This is way too hard.
stressed I'll try, though. I can't even say this is my top ten list. I would need to really think this over for months to compile an appropriate list. And even then, there's so many games worth mentioning, I'd need a Top 100 list. Oh wow. You've opened up a can of worms here. I hope you're ready for a big wall of tl;dr.
10.)
Rise of the Dragon (Sega CD) - A dark & gritty cyberpunk Adventure Game set in Los Angeles in the year 2053. It's an oldschool Point & Click Adventure game. You have to do a lot of investigating, smooth talking, and puzzle solving. There's also a couple side-scroller action scenes tossed in here and there. Interestingly... I just found this out... Cam Clarke (Liquid Snake) voiced the main character. Hey, now that you mention it... Anyway, this game had an engrossing storyline and good voice acting. Remember that this was way back in the days of Sega CD. Voice acting was a new thing in games, and quite a big deal back then. And this was years before the days of Playstation and the many horrid voice-overs that were standard for a while.
9.)
ToeJam & Earl (Sega Genesis) - Well, what can I say about Toejam & Earl? It's a 90s classic with unique, addictive gameplay and funny, memorable dialogue. It can be frustrating at times, but it's a rewarding game nonetheless, and even better if you're playing through it with a buddy. I love the funk tunes, and the zany characters. These guys need to be in the next Smash Brothers game. Admittedly, this game is on the list mainly due to nostalgia factor, and the countless hours I spent playing it with my family and friends. It's still a great game though, and far superior to any of it's sequels.
8.)
Guardian Heroes (Sega Saturn) - Without a doubt, the best side-scroller Beat 'em up game I've ever played. This game took it to a whole new level with the addition of the three planes of battle that you could switch between: A foreplane, a middle plane, and a back plane. This added a whole new level of depth in both the levels and the gameplay. If you were being swarmed by an army in the middle plane, or if you just wanted to dodge, you could hop over to back plane or the foreplane. There was also tons upon
tons of multiple paths that you could choose from at the end of each level. Giving you multiple endings and different bosses and levels each time you play, which gives the game tons of replay value. There was also tons of unlockables, you can play with a buddy on the main mode, and up to 6 people could play on the versus mode, which made for some epic, crazy, insane battles. Me, my brother, and my sister played the s**t out of this game, and I
still don't know if we saw every ending, and don't think we unlocked everything either.
7.)
Phantasy Star II (Sega Genesis) - Those that worship FFVII’s pivotal plot point are simply those that have not played Phantasy Star 2. Why? Because the one big thing other than pretty anime boys people talk about in regards to FFVII is Sephiroth killing Aeris; that her death was unexpected, and so tragic and boo-hoo. Before then was your completely lacking in substance Aeris, who did nothing of merit to flesh out her personality. You had the character her second rate flower-picking a** was based on:
Nei. Okay, that’s not true at all. Nei and Aeris have nothing in common. I just felt like pissing off Final Fantasy fanboys. The truth is that although people claim Aeris' death is OH SO SHOCKING, it was done far better in Phantasy Star 2 with Nei in every way possible over Aeris’. Let’s compare: Aeris just kind of stands there and gets killed; Nei dies fighting against a villainous character who's effectively her mother to save not only her friends, but humanity as well. Aeris has no real personality. She’s a two-dimensional, “
I’m so ******** sweet that you’re somehow supposed to care about me, but as I don’t emote, that’s damn near impossible” character and nothing more. Nei emotes through the whole game, running a gambit of emotions from loving to self-loathing. She cries, she giggles. She lives and breaths. Aeris is remembered for her death; Nei is remembered for her life AND death. So anyone who truly felt touched or some sort of emotion from FFVII, I beseech you to go out and get Phantasy Star 2 and see a character’s sacrifice done right a full decade before FFVII came out. And not only that, It also had a damn shocking ending as well. It's the only RPG that I can think of to this day that
doesn't have a happy ending. The main character is a government agent sent to investigate the recent outbreak of strange mutants that now plague the planet. As the game goes on, you learn that Mother Brain, the living computer that controls the planet has gone awry. But in fact, Mother Brain is still completely lucid and in control of its senses. All this is happening not because it is breaking down, but because it is putting its master plan into action. Yet, behind Mother Brain, there is a greater evil pulling the strings. The culprits behind all of your troubles turns out to be none other than the remnants of planet Earth, who, having flushed their planet of all its natural resources, now have their sights set on your solar system. The game ends with the characters surrounded by an army of Earthlings, and while the ending leaves room for interpretation, it implies that the heroes make their last stand and die fighting the evil forces of Earth.
6.)
