Brasel the Gamer’s Top 100 Games of All Time

The Cartridge Club is doing a collaborative effort to find out what the best 100 games of all time are. I decided to chip in and give them my top 100 games of all time. I’m going to go ahead and post my list here because why the hell not? No fancy explanations or anything though. If you have questions, feel free to comment! I do want to say that it’s pretty easy to see where my love of games lie. NES, SNES, PC, and the PlayStation consoles. I only have 3 Nintendo 64 games and 2 Sega Genesis games on the list. This is also quite a bit different than the last list I did some time ago, because I’m not lumping the Mega Man or Mass Effect series into one entry, for example. Let me know what you think.

1. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
2. Final Fantasy VI
3. Mega Man X
4. Metal Gear Solid
5. Mega Man 2
6. Mega Man 3
7. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
8. Super Mario Bros
9. The Legend of Zelda
10. Final Fantasy IV
11. Mega Man 5
12. Mega Man X2
13. Final Fantasy Tactics
14. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
15. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
16. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
17. Super Metroid
18. Super Castlevania IV
19. Super Mario Bros. 3
20. Chrono Trigger
21. Dragon Age: Origins
22. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
23. Super Mario Bros 2
24. Final Fantasy VII
25. Mega Man 6
26. Crystalis
27. Mega Man 4
28. Legendary Wings
29. Galaga
30. Super Mario World
31. Shovel Knight
32. Street Fighter II: Turbo
33. Mega Man
34. Diablo II
35. Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
36. Donkey Kong (Gameboy)
37. Actraiser
38. Quest for Glory VGA
39. Final Fantasy XII
40. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
41. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
42. Pokemon Leaf Green
43. Mass Effect 2
44. Mass Effect 3
45. Gradius III
46. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
47. Donkey Kong Country 2
48. World of Warcraft
49. Double Dragon (NES)
50. Super Mario Land
51. Ninja Gaiden
52. Donkey Kong Country
53. Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario World 2
54. Final Fantasy VIII
55. Gradius
56. Starfox 64
57. Super Mario Land III: Wario Land
58. Mega Man 7
59. Disney’s Aladdin (SNES)
60. Ducktales
61. Super Mario Maker
62. Super C
63. Contra
64. Mega Man 9
65. Tetris
66. Mario Kart 64
67. Castlevania
68. Sonic the Hedgehog
69. Mega Man X4
70. Dr. Mario
71. Illusion of Gaia
72. Castlevania III
73. Rock Band 2
74. NHL 98
75. Metroid Prime
76. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
77. Vandal Hearts
78. Kirby’s Super Star
79. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
80. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
81. Lunar Silver Star Story Complete
82. Diablo
83. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
84. Soul Calibur
85. Space Invaders
86. Ms. Pac-Man
87. Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
88. Super Mario Kart
89. Axiom Verge
90. Final Fantasy V
91. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
92. Heavenly Sword
93. Portal 2
94. Gunpoint
95. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game
96. Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PS3/Xbox 360)
97. Angry Birds
98. Rocket Knight Adventures
99. King’s Quest VGA
100. Mario Paint

A Personal Experience with Super Castlevania IV

Originally I wrote this as an article, but as I was writing it, I had an urge to put it into video form. So I did. Go check out the original article at OnTheStick.com:
http://www.onthestick.com/573/the-revenge-of-31-days-of-horror-games-super-castlevania-iv

Also don’t forget to check out Magnus VonBlack and his amazing cover of Simon’s Theme, which played throughout the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqUw7h-QE8

New YouTube Goals

I’m no longer aiming for a subscriber or viewership goal on my YouTube channel.  I’m not going to obsess over YouTube analytics or whether my video was what people really wanted to see. Instead, I’m just going to start making videos I’d want to watch, and continue to work on improving them.

