Top Ten of the Week #8 - Does this battle make my butt look fat?

[Jermungandr]

#10: Witch - Final Fantasy Legend III

I'll be honest, I barely remember this game and I have no real intention of ever playing it again, but one thing that has always stuck out in my mind is the fact that the first enemies you encounter in the game are friggin' bunny witches.

BUNNY. WITCHES.

IMMEDIATELY.

I guess it's not really that odd, since there are a lot of games out there that love to throw bizarre shit at you right away, but this was my very first experience with a "real" RPG and I was expecting a lot more serious of a tone.

Oh, and guess what, your characters can actually turn into those bunny witches too. By eating meat. That's a thing in this game.

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#9 Waddle Doo - Kirby Super Star

Waddle Doo gets some credit in this game first and foremost for being one of the few Kirby games to not introduce Waddle Dee as the first enemy you encounter. Of course, Waddle Doo also serves an important purpose: allowing you to copy his power so that you can be joined by a partner player right at the start of the game. Thanks Waddle Doo, for not making my sibling feel left out for five minutes. That's more than I can say for some games ...

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#8: Motobugs - Sonic the Hedgehog

Just for the moment when I was all "Whoa, did an animal just pop out of that thing? What the heck?!"

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#7: Pidgey - Pokemon Red

I don't know about you guys, but Pidgey was the first Pokemon I ever caught. And that's good enough for me.

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#6: Pirate Goom - Wario Land II

Hey, you know what's cooler than a Goomba? Pirate Goombas. Of course, the Gooms in the Wario Land series are based more on the goombas from Super Mario World rather than their ordinary mushroom cousins, so you don't get the same satisfying squish when you land on one of these guys. But you CAN pick them up and splatter them against the wall with your mach-speed throwing skills, which is much more fun if you ask me.

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#5: Octorok - Link's Awakening

One thing I find neat about about Link's Awakening is how you're not just handed a sword right from the start. No, first you have to navigate around a bunch of enemies, using only your shield to bump them, deflect their projectiles, or even push them. It's neat because it teaches you all the proper mechanics of utilizing your shield, which you might not have picked up on as easily if you're the type to normally go straight for an all-out offensive-as-defense strategy. It's important too, because the Zelda games that came before this featured the hero simply holding his shield in front of him at all times, so they had to emphasize the fact that it was an item that actually had to be USED this time around. Brilliant game design; you can barely even tell it's a tutorial.

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#4: Shy Guy - Super Mario Bros. 2

Remember when you played Mario Bros 2 for the first time, and upon encountering your first enemy, went to crush it beneath your feet in traditional Mario fashion, only to go "Holy crap, I can just stand on these guys? Holy shit I can PICK THEM UP?!"

No? Well, okay then ...

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#3: Bonzo(?) - Bubble Bobble

Because they look like adorable little wind-up toasters. That's it, really.

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#2: Red Koopa Troopas - Super Mario World

Super Mario World has a neat aspect right off the bat that hasn't really been utelised in a Mario game prior or even since: An option between two different starting levels. So depending on which direction you choose to go first, your first encounter may not necessarily be the same. Personally, I prefer being immediately greeted by the swarm of Koopa Troopas found in the level on your right. First game of the first generation, and immedatly Nintendo is saying "Hey, check it out! Look how many enemies we can handle on screen at once!" What REALLY makes this encounter satisfying, however, is the empty koopa shell lain generously aside for you. Pick it up and knock the turtles down like dominoes, getting a sweet and satisfying 1up in the process. Awww yeah, feels so good.

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#1: Terrapin - Super Mario RPG

This is kind of an important one for me. When I rented Mario RPG for the first time as a kid, I hadn't the faintest clue what an RPG game was. All I knew from looking at the box was "Whoa, a 3D Mario game?! I HAVE GOT TO PLAY THIS!!". So after excitedly turning on the game for the first time, I instinctively went to jump on the head of the first enemy I encountered, only to have the screen wipe take me to a bizarre battle stage. Predictably, I was perplexed as shit. I had no idea what was going on in this game AT ALL. Incidentally, my first playthrough did not go well at all; I had absolutely no concept of Experience Points, and I spent most of the game running from battles because I honestly thought that was what I was supposed to do. But regardless, this enemy gets high billing because not only did he introduce me to a new game mechanic, but a new wondrous genre of games altogether.