25. ToonStruck - PC, Burst Entertainment, 1996
Special treatments make clowns funny funny FUNNY! Apparently the game designers were recieving some special treatments of their own. This game is hilarious. Christopher Lloyd plays Drew Blanc, a hack cartoonist who is drawn into a cartoon world by forces the manual warns you not to think to hard about. With the help of his animated sidekick, Flux Wildly (voiced by Dan Castellenetta), he must stop the evil Count Nefarious (Tim Curry) from malevolating Cutopia. It's funny, trust me. Good luck getting it to run on a modern computer, though.

24. Chrono Trigger - SNES, Squaresoft, 1995
A stand-alone RPG (or so it was intended) from the makers of the Final Fantasy series dealing with time travel. Sounds great, doesn't it? It was. This game has many different endings, and though I wasn't exactly floored by the one I got, even that couldn't tarnish the experience. It gets the details of time travel so awfully, terribly wrong that even the Back to the Future films will look believable afterward, but if I can forgive it that, you can too.

23. Shadowrun - SNES, Beam Software, 1993
One of the original genre-benders, this is an action/RPG/mystery/sci-fi/fantasy adventure. It's based on the pen-and-paper RPG by the same name, but also borrows heavily from William Gibson material, most notably Neuromancer. Knowledge of the original RPG or Gibson books is entirely unnecessary, just fun. It's a difficult game, but if you play on an SNES emulator the quicksave function will alleviate some of the stress. NOTE: there is a Sega Genesis game by the same name, also based upon the same RPG. It's a completely different game, however. This version was SNES-exclusive.

22. Homeworld - PC, Relic, 1999
I'm bad at RTS games. It's the micromanagement. Give me one ship, one soldier, whatever, and I'll wield it like a scalpel, but the more units I need to divide my attention between, the worse I'll do. That said, I really enjoy Homeworld, despite how bad at it I am. Because the game centers around space-based combat, it is presented in 3D, a rare thing for RTSs even today. In practice, this ended up being mostly a novelty; most of the action still takes place along a horizontal plane. But it was a novel effort, and I hear the sequel improves on it. The cosmic vistas are beautiful, the music grand, the story somehow shallow but profound at the same time, and the unit chatter is icing. "We caught 'em napping."

19. Goldeneye - N64, Rare, 1997
One of the few FPSs for the N64, this game ate a remarkable amount of my time. The single-player missions kept me busy with three modes of difficult and special challenges for opening the game's cheats, and I have played more Goldeneye multiplayer than I have any other game's, ever. My friends and I played deathmatch games (License to Kill all the way, baby) for two years, and we only stopped because Rare released a quite-similar title called Perfect Dark which made a few improvements. One friend became so obsessed with the game that he studied the spawn point patterns so that he could kill you and be waiting for you when you came back, unarmed, regardless of the level. We balanced this out by beating him with the clunky, rumblepak-weighted controllers.

18. Starcraft - PC, Blizzard, 1998
I can't possibly detail the incredibly numerous and complex things which make this game great, and even if I could, someone else has probably already said it. And as I said berfore, I'm terrible at the RTS genre (see Homeworld, above), so in order to experience the plot of the game I had to [gasp] cheat. But even an amateur like me can see that this game is about as perfect an RTS as has ever existed. The three races, which have non-synchronous units, are so perfectly balanced (well, if you count the Brood War expansion, that is) that even the most experienced and skilled players can attest to their equality. The single-player campaign tells a surprisingly good story, and the multiplayer mode is a loads of fun.

17. Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars - SNES, Squaresoft/Nintendo, 1996
Those who have heard my vocal proclamations that the Square/Disney partnership which spawned Kingdom Hearts is an unholy union that cannot be borne may wonder why this collaboration beteen Square and Nintendo wins praise instead. The answer is simple: Shut up and mind your own business. This could easily have been a ridiculously bad idea, but then, this was the Square of yore, the Square which had recently released the fantastic Final Fantasy VI and which had yet to produce VII. The game tells a whimsical tale about a sword which falls from the sky, shattering the Star Road, where wishes are received and granted. The sword's fall also interrupts a battle between Mario and Bowser over (as ever) Princess Toadstool, flinging all three to different corners of the world. In order to defeat this common enemy, Mario enlists not just the help of Mallow the cloud prince and Geno the supernatural defender, but also Princess Toadstool (who actually helps out for the first time since Super Mario Bros. 2) and Boweser himself. The plot is funny, the new characters are fun, and the game is an all-around good time. Special recognition goes to David Mercer, who bought me this game for my birthday the year it came out. He has yet to receive a present in return equal in coolness or monetary value.

14. Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus - PS2, Sucker Punch, 2002
The premise is simple and silly, and sets the tone of the game pretty accurately: you are Sly Cooper, last son of a long line of master thieves, but your family's secrets, carefully recorded over the ages in a tome called the Thievious Raccoonus, were taken when you were a child by a group of criminals called the Fiendish Five, after they murdered your father. Without that book, you've had to learn the family trade on your own -- but now you're ready, and you're going to steal the heirloom back from the Five, and get revenge while you're at it. This game is good old-fashioned platforming fun, and what it does, it does very well. The story, though not especially long or complex, is endearing and entertaining. The characters, including Sly and his two companions, a nerdy hacker turtle named Bently and a bumbling getaway driver hippopotamus Murray, a police inspector on Sly's trail, and each of the Five, are all unique and entertaining characters with charm to spare. It's a short game, and so those with lukewarm feelings toward platformers may prefer to simply rent it. But hey, this snappy, stylish romp made me want to be a thief, and not even Thief did that.

13. The Lost Vikings - SNES, Silicon & Synapse, 1992
The last truly old-school game on this list, The Lost Vikings is one very fun game. It can be played as a single-player adventure, but it truly shines when two players cooperate. The game gives you three characters (who are, in fact, Vikings who have gotten lost in time), each of whom have very specific abilities which only occasionally overlap. Baleog is the warrior, strong and fierce, with a crushing sword strike and a weaker but long-range arrow-shot. Erik is a scout, swift and nimble, able to outrun any enemy and leap over obstacles. Olaf is the defender, solid and stout behind his near-indestructible shield. All three character need to be coordinated carefully to defeat the game's enemies and bypass its traps, and with two players this can be riotously great fun. The game shows itself to be particularly clever, however, in the later levels, where the vikings' secondary abilities must be used to substitute for those who are needed elsewhere. For instance, Erik's sprint, which can send him plowing into and breaking down walls (leaving him with a nasty headache) can also be used to harm enemies if Baleog cannot be with the party. Baleog's sword attack knocks an enemy back a step, allowing him to fend off attackers who might otherwise harm the party if Olaf is away. And Olaf's shielf can be held aloft to allow Olaf to glide (you have to see it to appreciate the humor), allowing him to pass over some obstacles and navigate some traps if Erik is elsewhere. The game is carefully designed and balanced so that each character is valuable and essential, with each as important as the others. Though there are action and platforming elements (usually where Baleog and Erik are involved, respectively), the game is at its heart a puzzle game, and is requires thinking above coordination.

12. Beyond Good & Evil - PS2, Ubisoft, 2003
This game is often compared to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Below), as well as to a later edition, The Wind Waker. These comparisons are fair, in that you can play either of those games and have a fair idea of whether or not you'll like BG&E. This is one of the three most recent additions to my list, all of which are from Ubisoft, which is quite remarkable (see Splinter Cell above and Prince of Persia: The Sandes of Time below). This is also the last of the three that I've played. The game follows the adventure game formula, to an extent, providing you with steadily-upgrading vehicles with which you can explore the game world, each allowing you access to an expanded portion of that world. From time to time you descend into monster-filled dungeons which you must explore, at the end of which you will usually find some sort of boss creature. These aspects aren't particularly original, but they're as well-crafted as any Zelda game, so don't let critics sway you. And yet, the game truly comes into its own with the smaller details. You play as Jade, a freelance action reporter enlisted by the rebel Iris network to document proof that the planet Hyllis' defenders, the Alpha Section, are actually working for the DomZ aliens. Therefore, boss battles notwithstanding, the dungeons center mostly around stealthily creeping through AS compounds and photographing evidence against them. This is a refreshing change of pace from the usual hack-and-slash gameplay which takes over when you leave the overworld, and gives the game a more believable, mature feel than one gets from weilding the Master Sword. However, though the game is so all-around polished you can use it as a mirror, it paradoxically has a strangely unfinished feel to it. There are mysteries hinted at throughout the game which are only passingly explained at the end, and the game universe is left largely unexplained. Add to that that the game has only three major dungeons (plus a handful of shorter optional ones) and can be completed (and I mean completed) by a first-time player in under ten hours, and you get a sense that something larger was originally intended, but was scaled back at some point. Stick around after the credits and you'll see a short cutscene which hints at a sequel, but takes away from the satisfaction of the ending. Sorry if that was something of a spoiler.

09. Final Fantasy VII - PS1, Squaresoft, 1997
Like Starcraft (above), there has already been so much said about this game that I don't need to spend many words on it. If you haven't played it yet, either of you two, then you should. It is a Final Fantasy game, and if those aren't your thing, this probably won't be either. If you do, however, even marginally enjoy FFs, this is my personal favorite. It is the perfection of the Japanese RPG form, and I don't mind that Square has done so little to maintain my respect since -- they got it right this time, and perhaps it really should have been the Final Fantasy. Oh well.