Up until last month (September 2016) I had been really obsessing over analytics numbers and views and promotion to the point where it was making me anxious. I started the YouTube channel because I wanted to be able to talk about video games and various aspects about gaming culture with people who also had things to say. Somewhere along the line I wanted to get really big and “YouTube Famous” and make money off the channel to the point where I could do THIS for a living.

My literal payment every day being a YouTuber…said no one ever. Well, maybe Pewds.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy switching my career over to YouTube and freelance writing or whatever, but honestly, driving too hard at that goal was making me crazy and really hampering my creativity. From now on, the goal is only to make awesome videos, write cool articles and stories, and have fun doing it. If I achieve further success because of it, so be it.

The great part is that I already achieved my original goal. I’ve made SO MANY AWESOME friends and acquaintances that I never have a lack of people to talk to about any gaming topic that comes to mind. If I were to never gain another subscriber and not grow beyond my current viewership, I am now content in that. I’ve got an excellent base of friends and viewers and it’s really freaking cool.

Does this mean I’m going to stop promoting my videos or shutting down my Patreon? No. I’m still going to do what I’ve always been doing, but I’m going to let it be up to my content and my viewers to take things further. If people really enjoy my videos, they’ll share them.  If I stagnate in views and growth, but people continue to enjoy my content, I’ll keep cranking them out. It’s a fun creative outlet and I need to continue to enjoy it rather than try to push it to be some kind of job that it isn’t.

I’ve always been fairly consistent, but never on a solid week to week basis or anything like that. This will remain true. I’m not going to try and force things out at a given time, and I’ll release things when they’re ready. I enjoy content creation enough that I’m not worried about losing steam and quitting any time soon. Sure, I may take an odd break now and then, but I’ll always come roaring back with something cool.

Something Cool

This was really just kind of a mission statement from me. I wanted to get something down that officially put my stance on my goals and what I want to provide to the viewer. So here it is: I’m not locking myself down to a schedule. I’m going to continue to improve the quality of my videos. I’m going to have fun and make the videos that I want to make and not force out something that I don’t feel strongly about. I’m going to let my content speak for itself and continue to promote as I always have. If growth happens, so be it, but I’m happy where I’m at now. That’s it. Now if this was pretentious or self-indulgent or me just talking about myself to talk about myself, whatever. I just wanted to write something down. 😛

My Experience at the Retroworld Expo

The last time I drove more than 15 hours for a short trip, it was a short weekend away in Savannah, Georgia with my wife. We stayed at a bed and breakfast and had a great time. Also, she shared driving duties. But for whatever reason, I decided it would be a great idea to trek from the St. Louis area (Illinois side of the river) to Wallingford Connecticut over a four day weekend. That’s a long drive, and what’s even crazier is that I made the drive alone. And it was worth all 34 odd hours I spent in the car to get to the Retroworld Expo.

Meeting friends you know on the Internet in real life is always a gamble. Who knows how different they are in real life versus how you know them through text and the occasional voice chat online? But sometimes you end up connecting with those people and it’s not awkward or weird and it just feels like you guys have known each other for years. That’s pretty much how this weekend went. I didn’t have a single negative interaction, and I met a LOT of people.

Like these fucks.

First, I have to thank Rewind Mike for opening up his home to me and driving to and from the Expo, which was 2 hours from his house. I stopped in to stay the night with him Friday night. He’s got a really sweet gaming setup, by the way. We had a blast all weekend, and to start things off Friday night, we streamed to his YouTube channel. Why not? It was fun. We played some good games, and some bad ones…If you ever get a chance to play Hammerlock Wrestling for the SNES, I suggest you try it out. It’s not good, but it’s very interesting, especially in the graphics department.

