Top 10 Greatest Games of All Time, or: The Low Five Goats

Alex and Luke talk their Greatest Games of All Time! GGoATs!

Luke has a running bit where he gives Alex a hard time for declaring any game he enjoyed as deserving of a spot in his top ten best games of all time. Well, the two finally sat down and declared their official lists. There are some spicy takes!

Tales from the Backlog is a a video games podcast where Dave Jackson and guests break down and discuss the games they play. Each episode looks at one game in depth, focusing on mechanics, story, music and other aspects, with no spoilers until a clearly marked spoiler wall in the middle.

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Transcript

Alex 0:00

Hey there, welcome to a very special episode of LoFive Gaming. We've officially been on the air now for a little over a year. We dropped five episodes last year on January 2022 that we have been working on in the previous year, and then we dropped our first official episode of the year on January 15th. So this is kind of our birthday. It's a birthday episode. Thanks everybody who's listened to any of our episodes. It's been awesome to have you guys on this journey with us. It's been super cool talking to people in the Discord about video games, life, etc. It's been really cool connecting with folks via the social medias. Y'all really make this a super awesome project. And just want to say thank you. And if this is your first time listening, welcome. So happy to have you with us, and we're excited to share with you our top 10 greatest games of all time. Our top 10 GOATs. Without further ado. It's probably like one of my top ten games of all time. Because he has 40 games on his top 10. So hey man, a top 10 list is a living organism and it's always changing, always moving around, new games coming in there, old games going out. So I was like, this will be a fun exercise. Let's actually do it. And then it turns out it's actually way harder than you think. I've done it before playing disc golf with like Ace, which was just bantering about, and we came up with like our top tens, and they're pretty sloppy, but they're pretty close to what I ended up with here. Right now. And we really just needed to pin down Alex and be like, listen, is Tetris really a top 10 game? Could be. We'll find out. We'll find out. That's the intrigue. So we plan to revisit it this mostly. We'll probably powwow and be like, did anything actually crack your top 10? Right. And as we enter, the new gen has been out, but it hasn't been accessible. And also the development delays, there hasn't really been like too many shiny new next gen games. Dude, did you see that PlayStation just uh they're like teasing their new PlayStation 5 Pro? Fuck PlayStation. As a PlayStation boy since the two fuck PlayStation, uh, we're Xbox boys now, and I'm hating how they do everything. And anyway, there hasn't been too many bangers for the new gen yet. So these lists, as you'll notice from us, uh, they do span some generations. That's kind of part of the fun. Yeah. You try to balance them to some degree. You can't have all of them from the N64, can't have all of them from the PS3 or the four. So it's interesting to see the different eras that go by. And really, I just wanted to see if Alex could actually do it. So it's been done, bruh. It's been done. Without further ado, I sent him some criteria, some daiconies, some ways to discuss it. It was basically five categories of which to rate your games. Now it's obviously subjective, other than Tetris not being a top-10 game. It's obviously subjective. You have to try to find a way to like basically break ties or like decide which game you actually like more than the other one. So I sent him while he was hardworking a five categories of which to filter his games through. We will visit these and run through these as we talk about our games, or just ramble on what we liked about that game or little like memories or history we have with that game. It kind of just gives it some structure. So we have living rent free. So this game lives in my mind. Might have not have played 100 plus hours, but the moments stick to you like no other. You'll find yourself reminiscing on good times and find yourself thinking of this game when trying to get into others. A lot of times when we're looking for a new game to get play, we'll be chasing a high of a different game, or you'll just be playing a game or at work trying to work, and you're just thinking about a game, and like you might not have played a ton of hours in this game, but you think about it. Just kind of stays there. It's kind of always there. Then there's your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. You are aware of the discourse around the game. Is it objectively a good time? It was very popular and praising its time for one or multiple reasons. So does it have a ridiculously high metacritic score? Is nobody surprised that it is on your list? It's just a good ass game, and everybody knows it's a good ass game. Then third, we have Origin Story. This game is the reason you love games. It might not hold up by today's standards, but it has inspired you to play games or pursue other interests. Includes found memories of coach co-op or land parties. So basically, uh, we're pretty close to the nostalgia zone here. Uh just games that you've always loved, games that, you know, maybe got you more into sports, maybe got you more into fantasy, got you into mythology, different things. Right. Or even just other games. Uh similar to how the other one inspired you to play other games. Like, this is like it's really what got you into the genre. Big impactful memories from your childhood, more than likely. Number four, don't kink shame me. So so many hours played, one more turn, JRPG nonsense. It's an investment, okay. So if I go by hours played per dollar spent, like so I didn't spend sixty dollars, I played 300 hours. If you divide that by 60, that's a pretty good deal. Right. So yeah, and then lastly, we have number five. Is it fine wine or of its time? So, is this game just continue to get better with age? Is it timeless? Is it a classic? Or when you were making this list, did you write it down on your little notepad and then come back to it and being like, this would be miserable to play again? Sure. Keep those in mind. We'll kind of revisit them. Yeah, I like all those as criteria, bro. I think it'd be really interesting to sometime go through and choose a game that meets that. Give it like an award. Right. I have a few that I'll bring up during my list that definitely hit those, so no doubt. Alright, would you like to lead us off with some honorable mentions? I have too many honorable mentions, so I have to name my most honorable mentions. So do you want to cap it or do you maybe just give an anecdote about a few of them, but list all the ones that you actually wrote down? Sure, man. I mean, there's uh, you know, you'll you'll give me some shit about the fact that my my top ten is uh ever growing, always changing. Of course. So naturally I have a bunch of honorable mentions.

Luke 6:27

Oh man, how many hours I got on this pod.

Alex 6:30

Although I did not write them all down, the ones I did write down are as follows. Mario Golf. Specifically, I was too salty about the new no new skin. The reason that that's not salty. I know, and the reason that that's so this is specifically Mario Golf 64 because that's what really pulled me into the Mario Golf like games. Uh that said, like I do think that you know the new Super Rush, uh, even like um the Mario Golf for GameCube is a better game, but that would have been the one I've included, right? Um but you know what? I'm not gonna I'm not gonna belabor any more time on Mario Golf. It's an honorable mention, and uh I still check in to see if there's good skins, but they didn't give any love to that new game. So okay. Uh next one I got is NBA 2K, no specific year. That's fair. But the reason, and that kind of falls into you're talking about like the amount of time put in, and I mean NBA 2K is like my soul food, dude. Like I'll just get at it and you know, play. I usually do uh seasons or dynasties or or playoff runs. Uh I don't get into the my player stuff, but I went 2K over Madden. I used to be really into Madden, but as far as sports games goes, 2K is the game I still play today. So this is an appropriate place to touch on this. I have one sports game, yeah, but I play almost more than anything else sports games over the years, and it's just like one, they they churn them out year after year. Oftentimes they're not amazing, they're not innovative. So like there's a few ones like I considered like MLB the show because of the times we've had with the My Player stuff. Sure. You said you didn't do my player, but he did road to the show. Um I've played an insane amount of hours of 2K, but it did not make my list. Right on. Yeah. Continue. Yeah, so Ask Creed 2 is an honorable mention. I yeah, I had that too. We might get into more reasons why. Oh yeah, that was the first one I ever played. I never played one. So I played two back in the day. I think you actually bought it to turn me on. I must have played my copy, yeah. So uh Ask Creed two, and I have that one over. There are definitely better Ass Creeds out there, but that's Assassin's Creed for the unindoctrinated. We call it Ask Creed since high school, yeah. But um so but that was a game, I mean, it really captured my imagination. I thought it was very innovative at the time. I mean, Ubisoft's all over the place now, that formula, like that's you know, and like if you look at uh derided for the pie the pioneering that they did like at first it was the coolest and now it's been a little played. Right, right. But honorable mention, Ask Creed 2. Mario Kart 64 is another honorable mention. So I did 64 because I do believe I spent more time and got more excited about 64 versus the S and E S version. That said, I would have just straight went for eight. Well, that's just it. So that said eight is a fabulous game, uh, but it didn't make my top ten. Okay. NBA Jam Terminant Edition. Stupid. Great game, dude. Get the fuck out of here. Smashing backboards and shit. Old ass shit coming through.

