[General Discussion] Games you consider "Perfect"?

You see games get perfect scores all the time from major publications, but how many of those do you truly consider to be "perfect"? Are there any games that you can honestly say are flawless in your eyes, games that you feel don't need any extra additions or improvements whatsoever, for any alteration would only add some uneccesary coating to a spotless foundation?

My list of "perfect" games is very very small; even my most cherished classics aren't without minor critiques or desires for improvements in future remakes or ports. There's really only two games I can think of that I still find to be flawless to this day, and here's one of them.



Bow your heads with respect, OOT fans; I decree this one not only the greatest Zelda game of all time, but quite possibly the greatest videogame of all time. Years later and I still have no real criticisms to add to Link's greatest adventure. It had the best exploration ever ("holy crap what's with that flute playing ghost!?"), it had the best Zelda artwork ever (scenes like this

and this

make me continue to wish for an anime series; I read this was once considered but ultimately dropped in favor of more Pokemon. Ah, Nintendo, always giving us what you *think* we want), and the opening dungeon theme (Hyrule Castle) is, without a doubt in my mind, the greatest dungeon theme ever; so much epic packed into one opening song.

And way before people were bitching for a more mature Zelda story often forget that Link to the Past had the darkest story of all; characters are killed onscreen, and depending on which continuity you believe (namely the manga), the Dark World is in fact the world where all living things travel to once they die. So in other words,

Spoiler:

ZELDA DIES.....briefly

I find LttP so perfect I've yet to purchase the GBA version, for the simple fact that I find the inclusion of Young Link's vocal yelps both unnecessary and inaccurate (the artwork clearly shows Link in his teens). I'll stick to the original, even if I have to emulate it (good thing I've got a PC to LCD thing going now. Triple Buffering and DVI cable=no need for a virtual console).

So if you have some games you consider flawless, tell us about them.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Borg1982

Final Fantasy IV - USA version; SNES.

Hold on a sec. Are you saying you find the original SNES version to be perfect? So you don't mind the awful translation, brief censorship and altered Easy Mode?

Now for the second game I consider to be perfect; though I'm sure this choice isn't going to be quite as well received.

Why this one? Timing has a lot to do with it. In a time when the PS2 was still new and pushing next gen graphics, this was the one game everyone was waiting to see in action. The demo was utterly amazing, and the real game managed to outdo it. Even though the PS2 was already nearly a year old, it felt like you were playing it for the first time.

Yes, there are notable criticisms, in the form of Jack and Rose. I consider the latter to be a rather insignificant player in the grand scheme of things, so I don't consider her whiny codec conversations to be either a positive or negative.

And as for Raiden, heck I loved Raiden, at least in concept; having him turn out to be the "real" main character, even going so far as to show Snake traversing the Plant in early trailers, was a ballsy but brilliant move. And even though Raiden doesn't hold a candle to Snake's badass attitude, that was never the intention; instead, you were given a chance to get to know Snake and his motives in a way that would've been impossible if he was still the main character.


I think I can squeeze in a third game that I consider to be "perfect". More on that later.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The issue I personally had with him picking FFIV as his favorite wasn't the game itself, but what version of FFIV he liked best, which happened to be the original SNES FFII. It's kind of strange since later ports fixed up the translation and other glitches, so shouldn't he like the revision better than the original?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I gave it some thought, and I'm ready to nominate a third game in my list of all-time "perfect" titles.



This was one of a few select cases where the extra development and delays actually helped the final product. I remember reading an early Play magazine review that claimed that this game enjoyed the ideas and efforts of every single person that worked on it. It's true. There are so many scenarios, action bits, enemies, and traps that you keep wondering if you've reached the climax of the story, but it turns out that you aren't even 1/4 done. For an action game, the length is very long, and there isn't a single dull moment.

In fact, I'll go so far as to use this game as the base for what I want to see in nearly every future next generation game; the aggresive enemies. These aren't slow moving zombies that want to take a few bites out of you, these are angry, pissed off locals that want you dead in the messiest way possible. They chase you in large numbers, they strategize, they scream spanish expletives, and they use whatever they can get their hands on to carve you into chunks.

And that's why this game has a different kind of fear that you don't see in Silent Hill; it's the fear of tension, the fear of an entire village waging war against one person, you.

I want to see this kind of adrenaline rush in all future games. Resident Evil 4 didn't just evolve "Survival Horror", it evolved the sheer realism and action in video games, period.

If I could list just one nagging criticism, it's the lack of being able to cycle through your weapons in realtime. If they fix that one little detail, then RE5 will be even better by default.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?