Hi everyone,
In this
post, we will share our personnal top 3 games for three specific
video games genre : Racing games, fighting games and also platform
games. Those choices will reflect our personnal experience with those
kind of games.
paskr18
Racing
A racing
game, I really enjoyed playing was Excitebike, released in
1985 on Nintendo Entertainment System. The feature I enjoyed the most
was the possibility to create our own personnal racetrack. Give me a
lot of amusement when I was younger.
My next
entry is not a single game but mostly a franchise: the Gran
Turismo franchise on the Playstation gaming system. I really
enjoyed the fact you could collect that so many different cars (since
completing collection is one of the reason I play some games, this is
just a huge enjoyment for me). I also like the tracks and the variety
of places you could race in.
My final
choice would be RC Pro-Am on NES. I spent some many hours on
this game playing against my brother and cousins in my youth. Such
good memories. It was so fun to run radioguided cars.
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Gran Turismo Series
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RC Pro-Am
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Excitebike
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Fighting
My first
entry will be Virtua Fighter 2 on the Playstation 2 system. I
really like the fact that the fighting styles were actual martial
arts moves and that there was no use of energy like attacks. I also
like the fact you were able to prevent and counter an enemy attack.
My next
entry will be Tekken 2 on the Playstation 2 system. I like it
for mostly the same reasons I like the Virtua Fighter 2.
My final
entry is Samurai Showdown on the Playstation 2. As I am fan of
medevial Japan stories, I was pleased with the use of japanes
swordmen for a fighting game. I like the moves and also the stories.
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Samurai Showdown
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Tekken 2
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Virtua Fighter
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Platform
I will pick
my top 3 platform games now. My top 1 choice for this kind of game is
Super Mario Bros. 3. I like the new additions in the powers that
Mario can gain. I really like also the level design. I do like the
flying racoon costume.
My second
choice is Eathworm Jim. This game was just awesome. The moveset was
enjoyable, the level design was very pleasant. Using himself s a whip
was a blast.
My final
choice is Sonic the Hedgehog series on the Sega Genesis. I like the
speed and the level design on this game. They also introduced in the
latter installement some good sidekicks (Knucles to name only one).
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Earthworm Jim
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Super Mario Bros. 3
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Sonic The Hedgehog series
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ProtoformAl
Racing
I’m not
gonna start in reverse and build suspense or anything. My top racing
game of all time is undeniably “Dirt 3”. First time I
launched this baby I was massacred, it felt like playing Grid all
over again with ten times the punishment because in fact the tracks
actually “look” easier than Grid’s. But once I got the feel,
once I found that sweet spot of car tweaking, I was one with the
machine. And it is like riding a bicycle, even after months without
playing, I slip in like a glove. One of the things that still amaze
me is how well it aged graphically. Sure, it doesn’t hold up to
great scrutiny and the menu is lackluster, but it works for me. Laid
back, playing on a big screen, one with the road…the world just
floats away. There is only the next curve, the next challenge. More
than just the best rally game out there, it is still the king of
racing game for me. Don’t believe me? Go play……………..
My second
top racing game is the one that made me fall in love with manual
transmission: “Gran Turismo 3 A-spec”. Back when it came
out, 13 years ago (dammn that’s far), I was blown by the graphics,
the sound. I admired their take on racing, it was a first in terms of
simulation. I hadn’t ever played a game where you actually have to
earn a license (!) to be worthy of driving certain class of cars. I
don’t think I’ve seen that in any other game since then. But the
meat of my love for GT 3 was the manual transmission. It was so well
done. Friends and I had battles one on one, to see not simply who
could accelerate and break properly (boohoo auto-trans noobs!!), but
it was a battle for control, and ultimate test of skills. Over the
years, I’ve gotten a bit lazy and dropped the manual Trans most of
the time. I kinda fell out of love with racing games. Grid and Dirt
pulled me back in and for that I am grateful.
The last of
my top 3 was actually the epitome of the arcade racing at its time of
release contrarily to my two previous choices. “Need for Speed
Underground” was a blast to play. It was crazy it was fun and
having first played it on PC with the best graphic card I could buy
at the time, it was gorgeous. Simulation is awesome, but the things
you could do in NFSU and the sense of speed was exhilarating. It
wasn’t that the cars truly ran faster than GT 3 but the feeling of
speed was incredible, mostly due to the relational physic between the
moving car and the static environment being improved but also how
each moving car’s speed related to the others, added to the motion
blur when going really fast or using NOZ…….WOW. And then there
was the customization. The vinyls you could add, the spoilers, tire
rims etc., all of that was so novel. Cars were made to look the
coolest, the “baddest” or the silliest and it all amounted to
something. It wasn’t just a choice of making yourself look great
but a duty and entirely part of the game mechanic.
