Rllmuk Top 100 Games 2017

[Oh Danny Boy]

Rainbow Islands is better than both. Platform perfection.

[Stanley]

2 minutes ago, NEG said:

I'd certainly rate World above Sonic 1, but I don't think the gameplay between the series is comparable overall. It's like saying Simpsons vs South Park. Both are amazing for different reasons, despite both being animated shows. Just a matter of taste at that point.

Well that's the thing with SMW. It's like some kind of definitive statement and there's a reason they didn't make another 2D one proper for a long while. There was just nothing more that needed to be said. Still isn't in some regards. 

[Benny]

7 minutes ago, Fallows said:

I remember arguing with all the cool kids at school regarding why SMW was better than Sonic. Similarly with SF2 vs. MK.

 

Then the cool kids all grew up to be boring middle managers, but we all bought sports cars and waxed lyrical about our correct opinions of Nintendo games while relaxing in our beach getaways.

[NEG]

Just now, Stanley said:

Well that's the thing with SMW. It's like some kind of definitive statement and there's a reason they didn't make another 2D one proper for a long while. There was just nothing more that needed to be said. Still isn't in some regards. 

 

Agreed. Having played Yoshi's Island many years later (GBA) that was arguably as good a follow up as I could have imagined, just with a lack of secrets/map exploration.

 

Map exploration has never been bettered. Yoshi's never been quite this useful (level to level) since World either, probably. (I'm not sure if the flying and fire breathing Yoshi's ever came back?). And I still forget the way out of Woods last time I played.

 

The castle cutscenes are the sort of charm and flavor I miss from the new 2D Mario's.

[Vemsie]

I think Yoshi's Island is better, but SMW is a classic of course.

[Benny]

I should probably say the final 2 are so close it's almost painful.

[NEG]

Painful & Knuckles

[Stanley]

9 minutes ago, Benny said:

I should probably say the final 2 are so close it's almost painful.

How close?

[Benny]

2 votes.

[Stanley]

Oooh.

[Loik V credern]

I think in terms of combining the platforming accuracy and control of Super Mario World with the crazed imagination in Treasure games or dark comic book funny irreverent style of Earthworm Jim, the most perfect 2D platformer hasn't been made. I think, despite being titled World, as with Galaxy, the environments are the weakest parts of those games. I played Mario Bros 3 much later on emulation and found its level design was more surprising and abnormal and odd. I think World settled more for polish over being inventive.

[Benny]

World lacking in being inventive? That's some great craic you're smoking.

 

Place your bets now, which is the forum darling of 2017?!

[MidWalian]

I love SMW and replayed it recently on the SNES Mini. I do however believe that a lot of the love is probably nostalgia though, taking me back to when I first played it in a Tandy's in Llandudno whilst on holiday and then getting it for Christmas. 

 

I've been playing Mario Galaxy 2 the last couple of days...I'm bloody excited for Odyssey. 

 

 

[sith]

Dang. I wanted Mario World to be in the top 2.

 

Yes, I'm hard to please.

[Stanley]

I'm not sure now which is number one. I thought I was but with only two votes in it, it could go either way.

[Mr Do 71]

Please be Breath of the Wild  Just to annoy @clippa LOL 

[Vemsie]

Resi 4 is my personal fave out of those two, so I hope it's that.

[NEG]

10 minutes ago, MidWalian said:

I love SMW and replayed it recently on the SNES Mini. I do however believe that a lot of the love is probably nostalgia though, taking me back to when I first played it in a Tandy's in Llandudno whilst on holiday and then getting it for Christmas. 

 

I've been playing Mario Galaxy 2 the last couple of days...I'm bloody excited for Odyssey. 

 

 

 

Disagree. I played World after Mario 64, Sonic 3&K, Earthworm Jim...

 

It left me amazed. This was 1999 or so. The first time is always going to be the most amaze when it comes to World.

 

Edit: Mario 3 to me is the most replayable of the 2D's.

[Benny]

So many of you are still fixated on 2 specific games. I haven't told you guys about the anonymous top 20 votes I received via PM, right?

[Petrousgyre]

6 hours ago, Benny said:

Soul Calibur

 

 

Original format: Dreamcast. Released: 1999

(2015 Rllmuk top 100 position: 89, number of votes: 5.)

