Because Jackie Chan and Jet Li are so well known around the world, I would like to share some of the best Hong Kong films around :) My taste for movies probably won't suit everyone but the movies that I have shown to people, they have thoroughly enjoyed it (cept gay Ren). I have only Hong Kong productions so don't expect Mainland titles such as Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower etc or whatever at my discretion. So I'll start with the unranked top 10
City on Fire (1987) 龍虎風雲 Danny Lee in a rare role as a criminal (and a ultra-violent one at that) along side the prodigy of gun-kata Chow Yun-Fat. So what does a man do when he has to betray his friend because he is an undercover cop and give up the love of his life to protect her from harm? Chow is the man and he pulls it off with style. Excellent performance by all including the director Ringo Lam, who is famous for Jackie Chan's Twin Dragons. Apparently this film was plagarised by Quentin Tarantino on his film Reservoir Dogs. I haven't seen it though but I do now just to see what are the similarities in it. Hope its nothing cause nothing can compare to the original!
Fight Back to School 2 (1992) 逃學威龍2 Stephen Chow ftw! Being an undercover cop in high school does have its perks and Stephen Chow really makes use of it and its just damn funny seeing him being a kid over again. This comedy really has everything it needs to be funny and much much more so just watch it dammit!
God of Gamblers (1989) 賭神 Wong Jing has been making rather lousy movies of late but this is an absolute classic and really started off the gambling scene in films. While a young Andy Lau would later go on to start as a God of Gamblers in future films, he plays a very very interesting supporting role that takes the spotlight out of the main lead Chow Yun-Fat. Because of the previous films that Chow has been in, it was always expected that he would just go out all guns blazing but instead in this film he plays a guy who has amnesia so he acts like a kid but can still perform all his gambling brilliance when he eats chocolate. This really is a nice break from his diehard action movies that really shows Chow Yun-Fat is the God of Acting :p
Infernal Affairs (2001) 無間道 Okay, I hate how Hollywood remade this movie into some stupid wog gang movie but it was still a solid film at that. But I also hate how the remake won so many awards when the ideas weren't theirs. While they did buy the rights to remake it, it just sounds so wrong and that they only paid for the first film but took ideas from the following two movies... cheats. But alas, can't do anything about it right? You guys may know this movie as The Departed that won some Academy Awards. This is the original and way better than the remake when watched with part 2 and 3. This film really helped the Hong Kong film industry when it was in dire need of creative injections and it gave film-makers more to think about when making new movies. Great watch and you will see that the originals are way better than the remake! The Killer (1989) 喋血双雄 I think I love Chow Yun-Fat way too much but he just makes such awesome action movies and this is no different than his other ones. So whats different in this than the others? We have Chow Yun-Fat being a criminal for once, Danny Lee puts up an awesome performance as a cop as always and just awesome action over and over again. Chow this time plays an assassin but with feeeeeeeeeelings and he accidentally makes a woman go blind so he cares for her in the background. Danny Lee finally catches up with his nice habit and traces Chow down so its another cat and mouse game with a girl in-between. Also did I mention the action is freakin' awesome? John Woo directed this and I can see why its just so good.
Love on a Diet (2001) 瘦身男女 Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng in fatsuits! While the makeup is not as good as the Nutty Professor, its still as hilarious to see two fat people trying to lose weight in the most funny ways possible. I reckon this is the best Andy and Sammi collaboration ever compared to Needing You... and Yesterday Once More because this is just straight forward funny and not some crazy love story put together quickly. You may also watch it to listen to the funny Japanese the Chinese people throw around. As a hot chick said to Sammi "It's mission impossible" to lose weight in six months. I really need to get a DVD copy of this soon...
The Legend of Speed (1999) 烈火戰車2While Ekin Cheng's movies have declined in quality and quanity in recent years but this is one of his finest achievements. While I like him in the Young & Dangerous series, he was still very new to the genre but now he is a bit more mature, he put up one excellent performance as a spoilt kid learning to grow up and learn from his mistakes. Originally planned as a direct sequel to Andy Lau's Full Throttle this film features racing and totally outruns its spiritual successor Initial D by the same director. The only crap thing was Cecilia Cheung in it as a persistent annoying brat that travels across South-East Asia just to piss Ekin even more off... boooooo.