Luke 9:13

Dude, I'm on the old head. Yeah, I know. I know. I knew that there was gonna be some.

Alex 9:17

And it's an honorable mention. And it's an honorable mention, bro. NFL Blitz 2000, similar vein. Less cringy. Dude, that game is so fire. That is to this day one of the best games ever put out on the N64, in my opinion. And I will fuck up anybody who wants to play. When they re-release these games, they get rid of the extra hitting because it's not politically correct anymore. Dude, the Vikings in that game, Minnesota boys over here. Handle Cunningham, right? Dude, you got Cunningham, you got three deep. Ooh boy. I'm telling you, that roster, phenomenal. Noise. And then this one is a spicy take. Honorable mention, last one. Are you ready for it? It's a Tetris. It's not Tetris. Ah, I made list. Fuck. What? I don't think you're ready for this. Emotionally? As in like it needs to be on your list, or it's wild that it's like even mentioned. The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. Fucking idiot. Cut it, man. Fucking animal. I cut it from the top ten. What a fucking animal. Honorable mention, bro. Interesting. Honorable mention. He did say it was spicy. Uh, how does it not make the list at all? Well, because, and I don't want to give away my list, but because there is another Zelda game on the list, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't make a list full of Zelda games, and there's reasons why particular game or two is on my list versus Breath of the Wild. And I don't want to say that Breath of the Wild is not a good game, it's a fabulous game. I poured hours in that game. I had a great ass time. I know which two games are on your list, dude. And I know why they're on your list, but I'm still upset. Dude, and it's not even just you'll see. Time will tell, but there are reasons I cut Breath of the Wild. I'm upset. How about you, man? What do you got for honorable mentions? Oh, I'm just gonna recover from that one. Alright, uh, Ratchet and Clank. One, you'll see a lot of us picking a specific game from a series, but it's like it's the representative to the whole series. Uh Ratchet and Clank was the hardest pass. I couldn't justify putting it on there, but like I'll never forget, dude. It's Christmas. I open up a game, I'm like, the fuck is this? And mom's like, I talked to the guy at Target about a game that someone your age would like, and I like slumped in my chair. I was so fucking mad. I was like, Did you love that game though? But you didn't know. I didn't know, and like my mom just picked me out of video game that she talked to the guy at Target about. Like, that sounded like I was just about to be playing some hello. And like there's a you know, uh, the Lombax Ratchet is like a furry little creature, so I was like, this is like some kitty game. Like, she got me a kid game, and I have an older brother, so like I played slightly more mature games. I wasn't out there a while and out. PS2 era, right? It's PS2, yes. And then we went to midnight mass as little Catholic boys, yeah. And I remember booting it up, giving it a shot, because you didn't have to wait seven hours for your game to download back in the day, you could just play it when you bought it, ready to go, and uh it was so much fun. And I thought about it the entire time at church. I was like, I cannot wait to wake up tomorrow and play the game. And it the whole series, if I had to pick a game, it might be going commando, but like I played the first one the most amount of times. There's a remake on the PS4 that just kind of takes and polishes it up and makes some additions, so like Pratch and Clank the original, that was the hardest pass. GTA San Andreas. Ah yes, I didn't even include a GTA game. There's a spicy take. Is the GTA game on your list? Uh-huh. Maybe. Maybe. So yeah. I, you know, I thought about it and I was like, in gaming history, you would think that it should be on there, but I don't have a particular attachment to any of them. San Andreas, I have the strongest attachment to. I don't actually like five that much. I actually never really got into five. I put a few hours into it, and uh just it's it's obviously it's good. Yeah, so is four, but I just wasn't into it. Uh Mario Odyssey. Yeah. I do not have a Mario game on mine. Get the fuck out of here. I know, right? Breath of the Wild is an army. You dick. Uh Mario Odyssey is my favorite 3D Mario. Does the best of capturing the attention of living rent-free as far as like I just think about the different worlds and the different things you did in that game. Yeah. And I like Super Mario 64, but Odyssey's just better. Sure. Age of Mythology. Okay. Which Age of Empires game was it gonna be? That's the one I think the most about, and then the one that kind of lived in my mind the most as a kid. Okay. Majora's Mask. Right on. More on that later. And then uh City Skylines, my dude. Oh, you put that an honorable mention for the amount of hours you put in that fucking game? Base a thesis off that fucking game? It could like I could revisit it in years and it could come back. But at this point I just couldn't do it. And uh don't know what to tell you about it. Uh Ask Creed 2. All those games kind of blend together. Ask Creed 2 is probably the one that captured my imagination the most, made me the most excited, the one I have the fondest memories for. But if I went back and played it, I think I'd be like, this is gross. Dude, I got the uh the Etio collection. Doubt it ages like fine wine. I don't think it probably is. Well, I did fire it up uh and just did the It's probably alright. It's fine. The the graphics, you know, I mean it's what you would expect. It's a PS2 game. Yeah. And then last uh but certainly not least is the Uncharted series. Uh yeah, I've actually never played those. Yep. Uh it's cinema and gaming, yeah. Uh which is ironic that they didn't make that good of a movie. Don't uh cast Tom Holland for everything, but I digress. Uh dude, when you brought up the living in your mind rent-free um Christmas time, got a ration clay, and thought about it while you're in that mess all the time, I realized that I didn't include the Sims on either of my lists, and it should be there. And not necessarily on my top 10, but it should it should definitely be thrown in as an honorable mention. It needs to be talked about as far as like the whole family was getting in on the Sims dog. I mean, not her parents, but like Ellie. Ellie had some miserable ass Sims sister. She did not know she did not know how to care for them Sims dog. Uh my wife even put like back in the day, she put uh Anna put plenty of time into the same with same with Trisha. She loves the zeitgeist, you know, like a lot of people love that game. And it was a great game, and it still is. Like the the newer ones are fun. Building houses. Yes. Woo-hooing. Woohooing all over the place. No, I mean that was a that was a tough omission, but I was like, Yeah, that absolutely should be on it. At the very least, the honorable mentions. Quick story about that. I got the Sims for Christmas back around the time that it came out, and I was so excited for it, but our family computer had a virus from God knows what.

Luke 15:46

Alex.

