On to 30-21. If you want to see the rest of the list look to the right of your page.


30: Rescue Rangers (NES)

You'll be hard pressed to find any kid who grew up in the early 90s that did not love the Disney Afternoon lineup. It was pretty good stuff with the Gummy Bears, Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales, Darkwing Duck and other fantastic titles. Then with the contract Capcom had they made Rescue Rangers. Rescue Rangers improved the environmental pick up dynamic that was introduced in Super Mario Bros. 2 and made it into a rewarding game. Multiplayer was great fun as well since you shared the same screen as the other player, the opportunity to kill off their character was then led to one-upsmanship and cautioned glances as the game played on. Gotta say though I always had to be Chip since he had the totally killer Indiana Jones coat and hat.



Played games in the series that lost to Rescue Rangers:
None
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29: Street Fighter 2

I place this game on my list knowing full well that I do indeed completely suck at it. It is also the only game that doesnt have a specific version or specific system included on it because each iteration was memorable in its own right. Lets face it, this game owned everyone's quarters when it came out in the early 90s. Then each impending console version robbed us more of the hard earned dollars that we had. There is nothing more to say about the greatness of this game other than the fact that its not higher on the list due to the fact that I suck at it. Also who else tried to figure out what the M. in M. Bison meant when you were younger? I always thought it was Major due to the outfit



Played games in the series that lost to Street Fighter 2:
Street Fighter III (all iterations)
Street Fighter Alpha
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Pocket Fighter
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28: X-Men Legends (Xbox)

I love comics, so after saying that I realize that this game is probably the least likely to appear on anyone else's list but let me argue its point anyway. Before this game came out the only good Comic Book games were the two 3d Spider-man games and its easily arguable that the last good X-Men game to come out was from over a decade prior to this in the Arcade version. Activision has to be commended on bringing this genre from the poorly slapped together mistakes that DC had been putting out (Superman 64 anyone?) and making the games truly exceptional. While the extras were a little scarce I have to say that the first time I got to play as classic Wolverine I was as happy as a girl at the prom. On a side note I was a little disappointed with the 360 version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance it was a fun filled romp through the Marvel universe but it felt like an amped up Xbox game instead of a real next gen adventure. Also, the reason why X-men the Arcade Game isn't here is because the only arcade that had it had sticky buttons so it made it nearly impossible to play.



Played games in the series that lost to X-Men Legends:
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
X-Men Arcade Game
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27: Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360)

Yes, that is my emo mazda above in the picture. Forza Motorsport as just a racing game is very fun with a slight learning curve. Throw in the amazing paint customization feature of cars that take actual damage and this game is hours of fun. As you will tell by this list I am not a racing junkie. This is the only racing simulation game on the list, hopefully not spoiling anything for you readers, but I truly believe it deserves to be in this position just because of the fact that my car has a picture that I created on it and posted on the internet without any fancy add-ons. This is the first game that I could say was "next gen" not because of the graphics but because of the inter-connectiveness I have while playing this on my TV. I will say however the pricing structure on the downloadable content is a bit off.



Played games in the series that lost to Forza Motorsport 2:
None
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26: The Simpsons Arcade Game (Arcade)

This game is probably one of the best reasons why beat-em-ups were so popular during the 90s. Today I could never put the brand that is the Simpsons into a video game and have people believe it could be a good game. So again, its kind of strange to me that a Japanese developer could make an American cartoon into one of my top 50 and an American developer has yet to. The Simpsons arcade is very similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade that was released as well by Konami, but it stands apart by the great character animations and the coloring that makes the game so vibrant. Tragically, I begin to wonder if the rarity of this game has promoted The Simpons Arcade higher on my list than it truly deserves due to the fact that I can't place the last time I actually played the game. It just sits as a fond memory. With that said hopefully one day we will see this game rereleased in some form so everybody who has yet to play it can enjoy the experience.



Played games in the series that lost to The Simpsons Arcade:
Bart vs The Space Mutants
Bartman Meets Radioactive Man
Bart vs The Juggernauts
The Itchy and Scratchy Game
Virtual Bart
Bart's Nightmare
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25: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)

I must say this now. I hate calling Dr. Robotnik, "Dr. Eggman." Much the same as I would refuse to call M. Bison the name Vega I refuse to call Ivo Robotnik the name "Eggman." Any and all iterations of Sonic with "Eggman" in it will be a failure. With that out of the way, Miles "Tails" Prowler has to be the greatest sidekick in all of gaming. Better than that Luigi guy. Having Sonic run around with Tails was always a blast and in this game especially we were able to see how much better a game Sonic could be without actually changing any of the formula. While I have yet to play the oft trumpeted Sega CD version of the game I do have to say that this is the best version of Sonic I have played to date which is either really an accomplishment or pretty sad. Come on Sega make another good Sonic game!



