Gaming

I spend a lot of my time playing games. Once I realized that other people do too, I thought some people might be interested in what games I have played over the years, and what I thought of them. This is my comprehensive listing.

Air Fortress Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Complete final level... To dominate: ... and do it all in one sitting Comments: Air Fortress is a decent game, with a good variety of gameplay. Fly into the base, destroying things and picking up power-ups as you go. Then navigate the maze-like base and destroy its core. Then find your way back out, really fast. Repeat eight times, but the challenge ramps wayyy up. A decent play-through once.

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance II X-box   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat Mordoc... To dominate: ... on insane difficulty level Comments: This falls halfway between Gauntlet and Diablo - it's nothing but hack-and-slash fun, but you get a lot of control over your character and equipment. Very fun for two players to just plow their way through the game, if a bit mindless.

Banjo-Kazooie Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Grunty... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: Banjo-Kazooie is a sort of hybrid game combining quirkiness, puzzle-solving, exploration, and combat into a very fun and challenging romp. This one definitely deserves a shot; it's great fun, almost no matter what you look for in a game.

Beetle Adventure Racing Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Complete all circuit races... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: This is another game that fuses elements of racing with exploration, and does it well. The challenge increases dramatically, and it gets damn tough to find everything, much less win while you're doing it. The biggest problem is the physics engine; it's intended to be loose and fun, but I think it goes a bit overboard. A good game to rent.

Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat Dracula... To dominate: ... with all three characters Comments: I never really played the first two in the Castlevania series, but #3 was quite the game. Allowing you to play as three different characters, as well as choose your path through the game, the variety was definitely not lacking. A challenging game, but also a very rewarding one.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night PlayStation   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Richter To dominate: Defeat Dracula, get 200% coverage Comments: A great combination of Metroid-style exploration and puzzles with Final Fantasy-style RPG play. A very unique game, and one that works well. Beware; unless you 'cheat', the second half of the game is incredibly tough at times! Definitely worth a play.

Chrono Cross PlayStation   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... And find all endings Comments: Chrono Cross seemed pretty cool from what I saw of it. Harking back a little bit to the themes of Chrono Trigger, you have multiple worlds you can navigate. Combat is intuitive and done well. By far the best thing about this game is the soundtrack. Easily the best music made for any game. The opening sequence captivates me every time... I still plan on returning and finishing this one up.

Chrono Trigger Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Defeat Lavos... To dominate: ... and find all endings Comments: Chrono Trigger is huge. Even without its seven characters, five seperate world maps, engaging storyline, and more than twelve endings, it's still a great game. It leaves you wide-open to do whatever you want, and what you do has consequences later on. A very engaging game, and one that you definitely have to complete.

Diablo II PC   Status:   Completed Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Defeat Diablo/Baal... To dominate: ... in Hell Comments: The most addictive game I've ever played. It's so much fun to play online, and it's never really over. You can always get one more level, or find one more item. Terribly predictable, but simple enough (click and kill things, basically) to be thoroughly enjoyable. Go play this one now.

Diddy Kong Racing Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Wizpig... To dominate: ... and do it again backwards Comments: Diddy Kong Racing was one of the first games to add an element of adventure and exploration to a racer, and it is done very well. It has a whole lot of unique things, too; hovercrafts, cars, and planes can all be raced on any of the twenty-plus forwards-and-backwards tracks, for example. A great game to at least try, but you'll want to keep playing.

Donkey Kong Country Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat King K. Rool... To dominate: ... and get over 100% Comments: DKC was one of the first games to use an impressive 3D graphics system, and it was top-of-the-line for awhile. With gameplay focused on puzzle-solving, timing, and exploration, it's a pretty diverse game, with a lot of variety and a lot of play time. 2-player is even more fun.

Dr. Mario Nintendo   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: A very innovative puzzle game, featuring our favorite plumber-turned-doctor. Simple premise: Stack four same-colored pills or viruses in a row, they disappear. Eliminate all the viruses in a level to move on. But boy, do things get hairy after a while. Quick thinking, quick reflexes, and the promise of 'just one more game' make this a winner.

