Top 50 Video Game Franchises Countdown – #25-1

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Matt hill the voice of Captain and the game master

and you are listening to the geek cast radio

network This is the GCRM top 50 video game franchise

countdown. Oh You bastard you're an idiot. Yeah

Hello, and welcome to the GCRN's Top 50 Video

Game Franchises Countdown. I am Wario, Steve,

Drew, and Mike, and joining me is that good ol'

player two, Steve Megatron. Hello. Player one

to you. No, player two. You are player two. You're

always player two. Rounding out our video game

countdown part two, our players three, four,

and five. You guys can figure out which ones

you are. We have Mike, the Birdman Dodd. Hello.

A new challenger approaches, so what's up? Yeah.

We have TVs, Mr. Neil. I'm an NPC. Eww. It sounds

like a personal problem. The listeners will explain

it to you. I know what it is. But how do you

quest essential? No. And back by popular demand,

and yes, we actually receive threats if this

person did not return, we have Mike Booth ninja

powers from off the cuff. I have yet to see these.

see these threats in fact i only saw one comment

with uh with our mention in it it was scribbled

on the back of a napkin yes yes it was uh so

grab those controllers gamers and get ready for

the wildest ride in the gcrn's top countdowns

history steve i think we should give a quick

recap of 50 to 26 and allow mike powers and mike

dodd to comment on them Because they weren't

here last week. They were stuck in burger time.

What kind of meta world is this? From the looks

of these outfits, I'd say it's burger time. What

is burger time? Oh, never mind. Oh, please don't

let that be a game on this list. I, I, it's not.

It's like. So surprised. It's the very, very

end. There's like 290 -some games listed, like

franchise things, or different types of games,

anyway. So yes, getting to number 50, it is God

of War. 49 is Tekken. 48 is FIFA. 47 is Marvel

vs. Capcom. 46 is Need for Speed. 45 is Crash

Bandicoot. 44 is Sims. 43 is Kingdom Hearts.

42 is Sim City. 41 is The Ninja Turtles. 40 is

Star Wars Battlefront. 39 is Elder Scrolls. 38

is Borderlands. 37 is Kirby. 36 is Civilization.

35 is Gears of War. 34 is Command and Conquer.

33 is Lego games 32 is doom 31 is Diablo 30s

Gran Turismo 29 is Batman Arkham 28 is Tetris

27 is Madden and 26 is battlefield So mr. Powers,

what is your reaction to the bottom 50 this is

just a popularity contest right like people we

just wrote in our favorite franchises in a list

and it ended up being a popularity contest for

the most part. It wasn't about what was weighted

as the more influential franchise I guess. So

I guess in that regard I'm okay with the way

the list was but if it was what was more influential

I'm kind of surprised to see Tetris, Doom. Well

Doom has had multiple games and that was kind

of... What helps the first -person shooter along

so I can see that that that's why I was I'm saying

I'm super doomed should have been closer to the

top ten That's what I'm saying like doom Tetris

What was it? any sim game, I don't think should

really be in the bottom half for this list, but

That's just me, but other than that is the fact

that they all made the top 50. Yes Looking over

this list myself, yeah, I mean, this is obviously

a popularity contest. I'm surprised to see Madden

so low on this list, actually, considering that

pretty much defined the yearly sports game. I

mean, I guess you could argue RBI baseball, but

stuff like that. But yeah, there's a few franchises

that I'm here. I'm surprised to see... The Elder

Scrolls solo, I'm surprised to see Kingdom Hearts

solo. A lot of the RPG franchises, I'm actually

genuinely surprised. So, yeah. I will say this

round is definitely going to be more up some

people's alleys compared to last round. Neil

said on Facebook earlier, before we recorded

this, that if a certain Triforce game series

is not on here, he'll boycott the list. I didn't

say that. I would be surprised if Zelda didn't

make the top 15. Yeah. Alright, we're gonna get

to the top 25 with number 25 after this. Coming

in at number 25 is... Bioshock with a collaborative

points of 342 on 10 lists and it appears that

the highest count on the list was Doug Abel at

4. It's a very, very, very good franchise. I

can't wait till the next one for that one comes

out. Turns out the collector's edition for that

game is retarded rare. I just found out. for

Bioshock Infinite. Never played it, so... Drop

what you're doing and go play that, seriously.

If you're going to play the Bioshock series,

the first two games are good, but I recommend

starting with Infinite. It's just a really good

narrative storyline and it will kind of screw

with you. And Trevor... Baker I want to say is

the voice of Booker and he's really really good.

I think Troy Baker I Wouldn't start with infinite

first given that it's not I Think it's the most

interesting story. Oh, absolutely It's the most

interesting story, but there's stuff in it that

only makes sense or only lands if you've played

the first Bioshock See, I didn't really notice

that Mind you but then again, I started this

is how I started so Okay, like I I it landed

for me because I've only played I've only played

like four hours of the first Bioshock because

I got too scared to finish it Not afraid to admit

that but what was in infinite landed for me more

because I had actually spent four hours with

Bioshock. So yeah That's a good it's a it's a

solid series I think it's done giving that they

don't sell very well, but Which is so weird because

they get such good acclaim, too. Like, it's a

critically acclaimed series. Yeah, but Critically

Acclaimed and Money in the Bank are two totally

different things. Which is weird because I really

thought BioShock Infinite did, like, gangbusters,

but I guess I was wrong. So, anybody else have

any comments on it? I've seen a few playthroughs

of it. It looks interesting, but It's some really

good social commentary, especially with the like

first two games Especially the first one and

it's got such a really neat twist right at the

end Yeah, it's it's like guys seriously if you

want It's if you want to play a video game that

makes you sound smart Bioshock is not a bad place

to start That's a true story That's his story

and he's sticking to it. So should we move on?

Yes, please 24 up next is with 343 points on

12 lists and number eight on Michael Wilson's

we have fallout Great series. Oh my god. I'm

actually replaying through followed for right

now with mods oh my god this is so much fun um

it's such a good series and uh developer bethesda

or sorry publisher bethesda or developer developer

developer yeah fantastic series they actually

released a really cool collection i think it

was last year uh when you got all the fallout

games and all the dlc in a mini nuke case It

is so sick. It is such a cool franchise. The

lore is infinitely interesting. Turns out there

was actually a pen and paper role -playing game

based around, I want to say for GURPS, a long

time ago, but it never got published. It's one

of the coolest game worlds I've ever experienced.

I actually went out of my way when Fallout 4

came out this past year to get a Pip -Boy. I

literally chased one across Ontario. on Best

Buy's website while in the car calling stores

along the way. Totally worth it. I've played

Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, but 4 is probably

my favorite, but Vegas has the better story though.

I have to agree. It's a fantastic franchise.

Although the only one I've actually played is

four. I tried playing three. I gave up almost

immediately because I felt like I was missing

too much and I didn't have the patience for it.

But I decided with four that I was going to like

dive in just whole hog and basically Stockholm

syndrome myself into actually enjoying the game.

And I did, surprisingly, and I didn't have to

get Stockholm syndrome to do that. But what that

caused me to actually do was go back and like,

I wanted to know more about the lore and the

history of not just the franchise, but like the

games themselves and how the lore all lines up.

And it's really cool. I just kind of want to

spotlight real quick. I found an awesome YouTube

channel called Shoddycast. I don't know if anyone

else here has seen that, but they basically they

use mods and things like that, and they use the

art assets from Fallout 3 in New Vegas to retell

all the events of Fallout and Fallout 2. That

is really clever. And it's narrated from a guy

named The Storyteller, and he narrates the whole

series. It's kind of like a History Channel documentary

of the history of the Fallout series. And then

right around season two, the storyteller becomes

an actual character in the world. And I know

that the group that does Shoddycast is working

on a storyteller mod for Fallout 4. So it was

a really cool franchise, and the Shoddycast is

a really cool way to get caught up on all the

stuff in the background that you may be more

curious about, that you may have... maybe Fallout

4 was your first time playing it like me and

you were curious about some stuff that popped

up in there and how it links back to earlier

games but you know that's that's a good franchise

I'm you know given what how we talked about earlier

I'm surprised to see certain franchises lower

I'm glad to see that one on the list as high

as it is because of what it meant for gaming

as a whole One thing I just want to send a really

quick kind of shout out to now that console mods

are live on Xbox one and they're going to become

the ps4 later this month they're obviously available

on PC there is one mod this guy Created with

a fully voice cast new music new commercials

in in in universe lore It's a mod for followed

for called atomic radio whoever developed this

needs to be hired by Bethesda yesterday the writing

in it is so clever like they've got commercials

for sugar bombs they talk about grognak the barbarian

versus the mars woman they've got um a crime

mystery involving satan it's so ridiculously

over the top but it is so well done like seriously

the cast for that has to be easily over 30 40

people and they're all professionally produced

like seriously whoever developed that you need

like a hand job from someone that you've always

wanted one from, because it's so good. Well,

that's a little excessive, but... Okay, on that

Coming up next is a game that's changed many

times over its... vast lifespan it's rated number

three by ryan oltman but it happens to hit uh

with 360 points on 14 lists and this game is

tomb raider wow did you become a fan of the franchise

till the reboot actually i'm honestly not surprised

to see it that high um i mean i was i love tomb

raider and tomb raider 2 i kind of lost it with

tomb raider 3 Love legends, which was on the

the first one on the 360 And I do love the the

reboot and I'm waiting for rise of the Tomb Raider

on ps4 So I haven't played that yet, but I'm

really excited I'm I'm I'm excited. I'm like

it seems like I'm just so far I've been pleased

by the franchises that have been in the top 25

so far So I have nothing to really be like you

guys are crazy for putting it up here. So Because

that does have a storied history along with like

a lot of these other games, you know It's just

that franchise just sticks around and it can

keep reinventing itself. So They even have a

new actress for a new movie eventually I'm fine

for that Steve have you had any experience with

the Tomb Raider games? I think I played the first

one when it came out. Mm -hmm I'm like an emulator

or something And It was alright, I mean it was

obviously very digitized and clunky, but it was

for that era that it was out. So it wasn't bad.

I haven't played one since, but that's, I don't

have a next gen console, so it's really not worth

trying at this point unless I get one. And then

I've, of course, you know, I've seen the films,

but I'm happy that the series as well as the

movies are getting reboots. For me, I remember

trying to play the original first two games back

in the day, but I just You know you talk about

people who suck at like Battlefield 4 and multiplayer

and all that kind of stuff and Tomb Raider even

though it was those original two games were mostly

single -player there was a lot of single -player

games I sucked at I Enjoy the movies for what

they are, but at the same time. I know they're

horrible movies I don't expect them to be anything,

but what the games are was just popcorn fodder

Yeah, I don't expect anything life -changing

from the movies I was thinking about that recently

like yeah, the two Tomb Raider movies that we

got they're not bad Movies, I mean if they didn't

have the Tomb Raider logo the Tomb Raider name

attached to I don't think they if you had named

it something else like Jane the adventure or

something I really don't think it would have

been blasted as bad as it was Could probably

just been taken as tried. I feel like when game

when movies get Game titles slapped to them.

There's automatically this Handicap going in

to see that movie versus like some other movies

that you might see my my my My example here is

Was it Olympus has fallen? I watched that movie

and I didn't think it was anything but a Splinter

Cell movie like You know, I thought the exact

same thing You could have slapped the Splinter

Cell title on that movie and it would have been

It would have made it like completely different

like people would have gone in there with completely

different expectations and it would have been

okay They could have put John McClane and it

would have been Die Hard Yeah, or Die Hard title

on the front of it So but you know, it's it's

one of those things where you hear Tomb Raider

movie you think video game adaptation and it's

like but Anybody else have any thoughts or experience

with Tomb Raider that they care to share? It's

been so long. I can't even remember I remember

having problems with the controls, but I can't

I can't even articulate. I I just don't remember

Yeah, the sad thing is my only fond memory of

it is back in the day in the ps1 days They offered

a Lara Croft memory card. I remember that That

was one of the first Is that in Mario 64 were

like one of the first 3d platformers like on

console? Yeah, I think that's what it was that

Mario was just so much better Well, yeah, but

it's two completely different games when you're

thinking about it plus, you know Nintendo I mean

they're gonna knock controls out of the park

anyways Because I believe Tomb Raider was built

around First Tomb Raider is built around non

analog controls whereas 64 was built around an

analog controller, so All right, let's get to

the next one. 22. Next up on this list is one

that I know nothing about. But thankfully, we

have two guys that do. And it came in with 370

points on 11 lists. It was ranked number 6 on

Matt Stewart's list. It is Uncharted. Oh, yes.

Pretty much a must play, pretty much, of this

console generation. Yeah, in the last. And I

must preface, this is not the one that I was

talking about. It was the next one after that.

About the one that's going to fall that you can

make fun of. Okay. Yeah, no, Uncharted was the

first game I bought for the PS3 when I purchased

it after the price drop. And I've been in love

with that series ever since. It's fantastic.

I wish it was higher, to be honest with you.

I'd probably place it higher just because my

gaming nostalgia doesn't run that deep. I recognize

older games for what they did for the genre,

but I recognize newer games as being a lot more

special to me, I guess, because they make me

feel things as an adult. But Uncharted is and

always has been fantastic. It's had its missteps.

Three wasn't especially charming, but it was

still a great entry in the franchise. Two is

still the best. I haven't played four. But just

funny little anecdote about four is that when

they announced, when they had on the eve of the

PS4 launch, I remember sitting, and my wife can

attest for this, we were sitting in the Best

Buy parking lot waiting to go get in line to

get our PS4. And so when he was doing their launch,

They're streaming their launch event and they

were like promising exclusive footage for uncharted

4 and they played that that trailer and I got

I kid you not guys I got like emotionally choked

up at the thought of being able to play uncharted

like on the ps4 and and I immediately pre -ordered

it as soon as they announced the game and Long

story short when the game showed up on my doorstep

It sat on my kitchen counter for two days What?

I've installed it in my PS4. I've had all the

updates go into it. I have not started it yet

because I've not read any reviews. I've not had

anything spoiled for me about the game, but all

I keep hearing about is the finality of it. And

in my head, it's this weird thing of if I don't

play it, the franchise isn't over. And I I told

my wife that when I do start it Which I've vowed

to have it either be this Sunday or the following

Wednesday because I don't work on either of those

days I've decided that I'm gonna marathon the

whole thing. I'm gonna sit down. I'm gonna finish

it in one go And just rip it off like a band

-aid but that honestly, I have that much sentiment

for that franchise that Like if it was my list,

it would be higher than it is right now But I'm

glad it's in the top 25. I could have sworn that

people liked Uncharted 3. No, it's still good.

It's a good game. It was not Uncharted 2 and

it had development problems. You know, they're

not not attributed like an actor got one of the

voice actors slash actors for the franchise Got

hurt so he wasn't able to finish his role So

that character was omitted from the rest of the

game which left a jarring hole in the way the

game felt So but no, it's all the uncharted games

are fantastic in their own right But yeah, I

just have that weird sentiment where it's like

if I don't play it. It's not over so What about

you Dodd? Fantastic franchise. Um, I've been

playing it Like going back like I've I've had

the games for the play season three But it wasn't

until I got the Uncharted collection that I really

started to dig into it much like Neil I have

the game installed on my ps4 but I haven't played

it most because of Some events that have happened

to me recently. It's having a chance to dig back

into it but It's one of those franchises that

it's a reason to own a PlayStation, be it a 3

or a 4. And I'm so glad that they updated the

franchise so you can play it on a PlayStation

4 now. Like, literally, it's... I would say it's

Sony's big -name honking franchise. Sort of like

Uncharted is to Sony as Halo is to Microsoft.

