The things I always liked most about Lungfishopolis were its design and the cool gamercard plugin I programmed for the left sidebar. I love the randomized headers with my face in profile at the left of each, I love the randomized video game character at the lower left, and I love the fake google map at the bottom with street names based off of video game character names. More so than the content, I’m proud of this site’s design.

But I’m going to be letting the domain expire. I had fun with Lungfishopolis, and now it’s time for it to go. Farewell, Lungfishopolis!

I’ve just had a thought. An idea. I have an idea. This site has been langushing for some time. My own writings have been entirely uninspired over the past year, and I’ve often considered shutting this site down. The main reason I haven’t is because I really like the site’s design, the random header and footer images, and the custom gamercard and upcoming games list plugins I wrote. I’m proud of the design and of the code in the plugins.

But the most important thing about any site is the content. Sadly, this site’s content has been atrophying. And while my idea may do little to alleviate that condition, it can’t hurt.

So I guess I should get on with it and share the idea, eh? Well, here goes. I’d thought about starting up a blog at which I could write about tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons and Dragons, but given the number of blogs I have, I dismissed the idea. I seem to average one or two posts per month at most of my blogs. But what if I just expanded the scope of this site to include not only video games, but also roleplaying games and board games? I’ve recently found some amazing board games, and I’d love to write about how damned cool they are.

Okay, so this isn’t going to magically give me more time to write stuff for Lungfishopolis. But maybe expanding the scope of this site will be a good thing. It can’t hurt.

But while I did find two other like-minded guys willing to write on the site, life interceded. Brandon got a gig writing for GameShark.com, and when you have the choice of doing something free or getting paid for it, it’s not much of a decision. He’s now a real games journalist, and in my opinion his writing is some of the best I’ve seen. I’m happy for him in his new spot. Frank has had a lot going on in his own personal life as well, and no one could ever begrudge him for his absence here. As for myself, I’ve moved from Colorado back to Connecticut, and replaced much of my gaming with human interaction, since I have far more Connecticut friends than I ever had Colorado friends. As a result, there’s been far less on Lungfishopolis over the past few months than there’s been overall during the past few years.

What’s to come? Well… fewer articles, that’s what. Yes, I’ve considered shutting the site down, but… I kind of like the site. Yes, it contains mostly lists and other drivel that many people might find uninteresting, but I’m not giving up quite yet. While I can’t claim to have put much of any energy into improving my writing, I still enjoy that writing. And once in a while, I feel like I write something worth reading.

Despite the fact that it was originally designed as a Gamecube game, I loved Twilight Princess. The beautifully-crafted themed dungeons, the frequent story moment cutscenes, the varied gameplay, the mini-games, the music, I loved it all. And yet I never played Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker. Call me a late-to-the party Zelda fanboy.

I kept my copy of Twilight Princess. Maybe I’m hoping to get my wife to play it. Maybe I’d consider replaying it myself at some point if I ever got a huge amount of free time. It’s a long game.

4- Dragon Age: Origins (Bioware, PC, 2009)

Although I’ve never played the console version of this game, I heard that it was far inferior to the version I played on the PC. Maybe that’s why the game didn’t make a bigger splash: it was essentially a PC experience, and when ported to the console it lacked something. But there was so much that I loved about Dragon Age. First and foremost, it’s the closest thing to Baldur’s Gate that I’ve seen since… well, since 1998 when the last Baldur’s Gate game was released. Secondly, Bioware’s move away from a linear good/evil scale. Rather than your character’s alignment being affected by decisions that you make throughout the adventure, your companions’ opinions are affected. The same action can please two of your companions and piss off a third companion. I think it’s brilliant, as it steps away from the black-and-white systems of the past and simultaneously builds NPC character depth. Third, the game’s setting is the best fantasy world I’ve seen since Brittania, back in the days of Ultima V in the eighties. I love the fact that dwarves are unable to use magic and therefore are unable to dream. I love the Grey Wardens and the dark drama of The Joining. I love the story behind the creation of the darkspawn: The Fade and The Black City. And I love the background of the dragons, how archdemons come to be, and how they can be defeated. It’s a pity that I haven’t yet had time to finish DAO: Awakening.

