Top 40 Video games Part 4: Platinum Tier (16-9)

It's been a long road to get here...but here we go, the Sweet 16 tier of best video games of all times

(part 1, part 2 and part 3, for all you late arrivals)

16) Uncharted 4 (2016) PS4.

So remember in the previous entry when I said that Uncharted was basically male tomb raider, in that they ripped off that idea and did some things better? And then Tomb Raider ripped them off on their reboot and thats why they got higher placement than Uncharted 2? Well.....the cycle continued as in my opinion Uncharted 4 took a lot of the stuff Tomb Raider improved on from them (mostly the slightly smoother climbing mechanics more natural looking ledges to hand on, and the sliding mechanics) and then actually made the game character driven. Unlike most of the games like this, the areas your in and the significance of the object your looking for are secondary to how the characters interact with each other. I'll be honest, off the top of my head I kinda forget exactly what Drake was looking for in this game...I know it had something to do with pirates. What I do remember is the roller coaster he went through with Sam, returning from the presumed dead, lying to him, forgiving him and eventually for the first time ever forgoing the treasure for his wife.  Now I dont want to down play the set pieces of uncharted 4, they look freaking amazing, and the gun play is the best its been in these series, as all the gun battles at least give the appearance of multiple approaches and ways to move through them (which has not been the case before in this series) but really, this game is here for the story.

15) Pokemon Sun (2016) 3DS

Ever since Generation 5, it seems like Pokemon's been trying to "soft reboot" the series. Generations 5's idea of completely abandoning all existing pokemon and only having new ones in the game didnt even last into the sequel games. So then they tried to soft reboot while bringing in the now adult gamers of old. Generation 6 tried to do this by introducing Mega Evolution's for old pokemon, but those started gimmicky with only the really popular mon getting them and then ended with way too many of them while also not always being an improvement as to properly use most of them you had to understand detailed game mechanics enough to tailor specific movesets for them. Generation 7 on the other hand did this much better.....by basically throwing out the entire established formula. No longer are their gym leaders, instead you have Trial Captains and Totem (or super powered) Pokemon, and while functionally they are the same, they integrate into the story much smoother...no longer do you need to basically take a break from the story to go fight some random people in a gym for badges. Also they introduced region specific forms of old pokemon...basically a way to make the old new again as the older mon look a bit different and might have different typings, and unlike mega evolution you only really need to understand the basic type matchups to effectively use the new forms. Also the mascot legendary pokemon here is integrated into the main story in a way that hasnt been seen since Crystal, too the point its almost hard to justify not using it on your team despite being so overpowered. Add in a few cameos and references to the old Gen 1 games (like appearances from Red, Blue and Oak)  and youve got what is at least the second best pokemon game of all times (spoiler for whats still to come on this list?).

That said, as I didnt review this one in my pokemon game rankings (the game didnt exist at the time) it does have one large negative.....after you become champion you have to click through what is basically a 20 minute series of cut-scenes, about half of which is filler (literally showing characters waving to you) sandwiching a battle with a legendary that you cant prep for....and then, and only do the credits roll. And only after the credits are over do you actually to save the game (via autosave) for the first time since the final battle to become champion. All total (cut-scene+credits) this is the single longest non-gameplay sequence (excluding the single battle) I've seen in any pokemon game to date. So if your challenging the elite four, leave yourself an extra 25-30 minutes after the final battle to get through this.
Note by the way unlike previous entries, this ranking is only for Pokemon Sun. However thats simply because I've never played Moon and wont put a game on the list I havnt played, even if there is basically no difference between them, so if your deciding which of the two games to get, dont take this as an endorsement of Sun over Moon....I am assuming Moon will be just as good as Sun is.

14) Goldeneye (1997) N64

LONG LIVE THE KING! 20 years after its release, this game is still the king of couch co-op. In fact, this game only scores this high because of the co-op part. It was remade as a Wii game, reimagined slightly for the modern day and Daniel Craig style of bond movie, and to be honest, from a single player point of view that is a MUCH better game. But as a co-op game? this cant be topped. Find literally anyone who was a gamer and had a friend in the late 90's and I pretty much promise you they played the shit out of this game, and may to this day be able to tell you their favorite map, weapon and character....and why Oddjob is banned :P. Given all that, its kinda ironic, the iconic co-op of this game was added as an after thought, it almost didnt happen. And while I realize sadly, couch co-op is dying, theres a damn good chance it would have never EVER been as popular as it is, in fact possibly multiplayer shooters might not have existed if not for this game (note medal of honor came 2 years after this game, Call of duty 6 years). Honestly the best thing I can say about this game is that I really dont like multiplayer games, Im usually a solo kinda guy, and yet this game made it #14.

