100. Donkey Kong

Staring at the screen, littered with ladder type structures, you found yourself wondering if the person who designed this arena had ever heard of a tool called the level. You then realize that this area is totally out of whack because of the huge ape that has decided to climb up top and jump around a bit. Taunting you with what appears to be an easy question of “how high can you get?” Donkey Kong seems like a piece of cake. It’s in this game that you are first introduced to Jump Man, who’s a little rough around the digital edges. He moves at a rate slower than year old molasses and his jumps also leave much to be desired. Later in his life, this character gets an upgrade to the much loved Mario, who is much more agile. As for Donkey Kong, your only goal is to reach the girl at the top of each level, while avoiding falling barrels and flames. The barrels follow random routes, sometimes falling down a ladder, and sometimes just continuing onto the end of the screen. The randomness of the barrel’s path adds to the frustration and poor visual quality of this game. Overall this was a great game for its time, and most importantly it introduced us all to Mario.

99. Rampage

Rampage is one of the most popular games in the coin-op industry to come to the NES, missing nothing of the greatest of the former. In this game you get to choose between a giant gorilla (George), a dinosaur (Lizzie) or werewolf (Ralph), and knock down buildings, and each other! Like all great fighting games, the option of throwing your ostensible partner in the river gives the game an always welcome tension with the 2nd player. I myself always geared the entire game towards knocking my partner off a building right when he thinks that I’m stopping the mayhem on him. The levels are numerous (North American cities) and so are the enemies. Tanks, Helicopters, Boats, Taxis, and even residents of buildings try to stop you from wreaking havoc on the innocent cities (although it’s a stretch that a dinosaur could be hurt by a coffee cup). When you are out of energy you turn into a little man wanting to escape the carnage, the perfect time for the 2nd player to eat you and gain some energy. All in all, this is an extremely fun game to play. Once again, this game shows that simplicity and playability always make for the best gaming experiences.

98. Batman (NES)

Gotham’s resident superhero, Batman, came to the NES with some doubts based on how poor most movie-turned—to-videogames are. Batman though was not one of these failures. The controlling is smooth, the levels are dark and stealthy, and Batman can use numerous weapons besides his fists. The game play resembles Castlevania 1 both aesthetically and thematically which is never a bad thing. The graphics are crisp, conspicuous and magnificently detailed in the cut scenes. Seeing the cut scenes in Batman made one understand how far you can push 8-bit graphics. The difficulty level of Batman is certainly challenging but never overbearingly difficult, mostly because of how responsive and fluid the controlling is. In terms of the storyline, Batman follows the chronology of the Batman movie exactly, level for level …which is fine. This is a better idea than coming up with a worse story than the original just to give the game a sense of “originality” that’s all too often lacking in effort. There’s also the soundtrack for the game was created with a zeal and contagiousness not expected from a movie video game. You’ll certainly find yourself humming to the tune of the first level after you play it 4 or 5 times. Overall, Batman is simply a very solid 2D side-scroller that has a re-playability value not seen in most movie video games that you can barely stand playing after the first 5 minutes of playing them. This is one of those games that sell for 10 dollars plus in a used video game store and for good reason.

97. NHL 94 (Sega Genesis)

NHL 94 for Sega Genesis is one of EA sports first forays into the hockey world. The game was a genuine success that it led to annual installments up to the current year of ’08. The controller movements are perfectly fluid, the teams are represented by an accurate ability for each specific player, and the difficulty is just perfect for entering into a season or playoff race. Also in this installment of NHL 94, four players could play on the same team or on opposed teams using a specific four player adapter for the Sega Genesis. This is a game like Mario Kart that one could get extremely good at, to the point where no one wants to play with you, especially when you learn the “behind-around the goal” trick of scoring goals. Within two minutes you can have the other player pinned down to a 15-0 lead and have him wondering why he ever agreed to play with a nerd who spends all his time thinking of ways to dominate his friends in video games. Another addition to NHL 94 is being able to play a shootout mode for more of an ephemeral challenging. Who could forget the most conspicuous addition to this vigorous EA series, breaking the glass when checking your opponent into it? This was a sure fire way to have tempers flared in the virtual realm. The best sports games can be played over and over and over again. This is a perfect example…

96. Ecco the Dophin (Sega Genesis)

In the battle between 16 bit systems, the SNES for the most part dominated the Sega Genesis because of the sheer amount of memorable games that the SNES produced, and because SNES had a little company called “Squaresoft” on its side. One of Sega’s best attempts at competing with the creativity in SNES games was from Ecco the Dophin. It had a deeper instinct to it than the “hip” and “cool” Sonic the Hedgehog. It also had an aggrandized storyline in it not seen by the likes of many of the games made for Sega Genesis. Ecco the dolphin is an illustrious game that was easy on the eyes and ears. You were a dolphin communicating with your family and other pods in your own “ecco” language. Your journey takes you up to the northern artic ocean to find “Big Blue” who tells you of the disaster of all the marine life being sucked up by sprouts and storms. The main enemy in this game was your breath support, as being a dolphin, you needed to jump for air periodically. Also, this game was more of a puzzle game in which you had to collect clues from other families of dolphins facing the same immanency. Storylines of time machines and food-scarcity evolve as you rush to find the cure to all the seas problems. This game always keeps you on edge and keeps you disposed towards saving that which is bigger than yourself. Sega had trouble making meaningful games like the SNES, but “Ecco” stood out as one of it’s most memorable accomplishments.

