2015 "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Nomination Thread

[PoisonRamune]

Gotta slip my nominations in...

Red Dead Redemption
Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes
Dragon Quest 9
Grand Theft Auto 5
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Mario vs Donkey Kong
Legend of Zelda
Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
Burnout Paradise
Mega Man 2
Tokyo Jungle
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Bros 3
Donkey Kong Country
Legend of Zelda A Link Between Worlds
Portal
Portal 2
Gunbound
Borderlands
Crackdown 2
Fantasy Life
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Einhander
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2
Simcity 4
Donkey Kong 94
Team Fortress 2
Super Smash Bros 3DS
Super Mario World
Cave Story +
Kororinpa Marble Mania
Arkham City
Final Fantasy
Pokemon Heart Gold
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire
SimTower
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy 6
Dragon Warrior
Unreal Tournament
Super Punchout
Banished
Fight Night Champion
Super Smash Bros Melee
Toejam and Earl
Bard's Tale 84
Drop 7
Chrono Trigger
Tetris
Super Puzzle Fighter
Shadow Over Mystara
Retro City Rampage
Resident Evil 2
Magical Drop 3
Wind Jammers
Warioware DIY
Dark Souls
Faster Than Light
Diablo 3
Fallout 3
Fallout 2
Need for Speed Underground 2
Mega Man 3
Gauntlet Dark Legacy
Wind Waker
Pokemon Snap
Game Dev Tycoon
Shovel Knight
Demons Souls
Punchout
R-Type
Parappa the Rapper
Little Big Planet 2
Tie Fighter
Symphony of the Night
Pinball Arcade
Pokemon X
Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
Peggle
Jet Pack Joyride
Sid Meiers Pirates
Super Mario 3D Land
Mario Paint
Metroid
Metroid Zero Mission
Super Metroid
Altitude
Age of Empires 2 HD
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Ikaruga
Silent Scope 2
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Might and Magic World of Xeen
Space Channel 5
Jet Grind Radio
Phantasy Star Online
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

[Spore]

It's not important that great games win, but they should certainly be recognized. This list is abridged and has unfinished opinions.

Pastebin with only the game titles for easier spreadsheeting.

