish” and all, but I don’t really get it.

The Best: Balthier’s relationship with Dr. Cid is one of the better ones in the series, just because of how bittersweet it is. As disappointed as Balthier was in what his father became, Dr. Cid was every bit as disappointed in what his son became. The confrontation at the top of Pharos Lighthouse is the best part of the game. It’s one of the rare times you see Balthier get emotional during the game. Then that final scene between them after you beat Dr. Cid gives you a brief hope spot that maybe they can have a deathbed reconciliation, with Balthier mournfully asking, “Was there no other way?” before Dr. Cid shuts him down. Like I said before, FFXII was lacking in a lot of areas, but this part wasn’t one of them. Too bad the rest of the game couldn’t have been as good as that part was!

20. Nathan Drake (Uncharted)

“Yeah, good luck, pal. That’s almost impossible to—oh, you did it. Nice.”

The Good: It’s stuff like the line above that make Nate so great. He’s just the master of banter. Even when he has nobody to talk to but himself, he somehow manages to come up with great banter. This should come as no surprise, considering he’s voiced by Nolan North, one of the best VAs in the business. Seriously, if you’ve never watched the video of how he explains where “Kitty got wet” came from in Uncharted 2, look it up on YouTube. It’s hilarious. Drake’s wit is a major part of his charm, and he’s able to make it work regardless of who his partner is, even somebody as bad as Flynn. Of course, he’s at his best when he’s with Sully, Elena, or Chloe, but his dialogue is always enjoyable and often hilarious.

The Bad: We’ve spent three games with Drake so far, and we still don’t know very much about him. Uncharted 3 gave us some background teasers, but they never followed up on them, which was pretty disappointing. We don’t even really know what motivates him to be “Nathan Drake,” although he did seem to be able to move past some of his hang ups by the end of UC3. Maybe we’ll get a bit more in Uncharted 4. At least he seems to have moved past the “on again, off again” phase with Elena and finally settled down now.

The Best: Ultimately, the main appeal of Nathan Drake is his penchant for getting into completely ridiculous situations that are seemingly impossible to get out of, and still somehow finding a way to get out of it, while still having time to stay calm and throw a quip or two in as he does it. Nate doesn’t have any sort of special powers or anything. He’s just meant to be an ordinary guy with an extraordinary drive. I guess that would make him the modern day equivalent of Solid Snake, and anytime you have something in common with Snake, you’re probably doing something right.

19. Bowser Koopa (Super Mario Bros.)

“Did somebody page the king of awesome?”

The Good: Bowser is one of gaming’s iconic villains, and for good reason. While he certainly never really has any deep motivations for anything he does, even in the RPGs, he makes up for it with a really cool design and a litany of memorable boss fights, a couple of which have graced my “Moments” list. While he’s had a few clunkers (which we’ll get to in a moment), he’s more than made up for it with classic encounters, whether it’s the original Bowser battle in Mario 1, the Koopa Klown Kar battle in Mario World, throwing him for a loop in Mario 64, beating the unbeatable in Paper Mario, or blasting him around the world in Mario Galaxy. He has also been a terrific troll at times, whether it’s in Mario Party or even the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. Usually I adhere to the idea that you want your villains to be despicable to make you want to beat them, but Bowser is the exception. Nintendo managed to make an exceedingly likable villain that you enjoy fighting, but you never want to take him down for good. You always want him to get back up for another round.

The Bad: Has a good character ever had a worse moment than Bowser in a bathtub in Super Mario Sunshine? Nevermind how awful the scenario was (“Mario, how dare you try to ruin my family vacation!” and trying to convince Bowser Jr. that Peach was his mother), it’s just a bad boss fight. It’s barely even a boss fight, because all you have to do is FLUDD boost and butt stomp all the icons on the arena. You don’t have to interact with Bowser at all. He’s barely even involved. I guess with as many boss fights as Bowser’s had over the last 30 years, they couldn’t all be good, but man, that one was particularly dreadful.

The Best: The primary reason Bowser is so high is because of his roles in the RPGs. I’ve said it multiple times, but RPG Bowser is Nintendo’s best character. He’s incredibly well written and hilarious because of how self-aware and genre savvy he is. You even get to team up with him on a few occasions, and he usually has a really fun moveset, whether it’s the Hurly Gloves in Super Mario RPG or all the Koopa Troop moves in Bowser’s Inside Story. He’s been put in a lot of different roles over the years, but he’s at his very best here.

18. Roxas (Kingdom Hearts)

“You make a good other.”

The Good: I like Roxas as a character quite a bit. He provides a nice contrast to Sora because he actually has some depth to him. I like Sora, but he’s pretty one-dimensional. DiZ even points it out at the end of KH2’s prologue. I like the tragic and bittersweet aspect to his story. In KH2, it was basically impossible for him to have a happy ending because he had to disappear in order for Sora to reawaken. They built on this in 358/2 Days by developing his relationship with Axel and adding a new character to the mix in Xion. Part of me was always rooting for him to get a happy ending somehow, although they’ve hinted that it might still be possible, so here’s hoping!

The Bad: Admittedly, the first part of the prologue in Kingdom Hearts II is kind of a drag. It picks up once Axel, DiZ, and Namine get involved, but looking around for those pictures, doing part-time jobs, and all that, bleh. Then Roxas’s own game, 358/2 Days, was a mixed bag. There were parts of it I enjoyed, but the gameplay and the mission system wasn’t that great. The storyline and dialogue could be a little awkward or cheesy at times. Like I said, it wasn’t all bad, but it’s definitely a flawed game.

The Best: Roxas has some really cool battle sequences throughout the series. The fight against Axel at the beginning of KH2 with the ring of fire and Roxas suddenly starts dual-wielding keyblades was an awesome moment. Probably one of the biggest disappointments in the original KH2 was that you never actually got to fight against Roxas in The World That Never Was, but Final Mix thankfully fixed that, and it’s a crazy fight indeed, totally befitting a great character like him. Then he has some cool cutscenes from Deep Dive where he fights with and against Riku. Roxas definitely knows how to put on a show!

17. Revolver Ocelot (Metal Gear Solid)

“This is the greatest handgun ever made. The Colt Single Action Army. Six bullets...More than enough to kill anything that moves.” http://static.tumblr.com/3444d3df4718ef68d51a2f28f04378f9/d2fx4gx/uM6nu22r6/tumblr_static_filename_2048_v2.jpg

The Good: Revolver Ocelot is the mastermind behind a large portion of the events in Metal Gear Solid. Just when you think you’ve got the guy figured out, he reveals he’s really been working for the other side the whole time…until he isn’t! It’s his mastery of being a quadruple agent that makes him so intriguing as a character. Ocelot has a ton of good lines and fun dialogue, the one I posted at the top being my personal favorite. Patric Zimmerman does a fantastic job as his voice actor in the games where he portrays him. He was so good in MGS4 that I didn’t even miss Cam Clarke not being there to voice “Liquid” anymore!

The Bad: While Patric Zimmerman was excellent as Ocelot, Josh Keaton and Troy Baker reprising his role as Joel from The Last of Us weren’t quite up to that level. I’m going to delve into some pretty heavy MGS4 and MGSV spoilers now, so if you haven’t played both of those games, don’t read this! The idea that everything Ocelot did in MGS4 to “turn himself into Liquid” was just hypnotic suggestion was a pretty cheap copout. I kinda thought establishing the fact that his father was a spirit medium in MGS3 would provide at least some basis of explanation for what happened, but it was disregarded entirely. Then they pointlessly brought it back for MGSV, as if Ocelot is apparently not good enough at being a convincing quadruple agent on his own that he has to hypnotize himself to prevent blowing his cover. It was just really dumb.

The Best: Liquid Ocelot stole the show in Metal Gear Solid 4. He was ridiculously hammy at times, like the Ocelot Dance and the fakeout with FoxDie, and I loved it. The final battle was about as perfect of a last boss fight as it gets, including the glorious return of the Ocelot Hand Gesture. MGS4 had a lot of problems, but in general, Ocelot was not one of them.

16. Presea Combatir (Tales of Symphonia)

“My ribbon…does not spin.”

The Good: I always enjoy the emotionless doll girl archetype, so Presea made a great first impression there, along with completely emasculating Lloyd and Genis the first time they meet by asking them to carry a huge block of wood that she then effortlessly drags along after they fail. If I ever switch up from using Lloyd in Symphonia, Presea is the next in line. I actually like the idea of the smallest person in the party being the destructive tank, so it works for me. I’m actually not a big magic user, so Lloyd and Presea being pretty much straight physical attackers is right up my alley. Plus, you can’t help but feel bad for her the more you learn about her backstory and how horribly she’s been mistreated over the years. You want to help her regain what she’s lost. That’s part of the appeal of the emotionless doll girl archetype, after all!

The Bad: Probably the most obvious thing to pick at is the fact that Presea is a 28-year-old stuck in a 12-year-old’s body. It’s just so Japan. Before Lloyd fixes her Key Crest, she regularly gets the party in trouble, although I guess it’s not entirely her fault because she’s not totally in control of herself. As much as I enjoy using Presea in battle, the fact that she’s so slow can be frustrating at times, too.

The Best: Presea has some of the best Skits and funny moments in the game due to her deadpan delivery and her general obliviousness regarding social cues, such as the quote I posted above. I love the Skit where Lloyd lets her borrow the Sorcerer’s Ring and she proceeds to electrocute him with it to test it out…before electrocuting herself as well. So good. Plus, her dressing up as Klonoa and being very serious about staying in-character that she absolutely refuses to speak normally is adorable. Also, at the risk of sounding weird(er), I’ve always thought Presea is a very pretty name. If I ever had a daughter, I’d at least try to see if I could get away with naming her that.

15. Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII)

“All right, everyone, let’s mosey.”

The Good: The first time I played Final Fantasy VII, I was totally blown away, and Cloud was a big reason why. He was just so cool in a way that video game characters up to that point just had not been, at least in my own experience. The ridiculously spiky hair with the huge Buster Sword made for a memorable design. His Limit Breaks were just so stylish and over the top, and I loved it. Seeing Omnislash for the first time (and particularly in that final battle against Sephiroth) was breathtaking. Then he just had so many cool cutscenes, like riding the motorcycle out of the Shinra Building or flipping off of the train at the very beginning. On top of that, he had such a crazy (in more ways than one) backstory. Cloud was such a multi-faceted character, and there was never a dull moment with him.

The Bad: Cloud has been kind of hit-and-miss in the Compilation material, which is par for the course, I guess. I don’t necessarily like how they’ve made him mostly an introvert who is always down in the doldrums. I guess that’s part of the drawback of FFVII giving you so many dialogue choices that you could basically make Cloud who you want him to be in some ways, and Square chose to interpret him in a different way than a lot of us did. On the same note, I don’t exactly have a problem with him sort of losing his self-confidence and still being wracked by guilt over Zack and Aerith in Advent Children because Geostigma would have probably forced him to face his own mortality and regrets. The fact that Cloud could regress a bit as a character made him more realistic in my book. Like I said, the Compilation is a mixed bag, so it does make me a bit cautious about how Cloud will be portrayed in the Remake.

The Best: Despite all of Cloud’s “coolness,” probably the thing that made me like him the most was the fact that I could relate to him, particularly with his background growing up. The shy kid who didn’t have a lot of friends growing up? Check. Felt like I was different from other guys my age? Check. Always too afraid to go after the girl I liked? Check. Sometimes so afraid I’m going to fail or mess something up that I’d rather not try at all? Check. Pretending to be the loner but always secretly hoping someone would show they care and try to be my friend? Check. Always dreamt of being the hero? Check. I could go on and on, but yeah, I saw a lot of myself in Cloud, so I was rooting so hard for him to overcome his personal demons. It was great to see him finally become the hero he always dreamed to be.

14. Yuri Hyuga (Shadow Hearts)

“You can’t be serious…Not in such a pure, clean, mega-hit RPG as this…!”

