2015 "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Nomination Thread

[Claytone]

Joining my previous nominations, I don't know how I forgot...

Castlevania (NES) - Probably my favorite NES game. A game I would call perfect.

Mega Man 2 (NES) - Also a simply outstanding game. One of my favorite video game OSTs as well.

Pikmin 2 (GCN) - I adore this game. I really got lost in it and loved it when I first played it. A game I completed 100% without even considering stopping short of that goal.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Legend of Grimrock II
Suikoden II
Final Fantasy 6
M.U.L.E

Civilization V (Gods & Kings/Brave New World)

When CivV was released it streamlined a lot, improving the clarity and focus on comparabely few cities instead of the usual micromanagement.
With the add-ons however, the game reached new heights. Somebody at Firaxis sat down and really tried to locate the weaker parts of the game and then put a lot of work to make them interesting. The result is that Civilization V, in is final state, is the best, cleanest and most accessible part of the series.

X-Com Enemy Unknown/Enemy Within

Holy cow, what a remake. Decluttering the old Microsoft games everywhere possible.
It manages to be one of the best games when it comes to strategy, aswell as tactics, ever made. All decisions have harsh consequences, every choice matters and it helps that it is bloody fun.

Hearthstone

While others 'just' make digital card games, Blizzard nailed it with this one. Everything you do unleashes a barrage of audio-visual feedback and it is glorious. It's simple enough to learn, there are tons of possibilities to build your decks and the balancing is pretty darn good too. Very well done, indeed.

[The Shoemaker]

Wii Sports - Deserves a nomination. It was the game that defined Wii for a while, and the go to game when playing Wii with people.

[Pluvius]

I'm most interested in seeing Marathon and Sword of the Samurai on here. Marathon was pre-Halo Bungie, right? How was it? It was actually the kind of game I might have played back then, but it was completely off my radar. Sword of the Samurai looks like it would have completely been my cup of tea, but none of my computer-gaming friends had a copy, so I never got to play it.

Yes, Marathon was Bungie back when it was an independent company that made games which were actually fresh and innovative. It was basically Doom with an actual story and characters, and was the first major game to feature free mouselook (though not true 3D environments), predating Descent and Quake. The entire trilogy (and I've still never gotten around to playing Infinity) is now both free and playable on an open-source engine so it's easy to play on modern PCs. So is Star Control II, incidentally. Pathways into Darkness is another good game from them that preceded Marathon and could probably be thought of as a less-actiony version of it, though it's not nearly as easy to play today (unless you have a Mac, which apparently got a free release a couple of years ago on the App Store).

As for Sword of the Samurai, it definitely has an appealing mixture of gameplay that's reminiscent of other early MicroProse games like Pirates! and Covert Action. I'd say that the modern game it's closest to is Mount & Blade. I haven't tried the Steam version but I imagine that it's a simple DOSBox implementation, and I never really had a problem just playing it with the keyboard (I don't even know if it supports anything else).

Rob

[WeiWenDi]

Nominating:

Crusader Kings II (PC): Can't tell you how many hours I've blown playing this game. Also, ridiculously fun to write fanfiction... oop, sorry, AARs for.
Europa Universalis IV (PC): Worth it for collaborative gameplay and import options.
Mount and Blade: Warband (PC): Wonderful sandbox game and masterful cavalry simulator. Viscerally satisfying planting heavy blades in people's necks whilst galloping down at them at 40 mph.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC): BioWare at its absolute finest. This game saved Star Wars from its own prequel movies for me.
Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC): Rough-edged WRPG with shamelessly-juvenile over-the-top sex, violence and blood-and-guts that I just keep going back to because it's so much fun.
Baldur's Gate (PC): Another super-awesome BioWare classic.
Dynasty Warriors 5 (PS2): Most influential game in getting me hooked on Sanguo Yanyi and everything to do with it. Personally pretty important.
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Super Famicom): Perennial favourite SNES / Super Famicom game. Objectively speaking one of the best games made for the console: beautiful artwork, masterful character design, breathtaking music, graphics and gameplay that stretch the limits of the processor.
EarthBound / Mother 2 (SNES): What it lacks in graphics, it more than makes up for with an excellent storyline, its unapologetic psychodelia and its quirky humour.
Chrono Trigger (SNES): Got my middle-school students hooked on this game. I consider that an achievement unlocked.
Shadowrun (SNES): Why, why, WHY weren't more WRPGs as good as this ever released on the SNES? Really steep difficulty curve with the counterintuitive fighting system, especially if you have weaker team members that you're trying to keep alive, but there's no question that it's easily one of the most addictive games I've played this year.
Super Metroid (SNES): Another game that I just had ridiculous amounts of fun with this year.
Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom (Sega Genesis): Finished playing recently. Incredibly basic framework, more than made up for in the storytelling and the skill with which it induces empathy for the main characters without a lot of exposition.
Sonic 3 and Knuckles (Sega Genesis): Another one of those games that ate up significant portions of my childhood. Good platforming fun all around.
MarioKart 64 (N64): Some fond memories of red-shelling the ever-loving crap out of my across-the-street neighbours in this game's Battle Mode.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade / PC): This game made me go out and buy the omnibus edition of Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales. One of the best side-scrolling beat-'em-ups I've ever had the pleasure of playing.
Soul Blade (PSX): Favourite fighting game since I was in 5th grade.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U): My preferred way to blow off steam after a hard week of teaching certain bratty middle-schoolers (they aren't all that bad!). I got so I was a veritable terror with Palutena.

[Kong Wen]

Dynasty Warriors 5 (PS2): Most influential game in getting me hooked on Sanguo Yanyi and everything to do with it. Personally pretty important.

You're making me feel old, Wei.

Shadowrun (SNES): Why, why, WHY weren't more WRPGs as good as this ever released on the SNES? Really steep difficulty curve with the counterintuitive fighting system, especially if you have weaker team members that you're trying to keep alive, but there's no question that it's easily one of the most addictive games I've played this year.

Great pick! Did you get a chance to play the recent reboot / sequelish thing on Steam? It's not strictly the same style of game, but they definitely had the SNES game in the backs of their minds when they were making it.

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom (Sega Genesis): Finished playing recently. Incredibly basic framework, more than made up for in the storytelling and the skill with which it induces empathy for the main characters without a lot of exposition.

Phantasy Star III isn't usually the first title that comes to mind when people think of great Phantasy Star games. The original is quite primitive, but have you played II or IV yet? They're pretty universally heralded. It's nice to see the red-headed stepchild of the series getting some love.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U): My preferred way to blow off steam after a hard week of teaching certain bratty middle-schoolers (they aren't all that bad!). I got so I was a veritable terror with Palutena.

Someone here was talking about getting some friendly games going, maybe even a tourney of some kind. Keep an eye on the Smash thread if you want to get in on that. I was half-decent at Brawl, but I haven't put enough time into the new one to be anything more than a pylon. It's too bad there's not a playable pylon.

[Sharecrow]

Phantasy Star III isn't usually the first title that comes to mind when people think of great Phantasy Star games. The original is quite primitive, but have you played II or IV yet? They're pretty universally heralded. It's nice to see the red-headed stepchild of the series getting some love.

Agreed. And it really is a pretty good game. Has six different overall paths spanning three generations. There's a neat little surprise in the game (story-related so cannot be missed). Fun and varied worlds and enemies, too. My main grievance with it is that it's really pretty easy. The punishing difficulty (both enemies and dungeons) is one of the things about the series I love.

[WeiWenDi]

Great pick! Did you get a chance to play the recent reboot / sequelish thing on Steam? It's not strictly the same style of game, but they definitely had the SNES game in the backs of their minds when they were making it.

No, but it's certainly on my list! Really want to get to it after Pillars of Eternity and Cities: Skylines.

Someone here was talking about getting some friendly games going, maybe even a tourney of some kind. Keep an eye on the Smash thread if you want to get in on that. I was half-decent at Brawl, but I haven't put enough time into the new one to be anything more than a pylon. It's too bad there's not a playable pylon.

Decent of you indeed, Kong Wen! I'll be sure to have a look.

Phantasy Star III isn't usually the first title that comes to mind when people think of great Phantasy Star games. The original is quite primitive, but have you played II or IV yet? They're pretty universally heralded. It's nice to see the red-headed stepchild of the series getting some love.

