For years I’ve kept a running list of my favorite games. I prefer to think of it more as my personal “Hall of Fame”, to which I make a few inductions every year or two. There’s no science behind it, but I do put a lot of thought into every single game that goes on the list; additions don’t come lightly. I only add a game when it feels right, and every game on there has proven to be one that had a huge impact on me in some way. I also always have numerous games that sit “on the edge” of making the list, as there are countless other games I hold hear. But I have to be absolutely sure a game deserves it before making the cut, that it hangs with the games already present. I think the list’s exclusivity is one of its strengths, and I’m very conscious of losing that. It’s a special list of special games (for me personally), and one I handle with a lot of thought and a lot of care.

I say all of that to give a clearer picture of what the list is about. The main reason for this blog, however, is that I recently made a round of “inductions” to the list that happen to bring the grand tally up to an even 50 games. In light of that milestone, I found myself reflecting on the wonderful games that comprise the list, and I felt like giving it a little shout-out. That’s really all I’m doing here; getting a little nostalgic and self-indulgent, and taking a light-hearted look at some interesting things that stood out to me from the list. Others may or may not find this interesting, but I at least had fun looking back and identifying some trends. Think of this as basically a haphazard collection of “fun facts”. And away we go!

• I was born in 1986. That probably influences a lot of the list.
• I also didn't have a gaming PC until the late 90s, and never got that into Sega consoles.
• Super Mario World is the oldest game, released in 1991 for the SNES.
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is the newest game, released in 2014 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One (ok, there are technically PS3 and Xbox 360 versions too).
• On average, from 1991-2014, there are just over 2 games per year.
• The only year from 1991-2014 without a game represented is 1993.
• The most represented year is 2003 with 5 games, followed by 2005 with 4 games.
• I don’t know which year is, but I now feel pretty confident in saying 1998 is not my favorite year for games. That’s right, I said it :)
• Still, 1998 was pretty amazing, with 3 wonderful games represented.
• 16 platforms are represented on this list: 4 handhelds, 11 consoles, and the PC.
• 36 games on this list are exclusives, including every game before 2003. Since then about half of the games are exclusives.
• The SNES has the most exclusive games represented, with 7 games, followed by the PC with 6 (StarCraft is an exclusive in my book!).
• The GameCube was a good system. 7 games on this list are playable on a GameCube, including 4 exclusives. QED
• Every platform represented on this list has at least 1 exclusive, except for the new consoles (the PS4 and Xbox One).

• Genres can be subjective and hard to formally quantify, but there’s quite a range of them represented any way you look at it.
• Still, there’s likely a skew towards action/adventure games, RPGs, and strategy games.
• No franchise has more than 3 games represented, and 3 franchises meet this count: Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Final Fantasy.
• No, I don’t count Yoshi’s Island or Super Mario RPG as traditional “Super Mario” games :)
• 14 games on this list were developed by various Nintendo studios, and many others were published by Nintendo.
• Needless to say, Nintendo is the most represented company on this list, though there’s only 1 game from them since 2007 (Pokemon X/Y).
• Square Enix is the next most represented developer (including games from Squaresoft before the merge), with 6 games represented.
• 31 games on this list are direct sequels. Most of them are Nintendo games, Square Enix games, or PC games.
• Almost exactly half of the games on this list (26) were made in Japan, with the rest being western developed games.
• While the west has become slightly more prominent recently, the trend is more evenly spread over time than I would have guessed.
• To no one’s surprise, Nintendo platforms are dominated by the east, and Microsoft platforms (including PC/Windows) are dominated by the west. Sony platforms are fairly balanced.

And there you have it, roughly two dozen “fun facts” about a list nobody but me probably cares about! It was a fun exercise nonetheless, and maybe someone found it entertaining. It’s nice to sit back and reflect from time to time, and 50 seemed like just the right milestone to do so. Who knows how long it will take, but here’s looking ahead to 100! :)