The Good: Yuri is a completely shameless trash talker to the point that before you learn his name, he is labeled “Rude Hero” in the dialogue boxes. He has a fantastic introduction that tells you he is not your typical RPG lead, where he catches this invisible creature that just slaughtered everyone on the train, crushes its head in, and then casually reattaches his arm that the creature sliced off in the struggle before punching the villain in the face and running away with the girl. It’s hard to top that first impression, but he almost matches it in the second game where he transforms into Amon, takes down all the troops while protecting Karin…and then unceremoniously dumps her on the floor as he walks out and reverts back to his human form. So good. Yuri is ridiculously powerful, both canonically and in terms of gameplay. His Fusion forms are fantastic and he can mostly be a one-man show if you want him to be because of all the diversity his forms provide. He can literally do anything with his forms. It’s crazy how good he is.

The Bad: Yuri does have some awkward voice acting and some weird scenes at times, like the scene where he starts crying uncontrollably and his facial animation almost makes you want to laugh instead of feel bad for him, but sometimes that’s how it goes! Also, his design is kind of bland. In some artwork, he literally looks like Amarant from Final Fantasy IX. He makes up for it with cool Fusion forms though! Yuri does become obsessed with Alice during Covenant to the point that he can sometimes be inconsiderate and oblivious of the feelings of his friends who are still alive, especially Karin. Gotta give Covenant credit for having the guts to make the bad ending of Shadow Hearts 1 canon though!

The Best: For the most part, Yuri Hyuga is unflappable in the face of danger, even to the point that he will trash talk ancient demons. Before the fight with Astaroth, Yuri wonders if he can ask for a favor, and then follows it up with, “I wish you’d shove it. You know where.” Astaroth is literally put to silence by that answer and can’t think of anything to say back to him. So good. Maybe my favorite is when he completely ignores the boss who is trying to intimidate the party (who also happens to be floating around on a pillow, I should add) and starts wondering where he can get a pillow that floats, too. Also, it’s just a little touch, but after Yuri overcomes his inner demons in SH1, his Fusion animation changes from him freaking out and clutching his head as he transforms to him just waving his arm to the side and going “Hmph” before effortlessly transforming. Not ashamed to admit I marked out the first time that happened.

13. Clank (Ratchet & Clank)

“Oh dear. Why must we always choose between certain death and probable death?”

The Good: Clank is a cool little robot buddy. He has a fantastic design with a variety of cool powers throughout the series. David Kaye does an excellent job with his voice work as well. It’s kind of funny that even though he’s technically the sidekick, the R&C universe by and large considers Ratchet to be his sidekick, especially once he lands his starring role in Secret Agent Clank (Naturally, Ratchet and Clank consider themselves equals). Being a robot, Clank is often logical in his thought processes, but he does have an emotional side that comes out from time to time. He’s also often ready with a witty quip when the situation calls for it, complete with his awesome laugh. He’s a hard character not to like. He’s very charming.

The Bad: Despite his protestations that robots cannot be easily fooled, Clank does find himself getting fooled on a semi-regular basis, especially in the first game, which lands them in a lot of trouble. In the first couple of games, the playable Clank segments aren’t that great, and he dies way too easily. Thankfully, the later games fix this, but it can be rough in the first two!

The Best: And that leads us into A Crack in Time, which is easily Clank’s best appearance to date. First of all, the playable Clank segments are excellent. I loved the clock puzzles. They involved a lot of thinking, and it felt great when you were able to solve them on your own. Also, for a series that is primarily noted for its humor, Clank managed to provide a very poignant moment when he went back in time to save Ratchet despite his repeated insistence that no one should use the Great Clock to change time once he remembered the plumber’s words, “I wouldn’t risk any more than six minutes.” That moment where everything just stands still right before Ratchet gets shot and then Clank makes a mad dash for it to save him is great.

12. Commander Shepard (Mass Effect)

“We’ll fight and win without it. I won’t let fear compromise who I am.” http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_small/0/1366/1775330-shepard.jpg

The Good: It was hard to narrow it down to just one Shepard quote because he has so many great ones, whether serious or hilarious! That’s part of the benefit of the dialogue wheel! I’ve played through the games multiple times just to try to see all the variants of his dialogue. Whether he’s a Paragon or a Renegade, Shepard is awesome. If he’s a Paragon, he’s the charismatic hero who gets the job done without resorting to underhanded methods and wins nearly everyone over to his side in the end. If he’s a Renegade, he does whatever it takes to get the job done and is a hilarious jerk to nearly everyone. You can’t go wrong either way! Plus, he has so many different classes to choose from, which also adds to the replay value because you want to test them all out! I still haven’t played through as all of them, but I love being a Vanguard. But yeah, a lot of Shepard’s value comes from his diversity.

The Bad: Sometimes his responses make it seem like he’s missing the point or that he wasn’t listening to what the other side said at all. It can come across as kind of awkward at times. Also, some of his Renegade responses go beyond just being a jerk or a pragmatic hero and instead make him seem vindictive or selfish, especially in ME3. There are some choices I could never bring myself to make. For example, (ME3 spoilers) if you ever killed Mordin in one of your ME3 playthroughs, I hate your Shepard forever.

The Best: Ultimate, the appeal for Shepard to me is his ability to overcome all odds and come out on top. It doesn’t matter even if you send him on a suicide mission, he’ll find a way to come back alive and bring everyone else back alive, too. I also really enjoy his ability to gradually win people over to his side just by staying true to himself and never giving up on people, even someone as seemingly beyond redemption as Saren or the Illusive Man. It’s part of what makes Paragon Shepard appealing as a character as well, because he’s an excellent foil to Renegade type characters like Garrus or Miranda. Plus, the dude gives some pretty awesome inspirational speeches. In a lot of ways, Paragon Shepard is the perfect hero, and I love him for it.

11. Vyse the Legend (Skies of Arcadia)

“’Impossible’ is just a word people use to make themselves feel better when they quit.”

The Good: I always call him “Vyse the Legend” because he deserves it. The list of accomplishments he compiles throughout the game is pretty mind-boggling. He routinely makes a habit of doing things that nobody has ever done before, and he never backs down from a challenge. He has a great rivalry with the Valuan Armada because of it. It was always great seeing him face off with them. One of my favorite archetypes is the hero who never backs down and never gives up, and maybe no video game character epitomizes it better than Vyse. Plus, he has a really cool design, and I love his S-Moves, accompanied by the great sound clips. “Behold…”

The Bad: Admittedly, Vyse isn’t a particularly deep character. He’s a fairly cliché RPG protagonist. He also has a bit of the same problem Commander Shepard does. He believes what he believes, and you better be on board with it or you’re getting left behind. He’s the captain of the ship. Granted, he usually ends up convincing the other side to join up before it gets to that point (because he is also Vyse the Charismatic, after all!), but he has no problem giving people “The reason you suck” speeches. Granted, I don’t necessarily mind these things about him, but they could be construed as negative traits or character flaws, depending on how you look at them.

The Best: Like I said before, a large part of Vyse’s charm is his determination to get out there and do the impossible, and probably the first (I have to say “first” because there was a “second.” Vyse is just that awesome) escape from the Valua Grand Fortress. During that time, he says his most famous quote that I listed above, as well as a number of other awesome boasts. At one point, he says something along the lines of, “The only reason people say it can’t be done is because I haven’t tried yet.” Seriously, what a boss.

10. Ryu (Street Fighter)

“True victory is to give all of yourself, without regret.”

The Good: Ryu is an iconic character for good reason. He has a really basic but memorable design with the white gi and the red headband, along with three very iconic moves that pretty much every fighting game series has copied in some form with the Hadouken, the Dragon Punch, and the Hurricane Kick. He’s always a very easy character to pick up and learn, and he’s usually fun to play. In terms of his character, I like his drive to always get better and recognizing that he still has a long way to go. Ryu has no ulterior motives or secret agendas. He’s just a street fighter, plain and simple, and that’s enough for him. In recent games, he’s had to deal with the struggle of “What price are you willing to pay for power?” when it comes to the Satsui no Hadou, which has given him a fantastic rivalry with Akuma in the process.

The Bad: Ryu is pretty much the definition of a one-dimensional character. He’s a warrior who is always and only looking to make himself better, and that’s basically all there is to him. Even though he’s the mascot character of the series, he generally has little to do with the main story. Ryu is there, but he’s not some vigilante who goes out seeking to take down M. Bison. He will fight back if they come after him, but he doesn’t actively seek to take them down because that’s not what he’s interested in. Also, it’s kind of interesting that Ryu is pumped up as a legendary street fighter, but the only tournament he won was the first one (thus far)! He’s lost a lot of times, but I suppose it reinforces the idea that he knows he hasn’t arrived yet despite his skill.

The Best: Ryu has a lot of cool rivalries throughout the series. Some of them are friendly, like Ken, Chun-Li or Sakura. Some of them are antagonistic, like Sagat, Bison, or Akuma. Despite Ryu being a relatively flat character, they know how to work up a good rivalry with him. Also, he’s really awesome in the anime and in the comics. He has some really excellent fight scenes in them. Ryu has also been my favorite character to play as in Street Fighter V so far! If you haven’t picked the game up yet, give it a shot and we can fight online sometime!

9. Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic the Hedgehog)

“I'll probably be on this floating island forever. Guarding the Master Emerald, again. I may not know the whole story behind this. But perhaps it's better that way. I am at peace once more.”

The Good: I gotta admit that I was a bit skeptical when Sega introduced Knuckles as a playable character at first because his gameplay style was different, but I changed my mind on him pretty quickly! I love his gliding, wall climbing, and burrowing, and I was pretty impressed that Sonic 3 & Knuckles actually redesigned the levels to accommodate his unique skill set. Playing as Sonic is a lot different than playing as Knuckles. It’s also a total blast playing as Knuckles in Sonic 2 for the opposite reason. The game was not designed to be able to handle his gliding and wall climbing, and you can cruise through that game easily...all the way up to the final boss, where Knux’s slightly lower jump provides a major handicap, so I guess it balances out in the end!

The Bad: Knuckles hasn’t exactly had an illustrious run in the 3-D Sonic games. The treasure hunting levels were pretty bleh in both Adventure games. Once Shadow was introduced, Knux got tossed to the side as he was essentially displaced as “Sonic’s cool rival” and hasn’t had a really decent role in a Sonic game since. Maybe Sonic Heroes, but that’s it. I also didn’t like the running gag of “LOL you got tricked by Robotnik again you’re so dumb Knuckles.”

The Best: I loved finally getting to confront Knuckles in the Hidden Palace Zone as Sonic in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, despite how easy the fight was. The fact that it was so simple and the entire sequence was orchestrated so well without a single word of dialogue was very impressive to me. The mural foreshadowing the Doomsday Zone in the background was cool. Then Knuckles getting electrocuted by Robotnik as he steals the Master Emerald, and you can sense the conflict in his expression as he realized he’s been played for a fool the entire time before reluctantly deciding to make amends with Sonic. It’s a very cool face turn.

8. Luigi (Super Mario Bros.)

“I’m-a Luigi, number one!” http://www.mariowiki.com/images/a/a7/Luigi_-_Mario_%26_Luigi_Dream_Team.png

The Good: Normally growing up, I was always Player 1 because I was an only child and friends came over to my house more than I went over to theirs because I’m selfish and spoiled like that, but I always made an exception to play as Luigi. Now why would I, when I was a kid, care at all about being Luigi instead of Mario? I mean, they were essentially the same character, right? Wrong! First of all, green is better than red. Secondly, they were different in Mario 2! Luigi had the flutter kick with crazy jumping distance, and Mario was boring. Thirdly, there was the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and Luigi was the better brother there, too! Plus, I actually kind of like the fact that Luigi isn’t “naturally” heroic like Mario and has to work up the courage to do the same type of stuff. That’s more worthy of respect, if you ask me! It doesn’t come easily for him, and he does it anyway!

The Bad: Nintendo had this huge gulf of time from Super Mario World all the way up to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga where Luigi wasn’t a playable character in a mainline Mario game. That’s over a decade of no Luigi! That’s inexcusable! If you wanted to play as Luigi, you had to settle for party games and spinoffs. Plus, it became a running gag that nobody seems to remember, or if they do remember, respect Luigi. Even Colonel Campbell called him “The King of Second Bananas” in Brawl, but thankfully, Snake knew what was up and stood up for Luigi! Nintendo’s been doing a better job of being more inclusive with him, even giving him a Year of Luigi, but still, that span of time was shameful! Also, in Mario 2 as well as the newer games and ports of old games where Luigi is different than Mario, he has horrible traction to compensate for his better jump, so it can be hard to be precise with him.

