My only experience with Richard Osman comes from watching him compete in Taskmaster Season 2, where I thought he was quite funny. So when my wife pulled The Thursday Murder Club out of a Little Free Library in our neighbourhood, I was intrigued to see just what the tall funny man wanted to write about.
The Thursday Murder Club takes place at a retirement facility named Coopers Chase, and consists of 4 retirees who meet every Thursday to review cold cases to see if they can solve murders by noticing details that the police of the day overlooked. Much of the story is told from Joyce’s diary, as she is the newest member of the Thursday Murder Club, now that Penny (who was a former police detective) has had to quit due to dementia.
What follows is a story about a new development being planned at Coopers Chase (the retirement community), and the sudden murder of the lead builder (Tony), and shortly after, the landowner (Ian). The Thursday Murder Club is excited at the idea of a fresh case that just landed in their laps, and take it upon themselves to solve the crime before the police do.
The characters in The Thursday Murder Club are delightful. From the mysterious Elizabeth, who seems to have been everywhere and still holds a valid tank operator’s license, to surly and argumentative Ron, to tech-savvy and meticulous Ibrahim. Each character has lived a long life, and they use their experiences and connections to uncover mysteries. That said, there are a LOT of characters. Outside of the 4 main characters, there’s another 70 characters to juggle in your brain as they all pop in and out of the story.
The Thursday Murder Club is a stellar book from first time author Richard Osman. It should come as no surprise that he can write well, considering he’s been writing and entertaining on TV for decades. But still, I wasn’t quite ready for just how much I enjoyed this book.
At least part of my enjoyment comes from the protagonists being septuagenarians. They’re immediately disarming and overlooked, which kind of makes them the best people to manipulate the cops and follow-up leads with potential murderers. There are a couple of twists in the book, right from the start, as Tony is planning to kill Ian after Ian cuts him out of a deal, but then gets wacked off instead. Then a couple of days later, Ian is murdered regardless, snuffing the prime suspect in the Tony murder case. And in between all this, a 3rd body is discovered. These murders all seem obviously related, but watching each thread unravel is a delightful journey.
A criticism, I do have, is the idea of a few of the older characters so quickly committing suicide after a brief conversation with the authorities. Sure, they could have been living with their guilt for decades, but it felt a little icky when multiple characters had their past sins revealed, only for them to immediately off themselves, even if only to alleviate them from suspicion of the main murders.
I do think I would characterize The Thursday Murder Club as a comedy book with a mystery, rather than a mystery book with humour. It may seem like an odd distinction, but armchair Sherlocks will probably find themselves at least a little disappointed by the conclusion. The Thursday Murder Club is not for diehards of the murder mystery genre or for the true crime aficionados, but instead more for fans of Only Murders in the Building, and those who want a delightfully dramatic journey with some quirky old people.
Oh, it’s also very English. A bunch of old English people prattling on, using their specific slang and terms, such as using stones as measurement for a person’s weight. Personally, I found it charming, but I can see others taking umbrage with the distinctly English voice.
While the mystery itself didn’t fully grip me, the characters absolutely did. I fell in love with each of them, and I’m already itching to dive into book two. If you’re looking for a cozy, character-driven whodunit with heart and humour, this one is worth the read.
My Island was the hotly anticipated 2023 follow-up to 2020’s eminently popular My City, both games designed by Reiner Knizia and published by KOSMOS. This review was 2 years in the making, as my first game of My Island was on October 28th, 2023, and the final game was August 9th, 2025. There were some significant gaps in time between games, which probably tells you how this review is going to end.
Just like in My City, My Island is played over 24 games, broken into 8 chapters. Each game introduces new rules that twist the game in different and interesting ways. The gameplay itself is similar, every player has the same pieces available to them. Each turn, a card is flipped, and all players need to fit the piece depicted on the card into their personal player board. My Island features a series of hexagon tiles that need to be placed in a dominos style; each tile you put down needs to have at least one hexagon touching another hexagon of the same type.
