As requested by my friend Travis Beckelheimer, I made my top 20 games of all time list! This was very hard to do, but I tried to narrow it down as best I could. Because of how difficult it was though a lot of these choices have 2 entries. 20. Goldeneye 007 - What a classic to start with! I put hours and hours into this game. From the main mission mode to multiplayer I played this to death. Some great memories playing this with my brother and friends using all those crazy codes! And I dont care what anyone says, it still feels great to play this revolutionary game! And that music... Rare never disappoints. 19. Star Fox 64/Original - SF64 defiantly is marginally better for me because of all of the memories attached to it and the fact that it really is the better game. With all of the memorably dialogue, the branching levels, and fine tuning it mostly wins here. However that doesnt mean the original isnt amazing as well! 18. Star Wars: Battlefront II/Knights of the Old Republic - Two amazing Star Wars game with two important set of memories attached to them. With Battlefront Me and my bro would play this so much and fight over the PS2 to be the next one to play it! With KOTR you had one of the best RPGs ever crafted that gave way to diplomatic choices and the whole Good Side/Bad Side kind of game that we would see in later Bioware games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. The best part was all of the Star Wars lore it dove into and the amount of exploration and depth it presented. 17. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas/Vice City - What a hard choice. I lean more towards San Andreas because of the story and elements it added to the series... and the codes. But then I lean towards Vice City because of the theme. These were the best of the best for me and still now I will go back and play either of them any day. So many memories. So many silly moments. What can I say about this series that hasnt been said a million times. 16. Megaman X/Legends - Megaman X is one of the best games ever created and easily the best side scrolling Mega Man games in my opinion. However Legends was a very creative and fun 3D/RPGish style Mega Man game that to this day makes me want more in the series. I guess in the end I lean more towards X because Ive beaten that game so, so many times... and that MUSIC! 15. Donkey Kong Country Series - Yup. This is one of those times when Im going to have to go with the entire series. Every game in this series is amazing; every entry adds even more! The music is fantastic, the game play is tight, and characters are memorable. What more can I say? 14. Pokemon Yellow/Pearl - Take Pokemon Red and Blue, two already fantastic games with so much replayability, classic Pokemon, and addicting game play. Now, add the ability have Pikachu as your starting Pokemon and have him follow you and talk to you like in the show. This is the best Pokemon game to this day and youd be hard pressed to find a Pokemon fan who doesnt agree. However all of the Pokemon games are great and when it came to playing along with my brother and friends Pearl was the big one for me. 13. Guitar Hero Series/Rock Band Series - Yea, ok, some of you might roll your eyes at this series and I know its been milked to death, but that doesnt stop it from being a great series of rhythm based games. I mean this was the series for me that bridged the gap and got my whole family to play it! Yea sure. my mom would play a Mario game if I begged her but when I mentioned Guitar Hero she was excited to play! Great memories abound here! 12. Diddy Kong Racing/Mario Kart 64 - Kart racing was the kind of racing game I wanted to play unless it was something arcade-y like Twisted Metal or Burnout... and boy was this a good age for them! They both have great game play with tight controls, power-ups, and music, but Im going to have to go with DKR on this one. The story mode and the better VS mode just really stuck out for me! And those darn memories again... 11. Super Smash Bros Melee/64 - The first one is a classic and is still very playable and Ill never forget the marketing around it, but its just not going to compete with Melee. I remember begging for the Gamecube for Christmas, but the only thing I was begging for more was for the Gamecube WITH Super Smash Bros Melee. When I finally got this game I never stopped playing it with everybody I could get to play it with me. The characters, the stages, the music! Too much to talk about, just, trust me. Its an amazing classic game. It also introduces a lot of westerners to the Fire Emblem series so theres a plus as well! 10. Resident Evil 4/2 - RE2 made me fall in love with RE. To this day it is still the best RE in that format IMO and had the most memorable locations and story elements to boot. It also stared my favorite RE character: Leon S. Kennedy. However when RE4 came along it just took a hold of me. The game play is perfection, the settings is scary as crap, the music is thrilling, the story changed it up for the better. This is one of the games I have beaten more times than I can remember trying to get all of those unlockables.. And yes I mean on both the Gamecube and even more on the PS2. Im still trying to finally get RE4HD as well so I can beat it multiple more times again! 9. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater/Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - MGS 2 is what truly got me into the MG franchise. Yes I played MGS1 and I loved it too, but 2 was a whole other thing entirely. The already great cinematic storytelling and stealth game play was amplified greatly and I was so, so into it. But then came Snake Eater and then oh my lord. Like RE4 I cant even tell you how many times Ive beaten it on multiple platforms. The story was Oscar level. The game play with the camouflage system was so addicting and engaging. Its a work of art, and theres so, so much replayability with all of the collectibles and hidden scenes that you can always come back and it feels new all over again. 