The Best: Picking back up on the last part, it was a great surprise when they revealed that Luigi would be playable in Super Mario Galaxy, so you better believe I jumped on that as quickly as possible. The Mario & Luigi games are fantastic in part because of playable Luigi, and the way the bros work together is a lot of fun. For all the faults Super Paper Mario had, Luigi was definitely not one of them. His “Mr. L” persona was brilliant and the highlight of the game. Luigi is really fun to play as in Smash Bros., too, with his weird running attack, his “Flaming” Jump Punch, his randomly misfiring Green Missile. It’s all so great. I also like the fact that Charles Martinet is extra silly with his voice acting when it comes to Luigi, how he always refers to himself in the third person and saying stuff like, “Weegi time!”

7. Kirby (Kirby series)

“Hiiiiiiii!”

https://www.ssbwiki.com/File:SnakeCopyAbilitySSBB.jpg

The Good: That picture right there is part of the reason I love Kirby. It’s fun seeing all the designs on his different forms, especially once Smash Bros. started introducing third party characters. The Snake one is just the best though, solely for the goatee. The appeal for Kirby is all the various powers he can acquire, as well as the cool designs he gets from them, which is why I prefer it over Mega Man’s power copying skill. Plus, he has a great design, whether he’s being cute Japanese Kirby or whether he’s being cool American Kirby. His games are a lot of fun, and it’s just enjoyable playing as him.

The Bad: It’s easy to level the complaint against Kirby that there’s nothing to him and he’s a flat character. Would it be nice if there were more to him than being a happy-go-lucky, somewhat lazy character who just loves to eat? I guess so. It’s not that big of a deal though, I think. It would be nice if he weren’t bad in Melee and Brawl because I love playing as him in Smash. The fact that he’s so light really works against him in those games, too. It’d be cool if he got heavier or lighter based on whose powers he was copying at the time or something.

The Best: Despite his deficiencies, I still love playing as Kirby in Smash. I enjoy his games, but Smash Bros. is what really elevated him up into being one of my favorite characters. It’s the best getting to steal the powers of other famous characters and use them against them, especially when Kirby uses his cute voice to go “Falcon Puuuuuuuuunch!” He has awesome special moves and the best throws (Kirbyciding with his up throw is great). In the games, the best powers are the Yo-Yo, the Mirror, and the Fighter. I love the sheer diversity of his powers, and it makes him a blast to play in pretty much anything he appears in.

6. Ramza Beoulve (Final Fantasy Tactics)

“Names don’t matter. What’s important is how you live your life.”

The Good: In terms of “pure heroics,” Ramza is about as good as it gets for a video game character. In a world where pretty much everyone else fights dirty and tries to manipulate everyone to satisfy their own ambitions, Ramza stands alone as the one guy trying to do what’s right simply because it’s right. It takes him a while to get there, but once his mind settles on that fact, nothing moves him from it. Even when he gets labeled a heretic and knows that history will never remember what he did or view him in a positive light, he sticks with it. That brand of integrity in the face of adversity is rare to find in a video game, and I respect the heck out of Ramza for it. The best part is that, in the end, he’s proven right and Delita is proven wrong. It didn’t even happen in his lifetime, but history eventually vindicated him as the true hero. Delita may have been able to manipulate his way up to the top, but he paid a hefty price for it, prompting that great final line, “Ramza, what did you get? I…”

The Bad: While Chapter 1 was necessary in his development into what he eventually became, Ramza set himself up for disaster with his naivete of the ways of the world. He refused to believe nobles could ever be bad guys because…they’re not supposed to be, and it bit him hard at Fort Zeakden. Also, his Chapter 1 design is my least favorite of the three, and yet that’s the one they keep giving him in his spinoff appearances! Why, Square? Give us more buttpants, darn it! I kinda wish Ramza had gotten a unique class of his own, too, although his unique Squire abilities can be pretty useful.

The Best: Ramza has some great dialogues that turn into philosophical debates, primarily with Gafgarion and Wiegraf. The one-on-one duel with Wiegraf prior to the Velius fight in Riovanes Castle is particularly excellent, especially because you see just how far gone Wiegraf is once he gave in to the power of Lucavi. I should also note that the way he totally shuts down Balk in the next to last battle is awesome because he blasts him for giving up his pride and freedom just for a second chance at something less than true life. Plus, the dude orders milk at a bar. You can’t top that.

5. Solid Snake (Metal Gear)

“A strong man doesn’t need to read the future. He makes his own.”

The Good: “The man who makes the impossible possible” is probably the coolest tagline for any character ever, and it’s hard to argue it’s not a deserved reputation! His list of accomplishments speaks for itself. He has a really cool design, and the fact that he’s completely unflappable in the face of danger only makes him cooler. David Hayter providing some awesome voice work for Snake also helped, even if he did seem to start losing it toward the end (mostly as Big Boss though). Probably the initial draw to Solid Snake for me was his character arc in MGS1 resembling Squall’s in FFVIII. He’s the guy with cool monologues and one-liners who prefers to work alone and was never interested in other people’s lives until he meets a girl who initially annoys him to no end until her life is in danger and he suddenly realizes how much he cares about her now that he’s on the verge of losing her (and Snake fell in love with Meryl a lot more suddenly than Squall did with Rinoa, but no one ever criticizes him for that…!). MGS2 Snake is a lot like endgame post-development Squall, too!

The Bad: I’m really conflicted when it comes to Old Snake in MGS4. It bothers me how passive he is. In MGS1 and MGS2, he would at least be an active participant during exposition dumps, but in MGS4, he just sits back and listens most of the time. Nothing highlights this more than the ending, where Big Boss talks for 20 minutes and Snake has like two lines of dialogue. I also don’t like how he developed this weird running gag where he makes bad jokes nobody laughs at, culminating in Solid Snake’s final line in the entire series being a bad joke about Sunny’s eggs. Snake is one of the greatest characters in gaming history, and this is how you send him off? Sometimes I think Kojima’s original ending would have been better, after all.

The Best: Like I said, I’m really conflicted when it comes to Old Snake, because despite what I stated above, he has some ridiculously good moments that highlight his “Absolutely will never quit, no matter what” mentality better than any game in the series. Probably the best example of this is the microwave scene in Act 5, where he just…keeps going, even when it’s just barely a crawl. It’s really good. I love the fact that he downplays his own accomplishments, refusing to call himself a hero and never really boasting about the really difficult things he did, like taking down the tank and the hind on foot (“Oh, I had to shoot down that helicopter” is one of the greatest understatement lines ever). Snake knows he’s a man with a very special set of skills, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a hero or a role model. It adds a very interesting layer of depth to his character that you don’t see with a lot of guys like him. It’s also what enables him to empathize with his opponents because he realizes that, deep down, he’s not that much different from them. It’s very cool.

4. Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney)

“What...What's come over me? Without thinking, I just blurted out ‘Objection!’...And I yelled it at the top of my lungs, finger outstretched, ready to take on my opponent!...What a rush!"

The Good: Much like Solid Snake, Phoenix Wright is “that man who can turn any desperate situation around,” and that’s a large part of the appeal for me. While he might need some help from time to time, he never gives up and he never stops believing in his client. Probably the two best instances of this are 1-4, where, right after Edgeworth has confessed to killing his own father, Phoenix is just calmly reading the DL-6 report, preparing his case to exonerate him. So great. The other one is 5-5, where even Edgeworth himself, whose trust in Phoenix is nearly unconditional, starts questioning why in the world he continues to insist his client is innocent, followed by Apollo desperately begging Phoenix to give him any reason to continue believing in Athena, which was the best moment in Dual Destinies. Besides that, Phoenix is just flat out hilarious. Even though I’ve played through the series a bunch of times, he still makes me laugh all the time. I also love the fact that we get a constant look inside his head with his inner monologue. It’s a Squall thing, I guess.

The Bad: For as bad as Hobonix could be in Apollo Justice, the absolute worst was pink sweater Phoenix in 3-1. Sometimes I think this case only exists to make Phoenix look even more awesome by showing you how he basically used to be Larry Butz before he became who he is now. Crying on the witness stand? Eating the bottle necklace? Aghast at the possibility of Dahlia pooping? What is this crap? The “P” on his chest doesn’t stand for “Phoenix” indeed. Also, the part of Hobonix that annoyed me the most is his absolute refusal to be a mentor figure to Apollo at all. Thankfully, Dual Destinies fixed this, but I didn’t like how he jerked Apollo around and tried his best to be as helpful as possible.

The Best: Phoenix is at his best when the stakes are personal for him. That’s usually in the epic cases, but there are exceptions like when he gets fired up to take Furio Tigre down for impersonating him and dupes him into inadvertently confessing in the process. Also, while a lot of the appeal of Phoenix is the fact that he basically bluffs his way through it most of the time, once he actually manages to figure everything out, the absolute fearlessness and confidence he displays when he knows he’s got it won is awesome, especially when he throws in a little smack talk for good measure. He goes from being terrified of someone like Manfred von Karma to backing him into a corner with the metal detector. I also like how he basically stands there completely unfazed as Damon Gant threatens to completely ruin his life before revealing that he knew exactly what he was doing all along. It’s fantastic.

3. Big Boss (Metal Gear)

“You have been given freedom. Freedom to be…outside.”

This is Good, isn’t it?: Despite the physical and vocal similarities, Naked Snake is quite a bit different from Solid Snake. He seems much more human and emotional (which Kojima said was deliberate). He doesn’t always vocally express it, but you can read it in his eyes and his body language. Look at his eyes when The Boss says she’s defecting. You never see a reaction like that from Solid Snake. Part of that is because of how naïve he is. He hasn’t become hardened and cynical yet. He’s more comparable to Metal Gear 1 Snake than Metal Gear Solid 1 Snake in that regard. Metal Gear Solid 3 shows you the beginning of his downfall, and it’s highlighted by how “pure” and “innocent” Naked Snake is at the start regarding the ways of the world. On a less serious note, Naked Snake is hilarious. I love his running gags of “So how does it taste?”, talking movies with Para-Medic, and discussing various other things with the rest of the crew, like the first time you find a cardboard box. MGS3’s radio team is so great, which only makes what happens to them after they form the Patriots all the more tragic. Of course, he’s every bit as hardcore as Solid Snake in terms of skills, and he gets to demonstrate it often, like when he completely destroys the Ocelot Unit with CQC.

The Bad: Once Big Boss started to take a larger role and became more popular within the fanbase, he started to get the Edgeworth treatment where they try to downplay his evil side for reasons unknown to me. A lot of it was subtle. For example, in the Twin Snakes remake, some dialogue about Big Boss was slightly altered. When Naomi asks Snake how he could kill his own father, in the original game he says, “He wanted it. Besides, some people just need killing.” In Twin Snakes, he says, “It’s what we wanted, me and him,” and nothing more. Then MGS4 and Peace Walker seemed to try to paint his war with Zero like he was the victim and he was rebelling against the greater evil. He may have been misguided, but he had good intentions, at least. It even led to some people trying to claim that Big Boss is the true hero of the series, which is nonsense! One of the things I appreciated about The Phantom Pain is that they made the game openly about Big Boss descending into darkness, so at least Kojima did a little damage control on that subtle retcon.

The Best: What puts Big Boss above Solid Snake is that added layer of depth that comes from the fact that he is a fallen hero and the bittersweet understanding of what drove him to become what he eventually became due to the events of MGS3. Big Boss doesn’t say a single word in the entire ending, but you can already tell from his demeanor that what he’s learned has already started to change him. In terms of specific Big Boss moments, I love his escape after being tortured and reenacting “The Fugitive.” That’s his “Will absolutely never quit, no matter what” moment. I love the fact that he treats Ocelot as a protégé despite the fact that they’re supposed to be enemies, much to the confusion of his crew. I love how you gradually see him getting better and better at fighting The Boss in cutscenes leading up to you finally having to beat her one-on-one. The buildup was great.

2. Tidus (Final Fantasy X)

“This is my story. It’ll go the way I want it…or I’ll end it here!”

