The 2025 Desert Island Video Game Draft

[hrdboild]

R9.P1 (#97 Overall)
XENOGEARS

(Art source: https://www.pxfuel.com/en/desktop-wallpaper-nmkcd )​

Format: PS1
Year of Release: 1998
Developer: SquareSoft (Square Co. Ltd)
Genre: J-RPG
Why I picked it: Theme and Ambition


Many classic games which have already been drafted here have a case for being the best J-RPG ever made. Anyone who likes this style of game and has not played Xenogears needs to rectify that immediately! The lineage of Xenogears intersects with all of the titles mentioned before and it has achieved a similar legendary status among J-RPG fans. I can only assume that the reason this game has not been drafted yet is that no modern ports have ever been released that I know of (maybe there was a PS3 version?) which makes it basically abandonware at this point. I'm lucky then that this crowd appears to skew more Nintendo because it seems like everyone who has played this game will not shut up about how it changed their life.



Am I one of those people? Well no, actually. I didn't even finish it on my first playthrough and somehow I forgot to include it on my 40 game short-list of titles I maybe wanted to draft. I had another game slotted here with all of the pictures and words ready to go and then it struck me like a bolt of lightning out of the blue that not only do I need to draft this game, I need to draft it right now before someone else gets to it! Even if that means scrambling to put together a write-up and collect screenshots at the last possible minute. Heck, I even feel compelled to go find my old PS1 and pull it out of the box for the first time in a decade to play through this whole game right now! What could possibly be going on here? Suffice it to say this is a game experience that can work it's way under your skin.

The basics: Xenogears was a one-off science fiction and fantasy RPG from SquareSoft that was developed in parallel to Final Fantasy VII. The story was conceived by Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka, a married couple who had both worked as graphic designers on Final Fantasy VI. Tetsuya Takahashi would then go on to serve as a graphic artist on Chrono Trigger and maybe at one point this was planned as a sequel to Chrono Trigger? It's complicated. The story that Takahashi and Tanaka came up with starts with an amnesiac protagonist named Fei who discovers soon enough (in the opening scenes) that he's really really good at sliding into a giant Mecha suit and wreaking havoc. Right away this introduces one of this game's coolest features -- a variation on the Active Time Battle system which uses button combos to trigger signature moves like you would see in a fighting game. And it's really damn cool!



As an impressionable youth I was obsessed with re-watching two 1989 movies which I don't often see cited as core texts among my contemporaries. The first movie was Cheetah (no real relation to Xenogears here) and the second was Robot Jox --a soapy b-movie about a group of mech pilots who fight arena duels with other mech pilots as proxy wars to settle disputes between countries. I can't tell you much else about the movie now. I think that I mostly just liked watching giant robots fight each other. So at some level I'm hard-wired for this kind of thing and Xenogears uses the magnetic allure of Gundam-style pilotable robot tanks to smuggle in a massively complicated storyline about theology, philosophy, psychology, and the origins of the human race which spans eons of history. Where else really are you going to find a game script which references Star Wars and Neon Genesis Evangelion in the same breath that it ruminates about Jungian psychology and Friedrich Nietzsche with allusions to Christian Gnosticism sprinkled throughout? That is both fantasy and science-fiction and has a whole middle section which is basically just a 3D mech fighting game? I guess there are other Xeno- titles you could turn to but this is the ur-Text.

Because I never finished the game I didn't make it to the massively flawed second half which I've only heard about. Apparently the development team spent their entire budget building the first half of the game so when you swap in Disc 2 for what should be an epic continuation and satisfying conclusion to a time-twisty sociological treatise about the nature of belief and how it intersects with power and personal responsibility what you get instead is a bunch of cut scenes which whisk you through the best plot points in fast-forward with very little actual gameplay to accompany them. Something something Icarus, yadda yadda yadda. You get the idea.



A phrase I'm fond of saying when explaining my reactions to movies is that I would prefer an ambitious failure to an artful facsimile. What I mean by that is that I want an artist to tell me something -- about yourself, about the way you see the world, about life and death or maybe just about your favorite spot to get coffee every morning and why it's so special to you. Just give me something. There are a lot of skillfull artisans in the world who are expert in recreating the surface flourishes of somebody else's artistic statement whether that be playing every Jimmy Hendrix guitar solo or writing in the style of their favorite author. Or in a movie context that might mean crafting a pastiche of a hip genre (let's say the Jean Pierre Melville crime movie) which really doesn't have much to say other than "isn't this all cool?" I appreciate the work that goes into a well made replica but ultimately what I'm actually interested in is not these stylistic touches but what's going on in the mind of the author. Xenogears may be an ambitious failure in some ways but there is also contained within about 40 hours of sublime J-RPG gameplay from a studio that was just cresting a wave of creativity and there's no question that this game is about something.

I have mostly been treating this exercise similar to @Padrino as a way to point to the video games which I find exceptional and explain why they matter to me. But I also think @Mr. S£im Citrus made a good point about curating a list of games I would be happy with if they made up the entirety of my library for all time. This pick is about serving both masters -- I loved the portion of this game that I did already play because it lives in the same sandbox with so many of my sci-fi, fantasy, intellectual, and prosaic interests. But there's also quite a lot here left for me to experience for the first time, perfect for a spot on the desert island.

Note: I tried to pick a good sampling of screenshots but they don't really convey what it's like to play this game so here's some gameplay footage to help with that:

 

[hrdboild]

Main inspiration for Fallout reportedly A Boy and His Dog (1975). Only saw the first 10 minutes in which a kid and his telepathic mutt argue in a post-nuclear wasteland. Have to get back to that one. Apparently the dog that can join the party is a nod to this.

