I’m curious what you guys have to say about this. Are there any games you consider perfect? Can a game even be perfect?
My example of a perfect game is always Portal 1. Portal 2 has more going on, but in 1 there just isn’t anything to shave off. From start to end, there is nothing I’d change about the game. It’s short, infinitely replayable, great pacing. I like Portal 2 a lot in concept, in concept it should be a perfect sequel, but it just doesn’t keep the extreme tightness of the original game.
Shadow of The Colossus. Archetypal hero type fights 16 giant monsters to save his dead love. There’s literally nothing else in The Forbidden Lands save for lizards and platforming puzzles. You’re playing to see what the next colossus looks like. It’s a game pared down to its barest essentials.
Also: absolutely incredible graphics, it’s actually confusing to me how the PS2 can handle it.
By deciding that dipping to 10fps at times is acceptable you can really push computer graphics on any platform to the limit.
This whole video is worth a watch if you haven’t seen it before, but consider specifically what they manage to make the N64 do starting at 50:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNbkv_DJ0f0
I’ll say it’s kind of spoiling the magic of the video somewhat to jump to its conclusion, but that’s where the custom graphics are implemented.
This is kind of a niche thing to praise, but I haven’t played any game before or since that “gets” riding a horse quite as well as Shadow of the Colossus does. The way that your horse has a mind of its own but mostly listens to you is tuned so perfectly that if you go from SotC to any other horse game (say RDR2) you’ll feel like you’re driving a go kart in comparison.
Outer Wilds is my favorite game, it’s just so tight between the narrative and the gameplay, there’s not a second wasted and everything ties together appropriately and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome so long as you’re moderately competent at the sleuthing. Better yet is the DLC they released was equally satisfying while remaining a standalone narrative with it’s own themes and mechanics, while still managing to tie in nicely with the base game narrative. I would suggest holding off on playing it until you’ve completed the OG, but theoretically you could do it anytime during the playthrough.
I guess the only downside I can think of is re-playability, being a mystery/puzzle game once you’ve acquired the prerequisite knowledge it’s a bell that cannot be un-rung and experienced again with the same novelty. Maybe someday I’ll go back, but until then I’ll suffice with the tear-jerking OST of both game and DLC, as I’m reminded of the most humanistic and existential game I’ve ever played.
The only fault I can find are the relatively unwieldy controls. Had a friend who just got frustrated with the spaceship control and dropped it, despite my strong recommendations.
And spoiler do not click if you want to play the game ever which you should just do it stop arguing it’s fantastic:
seriously dont
i got stuck on the hourglass twin puzzle with the warp. I understood the concept of warping to the other planet right, but apparently if you miss the timing, the sandstorm just yeets you into the sky. After three attempts I gave up and hours later had to ask the internet. Was a bit sad, because I just missed it by a fraction of a second.
Ughhhhh I had the exact same experience. It made me feel so bad for having to go to a tutorial after feeling so accomplished from sussing everything else out. And then finding out it was a slight platforming error just left me frustrated with myself and the near perfection of that game
I had a friend play through it and stream it for me to watch, and it was a great experience for us both. Got a lot of that sense of wonder that I had when I first played it myself.
Lol vicariously re experiencing the game is a pastime on YouTube. Symbalily and “About Oliver” have good LPs.
Zelda - A link to the past: Set the Zelda formula for the next two decades. Aged imho better than OoT, because it stayed within the capabilities of the SNES and the pixelart is timeless. Wonderful vibes, great pacing and just so much fun.
A link to the past is my favourite Zelda Game. I wish they would make something of that format and style again.
There are some games that fit that format I think. Four Swords Adventures. Link’s Awakening. I have that Link’s Awakening DX HD fan game downloaded and I only tested it for a a minute but it was super impressive.
You are right about Link’s Awakening. I did play the new version for switch and enjoyed that quite a bit. Mind you I did find some of the puzzles obscure and hard to get so I used a guid a couple of times. Im not sure about Four Swords ? Wasnt that the multiplayer one ? Im not sure how that one plays. Never looked deeper into it. With all that said I still think Link to the past just felt larger. A bit like the 2d version of a large open world game if that makes sense.
It’s ironic, because the first place my brain goes with the prompt “perfect game” is Hades. In terms of what it sets out to be, the combat, the gameplay loop, the art, the story, writing, voice acting, music, the game doesn’t miss a mark.
However, I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest game I’ve ever played. Often times the great ones have flaws, sometimes deep ones, but that’s part of the nature of pushing limits. It’s rare to do something novel and untested in a medium and also do it perfectly.
I don’t know if I agree that it’s perfect for one reason: the difficulty curve is weird. It does a great job of easing you in as you’re learning the game through the thoughtful upgrade systems and by slowly unfolding the stories each run. But once you win the first time, the skills you’ve learned coupled with the big Darkness payoff can make future runs much, much easier.
Obviously the Heat levels are supposed to counteract this, but if you increase by one heat per run per weapon to collect all of the boss rewards, some players might not be challenged again for dozens of runs until the Heat modifiers start making a difference.
Also the game won’t give me void fish to fill out the codex
Most roguelites are like that tbh, except some older ones like Nuclear Throne from the days before permanent progress got really integrated into the genre.
I personally don’t really consider it a flaw so much as a shift, because once you hit that point you have the tools and more freedom to branch out and try less optimized builds because they’re fun.
I think that’s a great way to explain my feelings on it. Portal isn’t my favorite game of all time. I actually enjoy Portal 2 quite a bit more, it’s a richer and deeper game that gave us Cave Johnson and many other things that define the series. Portal 2 does things wrong because it ultimately does more. Portal 1 is just a perfectly concise slice of that universe.
Undertale. I can’t find fault with this game that i can do it with my other favourite game. Not Prey, not FO4, not stardew, not half-life 2, not darksouls 3, not monhunt 4u/world.
It just went above and beyond what a game of its size and scope should achieve. It should have been a little niche game, praised by some critics in a blog post here and there and gotten some mild success in a steam sale. But the music and the writing dragged it into the spotlight and made it unavoidable for anyone talking about games ever again, as it should be.
the writing
The efficiency of the writing really can’t be overstated either. There aren’t incredibly long diatribes and lore dumps in the game. It’s very effective in its characterizations.
The efficiency of the writing really can’t be overstated either.
I’m playing Golden Sun on GBA for the first time right now and while I love the mechanics, I want to shake the game to see if it makes the conversations go faster. ALL OF YOU STOP TALKING STOP IT
