We greet the new year with a fresh start and fresh eyes. It’s also a good time to reflect on the year that was. Today, we reveal the top 10 best games we’ve reviewed in 2013/1014.
Least year (or, well, yesterday for that matter), we revealed the top 10 worst games we’ve reviewed. While it was filled with pain and misery, we want to travel to the opposite end of the spectrum and reveal the top 10 best games we’ve reviewed in 2013/2014.
10. Duke Nukem 3D (DOS)
Hail to the king baby. This satirical game revolves around a character deliberately over the top in every way imaginable. While a lot of ideas were based on ideas from other first person shooters (like the colored keycards from Doom), there’s plenty of original content to be found here (such as shrink ray guns and remote controlled pipe bombs). You follow this foul mouthed protagonist through enemy lines on earth, space stations on and near the moon, and come back down to earth for a final showdown with a one eyed freak. Everything about this mature themed game screamed high quality entertainment. A must play for first person shooter fans.
Score: 92%
9. Tetris Attack (SNES)
A Tetris title for both one and two players, this game shares a similar name to the game it was inspired by. Follow Yoshi and his friends as you go head to head against your buddy or computer players of varying difficulties. It does feature a slow puzzle mode if you are into more strategic style of play, but the main action mostly revolved around a single player adventure mode. Unlike Tetris, you match similar tiles by swapping two tiles side by side as many times as you like. There’s really no limit to how good you can be in this game as there’s always a better and more difficult style of play. A thoroughly enjoyable game.
Score: 94%
8. Katamari Damacy (Playstation 2)
One of the newest games we’ve reviewed here, this game does not disappoint. The whole premise of this game is to see if you can roll up enough objects within a set period of time. Playing through levels from beginning to end, this game builds up nicely as you reach sizes of epic proportions. While a wonky concept for a game, this game just screams fun end to end. A real treat to play this game!
Score: 94%
7. Kirby’s Adventure (NES)
The Kirby series a really good series – especially towards the beginning. One of the great games found here is the NES release called Kirby’s Adventure. In this game, Kirby’s ever famous copy ability is in full display. The game featured whole lobby areas that permitted access to all earned levels and minigames. As a bonus, you could also eventually access these minigames in the menu after you are done adventuring to see how close you can get to a perfect score. With plenty of environments and a nice difficulty, this game is both approachable to new players and challenging to experienced players. A fantastic game to say the least.
Score: 96%
6. Perfect Dark (N64)
Whenever I am asked to briefly describe Perfect Dark in a clear manner, the most efficient way for me is to say that it’s basically Goldeneye, but with aliens. Of course, that description always makes this game sound like a really bad game to those who have never played it before. This first person shooter is known for pushing the limits of what the N64 can handle. The storyline is quite intriguing in that two companies are fighting each other in action packed espionage as both are backed by opposing alien forces. To add to this, there’s a fully explorable Carrington institute that gives you access to various training facilities including the ever-famous firing range. Of course, who could forget the battle simulator that was for both one and multiplayer. A feature that makes the Goldeneye multiplayer mode look primitive in comparison. A spectacularly good game to say the least.
Score: 96%
5. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
This game was a seriously hotly anticipated game back in the day. It was known for creating massively long line-ups at demo kiosks everywhere prior to its release. On the back of the success of Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2, Nintendo was no doubt under pressure to deliver a top notch title that would cap off the trilogy. Seriously, Nintendo delivered here. With high quality graphics and interesting worlds to explore, this game will suck hours out of your day without a problem. Alternatively, players could simply utilize two warp whistles to skip ahead to the end if they feel the game takes too long. Ultimately, this was a smart decision as it played to those who want to get through the game quickly as well as those who like to take their time making it through all the interesting levels one at a time. Great soundtrack. Great graphics. Great design. You almost forget that this is a NES game. A truly epic title.
Score: 98%
4. Tetris (Gameboy)
While not the first Tetris game produced, it was, in my view, the best one I’ve played. Featuring the classic Type A music that forever defined the audio behind Tetris, this game was truly defining of one of the best puzzle games ever created. It is many retro puzzle gamers best dreams and ever double A batteries worst nightmare whenever this game was fired up. The game was simplistic, but an absolute blast to play – even though it was technically all in black and white. A game truly worth remembering.