Dragon Warrior Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat the Dragonlord... To dominate: ... and find all of Erdrick's equipment Comments: Dragon Warrior started off an incredible series of very linear, very turn-based, very formulaic, yet very good RPGs. The original was quite the leap for its time, with (relatively speaking) extensive item, equipment, and magic systems, plus big helpings of combat and exploration. A lot of challenge, a lot of luck, and a lot of time... But a very good game.

Dragon Warrior 2 Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat Malroth... To dominate: ... and max all character levels Comments: The second in the series built on the first in a big way. While the graphics and gameplay were much the same, the addition of a three-person party, a multiple-enemy combat engine, and a huge map (with a ship!) made this fun and engrossing to play. Still tries your patience, but to a lesser degree than the original. A step up.

Dragon Warrior 3 Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Zoma To dominate: All characters master all spells Comments: You'd expect number three to be yet another step up, and it delivers. Another huge increase in the size of the game-world (upwards of twenty towns), enemies, items, equipment, and the addition of character classes give DW3 a flavor different from one and two. Again, the gameplay and graphics are very similar, and the premise is almost identical. Still, #3 is by far the best of the three.

Earthbound Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat Gigas... To dominate: ... and max all character levels Comments: Earthbound gets the distinction of being the least serious RPG to date. The names, items, storyline, and dialogue are all just intended to be humorous and enjoyable. While it's tough in spots, Earthbound is a decent traditional RPG that's very fun to play and very lighthearted. Unless you like your RPGs deathly serious, pick this one up.

Excitebike Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Complete all circuit races... To dominate: ... and break all records Comments: I never actually owned Excitebike, but it's such a classic that I just have to put it here. The thing I enjoyed the most was the ability to create and race your own track... Hours of fun. Pretty fun to just sit down and have a go at.

Eye of the Beholder Super Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 4 / 10 To complete: Defeat the Beholder... To dominate: ... and do it without dying Comments: I swear I didn't know it was a Dungeons & Dragons game when I bought it. Slow gameplay, tedium, incredible challenge, no guidance, little storyline, and a host of other flat-out bad things.... Not a fun game to play. I gave up a quarter of the way through it.

F-Zero Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Win all circuits... To dominate: ... on the highest difficulty level Comments: F-Zero is a futuristic racer, and a very addictive one. The challenge is very good, and there's a huge variety of tracks to race on. I still pick this one up occasionally to have a quick run-through. A solid pick.

F-Zero X Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete all circuit races... To dominate: ... with all cars Comments: A great racer for those who enjoy fast-paced, extremely competitive, heart-pounding racing games. A huge number of tracks (over 30, some random), a huge number of vehicles (30), and a huge challenge range make this game quite daunting to master. Fun to play, but you might tire of it after completing your hundredth circuit or so.

Final Fantasy Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Chaos... To dominate: ... with all characters at level 50 Comments: The one that started it all for me. A classic RPG, and a very tough one. If you really want a challenge, try playing all four characters as one class. Good luck.

Final Fantasy 3 Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Defeat Kefka To dominate: All characters master all spells Comments: Possibly the best SNES RPG out there. Huge amounts of gameplay, lands, enemies, items, everything - any of the 14 characters can learn any of the 60 spells, as an example. Plus, an actual storyline! This game is very easy to get drawn into, and very tough to get away from. Highly addictive, but well worth it. Play it, and play it now.

Final Fantasy 7 PlayStation   Status:   Completed Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: FF7 didn't strike me as that awesome of a game. Sure, it's got a decent plot line, it plays quickly and smoothly, and it pulls off genuine emotion in a video game very, very well ... but that extra spark just isn't there. It's one of those that's enjoyable enough to play through, and you should if you like other RPG's, but ... I didn't think it was anything extremely special.

