For instance. Just for instance, it is my nature to criticize, vivisect, excoriate, and scour--all in the service of a theoretical, bright, and shining Truth. This is the element in me that operates under and embodies the sigil of the hierophant--it is my spiritual inclination to reveal, specifically, to illuminate with sacred flame. This means it is also in my nature to drive away shadows, to banish darkness--and in this holy task, it is easy to let one's fire burn overzealously.
I received this wisdom about myself when a dear friend performed my Saturn Return at the age of 27. I have had lots of cards pulled and values assigned to those cards, but these stand out indelibly. A powerful witch performed the magic, which is significant, but also, she and I are gifted with an ability to understand each other that is damn near preternatural. The reason I am not an actual priest is that I operate under the reverse hierophant, which is to say, I am more on the order of a heretic; my freedom to think and feel as I please being just as important as any Truth. Voltaire and I share a birthday, by the way.
All this to say that it is easy for me to skew negative, and negativity drives about twice the engagement that positivity does. People investigate and engage with each other over negative assertions, whereas they will nod sagely in response to a positive assertion and move on with their lives--and thank the lord, honestly. But I always try, always make a certain effort--though often I may fail--to be positive, and even when very negative, I try to leaven the experience with reminders of the universe's impassivity regading moral positions and exhortations towards mercy in all things, which do not sell well.
Rest assured--the posts in which I am an unmitigated asshole do quite well in comparison to many. But I do not celebrate, encourage, or pursue this. I am much prouder of any other type of post that manages to break ten actual readers.
*
What does this have to do with video games, Joseph, you ask--since of course, all comers are chomping at the bit for the next piece of FACTUALLY GAME THEORY 2024--and who could be blamed?!
A lot, though, since whether or not and how people choose to skew positive or negative about games, from just people hanging out in their basements to developers and critics to the people arrayed around the gleaming oak boardroom tables has always had and will continue to have a huge impact on whether people are transformed or passed over by interactive events of absolutely vital importance. Because games maybe change people more completely than other art forms, a truth which is both touted as a reason to destroy all video games and a reason to abandon our physical bodies in pursuit of the Infinite Ludic, and if so, then our attitudes towards and faith in the medium--and as such, our interactions with its apparatus that are able to influence its trajectory--are loaded with significance, and therefore, a type of responsibility.
Naturally, this is true to an extent for all media. But in games, young and powerful as they are, the question is particularly vital and bound up in the shifting sands of the present moment.
Another direct relation is simply that this post is all about things I love a lot, and it is important to think about why such material matters and resonates--this joyful relation of interactive experiences, digital adventures, and potent revelations regarding the nature of the universe. It is important also to establish for you, dear reader, where I am coming from. This list, being a list, is an exercise in exclusion. By highlighting these 25 experiences I am in essence cutting infinite experiences out of the purview, and in a sense this is an act of violence inescapable. But I am in no way prizing material I have selected over material I have not in any kind of subjective or critically exhaustive manner.
As I take great pains to enunciate often, I am interested in many things at once--this blog overall is mainly about books I read, in the end, as they are my primary source of life, but everything else that I am is bound up in the reader that I am, and the reader that I am informs everything about how I see and understand the world. Also, as a phenomenon in a contiunuum, I have physical and chronomatic limits. Believe me when I say that if I could read every book, be they novels or nonfiction or fairy tales or comic strips or operator's manuals or pamphlets or zines or companion booklets or plays or experimental linguistic "dhecontructions", and look at every painting and sculpture and piece of design and architecture, and play every game of every kind, and listen to every scrap of music every composed, and then, say something definitive, and also learn to work and fight and fuck and be a person, I would--but I can't. I am just a point in spacetime, with a beginning and end, and demands on the whole process. So it goes.
These are my games. Some may be your games as well--that is a blessing. If none are, or I have omitted a game that seems to you better than any I have included, let that be a blessing also, and don't fuck with me or anyone about it. Make your own list; you are free, and if you are somehow suffering under my perceived lash, know that the hand holding the whip is your own.
