Ghoumy’s Top 500 Games (2020 Edition): #300-#201
The following games are ones that I definitely like. Keep in mind I didn’t even bother listing a lot of games I’ve played and didn’t like enough to finish. We’re headed towards greater games here:
300) Windjammers
Super action flying disc battle game is not necessarily the most content-packed experience but it is a refreshing one. Facing friends in this relatively easy to play game made for a few good afternoons.
299) The Krion Conquest
Also known as Magical Doropie, you’re basically Witch MegaMan and that’s pretty cool.
298) No More Heroes
As a fan of boss battles I really enjoyed the action of this game. Unfortunately, everything around getting to the boss battles could have been better.
297) Journey
What a beautiful little game especially when you’re able to find a silent partner to join you. Short and sweet.
296) Pokemon Snap
Taking photos is a pretty cool game mechanic and this game does it well. Figuring out how to get the Pokémon to help you find more Pokémon or unlock hidden passages is something I look forward to when they release the follow-up to this game.
295) Bionic Commando (NES)
Swinging around feels great even if it’s in reality very clunky.
294) Goldeneye 007
I find it a little hard to go back to these days, but I still really admire what the team at Rare made here. It is the blueprint for some of my favorite first-person shooters.
293) Braid
It took me some time to be a Braid appreciator. The rewinding time stuff, while very neat, loses me later on in this relatively short game.
292) Sonic and the Secret Rings
Besides having the strongest and angriest version of Sonic this game did interesting things with Sonic that I remember fondly enough but bet if I replayed it would be annoyed with. Such is the fate of early-Wii motion controls. I would like to see them try this format again however (no, not like Sonic and the Black Knight) where you equip a large variety of modifiers and play through levels branching out to many different paths to accomplish your mission.
291) Oniken
I want to say this is a game I really like. However, I can’t remember any of it. There is some solid NES action-platformer in here, but it really is just a blur that I remember being favorable to.
290) Mortal Kombat XL
Props to the Mortal Kombat team for making so many new characters, but I didn’t fall in love with playing the game the same way I did with the previous entry. The variants are a neat idea but added a lot of knowledge you had to brush up on to keep up with your opponents. Fatality Tokens are a sin.
289) Jackbox Party Pack 5
The revitilization of the classic game, You Don’t Know Jack, makes this a strong pack but then you consider things like Split the Room’s great hypotheticals or Mad Verse City’s robo-rap then it’s one of the best packs. Zeeple Dome is ambitious but also unplayable.
288) Flower
This game is absolutely gorgeous and it is the only game that made me respect the SixAxis technology on the PS3 controller.
287) MegaMan X2
It’s hard to follow-up such a strong first game in a “new” series, but X2 manages to do well enough as you deal with the fallout of Zero dying for the first time. Good levels and reoccurring baddies who want to get in the way of you bringing Zero back make this entry a good time.
286) Resident Evil 3
This game didn’t necessarily start the “what if the bad guy chased you forever and never died” thing, but it did it pretty well. Running from Nemesis is the best part of the game in an otherwise weaker Resident Evil entry.
285) Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
There is nothing amazing or bad about this game. It’s a very pleasant Mickey platformer.
284) Half Life 2: Episode 2
Getting through this game to find out what happens only to end on maybe gaming’s biggest cliffhanger feels a bit anticlimactic these days after people have waited well over a decade to see what happens next. This episode does a good job of calling back to the puzzles and combat that made the base game shine.
283) Grand Theft Auto 3
How could you not respect this groundbreaking game even if I just wanted to drive around and evade the cops. I don’t particularly love doing missions in GTA games, but this game while mechanically clunky outside of a car was a lot of fun to drive around in.
282) Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
This rogue-like is massive, has tons of cool content and things to go for as you progress through it, and while I am not crazy about the poo poo pee pee it is very interesting thematically. I personally could never click with the gameplay or the way it controls.
281) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
This is the most recent GTA I’ve played and while I continued to not care about the story mode I found the advances made over the prior two GTA games to be phenomenal. Adding this to a massive world where you can drive through huge fields or packed neighborhoods made for a wonderful fun when playing it as a sandbox game.
280) Team Fortress 2
I’ve only seen two iterations of this game: vanilla and way past its prime. Experiencing the PS3 Orange Box version of this game was pleasant in a time before I was able to play games on a PC with any competence, but it was very susceptible to cheating and lacked maps to battle on. Trying it on PC years later felt like an entirely different experience and quite honestly I just felt alienated by the volume of things I was expected to know and own.
279) LittleBigPlanet
The level creator in this game was thrilling to mess around with. I recreated a few levels from other games with this, but even if you don’t include the endless user-created levels with an amazing variety you would still have a very strong campaign to play with friends.
278) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The controls have been modernized so while the previous Metal Gear Solid games felt difficult to control at times this was very natural. I think the first two areas of the game are great but the globe-trekking aspect of the story makes you lose that gripping experience of storming the enemy base. I liked the cutscenes, personally.
277) Batman (NES)
This game can be at times on par with Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden as a great action platformer. It feels great to throw the accessories Batman has as well as wall-jump through obstacles and past enemies.
276) Apex Legends
As a lost soul who has yet to experience Titanfall 2, I have been told this game plays a lot like it and that is a big motivator to get around to that game. The mobility feels great as you run on walls, vault over objects, slide down hills, and all while using great gunplay. I enjoyed the idea of giving players class-based abilities for a battle royale.
275) Sayonara Wild Hearts
The best game featuring Queen Latifah that I’ve played. It’s a sweet game that evokes rhythm-based gameplay that is very pretty to look at and listen to.
274) Plants vs Zombies
I haven’t played many tower-defense style games which is a shame because I adore them. This game pulls it off very well with a lot of fun and inventive variety to go with the plants and zombies theme. Not sure how this turned into a shooting game franchise, but that’s EA for you.
273) Mario Party 4
An emphasis on embiggening and emsmallening tends to detract from the game’s strong boards. One of the better selections of mini-games including Bowser’s BIGGER Blast.
272) Sonic Lost World
This game oozes personality and I love it for that. The levels, which in terms of design philosophy having just caught up to Mario Galaxy, are fun and don’t force you to feel like you have to be running 100mph to truly be a Sonic game. The cutscenes and characters made me want to stick around even when there were some control issues.
271) MegaMan 5
This game seemed to be like a bit of a retread of existing MegaMan concepts without doing anything too interesting which isn’t always necessary especially for such a well designed franchise where you could simply be happy with them just making more levels to play through joyfully, but these are some of the weakest stages and bosses of the classic MegaMan series.
270) Bayonetta 2
While it fails to capture the heights of madness that made the original game a delight there is still a lot to love here. It is mechanically a more sound Bayonetta but just isn’t the better game overall.
269) Shantae: Risky’s Revenge
A well made platforming exploration game to be sure. The animal powers while exciting at first definitely grow tiresome after a while.
268) Curve Fever Pro
It’s like competitve Snake (or Tron), but this has lootboxes, weapons and abilities. The skills you can equip to use said weapons and abilities are interesting, but a lot of them don’t feel amazing to use and I don’t know if this game needed to be turned into an Esport this way.
267) Mortal Kombat II
I went into this willing to say MK2 was better than UMK3 and I would still argue that maybe from a technical standpoint I think MK2 is the better fighting game that is better balanced. I don’t know this stuff for sure but in any case it doesn’t matter because Mortal Kombat wasn’t here for the purity of combat. MK2 makes great improvements to the first game.
266) Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
The emphasis on this puzzle game is building up a reserve of blocks and then detonating them and hopefully causing a chain of explosions, and that’s cool, but it’s cooler that when you do it Ryu then does an uppercut on his opponent.