Fatal Contact (2006) 黑拳 The latest film in my top ten happens to be a martial arts flick. While the story is a tad weak throughout and with a very sad ending, it really pays homage to the early days of martial arts films in the early 90s and late 80s. Just heaps of hardcore fighting that don't look fake at all. Wu Jing is hailed as the next Jet Li and really succeeds in showing the audience that he can live up to that name! Sadly he cannot act well but that didn't stop Jackie Chan and Jet Li from becoming international stars. Hopefully Wu Jing can keep it up and not be taken in by Hollywood. Also check out his other films Invisible Target and SPL for some more awesome fight scenes! This also starts Ronald Cheng as a surprising but effective fighter!
Running Out of Time (1999) 暗戰 I watched this just before I started to get into Hong Kong movies besides the normal Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat and Jet Li ones and this just blew me away. Its so cleverly done and Andy Lau as a crook for once is engaging to say the least. He plays a cancer-stricken dude who engages a police negotiator in a game of cat and mouse before his time is up. While the reason for the game is very very vague, its just very interesting seeing these two go at eachother. The sequel with Ekin Cheng is very good too so don't miss out on that.
Shaolin Soccer (2001) 少林足球 Probably the first Stephen Chow movie I've seen and also probably the most well-known movie in my list that you guys have heard of. So lets cut it short, Stephen is a bum and starts a soccer team with his Shaolin-trained buddies whom are also bums and just dominates the soccer league. Enter the villian who will try at anything to kick their ass back to their rubbish tips. So I think that should convince everyone who hasn't seen it to watch it. Also make sure to see the uncut Hong Kong version because the Western version is heavily edited to "suit" Western tastes more... silly Hollywood guys.
Here are the rest of movies that you guys should check out. I highly recommend them because I have thoroughly enjoyed them
A Better Tomorrow A Man Called Hero Chinese Odyssey 2002 Chocolate Inspector CJ7 The Conman Eastern Condors Enter the Phoenix Flash Point From Beijing with Love The God of Cookery God of Gamblers Returns Hard Boiled Heroic Duo Infernal Affairs 2 Invisible Target Jiang Hu ~ the triad zone Kung Fu Hustle The Last Blood My Wife is 18 Needing You... (screw you Ren) Once A Thief Private Eyes Prince Charming Running Out of Time 2 Super Model Tiger on the Beat Tokyo Raiders Young and Dangerous While I haven't watched a majority of Hong Kong movies and I'm sure I am missing a lot of good old movies but my tastes lie in late-70s to now. Sadly a lot of these shows cannot be found in retailers so Chinatown, Springvale (eww) and Box Hill are great places to check.
