Game Stooge

50 Greatest Games of the Decade, Part I (41-50)

• Scribbled on December 15th, 2009 by Jonah Falcon
• Filed in Features, Game Genres, Platforms, Retro

As 2009 comes to a close, GameStooge is looking at the Greatest Games of the Decade. As you may guess, there were tons of awesome games and we’re only going to rank the top 50. Naturally, some great games will be overlooked, such as Resident Evil: Codename Veronica, Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, Final Fantasy X, Paper Mario, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Team Fortress 2 and Resistance: Fall of Man, among many others. Some of the games have come from now-defunct consoles, such as the Dreamcast, Xbox, and GameCube. To streamline, no handheld games were considered; that may be the subject of a different list.

Occasionally, there will be some “batches” of related games. That is because they’re a series of games so similar in gameplay and quality, they’d be listed one after another on the list. Plus, it’s a semi-cheat to include more games. It was hard enough picking 50!

Without further ado, here’s the first batch, from number 50 up to 41. The year and platform listed are for the first platform it was released for, though some multiplatform games had a simultaneous release.

50. Jet Grind Radio
(Dreamcast, 2000)
Jet Set Radio Future
(Xbox, 2002)

One of the Dreamcast’s most beloved titles, Jet Grind Radio was an infectious rollerblading game and one of the best soundtracks in video game history. The game’s cel-shaded look – the first of its kind, sprawling levels, over-the-top hipness, and pulse-pounding upbeat music featuring acid jazz, trip hop, electro, and J-pop just made it a pure gaming experience. The game was also somewhat controversial because one game mechanic encouraged players to spray graffiti tags.

Despite the minor controversy, it was one of the original Xbox’s coups to secure the rights for the console exclusive Jet Set Radio Future, which simplified some of the controls but added more tricks – probably to capture the Tony Hawk crowd – and beefed up some of the levels to magnificent grandeur. The soundtrack, aided by The Beastie Boy’s own Mike D, also expanded; most kids learned to love Cibo Matto’s “Birthday Cake” from this game.

Unfortunately, the last anyone saw of the series was a cameo appearance by Beat in Sega Superstars Tennis. Talk about an untapped IP, especially with the resurgance of cel-shaded graphics – Borderlands and Crackdown, anyone? – and not to mention music/rhythm games. The possibilities on next-gen games are endless.

49. Civilization III
(PC, 2001)

Civilization III is considered by some to be the last episode of the Civilization trilogy, since the fourth game rebuilt itself from the ground up and became its own entity. III took everything from the megapopular Civiization II, considered by many to be the best turn-based strategy game ever, and included many of the rules from the vastly underrated Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, with such concepts as cultural borders and fluid government types. The game also took a lot of the perceived problems of the second game and tweaked them.

The result was sort of a Civilization II Version 2.0 – not a bad thing at all, because Civ III’s addiction level was on par with every other Civ game in the series: through the roof. It’s good enough that Civ III bundles that contain every expansion still have a $39.99 MSRP – and still sells through the roof. Its ultra-low system requirements make it the perfect laptop game. With the popularity of Civilization Revolution, isn’t it time for an Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network version, Maxis?

48. Sins of a Solar Empire
(PC, 2008)

Stardock Corporation has helped many strategy gamers through what was chiefly a lean decade for strategy games, and Sins of a Solar Empire, developed by Ironclad Games, was their magnum opus. While they also contributed such fine titles as Galactic Civilizations II and Demigod, none of them reached the epic scope of this game. Gamers hungry for Homeworld-style strategic and tactical strategy found a bounty in this 4X game.

Adding to the deep strategy was the look of the game; it is one of the most visually stunning strategy games of all time. Planets were varied in their composition, and every change the player made had an affect on the planet and ships. Zooming into a planet with many cities, for instance, revealed traffic air lanes zipping through the atmosphere. Not enough can be said about Sins, save for the fact that it was also unforgiving. One small error in judgment could end a game hours before its actual conclusion. The AI was ruthless, and would sometimes gang up on the human player, if only because other AI opponents would strike when the player was depleted after a long, draining battle. It didn’t stop players from starting over with equal glee.

47. Dead Rising
(Xbox 360, 2006)

People love open world games, people love zombies. Put them together, and you have Dead Rising, a game with a concept so awesome, people were willing to overlook its many irritating gameplay choices such as its save system and Otis, the video game world’s answer to Jar Jar Binks.

There were a few things that made Dead Rising so appealing. Of course, the first was that you were essentially playing Dawn of the Dead: thousands of zombies in a mall, each one begging for you to slaughter them. And what an arsenal you were given: lawnmowers, samurai swords, golf clubs, soccer balls, large umbrellas, benches and even teddy bears. If you could pick it up, you could attack with it. Players were allowed to be as inventive as they wanted, even crowd surfing zombie heads. The other was the story, which was extremely flexible. Since the game was on a strict timer, the game changed depending on your actions – for example, you could save a prisoner whom the insane photographer was going to deliberately infect, but if you got there too late, he proudly showed you photographs of his deed. The game also came with multiple endings – and none of them happy. Oh, there was a “perfect” ending, but poor Frank West. Poor, poor Frank.

Dead Rising 2 is one of the most anticipated games of 2010, and this game is why.