The Good: First of all, Tidus is hilarious. He might be the funniest character in the series. I have a high love for cheesiness, so I guess some of the things people consider “cringe-inducing,” I find funny, like the laughing scene, doing various impressions of people, or making a completely random Macarena joke (which was outdated in 2001 when the game came out, to say nothing of 2016). He has some great battle sound clips, too, like, “Never fear! The hero’s here!” or “How can a bird get so BIG like that?!” I actually think James Arnold Taylor did a really good job because he portrays Tidus as the type of character he’s supposed to be instead of trying to make him sound cool or whatever. He’s serious when he needs to be serious, and he’s silly when he needs to be silly. I like the fact that Tidus is willing to stand up for what he believes is right, even when it means he has to go against the flow to do it.

The Bad: He’s spoiled and selfish, and this shows up a lot early on when he first gets to Spira. It’s done in a realistic way so I don’t particularly mind it so much, but I understand why his whininess bothers people. On the same note, I think his selfishness sort of works in his favor because he knows what he wants and he won’t let anyone stop him from getting it, such as saving Yuna. However, it was a bit hypocritical of him to get angry about no one telling him the truth about the Final Summoning and then not telling anyone that beating Yu Yevon means he disappears until literally right before the final battle. Also, learn some fashion sense, bro!

The Best: Probably the thing that drew me to Tidus the most is the fact that you basically experience Final Fantasy X from his perspective, especially if you went into the game spoiler-free like I did. I was learning things as he was learning them. He asks the others the questions that you’re thinking, and because sometimes he fails to ask the right questions, you get totally shocked when he gets totally shocked, like finding out the truth about the Final Summoning. He is a complete outsider when it comes to Spira, and so was I. It’s the reason he (and you) can recognize things like Seymour is obviously a villain at glance when people who have been raised in Spira to implicitly trust Yevon can’t. As you learn, he learns, and he visibly matures over the course of the game. It’s strange to think of Tidus as an excellently done player avatar, but in a sense, that’s what he is. Beyond that, Tidus has great relationships with the rest of the cast. I love seeing him interact with the other party members. It’s part of the reason FFX has the best cast in an RPG.

1. Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII)

“Reality isn't so kind. Everything doesn't work out the way you want it to. That's why... As long as you don’t get your hopes up, you can take anything... You feel less pain.”

The Good: To try to sum up why Squall is my favorite character ever without ranting is a daunting task, but here goes! Squall is the hero of introverts like me. It’s really cool to see him go from someone who is really bad at interacting with people and doesn’t want to interact with them to a real leader who learns to value those around him. Squall is a fascinating character because who he projects himself to be outwardly and who he really is inside often don’t match, and that contradiction works because we get inside his head and see his thoughts. It’s a really interesting progression because he maintains the façade really well on Disc 1 to the point that he can say cool things like the quote above and not miss a beat. It starts to crack on Disc 2 but he’s mostly able to keep it bottled up inside of him. He can still say those cool things, but he often ends up questioning it in his mind and wondering if that’s how it really is. Squall’s inner monologue conflicts throughout Disc 2 are so good. On Disc 3, it completely shatters and has to be rebuilt from scratch. On Disc 4, his character arc is mostly complete and all that’s left is to become the true Hero of Time. Oh right, Squall has a really cool design, with the scar and the bomber jacket. Lionheart is the best ultimate weapon in the series, and Lion Heart is the best Limit Break in the series. He has so many cool FMV moments, like hijacking the car to face off against Edea and Seifer at the end of Disc 1.

The Bad: Squall deliberately projects himself to be a jerk to keep people out. The harder someone tries to get in, the harder he pushes back, so you end up with stuff like completely shutting Quistis down and telling her to go talk to a wall while acting like he did nothing wrong. It’s also why he and Rinoa butt heads so much because he finally met someone as stubborn as he is. When he pushed away Quistis, she quit. When he pushed away Rinoa, she pushed back even harder. Squall also makes a lot of questionable decisions on Disc 3 because he’s a mental wreck due to his obsessive attachment to Rinoa. It’s a great character arc but it doesn’t mean he’s immune from doing stupid things!

The Best: Everything. Squall is just the best. Even when he’s bad, he’s the best because there’s always something to dissect and analyze. If you’re a fan of foils (and as many know, I love me some foils), Final Fantasy VIII is a foil paradise because most of the main cast is a foil to Squall in some way or the other, and it’s awesome. His relationships with all the characters have interesting aspects to them. Squall is the star of the game, and most of the cast operates as a supporting character to him. This is the one game where the hero’s inner conflict is given greater weight than the external conflict. Everything is filtered through the lens of Squall’s mind. I know a lot of people criticize FFVIII for that, but when you’re just the best like Squall is, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The 30 Games

30. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

What Sleeps Behind the Door? http://www.mariowiki.com/images/thumb/c/c4/PMTTYD.jpg/250px-PMTTYD.jpg

The Good: There’s a lot to like about The Thousand-Year Door. The script is excellent. There’s a great cast of party members and NPCs alike. Nintendo still owes us a Paper Luigi game based on Luigi’s side adventures during TTYD. Nintendo was very smart to make sure to give RPG Bowser (their best character) his own side story in post-chapter segments since he was mostly relegated to a side villain in this game. Rogueport is just a great location, with a lot of fun places like the Glitz Pit and the train. The new paper powers ironically add a new dimension to exploration. The battle system is so much fun, especially with the interactive crowd element. That was a really nice touch. The art style is very colorful and appealing, and the soundtrack is one of Mario’s best. TTYD took everything that Paper Mario started and improved upon it in nearly every conceivable way. It was hard for me to go back to the original after this.

The Bad: This game is fond of making you backtrack and run back and forth between locations, for whatever the reason. Chapter 4 was the worst offender of this, forcing you to run back and forth between Twilight Town and Creepy Steeple multiple times, a couple of times after you’ve body swapped with Doopliss. You can’t do anything to the Hyper Clefts running around everywhere, so you’re basically running for your life trying to avoid random encounters the entire time. Also, for as good as the writing is, the game’s primary villains are kind of bland, especially Grodus, who is about as cliché as it gets.

The Best: I just love the Glitz Pit. It was such a cool idea just to have a “wrestling” segment where Mario takes on a stage name (The Great Gonzalez!) and works his way up through the ranks to earn a title shot against Rawk Hawk. You get to meet a lot of fun NPCs along the way, and you also get the best party member, the Yoshi Dude! Then you’ve got the side plot of all the wrestlers disappearing and the mysterious messages Mario keeps getting. It’s just a great combo of tension and levity, resulting in one of the most unique experiences in a Mario game.

29. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

There Will Be No Honor Among Thieves.

The Good: I love the setpieces in this game. Borneo is just one action-packed sequence after the next. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Shamballa was really fun, too. Whenever those big Guardian dudes showed up, I was freaking out, but in a good way. Tension levels were high there. Nolan North is on top of his game as Drake here. His banter is excellent, whether he’s with Sully, Chloe, or even mostly talking to himself with Tenzin around. The pacing is strong, and the game moves pretty smoothly from one sequence to the next. Even the “downtimes” are just setting you up for the next big moment. This is just a fun game from start to finish.

The Bad: First of all, not enough Sully. He disappears after the first big area of the game and doesn’t show up again until the ending. Thankfully, Uncharted 3 realized this problem and fixed it. Second, villains haven’t really been Uncharted’s strong suit. Lazarevic is serviceable (although I do occasionally find myself saying “Draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake” the way he does whenever the name pops up, so that’s something), I guess, but Flynn sucks. There’s also this weird disconnect sometimes that the bad guys are pure evil and Drake is a fine, upstanding noble thief, like in the ending where Lazarevic tries to say Nate doesn’t have what it takes to kill him, as if you haven’t killed a thousand dudes up to that point. It’s kind of weird, especially since the subtitle of the game implies they’re all dishonorable in a way, including Drake. Also, this is a problem that I’m sure only applies to me, but I wish the games would cut back on the profanity a bit. It can be a little much for me at times.

The Best: The intro gets you all pumped up to figure out how in the world Nate ended up in that mess stuck at the bottom of a train dangling off of a cliff, and the game definitely delivers on that moment when you reach it. “Locomotion” is such a great chapter, and the game pulls out all the stops with the setpieces. Then there’s the shock of Drake actually getting shot in a cutscene by Flynn, followed by him just muttering, “Here goes nothing” as he shoots the canister and blows the train off the tracks. It’s so good.

28. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

An Epic, Gut-Busting Adventure! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Mario_%26_Luigi_3_NA_Cover.PNG

The Good: It took two decades, but we finally got Bowser as the main character of a video game. Bowser’s Inside Story definitely delivered on the goods. It’s just a really fun game. The symbiotic relationship between Bowser and the Mario Bros. was really well done most of the time. Having fights that could shift back and forth between Bowser and the Mario Bros. was a neat mechanic. The writing is top notch, and RPG Bowser (a.k.a. “The King of Awesome,” Nintendo’s best character) is as good as he’s ever been. The Bros Moves have been a staple of the Mario & Luigi games, and they’re still a lot of fun. Now you get to have the same thing with Bowser and the Koopa Troop, and it’s really cool.

The Bad: Some of the mini-games that Mario & Luigi have to do in order to “stimulate” Bowser from time to time are pretty annoying. In particular, there’s the one you have to do whenever you need to turn him into Giant Bowser. Some of the dungeons can be pretty unforgiving if you screw something up, too, especially the ones you have to play as Mario & Luigi inside of Bowser. A lot of times, all the areas look kind of same-y, so it’s hard to tell where you’ve already been and where you’re supposed to go. In general, the Mario & Luigi segments were not as good as the Bowser segments (though not always).

The Best: This game knows how to make its big moments feel appropriately big. That’s literally speaking in some cases, because the Giant Bowser fights are usually a lot of fun and have outstanding presentation and atmosphere. The last boss fight in particular is spectacular. They just nailed every aspect of it, in terms of atmosphere, presentation, music, the progression of the fight, all of it. It’s just so much fun. The final stretch of this game is pretty much what solidified this as my favorite Mario RPG.

27. Sonic Generations

Two Sonics, Two Ways to Play https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/SonicGenerations.jpg

The Good: This was the game a lot of Sonic fans spent 15-20 years waiting for. The series went off the rails at some point during the 3-D era (whether right from the start or a little later on depends on who you ask, of course), but they had shown some hints that maybe things were starting to turn around. Although the Werehog was awful, the daytime sections in Sonic Unleashed were actually quite good. Then Sonic Colors was a legitimately good game, and Sonic fans started to be cautiously optimistic that maybe the Sonic Cycle was finally broken. Finally, Sonic Generations rolled around for the series’ 20th anniversary, and it was such a wonderful piece of fanservice for all those who had endured the rough patch the series had been going through. 2-D and 3-D remakes of classic levels and bosses from all the mainline games, remixes of classic tunes, all sorts of referential and self-deprecating humor in the script, and more. You could even unlock other classic songs and play them on whatever level you wanted, which was a really neat touch, too. Sadly, the Sonic resurgence didn’t last long, but at least we got this one really great game out of it!

The Bad: Probably the main issue is that it’s a short game. There are only 9 zones to choose from, each with a 2-D and 3-D version, and four bosses. None of the levels is particularly long. Honestly, if any game could’ve used DLC of future levels added in periodically, it was this one. I would’ve eaten those up. There are side missions and stuff you can do as extra padding, but they’re nothing special. Also, the last boss is awful. It took me forever to figure out what you were even supposed to do to beat it.

The Best: Honestly, all the levels are great (even the ones remade from bad games like Sonic 2006), so it’s hard to pick just one as my favorite. They’re all so well designed, and they each have multiple paths to get through the level. The Red Star Rings also give you some extra incentive to explore. Perhaps one of the best things about Sonic Generations (and any good Sonic in general) is that it’s so easy to notice yourself getting better at the level, and the better you are at the level, the more fun it is to play because you just start flying through at max speed and doing all sorts of crazy stuff because you know exactly where the jumps are and where the enemies are. It’s really thrilling. Although the game is short, it’s ridiculously replayable because it’s just so much fun trying to get better at it, and the alternate routes means there’s multiple ways to get through it, so it’s fun trying to beat the level using different paths and seeing which is faster. I guess this is the sort of rush speed runners get, but I never really have that urge other than with really good Sonic games like this one.

