Culix's Top 25 Games of All Time
by Culix

The Mario RPGs are on the list of things that probably shouldn't exist, but somehow manage to do so and be a hell of a lot of fun. The Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games in particular highlight the platformer side of this unholy union of genres. Timed hits were definitely evolved from Super Mario RPG, giving fights in these games a more action-oriented feel than in Square's collaboration. And Badge system was a great way to both simplify the RPG equipment mechanism and allow enormous versatility in combat options. The first Paper Mario stands out to me, though, both because it took that first step away from Super Mario RPG's execution, and because it's one of the few games I actually stayed up to finish in one night. This was partly because it drew me in and I lost track of time, and partly because I was paranoid that, as always happened when I returned a rented RPG, someone would take it out before I got it back, play for 10 minutes, copy that file over every other slot, and then stop playing. Regardless of the reasons, it was a great experience and I'm glad it happened.

As for other reasons I picked the original Paper Mario, it was kinda nice to watch Bowser succeed right in front of Mario's eyes for once. Lifting Peach's castle into the air on top of his own is simultaneously one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen and, when you consider what must have gone into pulling that off, pretty impressive, especially for Bowser. It was a nice send-off before he slipped into mostly comic relief mode. The mid-chapter segments enabling you to control Peach around the castle were a nice diversion, but were particularly great since she could send Mario items and badges she found lying around. I'm really not sure why that function didn't carry over to the Thousand Year Door. The games that followed it are in no way bad, but since I'm only picking one post-SNES era Mario RPG, there's little contest.



After Mario made the jump to Super Mario 64 with great success, I had very high hopes that Link would follow suit with his 3D transition. Back in those days, I almost always rented games first, no matter how good they looked, before asking for them as birthday or Christmas presents. I took exception to this for Ocarina of Time, and it did not disappoint. Everything just felt so natural, right from the beginning. Denying Link a jump button and just making him smart enough to leap in the right instances was a great idea. Even better, Z-Targeting made combat a much more dynamic experience than in any previous game, alleviating any potential problems with enemies hiding behind the camera, and giving Link the jumps and dodges such an agile fighter should have. A shame it didn't do much against Keese, which jumped from irritant to miniature catastrophe once they figured out how to set themselves afire and freeze you solid in the middle of a fight or block puzzle. God, I hated those damn bats... The titular Ocarina was another great idea, bringing Link to the Past's designated warp item back, adding a number of other useful and cool abilities plus the option to actually play it, and even integrated it into the plot.

The time travel was an awesome take, and even expansion, on Link to the Past's Dark/Light World jumping. You couldn't switch from just anywhere, but the two methods of play still worked together very well, all coming to a head in the Spirit Temple. After playing through half the dungeon as a kid, squaring off as you go with a guy whose axe is bigger than Link, you find the adult-only artifact and watch as the person you were getting it for gets herself captured. So, you get to saving her after her seven years of presumed torture by going through the other half of the temple as an adult, and killing off the two ladies with more wrinkles between them than all of Florida. Always struck me as odd that they got their own theme music... What really impressed me at the time, though, was the plot. Not that it was the best I'd seen in a game by that point, of course, but I was expecting something much simpler, and Ocarina managed to throw a number of curves my way. Particularly near the end, where there was one twist that really shocked me. A shame Super Smash Bros. Melee spoils it for anyone who plays it before Ocarina... Ah, well. It can't take away how impressed I was on first playing, and impressed I certainly was.



I picked this one up again recently and it was just like playing it for the first time. Nintendo added a lot of new stuff, as well as refining everything the original did. Instead of Bowser 8 times you fight him and his 7 distinct and less invincible children, there was a world map to move around and enable tackling levels with some degree of freedom, relatively small touches like the ability to pick up shells or fighting hammer brothers on the map, and Mario's stable of power-ups grew substantially, gaining among others flight for the first time. Sure, sprouting raccoon parts to facilitate said flight was a little strange, which is impressive considering this is a Mario game, but they integrated a new melee attack into it, and statue magic with the later Tanooki suit, so it's still a quirky but cool power-up. I've also heard rumors Nintendo was considering a Centaur Mario at one point; if true, I think they made the right choice. And hey, the demonstration that Bowser had an actual army, complete with military vehicles and airships, was kinda neat to see.

All told, I have explored and replayed this game far more than I did the original. And it's really remarkable, as it was in the first, just how many secret things they managed to fit into this baby, enough by themselves to keep one busy for hours. There's really just one disappointment about this game that's always nagged at me: Why, oh why, does Kuribo's shoe exist in only one level?