Alex 15:47

Oh, God knows what definitely not Alex Teenage Porno, but continue. But it was like yeah, well, who knows if it was what it was from exactly. But I had the box, right, and our computer was getting fixed, and I just stared at the box in the manual. It was over just hours, and I had the flu too, or some shit like that, like at a fever. And like I had this, I don't know, man. It was weird. Like, I just have weird memories of just obsessing over the fact I could play this game. And like, you know how when you get sick, sometimes you like really remember those moments. So it's just me like on the couch back in the day, just staring at this box, just wishing I could play. That's funny, that'll actually come up later. Um, there's another tease for you. You're aware of who Chuck Klosterman is? No. Author, uh a lot of essays, pop culture stuff. Um, in his books, Drugs, Sex, and Cocoa Puffs has a delightful chapter on the Sims. Right on. I mean, it's it's a worthy game. It's yeah, and it's similar to like Age of Empires. I spent so much time on that game. It should probably be on my list. Grant the thought. I've played so much time on those. So like you just you gotta make some cuts, and sometimes it's almost like these are artistic choices. Right. That's why I have like the it just lives in your mind, like it just sparks some imagination. And you think about it. Oh, One Last Emission, God of War, the new one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, like 2018. Some people say it's better than a game that's gonna be on my list that came out in the same year. Yeah. And uh they're not wrong necessarily, but like I played it once and I was like, that was a great game. And I have not had the urge to restart it. You're gonna play Ragnarok? No. No, because I don't want to re-plug in my PS4 and I don't want to play it on a lesser vehicle. Yeah, fair enough. And uh I don't know, it's it's tight. I'm a dad. I've been uh I should get my dad energy out on that game, but I just it looks super dope. I wish I had a five for it. But uh drop the PC before too long. Yeah, but I got that game in PC and it's yeah, it wouldn't rock. Laptop. A game like that, yeah. Yeah, yeah, a game and laptop. But anyway, without further ado. You ready to jump in, dude? Top ten. Top ten. Alright, number ten. I'm gonna go first because it's spicy in my opinion. Ooh boy. What do you got? And I'm playing a lot of it lately. Hades. Oh, okay. The most modern entry in my uh catalog might not actually have justifiable billing. You'll be disappointed with me. I cut Hades from my list. That's okay. Because I almost did it too. I was like, am I really gonna put Hades over some of these all-time classics? Yeah, well, I got some spicy takes on mine. Did I just decide that I was gonna put Hades in there because I decided in advance I wanted to? But hear me out. Imaginative-wise, it takes it takes a genre that has become more popular lately with the roguelike. Right. I feel like it blew the cap up the or blew the top off the roguelites. It represents my love of indie gaming. Yep. And most importantly, it delivered a story in a way. The vehicle of how the story was told is so brilliant that that kind of just blows my mind. And then the balance in the game and the variety in the game. And those things combined, like I'm replaying it right now. I can't beat Dad. It's very frustrating. Hades. Yeah. Yeah. Dad, Lord of the Underworld, Hades. Two's coming out. I got all sorts of hype for it. Right. And it's just like I had had such intense fond memories. It might be a little bit of a pandemic game. Yeah, well, it came out. But now that I'm not playing it in the pandemic, I can say that it's just justifiably fire. Dialogue in that game is uh game is great too. Yeah, the voice acting, it's worthy. The art top nine top ten, it's worthy. Everything is everything's sick. What's your number 10? Uh Metacritic, I would agree with you as well. I think it's got uh I mean it's a critically acclaimed game, Hades. Yeah, but Metacritic would also tell me that like Super Mario 64 needs to be on there. So like, yeah, Hades, like and I I also tried my best to not have one system or era overly represented. So this is kind of my modern, my indie choice, and then for the for the reasons Benjamin. Dude, it was such a banger that Super Giant Games is making it too. They don't make twos. That's the word. So number 10. Age of empires too. If you're gonna choose any of the Age of Empires and understand why you're doing two, I should probably let you talk, but I omitted it from my list, so I have so many thoughts. Uh I had dude, I poured so many hours. This is a nostalgic choice for me. I like teach social studies because of these games, dude. I would read books because of these games. I mean, it's great how they sprinkled in a little bit of history, especially in their like quote unquote story sections. The campaigns, yeah. The campaigns. I still remember the joke. But as far as like a uh what would you consider this, like real-time strategy? That's not 100% what it is. Yeah, so it's an RTS game, real-time strategy, and it's honestly the real time like out of that genre, I dabble with some other games, but I I still return to the remaster. Oh, if you're looking for an RTS, it's the it's the best gold standard. I like it better than three, I always have, but I think that partially has to do with the fact that I just spent so much time in one and two, but specifically two. Well, that's just it. So I never got good at three, right? And I was good at three. And the expansions, and it was really dope, and they like took some chances. But and Age of Mythology, which you brought up in your in your honorable mentions, that those are totally they're rad as well. That was big on the playground for me too. Sure. So there's like some zeitgey stuff there. But for me, man, that was like a that was like not stronghold. You went with uh Stronghold's a great game. That was too hard for me as a kid. I have that on Gog, man. I still play it sometimes. Oh shoot. But uh Age of Empires 2 Cousins Cy and Sam were slapping your ass around and spinning. And AOT. No, that was Age of Empires 2. Both. Um because Stronghold, like I'm I don't know if Stronghold is a multiplayer or not. It probably does. Oh, okay. But Age of Empires 2 was also an early multiplayer game, so I connected with the cousins and we would play, and they did whoop me around. Yeah, and you put a lot of R's into it, but they put in some more. Yes. Uh, they were damn good. They had like some real strategies. You were probably reading on some forums. I could uh I could mess up the computer, dude, but whenever I played against humans, that was uh it was not great for me. Revisiting those games? Yeah, I cannot I must have been playing on the easiest setting as a kid so hard. You could create your own maps and stuff, dude. There's sometimes I would do the I would connect to the internet and I would like hit a random person on the internet with like some map that I created that was like stocked, and then like so that I would just whoop them up, and then at the end they would be so pissed because it like reveals the fog or whatever and it just shows that I was like ready to just annihilate them. Which you know, I was like what I was like 10 years old or something. I would line them up on the say I was in a map creator and she knew what I was up to. Just just like lining out the lining out the ports. But yeah, man, Age of Empires 2. All right, reverse order, give us your nine. Nine is spicy, man. So nine is my nine is similar to your ten. Okay. I went with Dead Cells. Oh, I knew that was coming. Yeah. So I had to think better than Hades, but continue. So like sh I'm not gonna uh so like well that's just it though, dude. Is uh in your your but this this lives in my mind rent free. I like I go back to Dead Cells more often than I go back to Hades. I do fire up Hades for a run every once in a while, but like Dead Cells is I just I just love it, dude. But it's weird because Hades like most definitely has a better story. There's like a story integrated into Hades that is beautiful, it's awesome. Dead Cells doesn't even really have a story, it's like very like make up your own story. There's a better pickup and play. Exactly, dude. The action the action in the it's like as a platformer, dude, it is it's perfect. It's uh it's actually more of a platformer, but I'd say the action in Hades is dude. I don't know, man. I don't know. The weapon variety is fun, dude. I'm just that's what I'm saying. Like Dead Cells, like the the weapons you get, the different runs, like I love that they just keep on adding DLC. That doesn't even really play into why I like this game so much. I really like it because it's a Metroidvania like esque, and I love that genre.

Luke 25:14

Of course.