 

“While this originally came out in the Arcade in 1998, the Dreamcast version is the reference here. Why? Well, vastly improved graphics

 

You're not kidding there - I recently played the arcade version for the first time. It looks like s really bad PS1 port of the Dreamcast game. 

[Benny]

I would argue it was probably the (technically) best looking game available on release, on any format.

[Petrousgyre]

It still holds up, friend of mine had it hooked up via VGA to a giant rear projection TV (if anyone remembers them) a few years ago. It looked absolutely glorious. Still plays great too, easily my favourite 3D fighting game. 

[Stanley]

15 minutes ago, Benny said:

So many of you are still fixated on 2 specific games. I haven't told you guys about the anonymous top 20 votes I received via PM, right?

[BBBBBB]

Re Soul Calibur. There was a level set in a Venice like environment. I couldn't believe how crisp, detailed and richly coloured it was at the time. All spinning around, running superbly animated characters at 60(?) frames per second.

[Loik V credern]

36 minutes ago, Benny said:

World lacking in being inventive? That's some great craic you're smoking.

 

Yeah. I can't exactly remember what it was about Mario Bros 3's level design that was so odd, but it'd be like listening to a song in an odd time signature, or featuring deliberately off sounds that jarr. I didn't think the worlds were visually interesting, I mean just the way they're constructed. With World i think there's definitely an element of honing over reaching, personally my taste obviously differs to others at what a game really needs, something like Earthworm Jim can barely be compared as a platformer, it's more a frustrating ride but outrageous and silly and subversive with it. Nintendo litter their platformers with items and enemies, blocks that break/spin, shells bouncing around, it's a playground with proper mechanics, but it is wrapped up in  a lot of bland repetition. I never agree with Nintendo being the bastions of creativity though, they understand the essence more than most, secret rooms, the magic of interaction, but it's nulled by their need to always be palatable and nice. I'm not going near the 'it's aged' thing, because like I said, I don't think games do. I don't think it's not good, or not playable. But as with Galaxy and Galaxy 2, i don't think these are the creative peaks of the platform genre. No one ever agrees with me on this though !

 

[dataDave]

How something like Super Mario 3D World could not be considered a bastion of creativity is beyond me entirely.

[Qazimod]

Just time to quickly dig this out again!

 

On 23/08/2007 at 11:05, PC Master Race said:

RE4 number 1?

f**king rofl, give it a few years and it wont even make the top 10.

Ico, SotC and RE4. Forum 'favourites' that will be long forgotten once people realise they don't 'have' to like them.

[Stanley]

 

Ouch.

[Benny]

And just to put the boot in...

[Benny]

2. Resident Evil 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original format: GC. Released: 2005

(2015 Rllmuk top 100 position: 1, number of votes: 47. Voted best game of all time by: Timmo, pervent aline perio grow d, Vimster, Syntax)

 

Ah the the darling of Rllmuk, the game everyone played through and bought on multiple formats, the game we tell teenagers about in hushed tones… it has finally been dethroned. What game could possibly have replaced it after more than a decade of our undying love? What designer could have this power? You will find out next time. Here’s what I said when it still ruled the roost:

 

“Where’s everybody gone? Bingo?

 

And here it is, thousands of votes later and many months of writing up comments for 99 other games, Resident Evil 4 is still the reigning champion, and deservedly so, garnering more and higher placed votes than any other game on the list by quite some margin!

 

When this stormed onto the Gamecube back in 2005, no-one could have predicted what an absolute tour de force it was going to turn out to be. Taking the established Resident Evil zombie game template and turning pretty much all of it on its head, Resi 4 would set the benchmark for every other action game ever made ever since, and still does.

 

It’s not just that it is full of gameplay elements that have been aped (and some would say improved upon) constantly in the last ten years since it was released, but that it presented such a clear consistency of vision, pacing, timing, dramatic tension, fun, atmosphere, and just balls to the wall brilliant set pieces that gamers and developers were struggling to catch their breath afterwards and shake themselves into realising that one game had just made them all collectively go “what the hell just happened?”

 

Resident Evil 4 is special from the very first moment you enter the village and find out that these zombies are nothing like what you had encountered in other games. The shambling corpses of yesteryear were replaced with a quick moving menace that instinctively made you peg it to the nearest building, barricading yourself inside. And it’s here that the real genius of the game becomes apparent - through entirely natural processes of reacting to the external stimulus, gamers had automatically themselves recreated a scene straight out of Dawn of the Dead, purely because they are trying to get away from these terrifying new enemies and see an obvious place of refuge.