Final Fantasy 8 PlayStation   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: This game is very much different from all the other FInal Fantasy games I've played. Apparently I didn't really understand the Junctioning system (that's how your characters' attributes increase) for a long time, so the game seemed very hard. Then I learned it, and it got easy. Then I got to the end, and it got hard again. I'm at the entrance of the final area of the game, but haven't put forth the effort to actually finish it yet. The one thing I do like about this game is how it throws you into situations where you have no idea what's going on, and forces you to pick a side. It's very realistic in its portrayal of politics and alliances, and the confusion that results from them.

Final Fantasy 9 PlayStation   Status:   Completed Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: Final Fantasy 9 is a very good game. I found myself fairly addicted to this one for quite awhile. The plot isn't necessarily the best, but the character development in this game is the best I've ever seen. The excellent sound, graphics, and video scenes help a lot, too. My biggest complaint is the final boss. I had no idea I had beaten the game until the credits started rolling; the final battle is just that random. Definitely worth a play-through!

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 5 / 10 To complete: Defeat Dark King... To dominate: ... and max all character levels Comments: This is a very good beginner's RPG. If you've never heard of a role-player, this is where to start. On the other hand, if you're at all an experienced gamer, you won't likely find this very good. The lack of a random element, lack of free overworld movement, and painfully predictable battles (plus a weak at best storyline - look at the final boss's name, for Pete's sake) add to make this more of a pain than a pleasure to play through.

Final Fantasy Origins: Final Fantasy 1 PlayStation   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Chaos... To dominate: ... and max all character levels Comments: A remake of the original Final Fantasy. Completely redone graphics and music, with the same maps and gameplay. A brilliant idea, and so very much fun to play through. Plus, the disc includes both Final Fantasy 1 and 2, so how can you go wrong? Never actually finished it, but it's still a possibility.

Final Fantasy Origins: Final Fantasy 2 PlayStation   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 4 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... and max all character levels Comments: A remake of the original (Japanese) Final Fantasy 2, which was never released in the US. Biggest problem: I'm not fond of the experience system; there isn't one. The only way to get more HP is to get hit, the only way to get more MP is to cast spells, etc. The game just feels cumbersome and tedious, especially since you're given no feedback at all about how close you are to leveling up, etc. Not a recommendation of mine.

Final Fantasy Tactics PlayStation   Status:   Completed Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Altima... To dominate: ... and max out all characters Comments: An incredibly detailed, turn-based strategy-slash-role-playing game. It took me about three hours to figure out if it was an incredibly good game or an incredibly bad game. Unlike any other Final Fantasy out there, and definitely worth a look if you're a fan of the others.

Final Fantasy X PlayStation 2   Status:   In progress Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Sin... To dominate: ... and complete all side-quests Comments: This is an exceptional game. It plays like a movie, with wonderful character development, a great plot, simply stellar graphics, and decent music and spoken dialogue. A plethora of side-quests lets you get as involved as you like in the game, but you won't want to stop playing the main plot line. Some parts are very difficult; I'm very close to beating this one.

Goldeneye Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Trevelyan... To dominate: ... and get all cheats Comments: Another exceptional game. The first decent first-person-shooter for a console system, with great play control, a very good range of challenge, and incredible gameplay variety. On top of that, the best multiplayer ever seen to date... I spent a lot of time playing this, and you should too.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PlayStation 2   Status:   In progress Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Complete main quest... To dominate: ... and all side quests Comments: My first foray into the GTA games, this one is absolutely huge. It's very fun, very destructive, and quite challenging. I can have as much fun just running around town as I can actually doing the quests. It'll be interesting to watch this one develop.

Halo X-box   Status:   Completed Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Complete single-player mode... To dominate: ... on the highest difficulty level Comments: Halo is, simply put, perfection. An incredible single-player mode, with an actual plot, strategy, a wide variety of gameplay, and a huge range of challenge - not to mention some of the best music and graphics ever seen. Don't play it alone in a dark room, that's for sure. Seriously, go play this game. Oh yeah, and incredible multiplayer too - up to 16 players. With strategy. And graphics. Absolute perfection.

