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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5MDYGl_m4

Haha, awww.

Anyone care to try to name their top ten Zelda or Mario games?

MARIO GAMES

1. Paper Mario
2. Paper Mario: TTYD (actually this might be number one... can't decide)
3. Super Mario Bros. 3
4. Super Mario 64
5. Super Mario Galaxy 2
6. Super Mario Galaxy
7. Mario Kart 7
8. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
9. Mario Tennis 64 (shut up i ******** love this game)
10. Super Paper Mario

Nintendo Games, including second party developers
Metroid prime
Xenoblade Chronicles
Hotel Dusk
Earthbound
Wind waker
Paper Mario TTYD
Pikmin
Animal Crossing
Mario Golf Toadstool Tour
Double Dash

yes and yes

I love Pikmin 2, but Pikmin is a much better strategy game. The 30 day limit means that you have to effectively use your time. If I don't collect anything on a day in 2? Not a big deal; there's always tomorrow. In 1? If that wasn't intentional I'm retrying that day. Losing a bunch of pikmin also hurts a lot more when you don't necessarily have the time to spare to grow more.

Not having purple pikmin means that you can't just stun/poison everything and generally have to think about how to deal with tougher enemies. The emperor bulblax is a major threat in the first game and just rushing in will get you killed. In the second game, it's simple to kill him before he's even gotten a chance to attack. There are some pretty great bosses in 2, but a lot of the regular enemies stop being a threat when you have the ability to stun enemies as often as you want without consequence.

Also, the whole 'collect the globe in Awakening Wood, get yellows in Perplexing Pool, return to Awakening Wood to get blues and clear the area, return to Perplexing Pool to clear area' business in Pikmin 2 is kind of weird. It effectively splits both areas into two sections, which isn't necessarily bad but can be kind of annoying since it significantly restricts what you can do in both areas on your first visit. The first game only has that problem in Forest of Hope, although it's still possible to clear that area without blues if you're insane.

Pikmin 2 added some really nice features and I actually prefer it to Pikmin, but I can completely understand why someone might like the first one more.


@Allegro: Xenoblade is number two? I need to find time to play games again; I'm only a couple hours in. gonk

Wind Waker is easily the Zelda I feel most mixed on. On the one hand, most of it is fantastic and I would feel okay calling it my second or third favorite Zelda game if that was all I was basing it on. On the other hand, it has a few screwups that all manage to be spectacularly bad. I don't regret finishing the game, but I'm not entirely sure how I managed to not drop it at some of the lowest points. I guess I'll give it points for never being mediocre and leave it at that.

I really like Pikmin 2 a lot more than 1. When I first played 2 I thought it was s**t in comparison, but it would be hard for me to go back to one commander and no purples with such a stricter timer, too. I thought the combat was really improved in 2 and the scenarios were set up better, as well. There were also a lot of parts in one where I just lost Pikmin because it was far too hard to get them across certain platforms. I also don't like bomb rocks and when the game came out, I had a problem with blowing my Pikmin up a ton of times with them.

Oh! Another cool thing in pikmin 2 is diversity. Since there are more self contained areas, there is more variety. It's like little micro-climates. At first it's like "Caves, I get it," but then you fall into mysteriously surface like areas, and places that look like sewers and they have bathroom like floor tiles.

It doesn't sound that good when I say it, but it was just refreshing to be able to go more places.

@Kegan: I can't argue about how great the first game is when you keep posting positives about the second that I agree with! gonk






There's not exactly a shortage of bomb rocks in 2, though. When I did a no-death run, that was probably my second most common reason for resetting after enemies managing to eat a pikmin. stressed

I never had much trouble with getting parts across areas in either game unless I missed an enemy or something. Some of the parts require multiple colors to reach, but that's pretty easy to tell just by looking at the puzzles. I always just dealt with narrow areas by bringing pikmin across in smaller groups; they're capable of amazing feats of stupidity, but they generally managed to stay alive long enough for me to get the whole group across.

I thought the items for both fit with their games, so I don't know if I'd call either better. Having 201 treasures to collect is obviously nicer than 30 ship parts, but that doesn't work so well if you throw a timer into the mix.

I'm okay at top tens, but I don't like giving spots to things I haven't finished (what if it shits the bed in the final stretch?) and I'm having trouble coming up with ten games I like enough to call favorites instead of seven games I love and three more that are fun but not amazing. sweatdrop