Curated list of "The best 50 / 100 games" for each platform?

Absolutely! no place for bias and expectation.

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As an addendum to

Because the honest truth is there are more games that can be played on this system at a perfect resolution than you actually have time to play.

One thing I didn’t mention is the sheer size of these libraries once we get into the 32-bit and CD-ROM eras. Let’s see how many games we’re talking about

  • Dreamcast: 624 games, 248 in USA
  • Saturn: 1046 games, 261 in USA
  • Playstation 1 A-L, M-Z: 8210 games, 1300 in USA
  • Gamecube : 653 games, 552 in USA

Multiply those numbers by the ~650mb of data you can store on a CD-ROM and the old strategy of “to heck with it, just slap every game ever released on there” rapidly falls apart. :scream_cat:

I look at this from a curatorial aspect. We have a finite amount of time on the planet until we’re dead. Why would anyone use that time to play Disney’s Dinosaur on the Dreamcast? If you click through, the review even says

Man, even 20 years later I remember this game being bad

For example, of the 248 USA released Dreamcast games, once you cull out…

  • Museum style ports from older systems or the arcade (Midway’s arcade hits, Atari arcade hits, Namco museum)
  • Versions of games where the exact same game is available in far superior form elsewhere in the same era (Dreamcast is a bad candidate as it was quite powerful for its time, but there are many PS3 examples here like Fallout: New Vegas and Bayonetta)
  • Very old and out of date iterations of sports games (Madden 2005)
  • Cheesy, low effort movie or event tie-in games
  • Games that require custom controllers (Samba de Amigo, Sega Bass Fishing, Guitar Hero, Virtua Cop)

… perhaps that 248 shouldn’t be too hard – with some curatorial effort – to pare down to 50 “best of”? Even factoring for gems and underrated titles. :thinking:

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I am with you except for this bullet. These types of games are usually some of the most important for collectors. They’re often the most interesting to revisit years later and they are not easily translated to modern systems.

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Not to mention those are some of the best games on the platform in many cases. Virtua Cop 1 & 2 are definitively great on Sega Saturn.

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House of the Dead 2 on Dreamcast is a huge favorite of mine, personally.

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Same here!

I also enjoyed Confidential Mission, even though it was a bit on the short side.

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@codinghorror This popped up today, and it’s a pretty dang good list for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive worldwide.

Time Extension is a new site from the NintendoLife folks.

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That is indeed a solid list.

I’ve also been reading quite a few articles on Time Extension. Always nice to have more places to visit for retro gaming news and features. I thought the in-depth article about the Atari Jaguar was really interesting.

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Well, I sent the Ayn Odin to Seanbaby of humor article fame… I think it’s in good hands.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

I still want to get curation going so those who want to can sort their collection by “review score” or “popularity” :thinking: … I’d much rather hand someone a device with the essential games that show off that platform at its best. I mean, compare this…

Never played a Dreamcast?! That’s a shame! Here, try playing South Park Rally!

to this

Never played a Dreamcast!? That’s a shame. Here, try playing Crazy Taxi!

:unamused:

That, plus who wants to choose among thousands of games? It’s the old Blockbuster Video problem, being surrounded by choice leads to analysis paralysis, versus “here’s a short list of the very best and most unique to offer”.

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Netflix recommendation algo for games.

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