Halo 2 X-box   Status:   Completed Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Complete single-player mode... To dominate: ... on legendary difficulty Comments: What a great sequel. The single-player is far too short, but the multiplayer more than makes up for any faults. Playing lag-free on Xbox Live with your friends, complete with voice communication, is an experience absolutely not to be missed, and one that never gets old.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 PC   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete all single-player campaigns... To dominate: ... on the hardest difficulty level Comments: A very good turn-based strategy game, and a very good extension of the previous games in the series. Worth a look, since it's a couple of years old now and can be found for really cheap.

Jedi Knight 2 PC   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete single-player mode... To dominate: ... on the highest difficulty level Comments: I never really played this for the single-player. This one was all about multiplayer, and it has a very good multiplayer engine. It's a first-person-shooter by nature, but the added element of Lightsabers, used for combat and defense, makes this unique. I'd recommend it.

Katamari Damacy PlayStation 2   Status:   In progress Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete all 'missions'... To dominate: ... and find all presents Comments: What a unique game. Your goal is to roll a ball around, gathering stuff and making it as big as you can in a time limit. It sounds ridiculous, but it's among the more innovative and amusing games I've ever come across. At just $20, it's well worth a look.

Ken Griffey Jr Presents Major League Baseball Super Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: Win a World Series.... To dominate: ... of a 162-game season Comments: I was never much for sports games, but this one could usually keep my attention for a little while.... Though I think that may have been more because it was my first "real" sports game. Not bad, per se, but definitely not my style.

Kid Icarus Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat Medusa To dominate: Collect or purchase all items Comments: A surprisingly fun and un-lame game where you're an angel who shoots stuff with a bow. It has a good deal of challenge; one misstep and you'll be starting a level over. A decent variety of play also, with sequential stages mixed in with some maze-like (and very tough!) dungeons. Give it a shot.

Kirby's Adventure Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat King Dedede... To dominate: ... and find all abilities Comments: If Kirby's Adventure lacks any one thing, it's challenge. A great variety of stages and gameplay styles, combined with the ability to take the attributes of any enemy you swallow (and you swallow a lot of enemies!) make this game one that's tough to play the same way twice. A great introductory game for people unfamiliar with console systems, and a fun break from more hardcore gaming.

Maniac Mansion Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: Find a successful ending To dominate: Find all successful endings Comments: I don't exactly remember the premise of the story, but three teenagers start poking around this strange house with even stranger inhabitants. With a point-and-click sytle interface that's poorly suited to a controller, playing the game is cumbersome, but there's so much to do and so many things you can try that it'll keep you coming back ... until you get frustrated by the lack of clues on how to proceed. Worth a look, but a short one.

Marble Madness Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Complete final level... To dominate: ... and beat all high scores Comments: I still have yet to see another game like this one. You run a marble through a set of 'mazes', which are really more like very linear stages. The biggest hazard, besides falling off the edge at every turn and the crazy enemies, is the control system; it takes a little while for it to sink in that you're controlling a marble. Very unique, and worth a look.

Mario Kart 64 Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Complete all circuit races... To dominate: ... backwards, with 150cc engines Comments: Mario Kart 64 was an early N64 game, but it's still one of the best. A great selection of tracks, quick and responsive controls, a wide challenge range, fun and quirky items, and fast-paced races add up to a great game. Throw in the multiplayer and you have a real winner. Play this!

Mario Party Nintendo 64   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: Mario Party is an exceptionally innovative game geared toward groups of more than three, but less than five. It plays like a board game, with a scoring system of stars and coins, and a mini-game between each turn. The huge variety of mini-games, competition, and fun gameplay make this a definite winner at any party, but tough to play by yourself.

Mega Man 3 Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat Wily... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: Mega Man 3 was the first installment to introduce some key features: A slide, for getting out of the way quickly, and Rush, the robotic dog who can amazingly morph into a spring, submarine, and hovercraft. Very fun to play, and easily replayable. It's amazing how killing a set of robots just never gets old.

Mega Man X Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat Sigma... To dominate: ... and find all items Comments: The first, and arguably the best, Super Nintendo rendition of the classic Mega Man series. Slick graphics, fast and responsive controls, and great music make this a good game, if a bit on the easy side. Has great replay value, and is perfect when you have half an hour to kill.

