Leftwich's Top 100 Games of All Time

[SethMode]

I forgot Double Dragon. That's another one.

And you sir are a god among video game men. I could never come close to beating Contra without the code and I think I came close to beating Tyson but never did.

Well oddly I could never GET to Tyson. I always had a fucking shit of a time with Sandman and Macho Man for whatever reason. My brother to this day thinks that the game glitched in the Tyson fight because I won by decision, which I didn't think was even possible with some of those later guys.

Contra is weird because it's one of those that my whole life I went through feeling like it was a fun game to boot up the 30 lives and just breeze through it and we could usually get to the last level with 3. Then I find out with the internet that it's widely considered this insanely tough game.

[dell71]

Used to play lots of Contra and Double Dragon. Great to see at least one of them.

[wingsfan77]

I used to LOVE Battle Toads + Double Dragon even though I only ever played the first level or two because that's all I could beat.

[Senser81]

Well oddly I could never GET to Tyson. I always had a fucking shit of a time with Sandman and Macho Man for whatever reason. My brother to this day thinks that the game glitched in the Tyson fight because I won by decision, which I didn't think was even possible with some of those later guys.

I heard that if you beat Tyson by decision, Tyson would start beating up Ref Mario after the decision was handed down.

Contra was a ridiculous game. The last level was probably the easiest. Enemies couldn't really kill you in a straight up fight, but every now and then you'd get hit be a stray, slow-moving bullet and you'd die.

[Leftwich]

76
Donkey Kong
Platforms: Numerous



Ah, Donkey Kong vs Jumpman to win the princess. Yeah this guy isn’t Mario, his name is Jumpman, thought you knew that. Anyway, I’ve never played this game in the arcade but I’ve played it on many different consoles. I could play at my boss’s house because he has an original Donkey Kong Arcade game but I’d feel uncomfortable to break all his records.



Donkey Kong is one of Nintendo’s oldest achievements. Nintendo has always done well in Japan but getting to the US market proved tough for them. So that Miyamoto dude came up with Donkey Kong to hopefully appeal to the gamers of the west. Donkey Kong had to be put on my list because of the fact that it was one of the earliest platform games ever and one of the best. Although the game only had four stages it was wickedly difficult to beat them all in one try. In Donkey Kong you will die and you will die fairly often. It always brings me back to playing this game when I see this game featured in an 80’s movie. Dodging barrels, fireballs or whatever Donkey Kong had to throw at you was simply fun to jump over and continue to progress to the end of the stage just hoping you could set the princess free. Surprisingly the graphics don’t look all that bad for being a thirty year old game. I’ve seen much worse since Donkey Kong came out.

I know this review is shorter than most but its because there isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said about this game. It was the predecessor to two huge franchises, Donkey Kong and Mario. It pretty much put Nintendo on the map in the United States and it still keeps people competitive at the arcade if they see a Donkey Kong Machine sitting around.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr351cwtieI"]Donkey Kong (NES) Speed Run - YouTube[/ame]

[Senser81]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIBrcU768Cg"]The "King of Kong"- The "Best" of Billy Mitchell, Record Holder and Douchebag - YouTube[/ame]

[FirstTimer]

So far off this list I have played:

Sonic 2
Medal of Honor Frontline
Sim City 2000
Contra

81
Sim City 2000

Platform: Mac/PC/N64/Playstation/SNES/Saturn



When making this list I sat and debated what Sim City game I would include. I thought I could go with the original but it was too basic. I was thinking Sim City 3000 since it had superior graphics to the rest of the series up until 4. It wasn’t gonna be Sim City 4 because I didn’t spend as much time with that one as I thought. So I instead went with Sim City 2000 because it is the only game I have ever owned on more than 2 consoles.



I literally played this game till I fell asleep on multiple occasions. I first got this game on my SNES and thought having a Sim City game on my SNES was the best thing since sliced bread. I’d literally play for 6 hours or more every sitting just trying to improve my city and get more citizens. I played so much until I think I got my Playstation. When I got my Playstation I found out this was on it so I searched around, this was the time before Amazon for all you kiddies. I finally found it at Funcoland and played it just as much as the SNES version. It still had last generation graphics but I didn’t care, the amount of detail you could put into a city was mind boggling. You can place your mayor’s house anywhere in the city, progress with technology and cause natural disasters just in case your citizens get out of line. Sim City 2000 is the biggest leap in game play in the entire Sim City franchise. Granted Sim City 4 took a huge graphical leap; Sim City 2000 tightened up the game play and still kept it somewhat pretty.

Sim City isn’t for everyone. It can be quite intimidating to the average gamer along with frustrating, boring and bland just to name a few more adjectives. The beauty of this game is the reward of having a bustling metropolis that you created and can destroy if you see fit. It is the quintessential God game for people seeking to satisfy that thrill.

Sim City 2000 on PS3 in HD 720p - YouTube

Fun story of this. I had it for PC. Loved it. Only problem was that when I first got it I didn't know how "bonds" worked. I thought it was basically free money. So I'd just keep taking out bonds and putting the code in for them to get a ton of money. Well interest ended up fucking me over and my first few cities were millions in the red by year 10. I couldn't build anymore.

(Side note...fuck that, Our government is in hella debt and still does shit)

Once I understood what the fuck I was doing I tried to recreate my home town. Spent a good two years playing it. Then before we got our new CPU...I destroyed the town. Flood + tornado FTW.

