Writer's Block: Top Five Video Games

[packbat]

What's on your Top 5 video games list? View other answers

Mmm - lists. Always the easy out.

For the record: game systems listed are the ones I experienced the game with. Some of these were/are available on other platforms.

5. Moria - DOS/Unix

The classic. The incomparable. Moria.

I can't do better than quoting ^z (my father) describing it:

The computer game Moria is a beautiful thing. It can be played on almost any hardware, even without a graphical display. You generate a character (literally an "@" symbol) and press various keys to move it on the monitor. You encounter monsters, and if you survive your fights with them you get better --- smarter, faster, stronger, and (maybe) wiser. You find loot: gold, weapons, magical artifacts. You descend deeper and deeper into a dungeon, and eventually you meet the Balrog, the biggest Bad Dude of them all. Beat the Balrog and you win the game, retire, and live out your life in peace.

What's most amazing about Moria (to a non-player) is its engaging nature. All of the action comes via arbitrary symbols on the monitor: "a" = ant, "c" = centipede, "k" = kobold, "r" = reptile (e.g., snake), etc. No pictures, no sound, no vibrating joysticks --- just a few letters. Yet somehow, after a short time the sight of a "D" (= Ancient Dragon) makes the pulse pound, the palms sweat, the knees knock. I've been killed (or rather, my characters have) by too many dragon attacks to take that letter "D" lightly!

However, I must diverge on one point from his description - having played other roguelikes, I can say for certain that it is not merely "the deep human ability to become engaged" that grants Moria its power - somehow, in the balance of play, the progression of characters, the (random!) maps and the controls, the designers of Moria produced something utterly uncommon. And that's what puts it on the list.

4. Indigo Prophecy (U.S./Canadian version of Fahrenheit) - WinXP

Never else in my memory have I felt ashamed for failing a minigame. That alone makes this game extraordinary.

(I am so tempted to leave it at that.)

Indigo Prophecy is an adventure game of the most classic sort, brought to the present. The simplified controls (there are two main 'skill' games - a two-key button masher and a time-pressure Simon clone - plus a swarm of fairly-simple imitate-the-action games) keep the learning curve at the beginning, allowing the emotional content to dominate the experience. And almost never does the game prevent you from doing something obvious.

The replay value is its weakness, as expected for adventure games. But the first time was sublime.

3. F-Zero - SNES

This one's just fun. Don't be fooled by emulators - the original is just silky-smooth and faster than lighting.

3*. Prince of Persia - DOS

This one's got a star (and doesn't get its own number) because I never really played it. I watched my brother.

It's one of my most vivid memories, growing up. It was on an old IMB 8086 with a 'green screen' monochrome monitor, and it probably couldn't actually run the game full-speed, but the vivid memories of the daring jumps to catch the edge of distant platforms, dramatic fencing-matches (especially with ... but I won't spoil the surprise), the inexorable ticking of the clock...

Of course, I never got past Level 2. Thus, it's not actually on the list.

2. Goldeneye - N64

It takes some unusual characteristics to make a truly long-lasting 'party' game. Variety of experience and rock-solid gameplay, for certain - a particular sort of depth. Goldeneye is one such game.

1. Super Smash Brothers - N64

And this is another.


And, of course, the Honorable Mention:

Rescue: The Embassy Mission - NES

If there is any game that almost was extraordinary, it is this. The first third of each game is one of the finest gameplay experiences of all time. The rest of it is just lame.

(More details to follow - off to investigate the chess club.)