3- Baldur’s Gate (Bioware, PC, 1998)

I’m grouping both games here. After all this time, Baldur’s Gate may still be my favorite computer role-playing game. There’s something about the old Infinity Engine and about the makeup of these old games that no other CRPG since has been able to capture. Baldur’s Gate had more character customization options, more spells and magic items, more obscure side-quests, and more areas to explore than any other game since. It’s amazing that twelve years later, Baldur’s Gate is still setting the bar for computer role playing games.

2- Half-Life 2 (Valve Software, PC, 2004)

Valve’s development of the Source engine was an amazing achievement. But aside from that, the story and gameplay in Half-Life 2 were breakthrough accomplishments on a number of levels. Innovative enemies, physics-based puzzles, and the best facial animation ever included in a video game. All of this, and a excellently-written science fiction story about an alien occupation of planet Earth and the unlikely underground rebellion led by a voiceless protagonist who may be backed by a mysterious otherworldly businessman. I’m currently replaying Half-life 2 for the fourth time.

1- Beyond Good and Evil (Ubisoft, PC, 2003)

You knew this was coming. Beyond Good and Evil remains my favorite game of all time. I’ve ranted about it so often and for so long that I won’t repeat myself here – you can go read any of a number of other rants I’ve written about how good the game is. I’ve replayed it five times now, from start to finish, and unlocked every hidden item in the game. I’m ready now for Beyond Good and Evil 2. Bring it on.

Awesome things I’ve done in Scribblenauts (link)
After having seen a tweet written by Wil Wheaton, I got the idea of sharing Scribblenauts experiences with other players of the game. Due to some bizarre planetary conjunction, fourteen other players stumbled across my post and chimed in. It hasn’t been too often that I’ve gotten that many comments on a post, so I consider that one a success.

Ode to the Shalebridge Cradle (link)
While on my second replay of Thief: Deadly Shadows, I became entranced with the romantic spookiness of The Shalebridge Cradle, one of the best video game levels ever created. And yes, I wrote a sonnet. I thought it came out rather well.

Co-op Etiquette (link)
In considering the nature of pop-in multiplayer, which could sometimes occur without explicit invitation, Brandon wrote up a good article detailing an experience of his. I enjoyed reading it, and I cracked myself up with the image I threw together to accompany the article.

Everything Old is New Again (part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4)
When the Ghostbusters video game was announced, I thought it would be a good idea to examine what other decades-old movie licenses were ripe for being made into video games. Weekend at Bernies? Xanadu? I hope people had half the fun reading it that I had writing it.

Scribblenauts Smackdown (part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / semifinals / finals)
This was part of my ill-fated big push to bring traffic to Lungfishopolis after the big fourteen-comment Scribblenauts post detailed above. The idea: pit-fight Scribblenauts creatures and describe the battle in far more detail than actually occurs in-game. It drew in a few commenters, but wasn’t nearly the success I’d hoped.

Games for Couples (link)
Honestly, I really enjoyed all the multi-author articles that ever appeared on this site. But this one presented some stuff that I actually thought could be useful to people looking for games to play with their girlfriends or wives.

MusicCast (link)
I put together five different podcasts wherein I played and commented on video game music before I stopped due to lack of interest. Maybe I’m in the minority with my appreciation of video game music, but I still listen to it.

Confessions of a Games Journalist (part 1 / part 2 / part 3)
In 2008, Brandon’s went to Vegas to write about a preview of Saints Row 2 for GameShark.com, and he wrote about his time in Vegas here. I thought that was pretty damn cool.

Braid Hints (World 2 / World 3 / World 4 / World 5 / World  6)
When I played Braid, I had to look up a few of the solutions online, and I hated having to do it. So my bright idea was to write up some hints that would nudge players in the right direction without giving the answers away. The series has proved popular, even years later.

Game of the Year Awards, 2010-2019 (link)
A little more than a year ago, I got wildly creative and wrote a future-history piece about a decade’s worth of Game of the Year games that haven’t yet come out. Sure, nine out of ten games were completely fictitous, but I did predict the existence of a 3D Nintendo DS, although I placed it in 2016.

