Sometimes you wait on a game you've been curious about for months, and when it comes time to actually play it, you wish you'd bought the game a lot sooner. This is my predicament with Neon White, a game I should've bought upon release, because now I realize why the praise for it is so high.

Without dipping into spoilers, the reason I love Neon White is because its gameplay is badass. You're given a bunch of awesome skills and weapons, with your goal being to reach the end of the level in the fastest time possible. I'll admit, I didn't think it looked that interest when I glimpsed at the trailers, but when you feel the ebb and flow of the action rippling through the Switch/PS5 controller-it truly feels fantastic.

Also the characters are superb, witty and funny-it's a clever and comical pleasure to listen to-oh and the soundtrack is fantastic too. I'm amazed by just how all the elements come together to make a truly riveting time-sensitive action bonanza.

Yahtzee gave Neon White GOTY honors over Elden Ring-now that tells me how truly awesome this game is, and I think you guys should try it too. It's a superb game. I'd divulge in greater detail-but I thought a short and sweet shoutout would suffice. GO PLAY THIS GAME!

I must say at this point that I thought picking Rayman: Legends would bring some spice to the Hall of Greats. What I didn't know was the level of competition I'd be facing. It's like I went in to give a jet engine a kiss before it blew a fireball in my face-cos that's the sheer power of the competition I'm up against.

@shoulderguy I would have sent mine in already but I was intending to play a bunch of 2022 games beforehand. However, I feel I can put together a top 8 regardless-but more time is more opportunity to play the games before voting.

@dipset I knew we were missing one of the key ingredients to this panel.

@oscillator In response to Rayman: Legends

Rayman: Legends is a crazy evolution of what Origins brought to the Rayman franchise. Legends looks marvelous and a is a beautiful visual and artistic upgrade to Origins, but it's also far more exciting and ambitious than Origins was. Go and compare how they both look and witness how ravishing Legends is-it's so gorgeous looking. I feel Origins looks flat next to the liveliness and energy blossoming through Legends-the difference is quite spectacular.

The platforming gameplay meanwhile, is leaps and bounds ahead of what Origins had to offer, because you bound forward with breakneck momentum and the calamity that can ensue will make levels a thrilling rush to complete. Origins was comparatively slower, even though it still managed to generate some wonderful segments of platforming.

In Origins there was only a map screen to choose the levels you want to bop your way through, but it Legends you are greeted by this lavish art gallery with many paintings representing the levels and challenges in the game. It's a huge evolution from what Origins did, making navigation more pleasurable and whimsical and not so threadbare and bland like Origins menu navigation was.

Legends has a wealth of content that Origins can't match. There are so many challenges, teensies to collect and co-op mischievousness to revel in, that Origins is lightweight by comparison. Legends keeps on giving and giving, that's where its strength over Origins truly shines. Oh and you can play Origins levels in Legends too!

So to wrap it up, Legends has plenty more to offer, looks grander and is more ambitious than Origins was. Origins is a lovely game, but Legends is bursting with content and excellency in platforming level design that I think makes it the superior game.

To @ffff0 for Apex Legends:

1. What would you say the biggest evolution Apex: Legends has seen in the past 4 years since its release? I'm only a dabbling Battle-Royale player, so what will make me want to jump into Apex: Legends right now that wasn't present in 2019?

2. You commend the diversity of the characters in Apex: Legends, but do you think the depth of the characters matches their diversity?

To @Brannox for The Last of Us Part I

1. I've always found the gameplay of The Last of Us as brutal and unrelenting as its powerful story of survival and grit. However, there are a few detractors who become wearisome about the game's necessity for forcing you to craft supplies before you can proceed through the game. How would you encourage those detractors to see crafting in a more positive light?

2. I usually play The Last of Us and think to myself that the story components it possesses have been done before in other mediums. I see elements of the Uncharted series, the John Hillcott-directed film The Road, as well as Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name, The Walking Dead, David Benioff's City of Thieves and other works. Do you feel there's an air of familiarity about The Last of Us when you play it in the sense that you have encountered similar experiences before?

To @Shoulderguy for Portal:

1.Portal is a game I didn't hear about until it became an immediate sensation to those who played The Orange Box. I still didn't get the appeal of it, as I don't play many puzzle games and I didn't buy The Orange Box either. How do you think Portal complements the other games in The Orange Box and do you think it could be seen as an afterthought to everything else on offer in the package?

