ARPK

Pretty good list but I'm shocked E.X. Troopers didn't get a mention.

@Member_the_game Well, to be fair, so do a lot of gamers. A lot of dataminers are hackers, programmers and/or tinkerers who are looking for a challenge, so this kind of stuff is always going to have an allure to a certain type of person. A hobby’s a hobby.

My only real disagreement is that Kalimari Desert doesn't deviate from the original design. Maybe that's the case for people who didn't play Tour, but compared to its last iteration in Mario Kart 7, this is a significantly different track due to the lap-by-lap adjustments to the circuit.

@NikHogan Did not know about this fix, thanks!

@dkxcalibur You may be in luck. The director of those games is actually working on this one.

And here I almost thought we were gonna get a re-release of cult favorite Touch Dic. A shame.

Wow I am so glad this game wasn't made.

@zbinks @kobashi100

Glad to see a couple folks mentioned these before I did. This is a nice feature of wrestling games, and a couple are quite obscure, but to call these the twelve best wrestling games on Nintendo systems while overlooking historic fan favorites is a big swing and a miss imo.

I mean this respectfully but it's really really difficult not to note the glaring omissions of Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 and Fire Pro X Premium, both of which are widely considered to be among the best wrestling games ever published on any platform.

I love that this man has put more work into voicing a cartoon echidna for one movie than Sega has put into the franchise over the last thirty years

As much as I love Smash Bros and respect Sakurai's talents-- and perhaps because of this-- it's hard for me to not feel like he's been wasted putting the past decade of his life into that franchise. He's such a genuinely creative and quirky director, and while I appreciate him making the most of his work commitments, I also feel like it's been far too long since he's had the freedom to do something truly fresh or revolutionary.

@gaga64 Meteos as well, right?

Are you a bad enough dude to burn some excess braincells? Keep scrolling and find out!

Definitely a lot better after the patches than it was at launch. I feel like the town and characters are a little flat compared to the last couple Story of Seasons games, but it's made up for with the improvements to farming. Especially the leveling up of skills to make things more convenient. Very much worth dipping into as a free trial.

I actually enjoyed these NGPC iterations more than the mainline entries back in the day, so it's great to have them available for purchase. Not remotely as challenging as the "real" Metal Slugs, mind you, but easily worth $7.50 apiece. I especially loved the alternate paths through the campaign and seeing elements of Metal Slug 2 and 3 reinterpreted as a 16bit platforming shooter. Very cool if you're into "demakes".

Really reminds you to take nothing for granted. You've got to appreciate every opportunity to the fullest since you never really know when your time's going to be up.

Much respect to Mr. Kane and his voice work. I hope retirement treats him well and he can regain as much quality of life as possible.

Perhaps more importantly, Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls has a lot of the same bizarre humor and plot diversions that gave Link’s Awakening more “flavor” compared to its relatively serious and straightforward predecessors.

Yeah, I finally had a chance to play this in recent years and you can really feel a lot of the shared DNA between the two. This would be a great candidate for a remake of sorts, although it’s a bit short by modern standards and asking $50+ for it would be a tall order without significant reworks.

@nessisonett Funny enough, I wound up with Sims 2: Pets for DS back in the day hoping that it was a continuation of the handheld universe that ran through Sims Bustin' Out, Urbz, and Sims 2. I could go on about how betrayed I felt when I realized they'd pivoted to shovelware with the release of Sims 2 Pets, but it's like you say: Probably the worst game I've ever played, too.

But to find out where Link discovers the greatest treasure of all-- friendship-- you'll have to play the game for yourself.

@ShaneReactions I think the recognition of a grading service often plays a role, kind of like how PSA-graded first edition Charizard cards can go for ludicrous sums.

@ShaneReactions @HamatoYoshi In this case, I believe the buyer's intent was to purchase a reputably graded and pristine boxed copy of the game. It's for the prestige of owning it. Nothing more and nothing less.

Not what I'd do with my money, but this is definitely what motivates some people.

The problem I have is oddly enough not that someone spent over a million dollars on this, since some people who play with this kind of money are going to make frivolous and baffling purchases no matter what, but rather that I can see it driving up the "perceived value" of otherwise unimpressive used copies of the game for some time. The used games market is already kind of... not fun right now, even for systems as recent as the 3DS.

I guess I think that there's a lot to take away here. There's definitely an argument to be made for preserving pristine copies of these games as a piece of history, and their value in that respect speaks for itself. But the average person shouldn't fall prey to the delusions that their copy of Mario 64 has some kind of bankable value.

@Jey887 I was about to say A Link Between Worlds! None of the "3D" Zeldas come to mind, however.

@JayJ No worries, at some point the simulation will give us "Top 10 Anthropomorphic Crabs"

@moodycat Oh my god, to this day I have no idea how 4Kids slipped that one through.

@JayJ Haha, looks like we found the crabbiest reply!

Well, I guess if you need something to write an article about this'll do you in a pinch.

@TheAwesomeBowser We don't need no water, let that poke-y-man burn

@moodycat While you and I have different standards, I really appreciate the insight and line of reasoning you've provided. Wish it was more common in these types of discussions!