And of course, working the other way is Six-String Samurai (1998) which has so much in common with Fallout, I refuse to believe the writer/director didn’t rip off the idea wholesale.

PS: 1997 must have been an incredible year in gaming for you.

lol, yes it was! I think I could have easily made all of my picks from 1997 and 1998 and been happy.

I have seen A Boy and His Dog. It's more of a "check the box" movie for me than something I would return to intentionally. I had a big post-apocalyptic movie phase because of my love of Fallout and even wrote a college paper about the genre at one point. If you haven't seen it yet, my recommendation is Le Dernier Combat from Luc Besson. It's cool, you would dig it. And also Delicatessen I guess? That's got some of the same quirky dark comedy. I guess French filmmakers are my go-to for apocalyptic fiction. And obviously any Mad Max movie but especially Road Warrior.

I have not seen Six-String Samurai though it involves almost everything I was into in my 20s and I've been aware of it's existence since it was available on video so I can't explain why I haven't watched it yet other than I'm convinced it can't possibly live up to what I've already imagined it to be in my head.

 

[Löwenherz]

lol, yes it was! I think I could have easily made all of my picks from 1997 and 1998 and been happy.

I have seen A Boy and His Dog. It's more of a "check the box" movie for me than something I would return to intentionally. I had a big post-apocalyptic movie phase because of my love of Fallout and even wrote a college paper about the genre at one point. If you haven't seen it yet, my recommendation is Le Dernier Combat from Luc Besson. It's cool, you would dig it. And also Delicatessen I guess? That's got some of the same quirky dark comedy. I guess French filmmakers are my go-to for apocalyptic fiction. And obviously any Mad Max movie but especially Road Warrior.

I have not seen Six-String Samurai though it involves almost everything I was into in my 20s and I've been aware of it's existence since it was available on video so I can't explain why I haven't watched it yet other than I'm convinced it can't possibly live up to what I've already imagined it to be in my head.

It can’t. It’s a cult B-movie fully self-aware that its greatest aspiration is to be a cult B-movie. Takes away some of the earnestness, but it’s still a load of fun and I love it despite myself. It’s free right now on YouTube actually.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

R8.P12 (#96 Overall)
FALLOUT
View attachment 13967​

Format: PC
Year of Release: 1997
Developer: Interplay
Genre: C-RPG
Why I picked it: Art Design & Tone


When this game came out in 1997 it completely blew me away. Similar to my Interstate' 76 pick in round 5, the design team behind Fallout just absolutely stepped up to the plate and delivered a complete top to bottom commitment to a distinctive visual style and narrative tone which is almost without equal in how successfully each component part reinforces the whole. The box art (seen above) is instantly transportive with a mix of visual touchstones borrowed from the gritty survivalist future of Mad Max 2: Road Warrior and the surreal Parisian hellscape of City of Lost Children. I mentioned how much I liked the print manual that came with Interstate '76 and the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide that came with the original Fallout is equally pitched as a recovered artifact from right out of the game's world. You know you're in good hands when all aspects of a game's presentation speak clearly with the same voice.

Because I occasionally watch recordings of post-mortem talks from the GDC conference, I'm a little bit aware of the serendipitous history of Fallout's development. What began as a simple idea to build an RPG game engine around a 60/30 visual perspective grew against all odds into a franchise spawning IP which now boasts 6 main titles and a live-action Amazon streaming series. And I think I know why this game has had such staying power. One of the most difficult tasks to pull of for any project director is consistency of tone. The retro-future aesthetic (1980s nuclear paranoia filtered through 1950s Americana). The dark comedy and kitschy 1930s comic-strip references. The grainy newsreel opening video sound-tracked by the Ink Spots. It all arrived right here at gestation and hasn't changed much over the following 30 years. This is a game that has a point of view on the world and is as generous as a game can be about inviting you in to share it.


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Part of the charm of the original Fallout is the way it includes several hallmarks of the classic Computer-RPG genre that were gradually streamlined out of later games in the series (and C-RPGs in general). In one corner of the interface there is a running text dialog of everything that you encounter and every skill check roll your character has made as if you're part of a tabletop RPG campaign with a fancy graphical sidebar. In dialog scenes you could actually type in whatever topic you wanted to ask an NPC about, a nod to the text adventure origins of PC gaming. Going into the game's PIPBOY menu interface will show you a self-generating 2D world map that deliberately uses retro graphics, green text on a cathode ray screen, to evoke the technological aesthetic of the early operating systems. This was also the rare game which included a setting to turn the level of violence up for a more authentically gruesome wasteland experience and there were no guardrails to prevent the player from being unethical -- most controversially in the presence of children in the environment who can be targeted and killed.

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While combat eschewed the real-time trend popularized by Diablo two years earlier, the turn-based system gets some extra spice from a targeted shot mechanic which has carried over into every version of Fallout released since. Here's where I'm going to court disapproval and admit that I never connected with the more recent Fallout games from Bethesda which utilize a first-person perspective. The first-person perspective is supposed to be more immersive but the visuals in the newer games are actually far worse in my opinion, lacking the wonderfully playful retro tubey vibe that gave this game so much of it's surface charm. The featured NPC character headshots were all physically modeled in clay and then 3D scanned to create the way-ahead-of-their-time animated talking portraits with fully voiced dialog which were absolutely the best looking thing around in 1997 and somehow still look better than their modern 3D rendered counterparts in any of the sequels. I will always be an analog 80s baby and I make no apologies for it! Miniature effects and hand-drawn animation still look better than CGI too.

