Old School Game Reviews: SSX Tricky

Welcome to the third edition of the “Old School Game Review”. The last two games I covered were Sega Mega Drive titles, “Streets of Rage” and "Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe". This time? I'm going back 10 years instead of 20, and talking about a Playstation 2 title. To celebrate the release of the new title in the series, my third Old School Game review is the amazing, SSX Tricky.

Not familiar with the “Old School Game Review”? It’s basically a gift wrapped game review so in theory it’s nothing new. But what is different is that before I divulge into the review I talk about what makes this game so good, and some facts and memories the game gave me. Oh and what counts as an old school game? My ruling is the game has to be at least ten years old.

When did this game come out? 2001

What console was it released on? Playstation 2

What else was it released on? Nintendo Gamecube, XBox, Game Boy Advance

Compilations? None.

Other interesting facts? Well this game was released less than 10 years ago in the UK... if you bought the Gamecube, XBox or GBA versions. But I bought the PS2 version so that's my excuse! I'm not cheating with my criteria!

Best memories? Probably doing the first course, Garibaldi, with a score of more than 1,000,000 for the first time. I don't know what the official world record is, but this is the biggest score on YouTube at 4.6 million, which is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Still, it's an amazing task to get a score of 1 million. I think my all time record is around 1.3 million, although it's been a very long time since I had the data on my memory card (oh those were the days... when you used memory cards... it felt like yesterday!).

Now onto the review!

For me, SSX Tricky, 10 years later, is still the best snowboarding game of all time.

SSX Tricky is the sequel to the original SSX game, which was released a year earlier as part of the new EA Sport BIG selection, a set of sports games that were unrealistic in style. SSX Tricky was basically SSX 2.0, with many of the tracks and characters making returns from the original games. But labelling SSX Tricky that way and thinking that it's nothing more would be a big mistake. SSX Tricky takes everything that was good about SSX, and mashes it up to make it bigger and better in every aspect.

The SSX game series are, as we said earlier, an unrealistic series of snowboarding games. The main course of the original SSX is a snowboarding race, and you can do tricks on your snowboard to try and give your character a speed boost for every successful trick pulled off. So you raced hard, did tricks off the big jumps and used your speed boost and try to finish the races in first place.

This is not going to end well...

SSX Tricky builds on this in a much bigger way. Much bigger. You see, you can still race against the other competitors, there's a "Race" mode for that. You can still use your tricks to gain speed boosts as well. But... the tricks are bigger and wilder than what was available in the original game. Not only that, but if you store your speed boosts to the top of the bar, the song remixes to include "It's Tricky" by Run DMC and you have access to what are called Uber Tricks. Uber Tricks are what make SSX Tricky special. They're incredibly flamboyant, melodramatic tricks on your snowboard that take a while to pull off, but look absolutely awesome. You also score much more points for pulling these off as a reward.

You'd be mistaken to think that so much emphasis on tricks in this game means there would be an actual trick orientated game wouldn't you? Well there is. On one end you have the "Race" mode, and on the other you have the "Showoff" mode. The purpose of "Showoff" is to, well, show off your tricks. More accurately, it's purpose is to give you the opportunity to get the biggest score tally possible. "Showoff" mode has big coloured icicles across the course, and doing tricks successfully through these icicles gives you a multiplier on the score given for the tricks done. The colour codes are yellow for a double multiplier, orange for a triple multiplier, and red for a quintuple multiplier. These icicles are pivotal for getting the highest scores in "Showoff" mode.

So you have "Race" mode and "Showoff" mode. You can access these options through "Single Player" and "Multiplayer" mode. But if you start from scratch only have access to a few tracks. To unlock more tracks you have to play the "World Circuit" mode. With "World Circuit" mode you, one by one, take on the courses in either "Showoff" mode or "Race" mode, it's completely your choice. With "Showoff" mode, you have to get a certain score to get either a Bronze, Silver or Gold award. Getting at least a Bronze will unlock the next track on "World Circuit", and it will also be available on "Single Player" and "Multiplayer" modes. For "Race" mode on "World Circuit" you will have to race the track three times, and will have to finish in the Top 3 in each race to qualify for the next one. After the third race, your placement will have to be in the Top 3 again to get a medal - Bronze, Silver and Gold again.