All I'll say is that it's fundamentally bizarre that a medium like video games, which typically offer about 8-20 hours of entertainment at the absolute minimum, is constantly subjected to this level of scrutiny when it comes to cost. Meanwhile, the price point of AAA games has remained static for nearly thirty years in spite of inflation, while the cost of producing said games has gone up. Yeah, they nickel and dime you in other places but at the end of the day, if you don't think something is worth paying for, then don't buy it.

I'm actually more than a little taken aback by the low community scores for the DS versions of Proving Ground and American Wastleland. Those were both exceptional handheld Tony Hawk games and really demonstrated why the remasters of THPS 1 and 2 were in such good hands with Vicarious Visions.

"Advancement"? Sonic Advance remakes confirmed!

@SwitchForce Chill out. I read the article. Maybe you should go back and re-read my comment, since it seems like you're the one who's confused. I understand perfectly fine what happened — and this is why companies have permissions departments and acquisitions coordinators in the first place. It was likely an honest mistake, but it's one Capcom is now liable to pay for and rightly so.

In the future, I'd also suggest being more specific about what you're talking about instead of just referring to every subject with the word "they".

That being said, I'm curious how many people here defended Nintendo's rights to sue a rom distributor for damages yet are dismissing the rights of an artist to be paid by Capcom despite the company's unauthorized use of her work.

Not much I want to add to the conversation at this point except that it's extremely common to sue for damages at the highest plausible figure and then settle it down to something more viable.

What makes this legitimately interesting as an argument, and where I think a lot of people falter in their comparisons, is that we know when you steal a physical product there's an implied victim. Of course you can't get a phone, a car, or a game console for free, because either the manufacturer or current owner is expecting payment in order for the goods to change hands. That's how markets manage to work in good faith. But I think the line is much blurrier when you're talking about downloading a copy of someone else's archival copy. The issue, as always, is the scope of the distribution and just exactly who is getting paid for it. To use an old example, no record label would care if I was burning a few mixes to share with my friends. But if I was burning albums by the hundreds and selling them for money, then they'll see me in court.

@Luigisghost669 Classic false equivalence. If a company discontinues a product or doesn't make it available for sale, there's no reason someone shouldn't be able to make an archival "chair" for their own purposes, especially if they've bought the "chair" in question once already. The issue that comes into play is when you or I take someone's copyrighted work and start selling it for personal profit. At that point, it's reasonable for a copyright holder to claim material damages and they're going to look toward the person or entity who was paid for the service.

@Goat_FromBOTW I'd just like to add what everyone's thinking: "Holy crap a talking goat"

@Zuljaras Bold list. I like it!

It's amazing how much shovelware there was for this system. I think a lot of top ten lists would look pretty similar due to its short lifespan and relative few quality games. As much as it sounds like I'm knocking it, though, Metal Gear Solid, Mario Tennis, Wario Land 3, all the Zeldas... the cream of the crop for the GBC still hold up really well today.

What really blows my mind is that in our year of the lord 2021 this game somehow doesn't have rendered shadows. Check out those little circles!

Wow, I can barrel-y believe it!

This makes even the most painfully unfunny Robot Chicken sketches look like high art. I know they've got to be banking on meme potential here, but it's not even funny in an ironic or postmodern sense. What a complete miss.

Mega Man 2 might not be as polished as some of the later NES sequels but it's still the most inspired and iconic "Classic" entry in the series. It's incredible how varied the level design is, and the Wily stages don't drag on for too long; something the following games, even as early as Mega Man 3, would struggle with. As far as X goes: X, X2 and X4 are all really strong, even with the latter game's iconic degree of cheese.

I'm a big fan of Rockman and Forte for the SFC but honestly I'd give the GBA port a 4/10 on its best day. I could go on and on about why that version sucks.

Oh, and like @outsider83 mentioned, I'd love to see Mega Man 64 on here. Solid port of Legends!

@nessisonett I feel you. I think it's also a crime that we never got Virtual Console or remakes for some of the better Virtual Boy games when the 3DS was a perfect fit.

Okay but where's Wario World

@Kieroni I mean, that's fair. When I say "casual", I'm thinking of the genwunner stereotype. You know, the folks who played R/B/Y as kids but grew out of it and never looked back. There was a pretty consistent marketing push of first-gen Pokemon during Gens 6 & 7, and I'm probably looking for a way to rationalize TPC's decision-making process. Still, those lapsed fans are a rapidly declining market share, and there's no guarantees they buy the games or merchandise in the present day, even for their kids. The modern casual market is more likely rooted in Pokemon Go, and a lot of that consistent userbase lacks any nostalgia for Gen 1. So I get what you're saying. It's hard to quantify and probably not worth making generalizations over.

The data sampled for the poll is pretty interesting though. Twitter's popularity in Japan peaks around the same level for the combined 13-29 demographic, but sharply declines for each age demographic after that. If we're assuming the relatively small number of users who were polled are being honest with their choices, they're pretty interesting picks.

It kills me that in all likelihood, the takeaway from Gen 5's (relatively) weaker sales was that they need to cater to the casual audience that's always going to hold Gen 1 on a pedestal due to nostalgia.

Meta-defining move from Game Freak, can't wait to see how this shakes up the game.