If memory serves me right, this is the first game I've ever played

Once you get a EXP multiplier hack, what's at hand here is not a very complex RPG, but one that made use of a number of incredibly novel and funny ideas. It being this early on in the era of gaming also makes it in some ways fresher than EarthBound was (though EarthBound is also a great game)

Somewhere back in 2006, maybe 2007, I happened to be at a neighbour's house, and while they were away with my brother, I happened to stumble into their room to find that they were in the middle of a Sonic 1 playthrough. The game was paused on Star Light Zone, the penultimate area of the game. With absolutely zero permission, I grabbed the controller, unpaused the game, and proceeded to game over almost immediately. I walked out of that room, then out of the house, and promptly never faced that neighbour again out of fear that they were really mad at me. Anyway, so that was my first experience with a Sonic game. Little Max was never the same again.

Reaching the end is not the true reward, it's the credits song that really turns the game into something else. Very few credit songs out there capture the feeling of utter satisfaction at the end of an arduous journey. Something about Castlevania IV's credit theme makes me feel at eaase

Marks a huge milestone in game storytelling, and the ability to imbue your game with personality. Having to say goodbye to this one is always bittersweet.

The Seven Force boss fight has taught me that multi-phase bosses with no breaks or interruptions in-between are one of the coolest things in the world. No time to stop, just go go go, next phase, next phase!

Though sparse, fantastic use of storytelling amongst its ever-oppressive atmosphere

The rawest Genesis game to have ever been made. Nobody should ever skip Hard Corps. Even if it means cheating your way through its brutal difficulty, the spectacle is on a whole other level

A tale as old as time, EarthBound inspired me to pursue a hobby in writing. Though not necessarily the primary influence in my writing style, EarthBound was what taught me what makes the process of writing truly fun, and almost led me to making a novel. But then I chucked it out after realizing it was pretty terrible. Even so, I have not given up on my dream. That's another thing that EarthBound taught me.

The RPG that got me into the genre as a whole. Definitely up there as one of the more flawed games on this list, but its overall message of uniting the world together to overthrow corruption hits home pretty close in today's age

The age of "mario 64 blooper" videos back in the early days of YouTube were some of my earliest exposures to the internet, and were partially the reason why I learned the english language. Then I tried making my own recolor of Mario to use for my own blooper videos. Those never took off. Oh well, I think I can settle for playing the game for fun.

Top class in sound design and gothic aesthetics, on top of a pretty solid Metroidvania. People make fun of the voice acting, but it's also one of its strongest elements. Alucard's voice is unforgettable.

What the fuck was that ending and why does it feel like it's my final day on earth everytime I see it

What makes Klonoa's ending so striking to me aside from its ability to make me cry each time I see it, is knowing that you never find out if what happens is for the better, or for worse. Either way, you've just lost something precious to you

The vocal tracks, often a ridiculed aspect of Sonic R, carry a sense of finality to me, similar to my feelings on Thunder Force V. As I reach the game's credits and hear its final song, the final performance by the vocalist, the only thing I can think of is that I'll never hear her voice in another game again. Until the next run, anyway.

Unique by just the sheer fact of it being a Squaresoft-produced shoot'em up. Solid action, solid music, and it's a PS1 title that runs at 60fps. The ending, though vague, sparked a lot of my imagination and stuck out as one of a kind in its genre.

It's not just the improved action and pacing that made Resident Evil 2 such an instant classic, it was those calmer moments in-between, punctuated by music that tip-toed the line between beautiful and tragic. It emphasized more than just the perilous journey of your character. It's the death of a city, and all the citizens within it. The remake was excellent, but this is the one thing that it failed to replicate in its atmosphere.

The utilization of the passage of time hits a powerful melancholy. Your childhood ripped away from you, your old friends grow distant. The places you've once found comforting, now feel like you don't belong there, or anywhere. Link's step into adulthood takes away everything he held dear to his heart. But even so, he still has a purpose in this bleak world. He can still make a bright future.