Yeah, except Uncharted has an easy -to -see story.

Yeah, and it's better written, especially after

you play Halo 5, holy fuck. But that's a story

for a different, probably later on in this list.

But yeah, fantastic franchise, totally worth

it. Really cool collector's editions as well

for the Uncharted. I know Uncharted 2, what was

it called? Among Thieves? That's the third one.

third one sorry um but there there is one where

they only made 25 versions of this special edition

and i think it sells for over two grand it has

a replica of the dagger from the end of the game

which is tremendously cool i've seen this in

person once and i sadly didn't have two grand

but still very cool Yeah, he's right. It's one

of the reasons to own a PS3 or PS4. If you have

that system, just like with Halo, if you own

an Xbox and you don't have Halo, I don't know

what you're doing. If you have a PS3 and you

haven't played Uncharted, same thing with PS4.

It's really weird that each game, there's that

moment playing each game where it's like, yep,

this is why I have a PlayStation. Or it's and

and the same thing goes for yep This is an uncharted

game and I have that moment with all of them

like you sit down you play it It's very familiar

You you know, you know the characters from like

the first one because it's always the same cast

of characters Just new situations, but there's

always that one set piece. It goes. Yep. Now

it's an uncharted game like every time So it's

fantastic Awesome. All right, we're gonna get

to the next entry coming in on with ten lists

With 376 points. With somebody on this panel

having it as their number one. Wow. It is Call

of Duty. Okay, I'm gonna smack whoever had that

at number one. Dodd. Mike Dodd! I'm not saying

someone's influential friend of all time, just

the one I can think of off the top of my head.

Canadian, I forgive you. And you didn't put Mass

Effect or anything else that, you know... Once

again, I just was thinking, because you're like,

I need this filled out, like, oh, fuck, let me

take a look if I can take a look. I just started

throwing down names. I could make an argument,

though, for Call of Duty. I could make one for

Battlefield 2, but it didn't make it this far.

The argument being scripted events and really

a full narrative to not so much storytelling,

but you look at big scripted events like you

look at the nuke going off in Call of Duty 4

Modern Warfare you look at the previous games

the invasion of Normandy Beach because before

that they were basically corridor shooters like

Medal of Honor and early battlefields where here

go go clear this room, keep kind of moving forward.

As you went on with the Call of Duty franchise,

things got more and more complex. You started

to have a more interesting story developed, more

interesting events happen. And then it really

revolutionized the multiplayer aspect of it,

too, because he started getting more hardcore

competitive. He started getting stuff with MLG,

I think starting with Call of Duty Modern Warfare.

And a messy things would escalate and go through

Cod 2, Black Ops 1 and 2 would be very, very,

very popular. Black Ops 3 is currently being

played in the Cod World League right now. Tremendously

competitive scene. I think there's like a million

dollars or more in prizes. The franchise itself

has had its share of controversy, mostly with

Modern Warfare 2 and the No Russian Mission.

which I'm not afraid to admit is actually one

of my favorite missions in the entire franchise

because I because it's just it's such a swerve

right at the end um but yeah I mean it's one

of my favorite franchises I mean and honestly

I play Call of Duty hours a week um I'm getting

a controller specifically to play Call of Duty

a scuff brand controller that will cost me almost

300 bucks American because that's how much I

now take my FPS seriously when it comes to playing

on a console. I want adjustable joysticks. I

want adjustable triggers. When you look at Call

of Duty, how much it has done for esports in

addition to Halo, it revolutionized it too. I

mean, yeah, we've had esports with like Starcraft,

Dota, et cetera, et cetera. But the FPS esports,

It's been Cod and Halo almost the entire time.

I'm not a fan of Call of Duty, but it's more

so because I've played it before and I've played

Battlefield before and it's not it and I've done

it even recently because my brother -in -law

who's like nine years younger than me Has Call

of Duty and his PlayStation and I've played it

on there and I've played battlefield and I still

prefer the the gameplay of battlefield more But

I don't know if it's just because The way it

kind of comes out or I don't know there's something

different about it And I just I just prefer the

one over the other but I can see where they would

kind of I think battlefield is more What's the

word I'm looking for? Simulation or More tacky.

It's more like a sim more like a shooter simulator

more like a strategy simulator. Yeah, I feel

like Call of Duty is more arcadey Especially

yeah when it comes to I can see that you player.

Yeah Probably why the and I will say this for

Call of Duty like I'm not a friend I was a fan

of that franchise, but it's probably the most

political I've ever gotten about any game was

the whole fallout with Infinity Ward Over yeah,

like what happened with modern warfare that killed

it like everything for me at that point it became

that was a little bit of bullshit i became super

aware of developers and who was making what games

i took like a stupid political stance on things

like i wasn't gonna i was only gonna buy infinity

war games i wasn't gonna buy tray arc stuff and

after a while became like i'm not gonna buy any

more call of duty games because i don't like

the way it way infinity in activation treated

infinity ward as a as a as a publisher um but

i will say i am very much looking forward to

um in Infinite War because it comes with a HD

remake of Call of Duty 4. And they're not going

to touch it. It's going to be the exact same

game we played back in 2007. That interests the

hell out of me. My plan for purchasing that game

is to pick it up at my local Best Buy for about

40 bucks and open it up in the store, take out

the digital code from Call of Duty Modern Warfare

4, or Modern Warfare, and immediately trade back

Infinite Warfare because I don't want that game.

That's not going to work. And here's why. Because

they're going to lock it to the disk where you

have to have that game in your console. We'll

see. Now I think that's really smart of Activision

to do because people like you are the reason

why this game is going to have a complicated

sale when it comes out later on this year. Speaking

of political stuff to kind of follow up with

you, Activision right now is doing something

really, really skeevy. And that's happened for

the last two years started it started with sledgehammer

games who developed Advanced warfare, which is

my favorite cod of the series Supply drops. They

offer cosmetic options, which is like different

armor and different looks, etc, etc. but they're

also offering new weapons. Now Treyarch, the

developers of the current series, Black Ops,

had said any weapons and DLC you get will be

cosmetic only. Nope. In February of this year,

they offer DLC weapons that you could only get

via supply drop, and they are statistically different.

Now you might be wondering, well, what the hell

does that mean? The game is inching towards pay

to win when you look at back at the sledgehammers

advanced warfare There were so many variants

of guns that depending if someone had the Vanilla

game if someone had let's say the bow 27 Versus

say someone having the bow 27 obsidian steed

or the inferno the inferno in the steed We're

gonna win every single time Because they were

they were just were faster. They did more damage

or they had better range now No gun can make

up if you suck But you know, there are guns that

can certainly melt people. But yeah, I mean I'm

not liking the way infinity or Activision is

doing the whole pay -to -win scenario and I fully

admit I spend a lot of a lot of $20 bills on

supply drops. I'll do it maybe once or twice

a month, more if I happen to sell some stuff

online, because I want these cool guns, and I'm

only missing two in Black Ops 3 right now. Now,

someone has crunched the math, a YouTuber named

Drifter. To get a new gun or a new melee weapon,

you have to spend equivalent to about $50 or

$60. In rare supply drops and that's to get a

good chance. That's not even guaranteed Now there

are things now known as contracts, which I think

they introduced in black ops one That you can

earn like weapon bribes and stuff like that,

which is helping people But if you still get

a duplicate weapon Sucks to be you pal. Sure.

You can trade in for crypto keys, which which

allows you to purchase more supply drops but

It's a way to grind them out, but you know sometimes

you just don't have time you want to drop that

$20 bill and get your supply drop now as opposed

to grinding for five or six hours I Just can't

imagine putting actual money into a game that

I paid $60 for and then asking yeah To buy weapons

to do this to do that if I'm spending 40 to 60

bucks on a game I just want the game We got to

get to the top 20 That's why I about rock band

if that made this list have I got a story for

you Alright coming up next the top 20 coming

up next is the first game to hit 400 points And

it's on 13 lists and it's number two on the Haley

Bailey's list. It is Castlevania Great series

a lot of ups and downs but a pretty consistent

series though Neil this is your cue. Oh, yeah,

I got so used to not talking This is a great

series and it's kind of got like a well as far

as I'm concerned it's got like Like it's it's

kind of split into two as I'm trying to say is

that you have like the Metroidvania stuff like

Symphony of the Night and and I guess Castlevania

2, you know, that's yeah, Castlevania 2. That

was a bad example. But then you have the other

side of it, which is just like pure platforming,

like one and three and bloodlines and Rondo of

Blood and all those. And yeah, I haven't really

gotten into the into the GBA ones or the Nintendo

DS ones, but God, those are so good. Yeah, they

look they basically look like a continuation

of Symphony of the Night. I think the best one

is Aria of Sorrow, I think. Yeah, I've played

a little bit of that one. Unfortunately, the

music isn't all that good. Symphony of the Night

really spoils you in terms of quality on everything.

Music, gameplay, everything. One of the things

Castlevania has done, even from its 8 -bit days,

revolutionized what music... could be in a game.

Hell, even go back to the Game Boy games. The

music in there for Castlevania Adventure is incredible.

But unfortunately, as far as the Game Boy ones

go, the second one is worth playing and the other

two are not. Yeah. Yeah. Castlevania, the adventure

is like when you play it, it's like walking through

mud. I've also never beat Castlevania 3. Fuck

that game. I love that game. Wasn't that subtitled

Dracula's Curse? Yes, oh my god, those fucking

Medusa heads. I know, I remember those. Good

ol' Simon Belmont looking at Medusa, yay. No,

that was Trevor Belmont in that game. No, I know,

but Simon was in Captain N, and they did the

whole Medusa thing. So, alright, we're gonna,

unless Mike did... Powers, did you have anything

else you wanted to say about Castlevania? No,

I'm set on Castlevania. Okay then, we are going

to move on to the next entry. Next up is, with

408 points on 13 lists, it is number 6 on Adam

Lay's and Caleb Browning's lists, it is Warcraft.

All I remember from this is Mr. T's mohawk ads.

Now I'm guessing to say that this encompasses

both World of Warcraft and Warcraft because There

wasn't a differentiation on the list when people

listed it so well, it's still probably it's still

part of the same thing but I remember skipping

high school to go to a computer cafe across the

street from my school and playing Warcraft 2

on a LAN I never did get into the MMO. The world

seems interesting though, because a fan of the

podcast I do, Terrible Warriors, bought me the

RPG for World of Warcraft, as far as I know it's

open game license. And I'm very interested, especially

with the movie coming out, I think next week

or this week, whenever this airs. It's gotten

me interested, but I can't get into an MMO with

that much - This part has been edited. Ha ha

ha, you'll never know what was actually here.

Alright, so, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, you

guys should have specified. Um, but, yeah, I

used to play the actual original Warcraft back

in the day. Around the same time StarCraft was

a thing, and then I also have to say that I did

try playing WoW before. I thought that the graphics

were very clunky. I didn't really care for it.

I didn't really care for the gameplay. I tried

playing with some friends. Again, I ended up

not playing much further after it. I played for

a while. They leveled me up and then I just didn't

care for it. So I ended up passing on it. But

I can still see where it's deserving of a place

on the list because people have sucked up a lot

of life with WoW. Yeah, it is one of it really

does redefine the term massive multiplayer online

game practically invented it Well, I guess with

the elf crest or elf quest and ever quest was

it? No. Yeah. Yeah ever quest elf quest and ever

quest. Yes That reminds I really hope Altima's

on this list somewhere All right, we're gonna

get to the next entry next up is a game that

many of us will know for the land party purposes,

but It has four hundred and fifteen points. It's

on thirteen lists cheek whoever Rated it at seven.

It is half -life Okay, I have a story about this

really quick I've never played these games, but

in a recent podcast recording with one of our

other co -hosts pecan court Michael I Just couldn't

get past the title meal Anyway, it's a bad Batman

joke, but our buddy Peacock Michael said that

he recently introduced his nine -year -old son

to Half -Life 2. And I'm like, you do know that's

a mature rated game, right? Yeah, but it came

out 10 years ago. Like still, it's a mature rated

game. It's crazy. Half -Life had land support?

Why? Counter -Strike, man. Yeah, it had Counter

-Strike. Oh, okay. I mean, Counter -Strike's

a mod for Half -Life. I don't really consider

Half -Life as being like a land thing. I didn't

play Half -Life. I played Counter -Strike, but...

I played Half -Life, kind of. I tried Half -Life

2 when it came with the orange box on 360. but

I couldn't get past the I'm gonna walk around

this corner and now the game is gonna load for

a second once I experienced that twice I was

like okay we're not playing this again you you

took no you took no chance at optimizing this

for consoles I'll just go back to playing Portal

and Team Fortress thank you very much I loved

watching the championship gaming series when

they played Counter -Strike you should see the

CS GO scene now. High level competitive play.

It's a lot of fun to watch. Half -Life 1, I didn't

get very far in it. Like I said, I got more into

the modding scene for that. I remember landing

Counter -Strike for like, I swear to God, we

stayed up for days playing that. But yeah, it's

one franchise I kind of wish I knew more about

the lore to understand why everyone's so excited

for the possibility of Half -Life 3 from what

I've seen. Yay, the Combine. That's all I know

and there's some asshole named the G -Man. I

thought you were going to say, I really thought

you were going to say some asshole named Gordon

Freeman. And to steal Neil's line, it's a wonderful

half -life and we are moving on. Next up is a

game that has 44 points. It's on 11 lists. Sean

Alteria listed at number one. It is Assassin's

Creed. And some fanboys cried. Fantastic series,

but it took a while to get its books into me.

I played the first one. I hated it. Second one,

I like Ezio, but he wasn't my guy. The game that

grabbed me, the concept was Connor with Assassin's

Creed 3, because he's Native, I'm Native. But

it was Edward Kenway with, like, with, like,

Black Flag. I went so deep into the franchise

after that that I went back and replayed everything.

Though my favorite game in the series is actually

one that was on the PS3 as a very late release.

Assassin's Creed Rogue. Fantastic game. Yeah,

that game came to PC, so I'm confused as to why

it's not on the next gen stuff, too. That's a

game that should have been ported. I'm surprised

to see Assassin's Creed this high just because

of how rocky that franchise is. I could not play

the first one. I actually made my best friend

play it for me and I watched him play it because

he loves repetitive things and just killing people

and that's what the first Assassin's Creed is.

Um, I did love the second one. I almost didn't

buy the second one, but I, the podcast I was

listening to at the time, they kept hyping it

up, how much better it was than the first one.