265) Curve Fever 2
The predecessor, as far as I can tell, to Curve Fever Pro was a more pure and fun game as it had a lot of emphasis on power-ups and survival rather than assaulting enemies with abilities. It’s a preferable experience.
264) Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
I was never a fan of them adding the run button, but there is no denying that the large amount of characters, stages, finishers, and stuff make for what could easily be considered as the best Mortal Kombat experience.
263) Kirby’s Air Ride
Making a racing game that only needs one button and a joystick in that time seemed absurd but this game pulls it off wonderfully. The City Trial mode is the real star of the show, but at times you could see the cracks in the foundation of such simple controls in this mode where it was at times difficult to maneuver to where you wanted to be.
262) Crowtel Renovations
This brief but adorable game really doesn’t do anything too amazing, but it never feels bad or overstays its welcome.
261) Super Castlevania IV
The Theme of Simon Belmont is a good reason alone to put this game on a pedestal, but this game does a great job of bringing the spirit of the NES games to the SNES. It gets a bit unfairly difficult later on, but it’s still a great entry in the series.
260) LIMBO
There is such a good mood to this game that fits perfectly with what you’re doing as you puzzle platform around to avoid this terrible spider that is chasing you for whatever reason.
259) Dead Space
The idea that all of the enemies have a stern requirement of needing their limbs removed to defeat them was pretty intimidating but getting past that left me a fun game that definitely erred more on the side of action than spooky which is fine by me. The HUD stuff in this game is phenomenal.
258) TMNT 4: Turtles in Time
This is one of the greatest arcade brawler games because of the amazing presentation of it all. The music and graphics and sound effects are an absolute delight. There isn’t much depth, but sometimes you don’t need all that and it’s just smack enemies.
257) MegaMan 7
This game largely suffers from a common SNES issue where the developers, wanting to take advantage of all the fancy graphics, make the character sprites large and detailed. Unfortunately, now MegaMan is huge and has very limited screen space to react to things as he walks forward. Luckily, the bosses are all cool, adding a store is a great idea, and they made interesting upgrades to search for in interesting ways. It would be among the best MegaMan games if the sprites were smaller.
256) God of War II
I don’t know why I don’t like this game more because it improves on the original in almost every way, but there is some sort of hurdle where I just get tired of it. It’s a shame because this game adds a parry, better mobility, and continues to turn the dial up on the action across the board. I love this series.
255) Pokémon Moon
Easily the best story in any of the Pokémon games, but it came at a time where I have found myself disinterested with the DS. I don’t know if streaming has ruined it for me or if I just had a desire to not play it on a handheld, but it took me years to actually finish it.
254) Mario Party 5
The introduction of orbs revitalized the item-play of the series by letting players try to strategize and effectively turn the entire board into a trap hellscape. The boards are pretty good too. Most importantly they let you play as Boo and Toad.
253) Borderlands
Playing this game split screen was a great time for me and my friends where we could play a shooter together while leveling up and going on a big journey. However, I really don’t like the world of Borderlands. The writing is terrible.
252) Disgaea 2
The sequel to the first game has a good enough story and builds upon the strong foundation that the beginning made. I had trouble liking the protagonist. It’s okay though because the better protagonist shows up if you challenge him in the post-game which is definitely fun to go for. After that I beat Laharl I lost all steam to continue.
251) Read Only Memories
There could stand to be a little more game here, but I got emotionally invested in the characters so the visual novel aspect of the game was fine by me. There is enough to do in the sense of gathering information that it feels interactive enough.
250) Lethal League Blaze
The original is good, but this one adds more depth to the combat, more characters to mess around with, a story mode, and a progression system. I just wish that they kept that one track, Headbangeren, from the first game.
EDIT: It is in the game if you play 6,000 matches. I guess I didn’t like the game enough to unlock it.