Metroid Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat Mother Brain... To dominate: ... and find 255 missiles Comments: Metroid was yet another ground-breaking NES game; unfortunately, it broke a little too much ground. Basically, you start off in the middle of a huge maze with nothing, and you're expected to traverse the maze, finding items and defeating enemies in a semi-logical sequence. The game gives you no direction, and it's incredibly large, and incredibly tough. Virtually impossible to do without mapping it all out and having infinite patience; I could never finish it. A great game, but just too large and too much effort for me.

Monster Party Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: Complete single-player mode... To dominate: ... and do it all in one sitting Comments: Monster Party could use some work on the story-telling. You're a boy with a baseball bat who has to go around a bunch of seemingly unrelated stages, killing things (usually by hitting their projectiles back at them). Some stages are maze-like, others linear, and the variety is allright. The game gets tough, though, and you'll be left wondering how many more tries you can possibly give it. Worth a look for novelty's sake.

Mortal Kombat Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: Defeat Shang Tsung... To dominate: ... on the highest difficulty level Comments: A classic fighting game. Great fun for two people to mash buttons and beat the snot out of each other. But, like most fighting games, you do the single-player once and that's about it. Still, good fun for two.

NBA Jam: Tournament Edition Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Complete a regular season... To dominate: ... and never lose a game Comments: This was a very fun game, especially with tons of people. Very reminiscent of old-school ArchRivals, the most fun thing was just kicking the crap out of your opponents. Plus, being 'on fire' and having some of the most ridiculously sweet dunks ever fabricated into 16 bits didn't hurt either. Verdict: Fun, but sort of shallow.

NightCaster X-box   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... and find all items Comments: This one is fairly mindless. It's quite pretty, and a good hack-and-slash sort of game, except with magic, which adds a twist. Think basically Gauntlet-style gameplay - not the most challenging, and not the most rewarding. Never did get around to finishing it.

Penny Racers Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: Complete all circuit races... To dominate: ... in class AA Comments: Penny Racers had potential. It's too bad that there are only about eight tracks to race on... But the racing experience is pretty fun. A unique item-swapping system based on who wins adds a sense of competition, and the challenge is way up there in the higher classes. All in all, though, it's too short and has some frustrating aspects.

Perfect Dark Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... and get all cheats Comments: Perfect. What a game. Similar in gameplay to Goldeneye, but with over thirty weapons, a great storyline, insane challenge, and superb graphics, Perfect Dark is the ultimate Nintendo 64 game. The multiplayer is incredible also... Best multiplayer ever, second only to Halo. Buy and play this at all costs.

Pinball Nintendo   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: What can you say? I mean, it's pinball. This was the slickest thing going for awhile, and even now, I still don't think it's bad. The bonus-mini-game is innovative and fun, and the overall experience is good. This consumed a lot of my time, and good time it was.

Pinball Dreams Super Nintendo   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: You know, it doesn't suck nearly as bad as the name implies. Four tables, a wide challenge range, decent graphics and decent physics make this actually enjoyable to play. I still pick it up every so often.

Pipe Dream Nintendo   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: Pipe Dream was a unique puzzle game; you had to build as long of a chain of pipe as you could in each level, with a short head start before the liquid starts flowin'. Miss a predefined lower limit for length, and you have to try again. With special pieces like reservoirs and pumps, it was interesting, but you could only play for so long before it got repetitive. Also had a nasty tendency to freeze in the higher levels when the scores got ridiculously high. Despite all that, it'll be worth a shot, just to experience its uniqueness.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time X-box   Status:   In progress Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat final boss... To dominate: ... And find everything Comments: This one is a gem. Picked up at Best Buy for twenty bucks, you can't go wrong with it. The scenery is gorgeous, and it's quite fun to play. A pretty decent mix of exploration, acrobatics, problem-solving, and combat, and one that you can take pretty much at your own pace. There are a couple issues with sound volume and camera angles that I don't like, but they don't detract much from the game itself. Got twenty bucks and some spare time? Get this.