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I suppose that's enough slagging off other designers' work. We all have different preferences and that's fine. I already have my favorite J-RPG (Final Fantasy VII) here on my desert island so I'm glad to be able to draft my favorite C-RPG too and get that base covered. And as a last remark, one area where Fallout really outshines many of its peers in the C-RPG genre is in the impact of your character design choices. The C-RPG is all about allowing for the flexibility of player choices and while you're not going to survive in this unforgiving game-world without partaking in combat, choosing which of the main stats to focus on (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, or Luck) will result in very different gameplay experiences. When you add in the perks and skill upgrades there's more options than one could hope to try in any single playthrough. So at least theoretically there's quite a bit of replay value. Will I ever want to create a character build that is not a stealthy, AP maxing, superspy sniper though? It remains to be seen.

I was a big fan of its spiritual predecessor/game it was an unofficial sequel to which I had on my Apple ][GS in middle school but I actually finished this one. I think I was even having dreams about it. Such a great game. I wish there were more games like this than the later sequels. Especially in terms of every action having a consequence.

Also even though I was plugged into usenet when this came out I don't think I turned to the internet every time I got stuck or had a question about how to play which made it better than anything else.

 

[hrdboild]

I was a big fan of its spiritual predecessor/game it was an unofficial sequel to which I had on my Apple ][GS in middle school but I actually finished this one. I think I was even having dreams about it. Such a great game. I wish there were more games like this than the later sequels. Especially in terms of every action having a consequence.

Also even though I was plugged into usenet when this came out I don't think I turned to the internet every time I got stuck or had a question about how to play which made it better than anything else.

There was definitely a different feel to playing any adventure or story-driven game which had puzzles to solve when the internet wasn't always there, mere seconds away to answer every question for you. Some of that time spent was frustration but the elation of actually figuring out the answers for yourself made up for it. In a way, that was the intention of the designers to create that experience for you, otherwise why include the puzzles at all right?

 

[pdxKingsFan]

There was definitely a different feel to playing any adventure or story-driven game which had puzzles to solve when the internet wasn't always there, mere seconds away to answer every question for you. Some of that time spent was frustration but the elation of actually figuring out the answers for yourself made up for it. In a way, that was the intention of the designers to create that experience for you, otherwise why include the puzzles at all right?

And Fallout wasn't strictly puzzles because you could advance through heroic and selfish paths.

There was another similar game where I straddled the line. I don't think its been picked yet.

 

[hrdboild]

And Fallout wasn't strictly puzzles because you could advance through heroic and selfish paths.

There was another similar game where I straddled the line. I don't think its been picked yet.

I think I know which game you're referring to but I'm also not going to mention it here yet because there's a pretty good chance someone is considering picking it. Of the games that have been picked already, Deus Ex and Disco Elysium offer a range of player choices which could be separated into morally good or bad and choosing your character's path through those choices is a key component of the game. Maybe also Mass Effect? I guess SimCity 2000 in a way -- you could spend a lot of time in that game building or blowing things up.

And Tetris, obviously.

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

Dwarf Fortress - PC - 2006

Dwarf Fortress has the player managing a colony of dwarfs as they dig a new city out of the hull of a mountain. Players direct the dwarfs in where to dig, how to forage/farm for food, how to keep up morale, how to defend their city, among many other choices. It's in the vein of other city builders, where there's a complex system that requires the player to make and execute plans to keep the system stable.

Where Dwarf Fortress is exceptional, is the fidelity of the simulation. Maybe your colony collapses because a barfight in a tavern cripples your pump operator, which combined with a burst of inclement weather results in the colony's crops being flooded. Maybe one of the refugees from the failed city is a necromancer, who goes on to inflict devastation to your next city.

This was one of the (acknowledged) inspirations of Minecraft, but where Minecraft took a slice of this, the full scope of Dwarf Fortress is massive. The ambition of this much simulation, is to be a continuous story generating engine. This is not alike LLMS of today, which process and regurgitate existing stories. Instead, Dwarf Fortress creates worlds filled with history, where interesting things can happen, and leaves it to the players to form those stochastic events into meaning. Most of my enjoyment of the game has been in reading websites where players have chronicled the events of their settlements.

Dwarf Fortress is one of the most important crossings of gameplay and narrative. It's hugely commercially influential, inspiring Minecraft, and starting a colony management genre. It's interesting academically, in developing a better understanding of narrative. And it's endlessly entertaining to play. (Oh, and it's made by just two brothers, long after the era where tiny teams were common)

 

[whitechocolate]

Dwarf Fortress - PC - 2006

Dwarf Fortress has the player managing a colony of dwarfs as they dig a new city out of the hull of a mountain. Players direct the dwarfs in where to dig, how to forage/farm for food, how to keep up morale, how to defend their city, among many other choices. It's in the vein of other city builders, where there's a complex system that requires the player to make and execute plans to keep the system stable.

Where Dwarf Fortress is exceptional, is the fidelity of the simulation. Maybe your colony collapses because a barfight in a tavern cripples your pump operator, which combined with a burst of inclement weather results in the colony's crops being flooded. Maybe one of the refugees from the failed city is a necromancer, who goes on to inflict devastation to your next city.