Alex 25:14

So, but this thing pulls in some of the greatest aspects of different Metro Vania games and incorporates it into their game, right? Yeah. Unabashedly. Like they even like they call it out, you know? Like, yeah, and it's uh and I just think that's super cool, man. So it like takes flavors from all of these phenomenal games and puts it in one game, one place. I will allow. I've never I've never not had a fun time playing Dead Cells. It's a good time. Uh it doesn't like I will that game be here next year if we like revisit this list? I don't know. Maybe the first time. It's nine, but it's but it's up there, it's a top tenner. Okay. Back to reading manuals because you couldn't play the game. Yeah. I was given Knights of the Old Republic as a Christmas or a birthday gift. I don't think our computer was ready for it, right? It wasn't. And it's more Ramish. I literally couldn't figure it out, and I asked Dad to bring it to our computer guy and to install it for me to see if he could get it running, and he's just like, whatever, kid, and he doesn't know how to install a game. And like didn't launch the game. Yeah. So I was so pumped to get it back. So pumped to get it back, and then I got it back, and it was just the same thing that I had done. Right. So we couldn't play this game, so I had read the manual, all these different things, dude. And then eventually you had this super bitch in PC with an acrylic case because it shows to what was scum for Al. Neon lights, and it could play the game. Y'all listen and can't see, but Luke just took a low look over at my PC rig. Yep. Oh, I didn't. Alex just steady has one for it. But your PC could handle it. So when you would come home from college for summer break, you uh allowed me to put it on there, and I would just when you were uh working landscaping, the landscaping center, I'd just be crushing hours on Kotar. I'd dig it. It's sick, dude. Did you ever play? Yeah, I did. I actually played it so I I also played it, just dabbled on the computer or whatever PC back in the day, but I put it on my can't remember. Oh, I have it on Steam for sure. And I and I would like to revisit it. I'd like to revisit it. They were like teasing a remake, and I think I would like to revisit before the remake, to be honest. The remake's not having it. Did it get scrapped? Oh boy. It's probably not officially scrapped, but it's a huge mess. Yeah, okay. Um I kind of remember hearing some stuff about this. So the thing is it started higher on my list because I loved it so much and the RPGness of it, and the the party you have and how you can be a good Jedi, or like Sith, and all the different things. Uh it's very commonly like considered one of the best games ever. So like rent-free, I think about it often, very finely. Love's my favorite bit of Star Wars, yeah, which is a vast canon, but that's actually not true, but we'll get there. I had a Samsung tablet, like so Android in there. That's right. I guess, yeah, the gameplay. Favorite rapper's favorite rapper. Uh the discourse, this game is hailed as being a classic. Origin story, it made me love Star Wars more, it made me love RPGs more. And then Don't Kink Shame me. It's actually probably a medium to low on that. Sure. The total hours played, but I've definitely shamed it with some others of its time, more so than Fine Wine. Sure, sure, sure. People don't like that whole I don't even know what you'd call that combat style, but it's not. Like Final Fantasy has scrapped a lot of their kind of old school jazz stuff. And it was like live turn-based. Right. So you'd like click different things to do, like do your critical shot or do your slash move or whatever. I actually like that, but that's because of my head, I think. I don't know. I think it's because of my head. I like it too. But also I've bought it on Steam when I got my PC years ago, and I haven't actually downloaded it and played it. So I think about it all the time. I mean, you probably swooped it for three bucks or something. I sure did. I thought about making it our pod for the month, but I I haven't because I'm almost afraid. But I I love yeah, I love the different planets you visit. I love a game where they give you that many different maps to explore. And there's like a handful of planets that you go to. It's not just like one that you go back to. It's like there's a handful that you explore. It's really cool. Right now. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Ooh, Rip Brawl. GameCube. Yeah. So now we're heavily in the nostalgia zone here, although many will tell you to this day it's the best one. Yeah, a lot of like tournament scene. The tournament boys. Melee, brawl over melee. But if we're talking middle school sleepovers, dude, Smash took up a lot of time. So I played it a ton at home, played it a ton at the homies house, played it a ton in groups, a lot of parties, a lot of pizzas in Smash, a lot of a lot of late night sodis. Are you sure we're talking not melee? Which one's the GameCube one? Melee. Is the new one, Brawl? No, I think Brawl like maybe came out for the 3DS or something. I'm not sure. Maybe the Wii, maybe. We better check. Yeah, or Wii. Don't give a fuck. Smash Brothers on the list. On the GameCube. Coco. You keep all that shit in there. So I like the one on the GameCube best. It kind of hits that, like, when I think about being that age, I can either think about Halo or Smash Bros. Yeah, Brawl's for the Wii, bro. There we go. So I like Melee. Right on. Um, and I never liked Halo that much. I'm not a huge first person shooter guy. You'll notice that there's none of them on this list for me. Yeah, I guess I don't have any either. Spoilers. So I loved Melee. And it had great characters, great maps, and I liked the little story mode thing, and I just played so so much. Some folks. Will argue that the homies it was dope. Some folks will argue that Smash is not a fighter, but that doesn't make any sense. It's a platform fighter. Yeah, I suppose. That's the zone. There's Smash Lite games now. There's games trying to kind of get that flavor going. And the you know, the one on the N64, the original is really cool, but like the GameCube one is so much cleaner and more fluid and just better. But I'm gonna say you got a fighter on your list, so I like that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, hey man, sometimes you just gotta throw it onto that couch co-op and them land parties and somewhere in that just to capture those moments of playing with all your boys. And uh Smash does that. Right out. What's your eight? Number eight, Metroid Fusion. Word, never played for the Game Boy Advance. Uh, me being a bit of a Metroid stand, I had to get a Metroid game on your own. I wondered which one. And it was a tough choice, man. Dread was great. I really enjoyed Dread. Uh that said, fusion I've gone back and played more times. Okay. I think Dread could surpass it someday. Yeah, it's possible. But like, you know, if you're gonna if you're looking at it like, you know, I don't know, man. It's just it just is a big part of my like whole like gaming narrative, right? Sure. So what you know, I used to play it a lot on the game, it was one of the Game Boy Advanced games I have. Like, I definitely think that that game in particular is what sparked my love for Metroid, regardless. So, I gave it the crown. Eight. It's a good game. It changes up the formula a little bit, like adds some flavor. Another great game on the Game Boy Advance is Zero Mission, so that's a remake of the first Metroid. Okay. So if anybody is uh Metroid curious, those two games are great ones to start with. Sure. Uh Dread's great too. It's obviously like polished and new and beautiful game, and it works, but like I do like how it's like you get the essence of what Metroid is by playing. It does a lot as far as it's only 10 to 15 hours, but I've like thought of returning to Dread. Right. And I've thought of what it was like to play it, even though when I was playing it, it was a slog game through. Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, but number eight, Metroid Fusion. That's what I've got. You want to kick us to seven? Sure do. I needed to have a Mario game on the list. I I uh yep. I had too much Nintendo. Yeah, well, I'm there's a bit of that, right? But for for like, okay, so like it's hard for me to go about like when you're when I'm thinking about my history and my relationship with video games to the tsunami. What the fuck, man? Like it's bothering me how long you're gonna take. I was like, which one is he gonna pick? I was like, it's gotta be three. It's Super Mario 3. It's Super Mario 3 for sure. He didn't play 64 that much. I was like, not into you were kind of into it. I was like, it's gotta be dude. Uh I we played a bunch of 64, but we didn't have Super Mario 64, we didn't have that cart until my adult life. Oh word. So I played that game at Friends and shit. It's a great game. Great game. I only beat it on the Switches at the time. No, I specifically chose a side-scrolling platformer versus a 3D Mario. Sure. Because in essence, I almost had just the regular Super Mario Bros, like the first one on there. But Objectively 3 is a better game. Yeah, it's probably better than the Sonic games, but I think about those ones more. Sure. Yeah, yeah. I have no Sega games on here, spoiler. So uh Super Mario 3, man. Uh no, I don't think so. That was like weird. Uh uh, it's a good one. Dude, it's gotta be on there. I mean, like for dude, it's a great game. The worlds in that are great. Like, it's just it's a polished platformer, dude. Like to to not have Mario on the list would be a travesty. It's gotta be awesome. Step on the Super Mario World Pod. Fuck. Pick the other one we didn't play. All right, my number seven is skate two. Why not skate one? Why not skate three? Well, I'll tell you. Skate one is amazing, but skate two is more polished. Okay. Skate three is even more polished and amazing. But skate two had the best map, from what I can remember in the hinders of my mind. Right on. So, like, I guess I lied when I said I only had one sports game. Skate. Skateboarding is so cultural and has its own like vibes so much more than like other sports that like it's almost not fair. But like skate is innovative, right? Is very communal. You would just pick up and go on runs with your friends, you'd just pass the controller around. So like I was always playing skate. The open worldness was just amazing. The fact that you could like just explore these areas on your skateboard. I love the Tony Hot games as a kid. Yeah, I actually picked up one and two for the Xbox. Nice. Yeah, I did that on the PS4. Um, one was a lot of fun to play, but we never had to, so I didn't really care for those. Um I played a lot of the Tony Hawk games, so I've always like we grew up in like the two different although six years is a difference, but we very much grew up in the mid-90s to early 2000s skateboard rad era. Yeah, I was surprised you didn't include Dave Mirror's BMX. It was right there. I remember that. I never played it, but uh it was tough looking at I realized so the PS2, like we were like, we came up on like we had a PS2, right? I mean a lot of fucking people in the world had a PS2. Sure. But like if you think about that library and the library, we like we had a decent amount of games, dude. They used to just pump out games, pumped them out, and like I was thinking about the amount of sports games that we had on the PS2. Like the majority, they were cheaper, and the majority of the gaming I did on the PS2 were sport games. Sure. Um, but yeah, it's g too. Just it just changed up gaming so hard, it has such a cult following. It's uh it's a fine wine, those games give them on Game Pass. Still dope. Right on not as dope as you remember, but still super dope. Sure. So that's my seven. What's your seven? Super Mario Bros. three. All right, so yeah, still super dope. So then uh who wants to do six? Uh I'll jump in for six. All right, what do you got for six? I went with Grand Theft Auto of Vice City. Um, surprised it's not San Andreas, but Vice City came out when you were in high school. Right. It was super cool, super colorful, super fun. What's your reasoning? Alright, so you're right about it coming out when I had some high school time to put towards it. Hey man, it's uh Grand Theft Auto 3. We're talking about living in that nostalgia zone, like it makes an imprint, man. So Grand Theft, and it's like to this day, people still look at that game as like one of the best Grand Theft Auto games. Yeah. They used to also make those games like two years at a time. Right. Like they were pumping them out. So Grand Theft Auto 3, phenomenal game, and there's a good argument to have that on there as opposed to Vice City, but Vice City. I've rebooted that game up so many times that I've actually done some playthroughs. It's fun, but like you do, like I've definitely added mods for the controls and shit like that. Yeah, it's tough. Um but Vice City basically took it, it was like they upped the graphics a little bit, the story was fun, the cars are better. It was like this 80s, like very cocaine 80s vibe going on. Oh, yeah, Scarface to 10. So fun. Love the katana that you cut folks up with. Right, right. So objectively, I think that is a better game than Grand The Thought 3. Um you're right that San Andreas like deserves a spot on there, but my time, I beat San Andreas, but like I definitely think more fondly upon Vice City. And I also I enjoy a big open world game, and I enjoy how vast uh you know, this is even early on compared to some of the more open worlds we have now. But I enjoy the uh how Vice City is packaged a little bit more. It's a tighter experience. Yeah, exactly. As opposed to, I mean, there's something to be said about a big open world, do whatever you want. And uh San Andreas was definitely pushing the envelope on like doing more of that. All sorts of zany side content, right? Yeah, but uh but you know, I'm uh especially especially these days, I am I am all for a game that is tightly bundled and I can just knock out of the park in about anywhere between 10 and 20 hours ideally. Heard that. I respect. I was wondering which one would make it. I thought it'd be San Andreas, though. Right on. Uh my number six, my only sports game. Because once again, I'm just not gonna count skate too as a sports. Like open world is just like the not to go back to the other one, but like how you could get a sponsor in skate was so sick. And you could pick all your merch. It was just so fucking cool. NCAA football, 14. NCAA football, 14. The last one ever made thus far. Uh the new one has been delayed. This is right before they got sued into oblivion. I was gonna say, wasn't there some sort of the image and name? Yeah, because it's really stupid. So this is the year where Johnny Manzel, I think, had just won the Heisman. So like if you went to Texas AM, it was just like Johnny football pants, and it's like it'd be from his hometown. Yeah, it'd look like him, it'd be the same height, the same weight, and it was just like so stupid. And the reason I hated that so much, and that's the reason it went down, is because I could give a shit about its like current updated rosters. Sure. The best thing in that game was building programs. Okay, and like when you you just like so I play Madden now, although I'm ashamed of it. And my favorite thing to do is build a team up over time. But you get attached to these players, or you're kind of like, uh the fun thing about NCAA football is you're just churning out these players four years and they're gone. They're gone, yeah. So you're always building up a new person. Five if you redshirt them. Five if you redshirt them. Uh and then I'd do stuff like I'd pick a really bad program and then I'd take a new job, and it's sort of like real life, I'd keep rising the ranks to get to like Auburn or whatever. Yeah. And like one year I got it for Christmas when we were in Florida and played a bunch in Florida and then played a bunch at home. Nice. Uh my sophomore year of college, living with a bunch of dudes. I'd just come home and there'd be like three dudes in my room playing NCAA football, and we'd just like we'd name all the players after our stupid nicknames that we didn't actually like, like it'd be a receiver named Stalewater. And like we would just we would just have a good time. So like I'll forever finally remember NCAA football, and I've been chasing that high ever since I got rid of the game.