I cannot find the right words to describe the utterly mesmerizing atmosphere of Spyro 2's hub worlds. It feels like reality ceases to exist when I wander through these landscapes. It feels like I'm all alone, exploring an abandoned world that once used to have people in it. Yet at the same time, I feel like the world itself is calling out to me. Embracing me with its warm touch. Flooding my mind with all the comforting memories of the past. And telling me that just as I was happy back then, there's still a way for me to be happy now.

And fuck, I STILL feel like I haven't found the right words.

Rayman really doesn't have much depth as a character, but I think it's something about his voice actor and no-nonsense determination to help everyone that makes me find some comfort in him

A game with the darkest color palette also happens to have a character and soundtrack that makes me feel all fuzzy on the inside

The cruel and oppressive atmosphere of Majora's Mask is something that I really wish the series would give another shot at. The dilemma of knowing that every good thing you ever do is repeatedly undone by the time loop, the existential dread that permeates every step of your journey, it is tragic and truly of its own kind. It's only a shame that not a ton of people are open to the concept of time limits in their games, because if used right, they can create truly special experiences such as this.

It's all farts and laughs, until the ending leaves a hollow hole in your chest

The song that plays in the Kingdom of Sorrow is its own story, and the moral of it is that Klonoa is always screaming inside

This is supposed to be a scary game, so why is it that I feel so relaxed playing it

Yeah no, you really just get in the zone while playing this one

The bittersweetness of playing this excellent collect-a-thon lies in the feeling that this was the last Naughty Dog game where I felt Naughty Dog was still themselves. After this, I don't recognize them anymore.

Don't really like the first game, but coming back to its sequel is like coming back to my favorite music album. Switches genres with such a reckless abandon, you can't help but start moving to its beat

As much as I don't think the SA-X concept was used to its full potential, the concept and implication of it alone gives Fusion's atmosphere a lot of power

Similar feelings to Jak & Daxter. Don't get me wrong, I love Rayman Origins and Legends. But the last time I saw the Rayman that I used to know, was in this game's ending cutscene. Afterwards, I never saw him again.

The opposite of Silent Hill 2's oddly relaxing atmosphere, Silent Hill 3 by comparison feels extremely tense. But it has Heather in it, the one and only protagonist in the whole series that feels like a real person, and is just immediately likable

Back in 2003 when this game came out, I was barely old enough to form a cohesive sentence. I don't have nostalgia for those days, nor for this game, since I played it fairly recently. And yet, hearing the credits theme for Beyond Good & Evil, I feel like I'm living someone else's nostalgia. The lives of countless people who lived back in 2003, the cities back how they used to look, the people and the culture that prevailed back then. I wasn't there for any of it. But this credits theme makes them so vivid in my memory.

And we've got one more Silent Hill game on top of the pile! Extremely unfun to play, but there is something interesting in how subdued and hollow its atmosphere feels compared to the previous titles. By the time you start nearing the end and you hear that strange song playing, I'm once again struck by a sense of finality over how the series will never be the same after this.

Literally how is it possible to cram this much good content into a singular game. Like, EVERY room can be given a name based on something within it, absolutely insane

Y'know, people tend to think this is one of the most average titles from the Mario & Luigi series, which always confused me, I thought it was great. The story in this one was surprisingly bleak for a Mario game, like, you really feel like the world was THIS close to ending.

For 17-year old me, the first 3 hours of Kingdom Hearts II were some of the most emotionally evocative story beats a game ever recklessly threw me into. The choreography of the opening cinematic was just so immediately grabbing, I didn't wanna blink throughout it. Then the 1-year time skip hit me like a truck, followed by such an intense overload of mysteries and questions that kept me constantly guessing and wondering.

Then you get to the ending, and it feels like an eternity since your journey began. An eternity since the feeling of loneliness and seperation weighed on you and your character. But you've finally made it. Surrounded by the people you cherish, the people you thought you lost. The vocal track that once felt urgent, now calm and peaceful. You're home. If Kingdom Hearts ended right there and then, it would've been the perfect story.

Then time travel happened.

If I had to describe everything that resonated with me here, I might as well just write an entire review instead. Someday.

Continuing on with games that give me a sense of "finality", you wouldn't fucking think I'd get that from Rayman Raving Rabbids of all things. However, this was a game I used to play back when I frequented an after-school club. They had computers over there, which they would let you use for 30 minutes per day, and I would use that time pretty much just to play this, and amass at least 2-3 complete runs. That place was really nostalgic to me. I mean, I wasn't a great kid, but memory has certainly romanticized those places.