 

That the game allowed for dramatic moments like this purely by the location design and player interaction, and not through a cut scene, is what set Resident Evil 4 apart from all other games before it, and there are still precious few games coming out today that truly understand why this worked or how to recreate the same kinds of emergent interactive drama in fun and interesting ways.

 

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. From then onwards, Resident Evil 4 is consistently engaging, surprising and full of unforgettable moments, it’s a rollercoaster ride with knowing nods to many gaming conventions as a whole but also playful and experimental with its own (at the time) revolutionary mechanics.

 

Does it still hold up well to play today? Absolutely. The control scheme might seem restrictive now to newcomers, but for Resident Evil 4’s pace and specific ways of interacting with the environment, the relevant freedoms and restrictions on the player are absolutely essential to the game’s unique feel.

 

Capcom have tried to recreate the magic twice now with successive mediocre sequels, but lightning struck home violently with Resident Evil 4, and it’s doubtful that we may see its like again for a long time to come.

 

The best game ever made. Rllmuk has spoken again!”

 

But not anymore. Like comments in rain:

 

Jolly: “Every time I replay this (and I replay it *a lot*; I've literally bought it on five machines FFS) I'm amazed at how consistently not-shit it is. Over its twenty odd hours, it's never anything but balls-out brilliant. Many of the games on this list have a piss on themselves somewhere, but Resident Evil 4 just...doesn't. It's hit after hit. It's a game with none of the 'oh, not this bit' bits. And on top of that it's all so fantastically weird. There's a bit when you're chased by a forty foot statue of a dwarf. There's a system which involves taking you out of the game and calmly making sure your guns are arranged in your inventory correctly. There's this bloke and he has the weirdest fucking accent. He sounds like a cockney farmer and he sells you things and you'll fall completely in love with him. Whether by design or accident (although I suspect the latter) the naff, cheesy, cliche-ridden story goes beyond awful and comes back round again resulting in the finest 80s action movie ever written. But Resident Evil 4 is really all about the combat; that wonderful, nail-biting, back-against-the-wall, last-minute-save combat. I've heard this horrible rumour that the youth of today don't really get on with it. That somehow the tank controls and the inability to move when firing makes it seem outdated. Imagine being one of those poor bastards. Imagine not liking Resident Evil 4. Unthinkable.”

 

strider: “A peerless action game that created a slew of imitators. Even now its pacing holds up exceptionally well and it's been re-released so many bloody times there's absolutely no excuse for anyone to not experience it.”

 

Treble: “As per my pick of Resi original, this uses limitations as strengths to distill that energy from certain classic horror tropes (the old dark house in Resi 1; the rampant, blade-wielding maniac in Resi 4) into game form by giving you power juuuuust below the threshold of what you need to feel safe. For a game slathered in a low culture sauce, it's surprisingly sophisticated on the palate.”

 

Down by Law: “I was going to leave this off, but I played through the recently released PS4 version earlier this year and it's still incredibly fun to play. The constant inventory screen / weapon switching is the only this that really dates this one, but it's still a great game regardless.”

 

joeplus: “ A horror game for people who don't like horror games. Just so good you had to play it, even if it meant losing some sleep. New to the series, I didn’t expect the wonderful campiness that helped offset some of the genuinely scary bits (fucking Regenerators, man). The "bad" third-person controls make sense as a design choice: you can't merrily strafe around zombies so each fight is tense, every good defensive position valuable, every fuck-up a grisly death.

And then your reward: New Game+, a roaring rampage of revenge.”

 

Cappuccino Kid: “This is the only other game that I'd really put into the same quality bracket as the first two. I play through it again every few years, and every playthrough is just a constant stream of "Oh, I'd forgotten about this bit! This bit is brilliant!", from start to finish. Still masterful.”

 

Vimster: “Greater than the sum of its parts. Simply one of the best gaming experiences I've had.”

 

And Timmo never votes for anything else.

 

(When I was getting images from Google for the set above I kept saying to myself, "ooh, that bit, oh yes that bit! That bit was amazing... Etc.)