1. Antichamber: Beautifully realized, abstract environmental space bending puzzle game. Antichamber takes place in a 3D environment that is almost entirely uncohesive, which required me to build a complicated mental picture of the environment that often looped around on itself or ended abruptly. Delightfully non-euclidian.
2. Audiosurf: Is excellent for listening to a favorite album if you have no work to do along with it. It also contains a fantastic co-op mode ideal for sharing tunes you’ve been listening to with friends.
3. Beat Hazard: Covers the same niche as Audiosurf except it’s Geometry Wars. Since the intensity of your projectiles scales with the intensity of the song, Beat Hazard can get your adrenaline rushing in ways a normal listening might now.
4. Bioshock: Though the gameplay was only decent, the atmosphere was beautiful beyond many other games of the time. It also played with the idea of video game protagonists blindly following narrated orders. Part of 2007, the golden year of FPS.
5. Black Mesa: The best shooter of 2012 was a remake of the best shooter of 1998. It’s still not done, but it’s one of the best fan projects to exist.
6. Braid: A wise man once said “It look like Mario in the future”. As far as I’m concerned Braid kick started the trend of indie games being big on consoles.
7. Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons: The unique two stick controlling method was deliberately a little clunky which hurt a bit, but the fantasy scenery design shows a fantastic story and shows that companionship is one of the most important things a person can have. The use of gameplay to move the story along at certain points also makes Brothers one of the most obvious examples of games doing things no other medium can.
8. Call of Juarez Gunslinger: Simply awesome arcade shooter that simultaneously feels like a modern FPS and a light gun game. It’s hard to make me revisit linear levels multiple times to get a better score, but planning routes in Gunslinger is too much fun. The game takes place in the stories of the main character being told in a saloon, so things change on the fly as details are filled in. Super charming.
9. Cave Story: The quintessential one man indie game. Great game play, music, and bosses. If it were a Super Nintendo game it would be hailed as one of the greats (and Quote would be in Smash Bros). It predates the indie golden age by a few years, but luckily has found its way on to every platform ever since then.
10. Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason: The first of a few grim Ukrainian games on this list. In Cryostasis you explore a long stranded ship in the arctic and find memories of people in their last crazed moments. The game is suitably dingy, you can die of cold if you don’t find heat sources, and all weapons look like they were made from rusted pipes. The controls in Cryostasis feel very (suitably) sluggish, swinging a pipe takes time, lifting an object takes time, trudging around takes time, but it all adds to the experience. And when pitted against significantly more mobile monstrosities it amplified the horror quite a bit. The story is surprisingly intricate. It also ran like dog shit, but maybe that will be better now.
11. Crysis: Graphical benchmark. We have never seen a leap in fidelity like we did from 2006 to 2007 with Crysis. Remember, the spiritual prequel, Far Cry came out only 3 years prior. A game so good looking it still holds its own. The gameplay was secretly stellar as well, assuming you didn’t use invisibility through the entire campaign. Crysis’ semi-open user define design was a clear direction for the AAA FPS industry to go, but another Modern shooter influenced the market more. Part of 2007, the golden year of FPS.
12. Crypt of the NecroDancer: Necrodancer is a cool roguelike because if you pause the screen and look at your options, it’s always obvious what you have to do. It’s not a thinking man’s rougelike. The difficulty comes in making those easy decisions three times a second to the beat of the music. Addicting!
13. Dark Souls:
14. DeadCore: A brilliant first person platformer that combines speed and precision into a particularly cathartic experience. Even while messing up a lot, the flow of the game makes me feel like an expert speed runner.
15. Devil May Cry 4
16. Doom II: Hell on Earth: All the sequel did was add some new enemies, weapons, and make bigger levels. Perfect.
17. Garry’s Mod: It ate a few of my early teenage years. Garry’s Mod is one of the most creative toys out there. I enjoyed building traps activated by breaking melons (an irresistible bait). Garry’s Mod has spawned dozens of popular gamemodes that can all be there own game. It’s value as a game is limitless.
18. Half-Life: Shit game.
19. Half-Life 2: It was okay.
20. Half-Life 2: Episode Two: The definitive Half-Life 2 campaign and possibly the most polished linear single player FPS campaign that exists. Part of 2007, the golden year of FPS.
    Half-Life: Opposing Force: The best Half-Life 1 expansion was made by Gear Box and was far more action oriented than the original. All the core elements of Half-Life are there with some extra features thrown in like squad management and a new race of aliens.
21. Hitman: Blood Money: The only Hitman game I’ve found really worth playing. It’s a stealth game on a different level than the standard fare. It’s not about killing the target, it’s about getting the target to die. And that’s just so cool in a game about assassinating.
22. Hotline Miami::
23. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number: One of those games that really let me down when I first went through it, but got better and better every single time I played. HM2 has a story driven by its large host of characters and provides an awesome alternate reality to boot. The visuals and audio were improved across the board in the sequel. The soundtrack covered a way larger range of moods and makes it the best soundtrack of 2015 so far. Though there were a few too many windows, the gameplay is still all there.
24. Just Cause 2: Here just cause. Also is the kind of open world game you can completely ignore the objectives in and have fun. It’s all about traversal options and Just Cause 2 has some of the best. The high moddability of the game only pushes it over the edge further.
25. Killing Floor: Mod gone full game. The only wave based shooter that really feels right. Sometimes you want limbs to explode and Killing Floor does that.
26. Left 4 Dead:
27. Left 4 Dead 2:
28. LISA: The Painful RPG: Surreal kind of like Earthbound, except less whimsical and more horrifying. That said, it is still one of the funniest games I ever played and is has some of my favorite RPG characters. LISA also has the best soundtrack of 2014 by a large margin. The world of Olathe is unique in video games and any other medium. The gameplay may be just barely mediocre, but it brings so much more to the table. Please play it.
29. Lovely Planet: This was a big surprise for me. It’s a level based twitch shooter with a bizarre, Japan inspired aesthetic. The game demands you aim very carefully to complete the levels, and layers new mechanics in with every world. The gameplay feels like a mix between Quake, Super Meat Boy, and Hotline Miami to me. Excellent, and the second best shooter of 2014 behind Wolfenstein.
30. Magicka
31. Mass Effect: The original Mass Effect is clunkier than the sequel, but feels far grander, and far more alien. Perhaps it was just because I was still new to the universe, but exploring the Citadel and planetary bases felt like stepping into a whole new world. Very well realized. I hope the 4th game remembers how big space can feel.
32. Mass Effect 2: Much more personal than the original. But with a whole game of backstory for the characters, being able to flesh them out was a pleasure. That wasn’t like, a sex pun or anything.
33. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: One of the important
34. Mirror’s Edge: Though I’ve never stuck around to watch the cutscenes and absorb the story, the gameplay in Mirror’s Edge has brought me back through it 4 times. It is just technical enough to allow me to do new things each time I play, but simple enough to feel like a ninja at any level of play. The architecture of the city is of course beautiful, and makes the whole game a visual treat to run through.
35. Monday Night Combat:
36. Natural Selection 2:
37. Nimbus
38. One Finger Death Punch: This is the game version of those old flash videos were the stick guy effortlessly kicked major ass. Awesome bursts of fun with mega minimal mechanics that press you to challenge yourself to play as quickly as possible, usually to your detriment, always for your fun.
39. Ori and the Blind Forest
40. Peggle Deluxe
41. Portal: The thing that came with HL2:Ep2 turned out to be a hilarious and well written puzzle game. The
42. Portal 2: Like the first one, but less of a surprise. Longer, funnier, but a little too directed compared to the first. That quibble still puts it miles ahead of competing environmental puzzle games. It was the last singleplayer game Valve has released, but it gives me hope that when Valve do return to singleplayer they will not be rusty in the least.
43. Prey:
44. Quake: Quick, lean, and brown. Once id (company) figured out full 3D movement they let the player be completely unchained. Huge amounts of air control, massive forward acceleration, and the popularization of the rocket jump.
45. Quake 3 Arena: One of the greatest competitive shooters of them all. It is the shooter that pushes players to their limits, focusing on both precision aiming and movement that only a mouse and keyboard can provide. Playing Quake 3 over a couple weeks will make you much better at every other FPS.
46. Resident Evil 4:
47. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat: The second sequel to Shadow of Chernobyl is the most polished of the trilogy, but is slightly more confined. That said, the game retains the elements that matter.
48. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky: The somewhat middling sequel to Shadow of Chernobyl is still superior to much of the competition by virtue of retaining many of the same elements as the original. The marshes were a stunning environment worth revisiting.
49. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl: The best open world FPS ever made. If you Google “Game with best atmosphere”, this is what you’ll get. The Zone is one of the most well realized locations in video games, and everything from the bandits yelling Russian expletives, bloodsuckers growling in underground labs, and mysterious anomalies exploding space around them all combine to create something frightening and immersive. One of the most important parts of the game was how little you mattered within it. You’re just another STALKER, and things happen with or without your intervention. The game is notably buggy in a charming way that has produced many well known jokes. It just gives on all fronts. I cherish this game. Part of 2007, the golden year of FPS.
50. Serious Sam 3: BFE
51. Serious Sam: The First Encounter: It’s not a Doom spiritual successor. Stop calling it that. Serious Sam is all about holding S+M1 as you backtrack through half the level with a gigantic wave of enemies. Also a shining example of how to make secret hunting fun. Some levels had dozens of secrets including whole secret areas with secrets within those!
52. Serious Sam: The Second Encounter:
53. Shank
54. Shelter: Very minimal in game mechanics, but an adorable representation of being a wild animal trying to survive with babies. I was crushed when I made a small mistake in this one. The attachment to the babies is completely built from the game play which is what I like to see in video games.
55. Shovel Knight:
56. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle: Deal with it. Chao Garden is the best virtual pet. This is probably the crappiest game on this list and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
57. Sonic Generations: This one is actually just great all the way through.
58. Space Chem
59. Spec Ops: The Line
60. Super Hexagon: One of the best time wasters. It showed me how malleable my perception of time is. First time playing level one was blazingly fast, but going back to it after beating the game showed me a mellow collection of twists and turns that gave me time to look up and check the clock. It’s just one of those games you can feel yourself getting better at.
61. Super Meat Boy
62. Team Fortress 2: The best online shooter ever made as far as I’m concerned. Over the years its mirror polish and leanness has been tarnished a bit by an abundance of cosmetic items, but the core gameplay is still entirely its own. There is nothing like the Spy in other shooters.... Part of 2007, the golden year of FPS.
63. The Binding of Isaac: I love how Edmund’s tiny side project become one of his most popular. I bought it on a whim when it came out and was hooked, and Edmund added plenty of extra content over time.
64. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth: A remake of a really great game.
65. The Day of the Tentacle:
66. The Dig: A couple dookie puzzles aside, The Dig has the best atmosphere of the Lucas Arts adventure games for me. It really did feel like a trip of discovery.
67. The Stanley Parable: The best game about story telling to exist. The original mod was nice, but the full product is amazing in how well it keeps your focus with its silly premise. Absolute gold in terms of humor in video games.
68. The Talos Principle: GOTY 2014 hands down. The best story driven environmental puzzle game I’ve ever played. It’s a complicated, deep story that asks what dictates life, what is free will, and what the purpose of the universe is. It’s heady stuff made by the people who did Serious Sam and I couldn’t be happier writing the sentence. If you made it this far, remember it’s coming to PS4 this October.
69. Ultimate Doom:
70. The Walking Dead
71. The Witcher
72. Thomas Was Alone
73. Toki Tori
74. To the Moon
75. Tower of Guns
76. Tribes: Ascend: An online FPS like no other (well, besides the originals). Players move super fast, and shoot projectiles that are super slow. The game is about leading your target sometimes hundreds of feet in advance, and some poor marketing decisions aside, leads to a beautiful online experience. And by the by, this game is coming back! Check it out.
77. Ultra Street Fighter IV
78. Unreal Tournament 2004
79. Volgarr the Viking: GOTY 2013 easily. Volgarr the Viking made a pseudo-viking out of me. I’ve posted at length about it before, read something substantial about this one. Better yet, play it.
80. VVVVVV
81. Wolfenstein: The New Order
82. World of Goo
83. Ys: The Oath in Felghana
84. Ys: Origin
85. Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim
86. Zeno Clash: Only one of two games I’ve played from Chile. It is a fantasy universe completely separate from the tropes we expect to see. Zeno Clash inhabits its own beautifully rendered little world on a nice set little path with super visceral first person brawling combat. And fish guns. This is one I’ve gone through many times because it is short, but oh so sweet, and absolutely not a retread of what other games have done.
87. Zeno Clash 2: Only one of two games I’ve played from Chile… It’s a bit more open and less focused than the original, but once the plot fell into place I found a wonderful adventure with vistas that far surpassed even the original in scope and weirdness. It deserves praise for taking its strange setting so much further.
88. The Mistake of Pythagoras: One of my favorite classic singleplayer mods where a strange math error throws the universe into disarray. Strange environments ranging from abstract to strange industrial factories, to twisted versions of Half-Life 2 environments, with new bosses, and new friends (including the friendly combine!) made this a memorable experience for me.
89. MINERVA: Metastasis: The Half-Life 2 mod so good that the developer got hired.
90. Research and Development
91. Phantom 2040 (SNES)
92. Super Mario World
93. Contra 3: The Alien Wars
94. Earthworm Jim
95. Earthworm Jim 2
96. Kirby’s Dreamland 3
97. Kirby Superstar
98. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
99. Super Metroid
100. Yoshi’s Island
101. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
102. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
103. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
104. Banjo Kazooie
105. Banjo Tooie
106. Glover
107. Donkey Kong 64
108. Super Mario 64
109. Mario Kart 64
110. Super Monkey Ball
111. Killer 7
112. Timesplitters 2
113. Timesplitters 3
114. Viewtiful Joe
115. Metroid Prime
116. Super Mario Sunshine
117. F Zero GX
118. Pikmin
119. Pikmin 2
120. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
121. Super Smash Bros. Melee
122. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
123. Kirby Air Ride
124. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3
125. Punch-Out!! Wii
126. Donkey Kong Country Returns
127. Super Mario Galaxy
128. Super Mario Galaxy 2
129. Project M
130. Pokemon Blue
131. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
132. Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins
133. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
134. Waro Land II
135. Wario Land III
136. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
137. Final Fantasy Adventure
138. Metroid: Fusion
139. Metroid: Zero Mission
140. Wario Ware
141. Wario Ware Twisted
142. Mother 3
143. Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga
144. Mario Kart DS
145. Elite Beat Agents
146. Contra 4
147. Kirby Super Star Ultra
148. Rhythm Heaven Fever
149. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
150. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
151. Star Wars: Battlefront II
152. Metal Gear Solid 2
153. Metal Gear Solid 3
154. Shadow of the Colossus
155. Contra: Shattered Soldier
156. Super Mario 3D World
157. Punch-Out!! (NES)
158. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
159. Roller Coaster Tycoon Deluxe
160. The Incredible Machine: Contraptions
161. Lemmings
162. Robotron 2084
163. Pac-Man: The simple concept has always been my favorite arcade game. It invokes that same feeling as being chased in a nightmare. It’s nice to see a game from the 70’s can still keep players on the edge of their seats.
164. Frog Fractions: Everybody’s list needs that one educational game that they cherish. Frog Fractions taught me about exactly what it says on the tin, the history of boxing.
165. Madness Interactive: Helped me feel edgy in middle school. I value it dearly. It really is a great flash game too.
166. Peasant’s Quest:
167. Sightline: The Chair: More of an interactive movie. It’s my go to for letting people immerse themselves in a virtual reality environment. Breaking rules of euclidean space has been done in games before (Antichamber!), but there is a very large difference when that world isn’t projected to a 2D plane for our eyes, but is instead experienced as we do the real world. The brain copes differently. This is just a stepping stone to what we’ll be doing in a few years.
168. Windlands Demo: Proof that VR is real. Navigating a 3D space with slinging grappling hooks is a simple concept that invokes many of the same feelings I had transitioning from Super Mario World to Mario 64. This is a big deal, and Windlands is a wonderful start. The full game releases next year. In a decade these lists will be very different and this is your preview for why.

