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Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #8

8. The Sims franchise (PC, PS2, Mac, DS, PSP, iPhone, mobile platforms)

First unleased in January 2000, The Sims is a “life simulator” that allows you to control electronic people from the comfort of your real-world TV. Just entering its third official iteration, The Sims 3, the series has been a huge and consistent seller for publisher EA Games, even though they never really put it on a discounted sale.

That’s because the game itself is just loads of fun; too many people get sadistic pleasure, for example, out of forcing a sim to pee itself, or leading it into a room, then removing all the doors and windows and sources of food, water or cleansing and watching the little thing go ape until it “died.”

Once EA realized this, they of course nurtured it by offering even more amusing “torture your sim” animations and scenarios. Sure, plenty of folks play the game more straight-up, but that’s the beauty of the franchise; there’s no “wrong” way to play it.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #9

09. The Shin Megami Tensei franchise (PS2, PS3)

Whether it’s Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne, Devil Summoner or the Persona series, few RPG franchises were as prolific as Shin Megami Tensei in the past decade. The interesting thing is what sets them apart; they’re hard to beat, darker in tone and definitely M-rated. That bucks the trend of most RPG developers, which is to dumb down RPGs to gain mass appeal.

Also interesting is how varied and different each series in the SMT franchise is; few people will mistake Digital Devil Saga for Persona, or Persona for Nocturne, for example. That kind of variety is hard to find, even in as prolific a franchise as Final Fantasy.

Sure, some of the games are a bit on the esoteric side and, as a result, as appealing as searching Orange NJ invisalign users for matching dental records, but hey, quirkiness is good when too many RPGs are “me too” in approach.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #10

10. The Gallop Racer series (PSone, PS2)

Now, horse-racing videogames are rare and hard to find. And of the few franchises that are out there that aren’t associated with Mattel dolls, Tecmo’s Gallop Racer series is clearly the cream of the crop. At least in my book. But this is definitely a “my personal tastes” pick, though it may leave some of you so shocked you’ll be breathing through air filter for a year.

Normally, I hate racing games; there are only three franchises that have ever captured to interest. Gran Turismo is one, SSX (which I classify as racing rather than sports) and Gallop Racer. Of all of them, Gallop Racer is the quirkiest choice.

Still, every year when the Kentucky Derby kicks off the US Triple Crown, dusting off my old copy of Gallop Racer 2006 is my favorite form of pre-race warm-up. The game is challenging yet accessible; easy to play but hard to master; highly realistic but with a flair for Japanese “over the top” cartoonishness at times.

From the racing itself to managing the careers and breeding of your stable, there are few joys as sublime as playing through a month (or a year) of Gallop Racer, just because when you actually do come in first, there’s such a sense of achievement.

You can’t push horses like cars, so hitting them ceaselessly with the rider’s crop is a no-no; and each horse has a different personality, making it a challenge to master this game.

Sure, the franchise never made it to the PS3/Xbox 360 era, and the company seems to have forgotten about it (the last installment came out in 2006), but I spent too many hours playing this game not to acknowledge it on this list.

The missed opportunity to put this game into the major leagues was its lack of a licensing agreement with the US Triple Crown; if Tecmo had done that, the game could have been marketed on TV throughout the Run for the Roses each spring, and it would have sold even better.

The series may never have been a breakout hit, but it always sold out and sold quickly… and those of us who own a copy NEVER give them up.

Halfway there!

We’re halfway there, folks! We have numbers 11-20 now all up in our big countdown of the top 20 videogames of the past decade. Already, some mighty classy franchises have been named. Controversy has been stirred. Madden in the bottom 20 instead of the top? Shadow Hearts even makes the list?

But see, that’s the beauty of this: it’s my own opinion and while not everyone will agree with me, I’m darn sure doing better than that joke of a list Yahoo Games put together, which was so Nintendo-biased and stinky it inspired millions to go on weight loss diets!

Suck on that, Yahoo Games! We still have our Top 10 to go!

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #11

11. Guild Wars (PC)

Although strictly a PC-only title, Guild Wars was more influential in the past decade than just about any other PC MMO RPG. Why Guild Wars rather than World of Warcraft, which has many more subscribers?

One simple reason: Guild Wars put to death the concept of high monthly fees for MMOs. It was the first MMO to only charge for the software and make playing the game free of charge. It was as revolutionary as an acne solution that works!

