~Butters Top Ten Games~ (Your Top 10)

Member Name: butters

Product:	Your Top 10
Date:	12/11/06 (261 review reads)
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Advantages: Great games.

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~Butters Top 10 games of all Time~


After buying my way up to over 170 games and having played far more (though not completed) I feel it is time to tell you what games to look out for and why you should. If you disagree, you are wrong. Here are my Top Ten games or game series of all time.

1. Monkey Island (PC)

Although all of these games are good I will explain the best one. The 3rd. You play as gangly pirate Guybrush Threepwood, who, after defeating LeChuck and stopping him from marrying Elaine got him in some trouble. We find our hero floating away from monkey Island on a bumper Cart claiming LeChuck got him into this mess. So he is floating around only to run into a ship battle. LeChuck vs. Elaine. Proving his love after escaping LeChuck he proposes to Elaine with a cursed diamond ring which turns her into a gold statue. You leave her on a beach and she is stolen. Now you need to find her and find out how to remove that curse Monkey Island style. To travel around the islands insult sword fighting and solving ridiculous puzzles, throwing insults, all in the hope that it will bring you closer to finding Elaine.

This is the best game ever. Made by LucasArts, but not by games creator Ron Gilbert anymore, Bill Tiller does the art hand-drawn. This leads to perfect cartoony graphics that have not aged at all. And that is just the graphics. The music is enough to buy the game alone-excellent all the way though, especially the Theme tune. The gameplay is the most addictive ever with the puzzles being hilariously funny themselves. Add that to the laugh out loud humour all throughout the game (the insults are terrific) which made me laugh the hardest I have ever, and you get a brilliant game you can buy off Amazon for £17 or £8 used. Must buy since I think it is no doubt the best game ever in a forgotten genre.

2. Sonic the Hedgehog. (Mega Drive)

Made by SEGA this series has definitely gone downhill since the transformation to 3D. Sonic 2 was by far the best game and I think my first ever game. You play as sonic the Hedgehog who needs to bring down his enemy Dr. Robotnik who has plans to over take the world has turned many of Sonics friends into small rabbits and birds. Along with Tails Sonic races through the levels as fast as he can collecting rings and beating bosses in the best platformer ever. He has attitude and his speed beat Mario any day. That was before he became too fast in later 3D games.

I love this game. It’s quite long considering you can’t save, and it is extremely hard but each act and level is remarkably different and his speed makes for great fun. Plus there’s collecting Chaos emeralds for Bonus rounds just for more fun-to turn into Super Sonic. I spent hours on this and still lay it occasionally since it never gets boring shooting through my memories which are the Green Hills level which never gets boring and the music brings back great memories. You won’t get it on Amazon but play it on the Playstation 2 with Sonic Mega collection plus for £12 which has many other good sonic games too like Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog, both of which have great gameplay, so good you forget about the aging graphics.

3. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

Has to be one of the most groundbreaking games ever. Having never played it on the N64, only on the Gamecube with the Wind Waker special edition pack I was still impressed. You play as a young boy who, after being called by the Great Deku Tree and told that he must save Hyrule, no, the World from the evil Ganondorf who has plans to take over the sacred realm and the world.

It is nearly flawless. The adventure is huge and so are the environemts and later on you get a horse to ride around on. It has varied and immense gameplay that I will never forget and it got me into Nintendo. It beats any Mario game by a long shot because there is so much to do not only with the main missions which last ages but some side missions too. The games lifespan is enormous and although the graphics have ages a little the gameplay is so good when you are thrown into this superb story you won’t even notice. I have spent hours on such a game just exploring on horse-back and completing the varying dungeons which all hold unique monsters and puzzles which gets you thinking. £5.80

4. Crash Bandicoot. (PSone)

Originally made by Naughty Dog up until it was sold to vivendi universal who effectively spoiled the series this is one of the most memorable game on the Playstation (One). You play as a thick mute bandicoot that needs to save the world from the Genius Neo cortex by chasing him through islands running through different linear levels and defeating animals and enemies by jumping on them or spinning, proper platforming style. You need to run from boulders, avoid bombs and jump gaps to get to the boss every so often. He’s a mute but the facial expressions say it all and the simple gameplay is extremely addictive and the graphics are cartoony and all making it one of the best platformers. Amazon Price £10 used and new. There is not much more to say because it is a linear game but it is superb none-the-less.

5. CTR. (PSone)

Short for Crash Team racing this was the last naughty dog Crash Bandicoot and it gets a separate rating because it’s so different. Oxide, an expert racer alien has challenged Crash and loads of his best friends (and enemies) to race for control of the earth. He wants to turn it into a Parking place. So Crash races Mario Kart style and I think he’s done a better job.

I don’t know how it is done but the game seems to be funny even with a lack of talking. It seems to be the atmosphere itself that makes the game so funny. The graphics are excellent, and as is the gameplay. You race through numerous levels firing at enemies with weapons that range from missiles to bombs, nitro boxes to lightning bolts. All of the weapons are excellent making it the best ever racing game in my opinion, and a reason alone to pick up a cheap PSone.
The lifespan is enormous as well with not only racing but also letter collecting (race through the levels and you have to find the letters C T R) and time trials. The 2 players is enormous with battle modes and it is a must buy for everyone with a PSone, PS2 or anyone getting the PS3. Amazon used and new from £7.

