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Top 10 Games To Play Before You Die

Top 10 Games To Play Before You Die

This list is a very personal list to me. It’s not a list of best games of all time, nor is it even a list of games that I personally list as “favorite.” Rather, these are games that somehow changed my life. They influenced how I think about games and game design and even the gaming community. Many of them are old games and some are hard to come by, but by all accounts, these are the games I think you should play before you die. If you take any piece of advice from me after reading my articles here at Cheat Code Central, it should be “play these games.” They may change your life too.

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2

I was never a big shooter fan. I got my ass handed to me in Counter Strike and Call of Duty, just like everyone else. But Team Fortress 2 was different, and not just because of its hats. Team Fortress was all about teamwork in a formula that extended beyond game and game genre. If you were a fan of shooters you could play classes like the Scout, the Soldier, the Pyro, or the Sniper, but stealth gamers could play the Spy, tower defense gamers could play the Engineer, even the Heavy was geared toward people who had trouble moving and aiming at the same time. Through Team Fortress 2, I realized that games are not restricted by their genre, and can appeal to multiple different types of gamers from all walks of life. I also met some of my longest standing online friends.

Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy

I’ve played a lot of Mario games. Super Mario 3 may be the best, if I were really talking about this objectively. But there was something so incredibly addicting about Super Mario Galaxy, far more than any other Mario game before it – even Super Mario 64. Each level introduced something new, whether it was a power-up, a new style of platforming, or simply a new way to mess with gravity. I played through this game 100%, and then when Luigi unlocked, I played through it again 100%, and then after that I did it all over again trying to beat my record times – making it one of the few games I ever attempted to speedrun. Nintendo knew what they were doing in Super Mario Galaxy. They understood the emotions that each new mechanic elicited from their audience, and while there were still some stinker levels, like the ones where you had to roll around on a ball, I still believe that this is 3D Mario at its best.

Earthbound

Earthbound

Earthbound was the first RPG I ever played. Prior to my introduction to Earthbound, all I ever owned were platformers, run and gunners, and sports games. But the one day when I went to a childhood friend’s house and saw this bizarre game that used menus for battle and featured  maze-like world maps, I immediately became hooked. And what a game to get hooked on! Earthbound has this unforgettable quirkiness combined with a keen sense of emotional storytelling and a deep obsession with Lovecraftian horror. There aren’t many other games that can boast that, except for Mother 3, its sequel, which is likely a better game but didn’t quite change my life as much.

Warcraft 3

Warcraft 3

I’ve been a big fan of real time strategies ever since I gained access to a PC to play them. But Warcraft 3 was important for more than just its main game modes. It was its map editor that struck a profound chord with me. In fact, it’s because of the Warcraft 3 map editor that we have Defense of the Ancients, the grandfather of the modern MOBA genre. With MOBAs so popular right now and influencing so many other genres, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Warcraft 3 is responsible for a lot of what online multiplayer gaming looks like today. I easily spent far more time in Warcraft 3 custom games than I ever did in its main game mode.

Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger

If Earthbound introduced me to RPGs, then Chrono Trigger hooked me for life. I was spoiled because this was the first Squaresoft RPG I ever played. Not only that, but I got to play it on a friend’s cart, which gave me access to New Game+, a way to enjoy the story without the threat of dying while I was still new to RPGs. As soon as I beat it I played it again, this time without New Game+. I know, it was really backward, but I enjoyed it all the same. The incredible attention to detail in Chrono Trigger, its fantastic art, incredible story, and solid gameplay mechanics continue to make it stand out as not only one of the best RPGs of all time, but one of the best games of all time. A lot of the other games on my list are lesser knowns, so I had to include at least one that nearly everybody would agree with.

To the Moon

To the Moon

This is one that very few people will have actually played. It’s an indie game, made with RPG Maker, of all things. There is no combat, only a little bit of puzzle solving, and a ton of text to read. Yet this is one of the most emotional gaming experience I have ever had. To the Moon is designed specifically to make you cry, and then after you have managed to get all your tears out, it asks you to step back and really evaluate your life. Are you happy with everything you did over the years? Are you happy with the relationships you have had? Are there things that you would rather forget? What actually makes you happy? These are tough questions, and To The Moon asks all of them. To the Moon did much more than make me cry, it changed the direction I took with my life.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee

I likely haven’t played any other game longer than I have Super Smash Bros. Melee. My memory card has maxed out its gameplay hour total, as well as games played total. There is literally not enough memory in the GameCube to track the amount of Melee games that I played. I got into the game in college, after being a fan of the original, and it acted as my gateway into the realm of pro gaming. Before I knew it I was wavedashing and SHFFLing – and to this day I continue to go to tournaments in order to try out my moves against players who are much better than me. I wouldn’t say that Melee is one of the best fighting games ever made. However, I will say that Melee appeals to the masses in ways no other fighting game can.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead

Telltale’s The Walking Dead

When I got older and started working in the gaming industry, I became very jaded with games. Games became a job, not a pleasure. Whether or not a game was good or bad, I had to play it. Whether or not a game was in a genre I enjoyed, I had to play it. I found myself not excited about games anymore, a crushing blow considering how important they were to me growing up. But The Walking Dead revived that interest for me, no pun intended. It was a game that, while its mechanics were simple and somewhat reminiscent of adventure games of the past, focused on story above all else. It was one of the first games that thought of things like cinematography in a serious way. When I played it, I felt like games were entering a new age of artistic expression, and it kept me coming back time and time again for each new episode. It made me feel that games may actually be more than the toys we thought they were in the eighties and nineties.

Skullgirls

Skullgirls

Over the years I became a big fan of fighting games. I felt that they were the most “game” of any game on the market. While I loved games with story, there was something to be said for games that stressed skill, and there was no better test of skill than having two gamers sit down and play a fighting game one on one.  Skullgirls has long been my pick for best fighting game, period. It was a game designed by pro gamer Mike Zaimont, and both funded and inspired by the community. It has a number of different systems in place to make the game easier to learn for newbies, but it doesn’t include any comeback mechanics or easy modes. It’s mean to be a fighting gamer’s fighting game that anyone can play, and it easily accomplishes that. It was because of Skullgirls that I became an active member in the pro-FGC and started running tournaments and organizing events. It made me realize that games are more than just software, they are community.

Xenogears

Xenogears

Finally, this is my absolute all-time favorite game. Yes, it’s another RPG, and I’m sure you guys are getting sick of hearing about RPGs at this point. But Xenogears was a turning point in the RPG genre. It almost didn’t come out in the States because of its plot line, which dealt with religion and politics in ways that didn’t exactly glorify them. It also dealt with abuse, sexual assault, mental illness, and many more dark themes that at that point hadn’t been explored in the RPG space, or for that matter the video game space. Yes, games have gotten a lot more serious over the years, and now seeing a game deal with issues like this is rather commonplace. But I would hazard a guess that we would have never seen games push the envelope if it weren’t for Xenogears. Also, on a personal level, this is the only game that I ever started, finished, and started over again five times in a row. There was something about it’s incredible plot (and giant robots) that just kept bringing me back.

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