The tiles come in 2, 3, and 4 hexagon shapes, with the same element rarely doubled within a single tile. At the start of the campaign, you can only place your tiles on the beach, but as the campaign goes on, you gain the ability to adventure deeper into the jungle. Where you put your tile is up to you, within the placement rules, but efficiency is the name of the game. Clusters and connections score you points, while awkward gaps and poor planning come back to bite you.
My Island is 8 chapters long, each chapter broken into 3 episodes each. Every chapter brings in a new twist, perhaps some new pieces, or something gets placed on your player board, while each episode within the chapter offers a small change on the chapter quirk. Sometimes these twists add tension, but other times it’s just confusing, especially when a rule changes a rule from a previous chapter, but the rulebook says “all rules from previous chapters apply”. It didn’t help that each chapter would introduce 3 or 4 new rules, then each episode in that chapter would twist only one or two of those rules, making it really difficult to keep in your mind what still scored and what didn’t. In the end, we just ended up using the chapter scoring summary as our definitive list of what rules still apply.
As the list of rules grew, so did the opportunities to earn points. As I said, you have to place tiles ‘dominos style’. By that, I mean when you place a tile, at least one of the hexagons on the tile needs to touch another hexagon of the same type that’s already on the board. Then by the middle of the game, My Island is asking you to make clusters of 5 hexagons of the same type, along with green paths snaking through your island, all while trying to have houses on the beaches. Further still, you’re asked to have clusters of 8 tiles or more, while also surrounding certain objects with a specific colour, and have 4 different tiles around another thing, and have a path from the water to the centre of the board.
My City was a breezy, cozy experience. Games took 15 minutes, and while you were always chasing optimal tile placements, you were never really shutting yourself off from most of the scoring opportunities. My Island reminds me more of Calico. There are so many competing objectives and scoring opportunities, that every time you place a tile, you are progressing one of those opportunities, but closing the door on three others. I can’t tell you how many times we would put down our second or third tile in the game, and there would be a chorus of “oh no, I’ve already ruined everything” around the table. By the back half of the campaign, each game took in excess of 40 minutes, which is A LOT when you’re ostensively playing a ‘light’ tile laying game.
Something else to mention, with My City, it was easy to complete a whole chapter in 45 minutes. It was a great game to pull out after we finished whatever mid-weight euro was the main event for the evening. But with every game of My Island hitting 40 minutes, we would go months between single plays. We’d forget what rule episode 7 introduced, and how episode 8 twisted it, making it even more challenging to return to.
It’s kind of impossible to not compare My Island to My City, but that’s the path you choose when you create a spiritual sequel with a nearly identical title and gameplay mechanics. You’re going to get compared. My City was full of charm and whimsy. When someone won, it was good cheer all around, you could see how you could have done better, but hey, that was the luck of the draw. In My Island, my head was constantly in my hands, I was always trying to snap off a single hexagon so I could just finish that one damn cluster. I was stymied by the card draws, and quickly fell behind in victory points.
In the last two chapters of the campaign, you’re tasked with building 3 buildings, and filling up a portal track. In Chapter 7, you aren’t told what these elements do, just that you should probably do them. In the last chapter it’s revealed that each of those buildings you don’t build will cost you 2 victory points per stage you don’t complete. And the overall winner is whomever has the portal track filled up the most, then subtract the victory points you’ve accumulated throughout the entire campaign. When I play a legacy game, I’m always the person whos trying to complete the objectives first, even to the detriment of winning each individual game, so by chapter 8, I had already completed all 3 buildings. My opponents were a little taken aback, but in the end, it all came out in the wash. We all finished all 3 buildings, and all finished the portal tracks. But I can see that being really jarring for someone if they had completely neglected the buildings that weren’t fully explained in the previous chapter.