Sure, Guild Wars has seen its popularity wane toward the end of the decade, and there are still some MMOs that charge monthly fees; but thanks to Guild Wars, they are no longer the only online game in town, and the recent wave of “browser-only” or “free download/free to play” MMO RPGs is due in large part to the ground broken first and more importantly by Guild Wars.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #12

12. The Silent Hill series (PS2, PSP)

While the PSone original was released in 1999, the series really picked up momentum in the last decade, starting with its first PS2 appearance in 2001, which may contain the most compelling and emotional storyline of the entire series. And its spookiness came from atmosphere, not the “Boo!” moments and gross-out gore that marked the Resident Evil series as a type of weight loss products.

This was followed by Silent Hill 3 in 2003, and Silent Hill 4: The Room in 2004, at which point the series lost momentum, just as it inspired a movie version, released in 2006. Silent Hill: Origins saw the series debut on PSP, while 2008 brought Silent Hill: Homecoming, the series’ PS3-era debut, which also appeared on Xbox 360 and PC.

2009 saw a remake of the first Silent Hill, known now as Shattered Memories, released on the Nintendo Wii system with a motion-based control system.

The series has suffered in recent years by waning sales and lack of the creative spark that marked the first three installments. The future of the series in uncertain, but primarily in the past decade, Silent Hill was the horror videogame of choice for people who preferred their chills and thrills served up mentally, rather than through shock and gross-out.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #13

13. The Final Fantasy Tactics sequels (GBA, DS, PSP)

OK, so the original Final Fantasy Tactics title on the original PlayStation came out in 1997. Got it. But the game’s impact wasn’t really felt until this past decade. Overshadowed and nearly overlooked as a result of Square releasing Final Fantasy VII the same year, many gamers initially derided FFT as being too throwback and retro in approach.

However, the game, which had predecessors in the Ogre Tactics titles on SNES, ultimately won hardcore gamers over with its sometimes-insanely-difficult battles, some of which could last over an hour and still result in a loss! That was bold even in 1997, and the resultant button-pushing was a real muscle builder for thumbs everywhere.

Yet the game’s popularity was vastly helped in 2001 when Square re-released it as a PlayStation Classic, even though the game never reached the magic 1 million units sold bar established for most games to become PlayStation Classics.

That helped launch the game into popularization. By the time PlayStation 2 came out, entire companies were dedicated to the new subgenre of “Tactics-style RPGs,” which was a direct reference to Final Fantasy Tactics’ approach to RPG gaming.

By 2003, a new title in the series, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, was licensed by Nintendo to help launch their new GameBoy Advance platform, and quickly became the defining title of the GBA platform.

2007 saw a remake of the PlayStation original arrive on Sony’s portable platform, the PSP. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions delivered the greatness of the original with plenty of new content and a fresh, more understandable translation.

And in 2008, Final Fantasy A2: Grimoire of the Rift delivered a Nintendo DS-era sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

The groundbreaking nature of the series gave birth to much of Atlus’ game catalog, as well as opening the door for NIS America to bring much of its catalog to North America. In an era where RPGs are now done as big-budget productions often perceived of as “too easy to win” by hardcore gamers, the popularity of the Tactics-style RPG is in its retro approach, greater difficulty level, and most importantly, it’s considerable length.

Tactics-style titles often involve hundreds of hours of gameplay to complete successfully, and that makes them perfect candidates for on-the-go platforms like GBA, DS and PSP. By staying retro, Final Fantasy Tactics has delivered the perfect style of RPG for handheld systems, and the influence of that 1997 title was felt most profoundly only in the past decade.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #14

14. Guitar Hero series (just about every platform)

While some will protest that I’m not including (or going to include) Rock Band, the bottom line is this: Guitar Hero came first and everything after that was simply a refinement of the same basic game play concept. But really, there were virtually no music games like it until Guitar Hero came along… and no, Parappa the Rappa doesn’t count.

Not only did this game invent an entire game genre, but it made it trendy to create games that, with such custom instrument/controllers including, cost almost as much as a videogame system itself. While the typical Guitar Hero or Rock Band title will retail for around $60 for the game only, the average for a complete package with instruments and a mic is in the neighborhood of $199, not to mention all the extra sales from new song downloads; the average price for a new song is about $1.99, or twice what it will cost you on iTunes.

