Your 9 Favorite Games?

LW

I thought this idea was pretty neat and figured it might be worth trying on HH. The person who originally came up with it called it a gamer mosaic, but I am not totally sure about name, so I guess I would just call it a 9 favorite games mosaic thing.

There are basically three main steps:

1. Come up with a list of your 9 favorite games.
2. Use this site and a search engine to put together a mosaic of the 9 games you picked.
3. Upload the image to imgur/your image hosting site of choice and post it here with or without an explanation why you picked the games you did.
   

The following is a silly one I did. I do not want this opening post to be super long, so I will probably hold off on typing up reasons for the picks until a subsequent post.

Miss Miko Mayonegg

Beware, my shit taste in games incoming~!

Miss Miko Mayonegg

You may substitute The Grand Master with any good Tetris, Mega Man Zero with any of its sequels, including ZX, and Disgaea with any of its sequels.

Imipolex G

Of all time? My list is mostly gonna show how out of touch I am with current gamings. Also it would probably change if you asked me tomorrow

Obā-san

the top 9 list that all true warriors strive for

Imipolex G

I am not worthy

Miss Miko Mayonegg

I just wonder what Ganon's up to!

Salix Babylonika

Tried to do this and my mosiac came up blank

woooo

glennmagusharvey

I want to make a mosaic but I feel that that would take up the better part of my next hour.  Should I?

Tre

Yes. Yes you should.

Mine's up soon.

glennmagusharvey

It took about an hour and ten minutes, it seems.

Salix Babylonika

you had one job

Imipolex G

SotN was a runner-up for me

glennmagusharvey

Magic Jane said:

you had one job

sorry  i couldn't find the line tool in gimp

Obā-san

dude there was a thing for making a grid linked in the OP it would have taken you like 5 minutes to do it that way

glennmagusharvey

naney said:

dude there was a thing for making a grid linked in the OP it would have taken you like 5 minutes to do it that way

oh i completely missed that haha

Crystal

Laugh

Imipolex G

EPIC FAIL or, whatever, who cares

Miss Miko Mayonegg

^^^^^^^^ Chrono Trigger, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Cave Story, Mega Man ZX, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Final Fantasy VI, Ys Origin.

LW

Magic Jane said:

Tried to do this and my mosiac came up blank

woooo

I had that issue with some of the art I used at first. It seems like the mosaic generator site cannot really handle image links that do not have .jpg, .png, or the like at the end of their URLs. I am not totally sure what else causes blank spots, but I would recommend using another image and trying again. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

glennmagusharvey said:

It took about an hour and ten minutes, it seems.

I like the fact that this apparently took you over an hour to do.

Seriously though, when I first saw this thing I did not realize there was a grid making site so I wondered why everybody's mosaic looked so perfect. So yeah, do not worry about it.

Tre

Apologies if none of these come as a surprise. I highly recommend any and all of them.

Burnout Paradise

Car-nage at its finest. Probably the most polarizing title in its series, Burnout Paradise drew both cheers and jeers from fans because of how much it shook up the formula that Criterion established in the first four Burnout titles. Despite this, it ended up becoming a boilerplate of sorts for the genre to build upon-- Criterion was brought aboard the next few Need for Speed titles by EA because of how successful Burnout was, and the open-world style it pioneered for the racing genre was cribbed by Playground Games, Ubisoft Reflections and Ivory Tower for the Forza Horizon games, Driver: San Francisco and The Crew, to name a few. It isn't hard to see why things happened this way-- to this day, Paradise's panache has yet to find its equal.

DJ Hero 2

The underdog to rule them all. By all means, DJ Hero 2 shouldn't have happened; it was a sequel to a game that didn't rake in money for a company that grooms its entire product line around profit, and the attempts to make it more marketable to a mainstream audience than its predecessor are evident as soon as you boot it up, with a cleaner look and a slightly more pop-oriented set of tracks to set the pool for which FreeStyleGames made the remixes played in the game itself. All of the changes made to the formula may make it seem like the developers sold out a bit, but they actually work to the game's benefit-- the scoring for your performance is fairer than it is in the first title, the songs themselves are as fun to listen to as they are to play, and the addition of Party Play and a refined version of the last game's multiplayer make DJ Hero 2 an experience that no other music game on the market replicated-- and, unfortunately, probably never will.