The convention itself was pretty great. I’ve been to the similarly sized Super Bitcon in Oklahoma City the past two years, but other than the excellent Lost, Exit, and VG Dad that I spent time with at Super Bitcon, it was relatively light on the YouTube and online content creator people I regularly interact with. At Retroworld, I finally got to meet fellow Retroholic Anonymous member Adam from Replay Ability, Miketendo from Dongled, Pixeltunes Radio, and Dude You Haven’t Drank This Beer….I mean Dude You Haven’t Played This Game Yet?!, Pam from Cannot Be Tamed and her boyfriend Will, Jeff Wittenhagen from the VGBS podcast and the author of the Complete NES and Complete SNES books, Mike Anthony, Pete Skerritt, John Delia, James Roland AKA Epic Game Music, Banjo Guy Ollie, all of Retroware, and Wood from his channel Beat Em Ups. There are a bunch of others too, and I know I’m forgetting something. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and cool as shit.

After picking up some games at the convention on Saturday, we ordered pizza and attended a retro game auction where people spent insane money on old promotional light up signs. Like close to a grand crazy money. Sang a bit of Karaoke after that…which would have been cooler but it was just a bit too unbarlike for my taste. Pete is a great singer by the way. A few of us hit up a dive bar and played some pool, then spent the rest of the evening in the hotel bullshitting and…streaming to Facebook? Yeah. That happened. The best part? No need to get stupid drunk to have a great time. These people were all excellent company and some of the coolest cats around. It was a blast and an experience I’ll never forget.

Dive bar, and two bad dudes.

Sunday we mostly just sat in panels and picked up a few more games. Rewind Mike got his picture taken with THE Johnny Cage, which was cool. I’m not much for pictures myself, so the only ones I took were with friends and people who weirdly thought I was a novelty enough to stop me to ask for a picture with me…that kinda stuff really made my weekend too. Who knew people watched my videos? Lol

I do have to thank Will for giving me a copy of Streets of Rage 2, which I had never played before. That was super cool of him and he didn’t have to do it. I already popped it in when I got home and I was finally able to see why people prefer this over Final Fight games. Holy crap. I’m going to have to do a video on this eventually.

Also I was able to finally get my hands on a copy of Chrono Trigger for the SNES courtesy of Rewind Mike. He cut me a good deal so I couldn’t pass it up. Excited to finally get to beat it on the console it was meant to be played on.

All in all, it was an incredible experience and one that I don’t regret taking a chance on. Retroworld was a blast. Can’t wait to see a lot of these fucks at Too Many Games next year. Later.

Whats wrong with the term Hidden Gems? – VLOG

I just wanted to start a discussion on the term “Hidden Gems” and see what everyone else thinks.

Don’t forget to check out Krikit: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNytNd4VpmLGdmCZQ8gdqQw

Nintendo Doesn’t Want Your Money – NES Classic Edition

So Nintendo announced that they’ll be releasing a cheap method to play NES games on your modern TVs by way of the NES Classic Edition. This miniature NES contains 30 preloaded NES games and will have an NES replica controller using the same connectors that Wii remote peripherals such as the classic controller and the nunchuck use.

People are asking why Nintendo didn’t announce online connectivity or a built in cartridge slot, saying that this little novelty system will fail without support to play more than those 30 games. Sega put a cartridge slot on their Genesis repro, why hasn’t Nintendo? It’s a very easy answer. To cut costs and keep the system at it’s $60 price point. To put it in perspective: a NES usually goes for about $50, and a copy of Super Mario 3 – included on the mini NES – is about $20. That alone pays for the device.

This isn’t being aimed at hardcore retro game enthusiasts. It’s being marketed towards the person who played NES growing up, but hasn’t touched games in years. This could be the dude next door who spends most of his time in his yard or playing with his kids. Or the woman who was a massive Mario fan in her early years, but stopped playing games when she hit high school. This is a cheap way to expand Nintendo’s brand recognition and hopefully pull in some of those people it lost over the years.

Adding extra functionality would take more time and more production costs to produce, inflating the price. Sure, Sega’s Genesis reproduction was cheap, but Nintendo isn’t about cheap quality over composite video. If they were going to do it, they’d do it WELL, and that would cost more. This system is likely running a modified virtual console emulator, meaning development time on this product was likely negligible as they already have that technology ready to go.