[PoisonRamune]

Pokemon Pinball Ruby Sapphire
Papers Please

[VictorViper]

I'm technically 14 minutes late, but if Kong doesn't mind I'd like to add a final (somehow forgotten - thanks, spore) nomination.

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PC) - This game gets me to use my Mac for games and is absolutely worth diluting the value of my previous ten for. Probably enough said right there. Easily a genre BGE, if not overall.

[The Shoemaker]

Also, since we're all drunk on the last few hours of voting - I nominate Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday for the SNES. I'm still waiting for it to finally hit the virtual console so I can beat Yo Sammity Sam once and for all.

Somebody remembers. This game was solid, man. It had those crazy winding tree levels.

And the spider webs you'd walk on, inception level leprechaun's within leprechaun's and a gameplay mechanic which involved Daffy Duck scaring you so that you could jump higher. Pretty sure the final boss was you vs. Daffy on a posessed washing machine.

Also, I like how you crammed all your Nintendo games onto the bottom of your list

And yessss, Roller Coaster Tycoon.

[Spore]

And the spider webs you'd walk on, inception level leprechaun's within leprechaun's and a gameplay mechanic which involved Daffy Duck scaring you so that you could jump higher. Pretty sure the final boss was you vs. Daffy on a posessed washing machine.
Also, I like how you crammed all your Nintendo games onto the bottom of your list
And yessss, Roller Coaster Tycoon.

One thing I remember is my young pea brain barely being able to wrap itself around the hotel in the wild west level right before Sam. So many doors. Anyway, the ordering of my list starts basically alphabetical as I went through my Steam games. Then I tried to remember all the cool shit I had on my consoles back home which is why they get crammed in later. Then I added a couple important games that I might not have thought of at first or wanted to put at the end of the list to make them easier to notice. The very bottom of my list is special.

[The Shoemaker]

I was awoken from my slumber with a game on my mind. A game I will now shout across the forum for all to hear - my final nomination...

Tomodachi Life (3DS) !!!!

[Spore]

I really don't know what the game is, but I do respect it highly.

[Claytone]

Man, oh, man. I forgot about No More Heroes. If there's still time, I'd nominate that.

[Audio Ace]

Couldn't sleep with out saying Freddy fish and Pajama Sam franchises. They helped me learn good.