SSX 3

The only game here that counts as a sports game, and rightfully so. The first two SSX titles set the stage for the quirks and unique style that the series would always possess, but the third game introduced the Mountain setting, giving the game a real place to call home, and bringing with it inspiration from the open-world games of the period. Combined with an expanded cast of characters, a heart-pounding soundtrack and a refreshed take on the snowboarding gameplay of its predecessors, SSX 3 brought a new direction to the series that would come to define both its legacy and a good portion of my childhood.

Tiny and Big

A recent addition, but one I covet greatly. I've written about why I love it already, but to serve as a refresher: "From the first time I saw it in a weekend sale on Steam, something about Grandpa’s Leftovers has clicked with me and hasn’t let go since. [...] Grandpa’s Leftovers salutes the 3D platformers that preceded it while modernizing it for a new age of video games. Unrepentantly quirky, consistently humorous, and deceptively deep, Tiny and Big is one of the best pure 3D platformers of recent years and a hell of a first impression from the guys at Black Pants. It may not keep you for very long, but the time it does is nothing short of engaging."

Rayman Origins

Another one I've already written about, but that was more about my perspective than the game itself, so I'll elaborate. I'd already had a microcosm of experience with Rayman before thanks to the Rabbids, but this was the game that led to my discovery of the rest of his oeuvre, and what an introduction it was. This one's both easy to pick up and fiendishly difficult to master (I still haven't done so, honestly), and the presentation oozes with a sense of charm that most of the genre left behind during the tumultuous years of the late sixth-early seventh generations of gaming. It's both a throwback to the time that Ray came to be in and a modernization of it, and thanks to that quality, stands as one of the best platformers around.

(To be clear: Legends also qualifies for a lot of this and is probably the more enjoyable title to play these days, but I think I was more impressed by Origins because of how it handled the transition the series needed to go through.)

SoulCalibur II

The original SoulCalibur was the favorite of many a L[bleep] in the early 2000s on the Dreamcast, but most of my nostalgia for the series's early titles came from this one. Battles are fast-paced, tense and enjoyable, and the cast of fighters is just large enough to make everyone diverse without overwhelming the player with choices. While the later titles are impressive enough, this one proves that sometimes less is more-- the lack of over-complicated concepts like armor-breaking and Soul Breaks make this one a more fun title than its successors.

(The multiplatform cast choices were also a very nice touch. Spawn FTW.) 

Tearaway

Yet another already mentioned. "Since its initial announcement, Tearaway’s been hailed as the killer app the Vita needed, and it’s not hard to see why. The game oozes with a uniquely youthful charm while paying respect to the 3D platformers that led up to it in generations past, giving it a rare crossover appeal, and I can safely say it’s the only game that has ever made me cry tears of joy over digital strips of paper. But don’t just take my word for it: this game is an experience to be had for oneself. As I’ve stated before, Tearaway “is the most fantastic game and everyone with or without a Vita should play it”, and I stand by my word."

Rock Band 2

If Guitar Hero and its sequel set the stage for the music game genre's rise, the first Rock Band game was where it hit its stride, and Rock Band 3 was the swan song that signaled the death of the fad, Rock Band 2 was the peak, and understandably so. Armed with a veritable backlog of downloadable songs and the majority of the first game's tracks, RB2 made the upgrade worth it by significantly boosting the build quality of the pack-in instruments, giving the gameplay a sheen that Ashton Kutcher would envy, and rounding out the package with a setlist of songs so diverse and indelible that six years haven't hurt my enjoyment of the highlights a bit.

(Here's just a few of my favorites from the game.)

Mirror's Edge

One of the titles that made me take notice of first-person games as a whole (along with Portal) and incited the fascination with parkour I gained that continues to be A Thing. While its plot is ultimately more disappointing than the gripping premise leads on, Mirror's Edge thankfully doesn't do the same in the other areas that matter. Running around the unnamed city with Faith is a pleasure, and the locales she visits on her journey to clear her sister's name are beautiful in their own ways. The combat sequences become a mild annoyance during the game's later half, but if nothing else, they're worth it for the thrill one gets when they're successfully able to outrun the Blues action-movie style.

So yeah. Picking these was kind of hard given that I love a bunch of different games too, but I feel like these 9 are the majority of the ones that I'll be able to smile about when I'm older-- maybe enough to even break 'em out again.

Tre

lol textwall

Salix Babylonika

hey I got it to work

anyone who can recognize the two that aren't labeled gets Jane points

anyone who has played the more obscure games on here gets a ton of Jane points.

