My Top 10 Video Games of the Decade – Part 2 of 2
Yeah, I know. If you look at my previous post and do the math, you can figure out four of the top five games listed below by just looking at the image above but hey, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Or something like that. My excuse is that I hadn’t finalized the order in which I was going to place these games when I did that image.
My top 5 games of the decade below.
(I really, really hope I didn’t forget some awesome game when I compiled this list.)
5. ICO (Team ICO – 2001)
ICO is, in my eyes, the biggest proponent in the “video games as art” debate and that’s coming from someone that’s strictly in the “I really don’t care” side of said debate. … So I’m sitting here, trying to describe as honestly as I can what my own definition of art is to better explain my case and I’m coming up empty-handed. It’s not an easy subject to tackle so I’ll just get straight to the point. There’s a moment in ICO, well into your journey, where you instinctively and without thought jump into harm’s way to save your “princess.” It may sound trite but there’s a lot more to it than that and it was a moment unlike any I have ever experienced in a video game even to this day. I don’t know if that makes ICO art but it’s an amazing feat nonetheless. Add some engaging puzzles, beautiful scenery and some lovely music and you get something that is, perhaps more than any other game on this list, unforgettable. It’s sad that this game was never the commercial success Sony intended it to be and that it’s overshadowed by its less competent older brother, Shadow of the Colossus, because ICO is nothing short of amazing, art debates be damned.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Nintendo – 2002)
Wind Waker is the odd one on this list because, whenever I talk about it, I tend to address its shortcomings first and rarely its qualities. The child-like difficulty, the mostly tedious sailing and the fetch quest towards the end are some of the biggest dents in Wind Waker but it’s a game that wins you over by its sheer charisma alone. The tried-and-true Zelda formula is on full display here and it’s as fantastic as it ever was but it’s not just its pedigree in gameplay that makes Wind Waker such a great game. It’s the beautiful cel-shading, the pitch perfect music, the epic story (that, for once, gives Ganondorf some real, honest-to-goodness depth), you name it, this game hits every note. It’s easily in the top three Zelda games ever made and, in a series as revered as that one, that’s quite an accomplishment.
3. Ikaruga (Treasure – 2001)
Ikaruga is about as close to a perfect game as I can think of. It has one of the most amazing soundtracks in video games ever and it’s visually sublime with its amazing ship designs and smart use of a limited color palette. Perhaps most importantly (more so in these times where a game that offers no innovation is looked down upon), the deceptively simple polarity mechanic truly makes you rethink how you play shmups and is just as fun and exciting now as it was back when I first played it. I love this game so much that I have a draft titled “A love letter to Ikaruga” on this site that is begging to be finished. The one and only thing that irks me about this game is that going for a high score demands an extreme amount of memorization, even more so than other shmups. Nonetheless, this is a game that I’ll never tire of playing over and over again.
2. Portal (Valve – 2007)
I’ve already praised Portal in my review of the game so I’ll keep this brief. If there’s one game on this list that any person with even the slightest interest in video games would enjoy it’s this one and, after two years, Portal still feels like a breath of fresh air. It has a fully realized, innovative gameplay mechanic in the titular portals and a peerless, funny-yet-creepy atmosphere that is home to one of the most memorable characters in gaming, GLaDOS. If haven’t played this game you absolutely owe it to yourself to do so. Also, if you’ve been paying attention to this list, you’ll notice that all three games included in Valve’s The Orange Box made it into this top ten. I’d say that if you could buy only a single game from the past 10 years, you should make it The Orange Box. The amount of content and quality in that little package is outstanding.
1. Metroid Prime (Retro Studios – 2002)
Who would’ve thought that, back when Japan dominated the video game industry, a small developer in Texas would turn an off-the-radar Nintendo franchise into one of the best games of all time? In the face of harsh criticism before the game’s release, Retro Studios did just that and delivered one of the quintessential gaming experiences of the past decade. Hailed as one of the best transitions from 2D to 3D ever, Metroid Prime boasts an uncanny amount of polish in every single area imaginable. It’s one of the most atmospheric games I’ve ever played and the soundtrack is among the best in gaming, setting the mood when it needs to and heightening the action during combat. Though perhaps eclipsed by today’s standards, the graphics were nothing short of mind-blowing when the game was first released with some of its visual flourishes and the design of the planet Tallon IV among the highlights. The story is never shoved down your throat through incessant cutscenes and is instead delivered mostly via scan logs for you to read at your own discretion which is a model I feel a lot of games should follow. I could go on and on about this game because it’s simply that good. Some people would argue that the controls are dated (I would disagree) and the fetch quest towards the end does ruin an otherwise perfectly paced game but really, this game is nothing short of a masterpiece. I was among the crowd that thought a first person Metroid would be a travesty and I’ve never been happier to be proven wrong. Metroid Prime is my favorite game of the past ten years and one that I’ll gladly revisit from time to time.
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Nice top 10. I’m surprised you picked MGS3 after all the times you’ve told me that MGS2 is better (sheer insanity). Some other runner-ups I would’ve considered:
-The Indigo Prophecy is a great game ruined only by the last 1/8th of the game.
-Fable II, good combat and a nice immersive world. I played through the game twice because it was so much fun being good on one hand, then evil. In my evil game I had a bunch of different women fighting over me (just like in real life – jk). I was a badass.
-Super Mario Galaxy. Mario = fun.
-GTA: Vice City. As much as I love GTA IV, it’s the atmosphere of Vice City that preferred over all the GTAs released. Everything was pink and wild (the 80s!) and the voice acting was top notch (Ray Liotta). I had a blast playing this game and I hope the series doesn’t abandoned this type of setting for more perceivably “mature” and “dark” settings.
-Wii Sports. Drunken nights spent playing virtual golf, what more can people in the modern age ask for?
-Halo 3. I don’t know how you neglected this game. I was going to say Gears of War, but the online component of Halo stomps all over it.
-Ketsui. One of the best shmups that no ones ever played. It’s great and there was a port in the pipeline that got canceled in 2009. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever had the honor of playing and only known amongst the hardcore of shmup fans (hobbyist). A Ketsui PCB board can cost as much as 1000 dollars or more (I haven’t been in the “scene” for a while) and I’m almost tempted to say that it’s worth it’s weight in gold.
-Resident Evil 4. I literally played this game 4 times in a row. Then I played the sequel and wondered where they went wrong.
-Eternal Darkness is great, though I can’t bring myself to include it because it’s one of those “in-betweener” generation games (i.e. see the Dreamcast Library), but the story of the game still makes most games pale in comparison and would’ve been topped by the Indigo Prophecy had they not had a sick obsession with the Matrix.
-Burnout Revenge. Probably one of the more overlooked games in the series. This one introduced traffic “bumping” and what happened in the end was a racing game more on the arcade sides of things, filled with heart-pounding thrills and an awesome sense of speed.
Overall, that was a great list of the top 10 games of the decade, but I probably would’ve put Portal as number 1 (and Bioshock in the top 10).
Most of those games I consider good but not great.
The others I haven’t even played.
And I said I preferred MGS2 but MGS3 is the better game.