I was like, there's no possible way it can be

better than the first one. And then I saw it

for sale on Amazon for 30 bucks. And I was like,

well, I could try it for $30. Um, I loved Assassin's

Creed 2. Um, did not care for Brotherhood or

Revelations. I could not get into them. Um, that's

when they became victims of feature creep. But

I did I did enjoy Assassin's Creed 3 a lot of

people didn't like that game But I kind of just

had fun with it myself running around the frontier

murdering helpless animals Just collecting their

pelts and I really liked the the contrast from

Ezio to Connor because Connor was was not anywhere

he was not the assassin he wasn't an assassin

in the way that everyone thought of an assassin

at that time he was very much I'm just gonna

beat the crap out of everybody with a tomahawk

and his and his animation suited that just perfectly

I did enjoy syndicate and I didn't play black

flag I couldn't get into black flag I couldn't

get into rogue because at that point I had already

given up on the ps3 and that generation And I

didn't play Black Flag, even though I purchased

it for my wife. She enjoyed it. She loves the

Assassin's Creed franchise. She's played everything.

I'm more selective. I enjoyed Syndicate. I didn't

come across any of the bugs that anybody else

found in that game, even though it was plagued

with them, according to the internet. And I did...

No, Unity. Sorry. Unity. I did enjoy Unity. And

I really enjoyed Syndicate because it was the

first time you were able to play as a female

assassin. It's not the first time. Well, it's

the first time she got okay I don't count that

as like being able to play as an assassin Because

it wasn't like a mainstream Assassin's Creed

game of the female characters what I'm talking

about. Okay, so I'm supposed to a handheld Yes,

and one the one thing that's kind of disappointing

about it though is how they you didn't have full

reign over choosing how you wanted to tackle

certain missions like it like it made you do

her brother or Evie Depending on what mission

you chose and I wish they let you I wish I constructed

the missions in such a way that you could have

gone through all as one character Yeah Because

I but what I did to make it more enjoyable for

myself is that when I played as her brother and

forgive me, I cannot remember the guy's name

right now. Yes, Jacob. I leaned wholeheartedly,

I leaned heavily into the play style that they

had crafted for him, which Evie was a stealth

based character who I played stealthily and also

she was just a complete badass. Like she was

her animations were very lethal compared to other

assassins. But when I played as her brother,

they wanted him to play that place that was designed

as a brawler. So I just kept giving him the best

brass knuckles I could find. Nice. And the animations

when using brass knuckles are not only are they

very cool, they're hilarious because you can

straight up punch somebody in the face and they

go stiff as a board and fall over. And the satisfying

metal on bone sound that they came up with. for

punching somebody in the face is also satisfying.

So yeah, I'm kind of surprised to see this high

given how each Assassin's Creed is so divisive,

but. There's there's no denying its success,

but I also have a I don't care for the Assassin's

Creed franchise as a whole, because I don't agree

with half half of the content in all the games.

I don't care for the animus in any way, shape

or form. If they were just period piece games,

I'd be all over them in a heartbeat, but... You

know who we really need here to talk about this?

You know who I'm gonna say, right, Dodd? Yep.

Laidman! He plays those games all the time. Religiously,

yeah. He loves that franchise. Good ol' Mike

Laidman. Oh well. Alright, I think, unless Neil,

do you have any, uh... Affinity towards assassin

and creeds All right, we're gonna keep on rolling

train here. Next up on the list with 425 points

on 12 lists and ranked number four on my list

it is Super Smash Brothers. These games are beautiful.

I love these games because you get to fight all

of these random characters and especially in

the later ones you get some Capcom and Sony players

in it and as well as I think it's because they

got Pac -Man in the latest one Among other characters,

but I've not played I've played the Wii U Wii

U version at a convention tournament thing before

And I played that for about an hour hour and

a half the last time I went to a convention which

was Didn't I give you a copy for your 2ds? No,

but I went out and bought it. I played that one,

but I hadn't played it on the Wii U itself with

a GameCube controller. But I've played every

Smash Brothers game since the N64, and I still

have my GameCube controller that I use with my

Wii when I play Brawl. But I love this franchise

just because the battle ability with it in the

different levels and the different difficulty

levels They're online is kind of clunky, but

the the rest of it's really fun. And even though

it's repetitive This is the first game I ever

got into Competitive actually I used to play

in tournaments for this across Ontario mostly

in Hamilton I used to main Samus um okay who

the hell else i used to annoy that crap samus

they nerf samus in uh brawl um but uh if you

played a zero suit samus you got the speed back

yeah i so i played zero suit samus primarily

and if i'm not playing a sonic um it was pit

I people I used to play with hated my pit even

though he's a lower tier character He has that

one spin move that can just annoy the piss out

of people. Um, yeah, like I It was a lot of fun

at the highest I placed in I think a 40 -man

tournament I got out of pools Which is an accomplishment

in and of itself I was eliminated very, very

quickly. I used to play with a guy who was very

good out of Montreal. I think he played at Evo

several times. His name was Ally. For those of

you that know Brawl, he played this amazing,

solid snake. He could be at 300 % damage. You

could be at 0 % with all three stocks. He would

kick your ass. You couldn't touch him. It was

unreal. This kid had the frame data memorized.

He knew invincibility frames. Brawl was the game

that made me look into the mechanics of fighting

games. Despite the fact that it's a game meant

for everybody, there's a level of complexity

and depth there that is phenomenal. And it's

probably one of my favorite fighting game franchises.

Definitely top three. The Wii U version and the

3DS version. I play more on the 3DS where I main

Mega Man and Mewtwo. I like the mechanics more

in Brawl except for the slip because that was

just unnecessary. But Fantastic Series, they

say there won't be any more. Yeah, right. It

prints money. So yeah. What could they do next

though with it? Well, it's just gonna be the

same game with a different subtitle and any new

characters and possibly a storyline Except the

next one you'll pay $60 for the platform and

then you'll have to buy all the figures to play

on it. Oh That was not stupid. It's in Tendo

infinity Well, they do that with amiibos and

considering Disney infinity collapse this year

the whole toys as games thing I think Nintendo

is going to be rethinking their Amiibo strategy

considering the Animal Crossing ones, as far

as I know, did not sell well. Thanks God. I never

liked that. I'm not one of those guys that would

buy the little figures to load them into my game.

That's just not... I will say I have... ...percent

last year and I had to sell it. I have two amiibos.

I have the Samus amiibo and I have the Zero Suit

Samus amiibo because she's my favorite Nintendo

character. And I will say I am kind of bummed

because I did not know that you could do this

with Skylander toys. You could leave them in

the box and they would still be read by their

platform. Yeah, you can't do that because there's

a sensor blocker specifically for that. Yeah,

and you know what? I didn't know that, and I

got out right before I had some friends over

a couple months ago. We were going to play Mario

Kart 8, and I wanted to see if I could. It has

amiibo support, so I was like, I've got two amiibos.

Let me try this, and it would not read them through

the box. I'm like, I'm not opening these. Yeah.

You're stupid. It's so scummy. So forget that.

They'll just sit on my shelf and collect dust.

Thanks a lot. Yeah, the only amiibos I have left

is I have a Ness in the box. because it was a

gift. I have a Mewtwo and a Zero Suit Samus.

Before I sold off everything, the only amiibo

I was missing was Marth, I think, or, yeah. Yeah,

Marth was in the first wave, right? Yeah. I was

missing Marth, and I was missing the original

release of Ness. But yeah, I had, oh, and...

Meta Knight, because he was a Best Buy exclusive.

Other than that, I had every single one. I sold

my Amiibos for almost a grand. Wow. When I sold

them off last year. That thing bought me a new

bed and paid my rent. There you go. Neil, Smash

Brothers? Well, I've only played a little bit

of it with my nephew. It's okay. What I really

like it for is that it's very heavy with the

Easter eggs. There's lots of little... God they

just load that game up with all sorts of references

to old games like the stages and like there's

like the classic Donkey Kong stage and the the

Mario 2 stage and and The music remixes in the

game are really nice I've gotten a lot of mileage

out of that with our other podcasts where we

talk about video game cartoons, but Geez Yeah,

I have voiced my opinion about Toys as a video

game accessories, and I don't like that. I'm

glad that's kind of collapsing I don't mind the

Lego ones though at least build something Yeah,

but that's Lego though they're They're basically

combining their video games with what they've

already been doing for god knows how long they've

been doing it and whereas Nintendo and Disney

are just like hey I need action figures so you

can play your video game. They are nice figures

though, but the one thing I really appreciate

Smash Brothers 4 is that it made North America

want Fire Emblem, and Fire Emblem is awesome.

Achievement unlocked, you made North America

want Fire Emblem. There you go, alright. We're

gonna get to the top 15 after this. Up next with

425 points on 13 lists and is number seven on

Kevin Thompson's, it is Mortal Kombat. Get over

here! I remember playing these games. I think

this is like the fourth franchise I got introduced

to back in the 90s. and each of the original

four games at least to me back then seemed to

get better and better looking back on them now

probably not so much but with each game you got

new characters obviously and new new graphics

as it as it moved along I think my favorite still

to this day is probably Mortal Kombat 4 I love

playing the hell out of that game That's the

money. Mortal Kombat 2 paid for my lunch for

an entire year when I was in high school because

I used to hustle kids at the arcade. My god,

I love that game. I respect the Mortal Kombat

franchise, but I think I stopped it about Mortal

Kombat 2. That's kind of where I definitely never

owned a copy of Mortal Kombat after Mortal Kombat

2. We were trying to play and I never actually

was good at it in the arcade I was good at home

and playing against my friends, but never in

the arcade But I do have a funny little story

about that. I on the Super Nintendo I yeah, I

picked up my parents picked it up for me over

the weekend and I I don't remember what grade

I was in when that came I was a 92 93 or something

like that, but I was still in elementary school,

but I I had a turbo controller for my SNES and

for the kids that don't know what that is there's

little sliders on the controller that basically

override the button presses on it and there was

a little slider for every single button on the

controller and I played Mortal Kombat so much

over the weekend and I came home from school

on the Monday after I'd played all weekend playing

it came home from school loaded up my Super Nintendo

and it got to the startup screen and it just

kept hitting start like repeatedly, like I could

not do anything at all, and I felt like I had

broken the game. So, okay, so I go and try another

game, I think it was like Donkey Kong Country

or something, and that game was giving me problems

too. I was like, I cannot, I must have broken

my Super Nintendo playing it so much over the

weekend. Come to find out, I had knocked the

slider for the start button. And it took me I

think like a day or two to realize that I had

knocked the slider. But man, that's just the

funny little story I have about Mortal Kombat

because I was like, oh, I broke my system. Of

course, I didn't tell my parents that I broke

it because they'd be angry because they had spent

so much money on said game and said system. But

luckily, I was able to work itself out. But that

was also the first one. Well, Combat 2 is also

the first one to have blood in it, right? On

the Super Nintendo? The first one did not. Yeah,

because they realized how badly they were getting

butt -fucked in sales after Sega went... You

can also thank Mortal Kombat. Well, definitely

Mortal Kombat helped, sorry, for the invention

of the ESRB, or the Entertainment Software Ratings

Board. Oh, God bless the ESRB. Yeah, this franchise,

it's definitely grown over the years. There have

been some slacker years. I'd say between Mortal

Kombat 4 and Armageddon, the series just got

bloated. When the series came into 3D, it changed,

and I think it turned off a lot of old -school

players. When Mortal Kombat 9 came out back in

2000, and I want to say 11... People were thrilled.

And then we had Mortal Kombat versus DC, which

I enjoyed, despite the fact that it does kind

of suck. Injustice is fantastic. Actually, Injustice

2, I think, comes out next year. They're already

talking about it. Mortal Kombat X. I could have

the alien fight Carl Weathers, if I so wish,

which is amazing. Or Leatherface versus Johnny

Cage. Amazing franchise I've actually interviewed

Ed Boon once back on twig probably about five

years ago But tremendously cool series Great

great legacy. I do miss the hustle of the arcade

a friend of mine actually as a signing bonus

He worked for a fairly or used to work for a

fairly big Video game website as a signing bonus.

He got an arcade machine of Mortal Kombat 2 That's

awesome. It was pretty cool. And after a while

he wouldn't let me play Molina or Baraka He didn't

like how I could kick his ass All right, so favorite

favorite Mortal Kombat character Mike Sector

Mike. Oh, yeah sector. I am a cheap asshole You

won't hit the ground in that match if I land

my first hit I like reptile personally Steve

I Don't know enough about their names to say

sub -zero. Okay. That's actually the only name

I do know You know scorpion get over here Everybody

knows scorpion. He's like the easy one But we

all know we all had a crush on Sonia For me favorite

character to play as is Liu Kang with the bicycle

kick See it's been so long since I played any

of those games that I don't remember any of the

characters I used to play them like probably

ten years ago before I like when I worked with

people at McDonald's so that's right I Well before

I moved into the apartment oven now the place

I used to live in there was a laundromat right

behind the place and It's, I think to this day,

still has a Mortal Kombat 2 cabinet inside of

the laundry mat. It's alright. Steve is a Johnny

Cage fan. To my biggest fan. $500 pair of sunglasses.

Who knows? I wear my sunglasses. On that note...

Well, let's not forget about the movie. The first

movie's good, the second movie not so good. No,

there is only one movie. But the web series quite

good. I have not seen the web series just yet.

Oh my god, Mike, go see it, it's... I know, I've

got way too much to do. But yeah, no, the first

movie was absolutely amazing, absolutely love

it. The second movie is okay. Well, Neil... It's

better than Super Mario. Can you say absolutely

amazing? Really? You? It's time. No, not even

for its time. They tried to cram way too much

into it. That's the problem with it. I wish they

had health bars at the top and bottom of all

the fights. That would at least make it funny.

Neil, if you would like for your other video

game show, you should do Mortal Kombat Legacy.

We only do cartoons on that is a car. There's

no cartoon for that. He's talking about the pilot

that one that one word So we can add that into

episode 69. It was it is on the docket for that

Yeah, okay. Yeah, cuz we um we spent two episodes

going through defenders of the realm Yes with

guns in our mouths I can't believe Luke Perry

was fucking sub -zero. What a weird chance. Oh,

I know. And really, honestly though, comparing

Defenders of the Realm to Darkstalkers? No, there's

no contest. Defenders of the Realm is much better.

And better than Darkstalkers. And better than

Double Dragon. We might have to work on that

one. Alright, we gotta get out of here. Coming

up next is a game with 461 points on 15 lists.

Number three on Eric Hutchinson's list. And it's,

for those that don't know, it's a game that's

frequently seen at arcades, if there was one

still in existence. It is... What's that? River

Rafton? It's... No. It's Resident Evil. I've

seen them at some arcades before. Oh me zombie

me bad guy But I had this game back on my old

compact presario back in 1997 Mike that computer

cuz everything was on the board. I Computer didn't

have a 3d accelerator card So there are about

three puzzles in that game. I had to do completely

blind Somehow managed to beat it Resident Evil,

one of my all -time favorite franchises. It's

what got me into horror movies again, actually.

Resident Evil actually got me into Dawn of the

Dead in 1979 because I'm like, oh my God, zombies

are cool. I've played every single one. I've

consumed almost every bit of Resident Evil media

outside of the movies. I stopped after Extinction.

or not extinction apocalypse i saw one after

i think it was called retribution and it's the

only movie where the the usher asked me hey sir

how was your movie like go fuck yourself i was

so that's that's not nice i had no i was so upset

like how how can you take a dump on this i love

the resident evil movies i like the final one

next year oh i can't wait so they can't wait

too can't wait um But yeah, the only one I didn't

get a chance to play in its prime was the Raccoon

City Outbreak ones, the ones on the PS2 Online.

