List items
-
I've never had an experience playing games quite like Persona 3 and I don't think anything will ever surpass the affect its narrative and characters had on me. It's not necessarily the most coherent RPG out there, but it certainly is the most endearing.
-
Certainly an outlier in the esteemed franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was the first Zelda game I ever played to completion. Once again, it's the writing that makes this game so memorable for me. Sure, the mechanics are borrowed from the excellent Ocarina of Time, but it's the feeling of dread that permeates throughout this adventure that has kept me coming back to it time and time again.
-
If there is anything I love more than a great RPG, it's a colorful platformer. Banjo-Kazooie was probably my favorite from the old glory days of Rare and, as such, continues to delight me to this day.
-
C'mon guys, it doesn't get much better than Mario's first adventure on the Super Nintendo. While it wasn't the first game I ever played, Super Mario World is solely responsible introducing me to a lifetime of gaming.
-
What can I say? World of Warcraft was my very first foray into the world of online games and, for better or worse, my gaming life has forever changed as a result. No other interactive experience has generated more stories of camaraderie, adventure, and friendship than WoW.
-
I can still remember the day I came home from the store with a new Nintendo 64 and a copy of this game. My family didn't have a computer at the time and we were firmly a Nintendo household, so Super Mario 64 served as my introduction to 3-D gaming.
-
As a kid who grew up in the 90's, Pokemon is an obviously inclusion to this list. If you hung out near my group of friends in 1998, this was the only game you would ever hear us talking about and for good reason.
-
I didn't play the original NES release of Dragon Warrior III or the SNES remake. It was the Gameboy Color version, years after its initial release, that finally found its way into my hands. I love all of the DQ/DW games very dearly but Dragon Warrior III serves as my favorite of the franchise for one very obvious reason: the main character is mothafuckin' Loto himself! Finally, after hours upon hours of gameplay with zero mention of the legendary hero everyone couldn't stop talking about in the first two games, you discover that Dragon Warrior III is, in fact, a prequel and you were Loto the whole time. Enix had pulled a KOTOR twist well before Bioware was even a thing!
-
This is another example of a game where the narrative took precedent over lackluster mechanics. The gameplay is certainly manageable but there are better 3rd person experiences out there. However, John Marston's tale is a wholly unique experience that delves into themes previously unexplored in this medium. Not only that, RDR also has one of the most satisfying endings to a video game I've ever played. It's unconventional, sure, but it's a finish you won't soon forget.
-
I traditionally loathe multiplayer shooters. I just don't have too much free time to invest in a game to get really, really good at it, so it's a testament to Modern Warfare's stellar design that it was able to draw me in so easily. Combine that with the best single-player campaign in any FPS ever and you have one of the most complete packages in gaming ever released.
Load Comments