Star Control II (1992)

I will forever call Star Control II “The best game of the 20th century”
It can be beaten but it will always remain my litmus test.

It’s sublime story combined with the musical immersion,
sci-fi, adventure, humor and elements of mystery made it
feel you were the star of a sci-fi movie that was
on par with if not better than 20th century star wars and star trek.

Several games have come close over the years,
but those games are mostly great due to the sublime gameplay.

“We Love Katamari” came very close with as combined with
the gameplay just had very very memorable music on par with Star Control II,
and overall fun atmosphere.

Now to be fair, I hadn’t played “Katamari Damacy” so the experience
might have been dulled for the second installment if I had,
yet the sheer fun I had with what the game was setting me up
for what I could roll up next was an adventure in itself.
But I do believe that “We Love Katamari” is the superior installment
of the series even if I hadn’t played any of the others just by having
listened to a few songs of the two others.
They were okay, but “We Love Katamari”
is a five-star album on top of a fantastic game.

“Super Smash Bros. Melee” managed to beat everything in gameplay that came before.
The first time I played it was at a big LAN party as small side entertainment.
I skipped the LAN and played this for 48 hours straight.

I have to admit though that I practically stopped playing computer games
when World of Warcraft came out.
There’s some other games that I truly enjoyed later, but I have to say
that most of them are in the SSBM category of perfect gameplay,
not as much an ‘adventure immersion’ that the former two had.