Top 50 Games - 37. Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII is definitely not the most popular game in the series. But when it comes to Square's flagship franchise, it's hard to win. The truly hardcore seem to deride nearly every entry save for VI. It makes sense, of course, that many an RPG fan was disappointed with the followup to VII. Regardless, VIII is a wonderful, if flawed game. One of the most prominent complaints hurled at VIII over the years is Squall and how he's a selfish, moronic, unadorable prick. Yeah, I guess that's kind of true, but in 1999, getting a hero that was a bit more layered and difficult than Mario was rather refreshing. Mind you, this was before the days when starring an 'antihero' became a joke (one that developers still aren't aware of). Despite your probable disdain for Squall, FFVIII can charm you in other areas, like its mature, sophisticated Neo-European aesthetic. It can also befuddle you with its mind-bending Junction system and time-compressing story. I believe that it was this entry that truly elevated the series into the realm of graphical dominance it occupies today; that is, if you consider proportional characters to be important. Whether it's good or great, its placement on this list reaffirms that it's my personal list, and not an objective one. That opening CG cutscene was un-freaking-believable, though. I'll be waiting here... for you... So cool.

Top 50 Games - 38. Super Mario Galaxy

A chubby Italian plumber with surprising acrobatic ability who traverses colorful dreamscapes while wearing a Bumblebee suit... in space! This kind of conceptualization is part of what makes Nintendo the world's most treasured video game company. More than ever, we need games like Super Mario Galaxy to counteract the gray steel corridors and bloody war-torn battlefields of nearly every other commercially viable game released. When you're being launched through the glittering tapestries of space, swimming next to a tropical shore inhabited by arctic penguins, or just sitting back and absorbing the myriad symphonic delights of Galaxy's orchestrated soundtrack, you forget all about normal mapping, showers of gore, and Hollywood-level voice acting. Suddenly it's 1990 again, and none of the progress made in the last 20 years matters except for the advances in technology necessary to facilitate the Wii (or, really the Gamecube) and the disc that's inside it. To make all the doubters true believers again, Nintendo gave us the grandest, most innovative 3D platformer since it invented the genre in 1996. In Mario we trust.

Top 50 Games - 39. Pajama Sam In: No Need To Hide When It's Dark Outside

Pajama Sam is the man. This is one of the first games I played and I'm glad I played it. Most things from childhood are already imbued with a dreamlike air, but if these items already concern dreams, then their attempts at surrealism are greatly amplified, as one could imagine. I really can't believe how bad kids have it now. In my day, we had Spongebob and Pajama Sam, deviously clever explorations of the kinds of imaginations only children could possess. The imagery and atmosphere (and this is a game for 6-year olds, mind you) is freaking awesome. The black central tree dressed with multiple levels of houses. That boat guy. The heroic, if somewhat arrogant, carrot with the green soul patch. The traffic light in the mine whose colors correspond with condiments (red-ketchup, yellow-mustard, green-relish), the pretentious monocle-wearing tree... The point-and-click puzzles were rad too. God. This shit was great. While those poor stupid youngsters watch their painfully unfunny Nick Jr. Spanish lessons, I'll sit back and remember the days when the providers of children's entertainment didn't consider their audience to be made up of humorless, brainless sacks of poop.

Top 50 Games - 40. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Are you familiar with the word 'content'? If not, let me equip you with a suitable definition. *Ahem* The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Seriously, this game is massive. I'm genuinely amazed that it hasn't imploded in a giant blinding supernova. For this 2006 RPG, Bethesda honed their craft, namely taking a tried-and-true fantasy archetype and making it fresh through something called player immersion. There's a caveat of course, in that you're only truly immersed roughly three fourths of the time due to unfortunate quirks such as shoddy animation, overused voice actors, and omnipresent lawmen. The times in which you are wholly absorbed in the game, however, practically define next-gen role-playing. While Oblivion might be a bit encumbered (smiley face) by its ambition, the game world's logic is mostly consistent and stunningly complex. The Radiant AI system provides NPCs who drink, eat, paint, sit, walk, run, chat, fight, and steal. In one sidequest, after informing a man of his long-lost brother's whereabouts, he thanked me, opened the door, ran out, and proceeded to travel across the vast countryside towards the city I named as I followed a few paces behind until I witnessed the heartwarming reunion. I could've gone on to another quest after talking to the man, but instead I chose to marvel at his continued existence and purposeful logic. If you don't tire of the mechanics, Oblivion could fill up years of your life with unique content, unlike other time-wasters like Tetris. There's alchemy, caves, tombs, cities, country, hamlets, forests, an arena, guilds, inns, alcohol, spells, books, animals, food, vampires, and more. Much more. It's just ridiculous. Ludicrous, even. Seriously.

Top 50 Games - 41. Ico

Fumito Ueda is my kind of guy. A resolute perfectionist with a wholly original vision and a deftly artistic yet restrained touch rarely seen in video games. I can't tell you how much I wish I made this game before he did. When I see the horned boy and the ethereal princess running through an empty castle hand in hand, as soft sunlight moves through mist... Well, I get jealous. "Gameplay is king" is the motto that governs almost all game design, and for good reason, but when done right, presentation greatly enhances what truly matters: the experience. Ico's gameplay is sparse and rather unremarkable; not bad by any means, but not the game's main ingredient. No, to see the staggering artwork on display here, all you have to do is look at the game in motion. Ico's near-miss leaps of faith, Yorda's endearing lack of initiative, the two of them falling asleep on a glowing save-point couch, windmills turning lazily in the breeze. All of these images are but brushstrokes in one of the 21st century's most surreal paintings, rhymes in a fairy tale that's read to you right before you head off to the Land of Nod. All expressed through a TV and Dualshock controller, of course.