- Year: 1994
- System: NES
The clerk sort of shrugged and suggested Wario's Woods, Yoshi's Cookies, or Bionic Commando.
Bionic Commando was a solid recommendation, but the only thing Wario's Woods and Yoshi's Cookies had in common was Mario characters. And in my opinion, Yoshi's Cookies kinda sucks.
Wario's Woods is my favorite puzzle game of all time. You stack different... I don't even know what the hell they are... woodland creatures? Trying to get a certain amount in a row. Some of them require diagonal matches, some require two clears, some require two quick clears, all while Wario sits at the top of the screen crunching the play area.
59: Ridge Racer Type 4
- Year: 1998
- System: PS1
Ridge Racer Type 4 makes racing feel so cool. The Need for Speed and Test Drive games were fun, but 
they felt stiff. They seemed to want to live in realism a little too much while still letting you do 120 down city streets.
Ridge Racer Type 4 was all about that drift life. Gas, tap brake, gas, and you would do a controlled slide around the corner. There were four decent story lines based on which team you choose, but generally you were on a rag tag team that didn't get much respect and the young driver that was going to put the team on their back and make it happen.
Ridge Racer Type 4 hit at the right time. It was that "Japan cool," right as Toonami was hitting the air waves. Soon, everyone wanted to be Japanese.
58: Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
- Year: 2008
- System: Xbox 360
I went to the local Slackers, and looked at all 20 games out for the 360. I had a vague memory of my little brother playing an Elder Scroll game and loving it. So I shrugged and dropped $40.
The cashier bagged it up and said, "well, I hope you got everything done you needed to get done, cause I heard this game sucks your life away."
Cut to three weeks later when I'm yelling at my pseudo-hippy roommate that Oblivion looked better than real life.
Oblivion was my first real experience with an Elder Scrolls game and I was completely hooked. And if it wasn't for the Thieves Guild quest-line having a game breaking bug in it, I would've gotten every achievement.
57: Return Fire 2
- Year: 1998
- System: PC
If you boil Return Fire 2 down to the bare bones, it's capture the flag. 
But Return Fire was able to capture a sort of frantic chaos that few games do.
The goal was to break into your opponents base, steal their flag, and get it back. However, their base had turrets, walls, gates, and troops. On top of that, there was a fog of war, you didn't exactly know where their flag was.
You would start with the helicopter to scout and take out easy defenses, then grab the tank to break through the walls and clear a path, and then have to grab the flag with your jeep, the only vehicle that could carry it. However, you opponent was going to chase your ass with the helicopter and probably kill you before you got back.
56: WCW\nWo Revenge
- Year: 1998
- System: N64
It is unbelievable how many wrestlers they fit on this cartridge. Sure, they all looked like shit, but if you squinted your eyes, you could kind of see Hollywood Hogan and Sting.
I can't tell you how many nights we covered the controllers in Cheeto dust playing the max number of entrants in a Battle Royale until we passed out.
55: Pillars of Eternity
- Year: 2015
- System: PC
In the early 2010s, a ton of games got Kickstarted that were throwbacks to game genres that no longer 
existed, usually because some number cruncher determined EAs profit margin would be too low.
Double Fine had their Point-and-Click adventure, Star Citizen a space sim will be in development for the rest of time, and Obsidian got their isometric RPG funded.
Out of the three, I think Pillars of Eternity ended up in the best state. It was a deep adventure that somehow automated what must be tomes worth of RPG rules.
54: Spider-Man
- Year: 2018
- System: PS4
Spider-man 2018 makes you feel like Spider-man. Everything is so quick and smooth, and you can bend in ridiculous ways. Just the swinging through buildings feels so incredibly good.
And the story... hell... man the story just hits you in both the good and bad feels. There are so many plot points throughout.
53: Armored Core
- Year: 1997
- System: PS1
Armored Core managed to tell this really deep story about corporate espionage in the future without
cut-scenes, something most PS1 games relied on.
You could take multiple paths through the story as well. Depending on which missions you completed for which corporations, you would get greater offers from some over the others.
And there was a risk / reward decision with every mission you took. Sometimes a mission would offer you a million credits, but you would end up spending most of it having to repair and re-arm after a long fight. Sometimes you would be offered a prototype part and no money. Not really knowing the stats on the part, you could end up with an end game piece of equipment or a lemon.
And every piece of equipment on your mech could be customized. Legs, arms, heads, generators, weapons and then you could stamp your insignia anywhere.
Armored Core gave you massive amounts of freedom to play the game you wanted to play.
52: Tomb Raider: Anniversary
- Year: 2013
- System: PC
But they did it. Those crazy bastards did it. The completely remade the first Tomb Raider with their new engine, with new graphics, and they put the time in the close plot holes, clarify story beats, and make encounters make more sense. (As much as an encounter with a T-Rex who's been living in a cave for centuries can make sense.)
The addition of the grapple hook also offered up new ways to traverse maps and solve puzzles. I still play Tomb Raider Anniversary every few years, and every time I still get a smile on my face.
51: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
- Year: 1999
- System: PS1
Legacy of Kain was on every demo disk printed for about a two year period late in the PlayStation life 
cycle and for good reason, it did incredible things on the PlayStation.
Most action adventure games at the time relied on 3-5 hit combos to beat your enemy, who would usually fall over, blink, and disappear to free up RAM. Soul Reaver had a much deeper fight system. Since you were fighting vampires, you had to kill them according to lore. Lure them into sunlight or stake their heart after giving them a beating.
Not only was the combat and platforming great, but it had a really deep story of betrayal by your brother. And it beat Twilight and True Blood out the door by several years. That's right folks, Legacy of Kain is what kicked off vampire fever.
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