Games That Celebrate the Medium

[Foggle]

The Red Star is another one. A tribute to old school beat em ups and shoot em up arcade games. It was a shame it was almost left canceled, because it is a real gem.

One of the best PS2 games! I always forget about it for some reason, but it's soooo gooood.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The game is on PSN for PS3 (And PSP!?!?) which is great. If anyone here hasn't played it, you should give it a shot. There really aren't many games like it.

[gunswordfist]

I can't believe that I forgot about RKA. That's like the Ratchet and Clank of 2D platformers (in terms of combining gameplay elements, and such).

Someone call Insomniac...

Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening- When DMC1 came out, it was more of an accidental hit than a game that Kamiya and Mikami really wanted to make.

I forgot if I knew Mikami worked on the game already.

Ninja Gaiden II- EVERY PREVIOUS NG GAME IS REFERENCED IN THIS. YES, EVEN THE MASTER SYSTEM GAME. So, at the very least I can call it a celebration of NG games. Other than that, this may seem weird at first, but it's a total celebration of action games....just more of one that celebrates what Itagaki loves about action games than just referencing lots of other games. That said, despite having flaws, he really went all-out, here. Rather than limit locations just for a more coherent story that nobody would care about, Itagaki just made a bunch of levels that he wanted to see. A future version of Tokyo, the streets of New York City, a boss fight with a giant German Werewolf in the Roman Colosseum, a flying fortress,  an ancient lair of demons inside Mt. Fuji itself, anything went. On top of that, he made the most visceral and engaging combat system in video game history. I have never seen another gameplay showcase that has ever impressed me nearly as much as thus game did at the 2007 TGS.

...I need to buy this game.

TimeSplitters 2/Future Perfect- What other game has you fight Gingerbread Men packing heat in a Chinese restaurant, or a spin on Duck Hunt where the ducks shoot back.

Why Why am I just hearing about this awesomeness? People rarely elaborate on why they like these games are good. They just say, "Fun.", "Rare" and keep it moving. Also, why does the hero in Second Sight sound like Will Friedle even though he;s not voiced by Will Friedle?

Mega Man 9- Because on top of reminding us why classic MM was and still is great, it also reminded us why 2D platformers are awesome, and is responsibl for starting the modern 2D platformer boom

Damn, it was, wasn't it? Downloadable games had their biggest era yet, with Sony and MS competently putting out games while Nintendo released much of their library digitally for the first time and Mega Man 9 helped pave the way for arguably (hell, unarguably?) the best genre for new download games, platformers.

The game is on PSN for PS3 (And PSP!?!?) which is great. If anyone here hasn't played it, you should give it a shot. There really aren't many games like it.

Wish it was on XBLA. I've been wanting to play it ever since Gen 6.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh, Halo: Reach is another game that I forgot to mention. It's a celebration of not just Halo, but Bungie's entire history up to that point. ONI Sword Base is a clear reference to Oni. The Marathon games are payed tribute through some subtle name drops. There's probably something for Myth in there as well. And then of course there are a ton of tributes to previous Halo games. The entire 3rd level is a tribute to HCE's 3rd level, Truth and Reconciliation. The traditional cowardly Marine that freaks out is found as an Easter Egg in one level in a secluded area. The opening sequence of Long Night of Solace is very similar to the opening sequence of The Silent Cartographer, the final mission is called The Pillar of Autumn, which is also the name of HCE's first level, and story-wise it leads directly into the beginning of the first game, and of course like in every Halo game, there are the hidden grunts that are passive to you and just spout funny gibberish when you find them, and then there's even a hidden switch in one level that makes the Grunts and Hunters dance, and the Brutes act as DJs.

[Foggle]

...Now I want to play Reach even more.

[gunswordfist]

What Foggle said. I had to stop reading halfway through because I painfully got the point by then. Must get my copy to work..Must get my copy to work..

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's arguably the last genuinely awesome thing that Capcom ever did, back when they were still one of the greatest third-party publishers around.

I'd say second-to-last, since Dragon's Dogma was surprisingly excellent IMO.

I should clarify that I didn't mean that it was the last good game that they ever released. There are other Capcom games that I have enjoyed since then, such as SSF4 and UMVC3,  and you already mentioned Dragon's Dogma. When I said genuinely awesome, I meant that it was a game made for fans of MM and old-school 8-bit platformers in general, whereas pretty much every game that they released after that, even the well-made ones, were clearly more for the money, such as re-releasing all of their fighting games and including on-disc DLC on some of them, and in the fact that 3DS was made because of the popularity of Demons Souls, and also included an RE6 demo to boost sales.

Hell, I even enjoyed DmC for what it was, but it was clearly a game made because they wanted to try and make DMC more marketable to Westerners, becayse clearly there was no fan demand to reboot the series after how well DMC4 sold (and got pretty positive reception from fans and critics in general).

[Foggle]

They used the RE6 demo to help sell copies of DD, yeah, but I'm pretty sure it was already in development before Demon's Souls even came out. (It was made by the same team as DMC 3/4, and they started it right after 4 was finished AFAIK.) The Dark Arisen expansion, though, that was definitely made because of the popularity of the Souls series.