26. Metal Gear Solid

You are Snake, a government agent on a mission to regain control of a secret nuclear weapons base from terrorist hands… https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Metal_Gear_Solid_cover_art.png

The Good: Actually, I was a little late to the Metal Gear Solid train. Believe it or not, it was a contest match that got me to finally try it out. After Liquid Snake nearly beat Frog (and then Frog nearly beat Solid Snake), I figured it was about time to see what all the hype is about if the characters are all so popular. I’m glad I did because MGS became one of my favorite series. The first game has an excellent cast, featuring perhaps the best ensemble of villains in a game in FOXHOUND. The boss fights are something special, whether it’s soloing a tank on foot, going hand to hand with a cyborg ninja, switching the controller port to beat a psychic, shooting down a helicopter, or destroying Metal Gear itself, there’s never a dull moment around Shadow Moses, which is just a fantastic setting in and of itself. And of course, topping it all off is Solid Snake, who is about as cool of a character as they come in MGS1 (him casually saying “Oh, I had to shoot down that helicopter” like it was no big deal is one of my personal favorite moments in the game). There are some parallels in his character development to Squall in MGS1 as well, especially in his relationship with Meryl, which was a major draw for me, too. He’s the best part of an outstanding cast.

The Bad: Kojima was fond of making you do tons of backtracking in this game, perhaps the worst of which was having to travel nearly all the way back to the beginning to get the sniper rifle after Sniper Wolf shoots Meryl. If you were expecting me to say something about the Twin Snakes remake here, sorry to disappoint you, but I actually liked it! I didn’t mind the over the top Matrix stuff as much as most people, and some of the voice acting actually improved the second time around, like Ocelot or Liquid. Plus, they got rid of Mei Ling’s awful accent! Twin Snakes was worth it for that alone!

The Best: Pretty much from the moment you step foot into REX’s hangar for the first time to the end of the game, it’s a nonstop rollercoaster of crazy plot twists, boss fights, and generally awesome moments. This was where the series hooked me. It had been a lot of fun up to this point as it is, but I was totally unprepared for how insane MGS could be. It just blew me away time after time during those last few hours, and it was awesome.

25. Street Fighter Alpha 2

18 lethal fighters! Killer Custom Combos! Intense action! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Street_Fighter_Alpha_2_flyer.png

The Good: Street Fighter Alpha 2 carried over most of the good stuff that the first game brought to the table—3 level Super Meter, Alpha Counters, and air blocking, most notably—and just built on the formula by adding more characters and more Supers, as well as Custom Combos. The game is beautiful in terms of how good the sprites look and how good the stages look. In particular, I loved the fact that Gen’s stage had water puddles and they would ripple if you stepped on them or if you knocked somebody onto them. It was just really neat. Then they took a kind of barebones rival system from the first game and made it a little more in-depth. You can now have mid-boss fights (and each character’s mid-boss is unique), and they have a rivalry fight at the end that varies depending on the character you pick. In most games, the last boss is always the same, but Alpha 2 mixes it up a lot, which is really neat. I know it’s weird to say this, but Alpha 2 was the first fighting game that actually got me to care about its story. SFA2 basically obsoleted SFA1 in the same way SSB4 obsoleted Brawl. It’s mostly the same game, with more characters and more stuff, and the gameplay is crisper. There was just no reason to go back to the original at all after this one (and apparently Capcom agreed because they said Alpha 2 overwrites Alpha 1 so essentially nothing in Alpha 1 ever happened!).

The Bad: I don’t know if I was just never good at using them or if they just weren’t implemented well, but I never really bothered with Custom Combos. They were a neat idea, but they had a lot of restrictions and caveats that made it easy for someone to get around them (like you were always moving forward unless you were attacking, and you couldn’t move backwards, so if someone just jumped over you, there was nothing you could do). Like I said, maybe it was just me being bad, but they advertised this as being a hot new feature and I rarely used it.

The Best: As simple as it sounds, Street Fighter Alpha 2 is my favorite fighting game because it’s just the most fun for me to play. Unlike most fighting games where there’s really only a couple of characters I like to use, Alpha 2 has a lot of characters who are fun to use. I don’t know if I would say that I mained anyone in particular. I enjoyed playing as most of them to some degree. I think it’s better than Alpha 3 because it just kept things a bit simpler. I think Alpha 3 tried to be a bit too ambitious with all the different fighting styles, and they kind of negated a lot of Alpha 2’s charm by making Bison almost everyone’s last boss again. I liked the fact that some of the characters could have their own personal motivations and people they were after that had nothing to do with Bison. Plus, Alpha 2 introduced Sakura, who is one of the best characters in the series!

24. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

It’s Time to Rip the Galaxy a New One. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/73/Ratchetandclank3box.jpg/250px-Ratchetandclank3box.jpg

The Good: First of all, play Ratchet & Clank if you haven’t already. They’re all great games, but Up Your Arsenal was the best of the bunch on Playstation 2. The weapons are more destructive than ever, and they added a system where the weapons upgrade with more power and bonuses the more you use them, which is awesome. The arena is great. So many fun challenges in there. The writing in the series is superb. The game never takes itself too seriously, and I like the way many of the characters say completely absurd and ridiculous things and everyone treats them as normal. If you enjoy good dialogue akin to what games like Portal have (only better), this game has it.

The Bad: I spoke before about how great the combat is, but I feel like it took a step up at the expense of some of the platforming. There’s less of it this time around compared to the previous two games. I guess they decided all the platforming in the Qwark vid-comics was enough! This stronger emphasis on combat is what led to us getting Deadlocked, too! I don’t think I’d go so far as to say UYA gave us too much of a good thing, but we got more of a good thing at the expense of another good thing.

The Best: UYA introduces us to Dr. Nefarious, one of my favorite video game villains. He’s just so good, and the last boss fight against him is excellent. It’s really tough, too, and there’s a cool twist at the end. The Secret Agent Clank segments are really fun, too. The Secret Agent Clank gimmick is pretty great in this game in general. I enjoyed it a lot.

23. Kirby Super Star Ultra

Kirby’s Ultimate Adventures! http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61OuurypHFL.jpg

The Good: The original Kirby Super Star was great fun. Ultra is a faithful port of those games, with some new ones thrown in, too, which are also a lot of fun. Probably the two best new games are Helper to Hero, which is like Arena mode from the original, only you play as one of the helpers instead of as Kirby (Plasma Wisp the best), and Meta Knightmare Ultra. In that game, you play through levels from the various Super Star games as Meta Knight, and he’s about as broken in this game as he is in Brawl. It’s just fun to tear stuff up and then fight some new bosses, to boot! This is just a great port, so if you’re a fan of the original and you haven’t played Ultra, you should definitely look into it.

The Bad: Probably the easiest complaint to lodge against this game is just that: It’s easy. Kirby games have never been renowned for their difficulty, and Super Star Ultra is no different. If you’re looking for a challenge, this is not the game for you. Some of the games, like Spring Breeze and Dyna Blade, are really, really short. You probably won’t spend much time playing them since they’re not as good as most of the other games.

The Best: It’s hard to pick between the Great Cave Offense, Revenge of Meta Knight, and Milky Way Wishes, but they’re all really fun. It’s neat that each game plays differently than the rest, so it really feels like a bunch of different games wrapped up in one game instead of one game disguised as a bunch of games. If I had to pick one game as my favorite above the rest, I’d probably lean Milky Way Wishes, but this is a fun collection regardless.

22. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

Shredder’s Got Some Time to Kill – Three Billion Years of Hi-Tech Turtle Terror! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Turtles_in_Time_(SNES_cover).jpg

The Good: It’s a beat-em-up starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! What more do you want? If you grew up on the Ninja Turtles like I did, then this game probably saw a lot of playing time! The levels are fun. The sound clips (BIG APPLE 3 A.M.) and pre-boss fight one-liners have the right amount of campiness. The music is surprisingly good. The game is short enough that you can beat it in one sitting playing with a friend, and that added to its replay value, too. My friends and I played the mess out of this game as kids.

The Bad: I know it’s a beat-em-up and you expect this, but the game had some pretty annoying enemies. Anything that was small and hard to hit (like the Mousers) was difficult to deal with, as well as anything that resulted in your character going MY TOE MY TOE (Looking at you, Rat King). Also, as a minor thing, unless you had that accessory that let you hook up four controllers at once (and I don’t remember any of my friends as a kid who did), you couldn’t get the full experience of playing as all four turtles at once if you were playing the SNES version.

The Best: Turtles in Time had some really fun boss fights. I thought the one in the Technodrome against the Shredder where you literally had to throw the Foot Soldiers into the screen was really clever. Slash was a really tough boss fight, and it was satisfying when I finally got to the point where I could beat him without him totally wrecking me in the process. The final boss fight against Super Shredder is really fun, too. Lots of good memories playing this game.

21. Kingdom Hearts II

The Story is Not Over. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Kingdom_Hearts_II_(PS2).jpg

The Good: Sora is a better character all around in this one compared to the original. His design is a lot better, and he’s a lot more likable now that he’s not bickering with Donald all the time. The original characters in general are better here, but Sora’s improvement is the most noticeable. Plus, it introduced us to Roxas, the best original character in the series thus far for me! I actually liked the combat a lot more in KH2. Some may say they simplified it or made it too easy, but it’s hard to care when everything looks and feels so cool. Sora’s Drive Forms are fun, and I even liked Reaction Commands because they usually featured something stylish! Plus, it feels like Donald and Goofy’s AIs are less dumb this time around, and that helps, too.

The Bad: Part of the problem with being the sequel is that revisiting those Disney worlds isn’t as magical as it was in the original. They streamlined things a lot more, too, which restricted exploration somewhat. It wasn’t that big of a deal to me, but it could be kind of irritating if you want to go back and check on something and the game literally won’t let you. Also, how did they manage to screw up the Coliseum? Don’t make it about anything other than a bunch of cool fights, darn it! It’s not that complicated! Also, the fake Goofy death scene might be the most awkward thing in the series.

The Best: They made up for some of the Disney stuff being less fun this time around with all of the Organization XIII stuff. The boss fights with them all are really great, and in Final Mix, you get even MORE boss fights with them! The game has a lot of really fun boss fights in general, but Organization XIII takes the cake in that regard. The World That Never Was is a really cool location, too. The invasion of Hollow Bastion was the high point of the game, and it’s just so much fun (aforementioned fake Goofy death aside). Plus, Squall is still the most important Final Fantasy character in the series, and you definitely can’t go wrong with that!

20. Tales of Symphonia

The Epic Battle for Survival. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Tales_of_Symphonia_case_cover.jpg

The Good: Symphonia was my introduction to the Tales series, and I really enjoyed it. The battle system was a lot of fun, and Lloyd was a blast to play as with his quick swordplay and cool special moves. I almost always played as him, although I would occasionally mix in Presea at times, too. I enjoy the environments as well as the mythos (no pun intended) of the world. It’s just a cool setting, enhanced by a good soundtrack. The story mirrors Final Fantasy X (or Grandia II, depending on who you ask) for a little while, but it eventually branches off and becomes its own thing. It may have been a little clichéd at times, but it was definitely an enjoyable ride for me.

The Bad: Ugh, some of these dungeons, man. The worst offenders are Meltokio Sewers, Ymir Forest, and Latheon Gorge, although there aren’t very many good ones at all. I liked the idea of the Sorcerer’s Ring doing different things in every dungeon and having a gimmick revolving around it, but trying to figure some of these out was annoying. They weren’t very intuitive at times, and there was a lot of running back and forth as well, especially if you screwed up at any point. Oh, and stop apologizing, Colette.

The Best: If you know me, you know “cast chemistry” is a big thing for me, and Symphonia has it in spades. The Skits can be really hilarious at times, and they did a lot of cool things with the affection point system—not just at Flanoir, but throughout the whole game. You could have so many different permutations of a scene depending on who had the highest affection rating at the time, and literally every choice has an effect on affection points in some way or other, so you had to be very judicious in your selections, depending on whom you were aiming for. I wish more games had a system as involved as Symphonia’s because it definitely added replay value and enjoyment to it for me. Sometimes in beefy JRPGs like this, you need breather/slice of life moments, and Symphonia was happy to oblige.

19. Mega Man X

The Future Has Arrived! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Mega_Man_X_Coverart.png

The Good: This is my favorite Mega Man game out of all the ones I’ve played. It takes the classic formula and expands on it by adding new abilities to the mix, like dashing and wall climbing. It opens up more possibilities in level design, and the game does a good job of capitalizing on it. You also have a very memorable set of Mavericks with a cool set of powers. I always thought it was really neat how the Mavericks reacted to getting hit by their weakness, like how Armored Armadillo’s armor would fall off if you hit him with Spark Mandrill’s weapon and stuff like that. Also, this game has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time. So much goodness here.