Getting a medal in "World Circuit" gives your character skill points to develop the attributes that are important to SSX Tricky - Edging is your sharpness for turning corners, Speed is your, erm, speed, Stability is how hard it is for you to get knocked off your snowboard and Tricks is how quickly you can do your tricks. If you get a Bronze medal you get two points to add to your attributes, four for a Silver, and six for a Gold.

There's the checkpoint! Caution signs? Booby traps? Hmm...

 The characters in SSX Tricky are brilliant. You have lots to choose from, and you have to unlock a good few of them by getting gold medals in "World Circuit". All the characters specialise in different methods of SSX - some are very good at tricks, some are very good racers. There are 13 in total and all have different personalities - Moby and JP are arrogant players from England and France respectively, where as Marty and Kaori are quiet and shy players from Germany and Japan respectively. My favourite character however is Psymon, who is completely nuts but says some of the funniest and random lines in the game like shouting "French toast and syrup!" at the top of his lungs mid jump.

Another thing about the characters in this game is that for the only time in the entire series for SSX, there's an al-star cast who do the voices. You have Lucy Liu who does Elise's voice, of Ally McBeal and Kill Bill fame, Billy Zane who does Brosi and is famous for his roles in Titanic and Twin Peaks, David Arquette who does Eddie, famous for his role in the Scream film series, and singers Bif Naked who plays Zoe and Macy Gray who plays Seeiah. This all-stellar cast of voice actors to a great job and add to each character's personality really well. It's arguably one of the best jobs done by a group of celebrities in a video game in honesty.

The controls are quite slick in SSX Tricky, and once again are an improvement on the original SSX. You can use the D-pad or the analog stick to move your character and can sort this out in the Settings menu to change it to your preferences. You move with either, and you flip or turn your board with the D-pad, and with the shoulder buttons you can grab your board. You can press multiple shoulder buttons to do more complicated grabs with your board, which usually give you more points. Combining a turn or flip, or both (to make your character twist diagonally) and multiple shoulder buttons gives you by far the most points apart from the Uber tricks available if you fill your boost bar to the top. Regardless of how many combos you do, how many flips and turns you include, it's important to make sure that your character is as vertical as possible for landing, otherwise your character wipes out on the course, making your score not count on that 'trick'.

If you're racing, you can knock characters over by pressing the analog stick either left or right depending where they are to your character. Be warned though, characters often target you for revenge in the races if you continue to attack them. But if you knock a character flat off their board by using this technique, you're rewarded with a full boost bar straight away which can be useful. Your characters also have relationships with each other - some are friends with you while others are your enemies. For instance, Psymon fancies Zoe, so they are considered friends. Luther is a bully and picks on the cute Kaori a lot, so they're enemies. Your relationships can get better or worse depending on your actions on the track, if you hit them a few times they'll target you in the next few races for revenge. On the grand scheme of things this isn't that important but it all adds to the game that is SSX Tricky.

One of the finest parts of SSX Tricky is the pretty damn good soundtrack. "It's Tricky" by Run DMC as mentioned before, is the title track of the game, and the original song and the remixed versions on the game all make the game that much better. It's a fabulous song and thoroughly works with the style of game SSX Tricky provides. There are also some good electronic dance and rap songs on the soundtrack too, and Bif Naked, also mentioned before, has a track on here. A few tracks by Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys are also featured, and Mix Master Mike is also a secret character in the game... if you use cheat codes. Over the gameplay are parts of commentary provided by Rahzel, who is a beatboxer, who does a fantastic job of putting over the action and doing some random beatboxing once in a while. He did a similar job in the original SSX too.