My Island was good, but not as great as My City. In My City I was excited to start every chapter, to unlock new polyomino tiles, to have some asymmetric tiles depending on who won a specific episode. In My Island, the most asymmetric you’ll get is that you’ll get to put a little sticker on some of your tiles that makes on hex count for 2 of the specific type. Not very exciting. I don’t know if the lack of excitement comes from the bar being set so high in My City, but regardless, I didn’t feel like My Island had as many unique and interesting ideas as the game that came before it. If you’re a die hard fan of My City and are thirsting for more Knizia tile laying puzzles, you’ll probably enjoy My Island. But for most people, I suspect they’ll find themselves missing the joy and simplicity of the game where it all began.
I always forget how difficult it can be to make these lists. A lot of these games I haven’t played in 15 years, so I’m really just relying on gut feelings and vibes at this point. But that’s kind of the fun of a blog, right? This isn’t necessarily an objective look at the best video games ever according to a harsh rubric. This is my heart, and sometimes, my heart is stupid.
80 – XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Year Released: 2012 | Platform: Playstation 3
XCOM: Enemy Unknown is widely regarded as one of the best squad-based tactical RPGs of the modern era. You command a team of soldiers, facing off in turn-based combat against an alien invasion. XCOM does a great job of building tension by having the government caught flatfooted by the invasion, so your crew are weak, ill-equipped, and low on resources to handle all the pressing needs, as well as having permadeath be a consequence for letting one of your squad members fall in battle.
One of my favourite tidbits is that the majority of players didn’t complete XCOM, so when XCOM 2 came out, the story picks up as if the aliens won the invasion and took over. Now you take the role of an underground resistance committing guerrilla warfare upon the alien overlords.
Overall, the superb tactical and strategic gameplay combined with the emotional attachment to the survival of your squad members makes XCOM a magnificent and memorable experience.
79 – No More Heroes
Year Released: 2007 | Platform: Nintendo Wii
Perhaps sacrilegious, but this is the only Suda51 game I’ve played, and damn does it drop with style. In No More Heroes, Scrawny Travis Touchdown leaves his anime nerd haven of a motel room after winning a beam katana and takes on a job to assassinate local villain. This earns him rank 11 with the United Assassins Association, and he just chooses to claw his way to the top.
The gameplay is pretty hack and slash, with plenty of references to general anime and wrestling fandoms. The humour is crass and juvenile, complete with the need to shake the Wii Remote in a furious up and down motion to recharge your katana, and the save game location being toilet stalls. It’s stupid, I wouldn’t really recommend anyone play it, as it’s kinda stupid, but it’s also fun. If Suda51’s humour and aesthetic appeal to you, you’ll probably dig No More Heroes, but if it doesn’t, then you wouldn’t be missing out on any kind of important cultural milestone by skipping this title.
78 – Mega Man Zero 2
Year Released: 2003 | Platform: Game Boy Advance
I always considered this to be my second favourite Mega Man game, right after Mega Man X, which you’ll see much higher on the list. Mega Man Zero 2 begins with Zero wandering, battered and close to collapse in a sandstorm. With only his sword and buster gun operational, he fights through the wave of baddies, only to collapse at the end of the first level.
Zero awakes in the new Resistance Base, where Ciel and her team repair Zero, equip him with some new gear, and he joins their cause while seeking out the baby elves.
Mega Man Zero 2 is everything I want from a Mega Man game. It’s fast paced, each of the weapons have their uses, as you memorize and get better at each level, you’re rewarded with various new armors and abilities, it’s just utterly satisfying to get really good at a game and be rewarded for it. Mega Man Zero 2 lived in my Game Boy for months on end, until I got an S rank on every mission, and could complete the game without taking a single hit. I have played some of the other Mega Man Zero games, but without the memory of all the levels in the back of my head, I feel less intrested in actually getting good at these ‘new’ games, instead choosing to just replay Mega Man Zero 2 over and over again. What can I say? I like feeling competent in my limited game time!
77 – Plok
Year Released: 1993 | Platform: SNES
Gosh Plok has such serious memories for me. On some level, I kind of miss the wild west of video games that existed back in 1993 when you could just make a wacky ass game like this. Plok is a side scrolling platformer about a… I don’t even know what Plok is, some kind of goblin? Either way, he throws his hands and his feet to attack his foes, if he loses them, they appear on clothes hangers somewhere else in the level. Giant presents are littered throughout the levels that transform Plok into a saw blade, a helicopter, a boxer, and so much more.
