next »

[DaOgre]

Hey guys,
   What would you say your "Must Play" games are.  I'm trying to increase my design-fu and I think playing some games that people generally really like or found interesting would be helpful with that

Thanks

[galjic]

One of my faves is kingdom hearts.

good enemies that scaled and changed so it wasn't repetitive, fun gameplay (melee, spells, and changeable teammates) ,had challenging and fun ways to beat bosses, all age, and i enjoyed the story thoroughly.
2 had cleaner graphics and gameplay but was not as good in terms of story. and i never touched any of the handheld games.
I also like red dead redemption a LOT
mass effect 2

[galjic]

i'm also interested in what people have to say are must plays

[Birdorf]

Some of the less obvious DS games I've enjoyed are, Shiren The Wanderer, Etrian Odyssey, XG Blast, Henry Hatsworth, Infinite Space and Hoshigami.

[noah!]

*yawn*

Alien Soldier
Hellsinker
Gimmick! (J)
Streambolt Desero
Ikaruga
Metal Slug X
Mega Man X
Dodonpachi Dai ou jou (white label)
Bosconian
Super Bagman
Hong Kong 97
Dodgeball (J)
ESPGaluda
Pattycake (white label)
Sonic Megamix
Dodge Danpei
Gradius II - Gofer no Yabou
Debate with Paul Eres
Tea Time with Paul Eres
Fly to NJ and Snuggle with Paul Eres (white label)
Journey to Silius
Journey to Hammerdale
Dodge Danpei
Armed Police Batrider (beat caruso to the punch label)
Meet girl, fall in love (J)
Hourai High
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile
Sing "Stepping Wind" in public and get beat up - Gofer no Yabou
New Games Journalism
Spend so long writing joke post that you ruin your whole schedule.
Magical Taluluto-Kun
Sonic Wings 3

[threesided]

Perhaps it's because I've been listening to the OST non-stop, but Chrono Cross has some really terrific design all around, from the aesthetic, to the story and of course, the music. It was overshadowed by Chrono Trigger, which is a shame, because this game was totally a standalone gem. It could've been given any other title and would have done just as well in  my eyes.

[Manuel Magalhães]

Meet girl, fall in love (J)

I was so convinced that this was a game title that I google searched it. 

[emacs]

Team Fortress 2 with the original items.  When TF2 was released each class was perfectly balanced, the maps were fun, and the stories posted on TF2.com in the forms of comics and videos are pretty entertaining.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

there are a lot of lists of a 'videogame canon' that you can find online, some of those are pretty bad though, so be wary

what i'd suggest offhand is to play or become familiar with the top best-selling and the most critically acclaimed or controversial games on every major console from the past and present. also be familiar with famously bad games

in other words, let's take the atari 2600. what type of games are considered historically significant on the atari? some of them are obvious: pitfall (which sort of originated the platformer genre, and which inspired super mario bros.). yar's revenge is also very important, as is adventure, atlantis, and fathom. critically important to the game design debate would be chris crawford's game 'wizard' for it. and in terms of flops, make sure you play E.T. and the port of pac man. in general if you talk to people about atari 2600 games, the same names will come up over and over again. play those games, since they're important

you then just go console by console like that (also going through arcade games and games for various computer-platforms, like c64, zx spectrum, amiga, dos, etc.), until eventually you've played most of the important games

[DavidCaruso]

I just picked up to 5 games from a few genres and in 10 minutes I will probably want to change this entire list up to completely different games

2D Action Platforming:
Batman, Gimmick!, Ninja Gaiden III (US), Strider, Revenge of Shinobi

2D Action Shooting:
Metal Slug, Mega Man Zero, Alien Soldier, Contra: Hard Corps (US), Hard Corps: Uprising

2D STG:
DoDonPachi, R-Type, Salamander 2, Gradius Gaiden, that game which Noah beat me to

2D Belt Scroll:
Captain Commando, Golden Axe, Final Fight, Denjin Makai II (Guardians), X-Men
(when it comes to belt scrollers always try to go with the original JP version since many of these games were screwed with heavily by localizers to imbalance them for the more credit feeding US arcade audience -- actually you could probs apply this rule to JP arcade games in general)

3D Platforming:
Super Mario 64 (no really this might be the only good one I've played so far)

3D Third Person Shooting:
Gears of War, Max Payne, Vanquish, Resident Evil 4, GunValkyrie

3D First Person Shooting:
DOOM II, Half-Life, Deus Ex, Crysis, Serious Sam 3: BFE