Luther (top right) is totally going to land that trick. Eddie's afro is impressive huh?

As you play through "World Circuit" you unlock snowboards and character costumes to customise your character's look. The snowboards are all in different shapes, and each character has a preferred board type. Some boards are best for tricks, others for races and some for in between. If a character uses a board they're unfamiliar with, they usually struggle a little more with this board, but do get access to a different set of Uber tricks if they fill their boost bar up. Once again it all adds to the game that is SSX Tricky. If you get a gold in every "Race" and "Showoff" track on "World Circuit", you unlock a chrome outfit, which looks pretty cool.

If you ever want to take a breather and try things out in your own time you can always use the "Practise" mode. You can do it in either a "Race" mode style, but without any other competitors on screen so you're taking the track on in your own time, or you can practise certain tricks on one large jump. The latter also includes a tutorial to help you do certain tricks that are compiled in each characters individual "Trick Book". The "Trick Book" is a tick sheet of sorts, to fill up to hone your skills of performing tricks. If you complete a character's "Trick Book" you unlock that character's best snowboard in the game.

Overall "SSX Tricky" is an amazing game. It pains me to know this game didn't sell very well. It's completely unjustified. For me, even 10 years later, "SSX Tricky" is by far not only the best SSX title in the series, but the best snowboarding game ever created. It mixes fine snowboarding racing, and over the top tricks. It has a brilliant soundtrack and the characters are all great and will appeal to lots of different players. "SSX Tricky" gets so many things right it's almost perfect. It really deserved more people to play this grand game, but with the new SSX game just coming out, at least new players will get a taste of a new, fresh title to play. But if you ever want to get a retro SSX title (I feel old typing that, it was 10 years ago though), this is the one to get. "SSX Tricky" trumps every snowboarding title out there before this release, and arguably, after.

Rating: ****1/2 stars

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Game Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Sonic 4: Episode I is a great, yet not spectacular sequel, 16 years overdue that should appeal enough to new and old fans alike.

Sonic 4: Episode I was released back in October 2010 on multiple platforms including the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, Nintendo Wii, and the Playstation 3. It’s considered the direct sequel so “Sonic 3 and Knuckles” the two games released in 1994 on the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis, marking a sixteen year gap between the two sets of games.

Now unless you’ve been living under a rock chances are high that you know that many MANY Sonic games have been released in the sixteen years between these games. But a lot of fans of the Sonic games lost interest and disliked the direction that Sonic took after the release of the classic Sonic titles. Sonic 3D back in 1996 was received poorly, and while Sonic Adventure, which was released on the Sega Dreamcast in 1998, was received quite well, a lot of the older fans didn’t like the change in style that Sega were adamant on keeping. The newer Sonic titles were in full 3D and still concentrate on his speed but in the 3D environment the controls are very poor when in relation to the speed they were setting. Sonic Adventure 2 was then released three years later in 2001 and was also relatively well received by newer fans, but disliked by fans of old. The gameplay was changing even more with the release of Sonic Heroes in 2003 on the Nintendo Dreamcast, Xbox and Playstation 2, with the multiplayer aspects and the idea that you control more than one character at a time, but once again the game was well received by newer fans, and disliked by the classic fans.

There has been a big debate about the Sonic series since 1994 as you can tell. The reception of most games were mixed to positive by newer fans but mixed to negative by older fans. Sega wanted to keep up with the times and move forward with a 3D hungry video gaming world. They had mixed results doing this. But the all time low for Sonic was the release of “Sonic the Hedgehog” in 2006, released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. This move was bold as Sega were attempting to use the “Sonic the Hedgehog” title again rather than move to spinoff titles. It was seen as a series redesign and an attempt to appeal to both new and old fans alike. The game was received extremely negatively, by both new and old fans for its poor controls and its attempt to make the plot deeper with an awful storyline. It’s to some considered one of the worst games ever made. After this release a lot of fans really started to turn on the Sonic series, as it had been such a long time since a truly great Sonic game was released. Despite the Sonic Adventure series receiving decent reviews, there was no true gem in the Sonic series since the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis days. They then released Sonic Unleashed in 2008 on the Playstation 2 and 3, the Wii and the Xbox 360. It merged some new gameplay with some old school game 2D gameplay from the 16-bit era and the game was warmly received by both sets of fans.