It’s bright, colourful, and crazy, everything that mattered to me when I was 5 years old. I never actually beat Plok, I should really go back and give it another play now that i’m all grown up.
76 – Fallout 3
Year Released: 2008 | Platform: Xbox 360
I came into Fallout 3 almost entirely blind. I was walking around the mall in Winnipeg, saw a cardboard cutout of the power armor pictured above, and said “hell yes”. I walked in, bought the game, went home, and fell in love.
Fallout 3 is a post apocalyptic first-person shooter that starts the players in an underground vault. As you progress through the introduction, you’re introduced to the tight group of people that live in the vault under the iron grip of the Overseer. Something goes terribly wrong, people die, your father disappears, and you manage to escape the vault. The first time you leave the cave that hides the vault entrance, and you look out at the blinding light of the wasteland, my jaw dropped. What follows is a haunting adventure through the “what if” future of humanity post nuclear armageddon.
Fallout 3 was my introduciton to the series, and I fell utterly in love with the series. Unfortunately, Fallout 4 was a bit to action/adventure for my tastes, and I’ve completely boycotted Fallout 76 due to the lifeless world upon launch to the $130 per year subscription fee. I’ve resolved myself to enjoying Fallout 3, and hoping for something better on the horizon.
75 – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Year Released: 2009 | Platform: PlayStation 3
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is often described as a thrilling, cinematic experience, much like an action-packed summer blockbuster. The hero Nathan Drake is likable, every character has sharp dialogue, all in service of an epic story to create a narrative-driven adventure that hooks and engages you. At the time of launch, Uncharted 2’s visuals, audio, and score were all top-tier, making it one of the hottest games at the time.
The gameplay combines tense platforming in-between cover-based shooting sections. While the platforming is not particularly challenging, it feels exciting, especially when Nathan is dangling by one hand above certain death. The voice acting, storytelling, and plot set pieces kept me utterly engaged throughout the game’s runtime.
However, Uncharted 2 is very linear, with limited exploration compared to many other action-adventure games. It feels like the platforming just exists to transition between combat and cutscenes. Despite this, playing Uncharted 2 feels like a rollercoaster, blending memorable cinematic moments with exciting gameplay, making it (and the series) a perfect example of the “game as an experience” philosophy.
74 – Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
Year Released: 2006 | Platform: Nintendo DS
I distinctly remember picking up Pokémon Diamond after a vacation to Dallas. I was on the way home to my small village, we stopped off at the nearest Walmart (4 hours away), and I saw a huge banner on the side of the building. Internet wasn’t great where I grew up, and nerd media was nearly impossible to come by, so I had no idea that a new Pokémon game was even in development. At this point, I had played my Pokémon Sapphire to utter death. I hated Diamond at first, thinking it was inferior to Sapphire in every way. By the end of this generation of Pokémon, I accrued much more hours in Diamond than I ever did in Sapphire.
73 – Bastion
Year Released: 2011 | Platform: PC
Another one of my early PC games, as I built my first PC around 2012, and Bastion was still being highly praised at the time. The gameplay is action packed as you control The Kid wandering around a world that is being built and falling apart around him. What really hooked me in Bastion, was the dynamic narration. Beautifully voiced by Logan Cunningham, commentary and exposition came up in response to your actions. And the music is utterly enchanting, so much so, that it’s still one of my default OST’s to this day.
Supergiant Games has produced several fantastic games since Bastion (Pyre, Transistor, and their most popular hit to date, Hades), but this one has a special place in my heart. For so long, I was a console fanboy, but playing Bastion on the PC made me realize that I was missing out on so many great experiences. And for that, I thank it.