249) Zombies Ate My Neighbors
This is a game that doesn’t mind getting you on the ground and stomping on your face. It never lets up and towards the end of the game you’re just frantically running around trying to find your neighbors and hit the exit door before the horrid machine that this game is produces giant ants or chainsaw men cutting a path directly to you. I love it and still can’t believe I beat it.
248) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
While it is flawed in a lot of ways I truly enjoyed roaming the world of the Phantom Pain. I didn’t care for a lot of the base building stuff, but I had a lot of fun sneaking through the desert and a bit of fun sneaking through the forest.
247) Super Mario Kart
The original still holds up today. There are so many tracks with many shortcuts, battle mode is still a blast, and it has a very jolly presentation.
246) Bomberman ’93
This game only came into my awareness thanks to the Wii Shop Channel. It was especially cool to me because it was five players which worked wonders for the times we had five people available to play. It’s pure and well crafted Bomberman action.
245) God of War: Ghost of Sparta
It is very impressive what they managed to accomplish on the PSP as this stands as one of the finer classic God of War games. They had a lot of experience with making the other games and even a predecessor PSP title before this and it shows. They nailed it.
244) NBA Jam
There is no denying this is one of the greatest sports games even if I don’t really understand goaltending. It’s just a great 4-player game and it still feels pretty faithful to basketball even if you can be literally on fire.
243) StarCraft 64
I know this is a very inferior version of this game and I have taken the liberty of listing the actual game elsewhere, but putting one of the greatest real-time strategy games on a console where you can play it splitscreen with a friend is just gonna work. It didn’t work for most people, but it worked for me. I’ve played so many matches of this doing local-co-op and it’s always a good time.
242) 51 Clubhouse Games
This package has a lot of beloved board games in it as well as a few I’ve never played before or only learned with this game’s help. However, it also has a lot of duds in it and it didn’t gain the traction in my household I thought it would. If only it had come out earlier in the pandemic.
241 )Pokémon Go
This was not supposed to happen, but it has become a part of daily routine. Playing this game with my wife is a fun time where we just hang out in the car driving around looking for shinies on community day or search for a raid we can do together. It only stuck with me because I know what Pokemon are. Similar games just bounced off me.
240) Armagetron
Now THIS is a Tron game. It’s a fun little game at that where you can drive first person, third person, basically top down, or however you need to drive your turbocycle. There are team battles and other modes, but zooming around an arena with like seven other beams of light to avoid is thrilling.
239) Okami (Wii)
A very impressive game visually, but I thought it was going to end like four times before it did and by the second time this happened I was about ready for that. Attacking with the Wii Remote isn’t great so maybe I should replay it on another console.
238) Contra
I think the original entry to the Contra series, while amazing at times, is not nearly my favorite of the bunch. The levels where you go towards the screen don’t play great. If it was all the side-scrolling action I’d like it more.
237) Bionic Commando ReArmed
This game fixes a lot of the problems that the original Bionic Commando had, though it kinda helped to expose the fact that the core of the game is just lacking in good design. It’s still very fun though.
236) Mario Golf
My favorite golf game. There is a lack of character balance since the later unlocked characters can hit the ball so much further than, say, original character Sonny. With this aside, all of the courses are interesting, the mini-golf mode is stellar, and the feeling of lining up your shot perfectly so that you hit a fireball onto the green are what makes this game a birdie.
235) Bionic Commando (2009)
This game has no business being good or fun. I really enjoyed the sensation of swinging around the ruined cities. Gunplay is just fine. The dumb story is a bonus. There is a moment where after losing to a boss when you try again instead of saying “Guess I’ll have to fight it,” your bionic man says “Guess I’ll have to f*ck it,” instead.
234) Super Mario Bros. 2
I have no affection for this game, but it is still a great game. It is fun to dig your way through castles or fly across the sky on eggs or whatever else. I find it too unwieldy at times.
233) La-Mulana
I had a lot of trouble proving I was small and thinking of the temple like a blanket. These various puzzles and the actual puzzles of the game were a bit too much for me to handle. However, the gameplay is phenomenal. I required a “coach” to help me solve these riddles, but it was a great experience.