46. Battlefield 1942
(PC, 2002)

Battlefield 1942 heralded a new kind of first person shooter, one that had been experimented with in the original Counter-Strike and Team Fortress – the class-based persistent stat war shooter, complete with tanks, airplanes and other vehicles. It was organized chaos, with planes strafing, tanks shelling, and medics tending to the wounded. There were few addictive, balanced class-based shooters like this at this scale, and it dominated servers everywhere.

Perhaps one of the biggest contributions of Battlefield 1942 was that it would give birth to such games as Star Wars: Battlefront, and Warhawk, as well as Team Fortress 2 itself. It has spawned many successful sequels, mods and spinoffs, from Battlefield 2 to Bad Company to Battlefield 1943 to the free-to-play browser-based Battlefield Heroes. There’s a reason fans are hungrily waiting for Battlefield 3 – it simply rocks.

45. God of War II
(PlayStation 2, 2007)

It’s shocking in some ways that God of War II was released in 2007 (the original was released in 2005) – it seems like an older, more classic game. The God of War name is now synonymous with brutal 3D action beat’em up gameplay, surpassing even Devil May Cry, which had thrilled gamers on the PlayStation 2 in the early part of the decade.

What makes God of War II so classic? Aside from the over-the-top violence and gore, its gameplay is slick and well implemented, with combos and a grappling hook. Taking a page from Shadow of the Colossus, the game also features some of the best man vs. incredibly-huge-giant-monster scenes. Furthermore, the game’s graphics are incredible – it is perhaps the best example of pushing a console’s processor late in its life cycle, to the post at which it resembled launch PlayStation 3 titles. This game is perhaps the best argument for backwards compatibility on the PlayStation 3, which is also perhaps why the God of War Collection was released.

God of War III will probably be the all-time best seller ever on the PlayStation 3 – this game is why.

44. Forza Motorsport 3
(Xbox 360, 2009)

Forza Motorsport 2 was the first iteration of Forza for the Xbox 360, but graphic and gameplay-wise, it just seemed like a souped up Xbox game with better resolution. What it did do was take full advantage of the Xbox Live community and gave them tons of tools to tinker with the cars, get as creative as they liked with decals, and show (and sell) car designs, videos and cars themselves to other Live users. Turn 10 generated one of the best online sports communities around.

Forza Motorsport 3 built on that foundation, finally getting the graphics and sound up to Xbox 360 standards, while including new nifty features, not the least of which was the in-cockpit view, a camera the previous games practically screamed for. Forza 3 also includes the most detailed car damage and physics modelling to date, as well as some of the best racing AI. If a player behaves like a tool to computer racers, they will return in kind, and with a vengeance.

It’s Turn 10’s dedication to the community that makes this game one of the best of the decade, and it will be interesting to see how they handle Microsoft’s other race franchise, Project Gotham Racing, in the near future.

43. Final Fantasy XII
(PlayStation 2, 2006)

It wouldn’t be a “Greatest Game” list without a Final Fantasy game, and Final Fantasy XII was the best of the series in the decade. Cases can be made for the dark, sad story of Final Fantasy IX, or the innovative Final Fantasy X (which even had a direct sequel, X-2), but Final Fantasy XII took it a step beyond, even earning it a rare 40/40 from Famitsu magazine.

The game brought players into the world already established in Final Fantasy Tactics, Ivalice, which was one of the rare times a game in the series had continuity with another. But, aside from the story and the 2006 level graphics and sound, Final Fantasy XII’s biggest departure from other games was its strategic combat system, called the Gambit system, which basically allowed players to “program” their PCs to react to variance battle conditions. The other major change was the License system, which was a unique way of handling skill acquisition; monsters drop licenses, you can only use licenses that were adjacent to already acquired licenses, and so on.

Final Fantasy XIII will be arriving for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2010, and it’ll be following a mighty tough act.

42. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
(PlayStation 3, 2008)

One of the biggest hyped releases for the PlayStation 3, it didn’t quite live up to the E3 2006 promises. However, it was good enough in its own right to shepherd the series forward, mixing hardcore action with wry humor and not a little bit of rampant sexiness – yes, we’re talking about the Beauty fights, complete with orgiastic moaning. It’s the sort of stuff one expects from Tomonobu Itagaki.

Regardless, Metal Gear Solid 4 packed enough fan service to satisfy any fan, with all of the staples from the series: the hiding, the stealth kills, the confusing story and the longer-than-long cutscenes. It was the PlayStation 3’s first major hit, not counting the launch title Resistance: Fall of Man, and was the first real reason to buy a PlayStation 3, at least not til a funny-looking sprite made of burlap came along.

41. Resident Evil 4
(GameCube, 2005)

Resident Evil 4 is considered the best of the series, first released on the GameCube, quickly followed by the PlayStation 2 version. The fourth series opened up the plot significantly, as the events of Raccoon City became public knowledge, and the parasites spread far beyond the borders of the city. The fourth edition added context sensitive damage, in which legs and arms could be blown off, changing the movement of the victim, as well as a more destructible and interaction environment, not to mention Shenmue-like quicktime cutscenes.

The game would be followed by the less successful – in terms of gameplay and fan acceptable – Resident Evil 5 on the next gen systems, though the PC version would garner acclaims for its improved gameplay and amazing graphics, as well as stereoscopic 3D for those people who could shell out the money for the special Nvidia graphic card and an advanced HD monitor. (Of special note was the earlier Code Veronica from the Dreamcast, which just missed selection on the list.)

• Part I: 41-50
• Part II: 31-40
• Part III: 21-30
• Part IV: 11-20
• Part V: 1-10