This was one of the (acknowledged) inspirations of Minecraft, but where Minecraft took a slice of this, the full scope of Dwarf Fortress is massive. The ambition of this much simulation, is to be a continuous story generating engine. This is not alike LLMS of today, which process and regurgitateg existing stories. Instead, Dwarf Fortress creates worlds filled with history, where interesting things can happen, and leaves it to the players to form those stochastic events into meaning. Most of my enjoyment of the game has been in reading websites where players have chronicled the events of their settlements.

Dwarf Fortress is one of the most important crossings of gameplay and narrative. It's hugely commercially influential, inspiring MineCraft, and starting a colony management genre. It's interesting academically, in developing a better understanding of narrative. And it's endlessly entertaining to play. (Oh, and it's made by just two brothers, long after the era where tiny teams were common)

I like how the ASCII graphics let the game exist in the imagination. If you don't watch it already, check out Kruggsmash on youtube.

 

[macadocious]

Grand Theft Auto - Vice City

I am copying someone else's format for this:

Format: PS2
Year of Release: 2002
Developer: Rockstar Game
Genre: Action-Adventure
Why I picked it: It was nuts!

This is approximately when I toned down Video games. I personally havent purchased a system since a PS2 (my kids have had xbox 360, xbox one, PS4, whatever the new Xbox is right now). This game was crazy to me. Just run around killing people, get hookers, like I recall there was a plot but I dont remember what it was. I know I never beat the game, but it literally didn't matter. It was just fun and debauchery.

@Sluggah

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Grand Theft Auto - Vice City

I am copying someone else's format for this:

Format: PS2
Year of Release: 2002
Developer: Rockstar Game
Genre: Action-Adventure
Why I picked it: It was nuts!

This is approximately when I toned down Video games. I personally havent purchased a system since a PS2 (my kids have had xbox 360, xbox one, PS4, whatever the new Xbox is right now). This game was crazy to me. Just run around killing people, get hookers, like I recall there was a plot but I dont remember what it was. I know I never beat the game, but it literally didn't matter. It was just fun and debauchery.

@Sluggah

Not being much of a gamer, I'm pretty surprised that this franchise made it to the 9th round before any being picked. It seems like one of the most popular franchises out there to someone from the outside looking in.

 

[Löwenherz]

Grand Theft Auto - Vice City

I am copying someone else's format for this:

Format: PS2
Year of Release: 2002
Developer: Rockstar Game
Genre: Action-Adventure
Why I picked it: It was nuts!

This is approximately when I toned down Video games. I personally havent purchased a system since a PS2 (my kids have had xbox 360, xbox one, PS4, whatever the new Xbox is right now). This game was crazy to me. Just run around killing people, get hookers, like I recall there was a plot but I dont remember what it was. I know I never beat the game, but it literally didn't matter. It was just fun and debauchery.

@Sluggah

Wow, first GTA picked all the way down here in the 9th round. This draft is wild.

I had a GTA as a back-up to my Cyberpunk 2077 pick.

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

Not being much of a gamer, I'm pretty surprised that this franchise made it to the 9th round before any being picked. It seems like one of the most popular franchises out there to someone from the outside looking in.

News media often amplified the prominence of the GTA series in the era before the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011) decision. No doubt, the games were provocative, well-made, and popular, but the attention given to them was somewhat artificial.

 

[Löwenherz]

News media often amplified the prominence of the GTA series in the era before the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011) decision. No doubt, the games were provocative, well-made, and popular, but the attention given to them was somewhat artificial.

I can’t fully square with this take. The best selling GTA in the series before 2011 was on the low end of the top 10 best selling games in history at the time it was released. That one is now 50th on the list and the only entry released after that date is the second best selling game of all time.

I don’t deny there’s been a lot of pearl-clutching from the national media surrounding GTA over the years (and another Rockstar open world IP in particular), but I don’t think that diminishes its very real impact and importance in the gaming universe.

It truly is a rather prominent series that pushed the mechanics of the open world into the forefront of gaming, media hype or not. You say yourself it is popular (as well as provacative and well-made). How can that be manufactured prominence?

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

I can’t fully square with this take. The best selling GTA in the series before 2011 was on the low end of the top 10 best selling games in history at the time it was released. That one is now 50th on the list and the only entry released after that date is the second best selling game of all time.

I don’t deny there’s been a lot of pearl-clutching from the national media surrounding GTA over the years (and another Rockstar open world IP in particular), but I don’t think that diminishes its very real impact and importance in the gaming universe.

It truly is a rather prominent series that pushed the mechanics of the open world into the forefront of gaming, media hype or not. You say yourself it is popular (as well as provacative and well-made). How can that be manufactured prominence?

Fair question; what I meant was the prominence among people who weren't into gaming.

From the outside looking in, if you got your takes on video games from legacy media, GTA 3 (et al) was the ultimate video game, and a symbol of the decadence of modern popular culture amongst the next generation. This is the part that I think is artificial

I think from the perspective of a gamer, it was just a really great video game.

 

[Sluggah]

Title: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Format: PS3
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Rocksteady

You’re Batman. It’s glorious. Stealth, puzzles, fun combat mechanics, wonderful toys. All the voices from the animated series.

 

[Löwenherz]

View attachment 14013

Title: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Format: PS3
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: Rocksteady

You’re Batman. It’s glorious. Stealth, puzzles, fun combat mechanics, wonderful toys. All the voices from the animated series.