Lets finish it off with the Shaolin Soccer sequel 少林少女の柴咲 コウ
It says Video Games but I am only including Home Console Video Game Intros. I really like watching intros of games over and over again because they are just awesome. Even though most of the time, it shows something truly spectacular and cannot be done within the game, its just still very cool to watch. A lot of the times, the intro is used in game trailers to entice ppl to buy/play them and often it works even if it isn't in-game graphics! 10. History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi: Gekitō! Ragnarok Hachikengō (PS2) - Capcom 『史上最強の弟子ケンイチ 激闘!ラグナレク八拳豪』 Lets kick it off with an Anime game. One thing I love about this intro is that its better than the two proper Anime intros :p We got Kenichi fighting Hermit! Something I wished was extended and fleshed out in the Anime series but sadly wasn't. Also the music is freakin' awesome, give it a go guys. Song 「勇気のチカラ」 by Aiko Kayo
9. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (PS2) - Dimps/Atari 『ドラゴンボールZ3』 It was a tough choice to pick this over the following Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi but I think I made the right choice. Getting the Dragon Ball GT guys to make the intro and also getting Hironobu Kageyama to perform a NEW intro really brings a tear to my eyes... Since previous games reused CHA-LA HEAD CHA-LA to pieces, its nice to see Bandai bringing DBZ back to its roots. Song 「俺はとことん止まらない!!」 by Hironobu Kageyama
8. Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (PS2) - Konami 『ANUBIS - ZONE OF THE ENDERS』 I'm sure close to no one will know about this game (besides Ren and Lebo) and the intro is one very very long trailer pretty much. However it does introduce the game and showing you what happened in the previous game. The music is trippy but its suits the ANUBIS style if you will :p Song 「Beyond the Bounds」 by Maki Kimura
7. Kingdom Hearts (PS2) - Squaresoft 『キングダムハーツ』 Squaresoft... why you guys keep making awesome intros to games huh? Bringing in the ever graceful Utada Hikaru to perform the intro song was one of the smartest moves ever. This introduced Utada to the Western world and she has been popular ever since! While it was a tough choice to pick between this and the sequel's intro, this one doesn't require you to know anything while the sequel kinda confuses you on what happened in between which is where Chains of Memories took place but that game was crap but they expect you to know what have happened... So the original wins and owns! Song 「Simple and Clean -PLANITb REMIX-」 by Utada Hikaru
6. Soul Blade (PSone) - Namco 『ソウルブレード』 Before the time of scantily dressed women in fighting video games, there was: ~I gotta get to the Edge of Soul To carry on what I believed In from the very start I gotta get to the Edge of Soul To carry on deep in my heart~ Corny lyrics but it was awesome then. Disappointed with following sequels where the music are all symphonic and not energetic as this original was. Song 「The Edge of Soul」 by KHAN
5. Chrono Cross (PSone) - Squaresoft 『クロノ・クロス』 3D Anime CGs usually look good and Squaresoft did it again in this awesome CG piece with music to my ears. I still put the disc in my PS2 just to play the intro over and over again... its that good. Song 「Chrono Cross ~Scars of Time~」 by Yasunori Mitsuda
4. Final Fantasy VIII (PSone, PC) - Squaresoft 『ファイナルファンタジーVIII』 Come on, its Final Fantasy and at least one of them would get in this list. Well, this probably was the first realistic looking CG FMV to grace a video game and where better to begin it: the PlayStation CD. Four discs full of FMVs but the intro takes the cake. Sony 「Liberi Fatali」 by Shiro Hamaguchi
3. Onimusha 3: Demon Siege (PS2, PC) - Capcom 『鬼武者3』 Hong Kong film Martial Arts Expert Donnie Yen choreographed and motioned captured himself for this exciting intro scene. Kinda funny that also-Hong Kong film star Takeshi Kaneshiro didn't do it himself but then it wouldn't look as freakin' awesome! Its a long one but it certainly made me stand outside a Malaysian gaming shop to watch it twice! Song 「Onimusha 3 Opening」 by Masamichi Amano
2. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2) - Konami 『メタルギアソリッド2 サンズ オブ リバティー』 Seeing as it was the first PlayStation 2 game boasted to show off the capabilities of the console and push it to its limits, Hideo Kojima had to live up to the hype and he did it with style! Rain, Smoke, Fog, Lightning... omg and all done in-game! No CG, just the power of the PS2 and it was truly awesome, check it out folks. Song 「Metal Gear Solid 2 Main Theme」 by Harry Gregson-Williams
1. Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (PS2, PC) - Konami 『ワールドサッカーウイニングイレブン7 インターナショナル』 So why does a soccer game intro take first place? It doesn't have the flashiness of soccer celebrities playing with a soccer ball as in the FIFA games nor any big names. Well I picked it because of one line:
"It Captures the Game"
Music Composer: Norikazu Miura
I really really wanted to add more and a lot of the games comes from the same series so I had to rationalise. I know some Nintendo fans gonna kill me for not including Melee! But that wasn't anything fancy, just seeing your Nintendo characters in CG 3D with orchestrated music for once wasn't all that remarkable compared to these. Maybe it could've been tenth but yeah... haha
Well as most of you guys know, I have a PSP and it only cost me $120, a fact that I am extremely proud of. Seeing as its a new console to my collection, I only have a handful of PSP games but it is growing! Also I'm not planning on modding my PSP to play ISOs as the games are already cheap anyway. Feels so much better to have them original eh? So more coming soon!
