I have a confession to make: I haven't played every game ever made. I also seriously doubt I shall ever accomplish such a task, but I can safely say that my tastes generally skew a little from the norm. As such, the following is a list of my ten favorite games that I seriously feel too few people have played. Without further ado, the Top Ten Games You Never Played.
10. Beat Hazard Ultra (PC)
Let's start things off with a bangin' rhythm game. Beat Hazard Ultra is actually DLC for Beat Hazard, a digital download title that melds twin-stick shooter action with your music library. The action onscreen is frenetic and flashy, offering a considerable challenge at higher difficulty levels and with the visual intensity pumped up, but it always ebbs and flows with the song. Unfortunately, so too does your firepower, which is also governed by the track's progression. There's nothing worse than hitting a lull in a metal song during a boss fight. The Ultra content adds on a huge number of extra weapons and perks to unlock and equip, allowing you to outfit your ship as best suits your play-style.
9. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei is a strange series to start with, but few entries achieve the level of oddity that courses through the Digital Devil Saga games. A story told in two parts, Digital Devil Saga features Hindu themes, mythological beasties, teenage gang warfare over a post-apocalyptic wasteland or two, and intense meditation on themes of identity and individual purpose. The battle system is fairly typical for a MegaTen title, though one's characters actually transform into demons rather than summoning them. The game retains the overall series' focus on tactical, elemental combat. The art style, too, is attention grabbing, with a soft focus that borders on cel-shading, vibrant streaks of brilliant colors against muted backdrops, and a futuristic aesthetic.
8. Sword of the Berserk: Gut’s Rage (DC)
Few beat'em ups so brilliantly convey the simple, visceral thrill of ripping through enemies with a seven-foot sword as well as Sword of the Berserk did. Fewer still make you appreciate that thrill all the more by limiting the weapon's usefulness in cramped corridors. In these situations, that seven-foot sword bangs off walls, forcing one to rely on Gut's fists and arm-mounted, rapid-fire crossbow. A side-story to the long-running manga, Berserk, this game has meaty sound effects, bloody combat, and challenging enemies. The occasional ill-informed quick time event does little to detract from its accomplishments as a violent, emotionally mature piece of media.
7. Steel Battalion: Line of Contact (Xbox)
Now, I understand why few people played this game. The bar to entry is pretty high. First, you had to own Steel Battalion, itself $150 at launch, or at least purchase the three-panel control device, its two joysticks, forty-odd buttons, and three pedals bringing your wallet to tears. Those who did play the first game certainly found a lot to like, though the levels were only challenging the first few times, after which there was no variation to speak of. Line of Contact changed that by taking things online. Furthermore, it launched with a persistent campaign mode, in which players took sides in a pitched, perpetual conflict that changed dynamically with their victories (or defeats) on the field of battle. This campaign model would be adopted by later Xbox 360 release Chromehounds (itself defunct), but its brilliance will hopefully find some sort of home in the upcoming Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor.
6. Zone of the Enders 2: The 2nd Runner (PS2)
I rarely finish games the day I get them. ZoE2 was one of my few exceptions. In part, this was because it was so short; my first playthrough lasted under five hours. But that was only the firstplaythrough, as there were many more afterward. It wasn't even that the game changed or offered additional content, because it really didn't. It was just that the action was so crisp and so smooth that I couldn't get enough. Few games offer such a sense of escalating destructive capacity. You increase your skill with Jehuty's basic techniques and maneuvers, becoming a more adept pilot, and Jehuty's capabilities expand around this. The graphics were more stylized than those of the first game, with softer shading and brighter colors. The action was faster, the protagonist more likeable (and ridiculously named), the story tighter and more relatable, and the conclusion infinitely more satisfying. Zone of the Enders 2 was a rare beast that managed tofeel as much as look like the mecha anime that inspired it.
5. Killer 7 (PS2/GCN)
This was the game that put Suda Goichi on the map. Sort of. It didn't really catch on and, to be fair, maybe it shouldn't have. The gameplay itself is borderline dull, having you move through environments on rails, stopping every so often to take out repetitive enemies who you couldn't see until you specifically looked for them. The puzzle solving was simplistic, but the plot was anything but. What exactly are Harlan Smith's seven personalities? Is that a nickname for a team of assassins? An actual manifestation of MPD? How is it they can be revived from their heads? Which personality, if any, is the core? The story itself might be beyond explanation, the complete opposite of the mostly straightforward (and intentionally cliché) No More Heroes. Killer 7 straddled action, horror, and rail shooters clumsily, but still managed to intrigue and entertain. In the end, that entertainment is what matters.
