Your list of favourite video games (sorted by system)

Yeah I know these threads can sometimes be boring but I'm always on the lookout for new awesome games that I'd never heard of. Anyway here's my current list of awesome games

Nes/Famicom:

Megaman 2 (jp version is better)
Mario 2/usa
Mario 3 (jp version is better)
tmnt 2 (jp version is better)
tmnt 3 (again jp version is better)

castlevania 3 Japanese cart (wayyyyy better audio than the nes version)


earthbound zero
kirbys adventure
excitebike
metal gear

(games I'll probably enjoy once they arrive)

duck tales (mostly for the music)
duck tales 2 (actually pretty fun, too bad the music isn't as epic as the first game)
contra japanese cart (wayyyyy improved graphics over the us version. Also has cutscenes added)
star tropics 2
super contra (super c) because it's a pretty decent game
famicom wars (too bad I won't be able to read anything...)





snes:

chrono trigger (one of my top 5 games of all time)
super metroid (another one of my top 5)
final fantasy 6 (english version because I suck at japanese)
final fantasy 4 (again english version)
zelda link to the past (best zelda evarrrrrr)
secret of mana
super mario rpg
earthbound (seriously awesome game)
starfox
super mario world (classic)
castlevania dracula x
kirbys dream course
contra 3
metal combat falcon's revenge (super scope game)
and the often forgotten E.V.O. (which is actually a fairly difficult game)





gameboy advance/colour/original:

(original games only, ports from other systems not included here)

super marioland (pure classic)
tetris (another pure classic)
zelda links awakening (second best zelda evarrrr)
links awakening dx (same thing, in colour)
astro boy omega factor (viva treasure!)
street fighter alpha 3 (too bad it's too short to really enjoy for very long)

and of course a bunch of awesome ports of classic snes games





sega genesis:

sonic 2
gunstar heroes (again viva treasure!)
streets of rage 2





arcade:
ketsui (also available on the japanese xbox 360)
marvel vs capcom
street fighter 2 champion edition
rival schools (also available on playstation 1, not sure how good the port quality is)
vampire savior
street fighter 2: world warrior
street fighter 2: turbo
mercs
dragon breed

neo geo (arcade):
neo driftout
waku waku 7
samurai shodown 4
puzzle bobble
king of fighters 98

If you've never tried any of these games you should seriously fire up an emulator and give them a shot!

Hi Drakon, just thought I'd check out your site, looks great!

This is very hard!! So many amazing games hmm, I'll list my arcade favorites for now as I've played most arcade games and can thus make a better decision!

Arcade:

R-type ( My favorite game of all time from my favorite developer of all time - IREM. The gameplay is top-notch, and it has a shooter atmosphere like no other, you really feel like your piloting the ship yourself! Definitely worth experiencing!)

Strato Fighter (Equal second favorite game it is an incredible 2 player East-West shooter with one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard even the stage transition soundtracks are amazing! This is an extremely underrated shooter, definitely worth trying) * I should also mention that to play through the last stage you must finish the game twice in one sitting *

Thunder Cross (Equal second favorite, a 2 player east west shooter by the legendary Konami, crazy powerups, amazing gameplay and an awesome soundtrack)

In the Hunt (Equal Third favorite, again 2 player east west shooter by irem, but very different. This game allows you to control a submarine which can go both underwater and also rise to the surface firing bullets and missiles to air enemies! very innovative! love the graphics style classic irem.)

Gunforce (Equal Third favorite, 2 player platformer game which ultimately started the legendary metal slug series - some people from irem went to start Nazca with neogeo to create it! The gameplay is very enjoyable in this game, explosions add to the experience especially destroying enemy helicopters - I never get sick of seeing that explode.)

Vendetta (Equal Fourth favorite, 4 player beat em up game - which I think is the best ever made!! Seriously if you like beat em ups you cannot pass this one up made by the legendary Konami).

P.O.W (Equal fourth favorite, 2 player beat em up - So much fun this game, very simple but very effective, soundtrack is great and you can't beat kicking/punching those enemies off screen. By SNK).

It's too difficult for me too class favorites further down, but here are some more amazing games highly recommended!