Then, one year later, it was revealed that Sega were to finally make a game directly targeted to appeal to old school games. The game would be fully 2D and would bring the gameplay back to its older days. The music would be reminiscent of the music in the older games and some of the enemies from these games would make returns. It was also decided that the only character available in the game would be Sonic the Hedgehog himself. The game, once again quite boldly, was to be called Sonic the Hedgehog 4. A lot of fans immediately thought back to “Sonic the Hedgehog” back in 2006, a move that was a failure to bring back some of the old fans. Was labelling this new game “Sonic 4” to be a success, or a failure?

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I brings the plot back to 1994 and take place straight after the events of “Sonic 3 and Knuckles”; Dr Robotnik (NOT Dr Eggman, I refuse to use that name in this review again) has been defeated and his space station is destroyed. Sonic takes a break away from his friend Tails and his new companion Knuckles and goes to explore new places on his own. Little does he know that Dr Robotnik has returned and he has reconstructed some of his own old creations to make them bigger and badder than before, and to stop Sonic once and for all.

He must have stolen something really valuable if he's running THAT quickly.

The gameplay for Sonic 4 does indeed return to its roots; it’s the simple 2D terrain and Sonic runs forward with the press of the D-pad or analog stick. He can jump on enemies and boxes, and the Spin Dash, first featured in “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” returns. The Spin Dash is done by pressing the D-pad downwards and pressing the jump button multiple times, and allows Sonic to roll on the ground at a high speed. The game has returned to its roots, but the major addition to gameplay in “Sonic 4” is the addition of the Homing Attack; when Sonic is mid-air a target may appear on an enemy, a bumper or a box, and by pressing the jump button again, Sonic immediately homes into his target at high speed. This however is a welcome addition to the old school gameplay as it gives the title its own flavour and separates the game slightly from its predecessors. Older fans think this too; not all change is bad after all.

The levels look fantastic in Sonic 4. There are five levels, four of them have two acts and a boss battle and the fifth level is a large final boss battle with multiple stages. The graphics for Sonic 4 are smooth and colourful and look even better in HD. Despite times changing in the past 16 years and there being more and more emphasis on 3D games now, these 2D graphics are just excellent. Sonic games have always been vivid and lively in its colour palettes and this is no different, it’s just done stronger now than ever before. The five levels are all homage and tweaks to levels in the original Sonic titles; first you have “Splash Hill Zone”, which is homage to “Green Hill Zone” from the original “Sonic the Hedgehog” game, then you have “Casino Street Zone” which pays tribute to “Casino Night Zone” from “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”, “Lost Labyrinth Zone” has many elements from the original “Labyrinth Zone” from “Sonic 1”, and “Mad Gear Zone” has a very similar design to “Metropolis Zone” from “Sonic 2”. The final boss level, which is only unlocked if you beat all four zones and their respective boss levels, is the “E.G.G. Station Zone“, which combines many elements from the previous four boss levels while adding a new final boss, one that is very similar to the final boss from “Death Egg Zone” from “Sonic 2”. All of these tributes are more than welcome additions to the game, the only problem otherwise being that some of the levels and designs can be argued to take too much from the original game series, but it is of my personal opinion that there’s enough originality and tweaking here to see it as homage rather than recycling old materials.