So, whenever I start to approach the end of Raving Rabbids, I start to associate it with the fact that back then, I played this game not knowing that in a few weeks, I would never be able to visit that club and hang out with the people there again. In the same way that Rayman could've made better choices in this game by remembering to rescue the little frog thingies, I too could've made better choices of my own. Y'know?

While Sonic 1 was the first Sonic game I saw, Unleashed was the first one I ever saw ALL of. Didn't have a system to play it though, so it was in the form of a longplay. I guess this'd make Unleashed as the true game that got me into the series.

It's strange. For all the things I don't like about the werehog and all, I still recognize just how genuine of an effort Unleashed tried to make to get the series back on-track. The marketing for it was intense, the steps taken to reinvent it were huge and risky, and to this day, it's probably still the largest budget a Sonic game has ever received, to the point where no other Sonic game looks as good as this one. All the way back in 2008! It's definitely part of why I feel so let down by Sonic these days, because compared to the promise that Unleashed gave us of high-budget triple A releases, every subsequent game actively feels like it's struggling to exist.

The days of hosting my own server on this game are long behind me, but... they were fun. There were regulars, and we could talk about everyday things as we played through the levels together. Again, I was kind of a shit kid, and banned people for the most petty of reasons, but... I wish I could've been a better person sooner, and I wish I could've maintained contact with some of you guys. Miss ya.

I think I once downloaded a mod that added like 600 new game modes in, and during a week where I had no internet, I would just go to town on trying out as many of them as possible. On the other hand, playing online meant that I would always want to play Versus. Never could amass 8 friends to play that with though, so it'd often just be with strangers. I wish they'd stop votekicking me for existing, though! Anyway, was hugely addicted to this one for a while.

I don't know what it is about Junpei's voice actor, but the acting on him here feels incredibly real and down-to-earth in a way I haven't seen replicated again. He sounds like the most real-ass guy. That was the first thing that drew me in, and then it turned out the rest of the story was really engaging too! Helps that it's only about 10 hours, so it's a visual novel that anybody could get into.

While Silent Hill 2, Undertale and EarthBound partially inspired my style of writing, The Devil's Playhouse stands out as THE major influence for the games I would like to create one day. This game is where I got my sarcastic sense of humor from, my fondness for absurdism, explorative gameplay, and my love for combining the creepy with the humorous.

To me, Devil's Playhouse is a masterclass on how to do tonal shifts, and how to escalate the stakes of your story until its big explosion. It is charming and funny, just as much as it is shockingly unsettling and foreboding. Constantly waving things under your nose, filling you with a sense of foreboding, that something wrong is going to happen, something you're not prepared for. And watching my friends play it, I know they weren't. Though there is no such thing as an objectively "best game ever made," I still strongly recommend anyone to check out the Telltale Sam & Max series. Devil's Playhouse makes it all worth it.

Can't help but feel bad for Isaac having to go through all of this shit, man

How the hell did I amass over 350 hours on this thing? I mean, the game rules, but what the fuck?

I have a lot of hot takes on open world titles that I'm sometimes kinda afraid of sharing, but Arkham City is not among them. I adore this game's traversal and combat mechanics, its soundtrack, and the haunted atmosphere of its locales. There are no ghosts in Arkham City, but wandering through its humming, decrepit hallways, my imagination will always think otherwise

After Colors and Generations both came out in the span of a year, I was dumb enough to think that the franchise was finally in a stable, consistent position and it was all good times from here on. Oh, well.

My experience with this one kinda begin as one of those "YouTuber games", where more people were likely to watch a let's play than they were to play it themselves. But that's doing it a disservice. River's character reminds me of a person I used to know. Quiet, and kinda difficult to read, but it was that element of mystery that made you want to know more about her. Her and Johnny's story was an easy one to root for, but the handling of it was where it really shined. It takes a lot to create a story centered around being sad, without it being too much and coming off as insincere. To the Moon threads that line expertly.