3D Action:
Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, God Hand, Bayonetta, Dark Souls

Adventure:
The Last Express, Blade Runner, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, Day of the Tentacle

[rivon]

Metal Gear Solid - great story, characters, gameplay, music

System Shock 2 - awesome horror sci-fi FPS RPG (precursor to Bioshock)

Deus Ex - the same characteristics as MGS

Mafia (the first one) - great story, great characters, great music, great gameplay

StarCraft - the true classic RTS

Quake 3 - one of the greatest FPS games of all time (though you can probably play Quake Live instead, it will be easier that way)

Half-Life - the same as above

DOOM - goes without saying...

Commandos - classic tactics strategy

GTA 2 - classic... just pure fun :D

edit: oh I forgot some great Czech games

Machinarium, Samorost, Samorost 2 and (when it comes out) Botanicula - point & click adventures

The Black Mirror - adventure again but this time serious and horror

Operation Flashpoint - a war simulation/fps

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

another thing i want to mention is that often you learn more from playing bad games than good ones, sort of like we learn more about the brain from people with brain problems than from people with healthy brains. so from a pure game design standpoint it might actually be preferable to seek out and play bad games rather than good ones, because you can see where they went wrong, and avoid making those mistakes yourself

[iffi]

another thing i want to mention is that often you learn more from playing bad games than good ones, sort of like we learn more about the brain from people with brain problems than from people with healthy brains. so from a pure game design standpoint it might actually be preferable to seek out and play bad games rather than good ones, because you can see where they went wrong, and avoid making those mistakes yourself

That's very true, I've learned just as much from trying to identify the flaws in games (even those that I like) as I have from trying to identify what makes certain games good.

Also, everybody should just stop mentioning Dark Souls, it makes me sad that I don't have a PS3 (or an Xbox 360). q_q

Most of what I was going to mention has already been said, but I want to reemphasize Quake 3 (play it with the CPMA mod if you can) and DoDonPachi. Quake 1 is also worth playing.
I'm typically not a big fan of JRPGs, but I really enjoyed EarthBound for its writing and atmosphere.

Edit: And how could I forget La-Mulana?

[Fallsburg]

Ok, the games that most inform my design views:

Super Mario 1,3, World, World 2

Legend of Zelda 1,2,LttP

Metroid 1, Super

Nethack, Brogue, Spelunky


Obviously, there are a metric fuckton of other games that are worth playing. But those are the ones that dance in my head.

[baconman]

DARK SOULS

Agreed. Along with:

Brogue
Spelunky
Momodora + II
Treasure Adventure Game
Terraria
Swordmaster Bunny
don't take it personally babe, it just ain't your story
LA MULANA
MegaMari
Syoban Accion (aka Cat Mario)
I Wanna Be The Guy
DDR/Rock Band/Guitar Hero/StepMania/beatmania IIDX (you will learn SO MUCH about music, and not by being sat down and instructed either)
GTA: Vice City Stories (it's just right in scope, save San Andreas for if you like this one)
The King Of Fighters ('96, '98, '99, '02/UM, XI, XIII)
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Street Fighter (EX 2 PLUS, Alpha 3, III 3rd Strike, Super IV)
Pac-Man Championship Edition (*not* DX)
Galaga Legions DX
Tekken (Tag, 5)
Sonic Generations


...honestly, you should just browse the "Games/What are you playing?" thread. That would help you more. I started with indie game gems because I'm guessing those would be the least familiar to you, and it gives you an idea of what a small group or single person can do. The latter/popular games are more design-oriented. That could drag on forever, especially in this past season of releases.

[Glyph]

DARK SOULS

Yes.

Also, Mother 3.

[galjic]

Also, Mother 3.

... never played mother 3. heard about it a lot and that the ending is fantastic.
still haven't tho

[iffi]

Also, Mother 3.

... never played mother 3. heard about it a lot and that the ending is fantastic.
still haven't tho

Same. But if it's anywhere near as good as EarthBound (which I bet it is) it's definitely worth playing.

[galjic]

Also, Mother 3.

... never played mother 3. heard about it a lot and that the ending is fantastic.
still haven't tho

Same. But if it's anywhere near as good as EarthBound (which I bet it is) it's definitely worth playing.

.... haven't played earthbound but again heard great things

[cynicalsandel]

Mother 3 is the best. I prefer it over Earthbound, but that's just my opinion. My favorite game ever.