I said earlier that you have to beat all four zones and their boss battles to unlock the fifth and final zone. However one major change to Sonic 4 that was not done in the original series is the flexibility of completing your acts and boss battles in any order you wish. When you load up Sonic 4, you must complete Act 1 of “Splash Hill Zone”, after that however you have access to a screen that you can select any of the four zones in any order. If you beat Act 1 of that level, then the second act opens up, then the third if you compete the second, and then the boss battle when you finish the third. But by all means go straight to “Mad Gear Zone” once you have access to this screen if you wish. My feelings on this are mixed, as I loved the idea of you going through the levels in order of events as it made you feel like you were following Sonic on his amazing adventure like a story. However with the times completely changed from the way things were 16 years ago you can understand why Sega have decided to give you access to nearly everything from the get go; we live in a generation where we are impatient and want to do things straight away, rather than unlock our rewards with hard work. Another addition naturally are the leaderboards, where you can compare your time and point tallies to other people who have played the game across the world.

There are other elements from the original series that remain in Sonic 4. You still have to jump on enemies or spin into them to defeat them. You still have to pick up rings, and if you get hit by an enemy you lose all of those rings. If you have no rings and get hit you lose a life. The boxes you can jump on still contain 10 rings, an extra life, running shoes to make you run even faster, temporary invincibility and a shield. Unlike “Sonic 3 and Knuckles” however there is only one shield, similar to “Sonic 1” and “Sonic 2”. A shield lets you take one more hit from an enemy, giving you extra protection and saves you from losing your rings. One thing that is different however is that there are no continues in Sonic 4. Once again the idea of having continues is silly in a modern gaming environment so it simply doesn’t need to exist.

He must have stolen something really valuable if they are releasing giant BALLS at him!

When you finish an act, like “Sonic 1”, if you have more than 50 rings you will see a large ring that Sonic can jump into, leading to a Special Stage. These Special Stages are too, reminiscent of the ones that were added in “Sonic 1”, where you have to guide Sonic through a puzzled level full of bright lights and rings, to the end where a Chaos Emerald will lie. The big difference between these Special Stages and the ones in “Sonic 1” is that you control the level in this game, and you must move the level rather than Sonic to get him to go in the right directions to the end, where as in “Sonic 1” you controlled Sonic and made him move and jump through the stage. If you collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds, you will have access to Super Sonic, golden, faster and invincible version of himself, like in Sonic 2, 3 and Knuckles. To activate him, you must first accumulate 50 rings, and as he is set off, your rings deplete by one per second, and if you run out, you’ll revert back to normal Sonic. Super Sonic is another great welcome in the series, and the times and points tallies on the leaderboards separate between just Sonic, and levels where Sonic and Super Sonic where used, so it’s good fun.

The music in this game is indeed reminiscent of the music found in the games released on the Mega Drive. It’s still crisp and clear enough to tell that it’s got a tinge of modernisation, but the move is certainly welcome, and the music immediately brings you back to the days when the music was so good. A lot of the newer Sonic games try to incorporate rock and metal music rather than the soft dance/techno sounds found in the games released in the early nineties. The sounds are also pretty much exactly the same as the classic games, with Sonic’s jump noise, the collection of rings, opening of boxes and spin dash all sounding as great as it did back in the day.

The main problem with Sonic 4: Episode I for me is the controls when it comes to high speed movement, something that has always been a problem with modern Sonic games. Sonic moves very fast as he always does, and in the older games released 16 years ago and prior, the gravity defying movement was controlled perfectly, with very few hitches. While this game for large parts deals with the pace and the movement of Sonic well, there are times when Sonic stops, or hits the end of a wall. These situations are quite irritating as some of the finest memories of Sonic are when he’s in motion, running or rolling across a terrain with ease and grace, and for a glitch or a wall to be hit in a way that the game doesn’t like unexpectedly, brings the motion to an abrupt halt. Another thing is that Sega have also made Sonic fall with good poise on some occasions rather than him fall in a ball movement like he used to. Sonic will look downwards at the ground below and in this stance he is vulnerable to attacks, where as when he is rolling downwards from the sky he is in an attacking stance, and will land on his enemy crushing it. This can catch you out at times when you want to attack certain enemies below you as you’ll lose your rings if he is not in his rolling attacking stance, and there seems to be no consistency with it.

