#60+59 - Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! and Punch Out!! (Wii)

These two games are basically the same, which is why they basically take up the same spot.

The original is here because it's my favorite NES game of all time. The Wii version is here because of all the added style, charm, and personality that was shoved into this game when brought to Wii.

Both games are simple tests of reaction and pattern recognition, but that doesn't make them easy. Far from it.

This game really makes you feel like a rookie underdog in over their head with the drive to make the impossible happen. I still remember how loud I yelled when I beat Bald Bull on the NES version for the first time.

I love the feeling of accomplishment this game gives.

#58 - Cuphead

I've always been a fan of animation. Newgrounds flash, Cartoons, Anime, Youtube indie animators, you name it. It's one of the most expressive mediums with one of the highest skill floors. In my eyes, it's one of the most passionate mediums an artist can dedicate themselves to, and I respect it immensely.

Hand drawn animation in games is the shit to me, and Cuphead is no exception. When I first learned someone was making a game that used rubberhose styled animation, I knew I was buying it. I bought Cuphead day one before I even knew it was a Boss Rush shmup, and I didn't care.

What I got was one of the most creative, mechanically satisfying games I've ever played. Its really is a love letter to old school rubberhose cartoons, taking full advantage of the creative liberties the medium offers to make some of the most interesting boss fights I've ever seen. They squash and stretch and transform into wild things each phase.

And the game feels great to control. Parrying is satisfying, the Dash feels good, and the charms system to swap your load out for specific fights is great. It's hard as fuck, but I love a challenge.

This game is amazing, Im so happy it exists and I'm even happier its as good as it is.

#57 - ULTRAKILL

MANKIND IS DEAD.

BLOOD IS FUEL.

HELL IS FULL.

ULTRAKILL combines 2 of my favorite genres, character action games and boomer shooters, executes it flawlessly, and wraps it up in a colorful PSX inspired bow.

This game sucks and fucks.

It is one of the most mechanically deep games I've played in a minute. It is FAST, and it is DIFFICULT. The barrier to entry is high and the skill ceiling even higher. It's overwhelming at times, some rooms or bosses feel impossible.

But when it clicks, it so SO SATISFYING.

You put the time into this game and it rewards you with some of the slickest and most stylish shit I've seen in a game.

I entered a stairwell with my revolver in hand, flicked a coin up into the middle of the shaft, performed a technique that let me moon jump to the top of the room, swapped to my rail gun mid-air and ricochetted the shot off the coin to kill the enemies below me. Then, I swapped to my shotgun mid-air and parried my own shotgun bullets to make them explode, killed the enemies at the top. I landed, and left the room.

All in like, 3 seconds.

The only reason this game is as low as it is is because when I played it, only 2 chapters were out. Once I finally give the rest of the game the time it deserves, I imagine it'll rank higher.

#56 - Pokemon Black

It's Pokémon again! And guess what? It won't be the last time it shows up here.

Pokemon Black and White were really ambitious games for Game Freak. They were soft reboots that added the most Pokemon of a single generation. It was the first game not set it Japan, instead taking place in a North Eastern American inspired region. It placed a higher focus on narrative, with more mature themes and an older cast.

The visuals are also stand out. Full 3D environments with fully animated sprites. They pushed the DS to its limit, and that effort paid off because these games are a treat to look at.

They're some of the best Pokemon games ever made. The only reason they rank here is because I personally was never really obsessed with them. As a kid I didn't like the direction the series was going at the time, and as an adult, there's a Unova game I like more.

#55 - Super Smash Bros. Melee

Melee is a game I wish I was good at, and will never be.

I'm very at odds with this game. It's my favorite to watch, my favorite aestheticly, my second favorite to play solo, the one I'm most nostalgic for.

But I hate playing it competitively because of it's lack of input buffer. Everytime I pick up the controller against someone else, it feels like I'm playing underwater with a controller covered in butter.

This was my first smash game, and I look back on it very fondly. I love the era in time this game captures. I love the liminal spaces littered throughout. I love adventure mode, I love wavedashing, I love the sick shit people in this can can do.

Conceptually, I love everything about this game, but I just can't do the things I want to do it in. I played other competitive smash games for years, but the skills don't carry over because of that input buffer. I know it's a barrier I can overcome with dedication, but I still haven't and at this point won't be able to.

It's a shame, because if I could this game would be so much higher. And I know that's true because I've played smash mods with Melee mechanics and input buffer, and I absolutely adore them.

If mods counted, Project M would 100% make this list.

#54 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Another smash game, but for a different reason. I think Brawl is the best game to play from a casual standpoint.

Subspace Emmisary, Co-op events, Co-op classic mode, stage builder, special smash. If you and a buddy are just tryna good off and press some buttons, Brawl is perfect for that.

