Top 40 Video games Part 2: Silver Tier (32-25)

So last time we did games 40-33 counting down the top 40 video games of all time....now its time for games 32-25:

32) Icewind Dale 2 (2002) PC

Of all the games on the list, I've probably started this one the most. Never finished it, but started it a ton. And thats because of the character creator, at the time it came out, it gave more options that any other I'd ever seen. And you can create an entire party of 6 characters. But thats also its greatest flaw, unlike its older brothers the Baldurs gate games, the fact that you created your entire party, meant in effect there was no NPC, no party banter ect. And most of the maps where pretty much the same thing...enter at one end, slaughter your way to the other. Which is fun...but for someone like me whoes storyline driven, a hack and slash RPG is only going to get so far. Now I will say this, if you like Diablo (or at least Diablo 3) you'll probibly like this game....its the same basic structure, but with many more customization options. To this day, I actually enjoy creating new characters/parties in this game, I just tire of them before I finish. Which is a shame, since the choices in character DO matter. A drow is going to get conversations a dwarf wont, but might be bared from a quest a surface elf would get....or a halfing monk can go places and get quests its human fighter friend cant....but the monks oath means if its the party leader you cant get a financial reward.  So all your characters will get unique reactions and no two parties will get the exact same treatment....its just a shame it happens in a game with a paper thin plot and characters having no personality outside of the reactions they get from others.

 31) X-Men Legends (2004) GameCube.

If you grew up as a fan of the X-men and ever wanted to have an entire team of them....this is the game for you. Though its a bit weird cause it takes place in a universe that is a bit based on Ultimate Universe and a bit based on the Main Marvel universe. But if you can get past that...and you should, youve got a pretty good action/semi RPG. Story line is alright all things considered, the main appeal here is being a god damn x-man...or well all of them. The biggest downside is you unlock more characters as you progress though the levels, meaning some of the characters you dont get till near the end of the game...which is a shame if your a major fan of those character. Also, while the level up system does level up ALL characters together, the members of your team gain more XP than their benched team mates...so when you do get your new character they are going to be a bit under leveled. Also as a side note, as a technicality the main character of the game is Allison Crestmere...meaning its one of the few games to have a female lead. Except that for a good chunk of the game you only get to play as her on the hub, she doesnt join the team until much later. Interestingly she is actually a real marvel character too, under the name of Magma, in 1983 making her an older character than Jubilee....shes just never had any real high profile role, which is actually kinda cool to see her take a major role here. Too bad shes completely gone from the sequel.....glad I put the time into her. But still I wish more games based on existing franchises that arnt star wars would build good games around minor characters...its a nice way to make the game seem different while also using the high profile characters to be familiar

30) Civilization II. Test of Time (1999) PC

Basically an expansion/remake of the original Civ II, this included not only the base game (though admittedly minus the fully acted advisers), but also added a science fiction (think a similar to alpha centauri) and fantasy settings...and both of those settings had 4 different maps in every game you could move between (they also added a second alien world map to the main game as well). Now I admit personally the fantasy setting was my favorite.  Also the fantasy setting came with its own premade scenario based on Viking Lore, which I believe is as close as the franchise has ever come to a single player campaign (that you could play as any faction) In fact, I think once I installed this version of Civ II, never booted up the original again. So yea, if for no other reasons than the variety and the Midgard Scenario, I'd still call this my favorite Civ game to date.

29) TIE Fighter (1994) PC

This game is awesome. Its also one of the only ones on this list I wouldnt play again. The reason being the controls are heavily tied into using a Joystick, and the idea of a joystick as a controller in and of itself is well, extinct. That said the game itself was awesome. It is to this day the ONLY star wars game in which you play exclusively on the dark side/empire (though the new battlefront II looks to change that)...your character has no redeeming quality...you just move farther and farther up the empires ranks. Also the missions in this game were pretty good, if youve played the VR mission on the new battlefront I, thats basically the same structure, show up, fly to here, scan this, survive combat ect. And the roster of ships you had was insane. You start with a generic TIE fighter, but evenually wind up with an interceptor and Bomber and the hyperspace capable Advanced and Defenders, as well as the Imperial Gunship...and in some cases you got your pick of craft for a given mission and all had their own strengths and weaknesses. My personal favorite was always the TIE Defender, in fact thats my favorite Star Wars ship to this day because of this game.

Finally, kinda random but as this is the first star wars game on the list, I'm going to put this here: when I was listing games not on this list, I forgot to mention Force Unleashed isnt on this list. I have it for Wii, and the Wii motes a pain in the ass, I plan  on getting it for 360 soon though so pretend I had it on the "Will play soon" list back in the last part