If I had a top 10 of best video game protagonists, Lee Everett would absolutely be pretty high up on there

I couldn't use the word "transcend" for this game's ending more literally. It's so unbelievably simple, yet widened my eyes in fascination, watching all those patterns go by, reminding me of all I accomplished

God this one fucking rules dude, it's like they crammed every cool hack 'n slash idea ever into a single package on, top of the batshit insane cutscenes elevating all of it

If Falk, Funk Fiction, Andy Turnstall and the rest of the gang ever collaborate for a soundtrack again, I'm there. This seemingly innocuous fangame (which is pretty fun in its own right) turned me into a huge fan of these composers.

Yet another "finality"-type game. This is the last time where Telltale really felt like they still cared about their pre-Walking Dead fans. Even back when it first came out, it felt so relieving and exciting to be able to see Sam & Max interact together again. It was like Telltale was telling us they didn't forget what helped them get this far. And then a year later, all the old talent left and the old fans might've as well been told to go fuck themselves, so.

The self-destruct ending gets me all giddy in my chair, the way it's handled, and the way it tricks first-time players. I love me some creative ways in fucking with the audience.

Another addiction game. I never did get the 100% on this, as I eventually moved on to other things, but by god I'll do it one day

We were fucking robbed, this was the coolest shit and it had to come out on the fucking KINECT and they CANCELLED THE REST ANd wE'lL neVer fInd oUt whaT haPpeNs neeeext (devolves into an unintelligible mess)

Story kinda blows ass on this one, but the dark and unsettling atmosphere of Arkham City is amped up to eleven here, and I'm all for it. Such a pretty game, man

I mean, did you think I wasn't gonna add this on here

Next to Zero Escape 999, another rare instance where the main protagonist's acting feels oddly hyper-realistic, which enhances a lot of my ability to relate and feel for the guy when he has to navigate his way through all these fucked up scenarios. Aside from that, just really beautiful and well told game, I don't even mind the chase sequences that's how good it is to me

After growing disillusioned with the quality of recent Sonic titles, Resident Evil finally came around and became my new obsession. This one in particular hooked me just because of how different it looked from the rest of the series, and maybe partially because I was looking for something to wash the pain of P.T.'s cancellation. But like, turns out, RE7 really stuck with me years later. It carries similar feelings of melancholy that Silent Hill 2 has, with its dilapitated household that serves as a constant reminder for what used to be a peaceful family home. Not deep by any means, but the photorealistic atmosphere does a ton of heavy lifting. It's so nice to walk around and soak everything in, or get hyped when insane shit starts happening

The Queen Vanessa sequence managed to affect the tone of the rest of the game for me. Even though everything else is so cheery and upbeat, a lingering sense of unsettlement hovered over me for the rest of the playthrough, and any subsequent ones. I think some of you can relate to that feeling, like the game you're playing is gonna turn into a creepypasta any second.

Aside from that, I really don't see many games like Hat in Time that manage to eloquently combine a sincere cuteness with an ironic sense of humor, and it works great here. I only hope we can get a sequel someday

God damn it, Kan Gao made me have feelings again!

It's a shame about the second half not being as good as the first one, but the way this handles its open world leaves a huge impression. I walked into a random house that in any other open world, would've just had a bunch of boring resources to scavenge. But in Evil Within 2, that house contained an entire world it transports you into, where you hide against this really fucking scary monster you've never seen before. And after all is said and done, that monster then starts randomly appearing around the city. The fact that that can happen by just walking into a building that seems no different from the rest, is what quickly shot this game up into "things I will remember forever."

In some ways, its gameplay also reminds me a lot of Silent Hill's town exploration, like an evolution of it.

You'd think you'd get about 2 hours worth out of something like Wandersong's premise, hence my surprise when it turned out it was actually over 10 hours long, and every hour mattered dearly. Wandersong understands that optimism exists alongside cynicism, and it shows the ugly sides of both. But it doesn't get stuck in it, and delivers a kind-hearted exploration of how to deal with our self-worth, and how every person can make a difference in a world that feels hopeless to try in. Cute, happy, yet so effortlessly somber at the same time. It's been years since I played it, but I'll have to make up for that soon, because I don't want the memory of this game to ever leave me.