72 – Pikmin
Year Released: 2001 | Platform: Nintendo GameCube
This might be one of the most recent additions to my list. I somehow skipped over Pikmin in my gaming life, dismissing it as a game for children, right up until early this year when I borrowed Pikmin 1 and 2 for the Nintendo Switch. Once I actually got my hands on it and started playing, I was in love. A RTS game on a console, with cute charm and puzzles to overcome, I was kicking myself for not being a fan of Pikmin 20 years ago.
71 – Final Fantasy X
Year Released: 2001 | Platform: PlayStation 2
I’ve long been one of those insufferable snobs that firmly believe that the best Final Fantasy games are sprite based, and the series progression into 3D has made me very angry and is generally regarded as a bad move. But even more so, I believe Final Fantasy X marks a turning point as the ‘last good game’ before the series left what I really look for in a JRPG, behind (read, not MMOs or gambit systems that play the game for you).
I’m being a jerk again. Final Fantasy X follows Tidus as he is thrown back and forth in time as Sin destroys the world around him. He encounters Yuna, a young summoner who is about to embark on a pilgrimage to obtain the Final Aeon so she can defeat Sin once and for all.
Final Fantasy X is a beautiful tale, and I played it much later than I should have. I didn’t get a PS2 until the PS3 was well into it’s life cycle, so I had to circle back to enjoy this entry. I enjoyed the characters growth, the twisting story, and the gameplay where you get to watch the numbers go up, everything that really I look for in a JRPG, but it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. The cutscenes were beautiful, but some of the ingame graphics were rough. The music was amazing, but the voice acting had some truly awful moments.
Also, I find Blitzball to be boring.
You know, with all the above complaints, you’d be forgiven if you forgot that Final Fantasy X is number 71 on my FAVOURITE games list. It’s still a great game, but I just wanted it to be so much more. I know Final Fantasy is capable of creating some of the best JRPG experiences out there, and even when they miss, it’s still a good game. But I can’t help but feel twinges of disappointment in my heart when I think about Final Fantasy X.
I also never played X-2, and probably never well. Sorry!
Automobiles: Racing Season feels like a Monkey’s Paw type of expansion. It’s something you thought you really wanted, but when it comes to fruition, you’re left with regrets. You see, this expansion adds 3 more maps, and a Grand Prix mode where you carry over your cubes from race to race, plus individual player powers and in-between race abilities in the form of sponsors.
Now, I’ve already covered Automobiles in-depth (in fact, Automobiles was one of the first reviews I ever wrote), but for those who need it, here’s a quick rundown: Automobiles is a bag building racing game. Each turn, players pull cubes from their bags, and use those cubes to propel their cars around the track. The white, greys, and black cubes are straightforward and present in every race, they move you one space on their associated colour. The colourful dice have variable powers that you set at the start of the race, and do vary pretty wildly, offering some nice replayability, as a different set of cards will make your race feel quite different. The base game also came with 2 different maps for a bit more variety from game to game.
The new tracks and action cards that Automobiles: Racing Season adds can be folded into the base game with no concern for complexity or bloat. Even the driver cards are fairly simple in execution, now each player gets a player power at the start of the race they can use ones per turn. The real meat of the expansion comes in the season campaign.
The season campaign has players carrying over their bag of cubes from one race to another to see who can score the most points over a series of races. Players still pick a driver at the start of the racing season, but once the driver and action cards have been decided, they’re locked in place for the duration of the season. In between races, players can pick a sponsor to help modify their bag of cubes before going onto the next race. Some will prioritize removing wear cubes, while others will let you remove some and add others.
It sounds like everything I wanted in an expansion, but the more I’ve played it, the more frustrated I’ve felt with this set-up. Some of the player powers, specifically the ones that just let players draw extra cubes, feel a lot more helpful than others. Having the action cards being locked for the whole season make sense, but it rips the variability away from the game in general. If one player gets ahead in the first few races, it can be quite challenging to catch up to them.
Perhaps the worst part of all, is the limited nature of the cubes. I’ve found that more often than not, by the end of the first or second race, the majority of the cubes have already been bought, making it quite impossible to modify your racing strategy for future races. You’re stuck with the bag you’ve built, hope it works for all races. This also nerfs the between race sponsers, as the ones that give you a chance to get more cubes are simply less helpful than the ones that will clear the wear out of your bag.