[Leftwich]

75
Doom

Platforms: Just about everything



I remember when this game came out. My best friend’s mom was playing it, I don’t know why but she played Doom and Ski-Free all the damn time. We snuck downstairs and played Doom after he family went to bed. We had a ton of fun playing this for hours on end. By the way for all you doubters, I am now a quarter of the way through this list.



Nostalgia aside Doom is the game that put First Person Shooters on the map. The game was groundbreaking and pretty much made everyone forget about Wolfenstein. If you don’t know what that is look it up. I’m almost positive everyone who would call themselves a big gamer has player and/or beaten Doom. The game is pretty basic and pretty linear but that doesn’t take away from being great. Doom is simplistic and hectic all at the same time. You point shoot and collect key card, ammo, health and firepower throughout each stage and make it to the exit. Some of the monsters/demons prove to be difficult while some can go down with a single punch. The game is just fun all these years later. I find myself playing it on XBLA for levels at a time. It may always have a shadow of controversy following because of school shootings and what not but I don’t think this game should be blamed at all. Video Games are meant to be fun and not taken seriously.

Doom really changed the game for FPS. Without Doom we probably wouldn’t have Call of Duty, or Battlefield or Halo or whatever. Doom is a game that should have been higher on my list but you try making a top 100 list. It’s not easy.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr-lQZzevwA"]DOOM - YouTube[/ame]

[JBregz]

Liking this list so far.

[clovett]

Sweet ass list.

[Youk]

Even better than Doom? The Chex version: ChexQuest

[Leftwich]

74
Double Dragon

Platform: Numerous



Double Dragon the game is ruined by the television series with the annoying intro. Not to take anything away from the game but looking back on the television series, it was terrible. But mainly this little review/synopsis is based on the Nintendo version of the game because lets face it, they whored this game out to every available console at the time.



I unfortunately never got a chance to play the arcade version of this game so I had to miss out on playing the co-op story. To me Double Dragon was the game that got me into side scrolling beat em ups. The fighting was rather basic. Kick or Punch… pick your poison. You could upgrade your fighting skills by getting experience through beating up bad guys who all looked the same or getting through each stage. The game was pretty straight forward with a few elements of platform jumping in later levels. For as simple the premise of the game was it did prove to be difficult as it went on into the latter part of the game. I can’t stress how primitive this game was compared to today’s standards but the fact that it is really nostalgic and still downright fun is reason enough to play this game. Blue shorts and a blue vest will permanently be imprinted in my mind as Billy Lee from Double dragon. Epic boss fights are another big thing from this game that isn’t done enough now a day.

I’m sorry if you think Double Dragon I was the first one with co-op on the NES because that didn’t happen till II. The game is a lot of fun and I can’t count how many times I raged trying to beat the final stage. As always a video of the game is below.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOPnIDVrCac"]Double Dragon NES - Timeattack - YouTube[/ame]

[red33]

Well oddly I could never GET to Tyson. I always had a fucking shit of a time with Sandman and Macho Man for whatever reason. My brother to this day thinks that the game glitched in the Tyson fight because I won by decision, which I didn't think was even possible with some of those later guys.

Contra is weird because it's one of those that my whole life I went through feeling like it was a fun game to boot up the 30 lives and just breeze through it and we could usually get to the last level with 3. Then I find out with the internet that it's widely considered this insanely tough game.

i was the same way with contra. after awhile beating it so many times it got easy. i remeber the stages where ur behind the player, 2 and 4 i think, i had like the whole pattern down and never died.

never beat tyson though.

[Buzzman]

That Shepard pic in your sig is so god damn badass.

[Leftwich]

73
Pacman

Platforms: Like a Million



I realized by the time I got to Donkey Kong that I might run out of material to write about when I get to Pacman. I don’t know if that’s still true cause as I write this list I go with the flow and just let myself go. Pacman is arguably the greatest game of all time, I don’t seem to think it’s the greatest but it is worthy of a top 100 spot.



Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde are the names of some of the most famous villains in video game history. To be honest the first time I have ever played this was at a pizza hut with one of those arcade machines that looks like a glass table top. I was maybe 6-7 but I remember throwing a temper tantrum because my mom wouldn’t give me anymore damn quarters. But the premise of the game is pretty simple. Eat all the little white dots and avoid the ghosts. Eat the big white dots to change the ghosts to edible things. The game pretty much goes on like that for over 250 levels. I don’t think even if I was good enough to last 250 plus levels. By level 25 I’d probably wanna shoot myself out of boredom. But more importantly than just me playing this game is the whole world doing it. This is one of the biggest arcade games of all time. When I think of video games I think of Mario, Grand Theft Auto and Pacman. How can one game about eating white pellets become a worldwide phenomenon? This game is really meant to be played in the arcade. Not the abomination they shipped on Atari, speaking of which, about a million copies of Pacman on Atari is buried in a landfill somewhere. Anyway, Pacman has been released on just about every console, computer and cell phone provider that matters.

Pacman is an institution of video gaming. Like the majority of games on my list, im sure everyone here has played some sort of iteration of it. If you’ve been living in cave and don’t know what Pacman is or have never seen it played, watch the video below.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswzriFIf_k"]Pac-Man Arcade gameplay - YouTube[/ame]