$60 for a novelty item that could provide a decent amount of fun is reasonable. $100 to $150 for a niche item that includes online functionality and a cartridge slot for those people who kept their NES games around is not going to appeal to the same audience. Simple as that.

Nintendo is aggressively looking to bring back those customers they lost when they released the Wii U, those people who don’t actively game very much. “Filthy casuals”. This comes as no surprise as Nintendo also recently released their widely inclusive Pokemon Go, which a ton of people are playing, including a good number who don’t actively game on traditional devices anymore. You may also want to look into this article at Gaming Rebellion, where Matt Schultz talks about how former president Iwata talked about bringing gaming to everyone in 2014, not just gamers.

So what I’m saying is that if you’re reading this article, you’re probably an invested video game enthusiast, and Nintendo likely isn’t looking for YOUR money.

 

—Thanks to Derik Moore for the line about a used NES and SMB costing more than this device.

Prediction: Xbox Scorpio will have exclusive games…eventually.

Microsoft unveiled their latest two revisions of the Xbox One, (or what I lovingly call the Xboner…I know, old joke, just can’t stop typing it.) the Xbox One S, and Project Scorpio. The Xboner S will feature slightly better processing power and a smaller footprint than the original Xbox One, with the ability to play videos or Ultra HD Blu-Ray in 4K, but it’s not playing games at that new level of visual sweetness. (I’ve never actually seen a 4K monitor or TV…does it look that much better?) Yesterday (June 15, 2016), Mr. Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox division at Microsoft, said that the Scorpio will do nothing for gamers who don’t have a 4K TV, suggesting that the games will essentially look the same, just with an upscale to the higher resolution. He even went so far as to say that if you don’t have a 4K TV, than you should settle on getting an Xbox One S. (Seriously just about typed Xboner there again.)

Today (June 16 2016), he “clarified” his comments, stating that the Scorpio will absolutely have a visual impact on Xbox One games versus the older model console for players on 1080p TVs. In addition to that, the new hotness will be four and a half times more powerful than the original Xbox One. But don’t worry, any games that come out on the Scorpio will be playable on the ol’ Xboner.

Phil Spencer, probably.

Yeah, I don’t buy that.

My guess is that this is one hundred percent a soft generation leap for the console market. Sure, all games on the Scorpio when it is released will also be playable on the Xbox One for NOW, but give it a year or two, and we’ll start seeing Scorpio exclusives. Once households across the world and mass media have started embracing 4K TVs, the Scorpio (and likely the PS4 Neo) will already have an install base with a good number of early adopters, making the launch of the next generation of consoles that much smoother. Then in another year, Scorpio exclusive games will outnumber Xbox One games, and another year after that, no more Xbox One.

Hell, it may even take TWO new consoles to fully move away from the Xbox One. That’s how the cell phone market does it. You still saw people running around using their iPhone 4s when the iPhone 6 was released. Apps still worked between the two pieces of hardware, but more and more, those apps aren’t supported on the older phones.

This may all be old news to the people who have been really following this closely. I just figured I’d write out my thoughts on here. And after writing out most of it, I found that even the head of Xbox Operations, Dave McCarthy, says this will wipe out generational upgrades for console gamers. Everyone is saying consoles are getting closer and closer to PCs have it wrong. Consoles are becoming smart phones.

Patreon

Patreon Profile: https://www.patreon.com/braselthegamer

It’s late and I should be sleeping, butI’m not. I’m trying to figure out my next steps in all this content creation business. I’ve decided to go ahead and start a Patreon. I have a video announcing it, but it’s not going up on my main YouTube page. I sometimes worry about the blowback from asking for donations. I mean, I spend a ton of time working on this stuff for people to enjoy. I don’t know. If you want to donate, please do, but don’t feel obligated to, and definitely don’t if you don’t have the cash to do so. Watch my video if you have any questions, and if you want my thoughts on the whole Patreon model, read an earlier entry:

https://braselthegamer.com/2015/08/31/patreon-the-bane-of-youtube-or-todays-bar-cover/