Such a rad game. One of the five games that brought me out of retirement and back to the hobby including <Redacted>, <Redacted>, <Redacted>, and <Redacted>

 

[SLAB]

Pick 9: The Binding of Isaac: Repentance (Anything, but I’ll go PC again)

One of my personal favorites of all time, though one that lives a little bit off the mainstream. This simple rougelite has you starting as a little boy in his journey through his basement to reach a final atonement with his crazy mother… while shooting all the gross enemies with only his tears!

Repentance is the culmination of the entire project with the OG Game and some 4 expansions on top of it. There’s so many different items and synergies between everything that no two runs will ever be the same.

Multiple modes, multiple paths, so many things to unlock. This game is an absolute blast and even after an ungodly amount of hours I can still go back and play and play … Forever JUST ONE LAST RUN!





@Warhawk youre up!

 

[Warhawk]

I’m out of town today and will make a pick this evening.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Pick 9: The Binding of Isaac: Repentance (Anything, but I’ll go PC again)

This looks a lot like a game my son plays all the time, but I wasn't aware that's what it's called.

EDIT - Son just confirmed that it is, in fact, the same game.

 

[Warhawk]

Descent: Anniversary Edition
Developer: Parallax Software
Year: 1996
Platform: PC

I'm picking the first FPS game to ever use full 6 degree of freedom movement and true 3D graphics (two years before Quake) - apparently it even holds the Guinness World Record for being the first. The original (the one I played) came out in 1995, but I'll take the Anniversary Edition that includes over 100 additional levels created through a design competition as bonus content. While the sequels were also fun and improved the graphics, etc., this was the one that launched them all and got me hooked on the series.

The gameplay was easy to understand but difficult to master - you pilot a ship (like a simplified flight simulator) through a labyrinth of underground mining tunnels and caverns/rooms in zero G while battling mining robots who have been taken over by an extraterrestrial computer virus (including tasks like finding colored security keys for accessing certain areas, killing bosses, blowing up reactors, etc.).

OK, who cares about the plot. The game was FUN! Grab a mouse or joystick, pair it with a keyboard, and fly through 3D twisty mine tunnels and start blasting away! You also can get a 3D wire frame automap of where you've been to help keep yourself oriented in the level.

Collect power ups. Fire energy weapons of several types or use the vulcan cannon with explosive shells or launch your missiles. Drop mines (proximity bombs) to get enemies trailing you. It's like a James Bond car in zero G. Dark areas were illuminated by your flares and lasers.

Just be careful not to get disoriented or get motion sickness. Not a problem for me, but definitely for some (including a friend of mine who tried it).

 

[Löwenherz]

My next pick is as much a celebration of a gaming genre as it is a specific game.

It just so happens that game is perhaps the pinnacle of the genre with its name becoming shorthand for the turn-based tactical game entirely.

My history with this game spans back nearly two decades before its release, to the halcyon days of the early 90s, when companies would send out discs filed with super short game demos.

My buddy got one of these demo discs in the mail (!) with 50 or so games on it. Most were shovelware garbage, crappy platformers, awful clone FPSs, I think there was a football game with dinosaurs or something, total waste of time.

But one game was different. A single isometric jungle map with a one-room building compound and a bridge over a river. You pick a team from a collection of mercenaries with different skills and take down enemies in turn-based combat. Plus, for no real reason, it came with an editor so you could create your own battles with enemy and trap placement.

Totally unnecessarily awesome.

We spent countless hours over several months playing that single demo into dust, squeezing it for every ounce of entertainment possible, experimenting with merc teams, and making scenarios to challenge or even just troll each other. This one demo not only punched way above its weight class, but introduced us to a game genre we’d never known before. And sadly one that was not particularly popular.

There were only two gaming franchises over the next 15 years we found that fit this strange niche genre (there were a few more I’ve come to learn about, but we never discovered at the time). In the last draft I picked a game from a third franchise of this genre, and had difficulty explaining the mechanics of the game because it seemed so foreign to people.

Turn-based team tactics?
Third-person command RPG?
Squad combat strategy sim?

But the release of this game changed everything. Now describing the genre is super simple.

It’s an XCOM game.

It’s XCOM.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PS3) - 2012



The timing of this release was so perfect the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it was manufactured to prime the audience for its arrival and pique interest. Just two years prior to release, a trailer was dropped for a seperate game with the XCOM branding at E3 (back when that mattered) and fans went berserk. But not party favors and confetti berserk; more like torches and pitchforks.

The problem: that XCOM was a First Person Shooter in an era saturated with nostalgic 90s IPs being repurposed and reformed into grimdark First Person Shooters to match the most popular gaming style of the time, leaving behind XCOM’s roots in the dust. The community revolted. The Internet raged. And a popular video blog critic (back when that mattered) literally screamed “betrayal!” to the lamentations of his rapturous audience.

Enter developer Firaxis Games. Having witnessed the fanbase become positively apocalyptic over the course of a year, Firaxis ever so casually announced that by pure happenstance quite actually, they were crafting an XCOM experience in the style of the old games, with updates to graphics and modern quality of life improvements, but otherwise true to the spirit of the franchise.

In a vacuum this news might have made core fans excited and maybe a few others curious. But with the backdrop of the FPS fiasco, interest in the Firaxis project went thermonuclear. Less than a year later, the game was released, which had to have meant it was rushed to market to capitalize on the energy of the moment. There was no way this could possibly meet the insatiable expectations of nostalgia-induced fans and Internet mobs looking for their next target to mock.

Except, by almost every measure, it was perfect.