Glad to be of help!

And yes, I have heard very good things about PSIV in particular, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. (I barely got my old copy of Sonic 3 and Knuckles out of my dusty closet just this past week!)

Agreed. And it really is a pretty good game. Has six different overall paths spanning three generations. There's a neat little surprise in the game (story-related so cannot be missed). Fun and varied worlds and enemies, too. My main grievance with it is that it's really pretty easy. The punishing difficulty (both enemies and dungeons) is one of the things about the series I love.

Well... four different paths, right? You finish the game as one of the possible grandchild(ren) of Rhys: Sean, Crys, Aron or the Twins (Adan and Gwyn).

Yes, it's pretty easy - the only real problem I ever encountered was that towards the end you tend to run out of money. Most games of that generation have you grind levels to be able to face certain bosses - PSIII has you farm money in order to buy any decent armour. The end had a little bit of an endurance-test feel to it (you really have to either dispatch enemies quickly or conserve your Trimates if you want to face the end boss in any fit shape), but really nothing that a more-than-casual gamer with even a modicum of dungeon-crawler experience can't handle with relative ease.

I did like the characters, though. And I got so that by the end of the first act I was 'shipping Rhys and Lena pretty heavily in spite of the story shoving Maia at him from the intro on.

But yes, I very much look forward to playing PSIV and PSII!

[Kong Wen]

Adding my 10th nomination...

Pool of Radiance (SSI, 1988)

I forget whether I got into this game before I started playing AD&D, or the other way around. Either way, the two are inextricably tied in my memory. This game is one of the most perfect executions of pen & paper role-playing in video game form. I remember spending tons of time just creating characters. And then when I got to the HUGE tile-based combat sequences, I was blown away.

It's hard to replay it nowadays. We'll have to see if GOG puts the Gold Box games up, or whether the newly-minted TSI games ever manages to secure re-releases.

[Sharecrow]

Great pick! Did you get a chance to play the recent reboot / sequelish thing on Steam? It's not strictly the same style of game, but they definitely had the SNES game in the backs of their minds when they were making it.

No, but it's certainly on my list! Really want to get to it after Pillars of Eternity and Cities: Skylines.

Someone here was talking about getting some friendly games going, maybe even a tourney of some kind. Keep an eye on the Smash thread if you want to get in on that. I was half-decent at Brawl, but I haven't put enough time into the new one to be anything more than a pylon. It's too bad there's not a playable pylon.

Decent of you indeed, Kong Wen! I'll be sure to have a look.

Phantasy Star III isn't usually the first title that comes to mind when people think of great Phantasy Star games. The original is quite primitive, but have you played II or IV yet? They're pretty universally heralded. It's nice to see the red-headed stepchild of the series getting some love.

Glad to be of help!

And yes, I have heard very good things about PSIV in particular, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. (I barely got my old copy of Sonic 3 and Knuckles out of my dusty closet just this past week!)

Agreed. And it really is a pretty good game. Has six different overall paths spanning three generations. There's a neat little surprise in the game (story-related so cannot be missed). Fun and varied worlds and enemies, too. My main grievance with it is that it's really pretty easy. The punishing difficulty (both enemies and dungeons) is one of the things about the series I love.

Well... four different paths, right? You finish the game as one of the possible grandchild(ren) of Rhys: Sean, Crys, Aron or the Twins (Adan and Gwyn).

Yes, it's pretty easy - the only real problem I ever encountered was that towards the end you tend to run out of money. Most games of that generation have you grind levels to be able to face certain bosses - PSIII has you farm money in order to buy any decent armour. The end had a little bit of an endurance-test feel to it (you really have to either dispatch enemies quickly or conserve your Trimates if you want to face the end boss in any fit shape), but really nothing that a more-than-casual gamer with even a modicum of dungeon-crawler experience can't handle with relative ease.

I did like the characters, though. And I got so that by the end of the first act I was 'shipping Rhys and Lena pretty heavily in spite of the story shoving Maia at him from the intro on.

But yes, I very much look forward to playing PSIV and PSII!

Yes, you're right - it's four. My bad!