Pixeljunk Monsters Strategies (part 1 / part 2 / part 3)
I’ve never been one for writing strategy guides, but I was really really into Pixeljunk Monsters. Actually, I kind of still am.

Poopsocking (link)
My favorite of all the collaborative articles, poopsocking asked its authors “What game have you put the most hours into?” This article had four contributors, which is a record for Lungfishopolis.

Yes, I hear the crickets. I understand that approximately three point five people visit this site every month, and it was never intended as anything other than a hobby. It was fun designing the site’s layout and all the random header and footer sidebar images. I’ve also written custom WordPress plugins to display a list of upcoming games and to draw from the Raptr accounts of this site’s authors and display them in the sidebar, which was a great learning experience.

Tomorrow I’ll take a look at my favorite articles posted over the past two years. Wednesday will bring you the final post in the top fifty series. Thursday, we’ll have a look at what’s to come for Lungfishopolis. And on Friday, we’ll review the best Free Game Friday games that we’ve seen over the past two years.

As you likely know, Resident Evil 4 heralded a rebirth for the series. And while I do miss some of the classic survival horror elements, Resident Evil 4 really is an excellent third-person shooter and action game. It’s got a lot of replayability, and some awesome set pieces. It uses quicktime events as well as I’ve ever seen them used in a game, and holds true to a lot of Resident Evil staples. As it’s seeming like the even-numbered titles in the series are the good ones, I have high hopes for Resident Evil 6.

9- Starcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, PC, 1998)

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I were in a Best Buy, and I pointed out to her a game on the shelf: Starcraft Battle Chest. How amazing is it that the game is twelve years old and still selling in a prominent place on store shelves? It’s just that good.

At this point, more than a decade later, I hardly need to talk about how amazing it was that Blizzard created three separate yet balanced factions which each had an entirely different play style and different tactics. We may take it for granted now, but it really is pretty impressive. I’ve reinstalled and replayed Starcraft 2 plenty of times, although I’ve only finished the single-player campaign once. I’m willing to believe that this slot in my list will soon be replaced by Starcraft 2, which I have yet to play.

8- Portal (Valve Software, PC, 2007)

If you read this site, you’re likely interested in video games. And if you’re interested in video games, you likely don’t need me to explain to you how awesome Portal was/is. Portal is a puzzle-platformer that introduced a simple concept and then stretched it six ways from Octember, and layered on some humor via everyone’s favorite passive-agressive psychotic artificial intelligence.

Dispire what a brief joy the game was, Portal is universally recognised as a kick-ass game. I, for one, agree.

7- Psychonauts (Double Fine, PC, 2005)

If you haven’t guessed by the name of this site, I really like Psychonauts. It’s hands-down the funniest game I’ve ever played. And while I can’t claim that humor games are my favorite genre, I’ve got huge appreciation for Psychonauts. At this point, I’ve only played Psychonauts start-to-finish twice, but I have no doubt that I’ll go back again someday and replay it a third time.

6- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda, PC, 2006)

Oblivion had so much going for it. I’ll grant you that the engine wasn’t ideal, but seeing physics-based traps go off from a first-person perspective, gathering wild flowers to make potions, and fighting melee battles from a first-person perspective was only part of the game’s joy. Then, the modding community took a game which on its own was simply good, and they made it great. The GUI updates, improved AI, new music, and higher-resolution graphics that the modding community introduced were simply amazing.

The whole game is minimalistic. Other than the spirit sending you on your quests to destroy colossi and your own character calling to his horse, no one in the game ever speaks. You never go up levels, and you never find new equipment. The sword and bow with which you begin the game are the same ones with which you’ll finish. Your character’s only stats are his life meter and his grip meter. And while these can be improved by hunting lizards and eating fruit, this is neither spelled out anywhere in the game nor is it necessary to the game’s completion.