2. I look at Portal and think it's quite bland. I know Portal 2 fixed this and improved many aspects of the Portal experience, so why would those interested in Portal play the original over the more fully-featured and enriched sequel?

To @Oscillator for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3:

1. I see how Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 has a grander ambition than its predecessors, and has the ability to showcase that ambition on a greater scale thanks to the power of the sixth generation of consoles. Do you think THPS3 just ups the ante on its predecessors with new features more than anything else?

2. I find that completing THPS challenges can be quite an arduous process at times. You're given a few minutes to accomplish objectives, which doesn't give you enough time to do anything substantial. Then when the time is up, your successfully completed objectives get crossed off, but then you have to replay the same level again to complete more objectives until you unlock the next area, where you'll do the same thing again. Isn't this a tedious loop? Do you feel like THPS3 might annoy people who just want to be able to complete everything in one go without being swallowed up and spat out again?

To @Capnbobamous for Wii Sports:

1. When I was 15 I saw Wii Sports as a game that ruined what Nintendo had wrought for its dedicated fanbase. At the time, I felt as though Nintendo was betraying dedicated players and letting in audiences who wanted nothing to do with games prior to that. Back then I was a silly sausage, but do you think Wii Sports and the figurative movement of making games more appealing to non-gamers would negatively impact longtime Nintendo fans?

2. Do you think Wii Sports can appease those who want more meat on its bones? It's after all a slim tech-demo that's meant to showoff the Wii's functional capabilities-is that all there is to it?

@ffff0 In Response to question about Rayman: Legends:

Not at all, I think with or without the Gamepad Rayman: Legends is delightful to play. Yes, using the Gamepad has its quirks, but I don't think they majorly impact the game-playing experience at all. Personally, I have not tried the Wii-U version of Rayman: Legends, but I believe there is nothing lost in Rayman: Legends, and for those who want to pick up and play without the gimmicks will find Legends just as splendid as those who choose the Wii-U version.

@brannox In response to Rayman: Legends questions:

1.The way Rayman: Legends differentiates itself from other 2D platformers is in how crazy the tempo of the gameplay is and how phenomenal the varied environments are. Donkey Kong games and Mario 2D platformers are brilliant, but they aren't driven so much by the attractions and excitement of adventure, as they are with giving you progressively difficult platforming levels. You play a Mario or Donkey Kong game, you know you're in for a challenging ride, but when you play Rayman: Legends, you're in for a challenging ride that's also fast, furious, wonderfully eccentric and quite funny in places too. Rayman: Legends I think looks more luscious than many modern platformers as well, especially when it comes to enemy designs. It's a splendid thrillride that is also a huge jubilant platforming party.

2. There is more to Rayman: Legends than the continuing jaunt from left to right. There are secret caves with teensies that have been held captive, and you have the opportunity of freeing them provided you can overcome a platforming puzzle. You definitely can go back through the levels. The layout of the menu is essentially an exquisite art gallery-this is where you can choose the stages and within those stages are the levels. There are also party games, co-op levels, as well as daily and weekly challenges. You can also play levels from Rayman: Origins too. It's a feature-stuffed experience and I find the navigation to be very splendid and cohesive with Legends' insatiable charms.

Here's an offshoot idea which I want to push out there. We have the Hall of Greats and it's great, yet I feel the games that will get in will be the biggest of the big, leaving no room for the little ones that are buried in time and left to be forgotten. Furthermore, some of these hidden gems have been nominated for consideration into the Hall of Greats, not standing much of a chance, then failing to garner enough votes for a successful induction. There are so many hidden gems that deserve recognition, and I feel a hall to pay homage to them would be wonderful.

What do you think of this idea?

Hello and welcome to my Hall of Greats presentation! On this occasion, the game I present to the Hall of Greats is rife with lunacy, serenading with resounding echoes of bamboozling ebullience, and possessing a strikingly whimsical 3D hand-drawn art style. This platformer is just one of those games you may find being towed on a wheel trolley and wearing a straitjacket because of how off-the-wall insane it is. My nomination is 2013’s Rayman: Legends.

The first thought you may have screeching over your prefrontal cortexes, is how on earth can James nominate an Ubisoft game-he tends to flame his wooden torch alight just to scorch their library for how big, dumb and moronic most of their games are? The answer? Rayman: Legends arrived before the swathe of huge dumb open-world games, littered with banal fetch quests and tedious design choices. Oh, and this one is not an open-world, it’s only one of the greatest 2D platformers around. A stonking achievement like Rayman: Legends helps me bask in admirable remembrance at how Ubisoft has been responsible for some of the best videogames in the industry-and Rayman: Legends is without a doubt my favourite Ubisoft game.