I’ve been playing a lot of Automobiles on Board Game Arena lately, playing a season with each of the recommended action card sets, and some of them are really not geared toward this style of play. In one season, the purple cubes had the ability to remove up to 3 cubes, then add one back in. As I said before, every cube was purchased, aside from the useless yellow and the brown wear cubes, so each purple cube is taking 3 wear out and adding one back in. Near the end of the fourth race, all of our cars had more wear than would have been possible in a physical game, and ensuring that each car could only move one or two spaces each round.
I’m not quite sure how I’d recommend fixing this experience. Locking the action cards and carrying over your bag from race to race makes sense, and it should create a sense of momentum, but in reality, it just saps the variability away, making the 3rd, 4th, and 5th race in the season a dull experience of just running the bag you’ve built and trying to come in first. The mid-game sponsors are comparatively boring, and the driver cards are unbalanced, making it feel a little unfair for one player to hold the best one for 5 races in a row.
Perhaps most importantly, racing games have come a long way in the past 10 years. Restoration Games released Downforce in 2017, which gives players the ability to control all the cars with betting being the way for players to win, Thunder Road: Vandetta is ostensibly a race, albeit a violent one, and a race that ends with one car standing more often than a car passing the finish line. 2022’s Heat: Pedal to the Metal garnered a ton of praise the year it released, and one that I keep meaning to go back to. All of these games do a better job of instilling the feeling of a race, the feeling of momentum, and the excitement of that nail-biting finish
Automobiles: Racing Season ultimately feels like it’s a lap too long. The new tracks and action cards are excellent additions and easily worth mixing into the base game. But once you step into the marquee Season mode, the excitement sputters out. What should feel like a grand championship instead drags into a grind, where you’re stuck with the same bag for race after race, and your ability to modify it is totally diminished.
Automobiles remains a clever and underrated racing game that I’ll happily keep returning to, but the Racing Season expansion doesn’t add fuel to the engine. It’s the kind of expansion that sounds thrilling on paper, but when the rubber hits the road, it only makes me want to pack the new maps and action cards into the base box, and leave the rest behind.
Going through these games is really reminding me that the years in which I played the most games are far behind me. Sure, today I have more money so I can buy a lot more games, but the amount of time I give to each video game is vanishingly small. Almost every game on this portion of the top 10 was released between 2000 and 2010, when I was between the ages of 10 and 20. Being an adult sucks sometimes!
90 – Pokémon Snap
Year Released: 1999 | Platform: Nintendo 64
I really don’t know who, in the height of Pokémon craze, thought “Battling and catching Pokémon is boring. We need more photography games!” and yet, they were right! Pokémon Snap is incredibly accessible and offers a unique way to explore a 3D Pokémon world without the usual RPG elements. It’s so engaging that even my sister, who usually isn’t into Pokémon games, loved it. The gameplay is straightforward: you move on rails, passing by various Pokémon, and you need to snap their pictures at just the right moment to score points. There are even tricks to get the Pokémon to pose in certain ways, or get them to interact with the world around them, or even with each other.
The real joy of Pokémon Snap comes from the pride of capturing that perfect shot, much like in real-life photography. Back when the game was released, there were kiosks where you could turn your photos into stickers by inserting your Nintendo 64 cartridge. Sadly, growing up in the middle of nowhere meant I never got to make my own stickers, but the game itself was a blast and a memorable part of my gaming journey.
89 – Tales of Xillia
Year Released: 2011 | Platform: PlayStation 3
Buckle up, because you’re going to be hearing about a lot of games from the “Tales of” franchise on these lists. I won’t belabour every game by going over the trademark Linear Motion Battle System each time. What makes Tales of Xillia special is the locations, they’re the most imaginative of the entire franchise. I also really loved the way they played with the incarnation of Maxwell in the main character, Milla (for those who don’t know, Maxwell is usually an end-game summon in the Tales of games). I thought Tales of Xillia had quite a fresh, more modern world than most of the Tales of games up to this point, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game, even if the story was a bit slow to get started.