Luke 42:42

Nice.

Alex 42:42

Yeah. Maybe they'll bring it back for you, bud. They are, but it's been delayed, so it was gonna be this year. Yeah, I don't know. Now it's gonna be 23. Word. Yeah. I'm playing around with moving the ranking of one or two of my games. The wire. So then what's your number five, or do you need more time? No, I'll take five. Five. My five's on your list somewhere, I bet. Uh, you probably got this one too. What's five? You know, I'm just gonna stay to the list. I'm gonna stay to what I wrote down. Like I said, these are living organisms. Yeah. I might change up the tweet recorrections. I might post this and be like, no, those aren't my rankings. But it's all it's all wrong. But it's what we said. What's your five? Five, Red Dead Redemption 2. That's wonderful because my fifth is Red Dead Redemption 2. Look at that right in the middle list. No reason. Red Dead Redemption 1 a few years ago, even when Red Dead 2 was out, was originally higher on lists when I would goof around and do this. And then we replayed to pretty phenomenal. Go check out that podcast, folks. That really changed how I lived with that game. So it's up there. I didn't know it almost was higher for me. You hit it as a fishing simulator this time around. Oh man. Hunting and fishing. Beard trimming simulator. Get the fuck out of here, dude. I love it. It's a great game, man. The story, I know, like all of its uh, you know, you'll run into some various critiques about there being bloats and like etc. etc. But it is a beautiful game. Uh the story's great. Right. Right, right. So like so much. The game, and a lot of people will give Rockstar shit about their control scheme, but I've played so much Rockstar games, I'm just used to it, I don't give a fuck. Um, so like, you know, those things I'm like, I don't really care. Yeah. What I do care about is the fact that you can get incredibly immersed in this world. Yeah. Like Arthur Morgan, fantastic protagonist. Yep. Uh, the story I thought was pretty darn good. Like, I got dude, I was looking uh, you know, this will we recently Steam put out their little uh end of year recap that is very similar to like Spotify's rap, and I got to see like how much time I put into Red Dead Redemption 2, and that game took up 20 25% of my PC gameplay this year. See, Skylines took up 25% of my PC game. Nice, nice, nice. Skylines had a good chunk of mine too, but um you know it was uh but but Red Dead So we did that for the pod, and I continued to play. I doubled my playtime after we cut our pod. Wow, you don't you usually say you're gonna do that and then you never do? Shouts out Skyrim. I thought I was going to, but we just moved on. Nah, Red Dead, like Red Dead, it's a cliche it's a cliche, it's a cliche. You live in that world uh and you create your own stories. I could say that with like Nights Earl Republic and Skate 2 and some of the other like even at Cedar Blade football. I just kind of gave an argument for that. But like in Red Dead, like one, I did so much hunting and goofy stuff and that stuff just lived with me. And then two, it just was they just you know I got into fishing. And it's a beautiful game, dude. It's one of the most gorgeous games I've ever played. And it it represents a newer gen, so that's like my PS4 game. Right. Coco. So like it's just it's so good. And like you're right, there's better stories. Like the God of War story was objectively a better story. Sure. It's a tighter experience, the action was probably better. But if you just take in the full like the full boat of everything that's in Red Dead, it's sick, dude. Right. That's clown and that it landed on five. I'm glad you didn't move that around, even though you were tinkering with your list trying to. I thought about it. I thought about it. Alright, I'll give us four. What do you got? I don't feel great about it, but I couldn't move it anything in front of it. Okay. Scrim.