Played games in the series that lost to Sonic the Hedgehog 2:
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 3D
Sonic Adventure
Sonic Adventure 2
Sonic Advance
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24: Punch Out!! (NES)

Nintendo just knows how to make good games. This was probably the hardest game I ever played as a kid next to Ghouls & Ghosts. The reaction times were so frantic that it makes the player work his reflexes overtime just to be able to get to the final fighters. With that being said its still an immensely fun game with amazingly fun character designs. I mean who out there doesn't want to beat the crap out of Glass Joe? Reality is that this game isn't great because of the mechanics, its great because everytime I got beat I always want to get back in the ring. One of these days I will beat Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream. One big complaint is that going from Von Kaiser to Piston Honda is such a rediculous change in difficulty its overwhelming.



Played games in the series that lost to Punch Out!!:
Super Punch Out!!
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23: Final Fantasy X (PS2)

At this point in the list we are getting to the great franchises and as I stated in the beginning, there will only be one of this type of game from this franchise. So in this write up I will say why Final Fantasy X beat out some of the other great games. In my mind I've probably packed so many logged hours into VII that its just mind boggling, but the story at times forced me to concentrate on what exactly was going on and I felt like I was hanging on to the cool characters instead of focusing on the plot. With the invent of Wikipedia I sit down reading the story of VII and realize I must have missed some parts while playing because most of this new information must have been glazed over during the play throughs. I was never into RPG's during the 8/16 bit era of gaming so thats why those games are omitted even though I have played them in remakes. The next closest after VII in my opinion would be IX which was a great game that did alot of things right and then wasted everything with the card battle mode which was very well done in VIII. So then what makes X so good? When X came out not many games had the extent of what X had in voice acting and this was the first from the Final Fantasy series. Now not saying that X was the first, here were games that did have great voice acting at the time but were no where near the magnitude of X in my opinion. This was a feat in and among itself as I'm sure the world was with me when we feared this game would be dubbed so horribly much in the same way as most anime is done. So with the fears of the audio overcome, the game itself was a much more accessible game than previous iterations. Sitting at its core is a great love story and for the most part I felt the world was connected excellently. This lack of connectivity was what put me off of VIII. I will say that the lack of a traditional world map was disheartening, but the Blitzball mini game was so awesome that it made up for it. The main reason for why X is the best game for me is probably because at about hour 60 into the game I was still playing on instead of forcing myself to play through to the end. Probably because if I ever got burnt out I always had some blitzball to take my mind off of things. I will say that X-2 has probably left a sore spot in most gamers as it was a truly bad sequel just in the terms of what Final Fantasy can accomplish. Either way all i want is for Squeenix to please make me a full Blitzball game based on the X model!!!!!



Played games in the series that lost to Final Fantasy X:
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XII
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22: Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

This game is probably the best platformer on the SNES outside of Mario. The Donkey Kong franchise at the time prior to this release was stagnant. It had been 6 years since a Donkey Kong game had come out and that was a 2-in-1 port of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. With this time gap it, the franchise could stand to be invigorated by Rare. Well, lets face it Rare as a company had been around for awhile but had yet to really leave its mark on the world before this game. Without this game its unlikely Goldeneye/Banjo-Kazooie/Jet Force Gemini would have ever been created without the masterful reinvigoration that was Donkey Kong Country and its sequels. One of the best aspects had to be the use of the barrels as a means of travel and a way to get bonus items. The graphics were amazing at the time and the system felt fantastic for a platformer. This is probably the best evolution a gaming character has ever had.



Played games in the series that lost to Donkey Kong Country:
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong Country 3
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr.
Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Donkey Kong 64
Donkey Kong Land
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21: Biker Mice From Mars (SNES)

Tragically unless many of you ebay the game or Rom it I doubt you'll get to enjoy the full experience of this game. Whenever I went and stayed with family in my younger days, many of the games that some of my cousins had were tragically lame. In saying that, this was indeed the best game of his collection. The gameplay itself is simple and the characters are vibrant plus nothing beats turning people into fishmen. Once again another great American cartoon turned into a great game by the likes of Konami. Best character has to be Modo out of all of them. I do feel sorry for all the Europeans as their version of the game was a horrible advertisement for Snickers. Literally the logo and the candy bar are everywhere.



Played games in the series that lost to Biker Mice from Mars:
None