Another problem that was once raised was the length of the game. The game has three acts and a boss level for four zones before the final boss. Tally that up and you have 17 levels in total. Considering when the game came out it was 1200 Gamerpoints on the 360, around £7 on the Playstation 3 and 1500 Wii Points, which are considered steep prices for the “arcade/downloadable” stream of gaming available, it’s still pretty cheap. These games cost anything from £30 to £50 when they were individually released back in the early nineties, so complaining about the price is silly. Remember that “Sonic 1” had six zones of three acts, totalling 18, and “Sonic 3” had even less; six zones of two acts, totalling 12, so this isn’t a bad deal. Not only that, but the games have since been reduced in price on both the 360 and PS3.

The special stages are as difficult and trippy as they ever were.

The most important question in this review simply is, does the game live up to the expectations and hype? Will the old school fans be happy? Overall, I think the answer is yes. Sonic 4 does a great job in bringing nostalgia and homage to the old series while doing just enough to clarify its position as an individual title released sixteen years later. Sonic 4 is a fine, if not extravagant effort that should bring old and new fans together to appreciate what was so amazing about the series in the early nineties. The music, the level design, the enemy design and most importantly, the 2D design are all reminiscent of the classic games yet the Homing Attack, the new level select menu, and the leaderboards all serve reminders that this is the 21^st century; a game released in 2010 not 1994. And the game does a good job of balancing elements from both worlds, and, both sets of fans, old and new. Overall, Sonic 4: Episode I is a great, yet not spectacular sequel, 16 years overdue that should appeal enough to new and old fans alike. There is room for improvement, and I hope that Sonic 4: Episode II will deliver that promise.

Rating: **** stars

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My Top 10 Games Featured on the GameFAQs.com Game of the Decade List

I hope you've been enjoying the Game of the Decade list as much as I have. It got me thinking of all the good games that have come out in the ten years that have passed. I think the 128 games that have been chosen are really good, kudos to GameFAQs for that. I thought I'd do a list of my favourite ten games from that list. Just to note, this is only from the competition that is currently under way, there are other games I love that aren't on the list at all (World of Goo should have been chosen dammit!). Anyway, onto the list...

#10: Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) 

It's just been knocked out of the competition just less than 5 hours ago. I've just wept my last tear. This game is probably the most unique on the entire list. You just have to experience it to understand. A game with no standard enemies, just bosses? And it not only works but also became one of the greatest games ever made? Impossible. Just the scale of these enemies makes the game worth playing; it's just such a mind-blowing experience.

#9: Silent Hill 2 (PS2/XBox/PC) 

This game has possibly my favourite ending of all time in any game. It's a beautiful ending, well one of the endings you can get anyway, as you can multiple endings! It's probably my favourite Silent Hill game too, with the third not being far behind, this game was just a masterpiece from start to finish, storyline wise. The controls were a bit clunky once in a while, but you can ignore that with all that was good about this game. It's truly a phenomenal experience.

There's very few things in video games more fucking scary than Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2.



#8: Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal (GBC) (Read my review here)

It's my favourite game in the Pokemon series; it's the game they got the most positives out of. The addition of colour, the night/day time, the breeding, going back to the original game's world... but the main thing they got right was how many Pokemon they had. The original 150 was great, the next 100 added onto it were also good, but then it just went overboard with every other game that has since been added. I've also done a review for the game, it's a bit old now but you can see it on this site if you're interested.

#7: The Legend of Dragoon (PS) 

I was surprised to see this game on the list as it got mixed reviews by critics. But the fans that liked this game loved it so that's power to the people for you yo! Yes, this game had flaws, and many consider it to be Sony's flopped Final Fantasy game, but it does enough right for it to be more than enjoyable. It's got a decent storyline, some of the graphics look great (whilst other parts look awful) and Lloyd was a good villain. But the best thing I liked about this game was the combo attacks, it was hard to get at first, but once you got it, it was a lot of fun.