The colossus battles are epic, and the music and landscapes only add to the drama. I often found myself wanting to yell out loud when I found my character wildly scrambling and gritting my teeth to hold onto the arm of a hundred foot tall colossus who was flailing wildly to dislodge the human insect who was stabbing at him with a pinlike blade. yes – the game lends itself to flowery descriptions.

For a game with no dialog, Shadow of the Colossus has pathos. Nothing is ever spelled out, but as the game progresses, you find yourself asking whether slaying the majestic colossi is the right course of action. After all, what have they done? Whom have they harmed?

I won’t spoil any more for those who may still be considering returning to 2005 to play the game, but Shadow of the Collosus holds a well-earned place in my top 20 games of all time.

12- Resident Evil 2 (Capcom, Sony Playstation, 1998)
In many ways, Resident Evil 2 doesn’t hold up well. But I enjoyed the game so much that even after twelve years, it remains one of my favorite games of all time. In 1998, Resident Evil was still coming into its own. The first game had a bit of a haunted house vibe, and terrible terrible voice acting. This sequel improved the voice acting, improved the plot, and greatly improved the graphics. Plus, the scope was so much larger – rather than zombies haunting a house, the infection had spread to the entire city. The parallel storylines followed by the game’s two playable characters was a further stroke of genius.

The game’s story primarily involved learning about how the T-virus outbreak had occurred, and learning about the even worse G-virus that the Umbrella Corporation had been developing. The fun was in discovering new enemy types along the way and enjoying the scripted cheap scares, which were plentiful. Sitting in my room at night with the lights turned off, I ate that shit up.

I suppose the decision to place this game as highly as I have isn’t an entirely rational one. It’s more about the joy that the game brought me when I first played it.

11- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (KCE Tokyo, Sony Playstation, 1997)
The aspect of Symphony of the Night which I’ve lauded most has always been its amazing soundtrack, but that’s far from the best thing about the game. Aside from the soundtrack, and aside from the fact that the graphics were absolutely outstanding in 1997, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a fantastic 2d platformer that gave you an open world, RPG elements, and so much more.

Symphony of the Night was the first Castlevania game to give your character levels and an inventory. As the game progressed, you could pick up artifacts that would grant you new powers such as a double jump, flying kick, and the ability to shapeshift into a wolf, bat, or a cloud of mist. You could gain familiars who would fly alongside you, casting spells, healing you, or just attacking everything in sight.

And the boss monsters in Symphony of the Night were memorable. Trevor, Grant, and Syfa from Castlevania III made a comeback, Waterbound Sylla from Greek myth was present, and as always in Castlavania games, Death himself made an appearance. But “Granfaloon” may be my favorite Castlevania enemy of all time: a giant sphere composed of corpses. The corpses fall off and rise up as zombies to attack you. And when enough have fallen off, Granfaloon begins firing freaking laser beams at you!

As the game progressed, you could learn magic spells or buy them from the merchant. These consisted of Street Fighter-like quarter circle motions, double button presses, or something similar. They were often difficult to pull off on a D pad, but they were very useful.

Symphony of the Night gave you two weapon slots, and two buttons with which to use them. You could dual wield weapons, such as a whip and a mace, or use a two-handed weapon, or use a sword and shield. One of my favorite magic items in the game was the shield rod, which when equipped alongside a shield allowed for a special attack: when you pressed both your weapon and shield button simultaneously, you’d trigger a magical effect based on what shield you had equipped – each shield in the game had its own unique effect. And there were dozens of shields in the game. In fact, the number of different magic items in the game was so huge that it would be nearly impossible to find them all. And many had totally undocumented powers. Many were the times I’d pull off some crazy effect and have no idea how I’d managed to do it.

As I progressed through the game and watched the completion percentage counter in the inventory screen approach 100%, I grew a bit sad. i didn’t want the game to be over. How amazing was it then when I reached what appeared to be the final room in the castle and found a second castle suspended upside-down atop the first? And the meter hit 101%…

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is available as a download on the Playstation Network. If you’ve never played, I highly recommend it.

