Foreward: Monkspider's Top 25 Games of All Time

Well it's been a while since I have blogged on here, but to bring the blog back with style, and as a fundraiser of sorts for my brother Rob Kreh's upcoming Stephen King film project I am going to do a top twenty five list. I don't pretend that this is some kind of objective critique of any sort. This is merely my top 25 games at this point in time. I am sure there are some great games that deserve to be on this list if I had played them and I am sure this list will change in the future but this is merely where I am at right now. In fact two games that I am playing right now but haven't finished are likely contenders for a future version of this list (Uncharted, Psychonauts).

I have heard some people ask how I could have possibly created such a list. The process was admittedly difficult. I tried to go through each generation of games and list my favorites. I referred to other "top" lists on the internet to see if they thought of any games that I forgetting and then I began numbering my choices starting with my number one favorite on down.

So what games made the list? Which ones narrowly missed out? Just to start things off, I am going to include numbers 26 to 50 just for historical value. These games put up a valiant effort but came just short of making the top 25. They are still some of my favorite games ever though. Expect number 25 to be revealed within the next couple days with an accompanying article.

Here are the "honorable mentions".
50. Super Mario Brothers 2-j/The Lost Levels (NES)
49. Command and Conquer Red Alert (PSX)
48. Ms. Pacman (Arcade)
47. Super Mario Brothers 2 USA (NES)
46. Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX)
45. Mario Brothers (Atari 2600)
44. Duck Tales (NES)
43. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Gameboy)
42. Final Fantasy IX (PSX)
41. River Raid (Atari 2600)
40. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
39. Star Wars: Empire at War (PC)
38. Mutant League Football (Genesis)
37. God of War (PS2)
36. Gears of War (XBOX 360)
35. Europa Universalis 2 (PC)
34. Resident Evil (PSX)
33. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2)
32. Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
31. Super Mario Brothers (NES)

30. Advance Wars 2 (GBA)

Incredibly challenging, but rarely frustrating and highly rewarding. One of my favorite parts was the secret levels in each chapter that would unlock secret AT-AT super tanks until the next level. I really kick myself for selling this one. I guess really what made it so great for was the divine sweet spot of difficulty and the highly strategic gameplay that stimulated the part of my brain that is in sync with my past life as Genghis Khan.


29. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

Easily the highlight of the Zelda series for me. I loved the dark and light world dynamic, which is incredibly cliche today but was invented with this game. The other thing i really loved it's ireverent sense of humor: attacking chickens repeatedly would eventually cause a sworm of them to mob you until death and there was a weird guy in the desert who would follow you around forever if you stole his sign. A lot of cleverly designed dungeons and great bosses.


28. Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

Although I had mixed feelings about the battle system initially, eventually I decided it had the best sheer gameplay of any FF game. Although the story is not as strong as some, it had some really great characters, including one of my top ten characters in any game, the legendary Dr. Cid.


27. Resident Evil 2 (PSX)

Man, I have such great memories of playing this one with Rob. Truth be told I don't remember a whole lot about the actual story, but I remember playing it over and over, Going from Leon's disc to Claire's back to Leon's trying to unlock stuff. I don't think I was ever as sucked into any of the other Resident Evils as I was with this one. It just had rock solid gameplay and is probably the magnum opus of the tank control Resident Evils.


26. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Wow, lots of great memories on this one too. The thing that always comes to mind first is how great the music was. This game is possibly my favorite soundtrack of all time, and easily in the top five. Aside from that, is has some great lines ("Die Monster! You don't belong in tis world!") with some legendarily cheesy voice acting. It was a unique amalgamation of Castlevania, Metroid, and various RPG elements.

One of my fondest memories was back in high school watching Joe unexpectedly get obsesssed with this one. Joe was pretty much a strict RPG guy at the time and he somehow matched the world record for the highest percentage completed, utilizing several ridiculous glitches to access unintended areas. Years later at Jason's house, Jay bought the XBLA version and Joe still to this day was an absolute scholar on this game, citing various statistics on drop rates, analyzing the strengths/weaknesses of various items at length, able to explain to Jason the absolute minutia of every nook and cranny of the map just from memory. It was amazing. This one came soooooo close to making the top 25, I kept flipping back and forth with one other title, but it narrowly lost in the end.

Well that brings us to number twenty five. What game *could* it possibly be? Hopefully I have you on the edge of your seats. Stay tuned as the list continues!