It is punishingly difficult with overwhelming odds and permadeath, but the exquisite gameplay loop makes it all worthwhile. Materials found in battles are used to research better equipment to be used in the next battle to give your squad maybe just enough firepower to actually make it through the bloodbath to reach the next research section. The planning portions act as a welcome reprieve from the insanely intense battles where one wrong move can sink the whole war effort.

XCOM has the ability to create personalized stories of triumph and tragedy from battle to battle: interesting ways to use your units beyond their intended purposes. Absolute devastating cases of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by failing to account for an unseen enemy just around the corner.

It’s like reliving discovering that turn-based tactics demo map with my best friend all over again.

 

[whitechocolate]

Hard Corps: Uprising - PS3, 2011



​

Hard Corps: Uprising is a Contra game. It was published by Konami but developed by Arc System Works, so it has a different art style. It also doesn't have "Contra" in the name, so it flew under the radar for many. As a Contra game, it is a run 'n gun, one of my favorite genres; and it is my favorite in the genre. Hard Corps: Uprising has quick action and great controls with a double jump, an air dash, and players can both free aim while standing still and aim in a chosen direction while moving around and platforming. The player has a lot of tools at their disposal and the enemies, bosses and stage design ensure the player has to use them all well. As such the gameplay is very good. Players will find themselves in combat on moving trains, atop quick sand, on a hover board (motorcycle style level), leaping from platform to platform while falling through the sky, climbing the sides of buildings, and fighting great bosses. Players can hold two weapons which can be upgraded by collecting pick ups twice. If the player gets hit, the weapon in use will be lost, leaving the player with the default gun in that slot. The game does a good job at making use out of all the weapons, but the laser is king. The game offers an extra mode called Rising mode. Levels can be played individually, with different power ups and abilities. It can also be used to practice for Arcade mode. Arcade mode is a proper challenge, and beating it without dying is fun and satisfying. Fans of the Contra series and the run 'n gun genre should find a truly excellent game in Hard Corps: Uprising.

​

 

[whitechocolate]

Dreamcast represent.

The Dreamcast and Saturn have great libraries. SEGA were still putting on great games in 2D genres that were losing priority in the market.

 

[hrdboild]

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Descent: Anniversary Edition
Developer: Parallax Software
Year: 1996
Platform: PC

I'm picking the first FPS game to ever use full 6 degree of freedom movement and true 3D graphics (two years before Quake) - apparently it even holds the Guinness World Record for being the first. The original (the one I played) came out in 1995, but I'll take the Anniversary Edition that includes over 100 additional levels created through a design competition as bonus content. While the sequels were also fun and improved the graphics, etc., this was the one that launched them all and got me hooked on the series.

The gameplay was easy to understand but difficult to master - you pilot a ship (like a simplified flight simulator) through a labyrinth of underground mining tunnels and caverns/rooms in zero G while battling mining robots who have been taken over by an extraterrestrial computer virus (including tasks like finding colored security keys for accessing certain areas, killing bosses, blowing up reactors, etc.).

OK, who cares about the plot. The game was FUN! Grab a mouse or joystick, pair it with a keyboard, and fly through 3D twisty mine tunnels and start blasting away! You also can get a 3D wire frame automap of where you've been to help keep yourself oriented in the level.

Collect power ups. Fire energy weapons of several types or use the vulcan cannon with explosive shells or launch your missiles. Drop mines (proximity bombs) to get enemies trailing you. It's like a James Bond car in zero G. Dark areas were illuminated by your flares and lasers.

Just be careful not to get disoriented or get motion sickness. Not a problem for me, but definitely for some (including a friend of mine who tried it).

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Sick! I forgot this game existed. Pair this with a joystick and a nice monitor and it was some of the best fun to be had on a PC in the 90s. I love this pick.

 

[hrdboild]

My next pick is as much a celebration of a gaming genre as it is a specific game.

It just so happens that game is perhaps the pinnacle of the genre with its name becoming shorthand for the turn-based tactical game entirely.

My history with this game spans back nearly two decades before its release, to the halcyon days of the early 90s, when companies would send out discs filed with super short game demos.

My buddy got one of these demo discs in the mail (!) with 50 or so games on it. Most were shovelware garbage, crappy platformers, awful clone FPSs, I think there was a football game with dinosaurs or something, total waste of time.

But one game was different. A single isometric jungle map with a one-room building compound and a bridge over a river. You pick a team from a collection of mercenaries with different skills and take down enemies in turn-based combat. Plus, for no real reason, it came with an editor so you could create your own battles with enemy and trap placement.

Totally unnecessarily awesome.

We spent countless hours over several months playing that single demo into dust, squeezing it for every ounce of entertainment possible, experimenting with merc teams, and making scenarios to challenge or even just troll each other. This one demo not only punched way above its weight class, but introduced us to a game genre we’d never known before. And sadly one that was not particularly popular.

There were only two gaming franchises over the next 15 years we found that fit this strange niche genre (there were a few more I’ve come to learn about, but we never discovered at the time). In the last draft I picked a game from a third franchise of this genre, and had difficulty explaining the mechanics of the game because it seemed so foreign to people.

Turn-based team tactics?
Third-person command RPG?
Squad combat strategy sim?

But the release of this game changed everything. Now describing the genre is super simple.

It’s an XCOM game.

It’s XCOM.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PS3) - 2012

View attachment 14020

The timing of this release was so perfect the conspiracy theorist in me thinks it was manufactured to prime the audience for its arrival and pique interest. Just two years prior to release, a trailer was dropped for a seperate game with the XCOM branding at E3 (back when that mattered) and fans went berserk. But not party favors and confetti berserk; more like torches and pitchforks.

