Five Favorite Non Metroid Games

[Naner]

5. Mario Vs. Donkey Kong - I cannot tell you how many hours I sank into this game. It's a different kind of platforming game than a traditional Mario or a DK experience. Ignore the sequels, they aren't worth your time, but this first one for the GBA is pure fun (and VERY VERY VERY difficult at times). It requires you to think, and think fast!

Have you tried the classic Game Boy Donkey Kong? It's available on 3DS Virtual Console, and is quite like the GBA game (which is, in fact, a pseudo-sequel to the GB one). It's insanely long for a Game Boy game, too, with over 100 levels. I suggest checking it out.

[Zynux]

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is loads of fun, but Donkey Kong for the Gameboy is much harder with many more levels (as Naner said, over a hundred).

I should probably pick it up again. I don't think I ever beat it.

[invulnerablemetroid]

Is this the same as the classic arcade Donkey Kong but for the gameboy? If so then my response is who HASN'T played that

Edit: If it IS a different game I will have to check it out once I purchase a 3DS. And off topic I'm also hoping that they put Fusion on the shop for non ambassadors since my GBA copy lost the ability to save progress.

[Naner]

It's a different game. I'm under the impression the first few (four?) levels are the same or very similar to the arcade game, but the rest is much more akin to Mario vs. Donkey Kong, minus the mini-Marios.

I love how that game showers you with 1-ups. The levels tend to be hard, but you get so many lives it doesn't become too frustrating.

[rondus18]

Yeah, the first 4 are exactly the same and when you beat the last level DK pretty much says fuck that and turns it into a completely different game.

*digs up original cartridge*

I see my save file has been deleted, shame. I was near the end of the game in Rocky-Valley, but then again I've been stuck on this one stage for 15 years. I'm probably never going to beat it. Next to Pokemon, Donkey Kong was probably my favorite Gameboy game growing up.

[Naner]

Yeah, I bought it on the eShop in late December and had a blast with it during the summer*. It's amazing how it just goes on and on and doesn't seem to end.

* Southern Hemisphere

[mksbf]

Halo serie, Splatterhouse serie, Phoenix Wright serie, Alundra, Section 8: Prejudice.

EDIT: Completly wrong the first time.

[Stinger]

2. Dementium II - This game still is running on being new to my experiences, as I've only beat it once and that was on October 29th. I beat it the same day I started, and while the 5 hours 35 minutes seems short, I come away from the experience feeling very engaged by the horrors at and near the Bright Dawn Treatment Center.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles - To me, this is easily the best game on the Wii and certainly is the most engaged I have felt by a role-playing game. If I were to define epic by a videogame, I would put this game in for definition.

4. Animal Crossing Wild World - While more of a seasonal replay for me now, Wild World is only second to my favorite game of all time in terms of play time. I enjoy the relaxation of this fantasy life, and admire that it has made simple tasks addicting whenever I play.

5. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga - In my opinion, Superstar Saga is the most creative entry within the franchise from its cast to gameplay with the Bros. Moves. When the Mario Brothers are at their best and their enemies are at their best, the encounters throughout the game are going to be memorable. The variation in the environments is another aspect I love about this game, from a university in chaos to a familar resort of giant mushrooms, and they are all in the brand new BeanBean Kingdom.

6. New Super Mario Brothers - Many 2D games come to mind as a possible favorite, but New Super Mario Brothers is the sidescroller I have had the most enjoyment with overall. It's very easy and very fun, so I've fallen into a habit of blazing through this game as quickly as I can. Compared to the other New titles, I appreciate that it isn't running on a gimmick like Wii's multiplayer or 2's coins, and it allows me to be cheap with the Mega Mushroom which I love doing. I have completed so many runs in the game by using the Mega Mushroom against the final boss encounter with Bowser and Bowser Jr. for the auto-win and Princess Peach's kiss.

[jacobe12]

5. Donkey Kong Country. - This game consumed much of my childhood, I can't express how much I've fallen in love with this game. Great platformer, amazing visuals, incredible music: I cannot stress enough how great Rare's music is.

4. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Now, take everything that was great about the first game, make it even better, and you have what is, in my opinion, the greatest 2D platformer ever created. Better levels, much tighter gameplay, as well as being home to my favorite video game soundtrack of all time. There's a lot more to this game than the first one and the difficulty is much higher, and it makes rescuing Donkey Kong even more rewarding.

3. Banjo Kazooie - Needless to say, I grew up on Rare platformers. Probably the most charming game I've ever played, not the mention the fact that EVERYTHING TALKS. And this is yet another Rare game that is made all the more magical by a great score. The levels may not be the most original (almost every one of them has a SM 64 counterpart) but they're a blast to go through, and the game finishes off with one of my favorite final boss battles. (Complete with my favorite final boss battle music.)

2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - As cliche as it is, this is at the top of everyone's top game list for a reason. Great story, with great environments as well. Exploring Hyrule is as fun as it is rewarding. The combat works really well, as well as the puzzles. The game as a whole just kind of has this magical aura to it, not to mention that it has (omgguess) great music, as well as an epic final boss battle.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Same deal as DKC2; take the first one and make it better. The story is much darker this time around, and the clock mechanic adds even more depth to side missions as well as making the game feel fresher and more original. There are a lot more emotional moments in this game, and the music is great too. Seriously Song of Healing ftw.

[Azure Dragonius]

My list has changed a bit since I last posted in here.