08. The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time - PC, Presto Studios, 1995
The original Journeyman Project (technically the re-released Turbo version for quad-speed drives, but who's counting) came with my family's first CD-ROM drive, and had to compete with Myst, which we received as a gift at the same time, for my time. Though I now recognize Myst as the better game, Journeyman won the battle hands down, if not the war. It was an inventory adventure at its heart, but from a first-person pre-rendered perspective like Myst, so its puzzles were less about understanding mechanisms and more about trying everything in your pockets on every hot point in the game (which was friendlier to this ten-year-old's sensibilities). Plus, it had time travel. If anyone reading this wants to know how to make a game appeal directly to me, just add time travel. The sequel, Buried in Time, left the original in the dust, however. The mystery plot centering around proving that your future self (who traveled back in time to enlist your help) has been framed takes you to a crippled space station, an English chateau, a Mayan temple, and Leonardo da Vinci's studio. I don't know how much was historically accurate and how much was BSed, but the BS was BSes well enough to make you wonder in the first place. Add to all this the witty and informative AI companion Arthur, who gives you useful information throughout the game and will hint at the solutions to the puzzles if you ask him to, and you have a great game. Though the presentation is more reminiscent of Myst than other inventory adventures such as The Dig (next), functionally it follows the format of the latter category. If you enjoy that now-deceased genre (Syberia and The Longest Journey notwithstanding), and even for those who prefer the Mystier games, this is a must-play.

07. The Dig - PC, Lucasarts, 1995
Ah, The Dig. Conceived as a movie idea by Steven Spielberg, the director (who did not have nearly the clout he now does in 1992) decided that the concept would be too expensive to film and its audience too narrow to justify it. He passed it along to his buddy, George Lucas, because grand philosophical space dramas were more his thing. George agreed that it wouldn't work as a movie, but he in turn gave it to Sean Clark, an designer for Lucasarts. Clark wrote, designed, and directed this simply brilliant adventure game, with the help of novelist Orson Scott Card (who wrote the game's extensive dialogue). Good voice acting and simply awesome music were some of the game's immediate and obvious highlights, but the plot, which centered around a species of aliens which had become obsessed with immortality, is fascinating and haunting. The puzzles are interesting and clever, but nothing you can't find in a King's Quest or on Monkey Island. It's the mature storytelling which makes this game stand out in my memory. If you enjoy inventory adventures such as the above-mentioned Sierra and Lucasarts games, this is easily one of the best, and you should waste no time in finding and playing it. A word of caution, however: like several other games on this list, it's DOS-based, meaning those with newer systems may not be able to get it to run. I run Windows 2000 currently, and Lucasarts tech support (which still has this game in its list) tells me there's just no way. Such a shame.

04. Anachronox - PC, Ion Storm, 2001
I can remember seeing adds and previews for this game back in 1998, and thinking it looked interesting. It was going to be a sci-fi adventure/RPG, something I had not yet played and found myself intrigued by. The game fell off the radar for a long time, suffering several serious delays. In fact, the game originally intended had to be cut in half for time purposes. I had nearly forgotten about it when I saw it one day in late 2002, packaged with Thief II (see above) as a two-in-one deal for $20. When I began the game, I was a little unsure of what to make of it. The interface was odd -- it handled like an FPS, but was designed like an RPG. However, I was quickly drawn in by the witty humor written into the very foundation of the game world. This is a very funny game. Whether you're reading the exploration text-conversations or watching the fully-voiced cutscenes, you'll laugh out loud pretty often. What's truly surprising, however, is that about halfway through the game, a plot is suddenly sprung upon you. And it's a doozy. There are difficulty settings for the game, so if you're like me and only like RPG combat so long as you can skip XPing entirely and still never lose a single battle (I'm not kidding), you're taken care of. The game sold terribly, and the division of Ion Storm which built it is no more, so the second half of this story will probably never be made. Lament with me. Recommended to players who enjoy RPGs and adventure games, and who like to laugh, but also think.

03. Soul Reaver 2 - PS2, Crystal Dynamics, 2001
Without a doubt the best installment of the Legacy of Kain series, a saga so steeped in fictional mythology and lore that even a fan like myself occasionally has to check his notes to make sense of what's going on. Though the series spans five titles and about seven years (real time) now, Soul Reaver 2 (3rd in the series) still stands as my favorite due to its deliciously complex plot dealing with time travel, fate versus free will, the relativity of good and evil, and the fate of the world of Nosgoth. I didn't play the original (Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain) until after SR2, so my introduction to Nosgoth began with vampire prince Raziel's condemnation and execution by Kain at the beginning of Soul Reaver. It should stand as a testament to the power of SR2's narrative that 30 minutes into the game, the primary drive of the previous, finding and killing Kain, has been called into question. The game's combat has been called simplistic and repetitive, and it is; I just happen not to care. Recommended to anyone who loves a twisting, turning, mind-bending plot, and doesn't mind having to fight for it using a relatively uninspired combat system.