4. Metro 2033 (X360/PC)
Technically, Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter. You play it from first-person perspective and you shoot stuff. With bullets. There are no surprises there. The graphics are nice, particularly with regard to lighting effects, and the world it presents is terrifying, entrancing, and nostalgic all at once. Even if you have no Russian ancestry and have never been there in person, seeing the ruins of Moscow and hearing the NPCs speak of it with such familiarity and longing still tends to pull at the heartstrings. The game is a linear adventure, moving you from level to level, but the combat is secondary to surviving the other travails of Artyom's journey. Does a lack of combat get boring? Not when a world is as immersive as this. There's little HUD to speak of (even less if you play in Ranger mode), and the little touches such as the hand-pumped flashlight battery and pneumatic weapons, checking the time on one's air filter by glancing at one's watch, and seeing the shells expelled from the Bastard's exposed clip all draw you in, and the story itself keeps you there.
3. Psychic Force 2012 (DC)
Psychic Force 2012 let you fight people in the sky. At the beginning of a match, your psychics would enclose themselves in a floating box. This formed both a boundary and a weapon, allowing players to bash each other into it for extra damage or through it with a sufficiently powerful finishing blast. And that's the thing about Psychic Force 2012: The basic controls were very simple. There was a light attack and a heavy attack. At close range, they were melee strikes. Fly out a bit (you could move freely through the arena on the x- and y-axes) and these same buttons would produce weak or strong projectiles of some kind. Each character played drastically differently, some with attacks that could be arced, others with beams that could change direction dramatically after being fired. One even set traps. All characters, though, had an incredible range of movement and defensive options. Dashing, homing, a basic guard, a meter-eating technique that negated all attacks while it was active, and the pulse, which could throw enemies away from you at the cost of more precious meter. Psychic Force 2012 was technical, satisfying, and fast, but it always felt somehow intuitive.
2. Resonance of Fate (X360/PS3)
Resonance of Fate's combat system is everything Final Fantasy XIII's wanted to be. It's both dynamic and tactical, with players forced to not only consider positioning and strategy, but also account for the enemies, who are able to queue up their own actions as long as one of your players is in motion on the field. The story is told in small snippets during and between major missions, but the world itself is entertaining on its own. Clockwork themes are everywhere and high-flying acrobatic and cinematic gunplay rule the combat. In many ways, Resonance of Fate feels like a puzzle game. Battles are often winnable in only a few short moves (often in one turn), if one targets the correct enemy with the correct attacks and the game isn't stingy about giving you the sort of feedback you need to know ahead of time what will and won't work. Add to this a very unique, use-based leveling system and Resonance of Fate becomes one of my favorite JRPGs that too few people have played.
1. God Hand (PS2)
I feel like I'm committing a crime by admitting this, but I was in a fraternity in college. A lot of the brothers were kind of geeky, though, so I fit in pretty well and even lived in the house for a while. During my tenure as a resident, I purchased this little game from Clover, released on the heels of the more heavily advertised Okami. God Hand ended up taking my fraternity by storm, brothers camping out in my room to try out one of the most challenging, frustrating, downright unforgiving action games I have ever played. God Hand will kick your ass. In fact, the better you're playing, the harder it will try to do exactly that, as enemies literally level up as you go, dishing out damage without retaliation. The titular God Hand allows protagonist Gene to dish out "roulette" moves. These often take the form of humorous and powerful blows, such as a baseball bat composed of energy, a blow that launches foes to the moon and back or, more classically, the "ball buster," which is exactly what its name implies. Contextual commands in combat range from a suplex to, against certain female enemies, rapid-fire spanking. Gene himself has a completely malleable move list, allowing every attack, from his basic combo to his various directional commands, to be replaced with whatever attacks the player has earned. The story is completely nonsensical, the graphics are subpar, and Gene controls like a tank when he isn't actively engaged in combat, but with some great humor (including the best credits song of any game ever) and addictive, challenging combat, God Hand is an absolute blast.
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