6. Jak and Daxter series. (PS2)

Naughty Dogs step onto PS2 just loses out to its PSone game. You play as Jak who, after his friend has turned into a furry otter-weasel (ottsel), travels the land to try to find a sage to turn Daxter, the ottsel back. However, the sages have disappeared so you have to save them from evil people Gol & Maia. The next 2 games get darker and swap platform-adventure (3D) to action adventure when Jak has a dark side, and a gun.

It may get darker in the series but the first 3 are all spectacular. The graphics are great, the story is superb and in depth, the music is good and the game itself is enormous, leaving you to roam for ages without doing missions but making up some of your own. It may get darker but it is hilarious still and the gameplay is nothing short of spectacular. Another must buy from Amazon (the 1st is £12.99).

It is just a shame the racing game did not live up to the standards of CTR, number 5 on my list.

7. Ratchet and Clank series. (PS2)

You play as Ratchet, a mechanic who in the first game buddied up with Clank who went on a mission to save the planet from Drek who wanted to make a super planet. The best in my opinion was the 1st game which I will describe. The game is a free roamer basically where you travel from world to world tracking down Drek and his goons to try to stop him. It is an action-adventure up there with the Jak and Daxter series and created by Insomniac, creators of Spyro on PSone.

The gameplay is amazing. You have a wrench to whack people with and there is always a vendor going about willing to sell you the weirdest of all weapons-a plasma whip, a blaster gun, a plasma coil, a lava gun. They are all so unique and add to the gameplay as each gun is so fun to use throughout the entire game which is quite long, though never gets boring. Although it is not the type of game you will go exploring around without doing missions it has a huge replay value so you will be playing through the game a good few times before you put it down. Another recommendation you’ll find for £12.

8. Guitar Hero. (PS2)

Beats the Dance Mat game as being the best musical game there is not much to explain. You get a plastic guitar with buttons and a strum bar. It’s on PS2 and the idea is that on TV different coloured blobs come nearer to the screen (representing the coloured buttons on the guitar). The idea is to press the buttons and strum the strum bar at the right time to make a note. Do that for a good 5 minutes of iron man and your fingers will be knackered but with a great single player, competitive multiplayer and a huge replay value considering it is so addictive and there are so many difficulty levels and songs this game will lat you a lifetime on and off and no PS2 owner should go without playing this gem of a game you’ll find for £50 (with guitar). It is £30 for a new guitar to rock out in multiplayer with a total of 47 songs-your bound to like many of them-like I love Rock and Roll, I want to be Sedated, Iron Man, Bark at the Moon and Ace of spades. One of the most unique games ever.

9. Tekken series. (PS/PS2)

You won’t find huge environments here since it is a good beat ‘em up with so far 6 games on PS/PS2 and one on PSP it is enormously addictive. The story really isn’t too important but the gameplay is. Each game has loads of characters to play with all with a unique battle style from street to Capoeiran each character takes ages to master the moves and although the single player is great (mainly consists of unlocking characters) you will never beat kicking your friends ass in multiplayer just when you thought he would win. Each character has a special move and a health bar and it is all fists and flips with no weapons involved. It is extremely addictive with the fighting with a great fighting system using directional buttons to move and block and triangle, square, circle and x each representing a different limb you can pull off enormous combos with skill and going on hard mode means button bashing will not get you through this game.

I will probably say number 3 and 5 are the best. Tekken 3 (£3.80) on the Original Playstation was great because of the amount of characters playable (probably the best characters too) and a great Tekken Force mode where you fight your way through normal people to the end of the level. £3.80 used and new.
Tekken 5 (£12) took the game back to its routes after a more average Tekken 4. Although the fighting is slow compared to Namco’s other game series Soul Calibur there is still loads of combos and great levels and characters. The only flaw though it that you cannot create a character which would have been fun. What you do get is a great character customisation and nice Devil Jin story which, although is not the best in the world is pretty good as a mini game where you fight through certain levels, similar to Tekken Force in Tekken 3. You can also play arcade versions of the first 3 Tekken’s which is a great add-on though the arcade versions are not as good.


10. Mario Kart DS. (Nintendo DS)

This just makes it onto my list as being a great game to play. Though not as addictive as Crash Team Racing in racing, it is the same concept. Win a race by blasting your enemy with weapons to stop the victory. This time though there is no story, just races with Mario based weapons such as koopa shells. You race through Mario themed races which are extremely unique and fun, although the atmosphere isn’t as good as it is in CTR. The single player is superb though it is the Wifi that make this game so good. You can race friends online or strangers in competitions that let you race against some actual people who provide a great challenge and it is always a lot more fun racing against an actual person.
Aside from 1P and 2P tournaments there are many other single player battle modes which make an ever lasting lifespan of gameplay. Not bad for £25


There are my Top 10 games. What do you notice though? No new games enter the fray until number 6. This proves that gameplay has lost its meaning. Sure, graphics and environments can get larger and larger until you can explore an environment the size of the world but it doesn’t matter about that. Sure it can provide some exploring like Grand Theft Auto which may be great on the PS3 but nothing beats gameplay. Gameplay is still good but my list does prove that graphics are taking over gameplay. Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive had great replay value, Monkey Island is hilarious, And Jak and Daxter on the PS2 is still great, but games are getting worse not just because games can have better graphics and environments but because less platforming games are coming out now. Grand Theft Auto may be in my Top 20, as would Resident Evil 4 and Killzone but they are a rare breed of games that are good not just because of violence but gameplay. Older games are far better and let’s hope there is a turn around soon and platformers and adventures come back in. Like gameplay over graphics because what are companies going to do when games look lifelike? Improve gameplay maybe. It should be done at the same time.

Summary: Great Games.