232) Final Fantasy IV
It can be a bit of a linear experience, but it is an overall good one. While there are multiple storylines that aren’t the most original or well developed I liked them all and cared about all the characters (except the bard whose name I forget). Wish it let me tinker more with making my own party rather than basically assigning me who I use most of the game.
231) Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
While the motion controls, lack of a true overworld to move around in, and questionable helper may be cons for this game I would also like to point that the pros include amazing temple designs, great characters, and when the motion controls work they feel great.
230) Marvel vs Capcom 2
I am not proficient in this game to where I could do any sort of combo that mattered, but the huge cast of characters and getting to play as three of them felt so special at the time. It’s a high quality fighter I never managed to understand how to get the most out of. For me it is best left as a snowy day memory from when I was a teen.
229) WarCraft III
The introduction of hero units was something that I really responded to and it made playing this particular real-time-strategy game much more exciting. I don’t like WC3 more than StarCraft, but I will say that the tools for custom maps were much better and you could do some really nifty things in that engine for a early 2000’s game.
228) Magic the Gathering: Arena
There isn’t a fair way to do this because my history with Magic tells me I want to either have access to all the cards I actually own or that I just want to do a draft which is an even playing field for everyone. You can do this, but drafts cost in-game currency and so while I like being able to play the best official version of digital MtG yet, just give me the draft simulator.
227) Super Paper Mario
I never truly understood why people hate on this game as much as they do. Lack of depth in character design and it not being like Paper Mario 1 & 2 aside there is some great writing here and as a platforming fanatic I really enjoyed the gameplay.
226) BIT.TRIP BEAT
I find this game to be unplayable when it isn’t on the Wii. Tilting that Wiimote back and forth to move my pong paddle up and down feels amazing especially when doing it to the rhythm of the music.
225) Secret of Mana
There are plenty of flaws to be found here (especially with the final boss), but there aren’t enough great 3-player games and this one is really fun to wail on enemies with your comrades.
224) Puyo Puyo Tetris
Take two great puzzle games and put them together in a literal sense for an also great puzzle game. I have trouble with the Puyo side of things, but it’s a fascinating combination. The story-mode could be more engaging.
223) Mario Party
The original game in this series is cruel to the player in many cases and perhaps that was always the original intention of Mario Party. I miss penalizing players for losing minigames or the random dice-blocks you could be forced to use. The mini-games are the only thing lacking here and while some of them lay the groundwork for some of the best mini-games in the series there are others that barely feel like “fun.”
222) Super C
This Contra sequel is what it is self-described as: super. I personally feel like it does everything better than the first game.
221) Sonic the Fighters
Listen, this game has a lot of problems, but it is also so different than other fighters such as having blocking as a resource for defense or going “hyper.” Putting it all in the body of Sonic characters appeals to me. I am always willing to play this game if anyone ever wants to and hopefully one day they’ll port it again and give it a good netcode so I can hit stranges with the Sonic clap x OTG spindash.
220) Mario Superstar Baseball
This baseball game is pretty fun! There is Mario shenanighans involved of course, but what you’re getting here is exceptional arcade baseball. With the colorful cast of characters you can put on your team based on their ability and synergy as well as strong baseball gameplay of different pitches, ability to move around in the box for batting, using resources to swing or pitch better, it all leads to this excellent baseball title.
219) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — Justice for All
The cases aren’t as memorable here, but it is more of Mr. Wright’s excellent attorney action and you can’t go wrong there. The psychic locks do a good job of acting as a way to tell when you’ve “progressed” enough through questioning people.
218) Skullgirls
The art style is beautiful and the buttons feel great to slap. The jazz that surrounded this game ranges from haunting to banging. It’s a very technical game that I have trouble wrapping my head around, but I deeply appreciate what is available here.