Burnout Dominator (EA UK/Electronic Arts)
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-(Square-Enix/Ubisoft)
DJ Max Portable(Pentavision)
Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai (Dimps/Atari)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (TOSE/Square-Enix)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Rockstar/Take-Two)
Metal Gear Ac!d² (Konami)
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (Kojima Productions/Konami)
Metal Slug Complete (SNK Playmore)
Shinobido: Tales of the Ninja (Acquire/SCEE)
Tekken: Dark Resurrection (Namco)
Also I'm collecting UMD movies:
Steamboy (Sony Pictures)
Well thats all I got atm and should be more real soonish! Its just atm its pretty difficult to find good games as the PSP sections of shops are soooo tiny now. Hahaha go Nintendo DS!
Just to keep track of games I want. So this list is to remind me of all the good games out there that I wanna play and/or own! Also I can customise it to however I want, much better than IGN's one.
Nintendo Wii Arc Rise Fantasia Bomberman (WiiWare) The Conduit Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 2 Dance Dance Revolution: Furu Furu Party Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop Death Jr. II: Roots of Evil Dewy's Adventure Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (WiiWare) Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon Eledees Guitar Hero World Tour The House of Dead: Overkill Kirby Adventure Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Little King's Story LostWinds (WiiWare) MadWorld Mario Strikers Charged Football Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Monster Hunter 3 Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution Oboro Muramasa Yōtōden Ōkami Oneechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers Opoona Red Steel 2 Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition Samba de Amigo Sonic & The Black Knight Sonic Unleashed Soulcalibur Legends Swords of Legendia Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World TimeSplitters 4 Tomb Raider: Anniversary Wii Sports Resort
Sony PlayStation 3 Bayonetta Beyond Good & Evil 2 Bionic Commando Bioshock Bioshock 2 The Bourne Conspiracy - Collector's Edition Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Call of Duty: World at War Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Conan Condemned 2: Bloodshot Devil May Cry 4 Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 Eternal Sonata Final Fantasy XIII Final Fantasy Versus XIII Folklore Ghostbusters: The Video Game Grand Theft Auto IV Guitar Hero World Tour Haze Heavenly Sword Initial D: Extreme Stage Killzone 2 Kurayami Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Metal Gear Online Mirror's Edge Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Need for Speed Undercover Ninja Gaiden Sigma Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Quantum of Solace Resistance: Fall of Man Resistence 2 Ridge Racer 7 Rock Band Rock Band 2 Rock Revolution Saint's Row 2 The Simpsons Game Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic Unleashed Tekken 6 Time Crisis 4 Valkryia Chronicles Wangan Midnight White Knight Chronicles Yakuza 3 Yakuza Kenzan! Microsoft Xbox 360 Blue Dragon Blue Dragon 2 Bomberman Live Condemned: Criminal Origins Cry On Dead or Alive 4 Dead Rising Gears of War Gears of War 2 Guilty Gear 2: Overtune Halo 3 Ikaruga (XBLA) Indiana Jones Infinite Undiscovery The Last Remnant Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - Colonies Edition Lost Odyssey Ninety-Nine Nights OneeChanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad Perfect Dark Zero Project Sylpheed Ninja Gaiden II Resident Evil 5 Rez HD (XBLA) Ridge Racer 6 Rumble Roses XX Soulcalibur (XBLA) Star Ocean: The Last Hope Tales of Vesperia Too Human