I had to think long and hard about putting a game as recent as this on the list. In the end, obviously, I decided it made the cut. Like a lot of people, I got a hold of Twilight Princess long before a Wii found its way to me, so there was a gap of six months before I could actually play it, the longest for any game I've ever owned. And during that time, I heard lots of positive reviews, enough to hype it even more than the years I'd been waiting for it already. I'd been in something of a gaming funk; I still enjoyed playing, and revisiting some SNES classics showed me their quality wasn't just nostalgia talking, but there hadn't been anything new that really wowed me in a while, to the point where I was almost starting to lose faith in gaming. Twilight Princess made me wonder what the hell I'd been thinking. It had been entirely too long since a game pulled me in the way this one did. Even better, it held onto me for about 50 hours. The art style helped; I rarely get distracted by how nice everything looks in a game, but I just couldn't help myself at times, particularly in the Twilight regions. The new controls also did a surprisingly great job of bringing me into things, just as Ocarina's had. They were familiar, of course, but everything just felt quite a bit more intuitive and engaging; something about motioning the shield thrust, gesturing for the spin attack, and swinging to attack just feels more fun.

Another thing I liked was Midna. She's definitely a step up from Navi in the annoyance department, not to mention playing a more significant role in the plot, and is generally entertaining to boot. Her transition from self-centered helper to genuinely sympathetic partner feels surprisingly natural, too. Also of note is Zant who just... continues to baffle me. He starts off with the entire land, save one little farming province, under his command and his fortunes, unlike most villains, actually improve within the first hour, when the hero winds up not only captured, but trapped in an unfamiliar body. Then Midna pops up and it's all downhill from there. His fight was an incredible amount of fun, partly in the revelation that, despite seeming kinda sinister for about 90% of the game, he makes the list of most ridiculous Zelda characters. And yes, Tingle's at the top of that one. Most notable, the King of Twilight also had a hand in what may be the most fun boss I've ever fought: the Stallord at the Arbiter's Ground, the giant undead reptile/game of pinball. And, if it wasn't clear enough that's what he's supposed to be, apparently some of the music in there is remixed from the fight with Ocarina's own dragon/Whack-A-Mole, Volvagia.



It's just plain criminal this game had such a limited run and so little advertising. I'd played a few strategy games before, but this just blended the genre so much better with RPGs. Rather than go out individually, characters were deployed in party units, and could sometimes even combine spells into more powerful attacks. These worked pretty well at simulating morale and realism; over time, being part of a group on whom their lives depend improves morale among that unit, and the characters' world views (Law or Chaos) tend to fall into line better. It was pretty awesome to be able to make eclectic and entertaining group combinations, like a Vampire and Death Knight hobnobbing with an Angel Knight and a holy dragon Bahamut. And there were so many classes that either seemed cool or ridiculous and, with the size of the army, one could afford to put in all of them. Among the highlights were the Doll Master, who animates a doll to make him a surprisingly powerful combatant, particularly with the Gallant Doll (also a cool idea: basically a reverse voodoo doll whose combat stats reflect the protagonist's) and Pumpkin Head, a Jack-o-Lantern headed kid who chucks that head at the enemy to take away half their HP, or uses Pumpkin Shower to do so 5-7 times in exchange for half his own HP. And the Princess was awesome; great magic user, and the rest of her group getting to make an extra attack was incredible without being game-breaking. It was just a hell of a lot of fun and very awesome to make your army out of almost whatever fantasy individuals you felt like. One particularly odd thing I did was take an axe-wielding story character Asnabel and, as he was somehow one of the few to qualify, make him a mage. When I got a Ring of the Dead and needed someone to use it on, he was, somehow, the only one to qualify. So... he became my Lich. Particularly funny since his portrait and quotes didn't change: it's just hilarious to see a staff-wielding skeletal mage say things like, "I am called the Iron Hammer for a reason!" "... Time to go," and "I'm dead tired."

Great as the gameplay was, the story managed to outshine it. Because of the game's nature, most of the main events remain the same, but there's a fair amount of branching, to the point where you face off with some of the most heroic characters in a mission after the final battle, if you turn to the darker path. The game also included something that is for some reason only recently becoming fashionable: the Hugo Report. The army tactician, Hugo, keeps records and descriptions of every important character, event, and even some miscellany like Palatinus's creation myths. They make it feel more like an actual world than a setting. Even better, you can rewatch almost any cutscene in the game, particularly great when you stop playing for a while and need to catch up. Or to remind yourself who someone was, if they went away for a while. As is natural in a game like this, there will be plenty of such people to keep track of. And, aside from the main characters, most of them will get very little screen time. However, a fair number still managed to establish memorable personalities and stick in the limelight, with some memorable scenes. For instance, a few main characters from the first Ogre Battle show up, and can potentially sign on with you, sharing their experience. Rhade stands out as a huge jackass, treating you like trash after you save him, kicking the crap out of a peasant, not for the kidnapping but just for the disrespect he showed, and trying to execute someone while the Prince expressly forbade it. Naturally, payback is oh-so-sweet. On the other side, I actually felt for Leia at a few points. The scene where she cradles her dying father in her arms is just one of the most touching I've seen in a video game.