217) Parappa the Rapper
Parappa was one of my first rhythm games I’ve experienced. Great music and the fun of snapping my words to the button prompts as it encouraged me to experiment with my rapping made for a substantial contribution to my love for rhythm games.
216) Parappa the Rapper 2
Parappa 2 only builds on the great foundation laid before. It would be difficult to say which game has the better music pound for pound, but for Parappa 2 I’ll say having MORE songs, multiple difficulties, and a two-player mode makes it shine brighter.
215) Mario Kart Wii
I love the addition of tricks and motorcycles to the franchise. I am primarily a kart-user regardless, but being able to do wheelies is great. I had a blast going for all the time trials in this game. I’m a big fan of Toad’s Factory.
214) Valorant
Every time I looked at this list I slid Valorant more and more down. I enjoy it a lot and I find it very satisfying to play it at times, but the fact of the matter is that if you’re not at a certain level of skill you’ll feel helpless at times as you spend an hour getting shot in the head and waiting for the round to finish just so you can get one-tapped again. This is one of the most stressful games I’ve ever played, another being League of Legends. The Riot Games pedigree lives on.
213) BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL!
I didn’t like this game as much as a single player game, but playing it with my wife was a magnificent experience. I wish it gave us more tokens to get clothes with because making our box people look fancy was equally important as solving puzzles.
212) Tiny Toon Adventures: ACME All Stars
This is an amazing sports game. I am more partial to the soccer than the basketball, the two stars of the show, but the other minigames round out an overall great time. You always have to have Little Beeper on your team.
211) Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX
The subtleties of this game were lost on me, but what matters truly is that I liked the combat and temple designs. The feather is a really fun item. I am dense and got lost very often.
210) Tekken 7
I have a lot of respect for this game even if I am absolute garbage at it. This game has done the work in being one of the best fighting games of the generation and every new season it continues to improve.
209) Dead Rising
Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll this game is pretty fun to run around and smack a bunch of zombies in. It’s a bit stiff in many ways, but I appreciate it for the mall full of hundreds of zombies game that it wants to be.
208) Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
This game is full of boss encounters, great jams, and your arsenal to take on these foes feels great to use. This game is truly an underrated gem that Capcom mostly forgot about.
207) A Way Out
There is a lot of dumb fun to be had in this game. Me and my prison-break buddy shouldn’t be sitting around throwing horseshoes or playing Connect 4. Of course that is exactly what we did, and it was always a good time.
206) AM2R
This is the best Metroid game I’ve played and it’s not even an official one. All of your tools feel good to use for the first time for me. Hunting down the Metroid is great and even though they’re all a bit all similar it doesn’t really feel that tedious to do.
205) Guacamelee
At a certain point you really do just use the most effective moves over and over, but exploring the world of Guacamelee with all of the tools available is very rewarding.
204) Battleblock Theater
While it can feel a lot like a bunch of pieces slapped together it mostly works out in Battleblock Theater. Customization options are nifty and co-op is fine. The voice-work is also a nice appeal to this game though I get why some find it irritating.
203) Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
The weakest of the main Uncharted games is still a great game. There is a bit of whiplash from too many huge set-piece moments. They are still a blast to play even if it’s a bit too much at times.
202) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
The best PS2 GTA game for sure. The 80’s vibe works to great effect and while it lacks some things from San Andreas that enhance gameplay it’s still my favorite of the three. I love going into the arena for the destruction derby or doing wheelies on the beach.
201) Fortnite: Battle Royale
Whether you like skulking around to get the jump on someone or just being a goof as you launch off cliffs in a shopping cart there is a lot to love here. I bought the Ryu skin because I don’t even play it much anymore but I appreciate that they gave this fist wizard a gun.
Next: Numbers 200 through 101 where you’ll start to see the things I’m truly fond of.
Table of Contents:
• Introduction
• #500-#401
• #400-#301
• #300-#201
• #200–#101
• #100–#11
• The Bottom Ten Games
• The Top Ten Games
