Discuss! Top 50 games of the past decade (Destructoid article)

First off, if you haven't already, I'd like you to read the Destructoid feature I've linked below. (Start from part one, etc.)

Part One: #50 - #41
Part Two: #40 - #31
Part Three: #30 - #21
Part Four: # 20 - #11
Part Five: # 10 - #1

I hope you agree that this article (see the links above, spread out over 5 posts) was a very
interesting read. Normally these "top" lists are either "best games of the year" rankings (which we're very used to seeing, and usually feature games we're all sick of hearing aboutdue to overexposure) or a "best games of all time" list (which usually see the same old chestnuts like Super Metroid, Symphony of the Night and the original Super Mario Bros. crowding the upper echelons of the rankings).

Sorry, Alucard.
Yeah, your game was fuckin' awesome, but it's time to give others a shot.

Limiting the coverage to just this past decade (meaning 2000 - 2009) keeps the games relatively fresh (excluding the sacred cows of the 8-bit, 16-bit and most of the 32-bit era) while still leaving room for games from multiple generations to represent (the list even includes late-era PS1 games, and has a pretty good sample of Dreamcast classics as well). It also allows cult classics like Katamari Damacy (which would otherwise have little to no chance of sneaking in) to claim prominent positions on the list.

Sing it with me, now: "Naaaaaaaaaa... nanana nana na na, Katamari Damacy...."

Now, Destructoid just loves being controversial (any website that gainfully employs a crazy yet lovable nut like Jim Sterling clearly isn't the conservative type) and there's going to be a lot of arguments about games being excluded from the list, or where they were ranked in relation to
other games. What did you guys like or dislike about the rankings? In any case, reading through that list brought back a whole lot of memories, and as always, I had a lot of things on my mind. I'd like to share my opinions here with you, and hopefully it'll help you reflect on what your own
personal favorites were.

Here goes nothing!

Pictured: The world's finest black guy simulator. (I kid, I kid.)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas! Oh yeah! I've always thought that GTA:SA was the finest installment in the entire series, and it's great to see that many other people feel the same way. The customizability, the sheer size of its open world, the extremely varied gameplay, and the perfect balance of humor (it's Loc, baby!) and balls-out action, San Andreas set the bar so high that even its next generation successor GTAIV was hard-pressed to match it. GTA4 isn't a 10, IGN. But San Andreas? Now THAT'S a 10. It's Grove Street, bitches!

Although there was enough sailing in the game to make you seasick in real life, Wind Waker's best moments will stick with me for a long time.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker was also an excellent pick - this is especially relevant here in the Philippines, where most gamers didn't have access to the hardware that plays it (the admittedly crap GameCube). Admittedly, it wasn't up against much competition - Phantom Hourglass was an OK game. but the one-large-dungeon conceit just wasn't my thing; while Twilight Princess on the other hand was just an overrated piece of shit. Still, that shouldn't dull the shine on this superlative game, which is a close third on my list of Best Zelda Games Ever (behind A Link To The Past and Link's Awakening).

Seriously, if Capcom pushed through with their plan to put Phoenix Wright in Tatsunoko VS. Capcom, I totally would've bought a Wii. TAKE THAT!

Was a big fan of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (the first game) squeaking in at number 48. Being a DS near-launch title, my favorite attorney's first adventure proved it still has the Wright stuff -- it remains an enduring classic, and deserves every bit of pub it gets. It's not complicated enough a game to get ranked much higher than this, but I'm pretty happy about good
old Feenie getting a spot.

One of the most criminally underappreciated games of all time. Plus, main character Jade looks like Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2! That's always a plus.