16- Okami (Clover Studio, Playstation 2, 2006)
Okami is squarely within the genre carved out by the Zelda games. It’s based on the Japanese story of how the sun goddess saved the world from darkness, and told via a beautiful cel-shaded landscape. You play the wolf goddess Ameratsu, guided by an insect-sized Poncle artist named Issun. Your first few missions involve healing trees and landscapes blighted by darkness while battling demons. As the story goes on, there are many cities, many dungeons, and many landscapes to be freed of the cursed darkness. Along the way, Ameratsu learns sacred brush techniques, which on the Wii version of the game can be executed through Wiimote gestures. The brush techniques can be used to solve puzzles, and can often also be used in battle.

Okami is the single best-looking Nintendo Wii game I’ve ever seen, and I’ve written an article about it entitled An Argument Against Photorealism. Cartoony games tend to age much better than games that attempt photorealism.

Okami was a very long game – perhaps longer than Zelda or even Final Fantasy 12. It’s hard to believe how much gameplay they can fit on a single DVD.

15- Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream, Playstation 3, 2010)So far, Heavy Rain is my favorite game of 2010. The graphics were beautiful, the voice acting was excellent, and the soundtrack was so good that I often listen to it while writing code at work. But all these things, while they do add quite a bit to the game, are not what make Heavy Rain great.

Heavy Rain was a well-written murder mystery, and the fact that it was interactive made it better. It’s a big choose-your-own-path story where the choices are sometimes unintentional. The branches can come as a result of a conscious choice, as a penalty for a failed challenge (e.g. losing a fistfight or crashing your car) or because you simply didn’t react quickly enough. All these branches split and rejoin portions of the story to create a very complex piece of interactive fiction.

But my favorite part of Heavy Rain, at the risk of repeating myself, is the way it handles the permanence of consequences. It is impossible to get a Game Over screen in Heavy Rain before the final credits roll. You can fail challenges, characters can die, but the game does not end. The story goes on, and you witness the consequences. Quantic Dream’s use of this mechanic has many excellent results. First, you never find yourself dying, reloading, and replaying the same sequence over and over. Frustration from having had to do this has caused me to rage quit many games. Secondly, because your failures are immutable, you need to be certain to succeed the first time. Because the first time is the only time. This creates a lot of tension when you’re fighting for your life, because if you die the character is dead.

I can’t say enough good things about Heavy Rain. I love the game, and I find myself wanting to share that joy. Go out and buy it.

14- Street Fighter 2 (Capcom, Arcade, 1991)
Street Fighter 2 is probably my favorite arcade game of all time. I loved playing Point Blank and Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom, but I’ve probably put more time and more quarters into Street Fighter 2 machines than into all the others put together. Oddly, when I put together my list back in 2007, Street Fighter 2 was fourth on that list. Today, I can’t see placing it that highly, but I still love the game.

When it was first released, I remember thinking how weird all the characters were, and how E.Honda’s thousand hand slap was just way too powerful. I remember discovering my first combo: the jump kick/leg sweep with Ken and Ryu. I remember first learning how to throw a fireball on the Street Fighter 2 machine at a local bowling alley. I remember the first time I saw a Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition machine at Riverside Park in Agawam, Massachusetts. I remember the yells of protest from the local players when someone got cheap with the jab-jab-throw tactics. I remember thinking how the game must have subliminal messages, because I’d see Street Fighter 2 when I closed my eyes. For a time, I was honestly worried about what it might be doing to me. I remember working at an arcade where we ran a Street Fighter 2 tournament. That’s where I learned how to use every character in the game. It’s easy when you can play free. I’ve got lots of memories of Street Fighter 2. Some bad, but most very good.

Back in the mid-90s, Street Fighter 2 was more than a game – it was a culture. And I was immersed neck-deep in Street Fighter 2 culture. I knew all the people at the local arcades who were good at the game, and I always had my quarters lined up for the next game. In these days, a four hit combo not made entirely of jabs was amazing, and there were rumors that a six-hit combo existed with Fei Long, although I never saw it. Cross-ups and cancelling special moves were new and strange techniques used only by the best amongst us, and only when needed – it was never fun to mercilessly crush a lesser opponent. There was a kind of code amongst the better players – a sense of honor. If you had a sizable lead, you’d generally back off of a dizzied opponent and let him recover. And you’d never intentionally win a game by throwing a fireball at a near-dead opponent. Doing so would risk you being labeled as cheezy. Fight with cheap moves like that often enough and nobody would want to play you.