Splatter House (This is one of my favorite platformer's of all time (with Shinobi 3 being my favorite), it is very unique in playability and is full of atmosphere! The soundtrack is perfect for this game, it amplifes the atmosphere! An incredible game with great graphics style a must play!)

Midnight Resistance( 2 player game which is a rotary game operated in platformer style, this has never been done since and amazes me. This game is a game you must play at least once in your life, the music you will never forget and the gameplay works so well, it is such an excellent game by data east probably their best).

Thunder Zone( Another game by data east also known as desert assault, 4 player overhead view similar to mercs with again an unbelievable soundtrack - I don't know how they pulled off some of those guitar riffs!, excellent game, very underrated).

X-Multiply ( A shooter by irem - similar in style to R-type, a great game but like R-type is quite challenging).

Saint Dragon( I noticed you mentioned dragon breed, another great game, you should definitely check this out then. Similar concept, except this time you control only a dragon and if the head is hit once you die. It is quite a hard game though by jaleco).

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (My second favorite beat em up game, this one's by capcom based on the comic series. This game has amazing controls, great weapons, and an amazing soundtrack highly recommended for beat em up fans).

Gradius 2 (This or gradius 3 are my favorite in the series, this game is very addicting, you will keep coming back to try and progress further).

Legend Of Hero Tonma (This is a hard single player platforming game, great art style and gameplay, it is a great game though by irem).

Vigilante ( This is the spritiual sequel to kung fu master, not as challenging as you have continues, a great game with a classic soundtrack by irem).

Cabal ( Classic game in which the player controls a crosshair to fire bullets, if the enemy hits your character on screen you die, this is a great unique game).

Tank Force ( Game by Namco, you control a tank which you guide around a tile-like screen destroying enemy tanks while making sure your base isn't destroyed, an enjoyable game).

There are many more amazing arcade games to mention, I will add more later when I think of them. Definitely check these out if you haven't!

You like gunforce? I have a gunforce 1 arcade pcb in a box somehwere. It's up for sale if you're interested. It's fully working on my supergun.

x-multiply and in the hunt are indeed great. Nothing like good irem games!

And of course r-type in the arcade is pure classic goodness..

cadillacs and dinosaurs is amazing too! Too bad that game had a suicide battery so the arcade board price went through the roof..

gunforce 2 is pretty good too it reminds me a lot of duke nukem (but with a japanese feel)

Thanks for the offer with gunforce, I do have a PCB for it, had it since I was a child. I have a PCB of most of the games I mentioned, due to my dad's work we have acquired over 300 PCB's at least over the years and have several arcade cabinets too (can't beat playing arcade games on a cabinet).

I recently acquired the gunforce 2 PCB also, I had played it on emulators before and noticed a graphics glitch with certain enemies, it probably was the ROM though, because on the PCB all graphics is fine. It is very much like metal slug, gunforce 2. Another interesting fact about gunforce 2 is that it borrows the boss music from Air Duel but it is remixed heavily - much better!

I haven't played a bad irem shooter, they are all so amazing. I think they make the best shooters.

Definitely check out saint dragon, it has an irem shooter feel to it. Plays similar to dragon breed. Also check out midnight resistance if you own a rotary control panel, it's the best rotary game I've played, although Heavy Barrel comes close.

Yeah Cadillacs is amazing, Vendetta is even better, Konami beat em up at it's best.

I'm going to have to disagree with you when you say "nothing beats playing on a cab". I have lots of friends who collect and restore cabs. I built myself a supergun and I much prefer using a supergun. My CRT tv is the same size as the screen in my friends fully restored new astro city. The s-video quality on my tv looks pretty much as good as the rgb on their brand new screens. My arcade stick is just as good as any cab sticks (actually better than most cabs). Plus I have my setup wired into a nice big loud sound system (no tiny speakers like what you find in a cab). And also I can play on the couch instead of some uncomfortable stool.

Each to their own. People prefer to play games different ways. I personally prefer cabinets.

I'm not sure what sort of monitors are in their cabinets, but if they are set up perfectly with good CRT monitors (i.e. nanao monitors and colors are adjusted correctly) and great control panels (very important) then I can't really see how playing on a TV is better. Sure maybe for the comfort factor, but the seats I use are comfortable, so I don't see much of a problem.

glenn101 wrote:

Each to their own. People prefer to play games different ways. I personally prefer cabinets.