I somewhat lament that Tales of Xillia is locked to the PlayStation 3. I mean, I have the console and the disc, so I could hook it up and play it, but that would require me going down to my garage, and that just seems like a lot of effort these days.
88 – Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Year Released: 2002 | Platform: PC
Growing up, we had the family PC in the living room, with it’s MASSIVE 32GB of storage and 256MB of RAM. Needless to say, it was not a gaming device. And my family didn’t really dive into PC games, as we had the Super Nintendo for video games. When I was in my final year of high school, the graduates fundraised all year, and we managed to purchase a Dell Laptop for each of the graduates (there were only 3 of us after all). Once I had that laptop, I finally had the chance to go back and play some of the greatest hits that PC gaming had to offer, and one of my favourites was WarCraft 3.
Surprisingly, consoles are awful at RTS mechanics, so it was a genre I never really dove into. But playing WarCraft 3, and it’s expansion, I can see why it was so revered. I never ventured into playing against other people, but the single player campaign was engrossing, the gameplay was exciting and tactical, and to this day I’m quite fond of my time playing WarCraft 3.
Sure is a shame that World of Warcraft just prints money, because I really don’t like MMOs…
87 – Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Year Released: 2007 | Platform: Nintendo DS
Spoiler Alert, you’ll see Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced higher up on the list, but FFTA2 was a really great follow-up to an utterly stellar game. While on the easy side, I loved so much about what this entry enhanced. More classes, more abilities, more character types, a bigger map, more equipment, it’s everything a player should want, right?
I was disappointed in the story, which was significantly worse than its predecessor. I also found the auction house mechanic to be an unnecessary diversion. But even still, FFTA2 is one of the best tactics games around, and is actually the game I’m playing as I was creating this whole list.
86 – Yoshi’s Cookie
Year Released: 1992 | Platform: Super Nintendo
Now this is a classic that my mom and I played the ever loving heck out of. And a real hot take here, I always enjoyed this more than Dr. Mario.
Yoshi’s Cookie is a simple puzzle game. You move cookies on the X and Y axis until cookies of the same type stretch all the way across the cookie grid, then they clear. As you play, cookies descend from above and from the right, adding to your grid. Each level is cleared when all the cookies have been cleared.
The sound effects in Yoshi’s Cookie are wildly distinct, and to this day, I can still here the bright and cheery chirp that happens when a line of cookies clears. I don’t think it’s really worth going back and playing today, but I still harbour significant nostalgia for this clever puzzle game.
85 – SoulCalibur II
Year Released: 2003 | Platform: Nintendo GameCube
When I was creating the list of games that would go into the lists, then looking at all the amazing games that got cut, I consoled myself with the thought that sometimes, I would say that an entry for a game stands for the whole series, and that’s how I feel for SoulCalibur II. I chose this edition, because it’s the one I played the most, although I did play a significant amount on my friends Xbox as well, then we spent an unhealthy number of hours on the PS2 with SoulCalibur III.
Anyways, SoulCalibur. It’s a one v. one fighting game, where each of the characters has a unique and distinct weapon. From Talim and her dual elbow blades, to Kilik and his staff, each character has benefits and drawbacks. The roster in SoulCalibur II is limited by today’s standards, but I never found myself wanting for more characters. Each one has a story that intertwines with the other heroes, and playing through each character’s story is a joy. As with all fighting games, it’s best played with a group of similarly skilled friends, and SoulCalibur feels like a well-balanced game. Sure, my friends gave me a hard time for picking Kilik so much with his impressive reach, but they all learned how to dodge his staff and get in close to punish.
I don’t like very many fighting games, and I’ve barely touched the series since SoulCalibur III, but if I was going to suggest a fighting game, SoulCalibur would be high on my list of picks.