Now, if you take issue with the concept that their order is not precisely linear, that I have placed a hard limit one sentence of commentary per entry, or any example of that sentence's content--well, there is always that point at which one must accept responsibilities for one's feelings and actions with a smile. It is our shared obligation to meditate on this relation.
*
hon. mentions: Unicorn Overlord--the love, titanic and impossibly passionate, is simply too fresh to assess for a place on the list. 3D Mario games, especially Sunshine and Odyssey, Fable Series, Divinity 2: Original Sin, Ico+Shadow of the Colossus, Guitar Hero III, Sonic, Contra, Mario Kart, a bunch of Star Wars games, I could go on forever though, let's gooooo
- 25: Ninja Gaiden (2004): Sometimes, apropos of either nothing at all or the texture of basement carpet, flashbulb memories of moments within this game overtake me--moments which assured me beyond doubt that I am capable of incredible, adult feats with a controller in my hands, which is an important moment in a young person's maturation.
- 24: Duke Nukem 3D: The Compaq tower my uncle gifted us, his younger brother's family, in 1997 had been largely wiped of programs he had installed on it--but this remained, a winking gift, and as it has been with uncles and nephews since time immemorial, I was shaped by this program's illicit thrills thereby.
- 23: F-Zero GX: I don't know that any racer even really matters to me except this one--others are games, or sims, or Mario Kart, only one of which interests me at all (ok, ok, Star Wars Racer)--but F-Zero represents something else to me, and of all the F-Zero games this F-Zero is my F-Zero, and this is the geometry I personally require from racetracks, and you cannot fucking beat me at these races, so it's my favorite.
- 22: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones: Possibly I am the only person for whom Sands of Time was not a relentless joy attack--indeed, despite it being actively stupid, I was fifteen enough to enjoy Warrior Within and preferred it overall--but Two Thrones made mincemeat of both its predecessors and represents redemption on every conceivable axis, which I am a sucker for.
- 21: Banjo-Tooie: For scale, humor, persistence, writing, variety, color, and sheer joy, this gargantuan adventure represents a high, smooth wall for games that try to operate in this space--rare in and of themselves.
- 20: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past+Oracle of Seasons/Ages+Minish Cap+Echoes of Wisdom: Isometric Zelda has that OG piquancy that never gets old; here is my slice of the greatest in that category.
- 19: Street Fighter II: This game is Street Fighter II.
- 18: Tomb Raider (2013): I didn't give a fuck about Lara Croft, since raiding a single tomb in 1994 at age 5 and finding it about as distasteful a virtual experience as I had ever endured, but when SquareEnix does anything, I pay attention, and presented with this platter, I devoured even the bones and feathers with abandon and great satisfaction.
- 17: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Maybe it's better just to keep my ideas to myself--though I will say this: teasing me with the concept of bardic abilities and not delivering is something I still bash my skull against in this game.
- 16: Eastward: Fuck man, all I can say is you should play this game, at least to try.
- 15: Resident Evil 4: God bless the Gamestop guy was willing to break the law in order that I might be able to play this, my first M-rated purchase--going to Gamestop was second only to going to the library or the bookstore as a leisure destination, and I like to imagine he'd seen me play the demo ten times and figured the damage was done, though it wasn't--this game expanded my notions of the possible with real psychic violence, which I appreciate wholeheartedly.
- 14: Soul Calibur II: The traditional fighter I have sunk the most hours into, the only one in which I have true combos* for most characted locked properly into the muscle memory.
- 13: Donkey Kong Country 2: In games, unlike in other sequential works, a sequel often represents the glorious culmination rather than the bastard scramble derided as the sophomore effort; DKC is great, but the sequel just slaps harder, and if you disagree, I refer you to the fact that 2 is the one with the pirates.
- 12: Kingdom Hearts II: Another example of the sequel principle; I literally cannot get through the first KH despite honest, bare-knuckle effort, but II is a blessing from heaven.