I'm not sure what sort of monitors are in their cabinets, but if they are set up perfectly with good CRT monitors (i.e. nanao monitors and colors are adjusted correctly) and great control panels (very important) then I can't really see how playing on a TV is better. Sure maybe for the comfort factor, but the seats I use are comfortable, so I don't see much of a problem.

Like I said my friends restored their cabs and installed a brand new big screen rgb crt into his new astro city. The picture quality on it didn't look much better than the s-video on my big crt.

As I said before, each to their own. The world would be a boring place if everyone agreed on everything.

I myself prefer playing on arcade cabinets as I think it has better playability and a better general atmosphere, I'm not incredibly fussed over picture quality, this is more important to me. I'm not having a go at you or anything, I'm just simply stating what I prefer.

glenn101 wrote:

As I said before, each to their own. The world would be a boring place if everyone agreed on everything.

I myself prefer playing on arcade cabinets as I think it has better playability and a better general atmosphere, I'm not incredibly fussed over picture quality, this is more important to me. I'm not having a go at you or anything, I'm just simply stating what I prefer.

?

I never took any offense to what you said :lol:

Anyway woody cabs to me feel like they're stuck in the 80s. Japanese candy cabs feel like something out of the 90s. Really I love the atmosphere of being able to play stuff with my buddies on a nice comfy couch. Standing and playing or playing on some tiny stool really don't make gaming all that comfortable.

Ok then, it came across that way because you repetitively kept on listing negative things about something I prefer, attempting to make me justify why I like it over playing games on the coach.

glenn101 wrote:

Ok then, it came across that way because you repetitively keep on saying negative things about something I prefer, attempting to make me justify why I like it over playing games on the coach.

Well it's nice to know why you prefer something.

Some of my main reasons are as follows:

For one I would find it not as comfortable sitting a control panel on my lap while playing a game on a TV screen for one. And secondly I prefer having the control panel oriented at the same height as the screen when I play arcade games, it's just something I prefer. I realise you could accomplish these with a TV but why go through the hassle when all I want is in a cabinet?

glenn101 wrote:

Some of my main reasons are as follows:

For one I would find it not as comfortable sitting a control panel on my lap while playing a game on a TV screen for one. And secondly I prefer having the control panel oriented at the same height as the screen when I play arcade games, it's just something I prefer. I realise you could accomplish these with a TV but why go through the hassle when all I want is in a cabinet?

I actually found a thread once where some dude built a table stand for his controller because he couldn't stand putting it on his lap. I really think a controller on my lap is better than sitting on a wimpy stool vs a super comfy couch. Also taking apart and moving around cabinets are never fun. Moving my tv is quite doable.

I hate wimpy stools, nothing is worse than wimpy stools. Which is why I sit on comfortable office like chairs at the cabinet .
Moving around cabinets is painful, but I never have to worry about that because I never intend on moving my cabinets.

Also the speakers on cabs are small. I like playing my pcbs on nice huge speakers with lots of bass and treble

I don't really have a problem with my speakers, I haven't really played any arcade games that have music with a large emphasis on bass so it doesn't really bother me.

However, with a system like the sega genesis for example, I would much rather play it on the TV because there are quite a number of games with heavy emphasis on bass which really adds to the audio. For example, streets of rage and especially the adventures of batman and robin (as a side note, seeing as this thread was about good games, that's definitely worth checking out, great fun to play through with a friend).

Ketsui sounds 100x better with lots of bass. All of my cps2 games sound amazing with lots of bass, and certain mvs games (samurai shodown 4) sound way better with bass. Don't get me wrong I love a good cab I think they look sexy I just don't think they're practical for home use.

Yeah I need to check out Ketsui, I love cave shooters especially Dodonpachi.

I also thought of another favorite shooter of mine - Heavy Unit by Kaneko. They were also responsible for air buster, another of my favorite shooters. Heavy Unit is a unique shooter in that your ship can transform between a plane and mech, the plane has an arsenal more suited to spray fire while the mech is more suited to direct fire.

glenn101 wrote:

Yeah I need to check out Ketsui, I love cave shooters especially Dodonpachi.