I hope they do that again at some point. I know

Capcom is talking about doing Resident Evil 7

this year at E3. You'll probably see its reboot

or its return to its roots, and we'll probably

see the first footage of the Resident Evil 2

remake, which, oh my god, that's going to be

so cool. Resident Evil, I'm curious to how the

rest of this list is going to go, because there

are game franchises that I've never touched,

but I revere for what they've done for gaming.

And Resident Evil is the first one I've seen

on the list. I have tried a couple, but they

usually end up being too much for me to handle.

And I never cared for the controls. I've never

cared for the controls. Yeah, the tank controls

take a little getting used to. So that's always

been a hindrance for me for the franchise. But

I understand what it is. I understand why people

love the franchise and what it's done for gaming

in general. I never rag on it. But that said,

I do love... I enjoy the movies for what they

are, because I don't think the source material

for the movies is anything to be revered. So

I enjoy what I see. I have fun when I go to see

the movies. I don't expect them to make sense

or be any better or worse than the games. I started

to take the source material more seriously after

they did the Resident Evil remake for the Gamecube,

and now it's been released on subsequent consoles.

When they tried to clean up the canon, and let's

forget Code Veronica ever happened, I started

to respect the material a lot more, but entries

like 5 and 6 in the series are definitely low

points for Resident Evil, and even Operation

Raccoon City, really cool concept, pulled off

like shit. which sucks, because I thought that

game should have been awesome and it wasn't.

Yeah, the Gamecube one, I got it, and I have

to admit, I like the puzzles in the game, but

I'm such a pussy when it comes to zombies and

gore. I hate that so much, and I encountered

one crimson head and I turned it off. Like, nope.

For me, my turnoff moment was in Resident Evil

2 with the dog jumping through the window. At

the beginning? Yeah, I was done. Now that said,

I love horror movies because I know how to read

the scene in a horror movie and I can kind of

predict what's going to happen. Plus the music

cues help out a lot. But when it comes to horror

games, it's. It's very hard for me to enjoy them

because I'm in direct control of what's going

to happen. And so I often get paralyzed by scooting

down the hallway, waiting to hit that trigger

point for whatever's going to happen to happen.

And then I usually end up walking backwards,

trying to shoot at whatever's coming at me. So

I end up in a paralyzed position and it ends

up being way too tense. I'm like, nope, not enjoying

this. Like even going back just a little bit

to highlight this, like the Uncharted franchise,

the first game. The last quarter of that game

takes place in a bunker. And the first time I

played through that game on the normal brightness

settings, and I was terrified getting through

there. It took me so long to get through there.

But on every subsequent replay of that game,

I cranked the brightness in the game all the

way up when I get to that part. So I'm like,

no, I know what's here, and I'm not going to

be scared of it at all. I just want to get through

it. But yeah, Resident Evil just the controls

along with the source with with the material

I was just kind of like I can't I can't do this

because I don't have the the range of controls

and that I feel like I should have so One of

the best Resident Evil moments I've ever had

there are two Resident Evil 3 Nemesis is a game

that literally scared the shit out of me when

I was probably about 16 I'm playing this game.

It's three o 'clock in the morning And the creature

in the game, Nemesis, which is this huge tyrant

specifically designed to kill STARS members,

hunts you. This thing can jump out anywhere at

any time. Normally you don't have a lot of health

or a lot of ammo, so taking this thing down is

an accomplishment. Just having this thing stalk

me through Raccoon City was such a thrill, but

I'm trying to solve a puzzle where I'm trying

to activate this, like, elevator. and this zombie

jumps out from behind this this like power transformer

and I remember screaming going oh god oh jesus

waking up my my uh parents at the time because

they were sleeping in the room uh across the

hall from me the other moment I'm snowed in and

no one's home my girlfriend at the time isn't

at home, she's at like her parents place or something,

and the streets are dead quiet. The entire apartment

building is empty, like everyone's gone home

for the holidays. Plan Resident Evil 4, there's

a part where you're in this castle and you're

fighting these monks, and they're just chanting,

you know, all you hear is this... And I had a

really sweet sound setup at this time, so I'm

in a fairly safe place. I put down the controller,

I go to the bathroom, and just hearing that chanting

echoing throughout my apartment, because I had

hardwood floors, there wasn't a lot of things

on the wall, so soundbounce is kind of funny.

And it was one of the creepiest experiences I've

ever had in a video game, and I treasure that

moment, because it was genuinely unsettling.

Dang. Zombies, yeah. I don't think Resident Evil

is that much about the zombies anymore. Noob!

Now it's about viral weaponry and it's gotten

so stupid. Aww yeah. Alright, let's move on to

the next in the countdown. 13. Coming up next

with 477 points on 13 lists, being number 4 on

Caleb Browning's list, it is a classic video

game, Donkey Kong. Oh boy, I can't wait for this

because Neil is gonna end up going on a rare

rant. Hang on, you gotta do the rare rant! Hang

on, he might not have to because are we talking

Donkey Kong or are we talking Donkey Kong Country?

Yeah, it's Donkey Kong Country. It's the whole

franchise. You can't really knock the whole franchise

for three games. Well, those three games and

Donkey Kong 3 maybe. I'm not I'm not gonna wait

into anything here, but I did enjoy I enjoyed

the crap out of the first Donkey Kong Because

I I I don't I didn't really care. I know that's

like just a collectathon, but I didn't care for

that It wasn't that that drew me into it the

the the cannon barrels. That was the fun part

for me So I get getting the timing down on that

on that and just the general platforming of the

game I enjoyed so but that's that's a I'm not

going to argue that with anybody. That's just

my personal opinion on it. Go ahead. They're

fine games. That's your thing. I understand why

people wouldn't like them. But there are people

that liked games where there's just a ton of

stuff to collect in them. That gives them replay

value. That gives them meaning to go back, keep

playing the game versus trading it in. And then

there are sometimes where I don't care for any

of that stuff. So it just depends on the mood

that I'm in. That that's it. I haven't played

any of the original ones and I haven't played

anything since I remember I was excited for what

was that? Was it tropical freeze? Yeah, that's

one. I was excited for that one. I actually own

it Played for about 15 minutes stop playing it

Not not because I didn't care for it, but I it

I wasn't the same age I was when I had played

the Donkey Kong Country games I didn't have time

to you know master all the levels in the in the

platforming and stuff like that I was like this

is it's a little over my head. I'll leave this

for someone younger than me, but I'm a little

surprised. It's this high to be honest with you

Yeah Donkey Kong I can't say I'm gonna rant about

rare because that's that's like a whole Company

to rant about I mean, there's so many reasons

why I don't like rare, but Microsoft owns them

now Well, yeah, they're barely around anymore.

But Donkey Kong Country, it's an okay game. It's

just that I think I was kind of infuriated by

the by the marketing and the pomp and circumstance

around that game because I asked Jeremy Parish

about this and about were they trying to trick

us into thinking that the that the that the Super

Nintendo was somehow rendering the 3d models

in in hardware and I'm like it sure seemed like

they were doing that and he was like yeah it

kind of seemed like they were and it's like uh

if you if you were a subscriber to uh Nintendo

Power at the time you got this tape and it is

it is so bad and at one point they're like yeah

you can play this game and you don't even need

a 32x adapter for it and I'm like well what does

that have to do with anything I mean it's just

it's just raster graphics I mean Yeah, it's got

like a big it's got the fancy 3d models, but

you know that was done Pre -rendered so that

doesn't mean anything so the game is okay. It's

just that I I I didn't I wasn't fooled by the

graphical tricks. I don't think the graphics

really that good anyway, they just look like

plastic and The music is actually pretty good.

I think not a defense of the game or anything

like that But I think the thing the knock with

the 3d the 32x was one. It was just a shot at

Sega Yeah, it definitely was. But the other thing

too, and for the life of me, I can't remember

what game it was or anything like this, but I

kid you not, my cousin had a Genesis with the

32X and a couple of 32X games and we were, this

was long after we had finished, I think we'd

moved on to the N64th this time and he had this

stuff just sitting around his house and we were

kind of up late one night and we're looking at

the 32X, we're looking at the Genesis and we're

looking at the games and we're like, wait a second.

So this is this adapter makes it so it fits these

cartridges, but the pinout is the same we carved

out the plastic on the Genesis and Slapped in

one of the 32 X games and it played So we were

kind of like that's that's a bunch of BS. Oh,

well Which game I don't it was if it was like

20 years ago, dude, I have no idea I just remember

being completely shocked that you didn't need

this. This peripheral to play this game, I don't

think it was anything one of the more intense

ones. I don't think it was like a virtual fighter

or like the was it virtual? The racer racer,

yeah, or anything like anything that was like

polygon oriented. But it was definitely a 32x

game that we got to fit into a Genesis and it

ran so. We used to call that thing the Super

Nintendo adapter for the Genesis. With Donkey

Kong, I remember playing the original game and

Donkey Kong Jr. Donkey Kong Jr. was a nightmare.

With Donkey Kong Country, I always thought the

coolest thing about that game, regardless of

how bad the graphics look today, back then the

coolest thing for me was the snow levels. I love

those levels. I like the mine cart levels. the

underwater stuff for me. Yeah, absolutely. For

me and Donkey Kong, actually when me and my wife

got married a couple years ago, five years ago

now, as an engagement gift to her, I got her

a Donkey Kong cocktail cabinet. um because that's

how much we like the franchise now i've never

kill screened this game because holy shit i'm

not that good um i'm way better at the country

games than i am anything although there is one

donkey kong game we haven't talked about donkey

konga um but yeah i think it's a it's a cool

franchise although I find the games now, they're

more difficult than I care to learn. Like Donkey

Kong Country Tropical Freeze. The Wii U and the

Wii game are both insanely difficult. Yeah, like

I don't got time for that. Give me enemies that

I can shoot in the head. That I can do. Platform

that, I'll bite my ass, let someone else do it.

The original arcade is balls hard. I mean, I

think you can count on one hand the number of

people that actually killed screen that game.

But there is there actually is another one we

haven't talked about. That's Donkey Kong 94 or

the Game Boy one, which it starts out as like

a port of Donkey Kong. And then it turns into

the best Mario puzzle game of all time. It's

like half Mario to half Mario 64. And it's just

like all. Trying to figure out how to get the

key to the door and it's just amazing. I love

that game and One we should not talk about is

probably Donkey Kong 64 and the Donkey Kong ramp.

Oh I was gonna hope you'd mentioned like Donkey

Kong jr. Math or something. Oh One of the rarest

NES cards there is is I understand it. Yeah,

nobody bought it Good ol' Donkey Kong Country.

I wonder if they're ever gonna do more Donkey

Kong games like in the future. Oh god. I'm sure

they will. Guarantee it'll be one on the NX within

two years. Does Nintendo make Mario games? If

they do, they'll make a Donkey Kong game. Yet

I can't get another Metroid game. That's gonna

change. Let's not talk about Metroid, please.

That's a sore subject. Well, we'll have to talk

about it if it comes up in the top ten different

that's different All right, we're gonna continue

on with the countdown Coming up next is a game

that has 488 points 13 lists. It was number one

on Adam Leahy's and Kevin Thompson's lists it

is None other than Pokemon Blasting off again!

Is this going to be the highest ranked hardcore

JRPG on the list? Oh, I hope not. No. Oh, thank

you. This game is basically Dragon Warrior with

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder mixed in. It basically

is! I think it's like my first RPG. You know,

like Little Tikes, my first RPG. Yeah, but we

knocked Donkey Kong Country for being a collect

-a -thon. How about this game where it's like,

it just basically encourages you to continue

playing until you get all the Pokémon. So in

other words, you beat little animals and you

put them in balls. Can't that be said about just

about any RPG or anything? In RPGs, you're going

around, you want to collect all the characters.

You could knock what's the one with all the different

characters in it. Well, the most insane would

be like Chrono Cross, but that doesn't even come

close to Pokemon. There's another one, too, that's

Sudokan. Oh, yeah, that one. There's that one.

But that one's not on the list. I know, but I'm

just saying, like, there's other RPGs where it's

like, you know, get all the characters. Like,

we look at them as, like, you're collecting,

like, these little animals, but really, they're,

like, the characters that you'd collect in any

other RPG game. And Pokemon is the only game

where you don't mind buying two copies of essentially

the same game. Nintendo got smart and started

bundling them both together. And this is the

game that after 10 years they finally found like

an actual use for the link cable. It's like nobody

used it before this game. I only used it to play

Tetris. That was about it. A lot of people didn't

realize that Mario was in Tetris until they linked

up, which nobody ever did. My wife loves the

Pokémon games. She uses both of my DSs to play

the games with herself so she can collect both

off of all the different games. She does it and

then she erases the game and then starts over

and does it again and I... That's hardcore. I've

never played one, so... That's my claim to fame.

I've never played a Pokémon. I've played my first

one was Pokemon red and then I played gold and

then I played the card game and then I haven't

played one since but I was certainly tempted

when they came out with the evolution to charge

art in the more recent games, but I Will say

I did lie just then I have played a Pokemon game,

but I didn't know I was playing a Pokemon game

My uncle used to live in Japan And he came back

with just a random Game Boy game. And a Japanese

logo on the cover. Couldn't even, you can't read

it because it's all in Japanese. Put it in the

Game Boy, loaded it up. All the menus are in

Japanese. I can't read any of it. So I was just

pushing buttons and stuff was happening. I had

no idea what I was doing. And come to find out

later in 97, I got a Game Pro, not a Game Pro,

a Nintendo Power in the mail that was basically

hyping up Pokemon. coming and I recognized the

pictures I was like wait that's the game I was

playing like two months ago and I had no idea

what was going on but there it is in English

so that was the only time I played a Pokemon

game um this was my grade 12 year um I was playing

Pokemon Red and Yellow um and I was taking advanced

English or something at the time in grade 12

and we had to read this book over the course

of the semester but it was only like 250 pages

So I read that in an hour and a half and The

teacher asking all these questions like there's

no way you comp comp comprehended all that answered

all his questions like oh, um Well, then can

you sit in the back and play your game boy for

the rest of the term you betcha chief And it's

memorable for only the reason it took me months

and I don't know why because I guess the game

hates my guts this much to catch a fucking Tauros.

I don't know why, but I hate that Pokemon. But

yeah, I remember sitting there just playing that

for like, like I said, a semester was that. Remember

going down one of the islands and you had to

use surf and you'd catch the missing now that

you could convert it like anything? Yep. I've

never done that trick. I used to do it all the

time because if you did it just right you could

catch like a Certain version of it. Yeah, you

get mu but it what really wasn't it was still

like a broken graphic I remember me and a guy

I used to be friends with Once again during our

lovely high school years. We took off from school

one day from from class drove down the Toronto

and pretty much I think we went as far as Niagara

Falls There was this event where if you went

to a Toys R Us, they would give you Mew, like

you could download them from the store. That

was the only way to get Mew back in those days.

So yeah, I skipped school for Mew. I remember

going to the Pokemon First movie, battling kids

in line with our like game boys. We were kicking

the shit out of them. I know I shouldn't take.