Not to mention the modding scene. Brawl has the largest modding scene of all smash games, and there is so much you can do to make Brawl infinitely fun. Custom stages, custom characters, gameplay overhauls. Project M, which to me is the best smash game ever made.

But even vanilla Brawl is still a blast. Something I learned from being in the competitive smash space for as long as I have, is that sometimes people forget the value of just playing for fun vs playing for glory.

Brawl is still fun to this day, and it always will be.

#53 - Pikmin

I've always liked the Pikmin games. The serene and peaceful environments juxtapose the pressure of the ticking clock and the dangers those same environments pose. It creates this tension of wanted to stop and smell the roses, but realizing that time you spent sniffing put you behind schedule for the day.

That tension is why I like Pikmin 1 over the rest. In 2, you're just trying to earn money for a greedy corporation. In 3, you can stockpile resources so effectively that the time limit is a non issue. But Pikmin 1? you have 30 days, thats it. Find your ship parts in that time, or die trying.

Its gameplay is the most basic in the series. But as I get older, I realize gameplay is not the only factor that goes into making a game a memorable experience. Pikmin 2 and 3 are still great games (that probably also deserve to me on this list), but that constant race around the clock is why Pikmin 1 ranks here above them.

#52 - Tetris Effect

For a long time, I considered Tetris to be my favorite game of all time. In my eyes, I still consider Tetris to be a perfect game. If I could only play one game for the rest of my life, it would be Tetris.

And this is my favorite version of Tetris.

It focuses on the aspect I love most about Tetris, the flow state you slide into while playing. Where the world outside quiets and dims, and you dont even think about where the next piece goes, it just perfectly lands there right where it needs to be.

It's an audio visual masterpiece, and is the only reason I want to buy a PSVR, so I can fully immerse myself in it.

There is one other Tetris game that ranks above this one, but its a little different, and you'll see why when we get to it.

#51 - Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

This one is gonna be a little short, mainly cause I'm getting tired of writing.

The Mario and Luigi RPG games are perfectly serviceable RPGs. They got a bunch of charm and look great, but in my eyes they never really do much that stands out.

Bowser's Inside Story is different tho. This game is incredibly creative mechanically, switching up with mini games every so often to keep things fresh. It characterizes Bowser in a great way, and gives the game an actual protagonist who speaks and reacts to the events happening. That small change did a lot towards making this game way more enjoyable than others in the series.

It's kind of a shame, because after playing this entry, I never enjoyed any other Mario and Luigi games as much as before.

#70 - Mega Man 3

I wrote about this game recently so I won't go super deep into it. It was great, it made me fall in love with the Mega Man formula, save states are a must, and it's better than Mega Man 2.

That about sums it up

#69 (nice) - Spider-man Miles Morales

I'm from New York City, I love comic books, and Spider-Man is my favorite superhero. I was always going to love these games.

The story and the combat in these games are genuinely great, but the highlight is obviously the webswinging. Yea everyone says it, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

In fact, the only reason why I picked this version is because the webswinging is better than the original, and because I haven't played the sequel yet (games are too expensive).

When I first got my PS5, I spent so many hours just listening to the Spiderverse soundtrack while swinging around to the music. Such a good time.

#68 - Half Life 2

Whenever I get into a piece of media, I like to know it has an end. I feel like a good ending can really elevate a game, show or movie. Half Life 2 episode 2 famously ends on a cliffhanger, so I avoided the games for quite some time.

I regret doing so, because it still ended up being one of the best single player FPS games to this day. I had expectations going in and I was still blown away.

This game utilizes its physics engine more creatively than most modern titles today. I think what really surprised me was how action packed this game was. You tell me I'm playing an FPS physics based game and my character is a scientist, I'm assuming it's a slower paced shooter with heavy puzzle elements.

But no, outside of some light puzzle solving, the physics engine is primarily used in these large action set pieces where you barrel through hordes of enemies. VERY action oriented, and the pace never really let's up the entire way through.

I feel like I did myself a disservice not playing this sooner. If I played it when I first got into PC gaming 12 years ago, I imagine it'd be a lot higher on the list.

#67 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Majora's Mask is such a unique Zelda title. Something about the typical and colorful Zelda world being juxtaposed with this dark and grim tone, it was very impactful.

And the game really commits to this darker theme. It shows more creepy and horrifying imagery than other titles. We see NPCs react to their inevitable fate, and how those reactions change as the day grows nearer. The ever present timer, constantly counting down to the end of all things.

It creates this really oppressive atmosphere where you can never really feel comfortable. Always on a time limit, and you can't take that sigh of relief until the credits roll.

This unmatched atmosphere is where this game has stuck with me as long as it has. It's also the direct inspiration for another game we'll see later in the list.