There’s no denying that it takes some serious cojones and intestinal fortitude to contend with the almighty Super Mario platformers, but Rayman: Legends steps up face-to-face with the moustached maestro’s finest, all the while blasting Black Betty BAM-BA-LAM into his earhole. The moxie it takes to design a game that polishes up its shoes and puts a boot up Mario’s platforming bum, is without a doubt worth paying attention to-and oh dayum is Rayman: Legends worth paying attention to!

I don’t know what Ubisoft Montpellier employees sprinkled on their breakfast cereal in the morning, but my prediction is it’s something dusty and wondrously hallucinogenic. This may explain how excellently crafted every level is, how whacko the creature designs are, and how breezy and buttery the platforming is. Rayman: Legends is a staggeringly attractive and vivacious experience, an unstoppable tour of whimsy, sparkle and imagination that eclipses just about every game in the genre.

The scintillatingly scrumptious rhythmic platforming is bonkers, revelling in a tempo befitting its raucous presentation. Jumping, bouncing and bounding along in a spiritedly effervescent way is gorgeously liberating in Legends. What wins day however, is the breakneck rush of Legends’ platforming challenges is what separates it from its competition. Whether it’s the thrills of the razor-sharp precision platforming, the epic obstacle-dodging, where structures collapse around you and threaten to tumble over on you, or you’re frantically slinging along desperately ziplining onto chains and escaping doom all the while a catchy beat accompanies your scramble for safety-Rayman: Legends is fully loaded with an onslaught of pristinely-coloured levels and an enrapturing gameplay core.

One of the greatest pleasures Legends offers you comes in the form of blazingly frenetic sequences that marry the bread-and-butter platforming with a guitar-hero like rhythm-where the gameplay and the music work together in tandem to create outrageously exciting and adventurous levels.

Returning from Rayman 2, Murfy is your trusty sidekick during your adventures. He’s useful when it comes to removing obstacles that impede your path-whether in the form of chopping rope for a tree trunk to fall acting as a bespoke path forward. Murfy also has the power of the coochy coo too, as he is able to tickle larger enemies until they giggle uncontrollably, letting their guard down in the process and opening up the chance for you to bop them into oblivion.

On top of all the platforming greatness Legends provides, it might be one of the most generously rewarding platformers on top of being one of the very best as well. Not only do you get a horde of delightfully sadistic challenges on expertly dreamy and luscious levels, but by collecting caged teensies and lums-you can unlock additional levels, characters and challenges. Legends is a game that keeps on giving and giving, it’s delectably and luxuriously feeding players with joyous content-it’s a museum chockful of activity that has been curated marvellously.

It’s hard to resist isn’t it? Ogling at Rayman: Legends is irresistible. Swimming in a joyous array of hues and a vibrant multitude of characterful art designs, Legends never stops assaulting your eyelids with sheer beauty. Even the dastardly enemy and creature designs are loaded with the quirky goofiness the game excels at as its alluring motif.

Look above at this mischievous and bloated Mocking Bird for a second. Don’t you just feel the urge to sock it in the face? A chunky, airship-sized miscreant, the Mocking Bird is a flavourful example of how glorious the creature designs are in Rayman: Legends. The otherworldly aura inherent in these monstrosities is very strongly realized, complementing the outrageous weirdness and levity that punctuates Legends’ very identity.

The soundtrack shares similarly eccentric vibes with a fluffy layer of relaxed chill at times. Some tunes contain breezy whistling, reflecting the effortlessly sublime gameplay, whilst many others boast a sumptuous cuisine of instrument to accompany the everchanging flow of the drama onscreen including ukuleles, kazoos and bagpipes. This is one heck of a videogame soundtrack, and just like Rayman: Legends itself, you won’t have heard a videogame soundtrack that has been as fantastically and cohesively designed to quite the same bonkers degree as you’ll find here.

So why should you nominate Rayman: Legends for entry into the Hall of Greats? It’s a spectacular platformer that’s joyous and exhilarating to play. Legends never stops stuffing itself with outrageous whimsy, top-drawer level and creature designs, it constantly rewards players with new levels and rewards, never taking itself off the gas in its quest to surprise players, and it’s above all else- a monumental pleasure to play. How can anyone say no to a game that can threaten to bust Mario’s moustachioed chops with a superior platforming experience? If you don’t believe, go experience this stellar effort for yourself.

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