10. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
Why I love it: The 2 player mode is really fun because there’s a lot of variety in terms of activities. You can hunt for chaos emeralds, race your opponent to the end of a stage, and even engage in shooting matches. Second, in single player if you find the secret chao key, you can go to chao land where you can hatch and raise cute little chaos. Lastly, the main theme song, "Live and Learn," by Crush 40 is just amazing.
9. Luigi’s Mansion
Why I love it: Playing as Luigi is always an interesting experience because his playing style is more unpredictable than Mario’s, and this game demonstrates how much Luigi loves his brother because he is willing to save Mario from the mansion, despite being afraid of ghosts. Also the boss fights in the game, especially the Area 3 Boss, Boolossus, involve resourcefulness and attention to the surroundings.
8. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Why I love it: This game combines two of my favorite video game franchises into one game where they square off to win medals. The best parts of this game include Festival Mode, where you can play through every event in the game to win gold and the Dream Events. My favorite Dream Event is Dream Snowboard Cross because you snowboard through an entire city and grind on bridges.
7. Super Smash Bros. Melee
Why I love it: A bunch of different Nintendo characters come together to fight it out and play through various stages from the different universes. I love this game in the Smash Series the most because Peach is at her most powerful and can recover the best compared to Brawl and Wii U. This game was also an essential part of my time spent at debate camp—my favorite strategy was to evade attacks and let everyone else fight each other until there was only one other person.
6. Fusion Frenzy
Why I love it: I remember playing this game at my cousins’ house on their old Xbox and being really bad overall, with the exception of a couple minigames. A grown up version of Mario Party, the characters engage in a variety of minigames to rack up points and win. My favorite mini game was called Sumo(pictured below), which involved trying to knock your opponent off a shrinking ring.
5. Diablo
Why I love it: The game that started my love affair with the Diablo series. The graphics may not be great and the game not very long, there is a certain darkness about it that D2 and D3 could not replicate. From the eerie music to the fear factor of fighting bosses such as the Butcher and the Archbishop Lazarus this game still makes me a little scared each time I play.
4. Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door
Why I love it: All the Paper Mario games have a unique set of chapters that transport Mario to a new world with new challenges and new abilities to discover. My favorite chapter and the reason why this game makes the list is Chapter 4, where Mario’s name is stolen by an evil named Doopliss, who has taken over the Creepy Steeple in Twilight Town. I love the dark feel of Twilight Town and the mission of exposing Doopliss and regaining Mario’s name. Most of all I like how the game parodies itself through battling the false Mario and the constant running the long distance from the Creepy Steeple to the edge of Twilight Town to fulfill the objectives of the chapter.
3. Sonic Heroes
Why I love it: As you get closer to the final battle against Dr. Eggman, the stages become longer and more complex. The best stages are the last two—Egg Fleet and Final Fortress because you storm Eggman’s battle ships at high speeds and fly through the sky for most of the stage. Another highlight of the game is the fantastic opening theme—"Sonic Heroes" by Crush 40.
2. Paper Mario 64
Why I love it: This Paper Mario game takes the cake because it is a good old fashioned Mario fights Bowser after traveling through seven different worlds to rescue Star Spirits. There is one boss battle that is particularly annoying (looking at you Huff n’ Puff), but overall the chapters are the most fun from jumping into a giant Toy Box, traveling through the sewers to reach Shiver City, to jumping into a volcano on Lava Lava Island.
1. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
Why I love it: I wrote an entire article on this game. Nuff said.
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/my-thoughts-on-di...