The Bad: This is a personal preference for me throughout all the Mega Man games for the most part, but I generally don’t care for the long slogs through the main villain’s “base” or whatever, whether it’s Wily or Sigma or whoever. Probably part of the problem is how long they are and the fact that you have to start over from stage 1 if you get a game over (although they do give you passwords or whatever, but inputting passwords is lame). Also, Sigma is a pretty boring villain. Maybe that changes in the later MMX games I haven’t played, but he’s pretty bleh in MMX1. Plus, it would’ve been cool if they made it possible for you to actually win the fight against Vile instead of making it an auto-lose, but that’s just me.

The Best: X is so much cooler than Mega Man Classic. He looks cooler, especially after you get all the upgrades. The standout levels here are Spark Mandrill and Storm Eagle. Great levels with two of the best songs in the game, too. Also, Zero is such a boss in this game. It’s kind of amazing how awesome he is considering he’s literally in two scenes the entire game, but he makes it count! Finally, one word: Hadouken.

18. Star Fox 64

Shake, Rumble, and Roll! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/StarFox64_N64_Game_Box.jpg

The Good: Star Fox 64 is one of the most replayable games I’ve ever played, in my opinion. You have all the different routes, collecting all the medals, and then you get an Expert Mode to do it all over again! I’m not normally a big completionist when it comes to games, but SF64 is the exception because it was fun. It didn’t take a ridiculous amount of time to achieve or involve any boring grinding. Just a single playthrough doesn’t take much time at all. It feels good the first time you shoot out all the spotlights in Zoness or flipping all the switches in Macbeth. Also, it goes without saying, but the game had a ridiculous amount of charm due to the dialogue. It might be the most quotable video game ever made.

The Bad: Okay, not all the levels are great. The submarine was awful, but thankfully, there was only one level that used it. Part of the appeal of Star Fox 64 is the speed and having to react quickly to things, and that submarine is super slow. It’s just not much fun. Also, the most frustrating medal to get is easily Sector Z, where you pretty much have to blow up all the missiles yourself in order to get enough points for it, but of course, your partners want to be “helpful” and steal the final shot on the missile after you’ve done the bulk of the work. Your partners have to all be uninjured to get the medal, too, so you can’t just deliberately sabotage them or something either.

The Best: Probably my favorite stretch of the game is Area 6 followed by the true Venom path. Area 6 feels like Andross is really going all out trying to stop you. It’s just insane all the enemies it throws at you. On a good run, you can get a ridiculously high score here. Then the true Venom route is great fun, with the final battle against Star Wolf, getting Andross to show his true form, and finally having James McCloud to show up to guide your escape out of there. It’s just a great sequence of events and pretty much a perfect ending to the game.

17. Shadow Hearts: Covenant

Wield the Power of the Judgment Ring to Fulfill Your Destiny http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/shadowhearts/box2u.jpg

The Good: Covenant is generally more lighthearted in tone than the original Shadow Hearts, although it does still have its fair share of serious moments. Probably the best comparison is the difference between Persona 3 and Persona 4. It’s kinda like that, I think Covenant is a major upgrade to the original in terms of the battle system and the cast. The first game introduced the Judgment Ring concept, and Covenant built on it and made it better. The battle system is a lot of fun, with all the combo moves and stuff like that. The new cast of characters is (for the most part) a lot better than the original. They’re more fun and likable, and the cast chemistry as a whole is superior. Yuri and Alice were the only playable characters worth caring about from the first game.

The Bad: The one area where Covenant is clearly inferior to the original is its villains. Albert Simon from the first game is a fantastic villain, and while Covenant introduces several new villains into the mix, none of them are very good. I think they took an interesting approach in regards to the main antagonist in that you can’t really call him evil or a “bad guy,” but I still don’t find him particularly compelling. Also, as much as I praised the improved battle system (and it is really fun), it can make boss battles ridiculously easy because of your ability just to go with 4-on-1 combos on bosses and wreck them hard. This is one of those rare RPGs where random battles are harder than boss battles. The only exception is the last boss, and that’s because it’s 4-on-4, which definitely balances the scales and makes for a legitimately difficult fight, which was good.

The Best: Once again, Yuri Hyuga is the star of the show. They improved his fusion abilities by giving him more forms and making it easier to switch between forms compared to the first game. A lot of times, he can be a one man wrecking crew. He has so many cool cutscene moments as well, where he is literally owning faces. Yuri is also a relentless trash talker, and it makes for some hilarious exchanges between him and some of the characters you encounter. Covenant would be a good game without Yuri, but it’s a great game with him.

16. Mass Effect 2

They Don’t Expect You to Survive

The Good: Mass Effect 2 is a major step up from the original in terms of gameplay. I can appreciate what the first game tried to do, but it didn’t work for me all that well. It’s much smoother this time around and less restrictive, especially in terms of biotic powers. Blasting people with biotics is so much fun. I love playing as a Vanguard, just charging in and then blowing their faces off with a shotgun or what have you. There are a lot of different ways to play the game, and it’s a lot of fun. The cast has been expanded in more ways than one. Obviously, you have a lot more people in your squad this time around, but now the ones who came back from ME1 like Tali and Garrus are more than just mouthpieces for their species. They all have their own character arcs, and it’s fun working through them.

The Bad: I can understand what people say about the story not seeming that important and that it’s basically just a bridge connecting ME1 to ME3. Defeating the Collectors feels like a side story at times. Planet mining is a pretty tedious way to build your resources to get all of the upgrades. There’s literally no way to afford all the upgrades without doing it, unfortunately. Also, get used to Garrus telling you he’s in the middle of some calibrations every time you go in there after a mission hoping he has new dialogue.

The Best: The Loyalty Mission setup was excellent. I loved the idea that you had to help your squadmates solve their own issues in order to help them focus on the mission at hand. It made the characters feel real and made the stakes more personal. It also helped to establish Shepard as a great leader, not just of troops but of individuals, which is one of the things I like about him. The best loyalty missions were Tali’s, Mordin’s, and Kasumi’s, in that order, although most were good. Oh right, and the Suicide Mission itself was pretty great. They nailed the atmosphere for that one.

15. Mario Kart 64

Three…Two…One…GO! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Mario_Kart_64box.png

The Good: This is probably in my top 5 in terms of total playtime. Whenever friends came over, this was almost always one of the games we’d play, and we’d play for hours. The N64 came out at pretty much the perfect time in my life during my middle school years, where you had all kinds of free time and it was easy to get together with your friends. Then the fact that you could have 4 players made the N64 pretty much the perfect party console for my age range. But yeah, Mario Kart 64 was always loads of fun. Nearly all of the tracks were fun, both the races and the battle mode stages. This was probably the last Mario Kart game before items became imbalanced and too important, and it was fun to troll your friends if you had three red shells just to sit behind them and shoot them with all three in a row before passing them, deliberately slowing down if you saw someone shoot the Blue Shell to make sure someone else got hit by it, or setting traps (or using your Lightning Bolt) on the big jumps to try to get people to fall off the edge. Good times.

The Bad: Sometimes the courses could be too long. Rainbow Road is the most obvious offender as a race could easily go 6+ minutes there. The rubber band AI could be a problem, too. I guess it was to keep you from being able to lap the field like you could in Super Mario Kart sometimes, but you know what? Sometimes I liked being able to lap the field! It could be kind of annoying to run a really good race and one screw up could cost you the win because of the rubber banding.

The Best: Wario Stadium was the best course, with all the hills and jumps, especially the big jump right before the end of the lap. We would always try to make each other fall into the gap there. Battle mode was a blast because we would play by certain agreed upon rules at times, like always staying on the bottom level and having to deal with the possibility of getting hit by random green shells and stuff. Also, Mirror Mode Toad’s Turnpike is such a monster, but in the best possible way.

14. Super Mario World

Tackle a whole new world with Mario & Yoshi! http://images.nintendolife.com/games/snes/super_mario_world/cover_large.jpg

The Good: The biggest new thing that Mario World introduced was Yoshi. While you can criticize the inclusion of Yoshi for making the game too easy by essentially giving you an unlimited “free hit” provided you could catch back up to him after you got knocked off, he’s just so much fun that I don’t care. I particularly love the blue Yoshi. Not just because he’s blue, but because he basically combines all of the powers of the Yoshis into one, being able to fly, ground pound, and spit fireballs with a shell in his mouth! Trying to find all the secret exits was a lot of fun, too, especially once the Star Road and Special Road got involved. It really added a lot of replay value to the levels.

The Bad: The combination of the cape and Yoshi help make the game really easy. Mario World in general doesn’t seem as interested in giving you a challenge as the NES Marios were. Its level design centered more on finding its secrets than things like enemy placement, difficult jumps, etc. I realize it’s ultimately a matter of personal preference and there’s no “right” or “wrong” design philosophy when it comes to platformers, so I’m just speaking in terms of my own preferences and opinions here. There are exceptions (which we’ll get to in a minute), but for the most part, it’s an easy game.

The Best: The best levels are the Ghost Houses, the Fortresses, and the Castles. Perhaps not coincidentally, these are the levels you can’t use Yoshi on and there are no secret exits to find (except in the Ghost Houses), so the design philosophy is a little different in these levels. These levels are constantly trying to crush you, surround you, confuse you, or drop you into lava pits. These are the times the game decides to challenge you, and I love it. The Secret Road can be merciless as well, Tubular in particular, but I enjoy it a lot. I really liked the last boss fight against Bowser, too. The Koopa Klown Kar didn’t mess around.

13. Persona 4 Golden

Tune In, Turn On, Drop DEAD… http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81XTUUbY8KL._SL1476_.jpg

The Good: Persona 4 took a lot of the concepts that Persona 3 had and made them better. Then Golden made some of those things even better. Some of those things include being able to have full control over all of your party members, being able to choose which abilities a new fused Persona inherits, making all of your party members S. Links, and being able to choose whether to friend zone or romance female S. Links. Then Golden added a bunch of new scenes, a new dungeon, two new S. Links, and basically gave you an extra month and a half at the end, as well as a second evolution of your party members’ Personas. Persona 4 was pretty good as it was, but all the new stuff Golden added made it great.

The Bad: Some of the dungeons could be pretty bad, but Kanji’s dungeon was easily the worst of them. I never enjoy playing that one whenever I go through the game. While P4’s S. Links are generally better than P3’s, they’re not all great. Some of them are totally forgettable, like daycare mom or either of the Sun ones. Also, I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed in the culprit, mostly with his motivation. After spending all that time trying to catch him, it was kind of lame that his motivation basically boiled down to “I was bored and it seemed fun.” Really? We can’t do any better than that?

The Best: Persona 4 manages to have a great mix of both humorous and poignant moments. Pretty much every outing in Persona 4 ends up with the guys getting the short end of the stick and Yosuke whining that they suck and nothing good ever happens to them. Then you have basically everything involving the Dojima family, and it tugs at your heartstrings over and over again. Finally, the new Valentine’s Day scene in Golden is fantastic. Nothing will ever make you feel guiltier in a video game than romancing all the girls and having to reject all but one (or even all of them if you feel like it), and I love it.

12. Super Mario Bros. 3

The biggest, most exciting Mario Bros. adventure yet! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a5/Super_Mario_Bros._3_coverart.png

The Good: I liked the fact that Mario 3 really mixed it up both in terms of its worlds and in terms of power-ups. I know the worlds being different is mostly aesthetic, but sometimes that matters! Plus, you end up with stuff like Giant Land, which was awesome. The power-ups could be kind of hit or miss, but they at least had some situational use. The leaf is great though. I prefer it to Mario World’s feather, in fact! There’s also the awesomeness that is Kuribo’s Shoe, even if it’s only for one level.

The Bad: I’m not a huge fan of auto-scroll levels, and Mario 3 has quite a few of them, particularly the airship levels. Sometimes they work, but a lot of the time, they don’t. Also, the bosses in the game are pretty lame because they’re mostly variants of the same battle. Even the last boss fight against Bowser was kinda bad because you didn’t really defeat him yourself. You just had to let him be dumb enough to kill himself.