The problem: that XCOM was a First Person Shooter in an era saturated with nostalgic 90s IPs being repurposed and reformed into grimdark First Person Shooters to match the most popular gaming style of the time, leaving behind XCOM’s roots in the dust. The community revolted. The Internet raged. And a popular video blog critic (back when that mattered) literally screamed “betrayal!” to the lamentations of his rapturous audience.

Enter developer Firaxis Games. Having witnessed the fanbase become positively apocalyptic over the course of a year, Firaxis ever so casually announced that by pure happenstance quite actually, they were crafting an XCOM experience in the style of the old games, with updates to graphics and modern quality of life improvements, but otherwise true to the spirit of the franchise.

In a vacuum this news might have made core fans excited and maybe a few others curious. But with the backdrop of the FPS fiasco, interest in the Firaxis project went thermonuclear. Less than a year later, the game was released, which had to have meant it was rushed to market to capitalize on the energy of the moment. There was no way this could possibly meet the insatiable expectations of nostalgia-induced fans and Internet mobs looking for their next target to mock.

Except, by almost every measure, it was perfect.

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It is punishingly difficult with overwhelming odds and permadeath, but the exquisite gameplay loop makes it all worthwhile. Materials found in battles are used to research better equipment to be used in the next battle to give your squad maybe just enough firepower to actually make it through the bloodbath to reach the next research section. The planning portions act as a welcome reprieve from the insanely intense battles where one wrong move can sink the whole war effort.

XCOM has the ability to create personalized stories of triumph and tragedy from battle to battle: interesting ways to use your units beyond their intended purposes. Absolute devastating cases of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by failing to account for an unseen enemy just around the corner.

It’s like reliving discovering that turn-based tactics demo map with my best friend all over again.

View attachment 14024

I think I played an X-COM game at a friend's place once. It was fun but the theme never appealed to me. You can probably tell from the Fallout pick that I do really enjoy turn-based squad combat mechanics though. I probably played a lot of the other games like this.

It is interesting how there's a lot of room in the video game space for completely different types of experiences. For instance, RTS games were hugely popular when I was still playing a lot of games but I think we've only had 2 of them chosen so far in the first 100 picks? Even among people who call themselves gamers who spend the bulk of their free time playing some kind of video game there might be very little overlap in what those favorite games are.

 

[Löwenherz]

It is interesting how there's a lot of room in the video game space for completely different types of experiences. For instance, RTS games were hugely popular when I was still playing a lot of games but I think we've only had 2 of them chosen so far in the first 100 picks? Even among people who call themselves gamers who spend the bulk of their free time playing some kind of video game there might be very little overlap in what those favorite games are.

I agree. It’s funny how generalized and, to a degree, pejorative the term “gamer” can be considering how diverse the people it attempts to label. I think for “non-gamers” the image that pops into their heads of what a “hardcore modern gamer” plays (if they know anything beyond Mario and PacMan) are World of Warcraft MMOs, Grimdark military FPSs, eSports RTSs, and one-on-one competitive arcade-style Fighters.

And I don’t like any of those genres.

FPSs make me disoriented and sick (which sucked when GoldenEye was all the rage). The first person games I do love have secondary mechanics beyond run and gun.

RTSs are too frantic. Love StarCraft though for reasons I can’t explain, and one Vanillaware game, more because I’m a fan of Vanillaware.

I have zero interest in playing strangers online in an MMO, and can’t bother to memorize button sequences and execute in real time to be anything but a button-masher in Fighters.

Yet, I’m a gamer - and it’s telling that even writing that makes me cringe a little.

I’m a gainfully-employed, home-owning husband and father who doesn’t fit the pervasive prejudicial negative stereotype of a basement-dwelling non-social ne’er-do-well “gamer” pwning noobs online (to use slang which ironically shows just how old and out of touch I am) … but who does really?

No one would ever accuse my grandparents of being “gamers,” but in addition to regularly enjoying Tetris-clone puzzlers that were extremely popular among casuals but somehow don’t count as being “gamer” games, they absolutely loved the sequel to Oregon Trail. After my grandfather’s first successful run to Willamette Valley, he printed out the summary sheet, and had honest-to-god tears in his eyes as he handed it to my grandma and talked to her about his adventure.

This medium has far more power and ability to evoke emotion as an art form than anywhere near the pitiful credit it is given. Many more people would be open to being labeled a “gamer” if it didn’t come with such negative baggage and there was a lot less gatekeeping.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Sick! I forgot this game existed. Pair this with a joystick and a nice monitor and it was some of the best fun to be had on a PC in the 90s. I love this pick.

I definitely bought this but it wasn't for me. FPS games are such a weird thing for me because I generally only have found myself falling for a handful of them. I did have a 2-3 year run with a certain franchise that may not have been touched yet about 15 years ago.

One reason I didn't participate is because I thought I'd have a hard time going more than 7-8 games deep without relying on franchise sequels but I'm a bit surprised at least one of my major franchises hasn't been touched.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

So it looked like it was going to take until the last pick of the seventh round to break the seal on arcade games, but - unless I'm mistaken - Spike appears to have done so two pick before me (hard to be certain as that writeup is not complete). Well, that's not going to stop my pick, which is going to take us all the way back to the golden days of the arcade and the granddaddy of them all...