- 11: Pokémon RGBYSV Versions: Those who sneer at this franchise really are missing out on amazing mechanics and incredibly rich strategy--but as it is known and proven that I am an actual crazy person when it comes to these little guys, I'm just going to stop myself here.
- 10: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time+Majora's Mask+The Wind Waker+Twilight Princess+Skyward Sword: These 3D Zeldas speak for themselves; their currency across the culture is as near to absolute as we get, maybe, except for Mario and Sonic and Cloud.
- 9: Halo 4: And this guy, maybe.
- 8: Starfox 64: Still waiting for any game of this type to materialize that can equal its polish and verve.
- 7: Super Smash Bros.: Yes, the original--even with everything that follows, perhaps because everything that has followed actually somehow informs the progenitor as the progenitor sets their template, this game is still as exciting and hilarious and awesome as it was when it came out, and it even remains interesting--the only shortcoming is the short roster and the few stages.
- 6: Metroid Prime: It would belong here because it is perfect in and of itself and because I love so much a game that allows you to literally read as much of your environment as this one does--but it is also a game which takes its subject matter on a massive conceptual leap and lands, as its protagonist tends to, on both feet and with incredible heft.
- 5: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance+Radiant Dawn: The great epic, the beginning of 3D in FE, the fully orchstrated soundtrack--games not without their problems, but which stand unequaled in scope and are in fairly high standing in terms of difficulty--clearing the last chapters of Radiant Dawn took me four tries and the winning try took like two hours and change.
- 4: Final Fantasy IV, VII, VIII, IX, X, & Tactics Advance: The temptation to write "The Final Fantasy Fractal" after entering zero on the list--implying a position unattainable by numbers which are not imaginary or undefinable, which is more correct--was powerful but I took the more quotidian route in order to expose myself to attempts at incineration.
- 3: Tetris: I dunno, do I have to explain what is perfect, elemental, and eternal about Tetris?
- 2: Super Mario World: After playing it for my entire life, having never been without a copy for twenty years, I can still talk about this game for indeterminate periods of time, periods which indeed might extend with no limit if not interrupted.
- 1: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild+Tears of the Kingdom: Perfect video games, maybe one big perfect video game, perfect works of art, perfect in every way and the more so because the key to this perfection was assembling development teams composed of gamers who live and breathe many other things besides games--certainly an elegant explanation for its sheer insurmountable glory, from my perspective.
*
Hm. I don't know how happy I can be with that, in fact; I seem to be leveraging many unusual statements. Suppose also one could honestly accuse me of cheating and copping out in many ways, but I make the rules here, and I shall leverage whatever tricks I please in order to craft the necessary implications. The Final Fantasy problem strikes me as the thorniest, but this is the compromise I have struck. When so many competing realities can realistically vie for the number-one spot, actually parsing and splitting them can be incrediblly difficult.
Maybe it would help overall, interpretatively speaking and as a reminder of ineluctable reality if I created a sort of shadow list, here on the spot, of games and series which I haven't gotten the chance to play (for myriad potential reasons, but usually lack of hardware or somehow stymied access can be blamed) but I suspected had every chance of making the list.
Xenosaga
Odin Sphere
Valkyria Chronicles
LittleBigPlanet
The Last of Us
Ratchet & Clank
Killer7
Heavy Rain
and probably a bunch more I'm forgetting, but seeing them listed like this is filling me with a longing so profound that it begins to claw at my breast. Enough! Enough.
*
The overarching problem remains, though: quantifying and ranking experiences is a fool's errand. Diverting as it may be, any truth such an endeavor is able to communicate is adjacent to the thing itself.
--JL
*Smash has combos, but I do not think of these as "true" combos and at any rate Smash is certainly no traditional figher, with some exceptions present in very specific matchups at very specific percentages which are essentially immaterial. SSM did have true combos which could take a stock from zero percent, but these represent a fluke in overall design and honestly, as fun as Melee is these combos are, I think, a flaw.
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