#66 - Pokémon Emerald

The first of many Pokémon games. It feels cheap adding Pokémon on the list, because I've been a super fan for almost my entire life. It's like putting 5 different brands of water bottle on your favorite drinks list because "well I drink water everyday and this one tastes a little better than this one."

Anyway Emerald is here because it's a great game. I've played it a ton over the years, but I didn't own it as a child which is why it ranks so low in comparison to others. It fixes a lot of issues Ruby and Sapphire had, like most third versions do.

There's really not a lot to say that hasn't been said a million times. It's Pokémon, its a good game, we move on.

#65 - Animal Crossing New Leaf

This is a game that, before April, wouldn't have been on this list. But playing it again after 10 years has made me appreciate it as a digital time capsule.

I wrote about it somewhat recently, do you can check that post for more info. But to sum it up, playing this game again gave me a lot of strong feeling. Given that strong emotions are what I value in the media I engage with, it felt wrong to leave it off the list.

#64 - Okami

Okami is a game I considered not putting on the list, mainly because I don't remember anything about it. I played it once so long ago that only the faintest memories of the game still remain.

Yet, whenever I think of Okami, I feel a deep fondness for it. Strong yet vague, explanationless emotions are tied to this game.

I know a large part of that fondness comes from the visuals. This is probably my favorite game in terms of visual style, and it proves to me once again that a strong art style will always be better than graphical fidelity.

#63 & #62 - Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 & Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

The age old debate, which classic 2D Mario is the better one? Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 or Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3?

Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 both take up the same slot of nostalgia in my brain. They're both 2D Mario games that I played on my gameboy in my childhood, and they're both my second played Mario game (My first being Super Mario Bros. 2)

Thats a big reason why Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 basically share a slot on this list. In many ways, they're the same to me.

But everyone knows that Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 are good games, and it's no surprise why they're on this list. The more interesting discussion is which of these 2 rank higher and why.

I personally really like looking at the formative years of a long running franchise. It's why Kanto is my favorite region in Pokémon and why I like the first 3 Zelda games so much. We get to see the franchise in an experimental phase, before the formula was perfected and the corporations knew exactly what they wanted their brand to be.

In my opinion, Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 is when Nintendo went "alright we finally got this 2D Mario shit figures out." When you compare Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 to games that came after, you can see a lot of similarities. Grassy green plains, koopaling boss fights, a more dynamic world map, Yoshi, etc etc.

Comparatively, when you look at the games that came before Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, they're a bit more different. Super Mario Bros. was basically a tech demo with identical looking stages. Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn't even actually a Mario game, they just put a Mario coat of paint on it. And Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 is especially weird.

It was a stage play, there were kings in castles and airships and gambling mini games. One level on the world map was just a pyramid. It felt a lot more rough around the edges compared to the corporate sterilized Mario we had today. It was a game that exists before Mario as a brand was "solved".

That little extra bit of weirdness lands Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 above Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 in my eyes.

#61 - Donkey Kong Country

The SNES excelled at making these ethereal moments. Something about the limitations of the 16-bit system and its sound chip provided just limitations to force creativity, but just enough freedom to create some really special moments.

Stickerbush Symphony and Aquatic Ambience are some of these magical moments the SNES is known for in my eyes.

When I first played this game, it was with a good friend of mine. This was his childhood game, so I invited him over to play through it with me.

We smoked some pot and started playing, and when we got to these levels, we put the controllers down for a little bit. We let the music fill the room and just, talked about life for a bit. We don't really talk anymore, but I still think about these moments alot. They make me happy.

Donkey Kong Country is one of the best 2D platformers I've ever played, but that means less to me than the memories I made playing it. Those memories are the real reason why this game makes the list.

Earthbound is a work of art.

Shigesato Itoi created a game unlike anything else. It's colorful, fun, and weird, but also willing to go into some really dark territory. That uniqueness caused it to become one of the most influential games of all time, despite commerical failure.

I don't think it's a surprise why. People tend to hold media that felt them with strong emotions and feelings in high regard. At it's core, Earthbound was created to convey a very powerful feeling, the loss of childhood innocence.

Loss of innocence is hard to define. It's easy to think of examples, but how do you put the feeling into words? To me, innocence is a combination of naivety and blissful ignorance. As a kid, most or all of what you know is good and positive, so you believe that all is good and positive. The loss of innocence then, would be an introduction of negativity Learning to see the bad in things.

As a child, our default outlook is "good". Only through experiences do we see things in a more "realistic" and negative light. Whether it's because of a single traumatic event that changes your worldview, or slowly as you gain life experience, inevitably that innocence is lost.

And I think that's important to note, that innocence is lost. We don't want to give up the feeling that everything and everyone around us is good, but we're forced to lose our innocence, it's inevitable. In Earthbound, we watch that happen to Ness.