Pac-Man (1980) - Arcade version

I think we all know how this game goes - clear each level by helping Pac-Man eat all the dots before the ghosts (Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde) eat Pac-Man. You get the benefit of four power pellets that briefly reverse the action upon consumption, allowing Pac-Man to temporarily eat and kill the ghosts (don’t worry, they come back). Every level has a bonus fruit item that comes across the screen. No plot line, no side quests, you just play for the high score. It's simple, but you just can't downplay how much of a force it was both at the arcade and in pop culture.

I wasted a decent number of quarters on this game when I was young - now on my island, every play will be free.

I have the Pac-Man cocktail table from the Freeport Bump's in my garage. My dad brought it home when we were in middle school. It's playable but needs service. At my best I was able to get pretty deep into the key levels and had memorized a fairly exciting pattern for the mid-game where Pac-Man chased non-blue ghosts.

I'll never forget when the godawful VCS version was released, my dad picked it up and brought it home and I was so excited to get it he ran over my feet in the driveway and I don't remember feeling a thing.

 

[hrdboild]

I agree. It’s funny how generalized and, to a degree, pejorative the term “gamer” can be considering how diverse the people it attempts to label. I think for “non-gamers” the image that pops into their heads of what a “hardcore modern gamer” plays (if they know anything beyond Mario and PacMan) are World of Warcraft MMOs, Grimdark military FPSs, eSports RTSs, and one-on-one competitive arcade-style Fighters.

And I don’t like any of those genres.

FPSs make me disoriented and sick (which sucked when GoldenEye was all the rage). The first person games I do love have secondary mechanics beyond run and gun.

RTSs are too frantic. Love StarCraft though for reasons I can’t explain, and one Vanillaware game, more because I’m a fan of Vanillaware.

I have zero interest in playing strangers online in an MMO, and can’t bother to memorize button sequences and execute in real time to be anything but a button-masher in Fighters.

Yet, I’m a gamer - and it’s telling that even writing that makes me cringe a little.

I’m a gainfully-employed, home-owning husband and father who doesn’t fit the pervasive prejudicial negative stereotype of a basement-dwelling non-social ne’er-do-well “gamer” pwning noobs online (to use slang which ironically shows just how old and out of touch I am) … but who does really?

No one would ever accuse my grandparents of being “gamers,” but in addition to regularly enjoying Tetris-clone puzzlers that were extremely popular among casuals but somehow don’t count as being “gamer” games, they absolutely loved the sequel to Oregon Trail. After my grandfather’s first successful run to Willamette Valley, he printed out the summary sheet, and had honest-to-god tears in his eyes as he handed it to my grandma and talked to her about his adventure.

This medium has far more power and ability to evoke emotion as an art form than anywhere near the pitiful credit it is given. Many more people would be open to being labeled a “gamer” if it didn’t come with such negative baggage and there was a lot less gatekeeping.

Well you can see what I like from my list... story, art, and music are the biggest attractors. I've played and enjoyed all sorts of other games too (and some of those picks might come up later) but when I think back on the experiences that have stuck with me, the "gaminess" of it is really secondary to how it's all presented. I like being able to play along but I guess I'm conditioned to respond to pictures and music and characters that take me somewhere I wouldn't otherwise get to go.

Roger Ebert said in the 90s that video games will never be art because they have nothing to say, and presumably at the time he was thinking about things like Mario Bros. and Tetris and not seeing any room there for a game to communicate ideas that aren't just "press this button now". But of course that's not even true because Mario Bros. has an aesthetic visually and musically which has proved to be hugely influential on culture. There are bands that try to create the feel of old-school video game music and there is a whole huge industry in selling the same style of Japanese cute-ness that permeates early Nintendo designs. Just because not everyone 'gets it' doesn't mean it isn't art.

But where I think Ebert really misses the point (because he probably never played games much or at all) is that the experience of playing something is different than just watching what someone else has made and presented to you. Even something as simple as Pac-Man is conveying emotions that are not easily expressed in other mediums. Those ghosts aren't just chasing Pac-Man around the maze, they're chasing you around the maze. When you make a mistake and go for one last cherry you didn't need only to see your avarice punished, it was you who made that decision and thus it is you who is responsible for that failure, and are now challenged to learn how to do things better next time.

It's the same message as the movie Groundhog Day -- a dramatic concept which references the classic arcade game practice of starting over from the same point each time -- and it's not spelled out for you in the same way, but it's almost more powerful when you get to make the connection yourself. And in it's tabletop arcade form, Pac-Man 2P has an "I Go-You Go" format which lets you cheer on your friends as they make more daring moves than you could pull off or laugh when they die in the exact same spot. It's life in microcosm. and all of this is essential to the experience of Pac-Man and it's why that game is still worth playing today.

Maybe I'm just stating the obvious here, but I do think we have transitioned to a period of time where non-interactive entertainment is getting replaced not just by games necessarily but by mediums where the viewer is allowed to participate in the experience. And I don't think it's ever going to go back to the way it was. We are all self-curators now, choosing our shows and watching them how and when we want to and building our own music playlists. I don't want to try to guess a percentage, but a whole lot of the content on YouTube is aimed at DIY minded folks who are watching those videos in order to do something with the information. Fix their car or cook their own pizza or start a side job as a DJ, who knows. Maybe all of the above.

So yeah... I fully agree. I think there's enormous potential in video games (and tabletop games) to make artistic statements which cannot be made any other way. By placing you -- the player-- at the center of the experience and responding to your choices by presenting you with other ones that game is allowing you to experiences motivations and emotions which traditional storytelling forms can only show you in an abstracted 3rd person form. There's no reason for anyone to feel that the label 'gamer' is a pejorative anymore.