Firstly, little illustration: The below video has been hit with a copyright claim by Nintendo, which means that while you can watch it; your views don’t contribute any revenue back to yours truly. The content claimed, just to be clear, wasn’t game-streaming footage: It’s clips from freely-available ads, commercial spots and trailers widely disseminated to other gaming media outlets and broadly available otherwise. The logic in that kind of escapes me, but if I dispute it any further and the corporation refuses to budge it can impact the existence of my whole YouTube channel – so, basically, as a content creator I have to suck it up whether in the right nor not.
And hey, look – the business is the business. Suffice it to say, for those wondering why The MovieBob Patreon continues to be a vital system of support, this is exactly why. And your continued contributions are deeply, deeply appreciated.
In any case, the reason for re-posting can be found at 6:05
As an update for Patrons, fans and general readers/viewers, I’m quite serious about a new series of “Game OverThinker Lists;” and I figured I’d offer an update thereabout:
At this time, the idea will be to produce a block of list episodes upfront (it’ll be the next “big project” after REALLY THAT GOOD: THE MATRIX is finally done with, I think) and then release them on a semi-regular update schedule to be determined later. At current count I’ve compiled the actual “rankings” (re: subject, entries and order) for about 30+ total lists, in what I think is so far a solid mix of “normal” and “offbeat” subjects and a nice balance between “best” lists and “favorite” lists for posterity. Oh, and thus far they’re all in “top ten” format.
I won’t list them all – or say who/what “made it” yet – but I can tell you that the ones I’m most looking forward to actually completing (which is not the same thing as saying “these are the first ones you can look forward to,” because I have no way of knowing that yet) are as follows:
BEST GAME CONSOLE (ALL-TIME)
BEST GAME DESIGNER (ALL-TIME)
BEST GAME DEVELOPER (ALL-TIME/CURRENT)
BEST GAMES STARRING REAL PEOPLE (LIVNG/DEAD)
FAVORITE NES/GENESIS/SNES/N64/GAMEBOY GAME
BEST MARIO BOSSES (BESIDES BOWSER)
BEST NINJA GAMES
FAVORITE ARCADE GAMES
BEST ARCADE SHOOTER
BEST TMNT GAME
BEST WRESTLING GAME
BEST BATMAN GAME
Also on deck: “Best Of” lists for specific developers – Capcom and Konami already worked out, absolutely want to do Square, Tecmo, Blizzard, Rare, WayForward and more. Anyone I’m missing that should be a priority there? Hudson, probably. Sunsoft, Treasure, Data East probably. Acclaim? Activision?
I also want to prioritize lists for sports games, but here’s where I’m running into an issue there: I feel like it’s only fair to split “realistic” sports sims and “video-gamey” sports games into two different lists – but have we even settled on a single name for what “non-sim” even is? As in: If Madden, FIFA, NBA2K etc are all “realistic” sports sims, is there a single alternate heading that Mutant League, NBA Jam, Punch-Out!! etc can all be grouped under? “Fantasy Sports” already means something else. “Arcade Sports” isn’t really accurate… but otherwise I’m at a loss. Am I missing something obvious?
In any case: That’s where we are. Sounding good? Care to help keep it all on track? By all means, let me know 😉
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 
Go way back and do Best Atari game, maybe?
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“Sport Games that are meant to be fun” would be my title of choice
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Couch Sports.
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Looking forward to a best wrestling game list [if Def Jam 2 ain’t number 1 we riot]
I’d like to see a list of best games adapted from other media
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I’m currently between jobs. Once my income becomes more stable, I’ll be sure to send a few dollars your way again.
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Virtual Sports.
Hear me out.
We could call them fantasy sport games, but as you say the thing that’s now known as that has been around for a while. It was not really prominent and well-known until after video games exploded though. That’s worth a closer look.
Same with esports. The concept of esports is only relatively new, but sports games pre-date it as well.
So, in light of not wanting to ‘take back’ either label, adopt another. Own it. Say it proud. It will stick.
Virtual Sports.
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Hmmm…
Digital Sports
Fancy Sports
Sports Fantasia
Sportasia
Sporty Sports
SINO (Sports In Name Only)
Mario Sports
Mario Sports But Without Mario
Anyway, I’m guessing you must already have a list of Top 10 Robot Masters somewhere.
Also, if you are doing Best Batman Game and Best TMNT Game I hope you also do a Best Spider-Man Game. I know Spider-Man 2 is probably the favorite, but I really love me some Spider-Man: The Animated Series for Sega Genesis. Old School FTW! 😉
Looking forward to it!
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For developers, you simply can’t not acknowledge Platinum Games (although they’ve hit a bit of a rough patch as of late), From Software, Atlus, and Obsidian. Also the 3 B’s (Bioware, Bethesda, and Blizzard) deserve consideration just simply for their legacy and impact…even taking into account recent releases.
I would personally go with the term “Sportslike” for games like NFL Blitz, NBA Jam, etc. but I’ll admit it doesn’t get across the fun goofiness those games go for.
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Perhaps do lists around the individual creative talent behind the games. Like a voice actor or art director or writer. We talk so little about that in games compared to movies.
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Hey Bob, since Nintendo has hijacked your video, you might want to look into what Jim Sterling calls the Youtube Copyright Deadlock. It keeps bad actors like the Big N from doing what they’re doing to you. Here a vid by Mr. Sterling that explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK8i6aMG9VM
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“Anyone I’m missing that should be a priority there?”
Probably Falcom, Atlus and Nippon Ichi Software. Falcom at least has been around since the 80s and they’ve recently gained an attention boost in the west. Plus their IP treatment is just bonkers.
“Square”
To be frank, I’d do three lists for them. One talking about Squaresoft and Enix (and their associates like Quest and Quintet) respectively pre-merger and one post-merger for Square Enix.
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Definitely Bioware, they revolutionized the video game writing paradigm.
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