Project Gotham Racing X-box   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete all arcade and Kudos races... To dominate: ... and get gold medals on all of them Comments: Project Gotham is a unique game. Of course, there are standard racing-game style modes, but the majority of the game is concerned with getting Kudos, a measure of style. Kudos are earned by going through cone gates, sliding on turns, going airborne, etc, and are used for new cars and paintjobs. Exceptional graphics and addictive gameplay make this game, but there's very, very little in the way of multiplayer.

Quest 64 Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat Mammon... To dominate: ... and max all spirit levels Comments: A good but rudimentary RPG for the N64. The most impressive thing about this was its experience scheme; instead of operating off a points system, the game rewarded you for what you did. Run more, your agility goes up. Cast more magic, your magic power increases. A game that's worth a look.

Rollerball Nintendo   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: A very souped-up version of pinball. This one was four screens high, with all kinds of hidden stuff, bonus features, etc, plus a very fun two-player mode. If you like pinball games, be sure to check this out.

Secret of Evermore Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Carltron... To dominate: ... and find all artifacts Comments: Evermore... What a great game. Plays like Secret of Mana, with a real-time, charge-based battle system, complete with RPG standbys like experience points and HP. The trick is the magic system - alchemy, so instead of having MP, you have ingredients and have to ration them. Plus, finding everything is hard! A really great game.

Secret of Mana Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat the Mana Beast... To dominate: ... and max all character levels Comments: The thing that sets Secret of Mana apart from every other RPG is the ability to have two, or even three, people playing simultaneously. In a real-time based game like this, it gets very hectic, and it's awesome to have multiple people. Even by yourself, though, this is still a great game, and very fun to work your way through. A must-play for almost everyone.

Snake Rattle n Roll Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete final level... To dominate: ... and do it without dying Comments: Snake Rattle 'n Roll was a great game, quirky and fun, but with excellent gameplay. The 3/4 view is a bit confusing at first, but it's what makes the game work. With good graphics, great gameplay, and extreme challenge, SRNR is a great game to pick back up from time to time. Unfortunately, it was too challenging; I never beat it.

Star Fox 64 Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat Andross... To dominate: ... and get a medal on each level Comments: This is a pretty good game, with a very good variety of stages and settings, decent graphics, and good control. The challenge is a little bit lacking... Plus I'm not generally fond of flying-type games. All in all, though, this one does a decent all-around job.

StarTropics Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Defeat Zoda... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: StarTropics is sort of a cross between the overhead style of Zelda and free, unrestricted 2-D dungeon-maze gameplay. The combination works well, and it's a fun game to play, despite having some tedious parts and some insanely hard parts. It's worth playing through. Hint: 747. Trust me, you'll need it.

Starcraft PC   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Complete single-player mode ... To dominate: ... and be really good online Comments: Starcraft was my first experience in the Real-Time Strategy genre, and I have to say that I'm not a huge fan. The game was fun enough in single-player mode, but once things started getting hectic, I couldn't keep up. Online play was even worse, with everyone being so ridiculously hardcore that I just got destroyed. Not a bad game by any means, just not my style.

Stunt Race FX Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 5 / 10 To complete: Complete all circuit races... To dominate: ... with all cars Comments: Truth be told, the Super Nintendo just wasn't made to do polygons, and certainly not large numbers of them. While Stunt Race FX is fun to play, with unique tracks and modes, the sluggish gameplay and almost painful process of watching the CPU catch up to the action makes it tough to play.

Super Bomberman Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: Defeat Black Bomberman... To dominate: ... and do it all in one sitting Comments: Super Bomberman is fun for about an hour, or if you have more than one person playing it. The ability to punch and kick your bombs is very ncie and adds a whole nother dimension to it, but the single-player just has no variety, and little challenge. Multiplayer saves this game.

Super Castlevania 4 Super Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat Dracula... To dominate: ... and do it all in one sitting Comments: Castlevania 4 is such a huge improvement over 3 that it's tough to compare the two. Just being on a different system helps so much. Gameplay-wise, my favorite thing is your newfound ability to whip in any of the eight directions, and to use your whip as a grappling hook of sorts. Unfortunately, there are no alternate routes through the game, and only one character to play as, but I still think it beats 3 hands-down.