I’m sure
in 2014 some people will disagree with my choices of old racing
games. Take them in the context of their own time and you’ll see
how great they really were.
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Dirt 3
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Gran Turismo 3
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Need for Speed Underground
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Fighting
My
top 3 fighting games are in no particular order: Street Fighter
IV, Blazblue Continuum Shift, and Tekken 4. Special
notice to BlazBlue for its cross genre quality (fighting/ visual
novel) and the emphasis on strategy more than simple button mashing
to succeed. Street Fighter is a classic, nothing new there. Tekken
since it first appeared, wowed us all with its deft handling of 360
degree fighting. You had an extra dimension to work with instead of
simple side scrolling maneuverability.
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Blazblue continuum Shift
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Street Fighter IV
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Tekken IV
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Platform
Super
Mario Galaxy 2 like my fave X-man Wolverine is the best there is
in its own category. Personally, I would not shirk from putting it as
top game of all freaking time. I’ve played a lot of games that
could get to that super top, Skyrim comes to mind. SMG2, hits all the
right buttons for me. It is a solid platformer, all along the way
things stay fresh and there are a lot of innovations and surprises.
The story is not dull, the graphics aren’t super awesome in the
likes of Tomb Raider (2013) or The Last of US, but for a Mario game
the color palette is as vibrant as ever and the Wii handles it well.
The best part is the control scheme which is easiest to handle with a
friend but works great also on your lonesome. And the secrets…oh
yes, many goodies hidden and a select few requiring skills beyond
that of the mere mortal casual gamer. I love RPGs that’s a given,
but this game reminds me why for most of my childhood Mario was the
name of the game that stood on the hill looking down on all the crap
trying to make a living copying what only he did best. And he’s
still the King.
Megaman X2
After
playing Super Mario Brothers extensively on the NES, I was rather
taken aback by the first Megaman, and the next and the third. I
skipped them over each time. This game was hard, gone was the simple
stomping of Mario, now we needed weapons in a platformer. Worst of
all, one needed mad skills and good memory of obstacles. Come Megaman
3, I had grown up and I was more ready to get into it. Over the years
afterwards, I completely lost track of the series until a good friend
of mine got his hand on the first Megaman X. My mind was blown. It
had evolved so much, the graphics, the gameplay, and all the secrets.
The sequel capitalized on that, and delivered what I rather lost hope
with in a good platformer: a story that mattered to me. It was more
than just blasting away enemies. I really wanted to know what was
going on. It wasn’t a hard game but still it required skill as all
platformers in order to perform in a satisfactory manner. We used to
challenge each other with speed runs and high score competitions.
Choosing the order of stages was integral to that challenge as a poor
choice hindered one’s ability to overcome the next opponent and
finish fast enough or with a high enough score.
Choosing
the top two platformers was easy, finding a third is difficult. I’ll
play it safe and go with an all-time favorite of mine: Super
Mario 3. There you’ll
find all the goodies of the first game, but with added open world
navigation, nonlinear stage choices and the introduction of many
pinnacle perks and power-ups that have become a series staple. Much
of the SMG2 could not have existed without the work done on Mario 3.
The fact that they made an entire MOVIE (The Wizard, 1989) as
advertisement, made it even more magical. SMB3 is an awesome game but
let’s face it without The Wizard it would not have become as fast
one of the best-selling games of all time. In a period where the
market was free, there was room for innovation and discovery. THIS
was one of the best innovative game out there, and anything coming
after, even if they be the best game ever, owes something to SMB3.
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Megaman X2
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Super Mario Bros. 3
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Super Mario Galaxy 2
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Shiro
For
this first installment of our” top 3” series we are going to
bring our focus on 3 genre of video games, platformers, fighting and
racing games, although we are going to use games that mix certain
genre, our focus is presenting games which the main element is the
genre in question.