Luke 46:36

Alright. Skyrim some scrim. Elder Scrolls. Five. Elder Scrolls five.

Alex 46:42

Uh so if we look at the dichotomy I laid out earlier when I was like, your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. I'm like, the discourse around this game is like never ending. Right. The content around it is never ending. Even people with their critiques of it. Um, it ages like fine wine, honestly. It was almost as much fun as when I played it ten years ago. Right on. And it justifies the studio not making a sequel for well over ten years because they can just keep reshipping the game because it's just so good. The little stories how old it is, too. The thing I could go back and find completely new stuff I never did. The I dude, even when we cut the pod, like I was telling you stuff about my experience, you're like, what? Yeah, never done it. And like I could play if I had it's like it's a desert island game. Sure. Like you can have one game on this desert island, you would not pick Mario 3 because that's I might. Well, that's one experience, right? Where I can play even over Red Dead, which I had below it, Red Dead in one playthrough might be better, but I can keep playing. So in Red Dead, you uh you are Arthur Morgan. You are, and you can't. Whereas in Skyrim, you like you embody a character, but it's you gen you can play third person, I guess, but like you don't you like. I do actually, but yeah. Do I want to be a lizard man who practices magic or do I want to be a cat that does it? It's way it's way more, it's got like the DD thing going on with it, dude. So it's like you know, you definitely embody that character. That character is you, and the adventures you're going on are your adventures in that game, I would say. And I've played it twice, so probably 150 total hours, so we're in the kink shame, but nothing compared to people who really scrim. Sure. But I think about it like oddly a lot. Right on. So yeah, it's the heroine of gaming. Right on. Scrim. So that was your four. That was my four. What's your four? My four is the witcher three. Well, I was trying to move these things around. Missed missed opportunity here. Yeah, no, but I the other ones I thought the other ones made it, you know, they're bumped up over it just the way it is. I plan on replaying the Witcher. So maybe that'll get it onto my list. But my one playthrough was awesome, similar to God of War, but it wasn't like, oh my god, it has to be on my top ten. So I poured in, I had a very interesting journey with this game because I bought it for the Switch and actually super enjoyed it and got quite far. I probably put about 50-60 hours in on the Switch, and then I got a gaming PC, and I was able to take my save and push it to the PC, and that blew my mind with how beautiful the game actually can be. And it continued to be super fun. It's like I haven't played a whole bunch of your like Mass Effects or other like, you know, I've I've dabbled in these games, but I haven't put the amount of time that I put into The Witcher 3 and the whole like obviously we've played games like even in Red Dead, your choices have consequence, right? Yeah. So, but this game was one of the first games that like I was really got into that I really noticed that like the choices I was making are really gonna matter at the end game. And not to mention the fact that like I don't know, man, like I don't think there's many other games where granted they did feed us a Netflix series, so there's that. So I loved that. That was super fun. But then I also like listened on audiobook to a bunch of the books. Like, I got super into this Witcher Witcher world, you know? Sure. But the gameplay, I think the gameplay in that is super fun. Some people will like knock on the uh the action of the combat, but I don't mind it. The double sword things that wasn't really a problem for me. I got like, you know, you can cheese out like your powers as you move on in the game. It's one of the but I love that in the game, man, especially in this RPG type game. Like, I have no problem by the time hitting I'm at the end game, my person just being a god. Like, that's what I'm in it for. That's why I put in 160 hours to a game, you know.

Luke 50:43

Same as scrim.

Alex 50:44

So, like, you know, I just mopped the floor with the final boss, but that was like awesome to do because I earned that. You know, it's a game that I picked up and didn't like. Yeah. And then came back to it and loved, but don't remember a lot about it. My first, my first like entry into the game, it was the I will admit, like, the the buttons and like the it was like the difficulty of it was like weird, and like uh it what what the breakthrough point for me is I actually looked it up. I was like, because you can just find shit all over this world too. And I ended up finding a like a silver sword in some river that was like better than my other swords, and like it gave me enough of a boost to actually like beat some enemies. Because you start with such shitty weapons that it was like, this is stupid. This game's too hard. Like, I didn't understand the roll mechanic yet or whatever. Yeah, and you head into battle thinking that you're just gonna destroy and have to like did you apply a potion? Did you did you roll around for 10 minutes? Right. Uh and I just loved it, man. I I just love the uh the choices in it, the side quests. Like, I got super like I went all over this map. I like tore the base game, tore it apart. Like, I just had so much fun. I like did everything. Yeah I have been saving the DLCs, and uh I would I look forward to jumping back in and taking care of the DLCs, but the base game, who my children are a little older and they have like a bedtime and they sleep at that time, sure. I look forward to being able to play again with the new updates because I want to be able to actually read and listen to the dialogue and all that. Sure. I mean it's fun, man. The the whole world is just I mean, the world building there is awesome, like the characters are awesome. Like it's it's a worthy game. It's my number four.

Luke 52:19

How about your number three?

