#5. Super Mario Galaxy 2
Throwback Galaxy
If you never played Super Mario 64, this entry won't do much for you. If you have, this part of Super Mario Galaxy 2 will give you a nice treat. Nintendo knows how to make us feel nostalgic and they practically recreated the entirety of Whomp Fortress from Super Mario 64 and put it into Galaxy 2 calling it Throwback Galaxy. And what a throwback it is.
It's just great to see Nintendo pay respect to a classic stage in the game that showed the potential of 3D gaming to begin with. It was crafted with so much care and will go down in my memory as one of the great video game nostalgic callbacks I've ever seen. No matter how many games Mario's in, he always seems to remain fresh and fun, even when they reuse old stages.
#4. Mass Effect 2
The Suicide Mission
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| A crew of loyal badasses and my Fem!Shep vs The Collectors? Pity the Collectors. |
Not only the best game of 2010, but in my mind, the best game this generation and part of the best new franchise of this generation. Mass Effect 2 was an absolutely incredible achievement in interactive storytelling and action-RPG gameplay. I can't praise this game enough. But which moment from the franchise to put on here? It came down to two moments from each game. From Mass Effect 1, I had Virmire and the final mission. From Mass Effect 2, I had this and "The Lair of the Shadow Broker" DLC which is meant to bridge the gap between 2 and 3. I eventually went with the suicide mission.
BioWare marketed the hell out of this in the time leading up to the release date and it paid off in spades. Everything you did in Mass Effect 2 was leading up to this mission. Did you gain the loyalty of your squad members, upgrade your ship and get to know their strengths and weaknesses? If you said "no" to any of those, people are going to die. And with the Save-File Transfer system, anyone who dies because of a choice you make, is gone from Mass Effect 3.
The fact that BioWare put such an emphasis on make this one of the most likable and deepest cast of characters in gaming history will really make you care if they live or die and make you regret a stupid decision that got them killed. And getting a look into the potential motivation of the Reapers made my day. And the end of the game made me so excited for Mass Effect 3 as I see that enormous Reaper fleet approaching the Milky Way.
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| The game's final image has me salivating in anticipation. |
An incredibly hyped-up finale by BioWare ended up paying off in a big way. I fully expect Mass Effect 3 to usurp this spot if not take the #1 spot when it comes out but until then, this is a great selection for this list.
#3. Bioshock
Would You Kindly...?
2007's Bioshock was a masterful First-Person-Shooter. That said, despite what some people said, it was not really original. It was essentially System Shock 2, one of the greatest games ever, set in an underwater city. Even the twist is almost identical to System Shock 2's except for in one spot when you find out that the words you've been hearing your "friend" say all game, is nothing but a trigger to control your actions.
This was a brilliant swerve that was heavily foreshadowed throughout without fully giving it away until the last minute. It also resulted in one of the greatest genre deconstructions in the industry's history by giving an in-game explanation for why the character is a robot who does as instructed. It also fits perfectly into the game's themes of control and the chains that hold us down no matter who runs things.
And then you get the confrontation with Andrew Ryan who explains everything with his quote, "A man chooses and a slave obeys." If there's a way to pull of a cutscene boss, this is it. You make it fit in with the game and story's philosophy and themes. Bioshock did just that creating one of the greatest game moments in recent memory.
#2. Red Dead Redemption
The Ending
(BIG SPOILER FOR RECENT GAME)
Red Dead Redemption's John Marston is a contender for the best new game character this generation. He's complex, he's a badass, he's sympathetic and he's likable. It's part of what made the ending to Red Dead Redemption so heartbreaking as we see the character that we've grown to love go down in a hail of bullets to save his wife and son, knowing that he was going to die.
Red Dead Redemption's ending was brilliantly well-staged and got just the kind of emotion from me that it was supposed to get. It's an awesome display of badassery and heartbreaking drama that can be hard to achieve in any medium let alone game. In the final shot, nine people can potentially go down, one of them will be John.
Like Bioshock's twist, Red Dead Redemption's ending also fit in perfectly with the main theme of the game and the cynical view that it takes. It shows the Old West is dying and John is one of the last of that period. When the government comes in to intervene and erase that it signifies its end. It's such a great and fitting ending, for such a great game. Redemption well and truly earned John Marston.
#1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The Microwave Hallway
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| Tap that Triangle button fast. |
Solid Snake is a video game icon. He and his father, Big Boss, are two contenders for the biggest badass in video games. And Metal Gear is one of the greatest franchises of all time. We can make jokes all day about how Metal Gear Solid 4 had nine hours of cutscenes. But at the end of the day it was still a remarkable game.
Choosing which moment from Metal Gear Solid 4 was quite possibly the most difficult part of making this list. I could have put in the motorcycle chase through Eastern Europe, the awesome boss fights with the B&B Corps, ALL of Act 4 where you return to Shadow Moses from MGS1, the point where you see two Metal Gears fight, the final boss fight with Ocelot, or the two hour ending cutscene (yeah it's long but it's fulfilling).
But I chose the microwave hallway for the same reason I chose my #2 spot. It is an incredibly combination of heartbreaking drama and awesome badassery which might very well be Snake's crowning moment of awesome. It was a brilliant culmination of all the shit Snake had gone through the entire game. A man with the body of a 70-80 year old goes through the hallway expecting to die as you hammer on the triangle button to keep him going. When his life and stamina bars are both empty HE DRAGS HIMSELF BY HIS FINGERTIPS! Anyone who tries to deny that awesomeness of Snake should be silenced by this scene.
This segment's raw emotion and unparalleled connection it made me feel to Snake rivaled that at the ending of Metal Gear Solid 3. Hopefully those who haven't seen it will get a chance to when I start my planned Let's Plays of the console games within the next few months. Snake, you deserve your rest and your salute.
Well, that's it for this Top 15. I had fun and I hope you all enjoyed this. I'm planning on posting a non-ordered list of 10 other great games this generation that didn't make it on here. And those Metal Gear playthroughs, I am definitely planning though I do need to get the proper equipment and do some testing as this will be my first Let's Play. Until next time, happy gaming.
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