Sony PSP The 3rd Birthday Ape Escape P Bomberman Breath of Fire III Burnout Legends Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles Coded Arms Coded Arms: Contagion Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars Daxter Death Jr. Dissidia: Final Fantasy Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road Final Fantasy Agito XIII Gitaroo Man Lives! God of War: Chains of Olympus Guilty Gear Judgement Initial D: Street Stage Jeanne d'Arc Killzone: Liberation Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Medal of Honor Heroes Megaman: Powered Up Megaman: Maverick Hunter X Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus Monster Hunter Freedom Monster Hunter Freedom 2 Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2 - Phantom Fortress Ridge Racer Ridge Racer 2 Sonic Rivals Sonic Rivals 2 Star Ocean: The First Depature Star Ocean: The Second Evolution Tales of Eternia Tales of the New World: Radiant Mythology Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Nintendo DS ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat Bangai-O Spirits Blue Dragon Plus Chrono Trigger DS Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky Final Fantasy IV Flower, Sun and Rain Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days Infinite Space Moon Nanashi no Game Phantasy Star Zero Pokémon Platinum Pokémon Ranger 2: Batonnage Professor Layton and the Curious Village Professor Layton and Pandora's Box Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel Valkyrie Profile: The Accused Ones Sigma Harmonics Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Tales of Hearts The World Ends with You
Sony PlayStation 2 Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy XII God of War II Kingdom Hearts Re:Chains of Memories Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence Monster Hunter Monster Hunter 2 Onimusha 3: Demon Siege Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams Yakuza 2 Nintendo GameCube Battalion Wars Final Emblem: Path of Radiance Mario Party 7 Pokémon XD: Gales of Darkness
Microsoft Xbox Halo Halo 2 Jet Set Radio Future Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords PC Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the Goddess Red Alert 3
Mobile Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding Kingdom Hearts coded Lost Planet: Trag Zero Last Updated:25th of October 2008
Here is my Top 10 list of RPGs! Theres some surprises there (especially for Ren) but I think I did a good job. I haven't played that many RPGs seeing as it takes forever to complete one or get far to make an understandable judgment on it. Here we have my all time favorites and I know some of you guys would disagree that some shouldn't be called an RPG :p But screw you guys (especially Ren), tada: 10. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (XBOX, PC) - Bioware/LucasArts 『「STAR WARS」映画の4000年前を舞台にしたRPG』 Now usually I wouldn't put such a Western game in that Ren loves but this was an exception. Being set like 4000 years prior to the events of the New Trilogy, it gave Bioware a lot creative freedom to craft a beautiful story that doesn't cause a time paradox. While I never got to finish it (cause Ren insisted I give it back every time I saw him), it has awesome everything except the Neverwinter Night's like battle system. It took a lot of time to get used to it but one I did, I enjoyed it even more. I think it was one of the first console RPGs that let you customise the face of your avatar to such a heavy extent. While it didn't look like me at all, it still felt good knowing you made him look like a cool dude instead of those Japanese girly RPG heroes (ala Final Fantasy XII). Being able to craft ya own Jedi and pick any colour and type of lightsaber for him is just... wow
9. Tales of Symphonia (GCN, PS2) - Namco Tales Studio/Namco 『テイルズ オブ シンフォニア』 The Nintendo GameCube... how RPG starved have you've become after the Super Nintendo? While the Wii continues the same fate as the Cube and N64, Namco took it upon itself and created a (then-)exclusive RPG for the Cube to all the RPG starved-Nintendo fans. It is a prequel to Tales of Phantasia but not like anyone will notice it. Spanning two GameCube discs, it is the best traditional-RPG on the Cube. Music for the game created by the ever-awesome Motoi Sakuraba and animated cutscenes (even though there was very few of them) by ufotable really made us Cube games feel like a PlayStation 2 RPG fan :p The story is once again about saving the world but at least there were two parallel worlds to be saved! I used the PlayStation 2 cover because it looks sooooo much better than the GameCube's.