Alex 52:21

My number three is uh The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening. You thought that you thought that was gonna be out there, huh? I know the other one because the other one's more obvious, but I knew that your second one was Link's Awakening, and I was like, objectively, Link's Awakening cannot hold a candle to Breath of the Wild, but the reason that's just we're in the nostalgia zone. Right. And it does hold up like a fine wine. Dude, it's a short compact experience. Exactly. And it also has that remake, but they were true to the base game, or they were true to the game, true, more true to the Game Boy color version of it, actually. Taps into the weeds, yeah. It taps into your handhold love too. It does, man. And it's actually one of those games. Yeah, it did, and it was one of those games that's like very early on had a great impact for my love of video games. Like, I played that game before I actually even had a Game Boy. Uh my godmother, uh Sue had a Game Boy and she played this, and she played this in Tetris. And so whenever I go over there, I would play Link's Awakening. And she like showed me, and there's a beginning of the game, you get the she like show me how you have to like get the get the shield and move some spike ball with the shield or whatever. I would never think that from her. So that's dude, I know, right? So that was like another fun thing, you know, with my godmother aunt, uh Sue or whatever, like showing me how to play this game and being excited about it, and it just like and you know, I used to go over there so just to play video games, like I would like have a little hangout sessions where I'd go and just play their Nintendo in their basement. So, like very early on, like building for my love of video games happening Origin Story, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Link's Awakening, man, and it's it's a longer game for the f especially for the Game Boy. Like you can put uh roughly 10 hours into that bad boy. Sure. And you know, the I do think that the Switch remake is uh uh incredibly beautiful, well done, and very true to the game. Very beautiful, but I also included it because it is a 2D top-down Zelda game. Yep. Right? So I represents that format. A little bit of shame here, but I have not beat Link to the Past. I've gotten deep to the dark world, and then I know a lot of heads. A lot of heads will be like, that's the best one. And uh that's valid. It's not I thought Link Between Worlds was fucking awesome. Also got bored of that one. Oh so good. It was, but I get bored of those. Those are they're too obtuse. But see, but but that's what I mean. I don't want to hack against walls until I find the false wall. Sure. But renowned for that. Link's awakening is also like obscure from the Zelda lore. Like you're Link, but you're like in this weird dream world, dude. Like it's like dark. It's like, yeah, there's a Goomba in there, like Bioshi's in there, there's some good knobs to Nintendo in there, dude. It is and like honestly, the dungeons, the baddies, and everything, it's a good, it's a good game. It's the acid trip. Just honestly. Oh Link's awakening. So my number three, enough foreplay, Civ Six. Let's fucking go. Yeah, this is your kinked kink zone right here. So when you said we should name each category after a specific game, I'm like, well, the don't kink me is definitely fucking civilization because that's the you know, I am in my little thing, I said one more turn, and it's like, dude, I my like laptop from Winona State, I got Civ 5 on there, and like I could justify having Civ 5 as this one. I've only played those two. Um, I haven't played, you know, the original through four. I heard four is amazing. Some people love four the most. Right on. But I I'd play five in my laptop. I'm surprised I was able to have children because my laptop would get so hot, it would like cook my testicles. I'd have to put like a pillow down, and I'd like I'd just trash the battery plant. And it'd be like three in the morning. I'm like, dude, I gotta I gotta stop. I have it on my iPad, it actually works, except for when you're like late game. Late game, it has a really tough time. It'll chug almost anything you're doing, it'll chug, but just like, dude. And then Civ 6, the way that you can set up districts and like interact the map more, it's just like dude, it's just it is cool. It's like a fetish at this point, man. The way like, oh my god, and like the little stories you create and little beefs that you have with different empires, and like, oh my god, and like I have it on the Switch. Oh yeah, yeah. It'll freeze late game, which is infuriating. Not freezing ashes. Right. And especially because I got the expansions on there, which are like sick. I like the expansions for that game. So I've put probably 300 to 500 hours in that one. Oh no doubt. No doubt. And more to come. Honestly, yeah, because you go through little binges. Like when I was in the NICU, I played a playthrough in between Slay the Spire, so I played a quick playthrough before it kept crashing on me. Um so when seven comes out or whatever they do for their future, I probably will not wait for it to go on sale. I'll be able to get it because I know I'll get my money's worth. Yeah. Number two. How about you go to the number two with a little snake action again? Yeah. Oak Rena. Oh man. Alright. Yeah. Alright. Majora's Mask was originally Majora's Mask was originally on this list. Majora's Mask feels like DLC 2. Sure. It's a great game. It it lives in my mind more than Ocarina of Time does. But like, dude, it's like the first game I truly loved. Okay. And I played it. We played it recently and it holds up strong as hell. It does. And like it could still benefit from like a remaster where they like beef it up and like but like doesn't even need to. I played the 3DS version, so it was a slight remaster, but it's well, I mean like if they like increased like mechanics-wise, like combat actually more engaging. But you like dude, the levels, the dungeons are so like imaginative. They're really good, yeah. Engrossing. And it's just like I just yeah. I mean, that's why I love Zelda so much. It's the best. It's just the best, man. That's your number two. That's my number two. It's like I could I could do a whole podcast on it. I love it so much. So you should listen to that podcast. But uh I don't know what you can really say about OOT. I'm sure it's on your list, yeah. It is on my list, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet. I'm ready to talk about another game that you just are gonna love. And that game is Tetris. Could have been playing Tetris, I hope. No. Fucking hate Tetris. Tetris so much. I've always hated Tetris. Tetris could have been number one, man. Oh, Tetris is so late. It's so good. Oh my god, I can't believe chaos. Can't believe you just hit us with Tetris. Tetris, man. Any single I have Tetris on every single system that I own. I like new Tetris would be on here, but like two. Dude, you're lucky it's not one then. It could be. Two? It very well could be. Dude, I love Tetris. I'm not even that good at Tetris. I've seen people play Tetris and they like hold the controller weird and they go nuts and they're like just going crazy. Like, good for them. That's great.

Luke 59:54

I have two play Tetris and I'm like, good for you. Dude, I'm not gonna be able to do that.

