Today I continue my list of my top fifty games of all time.

35- Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (Silicon Knights, Nintendo Gamecube, 2002)

The Nintendo Wii plays GameCube games. When I got my Wii, the only GameCube game that I eagerly hunted down was this one, because I’d heard so much about it. It did not disappoint. The base game was an above average survival horror story. But the system of insanity effects that the game puts into place were downright amazing. The game is eight years old, so I won’t concern myself too much with spoiling it at this point. At first, when my character’s sanity started failing, I’d see a volume meter across the bottom of the screen turn down, and I’d think that maybe I was sitting on the TV remote. Later, I’d click rapidly through a series of prompts to save a game, and the game told me that it was deleting all my saved games. Aargh! Noo! It’s not the type of horror you usually see in a video game, but it was certainly horror. Brilliantly innovative. I’d love to see a sequel.

34- Desktop Tower Defense (Paul Preece, Flash (Browser), 2007)
Desktop Tower Defense is one of the few games that has improved its position on my list since I last listed my 50 favorite games – it’s moved from position 48 to position 34. Why is that? Probably because other than perhaps Starcraft, Desktop Tower Defense is potentially the best real-time strategy game I’ve played. I love the fact that you use cheap towers to construct your own maze. I love the fact that the game is updated so frequently. And I love that it’s a free game. I bought the Nintendo DS version, and while the smaller screen size and lack of mouse control makes it much more difficult to play, I still play it a lot simply because it’s portable.

33- Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (From Software, Sony Playstation, 1998)
Although I would later grow to love the stealth action in Thief: Deadly Shadows and Beyond Good and Evil, neither allowed you to sneak up on a foe and disembowel them. Before the era of achievements, Stealth Assassins awarded you for getting through an entire level without being seen once. And it was hard. But it was so rewarding to come up behind that guard who could kick your ass face-to-face and putting your sword through his side before he ever knew you were there. Stealth games are a favorite of mine, and Tenchu: Stealth Assassins was my first love.

32- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo EAD, Nintendo DS, 2007)
I haven’t played a lot of Zelda games, but more and more, I’m learning to love them. Phantom Hourglass went up a slot since my 2007 top fifty list. It was in 33rd place, and now it’s in 32nd. It’s very likely the best Nintendo DS game I’ve ever played, which I suppose doesn’t say a lot for the platform since we’re not even close to the top twenty. But there are many other DS games that I’d like to rave about (The World Ends with You, Elite Beat Agents) which honestly aren’t as good as Phantom Hourglass. There’s something about the Zelda formula and the way Nintendo is able to continually innovate that makes the games a joy to play. In Phantom Hourglass, I got to enjoy open world exploration with optional sidequests, level-less character upgrades, unexpected uses of the DS console’s lesser-utilized features, and very creative boss battles. I loved it.

31- The Temple of Elemental Evil (Troika Games, Windows, 2003)
Another game that moved upwards on my list (eleven slots!) despite its horrible bugginess, Temple of Elemental Evil is the second of Troika’s three games. I loved Troika’s games, but was never able to finish any of them. I was prevented from seeing the conclusion of Temple of Elemental Evil firstly because of the game’s bugginess, and secondly because of an insanely difficult final boss. (It was, after all, a god)

The game was fantastic, and would have been better if not for its insane bugginess, about which I’ve previously written. Its implementation of the D&D 3.5 ruleset was perfect, the graphics were impressive, and aside from the buggy slowness, the engine was fabulous. If the game were bug-free and had a bit of a better story, it could easily be in my top ten.