Fear Effect (Playstation) - A cyberpunk action game set in China. It plays a lot like the oldschool Resident Evil games, but the cel-shaded graphics (a relativity new thing at the time... matter of fact, I think this is the first cel-shaded game I played) gave this game a whole lot of style. And instead of using the standard 2D pre-rendered backgrounds of the time, it used looping full-motion video which gave the backgrounds a life of their own (I believe it was the first to use the FMV backgrounds as well, which other Survival Horror games like the first Evil Dead game and later REmake implemented). This game was just awesome, mainly for it's style and it's storyline. The controls weren't the greatest, but man did it have some awesome stuff. Main/Playable characters die, and one of them even gets their arm sliced off in the middle of the game, and you continue to play that character without the aid of that particular body part throughout the rest of the story. This game just takes you off guard.
5.)
Street Fighter II (Arcade) - The classic, quintessential 2D fighting game that defined the genre, and spawned the 90s fighting game craze. And unlike Mortal Kombat, it's stood the test of time. Try going back and playing the original Mortal Kombat sometime. The digitized characters are stiff and the controls are sluggish. The game would be long forgotten if it wasn't for the whole Fatalities gimmick. Street Figher II plays like a dream, even to this day. A Classic. Street Fighter IV in three days, baby!
4.)
Skies of Arcadia (Sega Dreamcast/Nintendo Gamecube) - This is my all-time favorite RPG; beating out Phantasy Star 2, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Chrono Trigger. I was going to take it off the list and stick in something else since StP already listed it, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. I love this game. It's beautiful, engrossing, and it just sucks you right into it's world, and it's hard not to get caught up. I loved every moment of this game. I love the exploration, the world, the characters; everything. It was developed by Overworks, which was the same team that worked on the first two Phantasy Star Games. Now I know why it's so good. The Gamecube version wins out over the original Dreamcast version for it's extra features. However, no Pinta Quest VMU game, and the original also had online features which expanded upon the game map.
3.)
Resident Evil (Playstation) - Looking back, you could say the first one was the worst one. Frankly, it hasn't aged well. It's unforgiving, and it's lacking all the features that it's sequels brought to the table. But it was the original. It started the whole thing. My brother had bought it the day it came out, and I remember watching him playing and thinking how cool it was. Then I played it, and got my a** handed to me over and over. I'll never forget those dogs busting through the window, or the first time I read Keeper's Diary, and then the zombie keeper popped out of the closet at me. I'll never forget the cheesy, B movie dialogue and voice acting. I thought the S.T.A.R.S. members all looked badass with their Vietnam-era Flack Jackets and s**t. I read about all the characters in the instruction book and the strategy guide for a little more insight about them. The game just kept kicking my a**, but I did eventually complete it, and uncovering the mystery and finding that Umbrella lab for the first time, with Wesker and the Tyrant and everything was a glorious pay off.
This was Resident Evil. On a side note, if you loved that bad dialogue from Resident Evil, then play T.R.A.G. for the Playstation. It makes RE's dialogue sound almost good in contrast.
xd 2.)
Metal Gear Solid (Playstation) - The original Metal Gear Solid will forever remain my favorite in the series. For many reasons. This game just blew me away back in 1998. It was like playing a kick a** action movie with an awesome storyline. Most gamers would rather skip through dialogue and cutscenes, but I'm the exact opposite. I love cutscenes. The thing about Hideo Kojima that really immerses you into his stories and the worlds he creates is his attention to detail. Everything; even a little item that you would consider insignificant has a whole history to it. Equip a gun, and call the Weapons Specialist on your codec, and you will know pretty much all there is to know about that gun. Hell, equip the cigarettes and then listen to the Gene Therapist's whole genealogical explanation of the negative effects of smoking. I copy/pasted all that into an essay on smoking for Health Class and got a 100. Who says games aren't educational? This game is full of history lessons too. Sure, the gameplay has been much improved over the subsequent installments, but I can't say the same for the characters and the bosses and everything that made this game so memorable. I mean, when that ninja first comes in and slices Ocelot's arm off, and you have no idea what the hell is going on; when you get captured and brought to the torture room and you get to sit in while all the bad guys discuss their game plan; when after tapping the s**t out of that button to survive the torture room and Naomi tells you to put the controller up against your arm and it starts to vibrate... man, it was just totally unique and immersive. Being the first, the game's style also had much more of an impact on me than it's sequels. And it didn't get very preachy until the very end of the game, unlike the sequels. The story wasn't so convoluted, and the bosses weren't so cheesy. I love the sequels too, but none of them have been able to touch this one. On another note, Bio, I'm surprised you picked MGS4, as it plays a lot like RE4, including shopping for guns.
1.)