Beyond Good and Evil is a game that every PS2 owner must play. Nobody bought it (or at least bought ORIGINAL copies. Ahem.), but Rayman creator Michel Ancel really brought his A game with this one. The story is really interesting, the stealth segments are very well done (a rarity in the action adventure genre), the photography meta-game is addictive... I could go on and on about this superlative title, but if you haven't played it yet, I'd prefer that you stop reading, open a new tab on your browser, and download this shit from the usual suspects right now. I'd usually do the responsible thing here and endorse buying an original copy, but the chances of you actually landing one today are pretty low at best. So just play it, enjoy it, then join me in bugging UbiSoft to finally release the sequel.

(At least I can buy an original copy of THAT! Bawi ako.)

(In Samuel L. Jackson voice): "I'm a stone cold zombie KILLAH, muthafucka!"

Resident Evil 4 is another great pick - I mean, it's only the undisputed best Resident Evil game ever made! Yes, it's a divisive game among Resident Evil diehards, as it was the installment that officially cemented the RE series' transition from "survival horror" to its current "action horror" status. And to those people I say...

ARE YOU ON CRACK?!?!?!

After Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Dreamcast), I was beginning to feel that they'd done all they could with the existing formula, as Code Veronica felt overly long, and was a bit dragging at points. Instead of another cookie-cutter installment in the series, Capcom decided to bless us with the most incredible fucking franchise reboot I'd ever seen in my life. Filled with some of the most entertaining action sequences in any game EVER, RE4 basically replaced the "oppressive fear" from the first four installments with a feeling of suspense. It was also a considerably better
game than RE5 - it was devoid of that game's supremely annoying co-op gameplay elements, and was considerably longer.

"You're WRONG!
I know now,
without a doubt,
Kingdom Hearts...

IS LIGHT!"

The first Kingdom Hearts is a game that's very dear to me; the strange combination of Disney and Square turned out to be two great tastes that taste great together. Remembering that cheesy fucktard Sephiroth still makes my hand ball up into a fist! KH is also memorable in my view for being the first (and only) videogame that ever made me shed a couple of tears - the ending (and the ending song, which was the orchestral, no-lyrics mix of Utada Hikaru's "Simple and Clean") hit me with massive waves of nostalgia, and I just couldn't help it.

A big part of the fun of modern-day Persona is pretend-macking on all the chicks. The main dude is always getting a lot of action, despite dressing like Big Gay Al half the time :-)

Persona 4 is my favorite RPG of all time. In fact, if Atlus R&D1 ever got off their asses and made a Persona 5 for the PS3, I'd happily ignore Final Fantasy XIII just to play it. Hell, if they just remade Persona 4 (or Persona 3: FES for that matter) for the PS3 with HD graphics I'd still buy it in a heartbeat, no matter how much they asked for it. Needless to sayI'm quite happy with the fact it's way up there on the list in terms of ranking. Great dialogue/localization, fantastic soundtrack, swabe din ang graphics, and the usual great gameplay.

It may not look all that special, but Lost Odyssey was (and is) one of the finest RPG's I've played in this current generation. See? Not everything Sakaguchi did post-Final Fantasy sucked balls after all!

Lost Odyssey was another excellent choice; in many ways, seeing as LO was a Final Fantasy game in all but name, I consider it as a much-beloved "lost chapter" in the series. Great story, characters, and gameplay, plus it was long as hell - my kind of RPG. And hey, while it took Square until the end of 2009 to (finally) translate FF into HD, Lost Odyssey has been out for TWO FUCKING YEARS. Sakaguchi had you bastards beat by a mile, you moogle-hugging fools!

Recognize!

Riskbreakers, motherfuckers!

Vagrant Story (which recently saw a PSN release) is one of the most unique games on the whole list; it came, it kicked ass, and summarily disappeared. A sequel was never announced, and the game's dungeon-crawler-mixed-with-Parasite-Eve structure was so strange that Square's other RPG-developer contemporaries at the time didn't even attempt to copy it, so the idea remains fresh. Sounds about time for a remake, or even... a clone?

Paging From Software, paging From Software...

I hope that between this article and the DToid list I've managed to jog some of your treasured gaming memories. It's fun to reminisce, huh? :-)