The Best: In general, I prefer Mario 3 to Mario World (although not by a ton, as you can see) because I prefer its design philosophy of making it more about difficult jumps, enemy placement, and overall making it a more challenging experience. It feels more diverse than Mario World as well. As I said before, Giant Land is so cool because it’s literally giant enemies everywhere. Also, I love the dark atmosphere of World 8. I remember always being nervous whenever you’d go past those spots where the hand could pull you down into a level and crossing my fingers that I could make it across without getting caught. It was always a very tense experience. Also, P-Wings are the best.

11. Final Fantasy VII

Quite possibly the greatest game ever made. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Final_Fantasy_VII_Box_Art.jpg

The Good: Final Fantasy VII marked the birth of the modern RPG. Others have tried (and continue to try) to imitate and capture the magic of this game. What exactly made it so good? The cinematics were breathtaking for the time. That opening FMV was incredible stuff. The gameplay wasn’t really that complex, but they nailed the presentation of it so hard that you don’t care. Busting out awesome looking Limit Breaks that keep getting more and more powerful, experimenting with Materia combos, and even little touches like the camera zooming in from multiple angles when you cast Ultima, the style is over the top in the best way. The game starts you off in a fantastic but limited location like Midgar, and then everything opens up to you and it’s just “whoa,” there’s so much more to the game than they’ve already shown you. They really knew how to pace the game to lead you from one thing to the next and make you want to keep playing. Then they kept raising the stakes from Shinra to Sephiroth to Meteor, and everything just keeps getting grander and grander. FFVII has a sense of progression in pretty much every area that few other games have.

The Bad: Final Fantasy VII loves to make you play mini-games. Get used to doing three-point squats, giving CPR, having submarine battles, snowboarding, riding motorcycles, helping moogles procreate, putting on a show for Rufus, racing chocobos, slap fights, digging up harps, and more! They’re not all bad, of course, but there’s definitely a lot of them. Also, Wutai is the worst sidequest and Yuffie is awful because of it. I don’t care what any of you say.

The Best: The stretch from the Temple of the Ancients at the end of disc 1 through Junon at the beginning of disc 2 is just a crazy sequence of events. We see Sephiroth’s repeated mind games with Cloud (which is one of the things that makes Sephiroth such an effective villain aside from his tremendous sense of presence, by the way), Aerith dying, finding out that Cloud’s past isn’t what you thought it was, Cloud handing over the Black Materia to Sephiroth and disappearing from the party entirely for a while, the appearance of the Weapons and Meteor, among other things. I had never experienced anything quite like that in a video game before with so many wild twists and turns, and it’s part of why I still love Final Fantasy VII today.

10. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Has Time Run Out for Ratchet & Clank? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/Ratchet_%26_Clank_Future-_A_Crack_in_Time.jpg

The Good: First of all, this game is beautiful. A Crack in Time is aesthetically pleasing as any game you will find on PS3. It’s like a video game set in a Pixar movie. The gameplay is as good as it’s ever been. The attention to detail is crazy. Nearly everything is destroyable if you feel so inclined. They have some great new weapons, like the trash-talking death machine, Mr. Zurkon. There is a wide variety of missions to choose from. The writing is still sharp, and somehow they’ve even made a pretty good serious story while they’re at it!

The Bad: While it’s pretty much unavoidable with a game as many weapons to choose from as this game does, some of them don’t see much use from me. Also, this is pretty typical for any Ratchet & Clank game, but some of the sidequests can be rather grindy and tedious. If you’re a Platinum seeker or a completionist (which I thankfully am not), it could be a rather time-consuming trek.

The Best: The Clank time puzzles are absolutely fantastic. They’re well designed and gradually get more challenging the deeper into the game you get, and it feels good to solve them. This game also marks the glorious return of Dr. Nefarious, who’s back and better than ever! It’s not a coincidence that the two best games in the series both feature him as the primary antagonist! The last stretch of bosses is really great, and the game ends on a big high note. In conclusion, as I’ve said many times before, if you haven’t yet, play Ratchet & Clank.

9. Skies of Arcadia Legends

Battle to Save Arcadia! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/20/Skies_of_Arcadia_Legends_box.jpg

The Good: Arcadia is a beautiful world that is so much fun to explore. “Exploration” is usually low on my priority list in an RPG, but Skies of Arcadia is definitely the exception. Trying to locate all the Discoveries is a blast. The game definitely captures the spirit of a fun adventure. The excellent soundtrack helps to set the mood in that regard. Having Vyse gradually become a more famous Air Pirate as the game goes along, including his title upgrading and becoming cooler the better you do, was a really cool touch, too. The characters have a lot of charm. They have colorful personalities. The Valuan Armada might be the best set of villains in a video game. They’re really good. I really enjoy the ship battles as well, whether it’s against a Gigas or against one of the ships of the Armada. The Legends port also added a bunch of new bounties, which are some excellent optional boss fights.

The Bad: The game has a pretty high encounter rate. Thankfully, they give you an item that lowers the encounter rate, and you eventually get an airship capable of flying above and below the main area of the map and avoid random encounters altogether. However, early on, trying to get from one place to the other can take a while because of the number of random encounters you get in, and a lot of random battles feature a decent number of enemies. Plus, one random battle can take a while until you get to the point that you can start off a battle with enough S-Points to do an all-enemy skill on the first turn. This comes as no surprise, but this game’s water dungeon is no fun due to having to adjust water levels and having to figure out where you’re supposed to dive to open the next location and all that.

The Best: Man, it’s hard to pick a “best” part. As I’ve said, the game has some excellent boss fights and ship battles. The first couple of battles against the Gigas really feel tense because of how undermanned you are and how overpowering the Gigas feel, and it’s really satisfying being able to take them down in the Little Jack. The optional battles against Piastol are a lot of fun and can get really difficult. Finally getting to face off with Galcian was fantastic. The game did a great job of building up to that one. Then the final boss rush is a great end to the game. In terms of story moments, I love it when Drachma finally lowers his guard and tells you why he’s so obsessed with catching Rhaknam. It was a surprisingly touching moment.

8. Mass Effect 3

Take Earth Back https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Mass_Effect_3_Game_Cover.jpg

The Good: In terms of gameplay, Mass Effect 3 is the series at its best. Everything flows so smoothly, and there are so many different powers and combos to pick from to keep things exciting. They brought back the power progressions (or at least a variant thereof) from the original to mix things up, too. Then you’ve got all these freaky new Reaper type enemies, along with the Cerberus soldier types, and it really feels like a galactic war. The number of squadmates gets cut in half this time around, but you still have Garrus and Tali. Plus, Liara’s back, and you literally get a prothean in your squad this time around who is incredibly awesome. All of your surviving squadmates have a role to play in the game some way or the other, although some are obviously more important than others. The stakes are as high as they can possibly be, and the atmosphere is off the charts.

The Bad: The endings have been debated and dissected to death, so I won’t beat a dead horse any further. I will say that I thought the Extended Cut alleviated some of its issues, but they’re still not great. Mass Effect 3 gives you some truly horrifying choices to make this time around, and some of them have far-reaching repercussions. It’s kind of sad that they limited Shepard’s dialogue wheels this time because I loved being able to make choices like that, but it’s understandable considering the sheer amount of dialogue and possible scene permutations this game has. They did somewhat make up for it by allowing some of Shepard’s auto-dialogue to change based on whether you’re a Paragon or Renegade, but it’s not quite the same.

The Best: The two best main storyline missions are Tuchanka and Rannoch, hands down. The story in each arc is excellent, and the gameplay is fantastic. The climax of each arc is genuinely touching. Also, Mass Effect 3 is banter heaven. The squadmates talk to each other all the time, whether during missions or on the Normandy, and I love it so much. It’s so awesome being able to run around the ship and encounter banter going on somewhere. It’s really cool that the squadmates now talk to each other instead of just Shepard, and it increases the cast chemistry exponentially. Finally, Citadel is one of the greatest instances of fan service in a video game. If you’ve played ME3 and you haven’t played Citadel yet for whatever the reason, you owe it to yourself to play it. It’s incredible.

7. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations

Battle for Justice! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/Pw3-cover-english.jpg

The Good: Trials & Tribulations is the best game in the series because of how well balanced it is. The game has no bad cases, at least in my opinion (Your mileage may vary on 3-2 or 3-3). Plus, at this point, Takumi realized that the only thing they could do to keep the games interesting and provide a challenge for Phoenix is to make the scenarios as ridiculous as possible, so you get a grand larceny that gets turned into a murder charge (thanks to Phoenix himself, no less, which was a fantastic twist). You get a retrial due to a fake Phoenix and a fake crime scene. Finally, you get a case where one of the key figures is haunting you from beyond the grave. It’s totally crazy in the best possible way. Plus, getting to play a couple of flashback cases as Mia was a lot of fun, especially getting to face off against Miles von Edgeworth with all of his von Karma mannerisms (That finger wag). This was also the first game to attempt to have a more cohesive story where all the cases interconnect in some way, so that was neat.

The Bad: That’s not to say the game is flawless or anything. I thought it was kind of weird to introduce the main antagonist as the culprit in the very first case and then keep bringing her back. I suppose it worked out in the end, but it does kill a bit of the tension in an Ace Attorney game when you have a recurring villain, at least for me. Then they brought back Maggey Byrde as a defendant for no real reason (I guess except to shiptease her with Gumshoe). They could’ve made a new original character, or at least brought back someone that people, you know, cared about. Heck, just switch her role with Adrian Andrews in 3-2 or something!

The Best: 3-4 and 3-5 combined provide an excellent finale for the Phoenix Wright trilogy. I talked at length before about what makes 3-4 so great, so I won’t rehash it here. Honestly, playing as Edgeworth in 3-5 might be more fun than any of his playable roles in the spinoff games! It’s just that good. He gets to utterly destroy Franziska all day, which is worth the price of admission alone, and he gets Gumshoe as an investigation partner (what a novel idea!). Then there’s Mia giving Dahlia the epic “I’m a winner. I’ll always be a winner. You’re a loser. You’ll always be a loser” speech. There’s also the final showdown with Godot whilst cross-examining Maya (and the Allegro cross-examination theme, which is the best one in the series, plays in the background), culminating in the incredibly awesome “Super Objection!” Finally, there’s the Iris confession we waited all case for, followed by the surprisingly poignant reaction from Phoenix, “You really are the person I always thought you were” and then sharing a cup of coffee with Godot. We also get Mia saying farewell to Phoenix, saying he was as good as a lawyer could possibly be in that case and he doesn’t need her anymore. It all added up to a near perfect finale for Phoenix Wright…until Apollo Justice ruined everything, of course! Oh well. What I wouldn’t give for Iris to make a return in Ace Attorney 6 as Maya’s assistant or something.

6. Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Plug in. Lock on. Break out.

The Good: The combined might of Sonic 3 & Knuckles is just a fantastic experience. While not all of the zones are great, by and large they are enjoyable to play through. They have multiple routes and most zones are different depending on whether you’re playing as Sonic (or Tails, I guess, if you’re THAT guy) or Knuckles, so it adds a ton of replay value. Another thing that adds replay value is just the learning curve on Sonic games is so obvious that it feels great to notice yourself getting better every time you play a zone. It’s an awesome feeling when you go from struggling to figure out how to beat a zone to being able to speed through the zone because you know exactly what to do. It’s also at just the right length that you can play through it all in just one sitting, but they finally added saving to the games in case you don’t actually want to do that, which is nice! The new power-ups are really cool and all have their uses. The game has a really fun set of bosses, and the soundtrack is pure greatness. After all, Michael Jackson worked on the soundtrack (or so the rumors go)…!

The Bad: Ah, that lock-on technology. Who knew we’d still be using it 20 years later…or not. This is the 16-bit Fire Emblem Fates! Two separate yet complete games, but the combined effort gives you an experience you can’t get from one game alone. It’s really weird Sega did it this way, and it’s become a constant thorn in my side for contest purposes because Allen has always found a way to shaft this game from contests! Also, some of the Knuckles levels are kind of strange in that they feel incomplete or like Sega was being lazy. A few of his zones have no boss at the end, and Flying Battery’s boss infamously just shows Robotnik’s face instead of the Egg Robo mask. You also can’t play the Sky Sanctuary level or Doomsday as Knuckles, which makes sense, I guess, but I still wish you could!