SNATCHER (Sega CD) - The whole reason I bought Metal Gear Solid was because my brother told me that the same guy who made SNATCHER made it. This game has, by far, the single greatest storyline and characters I've ever experienced in a video game. SNATCHER is another cyberpunk tale based within an alternate era of history in the year 2047 in Neo Kobe City, Japan. The story revolves around the character of Gillian Seed. On a day known as "The Catastrophe", an explosion at a research facility in Moscow releases a secret biological weapon into the atmosphere, killing half of the world's population. 50 years later, mysterious bio-roid life-forms begin to appear during the Winter months, killing humans and infiltrating society by taking the place of their victims; 'snatching' their identities. Hence, the title. Snatchers happen to look an awful lot like the Terminators:
Gillian, and his wife, Jamie are recovered somewhere in Russia in the year 2044 in a state of suspended animation. Both Gillian and Jamie suffer from severe amnesia due to such an unusually long, 50 year hyper-sleep. The specifics surrounding these events are kept under wraps from the government, and neither Gillian nor Jamie can recall anything prior to being picked up in the Siberian Neutral Zone, much less anything about their past together. With no memories between the two of them, they eventually separate as there was very little to base their relationship on. "Snatcher" is the only word that keeps coming back to Gillian's mind whenever he tries to remember his past, and so, after undergoing special military training, Gillian becomes a JUNKER (Japanese Undercover Neuro-Kinetic Elimination Ranger - a division of the police department designated to the elimination of Snatchers) in an effort to regain his lost memories. And then Gillian starts his first day, and he's taking a tour of JUNKER HQ when his partner calls him for back up. You rush to the scene, and...
Your partner is very dead. Gillian and his navigator droid (Metal Gear MKII) analyze Gibson's body for clues as to where he's been, and then you pick up his investigation from where he left off. That's just the premise, but there's so much more to it than that. It plays kind of like a Point & Click Adventure game, and so you're mostly investigating and trying to solve puzzles and figure things out. But there's also some gunplay where you have to blast your way through some malevolent robots and cyborgs. If you have it, you can use the Sega CD's light gun for the blaster scenes. They really build up these Snatchers and you never know who's going to be a Snatcher, which creates some genuinely tense and suspenseful and violent moments. The voice acting is top-notch, as is the overall presentation and attention to detail. The gameplay is pretty dated by today's standards, but what really stands out about this game is it's fantastic storyline, and it's great characters. It's Hideo Kojima's writing at it's best. Gillian is kind of oversexed, and he's got some hilarious dialogue with the MKII robot and his estranged wife:
You really grow to love all the characters, and some of the plot twists in this game are both surprising and sometimes downright heartbreaking. It's an amazing game. And considering the fact that it came out in 1994, it was light-years ahead of it's time. It's a shame that the only English version of this game is exclusive to the Sega CD. And if you still own a Sega CD as I do, chances are it's because of this game. There's Playstation and Saturn versions, but Japan only.
sad I'm sick of being the only person who's played this game. I really wish they'd do an updated DS version or something. This game would be a perfectly suited for the DS touchscreen.
@ StP: Yes, Panzer Dragoon! For the Saturn, right? That game was the s**t! So was Streets of Rage. I love that opening title music. And if you look closely at the above screenshot, all the people in that bar are dressed as Konami characters. You can see the back of Goemon's head.
@ Bio: Have you played Contra 4 for the DS? Its ********' awesome. And ********' hard, too. But that's Contra.
You know, funny thing with the Zelda and Mario games. Once they made their transitions into 3D, I couldn't get into them anymore. I still love the NES/Gameboy/SNES Zelda and Mario games, but I didn't really enjoy the Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time that much.
Some games that didn't make it on the list, but should have:
Eternal Darkness (Nintendo Gamecube)
Battletoads (NES)
Streets of Rage (Sega Genesis)
Final Fight (Super Nintendo/Sega CD)
Star Fox 64 (Nintendo 64)
Chrono Trigger (Super Nintendo)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super Nintendo)
Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
Donkey Kong (Gameboy)
Super Mario 3 (Nintendo)
Yoshi's Island (Super Nintendo)
Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)
Super Metroid (SNES)
TMNT: Turtles in Time (Super Nintendo)
Goldeneye 007 (Nintendo 64)
General Chaos (Sega Genesis)
Flashback (Sega Genesis)
Out of this World & Heart of the Alien (Sega CD)
Smash T.V. (Super Nintendo)
Trap Gunner (Playstation)
Shenmue (Sega Dreamcast)
Panzer Dragoon (Sega Saturn)
Virtua Fighter II (Sega Saturn)
Soul Calibur II (Nintendo Gamecube)
Sonic CD (Sega CD)
Tekken 3 (Playstation)
Battle Arena Toshinden (Playstation)
Dynamite Cop (Sega Dreamcast)
Chu Chu Rocket (Sega Dreamcast)
Splatterhouse (Turbografx 16)
Bomberman (Turbografx 16)
Earthworm Jim (Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo)
Twisted (3DO)
Quarantine (3DO)
Vagrant Story (Playstation)
Tetris 
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