Guitar Hero changed gaming in many, many ways, and it replaces the hunt for the best treatment for adult acne as a male game obsession. Yup, adults like it, too.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #15

15. Shadow Hearts series (PlayStation 2)

Sure to be a controversial choice, the Shadow Hearts series of RPGs were groundbreaking for their time. The first installment came out in 2001, while Shadow Hearts: Covenant came out in 2004, capped by Shadow Hearts: From the New World was the last installment to appear in 2006.

The series never leaped to the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 generation of hardware, so many people have forgotten about it. However, it was one of the first games (aside from the same developer’s first effort, Koudelka, on the original PlayStation) to delve into the horror genre from an RPG approach; traditionally, RPGs were scene as a strictly fantasy (and sometimes science fiction) genre of game, while horror was thought to be done best by the survival horror genre.

Many of the developers involved in the Shadow Hearts series had already experimented with RPG horror when they worked at Square, where they produced two Parasite Eve titles for the company before they went independent, first as Sacnoth and later as Nautilus.

While it would be a wonderful thing to see what this group could have done with the Shadow Hearts series on the PS3; however, Sacnoth/Nautilus is apparently no longer in existence and its team is now scattered to the four winds, working on a variety of other projects for other companies. (I heard one even now works selling New York hotel deals, but that’s not verified.)

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #16

16. Trauma Center: Under the Knife (Nintendo DS, Wii)

Appearing initially on Nintendo’s touch-screen handheld platform, and then later on its motion-senative-based Wii system, Trauma Center: Under the Knife (not so much its sequel) gets credit for being one of the first games to fully leverage Nintendo’s touch-screen controller on the DS. It also adapted itself well to the Wii’s then-unique control scheme. All it lacked as a solid remote backup service to make sure you never lose your saves.

Developed by Atlus for the DS, Trauma Center is a bit like the old Operation! board game, in that touch-screen controls put you in control of the hands of a surgeon for life-saving surgical procedures. However, the game, while one of the first surgery sims of its kind, is still a fantasy RPG and so it’s not quite photo-realistic and not quite strictly limited to pure real-world medicine as the use of magical healing gels and special surgical abilities do become a core component of game play after a while.

However, for pure edge-of-your-seat tension, there are few games that build it as well as Trauma Center: Under the Knife; that it appeared on the DS system within the launch window and is still one of the most highly-regarded games on a system filled with bloatware says a lot about the game’s unique concept, design and execution.

Some may label it a niche game; but virtually no other game kept me interested in owning my DS for as long as I did. While I recently finally did sell off my DS, I would have done it ages ago if not for Trauma Center.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #17

17. The Fable Series (Xbox, Xbox 360)

Granted, the Fable series only enjoyed two installments between 2000-2009, but both were platform-defining experiences by one of the top game designers in any genre. Peter Molyneaux may not have the RPG experience that the big brains at SquareEnix did, but in two simple games, he turned in efforts that outshone both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, creations from the mind of legendary Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. And that’s no small task.

While not as important as a cure to a href=”http://www.mesotheliomahelp.net”>Mesothelioma cancer, the really important reason Molyneaux’s Fable series earned its spot is that it helped establish the Xbox as a home for the RPG genre, cutting into Sony’s once-dominant status in that regard.

Fable also helped define a more American/European style of console RPG after decades of US audiences being spoon-fed Japanese RPGs on home consoles, with PCs being the only home of US RPG developers. All that has changed now, and it is thanks in no small part to the wildly entertaining worlds found in Fable and Fable 2.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #18

18. The Madden NFL series. (Just about every platform, period)

Love it or hate it, there is no sports videogame that rivals it. Arguing against it is like arguing against using floor tiles in a kitchen: pointless. Hands down, it is the biggest money-making sports videogame in the world.

The biggest bump in the road came a few years ago, when EA announced it had secured exclusive rights to the NFL, NFLPA and NFLCA licensing. This, in effect, drove alternate NFL games like Sega/2K Games’ football game pretty much out of the running.

The big argument has been that without competitors, EA would slack on game innovation. That has not been the case, and in fact Madden NFL ’10 has seen a changing of the guard on the development team, including a re-emphasis on producing a serious, realistic simulation of football, rather than a pinball scoring-machine style of play where the game has typically fallen down, due to the inclusion of so-called “magic plays” that almost always work.

With plenty of innovation each year, the Madden franchise has proven that their biggest competition is… every other videogame out there vying for gamers’ hard-earned dollars in a down economy. People are buying fewer videogames now than they were at the start of the decade; but most are still keeping Madden at the top of their list every August.