Score: 98%
3. Earthbound (SNES)
For most fans of this game, this is probably the most criminally underrated game of all time. Another RPG game, this game takes a wildly different approach to the genre by taking place in, what was at the time, modern day. Instead of swords and axes, you arm yourself with fry pans and baseball bats as you defeat enemies from the mundane Spiteful Crow to the out of this world legion of Star Men. You’ll be taken through caves, swamps, snowfields, zombie infested towns, science laboratories, run down shacks, sky scrapers, and a whole lot more. With a musical score that ranges from jazz to electronica to rock music, this game is an entire audio journey. The graphics were also amazing with almost psychedelic backgrounds in battle sequences and crisp overworld locations. The results of this game were simply phenominal and truly deserving of a place on this list.
Score: 98%
2. Final Fantasy III (SNES)
You know you’re in to a good list when ratings hit 100% and you haven’t even reached the top of the list. Final Fantasy III is an RPG game that seriously takes you on a whole journey filled with every emotion under the sun and an indepth story-line that makes almost every character personabl in one form or another. The writing was amazing. The battle sequences were amazing. The graphics were stunning. The music was off the charts excellent partly because it has just about every genre you can think of. It’s really quite amazing that all of this could fit into a simple little SNES cartridge. You’ll spend hours getting lost in an incredibly immersive world as hours become minutes as you drink in every bit of quality that is found in this game. To date, this is simply the best RPG game I have ever played.
Score: 100%
1. Worms:Armageddon (N64)
It kind of goes against the grain. Take a platform that is mostly known for 3D graphics and release a 2D game on it. It’s an exceedingly risky move, but this game not only did that, but produced probably one of the funnest games I have ever played. It’s a 2D strategy game based on the tank game principles of games past, but replacing the tanks with worms and a whole arsenal of weapons ranging from the mundane to the weird to the absolute hilarious. Between different modes of play that features fixed missions to the randomly generated death matches and throwing in a little bit of fun training exercises, this game has everything you could possibly want in a just plain fun time. I’ve beaten this game more than once from beginning to end and the fun just does not stop. If I was stuck with just 5 games to play for the rest of my life, this game would be a no-brainer to pick. With the fun factor going clear off the charts, this game is definitely the best game I’ve reviewed in the last two years.
Score: 100%
Honorable Mentions
We’d like to throw in a few other great games that didn’t quite make the cut as well that were still quite enjoyable to play. So, here they are:
Donkey Kong 64 (N64):
An incredibly immersive game that features large worlds and a multitude of things to do. Follow Donkey Kong as he rescues his buddies and stops K. Rool from destroying his personal item all the while retrieving his once again stolen banana hoard. Ooooohhh, banana!!!
Score: 92%
Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)
Mario squares off with his other arch-nemesis, Wario. You are tasked with retrieving 6 golden coins before taking on the big boy himself. Zones you go through include a giant house, a Halloween pumpkin, and even space. For such a small screen, this game is quite the big adventure. A very noteworthy game.
Score: 92%
Might and Magic 6 – Mandate of Heaven (PC):
Probably the largest game to be found here on this list. This game is probably the one game that sucks out the most hours of your day. You barely feel like you’ve spent more than 20 minutes playing this game before you realize that a good 5 or 6 hours have gone by. The storyline is intriguing and the objectives are plentiful. You’ll find yourself grinding away in this truly open world for hours upon hours always finding new challenges right up to the very end. Gotta love the ancient weapons.
Score: 90%
Mega Man 2 (NES):
What top games list would be complete without mentioning this game? Mega Man 2 was the game that launched a very long lived series and when it comes to most memorable games in the classic series, most will point to Mega Man 2 that made them fans of this series. Can you stop Dr. Wiley in his quest for global domination?
Score: 90%
We hope you enjoyed this list as much as we enjoyed making it. Join us tomorrow when we reveal the top 10 best music tracks we’ve heard in 2014!
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85