Super Mario 64 Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Bowser... To dominate: ... and find 120 stars Comments: What a game for its time. The first fully immersive, 3-D world that was actually decent. It's almost more fun to just start walking around and exploring the huge worlds than it is to pursue the (incredibly challenging) objectives. Definitely a must-play.

Super Mario Bros. Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 6 / 10 To complete: Defeat Bowser... To dominate: ... without using any warps Comments: I have to admit, I've never had the patience to sit down and play through this game. But, this is where it all started, so it definitely deserves a nod. The very first side-scrolling, goomba-stomping, fast-paced game... The very embodiment of a classic. I should really pick this one back up sometime.

Super Mario Bros. 2 Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 5 / 10 To complete: Defeat King Wart... To dominate: ... without using any warps Comments: Installment number two was 180 degrees off of the original. Instead, this focused on exploration, allowing you to throw things at your enemies (or pick them up, then throw them) while using one of four playable characters in each level. No Bowser, and the Princess is playable (and, I think, the best character)... The game is a major departure, and I was never a big fan. Still worth a look though, for posterity.

Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Bowser... To dominate: ... without using any warps Comments: SMB3 is just a great game. With incredibly inproved graphics, control, and sound, new abilities and items, and open-ended play, SMB3 is one of my favorite non-RPG NES games. Go play it, but it gets real tough later on.

Super Mario Kart Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete the Star Cup... To dominate: ... on the highest difficulty level Comments: This game was the greatest for awhile. Still incredibly fun to pick up with two people inbetween classes. Loose, challenging, fun gameplay, and the first racer I ever played to introduce the concept of items... All around great fun.

Super Mario RPG Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Smithy... To dominate: ... and max all character levels Comments: A great, quirky, fun, unique game. Combine the eccentricities of the Mario series of games, a combination turn-based and real-time battle system, fun characters, good graphics, and a three-quarter viewpoint and you have one of the best 16-bit RPGs out there. Its only fault is being light on challenge.

Super Mario World Super Nintendo   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: Defeat Bowser... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: I never played all the way through this, but it's really quite the game. From 8-bit to 16-bit is just such a huge jump... And it's still a classic. Someday I'll pick it back up and finish it.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Bowser... To dominate: ... and get 100% on all levels Comments: Another very unique game. Combining speed, reflexes, exploration, and quirkiness, this is a real winner. The most fun part is the eggs, though - your primary weapon is throwing a practically unlimited supply of eggs. Bounce 'em off walls, floors, enemies... Oodles of fun. Not overly challenging, but a great game.

Super Smash Bros. Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Defeat Master Hand... To dominate: ... on the highest difficulty level Comments: This is one of the rare, completely-different games that comes out every so often. A sort of fighting game, it employs much more strategy and timing than your typical button-mashing fighter. Knock people off the edge and stay on yourself; a simple premise. But with a dozen unique characters, incredible one-player replay value, and almost infinite 4-player goodness, it keeps you coming back. Excellent game.

Tetris Nintendo   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: Where would we all be without Tetris? Truly a puzzle game for all ages, Tetris is world-renowned for its easy-to-learn, impossible-to-master gameplay. And this is where I got started. Ah, nostalgia.

Tetrisphere Nintendo 64   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 7 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: Tetrisphere was another good effort at a new and intuitive puzzle game, but it just didn't work out all that well. The challenge really wasn't there, though it was worth playing just for the novelty value of it.

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind PC   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Dagoth Ur To dominate: N/A Comments: This game is simply un-dominatable. It's so huge, and so open-ended, that it's literally impossible to do everything in the game in under three complete playings-through. Your character is completely customizable, your path through the game is wide-open, and it's up to you to just ... go. I actually quit playing this because it was too huge, though I might start again sometime. If you like wide-open RPG's, this is your game.