#6: Final Fantasy X (PS2) (Read my review here)

I've probably spent more hours on this game than any other on this list. FF10 had its great moments, I can't criticise it for its commercial value, and it’s the last game in the series that was universally popular. I had great times playing it, but it just lacked something. I don't know what that something was, but it just felt inferior to some of the previous games. Anyway positivity is needed for this list! Final Fantasy 10 was very good in nearly every department, a great storyline, beautiful graphics that still hold up well today, a good battle system, and one of the most kick ass characters in FF history in Auron.

#5: Left 4 Dead (X360/PC/Mac) 

I'd just like to say, I hate FPS games. I can't stand them. They're always the same, there's just no telling the difference between each game that's out there. Apart from Left 4 Dead. L4D caught me by surprise. The main reason is its multiplayer game, it's just so much fun to play online. I love being the infected; it's just so entertaining. I'm actually quite obsessed with playing this game, I just can't put it down despite it being a bit dated now, and a sequel has also been made. That's the sign of a great game, that you'd play it over more recent games that have come out.

Man, there's very little more satisfying than being a Boomer on L4D.

 

#4: Plants vs. Zombies (PC/X360) 

Speaking of addictive games, the most addictive of all is PvZ. Not a great deal of people have played this but those who have, get addicted. This game is so easy to play but so hard to master, and to top it all off it's funny as hell. Seriously, if you've not played this game, download a free trial, and then spend your hard earned money on getting it when you find out how awesome it is.

#3: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2/PC/Xbox/Mac) 

I don't know why this game has been overlooked so much in the competition. GTA3 came out, it was ground breaking, but had flaws. Vice City came out, improved those flaws but felt a bit too gimmicky, with it being in the eighties. GTA4 just went overboard in many ways, no matter how slick it looked. But San Andreas, San Andreas expanded everything that made the previous games great, and didn't go too far like GTA4 did. It also has the biggest and most interesting map to boost. GTA San Andreas got the best of all worlds and what I think is the closest to perfect the GTA games will get.

#2: Resident Evil 4 (GC/PS2/PC/Wii) 

And the award for most improved series award goes to - Resident Evil! I'm a huge Resi fan actually, but after Resi 2, the two follow-ups in 3: Nemesis and Code: Veronica decreased in quality for some reason. Capcom knew they had to do something to revamp the series. And this is what they did, and man, what a game Resi 4 is. It's just a brilliant game; I've not played an action game and had as much fun as I have playing this. I bought it, without thinking it was going to blow me away like it did. It's sometimes nice to not anticipate than it is to over anticipate (which is actually what I did with Resi 5, but that's a different story).

One of the best moments of Final Fantasy IX, Vivi and Quina... get married?!

#1: Final Fantasy IX (PS) (Read my review here)

And now we come to my #1. The people who know me well aren't surprised but I suppose as a GameFAQs list maybe you are. Other FF games were immensely more popular than this, 7, 8, 10, 12 are all more popular. But this game to me is the closest you will get to a perfect RPG, I mean, it has some minor flaws but I've never enjoyed a game as much as this. Remember, this is my list, and we're all different. But this game just oozes character, it's got everything what I want in a game, from it being fun to play, for the story to be both happy and sad, have characters I can relate to, it's long enough for me to get sucked into without ever getting bored, it's got an amazing soundtrack. It has everything. It frustrates me how much people overlook this game, but in a certain way it makes it more special, as I feel like it's my game.

And there you go, my favourite 10 games featured from the 128 chosen by GameFAQs. This is my list obviously, and I'm not claiming these are the best 10 games of the decade, nor are they my favourite 10 (although not many others would penetrate it mind!), but I just thought it'd be interesting to narrow down the 128 to my particular taste, and see the results. I didn't have a masterplan, I just chose the games I liked and chipped it down to 10. I hope it was interesting nevertheless!

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