40. Earthworm Jim 2
The reason for the sequel here is that i played this first, before the original. I was a (relatively) small child at the time, and i got what games i was given, and didn't really know what was out there fully. This problem will come up again later.
So, another 2D platformer, but one with a lot of humour, level variation and cows. The first couple of levels are just straight out of any platformer (except with more humour, eg. riding a stair lift while grannies fall at you), but then it starts to change. You have to bounce Pete's baby puppies across a field, go unsuited through a cave and there's a level in defender/Truxton style. Keep going and threre's a level which you use have an inflated head, one based on meat and more. That's not even mentioning the crazy ending. On top of all this too, it's hard. Really hard, like games used to be. I've probably only completed it once after attempting dozens, nay, hundreds of times down the years.
What makes it stand out for me though, is the aforementioned comedy. It;'s probably the first really funny game i can remember playing, nowadays, in many instances, it has gone too far and ridiculously over the top, but in a simpler time like the early 90's, games could just be silly without detracting from the gameplay or story.
39. Red Dead Redemption
It's like GTA in the wild west, hell, it's even made by Rockstar too! It's a shame I don't like westerns then. Yet still, obviously this game did something right to make the list.
This game is what i first described it as, GTA in the west, but that is not a bad thing. You go around, do what you want, steal horses, find a damsel in distress and tie her to the train tracks, go hunting or whatever.There was a great story too that involved tracking down ex running partners and assaulting hideouts (kind of a precurser for the hesists in GTA 5 now I think about it). Then there's a great twist ending too or course, which I wont spoil here.
The multiplayer was fine, good fun, but like GTA 4's multiplayer, there wasn't really enough to do. Unlike the single player where there was lots, but sadly there wasn't some kind of group co-op story or something of the sorts, not that there ever is, but maybe one day, hopefully!
One regret I do have about the game is never playing undead nightmare, the zombie filled DLC. By the time it came out, I had already traded in, and to buy it on it's own disc was too expensive at the time, then by the time it had come down enough, I'd moved on to something else, which is a shame, because I often find DLC content that completely changes what the core game is about can really make a game so much better.
38. Batman, Arkham City
I didn't really 'get' what was so great about Arkham asylum, sure, the fighting mechanics were fun, and had a good story, but other than that, it just seemed boring. The puzzles were easy, it seemed perhaps too linear (not that I have a problem with linear games, but this just felt so forced) and there wasn't much to do. Arkham city changed all that.
Much like the old Spiderman games, you were a superhero in a city, except this time, the city was a big prison. There were hundreds of collectibles with puzzles attached (some of them actually good, although some annoying because you wouldn't have the right gadget at the time, and have to remember where it was and come back later, which makes you think, why not just do all of them right before the last mission, ah well) and enemies to go and brawl with at your whim. There were bonus super villain bosses to be found that you could miss out if you didn't go searching, and there was the great touch of the bat signal leading you to your next mission. Not forgetting the Catwoman sections of the game too, which were a nice change of pace.
The story was great too and kept you guessing who the real villain was all along (they all were really, but I mean the villain behind it all), and the game ended with a somewhat touching ending too, in a weird kind of way. This is another game that has took a franchise that already existed outside of games (not that Arkham asylum was the first batman game, far far from it infact) and made it work. Despite what many people say and think, a licensed game doesn't have to be bad.
37. Worms 2 (1997)
The first in the series to carry the name of worms 2 was what sent worms into where it is today. Okay, people wouldn't look at worms revolution (released 2012) and say that they must have it, but everyone knows that they are fun games, especially with friends.
This game gave you so many editing options too, you could create weapons, change the settings (and there were lots), name your own team and squad members and best of all, create your own levels. Many hours of my life were spent playing worms 2 on a level shaped like a cock and balls (hey, I was 10), or somekind of insulting comment to whoever I was playing it with. There were secret bonus levels too, aside from just the random level generator, where if you put a certain code in, you would get a special secret level. I don't really remember where i got these codes from, but i must have found them somewhere because I had dozens of them.
Worms was then., and is today a great game to play with friends, hell, i can turn it in to a drinking game now, but it's still got it's charm (and bizzare racial stereotype voices in the more recent iterations too) and fun and often sense of unfairness when you seem to find everything goes inexplicably against you and you don't really know why. So, I'm not so much saying worms 2 alone should be on the list, but the series should be, and as Worms 2 was the one that set it all in motion, that's why it's here.
36. Championship Manager 01/02
Note, picture not from any game of mine.
Can anyone hear the name Taribo West without thinking of this game? Only if you haven't played it i would assume. I used to spend whole weekends playing this game, blasting through seasons in just a few hours, it was that addictive. There is much criticism of database games, with all the cm and FM series included in this, but this can't stop the enjoyment. It may well be the case that very little of what you do really affects the game, and it's just numbers against numbers generating random results, but of course, you don't think of that while playing. Besides, games are riddled with QTE's now, in fact, games like Ryse are one long example of this, and what's the difference there really? The advantage a database game such as this has is that you can leave it running whilst doing something else and doesn't have to take your full attention to enjoy, making it good to have on while watching something on TV, when drunk or a whole host of other activities (you can think of your own, it isn't hard).
But what makes this the best one? Well, it was the last one before a visible match engine came in, which made the games take longer as well as it getting more complicated and lengthening the time it took to advance. You could decide in half hour on this game if you didn't like the team and wanted to restart, with more recent iterations (Football Manager these days of course) it could take you all day. Granted, I can't really comment on taking a long time on a cm game, I have been playing the same game of CM 03/04 for 5 years, and am 63 game years in. Yet still, I often take a break in it to go play a few seasons of this one.
With the ease and memories, I'm not sure that I have ever played any game as much as i did this in the year it was current (I'm not taking about going back later, because 03/04 would be miles ahead by now), so perfectly streamlined and with a host of memorable names. Whatever did happen to mark Kerr?
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