Pleasure in that, but it was great. I've kept

my head in the Pokemon game, but I haven't been

playing a lot. I've got Omega Ruby right now,

but I've only been downloading the special Pokemon

that come out each month. And then eventually

I'll get into it because one of the cool things

about the 3DS and the DS is the wireless connectivity.

So when you go to events like MagFest or PAX

or E3 or wherever, There's always Pokemon people

to fight one of the really cool things that packs

There are actual gym leaders if you go out and

fight these people at packs and you beat them

They give you a physical badge That you can put

on your shirt or whatever to show that that you've

beaten them in like some kind of a league it's

tremendously cool one of my friends actually

cosplays as I think a Pokemon bug trainer and

another one is rope cosplays is one of the Elite

Four, and he goes to PAX and openly challenges

people for like the weekend. So this franchise

for Nintendo, tremendously successful. They took

a risk on it. I'm glad they did. I haven't played

the latest one, which is the Pokemon fighting

game, Pokken. It sold Street Fighter V. Yeah,

but Jess wanted to bring that up. Yeah, it sold

Street Fighter V, which is amazing. So that should

tell you something. But yeah, cool franchise,

great animated series. The movies are all over

the place. Although I think the first three are

the best. But yeah, so Pokemon, awesome. Gotta

catch them all Coming up next we have a game

that harkens back to the old school of gaming

with 504 points on 16 lists It is number three

on Kayla Browning and Michael Wilson's list.

It is Metroid Number 11 Shame on you people for

not placing it higher Number 49 I It's weird

I I remember playing Metroid the original Metroid

in the 90s. I remember playing on my NES at the

same time I was trying to play Super Metroid

on the Super Nintendo That's was like when I

first got into it. I've never played Metroid

2 Just because I didn't I didn't at that time

I wasn't into Metroid like it's it's really weird

when I actually got into it and I think it was

Super Metroid that actually got me into the franchise

because it looked so great on the Super Nintendo

and I actually purchased it on my Wii U so I

could play it on the gamepad and it looks great

playing on the virtual console but my love for

Metroid actually came from the Prime series and

the Game Boy Advance games and if there's one

HD remake that I wish Nintendo would do for the

Wii U or probably just the Wii U, because I have

no intention of buying the NX. I'm done with

Nintendo. But I really wish that they would do

an HD remake of the Prime series that didn't

involve motion controls. Yeah. And I'm really

bummed that they didn't... What was the Zombie

U game that Ubisoft made for the Wii U? Zombie

U, yeah. Yeah, I thought that those mechanics

would make for a really good Metroid game. I

never thought of it like that, but yeah. Scanning

the room like when you're you know, when you

look through the the game pad and you're basically

it's like augment augmented reality and you're

you're scanning the room looking for stuff and

you know diving into your pack and something

I I feel like why isn't this being made into

a Metroid game like hello this Right itself,

but whatever and now we have that god -awful

3ds I don't even like that, you know the name

Was so I was so let down and I'm really bummed

that they you know retros, you know not making

anything So Metroid Super Metroid on the Super

Nintendo was the first game I ever speed ran

because I wanted to see Samus in her in her swimsuit

and I think my fastest time is two hours and

12 minutes Love that game, the music, the boss

fights. My favorite one being where you fight,

I think his name's Kraid, that giant Godzilla

looking guy, and you shock him to death with

your grappling beam. Or where you melt that dinosaur

guy in the lava and you see him jump out and

his skin's melting off. Metroid Fusion is my

favorite game in the series. I love the Fusion

suit. Although I fell out with the Prime series

for whatever reason. I need to go back and re

-play those. I've got them on my Wii U, but I

hate motion controls. So I don't know whether

that's gonna happen. Other M, good idea, shit

execution. They screwed that character over so

bad. Do I have permission to use the Varia suit?

You're fucked! Yeah But yeah, like Metroid is

one of those franchises I want the next great

game From like I think the idea is interesting.

The world is cool though. You don't know a lot

about it I remember last year when they announced

the new quote -unquote Metroid game and we were

all excited and then we saw it's soccer Yeah,

whatever like what the hell is this? My guess

is some game Got screwed over in development.

They wanted to salvage it. So they just slapped

the Metroid IP on it Like Star Fox adventures

used to be some dinosaur game That's what I'm

guessing happened here. I Just man sadness overwhelming

So, I might be the only one here who actually

played Metroid 2. What I can tell you is that

the opening narration of Super Metroid is basically

all you need to know about the game is that Samus

gets the baby Metroid and that's it. Otherwise,

it's Metroid with scripted events. You beat a

certain number of Metroids and then the lava

in the stage will kind of... just kind of go

away for some reason it it's like uh it's like

i don't i don't know it's it's not a very good

metroid game but uh i got the last boss fight

really annoying with like the queen metroid it

is uh because uh she just god it's been a long

time but i remember that uh she has the head

just kind of snaps at you and you have to time

it just right With the missiles and if you get

her then she'll just kind of freeze for a moment

And then you could just like you just spam her

with missiles, but it's pretty hard And you could

also roll into her belly and drop a bunch of

bombs, but that's basically suicide You mean

it's not mother brain you know I I will say that

When I was when I was playing Super Metroid in

93 Or was it wasn't 93 94. Yeah, I think so So

when I first played it, you know, I'm renting

the game. I never owned it. I'm running the game

from the local video store. So every time I go

in there, I'm getting somebody else's game. I

can never get my own. And then I wised up and

was like, I'm just going to renew the game that

I had instead of returning it and then renewing

it again. But I never I never beat it. And I

remember just having like. I liked playing it

because I liked the way it looked and felt to

play and I love the music and everything, but

I never finished it. I just remember it being

really hard for me to do. The only I have finished

it using somebody else's, some random guy's save

that was farther in the game than me. So I've

seen the end of the game, but when I purchased

it on the Wii U, I found it to be a lot easier,

which is in direct contradiction to what I said

about Tropical Freeze. Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

a little while ago, which is I picked it up on

my 3DS and I didn't care to get into it, but

that might be love for one franchise versus not

so much love for the other. Well, I would argue

with Metroid, it's challenging combat as opposed

to platforming. But even that, I remember being

a chore. I always felt like I didn't have enough

of the hidden items, like enough missiles to

accomplish certain tasks. But playing it on the

Wii U, I always found that I had exactly what

I needed to get through certain situations. And

it just wasn't a chore. I felt just better playing

the game. One of the cool things that not a lot

of people talk about the Metroid franchise is

we have briefly mentioned it, the music. If you

GeekCast people won't want to check out something

really neat, go on YouTube, check out a band

called Metroid Metal. They perform often at MagFest

or PAX. And they're exactly what it sounds like,

a Metroid Metal band. A friend of mine actually

plays in this band. And it's pretty cool to hear

the Brinstar theme. in this loud aggressive guitar

with like in a room full of like 5 ,000 people

um so that's something you should definitely

uh kind of check out plus some of the action

figures for for this series are actually quite

cool i think it's first four figures it has some

really nice ones even the world of nintendo figures

which are very low price point for toys i don't

think they're like 15 bucks a piece has a really

nice samus um was it sigma or figma I think so.

Yeah, I have the Samus version of their figure.

Oh Like there's some really nice sculpting with

Samus and I want someone to make a fusion suit

at some was I said I that's the first Metroid

game that Made me fall in love again after Super

Metroid because I felt burned by the Prime series

because I didn't love it but being hunted by

Samus X was such a cool experience, especially

when she starts using your own weapons against

you, because now you're part Metroid. So yeah,

cool series, love it. My personal favorite of

the entire series has to be the remake, which

is Zero Mission. Yeah, Zero Mission is awesome.

That's a fantastic game as well. Yeah. About

Metroid fusion. I didn't like that. She was she's

a little more chatty in that game Like like every

time you would like go into an elevator or something.

She would just start talking but I did like the

SAX fights because she was basically That thing

was basically you from the end of Super Metroid

Completely powered up and here you are without

any powers whatsoever And yeah, you're you're

actually weak to her freeze beam because that

was a weakness of the Metroids So that was kind

of a nice touch as well. That game was really

good at turning the tables on you. All right.

I think we're going to get to the top 10 after

this. Hello, this is Ian James Corlett and you

are listening to the GeekCast Radio Network.

And 580 points on 18 lists. It is number one

on Matt Stewart's list. We have Mega Man. No,

this is not Mega Man X. This is Mega Man. But

does it count Mega Man X? It should. Yeah. And

Legends. And the Game Boy games. Well, it would,

it would Legends, but let me double check. And

the Game Boy Advance games. Oh, Legends. I remember

Legends. Mega Man should have stayed 2D. There

is no Mega Man X on this list. I don't know if

it would count because... Because we broke down

Star Wars into two different categories, like

Star Wars and then Battlefront, because of the

massive amount of games in that series. Yeah.

Well, Battlefront only has three games. No, there's

more than that. There's like, there's like eight.

Battlefront? Yes. Well, no, there's, I looked

it up last episode, there's like eight Battlefront

games. Trust me. So Mega Man. Yes, Mega Man.

Mega Man. So I'm not counting that. Um, Neil?

I have Mega Man Collection. I like all the games

except for Mega Man 4. Really? Just the charge

shot? Well, the charge shot is fine. That's not

the problem. The problem is that the game is

kind of unbalanced. Like, there are some levels

that are stupidly easy and then others that are

just cheap as hell. It's just like, it seemed

like the one where they got the charge shot in,

but otherwise they didn't really try. Like, uh,

Toad Man. I mean, come on. You get to Toad Man

and he has the easiest boss pattern of all. He

is the one boss where you can go to and he never

hits you because he's just an idiot. He's got

no AI. He just jumps over you and you hit him

and you just keep doing that. I thought Skull

Man's stage was kind of boring but, you know,

I'm kind of begging on Mega Man 4. It's like,

I'll say this, it's like the least good of a

good franchise. Mega Man 5 is really good. Like

the later ones, everyone talks about the first

three, but the later ones are actually kind of

good too. I like Mega Man 5 and 6. I like the

designs in those games for sure. Yeah, they're

really, they're actually really, they've got

really good graphics for NES games. I mean, it's

like, holy shit, I didn't know NES games could

look this good. I have nothing bad to say about

the Mega Man games. I enjoy playing the NES ones,

but I mean, if it's not part of this collection,

the only thing I can really chime in about is

Mega Man X, because that's where I actually started

enjoying Mega Man games, because I like the mechanics

of those games, like, you know, building up your

suit and as your character kind of upgrades himself

throughout the game, more so than just collecting

powers. But I've never not enjoyed a Mega Man

game. I didn't much care for Mega Man Soccer.

But that's a thing. Mega Man and me, long history.

First three games are some of my favorite of

all time, probably two and three. One of the

big things I love is a lot of the spin -off media

that's come out of Mega Man, not just the cartoons.

But one of the most influential things in my

life in the last five years is a band called

The Proto Men. which is a Mega Man rock opera.

It's a religious experience to hear them have

a gritty retelling of Mega Man. It's something

so unreal as when you listen to the music, they

encourage you to read the liner notes along with

it. So you can see what's going on between Thomas,

obviously, Dr. Light and Albert Wiley. And then

it talks about how Mega Man and Proto Man fight.

There's one line where it says, you came here

to save mankind and to save your brother. You

realize now you can't do both. And it's so incredibly

emotional and it ranges. from hard rock to country

to opera at times. And it's just a phenomenal

piece of musical performance. There's also another

band called the Megas, which takes music from

Mega Man 1, 2, and 3 and updates it into something

absolutely astounding. I guarantee you listen

to those albums once a week. Doesn't Mega Man

also do Mega Man stuff? Yep, Mega Man did Splash

Woman, which was featured on ESPN and on WWE.

He does a lot of really cool Mega Man -inspired

raps. The Mega Man games that came out on the

PS3 and Xbox 360 with Mega Man 9 and 10. Great

updates to those games. Also keeping the 8 -bit

style. Mega Man X series. The first four games

were good. Everything else is dogshit. Even the

Battle Network games actually have their own

little kind of place. Some of them are actually

really, really, really good. I actually would

argue some hidden gems. Even the Mega Man fighting

game, cheap, kind of weird, but kind of fun to

actually play. Yeah, Mega Man ultimately deserves

a place in the top 10 for sure. It's sad that

Capcom has treated that franchise with such disdain

over the last couple of years. Yeah, I'm surprised

we even got the Mega Man collection. The guy

who created Mega Man left the company, and now

he's doing Mighty No. 9. Well, we'll see what

happens with that in just a couple of weeks.

Vaporware. I loved the first four games. Five

and six were a little strange, but... I like

those two, and then I immediately go to Mega

Man X, the original Mega Man X game. I can play

that for hours on end. I did try Legends, and

as I said before, Legends is... It was a little

weird at first. Did you ever try Tron Bon? No.

That is good. Rare as hell, but you can get it

on PS9 for like five bucks. Steve? Mega Man?

I'm not a fan of any of the actual Mega Man games.

I like Mega Man X. Like, I've played the entire

Mega Man X series and beaten it. I don't care

for the actual original Mega Man series. Even

2 and 3? I don't like the... the way that it

plays, like, with the character. I don't like

that I can't crouch or climb up stuff. I don't...

It's not... I grew up... You can't shoot up.

What's that? You can't shoot up. Yeah, I like

Mega Man X based on its mechanics and how it

it plays and then its graphical differences from

it So that's that's the one I stick with that's

okay Steve. We're in the right here. They're

in the wrong Yeah, I'm just gonna say this axle

Yeah, I got zero Yeah, but then they turn them

into a whiny bitch baby, although the Mega Man

zero games underappreciated I've played the Mega

Man X extreme and Mega Man zero games. Yeah,

I liked I liked the remake of Mega Man X that

was on the PSP Mega Man Mavericks Yeah, Connor

that was that was a really cool update I wish

I had kept going down that line, but you know

doesn't sell well There was another Mega Man

game for the PSP called Mega Man powered up They

were gonna do a sequel to that bike. Basically

if you beat cut man and you didn't kill him like

using his weakness weapon if you could kill him

with your actual plasma cannon you could repair

him and play as him you could replace any of

the boss characters that's a game that center

kept going but once again if it doesn't equal

sales there's no money on it yeah I almost I

can think of and this is really really sad I

think we can all agree Ian James Corlett is the

best mega man but Because the Mega Man and Captain

N was just... But that was a really fun episode,

though. Yeah. Happy birthday, Mega Man! With

the original music, though. With the original

broadcast music. Yeah, that's... yeah. Yeah,

those pesky DVD, TV, music, right things, and

Mega Move. Although, Mega High! But yes, from

Mega Man, check out the Proto Men, the Megas,

Mega Ran, Splash Woman, all good stuff. There's

only one piece of Mega Man media that should

be cast into the depths of hell, and that would

be the GameCube port of Mega Man Anniversary

Collection, because it swaps A and B, and it

is infuriating. Oh, I know. It's impossible to

play that. Fuck that game. The Xbox One takes

out the glitch in Mega Man 1 to kill the Yellow

Devil. It's now infinitely more difficult. Last

time I played a Mega Man game, or Mega Man X,

I mean, was when I had a PS2. And the other reason

I quit playing was because my PS2's memory card

died on me and I had every Mega Man X game that's

on the PS2 lately and I didn't want to play them

again, so... Legends, like I said, I love the

classic games. I don't remember every single

villain from those, but the Legends games had

good music and good story. I just... Now I'm

okay with the 3D, but I remember back when I

was originally playing Mega Man Legends 1 and

2, I couldn't get past the 3D back then. It was

just too weird, because Mega Man's always been

a 2D character. Mega Man Volunt doesn't get nearly

enough love. And that's sad. Did you say Mega

Man Walnut? That's what the letter is called.