8. Grandia II (DC, PS2, PC) - Game Arts 『グランディアII』 I bought this cause the cover looked cool (at the time) and it was like $20 at EB Games Greensborough. I can't remember much about it cause it was a long time ago that I finished it but I will always remember how awesome the battle engine was. While it has been stolen by way more popular but crap Final Fantasy X-2, it was revolutionary when I played it. It kept me engaged in every single battle we had. While there was an auto feature, just being able to command your party to every split second action was amazing! Hard to describe here, you have to play it yourself. Too bad the two sequels never made it to PAL land but that shouldn't stop most ppl from finding a way to play it :D
7. Final Fantasy VII (PSone, PC) - Squaresoft 『ファイナルファンタジーVII』 The first Final Fantasy game I have ever completed and also the only Final Fantasy game to have the most sequels and prequels =] Introduced to me by Myst Walker, I didn't really care for it much until in Year 8 when Ren showed me some cutscenes of the PC copy and I was blown away! While I didn't finish it until like three, four years later, it was an amazing game with memorable moments and characters. Everyone talks about crying or shattered when Aeris (yeaaaaaaa screw Aerith) dying by the hands of the almighty Sephiroth; didn't happen to me cause it was spoilt for me long time ago. Without this game being created though, the Western world would not be getting a lot of the Japanese RPGs they are getting now. So kudos to Squaresoft for making this game on the PlayStation instead of the Nintendo 64, it was groundbreaking in every way possible thanks to its FMVs that could fit into three CDs :p Also nice to see Tifa's chest getting smaller in the sequels, it didn't look good all blocky in the original...
6. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (NDS) - AlphaDream/Nintendo 『マリオ&ルイージRPG2』 Its a horrible title and also horrible cover art but the game inside it is good as. Its always funny to see Bowser being picked on and just there to be comic relief. Having to control four characters at first seemed difficult, it was soon made easier as the game went by. Not known to most people, the music was done by Kingdom Heart's Yoko Shimomura =] No wonder the tunes were so catchy and memorable. Sadly no one I know have played this beautiful game, it is the best original this-gen portable RPG I reckon. Also it supported the Rumble Pak, which made countering in battles a lot easier. I just love the catchy dialogue and the L33t Hamm3r Broz. just owned it! No matter how little they were in the game, it made such an impact especially with lines like this: "U = NOOBS. BROZ. = L33T. PREPARE 4 TOTAL PWNAGE. WOOT! WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!". Golly thats funny as! 5. Golden Sun (GBA) - Camelot Planning Software/Nintendo 『黄金の太陽 開かれし封印』 I first played this on an emulator (which I dislike nowadays) before I got my first GBA from Malaysia. I have completed it twice, once was a quickie and second I had to get all the Djinns so that I could transfer them over to the sequel. Even though I played it twice, i can't remember the story all that well. But for some reason, its always has been one of my favorites. Watching as ya Djinn summon sprites always looked cool, the puzzles while can get complex were fun and also one of my high school mates had this game (original copy) so it was fun doing link battles. It really was a traditional RPG and didn't get confusing like a lot of RPGs at its time. Music was memorable though, done by Motoi Sakuraba once again. Hope Camelot will make a sequel one day on the NDS or even the Wii! 4. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2) - Level-5/Square Enix 『ドラゴンクエストVIII 空と海と大地と呪われし姫君』 Just like Golden Sun, a really simple traditional RPG that does everything just right. You didn't have to customise this, check out which of your party should be in ya attacking party etc. Very straightforward and is a breeze to play. Its my most recent RPG finished and took many months to do but it was worth it in the end. Though I got kinda lazy and just youtubed the secret ending :p Exclusive to the English versions was voice acting. While a lot of the voices were kinda annoying, it was still good to hear some awesome ones like the beautiful Medea and the always funny yobbo Yangus! The music in the game was a blast! Fully orchestrated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra really brings the adventure to life throughout my 70hr or so gameplay. I am really looking forward to Dragon Quest IX (i can play on my DS!) and also I really wanna play Level-5's other excellent RPG, Rogue Galaxy when I have a copy :)