The game starts proper with Ness meeting Buzz Buzz, a time traveler who gave him the unfair responsibility of saving the world. Ness naively agrees, as a kid would, not fully understanding what "saving the world" entails. Then, reality hits.

Buzz Buzz is killed my Porky's mom, mistaking him as a housefly, before the journey even began. The game plays it for laughs, but it has dark connotations. Ness just started, and he already lost his only ally. He didn't expect anyone to die, let alone so soon, and now he's alone without guidance.

This moment is great, because not only does it set the tone of the entire game (comedic with dark undertones), but also introduces the primary theme. Ness innocently agrees to save the world, and is immediately met with a new ally dying in front of him. Horrible for a kid to go through, and he will only continue to go through more.

The world Itoi created is meant to be reminiscent our own, and as such, many of the dangers lurking it in are the same as our own. For every alien you encounter, you encounter a stray dog, a gang member, a cultist, a corrupted police man and business man. All of these are real world dangers, and all of which is traumatic for a child to experience. Ness learns first hand that the world isn't as innocent as he once thought.

As you progress throughout the game, you find out that Gigasy's influence is exasperating the evil in people's hearts through the Mani-Mani statue. It's not necessarily a corrupting force, but rather brings latent evil thoughts to the surface. This once again proves the world is darker than it originally seems, and Ness seems to have internalized this fact.

When we visit Magicant, a magical world inside of Ness' mind, we find a boss enemy titled "Ness' Nightmare." Its appearance is that of the Mani-Mani statue. It's says it is the evil part of Ness' mind, and that he has no hope to defeat it.

Ness, after seeing the evil that lurks below the surface in this world, has begun to believe that same evil may lurk withing him. At this point in the story, his innocence is gone. He can't even see the good in himself, let alone the world. Despite that, he fights back against the nightmare, and he wins.

Ness realizes that, despite everything he's experiences, all the trauma, there was still joy to be had. There was still good, good that wasn't artifical or hiding an evil below. He made great friends, seen amazing things, and became a strong person. I feel fight is a turning point in Ness' life. Allow himself to become bitter and discontent at the lost of his innocence, just like the people affected by the Mani Mani statue. Or, understand the world is not as he once thought, and still try to find the good parts of life anyway.

And that, I believe is what this game is trying to say. We all lose our childhood innocence, but we don't have to lose our childlike joy and wonder. Despite everything I said, the world of Eartbound is amazing. It's so fun to explore, there's something weird or funny at every corner. Even if there is bad in the world, it doesn't replace the good, it just exists with it as a part of everything.

And the final boss portrays message this more than anything else.

Shigesato Itoi famously said that the final fight against Giygas was inspired by a traumatic moment in his youth, where he walked into the wrong movie theater in the middle of what he misremembered as a rape murder scene. A loss of innocence.

In the fight Giygas becomes a constant swirling mass with no defined form. It's attacks are incomprehensible. It's horrific and unsettling, and you don't fully understand how or why, but it gives you these strong confusing emotions.

For the entire party, this is the ultimate loss of innocence. They are alone, in the past, their brains implanted into robots. Its cold and desolate, without even the comfort of their own flesh and blood, fighting against an incomprehensible eldritch being that wants them dead. The personification all evil.

And how is he defeated? Childhood innocence. Paula begins to pray, desperately. And we see, every good character we've seen throughout the game. Every place we made better, all the good in the world. The power of good, overcomes the influence of evil. It's cliche, but it's powerful.

As I continue to look at games through a more emotionally driven lens, I think about why I get the urge to replay certain titles. When I first played Earthbound, it was at a point in my life where I was losing my childhood innocence. I was getting severely bullied at school, that isolation driving me to seek out connections online instead. Unrestricted internet access at a young age, made me see things that I shouldn't have at 9 years old.

The next time I played Earthbound, I was 16 shortly after having moved to Jersey. My uncle passed shortly before, and his widow used my family to finish renovating the basement, then kicked us out of our home. I finally had friends at my new high school, and being forced to leave them hurt. I regressed to how I was when I was nine, not talking to anyone at my new school and having the majority of my connections be online.

Both instances, I felt another part of my innocence start to fade. I learned that your peers could be cruel, that the world is worse than what I knew, and that even people you consider family can use and discard you. For a long while, it felt like the world itself was rotten. Even if I didn't know it then tho, I think Earthbound clicked the way it did, because it reminded me that there is still good in the world. There's still whimsy and joy and discoveries to be had.

Every character is changed by the events of the story. No one will return home thinking of the world in the same way they once did. They will never get their innocence back. But lack of innocence doesn't mean lack of wonder, curiosity and joy. Just because we can see the bad in the world, doesn't mean the good doesn't exist, that there isn't value in seeking it out still.

Sometimes, it can be too easy to forget that.