I also thought of another favorite shooter of mine - Heavy Unit by Kaneko. They were also responsible for air buster, another of my favorite shooters. Heavy Unit is a unique shooter in that your ship can transform between a plane and mech, the plane has an arsenal more suited to spray fire while the mech is more suited to direct fire.

my respect for you + 1000

It's so hard to find people who even know what cave is...let alone can name a single game made by cave. Cave = god in terms of shmups. By the way if you havn't already check out bastugun special it's freaken awesome (a bunch of guys who left the company that made batsugun eventually worked for cave). I'm checking out heavy unit now

*edit*

air buster looks fun!

Also since you're mentioning between changing from a plane to a mech I'm reminded of dragon breed where you can dismount from your dragon and run around. It's a bit of a different concept but it's kinda like a transformation haha.

Air buster is great especially 2 players! Wide arsenal of weapons, classic shmup with good music too.

I'll have to check out Batsugan Special for sure. I got into bullet hell's recently and hence found out about cave. Shmups are my favorite genre of game so it was only natural for me to get into cave shooters heh.

*Edit*

Dragon breed is another favorite of mine, saint dragon is very similar to it, it's worth checking out.

Speaking of shooter companies - Toaplan is another legend.

If you haven't played Truxton - also known as Tatsujin you must! it is an absolute classic! Slap Fight is another classic!

Just checked out Batsugan special, only need to see about 30 seconds of it and I am impressed!!

I'll check if I have more copies of air buster, if I do I'll let you know.

glenn101 wrote:

Air buster is great especially 2 players! Wide arsenal of weapons, classic shmup with good music too.

I'll have to check out Batsugan Special for sure. I got into bullet hell's recently and hence found out about cave. Shmups are my favorite genre of game so it was only natural for me to get into cave shooters heh.

Yeah seriously when a friend tells me "I'm into shmups" but they don't even know what cave is I don't count them as being "into shmups". My ps2 is basically dedicated to ports of arcade fighting games and cave arcade shmup ports. Really you gotta check out ketsui I don't think I've found a cooler idea for a shmup. Since ketsui has two types of guns firing at the same time (lock on / forward) it forces you to not hang in the back of the screen but instead be close to things. You can also use your lock on guns to damage one enemy and your main gun to shoot another enemy at the same time. It's quite a thinking game which is why I think ketsui shines above other cave shmups.

I checked ebay for an air buster pcb and couldn't find it......this's why I try to avoid pcb collecting because it can be so hard to find the stuff you want and when you finally do manage to find it the game will cost an arm and a leg.

Ah man, Ketsui looks even better than Dodonpachi! I love the look of the graphics, the gameplay looks superb. I want the PCB of that now haha!

glenn101 wrote:

Ah man, Ketsui looks even better than Dodonpachi! I love the look of the graphics, the gameplay looks superb. I want the PCB of that now haha!

I'm serious dude ketsui puts dodonpachi to SHAME. Dodonpachi was only the beginning of good cave games I'd say ketsui is the climax....and WHAT A CLIMAX!! You can grab a ketsui pcb there's people out there who will sell them but I think they're still like 850$ plus shipping.

Here's an old video of my clearing ketsui with one credit (other two parts are in my youtube channel)



Really I can easily say that to me ketsui's the best shmup ever made. It sets itself apart from other shmups just by making you think more and forcing you to move away from the bottom of the screen and be in everything's face. Also positioning is extremely crucial in ketsui so the more you memorize the game the better you get at it. This's extremely rewarding because as you slowly memorize positioning and enemy bullet patterns you slowly improve at the game so there's really a lot to learn in it keeping it always fresh and interesting.

I like the idea of steering the player away from the back of the screen - adds more depth to the game. Cybattler is an interesting vertical SHMUP to checkout, it uses this idea by giving the player a projectile weapon, which takes time to charge for more powerful shots, and a sword which can be used at all times. So it encourages the player to go in for melee while charging, or just risk going in for melee at all times - great fun. It's a great concept, it's a great game too, definitely underrated.

Whoa cybattler looks awesome. I think I saw one or two other shmups that had a sword. What I like about ketsui is the short range powerful gun isn't as short range as a sword. A sword would require you to be pretty much point blank from the enemy, ketsui isn't quite that insane which helps you learn the game.

*sigh* like most arcade games cybattler is only for sale on some forum probably for an obscene price from someone who I have no idea if I can even trust the guy...