If you have any questions about what Patreon is, check out this video:

 

 

Thoughts on Anxiety, Content Creation, and some strange Deja Vu

Are these for fun? I thought they were for mOAR WERK

So I’ve been really hitting this content creation hard lately. I mean, I love doing it, but I really tried to take a night tonight to myself after finishing my video that releases tomorrow evening. With the exception of taking an evening for dinner and a game of cards with some friends, I worked almost nonstop. I stayed up until 3 AM Friday night recording voice over, only to then make a collection vlog video. I sit at my computer every single day for hours trying to research content, create content, watch other people’s content to inspire me and network, and I take very little time to myself to relax and recharge.  I’ve recently tried to start reading a book every night before bed to kind of wind down, and it has been helping a bit. I’m honestly not trying to complain here, I just finally think I’ve pinpointed some of the causes for my workaholic tendencies.

I’ve almost always had an issue with anxiety. I remember my first anxiety attack was in the middle of the night in my dad’s apartment way back in the mid 90s. I was 10 or 11…I can’t remember how old. I’m always on edge, and if I’m not on edge, it’s because I’m buried in something. I’m either playing a game, reading a book, or these days, making videos or writing. It’s good to have an outlet that allows me to blow off all that excess nervous energy that I build up all day at work. Don’t get me wrong, I like my job, but it’s tough. It’s a strain every day wondering if I’m doing good enough work or if I’m going to screw something up and have to address an emergency. It’s not good for anxiety.

When I get home, I pour myself into my video game work. It is very stressful and draining, but I always kind of excuse that with the whole “I’m making my own deadlines” thing. I feel like I can stop at any time if it gets to be too much, though I keep pushing myself, full well knowing it’s stressing me out even further. I’m an anxious mess lately, battling panic attacks and having problems shaking general unease every day. I’m battling with a work-life balance issue. Noting this, I decided that tonight, I’d sit down and watch some Dragon Ball Z. Shut off the computer and social media (with the exception of a chat or two I have going with close friends) and just watch Frieza pound on some Z fighters. (Goku just got to the battle!)

The problem is, I couldn’t shut off work. I couldn’t get work off my mind, either the bill paying kind or the “fun” kind. I wasn’t being productive with my time. I have so many games in my backlog. I have so many videos to work on. I have to go to work in the morning and solve REALLY challenging issues. I have a deployment coming up and I don’t know how much time I have left….wait….what?

I’m still in deployment mode. It’s been 7 years since I got back from my last year long deployment. I thought I weaned myself out of the Army with 5 years of Reserve time. Nope. I’m still living each day like I have to get as much in as I can because I’ve “got a deployment coming up and I don’t know if I’ll be coming back”…when I really don’t. I’m not going anywhere. I have my whole life ahead of me without some looming deadline on my freedom. But my mind doesn’t think that way. My mind keeps saying that I only have so much time to get in what I want to get done before I have to leave for a deployment that doesn’t really exist.

I keep rushing to get in as much as I can each day, just so I can say that I’ve gotten enough done so I can pack it in for a year of suck and unpredictability. And I keep repeating it. It feels so familiar now, for whatever reason. It feels just like it did back in 2007 when I was finally living with my wife whom I hadn’t actually lived with despite being married since the end of 2005. I need to slow the fuck down, and I’m not really sure how to do that.  I look at my dad, who is very much the same way. He’s constantly trying to be as productive as possible, and I worry that I’ll never be free to sit down and relax for awhile.

Well, whatever. Time to go record game footage for my next video.

Interview with Sleepy Kraken Developer Volcano Bean

I recently talked with Mary McKenzie and Gene Kelly from Volcano Bean studios about their new mobile game, Sleepy Kraken. It’s a fun whack-a-mole type game, that Mary calls a “tap and smash”, that’s simple and charming. The game draws inspiration from old school arcade games.

Continue reading at Gaming Rebellion