[Question] Top 20 Games of the last 20 Years?

Much like Tails, this is "Top 20 Games That Have Made Impressions Upon Me"
It's also important to note that my consoles as a kid were an Atari 2600, an Atari 5200 & an NES, until 2000 (when I got a Gameboy Color). I was a PC kid, rocking a Pentium 90 until 1998 when we got a Pentium 2 running Windows 95!

I also don't write nearly as well as most of you ;_;


Entries are in the order they left their mark!

Doom II (DOS, 1994.10.10)
I liked playing Doom alright, but my real love was in exploring (with or without idspispopd/idclip) and level design & building. We found one of those CDs of ~1000 new levels~ that were all stolen from BBSes and I examined each and every one that would load. I even made a goddamn table for my findings.

I really fucking loved levels, man, you don't understand.


The Lion King (SNES, 1994.12.08)
I never had a SNES, but I had one friend who did! Unfortunately he only seemed to have two games for it -- the Power Rangers fighting game, and this. I loved the hell out of this and I wanted to play it every time I came over, but one day it "mysteriously vanished"

This was probably the first time I realized how beautiful games could be. The spritework, animations and how the animations meshed with the controls were simply breathtaking.
(Ecco the Dolphin had/has this effect on me too)


Shivers (DOS/Windows, 1995.09.30)
So you're locked in an abandoned museum of weird stuff and it's supposedly haunted. Your friends are assholes and left you there to fulfill your dare (to stay in there all night). Also, there's evil spirits hanging around who want to eat your soul.
But nevermind that, let's go solve this massive variety of puzzles!

I had two or three save slots just parked in front of particular puzzles so I could load it up and play them more.

Also notable for being one of two Sierra games (the other being RAMA) that I made the effort to learn how to rip DOS games' music and then succeeded in doing so! Albeit only partially because some songs were stored in pieces...


RAMA (DOS/Windows, 1996.10)
Welcome to RAMA
You walk into an alien spaceship that is on a crash course with Earth. It rotates to generate false gravity (just like Babylon 5!) and most of the interior geography is a barren desert. Maintenance robots crawl across the landscape.
Follow the robots back to their storage facility, puzzle your way into the buildings dotted here and there, cross the frozen central sea to the large city in the center.
Meet aliens.
Learn base-8 and base-16. Rock out to really good music.


Quake (DOS, 1996.06.22)
I don't have many memories of playing Quake, but for some reason its sound effects are cemented in my brain as the Platonic Ideal of FPS SFX. Especially the grenades.


The Pink Panther: Passport to Peril (PC, 1996)
I'm pretty sure I have this point'n'click adventure to thank for my enduring interest in foreign cultures and languages!


Sherlock: The Game of Logic (PC, 2009)
This ought to be the DOS version, but I can't find its release date anywhere. It also came with way better tileset art. Sorry Kaser, I really can't stand your default sets. :I I ended up going and making my own so I didn't have to look at a crap set.
You don't want to know how many hours I've sunk into this over the last decade-and-a-half-or-so. You get 65,535 puzzles for each grid size (the DOS version only had 6x6 and that's what I prefer playing now too) and I'm currently up to #5,376.


Riven (Windows, 1997.10.29)
oh my god the graphics

oh my god the videos

oh my god there's PEOPLE


Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (Windows, 1998)
I'd loved the shareware of JJ1 and had never been able to get the full version, but dammit I was gonna have the sequel!
And I really can't overstate the effect that this game had on my life. The events it enabled probably literally saved my life.


Unreal (Windows, 1998.05.22)
1. graphics
2. music
3. atmosphere
4. holy shit it's amazing


Pokémon Gold/Silver (GBC, 1999.11.21)
I already loved Pokémon by the time it came out, but this was the definitive generation for me (despite the awful grinding). (As you might expect I also love the hell out of HeartGold/SoulSilver -- those are amazing remakes (too bad about the awful grinding tho).)


Seiken Densetsu 3 (SFC, 1995.09.30)
My introduction to SNES emulation began with a couple fighting games (Ranma ½ Hard Battle, Gundam Wing Endless Duel) and then this gem. Thanks MalachiteShadow! <3
And what more can I say? I love it. It was also the first JRPG I'd played that wasn't Pokémon since Dragon Warrior 1.


Ecco: the Tides of Time (Genesis, 1994.08.25)
Whoops I haven't actually played this one

But I've seen it played in longplay and speedruns. Its soundtrack is also a staple in my rotation of music-to-sleep-to playlists.


MegaMan MUSH (PC, 1998.06.18)
Do MUSHes count?.. MegaManMUSH is a mashup of every MegaMan series that was out (and came out, as time went on) as well as other Capcom things that Shaun, the founder, liked. I loved the hell out of it, but it tweaked my anxiety badly and I had to leave.


Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC, 2004.03.16)
This was one of the major impetuses to getting a new computer! Until 2004 I'd been functioning just fine with a Pentium II running Windows 95, but that couldn't run the NEW UNREAL ENGINE. And I couldn't have that.

It also reminded me that I really ought to get back into level design (although I only made it about 2/3rds of the way through the tutorial -- but it came with a tutorial! omg!)

Oh yeah, I played it some, too, even online!


Silent Hill (PS1, 1999.01.31)
Didn't play this one either, but I count myself as a fan of the first one thanks to Zarla's three part summary.
Comedic summaries aside, I realized that I actually do like well-made horror!... watching OTHER people play, anyway.

(Shoutouts to Trilby's Notes for reminding me some years afterward when I'd forgotten...)


Mother 3 (GBA, 2006.04.20)
Inside the mailbox was absolutely nothing.
Nothing after nothing came bursting out.


Pathologic (PC, 2005.06.09)
I haven't even tried to play this one -- it's notoriously difficult and draining. But I have read screenshot LPs on SomethingAwful, and by god that counts for something because goddamn, this game. Holy shit this game.

Russia: The Video Game. Set in the far rural steppes of Not Soviet Russia. A plague descends upon the town, but the sickness isn't what's visible upon the surface.


Minecraft (PC, 2011.11.18)
I love me some exploration, and let's be honest, if there's anything that Minecraft has in spades...


Deadly Premonition (X360, 2010.02.17)

YouTube Video

Shoutouts to:
• Heretic for the style/music,
• Bejeweled 3 for gorgeous sound design,
• Dust: An Elysian Tail because I've checked in on Dean Dodrill's projects ever since the Jazz Mega Message Board days and I'm really happy that his first complete project in Elysian Tail is popular!

Extra shoutouts to Alpha Protocol, Bastion and Star Control 2, which I neither own nor play nor have seen played, but have a strong suspicion that they will get on this list whenever I do one of those things!

Jam it back in, in the dark.