3. Final Fantasy X (PS2) - Squaresoft 『ファイナルファンタジーX』 Best Final Fantasy ever. I was blown away from the very starting CG FMV. I first played it on the demo that came with Final Fantasy VI and I must've played it a dozen times until my mum surprisingly came home with a copy of the full game. Everything was beautiful in this game from the characters, locales, music and to the special effects. Forget the crap sequel, this one is the best there ever was. While changing a lot of the original Final Fantasy games, it was groundbreaking as it was the first one to have voices and the first one to not have a traditional way of leveling up. I really enjoyed using the sphere grid compared to the crap licensing board in Final Fantasy XII. Blitzball is probably the best minigame within any Final Fantasy, I must have put in like 10hrs just into that but mainly to unlock some special weapon. It also has the best theme song, 「"素敵だね"by RIKKI」 that really captures the love between Yuna and Tidus. Story wise, its nothing too new. Mainly its about Tidus trying to live up to his father's name while trying to save the world from Sin with Yuna, the ever cool Auron, funny as Wakka and co. Everyone should play this wonderful game cause its awesome and has Auron in it :p
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN) - Intelligent Systems/Nintendo 『ペーパーマリオRPG』 Having wanting to play Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64 so bad but never got a chance cause Nintendo didn't release it for sale, I was glad that the sequel got a retail release. Bought it for $59 one day before its release, it totally blew me away. While not a traditional RPG, its more of a Platform RPG as people put it, it was nice and refreshing from the other RPGs at its time. Honestly I was looking more forward to Tales of Symphonia as it was released around the same time in Australia but glad I had gottent his first. Catchy music, unique paper flat artwork, smart and funny script really made this a joy to play. Really never expected a Mario game with story in it but here it was and sooo damn funny. There is also something included in this game that is rarely in any game... Like a certain something peeping on a certain someone having a shower. I'll let you guys find out for yourselves =] Also good to see everyone bagging Luigi, what a loser hahahaha.
1. Pokémon Gold & Silver (GBC) - GameFreak/Nintendo 『ポケットモンスター 金・銀』 Okay, everyone in my generation has played a Pokémon game sometime earlier in their lives so no need for me to prove how awesome it was! It was also groundbreaking, seeing an RPG on a portable console to sell millions upon millions to its normal traditional RPG market but to the children! Where can you see children play and sit still to play game hours on end. Also the communication required to finish the game made it fun to interact to others. Hey, it may be a marketting ploy but it was still fun! Thats why Pokémon is at the top for me. Why I picked these two is because Silver was the first Pokémon I owned myself and I had spent over 100 hours just to complete it by trading with my primary school mates. It really leaves a mark in ya life whether it was time wasted or time having fun. While the next generation Pokémon have not been innovative at all, its still incredibly fun and addictive like its older brothers. Gotta Catch 'Em All! Of course I am missing some awesome RPGs like Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Legend of Mana, Xenogears, Panzer Dragoon etc. I haven't played them enough to make a judgment. One day I'll get to more RPGs but they take a long time to complete especially if they're on home consoles. Dragon Quest VIII already took me five months to complete and now I've just started Final Fantasy XII after a break inbetween. At least on the DS or PSP, I can play on the road during my long bus and train trips to the my universities. I'll get to them soon while also hoping a portable remake is on its way like Final Fantasy IV =]
I only got the Xbox from Ren (for like $29.95, hahaha) like start of last year. Really late into the game, I only have a handful of original games I purchased. Sadly some games I couldn't get cause they're now considered rare and difficult to find for a good price. Some of these games I've never opened cause I have other games to play instead :p
Breakdown (Namco)
Counter-Strike(Valve/Turtle Rock Studios)
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (Fasa Studio/Microsoft Game Studio)
Dead or Alive 3 (Team Ninja/Tecmo)
Dead or Alive Ultimate (Team Ninja/Tecmo)
Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball (Team Ninja/Tecmo)
Dino Crisis 3 (Capcom)
Grabbed By The Ghoulies (Rare/Microsoft Game Studio)
GunValkyrie (SmileBit/SEGA)
Kung Fu Chaos (Just Add Monsters/Microsoft Game Studio)
MechAssault (Day 1 Studios/Microsoft Game Studio)
Ninja Gaiden (Team Ninja/Tecmo)
Panzer Dragoon Orta (SmileBit/SEGA)
Playboy: The Mansion (Cyberlore Studios/Ubisoft)
Scrapland (Mercury Steam Studios/Enlight)
Shenmue II (SEGA AM-2/SEGA)
Stake: Fortune Fighters (Gameness Arts/Metro 3D)
Sudeki (Climax Group/Microsoft Game Studios)
The Suffering (Surreal Studios/Midway)
ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth (Visual Concepts/SEGA)
Voodoo Vince (Beep Industries/Microsoft Game Studios)
One day I will get the remaining SEGA games like the awesome Jet Set Radio Future and almost good Outrun 2. Funny that I don't have any Halo games, I think Ren did give me a burnt copy though of the original Halo. Also the Rare games for Xbox was kinda lacking, need a 360 to play the good ones.