I think we've talked too much about Mega Man.

Yeah, I think we should move on. All right. Yes.

Mega move on. Coming up next with 595 points

on 15 lists. It is number one on my list and

Ethan Higgins list. It is... Mass Effect. Ah,

yes. The series that is tattooed to my right

arm. N7? Yup. Me and my friend Tiffany have matching

N7 tattoos. We are squad members for life. She

is my shepherd, I am her garrus. It's awesome.

I love this series so much. I've got such a history

with this series. Let me see when I got the swine

flu back in 2009 I was in quarantine for three

weeks. I played a shit ton of Mass Effect 2 I

later became friends with actually Commander

Shepard. I'm actually friends with Mark with

with like Mark Mir I played D &D with them a

couple of times I've played the games from start

to finish an infinite amount of times. Microsoft

used to give me Xbox points for free. I would

have spent well over two grand on Mass Effect

3's Supply Drop system. I was ludicrously overpowered

in that game. I think I was actually ranked in

the top 100 in the world at one point. But yeah,

the series, the storytelling, phenomenal. Not

as much tie -in media as I would like. There

are some books and comic books. There was a movie

called Paragon Loss with Freddie Prinze Jr.,

who plays James Vega. Surprisingly good. I actually

really, really like that movie. It's an incredible

series. Definitely the best RPG system that was

a Microsoft original. At first, now it's available

for like everything. And we should learn more

about Andromeda later on this year. I, for one,

I can't wait to hear about Andromeda. But I,

since you gave me the games, I am a fan of the

Mass Effect series. I like the the gameplay.

I like the designs, the entire storyline. Mass

Effect 1, I do have to say, is very clunky when

I tried playing it. I never did beat that game,

but I did skip ahead and I played the other ones

and I enjoyed them. So I was fascinated with

the storyline and how... intertwined everything

went and how galactic everything was and all

the different races and all the different like

missions and it was just a fun game to play through.

Anybody else? I'm genuinely surprised actually.

Alright well let's move on. Ladies and gentlemen

we interrupt the top 50 Video game franchises

countdown part two to bring you a message from

myself TFG and Mike because when they went ahead

and recorded this because I told Steve to go

ahead and do so The night we recorded this my

power Well, not my power my internet Time Warner

Cable had an entire outage in the city of Louisville

scheduled service Outage whatever the hell so

I am not actually on the top eight, but I'll

be back After number one to give my thoughts

on the top eight up next with 599 points on 17

list number three on TFG when Mike's list too

bad he's gone He get ran over by the Grand Theft

Auto Wasted Yeah, he got shot and killed and

ran over by a car so Who knows about this franchise,

because I don't like the games, so I don't play

them. Personally, I haven't played the first

two because they were on the PlayStation. I didn't

get into the franchise until Grand Theft Auto

3. My personal favorite entry is Vice City. Yeah.

Didn't care for San Andreas. Didn't care for

Grand Theft Auto 4. Don't care for Grand Theft

Auto 5, except for the online part of it. I'm

really surprised you don't like 5 because of

the story, actually. uh for me it's okay here's

the thing i like those games as like a playground

um and the online portion of grand theft auto

is definitely a playground the um the world that

they've crafted though i feel like when i'm driving

around it i need to uh i feel bad when i'm running

over civilians and stuff like that whereas playing

um like Vice City and Grand Theft Auto 3, it

was a little more, obviously graphically, it's

a little more comical. It appears a little more

arcade -y than Grand Theft Auto 4 or Grand Theft

Auto 5 does. So I'm like, at that point, a game

like that, I'd actually rather spend my time

playing a game like Saints Row and messing around

in that world. But I do enjoy uh certain game

like certain games in the series like i i just

i loved vice city because i love the soundtrack

um i'd say for me uh definitely soundtrack wise

and storyline wise i really enjoy vice city because

scarface is one of my all -time favorite movies

uh plus i am the 1980s um love that game uh although

i didn't much care for three because the protagonist

didn't have nearly enough personality, but I

did love the idea of all the different radio

stations and Laszlo and all that shit. Oh, yeah.

I love Laszlo. Grand Theft Auto 4 I liked, but

Nico never felt like my character. Although hanging

out down at the burlesque show was a great time

just to see all the different acts come on stage

and going bowling with cousins. The Ballad of

Gay Tony, I really liked. But Grand Theft Auto

V, that was my game of the year when that game

came out. I think it was between that and The

Last of Us, I think came out the same year. But

yeah, that game took me so by surprise. I love

Michael, I love Trevor, Franklin. Although I

didn't much care for San Andreas because I wasn't

into that culture. I'm more so now that I've

seen straight out of Compton. I kind of want

to go give it another try. But the franchise

has done so much. I suck at the online portion

of that games. I kind of gave up on that, which

sucks because I got the collector's edition,

which means I have a shit ton of money and free

shit that's waiting for me. But playing it again

on the Xbox One, was such a treat too just to

see all the extra music they've added in and

all the little secrets you can find like it's

literally a living breathing world i love the

game so much for that plus all the all the machinima

that you can create with rockstar's editor is

phenomenal i remember gopro sponsored videos

created in grand theft auto 5 for a while And

almost all the ad campaigns for those games are

really, really, really clever. I don't know why,

but whenever the ads came up for Grand Theft

Auto V on YouTube, I never skipped them because

the music was so catchy. And if anything Grand

Theft Auto has done right is whoever curates

their soundtracks deserves some kind of an award.

Although I'd argue Grand Theft Auto IV was a

little weaker in that regard. but five did a

fantastic job vice city i think is the best the

soundtracks have ever been and liberty city stories

or not liberty story vice city stories features

and appearance from the from legitimately phil

collins you have to dj a gig of his at a concert

and it's really him so that's kind of awesome

so TFG when Mike called me while you guys were

talking and says he has a scheduled internet

outage That decided to disconnect him and he

says he's played the game for Six years and that

he really enjoys the game. So well, I know Mike

and because he has cerebral palsy He has a very

unique way to play it because he can't hold a

controller like we do the fact that he can do

that and Grand Theft Auto is a game at times

that can depend all upon reaction and precision

control. You can't say precision control and

Grand Theft Auto in the same sentence. I'm sorry,

what was that? You can't say precision control

and Grand Theft Auto in the same sentence. That

helicopter mission. You can't say precision control.

Oh, I just did because it's a pain in the ass.

Unless you're precise, you're going to be restarting

that mission over and over and over again. Grand

Theft Auto has never had precise controls, ever.

Like I said San Andreas that mission I would

argue The there's a mission in Vice City that

requires a good chunk of it, too Where if you

don't take a turn just the right way, you'll

wipe out So, yeah, I'm glad any other comments

I'm glad somebody mentioned the the radio station

because I don't have a lot of experience with

this game, but I I did encounter the radio station

chatter on YouTube. I downloaded it and I illustrate

in my free time and it's really nice to have

stuff in the background and that's one of my

favorites. It's got to be like 10 hours long

to just go through all of the radio chatter from

the entire series. It's really funny. Remember

for let you listen to the radio stations when

you were in a like the sound menu Like you go

and say I want to listen to this radio station.

Just let it play on its loop Can you do that

in five? I Think you can like I think you can

disable certain radio stations if you but yeah

No, it wasn't we weren't it wasn't disabling

rate I never I never went back to the game like

we were We just had people over instead of actually

like listening to the radio while we're entertaining

We turned on the game and we just dove into the

menus and we went to the audio Just selected

a radio station to play without having to go

back in the game. I Think you can actually yeah,

I'm pretty sure but I'm not on that. That was

really cool So moving on we have with 611 points

on 18 lists and it's number three on Scanner

51's list. It is Sonic the Hedgehog. Love, hate

with Sonic. I love the early games. I hate everything

that's like not side scrolling like after Sonic

3. I think I'm going to use my, uh, yep, that's

a game card. Sounds good. Um, I like Sonic CD.

It's probably my favorite. The Game Boy ones

weren't terrible. I was never a Genesis guy,

ever. I never got the appeal of the system. Therefore,

Sonic doesn't... I have nothing to really say

about Sonic, so... I really like the music for

almost all the Sonic games. It's almost really,

really, really good. I actually like some of

the Gimmicker Sonic games, like Sonic Freeriders,

terrible fucking Kinect game. Really catchy theme

song. One good band that's come out of it, I

think, is a band called Crush 40. They've done

most of the sonic themes. I think they did Sonic

Adventure 2 as well. There's one actually Yeah,

almost all the sonic games even sonic are to

a certain extent has really interesting music

so well the gameplay may be fucking terrible

and introducing concepts like shadow the hedgehog

and Charmy the bee and all that shit oh god or

sonic and the nine rings or the arabian nights

remember the fuck it was um you know it's fine

i actually just sold that game sonic unleashed

like yesterday um but yeah sonic games they've

been in a steady decline for years sonic rise

of lyric which was the game that just came out

this past year sold terribly it's a buggy mess

so much so they had to patch it to the game was

actually beatable i think A friend of mine was

doing a spot at E3, and the director of the game

was with an earshot. And he's like, yeah, this

game is shit. And he's on camera. You can see

the director of the game just turn around and

shoot him a look. I'm not going to mention who

this is. I don't want to damage his career, but

I thought that was really, really, really funny.

But yeah, so Sonic, that's a game. Yeah, Sonic

is like that weird friend that you used to have

a really good time with but you see him nowadays

it's like what happened dude, you know, it's

like one of those friends who only calls when

he needs money and That's what meth does to you.

Yeah, it's like Sonic has just fallen on hard

times. So what you're saying is he's had too

much speed in the last 10 years. Yeah Oh blast

processing never did anybody anything I think

we should move on. Coming up with 620 points

on 18 lists and number 3 on TV's Mr. Neil, we

have Street Fighter. Yeah It is names it is the

fighting game as far as I'm concerned Street

Fighter 2 Street Fighter alpha the entire series

Street Fighter 4 Notice I'm skipping one. Oh,

yeah, and the first one is terrible. Oh EX has

been struck from the record, I think No, but

it's I I'm kind of I'm kind of stuttering here

because I don't know what else to say, but it's

just like it's just it's the definitive game.

It's the quintessential fighting game. Yeah,

that's all that's really that's all you really

need to say. Yeah, I think this is the second

game that we've come across in the top 10 where

I'd like like Resident Evil. I I know what it's

done for the industry, but I have I have not

played them. I can't I I think I try getting

into the Street Fighter stuff, but they're so

they're over my head with their with with the

complexity. of it and i know that sounds kind

of weird given like the early like especially

given the early uh street fighter games but like

you're either good at that game or you're not

and i'm not street fighter is a game i used to

suck at and i only used to play with with a pad

because i'm an unwashed scrub and then i started

playing street fighter four because i got the

game for review and mad cats is a company that

makes these really high in tournament sticks

So they sent me a TE -Ford with like, Sanwa parts

and Sanwa buttons, which is a really high -end

Japanese manufacturer of joystick parts, only

second to Hori, which is another manufacturer.

And I started playing competitive Street Fighter

for probably about a year and a half. I used

to watch EVO, which is the huge competitive fighting

tournament that happens in Las Vegas every year

in July. One of the coolest things I ever did

with Street Fighter, this was on my bucket list.

I was in LA for the Spike TV Video Game Awards

about five, six years ago. I got to go into a

Japanese arcade where some of the really big

Street Fighter players hang out. and play Street

Fighter IV on a candy cab, which are the Japanese

-style sit -down cabinets, and actually beat

legitimately good players, like my friend Alex,

he's made it out of pools before, excuse me,

at Evo, playing against just ordinary people

there. And Street Fighter taught me to appreciate

joystick controls, because everybody knows that

down to forward, punch button that's the Ryu

fireball or down to back is his hurricane kick

or the really weird movement I can't even describe

but you know what the Shah Rukin is stuff like

that um it's like I said the complexity is it's

like chess there's a move and there's a counter

move and it's just as much faking out your opponent

as making him do something so you can punish

him Like I play competitive Ken and Ryu. Like

I only play Shoto characters. That means I'm

a very low tier player, but I know what my strengths

are. And it's amazing to see what people can

do. Like one game I'm just starting to get the

hang of now in super high and competitive play

Street Fighter 3 Third Strike where you can parry

moves. There's a very famous match on YouTube.

I can't remember the name of the one player,

and I know someone's screaming at me right now.

I know it's Diago, but I can't remember. Justin

Wong, that's it. And it's this huge match. They've

got no life left. And they're parrying these

insane combos. And when you parry, you don't

lose any life. And they're just beating the ever

-living hell of each other for like 30 seconds.

And it's the most intense video gaming I've ever

seen. Like, once you get good at these games,

it's... a treat to know it becomes muscle memory.

You can tell what someone's going to do by the

movement of the table when you're playing with

them. Because when I used to play, we used to

play on these long picnic table -like things.

So we'd have our sticks down. I could tell by

the movement of the way the table felt what move

he was going to do. If he was playing a guile

or a gif or whether he was playing a cigar or

whatnot, I knew what was going to happen. And

I haven't had a video game ever do that before

where muscle memory played just as much a part

as actual strategizing. And it was just something

special. Like, I love Street Fighter. Mad Cats

over the years has sent me probably three tournament

sticks a year for the last couple of years. Each

time there's a Street Fighter game, I usually

get a stick from them. And they're some of my

most treasured possessions. I actually let one

go this year. Which was my first te I let it

go to a friend of mine, but I modded the hell

out of it It's the game Street Fighter is the

game that taught me how to mod arcade arcade

cabinets to make my own sticks the beauty of

having a Having an eight -way gate in your joystick

as opposed to a four -way the difference between

the different button manufacturers It's uh It's

something special if Street Fighter can get your

way into your gaming headspace, you will be so

rewarded if you take the time to make it special

for you. Street Fighter V tries to recapture

that, but even Capcom's CEO has said maybe we

should release our games more polished, to which

I say, yeah, no shit. Because Street Fighter

V should not have shipped in the way that it

was. But Street Fighter IV... Super Street Fighter

IV Turbo is my favorite, then probably Street

Fighter Alpha 3, then Super Street Fighter II

Turbo. And Arbo mentioned Gem Fighters, and I

guess the Marvelous Capcom series, but that was

covered very early on in this list. That two

video that you just described, that's the one

where the guy's got no health left, and he parries

a 70 -hit super combo. which is insane in itself

but then he counters with his own yeah and the

crowd in that video just goes nuts oh yeah like

it's so cool if you know what's going on there

you're like oh my god it's oh it's it tingles

that being said i think we should move on coming

up next on the list with 630 points on 17 lists

on hailey bailey's list is number one Coming

up on number five is Halo. Oh Man I've played

the first one and then that's about the extent

of my experience with it. Honestly, you should

play up to three Ignore everything after that.