95. Advanced D & D Treasure of Tarmin (Intellivision)

Intellivision games came with a 17 button controller. Each game came with a plastic card you slide into the controller that describes that game’s button configuration. I think the system wasn’t more of a winner because it was stupidly complex for the graphical interface…unlike the 2600′s one button/one stick genius. The D&D series for this system was colour coded, later to be ripped off by Pokemon games. I was too young to care much for back stories, so the manual went unread. I inserted the cartridge and toggled the power on. The game started with me in a lo-fi quake style 3-D setting. Before I could press a button a huge purple blob with horns appeared in front of me, a purple lightning bolt flashed across the screen, game over. Holy crap, this game is worse than ET for 2600! It turns out, you never play the same game twice. The levels are completely random, each level descending further into Hades a-la the circles of Amsterdam in “The Stranger.” Sometimes the game would be 60 levels long, and your arsenal would be so deep that defeating the game was a snap. Other times, like my first time, you meet the purple Satan as soon as you enter the game. The replayability of this game was original, and the 3-D interface was unprecedented. I really wish my Intellivisions still worked…

94. Street of Rage 2

Side scrolling street fighting found its home in Streets of Rage. Like Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2 was the memorable moment in the series. The levels expanded, the bosses became more volatile, and the music was on par with a chemical brothers record. The levels were colorful and had detailed backgrounds that kept the gamer in the mood throughout the game. All the characters were enjoyable to play with from Max to Skate. You were going through pool halls, carnivals, and dojos throughout this game, never a dull moment when there were fighters coming from all sides. Streets of Rage 2 is one of the more fun two player Sega games out there. Sega was definitely successful with this series.

93. Strider

Strider was first released for the coin-op industry where it garnished only little success. When gamers were given the opportunity to play it on the Sega Genesis though, they realized that this was a game not to be overlooked. Strider Hiryu was one of the more unique characters to control in the old video game land. He was quick, aerobatic, and diligent in his sword thrusts. The game play itself was always curiously manic and chaotic creating a tension in the gamer throughout all stages. The music was defiantly something to write home about. The jungle stage and the beginning stage were stand out moments in this games soundtrack. The bosses were large and colorfully designed making strider a graphical standout in the Sega Genesis era. Strider is a quality game and was only released for Sega Genesis.

92. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

Zelda Ocarina of Time was the first Zelda for the 64 bit platform that took on a totally different game playing style from previous Zelda’s. Its success though was in maintaining the same type of storylines and problem solving that made the previous Zelda’s so great. In Ocarina of Time, Link becomes 3D giving the player an enormous amount of possibilities in game play not seen in the 2D progenitors. For instance, you can target in on enemies and slowly circle in on them to kill them which is actually required to beat some of the bosses. Along with this, there are the inclusions of loads of side quests that help Link with getting new weapons and energy boosts to help especially later in the game when the bosses became increasingly difficult. As Link progresses through Hyrule he learns new melodies that help him throughout different puzzles and areas in the game. A big expansion that this Zelda installment cashed in on was the size of the dungeons that could be shown and played in because of this truly 3D format. Dungeons were multiple levels shown with a depth from top floors unheard of before the N64. One dungeon in particular, you had to use your vision of this depth to control water flow in sub-chambers to help you onto the final boss. The visual depth of the forest areas also were vast and magnificent in stature embodying what the forest area in Link to the Past should of truly looked like. While Ocarina of Time could not supersede the perfection of Link to the Past, it absolutely would be included within the best of the “other” Zelda games. Zelda made its transition into its new environment of evolving game technologies intuitively and ingeniously.

91. Toe Jam and Earl

Wow was this game fun. Two players would walk across the most funakadelic of universes trying to uncover pieces of a broken ship. The amount of side adventures in this game proved to be one of Sega’s most unique moments. From the first screen of the game, you could travel way off the ocean into a distant Xanadu if you had the right equipment. The enemies were fun little creatures that would irritate the player as much as they would come across as harmless. The music to the game was as funky as a Parliament record; entire stages hip hoped with some of the best beats of the day. The sheer amount of items you could possess in this game was staggering; you could use tomatoes, slingshots, vehicles, and even floating rafts. One wonders why Sega didn’t want this creativity out of all of its games. Anyone who’s played Toe Jam and Earl knows they’re playing a game from a distant planet.