Mario Kart Wii came out on the 24th April and I had preordered it two weeks back for a good sum of $50 :D I was very proud of that until after Mario Kart Wii launched, I bought an Ice Silver Limited Edition God of War PSP Slim&Lite for $120 :D I did it by buying three Mario Kart Wii's for $40 each then trading it for $270 credit at EB, bless those guys. It was confusing as explaining to people what was the looooong process I went to obtain such cheap good games so I won't explain it here cause I pretty much cannot be bothered atm :p Explained it way too much times at Milamber's party. Now I have unlocked everything in Mario Kart Wii, took me less than a week and the only thing I don't have is the Three Star rating and the Golden Wheel, because the wheel sucks! Haha nah it works but it cannot be taken to a competitive level unless you are that good. But its a fun little piece of plastic to use when ya mates around. I got four Wii Wheels but only three wii remotes... hmmm. Its probably my second favorite Mario Kart after Mario Kart DS. Its not the most fairest Mario Kart and the AI can get increasingly brutal when you are infront but you will eventually find a way to out smart then ;) Nintendo really outdone itself with the online, while not as good as XBL, it really is a step up from its previous affairs and much better than Super Smash Bros. Brawl's. Theres like close to no lag and....... two-player co-op online! also with no lag! Dunno how they can have 12 player online races with no lag but cannot have 4 player online Brawl battles without lag.... something wrong there Nintendo. Hopefully they fix it up before our June 26th launch. Next is my super PSP! While it came God of War: Chains of Olympus, I traded it back in to get it for exactly $270. I do want the game but I can wait. Busy with Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Tekken: Dark Resurrection atm.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops really has its flaws only because its limited by the PSP's gamepad layout. Its missing a second stick and two shoulder buttons. The game tries to be like Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence but its not as smooth as it is. Because its missing the second stick, we have to stop movement before changing the camera angle which is a pain because you could be accidentally standing next to an enemy before you can see him. You walk with the stick and change with the d-pad... how awkward is that -.- The missing two shoulder buttons aren't as sorely missed because they have been mapped to the O button. Other than that, excellent game! The story isn't as strong as the previous Metal Gear's but it still has its charms! The two connections to Metal Gear Solid really came as a surprise, one you would pick up on if you've played the original and the other not so. Wish a sequel will come out, explaining how Naked Snake turned psycho and him meeting his son :D
Next is Tekken: Dark Resurrection and its a great game overall but wished there was more stuff to unlock. All the characters are unlocked already including all their additional costumes... while it doesn't make the game less fun, I would've preferred if it kept to its console counterparts. Also why wasn't online included huh? It has online ranking and ghosting but thats shit for a current gen game. Ghosts? wtf? its all AI-controlled in the end anyway, not fun Namco! Also gameplay and timing has been tweaked a bit. I found I cannot perform some moves and juggles for Jin Kazama and Ling Xiaoyu that I could in Tekken 5. But can't complain too much as this is the second latest version of Tekken 5 making the PS2 copy obsolete in a competitive sense. I also hate the new character Lili. Hate her attitude, voice, looks, fighting style; pretty much everything!
At least theres a cool new character coming out on Tekken 6! While the rest is crap, Miguel just kicks ass and takes names, he is soooooooo cool. Reminds of Raphael from Soulcalibur II with his clothes and fighting style. I dunno why cause Miguel is Spanish and Raphael is French... weird me. Need a PlayStation 3 sooooooooooooonish!
So I'll start with the unranked top 10
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