I would love to hear what people think are the best examples of games out there. I would then like to look into playing any that i have not and observing what you have pointed out. Please post no more than FIVE game titles and a very short description of what each game does well and what other designers should learn from it. Ill start by posting a few of my own. "Klonoa 2" for PS2 - Is a wonderful show of old school gameplay concepts with a new school look. Designers should realise that the simplicity of older games with a elaborate look can be prosperous. But it still needs to be new, Pong 3D is a terrible example. "Skies of Arcadia: Legends" for Game Cube - An excelent RPG that has a wondeful story and battle system. So many RPGs rely on over the top storylines and complicated battle systems to sell the game where a original story and basic battle system can make for a great time. "Ninja Gaiden" for XBOX - Is a realy hard game and only gets harder, but not because its hard to play but because its chalenging. It is easy to learn and understand the control system of the game but the opposition is what makes the game difficult, relying on the player to get smart.

Cave Story -
* authentic and addictive anime storyline
* great characters
* imaginative and engrossing world
* music and art tailored for every scene
* nostalgic beeps and boops that make NES kids squirt their pants
* platforming, adventure, role-playing elements
* tried-and-true pattern bosses

Go - infinite gameplay [defined as "interesting choices"] from 3 rules; the ultimate in game design elegance.

Klonoa 2 is definitly a very good game... i played it for so many hours !

The controls are so simple yet they let you glide trough action sequences , the graphics were absolutly fantastic at the time the game originaly came out.

Heres my list

-Rez Dreamcast & PS2- Because art can be playable too ( the boss sequences are simply astonishing ) you evolve from a sphere to a skeleton to a buddha to finaly pure energy ( nice original set of main characters ) The music, the visuals, the gameplay everything fuses together perfectly. I wish i can play this game with a V.R Headset one day :D

-Frequency PS2 - Pressing a button at a dedicated time as NEVER been so much fun. Excellent music , ultra addictive gameplay.

-Wipeout pure PSP - Futuristic racing at is best , very balanced driving , really good soundtrack , plenty of free downloadable extra content. Wicked track designs. I like XGIII on the PS2 too.

- Lumines PSP - addictive gameplay, very nice art direction.

- Jak and Daxter Precursors legacy PS2 - , extremly tight production , great art direction , lots of fun , classic platformer perfectly ported to a 3D world.

Just to let you know...

There is ALREADY a stickied thread called "games every designer should play..." and it has ALREADY collected exactly the information you're looking for. Although it may be fun to do it again, it may mostly become tiring...

Quote:

Original post by Telastyn Go - infinite gameplay [defined as "interesting choices"] from 3 rules; the ultimate in game design elegance.

ultimate example of how game ideas can be extremely simple yet extremely complicated gameplay.

Quote:

Original post by Fournicolas Just to let you know... There is ALREADY a stickied thread called "games every designer should play..." and it has ALREADY collected exactly the information you're looking for. Although it may be fun to do it again, it may mostly become tiring...

Indeed there is. *cough*

I'd actually forgotten completely about updating that, I'll put a note in my to-do list and see about getting it into a more complete state.

In the meantime, I'm going to point out Cloud since it's freely available and something a bit different from the usual. It's not the greatest game out there, but certainly worth a look.