This Old Neon wrote: ↑28 May 2019 00:19
Bracket 1: Time Door
Portal (2007, Multiplatform)
Chrono Trigger (1995, SNES)
Bracket 2: Brick Land
Tetris (1989, GB)
Super Mario World (1990, SNES)
Bracket 3: Dudes Who Are Also Bats
Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009, Multiplatform)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997, PS1)
Bracket 4: ? vs !
Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988, NES)
Metal Gear Solid (1998, PS1)
1.
Portal - As much as I love
Chrono Trigger, when I get down to the end of these events I like to try to taper off my personal preferences and start voting for what I perceive to be more tightly designed experiences.
Portal introduces and then executes on a concept extremely well, and then weaves it into a thrilling narrative with a satisfying conclusion, all in a well-paced bite-sized package.
2.
Tetris
3.
Batman: Arkham Asylum - After much deliberating. It might not make it to my Top 25 in terms of what I love and enjoy, but it absolutely makes it into maybe my top 15 in terms of what games are perfectly balanced and well-designed. It has perfect metrovania flow, great memorable areas, the Scarecrow encounters, really nice balance between approaches to getting through areas (stealth, fighting, both), nice balance with all the tools, and GREAT smooth satisfying combat. Good acting, too. Good art/set design. So much to love about this game.
4. Boy oh boy.
Super Mario Bros. 3 won in 2015, and
Metal Gear Solid took 2nd place in 2012. Metal Gear deserves its time in the sun. And there are two Super Mario platformers in the Top 8? That's not right. I'll give it to
Metal Gear Solid for using the nascent 3D format to start putting together the fundamentals and the language of the stealth/action genre. It's partly because of that strength that it's one of the few early-3D games that holds up relatively well today.