Well, I disagree with that one. I like I I played

one through one two three odst and reach Oh,

right, right. The only ones I enjoyed out of

those five are ODST and Reach because those are

the only two that have a story I could understand.

I'd say three, but I see exactly where you are

coming from because ODST, way underappreciated.

I feel like they took the time to tell a story,

like most of the time when I have conversations

with people about the Halo franchise is like,

I will never knock a Halo game for its controls.

They play beautifully. Oh, yeah. But I always

knock them on story because everyone's like,

oh, the story is great. And I'm always like,

well, OK, I guess I'm missing it. And every response

I get is, well, did you read the books? Yeah.

And I'm like, OK, no, we're not having this conversation

because I shouldn't have to do that to understand

what's happening in the game. Yeah, you shouldn't

need more lore to explain a game to you. So like

I, but I like, like I enjoyed playing, they felt

good to play. So I, like I said, I've played

five of them, but the only ones that drew me

in from a narrative perspective that I felt like

was a whole complete game, which wasn't just

me going from one locale to the next, just shooting

bad guys, is ODST and Reach. Yeah, I completely

agree with you on that. Reach. Had a really cool

it set the tone For what halo was going to become

in their guards that you got the idea the plan

of reach was fucked When the covenant invaded

and just seeing the members of I think it was

noble team. I think was the name Just seeing

them go down one by one and even one of the deaths

is so Pointless, but it illustrates. That's just

how war goes There's even a few moments you're

like, oh my God, I can't believe that guy's gone

sort of thing. And ODST has probably the best

music in that series, especially when you're

wandering through the streets of New Mombasa

at night. It's got this really weird, smooth

jazz feel, but it's so beautiful. Halo one, two,

and three. Our good games is in terms of telling

it from the perspective of the Master Chief,

but there's a lot, as you said, that the lore

leaves out, which is unfortunate. Halo Wars is

one that nobody talks about, but there's a sequel

coming out later on this year. Good game. Like

I said, no one played it. Spartan Assault is

the one that... Okay, it's a thing. This year...

They're trying to continue the next trilogy again

to the halo for halo five guardians Halo five

had the most misleading advertising campaign.

I can think of in modern memory because in the

campaign advertisements where it's supposed to

be Master Chief first or Spartan lock and they're

supposed to be the chief is a criminal and on

the run and at Probably a couple hours into the

game lock and the chief meet up and their epic

conversation comes down to a cutscene And I'm

gonna play it out for you master chief. You're

you're a criminal. You need to come with me.

No Please no That's it. And then he punches him

in the face Cracks his visor the chief locks

down lock and runs away and then Cortana is the

bad guy It's fucking stupid But the multiplayer

for five is awesome. But everything else is dog

shit. I will remember seeing footage for Halo

4 and saying, I want a Metroid Prime game. I

can see that. I can see that. Just like the visor

system and stuff like that. I was like, oh, why

is this not Metroid Prime? 4 had a really good

multiplayer, and they tried to bring it back.

I know this year with multiplayer for 5, MLG's

putting a lot of money into it, but it hasn't

felt the same to me than it had in previous editions.

And when the Master Chief Collection for Xbox

One never worked right, oh my god, that was such...

a disappointment too. And I'm really sad they

didn't bother to include Reach in that collection.

Like that's the one that should have been remastered.

But I guess because it isn't the chief story,

so to speak, I guess I can see why they're only

focusing on the Earth covenant war. So it is

what it is, but hey, we get Halo Wars 2. So that

being said let's move on for Next up on the list

we have with 690 points on 19 lists It is number

two on Doug Abels number one on TFG one Mike's

and number two on Eric Hutchinson's it is metal

gear Extensive experience with this franchise

Cliff Notes Edition. I've interviewed David Hayter,

who was the voice of Snake, now it's Kiefer Sutherland,

never to be voiced again. The games are amazingly

weird, because Hideo Kojima is a master storyteller

and a psychopath, but they're... But almost all

of them are really good. Phenomenal music in

all of them. I think the highlight of the series

for theme songs was Snake Eater. Although Metal

Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty had a theme song

done by Harry Griggs and Williams, who does a

lot of music for Hollywood stuff. I think he

scored Enemy of the State in a few other really,

really big movies. It's such an interesting story,

too, because they try and tie in the original

Nintendo games and PC Engine games to the current

ones. They ignore Metal Gear Acid because that's

technically alternate reality and Metal Gear

Gaiden or whatever. But they include stuff like

Peace Walker. They actually did updated versions

for consoles, so you can play there as well.

The latest release Metal Gear saw the Phantom

Pain. I can't remember a game that got me that

suckered in for so long because you don't have

to play tactical espionage if you don't want

to you want to go in like fucking Rambo you can

do that and my god is it fun interesting characters.

One of the things that Deo Kojima is known for

is creating really interesting side characters,

like Dr. Hal Emmerich or Otacon, one of the greatest

video game sidekicks of all time, and he's a

legitimate person. There are parts of these games

that will make you cry. Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons

of Liberty, there's a moment where one of the

supporting characters dies. And it is so fucking

sad to hear one character's response to it because

the emotion in the guy's voice is so genuine

and real. You kind of wonder if that's drawn

from a real experience. And then you get just

these great military action games that don't

necessarily need you driving around in like Abrams

tanks or anything, but you're just wandering

around with your cold 1911 pistol. wandering

through the jungles of Vietnam or sorry like

northern Russia or some shit like that whatever

um or just experimenting with cool technology

and like Metal Gear Solid 4 with their adaptive

suit thing or fighting uh the beauty and the

beast unit or one of the coolest things the Metal

Gear series has ever done was for the Gamecube

and for the PlayStation 1 When they had the Twin

Snakes and Metal Gear Solid 1, there's a boss

character you fight called Psycho Mantis. If

you place your controller on the floor, the character

in the game will move it. And depending on what

games you've played, he'll read your memory card

and say, I see you like playing Ape Escape or

some shit like that. And to beat that boss, you

have to plug your controller into controller

port 2. Otherwise, he quote unquote reads your

mind. I've never seen that happen outside of

a game, outside of maybe Eternal Darkness Sandy's

Requiem, where the game fucks with you. So it's

an amazing series. Everybody should play the

modern games. The older ones are optional, because

you can just read up on them. But the lore is

so incredibly deep. Even when you beat the game,

you're going to have to go look up and read what

the hell just happened. But you'll be glad you

did. I love the Metal Gear franchise. I remember

being... I've played but never beat the NES game.

Because again, as a kid, I didn't know what I

was playing. But I remember being super excited

for Metal Gear Solid when it hit the PlayStation.

That was just a fantastic game. I ate that one

up, and I was super excited for Metal Gear Solid

2 when I was coming out. And I remember the demo

disc that came with PlayStation Magazine, which

was basically just the first part of that game,

or the first chapter of that game. That part

plays completely different than the rest of that

game. And not just because of the twist, but

because it's a glorified tech demo for what could

be done. But you never see any of that stuff

again in that game the Three I never played because

special circumstances. I was supposed to get

it for Christmas one year, but my cousin stole

it Punch him in the face because he deserves

it. Well, he he what you know, he doesn't admit

that he stole but I know he stole it because

somehow he ended up with my copy of San Andreas

and Grand Theft and he ended up my copy of San

Andreas and Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metroid Prime

2 But he swears you never stole them. So Anyways,

I so I was never able to play it and then my

buddy for my birthday in 2006 or no 2007 he got

me Subsistence Metal Gear Solid 3 subsistence,

but I had already moved on to the 360 and I heard

like I put that game in my ps2 and I loaded it

up I tried to play it and I couldn't get past

the way it looked on my TV. I was like, no, I

can't I can't do this Love for although that

game ends like three times and they each each

ending gives you like a complete explanation

of a different part of the Metal Gear story It's

fantastic in that regard and they also did a

really cool thing with the PlayStation 3 with

the Metal Gear Solid encyclopedia Yeah, that

was that was really being able to drill down

into specific events and seeing how it connected

to other things in the Metal Gear timeline I

have Five, I liked what I played, but I eventually

lost interest in it relatively quickly because

it's not the game I wanted. I like my Metal Gear

Solid's a little more linear because I'm just

there for the story. And I wasn't, there was

way too much going on in five for me to actually

just enjoy it from a story level. So I eventually

gave up and never went back to it. But I liked

what I had played, but that's just for me. into

it when you get a chance, because it does get

really cool. Although the back half and you can

tell a lot of shit was cut out of it. And Hideo

Kojima actually said, yeah, if I had another

six months, you would have been able to play

this. So the thing is, the thing is with me and

I've learned this a lot within the last few years

is that if I don't play a new game when it's

in the press cycle, like when it's being talked

about on my podcast or like on Twitter or anything

like that, I probably will not. I either won't

play it. Or I won't go back to it like and I

that that's a fault of my own But for whatever

reason that's that's just the way it is and that's

one of the things i'm kind of worried about with

uncharted because it's already out of the press

cycle So Well really quick about the classic

games really fast If you can get your hands on

the msx games whether whether legitimately or

by nefarious means you should play them Although

I I do believe they're on subsistence. Yes. Yep,

but uh Because the NES version of Metal Gear

does not have the Metal Gear boss fight in it

for some reason Yeah, that was really stupid.

You just have to drive a missile and it's over

Maybe they feel asleep when they were making

that So moving on next up on the list with 766

points. That's actually jumping almost 70 points

here with 19 lists You have Chi clover and Kayla

Browning with this as their number one it is

Final Fantasy. Oh my god. This is actually on

here Quickest quickest way I can describe this

game is You take turns Beating a bad guy and

you hit them with your sword numbers pop out.

So Pokemon. Yeah, it's basically Pokemon without

the collecting except you're collecting your

party members I see my I have a I'm kind of a

little bummed that it's this high because I Personally

haven't enjoyed a Final Fantasy games since Final

Fantasy 9. Yeah, that's that's I'm gonna follow

you for that Like I didn't I like seven because

it seven was the first Final Fantasy game I actually

got into is the reason I bought a PlayStation

like I got I was reading some gaming magazine

I saw a picture of Cloud on the bike with a sword.

And that got me because up until that point,

I've been watching my cousin play like Final

Fantasy one, two and three in the US, which is,

you know, six and something else. But I I never

got what he was playing like I didn't. I was

like, I don't understand the appeal of this.

But part of that was like the fantasy setting

and just the graphics of the game that it wasn't

that didn't resonate with me at all. But when

I saw Cloud on the bike, uh in that first screenshot

i was like okay i need to get a playstation i

need to pre -order this game i actually got everything

backwards i actually got the game and a memory

card like three months before i actually got

my playstation for christmas um that's how much

i knew i wanted to play it and i did actually

end up enjoying the game quite a bit didn't care

for eight at all yeah and i hated eight so much

nine was just glad i'm not alone on that anymore

I don't think system can kiss my ass. I think

one of the reasons I didn't like 8 beyond just

my own self, like I watched my friend's brother

do some of the end game stuff like towards the

end. And I'm a big Chrono Trigger fan. And at

first glance, it might not be true. Maybe some

other people that are fans of Chrono Trigger

and that have played Final Fantasy 8 can debunk

this for me. But I feel like the mammon machine

from Final Fantasy from Chrono Trigger ended

up being a boss that you encountered in Final

Fantasy 8 and that really irritated me that they

recycled at least a character from one game into

another and It happened to be from a game that

I actually like really like cherish above all

others Sounds like I hate you so much but the

reason I like this game so much is just Uh, we

already had the angsty teen character in cloud

and squall was He was actually skewed younger

than cloud. I think he is legitimately supposed

to be younger and I think he's 14 Yeah, i've

grown as a gamer and I was like actually insulted

by this character like come on I The other thing

that got me is I made it to the third disc with

the same gear. I'd started the game with I didn't

Get the idea of like I couldn't like you didn't

you did like craft stuff like you had to find

stuff to upgrade your Your stuff and I even grasped

that I was still looking around for like shops

to buy swords and armor and So I made it to the

third beginning of the third disc and I still

had all my swords and stuff I was like, you know

what? I'm done with this So the last Final Fantasy

I truly loved was Final Fantasy 3 slash 6 I remember

being legitimately moved in moments in those

games, and that was back when it was 16 -bit,

when the characters were like 10 sprites high.

To equate emotion with something like that is

incredible. Once again, fantastic music. Nor,

I can't pronounce it like U -Metsu, Nor -bu,

I don't know, whatever. Great. Final Fantasy

VII was the summer of 1997 for me. A lot of great

fun. I've beaten the game, but I never could

kill Emerald Weapon. And I pounded the piss out

of him with Knights of the Round. I don't know

how many times, but I couldn't, you have like

20 minutes to beat him, still couldn't do it.

Final Fantasy VIII burned me real bad. Because

I just I couldn't get into it and I tried The

last Final Fantasy game I gave a chance to and

this is terrible. I tried the Final Fantasy 13

trilogy Christ Final Fantasy 13 is walking down

one long hallway for 20 hours and then the world

opens up Final Fantasy 13 Something about snow,

and fuck that game. Final Fantasy 13 had really

good Rule 34 art on the internet. Thank you,

internet. Yeah, the Final Fantasy franchise lost

me when they started doing sequels to the games.

See, I'd be okay, because you look at a game

like, I think, Crisis Corps was good with Zack.

No, no, that's fine, because it's Final Fantasy

7 Crisis Corps. It's not Final Fantasy 7 -2.

Yeah. Like X2 and all that shit, right? Wait,

that's 12. That doesn't work. Yeah, it gets weird.

Although I didn't mind Lightning Returns for

Final Fantasy XIII. I actually had a lot of fun

because you only played as Lightning. That was

it. I thought that was actually kind of cool.

Final Fantasy XIV Online, I've heard, is really,

really good now. I've got a lot of friends of

mine that actually play that. um but yeah the

the if final fantasy could be described in one

phrase or one word inconsistent uh yeah i'll

also admit that when i see that um the the reveal

announcement trailer for the final fantasy 7

remake that they showed to e3 when i see that

trailer i do get a little choked up because like

i said that was my first playstation game like

that game just resonates with me You know, I

don't buy into it as being like the greatest

game ever made But there's I've definitely got

like a lot of nostalgia baggers for that for

that particular game And I can't wait to play

that game again. I Hope it's good. I'm a little

worried the fact that they're gonna quote -unquote

release like episodic But as long as as long

as it's a complete experience, I'm fine with

it Well, I'm putting my money where my mouth

is and waiting for it to be released all as one

thing Because I'm not taking the risk of them

releasing the first chapter realizing it's not

gonna sell and not finishing the game Well, that

would be a heartbreaker you you watch if they

if they don't chop it up the right way or you

know Two people they might not finish it Before

we move on I'd be remiss if I didn't point out

that just today CinemaSins released a video about

the Final Fantasy movie. Oh spirits within Yeah,

which is one of the most pretentious movies I

think I've ever seen. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah,

but the CinemaSins review was pretty good, so

go watch that. If you want to watch something

funny, go watch Spoonie on YouTube. Anything

having to do with Final Fantasy. Especially when

you can kill a god with a volleyball. His Final

Fantasy 8 review is amazing. Final Fantasy X.