Alex 59:58

You're not gonna catch me competing in Tetris, but I fucking love that game, man. I have it, like I said, on every single system that I own. I can play Tetris. Dude, it's the perfect game. Dude, it is the perfect game. Like, there's you can't even deny it. You're just bad at it. Well, I won't argue that point, but like Dude, like Tetris is a verb in my life. Like, if you're like if you're like loading the car on a camping trip, you're like, oh, you gotta Tetris that shit. Sure. I hate those moments of a car trip. But I love it. I'm so good at it, dude. Like just managing chaos, man. Like in Tetris, it never stops. It keeps keeping faster and faster, and you just gotta keep trying and keep trying. You can't even never fucking win that game. So I'll argue, I'll I'll adhere to the argument that like as a game, like a pure game mechanic, like the simplicity combined with complexity. Like, yeah. And the music slaps get out. Also, it's in that it's in that Prince of Persia zone with like the crunchy ass little jam and like, but also gross, dude. Tetris and ass. Dude, and uh I could go easily the rest of my life with never booting up Tetris again and no issue. You're missing out, bro. Am I dude? Tetris 99? There's so many variations of Tetris 2. Oh, dude, you are. I'm glad you didn't say Sudoku. Ooh, gross. Well, what's Sudoku if not just Tetris with words or numbers? Whatever. Dude, what's the new Tetris that they got out there, too? I play that one all the time. That one's it's it's on Game Pass. Like, I actually bought it on Steam. Like uh oh shit, what is it called? It doesn't matter, just go ahead. Well, it's great, it's beautiful, and like it's like totally like it. I'm sorry, dude. Tetris just number two. It's one of the best ever. You're allowed. So why is O'Creating of Time your best of all time? Uh OT is my number one. Because you still can't beat the boss, so it's beat up boss. Get out of here. It's your challenge. Get out of here. It still takes seven takes to beat Ganon. Dude, I tell you what, back in the day when that first when that game first dropped, I used to go over to the homies over uh Andrew Winnickeys and Sam and Ben Kinney and shit, and we'd play that game and they would have me take down the boss because I I was the only one who could do it. Turns out as a 30-some odd like 36-year-old man, I was having some trouble on Ganon. But I think it's because you're breathing over my shoulder and I was a little nervous. I did it in one take with a cup. Get the fuck out of here. But I used to do that shit back in the day. I think about the temple. Oh man. Slash the music. The music's great. The Gerudo desert music. Yeah. Gerudo Valley. Oh my god. The music in that dude. The game definitely has its shortcomings. Like, I, you know, I cut, I made you know, well, just but okay, so like one of the biggest things, like I think you were saying that your like brother-in-law brought it up. He's like, Well, it's supposed to be this open world, why is this sparse? It's the first one. It's like, well, it's the first one, you know. An argument can be made that like Mario 64 is like an open world, but it's but it's you know, that's more of a platformer or whatever. Yeah, uh, this one is just so imaginative, like it really made me fall in love, like, even more so than Link's Awakening made me fall in love with Link and the Zelda Lore. Yeah, you know, that was cool for its combat. Combat was cool, and even to this day, like I don't even think the combat that's is that bad, dude. Like it's pretty decent. No, and like like I was saying, I played on the 3DS, and like if you're a fan of the pod, you you've noticed that I like I will fucking stand on uh motion controls a little bit, like on the gyro controls rather. And uh Luke is not on board with that, but they are so nice, dude. So like when you're playing on the 3DS, the 3DS remake of this game, you can tilt the 3DS a little bit, it makes aiming that bow and arrow so much better. But that's not even why I love this game so much. Like, honestly, the food or the food, the uh the uh the music, the dude, all of the dude, all every single one of those temples, like they're all great. I don't even have a favorite one. Well, it doesn't have food, but you know what does? Breath of the Wild. My number one. It's the greatest game of all time. You trying to move away from my number one? Yeah, because I was that, your number two or three? I forget that. That is my number two. Yeah, fair enough. So like they're right next to each other, right? Because I never thought a game would recapture the the joy and the magic of Valkyrie of Time, and then Breath of the Wild just undid it. It just like dude I would I got my switch. If you remember, like the switch was the original one where well, I guess maybe I don't have perspective on this, but like you couldn't get a switch. Everybody wanted a switch because of Breath of the Wild, and you couldn't get one. I had homies that referred it to as a Zelda machine. Yep. So that's kind of one it was it, especially the Git Go. Oh yeah, no, it was there's a Darth of games. So every time if you have a wife, you go to Target, or at least you have the opportunity to go to Target a lot. And I would always go with. Sure. Because I just wanted to run into a switch. Yeah. And then it was there, and I was like a dog who caught up with the car. And I was like, what do I actually do with it? She's like, This is what you're here for, right? And I'm like, Oh yeah, that's I'm gonna send it. Ironically, I got Mario Kart, and I did not get Breath of the Wild. But I got Breath of the Wild that summer. You were trying to play two-player with your wifey. Yep, yep. It smoothed over the large purchase at that age, living in an apartment a little better. I would play it all day. Dude, it was great as I'd wake up and I'd play it until 10 minutes before Trisha got home. Yes. And then I would put it on the charger or just put the controller down, depending on how I was playing it. Right. Switch Revolution. And then I'd hang out with her for 10, 20 minutes when she got home from work and pretend like you had to do it. Oh, I'm just gonna fire this back up. And honestly say things like, Oh man, well, it's probably about time I you know, I've been waiting all day to play, and she'd be like, Oh yeah, cool, you love that game. And then I would play until I go to bed, and then she would go to bed and I'd be holding it up until my hands, because I didn't have my little switch bra yet. Yeah, yeah. And my hands would go numb because if you actually play on the switch handheld and you're laying down, especially like your hands and gyro controls. I you know when you said those gyro controls, I'm like, you know what game has the only gyro controls I care about? Is that game because it makes aiming uh telling you man, you just not utilizing gyro controls? I played the fucking shit. Great ass game. You actually returned to it, I think, after we did Skyward Sword, maybe. Yeah. See, that's so you never returned, so you didn't justify that. So that's why I've returned to uh Ocarina Ocarina time multiple times throughout the yeah. It is, it's a little bit more bite-sized. Actually, when we revisited for the podcast, I was like, oh shit, this game's a little longer than I remembered. But that first like three temples, like a knockout in like an hour and a half or whatever. Yep. No, the discovery, like dude, no doubt. Like it's a great game. And it's just such oh my god. I made it, and the reason I have it's a brand new. I mean, it's a it's it it it deserves your number one spot, dude. It is a great game. I have an as an honorable mention because those other two Zelda games are have a more pivotal impact in my gaming history and and like why I like play games and stuff than this one. Like I think this one definitely was like a delicious meal. It re-sparked mine. Fair enough. My relationship with gaming needed some role play and some kink shit going. So, you know, I kind of re-sparked our love once again. It is it's a great, no doubt, no doubt, a great game. But I made an honorable mention because I was uh originally put out all my all my like best games, and it was like seven Zelda games. So I was like, yeah, I gotta cut some Zelda fat off of here. I mean, I cut Majora's mask and I didn't feel good about that because like the variety it adds with the masks was so much fun. Pretty darn cool. And I love the different like I wish they'd come out with more offshoot Zelda games. Yeah. Because I would play a game where you're just the Zora or the Goron. Right on. And like Breath of the Wild, the map is so fucking good. It is pretty darn good. They took away dungeons though, bro. Yeah. Yeah. And the first time you play the Divine Beasts, I didn't care they took away dungeons. Yeah. But the second time I played the game, the Divine Beasts, uh it was like it was a dread to do those. Interesting. Yeah, I haven't experienced that because I haven't gone back to to take them on again. Although I will say that uh a lot of the game gets lauded sometimes for like the puzzles, the the temples or whatever. And they're they're cool, but I honestly like they don't elevate the game for me. Uh some of them are phenomenal. If that's what you're I mean, like I don't know. Like I just don't think that they're an adequate replacement to temples. So the reason, like, it's not the puzzles that I missed in the temples, it's the character of the temples themselves. Sure. Like the different mechanics they put into the temples are just like how the temples felt like a character in the game. It's missing that, but like there's so many, like the challenge island, I forget what its name is. Yeah, that's that thing was pretty cool. You like end up in the line cloth or whatever. Yeah, and like the cooking mechanic I loved. I mean, I loved making curry dishes. Yeah. And cake. I didn't just play Skyrim though. Uh the cooking's better in this game. And like the different, like the ways the gear is just so good and the collectibles, and it's just like it's like everything I wanted out of OOT. Sure. Another reason I cut it and made it an honorable mention is because there's an argument to me made that Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3, Red Dead Rem 2, Grand Theft Auto, that they're all the same fucking game, dude. I was like looking at my list, I was like, these are all the same game. They scratch a similar itch, but totally. I mean, whether it's a car or a horse or like whatever, you're still riding around something that goes faster. And both of our side missions and then driving through the main mission. You're like uh you're playing as character. Like whose list is more diverse? I don't know. That's a really 'cause I I hit a few different genres and definitely hit a different eras. Well, I got Tetris on mine, bro. I got platformers, I've got whatever you want to call like action adventure games on there. Uh and then Tetris, yeah. Yeah. So there you go. There's our there's our top ten. Top ten low five gaming picks. I want you to talk some shit in the Discord. And I want you to let me know what game I missed. And I want you to make me regret missing that game. Oh, you're talking to the audience. Like looking at me, I was like, I don't know, we just kind of did that, bro. Uh Portal 2 is not on there. Portal 2 is great. It is great. Loved Portal 2. It's a great meal and a nice restaurant. I would visit again. Right on. But it's not the Olive Garden. No, I'm just playing. It's not limited breadsticks on that bus. It's not it's not the Zupa disgu. It's not the McRib of gaming, if you know what I'm saying. Well, I'd say these are pretty good list, dude. Top ten. Go out there, play some Tetris Yaw.

Luke 1:10:56

They don't need any.

Alex 1:10:57

Prince of Persia should have an honorable mention. But I, you know, I just didn't care. Fair enough, man. I think these are great lists. And when it comes down to it, these are the top ten. What would you give the top 10 most recommended favorite games of all top 10 goats? Low five goats. The low five goats. That just sounds like an indie band. So we're we're keeping it there. Although to make a 10 top 10 low five goats and not have a five, but that wouldn't have been fun. So we wouldn't have a jump fires. I wouldn't have been able to sneak in dead cells. Yeah, Hades felt like a stretch. Tell me why. Tell me what should have been in place of Hades. For you? Yeah. Not you. The audience. Oh. Capturing the audience interaction, Al. Right on. Hit up Alex on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and let him know what I should have put on my list. Or just join our Discord, you know? And then Luke might get to your join our Discord and Luke will Luke will maybe see it in the middle of the night when he's at three in the morning. My most active time on the Discord. Well, cool, man. I just wanted to run through the list with you. Uh, y'all can find us at low5gaming.com. Join our Discord. Follow us on the socials. Thanks for listening, y'all. Happy New Year. Easy there, boy.