I know that I’m not talking about the game itself so much as my own experience with it, but this is what Street Fighter 2 is to me, and this is why I love it.

Be sure to come back next week when I’ll begin with my top ten games of all time.

20- Ultima V (Origin, Commodore 64, 1988)
I’m a great lover of computer role-playing games, and Ultima V was the first truly great one I ever played. Before Dragon Age, before Baldur’s Gate, even before SSI’s Dungeons and Dragons Gold Box games, there was Ultima. Ultima V came out the same year as Pool of Radiance, just as Ultima IV had come out alongside Wizardry and The Bard’s Tale.

Initially, I found it amazing that you could attack enemies who were not directly above or to the side of you. You could actually fire an arrow at an orc who was five squares above and two squares over from you! The initiative system was complex: occasionally, one of your quicker characters would attack twice without a slower character getting a turn in-between. It was as if Mr. Fast attacked every 12 initiative segments but Mr. Slow only attacked every 15 segments. I loved that system.

But what really grabbed me about Ultima V was the story. Sure – it had me running back and forth, backtracking all over the huge world map many times, and took me literally years to complete, but when I was fourteen, I had that kind of time. At the outset, I learned that the evil Lord Blackthorne had taken over and was enforcing twisted versions of the eight virtues. Throughout the game, I traveled the world, picked up companions, battled enemies, and learned more of the story. I infiltrated the enemy’s ring of spies, joined the resistance, and learned mantras which let me meditate at the hidden shrines. (once I’d found them) I followed the path laid out in the journal portion of the game’s manual, which had me take a painstakingly specific route in my ship and transfer to a skiff, intentionally going down a whirlpool to enter the underworld. I then followed a river to the location where the Shadowlords had captured Lord British. There, I found Lord British’s amulet.

I undertook similar quests to get his sceptre and crown, both of which were essential. I had to talk to people to learn the magic passwords to each of the world’s eight dungeons, and then traverse each dungeon to the underworld for various reasons. Amongst those reasons was to collect the three shards of the shattered gem of Mondain, which allowed me to destroy the shadowlords. Of course, I had to follow a particular ritual and had to learn each shadowlord’s true name.

All of this took more hours than I can tell you. The story was complex, and I’ve only detailed the parts I remember now, more than two decades later. I spent hours each day for years. Ultima forces you to purchase ingredients for each spell that you cast, and there exist two ingredients that cannot be purchased, only gathered in the wild. You can ride horses, ships, skiffs, hot air balloons, and even a magic carpet – or else travel by moongate if you learn the phases of the moon properly to guide your travel.

More than twenty years later, Ultima V is a more complex game than any other I’ve played since. And I treasure the experience that I had in playing it.

19- Trine (Frozenbyte, Playstation 3, 2009)
If daddy Castlevania and mommy Gauntlet got together and had a child, it would be Trine. Trine is the modern-day evolution of these old two-dimensional sidescrolling platformers and action RPGs. The graphics and the soundtrack are both beautiful, and up to three people can play simultaneously. You get three characters to choose from, and each character is drastically different and has different ways to solve the same problems. I had an absolute blast playing Trine, as you can probably tell by the fact that it’s the only platinum trophy I’ve got on the Playstation 3. I busted my ass finishing the Tower of Sarek on Very Hard with zero deaths.

The game has three characters: Knight, Wizard, and Thief. The Knight has armor, sword and shield. His shield allows him to block attacks from any angle, which is very useful, and he’s got the best direct attack in the game. He can also jump and land on enemies, killing them mario-style. But he can’t swim. At all. In water, he sinks and drowns. The Thief is the best character in the game: she can jump high, grapple from any wooden surface, and has the game’s only ranged attack. And while swinging, if she hits an enemy, she’ll kick for massive damage. The thief is all about mobility. The wizard is the most difficult to use, but can be a lot of fun. When you play the wizard, you have a cursor which can be used to levitate objects or to create boxes and planks. You can drop things on enemies and crush them. This is the wizard’s only attack, which means that when enemies get close to you, you’re pretty much screwed.