The Best: Man, it’s hard to pick just one zone as the best. Flying Battery probably has my favorite zone music, and it’s just such a cool setting. It’s also the only zone that’s exactly the same whether you play as Sonic or Knuckles because Knux was apparently never supposed to do this stage originally. Sky Sanctuary has a really good song, coupled with some nostalgic boss fights against Metal Sonic and a lot of fun platforming. Then there’s the final boss rush coupled with the Doomsday Zone, which is one of my favorite final levels in a platformer. Just the music, the atmosphere, the setting, the feeling of having to chase down Robotnik trying to make a getaway with the Master Emerald, it’s all so epic. I love it.

5. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

O.K. Kid, wipe that drool off your chin and listen up if you really want to learn something about this game. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/DK_Country_2.jpg

The Good: This is as good as 2-D platforming gets. The level design is superb. One of the keys to good level design in a platformer is just the ability to smoothly flow through the level the better you get at it, and DKC2 excels at that. The enemy placement and jumps work in such a way that you can basically keep moving without ever stopping in certain levels. Also, it’s a really cool feeling when you can quickly blast through the barrel levels because you get the timing down or you know which way to go. The game will often reward you with balloons if you can complete certain parts quickly and without screwing up, which is a nice little incentive. Also, this was the last Rare game where they didn’t decide to go overboard with collectibles and make getting them all one of the primary appeals of the game. In DKC2, you have two primary collectibles: Kremcoins and Hero Coins. That’s all you need. Diddy and Dixie are a great duo. I know a lot of people missed DK or would have rather have at least one heavy character instead of two lightweight, speedy characters, but I liked it this way. It made the partner team up stuff possible, which I enjoyed. I also liked the new gimmick of actually transforming into animal buddies for certain levels and designing levels around their unique abilities. Oh right, and of course, DKC2 has an excellent soundtrack, one of the best you will ever hear in a game.

The Bad: While it’s not as bad as DKC1 in this regard, DKC2’s boss fights are somewhat lacking for the most part. There are a couple of exceptions, like Kleever and K. Rool, but bosses are not the game’s strong suit. Also, the game’s other Kongs are mostly useless. Wrinkly was so useless that she literally died between DKC2 and DKC3. While the classic “Stickerbush Symphony” or “Bramble Blast,” whichever you want to call it, plays during these levels, the levels with all the brambles and barrels could be very annoying to navigate the first few times through until you get the hang of them. So many cheap deaths, so many Zingers.

The Best: My favorite main area was probably Krazy Kremland. I loved the amusement park theme. The rollercoaster levels were a lot of fun. Also, I loved the Lost World because of the difficulty spike. These levels would not be kind to you. It’s the DKC equivalent of the Special Road in Mario World. If you’ve played DKC2, you know the horrors of Animal Antics, and you know the sheer joy of finally beating it. Also, this goes without saying since I wrote about it on the Moments list, but I love the two K. Rool fights. They’re really clever fights.

4. Super Mario Galaxy 2

Mario and Yoshi blast off into a new galactic adventure! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Super_Mario_Galaxy_2_Box_Art.jpg

The Good: Sometimes when you beat a game, you say to yourself, “I want more of something just like that.” That was how I felt after beating the original Mario Galaxy, so I was thrilled when Nintendo announced there would be a second one! The first Mario Galaxy was the experiment, and Mario Galaxy 2 was perfecting what they had put in place. The level design is overall just better with a greater amount of diversity, so it’s more fun. There are new powerups as well as the return of Yoshi. The soundtrack is still excellent. The art style is still beautiful. You could unlock Luigi without having to collect all the stars first. They added 120 more Green Stars after you collect the original 120 to give you more to do, which was cool. Just blasting and soaring through the sky is really fun, and I really liked all of Galaxy’s gravity gimmicks. It just feels good to play.

The Bad: For the most part, the motion controls were unobtrusive, but occasionally they’d bust out a gimmick that irritated me, like anytime you had to roll around on that giant ball or the levels where you have to fly with the bird. Those were not fun. The Bowser boss fights were not as good in this game as they were in the original. While it was cool that they added the Green Stars, some of the locations felt lazy or just totally random instead of strategically placed. I guess sometimes it can’t be avoided when you’re just going back and putting them in previously existing levels, but still, it could have been better. Also, they greatly streamlined the hub world, so instead of the very cool setting of Rosalina’s Observatory, we get…a giant ship shaped like Mario’s face. Okay then.

The Best: The bonus stage, the Grandmaster Galaxy, was absolutely fantastic. It’s wonderfully designed with a good level of difficulty that makes good use of a lot of the game’s designs and gimmicks by forcing you to run through a gauntlet that shuffles through them. Then they made it even better with the Perfect Run, where you have to beat the entire level without getting hit. Finally finishing that run was immensely satisfying and was an excellent way to cap off an excellent game.

3. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Hungry for some Snake? http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/9/93770/2355505-ps2_metalgearsolid3snakeeater_2.jpg

The Good: Just to provide context, I had gotten into the series literally about a month before this game came out. I had steamrolled through the first two games, and I was eager to dive right into MGS3 once it came out. Perhaps it was just perfect timing for me because I was riding a high going into it, but this one quickly became my favorite in the series. As soon as I finished it, I immediately started up a new file because I wanted to do it all over again and catch all the stuff I’d missed the first time. The jungle in Soviet Russia is just such a fantastic setting. It opened the gameplay up a lot, and it gave you so many new ways to mess with enemies, including really silly things like throwing them into electric fences and watching them get blown off. I loved the implementation of CQC. I abused that CQC Slam so much because it was super broken. Because of CQC, this was also the first time where it felt like you could get spotted and win a firefight with the enemy, which only made Big Boss seem more legendary! I already wrote about how great Naked Snake was earlier today, so I won’t rehash it. Then they released Subsistence with the new camera, and that was great, too! Subsistence also came with the Secret Theater, which are some of the most hilarious self-parodying things ever.

The Bad: If you’re bad at stealth (as I am), you’ll be spending a lot of time in menus healing yourself and changing your camo. While I think people exaggerate just how often you have to menu hop, it does happen a lot, at least early on when they give you a bunch of different spots where they want you to change your camo to experiment with it and things like that. Also, it takes forever for an Alert to go away in this game because there are three different phases of it, and it’s so easy to get the counter to reset all the way back up to 99, especially if you are, once again, bad at stealth like me. The temptation just to go Rambo at times is real.

The Best: There are so many things MGS3 is the best at in the series. It has the best radio crew. I can literally spend over an hour as soon as the game starts having conversations with them before I ever do anything without having repeat conversations. It’s incredible how much dialogue they have, and it’s wonderful most of the time. They all work together so well. Maybe I’ll take some flack for this, but MGS3 might have the best set of boss fights in the series, too. With the exception of maybe The Pain, there are multiple ways to fight each boss. The fights against The End and The Boss stand on their own and don’t need me to praise their greatness. The “boss fight” against The Sorrow is really clever, too. It has the best protagonist, but I won’t argue with anyone who disagrees with this one, since it’s close. Of course, MGS3 has the best ending. There’s a reason why Big Boss’s salute is the enduring iconic image of the series. This is the best game in the series, and I’m glad this site recognizes it now, too, since MGS3 beat MGS1 in the last contest!

2. Final Fantasy X

The world lies on the brink of destruction. Only a select few may be able to save it. https://watchusplaygames.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/final-fantasy-x-front-cover-of-box-artwork-ps2.jpg

The Good: My top two are essentially tied, but when I thought about it in terms of, “All things being equal, if these two faced each other in a contest, which would I vote for?” And I knew I’d never be able to bring myself to vote for Final Fantasy X. FFX might be the better all-around game, but I don’t quite have the sentimental attachment to it. FFX probably has my favorite battle system in the series. I love the CTB system, but probably what really sells it is the fact that you can switch all of your party members in and out on the fly as you see fit. It’s just really cool. I love the Sphere Grid, too. It provides a great sense of progression, and it’s fun once everything opens up and you can just do whatever you want. Spira is a beautiful world, perhaps the most memorable one in the series. I didn’t miss the world map in this one! The soundtrack is really good. Blitzball is one of the most fun mini-games in the series. I could go on and on. FFX does so many things well.

The Bad: It doesn’t do everything well though! The Cloisters are hit or miss, at least the first time through, Djose and Bevelle being the worst offenders. The story is kind of slow for the first quarter of the game. It doesn’t really pick up until Operation Mi’ihen (and then it’s consistently great from thereon). They tried to make Kimahri a jack of all trades but he ends up being more of a master of none, and he doesn’t even have a really useful Overdrive to offset it. Once Yuna starts learning black magic spells, Lulu starts getting a little obsolete, too. The voice acting is a product of its time, so it’s not always great. Matt McKenzie lucked out with Auron’s mouth being covered most of the time so he didn’t have to worry about matching the lip flap, but the rest have their awkward moments. Also, Yu Yevon is literally a tick. I get the symbolism and all, but come on!

The Best: Final Fantasy X has the best playable cast in the series. They’re all likable and have great cast chemistry, even someone who doesn’t talk much like Kimahri. The Overdrive system is great. You get really fancy and cool-looking moves, as well as giving you a bunch of different ways to charge your meter, which was neat. As I said before, once you hit Operation Mi’ihen, there are so many great moments. Zanarkand might be the single best location in the series. Sometimes it can be hard to deliver on expectations when you hype it up for the entire game, but Zanarkand did not disappoint. FFX has some great boss fights, like all the Seymour battles and Yunalesca. Then there’s the ending. That ending, man. It’s too great.

1. Final Fantasy VIII

I’ll be waiting…for you…so…if you come here…you’ll find me. I promise. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5d/Final_Fantasy_8_ntsc-front.jpg

The Good: Yes, this is an obvious choice for me, and something many people will disagree with. I’m not going to bother trying to convince anybody of why FFVIII is the greatest thing ever. I’m just going to tell you why it’s my favorite game. First of all, the direction and presentation for this game is excellent, especially for its time. That opening FMV totally blew me away the first time I saw it. It’s just masterfully done, and the game has several more of cutscenes like that. It’s a world with many memorable locations like Balamb Garden and Esthar. It might have the best soundtrack in the series. It might have the best mini-game in the series in Triple Triad. It has one of my personal favorite casts in the series. Sure, the individual characters may not have a lot of development on their own, but as an ensemble cast, it works fantastically. They grow together as a group, and it’s really fun to watch. I even like the stuff that most people dislike, such as the orphanage scene, because it contributes to that group growth. Cast chemistry is where it’s at! The game has some really good boss fights, too. Pretty much all the sorceress battles are cool.

The Bad: The Junction system is kind of hit or miss. It works for some people but not for others. It can be confusing the first time you play (especially if you were a kid or young teenager at the time), and it can also break the game wide open with very little effort once you know how it works. As much as I love Triple Triad, it can be frustrating at times, and by “at times,” I mean “in space.” What a terrible ruleset. Also, the whole “I was actually being possessed the whole time by an evil sorceress from the distant future” twist came from so out of nowhere that I assumed that Edea was lying through her teeth when she first said it. There are hints in hindsight that foreshadow it, but still, you either need to foreshadow it a little more strongly or reveal it earlier. FFVIII in general tends to be subtle or understated with its foreshadowing hints, which can make some of the plot twists or development feel like they came out of nowhere. It makes the game ridiculously fun (for me) to analyze, but it can also be confusing or feel contrived at times.

The Best: Final Fantasy VIII is the best at a lot of things! It has the best character, obviously (see previous writeup for more details). It has one of the best final dungeons and final boss themes. Going back to the superb direction and presentation, it has some of the best Limit Break and summon animations in the series. All the flash and flair is so cool. It has two of my favorite sequences in the series in the Battle of the Gardens and the Sorceress Assassination Mission. The fact that the game lets you inside Squall’s head is so awesome, and it works perfectly in the context of the game. Squall would not work as the protagonist in a lot of games, but he works here. FFVIII also needed a protagonist like him to succeed. I really liked FFVIII’s ending, too. It manages to do a lot without much dialogue, which was really cool. I could get into more personal reasons for my FFVIII fanboyism that could probably explain things a little better, but it probably wouldn’t be very interesting, so I’ll just finish things off here. I have a unique love for FFVIII that not many others have. It was just one of those “right game at the right time” things for me, so it will always be one of my favorites.

The 30 Moments

to be posted soon