That's like soooo last gen.

22.Okami. PS2/Wii 2006

The best way to describe Okami is as a combination of Kingdom Hearts and Zelda set in a mystical Japan. Also you're a wolf. *cough*
As a corporeal incarnation of the God of Creation it is your task to make the people believe in you once again by performing miracles to gain faith from your followers.
While the Zelda esque adventure should be a selling point by itself, Okami also throws in an interesting mechanic where at any time you can collapse the world into a 2d drawing and then draw ontop of this drawing, adding devices into the game. For example, early in the piece an old woman cannot do her washing because she ain't got no line going on, so you collapse to 2d, draw in a line and then the world is saved. Thrilling stuff, no?
Obviously as time goes on the standard of the miracles increase until it culminates in an apocalyptic battle of galactic proportions. ZOMG Spoilerz!!!

Production values are through the roof. While the game was overlooked there was obviously a lot of green spent on the art style, world design and writing. Every single character you encounter seems to have a deep personality that is excellently conveyed, even if they only have one or two lines. The game has all the tropes I love, the false ending (where the game makes you think you've finished but then you discover an even greater evil), rival battles and humour. God is there a lot of humour in this and, for the most part, it is laugh out loud funny.

Most reviewers critiqued the game for being too long clocking in at one and a half times longer than Twilight Princess... which was no slouch in this area either, even though the game remained fantastic throughout with little to no padding. Stupidly enough the same people who said it was too long are now asking for a sequel.

Clover Studios have now collapsed and moved onto not as great things, so the chances of seeing an Okami 2 is very slim. On top of that the creator stated that he would only do an Okami 2 if he thought something fantastic could be added. Okami was designed to be self contained with every part of it's history fleshed out and every question answered, which they were... except the ending which, while insane and ridiculous, was cool and satisfying anyway.

Awesome Character Profile:

Issun.

A lazy wandering artist the size of an ant, Issun is pretty much as worthless a character that ever existed. Despite his lower social status however he has no qualms grabbing the ample bazoogas of mother nature, wise mouthing off at demonic gods and bossing around the God of Creation.
Issun is basically a perverted freeloading flea. He has much to teach us.

21.Guilty Gear X2 #Reloaded. PS2/Arcade/Xbox 2002.

Even with the emergence on MUGEN where you can hypothetically put every character from GG against those from capcom, this still stands as an excellent release. This game wasn't just a good fighter, it was a release that rivaled AAA games in terms of length and production values.

Three separate story modes for each character. A mission mode full of FUCKING hard missions. Unlockable EX and EX2 versions of each character that would change every move (think Ken, Dan, Sakura etc).

Then you look at the game, at the time it was the only fighter that had HiRes sprites and still looks better than most of the 2d fighters that came after.

The graphics weren't the main draw though, the main draw was the gameplay.

GG took all the conventions of fighting games and threw them out the window. Instead of your same old Ryu fireballs, characters were given extremely complex moves that could be strategically used to rack up insane combos. Mines and defensive moves could be used to force your rival to fight in a particular way thus giving you the advantage. The game even contained special moves that could be countered by little platforming segments.

Truly, when all the moves and ideas behind the game were mastered it became more like playing a frantic game of chess than a regular fighter.

After playing the kings of the field: Street Fighter 3, Mark of the Wolves, King of Fighters. I can safely say that only one other comes close.

Most importantly however, transcending the brilliance of the gameplay and the majesty of the design is the fact that there is a character with a bag on his head... ON HIS HEAD... HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Suck my balls.

Awesome Character Profile:

Dizzy

The character design in this game is truly phenomenal and really any character could be on the list, from Bag head (Faust), to the creepy possessed Zappa to the unfortunately named Sol Badguy and his Rival Ky. One of the best however is Dizzy.

Dizzy is really three characters in one, the girl seems to be lost, confused and scantily clad (of course) She has two wings, the right is an embodiment of a demon and the left an incarnation of an angel. Together they let her release the powers of Heaven and Hell on any rival that crosses her path.

Though utterly destructive and badass, the two wings will occasionally bicker with one and other, and that's just cool.

20.Viewtiful Joe. Da cube. 2003.

Represent.

This is one of those games that you have your personal favourite of the genre. And the genre here is something I'd like to coin as 'Zone Games'. Forget what actually is happening in the game, this is a game where your reflexes have to be so finely tune that you actually have to merge with the controller.

Everyone has their own (Bubble Bobble, Bust A Move, Peggle and Tetris come to mind). These are games that take over your lives, your higher cognitive functions are suspended as the extra split second the information takes to transmit to the rest of your brain could cost you your life.

So you operate on instinctual automation instead. When you are talking to your significant other you start going into withdrawal. While you are having lunch your fingers twitch and mimic hitting A Y and X. People walking down the street are all out to get you... to stop you from playing... and then back home into your dimly lit abode... come on come on ... boot up already... load game.... come on... fucking loading scre.....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh feel the calm.

It's about five dollars now too, go get it.

Awesome Character Profile:

Alastor

Existing for no reason other than to be Joe's Rival, Alastor is everything that is cool about Joe magnified to the twentieth power. Alastor is actually the name of Dante's sword in Devil May Cry and as VJ basically plays like Devil May Cry in 2d and was designed by a lot of the same staff, the director thought it was appropriate that there was some representation of DMC in the game.

While serving as a pretty awesome rival, Alastor, utilizing a completely different play style, moveset and storyline, is playable if you defeat the game on V-rated (Good luck with that, Six years on and I haven't done it.) giving hardcore players a reason to relive the game over and over again.