1 - Persona 3: FES
2 - Persona 4 Arena
3 - Persona 4
4 - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
5 - BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend

Normally, Prime 1's #2 on my top five favorite games. Also yeah, I really like Persona.

[jacobe12]

Normally, Prime 1's #2 on my top five favorite games.

Same here. In the end, it was an age-old epic death battle between Prime 1 and Super Metroid, with Super winning the top spot.

[Everdred~]

I'm feeling the need to post here. I've played Ys Seven and I liked it, but it isn't among my favorites. Kinda wish I could put Super Metroid on here.
But I can easily pick out these five:

Earthbound/Mother 2
LoZ Majora's Mask
Donkey Kong Country 2
Conker's Bad Furday
Tales of the Abyss

[Squalid Pumpkin]

I'm going to do two lists. First, my five favorite non-Metroid games; and second, my five favorite non-Metroid Metroid-style games. Because the latter is a matter of interest to me.

Squalid Pumpkin's Top 5 Non-Metroid Video Games

5. Super Mario 64
Over the years my five favorites had plastic tubes stuck down their throats and were then pumped vigorously with nostalgia (a process I do not endorse by any means!). There's no escaping this... Other games that have followed have been at a disadvantage in their shadow. When I was a kid, this was, to me, the AAA title. It had the most depth you could ask for, literally as well as figuratively. I thought the 3D worlds therein were the most magical things in the universe; I would just spend time messing around in the castle because it was so grand and opulent. I appreciate the graphics even at this later date; their surrealism aided in the game dating better. I finally got to spend some real time alone with this one in middle school, when we'd finally gotten a N64 (darn my older brother and his obsession with the PlayStation!), which I later traded for, and when I'd been left all my other older brother's small library of games for it after he turned apathetic to the system. Getting all 120 stars was trying at times, but I consider it one of my proudest achievements as a gamer.

4. Pokemon: Gold/Silver Version
Remember when I said the items on this list have had synthetic organ implants made primarily of nostalgia (and a little talc for good measure - it works for smoothies)? If you didn't exist in the late-Nineties, you wouldn't understand. Like Super Mario 64, this game seemed so big and so deep. It just blew you away if you played the Pokemon games in order as they came out. What I remember most about this one - and most fondly at that - however, were the little things. Being able to listen to radio stations; being able to call Trainers and NPCs I've met for a rematch or advice; wasting loads of time exploring every nook and cranny of the game. Even getting fooled into checking the poster in the Celadon game corner based on the fact that it opened a switch in Red/Blue. It seems like the "Gotta Catch 'Em All!" phrase has come to apply to the abundance of games in the series themselves, and I've long lost track.

3. Castlevania - Symphony of the Night
This wasn't my first Castlevania Metroid-style game; I played the Game Boy Advance games before this. But though I didn't have the initial "Whoa. This is new for the series." reaction to this game (it was somewhat of a reversal of this, actually - see #1), I find myself enjoying going back to this one the most of the Metroidvanias now that I've played through the lot of them several times. There's so much to dazzle you on repeat visits; it's hard to believe this isn't the successor to the post-Game Boy handheld games but was in fact released before them. I find some truly affecting video games are not only imbued with memories, but spit them out at you in only the most polite way possible: and so the atmosphere for Symphony really takes me back to middle school when I loved Castlevania so much I dove into the classic horror books (like Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Subtitle That Everybody Forgets) and Halloween became my favorite holiday for the spirit of it alone.

2. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Of all the video games on all the systems in all the world, I think I've poured the most time into this one. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles - and I might as well include Sonic + Tails co-op - each have a different playstyle, and this makes gameplay unique with different paths in each given level depending on whom you choose. The level designs are masterful and the graphics and music just downright classic. And debug mode... Is just insane. It was like the coolest thing, back when video games didn't make you nigh-invincible, to play God in one of your all-time favorite games. I spent a lot of time just moving my character from one little screen-length portion of the level to another, giving narration in real life, pretending like I was with reciting some kind of millennia-spanning epic cycle with commanding fervor that knocks the world straight up off its feet and into a higher, ultimate form of existence.

1. Super Castlevania IV
My first experience with this one was vexing. A linear Castlevania? Whoever heard of such a thing! In my youthful ignorance, I had the audacity to consider the Metroidvania formula the series' staple style. And why not? Circle of the Moon had it. As did Harmony of Dissonance. As did Aria of Sorrow, and Symphony of the Night. And... Super Castlevania IV? Well, I haven't heard of that one, but it only stands to reason there would have been at least four Castlevanias before Symphony of the Night, and the fourth has every right to be "Super". So I cross the bridge to Dracula's castle and, lo and behold, it's closed for good! But maybe this is just like some sort of deal where you unlock it later on, like in plenty of other self-respecting 2D action-RPGs. Aaaaand, that's a no. Well, no way of going back; why not go forward? And in going forward I unlock the single greatest musical experience I've had the pleasure of enjoying in a video game; the grittiest, grimiest Castle Dracula I'd yet seen; the most fun and memorable level design and for all the right reasons, with plenty of levels to boot; a high amount of difficulty - never too high, but certainly a satisfying challenge; the 8-directional whip control scheme - quite possibly THE greatest thing about any Castlevania game; and, finally, formidable foes who have come here to not shred Simon Belmont to bits... And are all out of "not".

Alright - I'll do my five favorite non-Metroid Metroid-style games later. That was more in-depth than I was planning.