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MrKart

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10 Games That Took the Most of My Time


Over the past five or so years, I have transformed from what I call an "absorbtion" gamer to a "spot" gamer. Rather than invest a ton of time into one or two games, I now tend to spend small amounts of time with a multitude of them, several of which only steal a few hours from my life. But like all games, there are those games that do, ultimately, eat up a lot more time than others. Funny enough, how much time a game eats up has nothing to do with how good or bad the game is--several times it's simply that it has an accessible multiplayer option, though incentives to play through games multiple times can sometimes make a difference as well. So here are the ten games that have been "played the most" based on actual, numerical time they've been played. 
 
Note: With all my lists, I have a franchise rule: only one game per respective franchise.

List items

  • The always shifting, always flowing gameplay of Melee was accessible and addicting. Tons of unlockables kept the single player pursuit going, and open fun kept the multiplayer alive for the entire lifespan of the Gamecube and beyond--a very rare feat in gaming. 500 hours, according to the statistics in game, have been logged--a number likely to stay, as the game has almost permanently become locked on my shelf since the release of Brawl (which is not likely to go any further).

  • This is a prime example of how "New Game " modes benefit so well in games. Tales of Symphonia is far from my favorite RPG, and it has a multitude of flaws that really bog it down at times. But after spending more than 100 hours on my first playthrough, and then being opted to carry some of the spells I'd learned and titles I'd acquired into a second playthrough so I could collect MORE things, and THEN being opted to bring ALL of my items to a third playthrough... well, needless to say, four playthroughs and more than 320 hours later, I haven't been able to muster the strength to stand a fifth run.

  • I didn't have many games for my N64 as a kid, and I had spent a lot of time becoming really good at Tetris Attack on the SNES, so Pokemon Puzzle League became my "go to game" for several years. I eventually got to the point where I quite literally could NOT lose to anyone: the CPU, a human opponent, whatever. I breezed through Super Hard without using a continue, and would go into multiplayer and pit myself against the hardest computer AI the game had, using all my favorite trainers. I still go back to this game on occassion, though I mainly get my fix from Planet Puzzle League on the DS.

    Note: I considered this game part of the Panel de Pon franchise, not the Pokemon franchise.

  • I was very "anti-Halo" when the series was first gaining popularity--perhaps it was because I saw no appeal to the Xbox whatsoever, and refused to give in to what I considered at the time was an "FPS craze." I eventually gave in about a year after Halo 3's release because all of my friends were using as their main multiplayer game, and I became quite addicted. I'm not playing nearly as much online now, but I do go through several phases in which I'll play the game incessently for a few weeks. And it's still the [second] biggest games to bring out our LAN parties.

  • In hindsight, any of the Pokemon games from the main series could be included here, but I chose Gold and Silver (specifically Gold) because I distinctly remember having a fascination with using a Gameshark to get infinite rare candies and vitamins, and then leveling up all my Pokemon to Level 100 and teaching them the coolest moves they could learn so that I could use them in Pokemon Stadium 2 against one another. A good 200 hours or so invested in Gold.

  • While Melee was the big multiplayer game last generation, Mario Kart: Double Dash was the big "family" multiplayer game. It was always the go to game for me and my sister, and we would spend hours just racing around Baby Park with hectic items on, throwing lightning and blue shells and such. This was by FAR my favorite entry in the series, and the vast selection of characters and karts made each experience [relatively] fresh.

  • One of my all time favorites, if not for the cover art alone. I received this as a birthday present with my PS2, and I flipped out because I was so excited. Again, not the greatest game technically speaking, but it was, for lack of a better term, a beautiful experience. I played through it again and again again, and never got bored of it. I even have save files right before every boss fight in the game, and even now I go back and fight the Maleficent Dragon boss on occassion.

  • I tracked this game in my Nintendo Power magazines for a good six months or so, and saved up until it was $30 so that I could get it. From that point on I invested SOLELY in the game, catching every fish and bug, collecting every piece of furniture, creating clothing, etc. I had three memory cards for my Gamecube, and continuously created new towns on two of them for the main character on the third memory card to explore. I had an absolute blast with the game and would literally spend whole days running around doing absolutely nothing, and having such a great time with it. Too bad City Folk had to mess it all up.

  • I never would have thought this would make a list like this. I liked the first Gears, but it always seemed like a sort of underground game to me that would have a specific following and that 's it. I sort of bought Gears 2 on a whim, and after playing through the campaign, didn't play it hardly at all afterward. Until this past summer. Suddenly, THIS became the number one game amongst all of my friends--it was a game we all had, and thus it became the LAN game of choice. But rarely was it for versus--it was all for Horde. Horde brought all of us working together, and actually brought several people who'd never been into games (girls especially) into the mix as well. We still all go back and play through Horde over Live quite often.

  • My first Guitar Hero game, I purchased the 360 version after playing the game at a number of Graduation parties right when it first came out. I remember hating the idea when I first heard about it and thinking it was the most overhyped game ever, but when I actually played it, it opened my mind to a new wave of gaming that would pretty much take over a huge portion of my life. It was hard for me to determine which Guitar Hero/Rock Band game actually WAS played the most by me, but I decided to give the nod to Guitar Hero II, considering it was the game that had me quite literally rise up from the ranks, going from Easy to Expert over the course of a month of constant playing. Oh, and Jordan STILL remains the only song I've never beaten on Expert in a Guitar Hero game.