Rudie’s Top 100 Video Games

Riven: The Sequel To Myst

PC, Cyan, 1997

Riven‘s first release came on 5 physical discs. Each disc had its own sleeve with unique art on it. I would also see that art in the game. Right there, the game and the physical object that housed the game was trying to teach me how to solve Riven.

I was too young at the time to get this. It was one of the few games I played with my dad. Clicking around and having the puzzles go over my head. Now as an adult, I love the puzzles. All the puzzles in Riven are about understanding the world of Riven. They are part of the ecology-technology-culture of Riven. It is extraordinary.

It is also a beautiful game. The stone-worked stairs lead to a craggy-ocean as two giant water-dinosaurs sunbathe. The temperature drop I can feel as I leave the sun into a cool temple worshipping a man that shouldn’t be worshipped. I see bits and pieces of the people that live here but a language barrier and fear of outsiders keeps them away from me.

Silent Hill

Playstation, Team Silent, 1999

I can straight up burn through Silent Hill for Playstation. Still, when I enter the nightmare world, the hair on the back of my neck tingles. The warbly polygons and freak monsters and piercing noise and radio static overwhelm my senses. 

No one is acting quite right in Silent Hill. If you haven’t noticed, there are pterdactyls and skinless dogs and that’s in the good side of town. It’s raining ash. Our hero just wants to find their daughter. As a true father, he will go to hell and back to do so.

Final Fantasy VI

Super Famicom, Squaresoft, 1994

Squaresoft showed it had mastered the Super Famicom with Final Fantasy VI. It’s an ensemble piece with sharply written characters. The first half of the game is driven and focused and exciting. In the second half the characters must once again be assembled to save the fragments of a ruined world. There is as much video game as I want to play in the second half: bonus dungeons, secret weapons. It’s up to me to decide how much fun I want to have before tackling the final dungeon. It is a game filled with beautiful heartbreaking moments performed by blobs of pixels.

Knights In the Nightmare

PSP, Sting Entertainment, 2010

While I was looking after dying family members in a hospital, I was playing this on my PSP. One of the orderlies mistook me for someone younger than I was and struck up a conversation. They asked me what I was playing; I froze in my shoes. How do I begin to explain what’s happening in Knights in the Nightmare? Years later, how do I begin to explain it to you when I don’t remember all the details?

Do you like organizing files on my computer? Moving mp3s from one folder to another? KitN is that as a whole game. I played it on a PSP, using the analog stick as a mouse cursor. I imagine on DS this is more tactile, but I haven’t played that version. There’s also enemy bullets trying to interrupt your file organization skills.

This game is for sickos. The screen is dense with impenetrable information. Try figuring it out, idiot! I think I was halfway through the game before I understood why I was dragging weapons to warriors and mages. I’ll never play it again.

Paradise Killer

PC, Kaizen Game Works, 2020

In Paradise Killer, an exiled god is asked to investigate and prosecute the murder of other gods at the end of the world. This collection of gods both murdered and alive are stuck in their own heads and squables as they destroy millions of human lives to their godly whims. All of this doesn’t matter, because the end of the world is about to happen.

At any time during the game, I can call a trial and end the game. The trial is perhaps a sham. I can also spend 15 hours interviewing witnesses, investigating clues, and Super Mario jumping a beautiful beach hell-paradise while City Pop blares around you.

It is your own justice you make or choose to make in Paradise Killer. Every day that passes since I have played it I am more and more startled that it exists. I put into the player character how much any of this matters to her. I determine what evidence I keep or ignore to save a friend.

Godhand

PS2, Clover Studio, 2006

Every complaint I’ve read about Godhand is a complaint of a conscious decision. The camera is close, because I can’t punch backwards. I can only see what I can punch. 

I admit I am too old to play it now. My most recent attempt nearly destroyed my hands. That does not make me respect it less. It’s only a sucker-punch because you’re a sucker.

Police 911 2

Arcade, Konami, 2001

Police 911 2 is the best Kinect game ever made, except it was made for arcades in 2001. What a joy to find it in the Sega Retro:G arcade in Akihabara in 2022. I have spent as much money as I can pointing a plastic gun at yakuza bad guys attacking real life Japanese city landmarks with real guns, bulldozers, and bi-planes. Ducking and twisting myself around bullets with my real actual body. I am sure Superhot VR does this better, but I don’t have room for a VR headset, I live in Japan. I’ll go to the arcade and relive the past in the present while I can.

Virtua Tennis Series

Dreamcast, Sega-AM3, 1999

I’m not picky with Virtua Tennis. I’ve never played enough of any of them to have fine opinions of them. What I have played of all of them, I love. It’s like if Pong was a video game. Give me whatever you got. I try to play it on the off chance I see it in an arcade as Power Smash.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

Dreamcast, Neversoft, 2000

A friend asked, “Why 2?” Because it’s the one I played, honestly. It’s a beautiful snapshot of ‘99 Skate and Punk culture. I fell in love with Millencolin and Lagwagon because of this game. 

Catching a perfect landing as “May 16th” swells in the Marseille Competition is the peak of video games for me. A new device to play video games means me playing the Hangar level at least twice. I spent more time than needed trying to construct something with the limited create-a-park. I can’t tell you your personal Pro Skater, this is mine.

Heavy Nova

Sega Genesis, MicroNet, 1991

Some games ignited my brain when I was 8 years old and then never left. The intro to Heavy Nova excites me every time. When I found out there was a Mega CD version, I almost broke into tears. When I found out there is only a US cartridge and only a Japanese CD, I gasped.

The video game itself is weird. I control a lumbering robot through clumsy action stages that end in a 1 on 1 fighting game. In the fighting game, I have energy on top of my health. I need 3 energy to even move, 4 energy to attack. Holding down causes all attacks to pass through me. I can boost forever in the borderless stages. 

Cheating and cheesing are the only way to defeat the AI because they will not give anyone a chance otherwise. It encourages aggressive mean play, especially in multiplayer. It’s not exactly good. It is a pinnacle of video games to me. No one I’ve ever shown it to has loved it as much as me. They do not walk away from it without comment though.

Next Up: Don’t touch that dial. We’re only getting started.

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