02. Riven: The Sequel to Myst - PC, Cyan, 1997
As with several titles above, Riven should be considered a stand-in for a larger series, including two other games (so far) and three novels. Perhaps it's just the writer in me, but the concept of being able to write down words as a carefully-constructed equation (or, in the cases of some, a more poetic, organic creation) and then visit that world you have just described resonates somewhere in my soul. The plots are great, the graphics always stunning, and the puzzles downright fiendish. Like the Kain games, this series has lore behind it, always a good thing. It's worth noting that the third installment, Myst III: Exile, was not created by Cyan (who were busy with Uru), but rather Presto Studios, creators of the Journeyman series. Not for the easily-frustrated, this game is for anyone who loves brain-teasing puzzles with some economical but brilliant storytelling on the side.

01. ICO - PS2, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, 2001
This game is a work of art, plain and simple. The story it tells is simple, but tender and believable. The characters are shallow but likeable. The gameplay is nothing short of inspired -- this is some of the best platforming ever done. The level design is no less stunning; the areas you pass through cross and intermesh in such a startlingly brilliant way that you cannot help but respect the craftsmanship. The graphics and sound are beautiful: overexposed lighting outside or through windows lends the game a dreamlike quality, and the various outlooks you reach allow you to see both gorgeous forest terrain just beyond your reach and the cluttered, labyrinthine castle all to near. The soundtrack is sparse but emotive, and the environmental sounds are so good that you may not even notice the scarcity of music.

But the best parts of this game can't really be explained to someone who hasn't played. The puzzles are clever, mostly because they rarely seem like puzzles. In navigating this crumbling stone fortress, your task is to pick your way through the ruins while also creating a path for your companion, Yorda, who cannot always follow the same precarious paths as you. And there is also the surprising amount of emotion you find yourself investing in Yorda. She speaks a language Ico cannot understand, so the dialogue tends to be rather one-sided; Ico speaks in subtitled Japanese, but Yorda's replies are unintelligible. However, throughout the process of traversing the ruins, you must protect the child-like Yorda from both environmental dangers and strage shadow-creatures which seek to recapture her. Indeed, the game even ties your success or failure to Yorda: aside from long falls, nothing can harm Ico -- he has no health meter. The game only ends if Yorda is captured. This leads the player to feel what (we assume) Ico feels, that he must throw himself at any danger to Yorda without concern for his own well-being. The protective, big-brother feeling this engenders is quite amazing, and must be experienced to be understood.

I gave this game ten hours of my life, which is more than I usually give a bad game. The thing is, it didn't start out bad. I had known before I started that this game featured long and frequent cutscenes, but this idea didn't bother me. I like a game that tells an involved story. And if that had been the case here, I probably would have liked the game fine. But you see, the game didn't have a whole lot of plot, not that was presented in the first ten hours, anyway. But that didn't stop them from giving me 30 minute cutscenes about the crew of a scavenger ship and its passengers having dinner. No, nothing else happened while they were having dinner. The only dialogue consisted of "Mmm, this sure is good!" and "We should hire a woman to work on this ship so we can have food this good all the time!", etc. And no, I'm not exaggerating, that's almost word-for-word from the game. And then, at the end of this agonizing cutscene, my character, Shion (the cook who made these asses dinner and ate nothing and stood next to the table the whole time) must carry a plate down into the hold where another passenger who did not come to dinner is. I should impress upon you that for a ship with a crew complement of four, it has a lot of space inside. It takes me ten minutes to get there, and when I do, I'm treated to another cutscene has this passenger angrily refusing the food and knocking to the floor. Then I'm called to the bridge, at the other end of the damn ship. So I run there, and the captain (the one who wants to hire a woman to his crew) asks me to go check and make sure nothing's wrong with the engine room WHERE I JUST WAS. Apparently the intercom only works for summons, and not for statements like "Go check the engine room that's twenty feet from where you're already standing." So I run BACK to the far end of the ship, and I'm treated to another cutscene wherein Shion looks around, sees nothing, and starts away while a little spacial distortion appears as soon as her back is turned. She radios back to the bridge that everything looks fine, and they say, "Ok, guess it was nothing, come on back to the bridge."

And at this point I threw down the controller in disgust and turned off the game and returned it to Hollywood Video, because I had no interest whatsoever in finding out what kind of pulse-pounding marathon foot-massage mini-game I would be awarded when I got back to the bridge.

This is all by way of saying that I will never play another game with "xeno" in the title unless I have scoured the packaging and made sure that it has no connection to the Monolith developers. Maybe Xenogears was better -- hell, I'm sure Xenogears would have to have been better. But I'll never play it.