8. Kingdom Hearts Series - I remember when I first saw the concept for this game in an old PSN magazine. Square and Disney in the same game? That sounds so weird!. But man I am so glad me and my brother tried it out! We immediately loved it! The blend of these two genre worked perfectly and had a great timeless, pure feel to it while also having some nice depth and memorable characters and story. It is a part of me and I will never let it go. Its a series that, like timeless games like the Mario games, prove to us that we need to keep a grasp on that childlike wonder and purity deep within us. 7. Final Fantasy VII/VI - You couldnt have Kingdom Hearts without Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy and Square Enix (Soft) need no introduction really. They are the best when it comes to JRPGs and practically invented the genre. So when he came down to it I just had to pick between the best of two generations of consoles. Both games have great storytelling, classic RPG game play, and some of the best music youre going to find in any game. Nobuo Uematsu is a musical god. But of course you already know that. 6. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (PS2)/Bad Company - It might seem crazy to some of you that these two games are as high on the list as they are. But what it comes down two with these games is not just how fun they were to play but how much they mean to me. BF2:MC got me into online gaming and my brother and select friends were right there with me. The memories of me and my brother playing this are endless. So many moments of desperately taking bases, getting those awesome kills, and glitching the game out to our advantage will never leave me. And I know theyll never leave you either Matthew. 5. Capcom vs SNK 2/Marvel Vs Capcom 2 - Anybody who knows me can tell you that I am a huge fighting game, particularly when it comes to Capcom and SNK Playmore. This was a time when the crossover game was born and it was amazing. I loved both these games for different yet equal reasons. CVS was all about two juggernauts of the fighting game genre going toe to toe and along with playing the original Art of Fighting in the arcade and Fatal Fury Special at a friends house, got me into SNK. MVC was all about the over the top clash of two completely different entertainment corporations and with the original X-Men: Children of the Atom and X-men Vs Street Fighter invented the crossover game. These are all classic games and a major part of history. 4. The King of Fighters 2000/98 - After I discovered SNK and Neo Geo I was hooked. Sadly more people know about Capcom fighters than SNK fighters but this is a crying shame. SNK has so much style and depth that other fighters never reached for me. Nowhere was that more apparent than in the King of Fighters series. These are two of the best of these games in my opinion and most people will jump right to KOF 98 for the all around roster, but Im an even bigger fan of 2000. This was before SNK went bankrupt at the time and became SNK Playmore, but when I look at games like this I just dont know why. The roster feels perfect, the look is amazing, the music is some of the best IF NOT the best in the entire series to this day. One day I will own this on my Neo Geo AES... 3. Street Fighter II Series/Alpha Series - But when it comes down to it, this is the moment that started it all. I was at least 4-7 years old and I went to a Karate Party at the local Hurricane Karate Dojo I attended. They had all this food and drink but even better they had 5 tvs set up around the dojo. One of these tvs was showing Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. But the other, had a Super Nintendo hooked up to it. And on this console a bunch of crowded around kids were playing Super Street Fighter II. I was blown away by it and wanted to play it so bad. Sadly all of the kids were older and I never got a shot. However later I finally got my hands on the game and I was hooked. Since then I grew up with the also amazing Alpha series, EX series, and III series. With so many memorable characters, music, stages, and moves theres no doubt the fighting game genre was here to stay with me. And it will never leave either. 2. Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past/Ocarina of Time - Seriously, what can I say about The Legend of Zelda that hasnt been said to death. Every Zelda game is amazing. There is no doubt about this no mater what anybody says. It influenced every game to proceed it. Its games have sold billions of copies with OOT being still argued to be The Best Video Game Of All time. The late Robin Williams named his daughter after the Princess! It was a very hard choice to pick between these two, but for me LTTP meant more to me. It changed how I looked it games and showed me what this medium can do that no movie or book could ever do. I will never forget them. And speaking of something Ill never forget... 1.Super Mario World/64 - We would not even be here today without the Super Mario Bros. The Super Mario Bros brought the said to be gimmicky and childish gaming industry out of the ashes and made it a mainstay to the entire planet. Nobody, I repeat, NOBODY doesnt know who Mario or Luigi are. These happy go lucky saviors of the Mushroom Kingdom are a part of all of us, and these two games are even more so a part of mine. Super Mario Bros 3 was the first game I ever witnessed. It is an excellent game; just like every Mario game. SM 64 produced the 3D platformer and (along with 3) revolutionized the gaming. But the only game I played even more than both of these was Super Mario World. It came with the first console I ever really owned: the Super Nintendo, and when it came that Christmas morning I was absolutely positively blown away by it. I had shortly owned a NES when I was really young and the first game I fondly remembered playing was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade NES port. But this game is what made me a gamer. This was the game that made me fall in love with games and showed me how special they could be. A lot of you might look at this list and find it to be long winded and overly sappy, and you may think it means too much to me. But like many of you whether it be movies, books, sports, crafts, or what have you we all have something that we are really passionate for. More than anything for me its my relationship with God and my friends and family. But in 3rd place it will always be gaming.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 23:08:19 +0000