BardicKnowledge

Very cool -- but what about 3rd party items? I want a power ring like in Sonic SatAM...

The three big games in the SF series that are still played are Street Fighter Alpha 3 (my favorite), Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo (this one is about to experience a revival due to the 360 remake). All three are available via MAME, and all three have a decent level of online play (you'll want to be decent before playing via kalliera though). Avoid crossovers like Marvel vs. Capcom or Capcom vs. SNK until you have some extensive experience with one of the games mentioned above. If you've never played Street Fighter before, the most iconic game to start with is Street Fighter II Turbo. Anything before that (World Warriors or the unturboed Champion Edition) is nostalgia only. If you've played SF2 and want to break into the Alpha series, try Alpha 2 first, but make a point of trying both 2 and 3 because they play differently. The final piece of advice to follow if you want to enjoy the series is to spend some time playing as either Ryu or Ken before playing as Akuma. Otherwise, you'll be destined to end up as a scrub that doesn't have any appreiciation for the series. Note that I'm not specifically recommending the Shotokan fighters, but beginners tend to gravitate towards them.

"That's what the Machine Gun gives you -- large, round, red bullets." Awesome. Virt's music will be awesome as well btw -- Press Start was crazy good.

I think the stopwatch will trigger slow-motion gameplay for a certain period of time -- people seemed to like the mode in Melee, so why not throw some randomness into the main combat?

Hey, it looks pretty nice -- good work! In any case, what's the next big DS release? I can't think of anything waiting to eat my wallet right now.

***** Round Thirty-Three: ****** The Secret of Monkey Island -- YES "You fight like a milkmaid!" "Excellent -- you fight like a cow!" and other awesomeness. Hooray for a game that actually made me laugh, and will make all of you do the same. ***** Round Thirty-Four: ***** Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- YES The pacing isn't quite as good as Morrowind, and the way the game draws in background objects certainly isn't as immersive (having things just pop up kind of sucks). With that said, it's still a game in its own class, and saying that a game is "not quite as good as Morrowind" is like comparing something to the Holy Grail of PC gaming. Unreal Tournament 2004 -- YES This is what 2003 should have been -- there's enough new things to make it worthwhile, a decent editor, Assault returns...there's lots of goodness to be had here. Play it now! (for 3 weeks anyway, until UT3) **********************

Not to be all GameFAQs forums or anything...but give us links to these forums that have early things. In any case, awesome video! I wasn't as impressed with the song, but I'm not a FE player so it doesn't have enough meaning for me.

I've seen that no-label keyboard before...and it still looks just as bad-ass. Not to try and steal the thread btw, but does anyone have any recommendations on a killer gaming mouse?

***** Round Thirty-One: ***** Final Fantasy IX -- YES This is my favorite PS1 FF game -- the story is well-told, it's my favorite soundtrack (I've got the liner notes signed by Uematsu -- yippie!), and there are numerous references to the original NES trilogy, complete with secret bonus remix from FF3. If you haven't played this one, do so. Sid Meier’s Pirates! -- NO This game is great -- I bought it for my fiancee last year. But it's the original that is truly the must-have, not this remake. Good game that doesn't make the cut for "must-own" status. Double Dragon Advance -- NO This is the first decent Double Dragon game since the NES days. With that said, it's still just decent...not great. Whoever let such a great franchise fall so far should be shot -- Double Dragon 2 is still one of the greatest beat 'em ups ever made. ***** Round Thirty-Two: ***** You Don’t Know Jack -- YES A quiz game that's actually fun? With a host that is actually funny? This is really good stuff -- I wish they'd release a new one. Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction -- YES D2 is the only game I've started to play, phased out, returned to playing regularly, phased out...something like 7 times. Hell, it's had its own league on OCR for goodness' sakes. If you haven't played this, you're missing out on what PC gaming has to offer. Golden Sun: The Lost Age -- YES This game is absolutely amazing. This is the definitive portable RPG, and in my opinion it has yet to be eclipsed by anything the DS has offered in the genre. If you have a GBA/DS and don't own this, either you hate RPGs or you need to stop reading this and go buy it right now. The game's only fault is that this is really just the second disc of a large console game -- if you don't play through the first GS game, you'll miss out on a lot.

You should use the alternate opening for Shademan...I'll see what I can whip together tonight.

I personally don't like Meta-Knight's FS -- I'd rather have a Shinkuu Hadoken kind of move that a Raging Demon...especially with a game as fast-paced as Smash. Still glad to see that there's a lot of variety with it though; it makes the characters more unique.

^ Agreed -- Harvey Birdman should be amazing.

Portal was a triumph all around -- I can't wait to see HL2: Episode 3 now though...I hope they fully integrate the Portal gun into the gameplay.