Oh well, it's Final Fantasy VII Machine Abridged

is another thing you should check out. So, that

being said... Was that number two or number three?

That was number three. Okay. Oh my god, there's

still two more. I wonder what they could be.

Yeah, it's pretty much a drop in the hat, so...

This is... I knew it was gonna come down to these,

which makes it not fun. Coming to that's why

you can just say it's a game again and everybody

knows what it is and we move on Coming in at

number two with 854 points that's almost a hundred

more than the last time with 20 lists And number

one on Doug Abel's Scanner 51 and Ryan Altman's

and Eric Hutchinson's list and number two on

TV's Mr. Neil and Kevin Thompson. It is the Legend

of Zelda. Well, excuse me, Princess. Oh, thank

God. Okay. What were you thinking it was? I know

which two it was gonna be. I was just hoping

it wasn't the other way around. Oh, okay. Because

then I was just hanging up. Game over. Yeah.

Zelda for me, I've never, here we go again, I've

never played a Zelda game. Here's the thing,

whenever I make up my mind that I'm gonna play

a Zelda game, or get into one, Nintendo like,

yanks the rug out underneath me. And I lose interest

in the property. So... That being said, I remember

trying to play the Zelda games when they're on

the NES and getting out, not having a magnifying

glass, but I've got my Nintendo Power and I've

got a glass, a water glass. I'm trying to magnify

the map that was in the Nintendo Power so I could

see what, and my cousin and I could try to play

the game. It never grabbed me from an NES stage.

Um, it didn't really grab me on the N64 either,

although I think that was because you were split

between playing as kid link and adult link and

I didn't like the idea. I just didn't like the

idea of playing as kid link. Like I just, I would,

I would have probably would have played the game

if you were adult link the entire time. Cause

I didn't like that. Um, Majora's Mask just because

I didn't care for Ocarina of Time. I, you know,

I wasn't going to touch that. Now, where I say

that I got hoodwinked and I wasn't going to do

anything was with the GameCube version, because

we all remember that first demo reel for the

GameCube, which they showed like adult Link,

like awesome looking fighting Ganon, you know,

with that kind of like that cartoonish hyper

realistic look to it. And then they switched

the game over to the cell shaded book. And I'm

not... Keep in mind, I'm not judging these games

for being good or bad or anything like that.

I'm just saying, like, they switched the art

style on that game, and I immediately lost interest

in it because I didn't want to play a game like

that. And then, with Twilight Princess, was kind

of all set to play that, except that ended up

being a dual -platform game, which was... And

I'm not going to mess with that crap either.

Sorry. 90 -minute tutorial. Yeah, and then because

I didn't have a because I didn't care for anything

on the Wii didn't do skyward sword or anything

like that Now I am looking forward to I Here

we go again. I was looking forward to Zelda on

my Wii U But now it's going to be split between

the Wii U and the NX. So not doing that anymore

Go screw yourself with your Zelda games because

you can't do one and I've given it a second shot

because I picked up Wind Waker the HD version

on the Wii U to try to play that and I believe

I only made it through the tutorial because I

got off the island that you start on but I immediately

lost interest in the game. It did not grab me

in any way and I don't know if that's just like

the Zelda formula because I can play other games

that have the Zelda formula but maybe it's just

like the art style or the direction or something

about them just keeps me out of the Zelda games.

I actually kind of feel you on this. Like, I

am not on the Ocarina of Time Majora's Mask.

Oh my god, it's the greatest game ever. I just,

I don't care for them. I really don't. Wind Waker

I like because of the art style, but I can't

really get into it. Twilight Princess pisses

me off. The We Make is better than it was on

the previous releases for it, which is good.

It does warm my heart that the remake does use

the Gamecube version instead of flipping it like

the Wii version. I do like that they did that.

Although underappreciated Zelda games go to the

3DS and the DS. I like the games on there. A

Link Between Worlds is really good. Although

my favorite Zelda game of all time is A Link

to the Past and then Zelda 2. I like the fact

that it was different. But yeah, Zelda, I like

the franchise. Don't get me wrong. But I keep

expecting more and I've just never got it yet.

I'm wondering what you guys think about this

because I hear this comparison. I see this comparison

a lot, but among my friends that have played

the Zelda games, like I hear this comparison

being made a lot from people that played the

Zelda games and another game that I'm going to

mention. But when I mentioned this series to

my close friends that have played the Zelda games,

they looked at me like I'm crazy and messed up.

But I've heard a lot of comparison between the

Zelda formula and the Darksiders franchise. I

can see that. Being like the dungeon crawler,

you go into a dungeon, you get said special item,

and then you use said special item on the boss,

and then you work your way back out. formulaic

in the Zelda stance. I've heard that comparison

a lot. And I did like Darksiders. I only played

the first one. I never finished it, so I never

moved on to Darksiders 2. Going back, every time

I play an Assassin's Creed game, I go, I want

a Zelda game that looks like this. That's just

me. Well, I'm just going to jump in here really

fast and advocate for the Game Boy Color ones.

In particular, Link's Awakening. Well, yeah,

Minish Cap is good, too. Link's Awakening is

phenomenal. And to a lesser extent, the Oracle

games are good. But what's neat about those is

that, well, they were from the era where goddamn

everything had to be Pokemon. But it's actually

really good because it's two distinct Zelda games

that were released at the exact same time. And

of course, I went out and got them. Blaze through

them. They're awesome. That's Konami, right?

It was Capcom. Yeah Yeah, that was the weird

partnership for a brief time where Capcom was

doing Zelda for some reason, but they're good

And there was that there was also There's also

a remake of a link to the past on the Game Boy

Advance, which was also pretty good They added

some stuff but what I didn't like about that

was that you had to play the multiplayer game

to get into the into the special dungeon and

that was just infuriating because I hated that.

I didn't want to link up with other people, I

just wanted to go in. But thankfully that was

like the last time they did that or at least

until like linking technology was much better

like on the DS and the 3DS where you don't even

need a link cable and most and sometimes don't

even need multiple carts. So anything else on

this? Nope. Moving on we have Who guessed it?

It is a legend no one will forget. Everyone thought

King Koopa had left the Mushroom Kingdom. And

then, his Doomship attacked. King Koopa was back,

with the greatest danger ever known. His Koopa

Kings. Building their new superpowers, the Super

Mario Brothers rescued Princess Toadstool and

beat back the evil Koopa family. Uh, get enough

blubbers! With 1105 points That's Yeah, almost

three four hundred more than the last one on

23 lists. It's number one on Michael Wilson Armando

Trevor Rachel Kevin 11 Mary Jane TV. Mr. Neal

and Kevin Thompson. I want to take a guess Go

for Harvest Moon You are wrong Romance is super

Mario Super Mario Brothers. That's a game What

can we say? That's a game? Yep, I But okay Hotel

Mario for life. I haven't enjoyed a Mario game

since Mario 64 I've played the new the new Super

Mario Brothers on that. We was good. All right.

I like Mario Kart Love the Mario. I like the

Mario Kart franchise more than I like Smash Brothers.

That's why I was kind of absent from that conversation,

because that I love Mario Kart. But I'm just

saying like proper Mario games like I haven't

enjoyed a Mario game since Mario 64. I can see

that. I would really like to see like an updated

version of Mario 64 on like the Wii U or even

if they if they redid Galaxy on the Wii U, I

totally buy that. But. because i didn't get into

the galaxy games because of the motion controls

and stuff like that so i was like i don't want

that in my mario game i don't need that in my

mario game but so in that regard i haven't really

i didn't care for sunshine because i didn't care

for the the squirt gun mechanic but uh i just

remember i've really liked mario 64 i'm i'm really

into the classic side scroller ones the There

we really haven't had anything like that since

Super Mario World and No, the new Super Mario

Brothers games just don't really cut it. I don't

I don't they don't I can't really describe it.

They don't play right for me I don't know what

it is. There's there's a little bit of a weird

like CG kind of a cartoony 3d thing going on

Yeah, even though it's still a side scroller

The sad thing is I can tell it's a different

type of Mario formula just for the fact that

I can beat it Yeah because the regular Mario

games I've never like other than like three I've

never beat any of them and I've come close but

I've not beat any of them the new Super Mario

Brothers for the Wii I've beaten probably three

or four times on my own and then once with my

wife I've never Mario one two and three I've

never beaten properly I've always done the warps

yeah I did that with Super Mario World and could

we throw you does Yoshi's Island count? I say

yes, because both of those games I finished from

beginning to end because you kind of have to

But my favorite of those two I love Yoshi's Island

I I love the mechanics of throwing the eggs.

It was and it looked great too. Oh, yeah, that

was that came out around the same time as Donkey

Kong Country and That game seemed like it was

rebelling against Donkey Kong Country, because

it was like, no, we're not going to go with CG,

pre -rendered graphics. We're going to make this

game look like crayons and rubber. And it's amazing.

And it had the Super FX chip in it, which Donkey

Kong Country didn't use. Yeah, and it actually

used the Super FX chip for something other than

polygons. Super Mario RPG for Life and Mario

Kart. It's a game. What more can we say about

it, really? They're habits of shit Mario games.

I never cared for the Mario Galaxy games. 2D

for me all the way and the kart razors. Although

Mario Tennis was quite fun and Mario Party. I

like the sports games because I feel like they're

just fun to play. Yeah. And I like Mario Party.

Although I haven't played one of the more recent

ones. I'm kind of bummed. The most recent one,

they kind of put everyone in the same car, which

I was like, that's a dumb idea. But whatever.

The RPGs are great. Great sets of humor in those

games. I like Super Mario RPG. Yeah. So, anything

else? Play Mario RPG. Where did Chrono Trigger

land? Did it land at all? I will answer that.

Where's my Rock Band love, man? What the fuck?

Chrono Trigger hit at 107. I hate everybody.

The director of that game said he wants a high

-end remake. I hate everybody that submitted

a list for putting it that low. Rock Band landed

at 74. now i really hate everyone for putting

well i think the problem with chrono trigger

is that you kind of look at it's only two games

it's like it's like the the question i had with

tetris was like is that really a franchise it's

radical dreamers yeah there's there's i would

i'd be more willing to count chrono trigger and

radical radical dreamers as two games rather

than counting chrono cross in that franchise

but i have no is a decent game not a good sequel

to chrono trigger right If it like it like I

kind of said earlier about something else if

it was tomb raider if it had if it wasn't called

chrono cross I probably would have enjoyed that

game because it had a lot in common with xeno

gears and I love xeno gears Like combat wise

where you could save up your action points But

yeah rock band In college all throughout college

i've bought almost every piece of dlc for that

game On my wife's credit card, I think I knocked

up over $1 ,200 in DLC. I love Rockman, man.

It helped me become a better radio performer

because it kept my voice in check. And it was

every night in college. More than Rockman, though,

I liked Amplitude. And I picked up the PS4 version

off of Kickstarter as well for that game. DJ

hero. I love that game. I wish they'd make another

one, but it ain't gonna happen Which sucks. Yeah

guitar hero fell at 53 which new guitar hero

tries something new but it's so different as

When you think you know how to play a guitar

hero, you don't Because it changes up how the

game works and the setlist is not very interesting

Although the idea of a constantly rotating music

channel is cool, but how they do microtransactions

is So Activision as to make you sick and it sucks

the team behind that game. They shuttered their

studio earlier this year I'm sad that guitar

hero was higher than rock band. Yeah, I'm afraid

to ask this but where did Shining Force land?

Fantasy Star! That landed at 120. Well higher

than I thought it would be. One person voted

on it. I wonder who that could have been. You?

Yeah. It's like Shining Force and Fire Emblem,

brothers from different mothers basically. Basically

the same game, both awesome, wish they were on

the list. Fire Emblem was at 85, that was too

late. What about Earthbound slash Mother? I know

Earthbound's not listed, but Mother is not either.

What about the Mana series? Secret of Mana was

on one list, it was at 205. Wow. Props to that

person. All right, so shall we wrap this up mr.

Yep, so How can people reach you on the social

media? Start with that. Okay. Yeah, if you want

to reach me on Twitter I am at Birdman Dodd same

on Facebook and Instagram a little bit of a note

I am taking a reduced workload for the next month

and a half. So just nerd news topic or nerd news

prototypes and altered geek until the end of

July just to give myself a little bit of a mental

vacation and Yeah, so I'm always around. Oh and

I will not be appearing at calm Bravo this year

I'm gonna take a year off to take a little bit

of a mini vacation So sorry, but you have the

terrible warriors podcast You can always find

me there at dice warriors on Twitter or terrible

warriors calm Like powers you can Find me on

Twitter at booth in j81 where you can obviously

send me death threats to get me back another

podcast there But yeah other than that that's

it And TV's mr. Deal on Twitter. You can find

me on peel in daily, which is basically my fictional

character account because my regular Twitter

is kind of I Don't like using it on Facebook,

look up Neil's Classic Gaming and Decian Comic,

and my website, Decian .com. And you can get

a hold of me on Twitter at scp21 so until next

time thank you for listening to the top 50 video

game franchise countdown, please leave your comments

suggestions and hate or love for the the overall

list on the episode post and Until next time

unleash the geek in you Alright folks, as Steve

said, that was the top 25 of the top 50 video

game franchises countdown here on GCRN. I am

TFU and Mike and I am coming in because I've

spent all this time editing the show to add my

own opinion. And I'm only going to start at the

top 8, because that's about where my internet

crapped the bed during the original recording.

Mike the Birdman Dodd said something about it's

interesting that I can play Grand Theft Auto.

I've been playing Grand Theft Auto 4 since it

released. I just like replaying that game. I

just like the mechanics of the game. I'm actually

going to be doing a video here in a little while

to show how I can play Grand Theft Auto 4. Anyway,

Sonic, always love Sonic. I think for me Sonic

at number 7 is the music. Uh, dig that. Street

Fighter, it's a game. Halo, it's a game. Metal

Gear, Metal Gear Solid specifically. The 1998

game was my number one. Uh, that's where I started

with the Metal Gear franchise. I've played Metal

Gear 1, or Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid

2. I tried Snake Eater, I can't stand the mechanics

in that game. Just, ugh. and the camouflage was

just crappy to me anyway Final Fantasy it's a

role -playing game Legend of Zelda a link to

the past is is the only game I go to with Zelda

I can play that in my sleep I love that game

so much and super mario brothers well you know

there's super mario brothers mario to mario three

i love mario world that's a game i can play on

and i've told this story for really quickly christmas

of nineteen ninety two i got a super nintendo

with the super mario world in a much more the

games i spent all christmas night december twenty

fifth nineteen ninety two into december twenty

sixth playing the game. I played it till 3, 4,

5 in the morning. Never went to bed. Absolutely

love Super Mario World. So that's my opinions

really quick on the top 8. Thank you to everyone

who has listened. And who knows? You never know

what the next top 50, top 75, top 100 countdown

is going to be here on the GCN. And now... I'm

gonna go jump in a warp zone. Just shoot them

in the head Head out, I think they're dead Dead

thanks to Master Chief Chief, we're glad you

came We'll all walk around With grunts inbound

But here we found Our say good now With you around

We'll master this campaign We're glad you came

We're glad you came I kicked your ass With a

fatality Everybody wanna steal my kill Everybody

wanna take my pride away You don't deserve it

and your score belongs to me GAME