10 Games to Honor my Best Friend Gunrock

On March 11th I suffered the biggest loss in my life. My cousin (@gunrock) who I considered more like a brother and my best friend passed away due to his body not resisting the effects of chemotherapy. He had cancer and it was eliminated but like I said his body just became too weak and passed away due to that being too much. He was so young, 31 as am I.

We both love games, and we love Giant Bomb with a burning passion. We have been fans since the old Hotspot days on Gamespot with Jeff and the gang. We have gone to almost every PAX Prime since 2010 just to go and say Hi to the Giant Bomb crew.

I remember when he had to get surgery a few months ago and I managed to get Vinny to send him a shoutout so that he could get better on the Beastcast. We are such fanboys of Giant Bomb that we were freaking out when we heard it! It was around November I can't remember but if you can remember Vinny sent it to Jesus Garcia, that was him. I really thought that was all he needed to get better. He was so happy it was like when kids get to meet their heroes.

Any ways you might think this is just a list of some of favorite games and it part it kinda is. See you guys here on Giant Bomb are probably in the same situation where you have this friend who also loves games just as much as you do and in most cases you agree on stuff. Best console ever? The SNES of course! Best Mega Man X game? X4 duh.

But there came a time where we didn't and that was always fun! Some of these games represent that and others are just games he kept insisting I try and never got around to it.

I will play all these games as a healing process because when this is all new I almost wanted to quit video games because when I kinda became aware of my mortality I wanted to you know do something more "productive". But games have been such a great thing in my life and it's something that we bonded with I can't just ignore that. In short: Vidja Games 4 Life!

After picking all the games on the list I realize I could have put like 10 or 20 more games and more RPGs since those were his favorite kind of games but it would take me forever to do that. Maybe next year I'll make a 10 more games list because I know I will miss him all my life and will think about him all the time. Until we meet up there big guy.

Edit:

List items

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  1. Sonic & Knuckles

  Our mutually agreed to be the best Sonic game ever. This is of course with the addition of Sonic 3 through lock-on. His favorite color was red so when Knuckles was introduced and even playable he was all over that and he became his favorite character in the Sonic franchise. I think it killed him a little seeing how he looked in Sonic Boom. Damn you Sonic Boom.

  I know Sonic games get a lot of hate and it deserves it. But I still like a bunch of older Sonic games and they carry a lot of nostalgia for me.

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  2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

  Yeah we were those guys that can't accept any other Zelda game being better than this one. Even better than so many other people's beloved Ocarina of Time. I'll let Gunrock finish this entry off with some of his thoughts from this Top 10 list from 2013 where he placed Link Between Worlds at the #1 spot:

  "Link to the past is the best Zelda game ever made, don't you dare argue with me. i love that game and this one is such a good love letter to the people that have had to hang out with all these OoT lovers."

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  3. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

  Gunrock loved RPGs. He pretty much said a few times that it was his favorite genre of games. I kinda hate them because it's stupid to take turns in combat. But we both loved this series and I never played this one but he just gushed all other this one it seems to me this was his favorite one of the bunch. The humor in these is just so great and we would even do the Mario and Luigi voices. I know we looked weird but we didn't care because when he would yell "LUIGI!" I would answer "MARIO!!" because I am thin and he was kinda chubby so we fell into those roles pretty much. Also he was a stronger person and I am more of a frail person. Man we are Mario and Luigi the more I think about it.

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  4. EarthBound

  Speaking of RPGs here's maybe not one of his favorites but he always defended this one. I started playing already on the Wii U so I might as well just keep going.

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  5. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

  In his collection list from the site he mentioned this was his first Playstation game. After the SNES he pretty much skipped the N64 only playing it multiplayer and friends or family reunions. Ever since he declared himself a Playstation fan until the very end. I think this game and several RPGs convinced him the Playstation was a big deal and it really shows.

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  6. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

  Gunrock was a HUGE fan of the whole series and if I had to pick his favorite it probably was 4...or 3... or 1 I have no idea. But he insisted that this game's story was worth it and that its an awesome game.

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  7. Mega Man X2

  Now I know I said back in the description that X4 was our favorite Mega Man X game. However after X4 we disagreed on the next best X game and I always said it was X, he always said X2. I would randomly text him: "X is better than X2" just to piss him off and we would just laugh.

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  8. Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 Remix

  Gunrock was a diehard Kingdom Hearts fan. He couldn't wait for part 3. He is now in a better place where Kingdom Hearts is no more. The games have a great look and style but damn the story and dialog is so stupid. I was already starting this one as my first just to get what is up with these games so now it's a matter of finishing what I started.

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  9. Valkyria Chronicles

  I should be putting more RPGs into this list but I just really wouldn't play them and I must play all these games. So this game was kinda alright but he just loved this one a lot.

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  10. Power Stone 2

  I'm pretty sure this is where he got the nickname Gunrock from a character in this game. Why part 2? It's the better one because it's 4 player and he owned this one.