- Jumping Flash! (E) (PS1)
- Jumping Flash! 2: Aloha Danshaku no Ooyawari no Maki (PS1)
- Tiny Toon Adventures (J) (SNES)
- Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess (PC)
- Alundra (PS1)
- Madoola no Tsubasa (NES)
- Dragon Slayer IV: Dra-slay Family (NES)
- Cool Cool Toon (DC)
- Rockman X4 (SAT)*
- Contra: Hard Corps (GEN)
- Arcus (SCD)
- Arcus II (SCD)
- Killer 7 (GCN)
- Garou: Mark of the Wolves (DC)
- Choukou Senki Kikaiou (DC)
- Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken (DC)
- Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken: Mirai he no Isan (DC)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (J) (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Manhattan Project (J) (NES)
- Final Fantasy II (J) (NES)
- Final Fantasy VI (J) (SNES)
- Dragon Quest VI (SNES)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN)*
- Streets of Rage (GEN)
- Sonic & Knuckles (GEN)*
- Kaze no Klonoa 2: Sekai ga Nozonda Wasuremono (PS2)
- Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu (PCECD)
- Ninja Spirit (PCE)
- Silhouette Mirage (J) (SAT)
- Legendary Axe (PCE)
- Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3)
- Legendary Axe II (PCE)
- Sol Bianca (PCECD)
- Arcus III (SCD)
- Ikaruga (DC)
- Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyou Touitsusen (GEN)
- Dynamite Headdy (J) (GEN)
- Deep Fear (J) (SAT)
- Enemy Zero (J) (SAT)
- D no Shokutaku 2 (DC)
- Vampire Chronicle (DC)
- Pop’n Music 2 (DC)
- Blue Stinger (J) (DC)
- Hikari no 4 Senshi: Final Fantasy Gaiden (NDS)
- Emerald Dragon (PCECD)
- Chrono Cross (J) (PS1)*
- Gunhed (PCE)
- Cho Jikuu Yousai Macross: Ai Oboeteimasuka (SAT)
- Popoitto Hebereke (SAT)
- Magical Drop 2 (SAT)
Graphical breakdown:
Kind of a disappointing year, both in numbers, and in how much I actually enjoyed any of the games I played over the course of this past year. The top ten was kind of a struggle to figure out, after Madoola no Tsubasa and Contra: Hard Corps. There weren't necessarily a lot of bad games that I played, just not that many that really stood out from the pack, in retrospect. I enjoyed much of what I played well enough, but there were some pretty big disappointments along the way too. (*cough*KILLER7*cough*)
Perhaps the biggest tragedy of last year was in replaying Chrono Cross. I still really enjoy the game; The production values (art, graphics, sound, music), combat system, and overall game feel are still as terrific as ever. One of the main reasons I ever really pushed Chrono Cross as a recommended play, in the past, was based on my memories of the story, and ultimately, those memories were a bit off the mark. The world building done in Chrono Cross is tremendous, and the first half of disc 1 sets a great stage for an immense story to unfurl, but the second half of disc 1 is a bit more tedious, honestly. Immersion into the world takes a bit of a back seat, and story beats are a bit more sporadic.
Disc 2 picks things back up greatly, and is around the point in the game that I remember the story going from about a 9 to an 11. My mind was not completely blown the way it was when I was in high school, playing this game. It's still interesting, but I guess once Maxwell's equations, and wave equations become a regular part of one's life, the mind ceases to be blown by a somewhat clumsy description of general relativity. I wish I could remember exactly what part of Chronopolis activated all those dopamine receptors for me, back then, but I have a feeling it might have had something to do with the Records of Fate. Who knows. Anyway, that's not really where my problems with Chrono Cross arise. The big thing is that the end of Disc 2 kind of takes a big dump on itself by allowing characters too much exposition on the big picture ideals in the narrative (an all too common problem in Japanese pop-fiction). The orphanage is still pretty great, although it feels a little underdeveloped, and I don't know if I ever really realized that it's technically optional. Also The Grandolion (Masamune) side quest feels like the whole Viper Mansion cast just completely messed up the worlds they each come from, and make assumptions that events in one world were duplicated in the other (a pretty dubious assumption). The worst part is the "true" ending, though, where Kid just pulls an Emerald Dragon, and starts word vomiting all of the different philosophical threads to the plot into a fairly incoherent, and insultingly trivial reduction of the 50 hours I spent with the game, into some heavy handed drivel.
So imagine an Olympic luge run for a second: Like, all right, the first few turns were great, and then some time was lost on the next few turns, but the big turn is at the end, so just getting out of that one well would put the run into podium contention, but instead the pilot goes flying over the edge, and out of the track, in the middle of the last turn. That's Chrono Cross' story.
I want to reiterate that I don't think it's a bad game for that. It's still a great game, for all of the other things that it does really well, but I hate to recommend JRPGs where one would need to put his brain on auto-pilot during the narrative portions, and unfortunately, for a section of it, that's something of a requirement for Chrono Cross. It's not that the story might seem convoluted, though. There's legitimate care given to most of the details of events, and characters. My issue is simply that all the narrative motifs (of which there are many) aren't harmoniously resolved, and end up in a fruit punch of asinine JRPG ranting.