I saw a guy or two that dismissed Hypnospace at first glance, because it being set in the internet equaled that "it was probably a meme game." They couldn't have been any more wrong in regards to the themes that Hypnospace really dives into. You can feel that the developer grew up in the 90's era of the internet, and even though I wasn't around for that era, the many aspects that Hypnospace captures result in an immersive leap back in time. You can spend hours getting lost in the lives of countless strangers. It feels like you're doing it for the laughs at first, but the more you delve in, the more you realize that just like all of us, there are lifes behind those nicknames, and those lifes get affected in shocking ways that exceed your expectations of what Hypnospace really has to offer.

Completely uncompromised style. I don't even get what the story is fully about, but I don't need to if you're gonna direct your cutscenes with this much aggressive creativity

I only wish Somnium didn't deter a good chunk of its potential audience due to its insistence on horny humor (even if i do think it's handled much more tastefully here than in most VN's I've seen), because what lies behind it is one hell of a murder mystery. Just when I thought I had it figured out, Somnium overwhelmed me with an incredible amount of layers that kept me second-guessing myself. Even through the most seemingly nonsensical, unexplainable mysteries, everything comes together so smoothly for the finale. Like an entire world opens up in front of you, making you stop playing for several minutes at a time just to piece each drop of information together. By the time the credits roll, every question has been wrapped up, and I felt completely satisfied. This game is undoubtfully stupid as fuck in many of its moments, but this is the sort of stupidity that comes from a place of immeasurable passion. Only the best of writers recognize that they can have fun in their multi-layered story.

Man, if only the sequel was as good.

Similar feelings to Space Channel 5 Part 2, this is a music album incarnated into a video game. Music pulls you right into the world, and the world pulls you right into its heart.

I'm a fan of the original Half-Life 1 myself, but Black Mesa's just one of those instances where everything that I have ever wanted in a first person shooter campaign, is here. Every potential facet of setpiece, tone, and gameplay that the setting allows, is explored in its full totality. Like playing 20 different FPS campaigns in a single package, but each flows so effortlessly into the next, and escalates the action so naturally. Not a minute of padding amongst its 18 hours, just a constant barrage of new ideas to keep me hooked. The 15 years of development have absolutely paid off.

Playing through Henry Stickmin was like discovering something from Newgrounds that I really wish could've been part of my childhood, but somehow managed to slip past my radar up until now. Some of its parts show signs of age more than others, but the sum of the whole is that this was some of the funniest fucking 3 hours of my time I ever spent, on top of being a nostalgic throwback to an older era of the internet. You can feel the developer's comedic timing evolve and improve over time, until I start laughing so hard I'm getting headaches.

I know this is gonna sound borderline nonsensical, but next to Evil Within 2, the atmosphere of Little Nightmares II is the closest thing I have ever felt to re-experiencing the Silent Hill series. No, they sure as hell don't play alike, they don't share the same themes, but like... it was wandering through its abandoned city that did it. I felt the exact same feelings I felt playing Silent Hill 2. Relaxation. A sadness. A thousand theories sprawling about over what this city used to be like. And what sorts of secrets does it still hide.

Unfortunately got glossed over by most people, due to releasing so closely to what was already a jam-packed January of 2023. I wish it got more attention. I didn't think much of it myself at first, but the story ended up hitting really close to home by the end. I used to utilize writing as a way of dealing with trauma as well, just like one of the characters in here. I'll always miss the past, but in the end, I had to let go of it being my defining aspect of life, in order to become the person I really wanna be. To see this character work so hard to do the same, to reach the new unknowns that lie in our future, left me so happy that I started crying. There are other games that got me to cry before, but none with joy such as this.

After playing this game, John Johanas officially entered my radar of game developers to keep the closest of eyes on. It's like he ripped my dream game out of my mind, it's like his development team knew EVERY trick in the cinematography book that gets me excited, it's like he was making a game that was just for me!! I couldn't help it, every second of gameplay I had to tap my feet, or bob my head, or sway my shoulders, the rhythm is SO INFECTIOUS, and the presentation, the jokes being way better than what the trailer made them out to be, everything! This is about as perfect as a game gets.