84 – The World Ends with You
Year Released: 2007 | Platform: Nintendo DS
Gosh, here’s a game that came out of nowhere for me. I picked this one up fairly blind, mostly on the pedigree of publisher Square Enix, and the punk anime aesthetic. Damned, this game blew my socks off the first time I played it.
In The World Ends With You, you (Neku) wakes up without any memories in a crowded intersection of Shibuya, and are thrust into a death game that takes place over 3 weeks. You team up wth a bunch of characters as you battle ghosts and spirits, trying to unravel the mystery and survive.
The gameplay is fascinating. On the bottom screen with a stylus and gesture controls (slashing, tapping, holding down the stylus on an enemy, etc.), you control Neku, who equips various pins that give him different attacks to take down the enemies of the day. Simultaneously, on the top screen is one of your partners, who has attacks that they can preform by pressing specific directions on the D Pad to match symbols on the top of the top screen. Thankfully, if you choose to ignore the top, it gets poorly controlled by an AI. I absolutely adore it when games take advantage of the uniqueness of it’s host hardware.
The combat is wild and frenetic, while the story offers twists and turns that rival almost any other game. I love games that make you feel like you’ve reached the end of your journey, then SURPRISE TWIST! It’s only just the beginning, which is exactly what happens here. I slightly regret not having picked up the sequel, Neo: The World Ends With You. I know I will one day, but time at the moment, is a luxury,
83 – Wii Sports
Year Released: 2006 | Platform: Nintendo Wii
The pack in software for the Nintendo Wii was an absolute Banger. 5 simple sports, that showcase the motion controls, turned out to be one of the most played games in my household in 2007. Baseball, and Tennis, I barely remember, as the sports of choice for us were bowling, golf, and boxing. Boxing, ended up being mostly a mash/swing-fest as we frantically flailed at each other. Bowling was the party game that we broke out all the time. And golf, was what my mom and I played, which, I have to stop and tell you, that I got a hole in one, once. It was glorious.
I strongly feel that every console should have a pack in game, and here, Nintendo delivered.
82 – Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Year Released: 2004 | Platform: Game Boy Advance
Hey look, it’s the only Kingdom Hearts game I’ve beaten. Which isn’t entirely my fault, I played ~15 hours of the first one, only to have my cousin save over my save file, and then I played it again to about ~20 hours, only to have my PS2 memory card get eaten by a friend’s dog, and at that point, I just haven’t bothered to go back.
But this isn’t about my woes in replaying Kingdom Hearts, this is about the Game Boy sequel, Chain of Memories. In Chain of Memories, Sora wanders into Castle Oblivion, and immedately loses all of his memories, because that’s the magic of the castle. The game takes you through all the locations from the first game, remeeting all the Disney characters. The gameplay, is a real time action battler, much like the original Kingdom Hearts games, but now all of Sora’s cards are represented by cards. Both yours and your opponents cards/attacks have numbers attached to them, and when two attacks are thrown out at the same time, the card with the higher number wins.
The story isn’t what drew me into Chain of Memories, but the card battling system was super intreging to me. Once you complete Sora’s story, you take control of Riku, and lose the ability to customize your deck, instead are forced to overcome any challenge with the deck the game chooses to give you.
I always meant to go back and play through the Kingdom Hearts series, but I’ve yet to prioritize them. Until something changes, Chain of Memories remains as my sole Kingdom Hearts experience.
81 – New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Year Released: 2009 | Platform: Wii
I’ve always loved 2D Mario games, but when New Super Mario Bros. Wii hit the scene, and introduced 4 player simulationous multiplayer, I was skeptical. And for good reason, the biggest critisim I’ve seen for this game is that the other players get in your way, especially when they die and the game freezes for a couple frames. But those aspects never bothered me, I was able to compensate for the freeze frames just fine, and the utter hilarity that came with having 4 players at the same time just can’t be beat.
I ended up bringing New Super Mario Bros. Wii to a friends house shortly after launch, and we played a 4 player game from start to finish because we were just having so much fun. From leaping off each others heads, to purposefully throwing each other into lava pits, I haven’t full belllied laughed while playing a Mario game in such a long time.
