NSider2’s Greatest Games of the Last Decade: The Aftermath

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How do you define ‘Great’?

When the rest of the Nsider2 News Team decided to create their own lists of what they considered the greatest games of the last decade, I decided to sit back and see what each one would come up with. I then decided that after seeing everyone’s list, that I would then make an entire post of my own in response.

This is far from a Top 10 list of what I feel were the greatest games to appear on a Nintendo system in the last decade, nor is this my way of saying that the lists the other writers put together are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. I cannot argue that the games mentioned on the previously mentioned lists can be considered great, but they are mostly based off of personal opinion (not that there’s anything wrong with that, since I believe that was somewhat the point). It would only be expected to see your Zelda and Mario titles, or someone who favors RPG’s or First-Party titles. This article is, however, intended to be a way for me to mention four games which did not appear on any of the three lists, yet have made some kind of impact in the industry. Where things get really confusing is the fact that two of the games I’m about to mention were technically critical successes, one of them was a success financially, and the fourth is both (but not exactly in that order).

My first subject is Perfect Dark, for the Nintendo 64. The younger sister of Goldeneye, if you will. Both Goldeneyeand Perfect Dark were created by Rare for the N64, and many debates on which game is better have echoed through plenty of discussions. Of course, since Goldeneye was released in 1997, it obviously couldn’t make the ‘Last Decade’ cut. Perfect Dark took what Goldeneye had, and improved upon it in almost every way. It might have lacked in realism, but many people would consider that an improvement. The important thing that Rare was able to accomplish with both of these games was creating a first-person shooter which actually appealed to non-FPS gamers. It sounds a bit crazy at first, but this is a statement I can say with certainty from my own personal experiences. And Perfect Dark was able to do it without relying on a movie license to carry it.

My second subject is Banjo-Tooie (yes, I know… another game from Rare…). Back in 1996, the world was finally able to get it’s hands on a game known as Super Mario 64. Super Mario 64 could easily be debated as the game which made one of the largest impacts on the modern day gaming industry, as it quickly became the game everyone wanted to copy. The Super Mario 64 ‘Clone Wars’ began, and one of the results was Banjo-Kazooie. Unfortunately, Banjo-Kazooie‘s strength was also it’s biggest weakness, as many negatively criticized the game for being too similar to Super Mario 64. Banjo-Kazooie was also negatively criticized for being too much of a ‘collect-a-thon’, forcing players to hunt down coveted music notes in order to proceed, making it a bit more sluggish than it’s Mario counterpart. The good news is that Rare listened, and created the sequel, Banjo-Tooie. Banjo-Tooie not only cut down on the collecting, but was more mini-game oriented, giving the game it’s own unique style beyond being just a platformer. What Banjo-Tooie is probably the most famous (or infamous) for is not for being a great follow-up to it’s predecessor, but for the mysterious feature known as ‘Stop N Swop’. Without going into too many details, ‘Stop N Swop’ could very well be the most controversial video game secret of all time, even more so than the hundreds of Triforce rumors from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It took nearly 10 years, but Rare finally gave in and revealed the feature… on the XBox 360′s XBLA version of the game. ‘Stop N Swop’ alone is enough to give Banjo-Tooie it’s place in video game history, but the fact it was actually a good game means that it’s one that’s not to be overlooked.

Now… for something completely different. I would now like to take this time to discuss two games which could have possibly changed the way everyone looks at games today. Mostly because the audience for these games, or at least one of them, didn’t even exist for half of the decade…

Wii Sports. There’s no turning back when this title shows up. It’s not graphically stunning, it doesn’t have an epic soundtrack, and it’s gameplay is quite simple, but Wii Sports was only the beginning of what the future holds. Five years ago, no one would have expected that Nintendo would have created a console that would actually be sold out on the shelves because of adults actually wanting one. Senior citizens… playing NINTENDO? It happened, and this game is why. This game might as well be the reason for the Wii’s success, but the game itself didn’t do it alone. The Wii’s motion sensor technology was the other half of the battle. Yet, if Nintendo wanted to draw attention to new gamers, what would be the best way to do it? New people who Nintendo intended to target with the Wii would have most likely not went searching for Wii Sports on a shelf. Current gamers at the time would have most likely not have bothered with the game. The solution: bundle Wii Sports with every Wii console. When I suggested back on Nintendo’s NSider forums when Wii Sports was announced, I suggested that the game be a pack-in with the system. I don’t think I can really take the credit for the idea, but I did suggest it. Some people may have thought that idea sounded idiotic at the time. Well, I guess that makes me a four year straight idiot, because Wii Sports is listed as the top selling game of all time, with 57.36 million copies sold worldwide (which is sure to increase as of the writing of this article). The downside is that the Wii has literally began over-saturating the market, which means that it will eventually become harder for Nintendo to sell the system. Fortunately, Nintendo thought ahead with games like Wii Fit, and it’s WiiMotion Plus and Wii Sports Resort (yet only time will tell if Nintendo can keep going in the same direction). Still, can anyone remember the last time that a single game created a completely new audience of gamers? I don’t think many gamers even existed back then.

Well, that leaves just one more game… and if you thought that Wii Sports was a stretch… and no, it’s not Wii Music…

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. You don’t think this game should even be mentioned in an article about the greatest games of the decade? I’ve never even played the game, but that doesn’t matter. The thing that matters the most about this game is it’s sales. The combined sales of the Wii and Nintendo DS versions of the game currently add up to 12.17 million copies worldwide, and while it might not sound like much, keep in mind that the N64 version of Super Mario 64 sold 11.89 million copies worldwide, currently ranked at #25. The Wii game received a decent reception (an average of 7 out of 10), and when you look at Olympics games of the past, this game was actually quite an improvement. Once again, only time will tell if the formula will work a second time for the more recent Winter counterpart. Yet, this game also did something else that most of us would have not expected only half a decade ago… a collaboration between Nintendo and Sega to put it’s two mascots together. Usually, company mascots were created with the intent of destroying each other (well, I guess that’s still possible in Super Smash Bros. Brawl…) but these days, it seems that everyone has put their differences aside and now we see Mario and Sonic competing in the Olympics.

Things are always changing, and everyone’s opinion on what makes a game great will always be different. The four games I mentioned above have created new audiences of gamers, and have raised discussion which has been going on since the beginning of the decade itself. If there is one thing that is clear throughout the last decade of video games, it’s that anything can happen.

(Sales Statistics Source: VGChartz)