Tre

LSD Dream Emulator

and some other thingy

Salix Babylonika

You don't know the one on the center-right?

I figured that would be the one people got first, but maybe I'm not minding my crowd.

Yarrun XIX

Tre

Strategy games in general invoke many a shrug on my end. Sorry, friend.

I do recognize LSD from seeing it referenced on TVT though. Never saw any screenshots of it besides ones of the grey dude, but I figured there's not much else that fit the style out there (yet).

Salix Babylonika

There's like, the other games that guy did (Eastern Souls of Lost Tong-Nu I think another one is called).

but you're right

games that almost made it onto the list: Yume 2kki, Anodyne, Hell Night (a rather obscure PS1 title).

Tre

Ooooh, Seamus played Hell Night on that Let's Play channel he had a few years back.

It was odd. Definitely more your territory than mine.

Salix Babylonika

Hell Night I left off because, while influential on me, it's not a very good game.

Yarrun XIX

Europa Universalis?

thenamelesssamurai

Magic Jane said:

You don't know the one on the center-right?

I figured that would be the one people got first, but maybe I'm not minding my crowd.

The one on the Center-right is Civilization 3.

Salix Babylonika

thenamelesssamurai said:

Magic Jane said:

You don't know the one on the center-right?

I figured that would be the one people got first, but maybe I'm not minding my crowd.

The one on the Center-right is Civilization 3.

yeeee

Yarrun XIX said:

Europa Universalis?

CK2 stands in for all Paradox grand strategy games.

thenamelesssamurai

Magic Jane said:

thenamelesssamurai said:

Magic Jane said:

You don't know the one on the center-right?

I figured that would be the one people got first, but maybe I'm not minding my crowd.

The one on the Center-right is Civilization 3.

yeeee

I knew what one that was immediately. I used to ply a lot of Civilization 3 back in the day. It's a shame I can't find the disc anymore, though that might be for the best. Civilization 3 might be the most addicting game I've ever played.

glennmagusharvey

Magic Jane said:

hey I got it to work

anyone who can recognize the two that aren't labeled gets Jane points

anyone who has played the more obscure games on here gets a ton of Jane points.

Yarrun XIX said:

Well it's my turn to laugh at y'all, for trying to hotlink to images on bighugelabs.com itself and forgetting the rule of only using dedicated image hosts.

glennmagusharvey

Also @LW I think it probably took me at most half an hour once I opened GIMP, but I probably dithered on it and thought about it for another half hour before that, while doing other stuff.

Obā-san

nobody cares about that rule

glennmagusharvey

well i guess your top 9 games are placeholder images then

edit: well i guess that's not far off from every one being something all true warriors strive for

SF_Sorrow

lol

(some of the entries are stand-ins for a series in general)

Section42L

This thread is reminding me that I need to play Yume Nikki.

I'll probably get around to that later this week.

Salix Babylonika

Duuuude

yes you need to play Yume Nikki.

I hesitate to hype it up any further over fear that it will end up not meeting your expectations, but I did a write-up on why I like it here.

Section42L

Thanks. I'll read that after I play through it.

I finally played Cave Story (another favourite in this thread) recently, and it lived well up to my expectations.

I hope that Yume Nikki will do the same.

Salix Babylonika

SF_Sorrow said:
lol
(some of the entries are stand-ins for a series in general)

is that Embric of Wulfhammer's Castle?

I thought I was the only one who liked that game.

Buttwangs

Pleb-tier videogame taste

(I probably spent over 200 hours on vanilla Diablo 2 and over a thousand on modded Diablo 2, obviously I'm not a very sane person)

thenamelesssamurai

Pyridrym said:

Pleb-tier videogame taste

(I probably spent over 200 hours on vanilla Diablo 2 and over a thousand on modded Diablo 2, obviously I'm not a very sane person)

*high 5* for Donkey Kong Country 2

Miss Miko Mayonegg

As you can see, my onee-chan is a badass.

Buttwangs

@SF_Sorrow
Thanks for reminding how great The Incredible Machine is.. although I forgot which version I played :v

Salix Babylonika

did u hit the level cap tho

Salix Babylonika

also have you played Median XL, Pyridrym?

Buttwangs

No, I was a pleb, I got around 80 before I stopped playing vanilla

I've addictively played both Median XL and Eastern Sun

Salix Babylonika

I never played Eastern Sun because it broke my copy of the game.

Fun times, that.

You should play Diablo 3 and Path of Exile if you have not.