The Legend of Zelda Nintendo   Status:   Completed Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Ganon ... To dominate: ... on the Second Quest Comments: One of the all-time great games. It's a legend; it inspired a whole series, a cartoon show, action figures, a cereal, and who knows what else. An innovative combination of adventure and RPG play... If you've never played this one, you're missing out.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Super Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Ganon... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: True to form with the Zelda series, this game rocks. Great gameplay, great puzzles, great exploration, incredible dungeons.... Just a blast to play. A real winner, and definitely something you should complete if you haven't.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Nintendo 64   Status:   Played but never finished Rating: 5 / 10 To complete: Defeat Skull Kid... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: Agh. This should not be called a Zelda game. Sure, it has some of the exploration and puzzle elements, and the gameplay is similar, but this is just terrible. Basically, you have three days before the world ends in which to do stuff. Of course, you can go back to the start of those three days, but when you do, you lose most of your stuff. Incredible tedium, and the element of being timed makes this game far more of a chore than a pleasure.

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 10 / 10 To complete: Defeat Ganon ... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: Ocarina of Time is a serious contender for the best N64 game. Challenge, logic, puzzle-solving, reflexes, and patience come together to form a great game, with plenty to see and do, a great control scheme, and simply a fun experience. Possibly the most engrossing N64 game out there. You should definitely play through this one.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Find all tapes... To dominate: ... with all characters Comments: The original Tony Hawk was a gem. A completely new line of games, and a very well-done one at that, took everyone by surprise. Simple, intuitive controls, impressively realistic but enjoyable physics, and a wide variety of skating areas made this a real winner. Unlike THPS2, it didn't overtax the 64, and it came across well. It's also included in the X-box version of THPS2x, though, so I would recommend finding it there.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Nintendo 64   Status:   Completed Rating: 5 / 10 To complete: Find all cash and tapes... To dominate: ... with all characters Comments: This was out way before the X-box version was, and it shows. A great game for its time, but by comparison, its choppy graphics and sluggish controls kill the entire experience. Frankly, the 64 just wasn't made for this kind of game, and while it's enjoyable for awhile, it quickly gets frustrating. Pick up the X-box version instead.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x X-box   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Find all cash and tapes... To dominate: ... with all characters Comments: Nothing new and exciting with this game, but it's a great game to have. Perfect for killing lots of short time intervals, for instance, between classes. And then during classes. Suprisingly addictive, with some neat X-box-only features. Again, nothing really new or different from THPS 1 and 2 for other systems, but still a very quality game.

Unreal Championship X-box   Status:   Completed Rating: 8 / 10 To complete: Complete single-player mode... To dominate: ... on the highest difficulty level Comments: Your standard first-person-shooter, almost directly ported over from the PC. The only thing that sets this apart is the virtually lag-free, massively multiplayer online system known as Xbox Live that lets you play with up to 16 people simultaneously. With a headset and real-time voice communication. Unfortunately, the single-player mode lacks depth, but is fun nonetheless.

Yoshi Nintendo   Status:   Not beatable Rating: 5 / 10 To complete: N/A To dominate: N/A Comments: Yoshi was a valiant attempt at a puzzle game, but unfortunately, it just doesn't work too well. There are four stacks of blocks, and you can swap adjacent columns; stack two like blocks and they vanish. Place a top-yoshi-shell over a bottom-yoshi-shell and you have the game's trademark - a brief appearance by Yoshi himself and a big score increase. It sounds simple, and it is... and that's its downfall. That's all there is. A valiant effort, but ... probably not a game to play for very long.

Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link Nintendo   Status:   Completed and dominated Rating: 9 / 10 To complete: Defeat Link's Shadow... To dominate: ... and find everything Comments: Allright, so I couldn't have done it without a strategy guide. So sue me. The second Zelda installment is almost the complete opposite of the first one, but I like it even better. Combining an overhead world map with side-scrolling battle scenes, dungeons, and towns might not seem to work well, and a lot of people don't like this game. I'd encourage you to try it, though... It's one of my favorites. Be forewarned, it's insanely hard at the end.