2. Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii)
The Metroid Prime games have the honor of being some of the most unique shooters of all time, and probably the best transition between genres in history. While many fans of the early Metroid games on the NES, Game Boy and Super Nintendo were rightfully worried that their beloved franchise would not only be ruined with a reboot after so long, but that Metroid was being made into an FPS was cause for concern.
Thankfully, the games did well. Well enough to warrant a full trilogy and an enhanced remake collection several years later. And at the time of this writing, Metroid Prime Trilogy is the only Wii game to have achieved Platinum Status on the Nintendo Channel in North America on the Wii.
Metroid Prime Trilogy did well what other games try to do but often don’t do well at. The games put the player directly into the shoes of Samus and showed exactly what the character went through in all her adventures. The games did this while remaining both fun and challenging.
The draw to games like Metroid and Castlevania was always in rewarding the player who explores more than the typical player with upgrades and extra weapons. The Prime games managed to take the sidescrolling mechanic and translate it perfectly into a shooter. The exploration was still there, and it was better than ever.
It was also the kind of game where you got out what you put into the game. You could just blast through the games and think you’re just answering a distress signal and managed to get sucked into some much bigger plot. It’s up to the player to seek out and scan computers to get the full story from the perspectives of characters that have left notes down for someone working a shift after them or a character’s personal journal. That feeling of isolation in space and pure horror as you walk down a hallway and hear the screams of Ridley getting louder is one of the most thrilling feelings I’ve ever gotten in a video game.
1. Okami (Wii)
I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming!
Okami and it’s sequel Okamiden are cursed with having the absolute worst timing in console history. The first Okami, although it was remade for the Wii, came out right as the PS2 was about to be replaced by the PS3. Okamiden came out earlier this year right before the 3DS came out.
Regardless, the original Okami was the PS2’s answer to Zelda, featuring an open world gameplay with the same weapon upgrade system and a similar approach to combat, but with so many other artistic differences.
The first thing everyone noticed about Okami was the unique art style. The game was rendered so it looked like an old Japanese painting, featuring the whimsical tale of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess who is brought to earth to take on a looming ancient evil. The player gains the power of the Celestial Brush, a magical paintbrush used to do such godly tasks as making the sun rise or causing a windstorm to kick up.
What wasn’t expected was the pure amount of emotion that the game brought. Throughout the entire 40 hours or so of gameplay there are funny moments, serious moments, powerful moments and sad moments. Particularly the end (which I won’t spoil here,) was so powerful that I reverted back to an old save just to watch the last cutscene over and over again.
All of the games on this list have earned their place here because they’ve changed me in such a way that they’ll remain in the back of my mind until I’m an old, wrinkly gamer. Okami earns the top spot because, of the games mentioned here, Okami is the only game where I saw absolutely no flaws. Engaging and unique story, fun gameplay, new concepts in combat and art style which work incredibly well and one of the only games to ever make me shed a tear when the game demanded so. Okami is my most favorite game of all time.
So what are your favorite games? Has this list turned you onto any games you think you might have to try out? Has this got you thinking more critically about the games that have changed you over the years?
I challenge each and every one of you to come up with a list of your own favorite games. Dig deep back into the far reaches of your life like I did. What’s your favorite video game?
State of the Game is an opinionated column written by We Got This Covered writer, Mike Niemietz, about the art, politics and technology of the video game industry. The views expressed in State of the Game are not necessarily those of We Got This Covered or anyone on its staff. To contact the writer, or request a topic for a future edition of State of the Game, leave a comment here, email at mike.niemietz@gmail.com, message Mike Niemietz on Facebook, or follow Mike on Twitter @State0fTheGame.