Before I get going on my list of totally kick-ass games you should be playing (or should have been playing), let me give a shout out to my good buddy Matt, who just set up his new site, NeQuis. Go check it out (but first, finishing reading this post)!
Now on to the games:
- Armored Core (Series): This game has never, in my opinion, received the respect it deserves. That may have something to do with the controls, which require the use of every single button on the controller (that’s 12, not counting the D-Pad or Left Analog Stick for movement); it’s definitely an aquired taste. Still, it’s the Gran Turismo of giant robot games, with millions of possible combinations of arms, legs, cores (torsos), heads, armaments, boosters, rediators, internals, etc. It’s just amazing; there’s no better feeling than beating down the opposition in a custom made, totally bad-ass, bristling-with-weapons, fully armored four-story robot.
- Chrono Trigger: Made by the folks over at Square, this is one of the greatest RPG’s ever made. You play Crono, the spiky-haired silent hero, who must travel through time to stop the evil space alien, Lavos. It’s pretty old now, having debuted on the Super Nintendo, but it’s still one hell of a game. I would also recommend Chrono Cross, but only if you’re a serious fan of this game. Chrono Cross, by itself, is just not that great a game.
- Guilty Gear X2: This game proves that 2D graphics still have a place in games. If you’ve never seen it, you’re missing out; it has some of the best, high-res, fully AA’d graphics ever. Not to mention that the fighting is just insane and the characters are about as original and over-the-top as you can get.
- Silent Hill (Series): If you’ve never played any of these games, you have seriously missed out. Resident Evil defined the modern survival horror genre, but Silent Hill continues to take it to places other people wish they didn’t dream about. Even the original, which debuted on the Playstation, is still scary as hell (despite the fact that the graphics haven’t exactly aged well). Really, if you play any of them, I recommend number one. Two is a bit slow and three a bit heavy on the action. They’re all tremendous, though, so you should really be playing them all
- SSX: Greatest. Snowboarding game. Ever. Tricky was mostly a rehash of the original, but with the advent of SSX 3, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be playing this game. Unless you just really hate snowboarding.
That’s all I have for now. I’ll probably do more later on, but that should give you something to do.