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An A-Z of Awesomicity

This is a list of a games that I think are pretty neat. Since my whole gimmick on Giant Bomb seems to be making lists that use some form of ridiculous wordplay, I've picked a great game for every letter of the alphabet. Sure, why wouldn't I do that.

To those who wish to make an A-Z list: Go right ahead. It's challenging and a little more interesting to make (and read? maybe?) than a general "stuff I like, yo" list.

To those who have already made an A-Z: Sorry dudes, I totally stole your thing. Blame GB's search engine for not including lists.

I apologize in advance for the many utterances of the word "whimsy".

List items

  • It's an RPG, that uses a J battle system but it's made in the W for C. All RPG sub-genres are a single letter, if you're wondering what that first sentence meant. Anachronox is hilarious, which is rare enough for a video game, and is full of lampshaded tropes, well-developed characters (all with their own unique field talents while exploring) and an elaborate sci-fi story. I give it an "A", ho ho.

  • This is a pretty awesome PS2 game where you control a samurai made from robot parts. It's anachrontastic! (Ties in well with my entry for "A" too.) It's more or less a character action game with an overabundance of boss encounters in the shape of a group of ancient Japanese demons that have stolen all your flesh and blood body parts, recovering which grants you RPG-esque stat boosts and occasionally new abilities relevant to the parts recovered. There are neat touches too, like everything being in black-and-white until you get one of your eyes back.

  • hey guys have you ever heard of chrono trigger it's a video game where you have a frog and a cavegirl and a robot i dunno i thought it was pretty good

  • Favorite console game ever. There's so much to do and, unlike an NIS SRPG, it never gets overwhelming. Each of its facets is easy to grasp and captivating in their own right, so if you get bored of the dungeon crawling you can try building a village or fishing for a little while. The whole novel "present affects the future" mechanic creates some fantastic puzzles too, and the music and atmosphere in general is just amazing.

  • Everyone's heard of Earthbound by now. Let's just move on. SMAAAASH!

  • Still the best Fallout. Still feels huge. Still something something power armor. Don't let the slow start put you off.

  • Skeletons are crazy. Look at their wacky faces! Fantastic adventure game made towards the end of that genre's (first) life, before everything went fully FMV and fully balls. Also: Manny Calavera for Poker Night at the Inventory 2! Starting that movement here and now.

  • Oft-overlooked FPS by oft-overlooked studio Valve, on the oft-overlooked PS2, Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Mac systems. I don't know what "oft-overlooked" means.

  • Turns out there aren't too many games beginning with I. Not that it makes inFamous any less of an awesome game. Still, I have to confess I'm still pro-Procyon as far as Sucker Punch games go.

  • Obviously, the wiki meant to say "Jet Set Radio". Pretty much the only entry of note in the in-line skate simulation genre, it's full of this crazy urban Japanese personality.

  • Having yet to play Epic Yarn, I've still got to go back to Kirby's version of the Orange Box, containing a spin on his earliest adventure and a bunch of others. My favorite's the Great Cave Offensive, partly because of its name but also because RPG Boss. I'm done typing about Kirby now.

  • I couldn't decide if Zelda counted as "L" for "Legend of" or "Z" for "Zelda". So I've neglected that whole franchise for this little kingdom sim slash Pikmin sadistic slave-driver puzzler. It's full of whimsy! People still like whimsy, right?

  • The finest Civ-esque game ever made. Which sounds better: Procuring a victory using culture, war or technology? Or procuring a victory using hordes of invisible war-dragons, banishing all foes to the plane of endless oblivion, or summoning the end of the world (in both zombie apocalypse and geothermal annihilation flavor)?

  • Hitting people with fluorescent lightbulbs to earn spins on a slot machine which occasionally unlocks a mode where you turn into a tiger and eat people has never been more fun. Oh, wait, except maybe for that.. no.. no, I think that statement's safe.

  • Okay, this game is either "Ouendan 2" or "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2". All that other junk is the subtitle, which goes first because crazy Japanese language is crazy. Ouendan 2 takes the convenience upgrades from Elite Beat Agents and the music that doesn't make me want to kill myself from not Elite Beat Agents and puts them together in this amazing rhythm game sequel. It did kill my DS in the end, but I don't hold that against it.

  • Man, I got a thing for whimsical Nintendo games don't I? Pikmin 2 is a vast improvement (if only inventory-wise) over its predecessor, which was pretty great on its own merits. Despite not having a time limit (yay!) the game is far more challenging and far more stocked with product placement goodness to recover and sell to stupid aliens who think our garbage is awesome.

  • Quest for Glory is an odd beast. It's ostensibly a Sierra adventure game (usually can be told apart from their LucasArts rivals by having the word "Quest" in the title and its many, many cheap deaths) but it also has an RPG combat system and stat progression. It's a lot of fun. I'd recommend this one or the fourth (and final) entry which is more Ravenloft to this one's Forgotten Realms. Nerd terms. Don't sweat it.

  • It has the worst subtitle, but I think this is still my favorite Ratchet and Clank game for its proto-pet story and gratuitous space-sim shooter parts. Seriously, though, there's not really enough to separate the games to prefer one over the other. That isn't to say you shouldn't play all of them, just don't... play them all in one go.

  • Man, if anyone else is thinking of making one of these lists, "S" is definitely the hardest. Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Secret of Mana and more S games that didn't come out on the SNES. I went with Toys for Bob's seminal sci-fi classic Star Control 2 because I played it last year and can still remember that I liked it a lot. Memory degradation is a hell of a thing.

  • So, Tales of Eternia. Everyone knows the best JRPGs ever made were mislabeled for their American release (see: Final Fantasy 6). This is probably my favorite Tales game, as it reaches the zenith of its tense side-scrolling 2D battles before the series went toward crazy, confusing 3D clusterfucks. Plus it's rare when anything past Symphonia comes out here, so my Tales knowledge is pretty limited. Thanks Namco!

  • Not too many "U"s either, and Uncharted 2 kind of blows them all out of the water regardless. The finest example of the user-controlled cinematic not-a-cut-scene.

  • Odd choice for the V entry, what with the sublime VVVVVV and the fan-friendly Vagrant Story, but I have to give props to this mostly-disliked SRPG sequel for its sheer personality. Both the simultaneous movement combat system and Shakespearean "layer-upon-layer of conspiracy" story complete with HUNDREDS of gratuitous arterial sprays are totally batshit and I love this game for it.

  • Hey, it's the compulsory "I've played some old weird stuff you've never heard of" gamer-snob entry. Wizball is a really quite strange take on a side-scrolling shoot-em-up, where the goal is to collect paint to color-in your monochrome world full of weird orbs and Mt. Rushmores. It all makes perfect sense when you play it.

  • I didn't play the other X-Com games but from what I'm hearing I'm not missing out on much. This seriously harsh strategy game is one of many gems that came out around the early-to-mid-90s on the PC when the CD-ROM was emerging. Seriously, that period was like a golden age. I'm almost sorry I jumped ship to SNES consoles around that time. Almost.

  • Now one of Sega's biggest franchises, which they'll happily gut to piss off hardcore fans and still expect to make a mint, Yakuza is a decent 3D brawler that takes the GTA route of using a large world of urban exploration to break up the riveting story-based missions. I've only played the first but I hear the sequels get progressively better (and weirder).

  • One of Wii's many bizarre gems, well hidden in a giant mud-pile of shovelware and exercise games, has you control some weird pirate creature and his dancing monkey finding treasure by solving environment puzzles in an incremental style. It's a colorful, concentrated dose of adventure game "how do I get this from there with these?" brainteasers.