13) Arkham Asylum (2009) Xbox 360

For those of you letting out a silent cheer that this game being the first Arkham game on the list and being #13 means Arkham City is going to be at the top of the list......

Thats right, I'm not actually a fan of Arkham City, its ok, but not as good as this game (so it isnt on the list as all). Im sure by now people have noticed I'm not a huge fan of open world games, and I've mentioned that a few times. What I am a huge fan of though are pseudo open world games, which this is. You have the one main, a somewhat small (by open world standards) hub area with each building containing its own piece of the story and a boss....and while you can backtrack for gooddies, you cant go into a building until the story progresses to allow it. Which of course means that the story remains the central aspect of the game not just randomly running around, which generally also means all the bosses have some impact on the main story....which overall makes the game more memorable.

Also, this linear approach and more story allows a bigger role for the minor characters. I can remember distinct personalities for many of the named security guards/doctors in AA. I'm under the impression many of them returned in AC, but with the exception of Cash, I dont actually remember any of them from that game.


Also, as near as I can tell the famous combat system was tweaked ever so slightly between this game and AC, but the AC version is much less forgiving, and as someone who has slight reflex issues, that means this game plays much better for me.  Lastly, I gotta be honest, the number of riddler trophies in this game seemed manageable....there were too damn many in AC. And the riddles themselves seemed much better in this game....I had to think and solve them, and the riddle made sense and pointed you vaguely at the approach needed to solve it . In AC they were either so vague and obscure as to be unsolvable, focused on tiny little details youd never see (cause youd be gliding around the city) or just flat out random (Im pretty sure I solved half of AC's riddles by accident, when scanning for other things).

Also, unrelated to this game, but this is where my mentioning which console I played on does a major disservice to someone starting on the road to being a gamer. This is the ONLY XBOX360 entry on this list....which might seem weird since the 360 is supposed to be one of the best game consoles of all time.  For this list however, my 360 is my most recent console, so many of the games on this list I'd already played on a different platform. So for those trying to game on the cheap, the XBOX 360 isnt as hard up for great games as this list makes it out to be.

12) Dark Forces (1995) PC

So I like star wars games as much, if not more so than the next person....but theres a bit of a problem. When you think of great star wars [single player] games, your either a pilot (Rouge Squadron series, TIE fighter) or  Jedi (Jedi Knight series, Knights of the Old Republic, Force Unleashed). How many times however have you run through the entire game with just a trusty blaster (and a few other firearms) at your side? Its basically this, and republic commando (which I havnt played), and this is the only one where its a solo game. (you have a squad in RC). So its a take on the star wars universe that is still unique some 22 years later. While we have seen other games (jedi knight II, KOTOR) that had you start off with blasters, this is the one good star wars game I can think of where you end with them too and dont become a Jedi.  Now the game itself is basically a reskin of the original doom....which is probibly its best and worst feature. Best because original doom was a pretty good game on its own....worst because that also means the mechanics are dated to all hell. In fact at the time it came out, this game was a technically advanced game, as it was the first game ever to let you look up and down....I kid you not.

Now while the graphics and tech might not hold up to well to day, the story absolutely does. Even today Dark Forces has one of my favorite story lines....you start off as the guy who stole the death star plans, but get involved in trying to take down the newest imperial super weapons....the Dark Troopers, cyborg storm troopers. The concept proved so popular with fans that despite winning at the end of the game, and destorying the entire Dark Trooper project, the Dark Trooper would go on to feature in a half a dozen or so later games, including being reintroduced into the current cannon after Disney rebooted the series. Hell remember the black armored troopers in Rouge One? (which cannonically replaces the first missions of dark forces as they steal the death star plans) Officially those guys are called "Death Troopers" but given they are supposed to be surgically enhanced, possibly cybornetic storm troopers, its not hard to see where they got the idea. Anyways the quest to take down the original project is still one I can remember despite not playing it in some 20 years, Nar Shaddaa in particular sicks out as one of my favorite levels, and having the skeletal phase one dark trooper with its sword and shield and blaster proof body changing out of ever alcove to kill you is still one of the few things Ive ever seen in a video game that makes me legit panic.