The game has plenty of items to collect. Each level has two chests containing magic items. These can be anything from leg armor which reduces damage from hits (only the hits which connect with the character’s legs) to a magic necklace that lets the wizard create an extra box or plank. Each level also has a number of green experience vials. Collecting all of these is probably the most time-intensive achievement in the game, but the experience will allow your characters to go up levels. As they go up levels, the knight, thief, and wizard gain new abilities. which you can select. The knight gains a flaming sword, a magic thunder hammar, and the ability to charge. The thief can shoot multiple arrows or even a flaming arrow. And the wizard can create progressively more items, and eventually a floating platform.

Trine is probably tied with Pixeljunk Monsters for my favorite PSN game. If you’ve got a PS3 and haven’t picked up Trine, I heartily recommend it. It’s also available for PC on Steam.

18- Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD, Nintendo Wii, 2007)
Let’s face it – first party Nintendo games are just good. Whether they’re Zelda, Mario, or Metroid, the games are just good. Mario’s latest evolution is Galaxy, and the games are wildly creative. It’s got levels where you swim underwater or fly, levels where you roll around atop a ball using only the Wii remote’s tilt, and levels where you jump around atop floating planetoids which pull you in with their gravity. In an age of 3d games, Mario Galaxy may be the only true 3d game – it’s often impossible to judge which way is up!

Mario Galaxy has you surfing atop a manta ray, transforming into a giant spring or a bumblebee, and playing in old-school 2d levels. There are boss creatures, hidden levels, and an extra level of replayability created by the comets, which turn levels you’ve already played into silver coin collecting games, sudden-death levels, or a race to collect everything inside a time limit. Mario Galaxy is certainly one of the best games on the Nintendo Wii.

17- Dead Space (Visceral Games, Playstation 3, 2008)
In a time when the survival horror genre has gone out of vogue in favor of games like Doom 3 and Resident Evil 5, Dead Space took a much-needed step in the right direction – backwards towards the survival horror classics of yesteryear. Don’t get me wrong – Dead Space is first and foremost a shooter – but it’s got the survival horror chops that Resident Evil has lost. I played Dead Space only at night, and generally while wearing a good pair of earphones. Good times.

Dead Space is one of the most atmospheric games I’ve ever played. There is no heads-up display to detract from the immersion, and the game’s sound design is amazing. When you enter a vacuum, the only cue you need is the sudden transition to the echoey, disconnected, inside-helmet soundscape that insulates you from the sounds of enemies rushing towards you. In space, no one can hear you scream.

If you know anything about Dead Space, you’ll likely know that in order to kill Necromorphs, you’ve got to cut off their arms and legs. I’ll admit that this mechanic, while novel, is hardly innovative. But it’s certainly no reason to roll your eyes and decide not to play the game. It has so much more going for it. The game’s weapons are the most diverse and fun to use I’ve seen since the last Doom game. The weapon and armor upgrade system involves welding new modules into specific nodes in your armor or weapon for different effects. And the story…

The setting of Dead Space is so rich that I can’t begin to absorb it all. But just knowing that the entire universe out there exists gives me the warm fuzzies. The immersive scenes at the game’s outset when approaching the Ishimura mining vessel really help to put you in character. They’ve gone with the Gordon Freeman silent protagonist approach with the character you play: Isaac Clarke (an amalgam of Isaac Aasimov and Arthur C Clarke) As the story progresses and you restore functionality to portions of the ship that allow you greater access to information about what has gone wrong, you’re gradulally exposed to more story through Bioshock-style audio and video recordings which are played on both wall-mounted displays and on your portable holo-projector which displays a screen right in front of you. You can even walk around while watching the video. Normally the recordings are placed where you’re unlikely to be attacked while viewing one.

I could write a whole lot more about Dead Space, but as this list nears the higher-ranked games, I should struggle for brevity and call it quits for this week.