***** Round Twenty-Seven: ***** Mega Man Battle Network 2 -- YES Like the original Megaman 2, this game really gets the formula right. One could make an argument that 3 is the best of the series, but this is the one that hooked people. ***** Round Twenty-Eight: ***** Call of Duty 2 -- YES This is the most immersive FPS experience I've ever had -- the game really makes you feel like you're a part of a greater whole. The multiplayer is good too, with smoke grenades making for awesome cover / decoys. ***** Round Twenty-Nine: ***** Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask -- YES It's a little quirky, but the new direction this Zelda game takes is a very welcome break from the OoT formula all of the other 3d games have followed thus far. Try this to see what else could happen. Mega Man X6 -- NO I actually think I like 6 better than 5, but that's a moot point because they are both pretty terrible. Portal -- YES Despite the fact that it's only been out for a few weeks, this game deserves to be on this list. Oh, and the cake is a lie... Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts -- YES The SNES and Sega CD levels in one cart? Gimme. ***** Round Thirty: ****** Super Mario 64 -- YES One of the only 3d games to get it right in the entire first two generations of 3d gaming...you _should_ own this. Final Fantasy Chronicles -- YES A full translation of FFIV Hardtype, plus Chrono Trigger with sweet cutscenes (and a tie-in to Cross)? If the load times didn't suck so bad, this would be incredible. R-Type Delta -- YES I've always been more of a Gradius person, but this is really a gem. After R-Type III, which I thought was too hard, this was a (slightly) better pace IMO.

zircon, I'd say that extra content is fine, but make it worth the money. New quests / dungeons, good. Horse armor, bad.

I've also had that problem numerous times -- it's too bad they didn't program multiple solutions for those sort of things. In any case, this one is by far the best, and I intend to replay it with the full English localization (supposedly, it's improved from the import).

***** Round Twenty-Six: ***** Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars -- YES This one is the finest C&C game to date -- they managed to balance the three factions fairly well, and everything is still fun. With this many UI improvements, I'm willing to say that this one is better than Starcraft (sorry everyone, it's still awesome, but the UI for it is terrible in comparison). Final Doom -- NO If you've played through Doom II, then you really don't need to play through this one -- it's more of the same with nothing changed. Still not bad, but doesn't have the intensity that the base game does. Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland -- YES A 16-bit remake of Kirby's Adventure? With MetaKnight playable? Fuck yes. Buy it now.

Krystal > Daisy in a heartbeat. Also, what other options do we have for female characters at this point, assuming that Dixie Kong _isn't_ in the game?

^^ That's an awesome idea. Now when people ask me what I want, I can just say "surprise me -- VC!"

I've got the official Pokemon cartoon / movie CD. Good for a laugh, and pretty much nothing else.

^ No worries -- I'm sure that no one is upset with you, seeing as how your post definitely doesn't break any of the forum rules. djp, I'm content to wait as long as it takes on this one, and I'm sure everyone else feels the same. Keep us updated as best you can, and we'll quit speculating in the meantime.

Originally this line read "Damn, sephy -- making me write a lot today." But I'm finding that I haven't played very many of the games in these lists, making me feel kind of bad. But at least I get to go to bed now. ***** Round Twenty-Two: ***** Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast -- YES This game is sweet, that's all there is. Saber-fighting against rocket launchers and blasters...it's damn near perfect. Best use of the Quake III engine to date. Also, new game journalism. ****** Round Twenty-Three: ***** Bushido Blade -- NO the sequel gets it right, but this game's parry system makes the one-hit gameplay not function as well IMO, keeping this one off of the "must-have" list. **Note that if it's not up for nomination already, I'd like to nominate BB2** Final Fantasy V Advance -- YES A solid translation worthy of the game, and 4 new jobs (3 of which you'll actually get to use before you finish it)? Sign me onboard. Touched up graphics and an amazing sound out of the GBA are the icing on the cake to this classic RPG that never got the proper US treatment until this release. ****** Round Twenty-Four: ****** Perfect Dark -- YES the Farsight is the best gun ever. Also, stealing other people's guns and shooting them with them. Basically this is a slightly polished GoldenEye that you can play even if you don't have any friends...and it's still awesome. Metal Gear Solid -- YES I'd say that every gamer owes it to themselves to play through an MGS game just to see what kind of cinematography is possible in video games. For me, playing MGS(2,3) is more like watching a movie than actually playing a game with how smooth everything seems to unravel before me. Unless I get spotted, that is. Unreal Tournament 2003 -- NO Good grief, this should have never been released except as a demo to tide us over until 2004. No enforcers, no sniper rifle, no improvements over UT99 except some graphics. Boo! Wolfenstein 3D -- NO While this is definitely a worthy piece of nostalgia that I would recommend to someone looking to find FPS roots, Doom is the one that everyone absolutely must play. There's just not enough variety to the enemies or levels here to warrant someone playing more than 3 levels of this. ****** Round Twenty-Five: ****** I suck at life, and don't own Half-Life 2 yet. Anyone want to mail me $50? Oh, and I apologize in advance for the differences in fonts on this post -- I don't usually use this computer and I'm having a hard time editing things.

Game reference fixed, considering that Mike has a Snowman Doll in his own series. Also, Jones would be frigging phenomenal -- if I see him in the game at all that'd be amazing. He could throw baseballs or bolas and swing his yoyo (that would change into a shooting star and into a supernova depending on how high is damage was). Incidentally, the main cave music from Startropics is also awesome...spoilers, white text follows but it's even better in the remix done in the sequel upon the return to C-Island. Also, is there a tag that I can use to mark spoilers so that I don't have to white out the text manually?

The 2nd case has a really sweet set of twists, Atma -- just keep going. My least favorite was case 3, but 4/5 made up for it -- Case 5 is friggin epic.

Coop, it's been a long time -- I'll give Galaxies a replay tonight and see what I make of it now. I think that its easier difficulty is what's putting me off though.