Ok let’s
start
Platform
I
am going to start with the platforming genre that debuted back in the
80’s which the first one that comes to mind is the Mario bros
series which mostly was side scrolling then largely evolve to full 3D
environments like Crash Bandicoot series”. And now for my Top 3
- Sonic the hedgehog 2
Back
in 1992, in a world where gaming was mostly dominated by Mario Bros,
Mortal Kombat and the Street Fighter series, SEGA released this side
scrolling platformer for the Megadrive and the Sega Genesis consoles.
This game starring Sonic the “super speedy” blue hedgehog and his
sidekick Tails was success not only due to the different gameplay
mechanic that other sidescroller but also with the added connectivity
with a later game in the series “Sonic and Knuckles “ which you
could play the game with Knuckles a character that appeared in Sonic
3.
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Sonic The Hedgehog 2
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Knucles in Sonic 2
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- Contra Series
In
1987, developer Konami released a run and gun sidescroller arcade
game named Contra. The game focus on shooting your way through
literally everything (cyborgs, aliens, you name it…). This game was
such a success that it delivered more than 10 sequels with making the
transition from 2D platform to 3D action game with NeoContra released
in the 6th
generation. And I’m sure all of us used the 30 life cheat code at
one point for the Nintendo version.
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Shooting a base
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Shooting a ………
heart
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- The Incredible Hulk
Finally
this one was one my favorite in my old Sega Genesis, this game was
released on arcade and all 3rd
generation console. It was interesting how you could go from the Hulk
to Bruce Banner and back again.
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As Bruce Banner
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Fighting
Fighting
games really have evolved not only in the visual department but also
gameplay. The original one on one gameplay developed to 2 on 2 or
even 3 on 3 , even style wise you can choose your fighter depending
on the way he or she style of fighting suits you which can be seen in
the Tekken and Mortal Kombat series.
- Super Smash Bros series
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Everybody came
to the party
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Although
the fighting genre have many great games to choose from, my list will
start with a recent franchise. Super Smash Bros came in the early
2000 and hit the gaming world by storm by combining different
characters from Nintendo’s different franchises, unique and
instinctive gameplay and sheer fun factor.
- Tekken series
The
Tekken series was one of the first fighting game with an actual good
storyline and a different and more technical gameplay mechanic, it
used to take long hours to actually find a character in which you can
master his fighting style in other case you just choose to play with
Eddie Gordo. What was really fun is how most character resemble real
life martial artist most notably Law for Bruce Lee. This franchise as
reach such a level of success with the different sequels and even a
movie adaptation.
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Unforgettable
Characters
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Resemblance
between Law and Bruce Lee
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- Soul Calibur series
Another
fighting game from publisher Namco, The Soul Calibur series combined
great visuals, fluid gameplay and weapon combat to the fighting
genre. Not as
Technical
as the Tekken gameplay, it still demanded hours to master a specific
fighter. Added bonus with some famous characters cameo in some of
their games most notably Darth Vader.
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Darth Vader vs
Cassandra
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Racing
- Need for speed: Underground 2
One of the
most popular and successful game in the need for speed franchise,
NFSU2 focused on customization and street racing. With an extensive
car collection which included some SUVs. It introduced also open
world driving first introduced in the midnight club series. Also had
great visual and a great soundtrack it sold over 6 million copies
worldwide.
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Need for Speed Underground 2
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Customization
screen
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- Dirt Series
Originally
named “Colin McRae Dirt” after the WRC legend of the same name,
it doesn’t have the fan base of the more popular titles, the dirt
series have brought some of the best racing games of the 7th
generation (PS3, Xbox360, and Wii). From developer Codemasters, the
people behind the TOCA race driver series and GRID series, the dirt
series brings the perfect mix of challenge and fun factor in off-road
racing. With a diverse discipline to choose from Rally cross to Raid
races, I promise you if you ever pick up this game you will never put
it down.
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Raid Race
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- Forza Horizon
Now
the last game in my top 3 for racing, is a spin-off of the popular
Forza Series, developed by Playground Games in association with main
Forza studio Turn 10 studios. The game is easily to my point of view
one of the most beautiful racing game ever, great visual and
excellent game physics. The game consist in participating in a racing
festival in the fictional town of Horizon, Colorado. With over 300
cars to race in disciplines varying from highway races, rally races
and point to point to just name a few of the amount to do in the
game.
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Over 300 cars
to choose
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Racing
a plane
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And
those are our choices. Hope you like the post. See you soon.
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