28) Spider Man 2 (2004) Gamecube

So the original Spider Man the movie game was actually really really good. Possibly the best video game based on a movie I'd played to date. The problem was, it was primarily enclosed spaces and pretty linear, and while I admit to usually preferring linear games, spider man is one of the few characters who really really needs so ability to explore and well as wide open spaces to webswing through. Enter Spider Man 2, an open world spider man game, before open world a thing all games do. And man was it freaking cool. Now admittedly in order to get the most fun out of just swinging around the city you had to progress through the story mode, as upgrades were unlocked from playing the game. This is actually a fantastic idea, and one I wish more open world games did. Now admittedly the main story is loosely based on the second movie (duh), so its not super original....though they did manage to add in a whole subplot with Mysterio. Now at the end of the day some of the randomly occuring events are kinda annoying (fuck the sinking ship) but most of them are pretty fun....even after beating the game just swinging around looking for random crimes can be great...oh and the difficulty of some of them scales to where you are in the story...IE at first some of the robberies will be carried out by regular thugs loyal to shocker, but then later Robots controlled by Doc Ock and later still powered suits of armor. Plus Peter Parker isnt an after thought either, as you need to deliver pizzas, take pictures for JJ and oh yea, dont be late (AGAIN) for a date with MJ. SO yea if you want a good superhero game that also deals with the civilian identity this is the game for you.    

27) Kirby's Epic Yarn (2010) Wii

Look I get it, Kirby games arnt hard....well at least as far as finishing the levels go. Finding and even reaching all the collectables and 100% the game? that can be a bitch. Basically think of this as a puzzle game with some platforming...the puzzle being figuring out where everything is hidden. I guess what Im saying is to really enjoy this game you should be a completionist. Its also kinda an odd entry in the series as a whole. Kirby's whole gimmick is that he inhales enemies and steals their powers....and hes stripped of that ability in this game. He's also stripped of his infamous infinite jumping ability as hes now made out of yarn and somewhat 2D so he cant actually hold air. What he can do is turn his enemies into balls of yarn, and use his own yarn to manipulate his environment. Say for example you cant find a reachable platform to jump too....see that bead? whip it with your yarn and pull....it may pull a thread out of the tapestry that makes up the games background causing a tree to fall over creating a bridge. You can also occasionally use yarn to turn into vehicles like a tank or train or hover board....and these levels are often the hardest (especially the monster truck) as unless you make a perfect playthrough your likely going to miss one of the collectibles you need to complete the game. Incidentally the whole yarn tapestry background gives this game a one of a kind unique look (well except for the sequel with Yoshi) and art style, so it you like different takes on video game visuals give this game a try....you might like it. As example:

26) Mario Kart Double Dash (2003) GameCube

Our [spoiler alert] final entry from the GameCube on this list, Double Dash is probably my favorite mario kart game to date. Now I'd be dishonest if I didnt say up front I spent more time playing both Kart Wii and 64 versions, and that both were considered for this list. Thing is, they would have come right before this entry, and while I have no issue with multiple games from a franchise on this list, having them take up 3 consecutive spots with very little difference between them seemed like overkill. So if you would prefer to think of this spot as the entire Mario Kart series, thats ok.

Now why Double Dash specifically? The gimmick. And I dont just mean having two characters....though that was kinda cool. No I mean the unique items each pair of characters got. For example, the Kongs got a giant banana that would split into 5 bananas when hit, and the Bowsers got a giant shell unique to them. But the part I think a lot of people missed is that these items werent entirely random as far as when they showed up....they were keyed to where you were as far as position in the race. For example, the Kong Banana's were more common if you were near first place, where as the Baby Mario's chain chomps tended to show up more often near the back. What this meant was through careful selection of characters you could actually build a strategy of sorts. For example my team was usually one of the Babys and a Kong...So if I got bashed back to last place, Id get a chomp to get back to the front faster, and while at the front could use the giant banana defensively to get rid of anyone who got too close.  Alternatively I could use a Princess (who get effectively a barrier) and a Koopa (who got triple shells), both of whoms items show up more towards the middle of the standings to be a bit more defensive and more balanced as to what position I need to be in to get both specials.  This is a level of complexity missing from other mario games in my opinion...and I know MK8 Deluxe is bringing back the double items idea...but as far as I know thats all they are doing the unique items remain a thing of the past.

25) Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal (2000/2001) Game Boy Color

The pokemon games got their own ranking not that long ago...so I'm not really going to defend this game here, as I feel I already covered its ups and downs on that ranking. What I am going to do is explain why its on the list at all. See if you read the Pokemon Rankings you knowon that I said the remakes were better than the originals...and I still believe thats true (so yes, [spoiler alert] the remakes will be higher up on this list). And in most cases if multiple versions of a game exist and I've played those versions, I'm only going to include one version...the one I think is best.  (this is part of the reason I'm including the dates and platforms on this list)

Except here, the game mechanics were SO altered by the physical/special split of Gen 4, that it is possible to see these as drastically different games than their predecessors, simply because pokemon that were monsters in Gen 2, like say Alakazam arnt really useable in Gen 4 (thanks to losing special attacking elemental punches) or pokemon that were Ok in Gen 2, like Gengar are now total beasts (thanks to STAB ghost moves that can use his epic special attack stat). So basically both games have to be approached with very different teams,  making them more distinct from each other.

Now I admit, when these release in a few weeks on the 3ds virtual console, I'd probably only buy crystal as it is the best of the 3 (graphically and mechanically)...still for the right person these are all fun games to pick up (especially as the physical releases no longer work thanks to the internal clock batteries running out).



So there you have it folks, our second part of the list....we are now officially 40% of the way through the best 40 video games of all times. Part 3 will hopefully be up soon, and if you missed Part 1 it can be found here.