s&s ballot
they accidentally gave me a ballot 😈 10 games at present i find personally fulfilling, historically important, attitude shifting, or representative of genres/movements
hopefully i play enough heaters to be able to move this list around some day
do you know how much restraint it took to not include k&l2 on this list
hopefully i play enough heaters to be able to move this list around some day
do you know how much restraint it took to not include k&l2 on this list
10 Games
honouring yu suzuki and sega's exceptionally talented AM2 staff was important to me and i can think of no title in their works more deserving of the ballot than shenmue. it's a staggering departure from their prior arcade sensibilities - instead resembling a unique ADV game - but it allowed them to create something bold while incorporating a few prior techniques (virtua fighter combat, arcade ports). this game is nothing but a herculean effort in capturing adolescent ennui and the misplaced aspirations of youth through the unique language only an interactive adventure can provide. it was a commercial failure and its legacy has waned, superseded by the claim its worth lied in technological value rather than its humanist charms, but for my money this is still a more worthwhile, revealing, and engaging journey than hundreds of its gratuitous contemporaries. every imposition placed on the player - and by extension, ryo - only heightens its sense of reality.
fumito ueda's evolution and iteration of the classical cinematic platformer is elegant, beautiful, and surgically precise in pace & mechanics. not just an excellent study in game design on every level - both technical and artistic - but also one of the most beautiful folkloric renditions of companionship. often imitated, rarely matched.
it's not enough to just be an exceptionally tactile adventure game, or for tarotica voo doo to dazzle with its wealth of handdrawn animations - this is just pure passion for the craft from top to bottom. lovingly rendered through an MSX emulator, tarotica voo doo goes above and beyond the limitations of its platform to create one of the most intriguing independent games of all time. ikushi togo is said to have been making games for the MSX since the 1980's; i would love nothing more than to play more of his work, but if this is his magnum opus then it's a declarative one. being bundled with a lengthy design document is just the kind of thing more games should do.
while its sequels are more refined either thematically or mechanically, there's something about the silver case's raw pulse and experimental edge that continues to define grasshopper manufacture's work for me to this day. the silver case is unique even within its own genre for how it utilizes all manners of artistic representation to convey its dizzying narrative. this has some of the best art direction and user interfaces in all of the medium and its ambitious storytelling makes fascinating use of perspective shifts and character work.
for my money - the definitive team silent work. masterful sound design and ambience carves out its position as one of the most fear-inducing games of all time, while thoughtful and suggestive level design cages heather within grotesque, linear, and bloodied halls. the shadow cast by silent hill 2 is long and winding - and certainly not without reason - but its explication of psychological repression inspiring waves upon waves of half-baked imitators only cements the trilogy's closing piece as valuable within the medium, a game that is shockingly singular in its intent. a masterpiece of horror on every level.
nothing like the feeling of slamming a long silver bullet into a well greased chamber...
the newest entry in this ballot (2020!). i gave a lot of thought over the past few days to how anchored by japan so many ballots are. which certainly isn't without very strong reason, but i hoped to nominate at least one thoughtful western title which showed the same spirit of innovation and recontextualization as some of japan's strongest showcases. enter receiver 2, a game which skillfully turns an often destructive genre on its head by cleverly expanding on one of its most taken-for-granted central mechanics: the act of reloading. a level of sharpness, intent, and clarity of design that others should envy. that it so successfully marries its mechanical thrust to its thematic strengths is nothing short of genius. some of the most heart pounding moments ive ever experienced in a game can be found right here.
the newest entry in this ballot (2020!). i gave a lot of thought over the past few days to how anchored by japan so many ballots are. which certainly isn't without very strong reason, but i hoped to nominate at least one thoughtful western title which showed the same spirit of innovation and recontextualization as some of japan's strongest showcases. enter receiver 2, a game which skillfully turns an often destructive genre on its head by cleverly expanding on one of its most taken-for-granted central mechanics: the act of reloading. a level of sharpness, intent, and clarity of design that others should envy. that it so successfully marries its mechanical thrust to its thematic strengths is nothing short of genius. some of the most heart pounding moments ive ever experienced in a game can be found right here.
i'm not even sure i can call the last blade 2 my favourite fighting game, but it is one of the first ones i think of when i think of the aesthetic strengths of the genre. a very handsome game to be sure, so lovingly conceived in its rich score and detailed spritework...the speed/power system - while less important at a higher level - still manages to make each character feel radically different while accentuating just how much a player's own abilities and preferences can bring to the competitive plane. everything one can possibly love about the genre can be found here.
what else is there to say. a masterpiece.
it's not a surprise to see demon's souls on so many ballots. it's well known that it was considered a failure in development, which no doubt in some small part fueled its uncompromising and unique tendencies. but it is also an iteration of not just fromsoft's body of work, but also wizardry, ultima, and team ico's works...there's such rich heritage here, and the fact that demon's souls still manages to be so inventive and playful is sublime. one of the most innovative and influential games of all time, pound for pound. that digital score is still the best one in the whole series.
a transitional piece between millenniums, between generations, between ways of being. this game is driving perfected. love its brutal difficulty, love its track design, love its drifting mechanics.
3 Comments
@Fauxscerf id be very curious to hear what you think about both receiver games!! i played them both this year and they left a really strong impression, i think they are both fantastic...i hope im not wrong on the read but they feel up your alley. ridge racer v is quite difficult but i think you might be with me on preferring it to type 4, its aesthetic is just as accomplished and it feels like a fantastic transitional piece between generations as others have pointed out
updated with some clarifying blurbs for each entry!
Fauxscerf
1 year ago