11) Marvel Ultimate Alliance (2006) PC

Remember all the things I said about X-men legends? Take that and expand it to the ENTIRE marvel universe. Oh hell yea!....at least if your a comic book nerd like me. And not going to lie for a game based on something else (comics in this case) with an original story, this is one of the better ones out there. Now there are a couple odd choices that were clearly based on the marvel movies at the time (Elektra and blade being in) and a couple of odd omissions (Hawkeye and Hulk..at least in the base game and Vision..except handheld, and being unable to have Namor join you)  but really holy shit look at this cast, its pretty much every major player from the marvel universe. And for the most part, they all had unique roles and powersets and play styles (ok maybe not Thing and Cage but otherwise). Honestly as a marvel fan there was very little not to love about this game...though one of was all characters being defaulted to "auto level" so you had to spend the first few minutes of every play through turning that off for each individual character one at a time and some of the team bonuses are a bit weird (as I remember Wolverine wasnt part of the "Dark Past" team, Human Torch was included in the West Coast Avengers team despite it not being THAT human torch on the team, or Hawkeye not counting in the classic avengers but Black Panther (who joined later) does ect) But if you can ignore those few minor issues....this game is fantastic. Also the special dialogues for each character (some of which depend on another characters absence) ensure every play though is just a bit different.  Oh and lastly, one of the games major sections is in Atlantis...AKA Underwater. And well we all know the reputation water levels have......but surprise surprise, this one is actually fun to play. I know a fun water level, I was shocked too.

10) Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds (2013) 3DS

Fun fact: this is to date the only Legend of Zelda game that I've beaten. Twice. And there are two reasons for that....one of which runs contrary to everything I've said about my gaming preferences up until now.

Which is that, this game is so great because it is more or less an open world game. Wait I know, I've been harping on open world games for like 30 games now, so why would I like it here? Honestly.....because Legend of Zelda really doesnt have much of a story. They never do. The story is "oh shit gannon's back, Link needs to go to X Y and Z to assemble the master sword and the triforce and kill gannon". And well a story that paper thin can survive being turned into an open world game. And now you have some freedom about how and what order to solve the puzzles (which is really all LOZ dungeons are, a series of puzzles to get to the end), and where to go and when. And for a puzzle game, that works great....if you get stumped or cant do something you can leave do something else, and try back later either with better equipment or just a fresh set of eyes, while being able to try other challenges.  Now thats not to say its all good....due to the open world aspect and the ability to rent/buy items instead of finding them in dungeons, each dungeon focuses on a specific item, that you may never use again, unlike other zelda games where the later dungeons can make use of items from earlier ones. So the dungeons here can be a bit simplistic, though that is helped by the other reason I mentioned, the gams main gimmick: you can move between "3D" and 2D. Flattening out, and in some cases changing worlds by doing so (moving from Hyrule to Lorule, the dark version of Hyrule which is only doable in 2D) are critical to moving around, finding dungeons or ways past and through puzzles. And as I mentioned back in entry #35, Super Paper Mario, I really like this kind of gimmick because it means you have to constantly think of your surroundings in two different ways, approaching it in 3D and 2D at the same time.  Mix in some actual action and combat, and youve got a pretty damn good game that in my opinion is the best Zelda game I've played (and yes I own and played some of OOC..at least the 3ds remake, but no I dont own Breath of the Wild)

9) Soul Silver (2009) DS

This is going to be a short entry for a game this high on the list, because I laid out most if not all of the reasons I like it in my pokemon review. But the condensed version is: Johto has the best post game of any pokemon games, as its basically the entire first game hidden as "post game content", its one the "correct side" of the physical special split, in terms of good mechanics, which also makes it seem like a totally different experience than its original (which was the #25 entry). And oh yea, who doesnt like having every pokemon able to follow you around? Also unlike the Red/Blue remakes, this remake includes evolutionary members to Johto pokemon added after Generation II (IE Yanmega, Weaville) as obtainable before the post game, which is a nice and logical addition (it would be weird to have to explain why suddenly Yanma cant level up despite leaving the requisite move until a certain point)  I also liked adding in the Gen III and IV pokemon to other trainers teams (in kanto anyways) while making them unobtainable in the game....it really did make it seem like people from all over the world were interacting, and of course that means they have pokemon from areas youve never been.

Now that said, there is one main thing about these games that does bug me......they dont include fairy types (which didnt exist at the time the game was made) and a lot of Johto pokemon became fairies in Gen 6, so its a bit hard at times to remember they are all boring normal types in this game...but thats literally a tiny quibble for a still great game. In fact, if youve never played pokemon before, this would still be the game I recommend to start with and get the most value out of....unless your a graphics whore, as it is sprite based...for the graphics whores, get Sun or Moon :P

Also, like the review of Pokemon Sun, this ranking is officially only for Pokemon Soul Silver, but only because thats the version I happen to own. And given there are less differences between SS and HG than there are Sun and Moon, in this case I'm positive Heart Gold is equally as good.

And there we have it folks.....32 games down.....the elite 8 to go.